The wonder that was india

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in a field), or crop sharing, called bata i', bhauli, or ghalla-bakhshi, but the state's share was calculated in cash before collection.77

The system's success depended upon the efficiency, competence, and resourcefulness of the amalguzar or the pargana revenue collectors, who were obliged to act in a friendly fashion to the peasants. They were required to advance loans to needy farmers and recover them in easy instalments. The collectors were assisted by the village headmen, who received 21/2 per cent of the tax as remuneration after the realization of the full rental. The farmers were encouraged to pay their dues direct to the pargana treasury, however, and the collectors were warned not to depend on the headmen for the survey and assessment of land. The collection of the winter harvest (rabi') commenced on the day of the Hindu festival of Holi (in March), while that of the harvest of the rainy season (kharif) started from the Hindu Dasehra day (in October).

The collectors' main duty was to extend the areas of crop production by encouraging the cultivation of former waste-lands. If no unused land was left in a village, the farmers could be given any surplus in the neighbouring villages. The collectors were also required to encourage the planting of more valuable crops such as sugar-cane, oil-seed, spices, and poppies. They were responsible for supervising the land surveyors, assessors, and other revenue officials.

In the reign of Akbar's successors the revenue rates were revised from time to time, but the broad framework evolved under Akbar remained the same. The surviving revenue guidebooks compiled in Aurangzib's reign also urged the Mughal officers to be friendly towards the farmers and to reclaim any waste-land. In no case was more than one-half of the produce to be taken as land revenue. It was stressed that the survey papers, jama' schedules, and other revenue records had to be compiled carefully and punctually.

JUSTICE

As we have seen, the 'ulama' endeavoured to transform Islam into a religion of law, but, as custodians of justice, the rulers made the shari'a courts subservient to their sovereign power. Theoretically the rulers had to be obedient to the shari'a, and history has preserved cases where sovereigns unhesitatingly submitted to the qdzi's decision. However, as the supreme authority who appointed judges and ministers, the rulers sat in a court known as mazalim (complaints). According to Ibn Battuta, Muhammad bin Tughluq

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heard complaints each Monday and Thursday. Barani says that Muhammad bin Tughluq founded a special court called diwan-i siydsat, presided over by tyrannical judges, in order to ruthlessly kill his Muslim opponents.78 This is a gross misrepresentation of the Sultan's efforts to establish his system of justice on a broader basis.

From the thirteenth century onwards, an officer known as the amir-i dad presided over the secular court in the sultan's absence. He was also responsible for implementing the qazis' decisions and for drawing their attention to cases which, in his opinion, constituted miscarriages of justice.

The muftis were the experts on shari'a law and gave fatwas (formal legal rulings) on disputes referred to them by members of the public or by qazls. Their rulings were binding in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance, but other legal questions were either decided by the qazis'or were left to the ruler's discretion. The chief judge of the sultanate was known as the qdzi-i mamalik, also known as the qaziu'l-quzat. Qazis were also appointed to the army and in the towns.

Discord could nevertheless erupt between the qazis and the sovereign, and after the rebellion in the eastern provinces in 1580 Akbar ordered a large number of qazis to be killed or exiled for inciting disaffection and revolt. For all that, many qazis were efficient and honest; Shaykh Mu'in (d. 1587), the qdzi of Lahore, was described by Mulla Bada'uni as 'an angel in human form'. His' successor was Shi'i, Sayyid Nuru'llah Shustari (1549-1610), although Lahore was predominantly Sunni. Bada'uni, a Sunni fanatic himself, praised Shustari in glowing terms: 'In truth he has reduced the insolent muftis and crafty and subtle muhtasibs of Lahore, who ventured to give lessons to the teacher of the angels, to order, and has closed to them the avenues of bribery, and restrained them within due bounds as closely as a nut is enclosed in its shell, and to such a degree that stricter discipline could not be imagined.'79

The counterpart of the secular judge (amir-i dad) of the Delhi sultans was the mlr 'adl of the Mughals. He acted as a judge on the emperor's behalf. He was not allowed to depend solely on witnesses' oaths and testimony but was required to make impartial and diligent personal inquiries. The mir 'adl was also responsible for implementing the qazis' decisions. The Emperor Jahangir considered himself finally responsible for justice in his realm and sought to enhance the importance of the mazalim court.

