A feature which appeared first in the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, but soon became all-pervasive, was the institution of month-scales or ratios. This seems to have arisen out of the discrepancy between the official assessment of jagir (jama) and the actual revenue collection (basil). The jagir system during Mughal Empire thus calls for considerable interest. Jagir is basically a small territory which a ruler grants to an army chieftain as a recognition of his military service. When a man obtained a jagir whose jama (sum of saved money) equalled his annual salary-claim (talab) on paper, he might in actual fact find it yielding him only one-half or one-fourth of his claim. In such cases, the jagir was supposedly known as shashmaha (six monthly) or sib maha (three monthly) respectively. Where the jama greatly exceeded the actual realisation, the jagir would be very low in the month-scale. During the later years of Shah Jahan the actual basil of the Mughal Deccan amounted to approximately one quarter of the jama (i.e. equal to three months only). The jagirs of most mansabdars in the Deccan were accordingly not more than four-monthly and often even less. Conditions however appeared to have been better in northern parts of India. In the later years of Shah Jahan and in the reign of Aurangzeb, complaints were heard that a transfer from northern India to the Deccan entailed jagir on a lower month-scale.
The monthly jagir system of Mughal Empire was applied also to cash salaries. Naturally a person drawing a five month jagir could not be paid a full `12-monthly` salary whenever he was made a naqdi. Shah Jahan, in farman issued in the 27th RY, declared that cash salaries (tankhwah-i naqdi) were never to be fixed above `eight-monthly` or below `four-monthly` rates. An exception was made only in the case of the two highest nobles of the empire, besides princes of royal blood, who received their pay on a `ten-monthly` scale.
In the case of the basil realised from his jagir by an assignee, the proportion it bore to the jama would, of course, only almost correspond with the exact proportion of month-scale. A jagirdar would seldom recover just exactly 5/12 or 7/12 of his paper salary. In cash payments, however, the month-proportion would be exactly followed. Certain manuals contained a table, establishing the amount to be paid to a mansabdar receiving cash salary under each month-ratio in rupees and annas (the actual currency), if his annual paper salary was one lakh dams. Jagir system during Mughal Empire did contain some clandestine motives, only exercised by royals in special occasions, inducing stringent rules for jagir receivers.
In the Zawabit-i Alamgiri similar tables are given also for cases where the salary was 100 dams, 1000 dams and 10,000 dams. In all these tables, the exact arithmetical proportions have been espoused. The Kbidasat-us mentions the annual pay for each month-ratio sanctioned for various zat ranks. It is explicitly stated in one manual that the tables given above apply only to pay due on zat ranks of the naqdis. For their sawar rank (tabinan) payment was made for various month-rates according to an altogether different scale. This scale is given under the heading `tabinan `. Jagir system during Mughal empire were explicitly related to mansabdari system of ranking, issued to military forces.
The significance of this table can be understood from the farman issued by Shah Jahan in his twenty-seventh year of reign. This order had declared and restricted monthly and quarterly payments of a jagirdar; either he was to be paid his daily salary, or the jagor only. Nobles as well as mansabdars were applicable under this law. This law was however determined from the beginning of the solar month of Mihr to the end of Isfandarmuz of that year. This jagir law system of Mughal empire can be read along with a letter of Aurangzeb written in the twenty-ninth year of Shah Jahan, which quotes an imperial order to the effect that the pay for `3-months` and `2-months` for which rupees 17/8 /- and rupees 15/- had respectively been sanctioned (elsewhere). This law had been fixed in the case of the Deccan from the beginning of the month of Mihr, Kharif Yunt II, at rupees 20 per head per month, i.e. at the same rate as for `4-months`.
From this evidence, the following points are established. First, those receiving cash salaries were not paid in the year for their sawar rank a sum equal to the number of the saivar rank multiplied by 8000 dams, as was done in case of those who assigned jagirs. On the other hand, the method was, first, to determine the contingent which the mansabdar was required to maintain according to his sawar rank. In case of naqdis this was fixed under `the Rule of One-fifth`. Then, the number of sawars so fixed was multiplied by the rate of rupees forty per month being paid under the `12-monthly` scale. For those placed in the lower month-scales, the rate per sawar was reduced, but not in the same proportion as that of the respective number of the months to twelve. It is these rates that had formed the subject of Shah Jahan`s farman.
