Author: Audrey Truschke Publisher: Penguin Books ISBN: 9780143442714 Category : Mogul Empire Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Aurangzeb Alamgir (r. 1658-1707), the sixth Mughal emperor, is widely reviled in India today. ... While many continue to accept the storyline peddled by colonial-era thinkers--that Aurangzeb, a Muslim, was a Hindu-loathing bigot--there is an untold side to him as a man who strove to be a just, worthy Indian king.
Author: N.S. Inamdar Publisher: Harper Collins ISBN: 9351777731 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 488
Book Description
Aurangzeb must rebel against his father, and compete with his brothers, especially Darashikoh who is Emperor Shah Jahan's favoured son, to become the shahenshah of India and sit on the Peacock Throne. In politics, after all, trust and betrayal are two edges of the same sword. Meanwhile, in his zenankhana, the begums, constantly worrying about inheritance and bloodlines, grow jittery at the arrival of Hira, a mere concubine, who seems to have all of Aurangzeb's heart. Shahenshah: The Life of Aurangzeb unravels the inner life of the formidable emperor, and the twists of fate and duty that come with a crown. An all-time favourite of Marathi literature, this is the most popular of N.S. Inamdar's sixteen hugely successful historical novels. This effortless translation tells an intricate, affecting story of a deeply misunderstood Mughal.
Author: Supriya Gandhi Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674243919 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
The definitive biography of the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, whose death at the hands of his younger brother Aurangzeb changed the course of South Asian history. Dara Shukoh was the eldest son of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor, best known for commissioning the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Although the Mughals did not practice primogeniture, Dara, a Sufi who studied Hindu thought, was the presumed heir to the throne and prepared himself to be India’s next ruler. In this exquisite narrative biography, the most comprehensive ever written, Supriya Gandhi draws on archival sources to tell the story of the four brothers—Dara, Shuja, Murad, and Aurangzeb—who with their older sister Jahanara Begum clashed during a war of succession. Emerging victorious, Aurangzeb executed his brothers, jailed his father, and became the sixth and last great Mughal. After Aurangzeb’s reign, the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate. Endless battles with rival rulers depleted the royal coffers, until by the end of the seventeenth century Europeans would start gaining a foothold along the edges of the subcontinent. Historians have long wondered whether the Mughal Empire would have crumbled when it did, allowing European traders to seize control of India, if Dara Shukoh had ascended the throne. To many in South Asia, Aurangzeb is the scholastic bigot who imposed a strict form of Islam and alienated his non-Muslim subjects. Dara, by contrast, is mythologized as a poet and mystic. Gandhi’s nuanced biography gives us a more complex and revealing portrait of this Mughal prince than we have ever had.
Author: Audrey Truschke Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231540973 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 503
Book Description
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.
Author: Annie Krieger-Krynicki Publisher: ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 252
Book Description
"The heroine of our book, Zebunissa has remained almost completely ignored by chroniclers and historians. In the prime of her life, her father, the Emperor Aurangzeb incarcerated her in the fortress prison of Salimgarh, where she languished for twenty years until her death. Yet before she fell from grace she had been his favourite daughter. Everything about her life seems shrouded in mystery, and historians have tried in vain to penetrate the obscurity of her life. Only her poems give us an indication of her character. She seems to have been a very humane person, with weaknesses, passions, and an indomitable pride, but dressed in the black veils for which she was noted. In the end, with all her learning and experience, she was incarcerated in Salimgarh, with only the high walls, the yellow sand blowing in the hot breeze, and the tepid waters of the Yamuna glistening in the blazing sun. Here, in isolation and anguish, she contemplated, and plumbed the depths of her heart till finally she confronted the infinity of the Creator."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited ISBN: 9353051118 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 504
Book Description
Massive armies of the Mughal empire and the allied kingdoms have been unleashed to crush the Maratha warrior who is about to set a dangerous precedent. What will happen when two of the biggest enemies in the history of Hindustan come face to face? Aurangzeb has ascended to the throne in the North, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. His aim is to conquer the kingdoms of the Deccan and expand the great Mughal empire to include hitherto uncharted, rebellious territories. Unforgiving and relentless, he unleashes his violent rage against anyone who tries to tame his ambition. Raja Shivaji, a jagirdar from the hills of western Deccan, dreams of Swaraj and has raised his sword against all those who stand between him and his goal. He wins and conquers, escapes death traps through masterful strategy, unrivalled courage and intelligence to become a force to reckon with-a thorn in Aurangzeb's flesh. Theirs is a battle of wit and might-one in which neither will give up. Frontiers, a historical saga, brings to life the complex and ever-shifting dynamics between these two arch nemeses.