History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c12.211

c12.211

The correct reading is در سه لکه بیگهه instead of در سه لکه تنکه and در سه لکه بیگهه of the Buhār and the A. S. B. Texts. Hājji-ad-Dabīr very clearly paraphrases Barani's passage and there is not the slightest ambiguity or confusion in his account. He writes that the Shiqdārs promised to give three lakhs of bighas of cultivated land and one thousand horsemen after a period of three years. For every three lakhs of bighas of land they received fifty thousand tankahs as advance. The word Sondhār ( سوندهار ) is probably a Hindi word which is used for advance. The context makes it clear that it has the same sense as the word taqāvī which is a loan advanced to the cultivators by the British Government in India during famine. That the word is used for taqāvī is made clear by Firishta who uses the word taqāvī instead of Barani's Sondhār.