The details of men and horses required of mansabdars under the `Rule of the One-fifth` are available in the Badsbah Nama and Khulasat-us Siyaq. By calculating from these, the pay due to the naqdi of any sawar rank on any month-scale can be arrived at. A curious characteristic revealed by this complex calculation is that the pay was higher per horse for the naqdis placed in higher month-scales than for those in the lower. The situation for the lower categories was better before Shah Jahan`s order of the twenty-seventh year. Aurangzeb as Viceroy of the Deccan had strongly urged the modification of this order, and was also grateful when Shah Jahan made an exemption in the case of the Deccan for those placed in the 2 and 3 months-scales. Jagir system of Mughal Empire wholly pivoted around the father-son duo, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, standing at opposing poles. Aurangzeb as emperor appears, however, to have forgotten his own pleas as Viceroy and continued the new scale established by Shah Jahan. The pay schedule from 12 to 7 months, however, came to be merely of academic interest, since Aurangzeb decided, in his twenty-first year, to lower Shah Jahan`s maximum allowance of 8-months to 6-months for all naqdis.
As against the sanctioned claim (tnuqarrara talab), there used to be a number of deductions in the pay schedules. The largest was made in the case of `Dakhinis`, i.e. Bijapuri, Haiderabadi (present day Hyderabadi, from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh) and Maratha officers, who took service with the Mughals. Their total salary due on both their ranks was first calculated and then a fourth part of it was deducted, jagirs or cash-pay being assigned for the remainder only. This deduction was known as `waza-i dam-i chauthai` or `Deduction of one-fourth in Dams`. The deduction was already established in the times of Shah Jahan and was continued by Aurangzeb. The dissimilarities between the Mughals and Maratha warriors manifested wholly in the jagir system of Mughal empire, with other principles also thrown in.
The chautbai was a deduction applying only to a particular section of the nobility, another unique form of jagir system during Mughal Empire. There was, however, a charge not perhaps of the same magnitude, but still quite substantial, which applied to all nobles unless particularly exempted. This comprised a number of items, grouped together collectively under khurak-i dawwab (`fodder for beasts`). Originally it seems to have been merely a compulsion to maintain specific number of elephants, horses, camels and carts belonging to the emperor. The number was regulated according to the zat rank of the officer. In the Ain-i-Akbari, a full scale of the numbers to be maintained is set about under each rank. Though the term khurak-i dawwab is not to be found in Abu`l Fazl, it is obvious that he refers to the same obligations. In an manual of Aurangzeb`s reign, a reference to this term can be found as standing for fodder for animals, which are put in the charge of the nobles. The number of animals (horses and elephants) fed by officers of each rank is actually specified.
After entrusting animals to the nobles, the next step was to keep the animals in the imperial stables and to demand that the nobles pay for feeding them there. Thus, besides the number of animals, the standard cost for feeding each is also specified. By the time of Shah Jahan, it had apparently become the practice to deduct the cost of the khurak or rasad-I-khurak from the talab or `salary demand of the noble`. In Aurangzeb`s reign, however, it can be found that the practice was of assigning the jagirs for the full salary and then demanding the khurak in kind or cash; sazavals or imperial messengers used to be sent to exact it from the jagirdars. Jagir system during later Mughal empire, began to be tightened, with perhaps the jagirdars suffering the axe most. This seems to have been greatly resented by the nobles. In the 46th RY of Aurangzeb`s reign, the emperor consented to abolish the system in respect of the khurak for elephants. Now this charge was to be again converted into dams and jagirs, with equivalent jama to be taken away from the jagirdars, freeing them from the obligation of obtaining supplies or paying in cash for the animals. During the next reign, the measure was extended to cover the whole of the khurak-i daivwab to the relief of all the mansabdars.
