Administration The Mughal Empire - History for UPSC CSE

Sources of information

• The Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl is a major contemporary source though historians such as Sarkar note that it does not alone give a complete and detailed picture of the entire administrative machinery.
• The Dastur-ul-Amal (official handbooks) prepared in the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb provide practical administrative details and duties of officers.
• The so-called "Manual of Duties of Officers" discovered by Sir Jadunath Sarkar from Patna yields useful administrative information.
• Topical imperial chronicles and memoirs such as the Iqbal-Namah Jahangiri by Mutamad Khan, the Padshah-namah of Abdul Hamid Lahori, the Tazuki-Jahangiri, the Tabaqat-i-Akbari, Nizam-ud-Din and the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh of Badauni give administrative and court information.
• Accounts by foreign travellers and residents such as Sir Thomas Roe, François Bernier, Ralph Hawkins, Niccolao Manucci, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Finch and others illuminate aspects of Mughal governance, court life, economy and military organisation.
• Contemporary factory records and administrative correspondence of the English East India Company are also valuable primary material for fiscal, commercial and local administrative practices.

Nature of Mughal administration

• The Mughal administrative system was a synthesis: essentially a Perso-Arabic administrative model adapted to the Indian environment and local practices.
• The empire was centralised, resting on military strength and on an institutional framework that linked service to the emperor with land and revenue assignments.
• Ranks of officials and nobles were regulated under the mansabdari system. The emperor determined the rank (mansab) of every mansabdar and allotted jagirs for their maintenance.
• Provincial authority was often bifurcated: the civil finances were separated from executive/military authority (the later formalised under Akbar by the appointment of provincial diwans and subahdars).
• The revenue system evolved from a combination of long-standing Indian practices and Islamic/Arab fiscal theory; it was implemented through assessments, registers and local intermediaries.
• The mansabdari system had Central Asian origins but became an original Mughal administrative instrument integrating military, civil and fiscal responsibilities.
• Key central offices included the Vakil (a chief minister or prime minister in early Mughal days), the Mir Bakshi (military paymaster), the Khan-i-Saman (in charge of the household and karkhanas), the Sadr-us-Sadur (chief justice and head of religious charities), and the Mir-i-Mal (officer of the privy purse).
• The office of the Vakil was especially prominent when Akbar was a minor and Bairam Khan acted as his deputy.
• The Muhataib was chiefly an ecclesiastical officer charged with regulating certain aspects of public and religious life.
• The Diwan-i-Tan (or revenue department) handled jagir assignments and revenue administration.

Central administration - principal offices and functions

• Vakil - early Mughal prime ministerial office; during the early period (Babur, Humayun) the Vakil held large civil and military powers. Its importance is evident when Bairam Khan acted as Vakil for the young Akbar.
• Mir Bakshi - the military minister: he organised the army, maintained the rolls, calculated the salary (bewaarkh) of mansabdars, and arranged for recruitment and intelligence. The Mir Bakshi's office prepared the imperial salary bill.
• Khan-i-Saman - head of the palace household and the karkhanas (royal workshops and manufactories).
• Sadr-us-Sadur - the chief justice and head of religious charitable endowments (awqaf); controlled appointments of qazis and supervised religious affairs.
• Mir-i-Mal - custodian of the privy purse and in charge of certain financial disbursements related to the royal household.
• Muhataib - an official with ecclesiastical functions, concerned with regulating religious observances and the conduct of certain officials.
• Mir-tuzuk - master of ceremonies who regulated court protocol and processions.
• Special departments existed for minting, royal workshops, the maintenance of royal property and armouries, and for recording and storing state documents.

Provincial administration

• Subahs - under Akbar the empire was divided into provinces called subahs; initially there were twelve subahs.
• By the later Mughal period (after the campaigns against Bijapur and Golconda in 1686-87 and the fall of Sambhaji in 1689) the number rose to twenty-one subahs (one in Afghanistan, fourteen in North India and six in South India).
• Subahdar (earlier called sipah-salar, later also called nazim) - the provincial governor responsible for military and executive administration.
• Diwan - the provincial finance minister created by Akbar (1586 reform) to separate revenue and financial administration from executive powers of the subahdar; this represented a deliberate bifurcation of authority to prevent concentration of power.
• Faujdar - principal assistant to the subahdar, responsible for law and order and military policing in districts.
• Kotwal - chief of city police and municipal administration in important towns.
• Bakshi (provincial) - paymaster and organiser of provincial troop contingents.
• Provincial Bayutat - keeper of government property and official trustee at provincial level.
• Mir Bahr - officer in charge of bridges required for military use, port duties, customs, boat and ferry taxes, and the maintenance of riverine and maritime services.

