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Alphabetical Order
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TODAR MAL (d. 1589). Todar Mal is renowned for devising the system of land revenue first used by Sher Shah Suri and systematically applied in the core provinces of the Mughal Empire after being introduced in Gujarat by the Emperor Akbar. The system was subsequently adopted in the Deccan and later became the basis of the ryotwari, or peasant-based revenue settlement used in some parts of British India, more successfully than the "permanent settlement" adopted in Bengal after 1783.
Todar Mal was a Punjabi Hindu of the merchant and clerical caste and showed his administrative skills early in life. At the time, the ruler varied his demands from cultivators from year to year, depending on the current production and prices of grain. Todar Mal devised a more modern and predictable system based on a survey and measurement of land under the domain of the ruler, its classification in four types according to productive capacity and actual cultivation, and fixation of rates payable in cash or kind by the rvot, or cultivator himself. Revisions were made every ten years. The results were to increase the revenue of the state and give the cultivator some measure of security, always important considerations in settled areas.
In 1582 Akbar conferred the title of Raja upon him.
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