History of India Page 1 of 14

HISTORY

Subject : History
(For under graduate student.)

Paper No. : Paper - III

History of India

Unit : Unit – 2
Polity

Topic No. & Title : Topic – 1

Evolution of Administrative
System

Lecture No. & Title : Lecture – 3

Jagirdari System: 1

The Jagirdari System

A Mansabdar was a rank holder. This system developed

during the heydays of the Mughal rule. Akbar refined and
perfected the system by giving two numbers to the
Mansabdars – i) Zat which defined his positioning court
and ii) Sawar which indicated the cavalry at his
command. The salaries of these officials were mostly paid
from the revenue they could gather from the land
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assigned to them. This revenue came to be known as

‘Jagir’.

Jagirdari System and the Mansabdari System compliment

each other. One cannot function without the other. Both
are instruments of mobilizing the resources of the
country and distributing among the nobles. A very small
percentage of the high nobles and prices were consuming
most of the resources of the country. How this was done
could be seen from the Jagirdari System.

Jagirdari System is the assignment of the revenue of the

produce of the land. The land was never given; it was the
produce of the land that was allotted for the noble to
take from this revenue, the salary that is due to him.
Therefore the Jagirdari System is the salary of the
Mansabdar.

Actually it starts after Babur and practically from the time

of Akbar. After his conquest Babur instituted a different
system called ‘Wajh’ and the person who gets this wajh
was called ‘wajhdar’. He had distributed one-third of the
conquered areas to the new master or to the old
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masters. Among them the Afghans got a major share and

it is stated that under Babur Afghans consumed one-fifth
of the total revenue of the Mughal Empire at that time. It
was after Babur that Jagirdari System was introduced.

Wajhdar System

There was a fundamental difference between the Wajhdar

system and the Jagirdari System. In the Wajhdar System
there was no difference between the executive and the
financial office. Under this system an officer was given a
territory with a fixed salary. He administered the area
both financially and from the executive point of view. In
the Jagirdari System there was no fixed salary and the
executive and the financial powers were in the hands of
different persons.

In case of Babur this separation was coming very slowly

because in the Khalsa land i.e. the land managed by the
state officials for the state, we find that there were
executive sikdars and financial officers like the diwan.
There were only 4 examples during the reign of Babur of
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the existence of Sikdar and the Diwan in the Khalsa

lands.

But it was from the time of Akbar that the situation

changed drastically and fundamentally. The Jagirdar had
some very serious problems and some of theses
problems had never been resolved during the time of the
Mughal Empire.

Problems of the Jagirdari System

The first problem was that the Jagirdar has to conform to

the central rules and regulations i.e. he must collect the
revenue as per the sanctioned rate. That is a very serious
problem. The second problem is that there is a difference
between estimate of revenue and the collection of
revenue. The ministry makes the estimate of revenue
which is called Jamadami. It is called ‘dami’ because the
‘dam’ is a copper coin and the revenue is estimated in
dam at least till the early days of the 17th century. Yet
the term continues after that and the estimate is made in
rupees. The jamadami is therefore the estimate of the
revenue to be collected from a particular jagir. The
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jagirdar when he collects it is called Harly Hasil or simply

Hasil.

The problem is that the jamadami is less than Hasil or in

other words the estimate is different from the actual
collection and the actual collection is often much less. So
in case of the Jagirdar the principal problem laid that he
cannot get the salary that is due to him.

There was a third problem the yield from the Rabi crop
and from the Kharif crop were considered to be equal
everywhere except in Bengal. But that was a wrong
supposition. Since there were fast difference between the
two crops and their yield not only in Bengal but
elsewhere in the country as well it affected the revenue
collection.

