[keiferski]

As someone that’s studied the Mughals quite a bit, but hasn’t studied Indian history more broadly as extensively, here are a few thoughts:

- the monuments are obvious points; the Taj Mahal is probably one of the few buildings that the average Western person has heard of

- there is more of a connection, or appears to be, with other empires that Westerners are more familiar with. For example, the Mughals were functionally descendants of the Mongols (indeed the word itself came from it). They also were roughly contemporaneous with the Ottomans during key historical periods, so their categorization as a “gunpowder empire” along with Iran is a known thing.

The prestige languages of all three of these empires was also highly Persianized, which maybe made them more accessible to the West, which was familiar with the Arabic alphabet and Islamic civilization for a longer period than with India. IIRC a lot of foundational Indian works weren’t really translated from Sanskrit to western languages until the mid 1800s.

That is how I myself started reading more about the Mughals: via being interested in the Ottomans.

- And finally there are a number of unique Mughal figures that have managed to become well-known in the West. Akbar, Shah Jahan, etc. I’m sure there were equally interesting people from other Indian empires but they don’t seem to be talked about as much.

[chimp_brain]

There are a lot of architectural marvels in India from Sun temple to Ajanta and Ellora caves and Kailasa Temple. I personally never understood why more was not written about them, very few know about them.

Mughals never ruled India for more than 200-300 years, and were challenged by many regional players including Maratha's.

India has far more to offer beyond Taj, and I would say if not more equally interesting architectural marvels like Kailasa temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailasa_Temple,_Ellora

[fakedang]

Because ancient India was extremely bad at record keeping and maintaining written works (and the destruction of Nalanda university didn't help), and relied mostly on oral traditions to record history.

Compare that to the innumerable number of Chinese texts on nearly every topic from politics and history and governance to science and engineering (fun fact, the current Indian civil service was a product of the English civil service, which in turn was inspired by the Chinese one).

Compare that to the English, where you might even be able to find the exact amount of tax owed by some Yorkshire peasant in the 16th century.

Even the Indian and South East Asian monastic orders stuck to the oral tradition, in spite of writing material being significantly more abundant over the past millennia.

If you read the Baburnama, you'll even find him lamenting about India's poor record at tax keeping records and historical records relying on oral traditions, where the narrators are prone to exaggerations and embellishments.

Thankfully India's ancient temples are much more resilient than its books, which is why rock carvings themselves are also a rich source of Indian history. The Ashoka pillar in Mehrauli being a fine example (and in effect being a historical record in itself, which is how we know a lot about the Mauryas than some later kingdoms).

[bvan]

As someone interested in coinage, India is fascinating. Coins from the Sultanates and Mughal periods are just beautiful.

[keiferski]

Great to see a fellow numismatist! Old coins are on my bucket list of stuff to buy once I hit the lottery.

[bvan]

That’s great. I find the Sultanate coins, for example, are much more refined in terms of style relative to those minted Western Europe around the same time. For example: https://www.numismall.com/collections/bengal-sultanate-1203-....

[newyankee]

Actually there are many more interesting people in Indian history. From Chandragupta Maurya, Kanishka to even Shivaji and others. Mughals are overglorified if anything and their own primary texts are ignored in this process.

[FlyingSnake]

May I ask what kind of study did you do on the Mughals? What stands out the most for you?

Fun fact: They called themselves "Gurkhaniye" and not "Mughals". It was a term mostly popularized by rivals like Marathas (which is also an exonym)

[keiferski]

I mostly read a lot about Akbar, who was a fascinating figure. His “official biography” is really well written, as is his whole concept for creating a new religion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbarnama

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Din-i_Ilahi

[kranner]

The Gurkaniyan thing was true for Babur but I don’t think it was the case for later Mughals.

The poet Ghalib, who was the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar’s contemporary, considered himself a descendant of the aristocracy and referred to himself as a “Mughal baccha” in a well-known quote (sourced from his letters, I believe).