The land revenue system of Tipu Sultan was an excellent renovation that evidences his mastery over his administrative knowledge. After Hyder Ali, the task of completely developing the management of revenue fell to Tipu, who had acquired great knowledge and experience by his administration of the "jagirs" in Dharmpuri for fifteen years where he had introduced a number of reforms.

On his accession, Tipu Sultan modified the land tenure and restored what had existed in the lower Carnatic where Mughal influence had not penetrated deeply. Chiefly, he laid down certain rules for the distribution on arable land between the old and the new "rayats". There were four kinds of land namely wet, dry, "hissa" and "ijra". "Hissa" lands were those where the produce was equally distributed between the state and the peasant and he was not expected to pay any fixed tax like the "bhagra" lands in West Bengal. "Ijra" land was that which was leased to the "rayat" at a fixed rent, like "theka" land in West Bengal. Out of these four categories of land every peasant would have an equal share. The grain seeds sown in "ijra" land were greater in quantity than in Hissa land.

Tipu Sultan encouraged chiefly two varieties of land tenures, the institution of hereditary property and the fixed rent. The first can be described as "meeras" in technical language, suggestive of inheritance. According to this, the peasant secured the hereditary right of cultivation or the right of a tenant and his heirs to occupy a certain ground, so long as they continued to pay the customary rent of the district. The rent was paid only when the land was cultivated. But the state insisted on the cultivation of the land and that it should not be left fallow on any account. Those who defied this order ran the risk of forfeiting the land which was then bestowed on another. The rent varied under this tenure according to the produce. In the other tenure, system owner¬ship of the land was vested with a landlord who collected the rent from his tenants and paid a fixed rent to the state. After the death of the landlord, the land was passed on to his son, thus respecting the right of succession. Such a system existed in Bednore, Ballam, Mysore and Tayoor provinces. In Canara, all the lands which the landlords did not immediately manage themselves paid a fixed rent in money or kind. The farmers held the land directly from the government in Baramahal and there were no landlords in that province.

Tipu Sultan while managing his land revenue system introduced the system of collecting the rent in cash. As per this revenue system, the rents were fixed according to the grain and the lands were meas¬ured every year. If coins in metals like gold and silver, copper or brass were offered, they were accepted at their current prices in the bazaar. Farming out the land was abolished and the state undertook the task of collecting the tax directly from the peasants. State officers were strictly instructed not to harass the ryots (peasants or cultivators of the soil). They were not to interfere in their daily affairs except at the time of collecting taxes when they should adopt peaceful meth¬ods of collection. The rents fixed by the state were fair and moderate.

According to the land revenue of Tipu Sultan, those who cultivated dry land were assessed at about one-third of the crop. For the wet or rice lands, the payment was more, nearly half the crop and the tax was received in kind. The mode of esti¬mating the quantity of land was not by actual measurement but by the quantity of seed grains required to sow the arable land. The term used was "candy" which differed from district to district and from grain to grain. A candy of land meant the extent of land in which a candy of seed grain was sown. A candy consisted of twenty "kudus" and each "kudu" was of ten seers. There were varying types of "kudus". But to assure an equal share the produce was distributed half and half between the state and the farmer. The candy of dry land was almost four times larger than the candy of wet land which was considered much superior to, and hence charged at a higher rate than dry land. During the reign of Tipu, a particular measurement was followed in case of the rent of dry and wet land. The actual differences in rent between wet and dry lands was not 2-3 but 1-6 because the extent of one candy of paddy land was 24 measures, the state"s share was 12. For dry land it should have been 8 but actually the state took only 2 measures from dry land for the same area as that of wet land, as the gross yield was only 6 measures. Brahmin cultivators paid only half the usual rent as their womenfolk did not work in the field. The state dues were not very high compared to the rentals in the same period in England, where the peasant paid one-third to the landlord, one-third going as husbandry charges, with only one-third left to him. In Mysore, the state took one-third from the peasant leaving two-thirds to him.

The land revenue of Tipu Sultan was very well planned and well constructed. As per the norms of this system, lands were graded into three categories according to the fertility of the soil and the assessment depended on the productivity of the soil. A farmer cultivated both dry and wet lands and on an average he paid 40 per cent of his income to the state. The cultivation of a dry crop was most extensive and most certain. It was sown in the beginning of June and reaped in January. Nearly 25 varieties of crops were harves¬ted, the principal dry grains being ragi, jari, bajra, dhal, horsegram, Bengal gram and green gram. Rice and sugarcane were the chief wet crops grown near the reservoirs or with Kaveri water. There was even scope for second crop in the lands fed by this river but Tipu discour¬aged more than one crop as it would reduce the fertility of the soil. Besides these food grains, other commercial crops like areca-nut, pepper, cardamom, tobacco and sandalwood brought good revenue, which was collected on the basis of a fixed money rent. Repairs to the tanks were attended to with special care and urgency. These tanks stood in constant need of repairs owing to the heavy rainfall which brought down good quantities of earth, and washed away the embank¬ments in the rainy season. Cultivation of wasteland was encouraged by making it tax-free in the first year, charging one quarter in the second year, and the full thereafter. This was made possible by Tipu Sultan by his reforms for tax collectors to rob the ryots and the government as in the days of Hyder Ali.

The land revenue system of Tipu Sultan was a well planned system that was introduced by the king of Mysore to benefit and manage his territorial domains.