Abstract
AbstractAnger as an emotion is seldom attributed to Akbar (r. 1556–1605), the most admired of the Mughal emperors. Yet, on one notable day in 1578, he allegedly got so enraged that he almost lost his mind, according to Dalpat Vilas, an obscure chronicle composed in the vernacular. While the aftermath of Akbar's anger was reported in several Persian histories emanating from court circles, the royal rage itself was not. Why and how Dalpat Vilas ascribed anger, not only to the emperor but also to the local king, Raja Ray Singh of Bikaner, is the central issue addressed here. What little we know about the history of anger in precolonial India indicates it was an emotion that kings were advised to avoid, in both Sanskrit and Persian literature. But, from the more subaltern vantage point of Dalpat Vilas, written for a young Rajput warrior in a local dialect, rulers did act angrily and not always justly. This case illustrates the historiographic value of Indic-language texts sponsored by local subordinates of the Mughals, which can provide alternative perspectives on the empire. It also suggests the existence of multiple emotional communities in Mughal India, in which the significance of anger differed.
Highlights
One day in early May, the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. – ) got angry
An account of the anger that precipitated and preceded it appears in only one sixteenth-century text, Dalpat Vilas—an obscure chronicle written in a local vernacular rather than in the Persian language favoured by the imperial court.[3]
Its audience was more circumscribed than that of Persian histories as well, for Dalpat Vilas concerned the activities of a local lineage belonging to the Hindu
Summary
One day in early May , the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. – ) got angry. His anger culminated in an unusual event that was reported in several contemporary Indo-Persian chronicles.[1]. One day in early May , the Mughal emperor Akbar His anger culminated in an unusual event that was reported in several contemporary Indo-Persian chronicles.[1] The outcome of the emperor’s wrath was considered significant enough to be illustrated in Akbarnama, the official history of his reign composed by his court poet and confidant Abu’l Fazl. F. Richards (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, ), p. Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam (New York: Columbia University Press, ), p
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