CULTURE OF ENCOUNTERS

Audrey Truschke

The historian Audrey Truschke documents the fertile conversation that took place in the early Mughal Empire between Sanskrit-speaking scholars and the Persian-speaking Islamic elite. She discusses topics such as the production of intellectual works by Brahmin and Jain intellectuals in the Mughal court, and the translation of Sanskrit epics into Persian. In highlighting this overlooked exchange, the author recasts the Mughal Empire as a polyglot polity that collaborated with its Indian subjects in the composition of its cultural fabric.

Penguin India, 384 pages, Rs 699