Sultanates, Mughals, and composite society

Medieval Indian social history was shaped by the development of sophisticated fiscal-military administrations, expanding urbanization, and deep connections to world commerce. Rather than an isolated, static society or a simple monolithic court, the evidence shows dynamic interactions between central states, rural intermediaries, and trading networks.¹

This chapter examines how revenue systems, administrative ranks, and market monetization reshaped society (samāj) across northern, central, and regional India.

Revenue measurement and the cash nexus

To maintain standing armies and administrative apparatuses, medieval dynasties progressively standardized how land was measured and taxed:

• The Sultanate Iqta: Revenue collection rights over specific territories were assigned to military commanders (muqtis or walis), who relied on traditional village headmen (muqaddams, khots) to collect dues at the village level.²
• The Mughal Zabti and Dahsala Framework: Under Akbar and his finance minister Raja Todar Mal (1580), the state surveyed land with standardized measuring rods (tanab), classified plots (Polaj, Parauti, Chachar, Banjar), and calculated cash tax rates based on ten-year averages of crop yields and local market prices.³

Requiring peasants to pay revenue in cash stimulated commercial agriculture: cultivators grew high-value cash crops such as cotton, indigo, sugarcane, and oilseeds, linking rural production to regional and international markets.

Administrative hierarchy and the rural elite

The Mughal state organized its military and civil officers through the Mansabdari system, which assigned numerical ranks (mansabs) determining status, military quotas, and salary. Instead of cash, nobles were usually granted jagirs — the right to collect land revenue from designated areas. To prevent officers from establishing independent fiefdoms, jagirs were transferred every three to four years.⁴

At the village boundary, the state negotiated with the hereditary landed elite known as zamindars. Holding customary rights over villages and commanding local armed retinues, zamindars collected taxes on behalf of the state in exchange for a recognized revenue share (nankar) while serving as traditional community leaders.⁵

Social stratification in the medieval village

The countryside remained internally differentiated:

1. Khud-kasht: Resident, land-owning peasants who owned their bullocks; the wealthier among them employed agricultural labourers.⁶
2. Pahi-kasht: Non-resident or migrant tenant cultivators who tilled lands on a contractual basis.
3. Landless service groups: Communities performing agricultural and artisanal tasks under customary service relationships, facing rigid social and ritual exclusions.⁷

When revenue demands became excessive, peasants exercised leverage through flight to uncultivated tracts or by joining local zamindars in armed resistance.⁸

Urban centres and credit networks

Medieval towns flourished as administrative capitals, pilgrim destinations, and commercial hubs. Merchant bankers (sarrafs, mahajans) developed sophisticated financial instruments, notably the hundī (traditional bill of exchange), enabling traders to transfer credit securely over long distances without transporting physical bullion.⁹

What this chapter does not claim

1. That the medieval state was a monolithic religious tyranny or an undisturbed syncretic paradise; it was a pragmatic fiscal-military state dependent on diverse regional elites.
2. That the village economy was self-contained; cash taxation linked cultivators to maritime and Eurasian markets.
3. That court chronicles (Tārīkhs) describe ordinary life without bias; local ledgers and contracts reveal constant fiscal negotiation.
4. That peasants were passive subjects; migration and collective resistance were recognized responses to oppressive extraction.

Sources and further reading

Version 0.4 · September 2026 · Editorial orientation · Reading list provided · Not expert-reviewed. Corrected after an editorial audit in September 2026.