Which details among the following were recorded by Ain-i Akbari? Identify the correct statements:
(A) Account of the daily lives of ordinary peasants.
(B) The arrangements made by the state to ensure cultivation.
(C) The arrangements made to enable the collection of revenue by the agencies of the state.
(D) The arrangements made to regulate the relationship between the state and the zamindars.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → (B), (C) and (D) only
(A) Account of the daily lives of ordinary peasants. Incorrect. The Ain was written by Akbar’s court historian, Abu’l Fazl, and peasants did not write about themselves. Whatever we learn from the Ain about peasants remains a view from the top, not an account of their daily lives.
(B) The arrangements made by the state to ensure cultivation. Correct. The Ain meticulously recorded these arrangements.
(C) The arrangements made to enable the collection of revenue by the agencies of the state. Correct. This is the second set of arrangements it recorded, the collection of revenue.
(D) The arrangements made to regulate the relationship between the state and the zamindars. Correct. It also recorded how the state dealt with the rural magnates, the zamindars.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.1 Looking for sources … Our understanding of the workings of rural society does not come from those who worked the land, as peasants did not write about themselves. Our major source for the agrarian history of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are chronicles and documents from the Mughal court (see also Chapter 9). One of the most important chronicles was the Ain-i Akbari (in short the Ain, see also Section 8) authored by Akbar’s court historian Abu’l Fazl. This text meticulously recorded the arrangements made by the state to ensure cultivation, to enable the collection of revenue by the agencies of the state and to regulate the relationship between the state and rural magnates, the zamindars. The central purpose of the Ain was to present a vision of Akbar’s empire where social harmony was provided by a strong ruling class. Any revolt or assertion of autonomous power against the Mughal state was, in the eyes of the author of the Ain, predestined to fail. In other words, whatever we learn from the Ain about peasants remains a view from the top.…” |