Mughal Emperor Research Articles

Translating Indian Algebra in the Seventeenth Century: ʿAtāʾollāh Roshdi’s Persian Version of Bhāskara II’s Bījagaṇita

Abstract One of the most important works in the field of medieval Indian mathematics corresponding to algebra is Bījagaṇita (Seed Calculation), a Sanskrit treatise by the famous mathematician and astronomer Bhāskara II (or Bhāskarācārya, c. 1114–aft. 1183). This paper is a general overview of the Tarjoma-ye Bij ganet (The Translation of the Bījagaṇita, 1634), a Persian text composed by the mathematician ʿAtāʾollāh Roshdi (or Rashidi), who served at the court of the Mughal emperor Shāh Jahān (r. 1628–58). The translation is divided into an introduction, subdivided in six chapters (bāb), and five books (maqāla). After discussing both Bhāskara II and Roshdi, I compare the latter’s translation with the original Sanskrit text on the basis of available English translations. I will also demonstrate how an intermediate language, which played an important role in the connection of South Asian scientific sources, facilitated this translation.

Hippology Between Indic and Persianate Textual Traditions: The Śalihotra of Gulbarga

Abstract This article looks at the translation of Indian sources on horses in the Persianate culture of South Asia. Horses were an essential tool of Muslim armies and their military hegemony in South Asia. In the regional sultanates, local rulers competed in making Indian sources on hippology available in the Persian language. This contribution focuses on the Tarjoma-ye Sālutar (The Translation of Śalihotra, 1407–8), a translation of an Indian text on hippology produced in Gulbarga for Ahmad I Shāh Vali (r. 1422–35). The Tarjoma-ye Sālutar was rendered into Persian by ʿAbdollāh b. Safi via an intermediate translation in a vernacular language made by a local scholar named Durgadāsa. The use of intermediate translations has often been considered a practice that developed at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605). Yet the method of translation used for the Tarjoma-ye Sālutar shows that this practice goes back to the Sultanate period. This article explores the contents of the book, including sections dealing with omens taken from horses and veterinary medicine. Furthermore, it explores the way translated materials were adapted to render them more suitable for the new Muslim readership.

AURANGZEBS APPROACH APPLIED IN THE MUGHAL MILITARY CAMPAIGN INVOLVING THE DECCAN REGION: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Aurangzeb (1658-1707) was the Mughal emperor who succeeded his father Shah Jahan after successfully defeating his siblings in his efforts to seize the throne of the Mughal Empire. He is known for his strict religious personality and adherence to Sunni beliefs, besides exercising a firm and disciplined leadership. Aurangzeb decided to launch a military campaign during his reign into the Deccan region with the intention of overthrowing the Bijapur and Golconda Sultanates. Aurangzeb decided to conquer the region as he had the experience of once being the Viceroy of Deccan and faced numerous conflicts that threatened the Mughal rule. Hence, Aurangzeb designed an approach to expand his power and deal with the problem. This study aims to conduct a literature review of Aurangzebs approach in the Mughal power expansion campaign into the Deccan region. This qualitative study adopted the historical study and content analysis methods for the data collection and analysis processes, particularly involving primary and secondary data sources. The literature review was divided into three main sections, namely the history and development of the Deccan region, the Mughal Empires relationship with the Deccan region and Aurangzebs political biography. Discussions of the three main themes of this literature review facilitates further research, specifically in identifying factors that influenced the expansion of the Mughal Empire into the Deccan region.

Worshipping the Sun at the End of Time: Neoplatonic Solar Cults in Mughal India and Barberini Rome

ABSTRACT This article delves into two notable instances of imperial solar cults during the long sixteenth century. One concerns the Mughal emperor Akbar in India, while the other revolves around the Barberini pope Urban VIII in Rome. Both cases will be examined through the lens of the longue-durée Great Tradition of Neoplatonism, taking-off from the earliest Neoplatonic sun cult as designed by Roman emperor Julian in the fourth century. Despite being centuries and worlds apart, the emergence of the Mughal and Barberini sun cults coincided with a period of rapidly expanding horizons amidst intense millenarian anxiety. Moreover, both cults were crafted by a team of avant-garde Neoplatonic intellectuals – mostly cosmologists and antiquarians – striving to bolster the imperial claims of their patrons. By exploring the intriguing Neoplatonic parallels between these two coinciding solar cults, this article advocates a truly global approach to intellectual history that transcends conventional temporal and spatial boundaries.

