Critically analyse whether the success of the Mughals is to be credited to their robust Jagirdari and Mansabdari system.

Answer:

The mansabdari and jagirdari systems formed the administrative and military backbone of the Mughal empire, integrating a diverse nobility into imperial service. They contributed greatly to Mughal success, though that success also rested on other foundations, and the same systems ultimately became a principal cause of decline.

How the systems worked

• Every officer held a mansab expressed in two numbers, zat for personal rank and sawar for cavalry maintained.
• Ranks were graded, non-hereditary and revocable at the emperor's pleasure.
• Salaries were paid either in cash (naqdi) or by assignment of revenue (jagir).
• Jagirs were transferable, so no noble could strike local roots.
• The dagh (branding) and chehra (descriptive roll) systems checked fraud in troop numbers.

Their contribution to Mughal success

• They created a composite nobility of Turanis, Iranis, Afghans, Rajputs and Indian Muslims bound to the throne.
• A large, reliable army was maintained without a permanent landed aristocracy.
• Loyalty was directed to the emperor personally rather than to region or lineage.
• Efficient revenue assignment linked the agrarian surplus directly to military strength.

Limits and the seeds of decline

• Success also owed much to Akbar's policy of sulh-i-kul, the zabt revenue system and Rajput alliances.
• By Aurangzeb's reign a shortage of jagirs (be-jagiri) set nobles competing for assignments.
• Expansion into the Deccan worsened the crisis, as paibaqi land ran short.
• Satish Chandra analysed this jagirdari crisis as central to the empire's collapse.

Weaknesses within the system

• Frequent transfer of jagirs discouraged any long-term investment in the land.
• Assignees often squeezed the peasantry for quick returns before reassignment.
• The gap between the sawar rank and troops actually mustered widened over time.
• Athar Ali showed how competition among an expanding nobility strained the whole structure.

The systems therefore deserve substantial credit for Mughal success, since they disciplined a heterogeneous nobility and financed a formidable army. Yet, as Satish Chandra's work shows, they depended on continuous expansion, and once the supply of jagirs failed, the very institutions that had built the empire helped to bring it down.