Fall of the Mughal Empire v4.c55.s5.2

v4.c55.s5.2

At the beginning of 1789, immediately after the hunting down of Ghulām Qādir, Mahādji supplied the Emperor with Rs. 300 a day in order to meet his immediate wants. This was a purely temporary arrangement. Soon afterwards permanent provision was made for the imperial household by assigning 32 mahals as *khālsa* with a net yield on paper of Rs. 16,91,000 a year, and these estates were farmed to contractors. The Emperor's monthly allowance having been fixed at Rs. 1,30,000, the revenue of these Crownlands could have provided the annually needed amount of 15½ lakhs, if the collections were normal. But the times were not normal, and the actual realisation from the farmers sank to four lakhs, that is, only a quarter of the expected revenue. Hence the imperial family had to live on quarter rations, or less, because a portion of the shrunken receipts was swallowed up by their keeper Shāh Nizāmuddin. Under British peace and British management, the actual collection from these Crownlands leaped up from four lakhs in 1807 to 15 lakhs in 1813. The Jamunā canals, which when assigned to Safdar Jang in 1750 used to yield 25 lakhs a year, were now choked up and unprofitable. (*DY.* i. 384, and 387, Kaye's *Metcalfe*, i, 365. *Asiatic Annual Register* for 1800, Misc. Tr. p. 37, Polier, on the canal.)