IRFAN HABIB*

Akbar and Technology

In April 1580 the Jesuit father Francis Henriques reported from

Fatehpur Sikri that 'Akbar knows a little of all trades, and sometimes
loves to practise them before his people, either as a carpenter, or as a
blacksmith, or as an armourer, filing.'1 Rudolf Acquaviva soon
afterwards (July) referred to Akbar's taking delight in 'mechanical
arts'2 and in September Anthony Monserrate claimed to 'have even
seen him making ribbons like a lacemaker and filing, sawing, working
very hard.'3 In his Commentary written later, Monserrate recalled
that

Zelaldinus (Akbar) is so devoted to building that he sometimes

quarries stone himself along with the other workmen. Nor does he
shrink from watching and even himself practising for the sake of
amusement the craft of an ordinary artisan. For this purpose he has
built a workshop near the palace where also are studios and work-
rooms for the finer and more reputable arts, such as painting,
goldsmith work, tapestery-making, carpet and curtain-making, and
the manufacture of arms. Hither he very frequently comes and
relaxes his mind with watching those who practise their arts.4

These statements by Jesuit witnesses are important, since they

suggest that Abu'l Fazl's claims of Akbar's great interest in craft and
technology were not mere products of courtly praise. Akbar had a
natural inclination towards industrial crafts; and this was undoubt-
edly a source of his encouragement to technological innovation.

'PREFAB' AND MOVABLE STRUCTURES

An early testimony to Akbar's interest in technology comes from 'Ar

Qandahari. Writing in 1579, he says:

His high and majestic nature is such that when he journeys, the
tents of His Majesty's encampment is loaded on five hundred camels.
There are eighteen houses, which have been made of boards of

Centre of Advanced Study in History, Aligarh Muslim University

Social Scientist, Vol. 20, Nos. 9-10, September-ctober 1992

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4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

wood, each including an upper chamber and balcony, that are set up
in a suitable and attractive place. At the time of departure, each
board is dismantled, and, at the time of encamping, the boards are
joined together by iron rings. The insides of these houses are clothed
by covers of European brocade and European velvet, and the outside
thereof are covered by broadcloth.5

The supplementing of texts by wooden boards to create prefabricated

and movable structures was an interesting innovation, which, though
described later in some detail by Abu'l FazI, appears to have escaped
general attention, especially since Blochmann's translation6 does not
bring out the fact that the structures were essentially of wood, not of
cloth or canvas. I offer a fresh translation:

The A'in of Encampment and Campaign

It is difficult to describe all of it, but a little of what is arranged

during hunting expeditions and journeys to nearby places is put into
writing, and an illustrative account offered. First, the Gulalbar is a
wonderful fortress which His Majesty has created. In it the
enclosure is very solid, and passage is closed or opened with lock and
key. It is not less than 100 gaz by 100 gaz in area. On its eastern side,
is set up a large tent-hall (bargah), with two high masts (sargha),
containing 54 chambers [i.e. with 54 smaller poles around them], 24
gaz in length, 14 gaz in width.7 Inside [the Gulalbarl, a large
wooden raoti stands, and around it they have other curtained
pavilions. Adjacent to it is put up a two-chambered (do-ashyana)
wooden building, and that is the place of worship of His Majesty.
Outside of it, in select order, 24 wooden raotis, each 10 gaz in length
and 6 gaz in width, are raised, each set apart by curtain-walls.
Ladies of the Imperial harem find repose there.8
What a 'wooden raoti' was is duly described a little later in the
A' in-i Farrash Khana:

The wooden-raoti is raised with ten pillars. Each of these is partly

buried in the ground, and all are not made equal in height, for those
on which the beam rests are slightly higher.9 The solidity is
increased by [wooden] boards (dasa) placed above and below [the
resting beam], and some rafters are placed over the beam and board.
All are attached to each other by iron covers with male and female
fits (human ra ahan jama ba-tarz-i nar-o-madagi paiwand dahad).
The wall and roof are formed by woven bamboo. There are one or two
doors, and they set up a [curtained] floor (suffa) [in front of the door]
according to the size of the lower board (dasa). The interior is
ornamented by brocade and velvet, and the exterior is girdled by
broadcloth and silken tape.

