Mughal Administration, Economy & Culture

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is a favourite hunting ground for SSC and RRB paper-setters because it is pure fact, no interpretation needed. Mansabdari ranks, the meaning of zat and sawar, who built which monument, which painter served which emperor — these questions have a single correct answer and examiners love that. Expect 2 to 4 questions from this chapter alone in most SSC CGL/CHSL/MTS General Awareness sections and a similar share in RRB NTPC/Group D GK.

The sub-topics that repeat most are the mansabdari system (zat vs sawar, du-aspa sih-aspa), Todar Mal's land revenue settlement (zabt and dahsala), the ranking of Mughal monuments by builder, and the four schools of Mughal painting under different emperors. Trade terms like "factory" and coins like the rupiya also show up as one-word answers. Read the tables in this chapter twice; they carry more marks per line than the prose.

1. Central Administration

The Mughal Empire, from Akbar onward, ran on a centralised bureaucracy with the emperor (Badshah) at the apex, holding absolute power in theory but working through a set of central ministers called wazirs or heads of departments (diwans).

Key central offices:

Office	Function
Wakil / Wazir	Chief minister, oversaw all departments; under Akbar the post lost some power as departments became more independent
Diwan-i-Ala (or Diwan)	Finance minister, head of revenue and expenditure
Mir Bakshi	Head of military administration, in charge of mansabdars' pay and muster rolls, also handled intelligence
Sadr-us-Sudur	Head of religious and charitable grants, also chief justice in religious matters (Qazi-ul-Quzat handled ordinary justice)
Khan-i-Saman	In charge of the royal household, karkhanas (workshops), and imperial stores

The emperor issued farmans (royal orders). Under Akbar, the empire was divided into twelve subas (provinces) after his conquests; this number grew as territory expanded under Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, eventually reaching about fifteen to twenty by Aurangzeb's later years.

2. Provincial and Local Administration

Each suba (province) was headed by a Subedar (also called Sipahsalar or Nazim), appointed directly by the emperor and responsible for law and order and general administration. He was assisted by other officials who reported independently to the centre, a deliberate check-and-balance system so no single provincial officer became too powerful.

Key provincial officials:

Official	Role
Subedar / Nazim	Head of the province, in charge of general administration and defence
Diwan (provincial)	Provincial finance officer, reported to the central Diwan, independent of the Subedar
Bakshi (provincial)	Military pay and muster officer at province level
Qazi	Judicial officer, dispensed justice per Islamic law for Muslims
Kotwal	In charge of law and order within a town or city
Faujdar	Military commander of a smaller administrative unit (sarkar), maintained order and helped collect revenue

Below the suba, the administrative units descended in order: suba (province) to sarkar (district) to pargana (sub-district) to village. Each sarkar had a Faujdar and an Amalguzar (revenue collector). Each pargana had a Shiqdar (executive officer), an Amin (revenue officer who verified assessment), a Qanungo (kept records of land and crop history), and a Fotedar (treasurer). The village remained the smallest self-governing unit, with a headman (muqaddam) and an accountant (patwari) keeping local land records, largely undisturbed by the changes above it. This continuity of village-level institutions from the Sultanate period is a point SSC likes to test.

3. The Mansabdari System

The mansabdari system was the backbone of Mughal administration, organising both the bureaucracy and the army under a single rank structure. Akbar formalised it, though earlier Central Asian rulers had used similar ideas.

Every officer of the state, whether posted in the court, the provinces, or the army, held a mansab (rank), expressed in two numbers: zat and sawar.

• Zat indicated the personal status and salary of the mansabdar, and roughly the number of troops he was required to maintain.
• Sawar indicated the actual number of cavalrymen (horsemen) the mansabdar had to provide for the imperial army.

A mansabdar with, say, zat 5000 and sawar 5000 was called "5000/5000," while one with zat 5000 and sawar 3000 (fewer horsemen than his personal rank) was "5000/3000." When zat and sawar were equal, the rank was called du-aspa sih-aspa in a special sub-category introduced later, though that specific term is more precisely used for mansabdars who were paid extra to maintain more horses per trooper (for better quality cavalry), a refinement credited to Jahangir's reign.