But there is another serious problem for the Jagirdar. The

Jagirdar is transferred on an average every three years.
If he is transferred in the middle of the season then the
question of the collection of revenue comes. Who will
collect it – the old Jagirdar or the new Jagirdar? The
ministry had made elaborate rules and procedures of
such collection. But then both the Jagirdars the old and
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the new must conform to that kind of procedures and to

the rules that are to be followed. In practice this is rarely
done and this leads to difficulties like correspondence
with the ministry etc.

So the Jagirdar externally seems to be in a good position

with a high standard of living but he is many real
problems.

Problems of Jagirdars

i) Collect revenues at a sanctioned rate

ii) Difference between estimated and actual revenue
iii) Yield from Rabi and Kharif crops were considered
same
iv) Mid-season transfers

Kinds of Jagirs and its Characteristics

There were 4 different kinds of Jagirs:

Jagir-i-Tankwa
Mashrut Jagir
Inam Jagir
Watan Jagir
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Each had a different type of function and revenue

structure.

Characteristics of the types of Jagirs

Jagir-i-Tankwa or the Rupee Jagir – this jagir is granted

to the Mansabdar in lieu of salary to collect from the
revenue of the produce of the jagir. In India the tax or
the revenue is never on the land during the Mughal
Period (It was the British who started it); if there is no
product there is no tax. Jagir-i-Tankwa is therefore the
normal jagir which is given to the Mansabdars in lieu of
the salary.

Mashrut Jagir – it is a temporary jagir given to a

particular person for a temporary period. When a
Mansabdar is appointed to a high post with high
obligations, he has to maintain a large number of cavalry
in that case the Mansabdar gets what is known as the
Mashrut jagir (a temporary jagir for a temporary period).
Once he is transferred from that post he does not get the
jagir at all.
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Inam Jagir – it is generally given to the religious people

for charity and it is for life for the person concerned. He
has no ‘zat’ rank or ‘sawar’ rank and no military
obligation at all. In most of the cases it is free of tax.
Jahangir in his memoir had given a large number of
cases, which he had granted as Inam Jagirs. Some
officials of the villages were also given the Inam Jagirs
but it was generally given to the religious people.

Watan Jagir – when a zamindar or a raja is absorbed into

the Mansabdari System, he is given a tankwa jagir and
his zamindari is considered watan jagir. The watan jagir
is a hereditary one, it requires the imperial sanat for
succession and it continues in the family for a very long
time except in one or two cases. In 1679 Aurangzeb did
not give the succession to Jodhpur and converted
Jodhpur into a Khalsa. There was violent demonstration
of the Jodhpur people. The watan jagir is therefore the
jagir given for life and the successor provided there is an
imperial sanat. Therefore it is not transferable. Man Singh
under Akbar, when he was a Mansabdar had two jagirs –
Jagir-i-tankwa in Hissar near Punjab and Watan jagir in
Amber near Jaipur.
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Rights of the Jagirdars

The Jagirdar has certain rights. These rights are

embodied in the rights of the wazir given at the time of
the assignment. It is very clearly written. His principal
functions are two:

i) Collection of revenue in lieu of his salary. This is the

most important function.

ii) Administration of his jagir; if there is a problem in

the jagir, if there is a revolt he can call upon the
faujdar to help him and normally the faujdar helps
him.

When a new jagirdar comes there are problems for him.

First he does not know the area, the locality and then he
does not know the tradition and customs. Unfortunately
the Jagirdari records are not available. Nothing has been
found so far excepting in one or two cases. But the
Khalsa records (i.e. the land managed by the state
officials for the state) are available. It is accepted now
that the Jagirdari model follows eth model of the Khalsa.
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Revenue from Jagirs

Jagirdar gets revenue or revenue is assigned to him. This

revenue is divided into various kinds of units called
‘mahal’. The ‘mahal’ is a unit of revenue. These ‘mahals’
differ from one place to another. So a Jagirdar may get
30 mahals in one place, in another place with the same
salary he may get 10 mahals. Along with that there are
certain other taxes which are considered as separate
mahals and separate jagirs.

