The Ain-i Akbari

The Ain-i Akbari was completed in 1598, in the forty-second year of Akbar's reign, after five revisions. It forms the third book of Abu'l Fazl's larger history, the Akbar Nama.

It is divided into five books (daftars):

• manzil-abadi: the imperial household;
• sipah-abadi: the military and civil administration;
• mulk-abadi: the fiscal side of the empire and revenue rates, with the 'Account of the Twelve Provinces';
• and two books on the religious, literary and cultural traditions of the people, and a collection of Akbar's sayings.

Statistics for each sarkar (district) are set out in tables with eight columns: the parganas; the forts; the measured area (arazi); the cash revenue (jama); charitable grants (suyurghal); the zamindars; their castes; and their troops.

Abu'l Fazl was careful: he cross-checked oral testimony, and wrote numbers in words so they could not be altered later. But there are errors in totalling, and data were uneven: they were not collected equally well from every province.

Above all, the Ain recorded people, their professions, trades and products, not just wars and kings. It remains a benchmark for understanding India around 1600: a census from the top.