Maharashtra Village Administration - Class VII

Most of people lived in villages. A village was also called mauja. The chief of the village was the Patil. He used to try to bring maximum land under cultivation. When there was any dispute in the village, the Patil resolved it and made peace.

The Deshpande was the chief of all Kulkarnies in the Pargana. The Deshpande did all at the Pargana level, the work that Kulkarni did at the village level.

A great famine occured in Maharashtra in 1630 CE. People were greatly distressed due to this famine. People were ready to sell themselves for a piece of Bhakri, but there was nobody to buy them.

In initial days the group of villages were known as Pargana. The headquarter of Pargana was called Kasba. And the village smaller than a Kasba was called Mauja.

There was usually a market adjacent to a Kasba which is known as peth. The Shete and Mahajan were the watandars of the peth. The setting up of a peth was the job of the Shete and the Mahajan. For that, they received some land from the government and some rights from the villagers. The Mahajan maintained the acconts of the Peth.

The Deshmukh was the chief of Patils in a Pargana. The Deshmukh did at the Pargana level what the Patil did at the village level.

The chief of village was the Patil. He used to try to bring maximum land under cultivation. When there was any dispute in the village, the Patil resolved it and made peace. A Kulkarni helped the Patil in his work. The Kulkarni kept the record of the revenue that was collected.

Many villages together made a Pargana, But the numer of villages was not the same in all Pargana. The Pune Pargana was a big Pargana, It consisted of 290 villages. There was 64 villages in the Chakan Pargana. The Shirwal Pargana was small, it had only 40 villages.