THE LESSER-KNOWN WORLD OF MUGHAL EMPEROR JAHANGIR
This volume depicts the life and times of the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the light of his memoirs, Jahangirnama, popularly known as Tuzuk-i Jahangiri. With its fresh treatment of source material and a vivid account of historical events, the book tells the history of Jahangirs India through his intimate and confessional memoirs incorporated in the genre of Mughal manuscript painting. The work is noteworthy for its historical portraits as well as Jahangirs visual realism, his remarkable knowledge of natural history, and the perceptive and detailed descriptions of the world around him.
Moving away from conventional historical writing, the book is a psychological study of an individual, his innate qualities, behavioural moves and instinctive affinities. Jahangirs memoirs reveal deeper facets of him as a person as well as a poet, aesthete, connoisseur of painting and a keen observer of nature, both human and that of the natural world. The author also includes other contemporary literature of the period that narrate Jahangirs life, such as Akbarnama, Maasir-i Jahangiri, Iqbalnama-i Jahangiri, Intikhab-i Jahangiri, Tatimma-i Waqiat-i Jahangiri and Zakhirat-ul Khwanin, as well as Jesuits accounts and travelogues. He further analyses the influence of European Renaissance art on the history of Mughal paintings.
A first of its kind, this book will greatly interest scholars and researchers of medieval history, Indian history, Mughal history, art history, popular culture and South Asian studies, as well as the general reader.
Som Prakash Verma is former Professor at the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, India and superannuated in 2004. He was Senior Academic Fellow at the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) (201315); Tagore National Fellow (201012); Emeritus Fellow at the University Grants Commission (20079); Senior Fellow at ICHR (20079); and Fulbright Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (19867). He is also a practising artist and recipient of two awards from the Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta (1981) and the Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar (1982). His publications include The Illustrated Baburnama (2016); Mughal Paintings (2014); Interpreting Mughal Painting: Essays on Art, Society and Culture (2009); 1857: An Illustrated History (2008); Painting the Mughal Experience (2005); Mughal Painter of Flora and Fauna: Ustad Mansur (1999); and Mughal Painters and Their Work: A Bibliographical Survey and Comprehensive Catalogue (1994).
Portrait of Jahangir. Mughal, ca. 16203. Rampur Raza Library, Rampur. Album 9, fol. 3b
First published 2020
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2020 Som Prakash Verma
The right of Som Prakash Verma to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Verma, Som Prakash, 1942- author.
Title: The lesser-known world of Mughal emperor Jahangir/Som Prakash Verma.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019018709 (print) | LCCN 2019019571 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429320101 (eBook) | ISBN 9780367076887 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan, 1569-1627. | IndiaHistory1526-1765. | IndiaIntellectual life16th century.
Classification: LCC DS461.5 (ebook) | LCC DS461.5 .V47 2019 (print) | DDC 954.02/56dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019018709
ISBN: 978-0-367-07688-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-32010-1 (ebk)
Jahangirs account of himself reveals a real man, and so, he lives for us in his memoirs
Jahangirs memoirs, the Jahangirnama, or Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, deliver freely a lively picture of India in the early decades of the 17th century. They are a part of Indian historical literature and are by far the most entertaining of memoirs, as Jahangir himself was a man of a strange mixture of personal attributes. The Jahangirnama, filled with minutely detailed descriptions of the world around him, reveals the strong visual sensations that outlined Jahangirs brilliance. In fact, it stands for the literary genre and probing intelligence of the times and opens new avenues of research. Here, an objective observation of Pringle Kennedy appropriately encapsulates our subject:
Still, although these Memoirs are very unreliable authorities for sober history, both on account of the spirit of exaggeration pervading them as well as on account of the Oriental tendency to fulsome flattery (even of ones self), still they are extremely valuable to the student of the time both as showing what Jahangir wished the world to believe him to be and what he actually was.
[Kennedy (1911), II. 5]
The Jahangirnama, written by the Emperor himself or under his supervision, almost entirely tells the history of Jahangirs India. Other histories of his reign are derivatives of his memoirs and rarely make self-directing statements.
The illustrations used in this volume relate to the narratives of the Jahangirnama and vividly impart life into these pages.
Though I am content that this work is now ready for readers, I am conscious that imperfections have remained despite the utmost endeavour. With some hesitation I lay it before the scholars, recalling the famous lines of the poet Alexander Pope:
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what neer was, nor is, nor eer shall be.
The text is reader-friendly and its aim throughout is to offer a simple style free from ambiguity.
I can hardly thank the Aligarh Muslim University in adequate terms for the valuable library it placed at my convenience. This facilitated the completion of the work greatly and, as a token of my gratitude, therefore, I deem it proper to dedicate this volume to my alma mater.
I gratefully acknowledge Professor Irfan Habib for his unfailing encouragement throughout my research and his expert guidance on sources.
Thanks to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Rampur Raza Library, Rampur; Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata; and the Maulana Azad Library of the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh for the inclusion of the illustrations here. Thanks are also due to Dr Shashank Shekhar Sinha for his sound editorial suggestions, to Ghulam Mujtaba for tireless companionship, and to Dr Smriti Prasad and her daughters Astha and Ami for their cheerful support.
