Introduction:- The word mansab means a place or position and therefore it means a rank in the mansab system under the Mughals. Akbar gave mansabs to both military and civil officers on the basis of their merit or service to the state. To fix the grades of officers and classify his soldiers, he was broadly inspired by the principles adopted by Chinghiz Khan. As we have seen Chinghiz’s army had been organised on decimal system. The lowest unit was of ten horsemen, then came one hundred, one thousand and so on. Abul Fazl states that Akbar had established 66 grades of mansabdars ranging from commanders of 10 horsemen to 10,000 horsemen, although only 33 grades have been mentioned by him. Mansab denoted three things: i) It determined the status of its holder (the mansabdar) in the official hierarchy. 2) It fixed the pay of the holder. 3) It also laid upon the holder the obligation of maintaining a specified number of contingentwith horses and equipment. The Dual Ranks: Zat and Sawar Zat:-first number (zat) placed the mansabdar in the appropriate position among the officials of the state and, accordingly, the salary of the mansabdar was determined. Sawar:-The second rank (sawar) determined the number of horses and horsemen the mansabdar had to furnish. The three classes of mansabdars:- In 1595-1596, the mansabdars were classified into three groups:- a) those with horsemen (sawar) equal to the number of the zat; 5000/5000 b) those with horsemen half or more than half of the number of the zat, 5000/2500 c) those whose sawar rank was less than half oftheir zat rank.5000/2000 Salary and payment:- Payment to the mansabdars was based on the principle of a clear distinction between zat and sawar ranks. The pay for the zat rank (khasa) to the mansabdar was separated from payments due to him for his sawar rank (tabinan). For the zat rank a mansabdar was paid salary either in cash or through land assignment known as Jagir. For maintenance of the troops or the sawar rank, mansabdars were paid separately on the basis of pay fixed per unit of sawarrank. The pay of the sawars in the central Mughal army varied depending upon the types of horses they used as well as their expertise in the war fare which ranged between Rs 200-350.Akbar:- The evolution of the mansab system under Akbar has been a matter of little debate among the scholars particularly with regard to the year of its institution. W H Moreland (1936) was of the opinion that the mansabdari system was introduced in the 11th year (1566-67) of Akbar’s reign when sawar rank was introduced as the nobles failed to keep the required quota of the troops assigned to them. But A J Qaiser (1961) has challenged Moreland’s view on the ground that no numerical ranks existed before Akbar. She has argued that the zat and sawar ranks were introduced in the 18th year (1973-74) of Akbar’s reign. the different stages of the evolution of mansab system during the reign of Akbar which is as under: 1. There were no fixed standing military obligation in terms of the size of the troopers during the first decade of Akbar’s reign and salaries were paid to the nobles in an arbitrary manner.2. In the 11th year of Akbar’s reign, an attempt was made to fix the size of the military obligation and the nobles were asked to maintain troops based on revenues of their assignments (jagir). 3. In the 18th year of Akbar’s reign, a single numerical rank (mansab) was introduced. This single rank determined the salary as well as the number of sawars and animals that were to be maintained by the rank holder (mansabdar). 4. In the 40th year, mansabdars were categorised on the basis of number of sawars maintained in proportion to the mansab rank. 5. In the 41st year (1596-97), zat and sawar ranks were introduced and mansab became dual in nature. The zat represented the personal rank of the holder and fixed his pay and the number of animals to be maintained whereas the sawar rank indicated the number of horsemen the mansabdar was required to maintain.Jahangir:- During the reign of Jahangir, a new rank du-aspa sih-aspa was introduced which was connected with the sawar rank. Since sawar rank could not be more than the zat rank, the du- aspa sih-aspa rank enabled the Mughal government to increase the military obligation of a mansabdar without raising his zat rank. There were two variants of the application of du- aspa sih-aspa rank. In one case, the entire sawar rank could be converted into du-aspa sih-aspa and in another; a portion of the sawar rank could be turned into du-aspa sih-aspa. Applicability of these variants can be illustrated by taking one example of a mansabdar holding a rank of 3000 zat 3000 sawar. In case the whole sawar rank was converted into du-aspa sih-aspa rank, the official method of expressing this formula was 3000 zat 3000 sawar hama(all) du-aspa sih-aspa. In such a case, the military obligation of the said mansabdar would be expressed as3000*2=6000 sawars. In the second variant, where a portion of sawar rank was converted into du-aspa sih-aspa,the official expression of the above mansabdar’s rank would be3000 zat 3000 sawar 1000 du- aspa sih-aspa. In such a scenario, the military obligation of the mansabdar was expressed as 2000+1000*2 sawars= 4000 sawars. In the latter case where 1000 sawars were turned into du- aspa sih-aspa, the rest 2000 were termed as barwardi. From the above illustration, it is clear that the military obligation under du-aspa