Mansab ranks ranged theoretically from 10 to 10,000 (or higher for princes of the blood, who could hold 20,000 and above). Ranks above 5000 were normally reserved for princes and the highest nobles.

Key features of the mansabdari system:

• Mansabdars were not hereditary. Rank was granted by the emperor and could be increased, reduced, or withdrawn.
• Mansabdars were paid either in cash (naqdi) or by assignment of a jagir (see below).
• A mansabdar had to maintain horses and troops according to his sawar rank, verified by branding of horses (dagh) and descriptive rolls of soldiers (chehra), a system to prevent fraud where nobles claimed troops they did not actually keep.
• The system fused civil and military roles: a mansabdar could be a provincial governor, a revenue officer, or a military commander, all under the same rank framework.

4. Jagirdari System

The jagir was an assignment of the right to collect land revenue from a specified territory, given to a mansabdar in lieu of cash salary. This should not be confused with ownership of land; a jagirdar collected revenue but did not own the soil, and jagirs were transferable, not hereditary.

Land under the empire was broadly of two types:

• Khalisa land, whose revenue went directly to the imperial treasury.
• Jagir land, whose revenue was assigned to mansabdars as their salary.

Jagirs were frequently transferred from one mansabdar to another, partly to prevent any noble from building a lasting local power base. This constant transfer, however, discouraged jagirdars from investing in the long-term welfare of their assigned territory, since they might be moved before reaping the benefit; historians count this among the administrative weaknesses that grew worse by Aurangzeb's reign, when the number of mansabdars increased faster than the available jagir land, creating a shortage called the jagirdari crisis.

5. Land Revenue System

Akbar's land revenue reforms are the most tested part of this chapter and are largely credited to his finance minister Raja Todar Mal, though the system built on earlier Sultanate-era and Sher Shah Suri practices.

Key terms:

Term	Meaning
Zabt (or Zabti)	System of revenue assessment based on measured land area and fixed cash rates per unit, crop-wise
Dahsala	The "ten-year settlement" (introduced around 1580), where average produce and prices of the previous ten years were used to fix the annual cash revenue demand, smoothing out yearly fluctuations
Bandobast	General term for Todar Mal's revenue settlement system
Batai (or Ghalla-bakshi)	Crop-sharing system, where the state's share of the actual harvest was taken in kind, used where measurement was not practical
Nasaq	An estimate-based system using past revenue records, used as an interim or rough method
Kankut	Estimation of the standing crop's yield before harvest, an older method retained in some regions

Under zabt-dahsala, land was classified into four categories based on cultivation continuity: Polaj (cultivated every year), Parauti (left fallow for a short time to recover), Chachar (left fallow for three to four years), and Banjar (uncultivated for five years or more, taxed at the lowest rate to encourage revival). The state's standard demand was roughly one-third of the average produce, paid in cash, though the exact share varied by region and crop.

Zabt was applied mainly in the core northern and north-western provinces (Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Allahabad, Awadh, Multan) where land measurement was feasible; other systems continued in less accessible or newly conquered regions.

6. Trade, Commerce and Economy

Mughal India, especially under Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, saw considerable expansion of internal and overseas trade, helped by political stability, standard currency, and improved roads.

Currency: Akbar issued the silver rupiya as the standard coin, a system Sher Shah Suri had pioneered earlier and which the Mughals continued and refined. Gold coins were called mohur, and copper coins dam. This trimetallic currency (gold, silver, copper) allowed transactions across different scales of trade.

Major exports included cotton textiles (calico, muslin), indigo, saltpetre, spices, and raw silk. Major imports were mostly luxury items such as high-quality horses, some metals, and European goods, since India was largely self-sufficient in food and manufactured goods and ran a favourable balance of trade, bringing in bullion (silver) in exchange.

