Page:Mughal Land Revenue System.djvu/17



NE of the most interesting topics that engages the attention of the student of Indian history and economics is the nature of relationship between the sovereign and the actual tiller of the land in mediaeval India. Being at once a subject thoroughly historical and antiquarian, a study of Mughal land revenue system entails the necessary culling of statistics and information from State archives and official returns of the Mughal sovereigns of India, a comprehensive mastery over fact and a laborious assimilation of divergent statements and variant readings. Fortunately for us, Abul-Fazl, the famous vizier of Akbar, bequeathed an invaluable legacy to the student of history in his Ain-i-Akbari But the task of a careful student of this book is not smooth, since he has often to draw a line between sober fact and courtly adulation, interspersed throughout the text.