Thousands of previously overlooked news reports from the 17th-century Mughal Empire are providing historians with a fresh perspective on Emperor Aurangzeb and the inner workings of his vast dominion. These "Akhbarat-i Darbar-i Mualla" (Newsletters of the Exalted Court), a collection of handwritten Persian reports, detail the administrative minutiae, military movements, and courtly affairs of one of the world's major early-modern empires.
These reports, numbering over 6,500 pages, have been studied by historians like Munis D. Faruqui, who is preparing a history of Aurangzeb, also known as Alamgir. The newsletters offer a rare, near-continuous record of the empire observing itself, shedding light on roughly a third of Aurangzeb's nearly 50-year reign, from 1658 to 1707. While archival coverage for the emperor's early decades is less complete, the material from the early 1680s onward is extraordinary, providing an almost daily flow of information.
The surviving newsletters are preserved in at least four known collections in India and Britain, with historians suspecting others may exist in private hands. One significant collection was preserved in Jaipur Fort and later acquired by James Tod, an East India Company official, who donated it to the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in Britain. The most substantial cache is housed in Kolkata's National Library, comprising 21 volumes dedicated to Aurangzeb's reign. This collection was once part of the personal library of Sir Jadunath Sarkar, a prominent Indian historian and Aurangzeb's most influential biographer.
At first encounter, the contents of the akhbarat can appear mundane, detailing appointments, disputes, gifts, illnesses, and endless administrative tasks. However, when compiled, they reveal a remarkably detailed picture of the empire's functioning, providing insights into the lives of princes, generals, courtiers, royal women, and imperial eunuchs. The reports illuminate the administrative machinery that sustained the Mughal empire, particularly during Aurangzeb's tenure as its last great expansionist ruler.
Historians are using these documents to reconstruct a more nuanced portrait of Aurangzeb, who remains one of the most controversial figures in Mughal history. The detailed administrative records allow for a deeper understanding of his policies and their implementation across a vast and diverse territory. The sheer volume and consistency of the reports from the later part of his reign offer an unprecedented window into the daily operations of a powerful state in the early modern period.