Week I: Introduction: Foundations of Indian Civilization

Jan 18: Introduction to the course; Ancient India: geography and history
Jan 20: The foundations of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism

Reading:
Embree, 1-114
Thapar, 15-49

Week II: Classical India

Jan 23: The Mauryas and the Greeks; Early Western perceptions of India
Jan 25: Indian culture, religion, and state formation in late antiquity
Jan 27: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 203-273
Thapar, 50-91

Documents:
Ashoka, Pillar Edicts (c.250 BCE)
Herodotus, "Greek Reports from India and Aryavarta" in History of the Persian Wars (c.430 BCE)

Week III: The Coming of Islam

Jan 30: Foundations of Islam: theology, law, and tradition
Feb 1: The Arabs and the arrival of Islam in India
Feb 3: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 381-407
Eaton, 3-18
Richard Eaton, "Introduction" in India's Islamic Traditions, 1-34
Marshall G.S. Hodgson, "The Role of Islam in World History" International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1:2 (1970), 99-123 [JSTOR]

Image:
Muhammad al-Idrisi, Tabula Rogeriana (1154 CE | 548 AH)

Week IV: The Turks and the Afghans

Feb 6: The entry point: early Turko-Afghan incursions into India
Feb 8: The "Slave Sultans" and consolidation of Turkish rule in North India
Feb 10: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 408-446
Eaton, 19-61
Thapar, 221-240
Satish Chandra, "The Impact of Central Asian Institutions on the State and Society in Medieval India" in Essays on Medieval Indian History, 23-32
Mohammad Mujeeb, "The Qutub Complex as a social document" in Islamic Influences on Indian Society, 111-124
Southik Biswas, "Why India’s tallest minaret landed in court" BBC News, May 2022

Week V: The Delhi Sultanate

Feb 13: The Khaljis and the rise of the Delhi Sultans
Feb 15: Early Indo-Islamic religious and cultural accommodation
Feb 17: Discussion

Reading:
Eaton, 62-99
Thapar, 241-265
Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim identities in Pre-colonial India," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37:4 (1995) [JSTOR]

Document:
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Alberuni's India (1030 CE | 421 AH)

Week VI: Religious Developments in the Indo-Islamic World

Feb 20: Bhakti, devotional literature, and the transformation of Hindu worship
Feb 22: Sufism and the Islamic mystical tradition in India
Feb 24: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 342-378, 447-463
Eaton, 100-141
Thapar, 289-320
Simon Digby, "The Sufi Shaikh as a Source of Authority in Medieval India" in Eaton, India's Islamic Traditions, 234-262

Music:
PRX The World, Qawwali music at the Hazrat Nizamuddin Shrine, Delhi (2012)

Week VII: States and Sultanates of Medieval India

Feb 27: The North: The Tughluqs and the Lodis
Mar 1: The South: Vijayanagar and the Deccani Sultans
Mar 3: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Eaton, 142-194
Thapar, 194-220, 266-288, 321-336
Sebastian Modak, "Hampi: A Forgotten Civilization" in The New York Times, Nov 2019

Images:
South Indian Murals, Paintings and Monuments

Week VIII: Pre-colonial India's Global Contact

Mar 6: The Indian Ocean: commerce, culture, and communication
Mar 8: The Silk Road: Indian merchants and overland trade
Mar 10: Discussion

Reading:
Stephen Dale, "An Indian world economy" in Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1-44
Claude Markovits, "Indian Merchants in Central Asia" in India and Central Asia, 123-151
Janet Rizvi, "Silk, Spices, and Salt: The Trades of Inner Asia" in Trans-Himalayan Caravans, 3-21
Om Prakash, "Introduction" and "India in the Indian Ocean Trade c.1500" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 1-22

Documents:
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE)
Ibn Battuta, "Sind and North-western India" in The Travels of Ibn Battuta (1354 CE | 755 AH)

Image:
360° panaromic view from the summit of Mount Everest

Week IX: The First Europeans

Mar 13: The Portuguese and the Estado da India
Mar 15: The Jesuits in India: religion, politics, and cultural exchange
Mar 17: Discussion

