[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937) › v4.c19.35 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.35 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.35 - **Language:** English ### [v4.c19.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.35) The \*abwāb\* or exactions made under various pretexts, in addition to the regular land revenue or custom duty, were a prolific source of oppression to the people, and were more burdensome in their operation in proportion as their victims were poor and uninfluential and distant from the imperial headquarters. These imposts were again and again declared illegal and forbidden by Muslim sovereigns of Delhi like Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq (1375), Akbar (\*c.\* 1590) and Jahāngīr (1605), but they invariably managed to reappear after a short time. These \*abwāb\*¹ included duties on the local sale of produce (i.e. octroi), perquisites exacted by the officials for their own benefit, as well as fees and commissions levied on behalf of the state on almost every conceivable occasion, licence tax for plying certain trades, forced subscriptions, and gifts to officers, and special imposts on the Hindus. Among the last were taxes on bathing in the sacred waters (e.g. 6¼ rupees on every pilgrim at Allahābād) and a fee charged on the bones of dead Hindus carried for being thrown into the Ganges. As a tax was also levied on the father for the birth of a male child, we may say that under the Mughuls illegal cesses pursued a man from birth to death. Aurangzīb's edicts for their abolition are dated 20 November, 1665, 29 April, 1673, and 1682. But the timidity of the common people, the weakness of the central government in the provinces and its lack of an adequate number of reliable agents left the Indian population helpless under official extortion, in spite of benevolent paper edicts from the court. - [Previous: v4.c19.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.34) - [Next: v4.c19.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.36) - [Up: v4.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c19.35) · Pramāṇa