Mughal Administration c14.s1.2

c14.s1.2

In Akbar's reign, about the end of the 16th century, the system of palace-workshops had expanded, as was to be expected from the development of civilisation for 250 years. His eulogist, Abul Fazl, writes,—In the 39th year of the divine era (1595 A.D.), there are in the imperial household “more than a hundred offices and workshops, each resembling a city or rather a little kingdom.” (*Ain.* i. 12.) Bernier saw them sixty years later and has left an eyewitness’s account of them (p. 259). We have also lists of *karkhanahs* in the official manuals called *Dastur-ul-aml* and certain other historical works composed at the end of the 17th century and later.