Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4.s2.t1.15

c4.s2.t1.15

Finally some remarks may be made about the celebrated work of Abu’l Fazl, the Ain-i-Akbari so ably edited by Blochmann, and rendered into English by Blochmann and Jarrett. The learned author and the editors are warm in praising the great merits of the work. The author claims to have compiled a work of encyclopedic character, where useful information of all kinds is to be found and to which people in every walk of life resort for reference, instruction, and amusement.³ Blochmann correctly emphasised the unique position of the Ain among the Persian chronicles, inasmuch as it placed the life of the people in the foreground where ‘for the first time people live and move before us, and the great questions of the time, axioms then believed in and principles then followed, phantoms then chased after’, are placed before our eyes in truthful and vivid colours.⁴ As to the care with which he collected his materials, Abu'l Fazl tells us what unusual pains he took to gather his information. Instead of relying on verbal replies from his informants, he circulated among them a questionnaire and asked them to submit well-considered replies after due deliberation. For every topic with which he deals in his book he had twenty such carefully prepared memoranda, and incorporated the facts in his book only after a careful comparison and examination.¹ There is one aspect, however, in which the monumental work of Abu'l Fazl does not compare very favourably with a modern scientific work. He does not disclose to us very fully the actual sources of his information or of his informant who wrote the various memoranda for him. In one place he makes a casual remark that he came across certain 'old books' during the course of his investigations, but leaves us in complete ignorance as to the nature or content of these 'old books'.² Moreover, Abu'l Fazl betrays unbalanced judgement in illustrating the 'worldly side' of Akbar and his 'greatness as a king', by giving his patron all the credit of originality, and wisdom which leads him to ignore completely and deliberately the amount and value of the contribution of the Turkish, the Afghan and even the Mughal predecessors of Akbar. It was easier for him than it is now for us to trace the origin and development of various social phenomena of Hindustan. The Ain-i-Akbari is a monument of social history but its importance lies primarily in recording the various developmen's that had taken shape until the reign of Akbar, when the great Mughal emperor picked up the threads and carried the work of social progress one step forward. Otherwise, the Ain could as well have been compiled fifty years earlier, without suffering very much in contents and value. It would have been considered even then, an equally faithful record of contemporary social and political life.