Indian History Part 83 Shah Jahan Section II: An Emperor’s Ambition Laid Low

Canberra, 22 November 2020 Even after the Khan-i-Jahan Lodi was chased down and killed, the Deccan campaign continued. Gradually all the major Shahi kingdoms—Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda—were involved in the conflict in different ways and to different extent. The fortunes of these three kingdoms and that of the Mughal forces in the Deccan ebbed and […]

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Indian History Part 81 Akbar Section IV: The Conquering Emperor (1)

Canberra, 28 June 2020 SETTING THE SCENE Akbar continued the policy followed by Biram Khan, of steady and ceaseless expeditions to expand the territorial spread of the Empire. Akbar is supposed to have said, as reported by Abul Fazl and quoted by Bamber Gascoigne in his book, The Great Mughals (page 72), ‘a monarch should […]

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Part 42 THE RAJPUT CLANS Section II: Early Rajput Kingdoms

Canberra, 2 August 2015 The second half of 8th century saw two critical developments in the Indian political scenario, which were to have profound influence on the next thousand years of political growth in the sub-continent. The first was the rise of regionalisation. During this period, a large number of regional kingdoms, of varying sizes, […]

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Part 42 THE RAJPUT CLANS Section I: The Origins

Canberra, 7 July 2015 The death of Emperor Harsha Vardhana, and a little later the early Islamic invasions, stirred the affairs of North India. Internecine wars with kings and clan leaders of limited merit and vision scrambling for power, created a sense of disquiet and instability. In fact instability dominated North India across the great […]

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