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Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c12: Part II. Musalman Gujarat

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c12

Language
English

Contents

Part II. Musalman Gujarat

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A.D. 1297-1760.

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This history of Musalmán Gujarát is based on translations of the Mirát-i-Sikandari (A.D. 1611) and of the Mirát-i-Ahmedi (A.D. 1736) by the late Colonel J. W. Watson. Since Colonel Watson's death in 1889 the translations have been revised and the account enriched by additions from the Persian texts of Farishtah and of the two Miráts by Mr. Fazl Lutfullah Faridi of Surat. A careful comparison has also been made with other extracts in Elliot's History of India and in Bayley's History of Gujarát.

Introduction

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Muhammadan rule in Gujarát lasted from the conquest of the province by the Dehli emperor Alá-ud-din Khilji (A.D. 1295-1315), shortly before the close of the thirteenth century A.D., to the final defeat of the Mughal viceroy Momin Khán by the Maráthás and the loss of the city of Ahmadábád at the end of February 1758.

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This whole term of Musalmán ascendancy, stretching over slightly more than four and a half centuries, may conveniently be divided into three parts. The First, the rule of the early sovereigns of Dehli, lasting a few years more than a century, or, more strictly from A.D. 1297 to A.D. 1403; the Second, the rule of the Ahmadábád kings, a term of nearly a century and three-quarters, from A.D. 1403 to A.D. 1573; the Third, the rule of the Mughal Emperors, when, for little less than two hundred years, A.D. 1573-1760, Gujarát was administered by viceroys of the court of Dehli.

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In the course of these 450 years the limits of Gujarát varied greatly. In the fourteenth century the territory nominally under the control of the Musalmán governors of Pátan (Anahilávád) extended southwards from Jhálor, about fifty miles north of Mount Abu, to the neighbourhood of Bombay, and in breadth from the line of the Málwa and Khándesh hills to the western shores of peninsular Gujarát. The earlier kings of Ahmadábád (A.D. 1403-1450), content with establishing their power on a firm footing, did not greatly extend the limits of their kingdom. Afterwards, during the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries (A.D. 1450-1530), the dominions of the Ahmadábád kings gradually spread till they included large tracts to the east and north-east formerly in the possession of the rulers of Khándesh and Málwa. Still later, during the years of misrule between A.D. 1530 and A.D. 1573, the west of Khándesh and the north of the Konkan ceased to form part of the kingdom of Gujarát. Finally, under the arrangements introduced by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1583, more lands were restored to Málwa and Khándesh. With the exception of Jhálor and Sirohi on the north, Dungarpur and Bánsváda on the north-east, and Alirájpur on MUSALMÁN GUJARAT, A.D. 1297-1760. Sorath.

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† The first notice of the exercise of sovereignty by the Musalmán rulers of Gujarát over lands further south than the neighbourhood of Surat is in A.D. 1428, when king Ahmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) contested with the Dakhan sovereign the possession of Máhim (north latitude 19° 40'; east longitude 72° 47'). As no record remains of a Musalmán conquest of the coast as far south as Danda Rájapuri or Janjira, about fifty miles south of Bombay, it seems probable that the North Konkan fell to the Musalmáns in A.D. 1297 as part of the recognised territories of the lords of Anahilapura (Pátan). Rás Mála, I. 350. One earlier reference may be noted. In A.D. 1422 among the leading men slain in the battle of Sárangpur, about fifty miles north-east of Ujjain in Central India, was Sávant chief of Danda Rájapuri that is Janjira. Mirát-i-Sikandari (Persian Text), 40, and Farishtah (Persian Text), II. 458.

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the east, since handed to Rájputána and Central India, the limits of Gujarát remain almost as they were laid down by Akbar.

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Though, under the Musalmáns, peninsular Gujarát did not bear the name of Káthiávád, it was then, as at present, considered part of the province of Gujarát. During the early years of Musalmán rule, the peninsula, together with a small portion of the adjoining mainland, was known as Sorath, a shortened form of Sauráshtra, the name originally applied by the Hindus to a long stretch of sea-coast between the banks of the Indus and Daman.¹ Towards the close of the sixteenth century the official use of the word Sorath was confined to a portion, though by much the largest part, of the peninsula. At the same time, the name Sorath seems then, and for long after, to have been commonly applied to the whole peninsula. For the author of the Mirát-i-Ahmedi, writing as late as the middle of the eighteenth century (A.D. 1756: A.H. 1170), speaks of Sorath as divided into five districts or zilláhs, Hálár, Káthiávád, Gohilvád, and Jetyvád, and notices that though Navá-nagar was considered a separate district, its tribute was included in the revenue derived from Sorath.² In another passage the same writer thus defines Sauráshtra:

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¹ The details of Akbar's settlement in A.D. 1583 show Sorath with sixty-three sub-divisions and Navánagar (Islámnagar) with seventeen. Similarly in the A'in-i-Akbari (A.D. 1590) Sorath with its nine divisions includes the whole peninsula except Jhalávád in the north, which was then part of Ahmedabad. Gladwin, II. 64 and 66-71.

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² Bird's History of Gujarat, 418.

