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The Taj Mahal which was commissioned by Shahjahan (r.1628-1658), the fifth Mughal Emperor in order to commemorate the death of her beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal has been surrounded by numerous intriguing surmises. One such concerns its chief architect. European travellers claimed in their accounts a number European architects as its principal architect. Sebastian Manrique In the Travels of Fray Sebastian Manrique 1629-1643: A Translation of the Itenarario de las Missiones Orientales , credits a Venetian named Geronimo Veroneo, 'who had come to this part in a Portuguese ship and died in the City of Laor just before I reached it.' for building the Taj Mahal. He writes,  ...the Emperor summoned him and informed him that he desired to erect a great and sumptuous tomb to his dead wife, and he was required to draw up some designs for this, for the Emperor's inspection.  The architect Veroneo carried out this order, and within a few days proved the great skill he had in his art by ...

After the decisive battle of the First Battle of Panipat that took place during the summer of 1526 between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi (the last ruler of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate), the foundation of the Mughal Empire in medieval India was laid. However, the battle that he won on the battleground of Panipat, despite being greatly outnumbered, did not end the hostility of the Lodis toward Babur. Ibrahim Lodi lost his life during the battle.  Buwa, his devastated mother, was in search for an opportunity to exact revenge on Babur for the death of her son. She hatched a plan. Below is an excerpt from the Baburnama , Babur's autobiography which was originally written in Chagatai Turkic and later during the reign of his grandson, Akbar, it was translated into Persian. Babur narrates the incident in the following words: The wretched Buwa, mother of Ibrahim, heard that I was eating foods prepared by Hindustani cooks. This came about because three or four months prior to this date,...

By the time of the Mughals, we observe the advent of the Englishmen to the Mughal court, seeking trade privileges from the reigning emperor. Ralph Fitch was the first Englishman to visit the court of Akbar (r.1556-1605 CE), bearing a letter from Queen Elizabeth. He lived in Agra and Fatehpur Sikri and compared them to London, noting that both were larger than the latter. William Leeds, an English diamond expert was employed by Akbar for verification of diamonds that the emperor possessed or bought. An English merchant named John Mildenhall came to the court in 1599, looking for trade opportunities. All of them came to the Mughal court before the formation of the English East India Company which was established on 31 December 1600 though a royal charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). The significance of the charter lies in the fact that it provided monopoly to the company to trade with the East Indies for the duration of 15 years. Later another major charter was issued in 160...

  1. Who was the author of 'Unto This Last' which influenced Gandhi?  A) Paul Cezanne  B) John Ruskin  C) William Morris  D) Margaret Ruskin ANSWER: (B) John Ruskin Explain: Inspired by John Ruskin's work, 'Unto This Last', Gandhi paraphrased it in his native language, Gujarati and called it 'Sarvodaya'. 2. Which book did Gandhi call his mother?  A) Bhagwada Gita  B) Vishnu Purana  C) Matsya Purana  D) Ramayana   ANSWER: (A) Bhagwada Git a   3. Name the autobiography of Gandhi.  A) Navjivan  B) The Story of My Experiments with Truth  C) Sarvodaya  D) Satyagraha   ANSWER: (B) The Story of My Experiments with Truth Explain: Gandhi wrote his authobiography in weekly installments, published in one of his journals, called Navjivan from 1925 to 1929. The autobiography's English translation was published in installments in another journal, Young India, which was also founded by Gandhi.    4. Which among t...

During the time of the colonial rule in India, the princely states were under the indirect rule of the British government and ruled by the local rulers on certain terms and conditions. There were some princely states which patronised European culture and cuisine. Princess Indira Raje of Baroda was married into the royal family of Kooch Behar in July 1913 discreetly in London without any blessings of the princess's mother. Indira Raje was engaged to be married to Madho Rao Sindhia, the Maharaja/ ruler of Gwalior. But the daring Indira refused to be his second wife and besides, found her suitor. Maharani Gayatri Devi, one of the daughters of Maharani Indira Devi in A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur recalls that the biggest objection the royal parents of Princess Indira had to accepting the relationship between their daughter and the prince of Kooch Behar was that they believed that the princely state of Kooch Behar was heavily and distastefully westernized....

During medieval India, Muslims who wanted to embark on a pilgrimage may choose between two routes. One option was to travel by caravan overland through Iran, or by sailing ship from Gujarat over the Arabian Sea. Both routes were not without peril. If the overland path was chosen, there was a risk of encountering robbers and unbelievers, whilst the maritime route required a Portuguese-issued cartaz permit as well as the vicissitudes of the monsoon.  Ships carrying pilgrims also transported products from Europe, Africa, Arabia, and Asia to Mecca, Umm al Qurrah ('Mother of Cities'), which served as a central market.  The majority of trade from India to Mecca went through the Red Sea port of Mocha (Al-Makha), which served as the primary distribution center for Indian goods that had crossed the sea.  Due to the monsoon and the challenges of sea travel, the trip to Mocha was normally conducted only once a year, and for Mughal trade, these voyages commenced largely from th...

George Washington on a Quarter Dollar/25 Cent Coin (Obverse) The reverse of this quarter dollar, issued in 2021, depicts General George Washington crossing the Delaware River before the Battle of Trenton which took place in December 1776 in New Jersey.  Source: Dr. Richa Singh On 4 July 1776, the Declaration of Independence was issued in Independence Hall, at Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and now the day is celebrated as Independence Day in the United States of America. Eventually, in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the USA gained independence from Britain. However, in this newly independent nation based on slave economy, not everyone was free. George Washington, one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, owned a plantation called Mount Vernon on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia, the Mother of Presidents and Statesmen (8 US Presidents were born in the state including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.). In 1789, he became the first President of the USA and ...

Daughters of Arabia , authored by Jean Sasson, the sequel to The Princess is one of the books that is definitely easy to read, extremely gripping and makes you wonder about the societies that we humans created. The book contains numerous narratives that, once read, are difficult to shake off. One such account was that of Fatma, the Egyptian live-in housekeeper of a villa in Cairo of a Saudi Arabian Princess named Sultana (pseudonym) who is a niece of King Faisal. As Princess Sultana with her family goes to Egypt to relax and spend some time in the villa, the princess discovers the miseries in her housekeeper's life.    As the plot thickens, Fatma reveals to the princess that her granddaughter was to be turned into a woman through the process of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and to perform the circumcision, a local barber was to be summoned with no expertise in medical science and no access to sanitized medical instruments. Sultana informs, "the practice of female circumcisi...

Equestrian Portrait of Aurangzeb, Johnson Album 3, 4 British Library Exhibition, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi Source: Dr. Richa Singh They say a good pen can stab a king. An efficient medieval ruler knew the pen was mightier than the sword and so, he employed a number of pen wielders at his court to record events of his reign and elevate his status to a larger-than-life image. He would also ensure that his scions too develop skills and gain knowledge under the guidance of very proficient pen wielders. And therefore, the role of private tutors in the lives of royal princes was very crucial. This blogpost is about the relationship between the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707 CE) and his tutor. Aurangzeb was undoubtedly a very shrewd statesman who knew how to bend the rules to achieve one's goal and on top of that, he was an extremely skilled military general. As a prince and an emperor, he won many battles and helped in the territorial exp...