Chapter V. 
The Seventeenth Century. 
1. ‘JAHANGIR AND SHAHJAHAN (1605-1658) 
THE information which we possess regarding the agrarian 
system in the first half of the seventeenth century is scanty 
and incomplete. Ihave found no relevant official documents 
for this period; the contemporary chronicles indicate no 
important changes; and, if we could rely on their silence, 
we should be justified in inferring that the methods of 
assessment elaborated under Akbar, and described in the 
last chapter, remaineu in operation in their integrity. This 
inference is, however, negatived decisively by general orders 
issued by Aurangzeb in the year 1665, which show that by 
that time Akbar’s methods had become almost entirely 
obsolete; and we must conclude that between 1594, when 
the Ain was completed, and the accession of Aurangzeb, either 
unrecorded changes had been formally made, or else—what 
is, I think, somewhat more probable—that Akbar’s institu- 
tions had gradually decayed. The position disclosed by 
Aurangzeb’s orders, which will be examined in detail in the 
next section, is that, while Sharing was authorised in 
certain, unspecified, backward tracts, the general rule of 
the Empire was Group-assessment, with the alternatives of 
Measurement and Sharing held in reserve, to be used only in 
cases where the headmen would not agree to a reasonable 
revenue-Demand for the year. I can trace no orders 
authorising such a change, and my reasons for thinking 
that probably it came about of itself are, firstly, that, if 
formal orders were issued, we should expect to find some 
mention of them in the chronicles, and, secondly, that 
gradual decay is what might be expected in the circumstances 
of the period. 
It will be apparent from what has been said in the last