Tag: Mughals

  • Taj

    Colin De Silva

    More than the Taj itself, the book’s focus is on the man who built it, or rather had it built – Shah Jahan. In tracing his life and highlighting the love of his life – Mumtaz Mahal, the book touches upon four generations of Moghul rule, starting with Akbar and ending with Aurangzeb. While Taj remains a work of fiction, it borrows heavily from history, and well known characters like Nur Jehan and Jehangir have important roles to play.
    The story focuses on the intrigue that was part of the Mughal court and its machinations, and the impact that it had on determining the emperor of India. It follows the life of Shah Jahan, from the time he was a young prince, to his death, as an emperor deposed by his own son.
    Perhaps the tale is best summarised by the words of one of the characters in the book, and which would best represent the lives of each of the characters – “With any human being, an aim becomes an ambition, an ambition, a compulsion, a compulsion an obsession, which can only destroy the human being”. While, for most of the characters, the aim was the Moghul throne, for Shah Jahan, there was an additional one – The Taj.
    In essence, a good book to read to get a glimpse of what life must have been during the days of the dynasty that defined Indian history for quite a few centuries. If interested in more historical accuracy, i would suggest ‘Emperors of the Peacock Throne’ by Abraham Eraly

  • Time…..

    Finished reading a book a while back, titled ‘Emperors of the Peacock Throne’.. it is a chronicle of the mughal empire, starting from Babur to a little beyond Aurangazeb’s reign.. While the book did give a lot of interesting tidbits that were contrary to popular knowledge (like the fact that anarkali was actually part of akbar’s harem, and was at least 13 years older to salim) a more interesting thought crept into my mind, as i read the last few pages of the book…
    the entire mughal era, spanning over 300 years has been condensed into 500 odd pages of well written history (well written because it is more like a story than history).. but while i read about the conquests of babur, the administrative policies of akbar, and the feuds ofaurangazeb, these are, in my eyes, only characters in history.. what i later realise, on more thought, is that these are also humans, who had their own thoughts… and while these characters are at least represented in the books, there are millionsand millions of characters who were part of the background – ministers, soldiers, common people.each of them had a life, some boring, some interesting, some routine, some filled with adventure,but each with a story to tell… but perhaps never told by anyone..
    the point i am trying to make – while we run around doing things that are seemingly vital at that point of time and place and our lives, perhaps we do not realise that in the absolute vastness of time and space, it is maybe of no significance.. or maybe it is, in some way we cant fathom -through children and grandchildren and so on… we would like to think so…not that we should stop what we do, but somewhere, sometimes also remember that we are but tiny cogs in His vast machinery, and realise our humble role…
    until next time, how ever is forever??