Land Revenue System of Mughal Empire

A key component of the Mughal Empire’s economy was its land revenue system. It had several techniques for determining, collecting, and monitoring agricultural produce taxes. With Raja Todarmal‘s support, Akbar tested out a few land revenue administration experiments. Among these systems were Karori/Crori, Dahsala Bandobast, Zabti System, Batai, Nasaq System, Kankut or Danabandi System, etc.

Revenue Collection & Assessment System

#1 Karori/Crori

• Akbar introduced the Karori system in 1575.
• Raja Todarmal, the finance minister supervised the entire system.
• In this system, the revenue collectors were called ‘Karoris‘ or ‘Amil‘.
• The system was mainly focused on land measurement, crop assessment, and revenue collection.
• Karori system also helped to prevent blunders and corruption in revenue collection methods that continued before.
• The Karori system aimed to close the disparity that existed between Hasil (real income collected) and Jama (assessment).
• All the units of land (karor) were assessed under this system.
• Karori system determined the amount of revenue based on how productive the land was.
• Based on this system, Todarmal made the entire country except Bengal, Bihar and Gujarat a Khalisa land.
• The Khalisa lands were divided into 187 parganas and 187 revenue-officers were appointed.
• It was decided to collect an annual revenue of one-crore-daam from each Pargana. It was about two and a half lakh rupees from each Pargana then. That’s why its name was Crori.
• This system was implemented in the northern India.
• The Krori system failed because the system was damaged by some Karori officials who engaged in corruption, fraud, bribery and other unethical activities.
• Some farmers opposed the Karori system because they thought it would make them pay higher taxes.
• As a result, Todormal closed the office of the Karori.

Info: The ‘Bigha‘ was considered a unit of measurement.

Info: A type of bamboo chain (called Tanab and Zarib) joined by iron rings was invented as a surveying instrument.

#2 Dahsala Bandobast (system)

• Akbar introduced the Dahsala settlement in 1580.
• Due to complexity and many problems, the Karori system was replaced by the Dahsala system.
• It was the more flexible and refined system.
• Raja Todormal introduced this system in the Lahore, Allahabad, Malwa, and Gujarat regions.
• According to this system, the annual revenue of one-tenth is fixed by taking the average of 10 years of production. One-third of it is fixed as payable revenue.
• This system emphasized cash revenue collection rather than crops.
• All the revenue was collected in cash.
• Murshid Quli Khan brought it to the Deccan under the reign of Shahjahan.

Extra Info: Akbar appointed Raja Todormal as a Diwan in Gujarat (Later in more parts of North India) in 1573. He had vast knowledge of the revenue system that made huge impression to king Akbar.

#3 Jabat system or Zabti System

• Sher Shah was the original introducer of the Jabat system. However, Akbar implemented the revised version of this system.
• The word Jabat means survey (land).
• This system is actually a revenue assessment system based on land measurements.
• Todormal was appointed as ‘Dewan-i-Ashraf‘ in 1582.
• Todormal introduced the ‘Jabat System‘ through ‘Dastur-al-Amal‘ i.e. revenue directives.
• The main feature of this system was to measure the amount of cultivable land held by each farmer in each village.
• Also to judge the productive potential of each plot.
• This system was prevalent in Bihar, Allahabad, Multan, Ayodhya, Agra, Malab, Delhi, Lahore, Ajmer and Gujarat.
• According to this system, cultivable land was divided into 4 classes on the basis of productivity and fertility-
  1. Polj: Land which is cultivated every year.
  2. Parouti or Fallen land: land that is occasionally fallow.
  3. Chachar: Land which was kept fallow for 4 years.
  4. Bastur/Banjar: Uncultivated land for 5 or more years

Extra Info: Polj was considered the best land for cultivation. This was further divided into three categories – good, middle and bad.

Extra Info: Bigha was the mean output of all three categories (good, bad, and middle), and was known by Mahsul.

#4 Gallabakhshi or Batai or Bhawali

• This term is used in the sense of sharecropping.
• This system was not practiced in parts of Thatta, Kabul and Kashmir.
• In this system, producer and government dues were determined in 3 ways-
  1. Karar Daad (Sharing): In this system, the crops were shared according to agreement on the farm in the presence of both parties.
  2. Khewat Katai (Field-harvest): In this system, the land was divided before harvesting and both would harvest their respective shares.
  3. Lai-Batai: In this, the crops were piled up in the field after harvesting and then distributed.

#5 Kankut or Danabandi System:

• KanKut = Kan + Kaut; Kan = grain & Kut = estimation.
• Also Danabandi = Dana (grain) + Bandi (fixed or Determined).
• It was a mechanism that calculated grain yield.
• In this system, the entire land was measured with a rope (zari) or foot and then the revenue rate was fixed based on the production of a particular area (good, middle and bad land).
• In this system payment of revenue in cash was not mandatory.

Extra Info: In the Kankut or Danabandi System, revenue was estimated in the real-time condition of crops grown in the field.

#6 Nasaq System

• This system was introduced during the reign of Akbar.
• The system had a system of determining revenue by averaging past claims.
• In this system, the revenue in part or whole was not fixed afresh every year.
• Once the revenue was fixed it remained unchanged from year to year.
• This system was maintained even during Aurangzeb’s reign.
• This system was similar to the Zamindari system.
• It was known as nasaqi zabti in North India and nasaqi ghalla bakhshi in Kashmir.

Extra Info: The Nasaq system was not a stand-alone evaluation tool. It was an Informal Assessment system in which negotiations with Farmers and local officers was done.

Extra Info: The Nasaq system was introduced where the Zabti System could not implemented properly.

Other revenue systems of the Mughal period were – ‘Hast-o-Bud‘ or Hastobad, Amal-i-Khewat, Amal-i-Jins, Sarabsta, Osshis-i-Nandi.

Revenue Officers during Mughal Period:

1. ‘Karoris/Amil‘: He was both the revenue assessment and collection officer under Akbar during the Karori system.
2. Diwan: He was the chief revenue officer of the empire. He was responsible for the efficient collection of revenue.
3. Amin: The Post of Amin was created during Shah Jahan’s reign. He was next to the Diwan and appointed by Diwan. His main function was to oversee the revenue collection at the provincial or district level.
4. Qanungo: His responsibility was to keep the revenue record at the village or pargana (group of villages) level. This post was hereditary and only be replaced by the king directly.
5. Chaudhari: His main function was to ensure the repayment of the Taqvi loan. He leads the Zamindar in the local area.
6. Patwari: Village-level revenue officer.
7. Muqaddam: Middleman linked between farmers and Patwari or Qanungo.
8. Faujdar: He was not actually a revenue officer but could collect taxes in the rebellious areas.

Land Measurement Units:

1. Ilahi-i-Gaz: Ilahi-i-Gaz was a standardized unit of measurement of about 41 fingers equivalent to 33 inches.
2. Bigha:1 Bigha was equivalent to around 1,600 square yards (or about 0.33 acres). 1 Bigha was also = 3600 Ilahi-i-Gaz.
3. Biswansi: = 1/20th of a Bigha.
4. Jarib: Measuring rod of fixed-length bamboo joined by iron rings.