An Unexplored Source of Mughal History
By Sri Ram Sharma
Summary
The paper draws attention to a vast but little‑known archive of Mughal documents housed in the record office at Jaipur. By 1929 the collection contained more than 27,000 original letters, including 307 from emperors and princes and thousands of reports from Rajput agentsfile:///home/oai/share/563010_compressed-433-647.pdf#:~:text=But%20there%20is%20%E0%AA%9B%20unigue,There. The correspondence spans the years 1600–1717 and covers a broad range of genres: personal despatches, imperial orders, revenue accounts, petitions, security bonds and memorandafile:///home/oai/share/563010_compressed-433-647.pdf#:~:text=The%20dates%20of%20there%20letters,of%20Peshkashs%20to%20goveruors%20and. These letters document critical events such as the Jat rebellion in Mathura, the Balkh and Assam campaigns, the Maratha wars and internal Mughal court politicsfile:///home/oai/share/563010_compressed-433-647.pdf#:~:text=empeiors%E2%80%99%20orders%2C%20emperors%E2%80%99,the%20position%20of%20the%20Rajput. They offer details about the assessment and collection of land revenue, the relations between governors and news‑writers, the provision of pensions to soldiers’ families and the position of Hindus at courtfile:///home/oai/share/563010_compressed-433-647.pdf#:~:text=Thus%20we%2010%E0%AB%AF%20personal%20despatrhes,of%20Peshkashs%20to%20goveruors%20and. Collections like Dastur‑ul‑Amal‑i‑Aqbi contain Aurangzeb’s will and wise sayings, while Iktarn‑i‑Alamgiri and Adab‑i‑Alamgiri preserve his letters and judicial decisions, including his order forbidding appointments of Rajputs as subahdarsfile:///home/oai/share/563010_compressed-433-647.pdf#:~:text=Thus%20we%2010%E0%AB%AF%20personal%20despatrhes,the%20position%20of%20the%20Rajput. The author argues that these documents reveal administrative practice in a way that formal Persian chronicles do not: they illuminate the day‑to‑day workings of the mansabdari system, the settlement of revenue disputes, the procedures of Mughal courts and the economic policies of emperors. They also shed light on relations between the Mughal emperors and Rajput rulers and record local rebellions and campaigns that are otherwise obscure. Because the Jaipur collection includes both imperial and regional correspondence, it promises to transform historians’ understanding of Mughal India. The paper concludes by urging scholars to examine this rich archive and incorporate its evidence into broader studies of Mughal politics and society.
Conclusion
By surveying the Jaipur record office’s trove of letters, the article demonstrates how much new information on Mughal India remains untapped. The letters cover military campaigns, revenue matters, judicial procedures and court politics and include correspondence from emperors such as Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. If systematically studied, this archive will allow historians to write richer and more nuanced narratives of Mughal governance and provincial administration.