The Bara Balutedar system was a hereditary village servant system of twelve trades used historically in some regions of what is now the Indian state of Maharashtra. The balutedars used get paid for the services provided with village produce under a complex barter system.
The balutedar system was supported of the villageagriculture sector. Servants under this system provided services to the farmers and the economic system of the village. The base of this system was caste. The servants were responsible for tasks specific to their castes. There were different kinds of servants under Bara Balutedar and they could number more than twelve at times;
Under the baluta system, the balutedars had certain rights and privileges at ceremonies. Their services were remunerated by the cultivators in the form of an annual payment in sheaves of corn and a few seers of other grain grown in the field, such as wheat, hulga, gram, tur, groundnut, and others. For special services rendered on ceremonial occasions, payments were made in cash, corn or clothes. Sometimes food was given. The barber, as a balutedar, would perform many duties not connected with his profession. At the time of a marriage ceremony, when the bridegroom went to the temple to pray, he held his horse and received a turban as a present. At village festivals or marriage ceremonies he sometimes acted as a cook, and also served food and water to the guests at such ceremonies. It was his privilege to act as a messenger at marriage ceremonies and call the invitees for the function. He gave massages to distinguished people of the village. He played the pipe and tambour at weddings and on other festive occasions. The water-carrier not only supplied water to the villages but also kept watch during floods in the case of villages situated on river banks. He was also useful to the villagers to take them across the river with the help of a sangad to a share in the village harvest. The system was formally abolished by statute in 1958.
