The making of manuscripts
All books in Mughal India were manuscripts, that
is, they were handwritten. The centre of manuscript
production was the imperial kitabkhana. Although
kitabkhana can be translated as library, it was a
scriptorium, that is, a place where the emperor�s
collection of manuscripts was kept and new
manuscripts were produced.
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The creation of a manuscript involved a number
of people performing a variety of tasks. Paper makers
were needed to prepare the folios of the manuscript,
scribes or calligraphers to copy the text, gilders to
illuminate the pages, painters to illustrate scenes
from the text, bookbinders to gather the individual
folios and set them within ornamental covers. The
finished manuscript was seen as a precious object,
a work of intellectual wealth and beauty. It
exemplified the power of its patron, the Mughal
emperor, to bring such beauty into being.
At the same time some of the people involved in
the actual production of the manuscript also got
recognition in the form of titles and awards. Of these,
calligraphers and painters held a high social
standing while others, such as paper makers or
bookbinders, have remained anonymous artisans.
Calligraphy, the art of handwriting, was considered
a skill of great importance. It was practised using
different styles. Akbar�s favourite was the nastaliq, a
fluid style with long horizontal strokes. It is written
using a piece of trimmed reed with a tip of five to 10
mm called qalam, dipped in carbon ink (siyahi). The
nib of the qalam is usually split in the middle to
facilitate the absorption of ink.
The Akbar Nama and the Badshah Nama
Among the important illustrated Mughal chronicles
the Akbar Nama and Badshah Nama (The Chronicle
of a King) are the most well known. Each
manuscript contained an average of 150 full- or
double-page paintings of battles, sieges, hunts,
building construction, court scenes, etc.
The author of the Akbar Nama, Abu�l Fazl grew up
in the Mughal capital of Agra. He was widely read in
Arabic, Persian, Greek philosophy and Sufism.
Moreover, he was a forceful debater and independent
thinker who consistently opposed the views of the
conservative ulama. These qualities impressed Akbar,
who found Abu�l Fazl ideally suited as an adviser
and a spokesperson for his policies. One major
objective of the emperor was to free the state from
the control of religious orthodoxy. In his role as court
historian, Abu�l Fazl both shaped and articulated
the ideas associated with the reign of Akbar.
Beginning in 1589, Abu�l Fazl worked on the Akbar
Nama for thirteen years, repeatedly revising the draft.
The chronicle is based on a range of sources, including
actual records of events (waqai), official documents
and oral testimonies of knowledgeable persons.
The Akbar Nama is divided into three books of
which the first two are chronicles. The third book is
the Ain-i Akbari. The first volume contains the history
of mankind from Adam to one celestial cycle of Akbar�s
life (30 years). The second volume closes in the fortysixth
regnal year (1601) of Akbar. The very next year
Abu�l Fazl fell victim to a conspiracy hatched by
Prince Salim, and was murdered by his accomplice,
Bir Singh Bundela.
The Akbar Nama was written to provide a detailed
description of Akbar�s reign in the traditional
diachronic sense of recording politically significant
events across time, as well as in the more novel sense
of giving a synchronic picture of all aspects of Akbar�s
empire � geographic, social, administrative and
cultural � without reference to chronology. In the
Ain-i Akbari the Mughal Empire is presented as having
a diverse population consisting of Hindus, Jainas,
Buddhists and Muslims and a composite culture.
Abu�l Fazl wrote in a language that was ornate
and which attached importance to diction and
rhythm, as texts were often read aloud. This Indo-
Persian style was patronised at court, and there
were a large number of writers who wanted to write
like Abu�l Fazl.
A pupil of Abu�l Fazl, Abdul Hamid Lahori is
known as the author of the Badshah Nama. Emperor
Shah Jahan, hearing of his talents, commissioned
him to write a history of his reign modelled on the
Akbar Nama. The Badshah Nama is this official
history in three volumes (daftars) of ten lunar years
each. Lahori wrote the first and second daftars
comprising the first two decades of the emperor�s
rule (1627-47); these volumes were later revised by
Sadullah Khan, Shah Jahan�s wazir. Infirmities of
old age prevented Lahori from proceeding with the
third decade which was then chronicled by the
historian Waris.
During the colonial period, British administrators
began to study Indian history and to create an
archive of knowledge about the subcontinent to
help them better understand the people and the
cultures of the empire they sought to rule. The
Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded by Sir William
Jones in 1784, undertook the editing, printing and
translation of many Indian manuscripts.
Edited versions of the Akbar Nama and Badshah
Nama were first published by the Asiatic Society
in the nineteenth century. In the early twentieth
century the Akbar Nama was translated into English
by Henry Beveridge after years of hard labour. Only
excerpts of the Badshah Nama have been translated
into English to date; the text in its entirety still
awaits translation.
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AKHAND PRATAP SINGH
