How people of Diverse Religions, Castes & Cultures - part one

     HOW PEOPLE OF DIVERSE RELIGIONS, CASTES AND CULTURES - PART ONE

It is interesting to note how people of diverse religions, castes and cultures had come together to form a fragmented society where peace, if not harmony, was a determining value.

So green was that VALLEY.

                                          THE MUGHAL LEGACY

Forever in the limelight in whatever part of the world, as representative of the glamour and mystique of the subcontinent, there has been no dearth of literary or research-oriented book produced about the MUGHALS.

Thus one more book on the subject should not have been anything to write home about. However, there are many reasons to pick up Abraham Eraly's latest on the fascinating world of kingly line, one of whose scions, AKBAR, came to be regarded as the greatest ruler of INDIA after Ashoka, the celebrated Buddhist ruler of the third century BCE.

For starters, THE MUGHAL WORLD comes from the pen of a man who is no novice to the subject or the cultural milieu of the terrain that he has written about. Born in Kerala and educated there as well as in Chennai, Eraly has taught INDIAN history in colleges in INDIA and the US and even now is based in that area, working on a study of the classical INDIA civilisation.

Thus firmly rooted in the soil which has itself been witness to the foundation laying, rise, fall and final demise of the MUGHAL empire, Abraham Eraly has excavated deep to procure a compendium of information that covers far more ground than the outward achievements of those great kings or their splendourous way of life, art and architecture, military might or state policies.

Moving beyond the magnificence of momentous historical events, the book offers a vivid portrayal of life - both the agony and the ecstasy - in MUGHAL INDIA. It is in fact a lively, pulsating panorama of the MUGHAL world wherein the author is at one and the same time an erudite scholar and the artful story teller.

Combining the two identities, Ealy proceeds to provide rare insights into the working of the empire and then just as smoothly juxtaposes the same with the wretchedness of the common people of the day: a subject at best touched only with perfunctory condensation by others.

Eraly has devoted the Preface to a synopsis of the MUGHAL saga from the historical point of view before proceeding to divide the landscape at hand into chapters and sub-chapters, starting with a reference to the land and its people.

Demarcating the population on the basis of the then prevalent social prejudices - yes, skin colour did matter even then-the author analyses the reasons for history relegating the world of the conquering MUGHALS to the status of an empire rather then that of a nation.

It is interesting to note how diversity of religion, caste and cultures had come toggether to form a fragmented society where peace, if not harmony, was a determining value. Eraly then moves on to describe the royal lifestyle of the rulers whose lives were ostensibly divided into fractions of work and play.

While work and matters of state were given priority, the MUGHAL kings who customarily dined off gold plates, were also fastidious about setting aside food for the poor before they ate themselves. So here while descriptions of their regal lifestyles - such as the fact that when - ever the emperor moved an entire city was set in motion - are mind boggling, the attention to personal detail is also highly organised. Detailed references to the imperial harem which Eraly refers to as the gilded cage, are in sharp contrast to the lot of the common woman of the time. 'Mere appendages in a man's world, women normally had no life of their own in MUGHAL INDIA.'

here...feelings...the original contents by www.sensualityface.com or www.fairyage.com / describe & simplified by with the help of DAWN NEWS INTERNATIONAL PAKISTAN