Ain-i-Akbari

Also called: Ain · Topic: Mughal Agrarian Society and Economy · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 2 "Reshaping India's Political Map"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

The Ain-i Akbari (often just called the Ain) is a record of Akbar's empire written by his court historian Abu'l Fazl. It is the third and final volume of the Akbar Nama, and it is arranged in five sections (daftars) that describe the court, the officials, the revenue system, the learning of the time and Akbar's sayings. [2][3]

It is the main source for Mughal farming and land revenue. It is full of numbers on crops, yields, prices, wages and revenue. But it describes the village from the top, as the state saw it, so historians have to check it against other records.

Explanation

Background: why the Mughal state wrote about farming

• In the 16th–17th centuries about 85 per cent of India's population lived in villages.
• The Mughal state took the bulk of its income from agriculture. This is why the court bothered to record crops, land and revenue at all.
• Peasants did not write about themselves. They left no diaries or letters. So the Ain, written about them by the state, became the main written source.
• Abu'l Fazl, the author, was close to the throne. He was: [2]
• Akbar's court historian and close friend;
• also a minister and an army commander;
• killed in 1602.

Structure: the five daftars

The Akbar Nama is Abu'l Fazl's three-volume history of Akbar's reign. Its third volume, the Ain, is split into five daftars (sections or "books"): [2][3]

• Daftar 1: Akbar's household, court and treasury.
• Daftar 2: military and civil servants, and courtiers famous for writing or music.
• Daftar 3: the judicial and executive branches, methods of land survey, tribal divisions, and the duties of the finance minister Todar Mal. This section matters most for agrarian history (the history of farming and farmers). [3]
• Daftar 4: the social world and learning of the time, especially philosophy and law.
• Daftar 5: Akbar's short sayings.

What it records

• Statistics on crops, yields, prices, wages and revenues. [3]
• The geography of the empire. [3]
• For agrarian history, it shows three things:
• how the state arranged cultivation;
• how revenue was collected;
• the place of zamindars (landed elites with rights over land and a share of the produce).

Its limits: a view from the top

• The Ain was not a neutral record. Abu'l Fazl wrote it to present a picture of empire:
• social harmony flows down from a strong ruling class;

• any revolt against this order is "predestined to fail".

• Result: the peasant's voice is missing.

• It records what the state wanted to see and to collect.

• It leaves out peasant anger or resistance, or dismisses it.

• So historians use the Ain alongside other records, and do not throw it away. They check it against:

• revenue records of the 17th and 18th centuries from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan;

• East India Company records for eastern India.

• These other records show the village as a place of bargaining and fighting over the share of the crop. The Ain's picture of harmony hides this.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 16th century, during the reign of Akbar of the Mughal dynasty. The author, Abu'l Fazl, died in 1602. [2]
• Region covered: the whole Mughal empire, including its provinces, geography and revenue arrangements. [3]
• Key people:
• Akbar: the emperor whose reign the work records.
• Abu'l Fazl: the author, Akbar's court historian, minister and commander. [2]

• Todar Mal: the finance minister, whose duties are described in daftar 3. [3]

• Place in a larger text: the Ain is volume 3 of the three-volume Akbar Nama. [2][3]

• Other sources used to check it:
• regional revenue papers from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan (17th–18th centuries);
• East India Company records for eastern India;
• the Babur Nama, the memoirs of Babur (1483–1530). It describes irrigation devices in north India, and villages emptied and re-founded "in a moment" because crops grew on rain and labour was plentiful. [4]

Don't confuse with

• Akbar Nama: the full three-volume history of Akbar's reign by Abu'l Fazl. The Ain-i Akbari is only its third volume, not a separate book by a different author. [2][3]
• Babur Nama: Babur's own diary, written in Chagatai Turkic and later translated into Persian under Akbar. The Ain is an official imperial record written by a court historian, not a ruler's memoir. [4]
• Todar Mal: he is described in the Ain as finance minister, with his duties and land survey methods. He is not the author. Abu'l Fazl wrote the Ain. [3]
• Regional revenue records (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan): these are local working documents that record disputes. The Ain is court literature that shows harmony and praises the king.

Prelims Hooks

• Ain-i Akbari, author: Abu'l Fazl, court historian of Akbar. [2]
• Ain-i Akbari = the third (final) volume of the Akbar Nama. [2][3]
• The Ain has five daftars. Daftar 3 covers land survey methods and the duties of finance minister Todar Mal. [3]
• Abu'l Fazl died in 1602. [2]
• The Ain gives statistics on crops, yields, prices, wages and revenues. [3]
• Trap: the Babur Nama was written in Chagatai Turkic, not Persian. The Persian translation came later, under Akbar. [4]

Mains Points

• The richest source is also a biased one. The Ain gives hard numbers on crops, yields, prices, wages and revenue. [3] But Abu'l Fazl wrote it to show that harmony comes from a strong ruling class and that revolt was "predestined to fail". A GS-I answer should use its data and also say clearly that it shows the state's view, not the peasant's.
• Historians cross-check the Ain; they do not reject it.
• The Ain gives the administrative frame: land survey, revenue collection, the place of zamindars.
• Regional revenue papers (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan) and East India Company records show the conflict between peasants, zamindars and the state that the court chronicle smooths over.

• Together they give a fuller picture of Mughal village society.

• The missing peasant voice is itself a historical fact. About 85 per cent of people lived in villages, yet the main source on them was written at court. This shows that writing records followed power. It explains why agrarian history depends on state, regional and company papers rather than on what peasants themselves said.

Read more

• Sources for agrarian history