Court Ceremonial: A Tool to Assert Imperial Authority

The Ceremonial of Power based on contemporary Persian writings, foreign traveller accounts and administrative histories of the colonial period, investigates the court ceremonies, court culture and rituals during the reign of the fifth Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, and the way these were used to assert imperial authority and power. The author’s attempt, as he tells us, is to redress the imbalance in the writing of Mughal history and take the focus away from Emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb who are frequently written about and are the favoured subjects of study as opposed to the other Mughal Emperors. This, however, does not appear to be entirely true with copious scholarly works, monographs and research papers on Emperors Babur, Humayun, Jahangir and Shah Jahan. Nonetheless, the volume’s portrayal of Shah Jahan’s personality, his attributes and passions, his interactions with his courtiers, diplomatic exchanges and other significant aspects of the Emperor’s reign are a valuable addition to Mughal historiography.