History of India Page 1 of 17

HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student)

Paper No. : Paper - II

History of India

Topic No. & Title : Topic - 14

Agriculture and rural revenue system
during the Delhi Sultanate

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture - 1

Agriculture and rural revenue system
during the Delhi Sultanate

I: Environmental Context:

Muizuddin of Ghur and his lieutenants were successful in

establishing an empire by the end of the twelfth century
which in the first century of its existence covered almost the
full breadth of Gangetic plains. By the beginning of the
second hundred years almost the entire peninsula, even
though only for a brief period came under its control and after
a long gap ending with the Mauryan experiment Indian
subcontinent was once again united under a single political
entity. Not only for the geographical expanse, but also from
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the context of centralization of power of economic resources

Delhi Sultanate constitutes an important phase in Indian
History.

Geographically the northern Indian plains are dominated by

two river systems – the Indus and Ganga with only a few
rivers like Son or Chambal falling out. With heavy rainfall
concentrated in the eastern region, it was historically much
densely populated amidst much verdant greenery while the
west had much less rainfall, ending in the aridity of Thar
desert. Peninsular India had mountain ranges, plateaus,
scarps interspersed with riverine deltas and had much more
distinct geographical subregions than the northern plains.
This geographical specificities of the north and south India
themselves explain the relative ease with which empire was
established in north while difficulties faced by prospective
state systems in establishing control over peninsular
territories. Also sea exerted much larger influence on the life
and conditions of Peninsula compared to north, which
however possibly decreased after the fourteenth century.

The shifting courses of the rivers – notorious in the eastern

extremities of the Gangetic delta but not altogether absent in
the Indus river systems or Yamuna had a major impact on
settlement geography and economy which is true for the
Sultanate period also. Earlier Sutlej and Beas after their
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junction again got divided. It was during the sixteenth and

seventeenth century that Sutlej had shifted from its close
proximity to Ludhiana. The old course of Beas can also be
traced in the survey maps and these great shifts of river
courses greatly affected the economy. When Yamuna fed
Chitang in the seventh and eighth century, Haryana was well
watered but with the Yamuna’s shift Haryana was desiccated
and it was only during Firuz Tughluq’s reign, with the digging
of a network of canals it again regained its agricultural
productivity.

This is also true that before the railway embankments came

up, construction of modern ‘river valley projects’ or much use
of river water for irrigation purpose, the flood channels, with
lakes and swamps were much more numerous. They also
carried much more water in those days. The northern plains
had pockets of jungle in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, which has been fully cleared by human habitation
since then. Barani testifies that these jungles provided refuge
to the rebellious peasants of Doab during the reign of
Muhammad bin Tughluq. The jungle and scrub covered much
larger area, which provided larger supply of fuel and timber
for building. Forest also provided lac, wild silk, honey, animal
skins and sustained much more extensive food gathering
economy which was important for the peasant economy too
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which exchanged products among themselves. Moreover

extensive forest cover might have possibly contributed to
marginally larger rainfall.

II: Agricultural Production:

One does not find clear description of agricultural implements

but there is no plausible ground that they were essentially
different during the Sultanate period from that of those used
in eighteenth century. Wells were the major source for
artificial irrigation and here we find a distinct improvement
was effected during the Sultanate period for water lifting.
India from the early medieval period was accustomed with
araghatta, a pot garland of a string of pots attached to a rim
of wheel. Later it was transformed into noria, but still being
worked by human labour. Atlast when it became a vertical
wheel attached to a draw bar being worked by animal power,
which would rotate the wheel fixed with pin drum gearing, we
have the wood and earthen pot prototype of modern metallic
Persian wheel (saqiya). The mechanism has been depicted in
a twelfth century Baghdad miniature. When Babur came to
Punjab he found/ gave a detailed account of the machine. So
we can safely conclude that the device proliferated widely
during the intervening period possibly during the Sultanate
rule. The new device might have greatly contributed in the
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expansion of irrigation and hence agriculture in the Indus

basin.

New cementing materials and building techniques made

possible construction of more effective dams and
embankments. It was under Firuz Tughluq the greatest
network of canals in the precolonial India was constructed.
Rajab-wah and Ulughkhani were two such canals cut from
Yamuna to Hissar. Another canal, Firuz Shahi was cut from
Yamuna while another came from Ghaggar. Another
connected Kalinadi with Yamuna near Delhi. Extension of
irrigation largely facilitated agriculture. Thus while only kharif
(autumn) crops were cultivated in Haryana, Firuz Tughluq’s
irrigation canals made possible raising of rabi (spring) crops.
Crops dependent on artificial irrigation were more highly
valued than those which could do without it. Thus wheat and
sugarcane were more valued than barley or gram.

