History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.55

c7.55

During the early years of his reign Muḥammad introduced the first of those measures which have been severely condemned by historians. It was the taxation in the Doab. Among contemporary writers only Barani makes mention of it but he gives no date. The Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi places it in 729 A.H. after the invasion of Tarmāshrīn Khan, but does not say like Badāoni that the enhancement of the tax in the Doab was intended to punish the refractory inhabitants of that region, and it is not clear on what authority Badāoni relied for making this statement.³¹ Firishta³² describes it as one of the earliest measures of the reign and mentions it among the events of the year 727 A.H. Sir Wolseley Haig accepts Badāonī's date and writes that in 730 A.H. Muhammad introduced two most disastrous measures—the enhancement of the assessment of the land in the Doab and the issue of his fictitious brass currency, which was an attempt to make brass tokens pass current as silver coins. He also accepts Badaoni's statement that the enhancement of the assessment was intended to be both a punitive measure and a means of replenishing the treasury.³³ A close examination of the accounts of contemporary and later authorities leads to the conclusion that the enhancement was effected sometime towards the close of 727 A.H. Yahyā's statement that it was carried out in 729 A.H. after the invasion of Tarmāshrīn does not seem to be probable. Barani writes that when the Sultan returned to Dihli after having defeated Bahrām Aibaī, he stayed there for two years, and, according to him at that time the country of the Doab was brought to ruin by the heavy taxation and the numerous cesses.³⁴ This is what he writes:—