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Establishment of Jagir and Mansab System

Establishment of Jagir and Mansab System

Section titled “Establishment of Jagir and Mansab System”

2020-04-27 12 :29: 34

Mansabdari System

Section titled “Mansabdari System”
  • Mansab means a place or position or rank. It fixed his status in officer, his salary and number of no of armed mem to be supplied by them ie a combination of civil & military responsibilty

Percival Spear called it ‘elite within an elite’.

  • They were appointed to all nobles and military commanders except Judiciary. Salary was paid mostly paid in jagir.
  • A rank was accorded to them and assigned a number of cavalry to be supplied by them. Rank varied from 10-5000 for nobility and 7000-10000 for the Princes. Imperial forces mostly consisted of contingents maintained by mansabdars.
  • Those whose Mansabs were less than 500 were called Mansabdars, 500-2500 were called Amir and above 2500 were called Amir-i-Umda. [given different in IGNOU]
  • Abul Fazl mentions 66 grades of Mansabdars but in practice only 33 were there.
  • King Himself appointed and was free to change it whenever he desired.
  • Salary was paid in Cash and Jagirs. Salaries of soldiers were added to personal salary of mansabdar. At times jagirs were also allotted to soldiers.
  • It was not hereditary. Huliya and Dagh system was also there. The troops raised by the emperor but not paid directly by the state and placed under the charge of mansabadars were known as Dakhili.

Evolution of the Mughal Ruling Class

Section titled “Evolution of the Mughal Ruling Class”
  • During the 1st half of the 17th century Iranis and Turanis declined from 62 - 52%.
    • Among them Iranis made substantial gains and maintained their position under Shah Jahan. They monopolised all important offices viz Diwan, Mir Bakshi, Mir Saman etc.
    • Iranis were not foreigners but migrants who came to India due to its riches, security and absence of sectarian bias.
  • Afghans and Indian Muslims inc from 17.88 - 20.46%.
    • Afghans were discriminated under Akbar.
    • Unlike Iranis and Turanis they were not given administrative posts or governorship.
  • Rajputs continued to dominate among Hindu nobles. Towards the end of Shah Jahan’s reign there was signs of tension b/w Rajputs and Mughals.
  • There was a steady promotion of a small number of members belonging to the administrative services generally drawn from Khatri and Kayastha class including a few Brahmans.
  • These measures braodened the social base of the Mughal ruling class.

Evolution of Mansabdari System

Section titled “Evolution of Mansabdari System”
  • System of gradation could be traced back to Genghis K divided into Yuz-Bushi , Hazara 100 and Tuman or 10,000 but the actual no of horseman commanded was not known.
  • Division of service into regular grades was unique to Akbar. But only Abul Fazl has given ranks no other historian did so.
  • Also no of actual horseman entertained was not known since Jama was inflated always. Akbar used the dagh and chehra to check this. Junior official used these to harass even senior nobles.
  • Badayuni says that after presenting the no of required soldiers as per their mansab, mansabs were increased.
  • Number of Mansabdars doubled during Jahangirs reign and grew 4.2 times by end of Shah Jahans reign. Reason for this :
    • Mansab became a matter of prestige and everyone including physicians, painters, wrestlers wanted it.
    • Excessive Generosity of Jahangir. J also wanted a new nobility dependent on him on account of rebellions.
  • The increase in Mansab was far greater than the growth of Jama. To cope with this zat and sawar salaries were reduced progressively.
  • The no of sawars and mounts a mansabdar was to maintain was also scaled down this was to proved disastrous when the Deccan flared up -> military and financial problems.
  • This gap b/w available resources and the requirements of mansabdars was hidden due to changes in mansabdari system. This was an early manifestation of jagirdari crisis.

