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ADMINISTRATION UNDER AKBAR 1.

Like other Muslim monarchs, Akbar was, at least in theory, subordinate to the wishes of entire Muslim population (millat), which, in turn, was guided by the Muslimlearned divines called the Ulema. Akbar sought to remove this check to his will and became the supreme authority over his Muslim subjects by promulgating theInfallibility Decree (Mahzar) in September 1579. 2. Akbar believed that the king must be absolutely tolerant to every creed and m ust establish universal peace in his dominion. 3. As per Abul Fazal s Akbarnama, Akbar appeared three times every day for State bus iness. Early at sunrise he used to be ready at jhroka-i-darshan to show himself to his subjects. Here he was accessible to the common people and listened to the ir complaints. Next, he used to hold an open court which generally lasted for fo ur and a half hours. People from both sexes were allowed to submit their petitio ns and the emperor used to decide the cases on the spot. 4. In the afternoon Akbar used to hold a full durbar in the Diwan-i-Aam. Here he attended to daily routine business, particularly relating to forces, workshops and to the appointment and promotion of mansabdars and granting of jagirs. 5. In the evening and often during night Akbar used to meet his ministers and ad visers in the private audience hall called Diwan-i-Khas,where special business r elating to foreign relations and internal administration was attended to. 6. Late in the night, Akbar used to discuss confidential matters related to war, foreign policy and internal administration in a room calledDaulat Khana, which became known in the times of Jehangir as Gusal Khana, owing to its proximity to the royal bathroom. 7. The Central government under Akbar consisted of four departments, each presid ed over by a minister. These ministers were: Vakil(Prime Minister), Diwan or Waz ir (Finance Minister), Mir Bakhshi (Pay-Master General), and Sadar-us-Sadur (Chi ef Sadar). 8. The Mughal ministers did not constitute a Cabinet in the modern sense of term . They were basically secretaries. The initiation of the policies was in the han ds of the emperor. 9. The first finance minister of Akbar was Muzaffar Khan. 10. Todar Mal, Muzaffar Khan and Shah Mansur were the three most notable finance ministers of Akbar and all the three were skilled financiers and first-rate adm inistrators. 11. The Diwan or finance minister was assisted by Diwan-i-Khalsa, who was inchar ge of Khalsa (crown or reserved) lands; Diwan-i-Jagirs, who was incharge of the lands that were given in lieu of service or as free grants (sayurghal); Sahib-iTaujih, who was incharge of military accounts; and Diwan-i-Bayutut, whose duty w as to supervise the accounts of various workshops attached to the court. 12. The Mir Bakhshi or Pay-Master General ranked next to the imperial Diwan. His office corresponded to the Diwan-i-Ariz of the Sultanate period. 13. The Mir Bakhshi was required to maintain a register in which names, ranks an d salaries of mansabdars were recorded. All orders of appointment to mansabs of all ranks were passed through his office. One of his most important duties was t o prepare a list of guards who had to keep watch around the royal palace. 14. The Chief Sadar or Sadar-us-Sadur discharged three-fold duties, namely, to a ct as the religious adviser to the emperor, to disburse the royal charity, and t o function as the chief justice of the empire. 15. After Akbar reorganized his administration and rejected the Islamic theory o f government, the Chief Sadar ceased to be the supreme religious adviser. 16. Akbar divided his empire into well-defined provinces or subas, and establish ed uniform administration in them. In 1602, the provinces numbered 15. 17. The three provinces of South (Dakhin), namely, Khandesh, Berar and Ahmadnaga r, were constituted into a single viceroyalty and were placed under Prince Daniy al. 18. In each suba, there was a governor, styled as Sipah Salar, a diwan, a bakhsh i, a sadar, a qazi, a kotwal, a mir bahar and awaqaya navis.