Marwari Community and Their Contribution in Socio-Religious and Cultural Aspects of North-Eastern Bihar

Marwaris are one of the most important leading business communities who dominate in business and industries in whole India. They are immigrant traders from Marwar, Shekhawati and adjoining regions of Rajasthan and Haryana. They have been migrated to different parts of the country and abroad too to establish and spread their business and now they have been permanently residing there. Their migration started since 19th century mainly due to conflicts between Rajput and Mughal emperors which were affecting their trades badly. In this connection they also reached to North-Eastern (N-E) regions of Bihar for trade purpose mainly. They put their concentration to establish themselves in trades in this region. After feeling secured they brought their families, relatives and neighbours too to establish in this new area. Their main aim was to bring these known people to flourish in trades. Slowly they became mixed with the local people and gradually started to play an effective role in commerce, trades, culture and politics too of this region. They have been well adapted to the local languages, customs, dresses, religion and culture besides maintaining their own cultural identity. Besides establishing various trades and industries and raising economy of the areas, they are also contributing a lot in the social upliftment of the society. The present paper deals with the role of Marwari community in the socio-religious and cultural development of N-E Bihar.

On Courting India

Nandini Das, winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2023, discusses her experience of writing her prize-winning book Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire (Bloomsbury, 2023). Courting India offers a fascinating history of Thomas Roe, the first English ambassador to the Mughal Empire, and his four years in India (1615–19), a mission generally judged to be a failure, with Roe failing to make much headway in securing diplomatic relations or trade agreements. Roe did, however, leave an extensive account of his time in India in the form of a journal, which has proved helpful in reconstructing the nature of his encounter with the Mughal court. The Mughal emperor, Jahangir, and his courtiers, seem to have had little interest in Roe, who was regarded as something of an exotic curiosity or an irrelevance. This ground-breaking book provides an insider’s view of a Britain in the making, a country whose imperial seeds were just being sown. It is a story of palace intrigue and scandal, lotteries and wagers that unfolds as global trade begins to stretch from Russia to Virginia, from West Africa to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. At an event held at the British Academy in January 2024, Professor Das discussed the book with Professor Charles Tripp FBA, chair of the Book Prize panel of judges.

Potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) as Supplementary Tools for Historical Learning: Users’ Interaction and Knowledge Acquisition

This study explores the strengths and limits of large language models (LLMs) in exploring the information on history, an area unexplored in the existing literature. ChatGPT and Gemini, as LLMs, have demonstrated superior performance in education, healthcare, and business. This study proposes utilizing the ChatGPT (ver. 3.5) and Gemini applications to acquire information on historical figures like Sher Shah Suri and Mughal Emperors and Sikhs in the subcontinent. To evaluate the proposed study, this study used two data sets: the first data set comprised a set of questions (n = 26) and the second data set contained questions (n = 35). The results indicate that ChatGPT provides concise answers to the questions of both datasets compared to the Gemini application. However, Gemini exhibited a higher accuracy (92.30%) than ChatGPT with accuracy (76.92%) for dataset 1. For the dataset 2, ChatGPT showed better accuracy (68.57%) than Gemini with accuracy (65.71%). Further research could expand on this study by employing additional artificial intelligence (AI) tools on large-scale datasets from diverse domains.

Education and Training of Archery in Mughal India

It has been long held that Mughal India had a long tradition of education and learning. The Mughal period witnessed the emergence of great scholars in different fields; some prominent names are Fathullah Shirazi, Sheikh Mubarak, his two sons Faizi and Abul Fazl, and Abdul Qadir Badauni. These scholars left their intellectual imprint on Mughal history. Even the Mughal Emperors took a keen interest in the education and training of the princes. Along with educating the royal family members, the Mughal Emperors also worked to educate the ordinary people. Akbar had taken great interest in designing the syllabus for madarsa education himself. In contrast, Aurangzeb gave the merchants the responsibility of education for the smooth functioning of the madarsa and inspected its progress from time to time. Many works have been produced about madarsa education in Mughal India, but the education and training in the technical field have yet to be discussed. The present research study investigates education and training in warfare, especially archery, as the education of archery was considered very important in the Islamic world. The Mughals, too, turned their attention to educating the princes and common people on the art of archery.

The Chessboard Toghrās of Safavid Royal Decrees

Abstract One of the most characteristic and resilient elements of state documents promulgated by the chancelleries of medieval and early modern Turkic Islamic empires is the toghrā, or calligraphic signature of rulers. In the administrative history of Iran, the chessboard toghrā constitutes a short and lesser-known variant. This royal emblem appeared during the Safavid period as the result of several administrative reforms. In this paper, I outline the development of the toghrā in medieval Iran on the basis of surviving documents and fragments and then offer a detailed portrait of the birth and brief life of the chessboard toghrā. Furthermore, the conspicuous similarity between this form and the toghrās of Mughal emperors precipitates a comparison and close analysis of their different elements and characteristics. Drawing on both published and unpublished royal decrees, this article explores the possible dimension of interrelation and provides insights into their similarities and differences in use and content.

New dawn in Mughal India: longue durée Neoplatonism in the making of Akbar's sun project

AbstractIn this article, we explore the longue durée philosophical background of Mughal Emperor Akbar's sun worship. Although Akbar's sun project may have been triggered by contemporary Hindu and Zoroastrian ideas and practices, we argue that Akbar's Neoplatonic advisers reframed it as a universal cosmotheistic tradition that, at the start of the new millennium, served as the perfect all-inclusive imperial ideology of Akbar's new world order. The astonishing parallels with the much earlier Neoplatonic sun cult of Roman Emperor Julian demonstrate that, although having characteristic of its own, Akbar's sun project was not that unique and should be seen as a fascinating late example of a so-far completely forgotten ancient Neoplatonic legacy of seeing the philosopher king, via the Sun, via illumination, connected to the One.

Equipoise of Emotions: The Case of Emperor Nasiruddin Muhammad Humayun

Since time immemorial, healers like Charak, Hippocrates, Nagarjuna, Kasyapa Matanga and Avicenna and so on have emphasised the importance of mental wellbeing. It is not coincidental that just as the choices of men impact their mind and body, so does the state of the mind and body influence their choices. This article attempts to analyse the style chosen by Mughal Emperor Humayun. It studies the balance of the mystic and the materialistic in those choices. Facts have been employed to detect a ‘shift’ in the balance and to analyse the eventual equilibrium that kept the core values of humanism intact in this emperor.

Illustrations and text in Bðr Singh’s Rāmāyaṇa

This note focuses on the value of looking into the visual culture embodied in India’s epic manuscripts during the medieval period—which combined Persian, Mughal and Rājput styles—for a sociology of India. It demonstrates how illustrations and text were blended in the case of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, commissioned by the ruler of Orchā and Datia, Bīr Singh Bundela, borrowing from the earliest extant illustrated manuscripts of the Persian translation of the Rāmāyaṇa commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in the 1580s as well as Bīr Singh’s own Vaisnava leanings.

A Study of Pinjara Community Women’s Livelihood Struggle During Pandemic in Karnataka State with Special Reference to Kittur Karnataka Region

Pinjara community has century’s history. 500 years ago the Pinjara community received the Islam religion in the administration of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. After accepting Islam, they made clinging and weaving as their profession. From ever since, they have been growing cotton and opting weaving profession that produces cotton and are recognized as professionals. Pinjara women work equally to the man in the family. The women also has a place for heritage division of work. The role of Pinjara girls/women is important in the process of traditional occupation that men and women share. Women do almost all of the things men do, and women's partnership is also involved in market affairs. Though they are illiterate persons they have the business knowledge. She can buy cotton, Make cotton bed, pillow, blanket and sell. The woman has the opportunity to keep the money earned from the sale for herself and spend also. Pinjara women engage themselves in agricultural activities in rural areas, leaving heritage career. They suffered to survive in COVID-19. They will eat when they earn it, but they will not survive if they do not work. They suffered greatly during the pandemic. This article concentrate on shows the Pinjara Ladies' endurance battle in Pandemic.

