Features of Jagir System
Under the jagirdari system, the jagirdars used to collect taxes at the same time he paid their salary, and the rest of the revenue was deposited in the Mughal treasury. The assignment of the task of revenue collection is dependent mostly on the rank of the jagirdar.
There were various types of jagirs which included Jagir Tankha ( jagirs in lieu of pay), Mashrut Jagir (conditional jagir), Inam Jagir (no obligations of services and independent of rank), and Watan Jagirs ( jagirs granted in their own homelands). With time, jagirs became hereditary and were transferred to the male heir of the jagirdars. Jagirdars did not working isolation but with the patwari, tehsildar, mail, fotedar, and diwan to name a few positions. There would be smooth functioning of the imperial bureaucracy for keeping a strict track of the jagirdars and to avoid corruption. They would be penalized if any situations of harassment of peasants or excess payments came up. During the reign of Akbar, “Ami” was appointed in the Suba for seeing whether jagirdars implemented the royal orders.
Three main features of the Jagir system are as follows:
- The jagirs were bestowed on an unconditional or conditional basis.
- The salary of the jagir was paid from the taxes collected by him while the rest amount went to the imperial treasury during the Mughal times.
- The Jagir functioned as a “feudal life estate” as upon his death it reverted to the state back.
What was the role of Jagirdars in Mughal India?
The jagirdari system during the Mughal period is considered an institution which mainly used to preserve the surplus from the class of peasants. The Jagirdari system was a form of land tenancy in which the collection of revenues from an estate and the power of governing it was bestowed on an official of the state.
It is derived from two Persian words: jagir, which means “holding land” and dar, which means “official”. The system was an adaptation of an existing agrarian system by the Delhi sultanate.
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