Elite cultures in seventeenth-century South Asia

Abstract

By the first half of the seventeenth century, much of the Indian subcontinent was dominated by Mughal rule, although subordinate kingdoms and independent ones continued to flourish, especially in the south. In all these realms there was a strong sense of courtly ceremony and religious ritual, coupled with a strong code of appropriate behavior on the part of both men and women. As the European presence in India grew, their demand for Indian goods and trading rights increased, thus bringing even greater wealth to already flush Indian courts. The elite spent more and more money on luxury goods and sumptuous lifestyles, and the rulers built entire new capital cities at times. All of these factors resulted in greater patronage of the arts, including textiles, paintings, architecture, jewelry, and weapons to meet the ceremonial requirements of kings and princes. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the liberal attitudes toward religion set in place by Akbar predominated in much of north India, but as the century advanced a sense of conservatism set in. Hand in hand with these new attitudes and increased wealth, rulers from all areas in India increasingly built elaborate and often large temples, mosques, and shrines, to proclaim their own particular religious affiliations. In this chapter, we look at the cultural production of India's seventeenth-century courts, both Muslim and Hindu, and at the religious institutions they patronized.