Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s12: 1. Classification of land
Administrative System of the Marathas c23.s12
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1. Classification of land
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Land in Maharastra was divided into three main classes:
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(1) Land let out to permanent holders.
(2) Crown or demesne land.
(3) Forests.
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Arable land was again classed as jirayat and bagayat according to the character of their soil, and patasthal and motasthal according to the manner of irrigation, and superior, inferior and ordinary according to their fertility, as we find in a letter addressed to Appaji Hari, Mamlatdar of Wan Dindori, in the year 1760-61. "He was told that the villages should be surveyed. The land should be classed as superior, ordinary and inferior and also as jirayat and bagayat as well as patasthal and motasthal." A further distinction is made between waste and rocky lands and lands already brought under cultivation. While a still fresh classification is made for revenue purposes according to the crops generally raised on the land in question as will be seen in the following extract from a document of the time of Balaji Baji Rao:
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(1) *Rice lands* should be assessed at the rate of Rs. 5 per bigha as before.
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(2) Lands producing *sugarcane* should be assessed at the rate of Rs. 5 per bigha as before.
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(3) *Vegetable-producing* lands should pay Rs. 2 per bigha as before.
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(4) Lands under *summer crops* should be assessed at Rs. 1-8 per bigha as before.
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These various classifications, divisions and subdivisions were by no means new and were known as early as the Maurya era when the great Brahman administrator and political philosopher wrote his Arthashastra. He makes a clear distinction between *sita* or produce from crown lands and *bhaga* or portion of produce payable to the government. "Flower gardens, fruits gardens, vegetable gardens, wet fields and fields where crops are grown by sowing roots for seeds (Mulavapah)," he continues, "come under Setu. Game forests, timber forests and elephant forests are forests.¹ While recounting the duties of the Gopa, Kautilya lays down that "It is the duty of Gopa, village accountant, to attend to the accounts of five or ten villages as ordered by the collector general. By setting up boundaries to villages, by numbering plots of ground as cultivated, uncultivated, plains, wet lands, vegetable gardens, fences, forests, * * irrigation works * * pasture grounds and roads, * * he shall register gifts, sales, charities and remission of taxes regarding fields."² Reference is frequently made to classification according to irrigation facilities. "Those who cultivate irrigating by manual labour," says Kautilya, "shall pay one-fifth of the produce as water rate; by carrying water on shoulders one-fourth of the produce; by water lifts one-third of the produce and by raising water from rivers, lakes, tanks, and wells one-third or one-fourth of the produce."³ Mention is made of irrigation tanks also in a subsequent passage. Similar classification for assessment purposes was also in vogue when the Sukraniti was compiled, where we find that "the king should realise one-third, one-fourth, or one-half from places which are irrigated by tanks, canals and wells by rains and by rivers respectively."⁴ The Chola kings also recognised this time-honoured distinction between irrigated and unirrigated lands." "The assessment is said, under the Cholas in 1046 (Dv. 75), to be one-sixth of the produce, and this was the recognised Hindu rate from the earliest times. But a quarter of a century later it is described in more detail as a fifth of the produce of forest tracts and of lands on which dry (unirrigated) crops are raised, and a third of the produce of lands below a tank on which paddy is grown."³ The classification of land according to fertility and actual state of cultivation was perhaps the outcome of the Mughal influence.
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¹ Kautilya, Arthashastra, p. 66.
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² Arthashastra, p. 178.
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³ Kautilya, Arthashastra, p. 144.
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⁴ Sukra Niti, S. B. H., p. 148.
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³ Lewis Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, pp. 173 and 174.
Linked texts (1)
- Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit