Vol. 4, Issue 6, Part C (2018)

Abstract
The Mahalwari system was the last one among the three major land revenue settlements introduced by the British colonial set- up of East India Company in a series of experimentation. And believed to be an improvement over both the previous existing land revenue system on the basis of its hybrid and innovative nature. It was a settlement for the estates of proprietary bodies, first introduced in the region of North-Western Provinces* under the Regulation VII of 1822. Further, it was extended up to the region of the Central Provinces* and the British Punjab*. The other two major land settlements were permanent Zamindari in Bengal presidency and Ryotwari in Madras and Bombay Presidency respectively. In all Mahalwari areas, the land holding distributions and patterns presents the records of all existing proprietary rights or cultivating rights and rights of ownership of every Mahal (or estates) or villages. A proper pattern of land-holding distributions of a compact area helped very much to present the nature and feature of existing land revenue system. Therefore, the study of land-holding distributions and patterns in all Mahalwari areas holds prime importance to understand the modus- operandi of the existing land revenue system. Here, the settlement was directly made with the Mahal* or estate, which presents the holdings of whole agricultural or cultivating lands with or without some waste area, belonging to or attached to it. In this paper, my humble attempt to present the different type of land holdings running under the operation of the Mahalwari system of land revenue settlement, which provide a vivid picture of different land tenure of Mahalwari areas.