Tag: Jagir

Introduction

The Mansabdari and Jagirdari systems did not start off suddenly. It is a practice that developed from the bureaucracy in medieval India. Emperors of the Delhi sultanate had captured the vast regions, and to govern those territories, they established a bureaucracy. In the past, emperors appointed their military leaders as governors, and occasionally they selected their well-trained slaves to lead those regions. High-ranking court officials were assigned designated areas to administer and were permitted to receive tax revenue as compensation. Akbar proposed the concept of Mansab and Jagir. The Mughal empire’s growth and fall were both significantly influenced by the mansabdari system. In the Mughal era, the bureaucracy systems mansabdari and jagirdari both existed.

The Mansabdars

• Mansab in the Mughal court denoted a position or rank. The Mansabdari system was developed under the Mughal court.
• People with a rank in the Mughal emperor’s service are known as mansabdars.
• In this system, the top officials were assigned specific grades and positions in the Mughal court.
• The Mughal court made nobles into mansabdars which included Muslims from India, Rajputs, Afghans, etc. also the Military and civilian authorities equally served as mansabdars.
• To determine a fixed position, military responsibilities, and salary, mansab ranks were assigned.
• The mansabdars were symbolized by a number called Zat, which set their wages and rank in the emperor’s court. The higher the Zat, the higher the mansabdar’s standing in the court.
• 29 mansabdars with a rank of 5000 or higher existed during the reign of Akbar.
• The number of soldiers, cavalrymen, and horses that a mansabdar was required to present to the king were also based on the numerical value of zat.
• Zat and Sawars demoted the Mansabdars. The Sawars represent the required number of cavalrymen and horses.
• The Mansabdars were required to register their cavalrymen and brand their horses.
• The position of mansabdar was transferred; and not hereditary.
• Both money and land were given to mansabdars as payment.
• They were regarded as elites.

Check out more videos in Social Science Class 7 , Lesson No. 4 to learn about the Mughal Empire. Study its history, Akbar’s progressive policies, and the factors leading to the dynasty’s decline. This lesson offers valuable insights into the fascinating history of the Mughals.

The Jagirdars

• Jagirdars were mansabdars who received payment in the form of a plot of land or Jagir.
• The iqtadari system of the former Delhi Sultanate inspired this custom of compensating the nobility with the land.
• It must be kept in mind that Jagirdars were distinct from Iqtadars in that they were only given the power to collect taxes from that jagir as their compensation rather than being given control of that territory.
• Jagirdar had a responsibility to pay his troops, and cavalrymen, and maintain the standard of the horses.
• Following a thorough evaluation, the king granted them a jagir so that the revenue received would equal their salary.
• The Jagirdars used to live opulent lives.
• The position of a Jagirdar was not hereditary and could be transferred.
• Jairdars and mansabdars didn’t live in the jagirs that were given.
• They had servants who were in charge of collecting money for the jagirdars.
• The imperial authorities monitored jagirdars to prevent them from using the peasants as a means of generating extra revenue and force on them to extra taxes.

Drawbacks of Jagirdars and Mansabdars system

There were some drawbacks in these systems such as-

• The mansabdari and jagirdari institutions functioned effectively under Akbar’s rule, and he appointed officials to maintain their control.
• Although there were more mansabdaars later in Aurangzeb’s reign, there were fewer jagirs available, therefore mansabdars had to wait a long time to obtain one.
• After receiving the jagir, they sought to maximise their income by taking advantage of the peasants and occasionally used Faujdar, a military commander, to collect taxes.
• The mansabdars, or nobles, amassed immense wealth in the seventeenth century, which expanded their influence.
• As the Mughal dynasty began to fall apart, they gradually established their own monarchy, claimed the land as their inherited jagir, and began to rule over those places. This was seen in the Awadh and Hyderabad provinces.
• They continued to regard the Mughal emperor as their superior but maintained their autonomy.

Summary

The Mughal government was highly developed and sophisticated. With several innovations, it had adapted the administrative procedures and framework of the preceding dynasties and developed its own king of bureaucracy. Akbar was the innovator of the Mughal administration. The bureaucracy ran smoothly and effectively during his reign. In order to create Mansabdars and Jagirdars, Akbar modified the earlier system of iqtadars. The Mansab was based on the rank and position a manasabdari held in the mughal court and the Jagirdars were mansabdars who received their daily wages in the form of jagir. Both of them received taxes from the allotted province but they never ruled them. These positions were transferable and not inherited, it contributed to both the growth and fall of the Mughal empire.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who were the Zamindars?

Ans: In the Mughal era there was a Zamidari system, and they were governed by the Zamindars.

• Zamindars were members of the rural elite who exercised administrative control over a region, whilst Jagirdars had no such authority.
• The Rajputs or another reigning family were the ancestors of the zamindars.
• The Jairdars were not always members of the previous aristocracy.
• Rural zamindars were small-scale landowners.
• Additionally, zamindars had forts and an army.
• Zamindars, as opposed to Jagirdars, had inherited control over tax collection.\
• While Jagirdars were stationed in the Mughal court, Zamindars often lived in their region.

2. What does Tajwiz mean?

Ans: Tajwiz was a formal request made by a Noble to the emperor for the names of candidates to be recommended for the position of mansabdar.

3. How many classes existed within the Mansabdars?

Ans: The three classes of masabdars were as follows:

• The first class was required to keep an equal number of sawars and jat.
• The second class was required to keep jat and a half or more than half of its sawars.
• The third class kept jat and  just over half or less of its sawars.

