History of India Page 1 of 16

HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student.)

Paper No. : Paper - III

History of India

Unit : Unit – 2
Polity

Topic No. & Title : Topic - 1

Evolution of Administrative
System

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture – 1

Mansabdari : 1

Mansabdari System

The Mansabdari System was introduced by Akbar for the

administration of his vast empire. ‘Mansab’ means rank
and ‘Dar’ means to hold; therefore a ‘Mansabdar’ means
a rank holder. It is said to be one of the major pillars of
the Mughal Administration particularly during its heydays.
It lasted in some form or the other till the 19th century.
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Under the Mughals it started as a function or a duty but

gradually it turned to mean rank of the noble. In the
early days of the Mughal Empire as well as in some form
till the middle of the 17th century there were two
problems which were involved:

i) This measure was supposed to cover all the officers of

the Mughal Empire but it does not cover all the officers.
Some of the officers are not called Mansabdars.

ii) Each Mansabdar must have a rank as well as a

contingent of ‘sawars’ or horsemen. But all officers do not
have rank or even if they do have rank they do not have
a contingent.

So sometimes a person who is a civil officer or even a

poet is getting money from the military payroll but is not
participating in the battle at all. This was nothing new. In
the Delhi Sultanate some of the poets like Amir Khusrao
had received money from the military payroll but did not
participate in battle.
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When Babur came he allotted almost three-fourth of his

conquest either to the old masters or to the new ones.
They were given an area and were responsible for the
executive as well as the financial aspects concerning that
area. They were called ‘wajidars’ and the system was
known as ‘waja’.

The Evolution of Mansabdari System

Humayun did not continue this system. He divided the

inhabitants of the Mughal Empire into three broad
divisions. One of the divisions included the Qazi and the
judicial officers were the officials like Humara, ministers.
But these began to change from the time of Akbar.
Contrary to public opinion Mansabdari System did not
develop suddenly; it has a long period of evolution. Prof.
Shireen Moosvi of Aligarh Muslim University has written
an excellent article in the Royal Asiatic Society Journal of
London in 1981 showing the experiments and the stages
of the evolution.
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We can briefly summarize her views:

The first stage starts from 1556 and this stage remains
more or less stagnant for the last ten years i.e. from the
accession of Akbar till 1566-67 in which there is
practically no rule of the Mansab. There is no fixed size of
the contingent, the salary was arbitrarily determined and
the Mansabdars were not called Mansabdars then. They
could have their own way of doing things.

The second stage starts from 1567 onwards when an

attempt was made to fix the size of the contingent
according to the salary of the Mansabdar and on the
basis of the collection of the revenue of the jagir assigned
to him.

The third stage which is the most important one, starts

from 1573-74 when a Mansabdar was given a certain
number. This number determined the position of the
Mansabdar as well as the number of cavalry he will have
to maintain along with other animals. A certain amount of
money was given in advance to him, which was called
‘barwardi’ and the final payment was made after the
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branding of the horses i.e. his horses were marked which

was called branding or in Persian ‘Dagh’. This ‘dagh’ was
given and then the final adjustment of the salary was
made.

The last stage which finalized or formalized the

Mansabdari System came in 1595-96. At this stage Akbar
gave two numbers to the Mansabdars. The first number
is called ‘Zat’ and the second number is called ‘Sawar’.
This means that the person will have a certain clear
position in the Mughal system of administration; it will
determine his position in the court and the Sawar number
means that he will have to maintain a certain number of
cavalry. His salary and other allowances are dependent
on the maintenance of this.

These two numbers had created quite a controversy at

one point of time, which has now been resolved. In the
early 20th century the British historian William Urwin said
that the two numbers meant that the Mansabdar had to
maintain two contingents of cavalry. Later Abdul Aziz the
Indian scholar said that the statement of Urwin is not
correct; the first number means his position and the
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second number means the ‘sawar’. In 1966 M. Athar Ali,

in his book ‘Some aspects of Mughal Nobility under
Aurangzeb’ had clarified the position and confirmed the
views of Aziz. He said the first position is the personal – it
determines his rank and salary and it is called ‘Zat’. The
second one which is called ‘Sawar’ determines the
number of contingents he would keep and the money
that he would get for this type of contingent. He is also
given the salary.

This suggest that the Mansabdari System had finally

evolved around 1595-96; it was not a sudden one; it had
developed through long period of experiment in which
there was a struggle between the crown and the nobility.
But by 1595-96 the struggle was practically over.