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Sauráshtra or Sorath comprehends the Sarkár of Sorath the Sarkár of Islámnagar or Navánagar and the Sarkár of Kachh or Bhujnagar. It also includes several zilláhs or districts, Naiyad which they call Jatwár, Hálár or Navánagar and its vicinity, Káthiávád, Gohilvád, Babriávád, Chorvár, Panchál, Okhámandal in the neighbourhood of Jagat otherwise called Dwarka, Prabhás Khetr or Pátan Somnáth and its neighbourhood, Naghír also called Sálgogah, and the Nalkántha.³

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³ Naiyad is the present Naiyadkántha about ten miles south-west of Rádhanpur containing Jatwár and Varahi in the west near the Ran and spreading east to Sami and Munjpur thirty to forty miles south-west of Pátan. Hálár is in the north-west of the peninsula; Káthiávád in the centre; Gohilvád in the south-east; Babriávád south-west of Gohilvád; Chorvár or Chorvár north-west of Virával; Panchál in the north-east centre; Okhámir or Okhámandal in the extreme west. Nalkántha is the hollow between Káthiávád and the mainland. Besides these names the author of the Mirát-i-Ahmedi gives one more district in Sorath and others in Gujarat. The name he gives in Sorath is Nághér or Nághír which he says is also called Sálgogah. Sálgogah is apparently Sálbet and its neighbourhood, as Kodinár, Mádhápúr, Chüngaria, and Pata. In south Káthiávád are still locally known as Nágher, a tract famous for its fruitfulness. The Mirát-i-Ahmedi contains the following additional local names: For Kadi thirty-five miles north-west of Ahmedabad, Dandap; for Dholka twenty-five miles south-west of Ahmedabad, Prath-Nagri; for Cambay, Tambánagri; for Viramgam forty miles north-west of Ahmedabad, Jhalawár; for Munjpur twenty-two miles south-east of Rádhanpur and some of the country between it and Pátan, Párpas; for the tract ten miles south-east of Rádhanpur to the neighbourhood of Pátan, Kakrez; for the town of Rádhanpur in the Palanpur Political Superintendency and its neighbourhood, Vigach; for the town of Palanpur and its neighbourhood up to Disa and Dántivada, Dhándar; for Bálásinor forty-two miles east of Ahmedabad with a part of Kapadvanj in the Kaira district, Masálwáda; for Haroda, Parkher; for the sub-division of Jambúsar in the Broach district fifteen miles north-west of Broach city, Kánam; for Alimohan that is Chota Udepur and the rough lands east of Godhra, Pálwára.

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The present Sorath stretches no further than the limits of Junagadh, Bantwa, and a few smaller holdings.

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The name Kathiawada is of recent origin. It was not until after the establishment of Musalman power in Gujarat that any portion of the peninsula came to bear the name of the tribe of Kathis. Even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, the name Kathiawada was applied only to one of the subdivisions of the peninsula. In the disorders which prevailed during the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Kathis made themselves conspicuous. As it was from the hardy horsemen of this tribe that the tribute-exacting Marathas met with the fiercest resistance, they came to speak of the whole peninsula as the land of the Kathis. This use was adopted by the early British officers and has since continued.

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Under the Ahmedabad kings, as it still is under British rule, Gujarat was divided politically into two main parts; one, called the khalsa or crown domain administered directly by the central authority; the other, on payment of tribute in service or in money, left under the control of its former rulers. The amount of tribute paid by the different chiefs depended, not on the value of their territory, but on the terms granted to them when they agreed to become feudatories of the kings of Ahmedabad. Under the Gujarat Sultans this tribute was occasionally collected by military expeditions headed by the king, in person and called mulkgiri or country-seizing circuits.

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The internal management of the feudatory states was unaffected by their payment of tribute. Justice was administered and the revenue collected in the same way as under the Anahilapur kings. The revenue consisted, as before, of a share of the crops received in kind, supplemented by the levy of special cesses, trade, and transit dues. The chief's share of the crops differed according to the locality; it rarely exceeded one-third of the produce, it rarely fell short of one-sixth. From some parts the chief's share was realised directly from the cultivator by agents called mutsuddis; from other parts the collection was through superior landowners.¹

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¹ Ras Mala, I. 241.

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The Ahmedabad kings divided the portion of their territory which was under their direct authority into districts or sarkars. Those districts were administered in one of two ways. They were either assigned to nobles in support of a contingent of troops, or they were set apart as crown domains and managed by paid officers. The officers placed in charge of districts set apart as crown domains were called muktis.² Their chief duties were to preserve the peace and to collect the revenue. For the maintenance of order, a body of soldiers from the army head-quarters at Ahmedabad was detached for service in each of these divisions, and placed under the command of the district governor. At the same time, in addition to the presence of this detachment of regular troops, every district contained certain KINGS, A. D. 1403-1573.

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² Mukti and ikta, the district administered by a mukti, come from the Arabic root kutad, he cut, in allusion to the public revenue or the lands cut and apportioned for the pay of the officers and their establishments.

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fortified outposts called thánás, varying in number according to the character of the country and the temper of the people. These posts were in charge of officers called thánádárs subordinate to the district governor. They were garrisoned by bodies of local soldiery, for whose maintenance, in addition to money payments, a small assignment of land was set apart in the neighbourhood of the post. On the arrival of the tribute-collecting army the governors of the districts through which it passed were expected to join the main body with their local contingents. At other times the district governors had little control over the feudatory chiefs in the neighbourhood of their charge.

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Fiscal.

