3. Revenue and Administrative Systems, Changing Patterns — Full Notes

CORE Key Points at a Glance

1. 1

   **Tripartite Land System **

   • Jagir — assigned to nobles for military service
   • Khalisa — crown land under direct state management
   • Bhom — hereditary village land held by Bhomia Rajputs
   • All three categories served distinct political and fiscal functions
2. 2

   **Rekh and Hasil Revenue System **

   • Rekh was the standard revenue assessment unit in Marwar
   • Each village was assessed a fixed rekh value based on area, soil, and crops
   • Hasil was the actual revenue collected
   • The gap between rekh and hasil measured administrative efficiency
3. 3

   **Mughal Revenue Influence **

   • Akbar's Dahsala system (1580 CE) — 10-year average of yields
   • Adapted in Rajputana across states under Mughal suzerainty
   • Zabt crop measurement introduced in eastern Rajasthan (Amber/Jaipur)
   • Todar Mal implemented these in the Ajmer Subah
4. 4

   **Begar — Feudal Exploitation **

   • Forced unpaid labour extracted from lower-caste cultivators and tribals
   • Extracted by jagirdars for agriculture, porterage, and domestic service
   • Most exploitative feature of Rajasthan's feudal revenue system
   • Direct cause of Bijolia (1897), Begun (1921), and Eki (1921) agitations
5. 5

   **Administrative Hierarchy **

   • Diwan — chief minister and revenue head
   • Faujdar — district military-administrative chief
   • Hakim — sub-district officer
   • Patwari — village revenue recorder
   • Chaudhary — village headman
6. 6

   **Colonel James Tod's Documentation **

   • Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (2 vols., 1829 and 1832)
   • First systematic documentation of Rajput revenue customs and jagirdari tenures
   • Tod served as Political Agent for Western Rajputana (1818–22)
   • Indispensable primary source for RPSC exams
7. 7

   **British Settlement Operations **

   • Formal Settlement Operations introduced from the 1870s onward
   • Replaced customary assessment with written surveys
   • Marwar's first regular settlement by A.P. Nicholson (1891–95)
   • Modelled on procedures from British India's North-Western Provinces
8. 8

   **Kotwal — Urban Administrator **

   • Urban administrative and law enforcement officer in Rajput-era capitals
   • Responsible for policing, weights-and-measures regulation
   • Collected tax on haat (market) transactions
   • Urban counterpart of the Faujdar
9. 9

   **Post-Independence Land Reforms **

   • Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act, 1952 — abolished 16,000+ jagirs
   • Cultivators received occupancy rights (statutory tenants) directly under state
   • Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 created uniform framework across all areas
   • Marwar Revenue and Tenancy Act, 1949 was the precursor legislation
10. 10

    **Nazrana and Bhent — Para-Fiscal Extractions **

    • Nazrana — lump sum gift paid by a new jagirdar to the ruling chief
    • Bhent — obligatory ceremonial gifts on festivals and special occasions
    • These were para-fiscal extractions beyond the formal revenue system
    • Distinguished Rajput revenue from pure Mughal-style revenue farming
11. 11

    **Todar Mal's Land Classification **

    • Implemented zabti/dahsala system in the Subah of Ajmer
    • Classified land into four categories for revenue purposes
    • Polaj (annually cultivated), Parauti (periodically fallow)
    • Chachar (three-year fallow), Banjar (uncultivated waste)
12. 12

    **Paik System in Mewar **

    • Paik — hereditary village guard and administrative duties
    • Assigned to lower-ranking community members in Mewar
    • Compensated with small land grants in exchange for service
    • A micro-level variant of the jagir principle at village level
13. 13

    **2026 Historic Town Renamings **

    • Rajasthan government renamed two historic administrative towns in March 2026
    • Kaman (Bharatpur) renamed to Kamvan
    • Jahazpur (Bhilwara) renamed to Yagyapur
    • Restores medieval administrative toponyms validated by epigraphic evidence