History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c12.73

v1.c12.73

To prevent partiality or corruption “this honest and God-fearing *diwan* often dragged the measuring chain with his own hands” and checked the survey work of his subordinates. By personal inquiry in the fields and villages he won the confidence of the peasantry; he allotted the holdings with care and attention to detail, so that the *ryots* prospered at the same time that the revenue increased. He had the wisdom to modify his system according to differences of local conditions. Where the peasantry were backward and the population scanty, or where the villages were situated in obscure nooks, he left the old usage of a fixed lump payment per plough undisturbed. In many other places he introduced the system of metayership or sharing of the actual produce. For this there were three rates: (i) Where the crop depended on rainfall, the State took one-half of it. (ii) Where agriculture depended on well-irrigation the share of the State was one-third in the case of grain, and from 1/3 to 1/4 in the case of grape, sugar-cane, anise, plantain, pea-wort, and other special and high-priced crops requiring laborious watering and length of culture. (iii) Where the field was irrigated from canals (pát), the proportion of the revenue to the crop varied, being sometimes higher and sometimes lower than in lands irrigated from wells.