The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c22.57

v4.c22.57

As the result of his work, three methods of assessment emerged in this region. For some areas, presumably the tracts where agriculture was in a primitive stage, he retained the plough-rents which were traditional in the locality, the peasant paying a fixed annual sum for each plough and team, and being free to cultivate as much land as he chose in whatever way he found convenient. Elsewhere the *dīwān* introduced the two familiar systems—sharing and measurement—side by side, and it is probable that the peasants were allowed the choice between them. The system of sharing adopted was of a type well known in other Islamic countries but hitherto unfamiliar in Muslim India. The share claimed was not uniform, but varied with the nature of the crop and with the source of water; thus half the produce was claimed for crops depending on the rains, one-third for grain irrigated from wells, and from one-fourth to one-ninth for the various high-grade crops such as sugarcane or poppy. Under measurement, on the other hand, the assessment rates, which were fixed in cash, were based on a uniform claim to one-fourth of the produce, a distinctly low figure when judged by the standard of the times. This lenient assessment was accompanied by active measures to re-people and reorganise the ruined villages, and capital was advanced when required, with the result that prosperity was for the time being restored.