Kinds of Mahals

A tax was charged in the ports on most of the goods. It

was called custom duty. The revenue from the custom
duty was considered to be a separate mahal for the jagir.

Some examples of these kinds of mahals:

i) Port of Surat – the custom duty in the port of Surat

was given by Shah Jahan first to his son Parwez. But
Parwez dies soon after and after the death of Parwez
this was given to Jahanara Begum, daughter of Shah
Jahan. It was stated that this was given for her
beetal/ paan expenses.
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ii) Hoogly Port – the port duty at Hoogly port was a

jagir of Shahista Khan who was the subedar of
Bengal.

So these duties are considered as separate units.

Similarly excise or other taxes which in Mughal technical
terms particularly from the 17th century called ‘aboab’
were not always considered as separate units and jagirs.

In the rights of the Jagirdars there is a very interesting

‘farmaan’/ order given by Aurangzeb in 1666 to an official
in Gujarat named Rasik Das. He was a karori of Gujarat,
in-charge of the revenue. Aurangzeb’s ‘farmaan’ very
clearly says that the Jagirdar has all the rights but he
cannot collect more than 50% of the land revenue; it
must be less than 50%. Also the ‘farmaan’ says that the
Jagirdar should not and would not be allowed to collect
taxes which are not permitted by the Central
government.

The later historian Kafi Khan who wrote after the death of
Aurangzeb stated that the jagirdars did not follow the
second order and no punishment was given to them. One
of the reasons for this kind of oppression is that the
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jagirdar faces plenty of difficulty. To solve this problem

the Central government had made an administrative
arrangement.

Administrative Setup of the Jagirs

Under the Mughal Empire the jagirs had a very elaborate

administrative setup. Basically it consisted of three-tier
contingent of officials posted at the jagir itself.

They are:

a) Staff of the jagirdar

b) Local staff
c) Imperial staff

The Imperial staff contingent was further sub-divided into

Subedars, Faujdars and so on.

Staff of the jagirdar

In case of the Jagirdari administration we divide the

Jagirdars into two types: big jagirdar and small
jagirdar. The reason of this division is because the
system of administration of the jagir depends on the size
of the jagir. A big jagirdar has a large number of officials
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modeled on the staff pattern of the Khalsa. Naturally they

are more efficient and could collect the revenue also. In
case of a small jagirdar he did not have the resources to
appoint a large number of officials. His officials are
mainly two – Amil (in-charge of the jagir revenue) and
Fotedar / treasurer (in-charge of the finances). So Amil is
in-charge of the jagir itself and Fotedar, in-charge of the
finances. So for the smaller jagirdar these are the two
principal officials to look after the jagir.

From the late 17th century when wars were going on in

Rajputana and Maharashtra, the small jagirdars used to
give contracts of the collection of revenue to certain
people particularly some of his own troops and also to
merchants. This is called Ijara System which is a kind of
a contract by which the collection of the revenue is made.
From the time of Shah Jahan this Ijara system increased.
Before that there were very rare instances of Ijara
System.

The bigger jagirdars had more officials like gomostha,

nayab, amil, fotedar, pikes and even soldiers.
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Local Staff

They were unaffected by the transfer. They were

generally two: Qanungo and Chaudhury. Qanungo is a
post for life and it is hereditary but the succession would
need an imperial ‘sanat’ or order. He may be removed
only by the imperial order. The task of the Qanungo is
very simple. He is actually the record keeper of the
pargana. He keeps records and statistics – the area, the
kind of produce, number of people, rate of the revenue,
the sanctioned rate, the market prices etc. He is the
repository of information of the government. Actually he
is a government official.

In the early days of Akbar he used to get a remuneration

of one-fifth of the collection of revenue. But in the later
days of Akbar it was changed to a fixed salary. But after
Akbar it has been seen that along with the fixed salary
some Inam Jagir is added. Therefore the Qanungo was
the most important person because he informs the
Jagirdar of the local traditions and customs.