The non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis were known in the seventeenth-century sources as:

(1) Khud-Kashta
(2) Raiya
(3) Asami
(4) Pahi-Kashta

4

Pahi-kashta- a term used for non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village, but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis.

The term which Indo-Persian sources of the Mughal period most frequently used to denote a peasant was raiyat (plural, riaya) or muzarian. In addition, we also encounter the terms kisan or asami. Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of peasants – khud-kashta and pahi-kashta. The former were residents of the village in which they held their lands. The latter were non-resident cultivators who belonged to some other village, but cultivated lands elsewhere on a contractual basis. People became pahi-kashta either out of choice – for example, when terms of revenue in a distant village were more favourable – or out of compulsion – for example, forced by economic distress after a famine.