Under the Mughals the qdzis continued as registrars of surety bonds, bail bonds, contracts, and title deeds. In 1591-2 Qazi Nuru'llah Shustari was appointed by Akbar to the commission

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examining the maladministration of the revenue from Kashmir. He was also sent to Agra five years later to investigate the tenures of the madad-i ma'ash grants.80

A growing acceptance of the qazis' authority in civil cases was manifested in the provinces and districts when provincial governors and local officers consulted them. The fundamental conflict of interests remained, however, and, according to the records surviving from Aurangzlb's reign, disagreements between the qazis and the civil and military authorities were still frequent.

The size of the Mughal empire made it difficult to recruit talented and honest qdzis. Naturally in India these posts in the smaller towns became hereditary. During Aurangzlb's reign the' qazi of Jodhpur was an uneducated man. These qazis were forced to depend upon the local chiefs' recommendations and they usually advised them to base their decisions on local customs, which were sometimes contrary to the shari'a. Shah Nawaz Khan's remarks about the qazis in Aurangzlb's reign are most revealing. He says:

Those who sell religion for worldliness (din ba dunyd) regard this noble office as a very easy one and spend money in bribes (to obtain it), in order that by doing away with the rights of men they may extort a hundred times more. They regard nikahana (fees on marriages) and mahrana (fees on dowers) as more their due than their mother's milk. What shall be said of the hereditary qazis of the townships, for to be in touch with knowledge is the lot of their enemies [i.e. they are ignorant], and the registers of the deshpdndya (village accountants) and the words of zammdars are their holy book and shari'a.81

In the A 'in-i Akbari, Abu'1-Fazl does not discuss the appointments of the muhtasibs and muftis, and both continued as subordinate officers of the qazis. However, the muhtasibs became low-ranking officers under Akbar's administrative regulations, once their more important duties had been incorporated into the kotwal's jurisdiction. The muhtasibs' responsibilities had traditionally included the control of sale and purchase transactions in the bazaars, weights and measures, and genuineness of coins, and the suppression of prostitution and other immoral offences. Akbar's reduction of their status was not really an innovation, because the early Muslim administration also did not strictly separate the duties of the muhtasib, qazi, and chief of shurta (police).

In the second year of his reign (1659) Aurangzib enhanced the prestige of the muhtasib's department by appointing as chief muhtasib a distinguished scholar from Turan, I waz Wajih. He was given a high salary and a high mansab, and lower-ranking mansabdars were

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27. Char Minar in Hyderabad Deccan (p. 288)

28. The Qutb Minar in Delhi (pp. 278-9)

29. The temple pillars in the cloisters of the Quwwatu'l-Islam mosque near Qutb Minar (p. 278)

30. Qutb Minar, details of carvings (p. 279)

31. The tomb chamber in the Taj Mahal in Agra (p. 295)

32. The upper domes in the Blrbal's house at Fathpur-Slkrl (p. 293)

33. Atala Mosque, Jaunpur (p. 282)

34. The Buland Darwaza (Gate of Victory) (p. 292) in Fathpur-Sikri

35. Interior of Iltutmish's tomb, near Qutb Minar (p. 280)

36. Ala'i Darwaza, near the Qutb Minar (p. 280) 37. The Quwwatu'l Islam Mosque screen, Delhi (p. 279)

38. Elaborately carved pillar in one of the chambers of Fathpur-Sikri (p. 292)

appointed to assist him. His jurisdiction encompassed the prevention of forbidden and unlawful deeds, particularly drinking intoxicating liquor, taking bhang (Indian hemp) and other drugs, and committing shameful acts such as adultery. Khan Khan comments that the muhtasibs were ordered to eradicate brothels, gambling houses, and idol worship. Their previous duties, such as supervising weights and measures and market rates (nirkh), were not returned to them until some years later. Subsequently, the enforcement of Sunni laws, the suppression of all Shi'I practices, and the introduction of moral reforms were also reincorporated into their duties, and in 1699 they were allotted the task of destroying Hindu temples.82

