An officer was appointed to prepare estimate of revenue and cultivator was involved in this process. After preparing the estimate of revenue, a document was developed and official as well as cultivator signd it. In any contingency, revenue was reduces or waived off.
The Revenue administration under the first two Mughal rulers—Babur and Humayun—continued to operate as it was under the Sultans of Delhi. Babur was so much engrossed in the various wars during his four years of rule that he could hardly get any time to devote to the revenue affairs.
Humayun, his successor, also found himself in trouble soon after his accession to the throne and had to spend most of his life in exile. Accordingly, he also did not get any chance to improve the revenue administration.
It was Sher Shah Suri, who intervened between Humayun and Akbar, who provided an excellent land revenue system. He has acquired good knowledge of the working of the revenue system as jagirdar of Sehsram, Khawaspur and Tanda. When he became the emperor of India he tried to introduce this system on a large scale. First of all he ordered the measurement of the lands according to a uniform standard.
The cultivable land was divided into three categories—good, middling and bad. The average of these three was taken to determine the produce of the land per bigha. State’s share was fixed at one-third of the gross produce. This could be paid both in cash and kind, although the former was preferred.
In addition to this each cultivator was to pay in kind 21/2 per cent of the revenue he paid to the state, in lieu of this he got grain at very cheap rates during the times of famine and other calamities. The revenue could be paid either through the Maoaddams or directly to the Pargana treasury.
Sher Shah paid great attention to the welfare of the peasants and therefore reduced or remitted the revenue in times of calamities. He had issued specific instructions to the revenue officers to be lenient at the time of the assessment but once the assessment had been made the tax was to be collected with severity.
The Sultan kept an eye on their conduct so that they may not exploit or tyrannies the peasants. Sher Shah gave severe punishments to the soldiers if they destroyed the crops. Thus the revenue system established by Sher Shah was efficient and elastic.