Abul Fazl, Badauni and others gave detailed accounts of

the position of the Mansabdars. There are some
differences in the authors but that is not essential to
note.
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The Complex salary structure of the Mansabdars

The problem of the salary is : the Zat rank i.e. the first
number is counted in one way and the ‘sawar’ rank is
determined in another way. For example the ‘zat’ rank is
considered a separate rank meaning that one rank has no
relation with the other ‘zat’ rank. If a Mansabdar is in the
rank of 1000 ‘zat’, he will get a certain amount of salary
and if he is promoted to 2000 ‘zat’, it does not mean he
will get double the salary. There is no arithmetical
proportion between the two ranks of the ‘zat’ system
because each ‘zat’ rank is considered a separate one for
which a separate salary is fixed. In case of the ‘sawar’
rank that salary is determined on arithmetical proportions
and therefore is totally contrary to the first one. In case
of the ‘sawar’ rank it is considered a contract rate and
the salary is determined on the unit of the sawar. For
example a contingent of 10 is considered a unit and the
salary is determined on the basis of this unit – per horse
multiplied by the rank. If there are 1000 horses and if
the salary per horse is 8, then 1000 X 8 X ranks.
Therefore the salary determination in the Mughal Empire
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of the Mansabdars depends on two different systems

contrary to each other.

In case of the ‘sawar’ rank, it is either equal to the ‘zat’

rank or less than the ‘zat’ rank but is never more than
the ‘zat’ rank. The second number is always less or equal
to the first number. There were exceptions in the last
years of Aurangzeb or from the last years of Shah Jahan
when the lower rank had become more than the ‘zat’
rank due to historical circumstances – due to crisis of the
Mansabdari System, the crisis of the Mughal Empire.

Payment of Mansabdars

There were two ways to pay the Mansabdars:

i) By cash which was called the ‘naqti’ system. Very

few were paid in cash.
ii) Assignment of the jagir. Note that it is not the
assignment of the land itself but the assignment of
the revenues of the land.
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A Mansabdar’s progeny did not inherit the land or the

jagir. Each mansabdar was appointed, promoted or
dismissed exclusively by the emperor.

Thus the assignment of the revenue of the land must be

equal to the salary of the mansabdar. In practice this did
not happen creating problems for the Mughal
administration. In this system where the jagir is
assigned, he is called the jagirdar and the Jagirdari
system is based on the estimate of revenue to be
collected in future and the Mansabdar is placed in that
jagir on the hope that such amount of revenue would be
collected by him.

This estimate of the revenue in the jagir is called ‘jama’.

It is always calculated till almost the death of Akbar in
copper coins called ‘Dam’ (48 dam equals1 rupee). It is a
highly inflated number. Therefore it was called Jama-
dami. The term has continued even later when the
revenue was calculated in term of rupees from the
second decade of the 17th century.
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The Mansabdar leases his jagir and finds that his

collection (Persian 'Hasil') is not equal to the Jama; it is
much less. Therefore he is always in arrear of the salary.
This is one problem that has dogged the Mughal Empire
till the end of its days and it has not been properly
resolved although there had been attempts to resolve
this. But far more serious is that if the Mansabdar did not
have the salary in full he cannot maintain the number of
horses he was supposed to maintain. Therefore there
were many frauds and difficulties.

To avoid these frauds and difficulties Akbar started what

is known as Dagh and Chehera. Dagh is a mark put on
the horse by branding it after inspection. Chehera is the
descriptive role of the soldier.

Do-aspa-o sih-aspa

The feature of the Mughal administration is that they

always try to make a uniform system of administration
and contradictorily they make certain compromises to
suit the local needs and the historical purposes. So there
is always a contradiction within the administrative
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system. So the mansabdar now has less money to keep

the horses. Meanwhile he has to fight and maintain a
certain number of horses. But the main problem is that
the ‘sawar’ rank cannot be more than the ‘zat’ rank or a
commander of 500 zat cannot be easily promoted, even if
he is an excellent fighter or a good commander to 2000
zat. That will create commotion within the Mughal
nobility. But to fight effectively, particularly during the
later years of Aurangzeb, when he was involved in Rajput
and Maratha wars, he must have a certain number of
contingents, more than what is sanctioned. How to solve
this?

The problem was solved by a reform popularly known as

Do-aspa-o sih-aspa. ‘Aspa’ is horse, ‘do’ means two and
‘sih’ means three. So the reform came to be known as
two horse- three horse solutions. What did it consist of?