European trading companies established coastal "factories" (trading posts, not manufacturing units in the modern sense) during this period:

• The Portuguese were already established at Goa (1510) before the Mughals rose to power.
• The Dutch East India Company set up factories at Surat, Pulicat and elsewhere from the early 1600s.
• The English East India Company received a farman from Jahangir (following Sir Thomas Roe's embassy, 1615-1619) permitting trade and a factory at Surat; it later expanded to Madras (1639), Bombay (received 1668), and Calcutta (1690).
• The French East India Company arrived later in the century, establishing Pondicherry (1674).

Important trade towns and ports included Surat (the principal port for pilgrims and trade to West Asia, called the "gate to Mecca"), Masulipatnam, Hooghly, and inland centres like Agra, Lahore, Delhi, Patna and Ahmedabad, known for textile production.

Craft production was organised partly through royal karkhanas (workshops) producing goods for the court, and partly through independent artisans and guild-like organisations in towns, producing textiles, metalwork, and other goods for both domestic use and export.

7. Mughal Architecture

Mughal architecture blended Persian, Central Asian and Indian styles, using red sandstone and white marble, arches, domes, and formal char-bagh (four-part) garden layouts. It is one of the most visually testable topics; questions often ask which emperor built which monument.

Babur and Humayun (early phase): Babur laid a few gardens and mosques (little survives intact). Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, actually completed under his son Akbar (commissioned by his widow Hamida Banu Begum, built 1565-1572, architect Mirak Mirza Ghiyas), is significant as an early example of the char-bagh garden-tomb style that anticipated the Taj Mahal.

Akbar's buildings:

• Agra Fort (begun 1565), built of red sandstone.
• Fatehpur Sikri (built from around 1571, later largely abandoned due to water shortage), Akbar's short-lived capital, containing the Buland Darwaza (built to commemorate his Gujarat victory, among the tallest gateways in the world), the Jama Masjid, the Panch Mahal (a five-storey pillared pavilion), the Diwan-i-Aam and Diwan-i-Khas (halls of public and private audience), and the tomb of Sufi saint Salim Chishti in white marble.
• Akbar's own tomb at Sikandra, near Agra, completed under Jahangir.

Jahangir's period: Jahangir was more a patron of painting and gardens than of monumental buildings, but the Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb at Agra (built by Nur Jahan for her father, completed 1628) is important as the first Mughal building made entirely of white marble with pietra dura (inlay) work, seen as a step toward the Taj Mahal's style.

Shah Jahan's period, the peak of Mughal architecture:

• The Taj Mahal at Agra (built 1632-1653, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, chief architect traditionally identified as Ustad Ahmad Lahori), a white marble mausoleum on a raised platform beside the Yamuna, famous for its symmetry, the central dome, four minarets, and pietra dura inlay using precious and semi-precious stones.
• The Red Fort (Lal Qila) in Delhi (built 1638-1648), Shah Jahan's new capital's citadel, containing the Diwan-i-Aam, Diwan-i-Khas (with the inscription "if there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this"), and the Rang Mahal.
• The Jama Masjid, Delhi (completed 1656), one of the largest mosques in India.
• The Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) inside Agra Fort.
• The Peacock Throne (Takht-i-Taus), a jewel-encrusted throne, later carried away by Nadir Shah's invasion in 1739 (an event covered in the next chapter).

Aurangzeb's period: Building activity slowed due to his austere temperament and constant campaigning, but he built the Badshahi Mosque at Lahore (completed 1673) and Bibi ka Maqbara at Aurangabad (completed around 1660s, built for his wife, often called a smaller echo of the Taj Mahal).

8. Mughal Painting

Mughal painting developed as a distinctive court art, blending Persian miniature techniques (brought by artists who had worked under the Safavids) with indigenous Indian styles.

