The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c8.4

c8.4

When Akbar first introduced the *manṣab* system, which ranked his officers according to the number of men supposed to be under the command of each, these figures had possibly some connection with the number of men present under those officers' orders, and actually serving in the army (Horn, 39). But it is tolerably certain that this connection between the two things did not endure very long: it was, I should say, quite at an end by the reign of Shāhjahān (1627—58). Indeed, if the totals of all the personal (*zāt*) *manṣabs* in existence at one time were added together, we should arrive at so huge an army that it would have been impossible for the country, however heavily taxed, to meet such an expense. If paid in cash, the army would have been absorbed all the revenue; if paid by assignments, all the land revenue would have gone direct into the hands of the soldiery, leaving next to nothing to maintain the Court or meet the expenses of the other branches of the government. The inference I wish to draw is, that from the grant of rank it does not follow that the soldiers implied by such rank were really added to the army. The system required that a man's rank should be stated in terms of so many soldiers;