Mughal Administration c13.s1.6

c13.s1.6

"As the land throughout the whole Mughal empire is considered the property of the sovereign, there can be no earldoms, marquisates or duchies. The royal grants consist only of pensions either in land or money [*i.e., jagir* and *tankha,*] which the king gives, augments, retrenches, or takes away at pleasure......The *umarahs* of Hindustan cannot be proprietors of land, or enjoy an independent revenue, like the nobility of France. Their income consists exclusively of pensions which the king grants or takes away according to his pleasure. When deprived of this pension they sink at once into utter insignificance." (Pp. 5, 65.)