The Agrarian System of Moslem India: A Historical Essay with Appendices c19.11

c19.11

The account, whoever wrote it, is thus separated from the facts by 150 years or more. It is also separated from them by distance, for the chronicle belongs to the literature of the Deccan, not of Hindustan. The word *dhārā*, which is given as a synonym for *dastūr-ul ‘amal* points to the locality of origin: in Hindi it means primarily a stream, and the dictionaries of Forbes and Platts indicate no technical use, but in Molesworth’s Marāthī Dictionary it is rendered as “the usual rate (of rents, prices, etc.).” No Moslem writing in Hindustan would have needed to give such a word as an equivalent for a common expression like *dastūr-ul ‘amal*, but the Marāthī synonym comes in naturally in the Deccan. We have then a late account drawn up in the Deccan.