Ain i Akbari

Written by: Akbar
  • ’s court historian Abu'l Fazl in Persian language.
  • Deals with: the administration of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
  • Background: Beginning in 1589, Abu’l Fazl worked on the ‘Akbar Nama’ for thirteen years. The Akbar Nama is divided into three books:
    • The first book dealt with Akbar’s ancestors.
    • The second recorded the events of Akbar’s reign.
    • The third is the Ain-i Akbari. It deals with Akbar’s administration, household, army, the revenues and geography of his empire. It provides rich details about the traditions and culture of the people living in India. It also got statistical details about crops, yields, prices, wages, and revenues.
    • In the early twentieth century, the Akbar Nama was translated into English by Henry Beveridge.

Ain i Akbari

The Ain-i-Akbari is the third volume of the Akbarnama containing information on Akbar's reign in the form of administrative reports, similar to a gazetteer. In Blochmann's explanation, "it contains the 'āīn' (i.e. mode of governing) of Emperor Akbar, and is the administrative report and statistical return of his government as it was about 1590."


The Ain-i-Akbari is divided into five books. The first book called manzil-Abadi deals with the imperial household and its maintenance, and the second called sipah-abadi, with the servants of the emperor, military and civil services. The third deals with imperial administration, containing judiciary and executive regulations. The fourth contains information on Hindu philosophy, science, social customs, and literature. The fifth contains sayings of Akbar,[3] along with an account of the ancestry and biography of the author.


Volumes


Volume 1: Manzil-Abadi (meaning place establishment)


The volume has a total of 90 'Ain' or Regulations dealing with and describing the different segments of administration and occupations at that time. The various ains include the one on the imperial mint, its workmen and their process of refining and extracting gold and silver, the dirham and the dinar etc. There are also portions dedicated to the Imperial Harem (Ain 15), the royal seals (Ain 20), the imperial kitchen (Ain 23), and its recipes and the rules relating to the days of abstinence (Ain 26). The volume contains a detailed description of the tr, andtems such as fruits, vegetables, perfumes, carpets, etc., and also of art and painting. Ain-i-Akbari is an excellent resource of information on the maintenance of the Mughal army during Akbar's reign. Ain 35 onwards deals with the use and maintenance of artillery, upkeep and branding of royal horses, camels, mules and elephants, describing even the detail of the food given to animals. The volume also has regulations pertaining to laborers' wages, house-building estimates, etc.


Volume 2: Sipah-Abadi (meaning military establishment)


The second book treats of the servants of the throne, the military and civil services, and the attendants at court whose literary genius or musical skill received a great deal of encouragement from the emperor, and who similarly commend the high value of their work.


Volume 3: Mulk-Abadi (meaning government of a country or government establishment)


The third book is entirely devoted to regulations for the judicial and executive departments, the establishment of a new and more practical era, the survey of the land, the tribal divisions, and the rent-roll of the finance minister.


Volume 4 (law and social conditions)


The fourth book treats of the social condition and literary activity, especially in philosophy and law, of the Hindus, who form the bulk of the population, and in whose political advancement the emperor saw the guarantee of the stability of his realm. There are also a few chapters on the foreign invaders of India, on distinguished travelers, and on Muslim saints and the sects to which they belong.


Volume 5 (things spoken and done by Emperor Akbar)


The fifth book contains moral sentences and epigrammatical sayings, observations, and rules of wisdom of the emperor collected by Abu'l Fazl.


Ain-i-Akbari by Syed Ahmad Khan


In 1855, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan finished his scholarly,well-researched and illustrated edition of Abul Fazl's Ai'n-e Akbari, itself an extraordinarily difficult book. Having finished the work to his satisfaction, the work was brought to Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib believing that he would appreciate his labours. He approached the great Ghalib to write a taqriz (in the convention of the times, a laudatory foreword) for it. Ghalib obliged, but what he did produce was a short Persian poem castigating the Ai'n-e Akbari, and by implication, the imperial, sumptuous, literate and learned Mughal culture of which it was a product. The least that could be said against it was that the book had little value even as an antique document. Ghalib practically reprimanded Syed Ahmad Khan for wasting his talents and time on dead things. He also lavished praise the "sahibs of England" who at that time held all the keys to all the a’ins in this world.


The poem was unexpected, but it came at the time when Syed Ahmad Khan's thought and feelings themselves were inclining toward change. Ghalib seemed to be acutely aware of changes in world polity due to the actions of the great powers, especially Indian polity. Syed Ahmad might well have been piqued at Ghalib's admonitions, but he would also have realized that Ghalib's reading of the situation, though not nuanced enough, was basically accurate. Syed Ahmad Khan may also have felt that he, being better informed about the British and the outside world, should have himself seen the change that now seemed to be just round the corner.


Sir Syed Ahmad Khan never again wrote a word in praise of the Ai'n-e Akbari and in fact gave up taking an active interest in history and archaeology. He did edit another two historical texts over the next few years, but neither of them was anything like the Ai'n: a vast and triumphalist document on the governance of Akbar.

Volume 1 Download


Volume 2 Download


Volume 3   Download