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Zamindar
A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the Persian for ''landowner''. During the British Raj, the British began using it as a local synonym for "estate". Zamindars as a class were equivalent to lords and barons; in some cases, they were independent sovereign princes. Similarly, their holdings were typically hereditary and came with the right to collect taxes on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes. During the Mughal Empire, as well as the British rule, zamindars were the land-owning nobility of the Indian subcontinent and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs. Most of the big zamindars belonged to the Hindu high-caste, usually Brahmin, Rajput, Bhumihar, or Kayastha. During the colonial era, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Permanent Settlement
The Permanent Settlement, also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and landlords of Bengal to fix revenues to be raised from land that had far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire British Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793 by the Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation, known as the Cornwallis Code. The Cornwallis Code of 1793 divided the East India Company's service personnel into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Revenues were collected by ''zamindars'', native Indians who were treated as landowners. This division created an Indian landed class that supported British authority. The Permanent Settlement was introduced first in Bengal and Bihar and later in Varanasi and also the northern district of Madras. The system eventually spread all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Feudalism
Indian feudalism refers to the Examples of feudalism, feudal society that made up History of India, India's social structure Independence of India, until the formation of the Republic of India in the 20th century. Terminology Use of the term feudalism to describe India applies a concept of medieval European origin, according to which the landed nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection. The term Indian feudalism is used to describe taluqdars, zamindars, and jagirdars. Most of these systems were abolished after the Indian independence movement, independence of India and the rest of the subcontinent. Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi, D. D. Kosambi and Ram Sharan Sharma, R. S. Sharma, together with Daniel Thorner, brought peasants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rajput
Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term ''Rajput'' covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities. Over time, the Rajputs emerged as a social class comprising people from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds. From the 12th to 16th centuries, the membership of this class became largely hereditary, although new claims to Rajput status continued to be made in later centuries. Several Rajput-ruled kingdoms played a significant role in many regions of central and northern India from the seventh century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhumihar
Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, a Hindu Indian caste system, caste mainly found in Bihar (including the Mithila (region), Mithila region), the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal. They have traditionally been a land-owning group of eastern India, and controlled some small princely states and zamindari estates in the region in the early 20th century. They played an important role in the peasant movements and politics of Bihar. They claim Brahmin status, although their ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' has been subject to much debate. Etymology The word ''bhūmihār'' is of relatively recent origin, first used in the records of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh in 1865. It derives from the word ''bhūmi'' ("land"), referring to the caste's landowner status. The term ''Bhumihar Brahmin'' was adopted by the community in the late 19th century to emphasise their claim of belonging to the priestly Brahmin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kayastha
Kayastha (or Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karan (caste), Karanas of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers. The earliest known reference to the term ''Kayastha'' dates back to the Kushan Empire, when it evolved into a common name for a writer or scribe. In the Sanskrit literature and Epigraphy, inscriptions, it was used to denote the holders of a particular category of offices in the government service. In this context, the term possibly derived from ('principal, capital, treasury') and - ('to stay') and perhaps originally stood for an officer of the royal treasury, or revenue department. Ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maharaja
Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a prince. However, in late ancient India and History of South India, medieval south India, the title denoted a king. The form "Maharaj" (without "-a") indicates a separation of noble and religious offices, although since in Marathi the suffix ''-a'' is silent, the two titles are near homophones. Historically, the title "Maharaja" has been used by kings since Vedic period, Vedic times and also in the second century by the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Indo-Greek rulers (such as the kings Apollodotus I and Menander I) and then later by the Indo-Scythians (such as the king Maues), and also the Kushans as a higher ranking variant of "Raja". Eventually, during the medieval era, the title "Maharaja" came to be used by sovereignty, sovereign princes and vassal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaudhary
Chowdhury (also: Choudhuri, Chaudhuri, Choudhury, Chaudhri, Chaudhary) is a title of honour, usually hereditary, originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is an adaption from Sanskrit. During the Mughal rule, it was a title awarded to eminent people, while during British rule, the term was associated with zamindars and social leaders. The common female equivalent was Chowdhurani. Meaning "Chowdhury" is a term adapted from the Sanskrit words ''čatus'' "four-way, all-round" and ''dhurīya'' "undertaking a burden", denoting the head of a community or caste. Significance It was a title awarded to persons of eminence, including both Muslims and Hindus, during the Mughal Empire. It was also used as a title by military commanders responsible for four separate forces, including the cavalry, navy, infantry and elephant corps. These people belonged to the zamindar families in British India. Later, the Mughal Empire, Mughals and the Nawabs conferred the same title in great numbers. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baro-Bhuyan
The ''Baro-Bhuyans'' (or ''Baro-Bhuyan Raj''; also ''Baro-Bhuians'' and ''Baro-Bhuiyans'') were confederacies of soldier-landowners in Assam and Bengal in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The confederacies consisted of loosely independent entities, each led by a warrior chief or a landlord. The tradition of Baro-Bhuyan is peculiar to both Assam and Bengal and differ from the tradition of ''Bhuihar'' of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—in Assam this phenomenon came into prominence in the 13th century when they resisted the invasion of Ghiyasuddin Iwaj Shah"The Bara Bhuyans of Kamarupa played a similar role in the country's history round about the thirteenth century...Jadunath Sarkar holds that Husamuddin Iwaz () reduced some of the Barabhuyans to submission when he attacked Kamarupa." and in Bengal when they resisted Mughal rule in the 16th century. ''Baro'' denotes the number twelve, but in general there were more than twelve chiefs or landlords, and the word ''baro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akbar
Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expand and consolidate Mughal domains in the Indian subcontinent. He is generally considered one of the greatest emperors in Indian history and led a successful campaign to unify the various kingdoms of '' Hindūstān'' or India proper. Quote: "Akbar, The greatest Mughal emperor of India." Akbar gradually enlarged the Mughal Empire to include much of the Indian subcontinent through Mughal military, political, cultural, and economic dominance. To unify the vast Mughal state, Akbar established a centralised system of administration and adopted a policy of conciliating conquered rulers through marriage and diplomacy. To preserve peace and order in a religiously and culturally diverse empire, he adopted policies that won him the support of his no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nawab
Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kingdom of Saxony, Kings of Saxony to the German Emperor. In earlier times the title was ratified and bestowed by the reigning Mughal emperor to semi-autonomous Muslim rulers of subdivisions or princely states in the Indian subcontinent loyal to the Mughal Empire, for example the Nawabs of Bengal. "Nawab" usually refers to males and literally means ''Viceroy''; the female equivalent is "Begum" or "''Nawab Begum''". The primary duty of a Nawab was to uphold the sovereignty of the Mughal emperor along with the administration of a certain province. The title of "nawabi" was also awarded as a personal distinction by the paramount power, similar to a British peerage, to persons and families who ruled a princely state for various services to the Government of British Raj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
