Courtly Culture
UNIT 16 COURTLY CULTURE*
Structure
16.0 Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Sources Relevant for Studying Court Culture
16.3 Notions of Kingship and Sovereignty in the Seventeenth Century
16.4 Features of the Court
16.4.1 Spaces and Ceremonies in the Court
16.4.2 Nobility and the Imperial Household
16.5 Imperial Camps
16.6 Robes and Attire
16.7 Gifts
16.8 Rhetoric
16.9 Let Us Sum Up
16.10 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises
16.1 OBJECTIVES
This Unit will enable you to know:
• Sources relevant for the study of early modern court culture in India;
• Notions of sovereignty and kingship in early modern India and
• Features of the court and its practices.
16.1 INTRODUCTION
Early modern court culture in the Indian subcontinent was deeply influenced by the
Mughal traditions. From the middle of the fifteenth century, and with the brief interregnum
of the Sur dynasty, the Mughal rulers, Babur, Humayun, Akbar while forging together
a formidable Mughal state needed a set of concepts and ceremonies to legitimize their
rule to combine with the effective mechanism of land revenue extraction or administrative
systematization. By the early seventeenth century, the Empire of the Mughals had a
distinct court culture which was an amalgamation of Central Asian, Mongol and Indian
practices. These not only included the notions of kingship and sovereignty (Details
can be read at BHIC 109, Unit 8 & 9) but also the use of space and architecture,
the use of specific objects and rituals to perpetuate these traditions and reinforce the
authority of the ruler as well as the political, military and administrative systems of the
Mughal Empire. By the eighteenth century, many of these rituals and traditions of the
Mughal court had been adapted by the emerging powers of the Rajputs, Marathas,
Nizam of Hyderabad and several other states in the South of India. The symbolic
effectiveness of these court ceremonies and the culture around it were such that the
British were drawn into negating them or appropriating them in the establishment of
their rule by the end of the eighteenth century.
*
Dr. Prasun Chatterjee, Deputy Head of Publications, Primus Book, Delhi 253
Society and Culture
16.2 SOURCES RELEVANT FOR STUDYING COURT
CULTURE
To fully appreciate the various facets of early modern court culture in the Indian
subcontinent, we not only have to look into the court chronicles of the Mughal state but
also the travel accounts of Europeans, records of gifts and transactions of the Rajput
states known as dastur komwar or daftar records of the Marathas. While it is important
to look at the textual references to customs and ceremonies of the court related by
these sources, it is also imperative to look at the visual information that is available. The
Mughal miniatures and paintings from other states of the time provide a very good idea
about the court culture during the early modern period. There are details about the
imperial court and household in the Ain-i-Akbari, Jahangirnama and Shahjahanama of
Inayat Khan or Lahori which can be really helpful in understanding the norms of
comportment of the Mughal court and the different concentric circles of authority and
influence radiating outward from the Emperor and the household and tells us about the
systematization of the nobility and administrative units and officials. The visual material
corroborates many of these practices and provides us with a sense of the hierarchies
and their spatial spread in the culture of the imperial court apart from making us aware
of the colours, material and designs used in the creation of the special ambience of the
court. Two very important sources of court culture during Jahangir are the accounts of
Sir William Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe. Peter Mundy among several others gives us
an account of the court of Jahangir. In the later half of the seventeenth century during
the time of Aurangzeb we get the testimony of Bernier, Tavernier and Manucci about
the court culture. There are also interesting incidents recorded in the English East India
Company factory records which illustrate the manner in which they gave gifts to the
Mughal Emperor at the court or tried to get permission to trade or establish factories in
coastal India. Later, the British and other Indian princely states adapted many of the
regal practices of the seventeenth century. So, practices such as the concept of durbar
hall and its depiction in late eighteenth and nineteenth century descriptions and images
also give us an added sense of the court practices of the still existent culture of the early
modern era.
