BharatNotes What is Mansabdari System?
The Mansabdari System was the central administrative and military institution of the Mughal Empire, fusing rank, salary, and troop obligation into one graded hierarchy. The word mansab (Persian) means "office" or "rank". Every officer—whether serving in a military, civil, or revenue capacity—was assigned a numerical mansab that fixed his status, his pay, and the size of the cavalry contingent he had to maintain. Holders were called mansabdars. The system was formalised by Akbar, with the characteristic dual-rank refinement introduced in 1595-96.
A key feature was that mansabs were not hereditary: ranks were granted, raised, lowered, or revoked at the emperor's will, and on a mansabdar's death his assignment lapsed to the state (a practice linked to escheat). This kept the nobility dependent on the crown rather than on inherited landed power.
Key Features: Zat and Sawar
From 1595-96 each mansabdar held two ranks:
| Term | What it indicated |
|---|---|
| Zat | Personal rank fixing the holder's status in the hierarchy and his salary |
| Sawar | The number of horsemen (cavalry) the mansabdar was required to maintain |
On the relationship between the two, mansabdars were graded into three classes: first class (sawar equal to zat), second class (sawar at least half of zat), and third class (sawar below half of zat). According to the Ain-i-Akbari of Abul Fazl, ranks ranged from commanders of 10 up to several thousand; the highest grades (above 5,000) were generally reserved for princes of the royal blood, and by the end of Akbar's reign the ceiling for nobles had risen to 7,000.
To prevent fraud, Akbar enforced two checks: dagh (branding of horses) and chehra (a written descriptive roll of each soldier), making it difficult to present borrowed or substitute mounts at muster.
Evolution and Decline
Under Jahangir, the du-aspa sih-aspa ("two-horse, three-horse") device allowed a select noble to be paid for double or triple troopers against his sawar rank without inflating the rank itself—first conferred on Mahabat Khan as a special distinction.
Over time, the system strained. The number of mansabdars rose sharply—from roughly 1,800 under Akbar to several thousand by Aurangzeb's reign—while the supply of revenue-yielding jagirs failed to keep pace. The gap between paper assignments (jama) and actual collection (hasil) widened, producing the jagirdari crisis: too many claimants chasing too few productive jagirs. This administrative-fiscal breakdown is widely cited (notably by historian M. Athar Ali) as a structural cause of Mughal decline in the early eighteenth century.
UPSC Angle
Focus on the precise meanings of zat and sawar, the 1595-96 dual-rank reform, dagh and chehra, du-aspa sih-aspa, and the cash-versus-jagir mode of payment. Link the jagirdari crisis to the larger debate on why the Mughal Empire weakened—a recurring GS1 theme on medieval Indian administration.
