History Mughal Empire - IV

Mughal Empire - IV
1. In 1577 Akbar undertook the reform of the currency
and appointed  Khwaja Abdus Samad Shirazi, a noted
painter and calligraphist, to be the superintendent of the
imperial mint at Delhi.
2. Besides Delhi,  provinical mints were located at
Lahore, Jaunpur, Ahmedabad, Patna and Tanda (in Bengal).
3. The  silver coin  issued during Akbar’s reign was
round in shape, like its modern successor, and was known
as rupee. It weighed 172 grains.

4. Akbar also introduced a square rupee called Jalali,
but it was not as popular as the round rupee.
5. The chief copper coin was the dam or paisa or fulus.
It weighed 323.5 grains or almost 21 grams.
6. The ratio between the dam and the rupee was 40 to 1.
7. The lowest copper coin was jital. 25 jitals made one
paisa.
8. The most common  gold coin was the  Ilahi, which
was equal to 10 rupees in value.
9. The biggest gold coin was the  shahanshah. It
weighed a little over 101 tolas and was used mostly in high
value business transactions.
10. The coins bore calligraphic inscriptions containing
name and titles of the emperor and the place and year of
mintage. Very few coins had figures inscribed on them.
11. The  judicial system of Mughals was based on
Islamic law. As it was not possible in practice to enforce
Islamic law on Hindus, a compromise was effected. While
criminal cases continued to be decided according to the
Islamic law in all cases, Hindu law was administered in
deciding civil and religious disputes in which the parties
were Hindus.
12. Although Akbar had rejected the Islamic theory of
kingship, he made no fundamental change in the judicial
system.
13. One important change introduced by Akbar in the
judicial system was to restrict the scope of Islamic law and
to extend that of general or customary law of the land so as
to make it include as many causes as possible.
14. Akbar did not apply Islamic law of capital punish-ment for apostasy from Islam or for propagating Hinduism
or Christianity.
15. Akbar appointed Hindu judges to decide the caus-es of Hindus.
16. The king was the highest judge in the Mughal
empire. The next judicial authority was the  qazi, who was
appointed by the emperor and worked during his pleasure.
17. Originally, the chief qazi’s main qualifications used
to be his knowledge of Islamic theology and his narrow sec-retarian views. Akbar, however, appointed to this post men
of liberal religious outlook and broad sympathies towards
all sections of the society.
18. Chief qazi was paid his salary in cash, as also was
given an assignment of land entitled Madad-i-Mash or sub-sistence allowance.
19. Qazis were assisted by  muftis, whose main duty
was to interpret the law and issue a fatwa.
20. Akbar’s  police administration was divided into
three categories of urban, district and village police.
21. In all cities and towns  kotwal headed the local
police. His main duty was to see that the life of the city con-tinued undisturbed. Besides, he had to examine weights and
measures, keep an eye on the currency and enforce Akbar’s
social legislation.
22. Kotwal was personally held responsible for the
value of property stolen in case he failed to discover the
thief.
23. The  kotwal was authorised to inflict punishment
on offenders. However, he was not empowered to inflict
capital punishment.
24. In the district the law and order was maintained by
the faujdar. His main duties were the policing of the roads
of the district and suppressing of disorders of all kinds.
25. The village headman was responsible for policing
at the village level.
26. The imperial service during Akbar’s reign was
organized on bureaucratic principles, but was military in
organization and outlook.
27. The most  flourishing towns during Akbar’s
regime were Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, Allahabad,
Benaras, Lucknow, Lahore, Multan, Ujjain, Ahmedabad,
Ajmer, Patna, Rajmahal and Dhaka.
28. The most important industry of the time was culti-vation of cotton and manufacture of cotton cloth. The prin-cipal centres of cotton manufacture were Jaunpur, Benaras,
Patna, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Khairabad and Akbarpur.
29. Agra, Fatehpur Sikri and Lahore were important
centres of silk-weaving.
30. The principal outlets for  foreign sea-borne trade
during Akbar’s regime were Cambay, Surat and Broach in
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Gujarat, Lahori Bandar in Sindh, Bassein, Chaul and Dabul
(modern Bhabol) in the Ratnagiri district, Goa and Bhatkal,
Calicut and Cochin in Malabar, and Negapatnam and
Masulipatnam on the east coast, and Satgaon, Sripur,
Chatgaon and Sonarghat in Bengal.
31. Two main land routes for exports were Lahore to
Kabul and beyond, and from Multan to Kandhar and
beyond.
32. Gold and silver were not allowed to be exported
during the Akbar’s regime. Only imports were allowed.
33. Among the popular indoor games during Akbar’s
reign were  chaupar, phansa and  pachisi. Akbar was
particularly fond of chandalmandal and pachisi.
