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Publication
London : Allen Lane, 2019. (xiv, 488 p., 21 color ill., 8 maps, notes with bibliographic references, index; 24 cm).
Description
"Protected by vast mountains and seas, the Indian subcontinent might seem a nearly complete and self-contained world with its own religions, philosophies, and social systems. And yet this ancient land and its varied societies experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and especially Central Asia and the Iranian plateau. Richard M. Eaton tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality, as he traces the rise of Persianate culture, a many-faceted transregional world connected by ever-widening networks across much of Asia. Introduced to India in the eleventh century by dynasties based in eastern Afghanistan, this culture would become progressively indigenized in the time of the great Mughals (sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries). Eaton brilliantly elaborates the complex encounter between India's Sanskrit culture--an equally rich and transregional complex that continued to flourish and grow throughout this period--and Persian culture, which helped shape the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and a host of regional states. This long-term process of cultural interaction is profoundly reflected in the languages, literatures, cuisines, attires, religions, styles of rulership and warfare, science, art, music, and architecture--and more--of South Asia"--Provided by publisher.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RajivC
When I picked up "India in The Persianate Age" by Richard Eaton, I was unsure what to expect. Books like this are difficult to review because they are so good.
Unlike many authors who focus on North India or the Mughals, he covers North, East, and South India. It starts with Mahmud of Ghazni and
Books like this cover great ground and are tough stories to write. Many themes weave together, each strand and node affecting the other. It can become confusing for the reader.
To Richard Eaton's eternal credit, he created a fascinating, engaging, eye-opening, and comprehensible book.
I believe this is a book every Indian, especially today, must read.
Unlike many authors who focus on North India or the Mughals, he covers North, East, and South India. It starts with Mahmud of Ghazni and
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busts the Somnath myth. Then, he covered a wide sweep of history until the British. We may have become a Persian-speaking country if the Mughals had not imploded. My father studied Persian, apart from Punjabi and English, not Hindi. Books like this cover great ground and are tough stories to write. Many themes weave together, each strand and node affecting the other. It can become confusing for the reader.
To Richard Eaton's eternal credit, he created a fascinating, engaging, eye-opening, and comprehensible book.
I believe this is a book every Indian, especially today, must read.
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LibraryThing member Dilip-Kumar
A competent survey of Muslim rule in the Indian subcontinent during the second millennium CE. Despite the volume of the text, it has not the space to go too deeply into any period, hence a better understanding of the subject would probably call for dipping into other, more specialised, works.
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Perhaps the most evocative part of the book is the description of the decline of the Mughal empire under Aurangazeb, that poignantly misdirected monarch who spent the better part of his life chasing dust demons in the Deccan peninsula. The author has a tendency to try (perhaps too hard) to see only good in even the most outre of the Muslim regimes (e.g., his attempts to find some good in even the murderous and fratricidial rites of the Turco-Mongol system of succession), perhaps due to his deep commitment to the subject. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Physical description
xiv, 488 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
9780713995824
Local notes
From the front jacket flap:
"The Indian subcontinent might seem a self-contained world, protected by vast mountains and seas, with its own religions, philosophies and social systems. And yet this ancient land experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and, especially, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries.
Richard M. Eaton's wonderful new book tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality. His major theme is the rise of `Persianate' culture - a many-faceted transregional world informed by a canon of texts that circulated through ever-widening networks across much of Asia. Introduced to India in the eleventh century by dynasties based in eastern Afghanistan, this culture would become thoroughly indigenized by the time of the great Mughals in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This long-term process of cultural interaction and assimilation is reflected in Indias language, literature, cuisine, attire, religion, styles of rulership and warfare, science, art, music, architecture and more.
This book brilliantly elaborates the complex encounter between Indias Sanskrit culture - which continued to flourish and grow throughout this period - and Persian culture, which helped shape the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and a host of regional states, and made India what it is today."
CONTENTS:
List of Illustrations ix
List of Maps xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 3
Stereotypes and Challenges 3
Two Transregional Worlds: Sanskrit and Persianate I0
I The Growth of Turkic Power, 1000-1300 19
A Tale of Two Raids: 1022, 1025
Political Culture in the Sanskrit World 23
Political Culture in the Persianate World 3o
The Ghurid Conquest of North India, 1192-1206 37
The Delhi Sultanate under the Mamluks, or Slave Kings 45
Conclusion 57
2. The Diffusion of Sultanate Systems, 1200-1400 62
Imperial Expansion Across the Vindhyas 62
Settlers, Shaikhs and the Diffusion of Sultanate Institutions 73
The Early Bengal Sultanate 76
Sultanates of the Deccan: the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara 8o
The Early Kashmir Sultanate 88
The Decline of the Tughluq Empire 92.
