The years of Aurangazeb's reign constitute an important segment of the Mughal rule, which was itself one of the more significant chapters of our recent history. Nearly every facet of India's Mughal Saga has been extensively researched and written on by scholars and historians of eminence and repute and it might seem that there is, apparently, no nook of the long Mughal chapter which remains to be explored, explained or interpreted afresh. And yet, each new document that may be unearthed subsequently reinforces, or alters, our existing perceptions in the light of emerging facts. Historical research is, after all, a continuing adventure of discovery and reinterpretation.
Andhra Pradesh State Archives is fortunate in holding a large mass of records pertaining to the declining years of Mughal power in the South. The work of segregating and cataloguing these records commenced in 1976, and has continued uninterrupted ever since. Three volumes have been already published. The current volume is merely one more link in the long chain of documents catalogued and published earlier and many more which await the painstaking attention of the cataloguer.
The meticulous labour and skill expended on the task by Dr. Dawood Ashraf, Sarvasri Zubair Ansari, Majeed Khan and Smt. Zarina Parveen, Smt. Atiya Shaheen and Smt. Saleemunnisa, deserve admiration. I can only add my own personal appreciation of their unremitting efforts.
I hope that the serious scholars and researchers in Mughal History shall find this volume as useful as the earlier ones.
This Catalogue, the fourth of its series, is a continuation of the earlier three catalogues (Part 1 and II of Volume I and Volume II) of the documents pertaining to the reign of Aurangzeb. It consists of 4,616 documents of VIIth regnal year whereas the earlier catalogues have covered more than 10,000 documents of first six regnal years of Aurangzeb. To make this catalogue fully independent all necessary and relevant material has been provided in it.
This catalogue like earlier catalogues mentioned above has a format of five columns. The first column 'Document Number' contains two numbers separated by an oblique line. The first number in Roman numeral indicates the regnal year of Aurangzeb and the second number in Arabic numeral indicates the serial number of the document such as VII/2and VII/100 etc. In the second column Date of Document the date in Hijra month has been given. The corresponding Christain date has also been supplied in this column but only along with the first date of each Hijra month. The nature of the document such as farman, qabz-ul-wasil, arz-o-chibra, has been mentioned in abbreviated form in the third column 'Particulars of the Document. The same column furnishes the number of folios of the document, if they are more than one. In the fourth column 'Special Features' name of the official engraved in the seal affixed on the document has been mentioned along with the endorsement on the document, if any. The last column 'Summary of Document' is self explanatory. The summary of the text of the document has been given in English. Keeping in view the need of researchers every possible effort has been made to include in the summary all necessary and important information contained in the document. As it is not possible to provide brief English equivalents of the Mughal administrative terminology, it has been retained and transliterated in the English summary. All the Mughal terminology included in the English summary has been explained in the glossary of the Persian words.
A list of the categories of the documents included in this publication along with their abbreviation and English translation, the index of persons and places and the photocopies of a few documents have also been appended to this catalogue. For the preparation of the glossary of the Mughal administrative terminology works on Persian Epistolography and modern works and for transliterations and translations of general details standard dictionaries have been consulted.
I am very much grateful to Mr. H. Rajendra Prasad, Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh State Archives, who evinced keen interest in completion and publication of this work, without which it would not have seen the light of the day.
Mrs. Zareena Parveen, Senior Research Assistant (Persian) was of great help to me at the every stage of the work. I could finish this difficult and time consuming work quickly only due to her help. I express my deep gratitude for her constant and able assistance.
My sincere thanks are also due to Mr. Muhammad Zubair Ansari, Archivist and Mrs. Atiya Shaheen, Junior Research Assistant (Persian), for comparing and correcting the type script and proof and for preparing the index for this catalogue diligently. I am also thankful to Mrs. Saleemunnisa, who prepared the type script with care and interest and to Sri Majeed Khan, Microfilm Operator, who prepared the neat copies of the old documents.
I hope that scholars interested in the history of Mughal Deccan will find this catalogue useful in their research projects.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
Hindu (887)
Agriculture (93)
Ancient (1022)
Archaeology (615)
Architecture (535)
Art & Culture (864)
Biography (598)
Buddhist (545)
Cookery (158)
Emperor & Queen (497)
Islam (235)
Jainism (274)
Literary (876)
Mahatma Gandhi (360)
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