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.
257 XOCTOBER 2004 XTHE COMPETITION MASTER
CIVIL SERVICES (PRELIMS) EXAM SPECIAL
QUICK REVISION NOTESTM
on Indian History
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.
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.
257 XOCTOBER 2004 XTHE COMPETITION MASTER
CIVIL SERVICES (PRELIMS) EXAM SPECIAL
QUICK REVISION NOTESTM
on Indian History
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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