History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v1.c12.79

v1.c12.79

He saves his officers from a new and strict muster, After thus securing for himself and his leading officers the income necessary for maintaining their contingents, he fought and won for them another battle with the Imperial accounts department. In order to reduce expenditure, Shah Jahan ordered that every military officer serving in the Deccan should bring his force to the muster, and the troop horses should be branded, so that commanders who had been keeping less than their proper contingents while drawing full pay, might be asked to refund the sums they had thus taken in excess from the State. Aurangzib pleaded for them by pointing out the real state of affairs in the Deccan: no officer could realise the full amount of his nominal pay from his jagir; many had failed even to take possession of the lands assigned to them; their main support was the cash allowance paid from the Treasury. If, therefore, by reason of the shortage in the regulation number of their retainers, a part of their former salaries was debited against them and the amount recovered by deduction from their pay in future, the officers would be worse off than before. The operation of the order would decrease the strength of the army, which was a dangerous contingency in "a province on the frontier of two rich and armed rulers." Shah Jahan had decreased the stipend of armed followers from Rs. 20 per month to Rs. 17 or even Rs. 15. Aurangzib protested against this order, saying that a horseman who got less than Rs. 20 a month could not possibly keep himself in proper fighting trim, especially as, under Murshid Quli Khan’s metayership settlement, rent was now paid in kind and the rent-receivers had to undergo heavy expenditure in watching and storing their share of the grain. The price of horses (he added) had greatly risen in the Deccan, and to make up the full complements of all the officers in the terms of Shah Jahan’s new order would require the entertainment of 9,000 additional mounted retainers by the officers. As the result of Aurangzib’s protest and raises the pay of troopers.