Recording of Farmland /Cultivated Land in Garhwal Period of Pal /Shah Kingdom

Administration, Social and Cultural Characteristics History of Garhwal in Shah Dynasty -10  

History of Garhwal including Haridwar (1223- 1804 AD) –part -199      

   History of Uttarakhand (Garhwal, Kumaon and Haridwar) -447 

                       By: Bhishma Kukreti (A History Research Student)

               According to Trail, the Daftari office in Shrinagar used to keep records of land, forest of villages. The land was measured by seed or sowing capacity of the land. The farmland was having the name of owner in the record.

 Perhaps, Hari Krishna Raturi offered Jatiy Itihas or Caste History from the land records. The branch of Daftari office was called Pargana Shakha and Pargana Shakha also kept agricultural land record.

  The record Keepers of daftari office and Pragana office used to get salary as commission from tax and manytimes, record kepeprs were given Jagir or That.

 The measurement system had much weakness in Garhwal Kingdom. Once, the record was written then there were no changes for centuries. Though there was always enhancement in cultivated land that was not recorded.

 There was a surprising fact that when the record of cultivated land was recorded for Sankalp, Raut or Jagir, the record keeper used to write double of the actual land.

                             Non Cultivated Land

            There was no system of recording the village boundaries or recording of non cultivated land. The village boundaries were by natural division that is by Gadan (rivers or rivulets), hill (Danda) etc.  There was no system of recording the extension of village cultivated land by any means. When a family needed new land the family members would dig counters in unoccupied land and would establish house etc there. There was no such system in Garhwal Kingdom for knowing the new extended cultivated land.

 In record, only village name, cultivated land and the owner name was recorded.

Copyright@ Bhishma Kukreti Mumbai, India, bckukreti@gmail.com4/10/2014

History of Garhwal – Kumaon-Haridwar (Uttarakhand, India) to be continued… Part -448

(The History of Garhwal, Kumaon, Haridwar write up is aimed for general readers)

History of Garhwal from 1223-1804 to be continued in next chapter ….

XX                     

Notes on South Asian Modern Period  History of Garhwal;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Pauri Garhwal; South Asian  Modern Period  History of Chamoli Garhwal;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Rudraprayag Garhwal;  South Asian Modern  History of Tehri Garhwal; South Asian Modern  History of Uttarkashi Garhwal;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Dehradun, Garhwal;  Modern  History of Haridwar ;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Manglaur, Haridwar;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Rurkee Haridwar ;  South Asian Modern Period   History of Bahadarpur Haridwar ; South Asian Modern Period  History of Haridwar district, History of Characteristics of Garhwal Kings Shah dynasty ,  to be continued