The Mansabdari System of Mughal Empire: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

The Mansabdari system was primarily a mechanism to institutionalize the Mughal administration with great emphasis on the military organization through numerical method. The efficiency of the system was based on the continuous maintenance of the required number of contingent with the assigned source of income namely jagir. Thus, the very nature of the system necessitated the accurate assessment of the revenue of each and every jagir, so that the allotment of certain jagirs could be made in accordance with the military contingents to be maintained by the Mansab holders. This is the core and crucial point which triggered all kinds of problem in the system. Therefore, the problems of the system range from the land measurement, revenue assessment, and pay schedule to the decline in the obligations and finally keeping fictitious relevance of the system with several modifications without breaking away with that.