Land And Taxation System During The Mughal Age :collected Works Of Professor B R Grover: Vol. 4

Although books abound on the broad topic of Mughal history, this fourth volume of The Collected Works of Professor B R Grover is unique since information contained herein relates specifically to the land and taxation system during the Medieval age–a subject area that had not been dealt with exclusively and extensively at the time when Prof. Grover published/presented some of these papers in the early 1960s. Moreover, this volume provides a new perspective on the various aspects of the economic history of Mughal India as Professor Grover’s conclusions were based on highly objective and analytical study of the original Persian and other multi-lingual records scattered in different archives and libraries in India and abroad.

The articles presented in this volume examine the relationship between the extent of agrarian land and agricultural population, the socio-economic concept of agricultural production on the part of the state and and cultivators, the size of the agricultural holdings, methods of assessment, net assets as well as social values and peasants’ standards, among other aspects. In each of these areas, Professor Grover’s analysis throws a new light on the understanding of the subjects/aspects discussed since his conclusions were based on the examination of various original village-assessment documents, land revenue documents and administrative manuals, etc. Moreover, he not only gave the details of various hierarchial land revenue documents prepared during the Mughal period, but also explained the purpose behind the preparation of such documents.

With its manifold perspectives on a variety of land revenue and agrarian issues based on original Persian and other languages, this volume ought to be extremely useful to the scholars/students of history having a keen interest in the agrarian history of the Mughals.