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For fiscal purposes each district or sarkár was distributed among a certain number of sub-divisions or parganás, each under a paid official styled ámil or tahsíldár. These sub-divisional officers realised the state demand, nominally one-half of the produce, by the help of the headmen of the villages under their charge. In the sharehold and simple villages of North Gujarat these village headmen were styled patels or according to Musalmán writers mukaddams and in the simple villages of the south they were known as desáis. They arranged for the final distribution of the total demand in joint villages among the shareholders, and in simple villages from the individual cultivators.¹ The sub-divisional officer presented a statement of the accounts of the villages in his sub-division to the district officer, whose record of the revenue of his whole district was in turn forwarded to the head revenue officer at court. As a check on the internal management of his charge, and especially to help him in the work of collecting the revenue, with each district governor was associated an accountant. Further that each of these officers might be the greater check on the other, King Ahmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) enforced the rule that when the governor was chosen from among the royal slaves the accountant should be a free man, and that when the accountant was a slave the district governor should be chosen from some other class. This practise was maintained till the end of the reign of Muzaffar Sháh (A.D. 1511-1525), when, according to the Mirát-i-Ahmedi, the army became much increased, and the ministers, condensing the details of revenue, farmed it on contract, so that many parts formerly yielding one rupee now produced ten, and many others seven eight or nine, and in no place was there a less increase than from ten to twenty per cent. Many other changes occurred at the same time, and the spirit of innovation creeping into the administration the wholesome system of checking the accounts was given up and mutiny and confusion spread over Gujarát.²

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¹ Further particulars regarding these village headmen are given below.

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² Bird's History of Gujarat, 102; Mirat-i-Sikandari, Persian Text, 44.

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Assigned Lands.

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The second class of directly governed districts were the lands assigned to nobles for the maintenance of contingents of troops. As in other parts of India, it would seem that at first these assignments were for specified sums equal to the pay of the contingent. When such assignments were of long standing, and were large enough to swallow the whole revenue of a district, it was natural to simplify the arrangement by transferring the collection of the revenue and the whole management of the district to the military leader of the contingent. So long as the central power was strong, precautions were doubtless taken to prevent the holder of the grant from unduly rackrenting his district and appropriating to himself more than the pay of the troops, or from exercising any powers not vested in the local governors of districts included within the crown domains. As in other parts of India, those stipulations were probably enforced by the appointment of certain civil officers directly from the government to inspect the whole of the noble's proceedings, as well in managing his troops as in administering his lands. The decline of the king's power freed the nobles from all check or control in the management of their lands. And when, in A.D. 1536, the practice of farming was introduced into the crown domains, it would seem to have been adopted by the military leaders in their lands, and to have been continued till the annexation of Gujarát by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1573.

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It was the policy of Akbar rather to improve the existing system than to introduce a new form of government. After to some extent contracting the limits of Gujarát he constituted it a province or súbah of the empire, appointing to its government an officer of the highest rank with the title of súbahdár or viceroy. As was the case under the Ahmadábád kings, the province continued to be divided into territories managed by feudatory chiefs, and districts administered by officers appointed either by the court of Dehli or by the local viceroy. The head-quarters of the army remained at Ahmadábád, and detachments were told off and placed under the orders of the officers in charge of the directly administered divisions. These district governors, as before, belonged to two classes, paid officers responsible for the management of the crown domains and military leaders in possession of lands assigned to them in pay of their contingent of troops. The governors of the crown domains, who were now known as faujdárs or commanders, had, in addition to the command of the regular troops, the control of the outposts maintained within the limits of their charge. Like their predecessors they accompanied the viceroy in his yearly circuit for the collection of tribute.

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As a check on the military governors and to help them in collecting the revenue, the distinct class of account officers formerly established by king Ahmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) was again introduced. The head of this branch of the administration was an officer, second in rank to the viceroy alone, appointed direct from the court of Dehli with the title of díwán. Besides acting as collector-general of the revenues of the province, this officer was also the head of its civil administration. His title díwán is generally translated minister. And though the word minister does not express the functions of the office, which corresponded more nearly with those of a chief secretary, it represents with sufficient accuracy the relation in which the holder of the office of díwán generally stood to the viceroy.

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¹ Elphinstone's History, 76.

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Revenue Officials.

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For its revenue administration each district or group of districts had its revenue officials called amíns who corresponded to the collector of modern times. There were also amíns in the customs department separate from those whose function was to control and administer the land revenue. Beneath the amín came the ámil¹ who carried on the actual collection of the land revenue or customs in each district or parganah, and below the ámil were the fúts, mushrfs, or kárkúns that is, the revenue clerks. The ámil corresponded to the modern mámlatdár both terms meaning him who carries on the amal or revenue management. In the leading ports the ámil of the customs was called mutasaddi that is civil officer.

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¹ In Márwár and in the north and north-east this official was styled tahsíldár and in the Dakhan kamavísdár.

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Village Officers.

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The ámil or mámlatdár dealt directly with the village officials, namely with the mukaddam or headman, the patel or lease manager, the kanungo or accountant, and the haváldár or grain-yard guardian. The haváldár superintended the separation of the government share of the produce; apportioned to the classes subject to forced labour their respective turns of duty; and exercised a general police superintendence by means of subordinates called pasaitas or vartanias. In ports under the mutasaddi was a harbour-master or shah-bandar.

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Desáis.