Conclusion 97
3 Timur's Invasion and Legacy, 1400-1550 I00
Overview i00
Upper India 105
Bengal 111
Kashmir 114
Gujarat 119
Malwa 122
Emerging Identities: the Idea of `Rajput' 128
Writing in Vernacular Languages 133
Conclusion 138
4 The Deccan and the South, 1400-1650 142
Links to the Persianate World 142
Successors to the Bahmani State 149
Political and Cultural Evolution at Vijayanagara 157
Gunpowder Technology in the Deccan 167
Cultural Production in the Gunpowder Age 173
Vijayanagara's Successors and South India 175
Conclusion 190
5 The Consolidation of Mughal Rule, 1526-16o5 195
Overview 195
Babur 198
Humayun 206
Akbar's Early Years 215
Emerging Identities: Rajputs 217
Mughal Expansion Under Akbar 224
Akbar's Religious Ideas 233
Conclusion 239
6 India under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, 1605-1658 244
Jahangir 244
The View from the Frontier 252
The Deccan: Africans and Marathas 259
Emerging Identities: the Idea of `Sikh' 264
Assessing Jahangir 271
Shah Jahan 273
Conclusion 282
7 Aurangzeb — from Prince to Emperor Alamgir, 1618-1707 z88
Prince Aurangzeb — Four Vignettes z88
War of Succession, 1657-9 301
Alamgir's Early Reign 309
Emerging Identities: the Marathas from Shahji to Tarabai 314
`One Pomegranate to Serve a Hundred Sick Men' 325
Religion and Sovereignty Under Alamgir 327
Conclusion 338
8 Eighteenth century Transitions 340
Political Changes, 1707-48 340
Maratha Uprisings 35o
Sikh Uprisings 355
Emerging Identities: Muslims in Bengal and Punjab 361
Early Modern Globalization 368
Conclusion 377
Conclusion and Epilogue 38o
India in the Persianate World 38o
The Mughals in the Sanskrit World 386
The Lotus and the Lion 390
Towards Modernity 393
Notes 399
Index 461
"The Indian subcontinent might seem a self-contained world, protected by vast mountains and seas, with its own religions, philosophies and social systems. And yet this ancient land experienced prolonged and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and, especially, Central Asia and the Iranian plateau, between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries.
Richard M. Eaton's wonderful new book tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality. His major theme is the rise of `Persianate' culture - a many-faceted transregional world informed by a canon of texts that circulated through ever-widening networks across much of Asia. Introduced to India in the eleventh century by dynasties based in eastern Afghanistan, this culture would become thoroughly indigenized by the time of the great Mughals in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This long-term process of cultural interaction and assimilation is reflected in Indias language, literature, cuisine, attire, religion, styles of rulership and warfare, science, art, music, architecture and more.
This book brilliantly elaborates the complex encounter between Indias Sanskrit culture - which continued to flourish and grow throughout this period - and Persian culture, which helped shape the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and a host of regional states, and made India what it is today."
CONTENTS:
List of Illustrations ix
List of Maps xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 3
Stereotypes and Challenges 3
Two Transregional Worlds: Sanskrit and Persianate I0
I The Growth of Turkic Power, 1000-1300 19
A Tale of Two Raids: 1022, 1025
Political Culture in the Sanskrit World 23
Political Culture in the Persianate World 3o
The Ghurid Conquest of North India, 1192-1206 37
The Delhi Sultanate under the Mamluks, or Slave Kings 45
Conclusion 57
2. The Diffusion of Sultanate Systems, 1200-1400 62
Imperial Expansion Across the Vindhyas 62
Settlers, Shaikhs and the Diffusion of Sultanate Institutions 73
The Early Bengal Sultanate 76
Sultanates of the Deccan: the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara 8o
The Early Kashmir Sultanate 88
The Decline of the Tughluq Empire 92.
Conclusion 97
3 Timur's Invasion and Legacy, 1400-1550 I00
Overview i00
Upper India 105
Bengal 111
Kashmir 114
Gujarat 119
Malwa 122
Emerging Identities: the Idea of `Rajput' 128
Writing in Vernacular Languages 133
Conclusion 138
4 The Deccan and the South, 1400-1650 142
Links to the Persianate World 142
Successors to the Bahmani State 149
Political and Cultural Evolution at Vijayanagara 157
Gunpowder Technology in the Deccan 167
Cultural Production in the Gunpowder Age 173
Vijayanagara's Successors and South India 175
Conclusion 190
5 The Consolidation of Mughal Rule, 1526-16o5 195
Overview 195
Babur 198
Humayun 206
Akbar's Early Years 215
Emerging Identities: Rajputs 217
Mughal Expansion Under Akbar 224
Akbar's Religious Ideas 233
Conclusion 239
6 India under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, 1605-1658 244
Jahangir 244
The View from the Frontier 252
The Deccan: Africans and Marathas 259
Emerging Identities: the Idea of `Sikh' 264
Assessing Jahangir 271
Shah Jahan 273
Conclusion 282
7 Aurangzeb — from Prince to Emperor Alamgir, 1618-1707 z88
Prince Aurangzeb — Four Vignettes z88
War of Succession, 1657-9 301
Alamgir's Early Reign 309
Emerging Identities: the Marathas from Shahji to Tarabai 314
`One Pomegranate to Serve a Hundred Sick Men' 325
Religion and Sovereignty Under Alamgir 327
Conclusion 338
8 Eighteenth century Transitions 340
Political Changes, 1707-48 340
Maratha Uprisings 35o
Sikh Uprisings 355
Emerging Identities: Muslims in Bengal and Punjab 361
Early Modern Globalization 368
Conclusion 377
Conclusion and Epilogue 38o
India in the Persianate World 38o
The Mughals in the Sanskrit World 386
The Lotus and the Lion 390
Towards Modernity 393
Notes 399
Index 461