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This brochure is the outcome of a paper read before the Historical Association, Noble College, Masulipatam, on the 4th August 1924, and has been reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society Bangalore.

It is not possible to exaggerate the importance of a study of the Mughal land revenue system, if it merits being called a system, as it is the bed-rock on which the present edifice of British taxation in India was built. The writer hopes that this first systematic treatment of the subject will be of use in elucidation of the problems that confronted the importers of this tentative and, to them, foreign scheme and that the work may prove to be a contribution to the history of Indian land revenue in general.

It is with great pleasure that I acknowledge my indebtedness to Professors P. Ratnaiya, M,A., and J. J. Sebastian, M.A., of the Economics and History Departments of Noble College who both encouraged me to attempt this study of one of the aspects of Indian economic history.

My thanks are also due to the joint-editors of the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Bangalore, for kind permission to reproduce the wodc in its present form 1 under their auspices, and to my friend Mr. Abdul Majid, M.A., for having kindly arranged for its inclusion in the Basheer Muslim Library Series.

The writer regrets that owing to the fact that his stay in this country prevented him from reading the proofs, a few mistakes have crept into the text which, he hopes, the reader will not grudge to bear with.