The Mughals of India

by Harbans Mukhia

This innovative book explores of the grandest and longest lastingempire in Indian history.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Somia]

99p on Amazon on 17th October 2019

[Vampire Who Baked · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unusual book, filled with tiny details about how the mughals lived in their day to day life-- historical figures are real people, with their own personalities and quirks and foibles, and this is one of the few books that treats them as such. Equally insightful is the delineation of how sensibilities were different-- status was much more important than wealth, for example, and most people saw material possessions as being ephemeral anyway. Similarly, destruction of temples or mosques were seen much more in terms of wartime rules rather than religious proselytisation-- the demolition of the kashi vishwanath temple, for example, only gets a passing mention in the records even though it had far more religious significance than many of the minor temples whose destruction received pages upon pages of description.

On another note, lately I have been extremely partial to history books that focus as much on the historiography as it does on the history. It is so important to lay out exactly how one arrived at one's reconstruction of something that is lost permanently beyond leaving the vaguest palimpsest on time-- and frequently ones that offer competing interpretations of what it was really like. He explains, for example, the emphasis of Mughal history almost exclusively on matters concerning the royal court or the aristocratic elite-- arising from the fact that almost all writing from the Mughal era comes from people at the court, who were hardly familiar with "commonfolk" issues, and even if they were, considered them too trivial to record. For that, the best sources still remain folktales and children's stories.

But the book is boring-- oh man, the prose is so boring! There is hardly any effort at creating narrative, and the writer mostly meanders aimlessly through paragraphs upon paragraphs of bone-dry description. This book, in spite of all its super fascinating tidbits, was particularly difficult to slog through (I did not finish it)

Regardless, an interesting book, do give it a try.

[Anushka Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional book filled with minute details and profound revelations about the Mughal period in India. Examined through a framework of Religion, Etiquettes, Family Life and Folklore during the Mughal reign, it relies on solid research and and logical interpretations to convey its findings.

[Nikhil Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an introduction to the Mughal dynasty, this book is one of the finest. The book discusses the themes of the Mughal state's legitimacy, the evolution and meanings of court etiquette, the intermingling of folk and court culture; and different Mughals’ changing attitudes towards religions. It is a short, sophisticated and beautifully written book.

[Neelam]

The Mughal heram topic was so interesting in this book.

[Vishnu Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best book