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DOI: https://doi.org/10.63345/ijrhs.net.v12.i5.2
Ajitha K R
Research Scholar
Maharaja Agrasen Himalayan Garhwal University
Dr. Bhrigu Jee Srivastava
Research Guide
Maharaja Agrasen Himalayan Garhwal University
Abstract— This study investigates how land rights and revenue systems shaped long-run agrarian growth in medieval South India through a comparative institutional lens. Focusing on major agrarian regions under the Chola and Vijayanagara political orders, it examines how different configurations of property claims, revenue assessment practices, and delegated fiscal authority influenced cultivation incentives, irrigation investment, and the durability of agrarian surplus. The research treats “rights” as layered bundles—cultivation, management, and tax-collection claims often held by different actors such as the state, temples, Brahmadeya corporations, and village assemblies. Using a mixed historical method that combines epigraphic evidence (land grants, sales, tax remissions, and measurement terms) with regional case comparisons, the study evaluates how institutional arrangements affected risk management and productivity in wet delta zones versus tank-irrigated interiors. The central argument is that revenue predictability and locally enforceable rights strengthened incentives for intensification when collective-action institutions could sustain water-control infrastructure, while fragmented fiscal intermediations increased extraction uncertainty and weakened maintenance over time. By linking micro-level institutional records to macro patterns of agrarian stability and expansion, the study contributes to comparative economic history debates on pre-modern state capacity, property regimes, and the institutional foundations of long-run growth.
Keywords— Medieval South India; agrarian institutions; land rights; revenue systems; property regimes; irrigation governance; temple economy; Brahmadeya settlements; village assemblies; comparative economic history; long-run growth; institutional change
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