The Mughal Empire It consolidated Islam in South Asia, and spread Muslim (and particularly Persian) arts and culture as well as the faith. The Mughals were Muslims who ruled a country with a large Hindu majority. However for much of their empire they allowed Hindus to reach senior government or military positions.

A series of foreign invasions affected Mughal Empire very badly. Attacks by Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, which were themselves the consequences of the weakness of the Empire, drained the Empire of its wealth, ruined its trade and industry in the North, and almost destroyed its military power.

According to the authors, the causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire can be grouped under the following heads: a) deterioration of land relations; b) emergence of regional powers as successor states; c) selfish struggle of nobles at the court; d) lack of initiative in modern weapons; e) lack of control over the …

Causes for the Decline

• The Nature and Policies of Aurangzeb.
• The Incapability of the Later Mughals.
• The Corruption of the Nobility.
• Military Weakness.
• Economic Bankruptcy.
• The Wars of Succession.
• Group Rivalry at the Court.
• The Attacks of the Marathas in the North.

When did the Mughal Empire end? The Mughal Empire began to decline in the 18th century, during the reign of Muḥammad Shah (1719–48). Much of its territory fell under the control of the Marathas and then the British.

The jagirdari system was a system that allotted jagirs to jagirdars or landlords in return for the services rendered by them to the Mughal Empire. This resulted in a major dip in the flow of revenue to the royal treasury and inevitably led to a decline in the power of the Mughal Emperor.

The system was introduced by the Sultans of Delhi from the 13th century onwards, was later adopted by the Mughal Empire, and continued under the British East India Company. Some Hindu jagirdars were converted into Muslim vassal states under Mughal imperial sway, such as the nawwabs of Kurnool.

Mansabdars had to maintain a fixed number of troops. They were given jagirs as the payment for doing so. Later, an increase in the number of mansabs and a shortage of jagirs led to corruption and inefficiency in the system.

The mansabdari system was basically a decentralization of the army. The mansabdars were answerable to the emperor. The jagirdari system involved the division of the empire into a number of jagirs. He collected the revenue from the area and handed it over to the central empire.

The Mansabdars were paid according to their ranks. They were paid a good amount of money. Those Mansabdars, who were paid in cash, were called Naqdi. Those Mansabdars who were paid through land (Jagirs) were called Jagirdars.

Mansabdars and Jagirdars Mansabdar means a man with a mansab (a position or rank), and mansabdari was a grading system to decide the rank, salary and military responsibilities of government officials.

The emperor can raise the rank of the Mansabdar by increasing the number allotted to a Mansabdar. Further, those Mansabdars, who were paid in cash, were called Naqdi and those paid through Jagirs were called Jagirdars. No mansabdar could hold on to the said Jagir for a long term and they were liable for transfer.

Jagir – The revenue assignments received by mansabdars as their salaries was called Jagir.

In Akbar’s reign there were 29 mansabdars with a rank of 5,000 zat. By Aurangzeb’s reign the number of mansabdars had….

• The Mughal emperors and their mansabdars spent a great deal of their income on salaries and goods.
• This expenditure benefited the artisans and peasantry who supplied them with goods and produce.

The mansabdars were assigned to military responsibilities. For this, they maintained a specified number of sawar or cavalrymen. The mansabdar brought his cavalrymen for review, got them registered, their horses branded and then received money to pay them as salary.

Mansabdari was a system of ranking the government officials which determined their civil and military duties, along with their remunerations. Under this system, nobles were granted the rights to hold a jagir, or revenue assignment (not land itself), for services rendered by them.

The term manasabadar means a person having a mansab. (which means a role) In the mansabdari system founded by Akbar, the mansabdars were military commanders, high civil and military officers, and provincial governors.

The mansabdars received their salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs. Most of the mansabdars did not actually reside in or administer their Jagirs. They only had rights to the revenue of their assignments which was collected from them by their servants.

1571

In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ‘premier’, ‘chief minister’, ‘chancellor’ or other title.

This was the du-aspah sih-aspah system (literally, trooper with 2 or 3 horses) which implied that a mansabdar holding this -rank had maintain and was paid for double the quota of troopers indicated by his sawar rank. Normally, no mansabdar was given a sawar rank which was higher than his zat rank.

Notes: Duaspa-Sihaspa was a subrank of sawar introduced by Jahangir to enhance the Mansabdari system. Bandobast system was a system for scientific taxation of land introduced by Akbar with the help of his finance minister Raja Todarmal.

Jāgīrdār system, form of land tenancy developed in India during the time of Muslim rule (beginning in the early 13th century) in which the collection of the revenues of an estate and the power of governing it were bestowed on an official of the state.

Mughal emperor Akbar

The zat was a rank conferred by the king on the mansabdar, whereas the sawar was a count of horsemen that were to be maintained. The actual number of horses that they had to maintain is a different and interesting story.

shah jahan

Shah Jahan born in 1592 was the fifth Mughal emperor who is known as the ‘Prince of Builder’. He was one of the greatest patrons of Mughal architecture. He built the Taj Mahal which is the masterpiece of his reign and was erected in memory of the wife Mumtaz Mahal. He preferred to rule the Mughal Empire from Delhi.

Mughal emperor Shah Jahan

Answer: Shah Jahan was known as the Engineer king Because the Mughal architecture reached its peak under him. The Taj Mahal built by him is counted among one of the seven wonders of the world . A part from it , he built shahjahanbad ( Old Delhi) and built the famous Red fort.

Jahangir