Mughal Administration c9.s4.2

c9.s4.2

The subahdar of Orissa wrote in 1662: "The mahals of Crownland have been reduced to desolation and their affairs have fallen into confusion in consequence of the harsh assessment of an unreasonable amount of revenue and the neglect of details by the [new] diwan, Muhammad Hāshim. He transacts business in this way: when a candidate for kroriship accepts the post, Hāshim imposes on him the paper assessment of the parganah and sends him there, before he can learn about the [actual] yield of the place. After a short time, another man is secured for the post, and Hāshim Khan taking money for himself from this man, dismisses the former krori, appoints the second man and makes him promise a larger revenue than the first collector had engaged for. After a little time, a third man appears, offering a still higher sum to the State, and he is sent as collector to the parganah! ...The Khan has thus increased the revenue [on paper] twofold in some places and threefold in others, while the ryots, unable to pay, have fled away and the villages have turned into a wilderness." [Studies in Aur. Reign, xiv. § 15.]