Mughal India

Audiences are among the dominant elements of courtly life and may be referred to as a central aspect of representation of power in many societies. Audiences also served as a stage for negotiation and political decision-making. Beyond that, the ceremonial of audience acted as an integrative factor, strengthening the connections between the ruler and his subjects, the élite and his dynastic background. It thus reflects the structure, or at least the intended structure of rule, and allows us to get insight into the perception of the ruler in the respective society. This volume offers an approach to forms and structures of audiences in different epochs and regions. Choosing a transcultural and diachronic perspective, it aims at delineating similarities and differences as well as possible lines of development of the ceremonial on a broad basis of case studies.

The Mughal era in India is an important part of the history of India. The period between 1526 A.D to 1857 A.D is well remembered and many works of art and architecture along with miniature paintings, found across the world, bear testimony to the artistic splendour of the times. The Mughals have made a major contribution to India's visual art practices and left behind a plethora of patterns and traditions. This article briefly elucidates the details of two 17 th century tombs from the Mughal era, I'timad-ud-daulah's tomb and Emperor Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, both at Agra in North India. The focus in on the Islamic arabesque and geometric patterns in the designs and the stunning effect it creates for the onlooker who visits the tombs. An attempt has been made to understand some of the motifs and patterns on the monuments while understanding the arabesque and geometric patterns of Islamic art.The evolution of Mughal architectural decoration along with its related concepts are elucidated visa -vis the two tombs at Agra.

Intendiamo aprire, con questo studio, una discussione sulla poetica e sulla filosofia della natura nell’opera di Mīrzā ‘Abd al-Qādir Bīdil (1644- 1720), il maggiore poeta di lingua persiana dell’India mughal, e nella sua scuola. Riprendendo alcune suggestioni di Alessandro Bausani, ormai risalenti a quasi sessant’anni fa, ci concentriamo qui in modo particolare sull’ecologia testuale e metaforica della nuvola (abr) e di alcune realtà fisiche a questa connessa, in modo particolare la bolla (ḥabāb), che si trasformano, nella lettura bideliana, in veri e propri specchi per una riflessione concettuale fondata sul metodo del taḥqīq, insieme “indagine” e “realizzazione”. Il principale testo di nostro inte- resse è un mathnawī relativamente breve, il Ṭūr-i maʿrifat (Sinai della conoscen- za), recentemente tradotto in italiano e tra le opere meno note del maestro di Patna: un vero e proprio safarnāma, o resoconto di viaggio, focalizzato esclusi- vamente sull’osservazione e la narrazione del paesaggio naturale dell’India del nord nel momento del monsone. A questo poema si affiancano, nell’analisi, al- cuni versi tratti dai ghazal di Bīdil e, soprattutto, dall’opera di due suoi discepoli krishnaiti, Amānat Rāy e Shivrām Dās Ḥayā (entrambi attivi nella prima metà del Settecento), che riprendono, nei loro versi persiani, la tematica naturale del maestro declinandola in chiave vedantica e devozionale.

Several studies are available to study famines and epidemics in India, but there is a research gap on the co-occurrence of these natural catastrophes in the medieval era and the role of human factors behind them. This article is an attempt to postulate the factors responsible behind the increased appearance of famines and epidemics, their consequences and interdependence. Climate change was observed in the medieval India that was the result of human actions and depicts that policy failure was the factor behind increased instances of famines and epidemics.

This article presents an annotated translation of "The Equivalence between Giving and Receiving" (al-Taswiya bayna al-ifāda wa-l-qabūl), a short Arabic treatise on essence (dhāt) and existence (wujūd) composed by the South Asian philosopher-Sufi, Shaykh Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī (996–1058/1587–1648). Although modern scholarship has habitually referred to Muḥibb Allāh as an ardent defender of the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (“unity of existence”) associated with the figure of Ibn al-ʿArabī, such generalized formulations fail to do justice to the uniqueness of Muḥibb Allāh’s intellectual contributions. Most authors who had set out to provide a philosophical defense of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings – including the well-known likes of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī, Dāwud al-Qayṣarī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī, Mullā Ṣadrā, and so on – had tended to prioritize a philosophically utilizable formulation of wujūd or “existence.” Muḥibb Allāh, in notable contrast, favors a presentation of the divine Reality in terms of “pure essence/quiddity” (dhāt/māhiyya maḥḍa), at times going to considerable lengths to uphold his alternative formulation. Such a strategy of argumentation is uncommon amongst philosophical defenders of Ibn al-ʿArabī, the distinctiveness of which is further enhanced by Muḥibb Allāh’s peculiar mode of disputation, which straddles the line between metaphysics and natural philosophy/physics. The Taswiya occasioned at least sixteen commentaries and refutations; this translation benefits from consulting the earliest of these, composed by Mullā Maḥmūd al-Jawnpūrī (d. 1062/1652) and Khwāja Khwurd (d. 1073/1663), as well as three later commentaries by Ḥabīb Allāh Paṭnaʾī (d. 1140/1728). Most significantly, this translation makes extensive use of Muḥibb Allāh’s own Persian auto-commentary, the Sharḥ-i taswiya, which is a critical aid for deciphering the author’s at times opaque manner of expression and argumentation.

