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Every question here is built from the Administrative and Revenue Systems chapter. No question invents a fact, and no question cites a PYQ that does not exist.
This is the cheapest scoring topic in the unit and the one most candidates leave until last. The vocabulary is finite, it does not change between sources, and it is examined directly. Learn the tables and the marks follow.
The way it is failed is confusable pairs, and this chapter has more of them than any other. Five in particular decide most of the questions below:
| Amin / Amil | assesses / collects |
| Qanungo / Patwari | pargana record / village record |
| Lata / Kunta | after cutting and cleaning / estimated on the standing crop |
| Sasan / Doli | religious grant / tax-free donated land |
| Patta Rekh / Bhartu Rekh | assessed income / amount paid to the treasury |
Add Watan / Tankha jagir, and Amar Singh I / Amar Singh II, and you have the whole difficulty of the topic.
Every answer carries a "why not the others" line, because with negative marking the skill being tested is elimination, not recognition.
Read the tag on each question
Each question is labelled with the kind of error it probes, using the taxonomy from section 9 of the chapter.
| Tag | What it tests | If you keep missing these |
|---|---|---|
| Type A · wrong system | A Mughal term used for a Rajput institution, or the reverse | The big one. Write the two vocabularies in two columns and never mix them |
| Type B · two figures, one term | Rekh, lata/kunta, the land classes | Learn each as a pair, with the distinguishing word attached |
| Type C · tenure confused with tenure | Khalsa, jagir, bhom, sasan, doli — and the four jagirs | Two tables, ten rows. It is the highest-yield memorisation in the unit |
| Type D · officer at wrong level | Central, provincial, pargana, village | Always ask at what level before answering who |
| Type E · author, wrong work | Nainsi's survey against his chronicle | One author, two genres, two levels of reliability |
| Recall / Concept / Attribution | No trap — the fact, the idea, who did it | Ordinary revision |
Section A — Ajmer Subah and the imperial frame (Q1–9)
1. Ajmer Subah was one of how many subahs created by Akbar in 1580? Recall
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(b) Twelve. Its borders corresponded roughly to modern Rajasthan and its capital was Ajmer.
Why not the others: (a) and (d) are later totals as the empire grew under Akbar's successors, which is what makes them plausible; the question is about the original division of 1580, the same year the dahsala system was completed.
2. Ajmer Subah was divided into how many sarkars? Recall
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(c) Seven. Six are named in the accounts used for this chapter: Ajmer, Jodhpur, Chittor, Ranthambore, Nagaur and Sirohi.
Why not the others: The chapter names six rather than guessing the seventh, and says so. If a paper offers a seventh name you cannot confirm, the count of seven is the part that is secure.
3. The Mughal administrative hierarchy ran — Recall
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(d) Subah → Sarkar → Pargana. Below the pargana came villages, mandals and forts.
Why not the others: Every wrong option scrambles the same three real units. Fix it by size: the subah is the province, the sarkar the district, the pargana the cluster of villages.
4. Which provincial officer's sanction was required before any payment could be made? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(a) The Diwan. He was the second figure in the province and existed partly as a check on the Subedar, reporting separately. He also collected revenue, tried revenue cases and was charged with improving agriculture.
Why not the others: (b) the Subedar headed the province but did not control its finances, and that separation is the point: two heads reporting independently to the emperor is a deliberate design against provincial autonomy, not an accident of paperwork.
5. In the Mughal provincial administration, the Sadr was in charge of — Recall
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(b) Judicial and religious affairs. Alongside the Subedar (province), Diwan (revenue) and Bakshi (military).
Why not the others: (a) is the Diwan's and (c) the Bakshi's. Note that Diwan and Bakshi mean the same two functions in the Rajput states as in the empire, which is exactly why the two systems get confused.
6. The seven sarkars of Ajmer Subah were Ajmer, Jodhpur, Chitor, Ranthambhor, Nagor, Sirohi and Type A · Ajmer Subah, wrong sarkar or number
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(c) Bikaner, named in the Ain-i-Akbari itself.
Why not the others: Bikaner is the one that drops out of most secondary lists, and there is a reason worth knowing. Abu'l Fazl gives pargana lists for only the first five sarkars and says the remaining two — Sirohi and Bikaner — are not laid down. The primary source supplies the name and withholds the description, so later accounts working from the pargana lists come up short.
7. The Ain-i-Akbari records that Ajmer Subah comprised Type A · Ajmer Subah, wrong sarkar or number
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(d) 7 sarkars and 197 parganas.
Why not the others: (a) inverts the hierarchy, which is the standard careless error — the sarkar is the larger unit, and the order runs Subah to Sarkar to Pargana. (b) borrows 12, which is the number of subahs in the empire after Akbar's division of 1580, not of sarkars in one of them.
8. Of Ajmer Subah specifically, the Ain-i-Akbari states that the share of produce taken as revenue was Concept
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(a) a seventh or an eighth, and very little in money. The reason Abu'l Fazl gives is agronomic: the soil is sandy, water obtainable only at great depth, and the crops dependent on rain.
Why not the others: (c) is the fraction usually quoted for the empire's rich provinces, and importing it here is the trap. Where the land was poor, the assessment followed the land — and note the second half of the statement, that little was paid in money, which matters as much as the fraction.
9. The Ain-i-Akbari describes Ajmer Subah as being formed of Concept
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(b) Mewar, Marwar and Hadauti. Its principal forts are listed as Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Amarkot, Abugarh and Jalor.
Why not the others: The point to take into a Mains answer is the shape of that sentence: an imperial province defined by three Rajput regions and garrisoned at seven points. The Mughal frame is drawn over an existing political geography rather than replacing it — which is the argument the whole chapter is making.
Section B — Mughal assessment and measurement (Q10–17)
10. Which four systems of revenue assessment were in use under Akbar and his successors? Recall
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(c) Zabti, batai, kankut and nasaq. Zabti (or dahsala), batai (also ghalla-bakhshi or bhaoli), kankut and nasaq.
Why not the others: (a) mixes in three Rajput-state terms and (d) lists land tenures, not assessment methods. This is the chapter's central confusion in one question: the two systems have separate vocabularies.
11. What is the difference between zabt and dahsala? Type A · wrong system
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(d) Zabt is the principle of fixed cash assessment; dahsala adds a ten-year rate cycle. Revenue under dahsala was fixed on the average yield of the past ten years, which is what the name carries. The Ain-i-Akbari treats the terms as cognate but distinct.
Why not the others: (a) is what most notes say, and it is the reason the distinction is worth asking about. (b) confuses zabt with batai, which is the crop-sharing family.
12. The dahsala system was completed in — Recall
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(a) 1580. The same year Akbar divided the empire into twelve subahs, which is a useful anchor: 1580 is the administrative year in this chapter.
Why not the others: (b) is Akbar's accession, (c) his death, and (d) the year Nainsi began the Vigat. All four are real dates from this unit.
13. Which system is associated with Raja Todar Mal and the term bandobast? Attribution
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(b) Zabti. He also introduced a uniform system of land measurement, which is what made cash assessment possible at all.
Why not the others: (a), (c) and (d) are the other three methods and are not attached to his name. Note the dependency: measurement first, then cash assessment — without a reliable unit, zabti cannot exist.