Introduction

During the Mughal era, the Mughals established the idea of Watan jagirs, where Watan denotes the realms of the local kings in that region and jagir denotes the land gift. After repeated conflicts with the Mughals, these regional kingdoms, in a sense, recognized their suzerainty over them. Akbar, who understood the value of Rajput support in enabling him to consolidate and expand his kingdom, initiated this watan jagir policy throughout his rule. He, therefore, made an effort to win the Rajputs’ allegiance by putting the Watan Jagir philosophy into practice by providing them with important posts with lots of autonomy.

What is Watan Jagir?

The Rajputs remained the Mughals’ greatest obstacle to extending and establishing their empire during this time. Mughals devised the concept of Watan jagirs to address this. Even though the Mughal kings prevailed in the fight, they did not acquire the kingdom of the victorious ones under this system. Instead, the king of that particular region or province was permitted to continue ruling his kingdom as long as he was willing to submit to the Mughal emperor. According to this idea, a king continued to rule his kingdom while the Mughal emperor was in charge. These monarchs eventually received a significant amount of authority in their watan jagirs.

One of the intriguing things about this watan jagir was that it wasn’t hereditary, so if the king of a watan jagir dies, his successor won’t get the entire watan; instead, the portion of it will be given to him by his mansab. The Mughals used to exert authority over Rajput monarchs in this manner.

How did Watan Jagirs rise under Rajputs

Gaining the respect and confidence of the Rajputs was crucial for the Mughals to grow their empire. As a result, the Mughals made an effort to win the support of the Rajputs by deepening their relations with them, giving them important positions in the government and army, adopting non-interference policies in their internal matters, and giving them watan jagirs. Rajput-Mughal ties were well-managed before Shajahn’s rule, but things started to deteriorate after Aurangzeb assumed the throne of the Mughals. And this started to worry both the Mughal elite and the Rajput kings.

Although Watan Jagir was first implemented by Akbar, it was effectively entrenched under Jahangir’s rule. Rajput’s rajas of Amber and Jodhpur, for example, received great autonomy to rule their watan. Some of these Rajput rajas provided the Mughals with steadfast service. They received outside jagirs (the nearby ones) or subas as payment for their service, in addition to their watan jagirs. The Subedari of Gujarat and Malwa were greeted by Raja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur, and the Subedari of Malwa was held with Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber.

As Mughal power waned, these Rajput monarchs began expanding their domains by conquering the regions surrounding their watans, which were portions of imperial or Mughal lands. The Rajputs of Jodhpur’s conquest of Nagpur and Amber‘s takeover of Bundi are two instances of this type of expansion.

Roles and Duties

• Chiefs from the Rajput tribe held important positions in the Mughal era. Raja Todarmal, Birbal, Man Singh, and other significant Rajputs from the Mughal government and army are a few noteworthy instances. 
• During Akbar’s rule, Raja Todarmal was in charge of the revenue administration. In the area of revenue administration, he made changes. As a result, the entire revenue structure he created was known as “Todar Mal’s Bandobast.” 
• Birbal, the emperor’s principal advisor and the head of the Mughal army, was another significant Rajput in Akbar’s court. Another significant general in the Mughal army was Raja Man Singh.

Rise and Decline

• The Mughal-Rajput relations were badly harmed by Aurangzeb’s accession to the throne since his predecessors had done a great job of maintaining them because they understood how significant the Rajputs’ assistance was to the expansion of their empire. 
• The policies of Aurangzeb underwent numerous revisions. The ‘watan jagirs’ territories granted to Rajput kings were taken away, they were denied crucial positions, and the government began meddling in their internal and religious issues. 
• These were all offences by the Rajputs. They then began planning an attack on the Mughals. Rajputs began to lose prominence in this way.
• At the same time, Rajputs and Mughals were being overthrown by Marathas, who had begun to take control of the position. Thus, the Rajput influence as well as the subsequent Mughals came to an end, and the Maratha confederacy emerged in India.

Summary

Due to a pressing political need for two of the major governing elites of northern India to strengthen their positions, Mughal-Rajput relations emerged during the sixteenth century. The allocation of watan jagirs to Rajput rulers with some authority was a significant step toward this arrangement. These Rajput kings gradually began expanding their watan jagirs by annexing the surrounding lands. But as the empire continued to grow, this partnership began to experience problems by the seventeenth century. Both the collapse of the Rajputs and the declaration of the independent regional kingdom were facilitated by internal strife among the Rajputs. In the end, the dominance of the Mughal-Rajput ties faced a significant threat from the advent of the Maratha.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

 1.Who were the Rajputs?
Ans. The Kshatriya clan of the Varna system gave rise to the Rajputs. These Rajputs were primarily warriors who participated in conflicts and battles. They are responsible for the area’s defence.

2. How did Aurangzeb’s religious policy offend the Rajputs?
Ans. Since the Rajput kings were all Hindu, Aurangzeb sought to convert all of India to Islam. He conducted numerous actions against Hindus to achieve this purpose, including the imposition of Jaziyah, the destruction of temples and idols, and discriminatory tolls for Hindu traders. The Rajput kings were upset by all of these actions, and they began to lose faith in the Mughals.

3. What were the revenue reforms known as Todarmal Bandobast?
Ans. A tool called a jarib was used to measure the land. According to its quality, the land was split into good, intermediate, and terrible areas. One of the goods had a fixed revenue over ten years. The collection of taxes had to be done kindly. The payment was cancelled in the event of a natural calamity.