Land Revenue system of Sher Shah has immortalized his name in the history of

Medieval Age.

As Land Revenue was the primary source of income of the empire, he paid great
attention towards the increase in agriculture produce and also made some
improvements in living conditions of the peasants.

Sher Shah restarted the system of measuring the land in his empire. The land was
measured on a uniform policy and in every village account was maintained of
cultivable land. He made use of Gaz sikandari and a Zarib of rope for measurement.
In order to ensure the accuracy of measurement and honesty of collection, he fixed
the salaries of the persons who were employed in the work of measurement so that
they could perform their duties with honesty and peasants might not be subjected to
any exploitation.

Sher Shah after getting the entire land surveyed by Ahmad Khan, an intimate friend
and trusted officer of his empire, decided the revenue to be paid by the cultivator. He
divided the land into three categories : (i) Good, (ii) Medium, (iii) Bad. As historians
are divided in their opinions nothing can be said definitely about the rate of land
revenue; yet keeping aside the examples of his predecessors, he ordered that 1/3 of
the total produce should be realized as revenue tax. Besides land revenue the
peasants were required to pay Jaribana (the fees of the surveyor) and Mahasilana (the
fee of the tax collection).

The cultivators had to pay land revenue in cash but facility was granted to pay the
same in the form of grain. prevalent.The central and provincial governments used to
help the peasants at the time of famine. For the good of the peasants, the
government officials were directed to be liberal at the time of fixing the revenue but no
concession was granted to anybody at the time of collection of revenue.

The soldiers were ordered not to harm the corps at the time of expeditions. If anybody
violated this rule, he was liable to be punished, but if some of the crop was spoiled
due to some unavoidable circumstances, the loss of the peasant was made good form
the royal treasury.
The cultivators were given two documents, viz, Pattas (title deeds) and Qabuliat
(deeds of agreement). The Patta specified the revenue which its owner had to pay
and through Qabuliat the cultivators promised to pay the specified amount of land
revenue.

The peasants were encouraged to deposit their revenue direct in the royal treasury so
that the importance of Muqaddams and headmen might be minimized and a direct
relation could be established between the government officials and the peasants. The
practice came to be known as Rayatwari system

The cultivators were allowed to pay their revenue in two installments in a year in
accordance with the crop season and facility of advancing Taqawi loans was granted
to the peasants at the time of famine or drought. Sher Shah also introduced Schemes
of canal irrigation and digging of wells for the good of the peasants.