14. The Ilahi Gaz measured approximately — Recall
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(c) 33 inches, or 82.5 cm. The measuring rod introduced under Akbar. Area was reckoned in bighas.
Why not the others: The precise figure matters less than knowing the Ilahi Gaz is a rod of about a yard, and that it is the unit the jarib chain was built from.
15. The jarib replaced rope and cord for measuring land because — Concept
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(d) Rope shrinks and expands with the weather, so it measures differently by season. The jarib was bamboo pieces joined by iron rings, usually 100 Ilahi Gaz long.
Why not the others: This is a question about why, and the reasoning is worth a Mains sentence: a revenue system built on rope cannot be uniform however honest its officials. Replacing rope with a rigid chain is what made a fixed cash demand defensible.
16. Which land class was left fallow for three or four years? Type B · two figures, one term
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(a) Chachar. The four run Polaj (cultivated annually), Parauti (temporarily fallow), Chachar (three to four years fallow), Banjar (uncultivated).
Why not the others: (b) Parauti is the near-miss: also fallow, but only temporarily. The set is graded by how continuously the field is used, and the two middle terms are the ones that get swapped.
17. Which land class was cultivated every year? Recall
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(b) Polaj. The most productive class, and the base against which the others were graded.
Why not the others: The mirror of the previous question. If you can place Polaj at one end and Banjar at the other, only the two middle terms remain to be learned.
Section C — The four kinds of jagir (Q18–21)
18. Which kind of jagir was transferable every three or four years? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(c) Tankha jagir. It was an assignment of land revenue in place of salary, and the rotation was the point: it stopped the holder from sinking roots in it.
Why not the others: (a) the watan jagir is the exact opposite — in the holder's homeland, hereditary and non-transferable. That contrast is the most important one in the chapter.
19. Which kind of jagir carried no obligation of service and was independent of rank? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(d) In'am jagir. In'am holders typically maintained no troops and performed no administrative function, and such grants could often pass down through generations.
Why not the others: (b) mashrut is precisely the opposite: granted on condition of specified duties or services. In'am and mashrut sit at the two ends of the obligation scale.
20. Under which emperor were al-tamgha jagirs granted to some Muslim nobles in their home towns? Recall
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(a) Jahangir. They resembled the watan jagir in being tied to a family's own place.
Why not the others: The comparison is the useful part: al-tamgha is the watan jagir's counterpart for a different group. Knowing that tells you what kind of grant it was even if the emperor slips your memory.
21. Why was the watan jagir unusual within the Mughal assignment system? Concept
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(b) It was hereditary and non-transferable, whereas assignments were normally rotated. The Rajput settlement was built on the one kind of assignment the empire otherwise tried hard to avoid. That is why it held, and why converting Marwar's watan in 1679 provoked thirty years of war.
Why not the others: (d) states the opposite of the defining feature. Set the watan against the tankha, which was rotated every three or four years for exactly the reason the watan was not.
Section D — The Rajput states' central offices (Q22–26)
22. In a Rajput state, who regulated prices and checked weights and measures? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(c) The Kotwal. Appointed in the capital and larger towns, he also maintained law and order, oversaw roads, organised night patrols and settled minor disputes. It is a municipal office as much as a policing one.
Why not the others: (a) the Diwan handles revenue and (d) the Bakshi the military. The Kotwal's brief is unusually specific, which is exactly why it is asked: a question naming prices and weights is naming him.
23. The Bakshi in a Rajput state headed — Recall
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(d) The military department. Responsible for pay, supplies, recruitment and training, and a trusted participant in confidential state deliberations.
Why not the others: (a) is the Diwan's and (b) the Khajanchi's. Diwan for revenue, Bakshi for military is the pairing to fix, and it holds in the empire as well as in the states.
24. The Khansama was — Type D · officer at wrong level
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(a) An officer under the Diwan, responsible for procuring and managing state materials. He held a highly influential position close to the royal family.
Why not the others: (c) is the trap: influence close to the ruler is not the same as independent rank. The chain of command is the examinable part, and he sat under the Diwan.
25. Which office was the chief minister of a Rajput state? Recall
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(b) Pradhan. With the Diwan for revenue, Bakshi for military, Khansama for materials, Khajanchi for the treasury and Kotwal for the capital and towns.
Why not the others: (d) the Hakim is a pargana officer, not a central one, and mixing the two levels is this section's standing trap.
26. The Khajanchi was in charge of — Recall
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(c) The treasury. One of the six central offices.
Why not the others: (b) is close enough to be tempting, but soldiers' pay fell to the Bakshi as part of the military department. Treasury and paymaster are different jobs here.
Section E — Pargana and village (Q27–33)
27. At pargana level, who assessed the revenue and who collected it? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(d) Amin assessed; Amil collected. Two offices, one letter apart. This is the single most reliable pairing in the chapter.
Why not the others: (a) reverses them, which is the only wrong option worth worrying about. Fix it by the words themselves: Am-i-n for assessme-n-t, whichever mnemonic works, so long as it holds under pressure.
28. The Amil was assisted in the pargana by — Recall
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(a) Qanungo, Patel, Patwari and Chaudhary. He implemented the revenue rates and collected the revenue with their help.
Why not the others: (c) and (d) are provincial and central officers, at the wrong level entirely. A question about who assisted the Amil is asking for the pargana and village chain beneath him.
29. Who kept the revenue papers, assessment schedules and record of collections for the pargana? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(b) The Qanungo. Together with full information on the pargana's land records.
Why not the others: (a) the Patwari keeps the village record — individual holdings, crops grown and fallow land. Qanungo is pargana, Patwari is village, and both survived into the British and modern revenue systems, which is why they are the two names most likely to be half-recognised and mixed up.
30. The Patwari's records covered — Recall
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(c) Village land, individual cultivator holdings, crops grown and fallow land. Every figure in a vigat or a patta ultimately rests on this register.
Why not the others: (a) belongs to the Qanungo, one level up. The Patwari's record is the base of the whole pyramid, which is the reason it is worth naming rather than skipping.
31. Which pargana office was hereditary and sometimes combined with the Qanungo's duties? Recall
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(d) Chaudhary. He was valued as a man cognizant of local conditions.
Why not the others: (c) the Mushrif was the accountant. The Chaudhary is the one whose value was knowledge of the place rather than a technical function, which is why the post was hereditary.
32. The Hakim at pargana level was responsible for — Recall
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(a) Justice, peace and revenue, as administrative head. He headed the pargana; the Amin assessed and the Amil collected under him.
Why not the others: (b) is the trap, because it describes the Amil. A head of administration is not the same as the officer who does the collecting.
33. Below the pargana, the state was divided into — Recall
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(b) Villages, mandals and forts. The pargana was the working administrative unit; these sit beneath it.
Why not the others: (a) is the imperial hierarchy and runs the other way — subah and sarkar are above the pargana, not below it.
Section F — Land tenure, the rekh and the gazetteer record (Q34–45)
34. Which category was land under direct state control? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(c) Khalsa. Officers handled collection or exemption on it directly.
Why not the others: The five categories are khalsa, jagir, bhom, sasan and doli, and a statement that all Rajput land was jagir is false. A state with a large khalsa has cash, which is the structural point behind the term.