Large areas of wasteland including forests helped in growing

large number of cattle. This provided not only draught
animals but also animal products like ghi (clarified butter)
was much cheaper, so much so that even the poorer section
could add the item with daily food in the Sultanate period.

Arrival of two more new techniques/technologies helped

agricultural manufacture. The west Asian liquor stills (bhatti)
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with a spoon like retort and a Moor’s head was technologically

much more superior than the Ghandhara stills which cooled
the vapour only in the receiver and Barani attests that bhattis
distilling liquor from fermented sugar syrups became
widespread in and around Delhi by the close of the thirteenth
century. Also the gypsum based water proof cement made it
possible to build large indigo vats with water proof inner
surfaces though no extant vats so far surveyed can be dated
earlier than the fifteenth century.

Similarly proper sericulture or rearing mulberry silk worms

seem to have started along with the Sultanate. The earlier
word denoting silk, chinansuk would attest the fact that
earlier it was imported from China either as raw material or
finished products. India knew about wild silk variety as eri,
muga or tasar would denote. Though sericulture was known
to China long back but the knowledge defused very late.
Reached Khotan by the sixth century of the Common Era.
Even Ibn Batuta do not mention the product being produced
from Bengal during the fourteenth century. But the Chinese
navigator Ma Huan refers to it during his sojourn in 1432.
Despite Kalhana’s reference to silk weaving in Kashmir (c.
1150 c.e.) this does not necessarily mean existence of
sericulture because silk yarn could possibly be imported from
Khotan or China.
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II Technology:

Lynn White Jr. first expressed his doubt regarding the

existence of spinning wheel (charkha) in India earlier. It has
been attested in China from the first century of the Common
Era but again it took almost a millennium to get diffused first
in the Islamic west from where it possibly spread to India in
almost all parts. The earliest reference to the mechanism so
far has been traced in Isami’s Futuh us Salatin where the
author states that the right place for the women to work was
before charkha in the context of Raziya’s kingship. The
earliest pictorial depiction of the contraption found so far has
been in the fifteenth century dictionary Miftah ul Fuzala.
Arrival of the machinery greatly increased the efficiency of the
spinner still then working on hand spindle by atleast six
times. Similarly treadle loom (kargah) prevalent in China
might have traveled to India in the same period or just on the
eve of the Ghorian invasion. Similarly the introduction of the
cotton carders’ bow rather than the simple beating of the
unprocessed cotton clods with stick alongside weaver’s loom
along with spinning wheel had increased the production of
cotton textiles. However we have little more information
regarding the kinds of cloths manufactured during the
Sultanate period other than some names. Coarser cloth
(kamina) was worn by the poor and the dervishes while the
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finer ones (mahin) adorned the Turks and soldiers. Silk

weaving had reached its finest variety in Gujrat where the
patola was the highest quality. Textual references to block
printing (chippa- cloth printer) and (chhapa – to stamp)
occurs in the fourteenth century texts and possibly this was
an indigenous innovation. The art then spread rapidly and by
the sixteenth century became widespread so that ‘chintz’
(chhint) became a major variety of Indian textiles. Thus
technological innovations imported or partly indigenous in
origin like distillation or processing cotton greatly benefited
some agro-industries.

Another such craft which came during the Sultanate was

paper manufacture. It is unlikely that Indians were unaware
about the product because of the arrival of the innumerable
Chinese travelers in the early medieval period but they
continued with their palm leaf manuscripts. The earliest
extant paper manuscript was written in Gujarat in 1223-24
though it was a rarity. An anecdote of the mid fourteenth
century however suggests that the scarcity might be over
because the sweetmeat seller is found to be packing sweets
with written paper as packing material. Paper greatly
facilitated production of books and cheapened prices.

Another sector witnessing major transformation during the

Sultanate period was building industry. Ancient Indian stone
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or brick structure was almost entirely trabeate, where either

the structures were roofed by beams set on pillars or sloping
walls gradually joining at the top making towers. Such
structures required use of large stone blocks and brick was
seldom used also because of the fact that mortar-cement was
not available. With the Sultanate came the arcuate technique
i.e. the arch, vault and dome structures with the use of
gypsum and lime mortar. This facilitated use of brick and
rubble which saw tremendous growth of brick buildings in the
cities. Not only huge architecture for public amenities like that
in Mehrauli complex, Tughlukabad or Siri, Purana Qila within
Delhi constructed by the respective Sultanates but the rich
and the middle class also started living in stone and brick
houses. Barani says that Alauddin Khilji employed as many as
70,000 craftsmen for construction of buildings. Sultans like
Muhammad bin Tughluq or Firuz also were ardent builders,
which provided ample employment.

