1540- 1555 CE

Public Administration during the Sur Dynasty

The Sur dynasty was founded by Sher Shah Suri when he ousted the Mughal king Humayun from India. Despite of the fact that Sur dynasty lasted for only fifteen years, it made a long lasting impact on the administrative history of India mainly because of the measures taken by its founder Sher Shah Suri. He himself ruled for a brief period of five years but he made significant contributions in governance and administration. In fact, Sher Shah’s administrative experiments continued under Akbar who relied on many of his administrative innovations. Even before he became the King, and was offered the management of the Parganas by his father in his young days, he said, “I shall devote myself to increase the prosperity of the district, and that depends on a just administration,” he said. ^[1]

Sher Shah's most important achievement was the establishing of law and order throughout the empire. He placed a high priority on road safety and took harsh measures against thieves and dacoits. He divided his whole empire into 47 divisions called ‘Sarkars’ which were again subdivided into smaller administrative units called ‘Parganas’. Shah did not favour leaving too much authority in the hands of the ministers. He worked excessively hard, devoting himself to the affairs of the state from early morning to late at night. He toured constantly to know the condition of the people of the empire. ^[2]

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