Todar Mal

Timeline

1. c. 1540–1555North India · North IndiaFrom a North Indian Khatri accounting-administrative tradition, he took part in land registration and assessment of tax quotas under Sher Shah Suri and his successors, becoming versed in surveying, grading, and cash conversion—building the technical staff for later Mughal revenue reform.
2. c. 1560–1574Agra · AgraAfter Akbar assumed personal rule, he was entrusted with finance and regional military-administrative duties, taking part in campaigns and pacification in Gujarat and elsewhere, and trialing yield surveys and quota consolidation at the provincial level. This phase gave him both civil and military experience, paving the way for taking over nationwide land revenue.
3. 1574–1585Fatehpur Sikri · Fatehpur SikriHe reorganized the core provinces on Zabt principles—surveying cultivated land, grading soil, and setting unit tax rates by crop; around 1580 he introduced the Dahsala (ten-year average yield) settlement, fixing cash quotas from the average of the previous decade's harvests and prices, inscribed in the fiscal order recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari, and mutually supporting the mansab-jagir system.
4. 1585–1589Lahore · LahoreIn his later years he continued to oversee finance at Lahore while coordinating northwestern defense. According to court chronicles, he requested leave to go on pilgrimage to Haridwar; Akbar wrote urging him to remain in office, and he died at Lahore a few days later, cremated according to Hindu rites. The land-revenue framework he established remained the mainstay of imperial revenue for over a century.