What were the responsibilities of mansabdars?
The main responsibilities of a mansabdar were: to maintain the military and collect the taxes. (i) The military responsibilities: It required him to maintain a specified number of sawar or cavalrymen. The mansabdar brought his cavalrymen for review, got them registered, and their horses branded and then received money to pay them as salary. (ii) Mansabdars received their salaries from the revenue collected under their mansab. In Akbar’s reign these jagirs were carefully assessed so that the revenues were roughly equal to the salary of the mansabdar. By Aurangzeb’s reign this was no longer the case and the actual revenue collected was often less than the granted sum.
