The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.35

v4.c22.35

These new schedules were worked out by the *qānūngos*, each for his own *pargana*, under the supervision of Rājā Todar Mal, who was now associated with Muzaffar Khān in the charge of the Revenue Ministry, and was in practice its effective head. Todar Mal’s early history is obscure. He has been identified by some modern writers with one Todar Khattrī, who was employed by Sher Shāh in building the fort of Rohtās, and it has been assumed that he was connected with the revenue administration from that time onward; but the identification is not supported by anything in the contemporary chronicles, and the mere name is scarcely an adequate basis for a confident conclusion. In Akbar’s reign he emerges first in the year 1565, when he was performing military duties; and from 1570 to his death in 1589 he fills a conspicuous place in the chronicles, sometimes as a successful commander in the field, sometimes as the Revenue Minister, to which post he returned from successive military expeditions, always as a highly competent and exceptionally honest officer, who at the same time was not easy to work with owing to his ill-temper, obstinacy, and vindictiveness.