The khurak-i dawivab was not imposed under the rules on any officer drawing 14 lakhs of dams or less, nor on those who had no sawar ranks or held ranks below 400 zat or 200 sawar. Apart from this, individual officers could sometimes be exempted by the emperor from this compulsion.
There was another deduction in pay scale, technically known as irmas. This, according to historians, was another name for talab-i-ijnas (or demand for supplies). Ilahadad Faizi in his dictionary states that irmas was a term used during Akbar`s government for all that was given to the troops apart from cash and their salary. Apparently this payment-in-kind was valued and deducted from the salary. Akbar had, to some extent, been compassionate towards jagir system of Mughal Empire, entrusting jagirdars with unusual payments. From what Abu`l Fazl states in the Ain-i-Akbari, it would appear that this was a deduction against which the emperor presented horses to the nobles.
In addition to these deductions, there also existed fines or jurmana for jagirdari system during Mughal Empire. These were imposed for various reasons, but predominantly for deficiencies in the contingents required from the nobles. If more than a fourth of the cavalrymen were enrolled as fauti (dead) or firari (fled), i.e., if more than 1/4 of the men were new recruits since the last summon, the noble had to pay a fine of 4 muhars for each sawar so presented. For any deficiency in horses, a fine of 2 muhars per horse was charged.
The emperor sometimes used to order advances to be made to mansabdars, especially while on expeditions. This was known as masaidat. In the Balkh and Badakhshan campaigns, for example, sums of money amounting to as much as one fourth of their pay were advanced to the naadis. Besides cash advances, horses and equipment were also lent as part of masaidat. All this was converted into a cash claim against the officer concerned and was known as mutaliba (treasury claim). But the nutaliba probably also included items other than masaidat, such as jurmana or fines. In any case, officers often owed large amounts to the treasury. The official chronicler of Aurangzeb praises him for having remitted the mutaliba contracted by the forefathers and ancestors of his officers. Jagir system of Mughal Empire, just like other complicated branches of Mughal ruling, possessed a dark side to every bright side of reigning. As for mutaliba due from the father, it was to be remitted if the son was a mansabdar of 4000 or less. From others, the mutaliba was claimed if they had inherited a large amount from their father; it was to be partly remitted if they had inherited a small amount and completely remitted in case they had inherited nothing. Although the mutaliba was thus apparently allowed to accumulate, it was normally exacted by the resumption of a jagir of equivalent revenue. Sa`adullah Khan, the famous minister of Shah Jahan, was suspected of having favoured the nobles by allowing the mutaliba against them to accumulate without calling them to account.
During the earlier period whenever the muhasiba (settlement of accounts) took place, the mutaliba usually exceeded the talab or unfulfilled claims of the officers. But in the later years of Aurangzeb`s reign, conditions changed; officers did not receive jagirs for long periods and so their claims went on hoarding up. This was yet another shrewd device by which jagir system during Mughal Empire looked towards greener pastures, reimbursing required expenses. Now that the balance was often in the favour of the nobles, the policy of administration changed and the officers usually found it very difficult to obtain a settlement or muhasiba from the finance department.
To sum up, historians have conclusively proved that the salaries payable to sawars were gradually reduced from the time of Akbar to the time of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. This reduction did not, however, have much direct impact upon the income of the nobles themselves, owing to the reduction in their military obligations. The introduction of the month-scales during the times of Shah Jahan, on the other hand, had a direct bearing on the pay scales of the nobles. Shah Jahan`s times not only involved a reduction in the salary payable for the employment of sawars, but also the personal salary payable to the nobles under the head of zat. Since it had become usual in the time of Aurangzeb to assign jagirs on a scale not higher than a six-month scale, the reduction in salaries was fairly considerable. This was counterbalanced to some extent by a drastic scaling down of the obligations of the nobles for the maintenance of sawars and horses. In addition, considerable deductions were made under a number of heads from the time of Shah Jahan onwards. It would, therefore, appear that the net income of the nobles in the time of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb definitely declined. Jagir system during Mughal empire had witnessed varied kinds of topsy-turvy attitudes amongst emperors, sometimes running the downslide and sometimes, the opposite.
