The Institutes of Akbar 160.1
The Áín i Akbari (Blochmann, Jarrett) 160.1
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160.1.224
The sixty-six Manṣabs, detailed by Abulfazl in the following table appear to be the result of a minute classification rather than a representation of the Manṣabs which actually existed at the time of Akbar. The table may represent Akbar’s plan; but the list of grandees, as given by Abulfazl himself in the 30th Áín of this Book, only mentions thirty-three—the three commands of the three Princes from 10000 to 7000; and thirty commands of the Manṣabdárs, namely commands of 5000, 4500, 4000, 3500, 3000, 2500, 2000, 1500, 1250, 1000, 900?, 800, 700, 600, 500, 400, 350, 300?, 250, 200, 150, 120, 100; 80, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. Of the last thirty commands, two are somewhat doubtful (the commands of 900 and 300), as not given in all MSS. of the Áín, though the List of Grandees of Sháh Jahán’s time (Pádisháhnámah, II. p. 717) mentions a command of 900. It does not specify a command of 300, because no Manṣabs under 500 are enumerated in that list.
Abulfazl specifies below the names of all of Akbar’s Commanders up to the Mançabdars of 500; he then gives the names of the Commanders of 500 to 200, who were living, when he made the list. Of the Commands below 200, he merely gives the numbers of those that were alive, viz.,
of Commanders of 150 ............ 53 120 ............ 1 100 (Yuzbashis) 250 80 ............ 91 60 ............ 204 50 ............ 16 40 ............ 260 30 ............ 39 20 ............ 250 10 ............ 224
160.1.500
in all, 1388 Commanders from 150 to 10. The number of the higher Mançabdars from 5000 to 200 is 412, of which about 150 may have been dead, when Abulfazl made his list.
As Abulfazl’s List (Ain 30), according to the testimony of Nizam i Harawi is a complete list, it is certain that of the 66 Mançabs of the following table, only 33 existed in reality. The first eighteen of these 33 are commands down to 500, which corresponds to the List of Sháhjahán’s grandees in the Pádisháhnámah, which likewise gives 18 commands to 500.
160.1.500_2
The commands as detailed in the Pádisháhnámah are:—Four commands of the princes (Dárá Shikoh, 20,000; Shah Shujá, 15,000; Aurangzeb, 15,000; Murad Bakhsh, 12,000) and commands of 9000, 7000, 6000, 5000, 4000, 3000, 2500, 2000, 1500, 1000, 900, 800, 700, 600, 500.
160.1.7
From the fact that Abulfazl only gives names up to commanders of 200, and the Pádisháhnámah up to 500, we may conclude that, at Akbar’s time, Mançabs under 200, and at Sháhjahán’s time, Mançabs under 500, did not entitle the holder to the title of Amir. To judge from Nizám’s Tabaqát and the Maásir i Rahimi, Mançabdars from the Hazari (Commander of 1000) were, at Akbar’s time, styled umará-ikibár, or umará-i-izám, great Amírs; and I am not quite sure whether the title of Amír is not restricted to Mançabdárs from the Hazárís upwards. Nizám does restrict his phrases ba martabah i imárat rasíd, or dar gurgah (or silk, or zumrah) i umará muntazim gasht, to commanders from Hazárís.
The title: Amír ul Umará (the Amír of the Amírs, principal Amír), which from its meaning would seem to be applicable to one at the time, seems to have been held by several simultaneously. Nizám gives this title to Adham Khán, Khizr Khwájah Khán, Mír Muhammad Khán Atkah, Muzaffar Khán, Qutbuddín Muhammad Khán, and to the three commanders-in-chief, Bairám Khán, Mun’im Khán, and Mírzá ’Abdurrahím, the three latter being styled Khán Khánán, or Khán Khánán o Sipahsálár.
In the Pádisháhnámah, however, the title of Amírul Umará is restricted to the first living grandee (’Alí Mardán Khán).
It is noticeable that Nizám only mentions commanders of 5000, 4000, 3000, 2500, 2000, 1500, and 1000—for lower Mançabs he does not specify names. Abulfazl gives three intermediate Mançabs of 4500, 3500, and 1250; but as he only gives five names for these three ranks, we may conclude that these Mançabs were unusual. This agrees also with the salaries of the commanders; for if we leave out the commands of 4500, 3500, and 1250, we have, according to Áín 30, twelve steps from 5000 to 500, and the monthly salary of a commander of 500 (Rs. 2500) is the twelfth part of the salary of a commander of 5000 (Rs. 30,000). The Pádisháhnámah gives fourteen steps between the commanders of 7000 and 500, and fixes the salary of a Commander of 7000 at one kror of dáms per annum, or 250000 Rs., stating at the same time that the salaries decrease in proportion. The Persian Dictionary, entitled Ghiás ullughát, states that the salary of a commander of 5000 is 1 kror, or 250,000 Rs., and that the salary of a Pançadí, or commander of 500, is 20,000 Rs. per annum, the 12½th part of the former.
It would thus appear that the salaries of the Mançabdárs, as given by Abulfazl in the following table, are somewhat higher than those given in the Pádisháhnámah and the Ghiás, whatever may have been the source of the latter.
The salaries appear to be unusually high; but they would be considerably reduced, if each Mançabdár had to keep up the establishment of horses, elephants, camels, carts, &c., which Abulfazl specifies for each rank. Taking the preceding Ain and the table in the note as a guide, the establishment of horses, &c., mentioned in the following table, would amount for a Commander of 5000 (monthly salary 30,000 R.) to 10637 R. 1000 ( ditto 8200 R.) to 3015½ R. 100 ( ditto 700 R.) to 313 R. The three classes which Abulfazl mentions for each Mançab differ very slightly, and cannot refer to p. 238, l. 7.
