Q.(a) “The process of manuscript production in the Mughal Court involved a number of people performing a variety of tasks.” Support the statement with examples.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Concept understanding — Ain-i-Akbari Source Criticism
Imagine you find an old diary written by your great-grandfather. It describes a grand family feast — but you know from other relatives that there was a huge fight that day, and the feast was cancelled. Would you trust the diary completely? Probably not. You’d ask: Who wrote this? Why? What did they leave out?
That’s exactly what source criticism is — but applied to historical documents. And Ain-i-Akbari is one of the most famous sources we have for Mughal history.
What is the Ain-i-Akbari?
The Ain-i-Akbari (literally “Institutes of Akbar”) is the third and final volume of the Akbarnama, the official history of Emperor Akbar’s reign. It was written by Abu’l Fazl, Akbar’s close friend, courtier, and ideologue. The book is not a story — it’s a detailed administrative manual. It lists everything: the empire’s provinces, revenue rates, army organisation, prices of goods, salaries of officials, even the emperor’s daily routine and the number of elephants in the stables.
For a student of commerce or humanities, think of it as a government annual report — but from the 1590s. It tells you how the Mughal state wanted to be seen: efficient, rational, and all-powerful.
Why do we need to “criticise” such a detailed source?
Because no source is neutral. Every document has a purpose, a perspective, and a context. The Ain-i-Akbari was written to glorify Akbar and justify his policies. Abu’l Fazl was not an independent journalist — he was a loyal servant. So when you read it, you must ask:
- Who is the author? Abu’l Fazl was a scholar, a Sufi mystic, and Akbar’s chief propagandist. He believed Akbar was a divinely guided ruler.
- What was the purpose? To show Akbar as a perfect king who brought order and justice. The book was meant to impress both the Mughal elite and future generations.
- What is included? Everything that made Akbar look good: efficient revenue collection, religious tolerance (the Sulh-i-Kul policy), a well-organised army.
- What is left out? Rebellions, famines, peasant suffering, the brutal wars of conquest, and the voices of ordinary people. The Ain is silent on the human cost of empire.
Source criticism does not mean rejecting a source. It means reading it against the grain — using it for what it tells us, while being aware of what it hides. The Ain-i-Akbari is still invaluable for Mughal administration, but you must cross-check it with other sources (like court chronicles, foreign travellers’ accounts, or local records).
What does the NCERT textbook say?
The NCERT Class 12 History textbook (Themes in Indian History – Part II) discusses the Ain-i-Akbari in detail. It emphasises that:
- The Ain is a normative text — it describes how things should be, not necessarily how they were. For example, the revenue rates it lists were ideal targets, not always what was actually collected.
- Abu’l Fazl used a specific format (the Ain or “regulation”) to present information. This format itself reflects Akbar’s desire for centralisation and control.
- The textbook asks students to compare the Ain with other sources, like the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh (written by a critic of Akbar, Badauni) or the accounts of Jesuit missionaries at Akbar’s court. This comparison reveals contradictions and biases.
The NCERT’s key lesson: No single source tells the whole truth. The Ain-i-Akbari is a brilliant window into Mughal administration, but it is a window with a specific view — the view from the throne. To understand the empire, you must look through other windows too.
How to apply source criticism to the Ain-i-Akbari (a quick checklist)
When you read a passage from the Ain, ask yourself:
- Who is speaking? (Abu’l Fazl, a court insider) …
Part (a): making a Mughal manuscript was a collective effort in the kitabkhana, with paper-makers, calligraphers, gilders, painters and binders each doing a specialised task (e.g. the Akbarnama, Hamzanama, Badshahnama).
Part (b): chronicles like the Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari and Badshahnama, commissioned by the emperors, record the empire's events, administration, court and ideology and are indispensable, if biased, sources.
The production of a manuscript in the Mughal court was never the work of one person; it was an organised, collaborative enterprise centred on the imperial kitabkhana. Although the word means "library", the kitabkhana was in effect a scriptorium — a workshop where books were made — and a variety of skilled people worked together on each volume. Paper-makers prepared the folios, treating and burnishing the paper to a smooth surface so that ink would not bleed. Calligraphers, called katibs, then copied the text; calligraphy was regarded as a high art, and the preferred script was nastaliq, with the layout planned in advance to leave spaces for illustration. Gilders illuminated the pages, applying gold and decorative borders. Painters supplied the miniatures, and here too the labour was divided: a single folio might be the joint work of two or more artists, one drawing the composition and the principal figures, another the faces, and a third the landscape or architecture, with the names sometimes recorded in the margin. Finally the bookbinders gathered the folios and bound them in fine, often lacquered covers. The whole process was coordinated under imperial patronage — Akbar is said to have taken close interest in his kitabkhana — so that great works such as the Hamzanama, the Akbarnama and Shah Jahan's Badshahnama each required years of effort by many hands.
Part (a): making a Mughal manuscript was a collective effort in the kitabkhana, with paper-makers, calligraphers, gilders, painters and binders each doing a specialised task (e.g. the Akbarnama, Hamzanama, Badshahnama).
Part (b): chronicles like the Akbarnama, Ain-i-Akbari and Badshahnama, commissioned by the emperors, record the empire's events, administration, court and ideology and are indispensable, if biased, sources.
Part (b) …
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