What are the problems in using the Ain as a source forreconstructing agrarian history? How do historians dealwith this situation?
Answers
This question is taken from the Chapter “Peasants, Zamindars and the State Agrarian Society and Mughal Empire.”
Ain Akbari was written by Abdul Fazal in 1598 CE. He revised this book five times. He compiled all the information thoroughly. He had verified things heard by the people. He made every effort to avoid errors in facts, however many historians get many errors in this book.
First of all, they have discovered many errors in the book. Secondly, quantitative data is not collected equally from all the provinces. For example, Abdul Fazal has not given any composition of Zamindars in Bengal and Orissa. Third, he did not give any significant parameter in determining prices and wages. He calculated his assessment based on data obtained from Agra.
To get rid of these shortcomings, historians use all the documents found in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra during the 17th and 18th centuries. He has also received many documents from the East India Company, which highlight the agriculture of the Mughal period.
Answer:
There were many problems in using Ain and such problems were error in totalling and quantitative data was not collected uniformly from all provinces. For example- Abdul Fazal didn’t give the composition of Zamindars in Orissa and Bengal and he didn’t even give any vital parameters for determining prices and wages. All his data was based on the data which he collected from Agra. To avoid these problems, historians used all the documents that they got from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra in 18th century. They also found many documents of East India Company that gave information about agriculture of Mughal times.