35. Which category was tax-exempt, held against service in emergencies? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(d) Bhom. Held by Bhomiyas, Rajputs given hereditary land for state service, who were required to render military service when called and to pay a quit rent.
Why not the others: (b) a jagir was a service grant that the state could in principle resume and whose transfer needed approval; bhom was hereditary and tax-exempt. That difference is the whole structural argument of the section.
36. Mewar's Bhumias correspond to Marwar's — Recall
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(a) Bhomicharas. The position was substantially the same in both states.
Why not the others: (c) and (d) are ranks in Mewar's own noble hierarchy, not the Marwar equivalent of a tenure class. The question is about a cross-state equivalence, not a rank.
37. Which pair were both religious grants? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(b) Sasan and doli. Sasan was granted for religious purposes; doli was tax-free land donated for them.
Why not the others: This pair is the one that gets confused, precisely because both are religious. Keep them apart by the emphasis the sources place: doli carries the tax-free donated sense specifically.
38. Why does a large bhom class matter structurally for a Rajput state? Concept
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(c) It permanently alienates part of the revenue base in exchange for a standing obligation of arms. Where a house sat on the spectrum between large khalsa and large bhom shaped what it could actually do, and it explains relative strength better than any list of battles.
Why not the others: (a) is the opposite: bhom was tax-exempt. This is the kind of question that rewards understanding the tenure table as an argument rather than as vocabulary.
39. In Marwar, which figure was entered in the patta the ruler granted? Type B · two figures, one term
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(d) Patta Rekh. The estimated annual income of the jagir. The Bhartu Rekh is the amount that actually reached the royal treasury.
Why not the others: (a) is the near-miss and the whole point of the pair: the patta records an assessment, the bhartu records a payment. A question about the grant document wants Patta Rekh; one about the treasury wants Bhartu Rekh.
40. Rekh was the standard for determining — Recall
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(a) The ruler's dues from Samants and Jagirdars. It is the pivot of the whole jagirdari system in the Rajput states.
Why not the others: (c) is the trap this chapter exists to prevent: rekh is a Rajput-state term, not a Mughal one. Answering a Rajput-state question with a Mughal term is the commonest error in the topic.
41. On the death of a Rajput jagirdar, his estate Concept
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(b). It reverted to the Darbar and stayed so until the successor was recognised, when it was conferred afresh with a new patta.
Why not the others: (a) is the assumption a modern reader brings and it is exactly wrong. A jagir was not inherited; it was RE-GRANTED, and that interval of reversion is the mechanism by which the ruler kept the nobility dependent. (c) overstates it — resumption was permanent only for grave offence or breach of the tenure's conditions.
42. Under the Sasan or Muafi tenure, the holders — Brahmins, Gosains, Charans or Bhats — Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(c) neither tribute nor service. Sasan is the tenure defined by what is NOT owed, which is what makes it separable from the other three.
Why not the others: (d) is Bhum, held by petty chieftains and Bhumias who paid the nominal quit rent bhumbrar and performed watch and ward, guarding roads and escorting treasure. Sasan owes nothing; Bhum owes a little and serves; Jagir owes service; Khalsa is the Darbar's own.
43. Lata and Kunta were Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(d). A Rajasthan Government gazetteer places them among the assessment methods: batai is an actual division of produce after threshing, kankut a division on a conjectured estimate of the standing crop, and lata and kunta a further estimation of the crop while standing.
Why not the others: (a) circulates in some preparation material and is contradicted by the state's own record. The distinction to hold is batai divides what was harvested; kankut, lata and kunta estimate what is still standing.
44. The lag-bag cesses were finally discontinued by Concept
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(a) the Rajasthan Discontinuance of Cesses Act, 1959, under which the cesses collected in addition to rent on agricultural holdings were discontinued, with certain exceptions.
Why not the others: The other three are real and adjacent statutes, which is why they make good distractors: 1952 resumed jagirs, 1955 reduced tenancies to Khatedar, Ghair Khatedar and Khudkasht, 1956 governs revenue courts and land records. How many lag-bag cesses there were is disputed; when they ended is not. Learn the Act, not the number.
45. The gazetteer records that revenue rates in force until 1904 were in Salim Shahi currency, and that on conversion to Imperial currency they were Concept
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(b) halved throughout the territory.
Why not the others: This is worth carrying because it is rare: a princely coinage appearing in a revenue record with a date and a conversion effect attached. Mint issues and denominations are otherwise flagged across this site as inconsistent between sources, so a coinage fact with a documented consequence is unusually solid.
Section G — Taxes, lata and kunta (Q46–52)
46. Bhog in Rajasthan was — Type A · wrong system
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(c) The land tax, and specifically a tax on the crop rather than on the land. It corresponds to the Mughal mal, and the sources are explicit about the crop-versus-land distinction.
Why not the others: (a) is sayar and (b) is lag-bag. The definition matters because it tells you what happened in a bad year: a tax on the crop moves with the harvest in a way a tax on land does not.
47. Sayar, in Jaipur, was the general name for — Recall
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(d) Import and export duty, customs and chungi. A trade levy rather than an agrarian one.
Why not the others: (a) is bhog and (c) is rekh. Three Rajput-state fiscal terms, three completely different bases — land, trade and jagir dues.
48. Lag-Bag refers to — Recall
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(a) The cesses levied on top of the land revenue, some regular and some occasional. Land revenue alone understates the burden, because a long list of additional cesses sat above it.
Why not the others: This is the bridge to the peasant-movement chapter: when Rajasthan's cultivators agitated, the cesses were as often the grievance as the revenue rate. Counts of how many cesses existed circulate widely and are not asserted here.
49. What is the difference between lata and kunta? Type B · two figures, one term
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(b) Lata is the share fixed after cutting and cleaning; kunta is estimated on the standing crop. Both are forms of batai, that is, crop-sharing. The share taken by the state or jagirdar ran from one half to one sixth of gross produce.
Why not the others: (a) is the important error to avoid: neither is a cash system. That is the sharpest contrast in the chapter — the empire beside them assessed in cash on measured land.
50. Which thikana assessed mainly by lata and kunta? Type A · wrong system
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(c) Bijolia. Which matters beyond this chapter, because Bijolia becomes the centre of a major peasant movement.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) are first-class estates of Mewar under the Amarshahi Rekh, not assessment examples. Bijolia is the name to attach to lata and kunta.
51. What is the sharpest contrast between the Mughal and Rajput-state assessment methods? Concept
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(d) The empire fixed a cash demand on measured land; the states took a share of the actual crop. Zabti fixes cash on measured land; lata and kunta take a share of the crop, judged by eye or after threshing. The Rajput states were running, in substance, the batai family.
Why not the others: (a) reverses the two systems exactly, and it is the answer given by anyone who has learned both vocabularies without learning which belongs to which.
52. Fixing the revenue demand in cash rather than as a crop share had which effect? Concept
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(a) It moved the risk of a bad harvest from the state to the cultivator. And it forced the cultivator into the market to raise coin. Batai and kankut leave the risk with the state.
Why not the others: This is a Mains point rather than a recall one: the same nominal rate is a different burden under the two systems, which is why describing zabti simply as "more scientific" misses what it did to the people paying it.
