INTRODUCTION 
XV 
Akbar, the word Diwan had come to denote a person, not 
an institution. In public affairs the Diwan was now the 
Revenue Minister; and, since the Vazir dealt with revenue- 
business, for a time the two words, Vazir and Diwan, 
became in practice almost synonymous. In private business, 
Diwan denoted, doubtless by analogy, a man who managed 
a high officer’s financial affairs, and is conveniently rendered 
as ‘‘steward.” The Revenue Ministry was now called 
Diwanli, a term which does not appear in the earlier literature: 
and at this period the word was not applied to any other 
Ministry than that which dealt with the business of the 
revenue. 
As administrative organisation progressed, we find two 
further developments. Inside the Ministry, each depart- 
mental head came to be called Diwan. Outside it, a Diwan, 
or Revenue Officer, was appointed in each province; and 
when these provincial Diwans had been brought under the 
direct authority of the Minister at Court, a new implication 
was gradually imported. In the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, diwani, or the revenue administration as 2 whole, 
was contrasted with nizamat, or faujdari, terms which 
denoted the general administration, concerned primarily 
with the preservation of the peace. 
The appointment of the East India Company as Diwan of 
the province of Bengal led to a further change: the new 
Diwan found it desirable to establish its own court of justice, 
which was duly named Diwani Adalat, or ‘‘ the Diwani 
Court”; and, as the result of subsequent developments, at 
the present day diwani has almost entirely lost its older 
meaning of revenue-administration, and in current use 
signifies the civil courts of law. Diwan, as a synonym for 
Vazir, has survived in some Indian States, where the Chief 
Minister is so designated; elsewhere it is an honorific title, 
conferred by the Government, or adopted by prominent 
men of some communities, as the case may be. The 
word has thus travelled a long way from the time when 
a minister could be described as “‘sitting in the diwin.” 
It does not appear to me to be necessary to. justify at 
length the method of study which I have described: its 
justification is found in the facts, firstly, that there is no