Writing Self, Writing Empire - Chandar Bhan Brahman Cultural World of Indo Persian State Secretary

"In this study, Rajeev Kinra adds significant depth to our understanding of the intellectual and cultural atmosphere of the Mughal court at its height.  Exhaustively examining the career of a Brahman secretary located in the highest echelons of imperial power, this book revises the standard narrative of the arc of South Asian history."—Richard M. Eaton, author of A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761

"This book offers the fullest study so far of the understudied phenomenon of Hindu writers of Persian. Through the prism of Chandar Bhan's writings, Rajeev Kinra presents a holistic treatment of the cultural concerns of the Mughal empire’s Hindu ‘men of the pen.’ In so doing, he extends the social horizon of the Persianate world far beyond its more familiar Muslims."—Nile Green, author of Making Space: Sufis and Settlers in Early Modern India 

 

About the author

Rajeev Kinra is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Northwestern University.

Summary

Examines the life, career, and writings of the Mughal state secretary, or munshi, Chandar Bhan "Brahman" (d c1670), one of the great Indo-Persian poets and prose stylists of early modern South Asia.

Product details

• Authors: Rajeev Kinra, Kinra Rajeev
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.07.2015
• EAN: 9780520286467
• ISBN: 978-0-520-28646-7
• No. of pages: 394
• Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines; South Asia Across the Discipli; South Asia Across the Disciplines
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; History, Asia, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / General, Asian History, South Asia (Indian sub-continent), Literature: history and criticism, HISTORY / Asia / South / General