34. The Tajak, a well-known work of Astronomy, and
the Tazuk-i-Baburi, or the memoirs of Babur, were translat-ed into Persian during Akbar’s reign.
35. The  Mahabharat was rendered into Persian by
Naqib Khan, Abdul Qadir Badayuni and Shaikh Sultan of
Thanesar and was named Razm-nama, the book of wars.
36. The  Lilawati, a Sanskrit treatise on Mathematics,
was rendered into Persian by Faizi.
37. Among the  notable works of literature during
Akbar’s regime were: Abul Fazal’s Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari, Nizamud-Din Ahmad’s  Tabqat-i-Akbari, Gula-badan Begam’s  Humayun-Nama and Jauhar’s  Tazkirat-ul-Waqayat. Abbas Sarwani produced the  Tohfa-i-Akbar
Shahi alias Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi.
38. Akbar ordered the compilation of the history of
1000 years of Islam, and Naqib Khan Mullah Mohammad
of Thatta and Jaffer Beg were commissioned to write out the
work. The book, with an introduction by Abul Fazi, became
known as the Tarikh-i-Alfi.
39. The reign of Akbar was golden age of Hindi poet-ry. The  most notable luminaries of Hindi  were Tulsi Das,
Sur Das, Abdur Rahim Khan Khana, Ras Khan and Birbal.
40. Among the famous works of Tulsi Das were Ram-charitmanas and Vinaya Patrika.
41. Akbar created a separate department of  painting
and  Khwaja Abdus Samad, one of the best painters of his
court, was placed at its head.
42. Abdus Samad  was a Persian who had come from
Shiraz. He was given the title of  Shirin-qalam or ‘sweet
pen’.
43. Daswanth, Basawan, Kesu, Lal, Mukand, Madhu,
Jagan, Mahesh, Tara, Khem Karan, Sanwla, Haribansh and
Ram were some well-known  Hindu painters during
Akbar’s reign. They were experts in portrait painting.
44. According to Abul Fazal eight modes of  calligra-phy were in vogue at Akbar’s court, of which the eighth
kind, named Nastaliq, was specially favoured by Akbar.
45. The most important calligraphist at Akbar’s court
was  Mohammed Hussain Kashmiri,  who was given the
title of  Zarin Qalam. Some of the other famous cal-ligraphists were Maulana Baqir, Mohammed Amin of
Mashad, and Mir Hussein Ralanki.
46. The Ain-i-Akbari gives names of 36 first-rate musi-cians in Akbar’s court. They were arranged in seven divi-sions. Each division was required to entertain Akbar for one
fixed day in the week.
47. Akbar himself was a skilled musician and was an
expert performer on Naqqara (kettle drum).
48. Tansen was the most notable musician of the age.
He had been trained in a school established at Gwalior by
Raja Man Singh Tomar.
49. Baba Ram Das was another famous musician of
Akbar’s court and was ranked next only to Tansen.
50. Sur Das, besides being a great poet, was also a
musician of Akbar’s court.
51. The  gigantic forts at Agra, Lahore and Allahabad
were built by Akbar.
52. The Agra fort resembles that of Gwalior. It has two
main gateways, namely, the Delhi gate and the Amar Singh
gate. Inside, about 500 buildings of red sandstone were
built. Most of these were later pulled-down by Shahjehan.
53. The  greatest architectural achievement  of Akbar
was his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri. Three sides of Fateh-pur Sikri are covered by a wall and the fourth side by an
artifical lake. The walls have nine gates, of which  Buland
Darwaza, built of marble and sandstone, is “one of the most
perfect architectural achievements in the whole of India”.
54. Decorative carving was an important feature of
Mughal architecture.
55. Mughals brought the concept of geometrically
designed  gardens to India. The chief characteristic of
Mughal gardens was artificial irrigation in the form of chan-nels, basins or tanks, and dwarf waterfalls.
56. The most important garden associated with Akbar
is at Sikandra. In the centre of this garden stands his mau-soleum.
57. Akbar was illiterate. But, he acquired knowledge of
theology, literature, philosophy, history, etc. by having
books read out to him every day.
58. Akbar was the first ruler of Medevial India to
discard the Islamic basis of sovereignty and to lay down the
principle that the king was the father of all his subjects,
irrespective of caste, race or religion.
59. Akbar sought to strengthen the society by doing
away with its evils. He tried to abolish Sati, child-marriage
and old-age marriage. He did not allow circumcision before
the age of 12, and allowed Muslim converts to go back to
their original religion if they liked.
60. Akbar attempted to give his empire cultural unity
by making Persian the court language and by providing in
that language (either by translation or original composition)
the best Hindu and Muslim thought, religious as well as
secular.
61. Most of the fine arts, such as architecture, painting
and music were nationalised and made the common
property of the Hindus and Muslims alike.
