The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.50

v4.c22.50

Before passing to the reign of Jahāngīr a few words may be said regarding the practice of alienating revenue in grants made by way of charity or favour. Such alienation was traditional. In Akbar’s time grants were officially described by the Turkī name *suyūrghāl*, but in the ordinary literature they appear as *milk* (domain), or *madad-i-ma‘āsh* (assistance to livelihood), terms which are not distinguishable in practice. The usual form of grant was an area of stated size, which at first seems to have consisted of land already cultivated. Akbar made it a rule that one-half of the grant should ordinarily be waste land, so that while the grantee could forthwith collect the revenue due from the peasants on the moiety under cultivation, he had to exert himself to bring the remainder of the land under the plough in order to obtain the full benefit of the emperor’s liberality. The grants were professedly charitable, and, in some cases at least, the formal document recited that the recipient had no other means of livelihood, but in practice this limitation was not strictly observed; they were made sometimes for the life of the grantee, sometimes for two generations, and sometimes for an indefinite term; but the records show that they could be resumed or revised at any time at the discretion of the administration.