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The Emperor Jahangir and the Pursuit of Pleasure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

LISA BALABANLILAR
LISA BALABANLILAR*
Affiliation:
Rice University
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Extract

The Mughal emperors of India were remarkably mobile kings, inspiring modern historians to describe their imperial court culture as ‘peripatetic’. While the Mughals were not immune to the impulse to construct massive urban architect, no Mughal city, no matter how splendid, innovative, accessible or enlightened, remained the imperial centre for long. Through generations of Mughal rule in India, the political relevance of Mughal imperial cities continued to be very limited; it was physical mobility which remained at the centre of Mughal imperial court life and, for much of the Mughal period, the imperial court was encapsulated in the physical presence of the king.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 173 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2009

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Footnotes

*

For my parents, Richard and Jocelyn Fanning, who understand the impulse to wander.

References

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26 Jahangirnama, p. 22.

27 Ibid., p. 2.

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29 In describing Jadrup Gosain, Jahangir uses the Sanskrit term sanyasi rather than the Persian darwish, then couples it with the Persian term murtazi, stressing ascetic discipline. Ibid., p. 202.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid., p. 316.

32 Ibid., p. 202.

33 Ibid., p. 268.

34 Ibid., p. 60.

35 Ibid., p. 23.

36 Ibid., p. 384.

37 Ibid., p. 60. The ‘anga is also commonly known in Persian literature as the simurgh.

38 Ibid., p. 384.

39 Ibid., p. 145.

40 Clavijo, p. 231.

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47 Baburnama, Mano, vol. 1, p. 560. For discussion of this point, see also Dale, Garden of Eight Paradises, p. 148.

48 Jahangirnama, p. 212.

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50 Ibid., p. 286.

51 Ibid., p. 360.

52 Ibid., p. 210.

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68 Shivaji's digvijaya was only one part of a large and complex effort to assert and defend his claims to kshatriya caste, including lengthy purification rites, a coronation carefully contrived in reference to ancient Hindu texts, a thread ceremony for himself and his son, and remarriage, now under Kshatriya custom, to each of his wives. Gordon, Stewart, The Marathas, 1600-1818, (Cambridge, 1993) pp. 87–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Keay, John, India: A History, (New York, 2000) p. 354Google Scholar.

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69 It was the twelfth-century Rajput king Prithviraj who, having succeeded in uniting some of the Rajput princes and cordoning off the Muslim Panjab, was probably performing a ritual digvijaya when he was attacked by the eventually victorious Muhammad of Ghorid, who established what became known as the Delhi sultanate.

70 Khan, Muhammad Sharif Mu'tamid, Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, Elliot, and Dowson, , ed. and tr., (New York, 1966) vol. 6, p. 292Google Scholar.