Week I: Introduction: The Origins of Indian Civilization

Jan 19: Introduction to the course; Ancient India: geography and history
Jan 21: The foundations of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism

Reading:
Embree, 1-113
Thapar, 15-49

Images:
Shiva Lingam/Yoni Shiva as Lord of the Dance Buddha from Gupta Period

Week II: Classical India

Jan 24: The Mauryas and the Greeks; Early Western perceptions of India
Jan 26: Indian culture, religion, and state formation in late antiquity
Jan 28: NO CLASS

Reading:
Embree, 201-273
Thapar, 50-91

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

Week III: The Coming of Islam

Jan 31: Foundations of Islam: theology, law, and tradition
Feb 2: The Arabs and the arrival of Islam in India
Feb 4: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 381-407
Asher & Talbot, 1-24
Richard Eaton, "Introduction" in India's Islamic Traditions, 1-34
Marshall G.S. Hodgson, "The Role of Islam in World History" in International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1:2 (1970), 99-123

Week IV: The Turks and the Afghans

Feb 7: The entry point: early Turko-Afghan incursions into India
Feb 9: The "Slave Sultans" and consolidation of Turkish rule in North India
Feb 11: Discussion

Reading:
Embree, 408-446
Thapar, 221-240
Asher & Talbot, 25-52
Satish Chandra, "The Impact of Central Asian Institutions on the State and Society in Medieval India (10th-14th centuries)" and "Society, Culture, and the State in Medieval India" in Essays on Medieval Indian History, 23-70
M. Mujeeb, "The Qutub Complex as a social document" in Islamic Influences on Indian Society, 111-124

Week V: The Delhi Sultanate

Feb 14: The Khaljis and the rise of the Delhi Sultans
Feb 16: Early Indo-Islamic religious and cultural accommodation
Feb 18: Discussion

Reading:
Thapar, 241-265
Asher & Talbot, 84-114
Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim identities in Pre-colonial India." in Richard Eaton (ed.), India's Islamic Traditions, 83-117

Document:
Al Biruni, Alberuni's India (1030 CE)

Week VI: Religious Developments in the Indo-Islamic World

Feb 21: Bhakti, devotional literature, and the transformation of Hindu worship
Feb 23: Sufism and the Islamic mystical tradition in India
Feb 25: Discussion

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

Week VII: States and Sultanates of Medieval India

Feb 28: The North: The Tughluqs and the Lodis
Mar 2: The South: Vijayanagar and the Deccani Sultans
Mar 4: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Thapar, 194-220, 266-288, 321-336
Asher & Talbot, 53-83

Week VIII: Precolonial India's Global Contact

Mar 7: The Silk Road: Indian merchants and overland trade
Mar 9: The Indian Ocean: commerce, culture, and communication
Mar 11: 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 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)

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

Week IX: The First Europeans

Mar 14: The Portuguese and the Estado da India
Mar 16: The Jesuits in India: religion, politics, and cultural exchange
Mar 18: 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" in Modern Asian Studies, 30:2 (1996), 387-421

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)
Jahangir, "Letter to King James I of England" (1617)

Week X: The Rise of the Mughals

Mar 28: Babur, Humayun, and early Mughal political competition
Mar 30: Akbar and his world
Apr 1: NO CLASS

Reading:
Asher & Talbot, 115-151
Embree, 463-489
Rosalind O'Hanlon, "History, Gender, and Imperial Service under Akbar" in Modern Asian Studies, 41:5 (2007), 889-923
"Wine and Tulips in Kabul" in The Economist (Dec 2010), 80-82

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

Suggested film: Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

Week XI: The Apogee of the Mughals

Apr 4: Mughal social, agrarian, and administrative systems
Apr 6: Imperial patronage: art, architecture, and literature
Apr 8: Discussion

Reading:
Asher & Talbot, 152-185
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

Document:
François Bernier, "An Account of India and the Great Moghul" (1655)

Images:
Paintings from the Bharat Kala Bhavan Paintings from the Royal Ateliers
Jahangir Shah Jahan Mughal Princess Jalim Shah and Sher Shah
Walajah Shah Bedarbakhsh 360° panaromic view of the Taj Mahal

Week XII: Challenges to Mughal Hegemony

Apr 11: The Sikhs of the Punjab
Apr 13: Shivaji and the Maratha Confederacy
Apr 15: Discussion

Reading:
Asher & Talbot, 186-224
Embree, 491-510
J.S. Grewal, "Introduction" and "Foundation of the Sikh Panth" in The Sikhs of the Punjab, 1-8, 28-81
M.N. Pearson, "Shivaji and the Decline of the Mughal Empire" in Journal of Asian Studies, 35:2 (1976), 221-235

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

Apr 18: Mughal fragmentation and the growth of successor states
Apr 20: The East India Company and the British conquest of Bengal
Apr 22: Discussion

Reading:
Asher & Talbot, 225-291
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 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 25: The Orientalists, the Bengal Renaissance, the Anglo-Indian encounter
Apr 27: Conclusion: some final thoughts about India in the "Age of Empire"

Reading:
Om Prakash, "Conclusion" in European Commercial Enterprise in 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

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

Suggested films: Shatranj ke Kilhari (1977), The Deceivers (1988)