Section H — The Amarshahi Rekh and Nainsi (Q53–61)
53. The Amarshahi Rekh was founded by — Attribution
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(b) Maharana Amar Singh II. Reigning 1697 to 1709. It graded Mewar's nobility into ranks.
Why not the others: (a) Amar Singh I is the ruler of the 1615 treaty, nearly a century earlier, and the two are separated only by a numeral — which is exactly the kind of distinction this unit tests.
54. Under the Amarshahi Rekh, the first-class Samants numbered — Recall
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(c) 16 Umraos. With 32 in the second class and about 330 in the third.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) are the second and third classes. The three numbers have to be learned as an ordered set, because a question will give you one and ask for another.
55. The third-order nobles of Mewar, holding a few villages each, were called — Recall
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(d) Gol ke Sardar. Their jagirs ran to a few villages and sometimes a single one, and they attended on the person of the Maharana.
Why not the others: (a) the Solah Umrao are the sixteen first-class nobles — the opposite end of the hierarchy. (b) is a tenure class in Marwar, not a Mewar rank.
56. Why did the Maharana keep some three hundred small nobles attending on his person? Concept
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(a) They formed his strength against any combination of the higher nobles. A ruler surrounded by many small dependent nobles is insured against the few large ones. That is a design, not an accident.
Why not the others: This is the question that turns a rank list into an argument. Sixteen great nobles against three hundred small ones is a hierarchy and an insurance policy at the same time.
57. Which Mewar estate performed the ruler's coronation and served as commander-in-chief? Recall
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(b) Salumber. Its holder also co-signed royal decrees with the Rana and administered the capital in the Rana's absence.
Why not the others: (a) Bhindar is also one of the Solah Umrao, which makes it a fair distractor, but the coronation role is Salumber's. (d) Chavand was Pratap's capital, not an estate in this sense.
58. Muhnot Nainsi served Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar as — Attribution
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(c) Diwan. Before that he was hakim of several parganas, and that first-hand administrative experience is what stands behind his writing.
Why not the others: The career is the point: a man who had governed the parganas he later described is a different kind of witness from a court poet, and it is why his survey is the strongest source in the medieval syllabus.
59. Marwar ra Pargana ri Vigat is — Type E · author, wrong work
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(d) A survey of villages, population, crops and revenue. Compiled between 1658 and 1664, in effect a gazetteer of the parganas under Jaswant Singh.
Why not the others: (a) describes the Nainsi ri Khyat, by the same author. One author, two genres, two levels of reliability — and knowing which is which is exactly the source-criticism skill this syllabus rewards.
60. Nainsi's khanasumari was an enumeration of — Recall
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(a) Households by caste, in every district capital. Part of the survey, and a remarkable record for the 1660s.
Why not the others: The significance is worth carrying into an interview answer: the state's most reliable surviving record of its own society is a revenue document, not a chronicle.
61. Why is the Vigat a stronger source than a khyat? Concept
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(b) It is an administrator's survey compiled for use, by a man who had governed the parganas he described. Khyats are unreliable for dynastic origins because compilers blended legend into genealogy. The Vigat is a different kind of document entirely.
Why not the others: (a) is false in any case — the khyat tradition is not systematically later. The strength of a source lies in why and for whom it was made, which is the sources chapter's central lesson applied here.
Section I — Assertion and Reason (Q62–71)
Decide whether each statement is true on its own before asking whether the second explains the first. Two items below pair a true reason with a false assertion, and one pairs two true statements that have nothing to do with each other.
62. A: The Rajput states did not, in substance, assess revenue by the zabti method. R: Lata and kunta took a share of the actual crop, one fixed after cutting and cleaning and the other estimated on the standing crop. Type A · wrong system
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(a) R is the evidence for A. Both are forms of batai, so the states were running crop-sharing while the empire beside them ran fixed cash assessment on measured land.
63. A: A revenue system measured with rope cannot be uniform however honest its officials. R: Rope and cord shrink and expand with the weather. Concept
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(a) R is exactly why A holds, and it is why the jarib — bamboo joined by iron rings — replaced them. A small engineering decision is what made a fixed cash demand defensible.
64. A: Bhom and jagir were two names for the same kind of holding. R: Bhomiyas were required to render military service when called upon. Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(d) R is true and A is false. A jagir was a service grant the state could resume and whose transfer needed approval; bhom was hereditary and tax-exempt. The service obligation in R is common to both and therefore does not make them the same thing.
65. A: The watan jagir was unusual within the Mughal assignment system. R: Tankha jagirs were transferable every three or four years. Concept
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(a) R establishes the norm against which A is unusual: assignments were normally rotated so the holder could not sink roots, and the watan was hereditary and non-transferable. The Rajput settlement rested on the exception.
66. A: The Mughal provincial Diwan was a check on the Subedar rather than his subordinate. R: No payment in the province could be made without the Diwan's sanction. Type D · officer at wrong level
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(a) R is the mechanism behind A. Two heads reporting independently to the emperor is a deliberate design against provincial autonomy.
67. A: The Patwari and the Qanungo kept records at the same level of administration. R: The Qanungo held the pargana's assessment schedules and record of collections. Type D · officer at wrong level
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(d) R is true and A is false: the Patwari records the village, the Qanungo the pargana. Both survived into the modern revenue system, which is why they are the pair most often merged.
68. A: A state with a large bhom class had permanently narrowed its revenue base. R: Bhom was tax-exempt and hereditary, held against an obligation of military service. Concept
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(a) R explains A. The state bought a standing obligation of arms with revenue it could not later recover, and where a house sat on that spectrum explains its capacity better than any battle list.
69. A: Nainsi's Vigat is a more reliable guide to seventeenth-century Marwar than his Khyat. R: Nainsi wrote both works. Type E · author, wrong work
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(b) Both statements are true, but common authorship is not what makes one more reliable. The Vigat is an administrator's survey compiled for use; the Khyat is a chronicle. The reason lies in the genre and purpose, not the author.
70. A: Fixing revenue in cash rather than as a crop share changed who bore the risk of a bad harvest. R: Zabti assessed a fixed sum on measured land, while batai took a proportion of what was actually grown. Concept
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(a) R is why A holds: under a fixed cash demand the shortfall falls on the cultivator, who must also enter the market to raise coin. The same nominal rate is a different burden under the two systems.
71. A: The Amarshahi Rekh's shape is better read as political design than as mere precedence. R: It gave the Maharana sixteen first-class nobles and some three hundred of the third class attending on his person. Concept
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(a) R is the evidence for A. Many small dependent nobles are a ruler's insurance against the few great ones, which is why their number is so much larger.
Section J — Match the following (Q72–79)
Lock the one pair you are certain of, then eliminate. Question 67 deliberately interleaves Mughal and Rajput-state terms, which is the confusion this whole chapter exists to prevent.
72. Officer with function Type D · officer at wrong level
List I — A. Bakshi · B. Khansama · C. Khajanchi · D. Kotwal
List II — 1. Treasury · 2. Prices, weights and measures, night patrols · 3. Military pay, supplies, recruitment · 4. State materials, under the Diwan
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(a) All four are central offices of a Rajput state. Add Pradhan (chief minister) and Diwan (revenue) and the set is complete.
