THE 13tu AND 1411 CENTURIES 35 
increase in the number of officials; and in the 14th, as in the 
16th, century such an increase was apt to result in an orgy 
of corruption and extortion. That something of the sort 
occurred on this occasion must be inferred from the chroni- 
cler’s description (pp. 288-9) of the measures taken by the 
Deputy-Minister for the audit of the local officials’ accounts, 
measures so drastic as to render the Service unpopular for 
the time being; ‘‘ clerkship was a great disgrace,” and execu- 
tive position was accounted ‘worse than fever.” The only 
point, however, which concerns us is that the records of the 
village-accountants were used in the audit. This is one of 
the very rare glimpses we obtain of the interior of a village 
at this period, with the accountant recording meticulously 
every payment, whether lawful or not, made to each official. 
We shall see in a later chapter that Aurangzeb’s Revenue 
Minister advised his controlling staff to adopt the same 
expedient in order to detect unauthorised levies by their 
subordinates; and we may fairly infer that the functions 
of the village-accountant constitute one of the permanent 
features of the agrarian system. 
The main changes effected by Alauddin originated in the 
effort to realise internal security; but one important detail 
was the result of the pressure of the Mongols on the frontier. 
Shortly after the adoption of the regulations which have 
just been described, the King made an expedition into 
Rajputana. It was not very successful, and when he 
returned with his army tired and disorganised, a strong 
force of Mongols appeared suddenly outside Delhi. For a 
short time the kingdom was in imminent danger; and, when 
the Mongols eventually withdrew, the King turned his 
attention to the prevention of such attacks in future. The 
frontier detences were duly re-organised; but, in addition 
to the troops stationed there, he decided that it was neces- 
sary to maintain a large and efficient standing army, not 
scattered over the country in Assignments, but concen- 
trated in the neighbourhood of the capital, and paid in cash 
from the royal treasury. Here, however, financial con- 
siderations obtruded themselves. It was a time of in- 
flation; prices, and consequently wages, were high; and it