Aurangzeb records lie unread here

This report from the Times of India shows how poorly our researchers and GOI are equipped and fall short of protecting something so important.

Ch Sushil Rao, TNN 15 July 2009, 03:59am IST

HYDERABAD: Nearly a century after they were chanced upon in Aurangabad and brought to Hyderabad, mystery surrounds the contents of more than 1.2 lakh handwritten documents dating back to the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Researchers from across the world, including the US, the UK, Japan and other parts of India are curious to know what the handmade fabric paper documents in Persian contain, but they are meeting a roadblock. There are not enough experts available to read the documents that are written in ‘Shikasta’ or cursive style of writing. The documents if read, would provide a significant insight into the reign and administration of Aurangzeb.

In all, there are more than 1.55 lakh documents pertaining to the administration of Mughal emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb at the AP State Archives and Research Institute at Tarnaka. In addition, there are 15,000 documents in the National Archives of India in New Delhi and 1,700 documents in the Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner. Director of AP State Archives and Research Institute, Zareena Parveen, says that catalogues on just 32,000 documents at the centre have been prepared so far. Of these, 5,000 documents date back to the rule of Shah Jahan (1628-1658 AD) and nearly 27,000 go back to the reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707 AD).

Before she was appointed director of the museum, Zareena Parveen herself had been involved in preparing the catalogues of the rare and authentic documents, including identifying the document by its time, and its contents. “One gets an insight into the administration of the Mughal emperors through the documents,†Zareena Parveen told TOI. For instance, one document reveals that since Aurangzeb was always waging wars and was moving with his troops, his soldiers never got their salaries in time. “This was one of the reasons for the downfall of Aurangzeb,†she said.

However, for the past several years, no catalogues have been prepared for the rest of the documents, largely due to a lack of staff and funds for the archives. Zareena Parveen said this has already been brought to the notice of the state government and soon some staff would be appointed specifically to work on the Mughal documents. Once this is done, and it might take several years to complete the work.

The documents pertaining to Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb landed in Hyderabad is in itself an interesting story. It was in 1916 that the accountant general of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, Md Sayeebuddin, went to Aurangabad for an inspection. In a hall at the Qala-i-Arak, he happened to notice some old documents dumped casually. Back in Hyderabad when he expressed interest in acquiring them with then Daftar-i-Diwani (archives) superintendent Syed Khursheed Ali, the records were brought to Hyderabad.