Mughal Administration c9.s1.1

c9.s1.1

A careful student of Indian history is very much struck by the chronic antagonism between the rent-payer and the rent-receiver from very ancient times. European travellers in India have noticed how the ryot was averse to paying even his legitimate rent and that force had to be employed to get from him the dues of the State [*Storia do Mogor*, ii. 450.] On the other hand, in Sanskrit literature as well as Persian Court-annals we read how the "king's men"—*i.e.* revenue officials and underlings,—preyed on the peasantry, and in both ages the sovereign was called upon to save the ryots from such blood-suckers.