Parauti

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

Meaning

Parauti was land left uncultivated for a short time so that the soil could get its strength back. In Akbar's land classification, recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari, it was one of four classes of land. Parauti shows how the Mughal state sorted land by how regularly it was farmed, and then fixed its revenue demand from that.

Explanation

Background: why the state classified land

• Land revenue was the main source of money for the Mughal Empire.
• It was managed from the daftar (office) of the diwan (finance minister).

• The state needed to know which land produced crops, and how much.

• The revenue process had two steps.

• First, officials collected details about each piece of land and what it produced.

• Then they fixed the jama (revenue assessed on paper). Only after that did they gather the hasil (revenue actually collected).

• Sorting land into classes was part of the first step. It helped officials decide how much each field should pay.

Features: where parauti fits among Akbar's four classes

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

• The scale runs from most used to least used: polaj → parauti → chachar → banjar.
• Parauti was the second-best class. It was good farmland that only needed a short rest.
• Only polaj and parauti were further graded as good, middling and bad.

How it worked: from land class to revenue

• Step 1: grade the land. A field of polaj or parauti was placed in one of three grades: good, middling or bad.
• Step 2: find the medium produce. According to the Ain, as quoted in the NCERT textbook, the produce of the three grades was added together, and one-third of this total was taken as the medium (average) produce.
• Step 3: take the state's share. One-third of the medium produce was the royal dues, meaning the state's share.
• According to the same Ain passage, parauti land paid the same revenue as polaj in the years it was cultivated. The state did not lose revenue just because a field was sometimes rested.
• Chachar and banjar were not graded this way, because they were not in steady use.

Results and limits

• The state could measure its claim in detail.
• Cultivated and cultivable land was measured province by province, and the totals appear in the Ain.

• Forests were not measured. The survey stopped at the edge of the fields.

• Its claim on paper was larger than what it could collect. Local conditions limited how much revenue really came in. This is the gap between jama and hasil.

• Later, Aurangzeb's order of 1665 asked for cultivation records village by village and peasant by peasant (asamiwar). This shows the state kept trying to record land use in more detail.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 16th–17th centuries, under the Mughals. The classification belongs to Akbar's reign.
• Region: the Mughal provinces. Akbar's empire had twelve subahs (provinces). Detailed measurement worked best in north India.
• Key people:
• Akbar, the emperor whose revenue rules set out the classes.
• Abul Fazl, who recorded them in the Ain-i-Akbari.

• Todar Mal, Akbar's finance minister, who carried out detailed surveys of crop yields and prices and a systematic land survey [3].

• Main evidence: the Ain-i-Akbari.

• It is the third volume of the Akbarnama, written by Abul Fazl [2][4].
• Its third section records the methods of land survey and the duties of Todar Mal [2][4].

• The definitions of polaj, parauti, chachar and banjar, and the one-third rule, come from this text.

• Textbook: NCERT Class 12, Ch 4, "Peasants, Zamindars and the State".

Don't confuse with

• polaj: cultivated every year and never left fallow. Parauti was rested for a short time. Both were graded good, middling and bad.
• chachar: fallow for 3–4 years. Parauti's rest was shorter, and only parauti (with polaj) received the three grades.
• banjar: not cultivated for 5 years or more. This is the least-used class, the opposite end of the scale from polaj.
• The "three lots" in kankut: under kankut, doubtful crops were cut and estimated in three lots (good, middling, inferior). That was a way of judging a harvest. The good/middling/bad grading of polaj and parauti was a way of classifying land.

Prelims Hooks

• Akbar's four land classes, from most to least cultivated: polaj → parauti → chachar → banjar.
• Parauti = land left fallow for a short time to recover its strength. Chachar = fallow for 3–4 years. Banjar = uncultivated for 5+ years.
• Trap: only polaj and parauti were graded good, middling and bad, not chachar or banjar.
• Royal dues = one-third of the medium (average) produce.
• The classification comes from the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, the third volume of the Akbarnama [2][4].
• Trap: the Mughal land survey did not measure forests.

Mains Points

• Parauti shows that Mughal revenue was based on real farming practice.
• The state accepted that good land sometimes needed rest.
• It still expected parauti to pay like polaj in the years it was cultivated, so resting a field did not reduce the state's share.

• This shows a state that adjusted to how peasants actually farmed while protecting its own income.

• The four-class system shows strong central planning on paper. Land was classified and graded, and the state fixed one-third of medium produce as its share. But the gap between jama (assessed) and hasil (collected) shows that local conditions limited what the state could actually take. Use this to argue that Mughal centralisation was strong on paper but had to be negotiated on the ground.

• Continuity and change in recording land use. Akbar's land classes and Todar Mal's surveys [3] were followed by Aurangzeb's 1665 order for asamiwar (peasant-by-peasant) records. That order aimed to balance kifayat (careful state finance) with the welfare of the peasant. Over time the state wanted ever more detailed knowledge of who cultivated what.

Related concepts

• Mughal land revenue system
• Jama
• Hasil
• Amalguzar
• Kankut
• Batai
• Khet-batai
• Lang batai
• Classification of lands under Akbar
• Polaj

Read more

• The land revenue system