16.3 NOTIONS OF KINGSHIP AND SOVEREIGNTY IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
The Mughal Empire was built on the initial bedrock of the Turco-Mongol claims of the
descent as Babur, Humayun and Akbar. They claimed descent from both Chingiz Khan
and Amir Timur to enhance the prestige of their dynasty. The essence of the tura of the
Mongols was followed by the early Mughal Emperors before it receded into the
background during the time of Shahjahan. The sense of the absolute ruler and a
centralized politico-military command system was derived from there. While Akbar
gave a lot of importance to his Chaghatai connections, around this time the Mughal rule
was infused with Persian traditions of the Emperor being the embodiment of the divine
light (farr-i izadi) leading to a divine legitimation of the Mughal rule. In an otherwise
fragile nature of succession in the Mughals due to the lack of a clear rule of primogeniture,
the court culture and notions of kingship imbued the person of the new Emperor who
ascended the throne with the legitimacy to rule and command the diverse elements of
the early modern state. During the course of the seventeenth century, the Mughal Empire
254 grew to its zenith in terms of territorial expanse and grandeur and by now the combined
effect of this physical consolidation along with the elaborate ceremonies of the court Courtly Culture
and its grandeur gave the empire a basis for kingship and authority. (Details can be
read at BHIC 109, Unit 8 & 9)
Check Your Progress 1
1) What can be the primary sources of investigating the early modern court culture
apart from the imperial court narratives?
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2) How were the traditional notions of kingship and sovereignty modified by the
Mughals to forge their rule in the Indian subcontinent? Did Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama
play a role in this modification?
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16.4 FEATURES OF THE COURT
The court culture of medieval India was a composite one. The Mughal court culture
was built on several traditions of political culture. It blended local traditions with the
dominant Central Asian ceremonies to establish authority and control over diverse
communities and regions. The early modern court culture evolved into an innovative
set of norms and spectacle which sought to hold the far-flung regions and their centrifugal
tendencies together. Interestingly, some of the ceremonies of the court were adopted
by powers which challenged the Mughal state — the Marathas, British in order to
replicate their authority in the areas of the erstwhile Mughal Empire. These practices
were also selectively adopted by prominent states such as the Rajput kingdom of
Jaipur and many smaller states such as Pudukottai on the borders of Kerala and Tamil
Nadu to gain legitimacy for their rule.
16.4.1 Spaces and Ceremonies in the Court
The Mughal court was a space which was calibrated for rank and associated
responsibilities. The different areas of the fort complex housing the Emperor and his
household were arranged according to these norms. In fort complexes like that of
Agra fort, during the time of Akbar, the diwan-i-am was directly approached from the
entrance. This is where during fixed hours of the day the Mughal Emperors would
meet mansabdars, other administrative officials of a higher order or those who had
sought his audience due to specific reasons. So, for example when Thomas Roe was
walked in to the court of Jahangir, he made a reverence at the outer rail where the
common people and lower officials were standing, then another bow at the second rail 255
Society and Culture where the nobles were in attendance and a third when he reached below the throne of
the Emperor who was a higher level. The subject could only proceed till where they
were permitted according to rank.
In contrast, the diwan-i-khas (earlier known as ghuslkhana) for private audience to
a select few elite mansabdars and the Emperor’s personal guests, at Agra fort or the
Red Fort in Shahjahanabad were placed nearer to the imperial private quarters and
the harem. Apart from the description from Abul Fazl and other chroniclers, we get a
description of the private audience from high-ranking ambassadors such as Sir William
Hawkins and Sir Thomas Roe when they were also invited for dinner or drinks with
Emperor Jahangir in the diwan-i-khas.
Other parts of a fort city, whether in Agra or the planned urban space of Shahjahanabad
were created in a manner so that the authority of the ruler was clearly visible to the
people in the bazaars, for example in Chandni Chowk right in front of the imposing
structure of the Red Fort. Spatial planning of the approach to the fort, through the
gates and then upto the diwan-i-am were planned to emphasize the importance of the
ruler in the cosmology of the empire. Structures like the naqqarkhana where the
musicians were housed to announce the arrival or departure of the Emperor or other
occasions through use of specific musical instruments from amongst a large collection,
added to the grandeur of Mughal authority. Similar spatial and customary arrangements
of workings of the court were to be seen as Jaipur, Hyderabad and Maratha courts as
well.
In this arranged space, the symbols of authority of the Emperor and his court were
clearly etched. Abul Fazl specifies the ensigns of royalty in the Ain. He states that the
shamsah of the arch of royalty is a divine light which reaches the Emperor, and that
kings are fond of splendour as they consider it an image of the Divine glory. The
insignias used specifically by the kings were: 1. The aurang or the throne; 2. Chatr or
umbrella adorned with jewels; 3. Saya ban or a yard length brocade held by an attendant
to protect the Emperor from the sun; 4. Kawkaba which were hung up on the assembly
hall. Apart from these there were different kinds of flags and standards which were
used, some for very specific purposes such celebrations or wars.