Paintings titles: Folio 1 recto Shamsa, the opening folio of the manuscript includes a shamsa (sunburst), the symbol of the divine and the emperor signifying the kingly sovereignty and the divine mandate of heaven to rule. The shamsa includes the title of the manuscript, followed by folios of invocations, a sarlawh (folio 1 verso), and Qasvini's explanation on the format of the manuscript. Folio 27 verso, royal enthronement of hazrat-i jinat makan Jahangir Padshah and distribution of the gift of pearls to hazrat-i Shah Jahan which indicates the reign of Shah Jahan's father Jahangir Padshah. Hazrat translated as majesty and jenat makan as destined in heaven. Folio 33 verso: likeness of the hunt and stabbing the lion by hazrat-i sahib qaran-i sani Shah Jahan the warrior. Sahib qaran is the title used for kings beginning the Timurid rules of Persia. It has been used as a title for rulers with thirty or more years of rule or the rulers whose horoscope at birth coincided with times of happy fortunes. Thus, Sahib qaran meaning is similar to French Lamaitre de lafortune. Sahib qaran al-avval, the first, was considered to be Timur (Tamerlane) and Sahib qaran al-sani, the second, was the title of Shah Jahan, since the Mughals proudly traced their origin to Tamerlane; Shah Jahan was juxtaposed with Tamerlane. Folio 42 recto: likeness of hazrat-jinat makan Jahangir Padshah and presentation of Alam-makan the elephant of Rana Amar Singh. Elephant in Mughal court was considered the great beast that signified the splendor of the kingdom, thus, elephants defined the royal family's self-image and their presentations in royal memoirs indicate their importance as the symbol of power and royalty. The elephants also were given names like 'Placed in the Worldly Abode' or 'Mountain of Gold' etc. by the masters.

The paper argues that the legal order in the Mughal period was neither constituted nor exhausted by the state; and law was never a unilateral instrument for the imposition of the will of the state. There was a wide variety of legal orders which were selectively appropriated by litigants to better serve their interests and aspirations, and we come across repeated instances of forum shopping in our period of study. Even so, the multiple juridical bodies were not hermetically sealed from each other, and the tendency to view them as distinct and discrete entities doesn’t quire capture the tensions and complexities that defined the legal order. This was particularly the case with the state legal order, and its juridical relevance was crucially linked to its ability to converse and engage with local norms, values, and relations of power. There is, therefore, a need to bring the state back in, without necessarily bringing back the myth of its intentionality, uniformity and absolute authority. I have suggested that the state’s cutting edge was not based on imperial initiatives, but was a function of its entangled relations with the local elites, community leaders, heads of caste and corporate bodies, muhalla chiefs, etc

About a half kilometer northeast of the village of Kotli Maqbara, the Abdul Nabi Khan Mausoleum rises elegantly from the fields. It was likely constructed in the era of Shah Jehan, but no definitive historical evidence links it to any particular person. The Pakistani travel writer Salman Rashid notes that "Built as it is in the middle of a great nowhere and in the absence of any accessible historical reference to it, it has quite naturally acquired a metaphysical complexion and the locals attribute it to the jinns"

Hiran Minar is yet another masterpiece of mughal architecture. Unique in design, pattern and setting, the monument adds a glorious chapter to the mughals, their love for building edifices of great strength and grandeur of noble simplicity and elegance. Hiran Minar is a hunting retreat built by Emperor Jahangir to the northwest of Lahore. It was constructed in memory of an antelope named Mansraj that was beloved by the emperor. The memorial tower stands 30 meters high and is 10 meters wide at its base. Around the perimeter are 214 holes that are believed to have been used as supports for the severed heads of animal trophies taken by the emperor.

