The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors

Contents: 1. Babur and Humayun. 2. Akbar and the foundation of a new order. 3. Jahangir. 4. Shah Jahan. 5. Aurangzeb the puritan. 6. Nature of the state in Mughal India. Bibliography. Index.

"In the dust of controversy raised over the religious policy of the Mughal emperors in India, the nature of the Mughal state has become very much clouded. Sometimes it is described as an ‘oriental despotism’, sometimes as a theocracy. Some have even gone to the length of claiming a divine origin for it, others have invested its kings with divine rights. Unfortunately most of these conclusions have been arrived at without a critical examination of the original materials now at our disposal regarding the state in Mughal India. The theories of the early Arab jurists, the practices of Muslim kings elsewhere, and the verbose discussions of writers outside India, though certainly useful in giving us a background, do not help us much in understanding the exact nature of the Mughal state in India.

"A systematic attempt has been made to study the religious policy of the Mughal emperors from the original records of their region." (jacket)