Courtesy: Shashank Shekhar Sinha, The Jharokha In Shahjahanabad From Where The
Emperor Appeared Before The People Of Hindustan https://m.facebook.com/
story.php?story_fbid= 10212709986322512&id=1172148635)
The physical practices associated with the court and the Emperor added to the ordering
256 of the Empire. Firm establishment of the authority of the Mughal emperor also meant
that the earlier representation of the Mongol Khan or their Amir as the sole leader who Courtly Culture
could be followed and guided their subjects on God’s path — a notion which Babur
claimed drawing upon his lineage from Chingiz Khan and Amir Timur — to becoming
the direct embodiment of the divine light from God, a Persian notion which placed the
Emperor on a much higher pedestal. This notion became prominent in the practice of
jharokha darshan, the Emperor giving darshan like divinity to his followers every
morning from a specific point on the walls of the Agra fort or Red Fort. Photo of Red
Fort tradition porstion. This shift from the ideal leader according to the turah to
embodiment of the divine had by the end of the sixteenth century ushered in a new era
of legitimacy for the Mughal ruler and oriented the court accordingly. The Mughal
paintings of the time of Jahangir and Shahjahan not only show them on a higher pedestal
but also put a halo behind the head of the Emperor. This fit in well with the expansion
and grandeur of the Empire in the first half of the seventeenth century till there was
another shift to the image of the Emperor as pious and a follower of Islam during the
reign of Aurangzeb.
The court culture of the Mughals was also geared towards projecting the notion of
ecclecticism. The Mughal Emperors Akbar and Jahangir and to some extent Shahjahan
wanted to project the imperial court as a place of understanding of the differences in
the beliefs and practices of their subjects. A recent study has also suggested that these
discussions with clerics, priests, and spiritual leaders such as Jesuits, Yogis, Sufis as
well as sections of the ulema anchored by the Emperor at Fatehpur Sikri or the Agra
fort or other imperial capitals were not just a device to assume divine legitimacy for
rule but also to forge a space for confession and state building.
Many of these practices were later continued and adapted by the later powers. The
Marathas ruled most of North India drawing upon the legitimacy of the Mughal Emperor
and acting as protectors of the realm. The British utlilised the concept of durbars during
their reign in India with a replication of the sense of space, size and distance for hierarchy
in colonial buildings.
16.4.2 Nobility and the Imperial Household
The Mughal nobility was configured and the mansabdari system evolved in a manner
to support the court culture and its purpose in forging the Empire. Along with the
spatial division and divine legitimacy of rule, the norms for the nobility and other officials
inside and out of court were laid out to balance the different political and ethnic groups
and evoke a sense of loyalty.
Historians have contended that the nobles were not bound just by their office and
responsibilities to the throne but also by their sense of having access to the Emperor
directly, if required. J.F. Richards has analysed how the notion of being at the service
as a slave of the master was a code of behaviour (adab) followed by most nobles
towards the Emperor and they were called khanazads. In the same manner, the shared
norms of khanazadi were to be followed by every subordinate at the lower levels of
service were tied to their superiors. The culture of the court also promoted this notion
of direct loyalty and the Emperor could and did skip the hierarchy of the court if
needed leading to the advancement of several mansabdars to a higher rank. This notion
radiated from the crown to every relationship of a noble and his subordinate as well.
Bhimsen in Tarikh-i- Dilkusha while narrating his family’s history of service for the
Mughals during the reign of Aurangzeb in the Deccan describes the norms of khanazads
who could be of lower rank but simultaneously tied to the Emperor, princes, prominent
nobles or administrative officials through such intricate ties and norms of comportment. 257
Society and Culture These composite norms which were a mix of systematic bureaucracy and centralized
administration with scope for and direct fealty to the Emperor provided a combination
of formal and informal ties with the imperial throne and court. The Mughal system of
transfer of jagirs of the mansabdars and the requirement of periodic presence at the
court also ensured that Mughal authority was established on the nobility and through
them to the lower ranking officials. The practice of the Mughal emperor to seize all
properties of a mansabdar and then redistributing that between the heirs and the
imperial treasury, if there were any debts, was also a symbol of the legitimacy and
authority of the throne and the dependence of the future of the nobles directly on the
Emperor. (Please see unit-4) There are several accounts of this system of escheat in
narratives of European travellers like Bernier and Manucci who found this to be a
novel practice giving unlimited powers to the throne.