Muslim-Christian Debates in the Subcontinent: A Research Review

Subcontinent is a multi-religious territory and Hinduism is the most ancient religion of this land which is divided into more sects. When Christianity started here during the first century AD the Indians accepted it and bowed the knee before it. Islam was introduced in the Subcontinent because of Arabian traders. In the 8th century, the Arabian government was established here. The Christians, being the people of the Book, created more problems for the Muslims because of some similarities. That is why the Muslims had to face their objections and prove Islam as a true divine religion. Mughal emperor Akbar started Muslim-Christian debates and after him, his son Jahangir held on to this practice. Their religious policies upreared Christianity in the Subcontinent. Shāh Jahān got over this situation and encouraged the Muslim-converted people by changing the law. Muslim-Christian debates were in full swing during the British period. It was the time when Christian ecclesiasts burnt the candle at both ends to convert the Muslims to Christianity.

Sufi Revivalism in South Asia: A Study of the Role of Pir Syed Jamaat Ali Shah

The Naqashbandiyya is the most outstanding of the Sufi orders in India. Its foundation is attributed to Bahauddin Naqashband, a resident of the town Naqashband, situated near Bokhara. It was developed by Ahmad Ata Yaswi (d. 1116 A.D.). The order was established in India by Muhammad Baqi Billah (1536-1603 A.D.) in the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605 A.D.). The order was further popularized by the great Indian Naqashbandi Sufi, Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624) in the 17th century. The present study analyses the religious and social services of Pir Syed Jamaat Ali Shah (b. 1841- d. 1951), a renowned Naqashbandi sufi reformer of the late 19th and early 20th century. He headed a Sufi revivalist movement in order to reform Sufism 'from within' and purge it of all un-Islamic acts and influences. To further his movement, he founded a Sufi organization, Anjuman- i-Khuddam-as-Sufiyya, with the aim of unifying the disparate Sufi orders and disseminating knowledge of Sufism.

Bir Lachit Borphukan, the Unsung Hero of Medieval Bharat: A Critical Study

Abstract: Lachit Borphokan is the pride and example of patriotism of Bharat who give the greatest example of sacrifices for country by which he inspires and motivates every person of Assam for the supreme sacrifice for our nation if it need. He was born on 24 November 1622 to Momai Tamuli Boabarua and Kunti Moran at Charaideo to a Ahom family. After completing his study in humanities and military strategies, he was appointed as the Saladhara Barua (as Private Secretary) of Ahom King. He was also appointed to other important positions like the superintendent of stable Royal Horses and superintendent of house guards. King Chakradwaj Singha was impressed by his duty, honesty and discipline and made him the commander in chief of Ahom army i.e Borphukan. As a warrior he holds a special place in history. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb sent Mughals under the leadership of Ram Singha to seize Assam in I671 and Lachit Borphukan defeated them at the battle of Saraighat. Assam was nearly captured by Mughal, but his Captainship prevented them to do so. His patriotism, bravery, dutifulness, and determination are enshrined in the history of Assam also motivate and inspire every person of Assam. Such a great hero of Ma Bharati should be remembered by each and every person of the country. His life and works can be a source of inspiration to all.

Calendars, Compliments, and Computations

Various studies in recent times have shown how sociohistorical proclivities played an important role in the acceptance or rejection of cross-cultural ideas in Mughal scientific discourses. The cultural patronage of the Mughal courts financed the production and propagation of certain scientific texts deemed intellectually and politically expedient. Among such texts were two seventeenth-century astronomical table-texts, Mullā Farīd's Persian Zīj-i Šāh Jahānī and its Sanskrit translation in Nityānanda's Siddhāntasindhu, both produced at the court of the Mughal Emperor Šāh Jahān. In this paper, we present, for the very first time, a comparative survey of the canon (text) of these two works to reveal the intimacy between the translated Sanskrit and its Persian original. The paper includes brief biographies of both astronomers, a summary of the salient features of the canons, a description of the manuscripts utilised and our transcription and transliteration schemes, along with a detailed comparison of the individual chapters in these canons. We also provide separate appendices with discussions on select aspects from these chapters. We note that this paper forms the first part in a two-part study, with a second forthcoming paper surveying the tables in these two texts (accompanied with mathematical annotations).

