Castor (Ricinus communis L.) is a drought-resistant plant with great flexibility to different climatic and soil conditions. Currently, there is a high expectation of rising demand for castor oil on the world market. In terms of crop production, it has to be considered that there are a number of variables for each growing area, particularly when it is preferred to adapt the castor crop to a certain soil tillage system and intercropping system. In this respect, the objective of the present study was to determine the effects of different tillage systems and legume based castor intercropping systems under rainfed conditions. The field experiments were conducted in 2020–21 and 2021–22 at the Tapioca and Castor Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Yethapur. The experimental treatments consist of conventional tillage and minimum tillage as main plots and a castor based intercropping system at a 1:3 ratio, viz., castor + greengram, castor + cowpea, castor + groundnut, and sole castor as subplot treatments, and are conducted in a split plot design with three replications. The pooled result of the two-year study of different tillage practices in castor based legume intercropping systems in rainfed agriculture found no significant difference among tillage practices relevant to growth, yield attributing characters, seed yield, and biomass yield, although numerically higher values were registered under conventional tillage practices over minimum tillage. The higher seed yields of both base (1152 kg ha-1) and intercrop (481 kg ha-1) were recorded in conventional tillage practices over minimum tillage. With respect to intercropping, a higher base crop (castor) yield of 1058 kg ha-1 was recorded under the castor + groundnut intercropping system, which was observed to be on par with sole castor (1020 kg ha-1) and castor + greengram (907 kg ha-1). The highest Castor equivalent yield recorded in castor + groundnut (1:3) intercropping, grown under a conventional tillage system. Moreover, the maximum benefit-cost ratio was recorded in castor + groundnut (1:3) intercropping, over sole castor cropping.