Who among the following Mughal officers carried the dual responsibility of military and administration?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Mansabdar
Option (1) Diwan — Incorrect. The diwan was in charge of the office (daftar) responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the empire, a revenue post, not a military one.
Option (2) Amil-Guzar — Incorrect. The amil-guzar was the revenue collector. Akbar laid down his duties: he was to try to make cultivators pay in cash, while keeping open the option of payment in kind.
Option (3) Amin — Incorrect. The amin was an official responsible for ensuring that imperial regulations were carried out in the provinces.
Option (4) Mansabdar — Correct. At the apex of the Mughal administrative system stood a military-cum-bureaucratic apparatus, the mansabdari, which looked after the civil and military affairs of the state. Mansabdars were paid in cash (naqdi) or, in most cases, through assignments of revenue (jagirs), and they were transferred periodically.
NCERT (2026-27): “…This apparatus included the office (daftar) of the diwan who was responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the empire. Thus revenue officials and record keepers penetrated the agricultural domain… …In his list of duties of the amil-guzar or revenue collector, Akbar decreed that while he should strive to make cultivators pay in cash, the option of payment in kind was also to be kept open.… …The Mughal administrative system had at its apex a military-cum-bureaucratic apparatus (mansabdari) which was responsible for looking after the civil and military affairs of the state. Some mansabdars were paid in cash (naqdi), while the majority of them were paid through assignments of revenue (jagirs) in different regions of the empire. They were transferred periodically.…”
|