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 AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 5

Abu'l Fazl goes on to describe the do-ashyana, also mentioned in the

initial passage on encampment:

The do-ashyana is set up with eighteen pillars. Pillars of six gaz

each are raised and wooden boards put over them. To them, by way
of male and female fits (ba-tarz-i nar-o-mada), pillars of four gaz
[in length] are attached, and so the upper room (bala-khana) is
formed. Its interior and exterior are ornamented in the same way [as
the wooden raotil. In expeditions, it serves as the place of the
Emperor's bed-chamber.10
These extensive translations are offered to show that, as 'Arif
Qandahari says, much innovation went in providing materials which
could be used instantly to set up wooden structures, and not simply tents.
A wood-and-bamboo palace like the 'Wooden Raoti' and a double
storeyed structure like the Do-ashyana could be set up and dismantled
at each stage of journey. Blochmann's translation suggests that 'bolts
and nuts' were put into use to attach the several parts.11 If correct, this
would be testimony to an early use of screw as an attachment, though
even in Europe, the screw did not come into use in carpentry before the
sixteenth century.12 The words, ahan jama, iron-cover, are, however,
decisive in excluding the screw. Obviously, what we are told of are
iron-tubes that clothed the ends of masts and beams, with protrusions
('male') designed to fit into hollows ('female') of corresponding tubes
fitted to other masts and beams, and vice-versa. These could extent
both length-wise or at right-angles to the mast or beam. It is thus that
modern iron scaffolding is often rigged up; and it would be interesting to
see if there is any early evidence of the use of this device in timber
construction in India. The principle was known in ancient Iran, where
kariz clay pipes used to be fitted to each other this way, each being at
one end 'male', and, at the other, 'female'.

TEXTILES

'Arif Qandahari is also our earliest source for Akbar's interest in

textile technology. He says:

His Majesty has such an eye for the five points that he has
introduced [lit. invented] selken clothes, brocade, tapestry and
carpets of silk and brocade in India, and instructed highly skilled
masters in that art, so that the work in India is now much better
than the work of Persia and Europe. He has so well practised the
making of designs (tarrahi) that if Mani [the great artist] was
alive, he would bite his fingers in astonishment at such design-
making and dyeing.13

This passage is important in showing that Abu'l Fazl did not invent
his attribution of Akbar's innovativeness in the realm of textile craft,

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6 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

for this was widely recognised much before he began to write the A'in-
i Akbari. Only he offers more details. First, under Akbar, he says,

painting and figures and weaves [lit. knots] and wonderful designs
(tarh'ha) gained currency, and world-travellers, able to recognise
quality products were wonderstruck. In a short while, the sagacious
Emperor obtained familiarity with all theoretical and practical
aspects of that art, and from his patronage, skilled masters of ready
understanding belonging to this country also learnt it.14

It may be assumed that 'paintings' (taswir) and 'figures' (naqsh) in

this passage referred to manual painting on cloth, the so-call 'painted
chintz'; but embroidery could also have been intended, and even
possibly tie-and-dye patterns. Elsewhere Abu'l Fazl speaks of Akbar's
interest in 'gold-embroidery (zar-dozi), goldwire-and-silk weave
(kalabatun), figure embroidery (kashida) flower[ed weave] (qalgha),
tie-and-dye (bandhnun) chintz (chhint), striped cloth (alacha) and
nappy [silk] cloth (purzdar)'.15 There is no evidence, however, to show
that Akbar introduced the draw-loom, known in Iran, to improve
pattern-weave.
Special attention needs to be paid to the words tarrahi in 'Arif
Qandahari, and tarh in the passage from Abu'l Fazl above quoted. It is
very possible that these refer to the designs on the printing blocks for
printed chintz. Ghani Beg Asadabadi, who left 'Abdu'r Rahim
Khanan's service in 1592, is said to have 'endeavoured so much in the
art of design-making (tarrah) and inventing chintz-patterns (ikhtira-i
chit), that those who were experts in that art admired and imitated
him.'16 This is said of him during his stay at Sironj, the centre of
printed chintz. His contemporary Aqa Muhammad Shirazi 'made
strange, wonderful inventions, and achieved much success in making
designs for chintz (tarrahi-i chit), which they make best in Sironj in
all of India'17 If tarh and tarrahi, used in connexion with Akbar's
achievements in textile work refer to designs on printing blocks. One
would more readily understand why the designs or patterns he created
should have had such a large admiring circle.
Printing-block designs would be connected closely with application
of colours, and Akbar's expertise in both is indeed paired by Arif
Qandahari. Abu'l Fazl tells us of Akbar's experiments with shawl-
wool. Until now tus-wool had been used undyed, but Akbar set to dye it
and found only that it would not take red colour. Further 'the white
alcha also called tarhdar has natural colours. Its wool is either white
or black in colour. It is woven in three ways: (all) white, (all) black or
mixed. The first (white) in old times could take no more than three or
four colours. But His Majesty has made it many-hued (gunagun) [i.e.
succeeded in applying many colours to it]'.18 Clearly, then, there was
much effort made by Akbar to see what dye the wool would take.

