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Mughal assignment - It talks about Jahangirnama

History of India-IV (c. 1206-1550) (University of Delhi)

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Question. Critically analyze the use of Persian Autobiographical/Biographical sources

(Jahangirnama or Ma'asir-i Alamgiri), in constructing narratives around 17 th-century Mughal
monarchs.
Answer. Various biographical/autobiographical works help us to reconstruct history. Mughal
emperors including Babur and Jahangir wrote their own autobiographies which serve as an
important primary source to study the age of the Great Mughals. Babur’s writings were
highly influential for his grandson who also decided to put events of his life in writing. Unlike
Babur, Jahangir titled his account- Jahangirnama or the story of Jahangir. Baburnama and
Jahangirnama present the story of Babur and Jahangir respectively. These texts also talk
about the economic, social, political, and administrative life of the kings and their Empire.
Talking of Jahangirnama helps us know his values, expectations, and relationships, his sense
of the world around him, and his place within it. It also follows a chronological sequence and
gives a year-by-year account of events like Baburnama. The great Mughals known as
Padshahs were considered paragons of rulership. Keyserling calls them, “the grandest ruler
brought forth mankind”. The Mughal emperors were keenly interested in the natural world
and that is what Ebba Koch calls gives them a Dynastic personality. The texts such as
Baburnama gives a large description of natural phenomenon, of plants and animals of
Hindustan and Jahangirnama in which Jahangir mentions his observations, investigations,
and experimentations which describes him as a naturalist. There have been various studies
to reinterpret Jahangir as an Emperor and less as an addict where different views are given
by various historians about his character and life. Western historiography considered him as
a luxurious and inefficient ruler while according to Indian historiography he was a wise and
just ruler who acts were in accordance with the welfare of the people at large. V.A. Smith
mentions Jahangir was, “a strange compound of tenderness and cruelty, justice and caprice,
refinement and brutality, good sense and childishness.”1
Jahangirnama or Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Tuzuk a Persian word meaning regulation, order, or
arrangement, a common generic term used for biographies of rulers) is an important source
that tells us about the life of Salim Muhammad Nuruddin Jahangir (1569–1627) who ruled
from 1605-27. Jahangirnama comprises the reigning years of Jahangir in which Jahangir
writes the first seventeen years of his reign (till 1622), in 1622 the work is taken by Mutamad
Khan but it stops abruptly in 1624, and then in the eighteenth-century Muhammad Hadi
added a continuation from the point at which memoir end till Jahangir’s death in 1627 and
also Shah Jahan accession. It was mainly written in the Persian language (in a more informal
and fluent way) which was considered an official language from the reign of Akbar. Salim was
the most favored of the 3 sons of Akbar and fourth of the six Great Mughals but he was
jealous of his father’s attention on his friend and advisor Abul Fazl. This created tensions
between father and son. Salim prepared for the assassination of Abul Fazl and in 1602, while
marching north, Abul Fazl was cut down by Bir Singh Bundela, Rajput chief of Orchha. He
was continuously disregarded and disdained for reasons which include Jahangir’s misfortune
to rule between the two of the most successful emperors of the dynasty. Akbar, his father
was able at a very young age to take control of such a large empire and expand into one of
the world’s largest and wealthiest empires. After Jahangir’s death, his son and successor,

1 [CITATION Koc09 \p 293-294 \l 16393 ]

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Shahjahan overshadow his father’s memory proving to be the most successful military
leader and architectural manifesto, The Taj Mahal. 2
Corrine Lefevre challenges the commonly accepted view that Jahangir was dominated by his
wife Nur Jahan and his own voice was missing. Jahangir is presented as a sovereign,
naturalist, and collector. The monarch is defined as one deprived of political depth and was
ruling only in namesake. Of all the six Great Mughals, Jahangir’s political strength was
considered to be the weakest. He is described as a pleasure-seeking personality who lost
himself in alcohol and opium vapours with a keen interest in natural sciences, arts, and
curios. Colonial and post-colonial historians exemplify him as one who willingly abdicated all
the political strength after his marriage to Nur Jahan in 1611. A Junta including Nur Jahan
with her father Itimaduddaula, Brother Asaf khan, and also prince Khurram governed the
empire from 1611 till Jahangir’s death. During his rule, various European powers were
coming up, and also their literary traditions had two broad categories– First, the account of
Europeans, and second, Mughal chronicles composed during the reign of Jahangir’s son,
Shah Jahan. The former divided the reign of Jahangir into three periods mainly– the first
period 1605-11 in which Jahangir appears as a full-fledged monarch and was involved in the
strict application of Justice. The second period 1611-22 presents the image of a politically
weakened ruler, dominated by his wife Nur Jahan. The last period of his reign 1622-27,
mentions the real despot ruling the empire according to her own selfish interests, Nur Jahan.
The latter includes memoirs such as Jahangirnama where the emperor sealed off his own
historiography. It was composed with short intervals of three years that followed Jahangir’s
demise, Iqbal Nama-i-Jahangiri by Mutamad khan and Maasir-i-Jahangiri by Kangar Hussaini.
In some texts, Jahangir (Salim) is portrayed as a dissolute king driven by inhuman acts of
cruelty while in others his act of self-defence is presented against his spouse Nur Jahan who
threatened his legitimate right to ascend the throne. 3
In Jahangirnama some passages are devoted to history or geographical description of
regions visited/toured by the emperor such as Mandu, Kashmir, etc. Other passages contain
his ethnological, zoological, and botanical investigation and mention about Jahangir’s
scientific curiosity and the importance he attached to experimentation in accumulating
knowledge. The memoirs also provide us with a glimpse of the monarch's intimacy whereas
he willingly acknowledges his addiction to drugs, he significantly remains very silent on his
relationship with Nur Jahan and spiritual life. Other than this, it also includes a multitude of
administrative information, the recording of promotions and demotions, and the titles given
to imperial servants. Emperor presents three interrelated self-representations drawn by the
emperor in his memoirs – the sovereign, the naturalist, and the aesthete-cum-collector. We
will discuss all these three in greater detail in the following passages. 4
Jahangir took the slightest interest in the business of kinship. An element of his notion of
kingship was his affiliation towards Muslim elite, ulamas, and institutions in order to gain
favour from them in his war of succession against his son Khusrau. The emperor’s position
on the throne remained precarious as Khusrau kept threatening his power. Jahangir’s
2 [CITATION RME19 \p 244-245 \l 16393 ]
3 [CITATION Cor15 \p 452-60 \l 16393 ]
4 [CITATION Cor15 \p 460-62 \l 16393 ]

