Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals

Front Cover
Penguin Books India, 2000 - India - 555 pages
A Stirring Account Of One Of The World S Greatest Empires

In December 1525, Zahir-Ud-Din Babur, Descended From Chengiz Khan And Timur Lenk, Crossed The Indus River Into The Punjab With A Modest Army And Some Cannon. At Panipat, Five Months Later, He Fought The Most Important Battle Of His Life And Routed The Mammoth Army Of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, The Afghan Ruler Of Hindustan. Mughal Rule In India Had Begun. It Was To Continue For Over Three Centuries, Shaping India For All Time.

In This Definitive Biography Of The Great Mughals, Abraham Eraly Reclaims The Right To Set Down History As A Chronicle Of Flesh-And-Blood People. Bringing To His Task The Objectivity Of A Scholar And The High Imagination Of A Master Storyteller, He Recreates The Lives Of Babur, The Intrepid Pioneer; The Dreamer Humayun; Akbar, The Greatest And Most Enigmatic Of The Mughals; The Aesthetes Jehangir And Shah Jahan; And The Dour And Determined Aurangzeb.
 

Contents

Like a King on a Chessboard
5
If Fame Be Mine
15
Black Fell the
28
The Dreamer Cometh
41
The Feast Is Over
49
What Is to Be Done?
59
Man of Destiny
73
Peaceable Kingdom
82
Pyrrhic Victories
316
Ya Takht Ya Tabut
331
For the Sake of the True Faith
344
Daras Last Stand
360
Over the Top
373
Gods Elected Custodian
375
Fear the Sighs of the Oppressed
384
Born to Trouble Others
397

Fiery
91
Humayun in Exile
103
The Reluctant Boy King
114
The Empire Takes Hold
137
Person and Persona
163
Illiterate Savant
173
My Mind Is Not at Ease
183
The Middle Empire
231
His Fathers Son
233
Scientist Emperor
244
Sons and Rebels
255
Another Son Another Rebel
263
Light of the World
271
An English Aristocrat in the Mughal Court
279
The Coup
288
The Paradise on Earth
297
The Man Behind the Mask
299
The More One Drinks
413
Now That the Shadows Fall
424
The Maratha Nemesis
431
Maratha Beginnings
433
Enter Shivaji
440
Lord of the Umbrella
454
Kirti Rupen
466
Maratha Collapse
477
Rafizikush
485
Maratha Eruption
496
Of the Future There Is No Hope
504
Epilogue
515
Incidental Data
523
Notes
539
Bibliography
540
Index
547
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