The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.25

v4.c22.25

Assignment was, however, the most distinctive institution of the period. Every officer of the State was entitled to receive an income defined precisely in cash, out of which he had ordinarily to maintain a specified force of cavalry, available for the service of the ruler at any time; but for all the more important officers payment of this income in cash was the exception. Ordinarily an officer's claim was satisfied by assignment of the revenue of an area estimated to yield the income due to him, and the assignee thereupon assumed the administration of that area, assessing and collecting the revenue, and endeavouring to obtain from it at least the amount of his claim, and if possible something more. The assignee thus stood to the peasants in the position of the state, and, subject to any restrictions imposed on him by authority, he had a free hand in the administration; he could assess and collect the revenue of each peasant through his servants, or he could deal with the headmen of the villages, or he could hand them over to farmers. Throughout the Muslim period the great bulk of the cultivated land was ordinarily in the hands of assignees, but certain tracts, described as *khālisa*, were reserved to provide the treasury with cash, and were managed by the Revenue Ministry on one or other of the systems already described.