Pratyay Nath
Biographic Data
| ID | 4682081 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Pratyay Nath |
| GIVEN NAMES | Pratyay |
| FAMILY NAME | Nath |
| SIGNATURE | NATH P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ashoka University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0446-9661 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
The Multispecies Empire of the Mughals
Nonhuman Animals and the Transformation of the Mughal Empire under Akbar
This article analyzes the environmental entanglements of the Mughal Empire in terms of the role of nonhuman animals in its formation under Emperor Akbar. The article studies the roles of animals in three broad spheres: military processes, royal authority, and gift economy. It argues that seen through the lenses of these animal functions, we can identify two broad transformations that the Mughal Empire underwent during the second half of the sixte…
Environment, Empire, & Early Modernity
This introduction discusses the intellectual project of this special issue. It takes stock of the recent literature on the interaction of early modern empires and the natural environment that has emerged in the last one and a half decades. The first two sections outline how this scholarship highlights the mutually constitutive nature of these interactions. They also outline how the six articles of the issue bring out these histories of co-constit…
The Cambridge History of Strategy
Volume I of The Cambridge History of Strategy offers a history of the practice of strategy from the beginning of recorded history, to the late eighteenth century, from all parts of the world. Drawing on material evidence covering two-and-a-half millennia, an international team of leading scholars in each subject examines how strategy was formulated and applied and with what tools, from ancient Greece and China to the Ottoman and Mughal Empires an…
Sumit Guha. History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000
The past two decades have seen an increasing interest in the evolution of historical knowledge and social memory in South Asia. Sumit Guha’s new book, History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000, is an important contribution to this growing body of literature. Guha’s aim is to trace the changing nature of collective memory and historical narratives and to understand the social processes and institutions that shape them. Most scholars w…
The Early Modern in South Asia
Did modernity arrive in South Asia with British colonialism? Or was South Asia already modern by then? What might have that modernity looked like? The Early Modern in South Asia engages with these questions. It brings together ten chapters, which collectively trace the contours of South Asia's early modernity between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They do this by examining the nature of historical change in various domains, including phi…
Pilgrimage, performance, and peripatetic kingship
Between 1562 and 1579, the third Mughal emperor Akbar undertook 17 pilgrimages to the Sufi shrine of Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in western India. This article analyses them as a form of peripatetic kingship. It studies specific actions of the emperor in and around Ajmer to show how they articulated a specific understanding of monarchy, one that derived legitimacy from the spiritual authority of Sufi masters and sacred sites. It then shows how the…
War and the Non-Elite
The historiography of the Mughal Empire has gone through many twists and turns since its inception. Significant shifts in terms of methodologies and arguments notwithstanding, a certain elitism has characterised this body of literature. This is manifested by the tendency of most historians to conceptualise the career of the empire primarily in terms of elite action. This elitism has kept the contributions of non-elite groups to the making of the …
What is military labour? War, logistics, and the Mughals in early modern South Asia
The category of ‘military labour’ has traditionally been used to designate ‘combat labour’ – the labour of soldiers. Focusing on the case of early modern South Asia, the present essay argues that this equivalence is misplaced and that it is a product of a distorted view of war defined primarily in terms of combat. The essay discusses the roles played by the logistical workforce of Mughal armies in conducting military campaigns and facilitating im…
Through the Lens of War
The present article is a study of the process of Mughal empire-building in early modern North India using war as the point of entry. Specifically, it focuses on three sieges from the early years of Akbar's reign—Chitor (1567–68), Ranthambhor (1569) and Kalinjar (1569). It teases out certain aspects of these sieges and discusses them at length individually. Bypassing historiographically-popular themes like combat and technology, it explores less-p…
Fatehpur Sikri revisited , by Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
The imperial city of Fatehpur Sikri was built 1571 onwards by the third Mughal emperor, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, as his new capital. Fourteen years later, it was abandoned by the same sovereign
No prominent works on this page.
Fatehpur Sikri revisited , by Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
The imperial city of Fatehpur Sikri was built 1571 onwards by the third Mughal emperor, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, as his new capital. Fourteen years later, it was abandoned by the same sovereign
Through the Lens of War
The present article is a study of the process of Mughal empire-building in early modern North India using war as the point of entry. Specifically, it focuses on three sieges from the early years of Akbar's reign—Chitor (1567–68), Ranthambhor (1569) and Kalinjar (1569). It teases out certain aspects of these sieges and discusses them at length individually. Bypassing historiographically-popular themes like combat and technology, it explores less-p…
What is military labour? War, logistics, and the Mughals in early modern South Asia
The category of ‘military labour’ has traditionally been used to designate ‘combat labour’ – the labour of soldiers. Focusing on the case of early modern South Asia, the present essay argues that this equivalence is misplaced and that it is a product of a distorted view of war defined primarily in terms of combat. The essay discusses the roles played by the logistical workforce of Mughal armies in conducting military campaigns and facilitating im…
The Early Modern in South Asia
Did modernity arrive in South Asia with British colonialism? Or was South Asia already modern by then? What might have that modernity looked like? The Early Modern in South Asia engages with these questions. It brings together ten chapters, which collectively trace the contours of South Asia's early modernity between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They do this by examining the nature of historical change in various domains, including phi…
Pilgrimage, performance, and peripatetic kingship
Between 1562 and 1579, the third Mughal emperor Akbar undertook 17 pilgrimages to the Sufi shrine of Muinuddin Chishti in Ajmer in western India. This article analyses them as a form of peripatetic kingship. It studies specific actions of the emperor in and around Ajmer to show how they articulated a specific understanding of monarchy, one that derived legitimacy from the spiritual authority of Sufi masters and sacred sites. It then shows how the…
War and the Non-Elite
The historiography of the Mughal Empire has gone through many twists and turns since its inception. Significant shifts in terms of methodologies and arguments notwithstanding, a certain elitism has characterised this body of literature. This is manifested by the tendency of most historians to conceptualise the career of the empire primarily in terms of elite action. This elitism has kept the contributions of non-elite groups to the making of the …
Sumit Guha. History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000
The past two decades have seen an increasing interest in the evolution of historical knowledge and social memory in South Asia. Sumit Guha’s new book, History and Collective Memory in South Asia, 1200–2000, is an important contribution to this growing body of literature. Guha’s aim is to trace the changing nature of collective memory and historical narratives and to understand the social processes and institutions that shape them. Most scholars w…
The Cambridge History of Strategy
Volume I of The Cambridge History of Strategy offers a history of the practice of strategy from the beginning of recorded history, to the late eighteenth century, from all parts of the world. Drawing on material evidence covering two-and-a-half millennia, an international team of leading scholars in each subject examines how strategy was formulated and applied and with what tools, from ancient Greece and China to the Ottoman and Mughal Empires an…
The Multispecies Empire of the Mughals
Nonhuman Animals and the Transformation of the Mughal Empire under Akbar
This article analyzes the environmental entanglements of the Mughal Empire in terms of the role of nonhuman animals in its formation under Emperor Akbar. The article studies the roles of animals in three broad spheres: military processes, royal authority, and gift economy. It argues that seen through the lenses of these animal functions, we can identify two broad transformations that the Mughal Empire underwent during the second half of the sixte…
Environment, Empire, & Early Modernity
This introduction discusses the intellectual project of this special issue. It takes stock of the recent literature on the interaction of early modern empires and the natural environment that has emerged in the last one and a half decades. The first two sections outline how this scholarship highlights the mutually constitutive nature of these interactions. They also outline how the six articles of the issue bring out these histories of co-constit…
History (9 works) · Ancient history (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (6 works) · Empire (5 works) · History (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Emperor (3 works)