A major metallurgical advance was the isolation of zinc by the

fourteenth century. It came mixed with ores of copper, lead
and silver, being mined from ancient times on Zawar mines in
Rajasthan. The isolation through distillation made possible,
manufacture of brass metal (an alloy of copper and zinc). Also
the technique of tin coating (qalai) came in the fourteenth-
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fifteenth century, which enabled use of cheaper metals like

copper for making cooking utensils or food containers.

Certain astronomical observational instruments like astrolabe

with increasingly refined gradation came to be made in India.
Firuz Tughluq is credited with establishment of one such
observatories equipped with such instruments.

Three very important technological novelties in cavalry

equipage –concave saddle, iron stirrup and iron shoe which
greatly enhanced the effectiveness of cavalry and prolonged
their working life. These went a long way in establishing the
myth of the invincibility of the Turuk sawar. Soon it spawned
into the peninsula. By the fifteenth century also the saltpeter-
based rockets were freely used in Deccan, another such
technology with origins in China. However it was upto Babur
with the help from the Ottoman Turk specialists (Rumi) to
employ the deadly effects of guns to its fullest extent.

III Rural Society:

At the village level there was difference in the amount of

landholdings ranging from big plots enjoyed by khuts,
muqaddams to the small pieces worked by the balahars, the
village menials. The common peasants, though considered as
legally free (hurr asl) but seldom were masters of domicile.
There are evidences where the migrated peasants had been
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restored to their original village (possibly using force). It is

said that before Alauddin Khalji imposed his regulations with
a view to overthrow the overbearing khuts and muqaddams,
they were exempted from paying four major taxes i.e. land
revenue (kharaj o jizia), holding tax (ghari) and grazing tax
(charai). Over and above they collected their customary due
(qissmat i khoti) from common villagers. Over them stood the
feudal hierarchy of rais, ranas and their cavalrymen rauta
(derived from rajaputra). Who opposed the Ghorian conquest.
It was not possible to supplant the older aristocracy all at
once and thus initially they were restored if they agreed to
pay tribute to the Sultan, continuing with their own revenue
collection. However the process of destruction/ supplanting of
this class started.

A new class of rural grandees with the title of chaudhuri came

up in the fourteenth century, who according to Ibn Batuta
was in charge of 100 villages (sadi) and held responsible for
collection of land from the villages under their jurisdiction.
Apart from this curious reference of 100, the normal Indian
equivalent to the basic revenue unit above the village was
pargana which we find from the fourteenth century.
Chaudhuri however seems to be only one among the superior
rural class denoted by the blanket term zamindar which
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makes its appearance by the fourteenth century comprising

groups of people like muqaddams, mafrozis and maliks.

IV: Taxation:

Delhi Sultanate inherited two major institutions from the

Ghaznavid or Ghurid predecessors – that of a very heavy land
tax amounting to 50% of the produce known as kharaj, and
another of transferable revenue assignment known as iqta
given to the military commanders.

Transition from the old feudal levy to a centralized land tax

assessment was a gradual process. Just after the conquest by
the Turkish rulers the jurisdiction of the new rulers remained
confined within the garrison towns surrounded by the
rebellious country side (mawas) which yielded tribute only
under threat or actual punitive actions. With the growing
authority, Sultans endeavored to collect taxes modeled on the
Islamic west. The classic example was of Alauddin who is said
to have measured (masahat) the cultivated land and
estimated the yield per unit (wafa i biswa) and instituted
collection of 50% of the estimated yield.

Once fixed the tax might be collected either in cash or kind.

Actually there is confusion as Barani refers to both at different
places. If one accepts that it was generally in cash and in kind
only from particular places for a buffer stick in case of scarcity
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then we find that the peasants were forced into induced sales
of their produce. Barani gives graphic description how the
peasants were forced to sale their produce to the karavanis –
itinerant merchants who were then compelled to bring grains
to the cities. This at once established a cash-nexus and on
the other, with a huge glut brought down the prices of food
grains in the capital city famously known as the ‘price-control
mechanism of Alauddin. In this way the land tax (kharaj o
mal) became the chief instrument of expropriating the
agricultural surplus by the ruling class. It was due to the
attempts to increase the incidence of ‘regressive taxation’
during Muhammad bin Tughluq’s reign that resulted in
widespread distress, agrarian uprising followed by famine in
the Doab region. With the productivity of the prime
agricultural zone falling down the state once again swung into
action and Muhammad bin Tughluq instituted a ministry
[diwan] for extension of agriculture Amir i kohi and gave
agricultural loans taccavi which was directed for extension of
agriculture through irrigation, digging of wells etc. which
possibly did not produce the expected results. Heavy land tax
and dependence on it thus implicated the Sultanate and
involved it in agricultural extensions, which are amply
demonstrated in FIruz Tughluq’s grandiose plans for large-
scale irrigational works already referred to.
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V: Revenue Assignments

