THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
(ADMINISTRATION)
REFERRAL
Mughal administration was a mix of Central Asian and Indian traditions. It was
a centralized monarchy and the ruler enjoyed absolute power.
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION –
The king was the head of both civil and military administration. He was assisted
by a council of ministers.
The Wakil was the Prime Minister
The Diwan or Wazir was the head of the revenue and expenditure department
The Mir Bakshi was the minister of military administration
The Mir Saman was the minister of royal household
The Sadr-i-Sadur was minister for enforcing the sharia (i.e the Islamic law)
The Qazi was the chief judge
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION The empire was divided into Subahs (provinces), each governed by a subahdar.
He was an important link between the emperor and the province. Each
province or suba was divided into districts or sarkars. Each Sarkar was divided
into many parganas . Each pargana was further divided into many villages. The
village was the smallest unit of administration.
Empire
Subahs
Sarkars (districts)
Parganas
Villages
Officials were posted in every administrative positions and were paid regular
cash salaries. Sometimes they received jagirs for distinguished services.
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION –
The Kotwals was the in-charge of the town administration, maintained law and
order , checked weights and measures, kept a record of the people living in the
area.
Village headmen called muqaddams collected land revenue and patwaris
maintained revenue records.
ARMYThe Mughal army had infantry, cavalry, war elephants and artillery. All Mughal
emperors maintained a group of trained and well equipped royal bodyguards
and armed palace guards. Navy was there in Akbar’s reign but was rather
weak.
MANSABDARI SYSTEM –
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
It was introduced by Emperor Akbar. The word mansab means a position
or a rank. Mansabdar was the person who holds a mansab.
It had a system of ranking for all appointments to determine salary and
privileges.
A mansabdar’s rank was divided into two- zat and sawar. The rankings
were based on the number of men and the horses the person
commanded.
The salary of a mansabdar was fixed in cash. Before receiving his salary,
mansabdar had to present his horsemen for inspection (chehra) to
prevent substitution and their horses were branded (dagh) to prevent
theft.
Some mansabdars were paid in cash, but generally they received jagirs.
It was carefully assessed before granting because its revenue had to be
equal to the mansabdar’s cash salary.
Jagirs were not granted permanently to anyone except the Rajputs, who
surrendered themselves were granted watan jagirs.
Mansabdars could take the help of faujdars to forcibly collect revenue
from peasants
The mansabdars were personally chosen by the emperor and could be
promoted, demoted or transferred as per emperor’s wish.
LAND REVENUE SYSTEM –
Raja Todarmal, Akbar’s revenue minister, was the main architect of Akbar’s
land revenue system. It was based on Sher Shah’s land revenue system. Each
peasant’s land was measured and its yield assessed. Todarmal calculated the
states share of each crop through the Zabt system. Under this policy, the land
was divided into four categories according to the produce i.
Polaj
Polaj was the ideal and best type of land throughout the empire. This land was
cultivated always and was never allowed to lie fallow.
ii.
Parati or Parauti
This was the land kept out of cultivation temporarily in order to recover its lost
fertility (1-2 years)
iii.
Chachar
Chachar was a kind of land allowed to lie fallow for three or four years and then
resumed under cultivation.
iv.
Banjar
Banjar was the worst kind of land that was unsuitable for cultivation.
Raja Todarmal introduced the dahshala system in which 



The quality of land was considered before fixing the land revenue.
The revenue to be paid in a year was calculated on the basis of a 10 year
average of the yield .
The state took one-third of the average yield.
The revenue could be paid in cash or kind.
This system of land revenue continued largely unchanged for more than 100
years. This land revenue system was also known as ‘ Todarmal’s bandobast’.
***************