Template:Multiple image A Kaifiyat is a historical record, especially about a village or a town, from the Deccan region of India. Compiled in 18th and 19th centuries by village accountants, based on earlier records, the kaifiyats are a valuable source of local history. Many of them are part of the Mackenzie Manuscripts compiled by Colin Mackenzie and his assistants during 1780-1820.
Etymology
The word kaifiyat is of Arabic origin,Template:Sfn and comes to India from Persian, which was the official language of the Deccan 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 the Telugu vocabulary, and meant "village account".Template:Sfn Among scholars, the term became popular when Colin Mackenzie's project to compile rural archives used it to describe the compiled village histories.Template:Sfn
History
The kaifiyats are written in multiple scripts and languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, and Sanskrit. The largest number of the manuscripts are in Telugu.Template:Sfn
Even before the kaifiyats were first compiled in the 18th century, the village officials of the Telugu-speaking region maintained chronicles called dandakavile or kavile. The Kakatiya rulers (1158–1323) had established the office of karanam, who maintained such records. The karanam was a village accountant, similar to the patwari of northern India. By the late 18th century, such officials had started compiling local records in form of kaifiyats, transmitting them from one generation to another.Template:Sfn
The British East India Company officer Colin Mackenzie and his assistants came across the kaifiyats, and valued them as sources of local history.Template:Sfn During 1780-1820, Mackenzie and his assistants collected kaifiyats from several villages, often encountering resistance and lack of cooperation from the village officers.Template:Sfn Most of these kaifiyats were written down in the late 18th and early 19th century.Template:Sfn
The colonial historians and the early historians of independent India preferred kaifiyats over 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.Template:Sfn Several later historians have analyzed kaifiyats as a source of history.Template:Sfn
Contents
The kaifiyats vary a lot from one another,Template:Sfn and may contain both historical and mythical information:Template:Sfn
- origin stories of the village, often mythological accounts tracing the lineage of important families to the originTemplate:Sfn
- list of main rulers of the regionTemplate:Sfn
- land useTemplate:Sfn
- list of cropsTemplate:Sfn and other agricultural productsTemplate:Sfn
- list of animals (including wild animals in the adjoining forests)Template:Sfn
- family histories and genealogies of important familiesTemplate:Sfn
- list of land-owning familiesTemplate:Sfn
- lists of inam (rent-free) landsTemplate:Sfn
- accounts of prominent castesTemplate:Sfn
- history of temple donationsTemplate:Sfn
- transcriptions of epigraphical recordsTemplate:Sfn
References
Bibliography
- Precolonial India in Practice{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Oxford University Press(2001). ISBN 9780198031239
- Catalogue of Mackenzie Kaifiyats: Telugu Manuscripts{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. National Mission for Manuscripts / Dev(2019). ISBN 978-93-80829-65-4
- The Origins of Modern Historiography in India{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Palgrave Macmillan(2012). ISBN 9781137011923
Further reading
- Mackenzie Manuscripts: Summaries of the Historical Manuscripts in the Mackenzie Collection{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. University of Madras(1972)