7 Distribution of the Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire among the Nobility* A. Jan Qaisar General statements have often been made with regard to the j and economic position of the nobility of the Mughal Empire, until now, to the knowledge of the present writer, no attempt has been made to work out a reconstruction in anything approaching Statistica] terms, of the pattern of distribution of the revenue’ income of the Mughal Empire among the various strata of the Mughal ruling class, The present attempt at statistical presentation of such distribution is based on one or two assumptions regarding the Mughal administrative Procedures, which are borne out by such documentary evidences as we Possess. The principal assumption is that when a salary was sanctioned for an officer, and he was assigned a jagir, his pay claim (talab) as determined by the pay schedules, was exactly the same as the jama or Jamadami entered in the imperial tegister against the territorial units comprising his jagirs. This jama represented the revenue income of the territory as estimated or fixed by the Mughal adininistration, and did not by any’ means correspond to the actual income (hasil). The dif- ference between the two figures, namely, jama and hasil, led to the introduction of the so-called months-scale.! Now if in these circumstances, we could know on the one hand the ‘otal amount of salary bill claimed by the various ranks of the Mughal mansabdars, and on the other, the total jama of the empire for the same year, we can work out the share of each rank in the total es! 1963), pp. 264-6 and n. Also cf. b4, Aurangzeb Bombay, 1966), Pp. 46-53,pistribution of the Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire 253 ue resources of the empire. We would not thereby know the actual sere come of officers of various ranks, but thei relative share inthe otal actual income may be assumed to correspond largely with the share in the estimated income. ns that for the twentieth year of Shah Jahan, we are in Jt happe session of practically all the data required for the kind of statistical enquiry suggested above. In the first place, the official pay schedules are available: there is a pay schedule sanctioned in the fourteenth year of Shah Jahan,’ and another sanctioned under the signature of Saadullah Khan, the diwan of Shah Jahan.” The two schedules are identical, and therefore we can with confidence establish what were the actual pay scales in the twen- tieth' year. In the official history of Shah Jahan’s reign, the Badshahnama of ‘Abdul Hamid Lahori, we have a list of the mansabdars (including the four princes) holding the ranks of. 500 zat and above, with specifications of the zat and sawar rank for each.> Applying the pay schedules, we can work out the salary sanctioned for each of these mansabdars, and obtain the total amount of the salary claimed by the various categories of the mansabdars. Finally, we have in the same work a province-wise statement of the jamadami of the enitire empire for the same year (the twentieth)® We can therefore set our figures for the salary claims against the jama of the whole empire. In making calculations on this basis, our statistical presentation is not affected by the fact that some of the mansabdars were not given jagirs but obtained their salary in cash. Just as the ordinary jagirdars did not get the estimated income from their jagirs, so also the mansab- dars who happened to be paid in cash from the imperial treasury were generally put on a particular months-scale, and so only paid a part of 2since we would be concemed with the jama and not with the hasil, our calculations will not involve any consideration of the implications of the mouths-scale. cf. Selected Documents of Shah Jahan’ s Reign, Daftar-i-Diwani, Hyderabad, (1950), pp. 79-84, It was issued under the signature of Islam Khan. Dastur-ul Amal-i-Alamgiri, Add. 6598, ff. 121a-123a. cf, Irfan Habib, Agrarian System, p. 258; Athar Ali, Mughal Nobility, PP. 47-8. -‘Badshaknama, 1, Bibliotheca Indica, 1868, pp. 717-52. Lahori has also fiver another ist ofthe mansobdars rom S00 zat upwards forthe tenth Year of our xe # Shah Jahan's reign (ibid, 1, pp. 292-328), but this lst cannot be used Ment engi because Labor does ot giveth ama of he same et id, , pp. 710-11. A Soe254 The Mughal State, 1526-1750 their nominal pay claim. It may salaries came out of the revenues of the Hhalisa wihict fa the year of Shah Jahan's reign had 4 jama’ amounting to abot one seye th of the total jama.* We have simply assumed that cack pay chang og the riansabdars was met either directly by 2 jagir Catrying 20 cayeg amount of jama or indirectly by accounting for a shate im the fama og Khalisa equal to their pay claims. mR few notes are called for with regard to the calculation of typ salary bill of each mansabdar, The pay Of Zat and sawar ranies way fixed separately. The pay for each zat rank ‘was Stated in the schetates: there being three rates for each zat rank according to whether the sare rank of the mansabdar was equal, half or more than half, or less Gay half. Since Lahori sets out both zat and sawar ranks of each manga dar, the salary for each zat rank could be determined according to the rates for the three grades in the schedules." As far as the pay of the sawar rank, this is to be calculated by multiplying the number of the sawar rank by 8000 dams In the case-of the do-aspa-sih-aspa sawar ranks, the factor will be 16,000 dams and. not 8000 dams.'