The Moghul

These are the works, with their trenchant firsthand accounts, that all students of the era find indispensable. Perhaps the most easily obtainable is a collection entitled Early Travels in India, William Foster, ed., which contains edited versions of the diaries of William Hawkins and several others. Following this, the most thorough account of England's early diplomacy in India is contained in the diary entitled The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe (1615-1619), written by England's first real ambassador to India. Many subsequent diaries and letters of seventeenth-century European travelers have been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, whose publications comprise a virtual bibliography of the era.
    The most relevant Indian writings, also obtainable in English translation from a fine library, are the memoirs of the Great Moghul Jahangir, entitled the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, and an encyclopedic description of court life in late sixteenth-century India entitled the Ain-i-Akbari, set down by Akbar's chief adviser and close friend, Abul Fazl.

    In fashioning a story such as this, a writer must necessarily be indebted far beyond his ability to acknowledge adequately. The scholar who provided the greatest assistance was Professor John Richards of the Duke University Department of History, a widely respected authority on Moghul (he might prefer it be spelled Mughal) India, who graciously consented to review the manuscript in draft and offered many corrections of fact and interpretation. He is, of course, in no way accountable for any liberties that may have remained. Thanks are similarly due Professor Gerald Berreman of the University of California at Berkeley, a knowledgeable authority on Indian caste practices, who agreed to review the relevant portions of the manuscript. I am also indebted to Waldemar Hansen, who generously provided me with the voluminous notes accumulated for his own history, The Peacock Throne. Historians in India who gave warmly of their time and advice include Dr. Romila Thapar, Professor P. M. Joshi, and Father John Correia-Alfonso, the preeminent Jesuit authority on the early Moghul era and a scholar whose characteristic integrity and generosity roundly revise the period depiction of his order in the story.
    Thanks also are due Mrs. Devila Mitra, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, for special permission to study the now-restricted zenana quarters beneath the Red Fort in Agra; to Nawab Mir Sultan Alam Khan of Surat, for assistance in locating obscure historical sites in that city; to Indrani Rehman, the grande dame of Indian classical dance, for information on the now-abolished devadasi caste; to Ustad Vilayat Khan, one of Indian's great sitar masters, for discussions concerning his art; and to my many Indian friends in New York, New Delhi, and Bombay.
    I am also obliged to Miss Betty Tyres of the Indian Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who kindly provided access to the museum's extensive archives of Indian miniature paintings, and to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for information on early English sailing vessels.
    Finally, I am most indebted to a number of tireless readers who reviewed the manuscript in its various drafts and supplied many insightful suggestions: including my editor, Lisa Drew, my agent, Virginia Barber, and my patient friends Joyce Hawley, Susan Fainstein, Norman Fainstein, Ronald Miller, and Gary Prideaux. Most of all I thank Julie Hoover, for many years of assistance, encouragement, and enthusiasm.

    GLOSSARY
    affion—opium
    aga—concentrated rose oil
    akas-diya—central camp light
    alap—opening section of a raga
    ankus—hook used for guiding an elephant
    arak—Indian liquor
    areca—betel nut used in making pan
    art ha—practical, worldly "duty" in Hinduism
    Asvina—Lunar month of September-October
    azan—Muslim call to prayer
    bhang—drink made from hemp (marijuana)
    biryani—rice cooked with meat and spices
    bols—specific hand strokes on the Indian drum
    cartaz—Portuguese trading license
    charts—cattle sheds
    chapattis—unleavened fried wheat cakes
    chapp—seal or stamp
charkhi—fireworks used to discipline elephants in combat chaturanga—chess
    chaudol—traveling conveyance similar to palanquin
    chaugan—Indian "polo"
    chauki—weekly guard duty at the Red Fort
    chaupar—Indian dice game
    chelas—mercenary troops beholden to single commander
    chillum—clay tobacco bowl on a hookah
    chitah—Indian