73. Officer with the level he worked at Type D · officer at wrong level
List I — A. Subedar · B. Hakim · C. Qanungo · D. Patwari
List II — 1. Village · 2. Pargana records · 3. Subah · 4. Pargana, as head
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(a) Four levels in one question: province, pargana head, pargana record, village record. C and D are the pair that gets merged.
74. Tenure with its character Type C · tenure confused with tenure
List I — A. Khalsa · B. Jagir · C. Bhom · D. Doli
List II — 1. Tax-free, donated for religious purposes · 2. Direct state control · 3. Tax-exempt, hereditary, service on call · 4. Granted for service; transfer needs state approval
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(a) Sasan is the fifth, also religious, which is why it and doli are the pair most often confused.
75. Jagir type with its character Type C · tenure confused with tenure
List I — A. Watan · B. Tankha · C. Mashrut · D. In'am
List II — 1. Conditional on specified duties · 2. No service obligation, independent of rank · 3. Homeland; hereditary and non-transferable · 4. In place of salary; transferable every 3-4 years
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(a) A and B are the contrast that matters: rotated so the holder cannot settle, against hereditary in his own country. Al-tamgha, under Jahangir, is the fifth term.
76. Term with the system it belongs to Type A · wrong system
List I — A. Dahsala · B. Rekh · C. Kankut · D. Lag-Bag
List II — 1. Rajput states: cesses above the land revenue · 2. Mughal: ten-year cash assessment · 3. Rajput states: standard for dues from jagirdars · 4. Mughal: assessment by estimate of the standing crop
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(a) Two from each system, deliberately interleaved. Answering a Rajput-state question with a Mughal term is the commonest error in this topic, and this question is built to catch it.
77. Assessment method with how it worked Recall
List I — A. Zabti · B. Batai · C. Lata · D. Kunta
List II — 1. Share estimated on the standing crop · 2. Fixed cash on measured land · 3. Share fixed after cutting and cleaning · 4. Crop-sharing, also called ghalla-bakhshi
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(a) C and D are both forms of B, and only A is a cash system. That relationship is the answer to any question asking how the two systems differed.
78. Land class with its meaning Recall
List I — A. Polaj · B. Parauti · C. Chachar · D. Banjar
List II — 1. Fallow three or four years · 2. Uncultivated · 3. Cultivated annually · 4. Temporarily fallow
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(a) Graded by how continuously the field is used. Fix Polaj at one end and Banjar at the other, and only the two middle terms remain.
79. Mewar rank or estate with its description Recall
List I — A. Solah Umrao · B. Gol ke Sardar · C. Salumber · D. Amarshahi Rekh
List II — 1. Performs the coronation; commander-in-chief · 2. The grading founded by Amar Singh II · 3. Sixteen first-class nobles · 4. Third-order nobles holding a few villages each
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(a) Amar Singh II reigned 1697-1709, and is not the Amar Singh I of the 1615 treaty. One numeral, ninety years.
Section K — The tenth-century vocabulary, the thikana and the tazim honours (Q80–Q109)
Two things decide most of the questions below. The first is which of a pair of near-identical words you are being offered — bhaga against bhoga, udranga against uparikara, Bah Pasav against Hath-ka-Kurb, Pasaita against Bhom. The second is whether a claim survives contact with the record it is attributed to, because several of the most widely circulated statements in this part of the topic do not.
80. The Rajor inscription records a grant by Attribution
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(c) Mathanadeva, of the Gurjara-Pratihara lineage. The stone was found near the temple of Nilakantha Mahadeva among the ruins of Paranagar, by the village of Rajor or Rajorgadh, in the Rajgarh area of Alwar.
Why not the others: (a) is the king of the Partabgarh grant and (b) the officer named in it, so both belong to the other inscription. Two records, two donors, two dates — and the commonest way of losing this question is to remember one inscription and answer for the other.
81. The Rajor inscription is dated to the 13th of the bright half of Magha, Vikrama year 1016. Its editor worked that out as Recall
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(d) Saturday, 14 January A.D. 960. The date is given on the stone in words and in figures, which is why it converts with confidence.
Why not the others: (a) treats the Vikrama year as though it were already a Christian one, and (b) adds fifty-seven years instead of subtracting them. Both are the standard direction-of-conversion slips, and an option reading "A.D. 1016" against a V.S. 1016 record is almost always the trap.
82. Which record names Madhava as Tantrapala-Mahasamanta-Mahadandanayaka and places a village in the western Pathaka of Dasapura? Recall
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(a) The Partabgarh inscription. Found on a platform beside a stepwell at Partabgarh and presented to the Rajputana Museum, Ajmer, it consolidates several grants of different dates on one stone. Partabgarh is Pratapgarh, which since the 2023 reorganisation is its own district, carved out of Chittorgarh.
Why not the others: (b) the Rajor grant places its village in the Vamsapotaka bhoga, not in a pathaka. Fix the pairing that way: Rajor gives you a bhoga, Partabgarh a pathaka, and both are units above the village and below the kingdom.
83. In the land grants, udranga is normally paired with Concept
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(b) Uparikara. Udranga is the fixed tax, the land tax or principal tax, given as the tax on permanent tenants; uparikara is the minor tax, on temporary tenants.
Why not the others: (a) is the version in widest circulation and it is wrong twice over — the partner term is uparikara, and the distinction is permanent against temporary tenants, not owner against cultivator. Bhaga is a different thing altogether: the king's share of the produce, originally one-sixth.
84. In the compound bhaga-bhoga, the two halves mean Concept
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(c). Bhaga is the crop share, originally a sixth; bhoga is a delivery of firewood, fruit and flowers — and, separately, a territorial unit, which is the second job the word does.
Why not the others: (a) and (d) are the two glosses in general circulation, and (b) simply swaps the halves. One vowel, two entirely different obligations, and the compound is exactly where they get merged.
85. A pancakula was Type D · officer at wrong level
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(d). Two tenth-century records describe it from opposite ends: the glossary defines the board, and the Rajor grant transfers one of its charges — the aputrikadhana, the property of those who died without heirs — along with the village.
Why not the others: (a) is the standing error. A body with a defined jurisdiction over a customs house and over heirless estates is not a gathering of elders, it is an office. (b) borrows the "five" and attaches it to territory rather than to people.
86. Of the terms khala-bhiksha, prasthaka, skandhaka and marganaka in the Rajor grant, the record's editor established that Concept
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(a). Of the revenue terms in lines 11 to 13 he wrote that they are "a number of revenue-terms, the exact import of which is not apparent", and of these four that "the exact meaning of this and the following terms I do not know". Khala is the threshing floor, which yields the single gloss he allowed himself.
Why not the others: (b) and (c) are the confident glosses in circulation, attached to a record whose own editor declined to gloss the words. (d) names terms that do not appear in the Rajor grant at all. Carry the words; do not carry the meanings — that is the examinable point here.
87. The territorial evidence of the Partabgarh inscription amounts to Concept
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(b) One named unit. The edition contains no vishaya and no khetaka anywhere.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) are the tidy ladder that circulates as though this inscription laid it out. The units in it are real and attested somewhere; the ladder, and its attribution to this record, are not. What the stone will support is the smaller and more useful point — that a pathaka is a group of villages, a division "like a Pargana of later days", so the pargana took over a job an older unit was already doing.
