RAS question
The 'Zabti/Zabt system' of revenue collection required measurement of land using which standard measuring rod?
Correct answer: (A) Jarib-i-Ilahi (bamboo rod joined by iron rings).
Under Akbar's Zabt system, land was measured with the Jarib-i-Ilahi, a bamboo measuring rod joined by iron rings.
Explanation
Zabt was a revenue-assessment method built around actual measurement of cultivable land, so the measuring instrument mattered. Akbar replaced the earlier rope measure with the Jarib-i-Ilahi, a bamboo rod joined by iron rings, because rope could shrink or expand and distort assessment. Pondicherry University Directorate of Distance Education, History of India 1526-1707 C.E. notes that Akbar standardised land measurement, established the Ilahi Gaj as the official unit, and ordered a tanab made from pieces of bamboo connected by iron rings so that its length hardly changed during the year. That stability made the measured area more reliable, which in turn made revenue calculation per bigha more standardised.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) The rope measure, tanab, represents the earlier inaccurate method that Akbar replaced because its length could vary.
- (C) Gaz-i-Sikandari is linked to Sher Shah, not to Akbar's Zabt measurement reform.
- (D) Bigha was the area unit for which revenue was assessed, not the measuring rod used to measure land.
Concept
This tests Mughal land-revenue administration, especially how measurement under Zabt made assessment more systematic. RAS repeatedly asks such terms because revenue reforms connect medieval administration, agrarian economy, and state formation.