Данная монография – первое в отечественной и зарубежной исторической науке системное исследование комплекса властных отношений, которые обусловили двойственную, политико-экономическую, природу английской / британской Ост-Индской компании (1600–1874 гг.). Эта Компания – уникальная властно-торговая структура, европейская коммерческая корпорация, ставшая мощной азиатской империей. Автор прослеживает историю её отношений с различными типами властных структур (государством в Англии / Великобритании, Могольским султанатом в Южной Азии и его политиями-преемниками), анализирует характер и логику изменения этих отношений. Рассматривается также влияние властных отношений на двойственную природу Компании и, наоборот, влияние природы Компании и логики её развития на эти отношения.

In both Russian and foreign historical science the monograph is the first systemic study of the complex of power relations which determined the dual politico-economic nature of the English / British East India Company (1600–1874). This Company was a unique power and trading structure, a European commercial corporation which turned into a mighty Asiatic empire. The author traces the history of its relations with different types of power structures (the state in England / Britain, the Mughal Sultanate in South Asia and its successor polities), analyses the character and the logic of the change in these relations. The impact of power relations upon the dual nature of the Company and vice versa, the impact of the Company’s nature and logic of its development upon these relations are also examined.

Hint kıtasında yaklaşık sekiz asır süren Müslüman Türk hâkimiyeti döneminde, Hindu toplumuna yön veren düşünürler, kendi perspektiflerinden İslâm’ı ve müntesiplerini tahlil edip konumlandırmaya çalışmışlardır. Kimisi ötekileştirici bir dil kullanmış kimisi ise kuşatıcı bir söylem geliştirmiştir. Orta Çağ Hint kaynaklarında “Türk” tabiri etnik anlamından ziyade İslâm dinini ve müntesiplerini ifade etmek amacıyla şemsiye bir kavram olarak kullanılmıştır. Nitekim İslâm için “Türklerin dini” manasında Turuka dharma ifadesi tercih edilmiştir. Müslüman Türk idaresi altında bireylerin dinî inancına saygı gösterildiği de vurgulanmıştır. Bütün bu veriler, Türklerin, Hindular nazarında bıraktığı tesiri açık bir biçimde ortaya koymaktadır.

Hint kaynaklarından hareketle Hinduların, İslam ve Müslüman algısının objektif bir biçimde ortaya konması, hem bölgedeki Türk-İslam izlerinin tespit edilip gün yüzüne çıkarılmasına hem de Hindu-Müslüman ilişkilerinin daha sağlıklı bir bakış açısıyla analiz edilebilmesine katkı sunacaktır. Zira bir milyarı aşkın Hindu ile beş yüz milyondan fazla Müslümanın yaşadığı günümüz Hint coğrafyasında birlikte yaşama kültürünün istenilen düzeyde tesis edilebilmesi, ötekini anlamaya ve onun hakkında doğru bilgi edinmeye bağlıdır. Elinizdeki kitap böyle bir çabanın ürünüdür.

Recent biographies of Jahangir and Nur Jahan may have made the royal couple more accessible, but they often slip into the realm of conjecture. A Review of Parvati Sharma's Jahangir : An Intimate Portrait of a Great Mughal and Ruby Lal's Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan.

The garden concept is a common concept amongst the garden designer, briefly in this article refers as gardener , and miniature artists which has been affected by worldviews of different land during the history which implies a variety of objective manifestations. The Iranian gardener and miniaturist due to this common Ira-nian Islamic worldview available in land followed by that common understanding of garden concept agree on the common elements of garden.Gardening and miniature are of that conceptual arts have been entered into the territory of Iran, coincidence with the Mughal era. This common worldview and understanding has been made the author to follow up the questions of how the garden concept has been emerged in art works. Since gardening and miniature in India comprises the Ira-nian-Islamic archetype, there is a question of whether this archetype has been lasting continuously in Indian gardening and miniature over the time? The garden concept in Indian gardening and miniatures under the influence of Mughal worldview and more over the characterization of Indian Territory has taken away from those conceptual implications of original archetype and made an independent entity in form of a dominant aesthetics. The greatness of the architecture inside the garden, the manifestation of platform divan, trimmed vegetation of interior garden and the existence of water as decorative arrays, are of those characteristics which encompass the conceptual implication of garden concept in Indian miniature and gardening.

