- The Mughals retained many features of the administrative system of the Sultanate and Shershah.
- Under Shershah the administrative units of Pargana (a group of villages), sarkar (a group of parganas) and groups of sarkars (some what like subas or province) were placed under specific offices
- The Mughals formalized a new territorial unit called suba. The Mughal empire was divided into twelve provinces or subas by Akbar.
- Institutions of Jagir and Mansab system were also introduced by the Mughals
Mansabdari System
Under this system every officer was assigned a rank (mansab).The lowest rank was 10 and the highest was 5000 for the nobles. Princes of royal blood received even higher ranks. The ranks were divided into two – zat and sawar. Zat means personal and it fixed the personal status of a person. Sawar rank indicated the number of cavalrymen of a person who was required to maintain. Every sawar had to maintain at least two horses. The mansab rank was not hereditary. All appointments and promotions as well as dismissals
were directly made by the emperor.
Land Revenue System:
- Akbar went for revenue experimentation in his administration .
- The revenue policies of Alauddin Khilji and Sher Shah Sur formed the base for Mughal revenue system.
- In the year 1581 revenue minister Raja Todarmal reorganized the whole land revenue system. This system is known as Zabti or bandobast
- According to this system land was measured and classified based on the fertility of soil as,
- Polaj- cultivated every year
- Parauti – once in two years
- Chachar- once in three or four years
- Banjar-once in five or more years
