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Mughal administration

The basic objective of this article is to discuss the Mughal administration. The main aim of the Mughal empire was to set up the Mughal administration to keep an eye and rule the different parts of the empire.

Administration is the process or activity by which a system is run. The Mughal empire was founded by the king Babur. The main aim of the Mughal empire was to set up the Mughal administration to keep an eye and rule the different parts of the empire. The Mughal empire was the central administrative authority in order to hold the entire power. In the seventeenth century, the Mughal empire  was the greatest manufacturing and economic power in the entire world. Many officers were appointed in different positions of the administration to govern and rule this entire part of the empire.

The Mughal administration was the mostly centre based administration. In the Mughal administration, the Mughal emperor was the supreme head. A number of ministers at the different stages of the empire had been appointed in the Mughal administration.

Levels of the Mughal administration 

The levels of Mughal administration were divided into many subparts. The different officers were appointed in these governmental departments. The levels of the Mughal administration in the Mughal empire are listed below.

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Central Administration 

The Mughal empire rules almost in every part of modern India. The Mughal empire was the central administrative authority in order to hold the entire power. 

  1. Emperor-The emperor was the superior in the Mughal administration and holds the supreme authority of the entire Mughal empire. The order of the emperor was the last and final order in Mughal administration.
  2. Wakil and Wazir- Wazir was also known as diwan, and had both civil and military power. Later, in the Mughal empire in the era of king Akbar, he took the financial power of the wakil and handed this power to the diwan kul, who was the finance minister of the administration. 
  3. Diwani Kul- Diwani kul was the financial minister in the Mughal administration, who looked out all the financial transactions and payments. 
  4. Mir Bakshi- Mir Bakshi keeps an important role at the central level in the Mughal empire. He looks out the payment, appointment and other works related to the soldiers.
  5. Mir saman- Mir saman or khan saman was the head of the purchase department. 
  6. Sadr-us Sudar- Ecclesiastical department and charity department was under the sadr-us sudur or sadr.

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Province Administration 

During the era of Akbar, he divided the Mughal empire into the 12 subas. To control and regulate these subas, the uniform administrative model for each suba was adopted. The part of province level of Mughal administration are: 

  1. Diwan- Diwan was head of all the operation specially revenue department in a suba and responsible to report at the central level. Letter to make the diwan independent with the responsibility of subhadra, Sipah Salar Nazim position is formed.
  2. Bakhshi- Bakhshi  keeps an important role at the suba level in the Mughal empire. He looks out the payment, appointment and other works related to the soldiers at suba.
  3. Darogha- Darogha- i dak was responsible for the communication system of the imperial postal system in the suba. It was the system of sending and receiving the message at the dak chowkis.  
  4. Fozdar and kotwal- Fozdar was the administrative head of the district and kotwal were appointed to do the executive and ministerial duties.

Local Administration

The local administration was divided into the sarkar, pargana and village level.

  1. Sarkar level-In the sarkar level, the faujdar and malguzar were the two most important posts. Faujdar was the administrative head and responsible to safeguard the life and property of people and the malguzar was the revenue collector.
  2. Pargana level- Parganas works at the bottom hand of the sarkar. In the paragana, shiqqadar is an executive officer of the amalguzar.
  3. Village level-This is the lowest administration unit of the Mughal administration. Muqqaddam was the head man of the village at the village level administration. Patwari was responsible to keep the record of revenue in the village.

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Town, Fort and port administration

The administration to handle the work related to the town (cities), forts and the ports, this department was responsible in Mughal administration. The officers in this administration are – 

  1. Kotwal- The first responsibility of the kotwal is to provide safeguard to the people and their property at the city level. Kotwal keeps the record of the unknown person, and issues the permit to the outsiders.
  2. Al’adar- Al’adar was in incharge of the administration of the forts and responsible to guard the fort which indeed fell in his assigned area.
  3. Mutasaddi- Mutasaddi was the governor of the ports, whose duty was to collect the tax and supervised the ports activities.

Departments of the Mughal administration

  • Revenue department-In order to collect the tax and revenue, the separate department was established in Mughal administration. The Zabti system was famous in this empire, in which the one third price of the produced crop was the share of state. Land revenue was fixed in the Mughal administration
  • The officers of the military department who are responsible for soldier activity are Bakshi at central and suba level,  Mansabdar head of the soldiers, horseman and other department of military. Dakhili and ahadis work under the Mansabdar

Conclusion

The Mughal administration was the mostly centre based administration. The main aim of the Mughal empire was to set up the Mughal administration to keep an eye and rule the different parts of the empire.The Mughal administration divided the Mughal empire into the 12 subas. To control and regulate these subas, the uniform administrative model for each suba was adopted.

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