India in the Persianate Age : 1000-1765 / Richard M. Eaton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eaton, Richard Maxwell, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

India--History--1000-1765.

India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 488 pages) : illustrations, map

Place of Publication:

United Kingdom : Allen Lane, [2019]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Stereotypes and Challenges

Two Transregional Worlds: Sanskrit and Persianate

1 The Growth of Turkic Power, 1000–1300

A Tale of Two Raids: 1022, 1025

Political Culture in the Sanskrit World

Political Culture in the Persianate World

The Ghurid Conquest of North India, 1192– 1206

The Delhi Sultanate under the Mamluks, or Slave Kings

Conclusion

2 The Diffusion of Sultanate Systems, 1200–1400

Imperial Expansion Across the Vindhyas

Settlers, Shaikhs and the Diffusion of Sultanate Institutions

The Early Bengal Sultanate

Sultanates of the Deccan: the Bahmanis and Vijayanagara

The Early Kashmir Sultanate

The Decline of the Tughluq Empire

3 Timur’s Invasion and Legacy, 1400–1550

Overview

Upper India

Bengal

Kashmir

Gujarat

Malwa

Emerging Identities: the Idea of ‘Rajput’

Writing in Vernacular Languages

4 The Deccan and the South, 1400–1650

Links to the Persianate World

Successors to the Bahmani State

Political and Cultural Evolution at Vijayanagara

Gunpowder Technology in the Deccan

Cultural Production in the Gunpowder Age

Vijayanagara’s Successors and South India

5 The Consolidation of Mughal Rule, 1526–1605

Babur

Humayun

Akbar’s Early Years

Emerging Identities: Rajputs

Mughal Expansion Under Akbar

Akbar’s Religious Ideas

6 India under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, 1605–1658

Jahangir

The View from the Frontier

The Deccan: Africans and Marathas

Emerging Identities: the Idea of ‘Sikh’

Assessing Jahangir

Shah Jahan

7 Aurangzeb – from Prince to Emperor ‘Alamgir, 1618–1707

Prince Aurangzeb – Four Vignettes

War of Succession, 1657– 9

‘Alamgir’s Early Reign

Emerging Identities: the Marathas from Shahji to Tarabai

‘One Pomegranate to Serve a Hundred Sick Men’

Religion and Sovereignty Under ‘Alamgir

8 Eighteenth century Transitions

Political Changes, 1707– 48

Maratha Uprisings

Sikh Uprisings

Emerging Identities: Muslims in Bengal and Punjab

Early Modern Globalization

Conclusion and Epilogue

India in the Persianate World

The Mughals in the Sanskrit World

The Lotus and the Lion

Towards Modernity

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520974234

0520974239