Khatiyan, RoR, khata — what’s the difference?
They’re the same document seen from different angles. The Record of Rights (RoR) is the legal term; the khatiyan is its Odia name; and the khata number is the unique number for one khatiyan within a village. One khatiyan can list several plots and several co-owners who hold them together.
The four parts of a khatiyan
1. The header — where the land is
The top of the record fixes the location and identity: District → Tahasil → Village (mouza), the khata number, and the khatiyan type (whether it’s private/raiyati land, government land, or trust/endowment land — see below).
2. The owner block — who holds it
Each owner (tenant/raiyat) line typically gives:
- Name of the owner.
- Relation — father’s or husband’s name (e.g. “S/o”, “W/o”), which is how individuals are distinguished.
- Share — the fraction of the khata that person holds, when the land is co-owned.
When you see many names under one khata, the plots are held jointly — a common source of confusion when people assume one plot equals one owner.
3. The plot table — what is held
The heart of the khatiyan is a table, one row per plot:
- Plot number — the surveyed parcel’s ID.
- Kisam — the land classification (explained next).
- Area — in acres and decimals.
- Rent / revenue (khajana) — the assessed land revenue, where applicable.
4. Kisam — what the land can be used for
Kisam is the classification that governs a plot’s legal use. You’ll commonly see categories for homestead (gharabari), cultivable land, government-reserved land (rakshita), common/public land (sarbasadharana), and waste/un-assessed land (anabadi). Kisam matters: it tells you whether land is private and transferable, or government-held and not for sale.
How area is recorded: acres and decimals
Odisha’s digitised records measure area in acres and decimals, where 100 decimals = 1 acre. So an entry of 2 acres 45 decimals is 2.45 acres. When you add several plots, sum the decimals first and carry every 100 into an acre — which is exactly the arithmetic Bhu Sathi’s Excel does for you in the owner-wise summary.
Types of khatiyan
- Sthitiban (settled raiyat) — private, heritable, transferable land held by an individual or family.
- Government / institutional — land held by the state or a public body; reserved, common-public or waste categories fall here and are generally not transferable.
- Trust / endowment (Debottar, Trust) — land attached to a temple, trust or religious institution.
Bhu Sathi flags every government/institutional plot on a dedicated Government Land sheet, so you can separate public land from private at a glance.
Putting it together
Read top-down: the header tells you where, the owner block tells you who, and the plot table tells you what and how much. New to the portal itself? Start with How to check land records on Odisha Bhulekh.