The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.124

c11.124

This can be translated as (i) "The kharāj of the provinces in the Doāb should be assessed at one part in ten or one part in twenty"; or (ii) "The kharāj... should be increased by one in ten or one in twenty"; or (iii) "The kharāj should be levied in the proportion of ten to one and twenty to one." (i) can be dismissed, for the peasantry could not be ruined by such a measure; (iii) really distorts the passage, because یکے بده و یکے بہ بیست cannot be translated as 'ten for one and twenty for one'; it can only mean 'one in ten and one in twenty'. Thus only (ii) seems to be possible; it may, however, be questioned how ستد can be translated as 'increased'. The literal translation can be: (In) the kharāj of the provinces (an additional) one be charged along with every ten or twenty." Even if the translation suggested in (ii) be permissible, it can be merely a figure of speech. It is more likely, however, that Firishtah and Ḥājī Dabīr are using figurative language when they say that the demand was increased threefold or fourfold. Muḥammad bin Tughluq was not so foolish as not to understand that such an increase could never be realized. These later historians were writing at a time when the peasants paid a much higher percentage of their produce, therefore they could not understand how a small increase in the state demand could result in discontent and rebellion. The reasons for the discontent can, however, be explained easily: (i) the population felt that there was no justification for the increase; they had submitted to 'Alā-u'd-dīn Khaljī's demand because of the Mongol danger; (ii) as Dr Mahdī Ḥusain (Rise and Fall of Muḥammad bin Tughluq, p 152) points out, there was already discontent among the disbanded Hindu soldiery who had been recruited for the proposed Khurāsān expedition and who had chiefly been drawn from the Doāb. Taking these factors into consideration it seems that (ii) is the correct interpretation. It has the added advantage that it gives the exact percentage of enhancement.