The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.51

v4.c22.51

The business connected with these grants was transacted, not in the Revenue Ministry, but in a separate department, which was presided over by the *Sadr*, a high officer charged with supervision of the administration of Islamic law. The *Sadr* exercised very extensive powers, subject of course to the emperor’s personal intervention; and in practice the history of the office is one of profuse and sometimes corrupt liberality, punctuated by spasms of vigorous retrenchment. The tenure of a grant was thus insecure. A grantee might find himself deprived of some or all the land he held as the result of a change of policy, or of personnel; and on occasion he might be affected by a general order like that which was issued shortly after the year 1595, summarily reducing by one-half all the grants existing in the province of Gujarāt. On the other hand, influence and bribery might secure undisturbed possession, or the retention of land in excess of what had been granted; and such accounts as have survived of the working of the department indicate a thoroughly inefficient and corrupt administration. Some idea of the importance of these grants can be formed from the fact that in the statistics included in the *Āīn-i-Akbarī* the grants in the five northern provinces, from Lahore to Allahābād, amount to about 3½ per cent. of the total revenue.