The Moghul Empire on the written page

The Mughal Empire by Johnn F. Richards

Richards' is a very good overview because he traces the history of the Mughals from Babar's earliest foray into India and the creation of the empire to its breakup in 1720. Richards stresses the dynamic quality of Mughal territorial expansion, their institutionalization of the system of land revenue collection, their coinage and military organization, ideological changes, and the relationship between the emperors and Islam. He analyzes institutions particular to the Mughal empire, such as the Jagir system, and explores Mughal India's links with the early modern world.

Another book that I found to be eminently readable is The Last Spring: The Lives and Times of the Great Mughals (pub: Penguin Books 1997). This book was later revised and the edition available now is Emperors Of The Peacock Throne by Abraham Eraly (pub: Penguin India 2000). Easy to read, almost novel-like in its approach, it follows the style of the narrative in historical writing. Well researched and well written historical narratives such as The White Mughals by William Dalrymple and A Princely Imposter by Partha Chatterjee are just two examples of this comparatively recent genre which has brought historical perspectives into the popular realm and created bestsellers.

In a similar manner Eraly weaves together a tapestry of the events and personalities of the Mughal era into an engrossing narrative which is an important addition to the vast field of writing about the period. What an amazing tale it is -- an inconspicuous beginning in Central Asia with the new ruler of Ferghana, Zahiruddin Mohammad Babur, descended from Chengiz Khan and Timur the Lame, crossing the Indus into the Punjab. At Panipat, five months later, he laid the foundation of Mughal rule in India by defeating the much larger armies of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the Afghan ruler of Hindustan. The Mughals were to then rule India for over three centuries leaving behind a rich legacy of art and architecture, culture, language and music.

Abraham Eraly narrates the story as a chronicle of flesh-and-blood people, therefore serious historians have to take care not to be credulous enough to be caught up in the flow of the narrative at the cost of authenticity. This book is recommended as an introduction to the period only for those seeking to familiarize themselves with the Mughal era and the names and actions of the major players of the time. Some extraordinary figures emerge and a picture forms of "the tumult of unending wars, the baffling opulence of the ruling elite and the desperate misery of the masses, the brutal feuds in the royal families and at the same time an amazing flowering of art and culture."

There are many, many books about the Mughal era and the visual appeal of Mughal gardens, painting and buildings has encouraged a large literature of handsomely produced volumes. The Gardens of Mughal India (New Delhi, 1972) by Sylvia Crowe, et al; The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600-1660 (Williamstown, 1978) edited by Milo Beach; Indian Paintings under the Mughals by Percy Brown (pub: Cosmo Publications, 1981) and for a complete account of Mughal buildings, Catherine B. Asher's Mughal Architecture in The New Cambridge History of India can all be recommended. I have also enjoyed reading The Lucknow Omnibus by Abdul Halim Sharar, Rosie Llewellyn-Jones & Veena Talwar Oldenburg (pub: Oxford University Press, 2001) and for film fans, Satyajit Ray's brilliant Shatranj ke Khelari (The Chess Players) evoked the fading grandeur in all its tragic beauty and is still a classic on the subject. The new film, Akber Khan's Taj Mahal has also been well received by critics but the DVD has yet to arrive in the Dhaka market.

Admittedly, the story of the later Mughals is not a particularly edifying tale and even their early history is one of factional intrigue, fratricide and even patricide, but that age was itself an intemperate and violent one. All over the world there were brutal and unrestrained dynasties and their bloodthirsty actions fill the pages of history books. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, for instance, were particularly so. While on the one hand there was immense expansion because of the voyages of discovery and contact with new worlds and its peoples as well as the flowering of art, culture, literature and philosophy; on the other hand the practice of statecraft was unrestrained and based on expediency, pragmatism and out and out self-aggrandizement.

I find the entire Mughal era fascinating for a number of reasons, not the least among them being the tragedy and pathos of the later years when the decline of the Mughal Empire led to unrestrained colonial expansion in South Asia. As the British red began to seep into the territory of the Mughals and the princely states under their hegemony, the dissolute princes and their courts were still caught up in their preoccupation with the good life, unaware that ignominy in the form of exile and lonely death was going to be the end of the once mighty Mughals. Their spring was soon to turn into the bitter winter of a crumbling empire and their world was to end not with a bang but with a whimper (to quote T.S. Eliot's memorable line), in far off Rangoon with the last poet-emperor writing poignant lyrics to while away his exile.

In paving the way for British rule in India, the decline of the Mughal Empire also became the root of the myriad conflicts that continue to affect politics in the South Asian subcontinent to the present day. The ostensibly peaceful years of the Raj disguised the seething cauldron of nationalism which bubbled under the surface of Saheb-native relationships and the struggle for freedom was to reverberate through two centuries of South Asian history and culminate finally in the creation of Bangladesh. This conflict between the rulers and the ruled, the Hindus and the Muslims, exacerbated by the presence of the Raj, was one of the more important power struggles in world history and continues to fascinate many writers and historians to this day so that there is plenty of material to write about in my columns in the days to come.

My readers may well consider my decided predilection for history as an unproductive pastime but I excuse myself on the grounds that the state of the world, in these early years of the twenty first century, is such that escape into the past is a welcome relief. In fact, increasingly, the study of history with its reflective perspective has become more attractive than newspapers and the grim reality of terrorism, war, and national catastrophes.

Yasmeen Murshed is a full-time bookworm and a part-time educationist. She is also the founder of Scholastica School.