258 THE AGKARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
I think then that the statement that Murshid Quli was a 
servile copyist of Todar Mal may fairly be described as legendary. 
Another legend, found in some early English writers, is that 
Todar Mal was himself a copyist, and that the Ain-i Akbari 
derives directly from Timir’s Institutes. The original of this 
work is not known to be in existence, but a Persian version, said 
to have been made in the reign of Shahjahin, was published in 
1783, along with an English translation by Major Davy, under 
the editorship of Joseph White. Doubts have been thrown on 
the authenticity of this work. If it is a later forgery, the idea 
that Todar Mal copied from it is ruled out; but, assuming it to 
be genuine, a comparison of it with the Ain negatives decisively 
the -view of direct derivation. Naturally some of Timir's 
institutions, particularly in the military departments, survived 
into Akbar’s time, and consequently some resemblances in detail 
exist between the two works; but (1) the assessment-system, 
and (2) the practice in regard to Assignments, show material 
differences. 
(1) Timiir's assessment-system, as described on pp. 360 ff. 
of White's edition is of the distinctive Islamic type, based on 
differences in the water-supply, while the Ain nowhere recognises 
such differences. 
(2) Timir’s practice regarding Assignments (pp. 236 ff.) was 
that allocation was made by lot, that an Assignment was held 
for three years, that it was then inspected, and that, if the 
assignee was found to have oppressed the peasants, he received 
no salary for the next three years. In Mogul India, allocation 
was not by lot, but by favour of the Diwan, the term of holding 
was indeterminate, and there is no record of any process of in- 
spection, or of a prescribed penalty for oppression. 
There is nothing in the Ain to suggest that Akbar’s Revenue 
Ministry accepted the Institutes as authoritative, or indeed had 
even heard of them. The work is not mentioned in the historical 
essay on taxation (i. 289), where we should expect to meet it, 
while the fact (if it be a fact) that a translation had to be made in 
the reign of Shahjahan suggests that nothing of the kind existed 
previously. There are no grounds, therefore, for the view that 
Todar Mal used the Institutes as his guide; and all that can be 
said is, that, if he knew of their existence, he departed widely 
from their provisions in his practice.