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 AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 7

'AIRCONDITIONING' AND REFRIGERATION

In his description of India, Abu'l Fazl says that India used to be

censured for 'the absence of cold water and the excess of heat.' Akbar
sought to remove the cause of the latter complaint by popularising
khas-frames:

There is a fragrant root, very cool, which is called khas. By His

Majesty's command, it became common to make huts of bamboo
frames (nai-bast khana-ha) stuffed with it. When water is thrown
on it winter seems to arrive in the midst of summer.19

It is to be investigated if before Akbar the practice of cooling

houses or rooms through the wetting of khas-frames was at all
prevalent. It is not to be found in Babur's description of India. Bahar
(1739) defines khas-khana as something peculiar to India and
illustrates it with a fair range of verses, but all the three poets quoted
appear to belong to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.20
Of still greater interest is Akbar's device to cool water. This was
through the use of saltpetre. Abu'l Fazl quotes Akbar as having made
the discovery2l and himself more than once attributes the invention to
him without any qualification.22 The locus classicus for the invention
is the following passage:

His Majesty, out of the surge of far-seeing wisdom, made saltpetre

which creates such tumult as gun-powder, the means of cooling
water, so that both the poor and rich were made happy thereby. It
is a saltish-earth. They put it in a perforated pan and sprinkle some
water on it. What drops [through the pan] is boiled, is separated
from ordinary earth and crystallised (barbandand). A ser of water is
poured into a bottle made of pewter or silver or such metal and its
mouth is closed. In a pan two and a half sers of saltpetre are mixed
with five sers of water, and the closed bottle is stirred within that
mixture for the space of a half ghari [i.e. 12 minutes]. The water
within the bottle gets very cold. For one rupee one can get three-
quarters of a man to 4 mans (of saltpetre).23

Although Abu'l Fazl does not explicitly date the invention, he says,
immediately after the above passage, that Akbar's shift of
headquarters to Lahore in 1585 enabled him to get snow to cool his
water. This suggests that the use of saltpetre for cooling water had
been discovered when Akbar was at Fatehpur Sikri and Agra, well
before 1585. No earlier description of the method exists, so that Abu'l
Fazl's claims for his master as the inventor (or, at least, as the patron
of the invention) seem justified. Subsequent descriptions, particularly
of European travellers, are fairly numerous. These emphasise that it
was a practice found only in India.24

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8 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

Akbar's invention thus had a clear precedence in time over chemical

devices for refrigeration in Europe, which moreover required snow for
initiating the process.25

GEARED WATERLIFr

Babur had been greatly attracted by the device of gear-and-chain

water-lift, to which Anglo-Indian usage later gave the name 'Persian
wheel'. He had apparently never seen it in Central Asia and
Afghanistan and had the first sight of it at Bhera, West Panjab, in
1519.26 In his account of India he provides us with the earliest
scientific description of the device.27 It is not surprising that Akbar
should have been interested in these wheels, and it is certainly shown
very frequently by his artists in the book-illustrations that he
commissioned.27
Abu'l Fazl attributes to Akbar certain inventions here as well:

His Majesty made such water-wheels (daulab'ha), and such (gear-)

wheels (gardunha) that [I) water may be lifted from distant low-
lying places. [II] Two oxen may also turn four wheels (charkh)
simultaneously; and [III] also with one ox, turning two-wheels,
water is brought up from two wells, and a water-mill is tumed.29

Invention I is illustrated in two miniatures in the volume of

Nizami's Khamsa, written and illustrated for Akbar's library.30 Here
while the ox remains on the ground, rotating a high vertical axle by
going round and round with a drawbar, the axle caries at or near its top
(in one illustration, it seems to be attached to another post for
stability; in the other it stands clear) a pindrum, with whose pins
mesh pegs of a vertical wheel. The latter wheel in tum rotates the
chain-of-pots wheel, placed on the same axle, and thus water is lifted
up to the level of the pin-drum.
It was this invention, which enabled water to be lifted to great
heights at Fatehpur Sikri. As noted by Heber in 1826:

The whole hill on which the palace stands bears marks of terraces
and gardens, to irrigate which an elaborate succession of wells,
cisterns and wheels appears to have been contrived adjoining the
great mosque and forcing up the water nearly to the height of its
roof. The cisterns are still useful as receptacles of rain-water, but
the machinery is long since gone to decay.31

The great wells, with successive stages of water-lift and the great
network of viaducts are described in much detail by E.W. Smith in his
survey of Fatehpur Sikri, but without any speculation as to the
'machinery' or the means by which the water could be lifted.32 He
could have seen it in the khamsa-i-Nizami illustrations. In ank case,

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 AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 9

the great water-works of Fatehpur Sikri make it certain that

Invention I was in full use in the 1570s.
As for Inventions II and III one can see that these could be made
possible only by making the gearing more efficient. There is no
evidence, as we shall also note below in the next section, that Akbar
and his engineers knew of any alternative to pin-drum gearing. Given
this limitation, improvements could come by better carpentry (making
the mesh of pegs with pins more close and exact), use of iron at places
of contact, great structural stability for the apparatus, and so on. But
unluckily, Abu'l Fazl does not inform us whether all or any of these
were contemplated.

OTHER APPLICATIONS OF GEARING

In 1582 Mir Fathullah Shirazi, a renowned Iranian scholar,

theologian and physician, came to Akbar's court, and immediately
obtained high status among Akbar's main counsellors. Badauni reports
that when the nauroz festival was celebrated on 20 March 1583, the
Emperor arranged a bazar where:

as by previous custom, different shops were allotted to different

nobles. In his own shop Shah Fathullah showed [products of]
different kinds of skill, including load-moving machines (jarr-i
asqal) and fanciful devices.33

More precise information is offered by Shaikh Nizamuddhin

Ahmad who, writing in 1593, says of Fathullah:
He was also skilled in the sciences of fanciful devices ('ulum-i
ghariba), such as strange and magical works. Thus he invented a
mill placed on a cart, which moved of its own and made flour: he
made a mirror in which were seen strange figures from far and near.
By one wheel ten hand-guns had their heads fixed (sar mi shud).34

As M.A. Alvi and A. Rahman have pointed out, two of these

inventions are classed among those attributed to Akbar by Abu'l
Fazl.35 From this Alvi and Rahman draw the rather extreme
conclusion that not only these, but practically all the other
mechanical inventions attributed to Akbar in the A' in were the work
of Fathullah Shirazi, though the latter was at Akbar's Court for just
seven years (1582-89).36 Without entering into the debate as to how
much should be ascribed to the Persian scholar, it is best to understand
the nature of these machines from Abu'l Fazl's descriptions.
First, the cart-mill:

His Majesty, out of skill, invented a wonderful cart ('araba), which

became the means of comfort for the people of the world. During the
time it used for travel and transport, it mills various kinds of grain
into flour.37

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10 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

This is, of course the same as Fathullah Shirazi's invention. It

obviously worked by putting on the single axle of the cart a pin-drum
wheel, and just above it a horizontal peg-wheel to mesh with it. The
millstone would then be placed on the axle of the letter wheel, and as
the cart moved, the mill-stone would revolve. Since the pin-drum
gearing (as in the contemporary Persian wheei) must have been of
wood, there would be no need of any other type of gearing.38
Abu'l Fazl continues:

Further, His Majesty invented a large cart (saturg gardune), which

an elephant pulls. It is so large that many chambers for hot bath are
placed upon it; in it a hammam offers pleasure. Strange it is, that an
ox can easily pull it. Also by camel and horse are these carts moved,
and give comfort to people. The more delicate cart is called bahl
and on even ground many people can sit and convey themselves on
it.39

The description leaves one in doubt as to the precise nature of the

mechanical improvement. It is distantly possible that gearing was
involved in fanning the fire for heating water, through wheel-driven
bellows on the trap-hammer principle. On the other hand, Akbar
have done nothing more than merely multiplying the number of wheels
to give greater length to the elephant-drawn carriage. There is no
evidence that Fathullah was involved in designing these carriages.
Finally the machine for cleaning guns, which appears to be the
same (or on the same principle) as the machine said to have been
invented by Fathullah Shirazi. Abu'l Fazl's description is as follows:
The A'in of making Barghu

