Hindu kingdoms, to the Mughals Rachel Parikh

Reviewed Publication:
Sharma, S. 2011. Literature, Culture and History in Mughal North India 1550-1800, Delhi: Primus Books, 241 pp., ISBN: 9788190891813

Sandhya Sharma’s pioneering volume investigates Mughal Indian society and politics, as well as family dynamics, kinship, and caste, through Riti Kal literature. The author focuses on a form of Riti Kal known as Braja basha poetry, which was predominant in Western and North-Central India from the sixteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, although this poetry was traditionally written by male poet-saints, those originating from Northern India are mostly penned from a female point of view.