ਪਟਵਾਰੀ

Patwari (ਪਟਵਾਰੀ) is the Punjabi word for the village land records official: the government revenue officer who measures land, keeps the record of who owns and cultivates each field, and updates it when land is sold, inherited or divided. In a farming village, the patwari is the first door for land papers.

What does patwari mean in Punjabi?

Patwari means the village accountant of the revenue department. Wikipedia's village accountant page lists patwari as the title used in Punjab for this role, and describes the official as responsible for keeping land records and agricultural records and collecting taxes. The patwari reports to the tehsildar, the higher revenue officer of the tehsil, and usually looks after a group of villages, not just one.

The work has three main parts, as that page sets them out: maintaining records of the crops harvested, recording changes in land rights, and accounting for the data those records produce. When a family buys a field or brothers divide their father's land, the change is not complete in the village's eyes until the patwari has entered it.

Where does the patwari system come from?

Wikipedia traces the post to the early 16th century: the patwari system was introduced under Sher Shah Suri, improved under the Mughal emperor Akbar, and then maintained by the British Raj with administrative changes. That long life is why the word is woven into village speech: land, crops and inheritance all pass, at some point, through the patwari's register.

What records does a patwari keep?

The names of those records are everyday words in a farming house. The jamabandi is the record of rights for a village: owners, area and cultivation, prepared by the patwari and revised periodically. The khasra girdawari records the crops sown and the area under cultivation, harvest by harvest. A fard is the ownership extract a landowner carries as proof, and the mutation register records each change of ownership or other rights in the land.

How is patwari used in everyday Punjabi?

You meet the word whenever land changes hands, or a loan, a court case or a family division needs papers. People say patwari kolon fard kadhvauna hai, the fard has to be got out from the patwari, or intkal darj karvauna hai, the mutation has to be recorded. The close Kosh words are jamabandi for the record itself, zameen for the land, and khet for the field the patwari measures.