“There was more to rural India than the sedentary agriculture”. Explain the statement in the context of Mughal Period.

OR

“Inspite of the limitations, the Ain-i-Akbari remains an extraordinary document of its time”. Explain the statement.

Different aspects of rural Mughal India both sedentary and subsistence with more emphasis on ‘jangli’:

i. Forest dwellers were called jangli

ii. Their livelihood came from the gathering of forest produce, hunting and shifting agriculture.

iii. Being jangli, did not mean an absence of “civilisation”.

iv. The livelihood practices of the forest dwellers were season specific.

v. The Bhils collected forest produce in spring, fished in summer, the monsoon months were for cultivation, and autumn and winter were for hunting.

vi. Abu’l Fazl describes the trade of the hill tribes with traders and villagers of Awadh ( Uttar Pradesh).

vii. They exchanged the forest produce for items like,white and coloured cloth, salt, ornaments, glass and earthen ware.

viii. They sold bees wax, honey,gum, lac etc. This resulted in continuous mobility.
                                                                              OR

Importance of Ain –i-Akbari:

i. The chronicle provides detailed information about Akbar’s Empire

ii. It is an invaluable source to reconstruct the social, political, economic and cultural history

iii. It is a detailed document and a part of Akbarnama written by Abul Fazl C

iv. It is an extraordinary document which gives fascinating glimpses into the structure and organization of the Mughal Empire.
Limitations:

i. Numerous errors in totalling have been detected.

ii. Skewed nature of the quantitative data.

iii. Data were not collected uniformly from all the provinces. Detailed list of prices and wages is mainly taken from areas in and around the Agra

iv. Prices and wages of the richer areas have not been well documented.