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eagerness to win ulema led him to participate in public Muslim festivals and to present
himself as a pious monarch. After the suppression of Khusrau’s rebellion, the consolidation
of imperial power allowed the monarch to moderate the orthodox rhetoric of his first years.
In 1611, he decided to comply with old and symbolic request of ulama exempting the chief
justice and the qazis from prostrating before him. Jahangir’s adoption of the title “nuruddin”
or “light of religion” clearly signalled his cohesion to the illuminist theory of Sovereignty that
was favoured by his father. He presents himself as a pir (spiritual master) and appoints
disciples from among the amirs. He did not adopt the duties of a ruler such as the protection
of Islam or the enforcement of the Sharia as described in legal literature and adab texts. No
work of akhlaq is referred to in the memoirs but the influence is clearly visible in some
features of the emperor’s writing. Other than Jahangirnama, there are various indications
that point the monarch’s familiarity with akhlaq literature some of those texts include khldq-i
Ndsiri by Nasir-ud-din Tusi (1235) or the Akhldq-i Jaldli by Dawwani (d. 1502). Jahangirnama quotes
him as a righteous monarch not because of legitimacy from sharia but his dedication to
justice (adl).5
There are also references to Babur and Humayun in Jahangirnama, they pertain to the
literary, naturalist, and bacchanalian traits of these rulers than to their statecraft. On the
other hand, Akbar is portrayed as inspiring, assisting, and legitimizing Jahangir in his
handling of political affairs. Akbar’s imprint on his son’s government is mainly on three
spheres- religious policy, administrative policy, and military expansion. The major principles
of Mughal administration as framed by Akbar had no major changes in the times of Jahangir.
The main duty of king is as a protector, the just king is also expected to establish and
guarantee the necessary conditions for the prosperity and welfare of his subjects.
Jahangirnama mentions that the justice of the king was not only to limit the enforcement of
law nor to religious piety but to maintain an equilibrium between different sections of
society. Alam argues that the conception of justice derived from akhlaq literature and its
most important representative Nasir-ud-din Tusi. To dispense justice three kinds of
instruments were there at the monarch’s disposal – Law, Force, and Symbol. The emperor
attached equal importance to the offenses that threatened the actual exercise of his power. 6
Unlike Babur, Jahangir was also a great lover of nature and natural sciences. He was keenly
involved with nature and there was a methodological scientific inquiry that draws knowledge from
the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses. Jahangirnama
reveals his multifaceted persona as a sovereign, naturalist, hunter, aesthete, patron of arts and
collector, etc. Scientists have studied Jahangirnama for its observations on biology, botany, geology,
ornithology, and zoology. Art historians explain how Jahangir directed his artists to turn his
observations of natural phenomena into nature studies. These historians have studied Jahangir’s
concept of rulership by basing their observations on visual sources, mainly political allegories. The
studies between natural scientists and art historians explain the advantage of a combined method,
written or visual, in representing natural phenomena. Jahangir had placed high-ranking nobles as his
agent at Goa to purchase rare objects and exotic animals. Jahangir’s painting depicts animals and
plants to give description of natural phenomena. Rudolf II (contemporary of Jahangir) brought the
naturalistic, scientific and artistic interests of the Habsburgs to an apogee. Maximilian II had a special

5 [CITATION Cor15 \p 262-267 \l 16393 ]

6 [CITATION Cor15 \p 267-274 \l 16393 ]

