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By Elizabeth Thelen and Dominic VendellOn the 6th, 7th and 8th ofFebruary, we convened a seminar/workshop program jointly with the RajasthanState Archives, Bikaner on the theme of ‘Documents and Archives.’ The aim ofthe program was to share an overview of types of sources and ongoing researchon the seminar day with invited participants and interested members of thepublic and then over the course of a two-day workshop to read and discuss aseries of different varieties of documents in Persian and Rajasthani from theRajasthan State Archives collections.Dr Mahendra Khadgawat addresses the seminarOver the course ofthe first day a series of talks highlighted the diversity of sources andongoing research in the Rajasthan State Archive’s collections. After thearchive director Dr Mahendra Khadgawat introduced the archives and particularlythe ongoing digitisation program, Dominic gave an overview of the LawformsProject and our aims during the seminar/workshop program. Prof RamyaSreenivasan discussed the nature of the zenana tahrir records and theirsignificance for understanding the history of royal households and Mr SalauddinQamar introduced the genres of imperial Persian documents. Dr Sumbul Halim Khangave an overview of the structure, content and creation of Vakil reports whichinformed the ruler of local events and sometimes included coded messages, whileElizabeth presented on the nature and research possibilities of the bahirecords of Marwar. Mr Muhammad Shahnawaz discussed nirakh hundawan records andtheir insights into the use of notes of exchange (hundis). &#160;Several other presentations highlighted therange of sources in the Rajasthan State Archives and ongoing research,especially on gender history and economic history, including those of Ms MeeraMalhan, Dr S.D. Mishra, Dr Ambika Dhaka and Dr Mahendra Panehaniya. Given thevast scope of records in the archive – including the range of languages andusage, scripts and handwriting styles, formats and genres – the seminar programdemonstrated the value of bringing scholars together to grasp the scope of therecords and the complexity of their relationships to each other across time andlocation. Ms Meera Malhan presents her paper as Prof. Ramya Sreenivasan looks on The seminar also featured public history and outreach aspects. The audience included students from local colleges who connected with the presenters about their research and pathways to becoming historians during the program breaks. The day concluded with a visit to the archives and a tour of ongoing renovations to create and update several display halls within the archives complex. This museum section covers themes including the Indian independence movement in Rajasthan and Rajput states in the Mughal period and highlights the types of records in the archive’s collections. The new museum has been designed in consultation with the architect Dr Shikha Jain who had presented the plans and scope of the work earlier in the day, including the logistics of displaying different types of documents.  Mr Salauddin Qamar clarifies a point in a Persian documentOn the second day we dove into the reading of Persiandocuments. Our sessions were facilitated by Mr Salauddin Qamar and Mr JameelAhmad from the Arabic Persian Research Institute in Tonk and Mr Shujauddin, aretired Rajasthan State Archives employee. All three had been involved in DrKhadgawat’s project to publish the Mughal farmans held by the Rajasthan State Archives,so were very familiar with the sorts of documents we were covering. During thecourse of the day, we read and discussed farmans, a nishan, an arzdasht, aroyal khat, a manshur, a vakil report, and a page of akhbarat. Our discussionsranged from the reading and meaning of a particular word to the relativeauthority of different levels of documents in giving orders. We compared theformulas used in different documents and noted how the conventions in severalgenres, including khats and arzdashts, to put the date and the addressee’s nameon the envelope which has sometimes been lost or separated from the document,creates methodological challenges for the researcher.Workshop participants discuss the documentsOn the final day, we turned our attention to Rajasthanidocuments in the state archives. These are far more numerous and diverse thanthe Persian documents, so we were able to cover only a subset of the genres andseries. Our readings were led by Mr Poonamchand Joiya, a retired research officerfrom the archives, with additional facilitation and presentations from Dr SumbulHalim Khan of Aligarh Muslim University, Dr Mahendra Singh Tanwar of theMehrangarh Museum Trust, and Mr Rameshwar Bairwa, Mr Puranmal Koli and Mr SohanlalDamor from the branch offices of the Rajasthan State Archives. Our readings anddiscussions covered a tamrapatra, an arzdasht, a royal khat, a toji from thepatar khana, an arsattha, a hazir asami, and entries from registers including asanad parwana bahi, a kagad bahi and a haqiqat bahi. These documents came fromvarious states in Rajasthan: Mewar, Marwar, Jaipur, Kota and Bikaner. Theycovered a variety of functions, including letters, petitions, orders, and taxcollection. Particularly useful moments included a close analysis andexposition of the accounting conventions used in taqsim documents and otherrevenue-related documents by several participants and Dr Tanwar’s explanationof sanad parwana bahi entries via an examination of state management of waterresources. We also discussed the processes by which registers were created andtheir relationship to documents that were issued by the various states.Thematic and methodological discussions throughout theworkshop emerged around topics including the classification of documentswhether through self-nomination or the creation of archival series at a laterpoint; the materiality of documents including the significance of paper qualityand paper decoration; the identification of shared features between Persian andRajasthani documents such as structure and vocabulary; and the translation ofvarious customary titles and honorifics as well as occupational and collectivecategories featured in documentation. 