88. In a Marwar jagir village, who actually measured and weighed the produce at the harvest division? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(c) The Tolawati. Employed by the jagirdar to measure and weigh the produce, and paid by the villagers whose heap he was weighing.
Why not the others: (a) the Patwari keeps the register; he does not stand at the threshing floor. (b) the Tafadar kept the accounts of the share due to the Thakur at batai, and (d) the Kanwaria guarded the standing crop and settled boundary disputes, taking his share in kind at latai. A share of an actual crop has to be weighed by somebody, and every complaint about a short measure ran through the Tolawati.
89. Who commanded the jamiyat, the horsemen a jagirdar posted at the neighbouring parganas under the Hakims? Type D · officer at wrong level
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(d) The Faujdar. Almost every large thikana had one. On a theft he moved with the pagi, the tracker he appointed for the purpose; on a dacoity, reported by the village Chaudhari, he led the bahal, the organised sortie of horsemen. The Hakim heads the pargana; the Faujdar carries the weapons in it.
Why not the others: (a) the Kotwal belongs to the capital and larger towns, and answering a jagir-village question with him is this section's standing error. The same word travels: in Kota the faujdars were divisional magistrates hearing criminal appeals from tahsildars, and elsewhere the Faujdari and Diwani courts were presided over by officials called hakims.
90. In Marwar, the Hawaldar was Type D · officer at wrong level
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(a). Note the qualification: in some jagir villages, not everywhere.
Why not the others: (b) is the half-right option and the reason this question is here. The officer is documented; a land category called Hawala is not, and the five tenures remain khalsa, jagir, bhom, sasan and doli. (c) is the pagi, and (d) is a thikana post of a different kind.
91. Which statement distinguishes the Bhomiya from the Grasia Thakur in Mewar? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(b). The service obligation follows the same line: the Grasia serves with specified quotas, at home and abroad; the Bhomiya serves locally, in the district he inhabits, and pays a small annual quit-rent. That last is the bhumbrar, with watch and ward, guarding roads and escorting treasure.
Why not the others: (a) and (c) invert the pair. Grasia comes from gras, a subsistence, literally a mouthful, and every patta opened with the formula that gras has been ordained to so-and-so. The word states the theory of the tenure: a grant is a maintenance, not a property.
92. Bapidari, the cultivator's own occupancy right in Marwar, was granted where the cultivator Concept
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(c) Three grounds, and all three are investment. Such land became the perpetual inheritance of the cultivator and could not be resumed except on very strong grounds. It could be sold but not given away in charity, and it was not rent-free: bapi holders paid the customary rent at a concession of about twenty per cent, with the standing trees and the grass on their fields besides.
Why not the others: (b) is the rule for charitable grants, which needed a specific sanad from the Darbar. Cultivators in jagir and khalsa villages alike were divided into Bapidars and Gair Bapidars, and the word comes from bap, father — the right was inherited. A revenue system described only through khalsa, jagir, bhom, sasan and doli describes what the state and the nobility held; bapidari describes what the man behind the plough held.
93. Which tenure was free of every tax and yet resumable the moment the holder's services ceased to be required? Type C · tenure confused with tenure
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(d) Pasaita. Land given by the jagirdar, not by the Darbar, to servants of the estate — a Bhangi, a Dhobi, a Kamdar — in place of wages.
Why not the others: (a) is the mirror image and the contrast the question is built on: Bhom pays a nominal quit rent but is hereditary; Pasaita pays nothing at all but is resumable. Tax-freedom and security of tenure are two separate variables. A jagirdar could alienate his own revenue this way; he could not alienate the ruler's, and the patta said expressly that no land of the jagir was to be given in sasan or doli.
94. The Marwar nobles' petition to the Governor-General in 1857 named which three demands as beyond their capacity to pay? Recall
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(a) Rekh, Hukamnama and Neota. Hukamnama is the succession fee paid on taking up the estate, also charged as nazrana on the restitution of a confiscated one; Neota is a cess levied on marriages in the royal family, at whatever amount the Maharaja thought fit. The demand was regularised by the agreement of 1869, after British intervention following the crisis of November 1868.
Why not the others: (c) uses Tagirat, which in the state's own glossary of jagir terms means the devolution of a jagir, literally "transferred from". It names a succession event, not a levy. (b) lists the general Rajasthan levies, which answers a different question.
95. Under Article 48 of the Marwar Code of Rules agreed in the 1840s, the Thakurs undertook to pay the British Government Concept
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(b). A cash figure and a troop figure are commuted into each other out of one assessment, which is the strongest evidence that the rekh did the Rajput work of a sawar rank: what the estate owed could be counted in rupees or in riders.
Why not the others: (d) is the published table of horsemen per rank that everyone expects to exist. It is not established, and no such table is asserted anywhere on this site. (a) drops the phrase that carries the whole point — in lieu of.
96. In Marwar, the right of a principal Thakur to mint coin was Concept
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(c). The Thakur of Kuchaman, of the Mertia sept, obtained permission from Maharaja Man Singh to open a mint at Kuchaman in 1838, and the Thakur of Budsu held a similar privilege for a time. In Mewar the chief of Salumbra "coins by sufferance" from the mines on his own estate.
Why not the others: (a) appears on almost every list of reserved powers and it does not survive contact with the records. The corrected version is the sharper constitutional point: a privilege renewed at every succession is one more lever in the ruler's hand, which a flat prohibition would not have been.
97. Which power was reserved from a pattait of any category? Concept
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(d) Capital punishment. A pattait was the principal executive and judicial authority inside his jurisdiction and decided civil and criminal cases; the eight principal Thakurs of Marwar are described as exercising all the rights of sovereignty except this one, over their sub-vassals as well as their ryots. The same reservation appears across Rajputana: in Kota the Mahakma Khas was presided over by the Maharao, who alone could pass a death sentence.
Why not the others: (a) and (b) name powers he did hold, so "jagirdars had no judicial power" is false. (c) turns out to be a granted privilege, not a prohibition. Two states, two record sets, one genuinely reserved power.
98. In a Marwar Durbar, Dohri Tazim meant that the ruler Recall
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(a) On arrival and again on departure. (b) is Ekevri, single, Tazim, and tazim itself is simply the ruler rising to receive.
Why not the others: (c) is Bah Pasav, a later stage of the same ceremony and not a form of tazim. (d) inverts a real rule: the Maharaja accepted nazar and nichhrawal standing from a tazim sardar and sitting from everybody else, so a man's rank was visible in the room every time a present changed hands.
99. What distinguished Hath-ka-Kurb from Bah Pasav? Concept
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(b). The Sardar laid his sword in front of him, bowed and touched the hem of the royal garment; the Maharaja acknowledged the salutation with a hand on the shoulder, and might or might not draw it back. Hath-ka-Kurb is the higher of the two.
Why not the others: (a) reverses them. The reason to learn the pair as one thing: these are not two customs but two stopping points in one continuous gesture, and a noble's rank was the point at which the ruler stopped — which is what produces the four orders, Dohri Tazim with Hath-ka-Kurb, then Hath-ka-Kurb, then Bah Pasav, then Ekevri Tazim alone.
100. A Sirayat of Marwar was Recall
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(c). All Rathors, ranked by the importance of estate and sept, and headed by Pokaran, Auwa and Asop. They are the first order, holding Dohri Tazim together with Hath-ka-Kurb.
