History of the Qaraunah Turks in India c7.81

c7.81

All these writers take an exaggerated view of the effects of the revised taxation which though not fundamentally excessive was introduced at a very unfavourable moment. Barani says, rain did not fall, and convoys of corn did not come from the provinces owing to drought. It does not appear that the Sultan exceeded the legal maximum of 50 per cent which had been reached under 'Ala-al-Dīn, and Barani expresses himself in a hyperbole when he says that the tax was raised ten and twenty times. This is a familiar mode of expression in Hindustan. Elliot mistranslates the original passage when he writes that the Sultan thought he ought to get ten or five per cent more tribute from the lands in the Doab.⁴⁸ Ten or five per cent more would not be so heavy as to break the backs of the ryots whereas ten and twenty times would be perfectly absurd. The tax was felt as a burden by the population accompanied as it was by the *gharī* and *Charāhī* and the inquisitorial proceedings of state officials, and Barani speaks of such *abwābs* as the ryots could not pay. Famine aggravated the situation further, and the scarcity of fodder more than the undue heaviness of the cesses obliged them to drive their cattle to the woods.