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Crown sub-divisions had, in addition, the important class called desáis. The desái's duty appears at first to have been to collect the salámi or tribute due by the smaller chiefs, landholders, and zamíndárs or sharers. For this, in Akbar's time, the desái received a remuneration of 2½ per cent on the sum collected. Under the first viceroy Mírza Azíz Kokaltásh (A.D. 1573-1575) this percentage was reduced to one-half of its former amount, and in later times this one-half was again reduced by one-half. Though the Muhammadan historians give no reason for so sweeping a reduction, the cause seems to have been the inability of the desáis to collect the tribute without the aid of a military force. Under the new system the desái seems merely to have kept the accounts of the tribute due and the records both of the amount which should be levied as tribute and of other customary rights of the crown. In later times the desáis were to a great extent superseded by the district accountants or majmudárs; and many desáis, especially in south Gujarát, seem to have sunk to patels.

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Land Tax.

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Up to the viceroyalty of Mírza Isá Tarkhán (A.D. 1642-1644), the land tax appears to have been levied from the cultivator in a fixed sum, but he was also subject to numerous other imposts. Land grants in wazifah carried with them an hereditary title and special exemption from all levies except the land tax. The levy in kind appears to have ceased before the close of Mughal rule. In place of a levy in kind each village paid a fixed sum or jama through the district accountant or majmudár who had taken the place of the desái. As in many cases the jama really meant the lump sum at which the crown villages were assessed and farmed to the chiefs and patels, on the collapse of the empire many villages thus farmed to chiefs and landlords were retained by them with the connivance of the *mujmudárs*, *desáis* and others.

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The administration of justice seems to have been very complete. In each *kasbah* or town *kázis*, endowed with glebe lands in addition to a permanent salary, adjudicated disputes among Muhammadans according to the laws of Islám. Disputes between Muhammadans and unbelievers, or amongst unbelievers, were decided by the department called the *sadárat*, the local judge being termed a *sadr*. The decisions of the local *kázis* and *sadrs* were subject to revision by the *kázi* or *sadr* of the *súbah* who resided at Ahmadábád. And as a last resort the Ahmadábád decisions were subject to appeal to the *Kázi-ul-Kuzzát* and the *Sadr-ús-Sudúr* at the capital.

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The revenue appears to have been classed under four main heads: 1. The *Khazánah-i-A’mirah* or imperial treasury which comprehended the land tax received from the crown *parganahs* or districts, the tribute, the five per cent customs dues from infidels, the import dues on stuffs, and the *sáyer* or land customs including transit dues, slave market dues, and miscellaneous taxes. 2. The treasury of arrears into which were paid government claims in *sayar* either from the *ámils* or from the farmers of land revenue; *takávi* advances due by the *rayats*; and tribute levied by the presence of a military force. 3. The treasury of charitable endowments. Into this treasury was paid the 2½ per cent levied as customs dues from Muhammadans.¹ The pay of the religious classes was defrayed from this treasury. 4. The treasury into which the *jaziah* or capitation tax levied from *zimmis* or infidels who acknowledged Muhammadan rule, was paid. The proceeds were expended in charity and public works. After the death of the emperor Farrukhsiyar A.D. 1713-1719, this source of revenue was abolished. The arrangements introduced by Akbar in the end of the sixteenth century remained in force till the death of Aurangzib in A.D. 1707. Then trouble and perplexity daily increased, till in A.D. 1724-25, Hamid Khán usurped the government lands, and, seeking to get rid of the servants and assignments, gradually obtained possession of the records of the registry office. The keepers of the records were scattered, and yearly revenue statements ceased to be received from the districts.²

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¹ *Zakát*, literally purification or cleansing, is the name of a tax levied from Muslims for charitable purposes or religious uses. In the endowments-treasury the customs dues from Muslims at 2½ per cent (the technical 1 in 40) as contrasted with the five per cent levied from infidels (the technical 2 in 40) were entered. Hence in these accounts *zakát* corresponds with customs dues, and is divisible into two kinds *khúmsi zakát* or land customs and *tari zakát* or sea customs.

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² Bird’s History of Gujarat, 93.

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Akbar continued the system of assigning lands to military leaders in payment of their contingents of troops. Immediately after the annexation in A.D. 1573, almost the whole country was divided among the great nobles.³ Except that the revenues of certain tracts were MUGHALS, A.D. 1573-1760. Assigned Lands.

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³ Though under the Mughal viceroys the state demand was at first realized in grain, at the last the custom was to assess each sub-division, and probably each village, at a fixed sum or *jama*. The total amount for the sub-division was collected by an officer called *majmudár*, literally keeper of collections, the village headmen, *patels* of *mukaddams*, being responsible each for his own village. Bird’s History of Gujarat, 325.

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set aside for the imperial exchequer the directly governed districts passed into the hands of military leaders who employed their own agents to collect the revenue. During the seventeenth century the practice of submitting a yearly record of their revenues, and the power of the viceroy to bring them to account for misgovernment, exercised a check on the management of the military leaders. And during this time a yearly surplus revenue of £600,000 (Rs. 60,00,000) from the assigned and crown lands was on an average forwarded from Gujarát to Dehli. In the eighteenth century the decay of the viceroy's authority was accompanied by the gradually increased power of the military leaders in possession of assigned districts, till finally, as in the case of the Nawabs of Broach and Surat, they openly claimed the position of independent rulers.¹

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¹ Bird's History of Gujarat, 341.

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Minor Offices.

