the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. A peasant or cultivator of the soil.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. In India, a peasant; a tenant of the soil; a cultivator; especially, one holding land as a cultivator or husbandman.
Word Usage
"The Government was in the habit of collecting the land tax from the 'ryot' or peasant through a class of middle-men called 'talukd [= a] rs', [17] who had existed under the native princes for a long time."