Mughal History

A Turkic clan in Mughal India: The Qaqshals in Akbar’s service

by Benedek Péri

Cosmopolitan Encounters: Sanskrit and Persian at the Mughal Court

by Audrey Truschke

Dissertation, Columbia University, 2012

In this dissertation, I analyze interactions between Sanskrit and Persian literary cultures at the Mughal court during... more In this dissertation, I analyze interactions between Sanskrit and Persian literary cultures at the Mughal court during the years 1570-1650 C.E. During this period, the Mughals rose to prominence as one of the most powerful dynasties of the early modern world and patronized Persian as a language of both literature and empire. Simultaneously, the imperial court supported Sanskrit textual production, participated in Sanskrit cultural life, and produced Persian translations of Sanskrit literature. For their part, Sanskrit intellectuals became influential members of the Mughal court, developed a linguistic interest in Persian, and wrote extensively about their imperial experiences. Yet the role of Sanskrit at the Mughal court remains a largely untold story in modern scholarship, as do the resulting engagements across cultural lines. To the extent that scholars have thought about Sanskrit and Persian in tandem, they have generally been blinded by their own language barriers and mistakenly asserted that there was no serious interaction between the two. I challenge this uncritical view through a systematic reading of texts in both languages and provide the first detailed account of exchanges between these traditions at the Mughal court. I further argue that these cross-cultural events are central to understanding the construction of power in the Mughal Empire and the cultural and literary dynamics of early modern India. (available here: http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:145903)

Jahangir Heroically Killing Poverty

by Jasper van Putten

“Jahangir Heroically Killing Poverty: Pictorial Sources and Pictorial tradition in Mughal Allegorical Portraiture,” in Amanda Phillips and Refqa Abu-Remaileh (eds.), The Meeting Place of British Middle East Studies: Emerging Scholars, Emergent Research & Approaches, (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2009), pp. 99-118.

This paper examines the reception of Western allegory and portraiture in Mughal Indian painting. It argues that under... more This paper examines the reception of Western allegory and portraiture in Mughal Indian painting. It argues that under the lead of Emperor Jahangir, a unique blend of allegorical portraiture was developed that went beyond the Western prototypes. The paper examines the phases of copying, adapting and inventing in this process.

Jains in the Multicultural Mughal Empire

by Audrey Truschke

Published in Centre of Jaina Studies Newsletter

Perso-Indica: a critical survey of Persian works on Indian learned traditions

by Audrey Truschke

Auspicious foundations: The patronage of sufi institutions in the late mughal and early asaf jah deccan

by Nile Green

Making space:(hardback)

by Nile Green

The Mughal Book of War: A Persian Translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata

by Audrey Truschke

This article presents the first in-depth textual analysis of the Razmnamah (Book of War), the Persian translation of... more This article presents the first in-depth textual analysis of the Razmnamah (Book of War), the Persian translation of the Mahabharata sponsored by the Mughal emperor Akbar in the late sixteenth century. I argue that the Razmnamah was a central literary work in the Mughal court and of deep relevance to Akbar’s imperial and political ambitions. I pursue my analysis of the Mughal Mahabharata in two sections, focusing first on the work’s Sanskrit sources and then on the translation practices one finds evidenced in the Persian text. In the first section, I outline how the Mughal translators accessed Sanskrit materials and identify the Sanskrit texts that served as the basis for the Persian translation. This framework helps reconstruct the nature of the Mahabharata as the Mughals knew it and provides both the conceptual and literary tools needed to pursue comparative textual analysis. In the second section, I examine the text of the Razmnamah in comparison with its Sanskrit sources to highlight some of the Mughal translators’ key strategies in reimagining the epic in Persian. This close reading traces several literary paradigms that offer insight into the crucial role the Razmnamah played in the production and reproduction of Mughal imperial culture. Taken as a whole, my analysis argues that the Razmnamah was a crucial component of the politico-cultural fashioning of Akbar’s court, whereby the Mughals developed a new type of Indo-Persian imperial aesthetic.

Siege Warfare in Mughal India, 1519-1538

by Pratyay Nath

in Kaushik Roy (ed.), Warfare and Politics in South Asia from Ancient to Modern Times, New Delhi: Manohar, 2011, pp. 121-144.

The Mughals made their way into North India riding on their blazing success in the first two pitched battles, at... more The Mughals made their way into North India riding on their blazing success in the first two pitched battles, at Panipat (1526) and Khanua (1527). In these two battles, the Mughals brought to the subcontinent the classic sixteenth century Central Asian battle tactic called 'taulqama', involing coordinated deployment of mounted archery and gunfire. This has often led historians to conclude that the Mughals revolutionised the military scenario of early modern North India. However, through a study of Mughal sieges during the same period, the present paper shows such a conclusion is rather simplistic and how unlike pitched battles, the Mughals continued to rely on very traditional, and in fact pre-gunpowder, means of siege warfare at this time. Neither were the Mughals exceptional in terms of military technology; in fact the Sultanates of Deccan, Gujarat and Bengal, which were nearer to the coastline, were equally, if not more, well-supplied in terms of military knowhow. In light of this analysis, the paper tries to nuance the notion of Mughal military superiority in early sixteenth century North India.

Rethinking Early Mughal Warfare: Babur's Pitched Battles, 1499-1529

by Pratyay Nath

in Raziuddin Aquil and Kaushik Roy (eds.), Warfare, Religion, and Society in Indian History, New Delhi: Manohar, 2012, pp. 109- 146.

Much of the halo of Mughal military might in early modern India rests on the first two battles, at Panipat (1526) and... more Much of the halo of Mughal military might in early modern India rests on the first two battles, at Panipat (1526) and Khanua (1527), that Babur fought on the plains of North India. However, most historians have tended to see these battles in isolation or in terms of the technological breakthroughs made in them. The present paper contends that the technological and tactical significance of these battles can be appreciated properly only when these are viewed against the background of Central Asian cavalry warfare, a military culture from which Babur's fighting techniques had originated. Drawing on early Mughal chronicles and a rich gamut of secondary literature on Eurasian warfare from the ancient times, the paper seeks to situate Mughal pitched battles in North India in a longue duree of Central Asian warfare. In light of this analysis, it then goes on to see how the structure of Baburid battles began to change under the impact of subcontinental geography in the following years.

Killer Khilats, Part 2: Imperial Collecting of Poison Dress Legends In India

by Adrienne Mayor

Killer Khilats, Part 1: Legends of Poisoned" Robes of Honour" In India

by Adrienne Mayor