Glossary

West Bengal land & survey glossary

Plain-language meanings for the words on your Porcha / Khatian (RoR) and Mouza map, what each one is, and which of them you actually need before joining your sheets.

Mouza mapমৌজা ম্যাপ

The cadastral map of a mouza, showing every Dag with its boundaries and plot number. A mouza is drawn across several adjacent sheets, so a Khatian whose Dags sit near a sheet edge is split between two of them. Joining the sheets is what puts a holding back together in one drawing.

Dag numberদাগ নম্বর

The plot number in West Bengal: one numbered piece of land within a mouza. It is what the map is drawn against and what a Porcha lists. A Khatian usually holds several Dag numbers, and they are not necessarily next to each other.

Khatianখতিয়ান

The account a holding is recorded under: one recorded owner, and every Dag number they hold in that mouza. Where the Dag is a piece of land, the Khatian is a person's whole holding in the village. In other states the nearest equivalent is the Khata or Khewat.

PorchaRoRপর্চা

West Bengal's record of rights: the recorded owner, the Dag numbers under the Khatian, the area of each and its classification. It is the document a buyer, a bank or a court asks for first. It describes the land in words; the mouza map is what shows where it is.

J.L. numberJ.L.

The Jurisdiction List number, which identifies a mouza within its police station area. Mouza names repeat across blocks in Bengal, so the J.L. number is what makes a map or record request unambiguous. Quote it alongside the name whenever you ask for a sheet.

RS recordRS

The record from the Revisional Settlement, which surveyed and numbered mouzas afresh after the earlier Cadastral Survey. Older deeds in Bengal are commonly written against RS Dag and RS Khatian numbers, and those numbers do not carry over unchanged into the later LR record.

LR recordLR

The record from the Land Reforms settlement, which renumbered the same ground again. The LR Dag and LR Khatian are what the current Porcha on Banglarbhumi shows. Matching an LR Dag to the RS Dag in an old deed is the ordinary first step in Bengal title work, and the BL&LRO holds both sets.

Sabek and Halসাবেক / হাল

Sabek means the former entry and Hal the current one. A Porcha that lists a Sabek Dag alongside a Hal Dag is telling you the same ground carried a different number under the previous settlement. Reading the two columns together is how a deed written decades ago is tied to the plot as it is numbered today.

BL&LROBL&LRO

The Block Land and Land Reforms Officer: the revenue officer for a block, and the office where mutation and conversion applications are decided and where certified copies of the record come from. When a plot number in a deed cannot be found in the current record, this is the office that reconciles the two settlements.

Bargadarবর্গাদার

A recorded sharecropper. West Bengal registered bargadars and recorded their cultivating rights against the plot, and the entry survives on the record. A bargadar noted against a Dag is a real interest in the land, which is why a buyer reads the Porcha for more than the owner's name.

Mutation (Namjari)নামজারি

The entry that records a transfer by sale, inheritance or partition against the Khatian. Until it is done the Porcha still shows the previous holder, so a completed sale and an updated record are two different things and the gap between them is where most disputes start.

Conversion

The permission that changes a plot's recorded use away from agricultural. The Porcha records a classification for each Dag, and building on land still classified as agricultural without converting it is a problem that surfaces later, at sanction or at sale. It is decided at the BL&LRO.

The full West Bengal guide · Tamil Nadu's glossary