The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c16.s3: Appendix C: Sher Shāh's Schedule

The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehlī c16.s3

Language: English

Appendix C: Sher Shāh's Schedule

c16.s3.2

THE passage in Blochmann's edition of Ā'in-i-Akbarī (Book III, Ā'in XI) reads as follows:—

"در دوے نخستین گزیده و میانه و زبون هر جنس را فراهم آورند، سوم بخش آن محصول پندارند و سه یک آن دست مزد جهانبانی برستانند. وریعے که شیر خاں بر گرفته بود و امروز در همه صوبها ازو کمتر نشان ندهند پذیرش یافت و برائے آسودگی سپاه و رعیت ارج برسخته زر باز خواست نمایند."

c16.s3.4

The reading of the first sentence, in my opinion, is wrong. Blochmann translates the sentence as, "Of the first two kinds of land, there are three classes: good, middling and bad. They add together the produce of each sort and a third of this represents the medium produce, one-third of which is exacted as the royal dues." Abū-'l-Faḍl is speaking of the classification of land by Akbar into polaj, parautī, chāchar and banjar. Blochmann's reading would imply that the first two kinds of land were further subdivided into three classes to calculate an average. This is too complicated a system and does not seem to have been adopted. I think the text should be read without a stop after زبون as follows:—

c16.s3.5

در دوے نخستین گزیده و میانه و زبون هر جنس را فراهم آورند . . . . . .

c16.s3.6

which would translate as, "Of the first two kinds of land, the good, the middling and the bad produce should be added together and a third of this represents the medium produce . . ." To me this seems a more likely and easier method of finding the average produce.

c16.s3.7

The second part of this passage has been translated by Blochmann as follows :— “ The revenue levied by Sher Khān, which at the present day is represented in all provinces as the lowest rate of assessment, generally obtained; and for the convenience of the cultivators and the soldiery, the value was taken in ready money.”

c16.s3.8

This rendering would convey the sense fairly accurately, though not literally, but for the fact that the word ريع has been used which really means ‘produce’. Only recently in the Arabic-speaking countries the word has figuratively come to mean ‘revenue’; in Abū-l-Faḍl’s days it could only have meant ‘produce’. I am inclined to believe that the word is used in its original sense. Akbar accepted Sher Shāh’s figures regarding average produce only, and fixed his own demand. If ريع is taken to mean ‘produce’, the translation would be: “The (figures of mean) produce adopted by Sher Shāh, lower than which cannot be found throughout the provinces, were accepted, and for the convenience of etc. etc.”