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Of both leading and minor officials the Mirát-i-Ahmedi supplies the following additional details. The highest officer who was appointed under the seal of the minister of the empire was the provincial diván or minister. He had charge of the fiscal affairs of the province and of the revenues of the khálsa or crown lands, and was in some matters independent of the viceroy. Besides his personal salary he had 150 sawárs for two provincial thánás Arjanpur and Khambália. Under the diván the chief officers were the pishkár diván, his first assistant, who was appointed under imperial orders by the patent of the diván, the daroghah or head of the office, and the sharf or mushrif and tehwildár of the daftar khánáh, who presided over the accounts with munshis and muharrirs or secretaries and writers. The kázis, both town and city, with the sanction of the emperor were appointed by the chief law officer of the empire through the chief law officer of the province. They were lodged by the state, paid partly in cash partly in land, and kept a certain number of troopers. In the kázi's courts wakils or pleaders and muftis or law officers drew 8 as. to Re. 1 a day. Newly converted Musalmáns also drew 3 as. a day. The city censor or muhtasib had the supervision of morals and of weights and measures. He was paid in cash and land, and was expected to keep up sixty troopers. The news-writer, who was sometimes also bakhshi or military paymaster, had a large staff of news-writers called wákiah-nigár who worked in the district courts and offices as well as in the city courts. He received his news-reports every evening and embodied them in a letter which was sent to court by camel post. A second staff of news-writers called sawánihnigár reported rumours. A third set were the harkárás on the viceroy's staff. Postal chaukis or stations extended from Ahmadabad to the Ajmir frontier, each with men and horse ready to carry the imperial post which reached Shah Jehánábád or Dehli in seven days. A line of posts also ran south through Broach to the Dakhan. The faujdárs or military police, who were sometimes commanders of a thousand and held estates, controlled both the city and the district police. The kotwál or head of the city night-watch was appointed by the viceroy. He had fifty troopers and a hundred foot. In the treasury department were the amin or chief, the dároghah, the mushrif, the treasurer, and five messengers. In the medical department were a Yúnáni, or Greek school and a Hindu physician, two under-physicians on eight and ten annas a day, and a surgeon. The yearly grant for food and medicine amounted to Rs. 2000.¹

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¹ Mirát-i-Ahmedi Persian Text page 115.

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Besides the class of vernacular terms that belong to the administration of the province, certain technical words connected with the tenure of land are of frequent occurrence in this history. For each of these, in addition to the English equivalent which as far as possible has been given in the text, some explanation seems necessary. During the period to which this history refers, the superior holders of the land of the province belonged to two main classes, those whose claims dated from before the Musalmán conquest and those whose interest in the land was based on a Musalmán grant. By the Musalmán historians, landholders of the first class, who were all Hindus, are called zamíndárs, while landholders of the second class, Musalmáns as a rule, are spoken of as jágírdárs. Though the term zamíndár was used to include the whole body of superior Hindu landholders, in practice a marked distinction was drawn between the almost independent chief, who still enjoyed his Hindu title of rája, rával, ráv, or jám, and the petty claimant to a share in a government village, who in a Hindu state would have been known as a garásíá.²

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² The title rája is applicable to the head of a family only. The payment of tribute to the Mughals or Maráthás does not affect the right to use this title. Ráva and ráv seem to be of the same dignity as rája. Rával is of lower rank. The sons of rájás, rávals, rávs, and rávals are called kuvars and their sons thákurs. The younger sons of thákurs became bhúmiás that is landowners or garásíás, that is owners of garás or a munkáfal. Jám is the title of the chiefs of the Jadeja tribe both of the elder branch in Kachh and of the younger branch in Navánagar, or Little Kachh in Káthiávád. Rás Mála, II. 277.

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The larger landholders, who had succeeded in avoiding complete subjection, were, as noticed above, liable only for the payment of a certain fixed sum, the collection of which by the central power in later times usually required the presence of a military force. With regard to the settlement of the claims of the smaller landholders of the superior class, whose estates fell within the limits of the directly administered districts, no steps seem to have been taken till the reign of Ahmed Sháh I. (A.D. 1411-1443). About the year A.D. 1420 the peace of his kingdom was so broken by agrarian disturbances, that Ahmed Sháh agreed, on condition of their paying tribute and performing military service, to re-grant to the landholders of the zamíndár class as hereditary possessions a one-fourth share of their former village lands. The portion so set apart was called vánta or share, and the remainder, retained as state land, was called talpat. This agreement continued till, in the year A.D. 1545, during the reign of Mahmúd Sháh II. (A.D. 1536-1553), an attempt was made to annex these private shares to the crown. This measure caused much discontent and disorder. It was reversed by the emperor Akbar who, as part of the settlement of the province in A.D. 1583, restored their one-fourth share to the landholders, and, except that the Maráthás afterwards levied an additional quit-rent from those lands, the arrangements then introduced have since continued in force.¹

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¹ Under the Maráthás the title zamindár was bestowed on the farmers of the land revenue, and this practice was adopted by the earlier English writers on Gujarát. In consequence of this change small landholders of the superior class, in directly administered districts, came again to be called by their original Hindu name of garásia. Mr. Elphinstone (History, 72 and note 13) includes under the term zamindár: (1) half-subdued chieftains, (2) independent governors of districts, and (3) farmers of revenue. He also notices that until Aurangzib's time such chiefs as enjoyed some degree of independence were alone called zamindárs. But in Colonel Walker's time, A.D. 1805, at least in Gujarát (Bombay Government Selections, XXXIX, 25) the term zamindár included desáis, majumdárs (district accountants), patels, and talátis (village clerks).

