Mughal Administration c18.s2: § 2. Dastur-ul-amls and their contents.
Mughal Administration c18.s2
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§ 2. Dastur-ul-amls and their contents.
c18.s2.1
The immense size of the *Ain-i-Akbari* and the unreality or rather the practical uselessness of much of its contents, made it undesirable to write similar works or to bring it up to date in the reigns of Akbar's successors. The needs of their officials were met by compiling a class of handbooks called *Dastur-ul-aml*, written in the exact antithesis of the style of Abul Fazl. These are highly condensed abstracts, full of facts, figures and lists, with no descriptive matter and hardly any complete sentence. Such small handbooks could be easily revised and brought up to date in successive reigns. But the revision took the form of making additions at the end of each section for bringing the work up to date.
c18.s2.2
Such *Dastur-ul-amls* were composed in the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzib, and several MSS. of them are known to exist. Thomas* used five of these works. I used one of these five, (namely, D. 163 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal) along with other sources in writing my *India of Aurangzib: statistics, topography and roads* (1901.)
c18.s2.3
But a better *Dastur-ul-aml* has since then been copied and studied by me. One MS. of it is the India Office Library (London) Pers. No. 370, which is defective at both ends, and the other is the British Museum Oriental No. 1641, complete but entitled *Zawabit-i-Alamgiri* or the Regulations of the Emperor Aurangzib. The two MSS. are copies of the same work, in spite of the difference in their titles and the fact that they were transcribed from different manuscripts. They give figures up to the 33rd year of the Emperor's reign, *i.e.*, 1690 A.D., when the Mughal empire had reached its climax after the capture of Bijapur, Golkonda and Raigarh (the Maratha capital) and the annexation of these three kingdoms to the territory of Delhi. Mere statistics of a later date, down to about the middle of the 18th century, can be found in the works of Jag-jivan Das and Rai Chatar-mal, the latter of which I have given in English in my *India of Aurangzib*.
c18.s2.4
These *Dastur-ul-amls* or official handbooks tell us, in the fewest words possible, about the revenues of the different provinces, the number of their subdivisions, the distances between different cities of the empire, the rules for sending official papers to Court, the records that should come to the different diwans’ offices, the total expenditure of the State, the number of mansabdars and other military forces, the usual titles of Muslim and Hindu nobles, musicians and caligraphists, the distribution of work among the bakhshis and diwans, the functions and official procedure of the *Khan-i-saman*, *Buyutat*, *Mir Atish*, *Mushrifs* of the *barqandazes* and other special classes of troops, as well as of the bakhshi of the *Ahadis*, details of the High Diwan’s office-work and the papers to be received, replied to, prepared or signed or submitted to the Emperor by him, minute rules about the cash salaries of the princes and mansabdars, the rules of branding and shoeing cavalry horses, the classification of officers according to their equipment, rules about leave and overstaying leave, and minute regulations about adjusting the jagir to an officer’s rank, payment of retainers, grant for the fodder of the transport cattle of the different grades of mansabdars.
c18.s2.5
∗ Revenue Resources of the Mughal Empire, p. 14 and footnote, p. 33 and footnote, esp. 40 *n*.,—I.O. L. 1387, Br Mus. Addl. 6598 and 6599, A.S.B. MS. (D. 163), and another MS. copied for Elliot.
c18.s2.6
Then we have tables of weights (as current in different places), the exchange value of the coins of different countries outside India, a list of the forts in the empire, the number of the mansabdars grade by grade, rules about promotion, dismissal and sick-leave—in short all kinds of salary-rules; the special salaries of European gunners sappers and cannon-founders (*Z.* 60*b*—62*b*), powder-supply to musketeers (*Z.* 63*a*), classification of arms, rates of *jaziya*, list of seasons appropriate for voyages (*Z.* 67*a*—68*a*), the revenue of Persia, the escheated properties of various princes, princesses and nobles, lists of presents received from Persia, the amounts in the imperial treasure-rooms (Z. 132b), lists of karkhanahs (Z. 132b—133a), lists of the abwabs abolished by Aurangzib and of the practices declared by him as illegal (Z. 135a—137a), details about Aurangzib’s armaments at the sieges of Bijapur, Golkonda, etc., with descriptions of some of the Deccan forts of his time,—and many more details about the Emperor’s Deccan campaigns and statistics about his Deccan provinces.
c18.s2.7
It will be seen from the above what a vast mass of useful and absolutely new information is compressed into this Dastur-ul-aml. Unfortunately both the MSS. are very badly written.
c18.s2.8
Hapily, in some respects we can correct and supplement the Dastur from a later work, which is unique of its kind in Indo-Persian literature. I mean the Mirat-i--Ahmadi or History of Gujrat by Ali Muhammad Khan, the last imperial diwan of the province, completed in 1761. The author has given full copies of as many of the imperial farmans addressed to the officials of this province as were preserved in his office. In this respect the book is a veritable mine of accurate information based upon authentic State papers. A comparison with the versions of a few of these farmans given in other works proves the honesty and industry of Ali Muhammad Khan. The printed Baroda edition of this history has been cited in my third edition.