This combination of considering the administrative and military capabilities of the empire
as emanating from the Emperor and his court is also to be seen in the arrangement of
the different departments in the Ain I Akbari. The Mughal court had the provision of
testing the loyalty of the mansabdar through their physical presence but also had a
systematic administrative apparatus to back this up with.
16.5 IMPERIAL CAMPS
The Ain gives us an idea of the imperial court as frequently on the move dedicating a
whole chapter to encampments. Almost all of the Mughal emperor’s household of the
early modern period as well as the princes or the prominent nobles were constantly on
the move to align to the requirements of travel for the emperor. This court on the move
also resulted in the use of the spatial arrangement of tents with the Emperor and the
imperial harem at the centre with the nobles camped in concentric circles according to
rank encamped radiating outwards. Describing these arrangements, the European
travellers like Peter Mundy, also noticed the different colour of flags for the nobles of
different ranks and the special colour of the tents of the Emperor or the imperial
household. The spaces and access to the Emperor was arranged during the
encampments to follow the practices of those of the court at the capital cities of Delhi,
Agra or Lahore.
The grandeur of the Emperor and his court was also symbolized in the royal hunts and
other games which were organized for the Emperor at the court. There are descriptions
of royal hunts, given by European travellers like Manucci or Tavernier and depictions
in miniature paintings, which were so elaborate that they required entire villages to
participate to encircle the area,beat drums and drive the animals for the hunt towards
the Emperor’s retinue. These elaborate arrangements for leisure also worked to create
a spectacle and announce the magnificence of the court and the persona of the Emperor.
Similarly, the imperial games were held to project the brave persona of the Emperor
such as an incident mentioned in the Akbarnama where the Emperor Akbar subdued
a mast elephant. These hunts and games were also an occasion for the word about the
splendour of the court to travel to remote corners of the Empire.
In a certain way, the imperial camps reflected the organization of the Empire from the
core towards the more loosely linked arms of the state radiating outwards in concentric
circles. The spatial arrangement, use of standards and specification of colours of flags
all indicated how the early modern state was organized and controlled through
258
departments and officials as well as symbols of authority and their extension through Courtly Culture
the military nobility of mansabdari system.
16.6 ROBES AND ATTIRE
The presentation of robes of honour known as khilat or sarupa/siropav was a
prominent practice in the early modern period. This was a practice of covering a person
from head to toe in royal colours. The Mughal Emperor gifted robes as an imperial
practice to ambassadors, nobles or other deserving officials during a special occasion
or to mark an act of their dedication towards the crown. The ceremony was held in the
court and denoted the grant of imperial favour to the recipient. The ceremony of robes
were an old custom in the region from Central Asia, Persia and India which was adopted
by the Mughals to indicate incorporation into the state’s structure and prestige and
authority over the recipient. This also meant that those who received the robes had
been set apart from the common population and also indicated that they had received
access to a special lifestyle from the ruler, thus enhancing his authority and that of the
court. Stewart Gordon suggests that this was not only a matter of prestige this was
often also a test of the loyalty of the subject as the refusal to don the robes was a clear
act of defiance of the Emperor’s authority. The ceremony existed before the Mughals
but gained prominence in the royal court at this time and was adopted by the Rajputs
and Marathas as well, as a symbol of regal authority. The refusal of Shivaji to wear the
robes conferred upon him after the initial neglect in the court of Aurangzeb has been
analysed by Gavin Hambly to show that both the parties knew the meaning of refusing
the royal robes due to a shared sense of meanings attached to the practice. Shivaji was
imprisoned for this act but he managed to escape the prison with the help of his associates.
The dastur komwar records of the Jaipur state also show that the sarapas were given
along with gifts to mansabdars and officials for good performances in battles or in
terms of their excellence in occupation.