Another senior position was that of the principal sadr or the sadru's sudur. He was the main link between the 'ulama' and the ruler, and the highest ambition of the 'ulama' class was to attain this rank. The sadru's sudur's importance was derived from his power to grant revenue-free subsistence land known as madad-i ma'ash, amlak, a'imma, or suyurghal. According to Abu'1-Fazl, the person appointed to the 'lofty position of sadr' should be wise and perspicacious, so that poor and deserving people might be introduced to the emperor in order to receive stipends and grants. The A in-i Akbari divides the recipients of those qualifying for madad-i ma'ash into four categories:

(1) Dispassionate seekers after knowledge.

(2) Ascetics.

(3) The illiterate weak and poor.

(4) Uneducated men of noble birth who could not earn their living as tradesmen or professionals.83

Not all the members of this class were necessarily parasites, as some Marxist historians think. A considerable number of the madad-i ma'ash recipients ran seminaries and schools out of their grants. Many Mughal madad-i ma'ash documents show that a large number of these blocks ofland had not been previously cultivated, although they were arable and they were not included in the jama'. In fact, the assignees performed a useful state service by extending cultivation and planting orchards, etc.

Even before Akbar's reign, madad-i ma'ash land had been granted to non-Muslims, but from his rule onwards grants to them were increasingly frequent. Some madad-i ma'ash recipients, however, occupied unauthorized land. Sher Shah considered it necessary to send his farmans (royal decrees) on madad-i ma'ash in a sealed bag. The village officials, upon receiving such an order, would first have the land to be granted to the recipients measured and then hand

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over the farman to them. The Mughal emperors, possibly took similar precautions. The revenue authorities were ordered to make sure that the madad-i ma'dsh holder did not expel the peasants from their revenue-paying land. These grants were not hereditary. The sons were generally allowed to inherit, but the emperors reserved the right to review the case afresh and to make new grants, which might be reduced. In 1690 Aurangzib made madad-i ma'dsh grants hereditary, but the farman insisted that since madad-i ma'dsh was an article of loan ('ariyat), not property, its inheritance was to be governed by imperial orders and not by the shari'a.

THE POLICE

The principal police officer in the cities was the kotwal. The term is of Hindi origin. Because the towns were enclosed by fortified walls and gates, their officers came to be known as the guardians of forts (kotpal or kotwal). Kotwals were not military officers but they worked in collaboration with the military commandant. Some kotwals in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, such as Balban's kotwal Fakru'd-Din and 'Ala u d-Din's kotwdl 'Ala'u'1-Mulk, played a major role in influencing events, but this was a result of their personal competence and character, not of their position.

During Akbar's reign the kotwals were ordered to compile a census of all towns and large villages, giving details of the inhabitants' professions and activities. The towns were divided into mohallas (quarters), and each was placed under a mit-i mohalla (officer of the mohalla). Spies obtained reports of daily events from the mir-i mohalla and forwarded them to their superiors. Information concerning the movements of both residents and visitors was also given to the kotwdl through the mir-i mohalla. The kotwdls controlled the bazaars, merchants, artisan guilds, brokers, prices, and weights and measures. They were required to ensure that no unauthorized imposts were levied in towns and were also responsible for supervising mints and the gold and silver content of coins. Their duties included eradicating unemployment and investigating the sources of income of those who spent money extravagantly. Prohibitions were also enforced through the kotwdls. They were responsible for recovering stolen property and had to make recompense themselves if they failed to catch the thieves. The growth in urbanization increased the area of roads over which they were responsible for safety.

Kotwals were also required to prevent unwilling widows from

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being incinerated on their dead husband's funeral pyre. Another of their duties was to stop boys under twelve being circumcised. They had to expel religious impostors and charlatans and see that no oxen, buffaloes, horses, or camels were slaughtered. The kotwals were required to allot separate quarters to butchers, animal hunters, sweepers, and people who prepared dead bodies for cremation.84 Many of these provisions seem to echo the practices of the ancient Hindu kingdoms, as reflected in such texts as the Arthasastra attributed to Kautilya. It is possible that Akbar was influenced to some extent by Hindu advisers.

THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION

The Delhi sultans divided their empire into small units. A province was known as wilqyaf or iqtim. The names of governors in Barani's history show that under 'Ala'u'd-Dln's reign there were twelve provinces: (1) Multan and Siwistan, (2) Dipalpur and Lahore, (3) Gujarat, (4) Samaria and Sunam, (5) Dhar and Ujjain, (6) Jha'in, (7) Chittor, (8) Chanderi and Iraj, (9) Bada'un and Kol, (10) Avadh, (11) Kara, (12) Bihar and Bengal. To facilitate the fiscal administration, these were subdivided into shiqqs or sarkdrs. In 1580 Akbar divided the empire into twelve subas (provinces): Kabul, Multan, Lahore, Delhi, Agra, Allahabad, Avadh, Bihar, Bengal, Ajmir, Malwa, and Gujarat. When Berar, Khandesh, and Ahmad-nagar were conquered, the number of subas increased to fifteen. Later, Kashmir and Qandahar were included in Kabul, Thatta or Sind in Multan, and Orissa in Bengal. Each suba was divided into a number of sarkdrs and each sarkdr into parganas. Parganas and sarkdrs had earlier formed the basis of Sher Shah's administration. Chittor, Jodhpur, Bikanir, and the autonomous Rajput chiefs' watanjdgirs were the sarkdrs of Ajmir province; Amber was a mere pargana of Ajmlr sarkdr in the province of the same name.

Qutbu'd-DIn Aybak's directives to a governor (wdK) show that the governor was responsible for the implementation of both the shart'a and the sultan's laws. He controlled the 'ulamd', the military commanders, and the civil servants. It was his duty to extend cultivation, reduce imposts where possible, guard highways and roads, and promote trade and commerce. Firuz Tughluq's instructions to the governor of Sind were similar.85 The governors under the Delhi sultans were supreme executive officers; they were not responsible for the recruitment of army personnel and could not interfere with the judicial authorities. The sultans also appointed a

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principal revenue administrator (sahib-i diwdn) called a khwaja. The khwaja maintained the revenue accounts and helped the sultan to settle the account.

The Mughal governor was called a sipahsalar (military commander), but the titles subadar and ndzim-i suba were also used. Very influential mansabddrs or princes were appointed as governors. All the provinces of the Deccan were generally placed under one governor, but in other areas not more than two contiguous provinces were combined thus.

The Mughal governors were the emperor's vicegerents. They commanded the provincial troops and were responsible for the maintenance of peace and prosperity in their provinces. Normally death sentences 'were passed only by the emperor, but a governor could impose capital punishment on rebels to suppress an uprising. The governors were required to distribute loans (taqawi) in order to increase cultivation and had to ensure that soldiers were not billeted in houses without their owner's consent. Akbar's farman peremptorily asked governors to prevent any interference in people's faith and creed. Governors were duty-bound to obtain intelligence reports from independent sources and to examine them thoroughly in order to arrive at a sound conclusion. The promotion of education and military skills were also the governor's responsibility.86

From 1595 the imperial diwan began to appoint the provincial diwans himself, in order to make the provincial revenue administration subordinate to the centre. The provincial bakhshi recruited the local troops and maintained their descriptive rolls and salary records. He assisted the governors in conducting military expeditions against rebels. The provincial bakhshi issued certificates to the mansabdadrs confirming the fulfilment of their duties. There was also a provincial newswriter (waqi'a-nawis) who reported directly to the emperor important events in the provinces, including the progress of the revenue collections. Another independent reporter called the sawanih nawis or khufiyanawis (secret reporter) also sent intelligence to the central government. An additional source of news was provided by the independent spies known as harkdras.

