Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 240

224
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
He was then considered by his elders of great experience to be self-sufficient and discour. teous. He has not improved in this respect since. It is a great pity, for the book contains so much that is good in itself that it might have been made a standing authority on his subject. Had he asked either Mr. Man or myself, we would have helped him to the best of our ability. Indeed, for a while he had all mine, and with them many of Mr. Man's voluminous linguistic notes, representing the work of many years covering nearly all his information. He has by his self-confidence and spirit of contradiction spoilt a good book and thrown doubt on every statement in it.
(To be continued.)
BOOK-NOTICES.
[ AUGUST. 1923
1. MUGHAL ADMINISTRATION (PATNA UNIVERSITY READERSHIP LECTURES, 1920), by JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A., Indian Educational Service Bihar; M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta 1920. 2. STUDIES IN MUGHAL INDIA, by JADUNATH SARKAR, M.A. Being Historical Essays (2nd edition, with 12 new essays added); M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta, and W. Heffer and Sons, Cambridge, 1919.
Both these small books by Professor Sarkar well deserve a place in the library of the student of Indian history. The former deals succinctly with the character of the Mughal Government, with the sovereign and the various official departments, with the provincial administration and with the taxation of land and revenus collection. The final chapter is devoted to a discussion of the achievements and failure of Mughal rule. At intervals Professor Sarkar gives the reader pic. turesque glimpses of the official life of those days. The Emperor was the highest court of appeal, but the people who sought justice from him had to pay bribes to a hierarchy of menials and courtiers ere they could count on their grievances being brought to the imperial notice. To counteract this practice, Jahangir and some other occupants of the throne. of Delhi used to suspend a gold chain from the balcony of the palace to the ground outside Agra fort, to which the people could tie their petitions for justice. Corruption was wide-spread and was common to all departments of the State. The Qazis, who formed the highest judiciary, were notorious in this respect. Every provincial capital had its local Qazi, who was appointed by the Chief Qazi, and as these posts were often sold for bribes the Qazi's department became a byword and a reproach in Mughal times.
While the State declined to undertake any socialistic work and contented itself with police duties and the collection of revenue, it considered itself bound by Moslem law to appoint a Censor of Public Morals (muhtasib), who at times impinged with some violence upon the daily life of the subjects. He would march, through the streets with a party of soldiers, demolishing and plundering
liquor-shops, distilleries and gambling-dens, breaking the pots and pans in which bhang was prepared,, and enforcing the strict observance of religious rites on the part of the Muhammadan population. In Aurangzeb's day the demolition of newly-built temples was ono of this officer's duties, as also the expulsion from the urban areas of tawaif or 'professional women', which must have offered ample opportunity for illicit perquisites. The latter duty was also entrusted to the Kotwal or chief of the city police, whose functions are minutely enumerated in the Ain-i-Akbari. To the European police-officer of to-day the use made by the Kotwal of the sweeper and house-scavenger must seem somewhat curious. The Kotwal, in Manucci's words, had to obtain information about all that went on, so as to be able to report to the ruler. For this purpose there are throughout the Mughal empire certain persons known as halal-khor, who are under obligation to go twice a day to clean out every house; and they tell tho Kotwal all that goes on. One wonders how the Police Commissioner of a modern Indian city would carry on his work effectively, if he had to depend for most of his confidential information on the menial staff of a municipal health depart. ment. The halál-khors of Mughal days must have often provided strange packets of scandalous gossip for the Kotwal.
Professor Sarkar's remarks on the position of the peasantry and the character of the subordinate revenue and judicial administration are illuminating. The lower officials were incurably corrupt: the highest officials were on the whole just, though even among them a Diwan occasionally appeared who inflated the revenue demand on paper and then farmed the collection to the highest bidder with ruinous consequences. These practices gave point to the famous remark of the great Diwan-i-ala Sadullah Khan, that a Diwan who behaved unjustly to the ryots was "a demon with a pen and inkpot before him." The Persian alif closely resembles a reed-pen, and the nun is not unlike the indigenous ink-pot. Div or Diw, the first half on the word Diwan, signifies an evil spirit; and hende Sadullah