The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c11.178

c11.178

The Hindu rulers had levied high rates for all irrigation facilities and were not content with their increased share in the produce. From one-fifth to one-third of the gross produce was taken as *udāka-bhāga* or water rate from lands irrigated by water even though it was not supplied by direct action of the state. The reason was that the Hindus held that all water belonged to the king.¹ Muslim rulers did not charge any extra rate even for the water supplied through channels by the state.² Fīrūz Shāh was not the first to dig canals; we read, for instance, that Ghiyāth-u'd-dīn Tughluq dug canals in the days of his governorship.³ Muḥammad bin Tughluq also increased irrigation facilities.⁴ Sujān Rāi mentions that Sulṭān Nāsir-u'd-dīn Maḥmūd spent large sums of money on public works including canals.⁵ However, Fīrūz Shāh was the first sultan to build canals with his private money. He asked the jurists if he could charge a rate for the water supplied by his canals. The jurists decided that he could charge ten per cent.⁶ This amount was calculated on the gross produce and was deducted from the share of the state; it was put into the privy purse and not into the state treasury. When the sultan's canal irrigated waste land, he charged the peasants a fifth of the produce and paid the 'ushr into the treasury. The state sometimes permitted other individuals as well to dig canals for the purpose of bringing waste land under cultivation on the same terms. Once a canal had been dug, the state insisted that it should be kept in repairs.⁷