* The results of the calculations are set out in two detailed tables appended to this essay. The first table (Table A) gives the total salary bill (including claims against’ zat and sawar ranks) of the holder of each zat rank and the ratio of the salary bill to the total jam im the case of each rank. The second one (Table B) gives the total amount of salary bill, itemized as zat salary and sawar salary, for the holders of each zat rank. The percentages of the zat and sawar salaries separately have been set out with reference to the total salary bill for each zat rank. "Badshahnama, 1, p. 713 (Khalisa had 120 crore dams), ef. Irfan Habib, rarian System, pp. 69, 272. me ‘Badshahnama, 1, p.710. The total jama was 880 #See hin--Akbari, Nawal Kishore, 1, pp. 123-4. It should be detpistribution of the Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire 255 Lahori’s list of the mansabdars and princes of the twentieth year tyes the name of 578 mansabdars, out of which 133 were dead sive’ § We have naturally excluded the salary of the dead from our reiTration and thus we get 445 mansabdars (including the princes). af total number of mansabdars serving under Shah Jahan at this time reid to have been 8000." Thus Lahori’s list of the mansabdars con- tains the names of only 5.6 per cent of the total number of the man- am estimated revenue of the empire for the twentieth year of shah Jahan’s reign was 880 crores of dams.'® The total salary claims, for both zat and sawar ranks, calculated according to the schedules discussed above, of the 445 princes znd nobles, amount to 541.9 million dams out of which the total zar salary of the same number of rank- holders amounts to 1228.7 millicn dams. A detailed examination of Appendix Table A would show that 445 mansabdars (including the four princes) or a bare 5.6-per cent of the total mansabdars, numbering 8000, held-61 ‘per cent of the entire es- timated revenue of the empire. The high incidence of the concentration of the control of the fiscal resources is highlighted by the following examples:4 Number of Zat rank Percentage of the Percentage mansabdars total mansabdars of the total (including the (8000) jama princes) 445 from 500 upwards 56 61.5 Ms " 2000” 14 44.0 B M2500 Teg. 09 376 35 "4000 =" 04 28.2 25 ”" 5000 =” 03 43 10 "6000 =” O1 13.8 4 princes “12000” 0.05 8.2 Thus, at the top of the hierarchical bureaucracy of the Mughal em- Pie. @ mere 73 princes and nobles, who constituted only 0.9 per cent tthe total number of the mansabdars, controlled 37.6 per cent of the ‘tl jama, or in other words, more than one-third of the total estimated 2 jsbadshahnama, n, p.715. “Ibid, p, 709, “SeeTable A. bi >256 The Mughal State, 1526-1750 i venue. On the other hand, 7555 mansabdars who constituted 94. my of the total number of mansabdars, claimed inthe fom ot nat 25 per cent or at the most 30 per cent of the total estimated reyens of the empire, allowing a margin for the khalisa pendi © other tas that of paying cash’ salaries to the mansabdars (nagdis), However, a fairly large portion of the salary’bill of each mansabdoy appears to have been earmarked for expenditure on maintaining a coy tingent equivalent to his sawar rank. This pattem emerges after », analysis of the separate figures of the zat and sawar salary claims of each mansabdar as well as of the various ranks. The total salary claim for the sawar ranks of the 445 mansabdars and princes amounted to 4182.2 million dams. This amount accounts for 77.2 per cent of the total salary claim, both zat and sawar, of the 4445 rank-holders. This enormous amount spent on the maintenance of ‘roopers becomes more significant by the fact that 445 individuals (up vo 500 zat rank) drew 47.5 per cent of the total jama of the empire as their sawar salary. A scrutiny of Table B appended to this essay reveals that the claim allowed for the maintenance of the troopers in each rank ‘was not less than 70 per cent of the total salary claim of 445 mansab. dars."* This would indicate a huge diversion of the resources of the: Mughal state to military organization. But, perhaps, there is an element of overstatement here, since it is quite possible that the mansabdars id not actually spend on their troops the whole amount they claimed A further possible aspect of our enquiry could be the working out of the shares of eacti grouping of the nobles such as the Iranis, Turanis, of zamindars, Khanazads, etc. For the purpose of such’an extension of our enguiry, however, one will have to work out the social origin of Sick of ee menvabdors sucationed in Lahori’s list. It is conceivable an extended study on these lines might yield interesting results. Jn the end I may say that though while presenting these tables, 1 2m struck by the pattem of distribution they reveal, I am also conscious oe avous limitations of presenting such a statistical accoum. Zi tended to present an over simplified view of what v ” mnplex system. However, my purpose would be served ift "SSee Table B.258 The Mughal State, 1526-1750 Appendix Table B Total Pay.against 4 ‘i afore ener Percentage Pay against fonk ny a of total = sawar (million (million tl Gate salary bill (million dams)