Cundill History Prize Nominee for Shortlist (2020)

A sweeping, masterful new history of India from the Middle Ages to the arrival of the British
The Indian subcontinent appears to be a self-contained world. Sheltered by vast mountains and seas, it has spawned its own religions, philosophies, and social systems. And yet, between the eleventh and eighteenth centuries, this ancient land was in constant and intense interaction with the peoples and cultures of East and Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and especially Central Asia and the Iranian plateau.

Richard M. Eaton's wonderful new book tells this extraordinary story with relish and originality. Its main theme is the rise of "Persian" culture - a multifaceted, trans-regional world that was shaped by a canon of texts that circulated through ever-expanding networks across much of Asia. This culture, brought to India by dynasties from eastern Afghanistan in the eleventh century, was fully indigenized by the time of the great Mughals in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. This long-term process of cultural interaction and assimilation is reflected in India's language, literature, cuisine, dress, religion, governance, warfare, science, art, music, architecture, and much more.

The book brilliantly describes the complex confluence of India's Sanskrit culture, which continued to flourish and grow during this period, and Persian culture, which shaped the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and a host of regional states, making India what it is today.