Reevaluating the Religio-Political Policies of Aurangzeb Alamgir: A Critical Insight from Indian Historians

Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir ruled the Indian Sub-Continent for the best part of five decades. The Mughal Empire flourished under his rule, particularly in the spheres of economy, administration and territorial extension, by maintaining exemplary religio-political harmony, unmatched political stability, and cultural development. He was a devout Sunni Muslim and a disciple of the Naqshbandī order. With such an affiliation, he sought to rule his Empire In accordance with the injunctions of Islam. Resultantly, the Hindus felt deprived of the religious freedom which they had enjoyed during the reigns of his predecessors Akbar (r.1556-1605), Jahangir (r.1605-28), and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58). After the demise of Alamgir in 1707, the Mughal Empire started declining gradually. Many Indian historians have criticized the policies of Alamgir and attributed them as the primary cause of the gradual disintegration of Mughal rule. This research focuses on three major policies of Aurangzeb, namely, temple destruction, re-imposition of jizya, and dismissal of Hindus from the state services. After content analysis of selected Indian historians who mainly focused on the religious outlook of Aurangzeb, this research has made an attempt to counterbalance the allegations leveled against him by Indian historians. Aurangzeb had nothing to do with his non-Muslim subjects concerning his religious zeal but merely pretended to rule the state administration with the injunctions of Islam, aiming to draw military support from the orthodox Muslims against the Shias and the Marathas with the Deccan. He did not deprive them of state services or religious freedom because of his Islamic approach to governance. . His religious policies are not responsible for the gradual decline of the Mughal Empire. He was not as much of a religious bigot as depicted by the Indian historians. 

Epistolary Strategies of Negotiation: Reading a Fraternal Dispute at the Mughal Court, 1593–1594

Abstract This article examines a dispute between the Mughal emperor Akbar and his foster brother Mirzā ʿ⁠Azīz Koka in the late sixteenth century through a study of two epistolary compositions (inshāʾ) – a royal mandate (farmān) issued by Akbar and a petition (ʿ⁠arẓ-dāsht) from the mirzā in response. By focusing on the language of negotiation in these letters, I argue that epistolary practices were critical for reconfiguring kinship bonds, imperial service, and courtly disposition that were central to the rupture in fraternal and courtly relations. Letters served as the discursive site to reiterate norms of courtly comportment, register complaints against controversial actions, express emotions, and record reactions to exigent situations. Finally, the correspondence reveals the ways in which the complex dynamics of a court society were deeply intertwined with global power contestations and could have far-reaching implications on the imperial competition between early modern Islamic empires.

Babur, Akbar, and the Transformation of Gwalior's Rock-Hewn Tirthankaras

During his 1528 sojourn in Gwalior, the first Mughal emperor, Babur (r. 1526–1530), encountered numerous colossal Digambara Jain Tirthankaras fashioned from outcrops in the Urvai valley. He recounts in his memoirs how he ordered the naked “idols” destroyed. While this famed episode of iconoclasm in the Bāburnāma is well known to scholars, three paintings portraying Babur's trip to Gwalior that survive from the multiple illustrated manuscripts commissioned by Babur's grandson Akbar (r. 1556–1605) have eluded close examination. This article probes the divergent representational strategies employed by the artists of those folios tasked with depicting the same scene. I demonstrate how one artist pictorially transformed Gwalior's rock-hewn Tirthankaras into animate idols, another alluded to yet elided their portrayal, and a third bypassed entirely the thorny issue of their representation. I argue that those illustrations constitute a visual emendation to Babur's memoirs that effectively exonerated Babur from any charge of desecrating inert Jain icons—an act by then incongruous with Akbar's policy of ṣulḥ-i kull and the strong Mughal-Jain relations at his court. This proposition is further supported by an original translation of an excerpt from Siddhicandra's (d. ca. 1666) Bhānucandragaṇicarita, a Sanskrit text composed by a Jain monk at the Mughal court. Ultimately, this study contributes to critical discourses on iconoclasm, artistic agency, Mughal-Jain relations, and historical memory by exploring the theoretical issues concerning the depiction of rock carvings and idols in the pictorial afterlife of Babur's encounter with Gwalior's rock-hewn Tirthankaras.