Why not the others: (b) imports Mewar's sixteen Umraos into Marwar, which is the cross-state trap this chapter warns about throughout. (d) describes the Zillayats, who held directly from the Maharaja and paid him their own rekh and hukamnama but were placed under a neighbouring Thakur for convenience — in 1857 they followed their Thakurs against their own sovereign and lost their villages for it.
101. In the Marwar Durbar, seating on the right and the left of the chief encoded Concept
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(d). On the ground that meant Champawats and Kumpawats on the right, and Jodhas, Mertias and Udawats, descended from Jodha's younger sons, on the left. Locally the two sides were the Jeewani and the Davi Misal.
Why not the others: (a) reverses the sides. Precedence within a side went by who arrived first, among the three right-hand Thakurs of Pokaran, Auwa and Asop and likewise among the five of the left; the remaining four took a first seat only when nobody senior in their group attended. In 1933 the principal Thakurs agreed among themselves not to take it ill if the rule was not strictly observed, and the Maharaja confirmed the agreement.
102. The hereditary office of Pradhan of Marwar is most accurately described as Attribution
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(a) Learn the sept, not the estate. The office was given to Champa, and his descendants the Champawats held it. Where it sat afterwards depends on who is asked: Tod makes it hereditary in the house of Auwa, passing to Asop after the last Auwa holder was killed by a jealous sovereign, and held earlier by Nimaj and Pokaran jointly; a study built on the Marwar state records makes Pokaran the hereditary Pradhan, supplanted by Auwa in 1806 after the Pokaran Thakur joined Jaipur in its invasion of Marwar.
Why not the others: (b) is the version in widest circulation and it is the one neither account supports — it reverses the sequence the state records give. Tod's verdict on the institution is worth carrying into Mains: these Pradhans "have always been mill-stones round the necks of their princes", because uniting so powerful a branch to the crown "gave too much equality".
103. Bhyad, in Tod's account of Rajput tenure, is Recall
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(b). "'Give me my bhut (share),' says the Rajpoot, when he attains to man's estate, 'the bhut of the bhyad', and thus they go on clipping and paring till all are impoverished." In Marwar it ran through named shares: the Chhutbhais, younger brothers on maintenance, took one-tenth at Bhadrajan and one-sixteenth at Khejarla, and at Gurha a jagir worth two thousand rupees of revenue a year.
Why not the others: (a) is galat panti, the escheat of exactly such land when the line failed, and (c) is the hukamnama. Tod's qualification is as useful as his term: the practice prevailed less in the larger principalities than in the isolated tributary thakurats, so bhyad names a real mechanism of fragmentation, not a universal law of Rajput tenure.
104. In the order of precedence among the nobles of Mewar, the Rawat of Salumbar stood Concept
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(c) Fourth. He is a first-class noble and he is not the senior one, and the two statements sit together without difficulty. His was the largest first-class estate by villages — a town and 237 of them, against Deogarh's 181 and Begun's 127 — and Salumbar and Kurabar were the two that paid no tribute at all.
Why not the others: (a) is the inference everyone draws from his functions, and a function is not a rank. The functions themselves are real: when the Rana leaves the capital the Salumbra chief takes charge of the city and the palace; by his hands the sovereign is girt with the sword, and from him he receives the mark of inauguration on his accession; he leads the van in battle by right, and in a siege his post is the Suraj Pol.
105. On the Bhil role in the inauguration of the Rana of Mewar, what can safely be stated? Concept
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(d). The blood tilak, from an incision in the thumb, is uncontested; the attribution is not. The fullest early account names Baleo of Oondree and Dewa of Oguna Panora as Bappa's two Bhil companions and gives Baleo the teeka — then, describing the ceremony as still performed, writes of "the descendants of Baleo of Oguna and the Oondree Bhil" and assigns the thumb-blood mark and the seating of the prince to the Oguna chief, with the Oondree Bhil holding the salver of spices and rice. The same source cannot be right in both places.
Why not the others: (a) is the flat version in circulation, which is one of the two readings rather than the settled fact. (b) belongs to Marwar and is not established. (c) invents a rivalry: the Chondawat chief girds the sword as the state's premier noble, while the Bhil rite asserts the claim of the country's older inhabitants — two acts in one ceremony, not two competing ones. The full ceremonial had largely lapsed on grounds of cost, Jagat Singh being the last Rana crowned with the ancient magnificence, at ninety lakhs of rupees.
106. A: A jagir's reversion to Khalsa on the holder's death was a lever in the ruler's hand rather than a formality. R: The estate was re-conferred by a fresh patta, and a succession fee, the hukamnama, fell due at an amount the Maharaja fixed. Concept
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(a) R is the mechanism behind A. Because the amount was unfixed, the Maharaja demanded and the Thakurs resisted for decades; unpaid rekh or hukamnama was drawn from the state banks and debited to the defaulter with interest, which the Political Agent believed was being compounded. A death was an occasion to re-price the estate, and the demand was regularised only by the agreement of 1869.
107. A: Rajput feudatories were forbidden to strike coin. R: The Thakur of Kuchaman obtained permission from Maharaja Man Singh to open a mint at Kuchaman in 1838. Concept
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(d) R is true and it is exactly what makes A false. Minting was a granted and revocable privilege, renewed at succession, not a blanket prohibition, and in Mewar the Salumbra chief coined "by sufferance" from the mines on his own estate. The reserved power is capital punishment. Coinage is not it.
108. Epigraphic term with its meaning Recall
List I — A. Udranga · B. Bhoga · C. Hiranya · D. Mandapika
List II — 1. Customs house, whose officer collected the tolls · 2. Periodical supplies of fruit, firewood and flowers · 3. Tax payable in cash · 4. The fixed or principal land tax, on permanent tenants
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(a) Add bhaga, the king's share of the produce and originally a sixth, and pathaka, a group of villages "like a Pargana of later days", and the working vocabulary is complete. B carries a second sense as well — a territorial unit — which is why bhaga and bhoga are the pair to keep apart.
109. Marwar honour or rank with its description Recall
List I — A. Ekevri Tazim · B. Bah Pasav · C. Hath-ka-Kurb · D. Ganayats
List II — 1. The ruler's hand placed on the Sardar's shoulder · 2. Rajput clans allied to the ruling house by marriage · 3. That hand drawn back to the ruler's own chest · 4. The ruler rises once, on arrival
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(a) The first three are stages of one gesture, and the four orders are graded by them: Sirayats with Dohri Tazim and Hath-ka-Kurb, then Hath-ka-Kurb, then Bah Pasav, then Ekevri Tazim alone. The Ganayats — Bhatis, Ranawats, Kachhwahas, Haras, Chauhans and Deoras — hold the second order alongside Rathors, and a Ganayat is defined by his relation to the ruling family, not by descent from it. The honours were not for sale: the Thakur of Chandawal offered Maharaja Bijay Singh forty to fifty thousand rupees for one and was told it was reserved for noble sacrifices.
Flashcards — the facts most often missed
Tap to reveal. These are the ones that decide close questions.
