The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.14

v4.c16.14

The reforms were, indeed, generally unpopular. Akbar succeeded in resuming the land in the more settled provinces of the empire, where the troops, from those in high command downwards, were paid from the treasury and the cavalry soldiers received branded horses from the state. Collectors of revenue were appointed, each to a tract estimated to yield a crore (*karor* = 10,000,000) of *dāms*, equivalent to Rs. 250,000, and were styled croris (*karorīs*). They were expected both to collect the revenue and to improve it by encouraging the extension of cultivation, but they proved to be both inefficient and extortionate, and many were severely punished. In 1582 Todar Mal was appointed *vakīl*, or prime minister of the empire, and was ordered to prepare a scheme for the improvement of the revenue administration.¹ The thirteen proposals which he submitted to Akbar were so elementary in their nature as to make it clear that the resumption of the land by the crown had in no way lightened the burden of the husbandman.