zamindari

• zamindary, zemindari, zemindary

zamindari (countable and uncountable, plural zamindaris)

1. (historical) In British India, a system used to collect revenues from the ryots (cultivators of agricultural land) indirectly through the zamindars, as opposed to ryotwari, where revenues were collected directly.
2. (historical) The office or jurisdiction of a zamindar.
   • 1926, C. F. Waterfall, Final Report on the Re-settlement of the Raipur and Drug Zamindaris in the Central Provinces:

     To it came all the north-western and south-western zamindaris, which fell naturally into the new tahsils of Bemetara and Sanjari-Balod respectively (Gunderdehi was subsequently transferred from Sanjari to the Drug tahsil in 1907).

3. (historical) The land possessed by a zamindar.