ANTECEDENTS 
A. INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT 
Under this head we have to consider two methods, 
Estimation and Measurement, which can be traced in the 
Indo-Persian literature back to the thirteenth century, and 
a third, Contract, which appears in the literature much 
later. 
In Estimation, the amount of the State’s share is deter- 
mined by inspection of the growing crop, the peasant’s 
liability is fixed before the produce is ripe, and its collection 
can be effected at the most convenient time. This method 
also has persisted into modern times as between landholder 
and tenant. Its advantage lies in the longer period over 
which operations can be spread; but, as in actual crop- 
division, the master’s eye is an important factor in efficiency, 
and, when the operation is carried out by subordinates 
working over a large area, there is the ever-present risk of 
the assessors conspiring with the peasants to defraud the 
State, or the landholder. 
The processes of Estimation and Division are very closely 
allied. I think it may fairly be said that, at the opening 
of the nineteenth century, wherever payments depended 
on the season’s produce, Estimation was the rule, and 
Division was usually confined to the rare cases in which 
the estimate was disputed; and probably this practice was 
of old standing. It is convenient therefore to group the 
two processes under the label *‘Sharing,” and I shall use 
this term, distinguishing between Division and Estimation 
only when the context requires.. 
Measurement appears to be in essence an attempt to 
eliminate the risks attendant on Sharing by adhering to 
verifiable facts. Under it an average, or standard, figure 
for the share of the State from the unit-area of each crop 
was determined once for all, or, more precisely, until the 
State should decide to recalculate it, and the actual demand 
was assessed by measuring the areas of the crops sown at 
each season: if, for instance, the State's share was fixed 
at 100 lb. of wheat for the unit of area known as a bigha, 
then each bigha sown with wheat would be assessed at that 
amount without reference to the actual yield. The accuracy 
of the measurements could be checked at any time while