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interest in botany and zoology. The emperor kept rare and foreign plants and animals in his gardens
and tended to them personally, and corresponded with his ambassadors to the court of Philip II of
Spain (rul. 1556-98) about the acquisition of exotic flora and fauna. Mughal’s favourite was flowers
such as Fritillaria imperialist or crown imperial. Besides flowers, Jahangir had deep interest in birds,
Jahangirnama mentions birds named Laila and Majnun, which he had kept for five years in his
establishment and which were tended by eunuchs, began to mate, and how, after the female laid her
eggs, the birds took turns sitting on them, and how they hatched the chicks and raised them. 7

Jahangir was not only restricted to mere natural observation but also to experimentation to increase
his knowledge. In an experiment carried out on the bodies of a lion and tiger, he aimed to discover
the physical origin of the bravery of these two species. The goal of Jahangir's experiments was to put
long-held beliefs to the test, most of the time. Jahangir’s naturalism, sometimes, led him to play with
other people's lives or prevailed over his compassion for them. Jahangir’s love for alcoholism and
opium was also a source from which fascinating and surrealist visions sprang. Jahangir's relationship
with nature was his obsession with measurement. His interest in measurement also applied to the
flora, fauna, and minerals of the realm. As mentioned in Jahangirnama, A strange palm tree was thus
measured from every possible angle, and animals were systematically weighed during shooting
parties or on other occasions. Similarly, the weight of the precious stones presented to the emperor
was invariably recorded with great accuracy. Finally, the "surveying monarch" was also keen on
taking the census. Jahangir's power over the animal world took two principal forms: suppressing the
forces which threatened the kingdom's stability and administering justice. Jahangir's naturalism as
expressed in his memoirs is intrinsically linked to his conception of power and reveals another facet
of his grasp on the world he governed: his ability to describe, measure, and organize his kingdom
endows him with omniscience and omnipotence. 8

Jahangirnama projects him as a royal collector to the highest decree and stands among the
first in this respect. To reach his aim, Jahangir resorted to multiple supplying networks. The
objects of European Origin, the ports of cambay (in Gujarat) and Portugese Goa played an
important role In supplying luxury artifacts and paintings. he exchanges took place either
directly between the emperor and the khwdja or indirectly through the numerous Naqshbandi
ashrdf (nobles) settled in India. By these various sources of supply, Jahangir succeeded in creating a
collection which brought together the marvels of nature and masterpieces of human ingenuity. The
mineral kingdom, during Jahangir’s reign had a collection of gems and jades which was the most
prestigious and precious as a commodity, rubies were the most desired, followed by diamonds,
emeralds, and sapphires. The motivations behind the collections were revealed by the case of
meteor. Jahangir was indeed a world-seizer. In this respect, the royal collection was at once a means
and an expression of the monarch's universal grasp. The imperial collection was rich in naturalia and
well provided with artificialia. The latter is further divided into- exotica and manuscripts and
paintings. Exotica mainly included objects of exotic origin, of which Chinese porcelains and European
artifacts were most prominent. There has been a frequent mention of luxury wares of European
craftsmanship, the paintings commissioned by Jahangir tell his taste for western-styled clocks and
regalia. Books and calligraphic specimens formed another category of artefacts prized by emperor.
Jahangirnama also contains pictures which depict major events of his reign, shooting parties, court
life, emperor’s public life, etc. The comparison of extant paintings and textual references help to
reconstruct original iconography of of the memoirs. 9

7 [CITATION Koc09 \p 294-325 \l 16393 ]

8 [CITATION Cor15 \p 274-278 \l 16393 ]
9 [CITATION Cor15 \p 479-486 \l 16393 ]

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Unfortunately, no original version of the illustrated Jahangir Nama has survived to this day, and that
such a version was ever completed in the lifetime of the monarch is still open to question. We
generally look at Jahangir being one a drug addict, consuming alcohol, ruled in the name of Nur
Jahan, one who killed Abul Fazl and so on. Hence we need to be a bit sensitive to Jahangir unlike
historians who saw him as an emperor from the eyes of comparison with other and disregards his
individuality. Lisa Balabanillar is one such who sees Jahangir’s intellectual and emotional response to
landscape, nature and his subjects. He views ‘Hindustan as a paradisiacal land of marvel and
wonders’. Thus we need to be deeply empathetic towards life and preoccupations of
Jahangir and his royal biography Jahangirnama.10

Bibliography
Balabanlilar, Lisa. 2020. “Introduction.” In The Emperor Jahangir- Power and Kinship in Mughal India,
by Lisa Balabanlilar, 1-12. Bloomsbury publishing.

Eaton, R.M. 2019. “India under Jahangir and Shah Jahan, 1605-1658.” In India in the Persianate Age,
1000-1765, by R.M. Eaton, 244-245. New Delhi, Allen Lane: University of California Press.

Koch, Ebba. 2009. “Jahangir as Francis Bacon's Ideal of the King as an Observer and Investigator of
Nature.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Cambridge University Press) 19: 293-294.
Accessed 05 21, 2019. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756071.

Lefèvre, Corinne. 2015. “Recovering a Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of
Jahāngīr (r. 1605-1627) in his Memoirs.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
Orient 452-62.

10 [CITATION Lis20 \p 1-12 \l 16393 ]

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