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During the decay of Musalmán rule in Gujarát in the first half of the eighteenth century, shareholders of the garásia class in government villages, who were always ready to increase their power by force, levied many irregular exactions from their more peaceful neighbours, the cultivators or inferior landholders. These levies are known as vol that is a forced contribution or pál that is protection. All have this peculiar characteristic that they were paid by the cultivators of crown lands to petty marauders to purchase immunity from their attacks. They in no case partook of the nature of dues imposed by a settled government on its own subjects. Tora garás, more correctly toda garás, is another levy which had its origin in eighteenth century disorder. It was usually a readymoney payment taken from villages which, though at the time crown or khálsa, had formerly belonged to the garásia who exacted the levy. Besides a readymoney payment contributions in kind were sometimes exacted.

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The second class of superior landholders were those whose title was based on a Musalmán grant. Such grants were either assignments of large tracts of land to the viceroy, district-governors, and nobles, to support the dignity of their position and maintain a contingent of troops, or they were allotments on a smaller scale granted in reward for some special service. Land granted with these objects was called jágir, and the holder of the land jágirdár. In theory, on the death of the original grantee, such possessions were strictly resumable; in practice they tended to become hereditary. No regular payments were required from holders of jágirs. Only under the name of peshkash occasional contributions were demanded. These occasional contributions generally consisted of such presents as a horse, an elephant, or some other article of value. They had more of the nature of a freewill offering than of an enforced tribute. Under the Musalmáns contributions of this kind were the only payments exacted from proprietors of the jágirdár class. But the Marathás, in addition to contributions, imposed on jágirdárs a regular tribute, similar to that paid by the representatives of the original class of superior Hindu landholders.

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Under Musalmán rule great part of Gujarát was always in the hands of jágirdárs. So powerful were they that on two occasions under the Ahmedabád kings, in A.D. 1554 and A.D. 1572, the leading nobles distributed among themselves the entire area of the kingdom.¹ Again, during the eighteenth century, when Mughal rule was on the decline, the *jagirdars* by degrees won for themselves positions of almost complete independence.³

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¹ Details of A.D. 1571 given in the Mirát-i-Ahmedi show that the chief nobles were bound to furnish cavalry contingents varying from 4000 to 25,000 horse, and held lands estimated to yield yearly revenues of £100,000 to £1,620,000. Bird's Gujarát, 109-127.

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The changes in the extent of territory and in the form of administration illustrate the effect of the government on the condition of the people during the different periods of Musalmán rule. The following summary of the leading characteristics of each of the main divisions of the four-and-a-half centuries of Musalmán ascendancy may serve as an introduction to the detailed narrative of events.

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On conquering Gujarát in A.D. 1297 the Musalmáns found the country in disorder. The last kings of Anahilapur or Pátan, suffering under the defects of an incomplete title, held even their crown lands with no firmness of grasp, and had allowed the outlying territory to slip almost entirely from their control. Several of the larger and more distant rulers had resumed their independence. The Bhils and Kolis of the hills, forests, and rough river banks were in revolt. And stranger chiefs, driven south by the Musalmán conquests in Upper India, had robbed the central power of much territory.³ The records of the early Musalmán governors (A.D. 1297-1391) show suspicion on the side of the Dehli court and disloyalty on the part of more than one viceroy, much confusion throughout the province, and little in the way of government beyond the exercise of military force. At the same time, in spite of war and rebellions, the country, in parts at least, seems to Under the Kings, 1403-1573.

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² According to the European travellers in India during the seventeenth century, provincial governors, and probably to some extent all large holders of service lands, employed various methods for adding to the profits which the assigned lands were meant to yield them. Of these devices two seem to have been specially common, the practice of supporting a body of horse smaller than the number agreed for, and the practice of purveyance that is of levying supplies without payment. Sir Thomas Roe, from A.D. 1615 to 1618 English ambassador at the court of the emperor Jehangir, gives the following details of these irregular practices: The Patan (that is Patna in Bengal) viceroy's government was estimated at 5000 horse, the yearly pay of each trooper being £20 (Rs. 200), of which he kept only 15£ being allowed, the surplus as dead pay. On one occasion, this governor wished to present me with 100 loaves of the finest sugar, as white as snow, each loaf weighing fifty pounds. On my declining, he said, "You refuse these loaves, thinking I am poor; but being made in my government the sugar costs me nothing, as it comes to me gratis." Sir Thomas Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 282-284. The same writer, the best qualified of the English travellers of that time to form a correct opinion, thus describes the administration of the Musalmán governors of the seventeenth century: "They practise every kind of tyranny against the natives under their jurisdiction, oppressing them with continual exactions, and are exceedingly averse from any way being opened by which the king may be informed of their infamous proceedings. They grind the people under their government to extract money from them, often hanging men up by the heels, to make them confess that they are rich, or to ransom themselves from faults merely imputed with a view to fleece them." Sir Thomas Roe in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 338.

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³ Of these settlements the principal was that of the Ráthod chief who in the thirteenth century established himself at Idar, now one of the states of the Mahi Kántha. In the fifteenth century also, Gohils from the north and Sodha Parmárs and Kathis from Sindh entered Gujarát. Rás Mála, II. 269.

