A rich collection of about 1.5 lakhs documents is available among the Oriental Records comprising manuscripts, parwanas, hukums, kharitas, farmans, etc., in Persian, Arabic, Urdu etc., Among the rare and valuable collections of documents are the Fort William College Collection, Inayat Jang Collection, Mathura Documents, Gujarat documents, Haldiya Papers etc., All these papers are available for consultation as per the Public Record Rules, 1997 [1].

OR Division has a large collection of Oriental Records comprising of rare manuscripts, single unit documents and rare books in Persian, Arabic , Urdu, English , Hindi, Modi , Rajasthani, Marathi, Turkish, Bangla and in many other languages and in various scripts.

For Search of various public records as listed below, please visit www.Abhilekh-Patal.in [2]

Inayat Jung Collection. 

The collection totalling 1,37,000 (appr.) is the Official Mughal Documents. It consists of reports, day to day accounts and revenue figures which were sent regularly to the Diwan of the Deccan by the individual Diwans of the six provinces of the Decan. The reign wise position is given as under:-

•  Haldia Collection.

 A collection of 1060 documents in Persian and Urdu. These documents throw light on the political role of the Haldia family in Rajasthan.

•  Other important Collections of Documents:

There are approximately 14,000 other documents in different oriental languages especially in Persian and Urdu. These documents are related to different regions and deal with different aspects of polity, society and culture. Certain examples are elucidated as under:

• A collection of 149 documents which throw light on Emperor Akbar’s policy of religious tolerance as he gave hundreds of Bighas of land grants to 35 temples in Mathura.
• Another collection of 125 documents furnishes details of the qanungoi and other offices held by a zamindar family of Sonepat during 18th - 20th century.
• Another collection of 150 documents throw light on the revenue grants in Bihar under the Mughals.
• A large collection of documents belong to Sandila and Jais region. These documents deal with the revenue free grants to the individuals, religious heads etc. These documents might bring to light the agrarian structure and the role of various classes in the agrarian economy under the Mughals.
• A collection of 63 documents deal with the urban structures particularly in Gujurat.
• A collection of 70 documents gives information about the spread of slavery with special reference to Allahabad region.
• A collection of 133 documents is related to a math in Gujurat (Pakistan).
• Another collection deals with the Deccan States about the revenue grants, jagir administration etc.
• Another 25 Photostat documents deal with the establishment of Mughal administration in the Cooch Behar region.
• A collection of 125 documents gives information on the rising fortunes of a zamindar family in Malwa region.
• Another collection of 150 shed light on the local administration in Tonk and interference of the East India Company in its day to day working.
• A collection of 31 documents reflect the British policy towards the lakhiraj revenue free grants in Orissa.

Manuscripts acquired by way of purchase or gift:-

 Oriental Records Section has a collection of about 400 manuscripts mainly in Arabic Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit , Sharda and Bangla etc. on different subjects such as religion, history, lexicon, literature, biography, agriculture and medical science etc. The manuscripts date back back to 10th century till 20th century.

  Books acquired by way of purchase or gift:-       
About 300 books in Persian, Urdu, Hindi and other Oriental Languages which deal with different subjects like religion, history, literature, biography, agriculture and medical science, travelogues, etc.

Historical Documents Purchase Committee

• Fort William College Collection 

An important collection of OR Div. is FWC Collection of books and manuscripts. This important collection has been inherited from the British East India Company through its prestigious College of Fort William at Calcutta. The major part of the collection was taken back to India Office library, London and remaining manuscripts and books were transferred to the then Imperial Record Office (Presently National Archives of India). The collection comprises of about 200 manuscripts and 1000 books and has very important works. This valuable collection in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Bengali cover subjects like, religion, lexicon, epistolography, literature, history, animal husbandry, astrology, medical sciences etc. The chronological range of this collection is 10th century to 19th century. Some of the prominent titles are: Tarfsir Fath al-Aziz, Jawahar al Tafsir, Fatwa-i-Alamgiri, Fatawa Ibrahim Shahi, Fath al-Qadir, Futuhat-i-Makkiya, Tasawwuf-i-Shi’i, Razm Nama, Bhagwat Gita, Zabur, Zakhirat al-Muluk, Dabistan-i-Mazahib, Shamail al-Nabi, Bahar-i-Ajam, and many more important works of Lexicons .
All the collection of documents, manuscripts and books are arranged as per their accession numbers except the Fort William College Collection of Books and Manuscripts which were recently transferred from NAI library to OR Division which are kept as per their Serial numbers.

• Oriental Records in Microfilm Rolls
• 4,000 Manuscripts of Rampur Raza Library
• 16,000 exps. of Miscellaneous Oriental Records
• 1 Roll of Central Asian Antiquities Museum Microfilm
• Publication of OR Division based on its Record Holdinings

Besides providing records to the scholars, OR Division is also engaged in preparing reference media and bringing out publications based on its record holdings. So far 47 [3] publications have been brought out.