The price-control and market-regulation measures introduced by Sultan Alauddin Khalji (reigned 1296 to 1316) of the Khalji dynasty, designed mainly to maintain a large standing army cheaply by fixing the prices of essential goods.
- He fixed the prices of foodgrains, cloth, horses, cattle, and slaves through state regulation, and set up separate controlled markets (such as the grain market or mandi, the cloth market or sarai-adl, and a horse-and-slave market).
- Officers oversaw the markets: the shahna-i-mandi (market superintendent), the diwan-i-riyasat (controller of markets), and barids and munhiyans (intelligence and spies who reported on traders).
- Grain supply was ensured through state granaries and a strict revenue policy; revenue was raised to half (one-half) of the produce in the doab region, and intermediaries (khuts and muqaddams) were curbed.
- The reforms supported a large, well-paid standing army recruited to meet Mongol invasions; soldiers were paid low cash salaries that the controlled prices made workable.
- He also introduced the dagh (branding of horses) and the chehra (descriptive roll of soldiers), measures later echoed by the Mughals.
The army-funding purpose, the controlled markets and their officers (shahna-i-mandi, diwan-i-riyasat), the half-produce revenue in the doab, and the dagh and chehra are standard Khalji-administration facts.
The dagh and chehra are first associated with Alauddin Khalji, then continued by the Mughals; his reforms were primarily for military, not welfare, ends.
Alauddin Khalji's price controls and regulated markets to fund a large standing army, enforced by market officers and intelligence, with dagh and chehra.