19. The Sipah Salar (governor) was the head of the province. He was popularly ca lled subahadar and sometimes only suba . He was appointed by the emperor and was respon sible for the welfare of the people of his province, as also administer even-han ded justice. He was also entrusted with the work of realizing tribute from the v assal States situated within the boundaries of his suba. 20. The provincial Diwan was the second most important officer of the suba. He w as appointed on the recommendation of the ImperialDiwan. 21. There were two parallel and mutually independent authorities in every provin ce. The Sipah Sadar was the head of the military, police and executive services, while the Diwan was the head of the civil and revenue branch he reported directly t o the Imperial Diwan and was not subordinate to the governor. 22. Generally one officer was appointed to discharge the functions of both the S adar and the Qazi. 23. Waqaya Navis was incharge of posting newswriters and spies in all important places in the province. Generally a separate officer was given this job, but at times the provinical Bakhshi was given the dual charge. 24. The Kotwal was incharge of internal defence, sanitation and peace in the pro vincial capital. He was the supreme administrator of allthanas of the province. 25. The Mir Bahar was incharge of customs and boats and ferry taxes, and port du ties in coastal towns. 26. Each province or suba was divided into a number of districts or Sarkars. Eve ry district had a faujdar, an amalguzar, a qazi, a kotwal, a bitikchi and a khaz andar.27. The head of the district was faujdar. He had three principal duties to perform: First, to maintain peace and tranquility in his jurisdiction, to keep the roads free from robbers and thieves, and to enforce imperial regulations; Se condly, being a military officer, he was incharge of a small force or local mili tia. It was his duty to keep this army ready for service; Thirdly, he was requir ed to assist the amalguzar(the collector) in the work of revenue collection. 28. Amalguzar or the revenue collector was the second most important official of a district. He was also required to punish robbers and other miscreants in orde r to protect the peasantry. 29. The Bitikchi was an important assistant of amalguzar. His duty was to prepar e necessary papers and records regarding the nature of land and its produce and it was on the basis of these records that the assessment was made by amalguzar. 30. Each sarkar (district) was divided into a number of parganas or mahals. The pargana was the lowest fiscal and administrative unit of administration. 31. There were four principal officers in every pargana. They were: the shiqdar, the amil, the fotadar and the karkun. Besides, as in the times of Sher Shah Sur i, there were two other semi-official functionaries: the qanungo and the chaudhr i. 32. The Shiqdar was the executive officer of the pargana and was responsible for its general administration. 33. The amil (sometimes called the Munsif) had to discharge the same duties in t he pargana as the amalguzar in the sarkar. 34. The Fotadar was the treasurer of the pargana. The karkuns were the writers a nd kept land record. 35. The Qanungo was the head of the patwaris of the pargana and kept records of the crops, the revenue demands, actual payments, arrears, etc. 36. The Mughals had no navy, but as their eastern and western frontiers touched seas, they had large number of sea-ports in their possession. All sea-ports were treated as independent administrative units. For example, Surat was classed as a sarkar and comprised several parganas. 37. Every town of considerable importance had an independent kotwal appointed to take charge of municipal duties, besides police work. In small towns, these dut ies were looked after by amalguzar. 38. The uniforms of the kotwal and the city police were of red colour. 39. Akbar recognised the village panchayats as a legally established court of ju stice and upheld its decisions. 40. Akbar introduced the mansabdari system to organise his armed forces more eff ectively.

41. All imperial officers, except the qazis and the sadars, were enrolled as mem bers of the mansabdari system and were required to maintain some troops proporti onate to their ranks. All the vassal chiefs, who were rulers of semi-independent States, were also enlisted asmansabdars. 42. Some mansabdars commanded troops that were recruited directly by the State a nd not by the mansabdar concerned. Such troops were called dakhilli or supplemen tary troops. 43. Ahadis were the gentlemen troopers who were recruited individually and were under the command of a separate mansabdar or officer, and had a diwan and a bakh shi of their own. Ahadis were considered very efficient and loyal troops and wer e paid high salaries. 44. An officer was incharge of each branch of the army and was known as Mir Atis h. 45. Many elephants were trained to catch enemy soldiers and dash them against th e ground. Such elephants carried two soldiers and two guns called gajnals. 46. Akbar s army consisted of officers and troops of several nationalities, over two -thirds of whom were foreigners. Thus, it was not a national army, and was not b ound by common interests and common sentiment of love for the country. 47. The fiscal sources of Mughal empire under Akbar were divided into two main d ivisions central and local. 48. The central revenue was derived from Commerce, Mint, Presents, Inheritance, Salt, Customs and Land. Of these the land revenue was the most lucrative and imp ortant. 49. Akbar abolished the religious taxes charged from Hindus, such as the pilgrim s tax and the jaziya. Zakat, which was of two kinds, namely, first a religious tax from the Muslims only, and second, on cattle and some other articles, lapsed gra dually. 50. Akbar undertook a series of experiments to improve the revenue collection an d management. The first of the experiments was undertaken in 1563, when Akbar ap pointed Aitmad Khan to look after the affairs of the Khalisa lands which compris ed the provinces of Agra, Delhi and a part of Lahore.Administration of Akbar Published on 24 June 2012 Administration of Akbar / Mughul s Administration The administrative machinery of the Mughuls, which functioned throughout the Mug hul s rule, was introduced by Akbar and that is why, by Mughul Administration , we me an Akbar s Administration. Akbar was not only a brave soldier, a successful leader and a great religious reformer but also a great administrator. He introduced va rious reforms in all the branches of the administration, whether central, provin cial, revenue, military or judicial. Central Administration: Akbar was the overall in-charge of the central governmen t. All the executive, judicial and legislative powers of the state were combined in him. There were no limitations on his despotism and his word was law. But Ak bar had always the welfare of his people in his mind and so his was a benevolent despotism. He himself supervised all the branches of his administration and wor ked hard to discharge his manifold duties. He would hold an open court, listen t o the complaints of his subjects and try to pacify them. Akbar was, however, assisted by a number of ministers in the administration. Amo ng others, the most important ministers were the Vakil, who maintained a general control over all the central departments and acted as the chief adviser of the King; Diwan, who was in-charge of finance and revenue; Mir Bakshi, who maintaine d the records of all the Mansabdars and distributed pay among the high officials ; Sadar-i-Sadur, who acted as a religious adviser to the king, disbursed royal c harity and discharged the function of the Chief Justice of the empire. Beside th ese four ministers, there were other ministers of lower rank- Khan-i-Saman, who was in-charge of the royal household; Muhtasib, who saw that the people (Muslims ) led a highly moral life according to the Muslim law; and Daroga-i-Dak Chowki,

