The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule

by Audrey Truschke

For over five hundred years, Muslim dynasties ruled parts of northern and central India, starting with the Ghurids in the 1190s through the fracturing of the Mughal Empire in the early eighteenth century. Scholars have long drawn upon works written in Persian and Arabic about this epoch, yet they have neglected the many histories that India’s learned elite wrote about Indo-Muslim rule in Sanskrit. These works span the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire and discuss Muslim-led kingdoms in the Deccan and even as far south as Tamil Nadu. They constitute a major archive for understanding significant cultural and political changes that shaped early modern India and the views of those who lived through this crucial period.

Audrey Truschke offers a groundbreaking analysis of these Sanskrit texts that sheds light on both historical Muslim political leaders on the subcontinent and how premodern Sanskrit intellectuals perceived the “Muslim Other.” She analyzes and theorizes how Sanskrit historians used the tools of their literary tradition to document Muslim governance and, later, as Muslims became an integral part of Indian cultural and political worlds, Indo-Muslim rule. Truschke demonstrates how this new archive lends insight into formulations and expressions of premodern political, social, cultural, and religious identities. By elaborating the languages and identities at play in premodern Sanskrit historical works, this book expands our historical and conceptual resources for understanding premodern South Asia, Indian intellectual history, and the impact of Muslim peoples on non-Muslim societies.

At a time when exclusionary Hindu nationalism, which often grounds its claims on fabricated visions of India’s premodernity, dominates the Indian public sphere, The Language of History shows the complexity and diversity of the subcontinent’s past.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Islam

376 pages, Hardcover

Published January 5, 2021

About the author

Audrey Truschke is assistant professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University, Newark.

Reviews

[Pravin Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually 4 stars but I will give it a 5 since this book has become an unjustified target of internet trolls for whom crude, simple, all-explaining ideas beat any subtlety, nuance and layered interpretations of the world.

Attacking academic scholarship based on an author's ethnicity and place of origin, as is done in some of the reviews below is just unfortunate.

[Soulinpages · Rating 1 out of 5]

I refuse to read anything written by a person who does not have the dignity to respect other people's personal choices and beliefs.

I refuse to read anything written by a person who believes it's okay to be offensive and spread hate based on jumbled and false interpretations of their own.

I refuse to let a white person benefit (make money or otherwise) by talking about Indian (PoC) history.

Enough is enough.
You don't have to degrade a whole nation of people to make yourself feel better.
Hating other religions does NOT glorify your own. In fact, it does the opposite.

Learn to celebrate differences. Learn to respect individual liberty and choice. Learn to spread acceptance and understanding. Learn to live with love.

This review is in response to the author's extensive history of spreading hate on twitter.
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Edit-
My review is based on the following articles
- Reddy, Srinivas. "What does Sita really say in Valmiki's Ramayana?". The Caravan. 10 July 2021.
- Vardhan, Anand. "The Unscholarly Dishonesty of Audrey Truschke: The objections to Truschke's tweets were never about interpretation". Newslaundry. 30 April 2018.
- Swarajya Staff. "The Scholar Whom Audrey Truschke Cites Finds Her Tweet ‘Shocking’".
Swarajya. 24th Apr 2018.

I am happy to engage in academic discussion in defense of the author in the comments below.

Proof that Academia is not Politics. Empty bluster and corrupt research will destroy your credibility. Smart people will always stand against hate.
- Millichronicle. "Empty Chairs and Vacant Hall: Audrey Truschke’s event on the ‘Importance of Freedom of Speech’ fails to attract Attendees." August 21, 2023
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Edit-
Apparently, me reviewing a book I have not read is a bigger problem. So, I just bought the book. I'll update this review.

[Kelsey Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audrey Truschke has done it again. In this extremely thorough but precise book on Sanskrit views of Indo-Muslim rule, Truschke paints an objective and fascinating portrait of history as it might have been. You won't find any anachronisms or political agendas here.

As someone who has lived in India for several years, I've heard many names bandied about in terms of Rajputs, Marathas, the Mughals. Often with political underpinnings. Truschke does an excellent job of putting the events in the context of their time with her in-depth understanding and research of Sanskrit.

