The Mansabdari System, introduced by Akbar in 1571, was mainly a system of .

Question

The Mansabdari System, introduced by Akbar in 1571, was mainly a system of .

1. A. Land Revenue Collection
2. B. Judicial Reforms
3. C. Military Administration (Correct answer)
4. D. Religious Reformation

Correct Answer

Option C — Military Administration

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Military Administration.

Key Points

• The Mansabdari system, introduced by Akbar in 1571, was fundamentally a system of military and administrative organisation, grading every officer of the empire by rank.
• Each *mansabdar* held two numerical ranks:
  • Zat, fixing his personal status, pay and position in the hierarchy, and
  • Sawar, fixing the number of cavalrymen he was obliged to maintain.
• It was not primarily a revenue system — that was the Zabti or Dahsala system developed by Raja Todar Mal — nor was it judicial or religious in character.

Additional Information

• Mansabdars were paid either in cash (naqd) or by assignment of revenue from a jagir, but the jagir conferred only the right to collect revenue, not ownership of the land.
• The system was non-hereditary: on a mansabdar's death his rank and assignment reverted to the emperor, which prevented the emergence of an entrenched landed nobility.
• Ranks ran from 10 up to 5,000 for ordinary nobles, with higher grades reserved for princes of the blood.
• Two safeguards guarded against fraud in the cavalry obligation — dagh (branding of horses) and chehra (descriptive rolls of soldiers) — both borrowed from Alauddin Khalji's earlier reforms.