62. Akbar gave his empire the political and adminis-trative unity of the highest kind possible in that age, by
giving all the provinces the same system of administration,
the same set of officials, the same administrative methods,
the same revenue system and the same coinage.

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History Mughal Empire - III

Mughal Empire - III (Administration under Akbar)
1. Like other Muslim monarchs, Akbar was, at least in
theory, subordinate to the wishes of entire Muslim popula-tion  (millat), which, in turn, was guided by the Muslim
learned divines called the  Ulema. Akbar sought to remove
this check to his will and became the supreme authority over
his Muslim subjects by promulgating the  Infallibility
Decree (Mahzar) in September 1579.

2. Akbar believed that the king must be absolutely
tolerant to every creed and must establish universal peace in
his dominion.
3. As per Abul Fazal’s  Akbarnama, Akbar appeared
three times every day for State business. Early at sunrise he
used to be ready at jhroka-i-darshan to show himself to his
subjects. Here he was accessible to the common people and
listened to their complaints. Next, he used to hold an open
court which generally lasted for four and a half hours. Peo-ple from both sexes were allowed to submit their petitions
and the emperor used to decide the cases on the spot.
4. In the afternoon Akbar used to hold a full durbar in
the  Diwan-i-Aam.  Here he attended to daily routine busi-ness, particularly relating to forces, workshops and to the
appointment and promotion of mansabdars and granting of
jagirs.
5. In the evening and often during night Akbar used to
meet his ministers and advisers in the private audience hall
called Diwan-i-Khas, where special business relating to for-eign relations and internal administration was attended to.
6. Late in the night, Akbar used to discuss confidential
matters related to war, foreign policy and internal adminis-tration in a room called  Daulat Khana,  which became
known in the times of Jehangir as Gusal Khana, owing to its
proximity to the royal bathroom.
7. The Central government under Akbar consisted of
four departments, each presided over by a minister. These
ministers were:  Vakil (Prime Minister),  Diwan or Wazir
(Finance Minister), Mir Bakhshi (Pay-Master General), and
Sadar-us-Sadur (Chief Sadar).
8. The Mughal ministers did not constitute a Cabinet in
the modern sense of term. They were basically secretaries. The
initiation of the policies was in the hands of the emperor.
9. The first finance minister of Akbar was  Muzaffar
Khan.
10. Todar Mal, Muzaffar Khan and  Shah Mansur
were the three most notable finance ministers of Akbar and
all the three were skilled financiers and first-rate adminis-trators.
11. The  Diwan or finance minister was assisted by
Diwan-i-Khalsa, who was incharge of  Khalsa  (crown or
reserved) lands;  Diwan-i-Jagirs, who was incharge of the
lands that were given in lieu of service or as free grants
(sayurghal);  Sahib-i-Taujih, who was incharge of military
accounts; and Diwan-i-Bayutut, whose duty was to super-vise the accounts of various workshops attached to the
court.
12. The  Mir Bakhshi or Pay-Master General ranked
next to the imperial  Diwan. His office corresponded to the
Diwan-i-Ariz of the Sultanate period.
13. The Mir Bakhshi was required to maintain a regis-ter in which names, ranks and salaries of mansabdars were
recorded. All orders of appointment to mansabs of all ranks
were passed through his office. One of his most important
duties was to prepare a list of guards who had to keep watch
around the royal palace.
14. The Chief Sadar or  Sadar-us-Sadur discharged
three-fold duties, namely, to act as the religious adviser to
the emperor, to disburse the royal charity, and to function as
the chief justice of the empire.
15. After Akbar reorganized his administration and
rejected the Islamic theory of government, the Chief Sadar
ceased to be the supreme religious adviser.
16. Akbar divided his empire into well-defined
provinces or subas, and established uniform administration
in them. In 1602, the provinces numbered 15.
17.  The three provinces of South  (Dakhin), namely,
Khandesh, Berar and Ahmadnagar, were constituted into a
single viceroyalty and were placed under Prince Daniyal.
18. In each suba, there was a governor, styled as Sipah
Salar,  a  diwan, a  bakhshi, a  sadar, a  qazi, a  kotwal, a  mir
bahar and a waqaya navis.
19. The  Sipah Salar (governor) was the head of the
province. He was popularly called subahadar and some-times only ‘suba’. He was appointed by the emperor and was
responsible for the welfare of the people of his province, as
also administer even-handed justice. He was also entrusted
with the work of realizing tribute from the vassal States
situated within the boundaries of his suba.
20. The provincial  Diwan was the second most
important officer of the  suba. He was appointed on the
recommendation of the Imperial Diwan.
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21. There were two parallel and mutually independent
authorities in every province. The Sipah Sadar was the head
of the military, police and executive services, while the
Diwan was the head of the civil and revenue branch—he
reported directly to the Imperial Diwan and was not subor-dinate to the governor.