Formerly even a man of strong arms used to suffer great hardship in

working with iron instrument till some smoothness (safa) [within
the hand-gun barrell was achieved. His Majesty, out of wisdom,
invented a wheel, which upon being turned by one ox, smoothened
[the barrels of] sixteen handguns (banduq) in a small amount of time.
For the reader's information, a diagram is provided.40

The original diagram is preserved in many MSS and is reproduced in

Blochmann's translation.4
What the device did was not just 'cleaning' as rendered by
Blochmann42 while the term safa can be applied to both cleaning and
polishing (or smoothening) the gun, it is otherwise with the word
barghu or yarghu (as variously read in the MSS). This is not found in
the dictionaries I have consulted, but its sense is made clear in the
preceding chapter of the A'in:

When the Emperor has determined the weight of the pellet, and
according to this, the size of the hole [of the barrel] takes shape. In
a long [handgun] the weight [of the pellet] does not exceed 25 tanks,

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 AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 11

and in the smaller [gun], 15 tanks with such weights only His
Majesty has the boldness to fire. When the work of barghu is
completed, the handgun is again sent to the Imperial apartments
[for being tested by Akbar], & c.43

It was the hard work of rubbing the inside of the barrel which was
sought to be lightened by using animal power to rotate the 'iron-
instrument' within the barrel.
Abu'l Fazl's diagram makes clear that the ox pulling round a draw-
bar at a different level, rotated a large main wheel, which on its
circumference meshed with a vertical gear-wheel. The symbol for
pindrum-gearing (circle with triangular pegs on circumference) appears
at each point the gearing took place. The iron-tool to smoothen the
insides of the barrel was linked to the axle of the vertical wheel so
that the gun, horizontally placed, would be pressed against the fixed
rotating iron tool, penetrating its insides. The smith could manipulate
the gun to get the barrel-hole smoothed to size.

HANDGUNS

Akbar's interest in handguns and artillery is emphasized in the A'in-i

Akbari, and in a long passage he tells us how the gun was again and
again submitted to him by the Imperial gunsmiths for testing and
instructions in all stages of manufacture.44
Abu'l Fazl assigns to Akbar measures which led to the strengthening
of the gun-barrel. He says under the A'in of the Handgun, (Banduq):

His Majesty has great attachment to the handgun. He is one of the

unique ones in making and firing it. [Under his patronage] they so
make the gun that, filled to the brim with gun-powder, and fired, it
does not break up. Formerly, they could not fill more than one-fourth
[of the barrel]. Moreover, they used to flatten iron with hammer and
anvil, and joined both edges of the flattened piece [to make the
barrel]. Others, out of foresight, used to leave [part of the flattened
sheet] over one side. Much injury used to result [from explosion],
especially in the former case. His Majesty introduced an excellent
method. Having flattened the iron, they twist it crookedly like a
paper-roll (tumar), so that with every twist, the roll gets longer.
They do not join it edge to edge but pass one side over the other, and
step by step strengthen it over the fire. Also, having fired and
strengthened (pukhta) iron-sheets, they draw them around an [iron]
rod, and so a [barrel] hole is produced. Three or four pieces are used
to make [a single gun barrel]; in the case of small guns, two pieces.
The long [barrel] is two gaz long, the small, one and a quarter gaz; it
is called damanak. Its stock is made differently.45
Akbar's arsenal thus claims to have introduced a new method of
making the gun barrel, by (a) twisting a flat iron sheet, continuously

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12 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

fired, to fold round and round in an elongated fashion with its edges
overlapping one another, and then (b) joining such twisted fired pieces
over an iron rod to create a barrel. There would then be no weak joints
in the barrel. Short of iron-casting, this would appear to produce the
most strength in the barrel and make it withstand high explosive
pressure.
The passage we have discussed is followed by one which seems to be
of a great technological importance:

Further, from the expertness of His Majesty they have so made

[handguns] that without the fire-match (fatila-i atish), with a
little movement of the cock (masha), explosion occurs and the pellet
is expelled.46

In the subsequent description of the stages of gun manufacture we are

told that once the barrel and stock were fitted, and then the tah
(hind-part or priming pan?) brought in, 'they become responsible for
setting right the cock, and the gaz (ramrod?) and pargaz(?)'47 It is not
clarified how the cock worked, and therefore we do not learn how
without the match, it could have ignited the powder in the priming-
pan.
I had initially suggested that a wheel-lock must have been
employed, and then thought that a matchlock was meant after all,
though match-lock would still need to have a fatila or match.48
Iqtidar Alam Khan is right to upbraid such inconsistency, and his very
definitive study of the early history of handguns in India has
narrowed the choice to wheel-lock fairly closely;49 but positive proof
is yet to come.