In a normal 1000 sawar rank, the number of horses

would be 2200. Additional horses are given to some
people, not to all. If the emperor wants to increase the
strength of the sawar of this person the earlier method
was to increase the ‘zat’ rank which will immediately
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create problem and commotion among the Mughal

nobility; many will feel that they were being deprived. To
solve this problem Jahangir started to make this reform
of Do-aspa-o sih-aspa. This means that a portion of the
normal horses would be doubled with double pay. His
‘zat’ rank remains as it is. Out of 2200 horses or 1000
cavalry, it can be decided that 100 horses will be Do-
aspa-o sih-aspa i.e. instead of 1000 horses, he will have
200 horses or instead of 100 horses he will have 200
horses. And he will have a double pay with double
obligation. So two-horse-three- horse means a portion of
the sawar rank is increased to double with double pay
and double obligation.

This was first started under Jahangir’s reign, continued

during the time of Shah Jahan. By 1686 i.e. almost the
second half of Aurangzeb, out of 486 Mansabdars, 68
Mansabdars were holding this Do-aspa-o sih-aspa rank.
This creates no problem with the older nobility because
the ‘zat’ rank is not improved, he does not get a very
good place in the court, and he remains where he was.
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Mashrut

Similarly an attempt was made to increase the ‘zat’ rank

but this would create problem among the nobility so a
system called Mashrut was introduced.

The Mashrut means that the ‘zat’ rank is increased to a

higher ‘zat’ rank for only a temporary purpose for a
particular post. For example if there is a thana or if there
is a town or faujdar where there is a serious problem, the
person in-charge, the faujdari of the faujdar, he has been
given a certain rank, his rank is now increased and this
increase will remain so long as he remains in that post. If
he is transferred which is normally after every three
years on an average, then he will lose that Mashrut.
Therefore the attempts are always made by the Mughal
emperors to solve the problem but the problem still
remained. In case of salary therefore this problem is
connected with the rank and is connected more with the
Jagir System.

There is always a difference between the revenue

estimates i.e. how much revenue could be collected and
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the Hasil (the revenue actually collected). How to solve

that problem? This problem came up more before the
time of Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan introduced another
reform.

The Mansabdari System during Jahangir’s Reign

Before we consider the reform of Shah Jahan, there was

a crisis in the Mansabdari System. In fact there was a
crisis in the whole of the Mughal Empire, already at the
time of Jahangir.

During Jahangir’s time the administration had become

much lax. The number of Mansabdars had increased
tremendously. Earlier there was a view among the
English historians particularly W.H. Moreland who stated
that the reduction of the Mansabdars came in 1646. On
the basis of this statement of Moreland some Indian
historians had suggested that the reduction had come
during the early years of Jahangir. Irfan Habib had
written a very beautiful article on the Mansabdari System
which had shown this is not correct. Between 1618 and
1631 (Jahangir died in 1627; Shah Jahan came after), in
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the early years of Shah Jahan and in the later years of

Jahangir, the number of Mansabdars doubled. The ‘sawar’
rank increased three-fourth. The immediate problem was
a strain on the Mughal economy. To relieve that strain
what can be done?

The only method seems to them is to decrease the salary

of the Mansabdars – both ‘zat’ and ‘sawar’. That is what
Jahangir did. This was hinted by Moreland regarding
Shah Jahan in 1646 but was actually done by Jahangir
before that. The salary of the Mansabdars was reduced.

This created a problem; the mansabdars would revolt.

But the advantage was that at one hand the number of
‘zat’ rank had increased and on the other hand their
salary was reduced. This was a totally contradictory
situation.

The Mansabdars did not make much of a problem

because the older Mansabdars got their promotions; they
got higher ranks and got higher salary. But here is the
crux of the situation. Irfan Habib had shown that
although they were getting higher salary in paper, in
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reality they are getting much less. Why? It is because by

this time 1650s the revenue of the Mughal Empire had
increased tremendously. Therefore there should be an
increase of the ‘zat’ system and the Mansabdari System;
there should be an increase of the Mansabdars. But this
increase of the revenue was partly due to new conquest
but mostly due to the rise of prices – higher the price
rise, higher the revenue collection. Therefore if more
revenue is collected this does not mean that the
Mansabdar is getting more money. It means that in
reality the mansabdar is getting the same or perhaps less
money. Therefore in the Mughal system the crisis was not
really resolved. Thus Shah Jahan had to take some
measures to solve this problem.