Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

2 results

  • 7 - Elite Cultures in Seventeenth-Century South Asia

  • Catherine B. Asher, University of Minnesota, Cynthia Talbot, University of Texas, Austin
  • Book:
    India before Europe
    Published online:
    15 September 2022
    Print publication:
    08 September 2022, pp 231-287

  • Summary

    Chapter seven examines cultural production and religious institutions in seventeenth-century royal courts, both Muslim and Hindu. Beginning with art and architecture commissioned by Jahangir and Shah Jahan, we then discuss elite lifestyles of both men and women. The opulence of court life attracted international visitors and led to cultural exchange leading to the introduction of chilis and other American plants. Next we examine non-Mughal cultural production in Rajput kingdoms whose attitudes toward the Mughals varied. Lifestyles of elite Rajput and Nayaka women are examined next, before we consider the courtly skills and sciences, such as letter-writing and astrology, that were admired in the Deccan sultanates, where literature with Sufi themes flourished. Royal patronage of three religious sites concludes the chapter.

  • 6 - Shah Jahan 1628–1658

  • John F. Richards, Duke University, North Carolina
  • Book:
    The Mughal Empire
    Published online:
    28 March 2012
    Print publication:
    18 March 1993, pp 119-150

  • Summary

    When Jahangir died Khan Jahan Lodi made the mistake of rebuffing an overture from Shah Jahan for support in the succession. His severed head went south to Shah Jahan who received his trophy in a pleasure boat on the Tapti river at Burhanpur. Shah Jahan's confident sense of Mughal grandeur found creative expression in monumental building at various scales. His first commissioned work, the Peacock Throne, set the tone for a new era of ceremonial display. The Taj Mahal was his second larger project, one which has been greatly admired as one of the triumphs of monumental building in world history. Shahjahanabad was his third project, which was a carefully designed courtly city. In 1648, Shah Jahan moved his court, army and household to the newly completed imperial capital, Shahjahanabad, at Delhi. By the end of Shah Jahan's reign, however the empire was moving towards its greatest political crisis.