FANCIFUL DEVICES

Much of Arabic-Persian theoretical technology consisted of imagining

diverse motions derived from water-flow, gearing, and levers and
balances. Al-Jazari is the best illustration of this tradition. Making
such devices in practice was a little more difficult, but we know that
some, like water-clocks, were actually made.
Nuru'l Haqq in his Zubdatu'l Tawarikh describes a 'magic machine'
which Akbar saw in 1594-95 and greatly enjoyed. Elliot selected and
translated this passage, and I reproduce part of his translation with
some modifications based on comparison with text.

One of the wonders of art which was exhibited during this year
(AH 1003) was the work of Saiyid Husain Shirazi. He used to stand
with a box in front of him, and when anyone gave him a rupee, he
threw it into the box and it kept on rolling until it fell to the bottom.
Upon this a parrot, which was placed above that box (buq'a), began
to chirp at one another. Then a small window opened, and a panther
put forward its head out of it, and a shell came out of its mouth to

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 AKBAR AND TECHNOLOGY 13

fall on a dish which was placed on the head of a tiger, and the
shell came out of the tiger's mouth. . . . [similar other motions and
actions by toy animals and puppets follow; ultimately,] another
window opened, and a puppet came forth with an ode from the
Diwan of Hafiz in its hands, and when the ode was taken away, it
retired, and the window closed. In short, whenever money was
placed in his [Husain Shirazi's] hands, all these curious things took
place. His Majesty first threw an ashrafi (gold coin) with his own
hand and witnessed the sight. He then ordered those present to
throw a rupee each. The odes they received, they gave to Naqib
Khan, by whom they were read out. This entertainment continued
for much of the night.50

One can see that while the initial momentum came from the
dropping of the coin, the further action derived from the displacement
of successively heavier weights. The entire apparatus needed only
levers, balances and, perhaps, pulleys, to work as it did. No gears or
springs were necessarily involved, and so no influence from European
clockwork or mechanical devices can be predicted. It is, however, good
to know that Akbar could enjoy a well-constructed magical device like
any one of us would.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Letters from the Mughal Court: the first Jesuit Mission to Akbar (1580-83), ed.
[& tr.], with an Introduction by John Correia-Affonso, Bombay/Anand, 1980,
p. 22.
2. Ibid., p. 56.
3. Ibid., p. 81.
4. Monserrate, Commentary on his Journey to the Court of Akbar, tr. J.S. Holylan
and S.N. Banerjee, Cuttack, 1922, p. 201. See also Pierre du Jarric's account based
(ultimately) on Jesuit letters in Akbar and the Jesuits, tr. C.H. Payne, London,
1926, p. 206 ('the next moment he would be seen shearing camels, hewing stones,
cutting wood, or hammering iron').
5. Arif Qandahari, Tarikh-i Akbari, ed. Muinuddin Nadvi, Azhar Ali Dihlawi
and Imtiyaz Ali Arshi, Rampur, 1962, p. 43.
6. The A'in-i Akbari, I, tr. H. Blochmann, Rev. D.C. Phillott, Calcutta, 1927, p. 49.
7. See the separate description of bargah under A'in-i Farrash Khana in Ain-i-
Akbari, ed. H. Blochmann, Calcutta, 1866-67, I, p. 49. This shows that it was a
hall made by tented roof, so that '10,000 people or more could find shade under
it'. The significance of sargha as main mast appears from this passage and other
occurrences of the word in the same A'in.
8. Ibid., I, p. 41.
9. In this sentence Blochmann's ed. erroneously reads magar do instead of the
correct word nagardad, found in the Nawal Kishor ed., 1893, I, p. 32. Contrary to
my earlier denigration of it, I find the latter edition based on some MSS not
available to Blochmann and to give often enough superior readings.
10. Ain-i Akbari, I, p. 49.
11. Ain-i Akbari, tr. Blochmann, I, p. 56, lines 11 and 17.

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