Machine summary:
. l SOCIAL LIFE OF THE SUBAH OF ALLAHABAD UNDER J THE GREAT MUGHALS l Surendra Nath Sinha* 1 I l I HE political, social and economic conditions of a region are so inter• connected and interlinked that an attempt to make an absolutely detached study of one aspect sometimes renders the picture utterly incomplete and confused.
Thus, for the purpose of our study, the period would comprise the rfith and 17th centuries, the level would be different gradations in the urban and rural society and the area the region that constituted the Subah of Allahabad.
In the absence of any specific source of information regarding the social history of the Subah of Allahabad in particular during the reign of the Great M ughals, one has to reconstruct the picture on the basis of the indige• nous sources of the region and accounts of the foreign tra vellers, and has to comprehend the picture on the basis of the pattern of social structure of Northern India in general and the neighbouring areas of the Subah in particular.
Moreover, the Muslims of lower classes were indistinguishable from the Hindu masses, for most of them were recent converts; and their Islamic society in India, during this period, was influenced by the Indian environ• ment and caste system.
l'" In the socio-religious life of the Hindus, Allahabad was an important centre in the Subah.