Ajmer Subah
One of the twelve subahs of 1580; roughly modern Rajasthan; capital Ajmer; seven sarkars, six named: Ajmer, Jodhpur, Chittor, Ranthambore, Nagaur, Sirohi. Hierarchy Subah → Sarkar → Pargana, then villages, mandals, forts.
Provincial officers
Subedar (Sipahsalar) heads the province · Diwan revenue, a check on the Subedar, no payment without his sanction · Bakshi military · Sadr judicial.
The four Mughal methods
Zabti / dahsala (fixed cash on measured land) · Batai = ghalla-bakhshi, bhaoli (crop share) · Kankut (estimate) · Nasaq (rough assessment).
Zabt vs dahsala
Zabt is the principle of fixed cash assessment. Dahsala adds the ten-year average. Completed 1580. Todar Mal, bandobast, uniform land measurement.
Measurement
Ilahi Gaz ≈ 33 inches / 82.5 cm · jarib = bamboo chain with iron rings, usually 100 gaz, replacing rope that shrinks and expands with the weather · area in bigha.
The four land classes
Polaj annual · Parauti temporarily fallow · Chachar fallow 3-4 years · Banjar uncultivated.
The four jagirs
Watan homeland, hereditary, non-transferable · Tankha in lieu of salary, transferable every 3-4 years · Mashrut conditional · In'am no service obligation, independent of rank. Al-tamgha under Jahangir.
Rajput central offices
Pradhan chief minister · Diwan revenue · Bakshi military · Khansama materials, under the Diwan · Khajanchi treasury · Kotwal capital and towns: prices, weights and measures, roads, night patrols, minor disputes.
Pargana and village
Hakim heads · Amin ASSESSES · Amil COLLECTS, assisted by Qanungo, Patel, Patwari, Chaudhary · Mushrif accounts · Bitikchi records · Qanungo = PARGANA record · Patwari = VILLAGE record · Chaudhary hereditary, local knowledge.
The five tenures
Khalsa direct state control · Jagir for service, transfer needs approval · Bhom tax-exempt, hereditary, service on call plus quit rent · Sasan religious · Doli tax-free, donated for religious purposes.
Bhomiyas
Rajputs holding hereditary land for state service: military service on call plus a quit rent. Mewar's Bhumias = Marwar's Bhomicharas.
The two rekhs
Patta Rekh = the jagir's estimated annual income, entered in the patta. Bhartu Rekh = what actually reaches the treasury. Assessment vs payment.
The Rajasthan levies
Bhog = the land tax, and a tax on the crop, not on the land · Sayar = customs, import/export duty, chungi (Jaipur) · Lag-Bag = the cesses on top.
Lata and Kunta
Both are batai. Lata = share fixed after cutting and cleaning. Kunta = share estimated on the standing crop. Share one half to one sixth of gross produce. Bijolia used mainly these.
The Amarshahi Rekh
Founded by Maharana Amar Singh II (1697-1709). 16 Umraos first class · 32 second · about 330 third, the Gol ke Sardar, who attend on the Maharana in person and are his counterweight to the great nobles. Salumber crowns the ruler and is commander-in-chief; Bhindar is also a Solah Umrao.
Muhnot Nainsi
1610-1670, Oswal, hakim of several parganas then Diwan of Jaswant Singh. Marwar ra Pargana ri Vigat, compiled 1658-1664: villages, population, crops, revenue, plus a khanasumari enumerating households by caste. The Nainsi ri Khyat is the chronicle. One author, two genres.
Rapid one-liners
Which imperial province contained most of Rajasthan?
Ajmer Subah, one of the twelve created in 1580, capital Ajmer.
What made a fixed cash revenue demand possible at all?
Uniform measurement — the Ilahi Gaz and the rigid jarib chain, replacing weather-sensitive rope.
Which jagir was rotated every three or four years, and why?
The tankha jagir — so its holder could not sink roots in it.
Which jagir was the empire's exception, and who held it?
The watan jagir — hereditary and non-transferable, in the holder's homeland. The Rajput settlement rested on it.
Who assesses and who collects in the pargana?
Amin assesses. Amil collects.
Qanungo or Patwari — which keeps the village record?
The Patwari. The Qanungo keeps the pargana record.
Who regulated prices and checked weights and measures?
The Kotwal, in the capital and larger towns.
Which land was tax-exempt and hereditary, held against service?
Bhom, held by Bhomiyas — Mewar's Bhumias, Marwar's Bhomicharas.
Which figure appears in the grant document, and which in the treasury?
Patta Rekh in the patta; Bhartu Rekh in the treasury.
Was bhog a tax on land?
No — on the crop. That is the definition the sources insist on.
What is the difference between lata and kunta?
Lata is fixed after cutting and cleaning; kunta is estimated on the standing crop. Both are batai.
What share did the state or jagirdar take under lata and kunta?
Between one half and one sixth of gross produce.
Who founded the Amarshahi Rekh?
Maharana Amar Singh II, r. 1697-1709 — not the Amar Singh I of the 1615 treaty.
Which estate crowns the ruler of Mewar?
Salumber, which also served as commander-in-chief and administered the capital in the Rana's absence.
Which of Nainsi's two works is the survey?
Marwar ra Pargana ri Vigat, 1658-1664. The Khyat is the chronicle.
What did Nainsi's khanasumari count?
Households, by caste, in every district capital.
What to do with your mistakes
- Mixed the two vocabularies? Write them in two columns. Mughal: subah, sarkar, zabti, dahsala, batai, kankut, nasaq, polaj, parauti, chachar, banjar, Ilahi Gaz, jarib. Rajput states: rekh, bhog, sayar, lag-bag, lata, kunta, khalsa, bhom, sasan, doli, thikana. The overlap is real but small — jagir, pargana, Diwan and Bakshi sit in both.
- Lost a confusable pair? There are seven that matter, and they are listed at the top of this page. Learn each with its distinguishing word attached, never as two isolated terms.
- Answered who without asking at what level? Central, provincial, pargana, village. The Hakim heads a pargana and the Subedar a province; the Qanungo records a pargana and the Patwari a village.
- Treated the tables as vocabulary? They are arguments. A large khalsa means cash; a large bhom means a standing obligation of arms bought with revenue that cannot be recovered. Three hundred small nobles are insurance against sixteen great ones.
More in This Series
- Administrative and Revenue Systems in Medieval Rajasthan — the chapter these questions come from
- Practice: Resistance and Collaboration — where the watan jagir is introduced
- Practice: Major Dynasties of Rajasthan — the houses these systems belonged to
- Caution for Readers — the claims that are genuinely unsettled
Sources & Verification
Every question is derived from the parent chapter, whose Sources & Verification section lists what was checked and what was deliberately not asserted.
No PYQ is cited anywhere on this page. Question numbers are our own, not RPSC's.
No question is set on a figure the chapter declines to verify. The commonly-quoted count of 86 lag-bag cesses, the claim that cultivators retained as little as 13 per cent of yield, the identity of the seventh sarkar of Ajmer Subah, the basis on which Bhartu Rekh was calculated, whether Mewar's third class numbered 330 or 332, and any horsemen quota attached to the Amarshahi ranks are all absent for that reason. Where those topics appear, the question is written so that the verified part is the key — the count of seven sarkars, the one-half-to-one-sixth share, and the assessed-versus-paid distinction between the two rekhs.