22. Generally one officer was appointed to discharge
the functions of both the Sadar and the Qazi.
23. Waqaya Navis was incharge of posting news-writers and spies in all important places in the province.
Generally a separate officer was given this job, but at times
the provinical Bakhshi was given the dual charge.
24. The Kotwal was incharge of internal defence, sani-tation and peace in the provincial capital. He was the
supreme administrator of all thanas of the province.
25. The Mir Bahar was incharge of customs and boats
and ferry taxes, and port duties in coastal towns.
26. Each province or suba was divided into a num-ber of districts or Sarkars. Every district had a faujdar,
an  amalguzar, a  qazi, a  kotwal, a  bitikchi and a
khazandar.
27. The head of the district was faujdar. He had three
principal duties to perform: First, to maintain peace and
tranquility in his jurisdiction, to keep the roads free from
robbers and thieves, and to enforce imperial regulations;
Secondly, being a military officer, he was incharge of a small
force or local militia. It was his duty to keep this army ready
for service; Thirdly, he was required to assist the amalguzar
(the collector) in the work of revenue collection.
28. Amalguzar or the revenue collector was the second
most important official of a district. He was also required to
punish robbers and other miscreants in order to protect the
peasantry.
29. The  Bitikchi was an important assistant of amal-guzar. His duty was to prepare necessary papers and
records regarding the nature of land and its produce and it
was on the basis of these records that the assessment was
made by amalguzar.
30. Each sarkar (district) was divided into a number of
parganas or mahals. The pargana was the lowest fiscal and
administrative unit of administration.
31. There were four principal officers in every pargana.
They were: the  shiqdar, the  amil, the  fotadar and the
karkun. Besides, as in the times of Sher Shah Suri, there were
two other semi-official functionaries: the  qanungo and the
chaudhri.
32. The  Shiqdar was the executive officer of the  par-gana and was responsible for its general administration.
33. The amil (sometimes called the Munsif) had to dis-charge the same duties in the pargana as the  amalguzar in
the sarkar.
34. The Fotadar was the treasurer of the pargana. The
karkuns were the writers and kept land record.
35. The Qanungo was the head of the patwaris of the
pargana and kept records of the crops, the revenue
demands, actual payments, arrears, etc.
36. The Mughals had no navy, but as their eastern
and western frontiers touched seas, they had large num-ber of sea-ports in their possession. All sea-ports were
treated as independent administrative units. For exam-ple, Surat was classed as a sarkar and comprised several
parganas.
37.  Every town of considerable importance had an
independent kotwal appointed to take charge of municipal
duties, besides police work. In small towns, these duties
were looked after by amalguzar.
38. The  uniforms of the  kotwal and the city police
were of red colour.
39. Akbar recognised the village panchayats as a legal-ly established court of justice and upheld its decisions.
40. Akbar introduced the mansabdari system to organ-ise his armed forces more effectively.
41.  All imperial officers, except the  qazis and the
sadars, were enrolled as members of the mansabdari sys-tem and were required to maintain some troops propor-tionate to their ranks. All the vassal chiefs, who were
rulers of semi-independent States, were also enlisted as
mansabdars.
42. Some  mansabdars commanded troops that were
recruited directly by the State and not by the  mansabdar
concerned. Such troops were called dakhilli or supplemen-tary troops.
43. Ahadis were the gentlemen troopers who were
recruited individually and were under the command of a
separate  mansabdar or officer, and had a  diwan and a
bakhshi of their own. Ahadis were considered very efficient
and loyal troops and were paid high salaries.
44. An officer was incharge of each branch of the army
and was known as Mir Atish.
45. Many elephants were trained to catch enemy
soldiers and dash them against the ground. Such elephants
carried two soldiers and two guns called gajnals.
46.  Akbar’s army consisted of officers and troops of
several nationalities, over two-thirds of whom were foreign-ers. Thus, it was not a national army, and was not bound by
common interests and common sentiment of love for the
country.
47. The fiscal sources of Mughal empire under Akbar
were divided into two main divisions—central and local.
48. The central revenue was derived from Commerce,
Mint, Presents, Inheritance, Salt, Customs and Land. Of
these the land revenue was the most lucrative and impor-tant.
49. Akbar abolished the  religious taxes  charged from
Hindus, such as the  pilgrims’ tax and the jaziya.  Zakat,
which was of two kinds, namely, first a religious tax from
the Muslims only, and second, on cattle and some other
articles, lapsed gradually.
50. Akbar undertook a  series of experiments to
improve the revenue collection and management. The first
of the experiments was undertaken in 1563, when Akbar
appointed  Aitmad Khan to look after the affairs of the
Khalisa lands which comprised the provinces of Agra, Del-hi and a part of Lahore.

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