Mansabdari System in Mughal Administration
During the early years of his reign, Akbar’s army was mostly foreign personnel consisting of Mongols, Turks, Uzbegs, Persians and Afghans who had followed Babur and Humayun as their regular troops or camp-followers. The commanding officers were of the same race as the troops and were granted large assignments of land in lieu of their salaries. In view of the semi-independent position of the commanders, the military aristocracy was inclined to be insubordinate, making the Mughal army a weak instrument of force.
The officers resorted to irregularities and fraudulent practices and cheated the government and soldiers alike. Akbar concluded that there was no other way of establishing his authority except by taking the absolute power of direction and control in his own hands and reorganising the army in such a manner as to stamp out corruption and convert it into a powerful disciplined force. The result was the mansabdari system. The word mansab means place or rank and mansabdars were, therefore, holders of ran} the imperial service. The lowest rank was that of ten and the highest that of ten thousand.
Towards the end of his reign, Akbar raised the highest rank to twelve thousand. The mansabs were a convenient method of fixing the status and salaries of the imperial officers. The services were not classified into civil service and military service, and any mansabdar was liable to be called upon to discharge either duty at any time in his career.
All imperial officers, except perhaps the qazis and the sadrs, were enrolled as members of the mansabdari system and were required to maintain some troops proportionate to their ranks. There were no fixed rules of appointment, promotion or dismissal of the mansabdars who held offices at the emperor’s pleasure and were promoted, degraded or dismissed at his will.
The mansabdars were paid high salaries in cash, and sometimes by assignments of land expected to yield the revenue corresponding to the salaries fixed for particular mansab. Mansabdars were allowed to recruit their own troops, who generally belonged to their own race or tribe. The mansabdars were required to purchase their own horses and equipment; sometimes these were supplied by the government. At the time of enlistment and first muster the descriptive rolls of the troops and of horses under a mansabdar were recorded and the horses branded.
Akbar paid a great deal of attention to his military establishment and laid down minute rules and regulations regarding its organisation, equipment and discipline. Care was taken to see that the regulations were faithfully observed and the discipline of the army was not impaired. He unerringly laid his finger on the weak points in his military department and removed its deficiencies without loss of time.
He succeeded in making the system work so efficiently, that he earned the credit of having a lifetime’s unbroken record of victories in the battlefield. The system was, however, inherently weak. Firstly, during the first half of Akbar’s reign mansabdars cheated the government by bringing to muster, men from the streets in military uniform and passing them off as soldiers and maintained inferior horses.
Individual troops under the system were more loyal to their chiefs than to the emperor as the division of the army was mansabdarwise and a mansabdar commanded the same troops throughout his life. Secondly, within a mansabdar’s division there was no classification of troops into regiments. All the troops were immediately under him and every soldier had personal relations with him.
Thirdly, corruption in some form or other was unavoidable in a system that left the duties of recruitment and administration of the army to the mansabdars. Fourthly, the practice of payment through the mansabdars was pernicious and led to abuses. Fifthly, the mansabdari system had no organic centre and lacked the cohesive force which is essential in a national army.
Sixthly, the standard of efficiency varied from unit to unit under various mansabdars and there was no uniformity of weapon, equipment, or discipline. On account of these inherent weaknesses, the Mughal army considerably deteriorated under Akbar’s successors. In spite of so many defects, the mansabdari system was an improvement upon the military organisation of the medieval period. It was designed to tap every source of fighting talent in the country.
Some units were particularly suited to certain special kinds of military duties. For example, certain Rajput mansabdars were diplomatically used against certain other Rajput chiefs with whom they conflicted. The system assured steady loyalty of the mansabdars to the emperor and offered an incentive for individual distinction. Every mansabdar was aware that his promotion or degradation depended upon his loyalty and quality of service.