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Raychaudhuri, Tapan
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Habib, Irfan
1982.
The Cambridge Economic History of India.
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I. Akbar's Land-Revenue System as described in the “Āin-i-Akbari”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
This paper attempts to bring together the facts disclosed in somewhat disjointed fashion in the Āīn-i-Akbari so as to present as nearly as possible a complete view of the theory of the land revenue held at the headquarters of Akbar's administration. How far that theory accorded with the actual practice in the villages is another question, and one on which the work of Abul Fazl cannot be expected to throw light; but it is perhaps fair to assume that in the sixteenth century, as in the twentieth, practice tended to approximate to theory, and that if we make some obvious reservations and allowances we can take the theory as a trustworthy guide. So far as the writers are aware, this task has not previously been carried out, and it is not difficult to show that the partial accounts of the system contained in standard textbooks of Indian history are marked by numerous errors or omissions. The importance of Akbar's reign in the political and economic history of India appears to afford sufficient justification for an attempt to restate the official account of what is universally regarded as one of his greatest administrative achievements, a correct understanding of which is necessary for the appreciation of much of the historical material recorded in the Āin.
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page 2 note 1 We may indicate here one particular pitfall in the printed text. Throughout the Account of the Twelve Subas we find an apparent distinction drawn between different items of revenue, some of which are marked by the word naqdi, while others are not so marked. The use of the word appears to be significant, and as a matter of fact we made some progress in evolving a theory of its meaning; but, as the India Office manuscripts show, it is merely the heading of a column, which in Blochmann's transcription has found its way sporadically into the text, and its use marks no distinction such as the reader is tempted to infer.
page 7 note 1 Compare the term “Potdar” which survives in the modern financial system.
page 8 note 1 Text, p. 460, 1. 1. The manuscript readings vary, but even assuming that the confusion between pargana and mahal was due to the copyist, it illustrates the proposition that the two words were ordinarily understood to mean practically the same thing.
page 10 note 1 The text has nasaqi. We prefer the reading nisfi which appears in the India Office MS. No. 265.
page 16 note 1 The fraction ⅓ is reduced to ¼, apparently to suit the weights ordinarily in use.
page 25 note 1 MrKeene, (Sketch of the History of Hindustan, p. 162)Google Scholar says nineteen years.
page 31 note 1 The original revenue was 126½ lakhs of tankas before the annexation of Asir. When Asir was annexed, 10 lakhs and 15 thousand tankas were added to this figure on account of the new territory. This we take to be the correct translation of “bar-ān jama dah pānz-dah afzūdand” in the text (474, 13). We do not think that Col. Jarrett's translation, “was increased by 50 per cent” (vol. ii, 224)Google Scholar, is tenable. Blochmann, who edited the text, did not understand it in this sense, as is evident from his note 3 at p. 474 of his text. He rightly rejects the sentence about the total of 4,553 lakhs of Akbari dāms: it is not found in the best MSS., and was probably a gloss due to a misunderstanding. The pargana figures give the revenue of Asīr as 10.60 lakhs, which differs (by a fraction of a lakh) from the 10.15 of the text as we have interpreted it. But the figures in the MSS. are rarely to be relied upon. Even Col. Jarrett himself, who translated Blochmann's text, wrongly transcribed 3.25 lakhs for Dāmri West in Dandes, when the text has 3.52 lakhs (we omit thousands). Also, the pargana figures given in the text total up to 241 lakhs of tankas for the suba, nearly double that actually given in the text.
page 40 note 1 Col. Tarrett's translation of “forty horse loads” for the Persian “40 asp.” may be a mistake for “forty horses”, in mahal Bānihāl. Cf. the sheep and the Bilochi horses delivered as part of the revenue of the sarkār of Kandahār.
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