Reading:
M.N. Pearson, "The Portuguese arrival in India" and "Catholics and Hindus" in The Portuguese in India, 5-39, 116-130
Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch, "Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa," Modern Asian Studies, 30:2 (1996), 387-421 [JSTOR]

Documents:
Vasco da Gama, "Round Africa to India" (1498)
Francis Xavier, "Letter from Goa" (1542)
Pope Gregory XIII, "Letter to Akbar"; Jesuit letters from Fatehpur Sikri (1580-83)

Week X: The Rise of the Mughals

Mar 20: Babur, Humayun, and early Mughal political competition
Mar 22 Akbar and his world
Mar 24: Discussion

Reading:
Eaton, 195-243
Embree, 463-475, 483-489
Rosalind O'Hanlon, "History, Gender, and Imperial Service under Akbar," Modern Asian Studies, 41:5 (2007), 889-923 [JSTOR]
"Wine and Tulips in Kabul," The Economist (Dec 2010), 80-82
Dwight Garner, "A Warlord's Memoir" in The New York Times (Nov 2020)

Document:
Baburnama (Memoirs of Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur) [selections] (1530)

Images:
Leaves from the Baburnama

Week XI: The Apogee of the Mughals

Apr 3: Mughal social, agrarian, and administrative systems
Apr 5: Imperial patronage: art, architecture, and literature
Apr 7: Discussion

Reading:
Eaton, 244-287
Satish Chandra, "Mughal-Rajput Relations in the seventeenth century: Problems of a Class Alliance" in Essays on Medieval Indian History, 407-445
Ahsan Jan Qaisar, "Painting, Architecture and Music" in The Indian Response to European Technology and Culture, 85-127
Jason Farago, "What a Tiny Masterpiece reveals about Power and Beauty" in The New York Times (April 2021)

Documents:
François Bernier, "An Account of India and the Great Moghul" (1655)
Jahangir, "Letter to King James I of England" (1617)

Images:
Paintings from the Bharat Kala Bhavan Paintings from the Royal Ateliers
360° panaromic view of the Taj Mahal

Week XII: Challenges to Mughal Hegemony

Apr 10: The Sikhs of the Punjab
Apr 12: Shivaji and the Maratha Confederacy
Apr 14: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 491-510
Eaton, 340-379
J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab, 1-8, 28-81
M.N. Pearson, "Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire," Journal of Asian Studies, 35:2 (1976), 221-235 [JSTOR]

Week XIII: The Decline of the Mughals and the Rise of the British

Apr 17: Mughal fragmentation and the growth of successor states
Apr 19: The East India Company and the British conquest of Bengal
Apr 21: Discussion

Reading:
Eaton, 288-339
Richard Barnett, "Introduction" in North India Between Empires: Awadh, the Mughals, and the British, 1720-1801, 1-41
Om Prakash, "The Supremacy of the East India Company, 1740-1800" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 268-314

Documents:
Aurangzeb, Farewell (1707)
Robert Clive, Letter to William Pitt regarding British policy in Bengal (1759)
East India Company Act of 1767
Robert Clive, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1772)
Warren Hastings, Letter to Court of Directors of the East India Company (1783)
Edmund Burke, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1783)

Week XIV: Conclusion: The British Raj and the Origins of Modern India

Apr 24: The Orientalists, the Bengal Renaissance, and the Anglo-Indian encounter
Apr 26: Conclusion: some final thoughts about India in the "Age of Empire"

Reading:
Eaton, 380-398
Om Prakash, "Conclusion" in European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-colonial India, 337-351
Bernard S. Cohn, "The Command of Language and the Language of Command" in Ranajit Guha, ed., Subaltern Studies IV, 276-329
Aatish Taseer, "In India, a Name is Rarely Just a Name" in The New York Times (Jul 2017)

Documents:
Rammohan Roy, "A defense of Hindu theism" (1817) and "Remarks on settlement in India by Europeans" (1832)