Both horsemen and dispatch runners transmitted news and reports expeditiously. Even under the Delhi sultans the human runner travelled faster than the horseman. According to Ibn Battuta, the horse-post, called ulaq, used royal horses stationed at four-mile intervals. The foot-post, which was called dawa, had three stations per mile. Ibn Battuta goes on to say:

The postal service of India is of two kinds. The horse-post, which they call

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ulaq, consists of horses belonging to the Sultan (with relays) every four miles. The service of couriers on foot has within the space of each mile three relays, which they call dawa, the dawa being a third of a mile, and a mile itself is called by them kuruh. The manner of its organization is as follows. At every third of a mile there is an inhabited village, outside which there are three pavilions. In these sit men girded up ready to move off, each of whom has a rod two cubits long with copper bells at the top. When a courier leaves the town he takes the letter in the fingers of one hand and the rod with the bells in the other, and runs with all his might. The men in the pavilions, on hearing the sound of the bells, get ready to meet him and when he reaches them one of them takes the letter in his hand and passes on, running with all his might and shaking his rod until he reaches the next dawa, and so they continue until the letter reaches its destination. This post is quicker than the mounted post, and they often use it to transport fruits from Khurasan which are regarded as great luxuries in India; the couriers put them on (woven baskets like) plates and carry them with great speed to the Sultan. In the same way they transport the principal criminals; they place each man on a stretcher and run carrying the stretcher on their heads.87

The speed of the foot-runners was equally surprising to Pelsaert. In his note he recorded the distance from one post to another as being much greater than Ibn Battuta said it was. He wrote:

The King's letters or farmans to the chief lords or princes are transmitted with incredible speed, because royal runners are posted in the villages 4 or 5 kos apart, taking their turns of duty throughout the day and night, and they take over a letter immediately on its arrival, run with it to the next village in a breath, and hand it over to another messenger. So the letter goes steadily on, and will travel 80 kos between night and day. Further the King has pigeons kept everywhere, to carry letters in time of need or great urgency. No doubt this is done at home [Holland], also in the case of sieges, but only for short distances, whereas this King possesses the largest area of all the kingdoms of the world.88

The provincial sadrs, qazis, mir 'adls, and kotwals, although theoretically subordinate to the governor, were in direct contact with their superiors at the centre. The close system of checks and balances made the administration effective at all levels and kept the Mughals in power for more than two centuries.

DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION

The provinces were divided into districts both for revenue and for

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general administration. For fiscal purposes the province was divided into sarkars, the latter being subdivided into parganas. Each pargana contained a number of villages and formed a territorial unit; groups of villages which had been combined for fiscal purposes only were known as mahals. The 'amil or karori, who was the head of the land administration for the parganas was chiefly responsible for collecting revenue and promoting agriculture.

Occasionally the same person acted both as diwan and amin, but the positions were generally kept separate. Shahjahan and his successors appointed amins in each mahal in order that all arable land should be cultivated. The amin's duties included the issue of lease deeds (patta) and obtaining deeds of acceptance (qabuliyat). He was also required to ensure that unauthorized cesses were not realized and that the 'amils and other officers did not act dishonestly. The qanungos' offices were hereditary, and they were responsible for keeping a record of the land belonging to the villages and parganas and the revenue assessments.

To facilitate civil administration, the provinces were also subdivided into units known as fawjdari. A fawjdar, during Akbar's reign, was responsible for a number of parganas but not usually an entire sarkar. The fawjdaris were composed of smaller units known as thanas, or military outposts. These were controlled by a thanadar, who had to maintain a specified number of sawars to support the administration. The emperor appointed the fawjdars himself, and they were controlled by the bakhshlu'l mamalik. The more senior thanadars were also nominated by the central government.

The fawjdars were very senior officials. They performed military, police, and judicial functions and also helped in revenue administration. They were required to deal with any rebellions by the zamlrtdars, jagirddrs, and 'amils, using as little force as possible. Initially they had to try persuasive methods but, if these failed, could resort to intimidation by putting on a display of strength in the hope that the rebels would surrender without any fighting. The next step was to use the infantry; the cavalry were used only in the event of continued rebellion. The fawjdars were also under orders to sever the rebels' communication lines before attacking their forts; this was looked upon as the last resort. Once the rebel camp was taken, the government due was first deducted, and the rest of the booty was distributed equally among the men.89