Before the colonial government began to bureaucratize land governance in the region which is comprised by today's Maharashtra, "Sheep Pastures" were an institution in the land governance system of the Maratha rulers. This institution allowed nomadic shepherds to graze freely in the non cultivated lands in this region in exchange of a fixed tax. As this institution allowed to graze in a vast area often demarcated by the banks of two parallel rivers, nomadic shepherding was institutionalizes as well. However the British government found the existence of sheep pastures inconvenient for land administration. The sheep pastures gradually disappeared from the land governance system. The colonial government brought the idea of "lands for special purposes" which made the legitimate existence of pasturelands limited only within the boundaries of a village.
Based on my archival work where I have surveyed the diaries of Maratha rulers, land laws made during the colonial times and the proceedings of debates about them in the governor's council, reports by colonial administrators etc., I have mapped the existence and disappearance of sheep pastures in Maharashtra region. Through this study, I have attempted to comment on the idea of common pasture lands, and have attempted to describe how this idea has been undergoing a constant change.
