Tales from later Mughals

The Decline of Power
Studying the history of the decline of an empire, we
find that degeneration does not come all of a sudden but
occurs slowly and gradually, weakening the political, social,
and economic foundation and reducing it to such a position
where sometimes a simple incident or accident causes its
collapse.
One such example is the Mughal Empire which was
founded by Babur (1526-30), expanded and strengthened
by Akbar (1556-1605) who established state institutions
with minute details. These details and their organisation,
given by Abul Fazl in A`in-i-Akbari, show the genius of
Akbar. These institutions worked well as long as the
situation was relevant to their functioning. However, with
the passage of time there were new challenges, and new
forces emerged which required radical changes in the
administrative structure.
The Mughal state failed to bring such changes and
insisted on continuing the same system because it provided
benefits and privileges to mansabdars or bureaucrats who
were enjoying a high status and position in the government.
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