an officer who was in-charge of the postal and intelligence department. Provincial Administration: Akbar divided his vast empire into fifteen (15) Subas or provinces. In each suba or province there was a Subedar, a Diwan, a Bakshi, a Sadar, a Qazi, a Kotwal, a Mir Bahr and Waqa-i-Nawis. The Subedar or Governor was the head of the provincial administration. He enjoye d vast powers and was in-charge of the provincial military, police, judiciary an d the executive. The (provincial) Diwan was in-charge of the provincial finance and all bills of payments were signed by him. The Bakshi looked after the manage ment of the provincial army. The Sadar was in-charge of the judicial charity dep artment. The Qazi was in-charge of the judicial department of his province. He s upervised the work of Qazis in the districts and towns. The Kotwal was the supre me administrator of all the thanas of the province and was responsible for the mai ntenance of law and order in all the cities. The Mir Bahr was in-charge of custo ms and taxation department. The Waqa-i-Nawis was in-charge of the secret service of the province. The provinces were further divided into Sarkars and Sarkars into Parganas. The h ead of the Sarkar was Faujdar who kept his own small force and maintained law an d order in his area. He was assisted by a number of other officials who collecte d the revenue, maintained the accounts and deposited the money into the state tr easury. The head of the Parganas was called Shikdar whose functions were the sam e as those of the Faujdar in a Sarkar. Each Pargana comprised several villages. Each village was under the charge of a Muqaddam, a Patwari and a Chowkidar who c arried on the work of administration with the help of the village panchayat. Military Administration: Akbar paid much attention towards the organization, equ ipment and discipline of the army. For efficient military administration he intr oduced a new system known as the Mansabdari System. The Mansabdars had to mainta in soldiers according to his grade or rank. There were thirty three grades of th ese Mansabdars who maintained soldiers ranging from 10 to 10,000. They were paid salaries in cash and the system of assignments of lands was discouraged. They w ere directly under the charge of the emperor and were promoted, degrade or dismi ssed at his will. He also revived the practice of taking the descriptive rolls o f the soldiers and branding the horses. A large number of troops were, no doubt, supplied by these Mansabdars but Akbar had maintained a standing army of his own. The Mughul army consisted of infantry , cavalry, artillery, elephants, and navy. The cavalry was the most important wi ng of the army and special attention was paid towards its organization and equip ment. The military organization of Akbar had no doubt certain defects (e.g., The Mansa bdars cheated the government, the soldiers were more loyal to the chiefs than to the emperor, the practice of payment through the Mansabdars was precarious and often led to abuses, efficiency of one unit to unit, etc.) but still under Akbar it worked well because of his uncommon ability as a leader and an administrator , great vigilance and discipline. Land Revenue Administration: Land Revenue was the chief sources of income of the Government. So, Akbar paid special attention towards the organization of the la nd revenue administration. With the help of his Diwan (Revenue Minister), Raja T odar Mal, Akbar introduced many reforms in his revenue department. First of all, the land was measured into bighas , secondly, all the cultivated land was classifi ed into four divisions Polaj, Parauti, Chachar and Banjar. The Polaj land was al ways cultivated and was never allowed to fallow; the Parauti land was allowed to fallow for a year or two to recover its strength; the Chachar land had to be le ft uncultivated for three or four years and Banjar land had to be left fallow fo r five years or more. Thirdly, the total produce of each land was determined sep

arately. Fourthly, the share of the state was fixed at one-third of the total pr oduce. Land revenue was paid in cash or in kind, but cash payment was preferred. Loans with small interest were advanced to the cultivators. In case of famine, drought or another unexpected calamity, remission was granted and even loans wer e advanced for purchase of seeds and animals. The revenue collectors were asked to be friendly towards the cultivators and not to oppress them on every account. As a result of these measures the revenue of the state greatly increased, the c ultivators became better off and the country became prosperous. The abundance of food also made the life of the common man better and happier than before. Judicial Administration or Judicial Reforms: Akbar introduced various reforms in the administration of justice. Before him almost all the cases were decided acc ording to the Islamic law. But now, for the first time, Hindu law was administer ed in deciding the cases where the parties Hindus, but Islamic law continued to function where the parties involved were Muslims. The king was the highest court of appeal. Capital punishment was given only in extreme cases and that too by t he emperor alone. Social Reforms: Akbar had the welfare of his people always in his mind. He had t aken several measures to improve the general condition of his subjects. In 1563, the Pilgrim Tax, which was a great burden on the Hindus, was abolished. In 1564 , Jaziya, a tax which was imposed on non-Muslims, was also abolished. Akbar trie d to stop the practice of Sati. Child marriage was discouraged and female-infant icide was forbidden. Widow-marriage was encouraged. From the above account it is quite clear that Akbar was a great administrator an d the administrative machinery that he set up continued to function throughout t he Mughul period.

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