Shivaji and His Times c20.s4.9

c20.s4.9

(ii) The evil was aggravated by the formation of the Inam Commission (1824) which called upon every holder of land or State-pension to prove his rights by producing old documents and giving his family history. The result was a vast crop of reports submitted to the English Government and designated variously as *Kaifiyat*, *Yadi*, *Haqiqat* and *Karina*. Composed between 1820 and 1830, they profess to give the family history (often with copies of alleged charters) from Shahji's time, (c. 1637) and in the cases of the prouder families from an even earlier date, such as the first Muslim invasion of the Deccan (1294.) Their only foundation was family tradition, dim with distance of time, or the daring imagination of the hereditary family priest and astrologer.