Subahs:
The administrative division of the Mughal territories in the reigns of Babur and Humayun were districts rather than provinces. Sher Shah appointed military governors in the Punjab, Malwa and Ajmer, but Bengal was divided into several sarkars which corresponded to districts.
In 1580, Akbar divided the empire into twelve provinces (subahs): Agra, Delhi, Allahabad, Awadh, Ajmer, Ahmadabad (Gujarat), Bihar, Bengal, Kabul, Lahore (Punjab), Multan and Malwa.
By the end of his reign the number of provinces had increased to fifteen with the addition of three newly annexed provinces in the Dec- can: Berar, Khandesh and Ahmadnagar (that part of the Nizamshahi Sultanate which was brought under Mughal administration).
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After the conquests of Bijapur and Golcunda (1686-87) and the fall of Sambhaji (1689), the empire was divided into twenty-one subahs (one in Afghanistan, fourteen in North India and six in South India) as follows: Kabul, Agra, Ajmer, Allahabad, Awadh, Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Kashmir, Lahore, Malwa, Multan, Orissa, Thatta (Sind), Khandesh, Berar, Aurangabad, Bidar, Bijapur and Hyderabad.
Initially each subah had one governor who was officially called sipah salar (commander of the forces). Abul Fazl calls him the ‘Viceregent of the emperor.’ In later times, the designation was changed to nazim (regular of the province) hut usually known as subahdar. In 1586 Akbar made an important change; the governing authority in every subah was bifurcated and the office of provincial diwan was created.
The subahdar was appointed by the Emperor. He was usually a mansabdar of high rank and enjoyed a salary depending upon his rank in the mansabdari system. He was the commander of the provincial army.
His essential duties were to maintain law and order, to supervise general administration, to administer criminal justice, to help the smooth collection of revenue (including the tribute due from vassal chiefs) and to execute the imperial decrees and regulations sent to him. The subahdars were periodically transferred from one province to another or given other assignments in the imperial service.
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Diwan:
The diwan was, in a way, the rival of the subahdar, “the two had to keep a strict and jealous watch on each other”. This division of provincial administrative authority was a continuation of the early Arab system of government in Egypt.
He was responsible for the, collection of land revenue and other taxes, for accounting and auditing, as also for the administration of civil justice. He appointed collectors (kroris and tahsil- dars). He was directed to “cause the extension of cultivation and habitation in the villages”.
Faujdar and kotwal:
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The faujdars were placed in charge of those subdivisions of the province which were important on account of the presence of zamindars or provided large revenue or contained towns. They were the chief assistants of the subahdar in the discharge of his executive functions and in the maintenance of peace.
The kotwal was primarily the chief of the city police. Apart from enforcing law and order, he had to discharge many functions of a modern municipality, control weights and prices and enforce the Quranic rules of morality.
The administrative agency of the provinces was in some respects “an exact miniature of the central government. Apart from the subahdar and the diwan, the subah had its own high officials- bakhshi, sadr quzi, buyutat, muhtasib, waqai-navis and mir bahr- who discharged the same duties in the province as officers bearing the same titles did for the whole empire.
The bakhshi was the paymaster of the provincial army. The provincial buyutat was the keeper of government property and official trustee. The muhtasib was the censor of public morals. The mir bahr looked after bridges required for military use, port duties, customs, boat and ferry taxes, etc.
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Akbar made significant changes in the legal status of the Hindus. He amended the personal laws of the Hindus in certain matters. He tried to control early marriage, polygamy and sati. He permitted Hindu widows to remarry. Under Aurangzeb the unqualified supremacy of the Islamic law was restored. Akbar’s legal reforms were repealed.
During the Mughal period -as during the period of the Sultanate-criminal justice was administered according to the Islamic law. Even Akbar did not make any basic change in this system. A comprehensive legal digest (fatwa-i-alam- giri) was prepared by a syndicate of theologians under Aurangzeb’s directive.
Punishments for crimes were of four kinds:
(a) hadd (censure, exposing the offender to public scorn, scourging, imprisonment, exile); (b) qiyas (retaliation, killing of the offender by the murdered man’s next of kin);
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(c) tashhir (shaving the offender’s head and parading him on an ass through the streets, etc.); and
(d) Offences against the state – misappropriation of government funds, default in the payment of revenue, rebellion, etc.-were punished according to the emperor’s pleasure.
The emperor was the highest court of appeal and sometimes acted as a court of first instance as well. Next to the emperor was the Chief qazi (qazi- ul-quzat) who held the office of Chief Sadr (sadr- us-sudur) as well.
Apart from disputes relating to the religious and personal laws of the Muslims and the Hindus, criminal and civil cases were generally decided by the subahdar, the faujdars, the shiq-qdars and the kotwals on the basis of customary law, ordinances issued by the emperors and equity. The diwan did not hear criminal cases. Akbai took away from the subahdars the power of inflicting capital punishment.