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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Examine the mansab and jagir system by Akbar and its subsequent failure in the 18th century.

  • UPSC 2011
  • Akbar

The mansab (rank fixing status, salary, and military obligation) and jagir (a temporary revenue assignment given in lieu of cash salary) were the twin institutions that turned a conquest elite into a service nobility bound to the Mughal throne.

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What the full answer covers

  • Akbar's System: The Institutional Baseline
  • The Widening Gap: Numbers Outrunning Assignable Land
  • Short Tenures, Corruption, and the Jama-Hasil Gap
  • Factionalism at Court
  • Fiscal-Military Breakdown and Regional Breakaway
  • Conclusion

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