On the first part of this blog post, we tarried our way through the origins of the Mughal Empire until Emperor Akbar had married his first three wives. He’s now poised to make his fourth marriage with a Hindu princess—a first of many firsts, you’ll see why.
This empress, later given the title of Maryam Muzzamani, and bestowed with a tomb that we are going to visit, would give birth to the first of Akbar’s surviving sons—finally, an heir for Akbar’s empire.
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(Part 1 of 3)
On the night before we leave for Agra, I mention to our driver that we’d like to stop at the town prominent in the Mughal Empire, Sikandra.
Deepak gazes at me long and in silence.
I explain. You know, it’s on the road into Agra. Akbar ka rauza aur Maryam ka rauza. Gesticulating. Lamba chauda. Road se dikhega. Vo thai Padshah, aur Maryam unki bibi. (For those of you who don’t understand my, er, abbreviated Hindi: Akbar’s and Maryam’s tombs, imposing monument, can be seen from the road. He was emperor, and Maryam was his wife).
His expression does not change. But, I’m not disheartened. Deepak’s a man of few words.
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We went to the Appomattox Court House National Historic Park by pure chance last summer. It was a lucky set of circumstances—a long drive, sheer boredom, trolling through the map app on my phone, and a name that popped up that sounded. . .familiar.
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Almost from the moment that some Confederate states alienated themselves from the United States (after Lincoln was elected and before he was sworn in), it became clear that the American Civil War was imminent.
Also clear was the main directive for the Union Army—capture Richmond, the Confederate capital.
It was four years before that happened—four years, far too many lives lost, battles fought, and four chief commanding generals appointed in the Union Army. The man who ended the American Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant, was the last, and he accepted his commission from President Lincoln in April of 1864.
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Inside the Khas Mahal and the harem apartments at Agra Fort
In a time when women were hidden away, faceless, and for the most part, voiceless, two women rose to become formidable players in the courts of the Mughal Empire. The bestselling author of the Taj Trilogy, Indu Sundaresan, presents an intimate view into the politics, religions, hierarchy, and structure of the Mughal harem.
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Part 3 of 5 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here)
If Robert Lee had written his own memoir, he might well have started it with the same phrase Ulysses S. Grant used in his, “My family is American. . .”
In the America of the late nineteenth century of Grant and Lee—after enormous tracts had been released by the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark had gone on their expedition of exploration of the wild, wild west—there was a strong movement westward to fill in the spaces, and not enough people to populate them. So, began another wave of immigration into the U.S.
I suppose then it became a matter to pride to distinguish yourself from the new Americans, which was why Grant emphatically used that curious phrase.
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(Part 2 of 5); Part 1 here
The American Civil War ended in the village of Appomattox Court House, bringing to a culmination four long years of hardship, privation, and a vast destruction of life and property.
A civil war—and I’d made the comparison of it with a fierce family conflict—is fought between people who have. . .connections, either some point of contact somewhere in the past, or childhood tussles, or familial links, or even long adult friendships.
Most of the officers on both sides were West Point graduates, which meant four years of study, and four overlapping graduating classes, and so, they most of them knew each other from college.
The ones who stayed on in the army after graduating had further associations, either serving below or above their antagonists in this American Civil War.
Interestingly enough, the two generals who commanded the opposing armies—despite their both being military men, both graduates of West Point, part of the army family—had come across each other only once. This was during the Mexican War (1846-48) when Lee was Chief of Staff for General Scott, who was directing the U.S. Army, and Grant a mere lieutenant. It was a. . .non-meeting, really.
(Part 1 of 5)
We’re on a long drive from. . .well, one place to another this past summer, and I’m bored and swiping on the map on my phone for somewhere to stop and stretch our legs. A name pops up. Appomattox. Appo-ma-ttox. Appo—
My kid, in the back seat (who’s obviously been paying attention in history class) pipes up, and fixes my memory into place.
We redirect the GPS, and we’re off. It’s a good thirty miles aslant of our intended route, but what matter, when there are such riches to be met at the end of it!
We just left the thriving Chola dynasty of ancient India extinguished at the end of the 4th Century CE. All of a sudden, and with no seeming explanation.
And then, for three centuries there was nothing out of southern India. It was as though entire existence had been wiped out. Because there’s nothing to tell us of which dynasties ruled, who they fought, who they married, what they built, or whom they patronized.
By the 6th Century, one of the other kingdoms of ancient India (who had ruled alongside the Early Cholas) emerged in power, along with another two.
And, still, no Cholas.
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Part 1 here
We’re on our (somewhat leisurely, I know!) way to the Airavateshwar Temple in Kumbakonam in southern India, built by the Later Cholas who ruled from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Later, because yes, there were the Early Cholas in ancient India from the first to the fourth centuries, and a gap between these two during which the entire dynasty disappears from all historical story line.
In the first post, I introduced the Early Cholas, because their reign—even that far back—is surprisingly well documented in more than two thousand poems written on palm-leaf manuscripts. (This is the oldest known history of south India.)
We visited the Early Chola King Karikala’s capital city at Kaveripattinam in the modern-day state of Tamilnadu, flitted through his palace, wandered down streets, stood at the docks at mouth of the Kaveri River, and marveled at the brisk trade and the mammoth ships from other parts of India and from Egypt.
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