AN OFFICIAL INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE LEDGER AND RECORD BOOK
India, 19th century

AN OFFICIAL INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE LEDGER AND RECORD BOOK
India, 19th century

Persian manuscript on paper, 489ff. plus five fly-leaves, 18ll. of black ink free-flowing nasta’liq script to the page, significant words marked in red, containing an encyclopedic overview of the North Indian world and its administration, many charts in red and black ink, with catchwords, set within blue and red rules, in a brown blind-tooled calf binding, the text panel 24cm x 14cm, the folio 30cm x 20cm.

The present lot is a remarkable example of Imperial Mughal administrative thoroughness: the near-obsessive lists and charts highlight the degree of control and the importance of the figure of the munshi bureaucrat. This manuscript includes many spreadsheets, lists, and accounts pertaining to the organisation of the Mughal Empire. It contains information from the price of paan to the number of onions utilised in various districts such as Delhi, Lahore, Kandahar, Kabul, and Sialkot. Encompassing geographical entities, descriptions of their geography, climate, and the numbers of heads of cattle, elephants, and horses, the impression of a well-run system is clearly established.

It also encompasses subjects as varied as metallurgy; mining; purification of silver; the weighing of precious stones by submerging them in water; military encampment plans; flowers; food; grains and pulses; recipes and food prices; glossary of Indian fruits, textiles, and animals; accounts of rituals and hunts; instructions for board games including chess and backgammon (charts blank); lists of authors and grandees, and philosophers; discussions on poetry and history; distances of cities from the equator, and discourses on directions; and lastly, various calendars including the Elahi. The knowledge herein contained emphasises the thoroughness of the all-powerful Mughal administration. Seemingly an accurate record, the book appears devoid of court sycophancies, and a truly insightful window onto the vast machinery of the state.

Dimensions: the text panel 24cm x 14cm, the folio 30cm x 20cm