• Humayun brought two Persian master painters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad, to his court during his exile in Persia; they later trained Indian artists under Akbar.
• Akbar actively patronised painting, setting up a large studio (karkhana) of painters. The Hamzanama (a series of illustrated manuscript paintings depicting the adventures of Amir Hamza), created over roughly 1562-1577, is a landmark project of his reign, combining Persian and Indian elements. Akbar's studio also illustrated Persian translations of Indian epics and historical works like the Akbarnama.
• Jahangir is regarded as the emperor with the finest personal taste in painting; he claimed he could identify the individual hand of each artist in a group work. His reign favoured naturalistic portraiture, studies of birds, animals and flowers, and fine brushwork, with painters like Ustad Mansur (famous for natural history studies) and Abul Hasan prominent at his court.
• Shah Jahan's period continued portraiture and durbar scenes but with a more formal, static quality, and increasing use of gold and rich colour, reflecting the era's love of grandeur.
• Aurangzeb's lack of interest in painting caused a decline in imperial patronage; many artists moved to regional courts (Rajasthan, the Deccan, the Punjab Hills), which is why later "Rajput" and "Pahari" painting schools show strong Mughal influence.

9. Literature and Language

Persian remained the official court language throughout the Mughal period, and most major histories and biographies were composed in it.

Key Persian works:

Work	Author	Notes
Baburnama	Babur	Memoirs, originally in Chagatai Turkish, later translated into Persian
Humayun-nama	Gulbadan Begum	Biography of Humayun by his sister
Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari	Abul Fazl	Official chronicle of Akbar's reign and a detailed administrative gazetteer, the single most important source for Akbar's administration
Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri	Jahangir	Jahangir's own memoirs
Padshahnama	Abdul Hamid Lahori (and later others)	Official chronicle of Shah Jahan's reign
Alamgirnama	Mirza Muhammad Kazim	Chronicle of the early part of Aurangzeb's reign (official histories stopped later in his rule)

Regional languages also flourished under Mughal-era patronage or alongside the court, though not always directly sponsored by the emperors themselves. Hindi/Braj Bhasha poetry (as covered in the Bhakti chapter), Persian poetry at provincial courts, and translations of Sanskrit texts (such as parts of the Mahabharata rendered into Persian as the Razmnama under Akbar) show the era's mixed literary culture. Urdu began emerging as a literary language in this broad period, developing more fully in the Deccan Sultanates and later north Indian courts.

10. Society under the Mughals

Mughal society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobility (mansabdars) at the top, followed by a middle layer of merchants, professionals and lesser officials, and a large base of peasants and artisans. Akbar's policies of religious tolerance (abolition of jizya in 1564, later reimposed by Aurangzeb in 1679) and inclusion of Rajput and other Hindu nobles in the mansabdari ranks marked a distinct feature of Mughal governance compared to the Delhi Sultanate. Women of the royal household, such as Nur Jahan (Jahangir's wife) and Jahanara and Roshanara (Shah Jahan's daughters), held real political and economic influence at points in this period, an unusual feature worth remembering for MCQs on "who held actual power."

This administrative and cultural framework built under Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan began fraying under Aurangzeb's long reign and its aftermath, a decline covered in the next chapter along with the rise of regional and Maratha power that filled the vacuum.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• The mansabdari system ranked officers by zat (personal status/salary) and sawar (cavalry to be maintained).
• Mansabdars were not hereditary; ranks could be raised, lowered or cancelled by the emperor.
• A jagir was an assignment of revenue collection rights, not land ownership.
• Frequent transfer of jagirs discouraged long-term investment by jagirdars in their territory.
• The jagirdari crisis (shortage of jagir land versus number of mansabdars) worsened under Aurangzeb.
• Raja Todar Mal is credited with Akbar's systematic land revenue settlement.
• Zabt system assessed revenue based on measured area and fixed cash rates per crop.
• Dahsala (ten-year settlement) fixed revenue using the average of the previous ten years' produce and prices, from around 1580.
• Land was classified as Polaj, Parauti, Chachar and Banjar based on cultivation continuity.
• The state's standard revenue demand was roughly one-third of average produce.
• Batai/Ghalla-bakshi was a crop-sharing system taken in kind.
• Akbar issued the silver rupiya as the standard Mughal coin; gold coin was mohur, copper was dam.
• Surat was the leading Mughal-era port, called the "gate to Mecca."
• The English East India Company got Jahangir's farman for trade after Sir Thomas Roe's embassy (1615-1619).
• The Dutch, English, French and Portuguese all had trading factories in Mughal India at different points.
• Fatehpur Sikri was Akbar's capital, abandoned later mainly due to water shortage.
• The Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri commemorates Akbar's Gujarat victory.
• Humayun's Tomb (completed 1565-1572) anticipated the char-bagh garden-tomb style of the Taj Mahal.
• Itmad-ud-Daulah's tomb, built by Nur Jahan, was the first Mughal building fully in white marble with pietra dura.
• The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan (1632-1653) for Mumtaz Mahal; chief architect traditionally named Ustad Ahmad Lahori.
• The Red Fort in Delhi was built by Shah Jahan (1638-1648) as his new capital's citadel.
• The Peacock Throne was carried away by Nadir Shah's invasion in 1739.
• Aurangzeb built the Badshahi Mosque at Lahore (completed 1673).
• Humayun brought Persian painters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad to India.
• The Hamzanama was a major illustrated manuscript project under Akbar.
• Jahangir's reign is known for naturalistic painting; Ustad Mansur specialised in natural history studies.
• Abul Fazl wrote the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari.
• Gulbadan Begum, Humayun's sister, wrote the Humayun-nama.
• Jahangir wrote his own memoirs, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri.
• The Razmnama was a Persian translation of the Mahabharata prepared under Akbar's patronage.
• Akbar abolished jizya in 1564; Aurangzeb reimposed it in 1679.

