To feed the ever increasing human population, there is need of the hour to enhance the crop yield. Different biotic and abiotic factors limit the plant productivity. Among them drought is most common. Drought seriously affects the plant physiology, biochemistry and yield. To ameliorate the effect of drought different ways can be adopted. The most economical and simplest way is the use of rhizobial inoculants. Thirty rhizobial stains were isolated from lentil chick pea and mungbean each. Drought tolerance assay was performed to check the ability of the stains to combat drought. Ten strains from each source were selected on the basis of their drought tolerance ability. The strains were evaluated for plant growth promotion under axenic conditions on maize crop. Strains C-3, C-5, L-6 and M-6 showed better growth of root and shoot, and physiological and biochemical parameters of maize plants. These four strains with all their possible combinations were tested in a jar trial at different moisture levels i. e. 100, 75 and 50% of field capacity. Results showed that the rhizobial inoculants were effective when used individually but the results were even better when used in combinations. Combinations, C1 (C5, C9 & L6), C2 (C9, L6 & M6) and C3 (C5, C9, L6 & M6) performed better and were selected for pot and field evaluation. Rhizobial inoculation enhanced the photosynthetic activity, stomatal conductance, transpirational rate, root and shoot dry weight, biomass and grain yield. At 100% FC, rhizobial combinations significantly increased grain yield of maize as compared to un-inoculated control. However, combination two (C2) showed maximum grain yield (12%) followed by Combination three (C3) (9%) as compared to un-inoculated control. Combination 2 (C2) improved grain yield (22%) followed by C3 (18%) at 75% field capacity over un-inoculated control. At 50% FC, rhizobial combinations C2 and C3 significantly increased (25%) and (19%) grain yield of maize as compared to un-inoculated control and C1 showed (2.91%) improvement in grain yield as compared to un-inoculated control but statistically at par with control. In field, to apply the drought, irrigations were skipped at critical stages. Drought badly affected the physiology, biochemistry and yield of maize. But rhizobial inoculation significantly ameliorated the adverse effects of drought by producing exopolysaccarides, biofilm formation, phosphate solubilization, ACC deaminase and antioxidents.