Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/191

 FIEFS AND SLAVES 153 a sum equal to nearly a million pounds (one hundred lacs) was distributed every year in pensions and relief to the poor. The Sultan was not only a builder but a gardener. He planted twelve hundred gardens near Delhi and many elsewhere, and the produce, among which white and black grapes of seven varieties are mentioned, brought in some 8000 net profit to the treasury. The three sources of water-dues, reclaimed lands, and market-gardens added nearly thirty thou- sand pounds to the annual revenue, which Afif reckoned at six crores and eighty-five lacs of tankas (6,850,000) throughout the reign about a third of the revenues of Akbar two centuries later. Of this the fertile Doab alone contributed 800,000. It is not clear whether this revenue includes the rents of the villages and lands which were assigned to public officials as salary, but it probably does not. This method of paying public servants was strongly condemned by the Sultan Ala-ad-din, as tending to feudal power and fostering rebellion; and Piroz was the first to adopt it generally. During his reign it worked well, but it may be questioned whether it did not contribute to the break-up of the kingdom which ensued after his death. The grants indeed often amounted to viceroyalties of great power, and we find large districts and even provinces assigned to eminent nobles. Thus Karra and Dalamau were granted to Mardan Daulat with the title of " King of the East "; Oudh and Sandila and Koil formed separate fiefs; Jaunpur and Zafarabad were given to another amir;