In a miniature painting of a scene from the Mughal court, there is a depiction of Jahangir
getting young prince Khurram weighed in gold — another regal practice often followed
in early modern courts — where in a corner can be seen the pile of sarupas kept
which were to be given to deserving candidates in the court. This ceremony is often
mentioned by the European travellers like Tavernier or Manucci who found it to be a
novelty.
There are also anecdotes of poisoned robes in these travel narratives which are
mentioned to have been used to eliminate a rival or enemy who were either caught
unaware when presented with the robes or had to don them as non-acceptance too
meant death due to defiance of royal authority.
It was not only the Emperor who presented the robes, but also on select occasions other
nobles or superiors would gift these robes of honour to their subordinate. The quality,
fineness, value and desirability of the robes varied according to who was gifting them and
to whom. The ruler of Golconda regularly sent robes to Jahanara, the powerful daughter
of Shahjahan and she sent robes from her side in return on many occasions.
The robes had such symbolic importance that when Dara Shukoh was brought back
to the court in Agra as a prisoner, Aurangzeb made sure that he was paraded in drab
clothes through the city for the word to go out to the corners of the Empire about the
failure of Dara which increased his authority and legitimacy of rule. 259
Society and Culture
16.7 GIFTS
The robes of honour from the early modern court were rarely granted alone. In
accompaniment were gold, silver, slaves, horses, trappings with ornaments or decorated
weapons among other things which were gifts termed as nazr. So, the robes were
almost always accompanied with some gifts which had real as well as symbolic value.
Like the robes, the quality, exclusivity of the gifts marked out the giver and the recipient.
There are many instances of such exchanges regarding the Mughal court. A recent
study by Mayurakshi Kumar of the dastur komwar records (1718-1912) from
Rajasthan record many gifts for different occupations and hierarchies. The gifts from
the Jaipur state varied according to the occasion and the status of the recipients but the
administration kept a record of every gift and grant. The Jaipur state established alliances
with other Rajput clans such as Kumbhawats, Gogawats, Bundelas, Shekhawats and
many others and this was achieved through bestowing gifts to them during marriage
rituals, battles, state commemorations and other events. These gifts were different
from the gifts to other occupational castes such as the tax rebates given to the Brahmans
or the gift of pagdi (headdress) to charans. Gifts were given to other occupational
castes of kumhaar, lohar, mazdur, maali — those low in the social scale, and therefore
these people received gifts of lower value according to the hierarchy. The court therefore
acted not only as the centre for authority but also as a place for social ordering and
garnered legitimacy through participation in customs and rituals of the diverse
communities within its rule. For example, as recorded in these dastur records, the
custom of giving of coloured clothes by the state to certain families of individuals who
worked for the state to end the period of mourning was geared towards participating
in social ceremonies.
In a similar manner the court of the early modern states also associated with religious
structures and institutions. Whether the madadimaash grants to religious leaders or to
educational institutions, there are numerous records of patronage of mosques, temples
and other religious structures by the Mughal court as well as other courts such as the
Jaipur state. By broadening their social bases through exchange of gifts or bestowing
them on a wide range of people, the early modern states increased their area of influence
and rule.
16.8 RHETORIC
Objects in circulation around the courts also configured the notions of rule and authority.
The use and rhetoric around alcohol in the case of the Mughal court and its expanding
empire is a case in point. The Mughal ruler Babur was trying to get a foothold in India
during early sixteenth century. Following his success against Ibrahim Lodi at the first
battle of Panipat, Babur was stunned by Rana Sanga’s forces of the Rajput confederacy
later. He declared in his court on the eve of the battle of Khanwa in 1527 that he was
giving up alcohol and invited his nobles to join him in ‘jihad’. Such was the importance
of this gesture that a motivated force of the Mughals won the battle against the huge
Rajput army. Such rhetoric was on display at the court again when Shahjahan was
setting out on his Deccan campaign in 1631. The Emperor told his court that he is
giving up alcohol in order to win the Deccan for the Mughals and exhorted the others
to do so as well. The projections at court often helped the rulers to rally their forces
against the opponents in battle as the court practices acted as strong symbols of cohesion
and authority. Some of these were definitely a rhetoric employed for an occasion as
the rulers and the court might seem to be acting to the contrary at another time as later
in time, we hear the English factors providing gifts of barrels of wine in the court imported
260 from England.
