Paik System (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Paik system was a type of corvee labor system on which the Ahom kingdom of medieval Assam was based. The origin of the word paik is unknown and it is believed that the system is based on the South-East Asian legacy the Ahoms brought with them in 1228. The mature structure was designed by Momai Tamuli Borbarua in 1609. The system continued to evolve over time to meet the needs of the Ahom state and in time began to accumulate contradictions. Scholars believe that a major reason for the collapse of the Ahom kingdom was that the Paik system had outlived itself by the 18th century.Every male in the Ahom kingdom between the ages of fifteen and fifty who was not a noble, a priest, a high caste or a slave was a paik. According to Guha (1991), about 90% of the population belonged to this class at the time of Rudra Singha, around 1714. The top landed aristocracy was about 1% and the rest constituted the servile class.