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have been well cultivated, and trade and manufactures to have been flourishing.¹

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¹ Gujarát of about the year A.D. 1300 is thus described: "The air of Gujarát is healthy, and the earth picturesque; the vineyards bring forth blue grapes twice a year, and the strength of the soil is such that the cotton plants spread their branches like willow and plane trees, and yield produce for several years successively. Besides Cambay, the most celebrated of the cities of Hind in population and wealth, there are 70,000 towns and villages, all populous, and the people abounding in wealth and luxuries." Elliot's History of India, III, 31, 32, and 43. Marco Polo, about A.D. 1292, says: "In Gujarat there grows much pepper and ginger and indigo. They have also a great deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size, growing full six paces high, and attaining to an age of twenty years." Yule's Edition, II, 328. The cotton referred to was probably the variety known as *herbaceum Gossypium religiosum* or *peruvianum*, which grows from ten to fifteen feet high, and bears for several years. Royle, 149-150.

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The period of the rule of the Ahmadábád kings (A.D. 1403-1573) contains two divisions; one lasting from A.D. 1403 to A.D. 1530, on the whole a time of strong government and of growing power and prosperity; the other the forty-three years from A.D. 1530 to the conquest of the province by the emperor Akbar in A.D. 1573, a time of disorder and misrule. In A.D. 1403 when Gujarát separated from Dehli the new king held but a narrow strip of plain. On the north were the independent chiefs of Sirohi and Jhálor, from whom he occasionally levied contributions. On the east the Rája of Idar, another Rájput prince, was in possession of the western skirts of the hills and forests, and the rest of that tract was held by the mountain tribes of Bhils and Kólis. On the west the peninsula was in the hands of nine or ten Hindu tribes, probably tributary, but by no means obedient. In the midst of so unsettled and warlike a population, all the efforts of Muzaffar I., the founder of the dynasty, were spent in establishing his power. It was not until the reign of his successor Ahmed I. (A.D. 1412-1443) that steps were taken to settle the different classes of the people in positions of permanent order. About the year A.D. 1420 two important measures were introduced. Of these one assigned lands for the support of the troops, and the other recognised the rights of the superior class of Hindu landholders to a portion of the village lands they had formerly held. The effect of these changes was to establish order throughout the districts directly under the authority of the crown. And though, in the territories subject to feudatory chiefs, the presence of an armed force was still required to give effect to the king's claims for tribute, his increasing power and wealth made efforts at independence more hopeless, and gradually secured the subjection of the greater number of his vassals. During the latter part of the fifteenth and the first quarter of the sixteenth century the power of the Ahmadábád kings was at its height. At that time their dominions included twenty-five divisions or sarkárs. Among nine of these namely Pátan, Ahmadábád, Súnth, Godhra, Chámpáner, Baroda, Broach, Nándod or Rájpipla, and Súrat the central plain was distributed. In addition in the north were four divisions, Sirohi, Jhálor, Jodhpur, and Nágor now in south-west and central Rájputána; in the north-east two, Dungarpur and Bánsváda, now in the extreme south of Rájpútána; in the east and south-east three, Nandurbár now in Khándesh, Mulher or Báglán now in Násik, and Rám Nagar or Dharampur now in Surat; in the south four, Dandá-Rájapuri or Janjira, Bombay, Bassein, and Daman now in the Konkan; in the west two, Sorath and Navánagar now in Káthiáwád; and Kachh in the north-west. Besides the revenues of these districts, tribute was received from the rulers of Ahmednagar, Burhánpur, Berár, Golkonda, and Bijápur, and customs dues from twenty-five ports on the western coast of India and from twenty-six foreign marts, some of them in India and others in the Persian Gulf and along the Arabian coast.¹ The total revenue from these sources is said in prosperous times to have amounted to a yearly sum of £11,460,000 (Rs. 11,46,00,000). Of this total amount the territorial revenue from the twenty-five districts yielded £5,840,000 (Rs. 5,84,00,000), or slightly more than one-half. Of the remaining £5,620,000 (Rs. 5,62,00,000) about one-fifth part was derived from the Dakhan tribute and the rest from customs-dues.²

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² Elphinstone's History, 762.

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¹ Bird's History of Gujarát, 116, 129, and 130.

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² The passage from the Mirát-i-Ahmadi, Bird 109, is: 'A sum of 25 lákhs of húns and one kror of ibrahims, that were two parts greater, being altogether nearly equal to 5 krors and 62 lákhs of rupees, was collected from the Dakhan tribute and the customs of the European and Arab ports.' The word hún, from an old Karnátak word for gold, is the Musalmán name for the coin known among Hindus as varáha or the wild-boar coin, and among the Portuguese as the pagoda or temple coin. Prinsep Ind. Ant. Thomas' Ed. II. U. T. 18. The old specimens of this coin weigh either 50 grains the madu or half pagoda, or 120 grains the hún or full pagoda. Thomas, Chron. Pat. Ks. II. 224, note. The star pagoda, in which English accounts at Madras were formerly kept, weighs 52.56 grains, and was commonly valued at 8s. or Rs. 4 (Prinsep as above). At this rate in the present sum the 25 lákhs of húns would equal one kror (100 lákhs) of rupees. The ibrahimi, 'two parts greater than the hún,' would seem to be a gold coin, perhaps a variety of the Persian ashrafi (worth about 9s. English. Marsden, No. 455). Taking the two parts of a hún as fanams or sixteenths, this would give the ibrahimi a value of Rs. 41, and make a total customs revenue of 425 lákhs of rupees. This statement of the revenues of the kingdom is, according to the author of the Mirát-i-Ahmadi, taken from such times as the power of the Gujarát kings continued to increase. The total revenue of the twenty-five districts (£5,840,000) is the amount recovered in the year A.D. 1571. But the receipts under the head of Tribute must have been compiled from accounts of earlier years. For, as will be seen below, the neighbouring kings ceased to pay tribute after the end of the reign of Bahádur (A.D. 1536). Similarly the customs revenues entered as received from Daman and other places must have been taken from the accounts of some year previous to A.D. 1560.