160.1.p5
A commander of 5000 was not necessarily at the head of a contingent of 5000 men. In fact, the numbers rarely even approach the number expressed by the title of a Mançabdár. Thus Nizám says of Todar Mall and Qutbuddín Muhammad Khán, as if it was something worth mentioning, that the former had 4000 cavalry, and the latter 5000 naukars, or servants, i. e., soldiers, though Todar Mall was a commander of 4000 (Nizám says 5000), and Qutbuddín a commander of 5000. Of ’Abdul Majíd Áçaf Khán, a commander of 3000 (vide Aín 30, No. 49), Nizám says, ‘he reached a point when he had 20,000.’ In the Pádisháhnámah, where more details are given regarding the number of men under each commander, we find that of the 115 Commanders of 500 under Sháhjahán only six had contingents of 500, whilst the last had only 50 troopers. This also explains the use of the word tá zát after the titles of Mançabdárs; as panj hazárí i zát sih hazár suwár, “a Commander of 5000, personally (zát, or by rank), and in actual command of 3000 cavalry.” Sometimes we meet with another phrase, the meaning of which will be explained below, as Sháyistah Khán panj hazárí, panj hazár suwár i duaspah sihaspah, “Sháyistah Khán, a Commander of 5000, contingent 5000 cavalry, with two horses, with three horses.” A trooper is called duaspah, if he has two horses, and sihaspah, if three, in order to change horses during elghárs or forced marches. But keeping duaspah sihaspah troopers was a distinction, as in the Pádisháhnámah only the senior Mançabdárs of some ranks are so designated, viz., 8 (out of 20) Panjhazárís; 1 Chahárhazárí; 2 Sihhazárí; 2 Duhazárí; 2 Hazár o pançadí; 1 Hazárí; and 1 Hafçadí.
The higher Mançabdárs were mostly governors of Çúbahs. The governors were at first called sipahsálárs; towards the end of Akbar’s reign we find them called Hákims, and afterwards, Çáhib Çúbah or Mancabdars are also called ta’inátíyán (appointed), whilst the troops of their contingents are called tábínát (followers); hence tábínbáshí, the Mancabdár himself, or his Bakhshí (pay-master, colonel).
The contingents of the Mancabdárs, which formed the greater part of the army, were mustered at stated times, and paid from the general, or the local treasuries; vide Áíns 6, 7, 8. Akbar had much trouble with these musters, as fraudulent practices were quite common. The reform of the army dates from the time when Shahbáz Khán (vide pp. 140, 188) was appointed Mír Bakhshí. The following passage from Badáoní (II, p. 190) is interesting:
‘The whole country, with the exception of the Kháliçah lands (domains), was held by the Amírs as jágír; and as they were wicked and rebellious, and spent large sums on their stores and workshops, and amassed wealth, they had no leisure to look after the troops or take an interest in the people. In cases of emergency, they came themselves with some of their slaves and Moghul attendants to the scene of the war; but really useful soldiers there were none. Shahbáz Khán, the Mír Bakhshí, introduced the custom and rule of the dágh o mahallí, which had been the rule of A’láuddín Khiljí, and afterwards the law under Sher Sháh. It was settled that every Amír should commence as a commander of twenty (bístí), and be ready with his followers to mount guard and...., as had been ordered; and when, according to the rule, he had brought the horses of his twenty troopers to be branded, he was then to be made a Çadí, or Commander of 100 or more. They were likewise to keep elephants, horses, and camels, in proportion to their Mançabs, according to the same rule. When they had brought to the musters their new contingent complete, they were to be promoted according to their merits and circumstances to the post of Hazárí, Duhazárí, and even Panjhazárí, which is the highest Mançab; but if they did not do well at the musters, they were to be put down. But notwithstanding this new regulation, the condition of the soldiers got worse, because the Amírs did what they liked; for they put most of their own servants and mounted attendants into soldiers’ clothes (libás i sipáhí), brought them to the musters, and performed everything according to their duties. But when they got their jágírs, they gave leave to their mounted attendants, and when a new emergency arose, they mustered as many ‘borrowed’ soldiers as were required, and sent them again away, when they had served their purpose. Hence while the income and expenditure of the Manṣabdár remained in statu quo, ‘dust fell into the platter of the helpless soldier,’ so much so, that he was no longer fit for anything. But from all sides there came a lot of low tradespeople, weavers, and cotton-cleaners (naddáf), carpenters, and green-grocers, Hindú and Musalmán, and brought borrowed horses, got them branded, and were appointed to a Manṣab, or were made Krorís, or Ahadís, or Dákhilís to some one; and when a few days afterwards no trace was to be found of the imaginary horse and the visionary saddle, they had to perform their duties on foot. Many times it happened at the musters, before the emperor himself in the Díwán-khánah i khás, that they were weighed in their clothes, with their hands and feet tied, when they were found to weigh from 2½ to 3 man, more or less (?) and after inquiry, it was found that all were hired, and that their very clothes and saddles were borrowed articles. His Majesty then used to say, “With my eyes thus open, I must give these men pay, that they may have something to live on.” After some time had passed away, His Majesty divided the Ahadís into duaspah, yakaspah (having one horse), and nīmaspah (having half a share in a horse), in which latter case two troopers kept one horse together, and shared the stipulated salary, which amounted to six rupees.’