Fiscal system

• Major heads of imperial revenue included land revenue, customs duties (inland transit and port duties), income from the mint, inheritance taxes, tribute from feudatory princes, presents, state monopolies and indemnities.
• Of these, land revenue was the most important and constituted the backbone of the imperial fiscal system.
• Customs and transit duties produced a considerable revenue stream; duties on foreign imports were levied at ports where the administrative officer was called the Shah Bandar.
• Coins were minted in gold, silver and copper denominations in state mints.
• There existed a state treasury or Bait-ul-Mal where property and revenues were deposited; property of deceased nobles and officers was sometimes kept or vested under official custody pending settlement.
• Ain-i-Dahsala - Akbar's revenue settlement (completed in his 24th regnal year) introduced a systematic method of assessing revenue over a ten-year average and stabilising assignments to jagirdars; it is often associated with periodic returns and averaging of crop yields for assessment.
• Jawa / Jawa-dami - registers that recorded the assessed income of various areas; for assessment calculations the rate of 40 dama to a rupee was commonly used in administrative accounts.
• Malikana (also called nankar in some areas) referred to revenue-free land grants or cash allowances. In North India malikana was often assessed at the rate of one-tenth in specified circumstances.
• Other local fiscal practices included the nasaq system of assessment which was a rough calculation based on what peasants had paid earlier.

Army and military organisation

• The emperor was the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
• Troops available for war and internal defence fell into four broad categories:
  • Forces of tributary chiefs (semi-autonomous contingents provided by subordinate rulers);
  • The mansabdari contingents maintained by mansabdars;
  • Dakhili troops, raised by the state and paid directly from the imperial treasury;
  • Ahadi or household troopers - select, personally maintained troops of the emperor.
• The department responsible for sea and river flotillas was under the Mir-i-Bahri.
• The mansabdari system uniquely integrated military obligation with civil rank: mansabdars were given ranks (both zat and sawar) and corresponding jagir assignments for maintenance of troops.
• Some categories and terms to remember:
  • Walashuhis - royal bodyguards;
  • Barwardis - skilled foot soldiers lacking cavalry resources;
  • Kumakis - auxiliary troops;
  • Khanazadas - sons and descendants of mansabdars who could enjoy hereditary influence though the mansab itself was not hereditary.

The mansabdari system - organisation, ranks and payments

• Mansab - a numeric rank indicating an official's position in the imperial hierarchy. Each mansab generally carried two figures: zat (personal rank and status) and sawar (number of cavalry to be maintained).
• Mansabdars could be of civil or military character and often combined both roles; they formed the backbone of Mughal administrative and military service.
• The mansab was not automatically hereditary; it lapsed on death or dismissal unless reassigned by the emperor.
• Ranks below 500 Zat were commonly referred to as ordinary mansabdars; higher ranks up to 2,500 and above had special titles such as amir-i-umda or umda-i-azam.
• During Jahangir's reign an innovation called du-aspah sih-aspah (double or multiple sawar) was introduced. This meant that a mansabdar with an ordinary sawar quota might be required to maintain double that number for particular assignments.
• Example from sources: a mansabdar holding a zat rank of 3,000 and a du-aspah of 3,000 would be required to maintain 6,000 troopers in practice.
• Under Shah Jahan new scales of pay and monthly rations were introduced and regulations were issued prescribing contingent sizes for various sawar ranks.
• Jagirs (revenue assignments) were given to mansabdars to meet their maintenance; the revenue department kept registers indicating assessed incomes (jawa/jawa-dami) which aided jagir distribution.

The Zamindars and local intermediaries

• Zamindars were local landholders and intermediaries in the revenue collection system but as a rule they were not absolute owners of land; the cultivator could not normally be dispossessed as long as revenue was paid.
• Zamindars were a powerful and varied class across the empire, known by regional names such as deshmukhs, patils, nayaks, etc.
• Zamindari holdings were divisible among legal heirs and could be bought and sold; they functioned as local revenue collectors, landlords and, in many cases, local administrators and military providers.

Judiciary, law and local administration

• The judicial apparatus combined royal courts, provincial and local qazis (judges), and religious functionaries. The Sadr-us-Sadur supervised appointment of qazis and other religious judges.
• Muftis issued legal opinions (fatwas) and helped interpret Islamic law in matters brought before courts.
• Mir-i-Adl and other judicial officers were responsible for drafting and pronouncing judgements.
• Municipal and police functions in towns were carried out by officers such as the kotwal, who looked after policing, sanitation, market control and basic urban order.

Administrative practice and limitations

• Although the Mughal system had elaborate offices and written registers, much depended on personal loyalty to the emperor, periodic inspections and the competence of individual officials.
• Corruption, delays in payment to mansabdars, improper jagir assignments and local resistance sometimes limited the efficiency of central control.
• Separation of fiscal and executive powers under Akbar (subahdar and diwan split) was an institutional attempt to check provincial usurpation of power and to make administration more accountable.

The Mughal administration combined inherited Indian practices with Persian and Central Asian institutional forms to create a relatively centralised, military-backed state with a detailed system of ranks and revenue assignments. Its strengths lay in administrative records, the mansabdari recruitment and maintenance system, and a structured provincial apparatus; its weaknesses emerged from fiscal pressures, jagir mismanagement and dependence on personal loyalty. Primary sources - native chronicles, administrative manuals and foreign travellers' accounts - together provide the evidence base for reconstructing Mughal administrative practices.