Question

What is the difference between mansabdars and jagirdars?

Answer 1

The Mughals enrolled people of all races and religions into government jobs, and they were known as mansabdars. Mansabdar means a man with a mansab and mansabdari was a grading system to decide the rank, salary and military responsibilities of government officials. Mansabdars received salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs.

-During Akbar’s reign Jagirs were assessed so that their revenues were roughly the same as the salary of the mansabdar-However, things changed by Aurangazeb’s rule-during this time, actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum-the number of mansabdars also increased, thus leading to a long wait before they received a jagir-these and other factors led to a shortage in the number of jagirs- jagirdars tried to get as much revenue as possible while they had a jagir-Aurangazeb unable to control these developments during the end of his reign-peasantry suffered.

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Further Reading

1. Write a brief note on the story of Babur

2. Write a brief history of Maharashtra in the 17th Century CE.