Kemunculan tiga kerajaan islam yaitu Kerajaan Turki Usmani, Kerajaan Safawi di Persia dan Kerajaan Mughal di India telah banyak memberikan kontribusi bagi perkembangan peradaban islam. Kerajaan Usmani meraih puncak kejayaan di bawah kepemimpinan Sultan Sulaiman Al-Qanuni (1520-1566 M) di kerajaan safawi, Syah Abbas I membawa kerajaan tersebut meraih kemajuan dalam 40 tahun periode kepemerintahannya dari tahun 1588-1628 M. Dan di Kerajaan Mughal meraih masa keemasan di bawah Sultan Akbar (1542-1605 M). Seperti takdir yang telah Allah tentukan di setiap kejayaan tentu akan berganti dengan kemunduran bahkan sebuah kehancuran. Demikian pula yang terjadi pada ketiga kerajaan tersebut. Setelah pemerintahan yang gilang gemilang di bawah kepemimpinan tiga raja itu, masing-masing kerajaan mengalami fase kemunduran. Akan tetapi penyebab kemunduran tersebut berlangsung dengan kecepatan yang berbeda-beda. Kemunduran-kemunduran inilah yang akan penulis bahas dalam makalah ini. Karena pengaruhnya sangat besar terhadap kelangsungan peradaban Islam secara keseluruhan.

A characteristic Indo-Islamic-Persian style that flourished on the Indian subcontinent during the
Mughal Empire (1526–1857). This new style combined elements of Islamic art and architecture,
which had been introduced to India during the Delhi Sultanate (1192–1398) and had produced
great monuments such as the Qutb Minar, with features of Persian art and architecture. Mughal
monuments are found chiefly in N India, but there are also many remains in Pakistan.

Akbar has been seen as one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal dynasty in India. He came to the throne in 1556 upon the death of his father Humayun. The time at which he ascended the throne was a particularly unstable period, when the still developing Mughal state was confronting a great deal of problems – both political and religious. The challenges came not only from the ruling groups but also from indigenous forces in Hindustan. Akbar has been credited with the establishment of the institutional basis of the state and the crystallization of its ideological and political stance. Before we analyse the challenges faced by Akbar, it is helpful to look at the primary contemporary sources and how they influence our perception of Akbar. Abul Fazl's Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari are the two primary accounts giving what can essentially be seen as the official position on various affairs. Abul Fazl was in favour of Akbar's ideology and being the court chronicler has presented him in a very positive light. As a corrective to Fazl's almost eulogical work is Abdul Qadir Badauni's Muntakhab-ut-tawarikh. Badauni was also at Akbar's court, but he was a man of orthodox beliefs, who did not endorse Akbar's liberal ideology and is hence overly critical of his policies. There are however many things mentioned in his account like the Mahzarnama, which are not present in Badauni, thereby giving us a complete picture of Akbar. Another source is Nizamuddin Ahmad's Tabaqat-i-akbari. We also have the accounts of the Jesuit missionaries at Akbar's court. Their accounts however are restricted due to their lack of local knowledge. Also, they held a grudge against Akbar who never promoted Christianity the way they would have expected him to. Hence, they too look upon his policies with a prejudiced eye. We need to study these sources in conjunction in order to arrive at a more or less accurate picture of the time. When Akbar ascended the throne at Kalanaur on 14 February, 1556, he had only a tenuous hold on the Punjab and the Delhi-Agra area. What can be called Mughal political patterns and institutions developed during the first half of Akbar's reign. Babur had brought the Timurid dynasty to India but could not develop distinctively Mughal institutions, practices, and political and cultural styles. Akbar's reign saw the development of a new set of administrative institutions, a new conception of kingship and the constitution of government, a new military system, and new norms of political behaviour. Douglas Streusand believes that evolution of Mughal institutions under Akbar are characterized by the element of compromise. The regime survived because it satisfied both the ruler and the members of the political elite. It represented a compromise between the ideals represented in the rituals and texts which propounded the constitution and economic and military realities, and also between the desires and expectations of the ruler and the nobility. Akbar created the Mughal Empire from two sets of components, what he found in Hindustan and what his father had brought with him from Central Asia. He synthesized these two legacies to produce a distinctly Mughal

This paper traces the origin of the word Nazarana and explains which coins qualifies to be classified as Nazaranas. The coin gallery showcases the best of such Gold & Silver Nazarana coins carefully selected by the author from public and private sources, based on their artistic merit, ornamental arabesque and exquisite calligraphy.