Memory Tables

Table 1: Monument — Builder — Year (approx.)

Monument	Built by	Approx. year
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi	Hamida Banu Begum (for Humayun)	1565-1572
Fatehpur Sikri (incl. Buland Darwaza)	Akbar	from c. 1571
Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra	Completed under Jahangir	Completed c. 1613
Itmad-ud-Daulah's Tomb, Agra	Nur Jahan	Completed 1628
Taj Mahal, Agra	Shah Jahan	1632-1653
Red Fort, Delhi	Shah Jahan	1638-1648
Jama Masjid, Delhi	Shah Jahan	Completed 1656
Badshahi Mosque, Lahore	Aurangzeb	Completed 1673
Bibi ka Maqbara, Aurangabad	Aurangzeb (for his wife)	c. 1660s

Table 2: Key Administrative/Revenue Terms

Term	Meaning
Zat	Personal rank and salary status of a mansabdar
Sawar	Number of cavalry a mansabdar must maintain
Jagir	Assignment of revenue-collection rights, not land ownership
Khalisa	Crown land whose revenue went directly to the treasury
Zabt	Cash revenue assessment based on measured land area
Dahsala	Ten-year average based revenue settlement, from c. 1580
Batai / Ghalla-bakshi	Crop-sharing revenue system
Faujdar	Military-cum-police officer of a sarkar (district)
Amalguzar	Revenue collector at sarkar level
Qanungo	Keeper of local land and crop records at pargana level
Patwari	Village-level land record keeper

Table 3: Court Painters and Their Patron Emperors

Painter	Patron emperor	Known for
Mir Sayyid Ali & Abdus Samad	Humayun/Akbar	Brought Persian style to India, trained Indian artists
Basawan, Daswanth (studio artists)	Akbar	Illustrated Hamzanama, Akbarnama
Ustad Mansur	Jahangir	Natural history paintings (birds, animals, flowers)
Abul Hasan	Jahangir	Fine portraiture

Practice MCQs

Q1. In the mansabdari system, which term denoted the number of cavalry a mansabdar was required to maintain? (a) Zat (b) Sawar (c) Jagir (d) Faujdar

Q2. Who is traditionally credited with systematising Akbar's land revenue settlement? (a) Bairam Khan (b) Raja Todar Mal (c) Abul Fazl (d) Man Singh

Q3. The "dahsala" system fixed cash revenue based on the average of how many years' produce and prices? (a) Five years (b) Seven years (c) Ten years (d) Twelve years

Q4. Which of the following best describes a "jagir" under the Mughal administration? (a) Hereditary ownership of land granted to nobles (b) A tax-free religious endowment (c) An assignment of the right to collect land revenue from a specified area (d) A title given only to military commanders in the Deccan

Q5. Match the monument with the emperor who built it.

