Discoveries: India and the Mughal Dynasty

Discoveries: India and the Mughal Dynasty
Author: Valerie Berinstain
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1998-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780810928565

In the 16th century the Mughal emperors of India were among the greatest and most magnificent rulers of the East. Their arts of painting and architecture were peerless, their wealth fabulous, their courts renowned for culture and refinement, their jewels incomparable. This book follows the rise of Mughal dynasty in the 16th century, its heyday in the 17th, and its decline in the 19th. Fabled India: here we meet the legendary emperors Babur and Akbar the Great; we enter splendid courts and discover their political schemes and ambitions, ytheir marvelous artists, their lavish ceremonies, their high learning. The Mughal kingdoms comprised both Muslim and Hindu lands and ranged from Kashmir to Afghanistan to Samarkand, Art, science, craftmanship0, political policy, and military strategy: all are here, echoing in the vast spaces of the Taj Mahal and the scented gardens of Shalimar.--book cover.

Discovery of Bharat Through Hindustan and British India

Discovery of Bharat Through Hindustan and British India
Author: TRIBHUWAN NATH SINGH
Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
Total Pages: 527
Release: 2021-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN:

The book is a synthesis of the ancient Bharatiya texts, with the latest scientific findings for their authenticity, historicity, and relevance to the modern perspective. The ancient Bharatiya texts were burnt by external invaders, and the retrieved texts were misinterpreted as mythological gossips in the English versions . Bharat was said to be in the “Dark Age” before the entry of the Britishers. The book in 14 chapters clarifies the misgivings and proves the Bharatiya civilization over 20,000 years old on the basis of modern research references, and latest archaeological findings. Computer simulation of celestial configuration proves Ramayan 7000years old historical account of Ram and Mahabharat over 5000 years old historical event . In the background of largescale bloodshed and global warming despite all efforts of the UNO, a need of Spiritual Weapon - Truth and Nonviolence promoted by Mahatma Gandhi as Satyagrah has been projected to save the humanity from the zooming Dooms. Day in “ Discovery of Bharat through Hindustan and British India”.

Writing the Mughal World

Writing the Mughal World
Author: Muzaffar Alam
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231158114

Between the mid-sixteenth and early nineteenth century, the Mughal Empire was an Indo-Islamic dynasty that ruled as far as Bengal in the east and Kabul in the west, as high as Kashmir in the north and the Kaveri basin in the south. The Mughals constructed a sophisticated, complex system of government that facilitated an era of profound artistic and architectural achievement. They promoted the place of Persian culture in Indian society and set the groundwork for South Asia's future development. In this volume, two leading historians of early modern South Asia present nine major joint essays on the Mughal Empire, framed by an essential introductory reflection. Making creative use of materials written in Persian, Indian vernacular languages, and a variety of European languages, their chapters accomplish the most significant innovations in Mughal historiography in decades, intertwining political, cultural, and commercial themes while exploring diplomacy, state-formation, history-writing, religious debate, and political thought. Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam center on confrontations between different source materials that they then reconcile, enabling readers to participate in both the debate and resolution of competing claims. Their introduction discusses the comparative and historiographical approach of their work and its place within the literature on Mughal rule. Interdisciplinary and cutting-edge, this volume richly expands research on the Mughal state, early modern South Asia, and the comparative history of the Mughal, Ottoman, Safavid, and other early modern empires.

Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India

Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India
Author: Stephanie Schrader
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2018-03-20
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1606065521

This sumptuously illustrated volume examines the impact of Indian art and culture on Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the late 1650s. By pairing Rembrandt’s twenty-two extant drawings of Shah Jahan, Jahangir, Dara Shikoh, and other Mughal courtiers with Mughal paintings of similar compositions, the book critiques the prevailing notion that Rembrandt “brought life” to the static Mughal art. Written by scholars of both Dutch and Indian art, the essays in this volume instead demonstrate how Rembrandt’s contact with Mughal painting inspired him to draw in an entirely new, refined style on Asian paper—an approach that was shaped by the Dutch trade in Asia and prompted by the curiosity of a foreign culture. Seen in this light, Rembrandt’s engagement with India enriches our understanding of collecting in seventeenth-century Amsterdam, the Dutch global economy, and Rembrandt’s artistic self-fashioning. A close examination of the Mughal imperial workshop provides new insights into how Indian paintings came to Europe as well as how Dutch prints were incorporated into Mughal compositions.

