The eighteenth-century records tell us of zamindars in Bengal who remunerated blacksmiths, carpenters, and even goldsmiths for their work by paying them “a small daily allowance and diet money”. What was the term used to describe this system?

Jajmani system.

The eighteenth-century records tell us of zamindars in Bengal who remunerated blacksmiths, carpenters, and even goldsmiths for their work by paying them “a small daily allowance and diet money”. This later came to be described as the jajmani system, though the term was not in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.