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CHAPTER IV. the history of Moghul India prior to the reign of Aurungzeb. There may have been a semblance of

Ministers.

Cabinet.

Working of the administration.

a Diet on the accession of a new Padishah; all the Amírs, Rajas, and princes of the empire paid their homage, presented gifts, and received titles and honours. But there was no council or parliament of any sort or kind. The Padishah was one and

supreme.

Asiatic ministers play an important part in the administration; they rarely play an important part in the history. They exercised great influence; it was chiefly in matters personal or of passing interest. They might advance a friend or ruin an enemy. Otherwise they were mere slaves in the hands of their master; if they failed to please him they ceased to be ministers. Loss of favour was not a matter of dismissal; it was degradation and ruin; there was always danger of confiscation and death.

Sometimes the ministers seemed to form a cabinet. It comprised the prime minister, the finance minister, the paymaster-general. The Padishah appointed others at will. Mention is sometimes made of a lord steward of the household, a grand master of the eunuchs, a lord falconer, and other nondescript posts. Sometimes the ministers were realities like Bairam Khan and Abul Fazl; sometimes they were mere puppets who had been honoured with the rank of ministers.

The working of the administration during the reign of Akber is far from clear. It is hidden behind a veil of fulsome flattery. It was not until the reigns of his successors that European observers saw the working of Moghul rule with

their own eyes.

tions.

Three institutions were in full CHAPTER IV. force throughout the reign. They were known as Moghul instituthe Jharokha, the Durbar, and the Ghusal-khana. They serve to show the daily life of Akber and his court; fuller details will appear in the after history.

The Jharokha was a window at the back of the Jharokha. palace; or rather at the back of the Mahal or harem. It overlooked a plain below. At this window Akber appeared every morning and worshipped the sun; the multitude thronged the plain below to worship Akber. Later in the morning Akber appeared again at the window. He was entertained with the combats of animals in the plain below. Sometimes

he inspected troops, horses, elephants, camels, and animals of all descriptions from this window.

The Durbar was in the front quarter of the Durbar. palace facing the city. It was a hall of public audience within a large court. Every day Akber sat upon his throne at the back of the Durbar hall. He gave audience to all comers. He disposed of petitions; he administered justice; he received Rajas, Amírs, and ambassadors; he issued orders to his ministers. All the grandees at court were bound to attend him at the Jharokha and Durbar.

The Ghusal-khana was a private assembly. It Ghusal-khana. was held in the evening in a pavilion behind the Durbar court. None were admitted excepting the ministers and such grandees as were invited to attend. Sometimes the gathering resembled a privy council; at other times it was an assembly of grandees and learned men.

Hindús.

Much stress has been laid upon the employment Employment of of Hindús by Akber. The fact is he had no alternative. He had been compelled to call in the Raj

CHAPTER IV. poot element to overawe the Afghans; in like manner he found it necessary to employ Hindús to check the maladministration of his Amirs. He could not trust his Amírs. Those who were lax and indifferent in religious matters were treacherous, grasping, and untrustworthy. Those who were strict Mussulmans were ever ready to rebel against him. He engaged a Hindú named Todar Mal to make a revenue settlement; to fix the yearly payments to be made by the holders of land. This settlement has been greatly lauded; it is famous to this day; it was the one thing to which landholders and cultivators could appeal against the rapacity of collectors. The character of Todar Mal is a mystery. He was praised to the skies by Abul Fazl; he was denounced as bigoted and superstitious by other contemporaries.

Khálisa lands and Jaghir

lands.

