estates were small feudal states in 17th- and 18th-century Rajputana. The chieftains, the, paid tribute to their Maratha masters, but were not compelled to participate in wars unless called upon by their respective chiefs. Part of the Indian feudal system of the time, there were sixty-six in the Ajmer region of Rajputana. A related land estate existed alongside the in Rajputana: were Rajput-specific land rights, granted as allodial titles, which were freely inheritable and inalienable by the original proprietor or the government. Although smaller estates, titles to were highly valued even by and higher chiefs.
The estates were originally only, which were held under obligation of military service. The Marathas, however, who found it impolitic to encourage the warlike tendencies of their Rajput vassals, commuted this obligation to a fixed tribute.
The chieftains,[1] accordingly, acquired the status of holders at a fixed and permanent quit-rent. Although during the earlier period of British rule extra cesses were levied from time to time, in 1841 the government remitted all such collections (fees) for the future. In 1873 (written grant or deed) were granted to the various, declaring their existing assessments to be fixed in perpetuity. There was, however, a special duty or quasi-inheritance tax, payable on successions, its amount being separately stipulated in each .
There were altogether sixty-six estates in the Ajmer region. These were divided into (from Urdu: تعظیم|ta'zīm, borrowed from Arabic: تعظيم||honour, respect), belonging to the aristocracy of the province and non-, being those held by persons of lesser status.
The numbered fifteen and were:
An ancient type of land tenure peculiar to the Rajputs was the . The word itself means 'land' and or signifies the holder of this type of land title. As an allodial title, a tenure is held as a right "of the soil", and so free from feudal obligations. The tenure consisted essentially in a hereditary, non-resumable, and inalienable right in the land. The title was so valued that the greatest chiefs were solicitous to obtain it: Even when held on land in villages entirely dependent on their authority as the presiding, thakurs, or rajas, were desirable for these higher-level chiefs. The titles were thus sought after and carefully retained for locales contained within areas already under their rule, as well as for those outside their territorial jurisdiction. For example, the Maharaja of Kishangarh State, and the thakurs of Fatehgarh (in Kishangarh), of Junia, of Bandanwara, and of Tantoti (all three in Jodhpur State, also called the Kingdom of Marwar), were among the of Ajmer.
The obligations of were traditionally threefold:
Except in cases where the was also a Raja or the property title passed to all children equally, not solely in the male line or by birth order. The survived into the era of the British Raj, and there were 109 estates recorded in Ajmer in 1908. A precedent set in English courts in the early 19th century maintained the inviolability of titles even from the British colonial government.[1]