Glossary

Punjab land & survey glossary

Plain-language meanings for the words on your Fard Jamabandi and Shajra / Musavi (village map), what each one is, and which of them you actually need before joining your sheets.

Shajra Kishtwarਸ਼ਜਰਾ ਕਿਸ਼ਤਵਾਰ

The field map of a revenue village, drawn across several sheets and showing each Khasra number with its boundaries. It is the drawing a boundary question is answered from. Ask for it by its full name, because Shajra alone is also the first word of the pedigree table.

Shajra Nasabਸ਼ਜਰਾ ਨਸਬ

The pedigree table for a holding, showing how it descended through a family. It is not a map, and the shared word causes a good deal of confusion at the counter. A succession question needs this; a boundary question needs the Shajra Kishtwar.

Khewatਖੇਵਟ

The ownership account: one owner or set of co-owners, and everything they hold in that village. It is the first of the three numbers a Fard carries, and the one people most often quote when they are asked for a Khasra number.

Khatauniਖਤੌਨੀ

The cultivation account, which can name a tenant rather than the owner. One Khewat can carry several Khatauni numbers where different people cultivate different parts of the same holding, which is what makes the two easy to confuse.

Khasra numberਖਸਰਾ ਨੰਬਰ

The individual field number, and the one the map is actually drawn against. A request for a map sheet quoting a Khewat or Khatauni number instead of a Khasra is the commonest reason the wrong document comes back.

Fard Jamabandiਫਰਦ ਜਮਾਬੰਦੀ

The record of rights for a village, revised periodically, and the copy of it that a holder carries. It lists the Khewat, the Khatauni and the Khasra numbers together with the area and anything charged against the land. It is a copy of the record, not a title in itself.

Musaviਮੁਸਾਵੀ

The scaled version of the village field map. Where the working Shajra is the map the Patwari keeps, the Musavi is the measured drawing that a plan is traced from, and it is what you want when the join between two sheets has to be accurate.

Intkalਇੰਤਕਾਲ

Mutation: the entry that records a transfer by sale, inheritance or partition against the holding. Until it is sanctioned the Jamabandi still shows the previous owner, so a registered deed and an updated Fard are two separate things.

Roznamchaਰੋਜ਼ਨਾਮਚਾ

The Patwari's daily register, where a reported transaction is first entered as a Rapat before any mutation follows. A sale that has been reported but not yet mutated exists here and not yet in the Jamabandi, which is where the two records disagree.

Takseemਤਕਸੀਮ

Partition: the formal division of a jointly held holding into separate shares. Until it is completed the co-owners hold undivided shares in the whole, and the map shows the parent parcel as one. A Takseem is what turns those shares into parcels with their own boundaries.

PLRSPLRS

The Punjab Land Records Society, which runs the state's computerised land records and the portal the Fard is served from. Fard Kendras operated under it are where a computerised copy is issued, as against the Patwari's manual record.

Patwariਪਟਵਾਰੀ

The village revenue officer who maintains the Jamabandi, the Roznamcha and the working copy of the Shajra for a circle. Most questions about which Khasra numbers make up a holding, and where they sit, are answered here first.

The full Punjab guide · Tamil Nadu's glossary