Kaifiyat
AKaifiyatis a historical record, especially about a village or a town, from theDeccanregion of India. Compiled in 18th and 19th centuries byvillage accountants,based on earlier records, thekaifiyatsare a valuable source of local history. Many of them are part of theMackenzie Manuscriptscompiled byColin Mackenzieand his assistants during 1780-1820.
Etymology
[edit]The wordkaifiyatis ofArabicorigin,[1]and comes to India fromPersian,which was the official language of theDeccan sultanates.Depending on the context, it has various meanings including "circumstances, account, statement, report, particulars, story, and news." By the late 18th century, the word had entered theTeluguvocabulary, and meant "village account".[2]Among scholars, the term became popular whenColin Mackenzie's project to compile ruralarchivesused it to describe the compiled village histories.[3]
History
[edit]Thekaifiyatsare written in multiple scripts and languages, includingTelugu,Tamil,Kannada,Malayalam,Marathi,andSanskrit.The largest number of the manuscripts are in Telugu.[1]
Even before thekaifiyatswere first compiled in the 18th century, the village officials of the Telugu-speaking region maintained chronicles calleddandakavileorkavile.TheKakatiyarulers (1158–1323) had established the office ofkaranam,who maintained such records. Thekaranamwas avillage accountant,similar to thepatwariof northern India. By the late 18th century, such officials had started compiling local records in form ofkaifiyats,transmitting them from one generation to another.[2]
TheBritish East India CompanyofficerColin Mackenzieand his assistants came across thekaifiyats,and valued them as sources of local history.[4]During 1780-1820, Mackenzie and his assistants collectedkaifiyatsfrom several villages, often encountering resistance and lack of cooperation from the village officers.[5]Most of thesekaifiyatswere written down in the late 18th and early 19th century.[6]
The colonial historians and the early historians of independent India preferredkaifiyatsover other literary sources of history because of verifiable details about village economy and genealogy. However, they did not regard these documents as fully reliable because of the presence of mythical sections.[7]Several later historians have analyzedkaifiyatsas a source of history.[8]
Contents
[edit]Thekaifiyatsvary a lot from one another,[9]and may contain both historical and mythical information:[7]
- origin stories of the village, often mythological accounts tracing the lineage of important families to the origin[10]
- list of main rulers of the region[9]
- land use[11]
- list of crops[9]and other agricultural products[6]
- list of animals (including wild animals in the adjoining forests)[9]
- family histories and genealogies of important families[12]
- list of land-owning families[11]
- lists ofinam(rent-free) lands[9]
- accounts of prominent castes[9]
- history of temple donations[6]
- transcriptions of epigraphical records[6]
References
[edit]- ^abN.S. Raju 2019,Foreword.
- ^abR.S. Mantena 2012,p. 126.
- ^Cynthia Talbot 2001,p. 283.
- ^R.S. Mantena 2012,p. 4.
- ^R.S. Mantena 2012,pp. 69–70.
- ^abcdR.S. Mantena 2012,p. 125.
- ^abR.S. Mantena 2012,p. 29.
- ^R.S. Mantena 2012,p. 146.
- ^abcdefR.S. Mantena 2012,p. 129.
- ^R.S. Mantena 2012,pp. 4, 141.
- ^abR.S. Mantena 2012,p. 130.
- ^R.S. Mantena 2012,pp. 126, 130.
Bibliography
[edit]- Cynthia Talbot (2001).Precolonial India in Practice.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780198031239.
- Nadupalli Srirama Raju, ed. (2019).Catalogue of Mackenzie Kaifiyats: Telugu Manuscripts(PDF).National Mission for Manuscripts / Dev.ISBN978-93-80829-65-4.
- Rama Sundari Mantena (2012).The Origins of Modern Historiography in India.Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN9781137011923.
Further reading
[edit]- T.V. Mahalingam, ed. (1972).Mackenzie Manuscripts: Summaries of the Historical Manuscripts in the Mackenzie Collection.Vol. 2. University of Madras.