1. Taj Mahal A. Akbar
2. Buland Darwaza B. Shah Jahan
3. Badshahi Mosque, Lahore C. Aurangzeb
4. Itmad-ud-Daulah's Tomb D. Jahangir (via Nur Jahan) (a) 1-B, 2-A, 3-C, 4-D (b) 1-A, 2-B, 3-D, 4-C (c) 1-B, 2-C, 3-A, 4-D (d) 1-D, 2-A, 3-C, 4-B

Q6. The Buland Darwaza at Fatehpur Sikri was built by Akbar to commemorate his victory in: (a) Bengal (b) Gujarat (c) Chittor (d) Malwa

Q7. Who wrote the "Ain-i-Akbari," the detailed gazetteer of Akbar's administration? (a) Faizi (b) Abul Fazl (c) Badauni (d) Gulbadan Begum

Q8. Which Mughal emperor's memoirs are recorded in the "Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri"? (a) Babur (b) Humayun (c) Jahangir (d) Shah Jahan

Q9. The English East India Company obtained trading rights and a factory at Surat following the embassy of which Englishman to Jahangir's court? (a) Sir Thomas Roe (b) William Hawkins (c) Ralph Fitch (d) Peter Mundy

Q10. Which of the following is the correct term for Akbar's silver coin that became the standard Mughal currency? (a) Dam (b) Mohur (c) Rupiya (d) Tanka

Q11. Arrange the following in chronological order of construction: 1. Red Fort, Delhi 2. Humayun's Tomb 3. Taj Mahal 4. Fatehpur Sikri (a) 2-4-1-3 (b) 2-4-3-1 (c) 4-2-3-1 (d) 2-1-4-3

Q12. Which official at the pargana (sub-district) level was responsible for keeping historical records of land and crops? (a) Amin (b) Qanungo (c) Shiqdar (d) Fotedar

Q13. The "jagirdari crisis" of the later Mughal period refers to: (a) A shortage of horses for cavalry (b) A shortage of available jagir land relative to the number of mansabdars (c) A dispute over succession among jagirdars (d) The abolition of jagirs by Aurangzeb

Q14. Which of the following statements about Mughal painting is correct? (a) Aurangzeb was its greatest patron (b) Jahangir's court is particularly known for naturalistic studies of birds and animals (c) The Hamzanama was completed under Shah Jahan (d) Mir Sayyid Ali was an Indian-born painter trained under Akbar

Q15. Land left uncultivated for five years or more, taxed at the lowest rate under Akbar's revenue classification, was called: (a) Polaj (b) Parauti (c) Chachar (d) Banjar

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
Q1	(b)	Sawar denoted the cavalry strength a mansabdar had to provide
Q2	(b)	Raja Todar Mal is credited with Akbar's revenue settlement (zabt-dahsala)
Q3	(c)	Dahsala means "of ten years," using ten years' average produce and prices
Q4	(c)	Jagir was a revenue-collection assignment, not land ownership
Q5	(a)	Taj Mahal-Shah Jahan; Buland Darwaza-Akbar; Badshahi Mosque-Aurangzeb; Itmad-ud-Daulah's Tomb-Nur Jahan under Jahangir
Q6	(b)	The Buland Darwaza commemorates Akbar's Gujarat conquest
Q7	(b)	Abul Fazl authored both the Akbarnama and the Ain-i-Akbari
Q8	(c)	Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri is Jahangir's own memoir
Q9	(a)	Sir Thomas Roe's embassy (1615-1619) secured trading rights from Jahangir
Q10	(c)	Rupiya was Akbar's standard silver coin, continuing Sher Shah's model
Q11	(b)	Humayun's Tomb (1565-72), Fatehpur Sikri (from 1571), Taj Mahal (1632-53), Red Fort (1638-48)
Q12	(b)	Qanungo kept historical land and crop records at the pargana level
Q13	(b)	The number of mansabdars outgrew available jagir land, especially under Aurangzeb
Q14	(b)	Jahangir's court favoured naturalistic studies, notably by Ustad Mansur
Q15	(d)	Banjar was land uncultivated for five or more years, taxed at the lowest rate