The Administration of the Sultanate of Dehli c9.98

c9.98

A big institution like the imperial household naturally required a large commissariat; this was divided into departments called *kārkhānahs*. Their number may have varied in different reigns; under Fīrūz Shāh it was thirty-six.³ They were divided into two classes: *rātibī* and *ghair-rātibī*.⁴ Any *kārkhānah* which dealt in perishable goods came under the first classification; for instance, *kārkhānahs* providing food and fodder for the stables, the kennels, the kitchen were *rātibī*. The *sham‘-khānah*, which provided lamps and oil, was also *rātibī*. The *ghair-rātibī kārkhānahs* supplied clothes, uniforms, furniture, tents, and the like. Each *kārkhānah* was supervised by a distinguished noble holding the rank of a *malik* or a *khān* and had a *mutaṣarrif* who was responsible for the accounts and acted as the immediate supervisor. There was a chief *mutaṣarrif* for all the *kārkhānahs*; requisitions were first sent to him, and he passed them on to the *mutaṣarrif* concerned. A separate dīwān or accounts office existed under Fīrūz Shāh for the kārkhānahs, though the mutaṣarrifs had to deal with the dīwān-i-wizārat—the central accounts office—as well. At the end of each year the clerks of the kārkhānahs were sent for by the dīwān-i-wizārat and their accounts were audited.¹ The kārkhānahs bought their supplies in the open market and traders were eager to obtain orders.² There is very little indication of the working of the kārkhānahs in other reigns, though they are mentioned by contemporary authorities.³ In a story regarding the Ghaznavid Bahrām Shāh, the Ādāb-u'l-mulūk mentions three kārkhānah officers : a mihtar, or head ; a mushrif or supervisor ; and a taḥwīldār or treasurer.⁴ The first two correspond respectively with the noble at the head of the kārkhānah and the mutaṣarrif of Fīrūz Shāh's reign. It seems very likely that there was a treasurer for every kārkhānah at Dehlī as well. The literal meaning of the word kārkhānah is a workshop ; most of the kārkhānahs in the royal household were factories to manufacture articles for court use. The jāmdārkhānah, for instance, turned out the best cloth in the empire. Muḥammad bin Tughluq employed no less than five hundred workers in gold brocade and four thousand weavers of silk,⁵ who manufactured the cloth required by the household and for making the robes of honour which were so profusely bestowed.⁵ The sultan is reported to have distributed twenty thousand dresses annually.⁶ Great care was also bestowed on the manufacture of arms, engines of war, armour and other fighting equipment.