Jagirdari system

Also called: Jagir · Topic: The Mughal Empire: Babur to Aurangzeb · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 8, Ch 3 "The Marathas"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

A jagir was a piece of territory whose land revenue (tax on land) a Mughal mansabdar (officer holding a rank) could collect in place of a cash salary. He did not own the land itself, and the emperor could transfer the jagir to someone else at any time. The holder was called a jagirdar.

The jagir was how the Mughal state paid its officers and their troops. When good jagirs ran short under Aurangzeb, the system came under strain, and this strain is a standard explanation for the empire's weakening after 1707.

Explanation

Background: why officers were paid in jagirs

• Akbar reorganised the government so that the centre stayed in control and work got done efficiently.
• At the centre of this was mansabdari (the rank system). Every officer got a mansab (rank), granted only by the emperor. There were 33 grades, from 10 up to 5,000 [2].
• The rank fixed three things at once:
• his standing at court
• his salary

• how many troops, horses, elephants and camels he had to keep for the state

• The state needed a way to pay all these officers and their troops.

• It did not want to pay a large permanent army out of the treasury.

• So it gave each officer the revenue of a territory instead. That territory was his jagir.

• Because they were paid this way, mansabdars were also called jagirdars.

Main features

• Revenue right, not ownership. The jagirdar only collected the revenue. The land and the peasants on it did not become his property.
• Transferable. Jagirs were moved from one officer to another, usually after a few years. An officer could not put down roots in one area and build his own power base there.
• Not hereditary. The mansab itself was neither hereditary nor permanent [2], so a son did not inherit his father's jagir.
• Absentee holders. Mansabdars usually did not live in or govern their jagirs. Their servants and agents collected the revenue while the officer himself served somewhere else in the empire.
• Value matched to salary. The expected revenue of a jagir was meant to roughly equal the pay that went with the officer's rank.
• Checked by the centre.
• Officers had to produce their troops and animals at regular inspections.

• Revenue and military officials in a province reported to different bosses, so one official's records could be checked against another's.

• Linked to revenue surveys. Todar Mal's survey of yields, prices and cultivated area over a ten-year period became the base of the zabt system (a system that fixed the tax demand in advance from measured land and averaged data) [3]. Surveys like this let the state estimate what a jagir should yield.

How it worked and changed over time

• Under Akbar:
• Jagirs were carefully assessed, so their revenue was roughly equal to the officer's salary.

• Zabt was applied in northern India, Malwa and parts of Gujarat [3], so the figures there were fairly reliable.

• Under Aurangzeb:

• The number of mansabdars grew hugely as the empire expanded, especially into the Deccan.
• There was not enough good land to go round. Many officers waited a long time before they got a jagir.

• The revenue actually collected was often less than the assessed amount, so officers got less than their rank promised.

• The transfer rule had a side effect:

• A jagirdar knew he would soon be moved.
• So many tried to squeeze as much revenue as possible from the peasants while they could.
• They had little reason to invest in the land's long-term health.

Results

• Gains:
• The emperor got an "army without an army". Troops were spread out across the empire with the mansabdars and could gather at short notice.

• Peacetime costs stayed low, and nobles stayed loyal because ranks and jagirs depended on the emperor's favour [2].

• Strains:

• The shortage of jagirs and the falling revenue led to quarrels among nobles.

• Over-collection drove some peasants to revolt or run away.

• After the decline (18th century):

• As central control weakened, powerful nobles in the provinces held on to their posts and revenue rights.
• They stopped transferring jagirs and began acting like independent rulers. This helped the regional states of the 18th century take shape (NCERT Class 8, Ch 2).

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Mughal Empire (1526–1707). The system took its classic form under Akbar and came under strain under Aurangzeb.
• Region: across the Mughal provinces. Under Akbar there were twelve subahs (provinces), each with its own diwan, bakhshi and sadr, copying the centre.
• Key people:
• Akbar, who built the mansabdari–jagirdari machinery
• Todar Mal, his finance minister, whose surveys underpinned zabt [3]

• Abul Fazl, who recorded the system

• Evidence:

• The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, the third volume of the Akbarnama [4], describes mansabdari in detail.
• Its third section covers the judicial and executive wings, land survey methods, and Todar Mal's duties [3].
• The text survives as a rare book and in published English volumes held in national digital collections [5].

Don't confuse with

• Mansab vs jagir: a mansab was the rank, which set pay and troop numbers. A jagir was the territory whose revenue paid that rank. The same person was both mansabdar and jagirdar.
• Iqta (Delhi Sultanate): iqta was the Sultanate's earlier system of land-revenue assignment to officers (iqtadars). The jagir is the Mughal system, tied to the numerical mansab ranks.
• Zamindar: a zamindar had local, often hereditary rights over land and its revenue. A jagirdar had only a temporary, transferable revenue right granted by the emperor.
• Khalisa: khalisa land's revenue went straight to the imperial treasury. Jagir land's revenue went to the officer as his pay.

Prelims Hooks

• Jagir = right to collect land revenue from a territory instead of salary. It was not ownership, and it was transferable and non-hereditary.
• Mansabdars paid through jagirs were also called jagirdars. Ranks ran in 33 grades from 10 to 5,000, granted only by the emperor [2].
• Mansabdari and its working are described in the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, the third volume of the Akbarnama [4].
• Todar Mal's ten-year survey of yields, prices and cultivated area was the base of zabt, used in northern India, Malwa and parts of Gujarat [3].
• Trap: "Jagirdars lived on and personally governed their jagirs" is wrong. Agents collected the revenue while the officer served elsewhere.
• Trap: "Jagirs passed from father to son" is wrong. Mansabs were neither hereditary nor permanent [2].

Mains Points

• A clever way to pay for an army.
• Paying officers with jagirs let the Mughals keep a large army without a large peacetime budget.
• Regular transfers kept nobles from building local power bases.

• The weakness: the system needed enough revenue-rich land, and that ran out as the number of mansabdars grew under Aurangzeb.

• The "jagirdari crisis" as a cause of Mughal decline.

• There were too many officers for too few good jagirs.
• The revenue actually collected fell below the assessed amount.
• Jagirdars who expected to be transferred squeezed the peasants.

• Together these weakened noble loyalty and fed peasant unrest, which helps explain the empire's breakdown after 1707.

• Continuity and change in revenue design.

• The Delhi Sultanate's iqta gave way to the Mughal jagir, a temporary, transferable revenue right backed by Todar Mal's surveys [3].
• Compare both with the British Permanent Settlement, which made revenue rights permanent in the hands of zamindars.
• The comparison shows how the way a state collects revenue shapes power in the countryside.

Related concepts

• Diwan
• Mir Bakhshi
• Mir Saman
• Sadr-us-Sudur
• Qazi-ul-Quzat
• Muhtasib
• Subah
• Sarkar
• Pargana
• Faujdar

Read more

• Administering the empire