Zat and Sowar

Section titled “Zat and Sowar”
  • The Idea of Zat and Sowar developed later in his reign. A/C to Abul Fazl was introduced in the 40th regnal year.
  • The numerical value that was assigned to the Mansabdar was called a Zat. It was a type of personal rank.
  • There have been various definitions to what Zat and Sawar meant.
  • As per AL Srivastava Zat was the total number of soldiers under a Mansabdar and Sawar indicated the number of horsemen under him. This was in practice not done.
    • No. of Sawar = the No. of Zat. = 1st Class Mansabdar ie they maintained sawars equal to their mansab ranks.
    • No. of Sawar 1/2 the No. of Zat = 2nd Class Mansabdar. Maintained half or more than their mansab ranks.
    • No. of Sawar 1/2 the No. of Zat = 3rd Class Mansabdar who had less than half the sawars wrt to their mansab ranks.
  • Zat and Sawar meant the same earlier but since 1595 and later Zat indicated personal pay and status of a noble and sawar was the actual no of horsemen expected from him.
  • Zat salary was an additional payment as per modern historian Abul Aziz and jagirs were awarded for its payment.
    • This was fixed on basis of them being in 1st, 2nd or 3rd class.
  • Salar of the sawar was fixed on the no of horses and quality of them.
  • The cost of collection of salaries from jagirs did not exceed 1/4th as per Moreland.
  • During the time of Shah Jahan Zat and Sawar rank salaries were reduce. They were contract rates which a mansabdar was paid to hire sawars.
  • After the dag was introduced state did not fix the salary of a sawar.
  • Jahangir introduced the du-aspa-si-aspa or 2-3 horse rank. Du-aspa-si-aspa Rank holder would have to maintain double the number of sawars vis-a-vis normal mansabdar. The emperor could maintain larger contingent without raising his zat rank. Not all sawars were to be made du-aspa-si-aspa.
  • Under Shah Jahan’s regin the practice of realm/ daulat started. Those in North India who had their jagirs in the province would muster 1/3rd of their sawar ranks, outside the province would muster 1/4th in areas of Balk and Badakshan it was reduced to 1/5th.

Merits and Demerits of M System

Section titled “Merits and Demerits of M System”
  • #todo Merits
  • was first such system in India that was both systematic and progressive despite being under a despotic monarch.
  • Established a link b/w chieftanship and feudalism reducing the need of the emperor from the grips of feudal lords esp among tribals.
  • Post of Mansabdars was not hereditary and received salary directly from emperor.
  • Emperor directly controlled their removal and appointment making them faithful and devoted to emperor decreasing chances of revolt.
  • Encouraged non-muslims to join the system esp under Akbars rule.

Demerits

  • Were paid in jagirs instead of cash that later led to its stagnation and deterioration and a Jagirdari crisis.
  • Many of the mansabdars were foreigners and apathetic towards an Indian empire.
  • Akbar failed to organise a national army through it
  • Since sawars and soldiers received money from Mansabdars their loyalty was to their master instead of the emperor which unfortunately did not led to the formation of a national army.
  • Mansabdars during the time of review used to muster their soldiers who lay idle during most of the time making them less trained.
  • Army also did not have any uniform rules for their systematic training and different weapons leading to non regimentation of the army.

Nature of Mansabdari System

Section titled “Nature of Mansabdari System”

Jagirdari System

Section titled “Jagirdari System”
  • It was feudal land grant where the right to collect revenue on a piece of land was assigned to an individual in lieu of cash salary. The land was called Jagir and individual a Jagirdar.
  • It did not mean the ownership on the land
  • During the Sultanate period it was called Iqta
  • It was assigned to a mansabdar. The estimated revenue was called ‘jama o jamdari’ and was callculated in Dams. Dam was a copper coin
  • Various official who collected revenue were Karkun, Amirs, Fotedars, Qanungo etc Akbar from his 20th yr of reign appointed Amirs to oversee such procedure
  • During the reign of Jahangir and Shah Jahan it was given for eight monthly most of the time but never less than 4 monthly.
  • From Akbars time the Jama was highly inflated for the Deccan and jagirs there were given out for only 3-4 months.

The Various Types of Jagirs Were

Section titled “The Various Types of Jagirs Were”
  • Jagir Tankha : were given in lieu of pay. Most common type, it was transferable
  • Mashrut Jagir : given on certain conditions
  • Inam Jagir : no involvement of services and were independent of rank
  • Watan Jagir : given to Zamindar/ Rajput Rajas in their homeland. It was hereditary

![[12.1 Factors-for-decline-of-the-Mughal-Empire#Jagirdari Crisis]]

PYQs

Section titled “PYQs”

Establishment of Jagir and Mansab systems

  1. Bring out the main features of the Mansab and Jagir systems with special reference to the reign of Akbar. [1987, 60m]
  1. Analyse the merits and demerits of the Mansabdari System. How did it work under Akbar’s successors? [1993, 60m]
  1. Write a short essay on: “Mansabdari System” [2002, 20m]
  1. Examine the Mansab and Jagir system by Akbar and its subsequent failure in the 18th century. [2011, 30m]
  1. How was lqta system of the Sultans different from the Jagir system under the Mughals? [2014, 15m]