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan
Author: Ruby Lal
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2018-07-03
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0393635406

Finalist for the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History "A luminous biography." —Rafia Zakaria, Guardian Four centuries ago, a Muslim woman ruled an empire. Nur Jahan, daughter of a Persian noble and widow of a subversive official, became the twentieth and most cherished wife of the Emperor Jahangir. Nur ruled the vast Mughal Empire alongside her husband, leading troops into battle, signing imperial orders, and astutely handling matters of the state. Acclaimed historian Ruby Lal uncovers the rich life and world of Nur Jahan, rescuing this dazzling figure from patriarchal and Orientalist clichés of romance and intrigue, and giving new insight into the lives of women and girls in the Mughal Empire. In Empress, Nur Jahan finally receives her due in a deeply researched and evocative biography that awakens us to a fascinating history.

The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600

The Age of Discovery, 1400-1600
Author: David Arnold
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2002
Genre: Discoveries in geography
ISBN: 9780415279963

The Age of Discovery explores one of the most dramatic features of the late medieval and early modern period: when voyagers from Western Europe led by Spain and Portugal set out across the world and established links with the New World.

Koh-i-Noor

Koh-i-Noor
Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1635570778

From the internationally acclaimed and bestselling historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, the first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world. On March 29, 1849, the ten-year-old leader of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the center of the British fort in Lahore, India. There, in a formal Act of Submission, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company swathes of the richest land in India and the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond, otherwise known as the Mountain of Light. To celebrate the acquisition, the British East India Company commissioned a history of the diamond woven together from the gossip of the Delhi Bazaars. From that moment forward, the Koh-i-Noor became the most famous and mythological diamond in history, with thousands of people coming to see it at the 1851 Great Exhibition and still more thousands repeating the largely fictitious account of its passage through history. Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south and central Asia tells a true tale of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism, and appropriation that shaped a continent and the Koh-i-Noor itself.

Enemy of All Mankind

Enemy of All Mankind
Author: Steven Johnson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2020-05-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 0735211620

“Thoroughly engrossing . . . a spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags.” —The Wall Street Journal From The New York Times–bestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the world Henry Every was the seventeenth century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular—and wildly inaccurate—reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event—the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew—and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It’s the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century. Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson’s classic nonfiction historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration.

Culture of Encounters

Culture of Encounters
Author: Audrey Truschke
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2016-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231540973

Culture of Encounters documents the fascinating exchange between the Persian-speaking Islamic elite of the Mughal Empire and traditional Sanskrit scholars, which engendered a dynamic idea of Mughal rule essential to the empire's survival. This history begins with the invitation of Brahman and Jain intellectuals to King Akbar's court in the 1560s, then details the numerous Mughal-backed texts they and their Mughal interlocutors produced under emperors Akbar, Jahangir (1605–1627), and Shah Jahan (1628–1658). Many works, including Sanskrit epics and historical texts, were translated into Persian, elevating the political position of Brahmans and Jains and cultivating a voracious appetite for Indian writings throughout the Mughal world. The first book to read these Sanskrit and Persian works in tandem, Culture of Encounters recasts the Mughal Empire as a polyglot polity that collaborated with its Indian subjects to envision its sovereignty. The work also reframes the development of Brahman and Jain communities under Mughal rule, which coalesced around carefully selected, politically salient memories of imperial interaction. Along with its groundbreaking findings, Culture of Encounters certifies the critical role of the sociology of empire in building the Mughal polity, which came to irrevocably shape the literary and ruling cultures of early modern India.

The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504-1719

The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504-1719
Author: Munis D. Faruqui
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2012-08-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107022177

A new interpretation of the Mughal Empire explores Mughal state formation through the pivotal role of its princes.