Administration
How empires were run — from Mauryan officers to Mughal mansabdars and the Constitution's lists.
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Mauryan period🏺 Ancient
Six committees for the army
Megasthenes describes a military committee with six subcommittees: navy, transport and provisions, foot-soldiers, horses, chariots and elephants.
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Mauryan period🏺 Ancient
Megasthenes and the Arthashastra
Mauryan history draws on the account of Megasthenes, which survives in fragments, and on the Arthashastra, parts of which were probably composed by Kautilya or Chanakya.
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Asoka's reign🏺 Ancient
Officers of dhamma
Asoka appointed special officers, the dhamma mahamatta, to spread the message of dhamma.
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Fourteenth century🏰 Medieval
The Sultanate's postal system
Ibn Battuta was amazed that spies' reports reached the Sultan far faster than the fifty-day journey from Sind to Delhi, and that merchants used the post to send news, credit and goods.
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Vijayanagara Empire🏰 Medieval
The amara-nayaka system
Military commanders were given territories to govern and collected taxes there; many features were probably derived from the iqta system of the Delhi Sultanate.
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Mughal Empire🏰 Medieval
Mansabdars and jagirs
A military-cum-bureaucratic apparatus, the mansabdari, ran civil and military affairs; most mansabdars were paid through assignments of revenue called jagirs.
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1598🏰 Medieval
The Ain-i Akbari
Abu'l Fazl's record of how Akbar's empire was run was completed in 1598, after five revisions.
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1813🏭 Modern
The Fifth Report
A report on the East India Company's administration, submitted to the British Parliament in 1813; it ran to 1002 pages.
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1822🏭 Modern
The mahalwari settlement
Devised by Holt Mackenzie, it fixed revenue village by village (mahal), revised periodically and collected by the village headman.
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Draft Constitution🏭 Modern
Union, State and Concurrent lists
Subjects were divided into three lists — Union, State and Concurrent — with more items under Union control than in other federations.
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