Mughal Administration c8.s2.3

c8.s2.3

With the country covered by an immense number of small geographical units, each occupied by a different tribe, and the tribes often migrating from place to place, it was at first impossible to give any single historical or tribal name to a province, which was the aggregate of several such tribal settlements and socially unconnected districts. It was more convenient to designate the viceroyalties as the northern, the southern, etc. Hence, the origin of the terms *subahdār* and *tarfdār*.