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==Images
and maps: Links to a great many miniature paintings, etc.
from the period: *Columbia
Univ.*. Links to period maps from Columbia: *1700-50*
and *1750-1800*. |
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==After
Aurangzeb: Aurangzeb dies in 1707, still in the Deccan, vainly
pursuing the Marathas. After a series of chaotic succession struggles,
Muhammad Shah (1719-48) has a long and increasingly ineffectual reign.
The Mughal throne gradually becomes a source of symbolic legitimacy, rather
than a real force in military and political affairs. Discussion: *Ikram
Ch. 19*. Its power becomes limited first to the area of Delhi, then
to the city itself; the *Imperial
Gazetteer* has a great deal to say about the history of Delhi. (*Routes*) |
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==Local
rulers and trade networks thrive: As Mughal power wanes,
local rulers seek to cut their own deals, and Europeans are eager to get
a foothold. The result is a lively and complex commercial network that
includes bazaars, piracy, raids for loot, military actions, missionary
efforts (*Eugene
F. Irschick*), and even the sponsorship of religious festivals. Although
there's plenty going on in Bihar (*Anand
A. Yang*) and Bengal (*Rachel
McDermott*), the liveliest action centers on the ports of the Malabar
and Coromandel Coasts. (*Routes*) |
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==Bernard
Picart (1673-1733), a French engraver, produces the nine-volume
"Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World" (1722,
1728), which becomes widely influential throughout Europe; his is just
one of a number of such collections of cultural knowledge. (*Routes*) |
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==Punjabi
poetry makes itself felt: Bullhe Shah (1680-1758) is, like
Kabir, claimed by both Hindus and Muslims and loved for his swingy folk
poetry (*the
south asian*); Waris Shah (1719-90) creates the most famous retelling
of the mystical folk romance "Hir Ranjha" (*Usborne
translation, 1874, PDF format*; *musical
performances*; *punjabilok*).
Waris Shah also has his own movie, and the lovers Hir and Ranjha have no
fewer than three films to their credit (*mazhar*). |
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==the
Navabs of Avadh (1720-1856): By refusing a transfer to Malwa
in 1727, Mughal governor Burhan ul-Mulk, now Saadat Khan (r.1720-39), politely
establishes his independent power base. As the first of nine Nawabs of
Avadh, he helps pacify this rich but fractious province in the Gangetic
heartland; under the Navabs, Lucknow and its Shi'a aristocracy (*J.
R. I. Cole*) patronize a distinctive local culture. The British seize
the state in 1856; the *Imperial
Gazetteer* has a good deal to say about its history. (*Routes*) |
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==Mir
and the Urdu ghazal:
Mir Muhammad Taqi "Mir" (1723-1810)
becomes one of the first creators--and one of the two great masters--of
the preeminent romantic and mystical genre of lyric poetry in Urdu, the
ghazal. Emerging from Persian ghazal, Urdu ghazal begins at a high level
of sophistication, and remains there until the post-1857 end of the elite
Indo-Muslim cultural world (which includes many Hindus) that provides its
chief patrons. Discussion: *F.
W. Pritchett*. Mir spends his later years in Lucknow after the repeated
sacking of Delhi (*Rosie
Llewellyn-Jones*). |
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==the
Nizams of Hyderabad claim their independence (1724): Asaf
Jah Nizam al-Mulk, a Mughal governor of the Deccan, quietly implements
the independence of Hyderabad. The seven Nizams of Hyderabad rule India's
largest princely state, covering most of the Deccan, until 1948; though
over time they are increasingly under British tutelage. A full (and fascinating)
list of the Nizams: *uq*.
More on Hyderabad: *Imperial
Gazetteer*. (*Routes*) |
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==Jaipur
and the Jantar Mantars (c.1725): Raja Savai Jai Singh (*wiki*),
an important Mughal officer, not only founds the city of Jaipur (*wiki*),
with its beautiful fort and palace, but soon equips it with a remarkable
astronomical observatory , the Jantar Mantar (*jantarmantar*)
based on that of Ulugh Beg in Samarqand (1420) (*silk
road*). He builds a similar observatory in Delhi as well, and smaller
ones elsewhere. Images of the Delhi one: *Berger*;
*archnet*.
Images of the Jaipur one: *grove
street*. Discussion: *art
and architecture*; *C.
Hartley*. On the history of Jaipur state: *Imperial
Gazetteer*. (*Routes*) |
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==Baji
Rao sacks the Delhi suburbs (1738): Under their new Peshwa,
Baji Rao I (1700-40) (*wiki*),
the Maratha armies make a lightning raid on Delhi. They reach, and loot,
the surrounding suburbs (including Talkatora) before retreating with equal
speed. Mughal forces under Saadat Khan and others are caught off guard
and can't react in time. On the crucial Maratha prince and power-broker
Madhav Rao Sindhia (1730-94): *wiki*;
*H.
