Classification of lands under Akbar

Topic: Mughal Agrarian Society and Economy · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

The classification of lands under Akbar was a scheme, recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari, that sorted farmland into four classes (polaj, parauti, chachar and banjar) by how often it was cultivated. The revenue the state claimed was then worked out from these classes.

It matters because it shows how the Mughal state tried to tax land fairly and by a set method. Land revenue was the economic mainstay of the empire. The scheme also shows a gap: the state set a large claim on paper, but on the ground it could collect less.

Explanation

Background: why the state needed to classify land

• Land revenue was the main income of the Mughal Empire. The state ran on what it took from farming.
• The work was run from the daftar (office) of the diwan (the finance minister).
• The state worked in two steps.
• First, officials collected details of the land and of what it produced.

• Then they fixed the revenue (assessment). Collection came after that.

• Not all land was equally useful. A field farmed every year gave more than one that had been left empty for years. A fair tax had to take this difference into account.

The four classes of land

Class	How often it was cultivated
polaj	Cultivated every year. Never left fallow (empty).
parauti	Left fallow for a short time so the soil could recover its strength.
chachar	Left fallow for 3–4 years.
banjar	Not cultivated for 5 years or more.

• The test was simple: how long had the land been left unused? The longer the land was left fallow, the lower its class.

How the revenue was worked out

• Grading: only polaj and parauti were divided again into good, middling and bad land.
• Averaging: the produce of the three grades was added together. One-third of this total was taken as the medium (average) produce.
• The state's share: one-third of the medium produce was claimed as the royal dues, the revenue owed to the emperor.
• Why use an average? It gave one standard figure for each crop. Officials did not need a separate rate for every single field.

Results and limits

• It fed the cash system. Under zabt, Todar Mal surveyed crop yields, prices and area cultivated over ten years. A fixed cash rate was then set at about one-third of the average produce, turned into a cash value [3].
• It needed measurement. Land was measured in bighas (a unit of land area), and crops were classified and priced [3]. Cultivated and cultivable land was measured province by province, and the totals appear in the Ain.
• Forests were left out. The survey stopped at the edge of the fields.
• It did not work everywhere. Zabt worked best in north India. It was not workable in provinces such as Gujarat and Bengal [3]. In such places, share-of-crop methods like batai (sharing the harvested crop) and kankut (estimating the grain yield) carried on.
• Paper claim against real collection. The state wrote down jama (revenue assessed), but what it really got was hasil (revenue collected). Local conditions often kept hasil below jama.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the reign of Akbar, in the 16th century. The wider system runs through the 16th–17th centuries.
• Region: the Mughal Empire, which Akbar ran through twelve subahs (provinces). Measurement and zabt took hold best in north India.
• Key people:
• Akbar: the emperor. His decree told the amil-guzar (revenue collector) to prefer cash, but to let peasants pay in kind (in crops) if they chose.
• Todar Mal: the finance minister. He carried out the crop-yield, price and land surveys [3].

• Abul Fazl: the author of the Ain-i-Akbari.

• Evidence:

• The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl is the third volume of the Akbarnama. It records the methods of land survey and Todar Mal's duties [2][4]. It is our main source for the four land classes.
• NCERT Class 12, Chapter 4, "Peasants, Zamindars and the State" quotes the Ain's passage on these land classes.
• Later record: Aurangzeb's order of 1665 asked for cultivation records village by village and peasant-wise (asamiwar). This shows that the survey tradition went on after Akbar.

Don't confuse with

• Kankut: this was a method of assessment, not a class of land. The yield was estimated, and doubtful crops were cut in three lots (good, middling, inferior). Do not mix up its "three lots" with the good/middling/bad grades of polaj and parauti.
• Zabt: this was the cash-rate system built on Todar Mal's ten-year survey [3]. The land classes were one input into zabt. They were not the same thing as zabt.
• Jama and hasil: these are amounts of revenue (assessed and collected). They are not types of land.
• Jagir and iqta: these were assignments of revenue given to officers in place of a salary. They were not classes of soil, and they did not depend on how often land was cultivated.

Prelims Hooks

• Land classes in order of decreasing use: polaj (never fallow), then parauti (short fallow), then chachar (3–4 years fallow), then banjar (5+ years uncultivated).
• Trap: only polaj and parauti were graded good, middling and bad. Chachar and banjar were not.
• Royal dues = one-third of the medium (average) produce.
• The source of the classification is the Ain-i-Akbari, by Abul Fazl, which is the third volume of the Akbarnama [2][4].
• Todar Mal's zabt rested on a ten-year survey of yields, prices and area. It failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Forests were not measured in the Mughal land survey.

Mains Points

• It was an attempt at standard, rule-based taxation.
• Land was sorted by how often it was cultivated, and good land was further graded by quality.
• An average yield and a fixed share (one-third) replaced a guess for each field.

• This shows the knowledge and record-keeping that went into Mughal centralisation, linked to Todar Mal's surveys [3].

• Strong on paper, negotiated on the ground.

• The classification set a high claim (jama).
• But forests were left out, zabt failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3], and local conditions limited what was collected (hasil).

• So the Mughal state's real reach was uneven across regions.

• Continuity and its effect on the peasant.

• The classification, with the push for cash payment, tied peasants to the market, because they had to sell grain to pay in coin.
• Later records such as Aurangzeb's 1665 asamiwar order show the survey tradition continuing.
• Even so, the burden still fell on the peasant, and recurrent famines made it worse.

Related concepts

• Mughal land revenue system
• Jama
• Hasil
• Amalguzar
• Kankut
• Batai
• Khet-batai
• Lang batai
• Polaj
• Parauti

Read more

• The land revenue system