Mughal, Rajput, Maratha

Ideas of the State

The State in Colonial India
Spring 2022

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Mughal State
TURKO – MONGOL AND ISLAMIC

• Absolute ruler; Sovereignty in the person of

the king
• Divinely appointed, Divine persona
• Infalliable authority on law…
• And yet…
• Sharia was accepted (set legal limits to State
power)
• Recognised the legal claims of the Caliph
(Khalifa)
Mughal State Features

• Centralised and Absolutist

• Non-Hereditary Nobility
• Bureaucratic (Mansabdari System)
• Systemised administration
• Revenue collection
• New concept of sovereignty
• Quasi-Modern state
Mansabdar
• Mansabdari given by the Emperor
• Both civil and military duties
• Zat (Rank) and Sawar (Troops to be
maintained)
• 33 Ranks from 10 to 5,000 (went up to
25,000)
• Revenue assignment at Rs 2/Sawar
(raised to Rs 25/Sawar)
• Promotion; Rise to nobility
• Transferable
PROTO-BUREAUCRAT
 • Standardisation of
• Revenue and Taxation
rates
One Empire, • Currency, Weights and
Measures
One Standard • Information and
Communication system
• Calendar
• Measurement of land
Mughal State
Hindu Ideas of Kingship
• Matsya Nyaya or Law (logic) of
the Fish
• Big fish eat the small fish; or
worse, small fish prey on the
big fish
• Shanti Parva
• Protecting Property
• Maintaining Dharma of society
• “Enjoyment of wealth and
wives is impossible”
• Danda
• Punishment, restraint, sanction
• Protection from anarchy or
from absence of Dharma, order
 • Legitimacy from
• Lineage and clan
• Acceptance of authority by vassals
• “Classic Feudalism” according to
James Tod (Annals and Antiquities of
Rajasthan)
Rajput • Raja gave legitimacy to the authority of
Pattawat (vassal) but could not take away
Kingship his property or rights
• Hierarchical chain continued from Raja to
lowest vassal at village level
• Loyalty to immediate superior lord and
not to the Raja
• More centralised state by 18 Century
(Mughal Influence)
Maratha State
• Ajnapatra (आज्ञापत्र )
• Composed by Shambhaji in
Kohlapur in 1715
• Extended set of orders (Royal
Edicts)
• Shows considerable experience in
crafting a state and controlling
territory
• One state, one ruler
• No division of authority
• Instability of state power
• Much about caution, double
checks, intelligence gathering,
transfer
• Importance of military power
and forts
 • Shift from personal to territorial
sovereignty
• Growing importance of trade and
manufactures
• Smaller states: more organised structures
State in early
• Weaker states: more compromise with
18th Century local power-holders
India • Political instability but rising prosperity
• New technology
• Demographic constraints
• British and French used existing State
structures
Lasting Legacy

• The Mughal and Maratha State institution were

adopted and adapted by the British
• Many of the Mughal and Rajput ideas of Kingship
continued in the Native States under British Suzerainty
• Many of these ideas and institutions continue till today