The first step Akbar took was to alter the land revenue administrative structure in the khalisa, which at that time consisted of the provinces of Agra and Delhi and a part of the province of Lahore. In 1563, Akbar ordered his newly-appointed diwan, Itmad Khan, to divide the agricultural land of the entire khalisa into eighteen equal divisions (parganas), the land revenue from which was expected to yield about two and a half lakhs of rupees or 2.5 crore dams.
Itmad Khan also attempted to re-introduce the land measurement and assessment systems of Sher Shah but was not particularly successful. Then in 1564, a noted financier of the times, Muzaffar Khan, was appointed the diwan with Raja Todar Mai, who had already distinguished himself as a land revenue administrator under Sher Shah, as his assistant.
They found two major deficiencies in the prevalent land revenue system. The state officials prepared the rent- rolls or the quantum of demand by the state without taking into account the actual conditions. They neither measured the land under agriculture, nor did they make a realistic estimate of the produce. Furthermore, in converting the state demand to cash equivalent, they used a hypothetical list of prices supposedly uniform throughout the empire for all the khalisa lands.
As this was not quite proper, Muzaffar applied the actual prices of corn and cereals in different places as the basis for conversion of state demand into cash. Thereafter, he wanted to go for a systematic measurement of the land under agriculture but could not do so due to the disturbed conditions resulting from the Uzbeg revolt which erupted at that time.
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In 1569, Shihabuddin Ahmad, appointed to take over as the Diwan from Muzaffar, decided to prepare the rent-rolls by the age-old Kankut (kan meant crop while kut was the estimate) method. It meant the officials visiting the fields with village heads where the crops were ready of harvest and making a rough estimate thereof.
This was quite an improvement over the somewhat imaginary rent-rolls prepared earlier by the officials, but the process was cumbersome and time-consuming leading to considerable delays in the collection of the tax.
In 1573, Todar Mai, as provincial diwan, was empowered to carry out a thorough survey of the entire lands of the newly-conquered province of Gujarat. A uniform method for the measurement of the entire cultivable land of the province was adopted and the area of the cultivable land held by cultivators was determined.
The scheme for the classification of land on the basis of its productive qualities was perfected. Based on this detailed survey, reports were prepared which formed the basis for all future calculations regarding the estimates of production and determination of state dues. The scheme ensured the emperor an annual revenue of Rs 50 lakh from Gujarat.
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Pleased with the success of Todar Mai’s measures, Akbar in 1575 ordered that the entire cultivable land of the empire, including that of the jagirs, be surveyed systematically. Bihar, Bengal and Gujarat were the only exceptions. The jagirs were abolished in the lands that were surveyed, and the area was divided into 182 parganas, each of which yielded a crore a year as revenue. The state established direct contact with the ryots.
However, the conversion of the state demand, which was determined in kind from year to year, into cash posed a problem with prices of corn fluctuating from place to place. It called for settlement of new rates for conversion of land revenue into cash. On Todar Mai’s recommendation, Akbar promulgated the zfibti system, or the ain-i-dahsala or the bandobast arazi, “the Land Revenue Settlement of Raja Todar Mai.” As a reward for his success Raja Todar Mai was promoted as imperial diwan by the emperor in 1582.
The ain-i-dahsala or the zflbti system became operative in 1582. It was also known as the ryotwari system because it dealt with the ryots or the cultivators directly. By far the most scientific and progressive measure adopted by any Indian government so far for the satisfactory solution to the problems of land revenue assessment, it was used as the basis for all future revenue settlement. The system was at first introduced in eight provinces of the empire where an extensive land revenue establishment was already in existence.
These were Allahabad, Agra, Awadh, Ajmer, Malwa, Delhi, Lahore and Multan. The new land revenue system constituted a detailed process involving five stages: the measurement of land; its classification; assessment of the government demand in kind; conversion of the government demand into cash; and finally, the mode of collection of the land revenue.
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Abul Fazl observes in Ain-i- Akbari: “When through the prudent management of the sovereign the empire enlarged in extent, it became difficult to ascertain each year the prices current and much inconvenience was caused by the delay.
So His Majesty devised a remedy for these evils and in the discernment of his world-adorning mind fixed a settlement for ten years. From the beginning of the 15th year of the Divine Era (AD 1570-71) to the 24th (AD 1799-80) an aggregate of the rates of the collection was formed and a tenth of the total was fixed as the annual assessment; the best crops were taken into account in each year and the year of the most abundant harvest accepted.”