Pre-Colonial India: Politics, Religion, and Culture in South Asia, 1000-1800 CE.

The Mughal Empire was one of the great empires of the early modern world known for its wealth and courtly splendor. At the height of their power, the Mughals controlled most of the Indian subcontinent. This class will explore Mughal sovereignty, political control, economic reform, spatial organization, and aesthetics. It will also re-examine the enduring narrative of Mughal imperial decline that frames conventional understandings of the rise of British colonialism in the Indian subcontinent in the late 18th century. The lectures and readings for the course will draw on travel narratives, films, chronicles, and courtly literature.