She worked with source texts, which are clearly listed in the appendix and is both objective and respectful of cultural nuances. While there are many who dislike Truschke and her work because it is objective and does not play into their political views of xenophobia, she clearly states her methodology and professional throughout the book.

If you want a REAL look into Indian history, especially as to how local Sanskrit writers viewed the Mughal rule, this book is invaluable.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book whitewashes the Muslim rule in India and presents a false and biased narrative. It's hard to believe this author calls herself a historian. She doesn't seem to understand basic Sanskrit or history.

Save your money and look elsewhere for books on Indian history.

[Aditya Raman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating 5 stars since this work is being review-bombed due to a wholly separate instance of dishonesty on the part of the author. Will review it if I get around to reading it.

[Alka Oraon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of false and lies. This woman is SO evil that she whitewashed the entire Hindu genocide of more than 10 million Hindus during the Mughal rule. It worst book of propaganda I have ever read by the white supremacist, paid propagandist, Bigot Audrey .

[Revanth Ukkalam]

I entered this book with little expectation, having read Truschke's deeply partisan biography of Aurangzeb. But indeed this is a far more rigorous work! It is in the line of the works of Sanjay Subrahmanyam - notably Indo-Persian Travels and Europe's India, a study of various texts that strung together by a theme. However unlike Subrahmanyam's enriching and enticing histories, Truschke's work is limited by the arbitrariness of its selection. Why only Sanskrit narratives of Muslim pasts (she is cautious in view of the case made by her book to refer to reigns and missions as being Muslim-led rather than Muslim, simply)? Sure she seems to be righting historiographical wrongs of ignoring Sanskrit in medieval Indian history - but an entire book to do that? An entire book to do just that? Moreover very lush Sanskrit works written in the courts of Muslim rulers are left out for they are not narratives. It is here that the book's flaws begin.

Next, the book let us say has two layers. Two arguments - about what these narratives say and what they do no say. In multiple occasions the book gets the former right and the latter wrong (and I am certain that the author is aware of that). From Jaina writers in Gujarat and Delhi to Jayanaka's heroic tale on Prithviraj Chauhan to hagiographies of Shivaji, these texts have fascinating details. Of very generous Muslim kings. Rajput chiefs fighting for the Sultans of Gujarat. Blood thirsty, iconoclastic, and disruptive Muslim warriors and plunderers. And what quotes Truschke samples!

From Gangadevi's Madhuravijayam:
The screeching of owls in the old groves
does not grate on me as much as
the chatter of Persian words
from parrots who live in Sultanate (yavana) homes

But... what does Truschke draw from this? That 'Muslim' and 'Hindu' are not categories that dominated thinking in Premodern India. And since these words are not in currency. These religious categories are to her presentist. And so is 'history' and hence the classic Textures of Time fails. Now all of this can be thrown to question. Does the lack of the use of these categories as we call them today imply the absence of the categories themselves? Now, that, is presentism! Truschke does not as much as we would expect from her book, investigate the fullest substance of these categories for if she does, perhaps she could find evidence contrary to her central argument.

What Truschke does is instructive of what liberal historians should not succumb to. Identifying fissures and frictions in the past do not necessarily anticipated a broken present. One can subscribe to secularism and still be attentive to the nuances of history. As much as Truschke wants to latch on to Richard Eaton's mould she is far from the depth that he has attained in his works!

[Asif · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the Sanskrit histories of Indo-Muslim rule, which were written all over the subcontinent, with the exception of Bengal in eastern India. This exception is striking, in part, because both Sanskrit literary culture and Muslim-led rule flourished in medieval Bengal. This book seeks, for the first time, to collect, analyse, and theorise Sanskrit histories of Muslim-led rule and, later, as Muslims became an integral part of the Indian cultural and political worlds.

Throughout this book, we get different aspects of India's past from the vantage point of our present. This posture is normal, but it benefits from being named and then subjected to scrutiny. As Eric Hobsbawm wrote: 'We swim in the past as do fish in water and cannot escape from it. But our modes of living and moving in this medium require analysis and discussion.’ Redirecting our gaze from past societies and intellectual traditions to instead rest squarely on our present.