The Revenue Manual of Rajasthan (Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries)

The Revenue Manual of Rajasthan reveals the significance of this archival source material, particularly arhsatta, a distinctive revenue record of Rajasthan in general and Amber, afterward designated as Jaipur, in particular. On the whole, the arhsatta document covers such diverse and vital subjects as agriculture, environment, banking and accounting systems, forms of peasant protests, crime and punishment, estimation of population, pasture lands, animals, rural-urban taxation, aspects of social history and useful evidence on urban history. Jibraeil has edited the Arhsatta Mujmil Qasba Sanganer, keeping in view the growing interest of researchers in the archival as well as literary sources of Rajasthan's history. The documents employ indigenous terms and personalized words which make their meaning difficult to grasp as well as to decipher. They demand close attention and practice. Keeping this in mind, the editing of the document with annotations will certainly help researchers. The work also includes a comprehensive glossary of terms used in arhsatta, a chart on the values in the form of appendices, and meanings of Persian and Rajasthani words as footnotes. Explanatory note on currencies used and their notations in the document further enhance the value of this work. In addition, the transcription of the arhsatta record is an invaluable tool which will help the researcher to read and understand the document more easily.…