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• Village panchayat was elected by the assembly of the elders. The headmen of the
panchayat was called Mandal or Muqaddam. He enjoyed his post until he had the
confidence of the elders of village.
• Village panchayat had the right to levy fines and expulsion of anyone from the
community expulsion from the community was a strict step which was meted out
for a limited period.
• It was very difficult to recognise the difference between peasants and artisans. It
was so because both these two groups used to perform both kinds of works.
• People such as, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths, barbers, goldsmiths, etc.
provided their services to the village men and were compensated through villagers
by a large number of means.
• Jajmani system was also prevalent there. Under this system, blacksmiths,
carpenters and goldsmiths were remumerated by Zamindars of Bengal for their
work by paying them a small daily allowance diet and money.
• Among the landed gentry women enjoyed the right to inherit property.
• The term ‘Jungli’ was used to describe those whose livelihood came from hunting,
gathering and from forest produces.
• Zamindari consolidation was a slow process. It could be done through various
sources like colonisation of new lands, by transfers of rights, with the order of the
state and by purchase. These were those processes which perhaps permitted
lower castes to reach to the ranks of Zamindars.
• Zamindars played an important role in colonisation of agricultural land and helped
the setting cultivators by providing them with means of cultivation and cash loans.
• Ain-i Akbari discussed many matters in details, i.e. the court and administration of
the empire, sources of revenue, literary, cultural and religious traditions of the
people.
• Ain-i-Akbari remained an extraordinary document of its time even after certain
drawbacks.

During the 16th and 17th centuries most of the population of India, i.e. about 85 percent
lived in villages. Both peasants and landed elites were involved in agricultural
production and claimed their rights to have a share of the total produce.

Historical Sources of Agricultural Society and Mughal Empire:

• The basic unit of agricultural society was village, inhabited by peasants who
performed manifold tasks, like-tilling the soil, sowing seeds, harvesting the crop,
etc. Major source for the agrarian history of the 16th and early 17th centuries are
chronicles and documents from the Mughal court.

Ain-i-Akbari:

• Most important chronicle was Ain-i Akbari authorised by Akbar’s court historian
Abul Fazl.