which rank signified the actual member of horsemen maintained by akbar
Answers
Explanation:
The Mughals enrolled people of all races and religions into government jobs, and they were known as mansabdars.
Mansabdar means a man with a mansab (a position or rank), and mansabdari was a grading system to decide the rank, salary and military responsibilities of government officials.
The rank and salary of a mansabdar were fixed according to a numerical value called zat. So the higher the zat of a mansabdar is, the higher is his position in the court.
Mansabdars received specific numbers of sawars or cavalry men who were registered by the government, branded horses, and salaries for the sawars.
Mansabdars received salaries as revenue assignments called jagirs. And unlike muqtis, all mansabdars did not reside in their own jagirs but used servants to collect revenues there while they themselves served in another part of the empire.
During Akbar's rule, a mansabdar's salary was roughly equal to the revenue the Mughal Empire got from his jagir.
But this changed during Aurangzeb. As the number of mansabdars increased and the number of jagirs decreased, there was more land revenue.
The main source of income of the Mughal Empire was tax on farm produce, and peasants paid taxes to headmen or local chieftains.
The Mughals called all middle-men zamindars (landlords), and assigned to them the task of collecting taxes.
Akbar's revenue minister Todar Mal carried out a survey of crop yields, prices, and areas cultivated for a 10-year period, and then fixed taxes on each crop.
Each province was divided into revenue circles with its own rates of revenue for each crop and this revenue system was known as zabt. And it was prevalent in areas where Mughals could survey the land and keep regular accounts.
The Mughal administrators exploited the peasants, and this started revolts which picked up speed later, in the end of the 17th century.
Akbar's courtier Abul Fazl wrote two books on Akbar and his administration: the Akbar Nama and the Ain-i-Akbari.
In these books, he describes that the empire was divided into subas governed by a subadar who carried out military and administrative functions.
Each province had a diwan (financial officer), bakshis (military paymasters), sadr (minister for religion and charity), faujdars (military commanders), and kotwals (town policemen).
In 1570, Akbar started religious discussions in the ibadat khana at Fatehpur Sikri where he invited ulama (learned religious men) such as Brahmans, Catholic priests, Zoroastrian priests, etc.
Akbar's interaction with different faiths made him realise that religious scholars who emphasise rituals and dogmas are bigots.
This eventually led to his idea of sulh-i-kul or universal peace and tolerance towards all religions.Mansabdars gained a lot of power and became highly corrupt under the rule of the later Mughal kings.
The Mughals and their mansabdars spent a lot on salaries and goods which benefited the artisans and peasantry, but the large scale of revenue collection left very little for the artisans and peasantry in terms of savings.
As the Mughal power declined, their servants slowly emerged as centres of power and money.
They created new provinces such as Hyderabad and Awadh, but in theory they still considered the king in Delhi as their master and emperor.
Explanation:
which rank signified the actual member of horsemen maintained by akbar