Mansabdars and Jagirdars


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Mansabdars and Jagirdars

Mansabdars and Jagirdars: As the empire expanded to encompass different regions the mughals recruited diverse bodies of people. From a small nucleus of Turkish nobles they expanded to include Iranians, Indian Muslims, and Afghans, rajputs, Marathas and other groups. Those who joined mughal service were enrolled as mansabdars. The term mansabdar refers to an individual who holds a mansab, meaning a position or rank. It was a grading system used by the mughals to fix

(1) rank,

(2) salary and

(3) military responsibilities.

Rank and salary were determined by a numerical value called zat. The higher the zat, the more prestigious was the noble’s position in court and the larger his salary. The mansabdar’s military responsibilities required him to maintain a specified number of sawar or cavalrymen. The mansabdar brought his cavalrymen for review, got they registered, and their horses branded and then received money to pay them as salary. Mansabdars received their salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs which were somewhat like iqtas.

But unlike Muqtis, most mansabdars did not actually reside in or administer their jagirs . They only had rights to the revenue of their assignments which was collected for them by their servants while the mansabdars themselves served in some other part of the country.

In Akbar 's reign these jagirs were carefully assessed so that their revenues were roughly equal to the salary of the mansabdars. By Aurangzeb's reign this was no longer the case and the actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum. There was a huge increase in the number of mansabdars , which meant a long wait before they received a jagir. These and other factors created a shortage in the number of jagris .As a result , many Jagirdars tried to extract as much revenue as possible while they had a jagir.Aurangzeb  was unable to control these developments in the last years  of his reign  and the peasantry therefore suffered tremendously.

 
 


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