Check Your Progress 2 Courtly Culture
1) How were the forts, and spaces inside them arranged to align with the court culture
of the early modern polity?
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2) Comment on the manner in which the imperial household, nobility and imperial
camps were a part of the early modern court culture?
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3) Why were the robes of honour so important in the constellation of courtly practices
in Central Asian, Persian and Mughal traditions? How were the ceremony of
presenting robes was adapted in other regions of the Indian subcontinent?
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4) What do we get to know about gift-giving at Mughal and Rajput courts and the
obligations associated with these?
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16.9 LET US SUM UP
The Mughal court chronicles like Ain-i Akbari or the Padshahnama provide us with
the information about the ordering of the court culture and the related notions of kingship,
sovereignty and symbols related to royalty. The European travellers like Peter Mundy,
Bernier, Manucci, Tavernier among others and the factory records of the seventeenth
century present us with the view of a spectacle, mostly magnificent and at times chaotic.
We also get to know from personal accounts of officials such as Bhimsen that there
were complex norms of loyalty and service. On the other hand, there is enough evidence
to suggest that other contemporary and later polities such as the Marathas, the Rajputs
and the Nizam of Hyderabad followed many of these court rituals of the Mughals including
weighing of the ruler or their sons, presenting robes of honour and giving grants to individuals
and institutions. Even in its demise the power of the court ceremonies could be felt, as
Gail Minault has shown that the British stopped officially recognizing the titles and robes
in order to obliterate the normative power of the Mughal Emperor by the early nineteenth
centuryand appropriated some of these ceremonies such as the elaborate functioning of 261
Society and Culture the durbar or the rules of attendance in their rule right upto the magnificent Coronation
durbar held for King George V in India during his accession in 1911. The political
configurations changed but several elements of the court culture of the early modern
states were powerful symbolic spectacles and found their way into the modern era.
16.10 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
EXERCISES
Check Your Progress 1
1) Include discussion on Imperial court narratives of Mughals, Rajputs and Marathas;
travel narratives, English factory records. Evaluate them for the kind of information
they yield about court practices.
2) Discuss the Turco-Mongol claims of descent, Persian traditions and farr-i-izadi
introduced during Akbar, the court practices and sovereignty during Shahjahan.
Explain how the Mughal state and concepts of sovereignty and kingship changed
as well as the court practices during early modern period.
Check Your Progress 1
1) Explain the location of Durbar, diwan-i khas, diwani-i Aam, jharokha darshan/the
body of the emperor, discussions with religious and spiritual leaders, shifts of the
capital. Then discuss the relation between spaces and authority and their reflection
in early modern court practices.
2) Relate the set of practices of the imperial household and nobility: norms of
comportment, khanazds, transfer of jagirs and periodic presence at the court,
escheat. Discuss their importance in building and sustaining practices related to
sovereignty and the imperial court. As extension of the imperial courts discuss the
imperial camps, colour of flags, placement, imperial hunts and games where too
these practices played a huge role.
3) Explain the concept of Robes of honour: giver, object, setting, receiver; mention
the practices with examples such as weighing the crown prince, dastur komwar
records. Then associate these practices with the notions of sovereignty and kingship.
4) Explain other gifts which accompanied the robes, pan and betel, liquor. Mention
the contents of dastur komwar records and the depiction of classes, castes. Also
discuss the circulation of objects and perceptions around them in the court and its
networks.
Recommended Readings
Mukhia, Harbans, 2004. The Mughals of India. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
O’Hanlon, Rosalind. 1999. ‘Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India,
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 47-93.
Gordon, Stewart (ed.). 2003. Robes of Honour, Khil’at in Pre-Colonial and Colonial
India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kumar, Mayurakshi. 2016. ‘Documenting Politico cum Social History of Jaipur
Kingdom Through Dastur Komwar’ in Anuradha Mathur, Ed., Historical Documents
& History. Jodhpur: Rajasthani Granthagar, pp. 76-82.
Richards, J.F. 1984. ‘Norms of Comportment Among Imperial Mughal Officers’, in
Barbara Daly Metcalf (ed.), Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in
South Asian Islam, University of California Press.
Waghorne, Joanne Punzo. 1994. The Raja’s Magic Clothes: Re-Visioning Kingship
262 and Divinity in England’s India, The Pennsylvania State University Press.