Todar Mal

Also called: Raja Todar Mal · Topic: Mughal Agrarian Society and Economy · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"

Meaning

Todar Mal (Raja Todar Mal) was Akbar's finance minister, or diwan. He surveyed land, crop yields and prices across the empire and built the zabt system, a land tax paid in cash at a fixed rate for each crop [3]. He matters because land revenue was the main income of the Mughal Empire. His survey-based method became the model for how the Mughal state assessed (worked out) and collected that revenue.

Explanation

Background: why a finance minister mattered so much

• Land revenue was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire. The state ran on what it took from farming.
• Revenue work was run from the daftar, the office of the diwan (finance minister). Todar Mal held this post under Akbar.
• Revenue officials shaped village life. They were not just clerks.
• They decided how much a peasant owed.

• So they shaped how peasants, zamindars and the state dealt with each other.

• Before Akbar, the Sultanate used the iqta (a territory whose taxes an officer, the iqtadar, collected for himself in place of a salary).

• The post was non-hereditary, so it could not pass to a son.
• The burden fell hardest on the peasantry.
• Revenue was usually about one-fifth of produce, but under some sultans it reached one-half.

What Todar Mal did: survey first, then fix the rate

• Step 1: collect facts. Todar Mal carried out detailed crop-yield and price surveys and a systematic land survey [3].
• The survey covered crop yields, prices and the area cultivated over ten years [3].

• That is why the system is also called dahsala ("ten-year"). According to the standard NCERT account, the survey period was c. 1570–1580.

• Step 2: measure the land. The unit was the bigha (a measure of land area). Crops were classified and priced [3].

• Step 3: fix a cash rate. Each crop got a fixed cash rate based on how productive the land was.
• The rate was about one-third of the average produce, turned into money [3].

• This matches the rule in the Ain that one-third of the medium (average) produce was the royal dues.

• Land was also graded by how often it was farmed (Akbar's classes, recorded in the Ain):

• polaj: cultivated every year.
• parauti: left fallow for a short time.
• chachar: fallow for 3–4 years.
• banjar: uncultivated for 5 years or more.
• Polaj and parauti were further graded good, middling and bad.

How it worked in practice: who ran it

• jama = the revenue assessed (the amount fixed on paper). hasil = the revenue actually collected.
• amil-guzar = the revenue collector. Akbar's decree told him to prefer cash, but to let the peasant pay in kind (in grain) if they chose.
• amin = the officer who made sure imperial rules were carried out in the provinces.
• Zabt sat alongside older share-of-crop methods. It did not replace them.
• kankut: an estimate of the grain yield (kan = grain, kut = estimate).
• batai / bhaoli: the crop was reaped and stacked, then shared in front of both parties.
• khet-batai and lang batai: other ways of dividing the fields or the heaped grain.
• The state used whichever method local conditions allowed.

Results and limits

• Zabt worked best in north India. There, officials could measure land and keep careful accounts [3].
• It was not workable in provinces such as Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Forests were never measured. The survey stopped at the edge of the fields.
• The push for cash tied villages to markets. Peasants had to sell grain to get coins for the tax.
• The idea of detailed records lasted after Akbar. Aurangzeb's order of 1665 asked for cultivation records village by village and peasant by peasant (asamiwar).
• The gap between claim and reality remained. The state set a high claim on paper (jama), but local conditions limited what it actually collected (hasil).

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 16th century, in the reign of Akbar (Mughal dynasty). The survey covered a ten-year period, c. 1570–1580 according to the standard textbook account.
• Place: the Mughal Empire, organised into twelve subahs (provinces). Zabt worked best in north India and failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Key people:
• Akbar: the emperor who ordered the system.
• Todar Mal: the diwan who designed it.

• Abul Fazl: the court historian who recorded it.

• Where Todar Mal sat in Akbar's government. The central government had four departments:

• diwan: finance (Todar Mal's post).
• mir bakhshi: military.
• khan-i-saman: public works, trade, agriculture and the royal household.

• sadr: justice, religion and education.

• Evidence: the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, the third volume of the Akbarnama. Its third section records the empire's judicial and executive wings, the methods of land survey, and the duties of finance minister Todar Mal [2][4]. The Ain also gives the province-by-province totals of measured land.

Don't confuse with

• Abul Fazl: he wrote the Ain-i-Akbari, which describes Todar Mal's work. Todar Mal was the finance minister who ran the revenue system. He was not its author.
• zabt vs batai / kankut: zabt (Todar Mal's method) fixed a cash rate per bigha from a ten-year survey. Batai and kankut took a share of the actual crop, by dividing or estimating it.
• jama vs hasil: Todar Mal's survey fixed the jama (revenue assessed on paper). The hasil was what was actually collected, and it was often less.
• jagir vs land ownership: a jagirdar (a mansabdar paid by a jagir) held the right to collect revenue, not ownership of the soil. Jagirs were transferred from time to time. The revenue due from a jagir was worked out using the assessment system, but zabt itself was a method of assessment, not a type of grant.

Prelims Hooks

• Todar Mal was the diwan (finance minister) of Akbar. His duties are recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl [2][4].
• zabt rested on a ten-year survey of crop yields, prices and area cultivated. The cash rate was about one-third of average produce [3].
• Unit of land measurement under zabt: the bigha [3].
• Trap: zabt worked in north India but was not workable in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• The Ain-i-Akbari is the third volume of the Akbarnama [2][4].
• amil-guzar = revenue collector told by Akbar to prefer cash but allow payment in kind. amin = officer who enforced imperial rules in the provinces.

Mains Points

• Todar Mal's zabt shows Mughal centralisation: strong on paper, negotiated on the ground.
• The state measured land, priced crops and fixed a one-third claim.

• But the gap between jama and hasil, and zabt's failure in Gujarat and Bengal [3], show that local conditions decided what was actually collected.

• The method depended on what officials could do, not on any fixed idea of government.

• Zabt needed surveys and accounts, so it took root in north India.
• Share-of-crop methods (batai, kankut) survived where measurement was hard.

• The empire had one set of rules but uneven practice.

• Cash assessment helped bring money into the rural economy, and the record-keeping idea continued.

• Peasants had to sell grain to pay in coin, which linked villages to markets.
• The push for detailed records continued in Aurangzeb's 1665 asamiwar order.
• The burden on peasants was still heavy, made worse by recurrent famines.

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