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The buildings at Ahmadábád, and the ruins of Chámpáner and Mehmúdábád, prove how much wealth was at the command of the sovereign and his nobles, while the accounts of travellers seem to show that the private expenditure of the rulers was not greater than the kingdom was well able to bear. The Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa, who was in Gujarát between A.D. 1511 and A.D. 1514, found the capital Chámpáner a great city, in a very fertile country of abundant provisions, with many cows sheep and goats and plenty of fruit, so that it was full of all things.³ Ahmadábád was still larger, very rich and well Under the Kings, 1403-1573.

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³ The remains at Chámpáner in the British district of the Panch Maháls are well known. Of Mehmúdábád, the town of that name in the district of Kaira, eighteen miles south of Ahmadábád, a few ruins only are left. In A.D. 1590 this city is said to have contained many grand edifices surrounded with a wall eleven miles (7 kos) square with at every 1/2 mile (1 kos) a pleasure house, and an enclosure for deer and other game. (Ain-i-Akbari. Gladwin, II. 61.) The Mirát-i-Ahmadi makes no special reference to the sovereign's share of the revenue. The greater part of the £5,620,000 derived from

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supplied, embellished with good streets and squares, with houses of stone and cement. It was not from the interior districts of the province that the Ahmadábád kings derived the chief part of their wealth, but from those lying along the coast, which were enriched by manufactures and commerce.¹ So it was that along the shores of the gulf of Cambay and southward as far as Bombay the limit of the Gujarát kingdom, besides many small sea-ports, Barbosa chooses out for special mention twelve ‘towns of commerce, very rich and of great trade.’ Among these was Diu, off the south coast of Kathiáwár, yielding so large a revenue to the king as to be ‘a marvel and amazement.’ And chief of all Cambay, in a goodly, fertile, and pretty country full of abundant provisions; with rich merchants and men of great prosperity; with craftsmen and mechanics of subtle workmanship in cotton, silk, ivory, silver, and precious stones; the people well dressed, leading luxurious lives, much given to pleasure and amusement.²

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The thirty-eight years between the defeat of king Bahádur by the emperor Humáyún in A.D. 1535 and the annexation of Gujarát by Akbar in A.D. 1573 was a time of confusion. Abroad, the superiority of Gujarát over the neighbouring powers was lost, and the limits of the kingdom shrank; at home, after the attempted confiscation (A.D. 1545) of their shares in village lands the disaffection of the superior landowners became general, and the court, beyond the narrow limits of the crown domains, ceased to exercise substantial control over

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tribute and customs would probably go to the king, besides the lands specially set apart as crown domains, which in A.D. 1571 were returned as yielding a yearly revenue of £800,000 (800,000,000 tankas). This would bring the total income of the crown to a little more than £1 millions sterling.

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¹ Sikandar Lodi emperor of Dehli, A.D. 1488-1517, is reported to have said: ‘The magnificence of the kings of Dehli rests on wheat and barley; the magnificence of the kings of Gujarat rests on coral and pearls.’ Bird, 39.

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² The twelve Gujarát ports mentioned by Barbosa are: On the south coast of the peninsula, two: Patan-Somnath, now Verával, very rich and of great trade; Surat-Mangalor (Mangrol), a town of commerce, and Diu. On the shores of the gulf of Cambay four: Gogari (Gogha), a large town; Baroach (Broach); Gandari or Gandar (Gandhár), a very good town; and Cambay. On the western coast five: Ravel (Bander), a rich place; Surat, a city of very great trade; Denvy (Gandevi), a place of great trade; Basay (Bassin), a good seaport of which much goods are exchanged; and Tanamayambu (Thána-Mahim), a town of great Moorish mosques, but of little trade (Stanley’s Barbosa, 59-68). The only one of these ports whose identification seems doubtful is Ravel, described by Barbosa (page 67) as a pretty town of the Moors on a good river, twenty leagues south of Gandhár. This agrees with the position of Ránder on the Tapti, nearly opposite Surat, which appears in Al Birúni (A.D. 1030) as Ráhanur one of the capitals of south Gujarát and is mentioned under the name Ranir, both in the Ain-i-Akbari (A.D. 1590) and in the Mirát-i-Ahmadi for the year A.D. 1571, as a place of trade, ‘in ancient times a great city.’ In his description of the wealth of Cambay, Barbosa is supported by the other European travellers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. According to Nicolo de Conti (A.D. 1420-1444), the town including its suburbs, was twelve miles in circuit abounding in spikenard, lac, indigo, myrobalans, and silk. Athanasius Nikotin (A.D. 1468-1474) found it a manufacturing place for every sort of goods as long gowns dervishes and blankets; and Varthema (A.D. 1503-1508) says it abounds in grain and very good fruits, supplying Afcan Arabia and India with silk and cotton stuffs; ‘it is impossible to describe its excellence.’ Barbosa’s account of Ahmadábád is borne out by the statements in the Ain-i-Akbari (Gladwin, II. 63) that the whole number of the suburbs (puras) of the city was 360, and in the Mirát-i-Ahmadi, that it once contained 380 suburbs each of considerable size, containing good buildings and markets filled with everything valuable and rare, so that each was almost a city. Bird, 311.

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