Mughal land revenue system

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

Meaning

The Mughal land revenue system was how the Mughal state took a share of the farm produce from peasants. Officials first gathered facts about the land and its crops. Then they fixed the tax on paper (jama) and collected it (hasil), in cash or in grain. All of this was run from the office of the diwan, the finance minister.

It matters because land revenue was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire. The army, the nobles and the court were all paid for out of it. The officials who ran it also shaped how peasants, zamindars and the state dealt with each other.

Explanation

Background: from iqta to jagir

• The model before it was the Sultanate iqta. An iqta was an area whose taxes were handed to an officer, the iqtadar, who collected them himself.
• These posts were non-hereditary, so a son could not inherit them.
• The burden fell hardest on the peasantry.

• Revenue was usually about one-fifth of the produce, but under some sultans it reached one-half.

• Akbar built a central machine over twelve subahs (provinces) with four departments:

• diwan: finance, including land revenue
• mir bakhshi: the military
• khan-i-saman: public works, trade, agriculture and the royal household

• sadr: justice, religion and education

• Revenue paid the mansabdars. Under mansabdari, each officer had a rank, and the rank fixed how many troops and animals he had to keep.

• Most mansabdars were paid through a jagir. A jagir was the right to collect revenue from an area. It did not make the holder the owner of the land.
• Jagirs were transferred from time to time, so no officer could build a power base in one place.
• A small number of mansabdars were paid in cash. They were called naqdi.

How it worked: survey, assess, collect

• Step 1: gather information. Officials recorded each piece of land and what it produced.
• Step 2: assess, then collect.
• jama = the revenue assessed, meaning the amount fixed on paper.

• hasil = the revenue actually collected, meaning what really came in.

• The officials:

• amil-guzar = the revenue collector. Akbar's decree told him to prefer cash, but to let the peasant pay in kind (in grain) if the peasant chose to.

• amin = the officer who made sure imperial rules were really followed in the provinces.

• The state's share: one-third of the medium (average) produce was taken as the royal dues.

Methods of assessment

• zabt: the cash method linked to Todar Mal.
• Todar Mal surveyed crop yields, prices and the area cultivated over ten years.
• A fixed cash rate was then set for each crop, at about one-third of the average produce, turned into a money value [3].
• Land was measured in bighas, and crops were sorted into classes and priced [3].

• It worked best in north India, where land could be measured and accounts kept. It was not workable in Gujarat and Bengal [3].

• kankut: from kan (grain) + kut (estimate). The grain yield was estimated without cutting the whole crop.

• Where there was doubt, the crop was cut and estimated in three lots: good, middling and inferior.

• batai / bhaoli: the crop was reaped and stacked, then divided by agreement in front of all the parties.

• khet-batai: the fields themselves were divided after sowing.
• lang batai: the grain was cut and heaped, then divided.
• These methods existed side by side. kankut and the batai types were ways of sharing the crop, while zabt used a cash rate. The state used whichever method local conditions allowed.

Classes of land and keeping records

• Akbar's four classes of land (from the Ain):

Class	Meaning
polaj	farmed every year and never left fallow
parauti	left fallow (unplanted) for a short time so the soil could recover
chachar	left fallow for 3–4 years
banjar	not farmed for 5 years or more

• Only polaj and parauti were graded further, as good, middling and bad.
• Cultivated and cultivable land was measured province by province. The totals are given in the Ain-i-Akbari.
• Forests were not measured. The survey stopped at the edge of the fields.
• Aurangzeb's order of 1665 asked for cultivation records village by village and peasant by peasant (asamiwar).

• It aimed to balance kifayat (sound state finances) with the welfare of the peasant.

• Results:

• The state set its claim as high as it could on paper. Local conditions limited what it could actually collect, so there was always a gap between jama and hasil.
• Peasants carried the main burden, and recurrent famines shrank their share even further.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the 16th and 17th centuries, under the Mughal Empire. The key rulers are Akbar, who set up the system, and Aurangzeb, who gave the 1665 order on village records.
• Place: the empire's twelve subahs under Akbar. Measurement-based zabt worked best in north India and failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Key people:
• Akbar: classified the land and issued the decree to the amil-guzar.
• Todar Mal: finance minister, ran the ten-year survey and the zabt system [3].
• Abul Fazl: wrote the Ain-i-Akbari.

• Aurangzeb: gave the asamiwar order of 1665.

• How we know:

• The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl is the third volume of the Akbarnama. Its third section records the empire's judicial and executive branches, its methods of land survey, its tribal divisions, and the duties of finance minister Todar Mal [2][4].
• The Ain also gives the province-wide totals of measured land.
• Official orders such as Aurangzeb's 1665 order, and the revenue records of the daftar (the diwan's office).

Don't confuse with

• jama vs hasil: jama is the revenue assessed (on paper), and hasil is the revenue collected (in hand). Exams often swap the two.
• iqta vs jagir: both were non-hereditary rights to collect revenue, not ownership of land. The iqta belonged to the Delhi Sultanate and was held by an iqtadar. The jagir belonged to the Mughal mansabdari system, was held by a jagirdar, and was transferred from time to time.
• zabt vs batai/kankut: zabt was a fixed cash rate based on measurement and a ten-year survey. batai and kankut shared or estimated the actual crop.
• amil-guzar vs amin: the amil-guzar collected the revenue. The amin made sure imperial rules were followed in the provinces.

Prelims Hooks

• jama = revenue assessed and hasil = revenue collected. amil-guzar = the collector, told by Akbar to prefer cash but to allow payment in kind.
• kankut = kan (grain) + kut (estimate). In doubtful cases the crop was cut into three lots: good, middling and inferior.
• Akbar's land classes in order of how long land lay fallow: polaj (never) → parauti (a short time) → chachar (3–4 years) → banjar (5+ years). Only polaj and parauti were graded good, middling and bad.
• Royal dues = one-third of the medium produce. zabt rested on Todar Mal's ten-year survey of yields, prices and area, and failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Aurangzeb's 1665 order asked for asamiwar (peasant-wise) records village by village. kifayat = sound state finances.
• Ain-i-Akbari (by Abul Fazl) = the third volume of the Akbarnama. It records land survey methods and Todar Mal's duties [2][4]. Trap: the Mughal land survey did not measure forests.

Mains Points

• The jama–hasil gap shows the limits of Mughal state power.
• On paper the claim was very large: one-third of the medium produce, measurement in every province, and asamiwar records in 1665.
• In practice, the state collected only what local conditions and local intermediaries allowed.

• So Mughal centralisation was strong on paper but had to be negotiated on the ground.

• The method of assessment followed what officials could manage, not a fixed policy.

• zabt needed measurement and accounts, so it worked in north India but failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Crop-sharing methods (batai, kankut) carried on where land could not be measured.

• The empire had one set of rules, but practice varied from region to region.

• Continuity and change, from iqta to jagir, and the push to cash.

• In both systems, revenue rights were non-hereditary and transferable, which stopped a landed nobility from forming.
• Akbar's preference for cash meant peasants had to sell grain to pay in coin. This drew villages into the market.
• In both systems, the main burden fell on peasants. Rates as high as one-half under some sultans, and recurrent famines, made it heavier.

Related concepts

• Jama
• Hasil
• Amalguzar
• Kankut
• Batai
• Khet-batai
• Lang batai
• Classification of lands under Akbar
• Polaj
• Parauti

Read more

• The land revenue system