67

All the lands in the empire were the property of the Padishah.68 Some he kept as his own domain; they were known as Khálisa, or crown lands; they paid a yearly rent to the crown. The remaining lands were parcelled out as Jaghírs. These Jaghírs were grants given in lieu of salary ; they were sometimes given for the maintenance of a quota or an army. Jaghírs were given to viceroys, governors, ministers, and grandees; they were also

67 See Blockmann's Aín-i-Akbari; No. 39 in Abul Fazl's list of Amirs and Mansubdars. History teaches that unless native administration is kept under European supervision it is accompanied by grave evils. Nothing can have been more productive of tyranny and oppression than the way in which districts and villages in the Dekhan and Peninsula were farmed out to Bráhmans during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It mattered not whether the head of the state was a Mussulman Sultan or a Hindú Raja; the oppression was the same. 98 This fact is the foundation of the Moghul system of administration. An exception proves the rule. Bernier states that sometimes the grandees were permitted to hold small pieces of land as sites for houses and gardens. Such holdings were liable to be confiscated by the Padisbah like other property.

given to queens and princesses in the imperial CHAPTER IV. harem. Every Jaghír paid a fixed yearly rent to the Padishah; all that could be collected above this amount belonged to the Jaghírdar, or holder of the Jaghír.

69

ministration.

Badauni describes the working of the adminis- Revenue adtration under Todar Mal. There was no lack of revenue work. All lands were measured, whether in town or country, dry or irrigated, cultivated or uncultivated. Every piece of land, calculated to yield a yearly income of twenty-five thousand rupees, was placed under the charge of an officer known as a Krori. The object was to bring uncultivated lands into cultivation within three years. Security was taken from each Krori that such would be done. Regulations were made; of course they were disregarded. The rapacity of the Kroris laid the country waste; they sold the wives and children of the ryots; they threw everything into confusion. Many of the Kroris were brought to account by Raja Todar Mal; many good men were beaten to death or tortured to death with the rack and pincers.70 Many died from long confinement in the prisons of the revenue officers; there was no need of executioners or swordsmen; no one cared to find them graves or grave-clothes. They resembled the de

69 This officer was called a Krori because twenty-five thousand rupees are equal to a krore, or million of dams. The term rupee is used in the text as being a more familiar word to European readers. In English money twenty-five thousand rupees would be equivalent to two thousand five hundred pounds. The dam was a copper coin corresponding to the modern pice. Forty dams went to a rupee. The Moghuls liked to talk big. They would not say twenty-five thousand rupees; they preferred saying a krore of dams.-Aín-i-Akbari, Aín 2. The comparison between the inflated exaggerations of Abul Fazl and the evident truthfulness of Badauni is very amusing.

70 By "good men" Badauni probably meant good Mussulmans. It is evident to modern readers that "the good men" were grinding oppressors.

CHAPTER IV. Vout Hindús of Kamrup; they gave themselves up to a year of enjoyment; they then threw themselves under the wheels of their idol car."1

Army administration.

Lahore.

Badauni furnishes a graphic picture of the maladministration of the Moghul army in the reign of Akber. The Amírs were wicked and rebellious ; they spent large sums on stores and work-shops; they amassed wealth; they had no leisure to look after the troops; they took no interest in the people. Regulations were introduced for branding horses and holding frequent musters; they were of no avail. The Amírs borrowed horses for the musters; the horses were branded and returned to their owners; they were never seen again. The Amírs mounted slaves and the dregs of people to serve as soldiers at the musters. Akber was aware of this cheating and chicanery; he deemed it politic to wink at it. Badauni was a staunch Mussulman; he hated the innovations of Akber; he told the plain truth. All that he has stated is more than confirmed by European observers in the reigns of Jehangir and Shah Jehan.72

Akber dwelt many years at Lahore. There he seems to have reached the height of human felicity. A proverb became current, "As happy as Akber." He established his authority in Kábul and Bengal. He added Kashmír to his dominions. His empire was as large as that of Asoka. He further contemplated the conquest of the Dekhan.73

71 See Badauni's History in Elliot's History of India, vol. v.

72 Compare translated extract from Badauni in Blockmann's Aín-i-Akbari, page 242. Also Bernier's description of the Moghul administration in chapter vi. of the present volume.

73 In 1585 there was a disastrous campaign against the Yusufzais, in which eight thousand of Akber's soldiers were killed, including Bir Bar the Bráhman. See Badauni, quoted by Mr Blockmann,

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