Delhi Sultanate had another characteristic feature that of iqta,

which meant transferable revenue assignments to muqti or
walis who collected the tax (kharaj), which then was spent,
on the troops and for oneself. Sultanate insisted on payment
of the balance, if any (fawazil) to the central exchequer,
which might have seldom happened. The Sultan reserved
some area as crown land (khalisa) from where the state
machinery directly collected taxes and spent on the upkeep of
the royal establishment along with the standing army (hasm i
qalb). Now both the muqti and the king was free in either
paying the troopers by sub assigning the iqta or paying them
in cash (assignment of individual villages were known as wajh
in lieu of wages mawajib)

There were other claimants for the social surplus like the
religious functionaries or saints or earmarked for the
maintenance of religious institutions like madrasas, mosques
or khanqas known as waqf. Also there were persons enjoying
inam.

VI: ‘Urban revolution’ an assessment of Sultanate

economy:

D.D. Kosambi possibly inspired by the insightful comments by

P.K. Gode commented approvingly on the positive role played
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by the Islamic raiders in breaking the hidebound custom in

the adoption and transmission of new techniques’. Another
view with proponents like K.S. Lall or Lallanji Gopal see
nothing commendable in the imposition of the Turkic rule,
rather detrimental effects on the Indian economy such as the
falling of the population number. Prof. Muhammad Habib
while fully aware of the disastrous effects of the military
campaigns under the Sultans saw the inception of the new
rule from a completely different perspective. He was of the
opinion that this was an altogether new social upheaval of the
artisans/craftsmen oppressed by the caste system, led by the
Turks. It saw the otherwise ostracized castes enter the
confines of the city which remained out of bounds for them till
the other day. This phenomenon was termed by him as ‘urban
revolution’. In his view the libertarian aspect was of utmost
importance. Some of the observations of Prof. Habib stands
scrutiny as depicted in the earlier sections. The technological
changes instituted or which followed the footsteps of the
Sultanate saw the proliferation of different crafts, thus
strengthening a burgeoning stratum of artisans/craftsmen.
Textile industry which received tremendous phillip, breweries,
metallurgy or growth of buildings because of new techniques
saw tremendous spurt in urbanization. This is evident with the
huge urban complexes, not only of the dimensions of Delhi or
Daulatabad but also others like Lahore, Multan, Anhilwara
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(Patan) Cambay, Kara and Lakhnauti. This was

complemented by the high level of agrarian taxation and
cash-nexus which drained the agrarian surplus and directed it
to the cities. Thus the Sultanate ushered in a new phase of
urbanization.

However the claims of libertarian experience were belied in

closer scrutiny. The caste bound system necessitated more
docile or amenable sections ready to adopt these new
techniques and we find with the Sultanate necessity demand
and supply for slaves reached unprecedented high. The
military expeditions or punitive actions resulted in large
number of war captives which provided the continuous
demand of slave labour. The success of a campaign was
weighed against the number of captives/slaves alongwith
strategic animals and booty it produced. Alauddin Khalji had
as many as 50,000 slaves in his establishment. It reached as
high as 1,80,000 during Fruz Tughluq’s reign among which
12000 were artisans. Firuz Tughluq’s minister Khan Jahan
Maqbul was said to possess 2000 concubines. However it was
not only the preserve of the wealthy and powerful to possess
slaves but even austere and pious saints like Nur Turk or
Nizamuddin living in great poverty had slaves/maids
(kanizak). This huge class of slave population was taught with
new crafts and techniques obviously under duress. In course
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of time these people, conversant with new

techniques/professions were manumitted thus providing with
free labour as slave labour were found to be notoriously
inefficient. Even within the span of the Sultanate the demand
and supply of the slaves were reduced to insignificant levels.

Sultanate imposed very heavy land tax which amounted to

tax-rent equivalence. In this aspect it was similar to the
‘oriental despotism’ On the other, with the proliferation of
precious metal currency and monetization of economy,
unprecedented when compared with the immediately
preceding period defies any particular characterization of the
period.