A dual biography traces the lives of two courtiers and poets in the Mughal court against the backdrop of the courtly intrigues, brutal power struggles and the grand literary endeavours of that period.
Bairam Khan and his son Abdur Rahim were soldiers, poets and courtiers whose lives reflected the turbulent times they lived in.
"Attendant Lords Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim: Courtiers & Poets in Mughal India" by former bureaucrat T C A Raghavan spans the reigns of four emperors -Babur, Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir - and covers over a hundred years of Mughal history, a time when these two noblemen were at the very heart of the court's labyrinthine politics.
After Humayun's untimely death, Bairam was regent to the young Emperor Akbar for four crucial years. Abdur Rahim became one of the most important generals of the Mughal Empire but he is best remembered for his literary prowess, most particularly for his famous 'dohas'.
Literature plays a large part in this story.
The book, published by HarperCollins India, looks at their afterlives - how politics and the Hindi-Urdu debate reincarnated them as national heroes; how both men came to be seen as standing at the confluence of Hinduism and Islam; how their life stories have undergone subtle transformations; and how history, religion and literature combine in the broader context of nationalism and nation building.
"The lives of Bairam Khan and Abdur Rahim have fascinated me for decades and I have traced their journeys, read their writings and on the way have discovered many similarities between their times and our own. Writing this book has been a great adventure," says Raghavan, a former High Commissioner of India to Singapore and Pakistan.
Speaking about the book, Udayan Mitra, Publisher (Literary), HarperCollins, says, "TCA Raghavan's meticulously researched and brilliantly written book tells the remarkable story of two Mughal noblemen: Bairam Khan and his son Abdur Rahim. For those of us familiar with Rahim's dohas, their back story will be of especial interest.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
