[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.c22.26 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.26 The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.26 - **Language:** English ### [v4.c22.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22.26) The foregoing analysis is necessary for descriptive purposes, but, taken by itself, it might give a misleading idea of rigidity in what was essentially a flexible structure. It was a simple and natural arrangement for a salaried staff working at a distance to undertake to supply a stated net income, instead of rendering complicated and detailed accounts of receipts and expenditure, and collectors could thus easily be transformed into farmers. A farmer holding for an indefinite term could assume a position not distinguishable in practice from that of a tribute-paying chief; a village headman might in favourable circumstances become a village autocrat, and, by taking farms of neighbouring villages, raise himself by degrees to a similar position; and in periods when the central authority was weak such tendencies might operate to transform the conditions prevailing over large areas. - [Previous: v4.c22.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22.25) - [Next: v4.c22.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22.27) - [Up: v4.c22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.burn-1937.v4.c22.26) · Pramāṇa