G. Keene, 1891* |
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==Nadir
Shah sacks Delhi (1739): The Iranian ruler Nadir Shah (*encyclopedia*;
*wiki*)
invades India and sacks Delhi, taking back with him the Peacock Throne
(*wiki*),
the *Koh-i Nur* diamond,
and 300 artisans. The weakness of the Mughals is by now clear to everybody. |
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==Ahmad
Shah Abdali sacks Delhi repeatedly in a series of raids (1748-61)
(*wiki*).
He begins as one of Nadir Shah's officers, and after Nadir Shah's death
he becomes an Afghan tribal ruler in his own right and decides to continue
this highly profitable activity. Although he doesn't get such astonishing
loot, he makes a number of raids, so that during the middle part of the
century Delhi is never secure, and never really has time to recover. A
*portrait*;
a depiction of his alliance with Mughal nobles to defeat the Marathas in
the *battle
of Panipat, 1761*; *his
tomb* |
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== Clive
and the Battle of Plassey (1757): The battle (*wiki*)
is, militarily speaking, nothing much: the East India Company's forces
under Robert Clive, buoyed by earlier victories in Arcot (*MSSU*)
and elsewhere, defeat Nawab Siraj ad-Daula in a brief skirmish decided
not by force of arms but by a prearranged deal, as Clive himself reports:
*Internet
Sourcebook*. (More Clive letters: *SDSU*.)
But this foothold opens the way to the battle of Buxar (1764) and the Company's
assumption of the revenue collection (and governance) for the whole huge
province of Bengal (1772). On this period: *Imperial
Gazetteer*; on the whole colonial history of Bengal: *Imperial
Gazetteer*. On Clive's career: *Macaulay*.
Further discussion: *Sources
of Indian Tradition*. (*Routes*) |
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==Dean
Mahomed (1759-1851), the first South Asian Muslim to record
his own life story in English, emerges as a remarkable character whose
life spans the cultural divide between North India (where he fights enthusiastically
with the Company's army) and England (where he later becomes a sort of
massage-physician). For the full story, see Michael Fisher's edition of
Dean Mahomed's letters: *Univ.
of California Press*. |
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==The
first Resident in Avadh (1772): The Company sends to the
court of Navab Shuja ud-Daulah of Avadh (*wiki*)
a "Resident" to represent its interests. After the Navab's major defeat
in the battle of Buxar, he is unable to refuse. The British East India
Company now begins to surround and encapsulate the "native states" (*wiki*) |
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==Col.
Polier and his letters (1773-79): Col. Antoine Louis Henri
Polier (1741-95) is one of a number of Europeans, especially Frenchmen,
serving at the court of Navab Shuja ud-Daulah and living very Lakhnavi
lives. His Persian letters to his two wives and many business associates
form a unique source of cultural information. Discussion: *Peter
Marshall*. (*Routes*) |
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==Claude
Martin and his schools: Another Frenchman in Lucknow, Claude
Martin (1735-1800), is such a successful wheeler-dealer that he becomes
the second richest man in the city (after the Navab). When he dies, he
leaves his extravagant mansion and huge fortune for the founding of schools
in Lucknow, Calcutta, and Lyons, France. Discussion: *Rukun
Advani*. More on the Lucknow school, La Martiniere: *Rosie
Llewellyn-Jones*. (*Routes*) |
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==Sir
William Jones (1746-94), a brilliant polymath and admirer
of the American independence movement, founds the Asiatic Society of Bengal
(1784); works as a judge in Calcutta; writes extensively about India; first
recognizes the linguistic sisterhood among Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit;
and translates, along with legal and historical texts, both Persian ghazals
by Hafiz, and Kalidasa's masterpiece "Shakuntala." Sources on his work:
*Columbia
Univ.*. (*Routes*) |
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==Ghulam
Qadir sacks Delhi (1787-88): The Afghan chieftain invades
Delhi and is driven out, then returns the next year with more success;
among many other cruelties, he blinds the hapless Mughal emperor Shah Alam
II. The Marathas hunt him down and kill him, and then find it expedient
to restore the blinded Shah Alam II to the throne. |
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==Tipu
Sultan of Mysore (r.1782-99): Tipu Sultan (1750?-99), following
in the footsteps of his capable father Haidar Ali, makes energetic and
creative efforts to drive out the British (*SDSU*);
he seeks, with some (but not enough) success, to enlist the French as allies
in this campaign. His neighbors, victims of his territorial conquests,
help the British defeat him. About his life and times: *"The
Tiger and the Thistle"*; *BBC
Gallery*. (*Routes*) |
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==James
Achilles Kirkpatrick (1764-1805), British Resident at the
court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, contrives to marry Begam Khair un-Nisa,
a lady closely connected to the court, and converts to Islam in the process--all
this in the midst of the conflict with Tipu Sultan (1799-1800). He and
other such "white Mughals" are the subject of a fascinating and carefully
researched account by *William
Dalrymple*. |
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==Francois
Balthasar Solvyns, a Belgian, comes to Calcutta in 1790,
hoping to succeed as a coach-painter (*Imperial*).
Instead, over the next fourteen years he creates a remarkable body of over
600 colored etchings "descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of
the Hindoos" of Calcutta. Thanks to the *Univ.
of Texas*, these are now available online. (*Routes*) |
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