sih- aspa rank was double that of the barwardi. Shahjahan:- Another significant change in the Mansab system, necessitated due to problems in the actual functioning of this system, was introduction of month scale (mahwar) by Shah Jahan. The essence of the problem was growing gap between the revenue assessment (jama) of a jagir and the revenue collected (hasil) by a jagirdars as a part of his salary claim (talab). Itwas noticed since the beginning of his reign that while on paper the jamashowed certain amount, actual hasil was sometime half or one fourth of the salary claim of the mansabdars. Month scale was introduced by Shah Jahan in order to bring down this disparity. Under this system, :- jagirs that fetched salary equal to six months was termed as shashmaha (six monthly) and those one-fourth was termed as sihmaha (three monthly). The salary of the naqdi mansabdars were also reduced through a farman of Shah Jahan, issued in 1653 whereby it was directed that salary of the naqdi mansabdars should not be fixed above ashtmaha (eight monthly) or less than ‘four monthly’ rates. Exceptions were made to this rule mainly in case of few high ranking nobles and royal princes, latter’s salary being fixed at ‘ten monthly’ rates. Besides the month scale, another change introduced by Shah Jahan in the Mansab system was the rule of 1/3rd, 1/4th and 1/5thwhereby military obligations of themansabdars were reduced depending upon the place they were deployed. This measure was necessitated due to mansabdars not keeping the specified number of troops as per their sawar rank despite drawing salary for the entire contingent of sawars. This tendency of the mansabdars can also be accounted for by the disparity between jama and hasil and this practice was resorted to by them to compensate for loss in their salary. The amount paid to the mansabdars for their sawar rank was also reduced in similar proportion. The system of month scale and proportions were indicators of crisis in the functioning of the Mansab system which, as we shall see, had long term implications for the Mughal Empire. Aurangzeb:- The conditional rank (mashrut) was an additional feature of the mansab system which was added to the original zat and sawar rank of the mansabdar. The mashrut rank was given to fulfill the additional requirement of a post heldby a mansabdar. For example, if a mansabdar was appointed to the post of a faujdar of a particular district, and if was felt that for effective discharge of his duties he needs additional soldiers, then additional 100 was added to his sawar rank along with the zat rank. However, after the transfer of the incumbent or once he relinquished the said post, the additional mashrut rank was withdrawn. Mashrut was an emergency measure adopted in the time of crisis, that is, the permission to recruit more horsemen at the expense of the state. Crisis at mansabdari system:- Mansab was the basis of the administrative structure of the Mughal Empire. Introduced by Akbar, it aimed at organising and controlling heterogeneous nobility as well as to ensure collection of central share of the revenue fromlarge parts of the empire. The fundamental features of the mansab and jagir system continued to be operational with minor modifications by succeeding rulers to deal with economic and military needs. While the system operated smoothly till the reign of Jahangir, contradictions in the working of these started emerging from the time of Shah Jahan which assumed proportion of a full blown crisis by the last quarter of Aurangzeb’s reign. Crux of the problem was increasing gap between jama and hasil which increased the discontentment among the ruling class. This, added with factional conflict within the nobility, politicalopposition to the empire rising from several regions, financial drain due to prolonged Deccan wars, inability of the central government to bring about changes in the rural relationship and ever-increasing rural tensions brought down the efficacy of the mansab and jagir system. Conclusion:- Thus, to conclude, one can see its roots in prethat the Mansabdari system may have had existing Mongoloid or Turkish traditions but the system that finally developed in the 46 th regnal year of Akbar was far more complex, more elaborate and more organised than its predecessors.While, the essential nature and working of this system was not changed under Akbar’s successors a number of new innovations were made in the 17 th century that helped in refining the defects in the system. It was because of this efficient system that the strength and stability the Empire could be maintained. However, by the time of Jahangir and Shahjahan the number of Mansabdars had increased exponentially. This not only decreased the area under direct state control but also proved to be a major financial burden on the empire. As the mansab far exceededthe jama, the zat and sawar salaries had to be reduced progressively and consequently the number of troops that the mansabdars were expected to maintain were also reduced. This proved to be a major blow to the military prowess of the Empire especially at a time when there was a serious breakdown of law and order in the Deccan. Satish Chandra has gone on to Say that the gap between available resources and requirements of the mansabdars may be considered as the early manifestation of the “jagirdari crisis” that became a major reason for the decline of the Mughal Empire.