Mughal Administration: Mansabdari System and Revenue Policy
The Mughal administrative system — the mansabdari system of military-civil ranks, the Todar Mal land revenue reforms, and the centralised subah-sarkar-pargana hierarchy — created the most sophisticated administrative apparatus of medieval India, whose structures the British East India Company partly inherited.
Mughal Administration under the emperors Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb represented the most systematically organised and documented governmental structure of medieval India, combining Central Asian and Persian administrative traditions with indigenous Indian practices into a centralised empire that at its peak governed approximately 150 million people — roughly a quarter of the world's population. The two defining innovations of Mughal administration were the mansabdari system (a unified military-civil rank and salary structure) and the Todar Mal land revenue reforms (a systematic measurement and assessment of agricultural land), both developed primarily under Akbar (r. 1556–1605) with his finance minister Raja Todar Mal.
The mansabdari system was introduced and systematised by Akbar. Every imperial officer (mansabdar) was assigned a numerical rank (mansab) expressed in two numbers: the zat (personal rank, determining salary and social precedence) and the sawar (cavalry rank, determining the number of horsemen the mansabdar was required to maintain for imperial service). Mansabs ranged from 10 to 7,000 (only princes and the highest nobles held ranks above 5,000). Mansabdars received their salary either as cash payments from the treasury or as jagirs — the right to collect land revenue from specified areas in lieu of salary. The mansabdari system unified the military and civil bureaucracy into a single hierarchy without hereditary rights: ranks were granted by the emperor, not inherited; transfers and dismissals were imperial prerogatives. This gave the Mughal emperor extraordinary personal control over his nobility.
The Todar Mal land revenue reforms (1580–82) were a systematic land survey and assessment that became the foundation of Mughal fiscal administration. Under Todar Mal's Ain-i-Dahsala (ten-year average) system, the empire was divided into assessment circles; each circle's agricultural land was measured (using the bigha as the unit of area), classified by quality and crop type, and assessed based on a ten-year average of prices and yields. Revenue was fixed in cash (rather than produce), forcing the commercialisation of agriculture. The system significantly increased revenue by eliminating local corruption in assessments; under Akbar's reign, imperial revenue reportedly tripled. The documents and methods of Todar Mal's revenue administration significantly influenced subsequent revenue systems, including those of the British.
What Was the Structure of the Mughal Imperial Administration?
| Level | Unit | Official | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imperial | Empire | Wazir/Diwan; Mir Bakhshi; Mir Saman; Sadr-us-Sudur; Qazi-ul-Quzat | Revenue; military; household; religious endowments; justice |
| Provincial | Subah (province) | Subedar (governor/sipahsalar); Diwan; Bakshi; Faujdar; Qazi | Governance; revenue; military; law and order; justice |
| District | Sarkar | Faujdar; Amalguzar | Military authority; revenue collection |
| Sub-district | Pargana | Shiqdar (executive); Amil (revenue); Qanungo; Patwari | Local administration; revenue records; land records |
| Village | Mauza | Muqaddam (headman); Patwari (accountant) | Village governance; local revenue collection; records |
What Was the Jagirdari Crisis and How Did It Affect the Mughal Empire?
The jagirdari crisis refers to the structural contradiction at the heart of Mughal revenue administration that contributed to the empire's 18th-century decline. The Mughal system required that mansabdars receive jagirs (revenue-collection rights over land) large enough to pay their salary and maintain their cavalry contingent. As the empire expanded under Akbar and Jahangir, there was usually sufficient land to meet all jagir demands. However, by Aurangzeb's reign:
- Mansab inflation: The total pay obligations of all mansabdars exceeded the revenue-generating capacity of available jagirs — there were too many claimants for too little land
- Jagir transfers: To prevent mansabdars from establishing local power bases, jagirs were transferred every few years — this encouraged short-term extraction rather than long-term agricultural investment
- Deccan wars: The prolonged Deccan campaigns (1681–1707) created thousands of new mansabdars without creating equivalent new revenue sources, accelerating the fiscal crisis
- Ijaradari system: Revenue farming (ijaradari) — contracting out revenue collection to the highest bidder — spread as the fiscal crisis deepened, undermining regular assessment and encouraging peasant exploitation
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the mansabdari system of the Mughal Empire?
The mansabdari system was the Mughal military-civil rank structure in which every officer held a numerical rank (mansab) expressed as zat (personal rank) and sawar (cavalry rank); it unified the bureaucracy and military into a single hierarchy under imperial control, with ranks granted rather than inherited and salaries paid as jagirs (land revenue rights) or cash.
Who was Todar Mal and what were his land revenue reforms?
Raja Todar Mal was Akbar's finance minister who introduced the Ain-i-Dahsala (1580–82) system of land revenue assessment, systematically measuring and classifying agricultural land across the empire and calculating revenue demands based on a ten-year average of prices and yields, significantly increasing imperial revenue and reducing local corruption.
What was a jagir in the Mughal system?
A jagir was the right to collect land revenue from a specified area, assigned to mansabdars in lieu of salary; the mansabdar was responsible for maintaining his cavalry contingent from this revenue; jagirs were transferred frequently to prevent mansabdars from building local power bases, creating the jagirdari crisis.
What were the key central ministries of the Mughal Empire?
The key Mughal central ministries were: the Diwan (revenue and finance, headed by the Diwan or Wazir), the Mir Bakhshi (military and mansabdari records), the Mir Saman (imperial household and workshops), the Sadr-us-Sudur (religious affairs and endowments), and the Qazi-ul-Quzat (chief justice).
What was the jagirdari crisis and how did it weaken the Mughal Empire?
The jagirdari crisis arose when the total salary obligations of mansabdars exceeded the revenue-generating capacity of available jagirs; combined with mansab inflation during Aurangzeb's Deccan campaigns, frequent jagir transfers that discouraged agricultural investment, and the spread of revenue farming, the crisis undermined Mughal fiscal capacity and contributed to the empire's 18th-century collapse.
Sources and Further Reading
According to IGNOU's BHIC-133, the Mughal administrative system was the most sophisticated governmental apparatus of pre-colonial India, and its revenue structures, provincial organisation, and record-keeping practices significantly influenced both the post-Mughal successor states and the administrative frameworks the British East India Company inherited when it acquired Indian territories.
- IGNOU BHIC-133: Units on Mughal Administration
- Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India
- W.H. Moreland, The Agrarian System of Moslem India
- M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb