Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India

Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India
Author(s): Rosalind O'Hanlon

Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1999), pp.
47-93
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MANLINESS AND IMPERIAL SERVICE IN
MUGHAL NORTH INDIA
BY
ROSALINDO'HANLON
(Clare College, Cambridge)
Abstract
This essay explores some of the ways in which gender identity and norms for manhood
were important in the political and religious discourses of Mughal north India. A concern
with the meanings of manhood ran through these discourses and their antecedents in the
wider world of medieval Perso-Islamic political culture, constructingimportantand enduring
links between kingship, norms for statecraft,imperial service and ideal manhood. The essay
examines in detail the ways in which one high imperial servant in the early seventeenth
century inherited, developed and reflected on these themes, and related them to his own
personal experience. These definitions of elite manliness began to change in the later sev-
enteenth century, and their connection with imperial service began to fracture, with the
emergence of more complexly stratifiedurban societies in north India, and the development
of an increasingly ebullient and cosmopolitan ethos of gentlemanly connoisseurshipand con-
sumption. The essay examines some of the normative literatureassociated with these shifts,
and suggests that one of their consequences may have been to intensify the strains in Mughal
service morale associated with the last decades of the seventeenth century.
Introduction
In the last decade, historiansof India in search of new insights into social
change have turnedincreasinglyto the study of women and gender. Here as
in many other fields of historical study, however, 'gender' here has tended
to mean women.') Women are assumedto be the 'carriers'of gender,because
their reproductiverole is held to define their place in society. Men's nature,on
the other hand, is felt to be vested not so much in their bodies, as is their
capacity for reason, reflectionand understanding.Men thus become for us the
norm, the universal subjects of history, against which women, children and
others less complete in their humanityshould be measured.These presupposi-
tions about men and women have existed in differentforms in many cultural
1) There is now a very large literatureon women in Indian society from the late eight-
eenth century. An excellent introductionto this is still the collection of essays in Sangari and
Vaid 1989.
? KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden, 1999 JESHO42,1

48 ROSALINDO'HANLON
traditions,and have very often formed the basis on which much more complex
hierarchies of gender have been elaborated. As John Tosh and others have
argued,a particularconsequenceof these broad associationshas been to make
masculinitysocially invisible.2)Thus, we very rarely look at men as gendered
beings and gendered bodies: at what psychic and social investments sustain
their sense of themselves as men, at what bodily meanings and expressions
masculine identity may entail, at what networksand commonalitiesbring men
togetheron the basis of sharedgender identity,and what set them apart.
Masculinitymight be defined, then, as that aspect of a man's social being
which is gendered:which defines him as a man and links him to other men,
and conditionsother aspects of his identity, such as of class, occupation,race,
ethnicityor age. Definingmasculinityin this way does not, however,imply that
it is some kind of universalessence, to be sought out and identifiedwhatever
the cultural context. The purpose is ratherto explore the ways in which the
qualities, behavioursand roles associatedwith manlinesshave been defined in
differenthistorical contexts, how these have been selectively linked with par-
ticular social groups, and employed to create hierarchiesof various different
kinds, both between men and women, and amongst men. These cross-cutting
identitiescontaina furthercomplexity,in that the categoryof 'man' itself may
be inclusive as well as exclusive, and refer in some contexts to men and
women in general, consideredin relation to other ordersof being. This ambi-
guity emerges particularlystronglyin the political and ethical discourseson the
natureof humanperfectibilitywhich have featuredso largely in both Western
and Islamic philosophicaltraditions.Many strandsin each consider the possi-
bilities for human moral growth in ways which appearto include women, but
which in practiceidentify human virtue in masculine terms.3)Culturalunder-
standingsof what constitutes'manhood'in its variousforms have also differed
very widely, as have assumptionsabout its consequencesfor individual tem-
perament,behaviourand bodily experience.In the case of nineteenthcentury
Britain,for example, historianshave exploreda shift in the codes of manliness
currentamong governing and professionalclasses during the later nineteenth
century.These codes moved from the moralearnestnessof the Evangelicalsand
Dr Arnold, with their emphases on moral courage, sexual purity and civic
virtue,to the muscularand 'imperial'masculinityof the 1890's.4)But wherever
manhood is associated with power, however loosely or variably, it becomes
also a public social statuswhich must be strivenfor and maintainedin specific
2) Tosh 1994, p. 180.

3) See, for example, Ahmed 1992, pp. 39-125.
4) Mangan and Walvin 1987, pp. 1-7; Roper and Tosh 1991.

SERVICEIN MUGHALNORTHINDIA
MANLINESSAND IMPERIAL 49
social contexts,and to which the recognitionof peers is essential.Thus the con-

cept of masculinityis inherentlyrelationalin two senses. It is not only per-
ceived differencesfrom women that define and sustain its meaning, but also
the recognitionand affirmationof other men.5)As R.W. Connell has argued,
moreover,codes of masculinityin most societies have their own peckingorder:
some are superiorto others.Ruling groupsnot only valorise particularfeatures
of their own masculinecode; they often stigmatiseothers as marginal,deviant
or criminal,particularlythose which seem to undermineor discreditmen more
generallyas possessing a properauthorityover women.6)Sexuality is perhaps
the most obvious registerhere, given the formal stigmatisationof homosexual-
ity evident in many political and religious traditions,but other registers-of
class, culture,race, ethnicityor age-may equallyfeaturein the constructionof
'low' forms of manhood.7)
Thus relationallyconceived, the wider social elaborationof these codes for
men as well as women, their constructionin realms of economy and polity as
well as of kinshipsystems and households,constitutemajorthemesin the study
of gender.As Joan Scott has remindedus, however, gender is not only an im-
mediatedimension of social relationshipsin this way; it acts also as a wider
and particularlypotent means of signifying relationshipsof power in much
more general ways.') This is because the conceptual languages requiredin
these processesestablishtheir meaningsthroughdifferentiation,and sexual dif-
ference representsan immediately available and pervasively familiar way of
establishing differentiation.It works most strongly, of course, wherever the
meaningsof masculineand feminine are most categoricallypolarised,and dis-
tinctive sexual roles for men and women themselves affirmedand elaborated.
Most significantly,the relations,institutionsor other phenomenawhose mean-
ings are affirmedin this way may often have nothingdirectlyto do with sexed
bodies. In the South Asian context, for example, relationsbetween king, court
and temple, the distributionof roles in agriculturallabour, the natureof rela-
tions between imperialpowers and colonial subjects,even the qualitiesof par-
ticularlandscapesand ecological systemshave all been areaswhere sex-related
differencesbetween bodies have been invoked to constructmeaning,difference
and, usually, hierarchy.9)What makes this mode of establishingdifferenceso
5) Tosh 1994, pp. 183-5. See also Kimmel 1987 and Connell 1995 for an appraisal of
recent models for the study of masculinity.
6) Connell 1995, pp. 76-81.
7) For transgressivesexualities in a range of culturalcontexts, see Maccubin 1987; Hinsch
1990; and Murray and Roscoe 1997.
8) Scott 1986.
9) For the sexualisation of court culture in medieval South India, see Narayana Rao et al.

50 ROSALIND O'HANLON
pervasive and attractive,moreover,is that its origins lie seemingly in an un-

alterableworld of nature,beyond humanchallenge or power to change. Whilst
analyticallyseparate,these two levels at which gender works are interrelated,
its symboliccontentshapedby and in turnshapingmore immediatesocial roles
and codes.
This essay explores some of the ways in which gender identity and norms
for manhoodwere importantin the politicaland religious discoursesof Mughal
north India. Here, as Sanjay Subrahmanyamhas-recently remarked,the study
of broadersocial and culturalthemes still remainspoorly integratedinto pol-
itical and economic histories of the period.'1)I argue that a concern with the
meanings of ideal manhood ran through through these discourses and their
antecedentsin the wider world of medievalPerso-Islamicpolitical culture,con-
structingimportantand enduringlinks between kingship, norms for statecraft,
imperialservice and ideal manhood.These links were alreadyestablishedin the
traditionsof moral and political theory inheritedfrom the Delhi Sultanate,and
it was a critical part of Akbar'spolitical projectto strengthenthem. I examine
in detail the ways in which one high imperialservantin this period developed
and reflectedon these themes,and relatedthem to his own personalexperience.
I explore some of the ways in which definitionsof elite manlinessmay have
begun to change in the later seventeenth century, and their connection with
imperial service to fracture,with the emergence of more complexly stratified
urbansocieties in northIndia, and the developmentof an increasinglyebullient
and cosmopolitan ethos of gentlemanly connoisseurshipand consumption.I
look at some of the normativeliteratureassociatedwith these shifts, and sug-
gest that one of their consequencesmay have been to intensify the strains in
Mughal service morale associated with the last decades of the seventeenth
century.I conclude with brief comparativereflectionson these links in other
early modernstates.
Genderand the Meaningsof Manlinessin MughalNorth India

The north Indian context naturally reveals enormous regional complexity
and markedchanges over time, both in the range of codes and roles associated
1992, pp. 169-219; for gender-basedtaboos in agriculture,fishing and hunting, see Agarwal
1994, pp. 312-315. Sinha 1995 analyses the use of sexual language in representingBritish
authority in India. For discussion of the feminising effects of climate and landscape, see
Marshall and Williams 1982, pp. 129-38. These connections between sexual identity and
landscape are not exclusively European: for a South Asian example which makes similar
links between wetness, fecundity and the feminine, see Feldhaus 1995.
10) Subrahmanyam1992a, pp. 292-3.

AND IMPERIAL
MANLINESS SERVICEIN MUGHALNORTHINDIA 51
with manhood,and in the wider deploymentof sexual meaningsto creatediffer-

ence andhierarchy.Yet thereare also a rangeof commonthemes,reflectingproc-
esses of culturaladaptationand fusion.") High profilecodes of martialhonour
were sharedwidely amongst specialist militarycommunities;these overlapped,
but did not always coincide with the closely guarded sexual honour of pat-
riarchal householders.Great exemplars were naturallyimportantin defining
what it meant to be an ideal man, whether as ruler, warrior,householderor
lover. Some of these great exemplars,such as Ali, son-in law of the Prophet,
belonged to the great religious traditionsof India.'2)Other ideals emerged in
classics of Persian literature,such as the great romantic epic of Layla and
Majnun,or Firdawsi'scelebrationof heroismand tragedyin the Shah'ndmah.'3)
North Indianoral literaturessuggested some models, while othersderivedfrom
more local histories of virtuousrulership,exemplarycourage or extraordinary
devotion.14) Othertraditions,such as those of the greatwarriorascetic commu-
nities of northIndia, or the Islamic ideal of the ghczi as holy warrior,defined
manliness more in terms of self-controland bodily renunciation,and placed a
greateremphasis on disciplines of the body as the means to greaterspiritual
and physical strength.'5)Cross-cuttingthese particularisttraditionswere norma-
tive constructsof more generalapplication,such as the centralIslamic concep-
tion of dddb, at once moral training,cultivationof manner,bodily discipline
and spiritualrefinement,that representedan ideal for every culturedMuslim of
west Asia, and that extended to women as well as men. Every serious occu-
pation and activity had its own particularappropriateacddb,its own way of
fusing together practical action and spiritualmeaning. In more cosmopolitan
cultural settings, adddbalso denoted a generalised ideal of civilised and cul-
tured behaviourin which non-Muslimmen could share,which grew out of the
11) For an introductionto the small literature on South Asian themes which does exist,
see Sinha 1995. Carstairs1970 focusses on modern Hindu understandingsof adult manhood,
and contains some essential insights. Psychoanalytic perspectives are insightfully employed
in Kakarand Ross 1986, and Kakar1989.
12) Bulliet 1979, pp. 64-79 and Schimmel 1987, pp. 217-220 discuss the popular diffu-
sion of names such as Ali as an index of their status as exemplars.
13) For these models, see Kakar and Ross 1986, pp. 42-73. Davidson 1994 discusses
ideals of kingship and heroism in the Shdh'naimah.
14) See Blackburn et al. 1994, for exemplars in Indian oral epics, and for a local north
Indian example, see the canonisation of the Bangash warrior Dalel Khan in Bundelkhand,in
Irvine 1878, pp. 365-371. Irvine reportedthat at the age of 12, every Bundela boy was taken
to Dalel Khdn's tomb, his sword and shield placed on the tomb before being girded on, so
that he might absorb the dead hero's qualities.
15) For these warrior and monastic communities, see Ghurye 1964; Kolff 1971, pp.
213-8; Lorenzen 1978, pp. 61-75; van der Veer 1989, pp. 458-70; Pinch 1996.

52 ROSALINDO'HANLON
infusion of all mundaneactivity with spiritualawareness.'6)Underpinningthese

constructswere often elaborateand culturallypervasive understandingsof the
body, its sophisticatedsystems of humours,vital energies and emotions, the
best means of keeping them in equilibriumand of refining and concentrat-
ing them to create extraordinarypowers. These understandingswere clearly
informedby a range of biomedicaltraditions,notablyAyurvedictheoryand the
Indian Unani legacy of Graeco Arabic humouralmedicine. At the same time,
there were importantcommon themes here: the idea that powers and facul-
ties are acquiredthroughtechniquesof the body, the doctrineof bodily health
as an equilibriumof internalhumoursdependenton the right balance between
heat and cold, drynessand moisture,the minuteanalysis of the qualitiesof par-
ticularfoods, aromasand essences in maintainingthis balance,the sense of an
intimate connection between temperament,bodily constitution and physical
environment.17)
There were also significant parallels in the way that masculinity and the
male body were constructedin the multiple religious culturesof north India.
Male spiritualpower and bodily comportmentwere key issues for many forms
of sufi devotionalismas much as for Brahmanictraditionsof brahmachdryd.
This is made clear in the elaborationof somatic and sexual disciplines in the
normativeliteratureof sufi masters,which reflectedin partthe tension between
sufi emphases on asceticism and renunciation,and the Islamic scripturalre-
quirementthat all adultMuslims should marry.'")Both local Hindu and Islamic
forms of devotionalismoscillatedbetween extremeforms of hierarchyand sep-
arationin genderroles, and momentswhen these boundarieswere blurredand
transgressed.Thus the upsurge of devotionalism in medieval Hinduism en-
shrinedRama and Krishnanot only as compelling figuresin popularworship,
but as great exemplars,whose qualitiesof selfless courage,spiritualstrengthor
playful inventivenesswere celebratedrepeatedlyin the oral literaturesof north
India such as the pervasivelypopularRdmcharitramdnds.'9) Islamic devotional-
16) Metcalf 1984, pp. 2-5.

17) For patterns of cross-fertilisationbetween Indian, Greek and Persian humoural tradi-
tions, see Filloziat 1964, pp. 196-279. Forhumouralaspectsof Ayurvedictheory,see Zimmerman
1987, and in Indian Unani medicine, Azmi 1995, pp. 93-119; Ullman 1978 pp. 55-71; and
Bagchi 1997, pp. 71-81. Relations between late pre-colonial Indian and Western medical tra-
ditions are described in Pearson 1995, pp. 141-170. For the domestication of humouralmed-
icine in wider Asian contexts, see Good and Good 1992, pp. 257-71, and Laderman 1992,
pp. 272-88.
18) See, for example, Lawrence 1994, pp. 152-5; Schimmel 1979, pp. 122-30. For a gen-
eral history of sufism in India, see Rizvi 1983. For sexuality and marriage in medieval
Islamic societies, see Bouhdiba 1985, pp. 88-100.
19) Lutgendorf 1989, pp. 34-61.

MANLINESS AND IMPERIALSERVICE IN MUGHAL NORTH INDIA 53
ism often elaboratedsimilarlypolarisedroles for men and women, based on the

idea that women's procreativefunction made them particularlyvulnerableto
the nafs or lower self, unlike men, whose superiorqualitiesof intellect or 'aql
renderthem better able to control their own nafs.20)As AnnemarieSchimmel
has argued,the true hero of sufism is the 'man,' fatci', mard,javdnmard,and
many sufis comparedthe nafs to a waywardwoman seeking to entrapthe striv-
ing soul on its path to God.21)Not only worship,but all worldly activity could
be classified on elaborate grids of sexual difference. Thus for the thirteenth
centuryIndianmystic JamalHHnswi,'The seeker of the world is feminine, the
seeker of the other world is a hermaphrodite,and the seeker of the Lord is
masculine.'22)
At the same time, these spiritualdiscoursescould apparentlymake such dis-
tinctions more permeable,or appearto transcendthem altogether.Drawingon
other qualitiesimputedto women, their ability to inspireand experiencepartic-
ularly intense love, sufi religiosity often representedits saints as the adoring
brides of God. In Indian sufism, the nafs became the equivalentof the Hindu
virahini, the loving spouse partedfrom her Lord, just as Vaishnavadevotees
sometimes expressed their passionatelove in the feminine imagery of Radha
and the g6pi playmatesof Lord Krishna.23) Sufi religious thoughtcould appear
to transcendthese distinctionsaltogether,as concern with the natureof ideal
manhoodshadednaturallyinto reflectionon the possibilitiesfor humanperfec-
tion more generally.Thus later sufi thoughtoften representedman as journey-
ing spirituallythougha long series of 'unveilings,'in which a select few would
finally recognise the divine image within themselves. Particularlyassociated
with the great thirteenthcenturymystic Ibn 'Arabi, this doctrinedistinguished
the 'perfectman,' inscdnkmil, from all other conscious beings-men, women,
lesser forms of life-who were content with low levels of spiritualawareness
and concernedonly with the mundaneandmateriallevels of existence.Thusonly
a tiny proportionof men were actually 'true' men, markedout by their will-
ingness to endure every kind of pain and hardshipon the journey to ultimate
spiritualilluminationand union with the divine love.24) Here, then, the juxta-
position between men and women seemed to be suspended in favour of an
20) Lawrence1994, p. 153.

21) Schimmel1980, pp. 428-29 and Schimmel1979, pp. 136-40.
22) Schimmel 1979, p. 130.
23) For permeable gender boundaries in South Asian religious traditions, see Singer
1966; Schimmel 1980, pp. 139-41; Hiltebeitel 1980-81; Kakar and Ross 1986, pp. 74-103;
Goldman 1993; Gupta 1993; Lawrence 1994.
24) For discussion of these themes in sufi thought, see Naimuddin 1971; Chittick 1979;
Schimmel 1989.

54 ROSALINDO'HANLON
essentially spiritualdistinctionbetween the illuminatedfew and the many still

besotted with the world. Saintly women might attain to these forms of perfec-
tion, which were genericallyhumanratherthan specificallymasculinein char-
acter. At some level, however, the insdn kdmilremainedin ambiguoussenses
essentially a man. Women could come to possess those qualities of body and
spirit, but this very often meant meant that they could no longer be considered
merewomen. They were praiseworthypreciselybecause they were so unlikethe
generalityof their sex. As the great thirteenthcenturymystic Fariduddin'Attdr
asserted:"Whena woman walks in the way of God like a man, she cannot be
called a woman."25)
The emergenceof Indo-Persiancourt culturein northIndia duringthe period
of the Delhi Sultanateprovided another critical arena for the elaborationof
codes definingmanliness,javanmardi,and normsof comportmentfor the male
body. In this context too, it is the parallels and culturalfusions in political
idiom that are striking,as much as the differencesof region or culturaltradi-
tion. Here, the power of the male body was much more an outwardlydirected
and expressive one, based less on the concentrationof innerenergies and more
on the intenselypublicenactmentof universalkingshipin the ritualsof display,
consumptionand gifting that were central to the political cultureof the Delhi
Sultanate.Patrimonialthemes featuredimportantlyin the public constructionof
royal authority:the king was at once father to all of his subjectsand husband
to the wider realm. The image of the kingdom as householdextended also to
the householdsof great nobles, with their own circles of clients, servants,and
dependents.26) Gifts of ceremonialdress, signifying the incorporationof these
clients and servantsinto the king's body, transmittedhis own forms of patrimo-
nial authority,and confirmedtheirrecipientsin their own more localised forms
of power over lesser courts and households.27)Conspicuousconsumptionwas
fundamentalto these forms of authority,not only to affirmits magnificence,but
to demonstrateits benevolent and fructifyingpower throughoutthe realm by
distributionof wealth in exchange for the wares of all of its subjects.28)Many
25) Quoted in Schimmel 1975, p. 426. These ambiguities have continued to shape dis-
cussion of the place of women in sufi tradition:see Schimmel 1982.
26) For a 'patrimonial-bureaucratic' model of Mughal imperial authority,see Blake 1979,
pp. 77-94. For more general histories of the culture of the imperial court, see M. Athar Ali
1997; Richards 1993. For a survey of the literature,see Subrahmanyam1992a.
27) For these aspects of ritual incorporation,see Buckler 1927-8, pp. 238-48, and Cohn
1989, pp. 312-6. For the constructionof imperial authorityin northIndia more generally, see
Richards 1978, pp. 252-85.
28) Bayly 1986, pp. 297-302.

elementsin the politicaldiscourseof the Sultanate--Persian'mirrorsfor princes'

works, akhldqliterature,sufi conceptionsof the 'ideal man,' insdn krdmil,clas-
sical Sanskritprecepts of statecraft-also constructedlinks between kingship,
the service of kings and norms for ideal manhoodin the range of senses dis-
cussed above.29)Fromthe late sixteenthcentury,these genderedidioms of king-
ship were elaboratedin importantnew ways. Akbar and his court supporters
soughtto strengthenthese associationsbetweenimperialservice and ideal man-
hood, and to make them a more public and explicit part of court culture.
Reworkedbodily and sexual codes for imperialservantsemphasisedthe possi-
bilities for moral and human perfectionin all of the homologous worlds that
men inhabitedas governors:the kingdom,the householdand the body. These
eclectic normsfor ideal manhoodwere intendedboth to transcenddifferencesof
law and religion, caste and region, and to presentimperialservice as the best-
indeed the only--medium for its realisation.This strategyin turnformeda part
of the wider Mughal project to create a new north Indian cultural synthesis.
These north Indian models of patriarchaland heterosexualmale virtue were
contrastedwith the transgressiveand debasedpracticesof outsidersfrombeyond
the Oxus, or of the southern,Iranian-influenced courts of the Deccan.30)
These perspectivesopen up new possibilitiesfor the understandingof a range
of issues in social life, politics and the state in Mughal India. This essay ex-
plores the way in which particularindividuals in imperial service negotiated
these bodily codes, and employed wider idioms of sexual differencein their
understandingof imperialauthorityand imperialservice. The essay also sug-
gests some of the ways in which these codes and idioms may have changed
between the early-seventeenthcenturyhigh point of Mughalimperialpower to
its periodof crisis and disintegrationin the first decades of the eighteenth.The
work of John Richards in particularhere has been helpful in exploring the
codes of honour, loyalty and dignified subordinationwhich informedMughal
imperialservice, and particularlythe shift from the intenseemotionaltie of dis-
cipleship as it developedunderAkbar,to the more generalisedethic of loyalty
and hereditaryservice embodiedin the ideal of the khdnazdd.31)Yet these codes
were not only about honour, service and dignified subordination.They were
also aboutthe meaningsof ideal manliness,the bodily disciplineswhich helped
develop them, and the possession of the right qualitiesof affability,tact, atten-
tiveness and decorum which a successful man needed to forge networks of
29) For these themes, see Nizami 1961 and Habib and Khan 1967.
30) O'Hanlon (forthcoming).
31) See in particularRichards 1984, pp. 255-289.

56 ROSALINDO'HANLON
friendshipand alliance in the overwhelminglymale public world of imperial

officers.Attentionto these themes, and to the wider use in these contexts of a
naturalisinglanguage of sexual difference,may provide new insights into the
constructionof imperialauthorityand the relationshipsamongstimperialserv-
ants which helped to sustain it.
There are difficulties of evidence here, of course. Familiarsources tell us
aboutthe qualitiesof the idealimperialservant,as in Abii'l Fazl'sprefatorydiscus-
sion to the A'in-i Akbari,itself a synthesisof some of the normativediscourses
described above. Contemporaryvalues can be extrapolatedfrom a range of
other importantnormativegenres. Sufi malfzadtliterature,the recordedtable-
talk of sufi masters,is useful here, as are the rich traditionsof Persianethical
and political writing about the ethical basis of state power and the virtues ap-
propriateto rulers.32)For images of man as ideal lover, the classics of Persian
poetry that were deemed an essential part of an educatedman's literaryreper-
toire form a rich source.33)Perhapsmost importantly,Mughal architectureand
painting represents an enormously valuable source for the representationof
imperial authorityand the values of ideal rulership,but one which social and
political historianshave yet to develop and use.34) What is more difficultis to
find the self-accounts of individual high imperial servants which go beyond
these public expressionsand make explicit their sense of what imperialservice
meant for their own personalways of defining or affirmingqualitiesof manli-
ness or masculine virtue.
Reworking Tradition: Muhammad Bdqir Najm-i Sdni

One possible source lies in the life and writing of MuhammadBaqir Najm-i
Sani, descendant of Amir Yar MuhammadKhan Najm-i Sani, the powerful
vdkil of the founder of the Safavid dynasty, Shah Isma'il Safavi. Muhammad
Baqir came from Persia to India in dire financialstraitseither towardsthe end
of Akbar's reign or at the beginningof Jahangir's,duringthe period of Shah
'Abbas's drive to limit the political and commercialactivities of Tajik elites in
the Safavid state. Linkedto the rulingfamily throughhis marriageto the niece
of Nor Jahan,he rose rapidlythroughthe imperial service underJahingir and
32) For sufi literaturein north India, see Rizvi 1983; for ethical and political writings, see
Lambton 1981.
33) For this imagery, see Yarshater 1986, pp. 971-6.
34) For introductionsto Mughal painting, see Okada 1992; Beach 1992; Beach and Koch
1997; and for architecture,Asher 1995.

Shah Jahdn, serving as governor of Patna, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Gujurat,

Delhi, Jaunpurand Allahabad,until his death in 1637.35)In the biographical
dictionaryof ShahnavazKhdn,Baqiremerges as a man both of pen and sword.
A seasoned soldier, 'he was unequalledfor courage and he was the first of his
age for militaryskill.' Exemplarswereimportantforhim:he lovedto hearthe sound
of the trumpet,he always said, because Rustamused to listen to it.36) He was
extremely capable in political affairs and was not only well versed in music,
literatureand philosophy,but wrote himself a range of prose, poetryand theo-
logical works.37)
What makes Baqir such a useful source of insights into contemporarydefini-
tions of manlinessis thathe also reflectedin a wide rangingand systematicway
on his experienceas an ambitiousemigre imperialservant,and on the insights
that this gave him into the properconductof statecraft,and the best strategies
for a man's survivalin the competitiveworld of imperialservice. Throughhis
long career,he also made a particularpoint of collecting preciousideas, say-
ings and maxims from a wide range of Persian,Arabic and Indiansources.38)
He assembled these togetherinto a book, the Mau'izah-iJahdngiri, 'Admoni-
tion of Jahangir,'completingthe work probablyin 1612.39)He namedthe book
after his patronJahangir,but there is no evidence that the book was ever pre-
sented to the Emperor.It was dividedinto two parts.The first, 'On the Exhorta-
tion of Emperors'rangedover the qualitiesrulersneededif they were to govern
successfully:generosity,bravery,forbearance;personaldiscipline in governing
passions and the senses; the right balance between kingly dignity and the kind
of personalaffabilityneeded to draw friends;a sense of timing in dealingwith
enemies,of when to be lenientand when to punish.The second half of the book,
'The Admonitionof Subordinatesand Peers' set out the qualitiesand etiquettes,
the dddb, which emperorsshould cultivateand encouragein imperialservants.
Baqir used this second half of his book to define his sense of the connection
35) See Alvi 1989, pp. 11-13. The emperor Jahangiralso refers to him frequently in his
autobiography:Tfzuk-i Jahdngiri, Rogers and Beveridge 1978. He also features prominently
in the Ma'asir al-umard, the biographical dictionary of Shfhnaviz KhAn,1888, pp. 408-12.
For these waves of Irani and Tajik migration see Subrahmanyam1992b.
36) Ma'asir al-umard, vol. 1, p. 411.
37) For Baqir's literary and religious concerns, see Alvi 1979; Alam and Subrahmanyam
1996, p. 178.
38) Thus, for example, as governor of Orissa he detained the travellerMahmfidBalkhi at
his court so that the latter could translate treatises on 'Practical Wisdom,' hikmat-i "amali,
from Arabic into Persian. Alam and Subrahmanyam1996, p. 178.
39) See Alvi 1979, for an edition of the Persian text, with a translation and extensive
introductoryessay.

58 ROSALINDO'HANLON
between the adddbof personalstrivingand devotion in the service of kings, and

the particularqualities of ideal manliness,javdnmardi,throughwhich an indi-
vidual might cultivateit.
As a cultured and widely read state servant, Baqir was naturallyfamiliar
with the genres of normativeliteraturediscussedabove, with theiralreadyestab-
lished sense of the connectionsbetween kingship, the service of kings andideal
manhood.In reworkingthese genres and collecting his 'preciousideas,' he took
full advantageof their range and depth. Many parts of his text reflect sufi in-
fluences.Thereare frequentreferencesto the journeywhich must be undertaken
by the striving soul, and to the willingness to endureconstanteffort and hard-
ship to reach his goal which sets the 'true' man, mard, apartfrom lesser human
beings lacking in spiritual awareness or desire for moral elevation.40)These
questionsabout the conditionsfor humanperfectionnaturallyled to questions
of politics, and what kind of ruler, polity and social orderwas best calculated
to promotethe moral perfectionof subjects.One route towardsthis lay in neo-
platonic traditions of reflection on ideal rulership and human perfectibility.
These were availableto Baqir most easily throughthe medieval Muslim tradi-
tion of writing on akhldq,ethics or morals,which in the work of Nasir ud-Din
Tilsi in particularhad enjoyed considerablepopularityat the court of Akbar.41)
Other textual references are to ratherdifferentgenres dealing with statecraft.
His text reveals clear borrowingsfrom the classic moral tales of Kalilah and
Dimnah,with their extendedreflectionson wisdom in statecraftand strategies
for success in imperialservice, and theirown referencesto manliness,as a kind
of intense moral ambition,the naturaldrive of those with talent to rise to rank
and eminence.42)Baqir was also familiarwith the eleventh and twelfth century
Iranianclassics in the genre of 'mirrorsfor princes,' such as the QdbfisNcdmah
of Kayka'iis, al-Ghazali's Nasihat al-Mulak, and Nizdm al-Mulk's Siydsat
Ncmah. Thus, Baqir emphasisedthe set of universalvirtuesthat was appropri-
ate to rulers:of generosity,bravery(shujd'at)and high-mindedness(himmat-i
buland). For Baqir too, justice was centralto the success of the state, and the
ability to enforce it an indispensablequality of rulers. The language he used
was also a shared one. A range of terms was employed here to describe the
qualitiesof ideal manliness.Thus al-Ghazalidevoteda chapterto dar bulandi-yi
himmat-ipddshdhdn,'On magnanimityin Kings,' definedas khvishtan-ddri...
40) For sufism in the early modem Indian context, see Schimmel 1975, pp. 344-402.
41) A'in-i Akbari, vol. 1, A'in 34. For an introduction to akhldq literature, see Hardy
1977-8 and Lambton 1981, pp. 103-129.
42) Irving 1980, pp. 4-5, 111.

MANLINESSAND IMPERIAL
SERVICEIN MUGHALNORTHINDIA 59
wa pur-dili, 'self restraintand courage.'43) Many of his anecdotes illustrated

the personal munificence of successful rulers, their desire to relieve subjects
from want and care with a single great gesture. In other contexts, however,
where personalspirit and willingness to take risks were at issue, the termused
was javcnmard, literally 'young man,' but with the implicationof a particu-
lar ideal of generosity, bravery and spirit. Thus, for al-Ghazali, the qualities
of the javdnmardwere evident in his example of the adventurousnobleman
who forged his way into the court of a great patron, then risked all by de-
claring his deception, or in the patronwho refused to take back the largesse
bestowed on servantseven when the latter turnedout not to need them.") For
Kayka'iisin his QdbiisNdmah,javanmardiwas identifiedparticularlywith the
personalnobility-of bravery,self-restraint,truthfulnessand endurance-of sol-
diers.45)This was the term also that Baqir himself most often employed to
denote the kind of spirited and generous manliness which he associated so
stronglywith the pursuitof eminence and success in the service of kings.
In celebrating these qualities of javdnmardi, it is also importantto note,
Baqir not only drew on political discoursesinheritedfrom the Delhi Sultanate,
but connected himself to a much wider set of gendered practices in Middle
EasternIslamic society. For the aristocracyof medievalPersia,javanmardirep-
resented the translationof the older Arab-Islamicprincipleof futuwwa, from
fatd', literally 'young man,' connoting a man youthful and vigorous, stout-
heartedin warfare,gallant and generousin his treatmentof othersweakerthan
himself. In medieval Islam, the figure of Ali graduallyemerged as the great
exemplar, the fatd' par excellence. Over time, however, the principle of
futuwwa became elaboratelyembodiedin a whole variety of urbancommunity
organisations,usually of young men, that developed as a fundamentalelement
in the structureof medieval Middle Eastern society, and were often strongly
influenced by sufi ideals of corporateliving and personal virtue.46) In part,
futuwwahere representedan urbanexpressionof the more fundamentalconcept
of 'asabiyyah, the moral solidarity of the group in the Islamic polity made
famousin IbnKhaldun'sinterpretation of historyandtheoryof thestate.'Asabiyyah
representedthe general notion of such solidarity,andfutuwwa the qualities of
individual members throughwhich it might be achieved. With their defining
commitmentto comradeship,mutualloyalty and striving for moral perfection,
43) Nasihat al-Mulfk, tr. Bagley 1964, p. 119.

44) Ibid., pp. 127-31.
45) Qabas Namah, Levy 1951, p. 139.
46) For links between sufi orders and the medieval futuwwa corporations,see Schimmel
1975, pp. 245-7.

60 ROSALINDO'HANLON
these corporationsembeddedthemselves in local societies in a wide range of

different ways: sometimes as guild organisations, sometimes as the social
frameworkfor sufi solidarities,sometimes as local militia whose militaryand
sportingtrainingmade them valuableallies for city authoritiesand claimantsto
state power alike. The futuwwa also developed a range of courtly as well as
popularforms, possessed strong codes of sexual honour,and generatedrituals
of initiation and corporate bonding.47)The Persian normative discourse of
javanmardi,then, connectedwith these older and very widely diffusedprinci-
ples of male solidarity,honour,braveryand generosity,and was echoed in the
normativeliterarygenres discussed above.
While Baqir thus situatedhimself within a textual traditionwhich already
linked kingship, the service of kings and the natureof ideal manhood,he also
sought to reworkmany of its elements.He dispensedwith animalfables, anec-
dotes, and romancesas a means of exemplifyinghis moral perspectives,and
with the historicalexperienceof past rulersthat figuredso stronglyas a means
of impartingadvice in the work of al-Ghazalior Nizam al-Mulk.As we shall
see, he spoke ratherin practicaland directterms,clearly relatedto his own ex-
perience as an ambitiousand sometimeslonely emigre, strivingto capturethe
mutablestar of imperialfavour,and to negotiatethe ritualsand pitfalls of court
society. He put forwardhis own very clear sense of the best way for a rulerto
manage his officers and clients: of the combinationof kindness and severity
needed to get the best out of servants,of the importanceof matchingindividual
men to their posts, and of the need to pay careful attentionto these servants'
own sense of theirrelativeplaces in the courthierarchy.Likewise, loyal friends
were valued not for abstractreasons, but for the very real ways in which they
might bring solace to a man's life and provide help in his personaladvance-
ment. Here, the principleof solidaritybetween men powerfullyinvoked in the
older discoursesof javanmardiandfutuwwa, take on an immediateand practi-
cal significance.Baqir'sdiscussionof wealthandpoverty,andhis poignantdescrip-
tion of the constanthumiliationsto which men withoutmeans were exposed in
contemporarysociety, also read very much like the personal experienceof a
man who has known both. Also unlike many other works in the same genre,
Baqir did not devote a separate,formulaicchapterto describingthe qualitiesof
heroism,courageor magnanimitythat definedsuccessfuland high rankingmen.
Rather,he integratedhis accountof what it meantto be 'a man,' mard,
javmn-
mard,into his broaderdiscussionof the qualitiesneededfor success in the serv-
47) A good introductorydiscussion to the futuwwa is in Hodgson 1974, pp. 126-31. See
also Encyclopaedia of Islam, 'asabiyyah and futuwwa.

ice of kings. What emergedwas his strongsense of an importantpracticalasso-

ciation between the two: between a particularkind of manhoodbased on strug-
gle and striving,and the drive for preeminencein imperialservice.
Given these links, it was naturalthat Baqirshould open the importantsecond
half of his book with a discussion of the complex and delicate art of friend-
ship.In placingfriendshipso centrally,he followed an establishedconventionof
the 'Mirrors'genre, which itself had well-establishedclassical antecedents.48)
Yet the detail and intensityof this partof his discussion,the forcefulnessof his
insistence that a circle of mutuallycommittedfriends was quite indispensable
for an ambitiousman's happinessand success, also suggests a connectionwith
personalexperience.The strengthof Bdqir's insistence here also reflectedthe
criticalimportanceof the alternativeand cross-cuttingconnectionsof family for
a man's advancementin imperial service. To advocate the equal value of ties
of friendship,Baqir needed to suggest a particularlypowerfulethos of mutual
support,and the kind of intimacy that could only arise between men with a
sharedcommitmentto the strugglefor eminence, and mutualconcernfor each
other's inner and outer perfectibilityas men. This was not simply the view of
an emigre and outsiderwithout family connectionsto sustain him: as we have
seen, Baqirhad himself marrieddirectlyinto the imperialfamily. What is strik-
ing here, indeed, is the sense of intimacy about friendshipin Baqir's discus-
sion, of the convictionnot only that friends should be absolutelyfaithfulallies
in a man's worldly strugglefor eminence,but that a critical partof this lay in
a mutual concern and engagementwith each other's inner qualities as men,
with the effort to shape and perfectthose qualitiesin what ought to be an on-
going struggle for personal reformation.Thus, friendshipwas very much the
friendshipof a group, who 'affiliateboth in times of prosperityand adversity,
affluenceand impoverishment.Throughadversitiesin fortuneand calamitiesof
Time, they stand by each other, sincere in helping to facilitate their [returnto]
successful,prosperousand affluentpositionsin society.'49)Since a man's circle
of friends needed to serve so many differentpurposes,helping him to perfect
his inner characteras well as to succeed in outward terms, the business of
choosing them was a matterof fine discrimination.Differentmen met different
needs. Knowledgeablemen were a sourceof happiness;men of particularvirtue
48) See, for example, Aristotle's discussion and classification of friendship in Book 7 of
the Eudemian Ethics: Barnes 1984, vol. 2, pp. 1958-1981. Arabic versions of Aristotle's eth-
ical works had been available to pre-Islamic moral writers in the Arab world, and were con-
veyed into Islamic moral thought during the great flowering of interest in works of Greek
philosophy and science between the ninth and twelfth centuries.
49) B~qir, pp. 78-9; 184. References here are to the English and then to the Persian text
in Alvi's edition of the Mau'izah.

62 ROSALINDO'HANLON
would take an interest in the inner struggle for self-perfection, and selfless
men could be relied on always to be sincere.Conversely,the friendshipof other
kinds of people brought specific types of harm: sensualists would disturb a
man's repose, hypocriteswould 'incessantly tell untruthfulstories about you
and transmitthem to otherpeople,' and the foolish or stupid could cause harm
even as they sought to do theirfriendsfavours.50)In makinghis choices, more-
over, the wise man would rememberthat most friendshipsbelonged to that
largerclass of things in the world that were simply impermanent,like 'the inti-
macy of rulers,the beauty of a beloved, the fidelity of women, the love of the
insane, the generosityof intoxicatedpeople, and the deception of enemies.'5')
With this caution in mind, however, the prudentman would proceedto search
out friends with the right qualities,who would earnestly point out his short-
comings and persuadehim to reform,who would repeatedlypraise his virtues,
who would rememberthe favourshe owed and stay true throughthe inevitable
vicissitudes of friendship.These were the qualities, of constancy and fealty,
which marked out 'the practice of manly (javdnmardi)' and accomplished
individuals.'52) Interestingly in this context, Baqir himself used the term
futuwwat to describe the generous solidarities of this kind of comradeship:
'Therefore,when you find great generosity (futuwwat), fidelity, well-wishing,
and affection in a friend,when you know that his love is free from hypocrisy
and that you are benefittingfrom the fruits of friendship and affection, you
must fully focus your attentionon his friendshipand love and must fulfill all
social duties."'53)He emphasisedthe intense mutual concern that this kind of
friendship should involve: 'Following an extended period of association and
friendship,ask him aboutyour drawbacks.In this probe,exercise extremedili-
gence and importunity.No matterhow many times he says, "I see no shortcom-
ings in you,"do not accept it. Showingyour disgust,repeatyour question.When
he mentionsyour faults to you, considerthat a gestureof his deep concernfor
you, express your happiness,and endeavourto remove that shortcoming.'54)
From friendship,Baqir moved to a discussion of wealth and poverty,and a
forceful assertionthat wealth alone enableda man to live with dignity and suc-
cess in the world. In this, of course, he set himself very much apartfrom the
contemporaryteachingof powerfulsufi ordersaboutthe superiorspiritualvalue
50) Idem.
51) Ibid.,p. 81; 186.
52) Ibid., p. 82; 188.
53) Ibid., pp. 83; 188-9.
54) Ibid., pp. 83-4; 189. Baqir's emphasis on the moral scrutiny of friends is reminiscent
of AbW'lFazl's prescriptionsfor provincial governors: see A'in-i Akbari, vol. 1, p. 281.

of poverty and austerity."55) Poverty he saw unambiguouslyas a source of dis-

grace and disaster. This was partly because for most men, poverty actually
made it more likely that they would stray into crime. It was also that in the
social world Baqirfelt he knew so well, people did not assess a man's actions
for their intrinsicmerit;rather,they interpretedwhat he did in the light of his
materialcircumstances.In what seems to be a painfullyfelt assessmentof his
contemporaries'ways of measuringa man's worth, Baqirexplainedthat 'every
qualityfor which the wealthy are admired and praised evokes condemnation
andridiculein the case of the impoverished.'What appearedas sterlingvirtuein
the one attractedscorn and condemnationin the other. 'Braveryis considered
impetuousness,generosity prodigality,and affability meekness and spiritless-
ness. If he discriminatesin food and clothing, he is called self-indulgent;if he
manages with a [mere] cloak and little food, he is seen as afflictedand indi-
gent. If he settles in one place, he is brandeda slave [to that place] and deemed
ignorantof the world. If he resolves to travel, he is seen as stupefied,vagrant
and unfortunate.'56)
If it was legitimateto pursuewealth,however,Baqirwas very carefulto spec-
ify the purposeswith which a man might do so. Wealthshouldnever be viewed
simply as a means to luxury or personalindulgence,nor should it be pursued
avariciously,as an end in itself, since 'lust for luxury shows baseness and de-
gradation.' Undertakenin the proper spirit, however, there was a wonderful
connectionbetween wealth and virtue. It was not only that wealth allowed a
man to fulfil his own legitimate ambitions, to expand his talents and under-
standing,to ornamenthis dignity, and to make himself rememberedby poster-
ity. Properlypursuedand used, wealth enabled a man to benefit his friends,
clients and kinfolk. It meanthe could to extend support,provisionand largesse
to a wide circle of needy and dependent,much as a single strongeagle could
bring down prey and therebymake it possible for many othercreaturesto feed.
Thus, it was a matterof shame that a man should lose himself 'in the pit of
avariceandbaseness,'when by exertionand strugglehe could rise to the kindof
preeminencethat broughtglory to himself and sustenanceto others.57)
With this, Baqir returnedto his theme of manhood,and definedit as essen-
tially a willingness to take partin the wider arena of strugglefor advancement
and power. 'One must rememberthat throughstrivingan individualis led to his
intended destination.Traversingwith exertion the desert of endeavourbrings
55) For the growth of Naqshbandi influences under Akbar and Jahangir,see Rizvi 1995,
pp. 176-260.
56) Baqir, p. 86; 192.
57) Ibid., p. 87; 193.

64 ROSALINDO'HANLON
into view the beauty of one's [desired] goals. Whoever raises the banner of
strugglein the field of courage and in enduringafflictionseases his grip over
physical comfortand leisure, reacheshis destinationsooner.'"5)A man must be
willing to tolerateprivation,hardshipand suffering:only then could he call him-
self a man: 'No one can achieve his objective and drink the wine of his goal
from the goblet of his desire without enduring immeasurable suffering and
tasting unpleasantdregs. [Indeed] he can be called a "man"who rises to seek
his objective, tying round his waist the girdle of striving (kamar-i sa'y bar
miydnbasta) By keeping his aspirationhigh (himmatbulandddshta),he rejects
base actions. By rejecting the goals of petty and lowly people, he does not
stoop to trivial things like decrepitwomen ('ajaz).'59)
With this imagery of self-girding,evoked in explicit contrastto what was
womanly and base, Baqir also invoked a powerfulset of connectionsbetween
manliness and contemporaryunderstandingsof the male body, conventionsof
dress, and the adab of struggleand service. In these culturalterms,the strength
of a man's waist and back were critical markersof his manliness, in a way
which parallels the English sense of 'girding the loins,' but also goes beyond
it. Thus a man who was kamarband, 'waist boundup,' signifiedone ready for
action, service and battle. Kamar basta on its own also denoted bravery or
heroism.6) Nor, it is worth bearing in mind, were these associationsbetween
manlinessand strengthof waist and back entirelyarbitraryones, in a military
culture which placed such premium on the cavalryman's skills in wielding
heavy weapons on horseback.61)Susti-yi kamar, 'feeble waisted,' on the other
hand,had the meaningnot only of generaldebility in a man, but of actualsex-
ual impotence.62) These meaningsextendedto forms of masculinedress, where
the sash, kamarband, kamarpesh or patkdhad developedas an importantitem
of a man's public dress for attendanceat court, and formed an essential com-
ponentof the robes of honourconferredon imperialservantsat court.Even in
the stylised forms which the Mughal sash developed in the context of court
ratherthan battlefield,it continuedto signify a man's readinessfor immediate
action and service. It boundup his waist, it carriedhis dagger and otheressen-
tial personalitems, and, at the courtof Baqir's patronJahangirin particular,its
58) Idem.
59) Ibid., p. 88; 194.
60) Steingass, p. 1049. Thus nobles in attendance at court are frequently spoken of in
contemporarysources as standing with waists girded up, ready for service: see, for example,
Beach and Koch, p. 113.
61) For Mughal military drill and exercises designed to develop these strengths,see Irvine
pp. 182-9; Phul pp. 49-52; Sharar, pp. 109-14.
62) Steingass, p. 681.

shape and decoration came to be powerful signifiers of personal allegiance.

To appearin public assembly at court without one was virtuallyto appearin
undress, and to imply refusal of service, even wilful contemptfor authority:
kamar duzdidan, 'stealing the sash' was to disobey or to refuse service.63)
Rectitudein outer comportmentwas again intimatelylinked to a man's inner
disposition.
Having invoked these compelling images, Baqir returnedto his theme of
strivingin the service of kings. Thus a man must be preparedto travel, 'if there
is no possibilityof ascendancyin one's own homeland,'and to endurethe rend-
ing pain of separationfrom family and loved ones. Here again, the image of
the eagle recurred,this time as the close companionof rulers:'The reason that
the wrist of the ruler is made the resting place of the eagle is that it does not
lower its head into a nest.' So also must a man be preparedto travel far and
fast, like an eagle, in pursuitof his goals.6) This was a spiritualas much as a
physical journey, and here classic sufi themes and images emerge as he de-
scribedthe importanceof journeyand quest in markingout the 'true' man. The
static tree falls victim to axe and saw; the constantmovementof the sky, on the
other hand, elevates it above all else. The strivingsoul, no less than the ambi-
tious servantof kings, needed constantlyto move onwardstowardsits goal.65)
Most importantly,however,in this philosophyof strivingand actionfor success
in imperial service, true manhooditself came to be defined by willingness to
take part:'In sum, toiling is the vocation of valiant men and the occupationof
the valorous.Only that individualcan be considereda "man"who, renouncing
his life, steps into the arenaof "quest"and, not deterredby hardwork,performs
to expected and achievablelevels of strivingand endeavour.'
Either we step over the sky to achieve our goal
Or we submit to the struggle like a 'man.'66)
Baqirwas also carefulto includea caveat in this partof his discussion,to build
a certain personal fortitudeand imperviousnessto fate's vicissitudes into his
63) Steingass, p. 1049. For Mughal court dress, see Cohn 1989, pp. 312-6, and for court
dress an as index of political affiliation in South India, Wagoner 1996, pp. 851-880. For a
history of the sash, see Kahlenberg 1972, pp. 153-66. British colonial culture in India inher-
ited this intense concern with the waist as a significant region of the body, to be protected
by cholera belts from disease and flannel from heat. See Collingham 1997, p. 220.
64) Baqir, p. 90; 196.
65) For these images in the great poet mystic Rumi and before him in the twelfth cen-
tury court panegyrist Anvari, see Schimmel and Welch 1983, p. 90. Anvari's qasida on the
poet's journey and the importanceof travel featured in one of the illustrateddivdn specially
created for Akbar.
66) Ibid., p. 91; 197.

66 ROSALINDO'HANLON
definitionof manhood.In his quest for glory, a man should also look beyond
worldlypower and eminence,and seek to develop higherqualities,such as were
beyond the mutabilityof materialsuccess: 'Good speech, laudableactions, vir-
tuous character,and good mannersare territoryimmunefrom the catastrophies
of fortuneand reversionsof Time.' The true man should also develop the per-
sonal fortitudethat would enable him to encounterlife's inevitablevicissitudes
with dignifiedequanimity.Thus, 'the individualwho gallops his steed of cour-
age in the field of contentmentshouldbe considereda man. He is neitherexhil-
aratedon having materialthings, nor expressesregretson their loss.'67)
If BAqirsaid a lot about what it was to be a man, he also contrastedthis
with womanhood,in a range of interestingways. At one level, his referencesto
women stronglyechoed the hostility to women of other works in the genre.68)
BAqirrepeated their warnings about women's faithlessness, their intellectual
weakness, their obsessions with worthless and petty things. As we have seen
above,the strivingof a manwas contrastedwith the trivialitieswith whichwomen
concerned themselves. As he elaborated these contrasts, Baqir borrowed
freely from such stock images of women. Thus women's loyalty and theirphys-
ical charmsbelonged to the world of transitorythings: 'the summercloud, fra-
grance of a garden,beauty of comely faces, and the fidelity of women.'69) The
companyof women was amongstthose things in the world that always entailed
dangerousconsequences:'imperialservice without peril; worldly wealth with-
out pride; harmonywithout effort; company of women without disaster; and
associationwith scoundrelswithout disgrace.No-one traversesthe path of sen-
suality and does not fall to temptation.No man associateswith a woman and is
not carriedaway by diversetemptations.'70)In anothervery commonimage, the
world of transitorymaterialattractionswas also an old, husband-killingwoman,
who 'displaysherselfto the people in the garb of newly-wedbrides and entraps
the hearts of unwise and haughty individualswith her short-livedcharm and
ephemeraladornments.71)
At the same, time and in the light of his discussionof manhood,Baqir may
be here have been doing rathermore than simply repeatingthe formulaicmale-
dictions of the Persianliterarytradition.For his theme here was not only the
67) Ibid., p. 95; 201.

68) Fora discussion
of thishostility
ina rangeof medieval
Iranian seeSouthgate
literatures,
1984, pp. 417-25. For a broader discussion of traditions of bawdy and satirical writing in
medieval Persian that have been suppressed by modern literary criticism, see Sprachmann
1995.
69) Bdqir, p. 98; 204.
70) Ibid., p. 81; 177.
71) Ibid., p. 97; 203.

contrast between women as a trivialising and deficient sex, and the men of
endeavourand discernmentwho were drawnto the challenge of imperialserv-
ice. The language of sexual difference served in much wider ways to give
meaning to his vision of rulershipand its service. Thus he presentedthe quest
for rulershipas itself very like the drive to sexual conquest, full of the same
urgency and the same jealous rage againstrivals. Empirewas a virgin, whom
rulersstroveto possess in the face of competitorsand enemies: 'Victoriousem-
perors satisfy their driving passion for the virgin lady of sovereign rule only
when the glare of their flamingsword has erasedfrom life's tabletthe name of
their maliciousenemy.'72)If rulerswere the jealous conquerorsof this alluring
lady of empire,imperialservantswere her admirersand lovers. Thus emperors
must always increase their numbers of retainers and servants, for empire's
splendour,just like that of a woman, increasedthe greaterthe numbersof its
lovers: 'It is said that the position of an empireis that of beauty and elegance.
The more lovers of a charmingbeloved there are, the more increasedsplendor
there is in her appearance.'73)Not only, therefore,were men most truly men in
the pursuitand service of empire. The latter also stood as a kind of idealised
sexual outlet, where men's sexual energies could be transmutedinto a striving
for power and eminenceas compellingas the drive to conquerbeautifulwomen.
In Baqir, then, we have somethinglike a vision of imperialservice and the
manhoodof takingpartin it. In developingit, he situatedhimself clearlywithin
a pre-existingtraditionof reflectionon these themes, and drew frequentlyon
the sentimentsand maxims he found alreadyelaborated.His evident debts to a
much older traditiondo not devalue his writing as a source for the early sev-
enteenth century. They point rather to the longer term commonalitiesin the
experience of those seeking state service in early modern India, and to the
strengthenedrelevancein the early seventeenthcenturyof older normativelit-
eratureslinking kingship,imperialservice and ideal manhood.
Changing Codes in the Later SeventeenthCentury

I want now to turn to look at how some of these meaningsof manlinessin
the context of imperialservice may have changed over the course of the next
half century. I want first to explore what seems to be a gradual change of
emphasis in the codes of ideal manly identityassociatedwith imperialservice
which may have emerged out of the more self-consciouscultivationof luxury
72) Ibid., p. 49; 151.

73) Ibid., p. 69; 174.

68 ROSALINDO'HANLON
in the Mughalcourtunderthe emperorsJahangirand Shah Jahan,and the elab-

orationof much more formal and hierarchicalsocial codes. Here, we seem to
see the developmentof much more complex models for a new kind of courtly
masculinity:man as sophisticatedgentlemanconnoisseur,cosmopolitanin expe-
rience, refinedin literaryand poetic sensibility,elegant in person,fastidiousin
dress, and intenton his own bodily cultivationwith a greaterdegree of individ-
ual self-concern.These later seventeenthcenturyemphasesmodify, develop and
sometimesradicallychangethe concernsthat were importantfor Baqir.His affir-
mation of travel as a means to personaleminence becomes here a celebration
of cosmopolitanexperience,as providingcultivatedmen with a properknowledge
of people, places and commodities.His emphasison the virtueof constantmove-
ment for the ambitiousis replacedby a much more static model, stressingcare-
ful arrangementof the home and domestic space, to provide an environment
conduciveto the innercultivationandouterdisplayof manlyrefinement.Friendship
and relationswith peers were still important,but with less of Baqir's emphasis
on the values of mutual loyalty and shared striving. The focus of concern
shifted instead to the maintenanceof gentlemanlyprestigewith the right kinds
of hospitality,the shared attractionsof personal refinementwhich drew like-
mindedmen to one another,and intense concernto establishspatial and phys-
ical boundarieswith the cultureof servants,menials and the bazaar.Imperial
service still matteredfor this changing sense of cultivatedmanhood,but here
much more as a source of income and a setting for display: of the commo-
dities thata man couldcommand,of his skills as a connoisseur,and of his knowl-
edge of the right etiquettefor differentsituations.Nor was great eminence in
imperialservice invariablydesirable:it might also representratherrisk, thank-
less troubleand distraction,and subordinationitself was a degradingcompro-
mise of a dignifiedgentleman'sindependence.
Some at least of these connectionsshouldnot surpriseus, set againstthe pre-
vious centuryof expansionin Asian tradein luxury commodities,increasingly
efficient informationnetworks, of growing flows of migrantswith specialist
skills to offer and of culturalenvoys and travellersin search of political and
commercialinformation.Against this background,similar links between gen-
tlemanly prestige, cosmopolitanknowledge, access to foreign goods and over-
seas marketsand an ebullientethic of consumptionhad graduallybeen forged
in imperial centres throughoutWestern Asia, the Middle East and beyond
into Europe.74)These sharedculturaldimensionsof political centralisationand
urbanisationhave also in recent years helped to challenge the notion of Euro-
74) For these themes in the Indian context, see Hodgson 1974, vol. 3, pp. 90-92; Ali
1997, pp. 155-70, and in the European and Ottoman contexts, Jardine 1996, pp. 277-330.

MANLINESSAND IMPERIALSERVICEIN MUGHALNORTHINDIA 69
pean exceptionalism,and to suggest parallel patternsin state building and the

formationof elite culturesin early modem Europeand Asia."7)As Peter Burke
has argued,there are strikingEurasianparallelsin the emergenceof elite cul-
tures of conspicuous consumption between the late sixteenth and the early
eighteenthcenturies,as royal courts sought to tie their nobles more firmly to a
cultureof competitivedisplay, and as the consolidationof urbancentresaround
the court made the newly wealthy a more prominentfeature of social life.76)
Neither was the growing importanceof commoditiesand culturalknowledges
from Safavid and Ottomanterritoriesand beyond necessarily in tension with
the forging of patrimonialconnections within different parts of the empire
that underlayearlier patternsof consumptionat the Mughal court. Given the
frequencyof contactbetween these imperialcentres,and the careful cultivation
of diplomaticlinks between the Mughal and Safavid courtsin particular,these
circulationsof commoditiescould themselvesbe viewed as a magnifiedsystem
of gift exchange, affirmingthe power of both of these royal houses by simul-
taneous demonstrationof access to distant marketsand patronageof domestic
manufactures.77)
In the northIndiancontext, these shifts carriedcomplex and ambiguousim-
plications for the constructionof male virtue and power. There is no escaping
the sense of dominanceand control here: a gentlemanis defined both by his
knowledge of manners,commoditiesand culturalrepertoires,and by his ability
to command, to savour and consume them as connoisseur.Humouralunder-
standingsof the body, and a strong sense of the psychic effects to be achieved
throughbodily disciplines,continuedto be importanthere. These forms of con-
noisseurshipenabled a man to create the pleasing physical environmentmost
conducive to inner equilibrium,to surroundhimself with textures,fragrances,
colours, tastes and sounds that would foster an ever greater emotional and
spiritualrefinement.The dynamic thus establishedbetween body, person and
environmentalso implied a strongersense of bodily individuation,expressedin
sensuous engagementwith a wider and more diverse world of accessible com-
modities. At the same time, however, the very exquisitenessof these forms of
refinement,the overridingconcernwith personaldignity,the aversionto all that
For a widerdiscussionof the significance

of theseflowsof commodities,
see Appadurai
1986, pp. 3-63.
75) These new 'connective' histories are discussed in Lieberman 1997.
76) Burke1993, pp. 148-161.See also Wills 1993, pp. 133-47.
77) Thus, for example, correspondence between Jahangir and Shah 'Abbas I frequently
refers to the exchange of gifts, and gratitude for the procurementof a whole range of rare
articles--goblets, astrolabes, horses, rubies, clocks, medicines-from Middle Eastern and
European markets. See Islam 1979, pp. 143-219.

70 ROSALINDO'HANLON
was vulgar and low, and the reductionof intellectualaccomplishmentalmost to

a set of social conventions,lent itself very clearly to caricatureand mockery,to
the suggestionthat these forms of masculinitycould be vitiatedand corrupt.Of
course,the sense of tensionbetweenthe luxuryandpolishedcivilities of the town
and the plain brotherlysolidaritiesof the warriorbandor tribalbrotherhoodhad
long been an importantpart of medieval Islamic political reflection,elaborated
into a complex theory of the rise and decline of dynasties by the historian
courtierIbn Khaldfin.78) However,it is possible to see the beginningsof a more
specific north Indian critiquedevelopingfrom the mid-seventeenthcentury.
Knowledge,Connoisseurshipand Consumption:Defining the 'Real' mirza

Evidence about these codes emerges in a range of differentsources, particu-
larly in biographicalaccounts of individual noblemen, their sophisticationas
connoisseurs,their refinementin mannersand their cosmopolitanexperience.79)
Most directlyhelpful, however,is the genre of mirzdndmahwrittenin India in
the later seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, which sought to define
mirzd'i, 'gentility' or 'gentlemanliness.' Mirzd'i derived from the Persian title
of mirzd,used as a suffixedtitle for kings, princesand later by noblemen,and
was widespreadin India as elsewherein the Islamicworld by the fifteenthcen-
tury. In India, it was appliedparticularlyto close kinsmenof the Mughals,and
to otherswith Timuridor Safavid ancestry.By the time of Akbar,however,the
official title of khan was beginning to supersedeit. It remainedin use princi-
pally amongstmen with Iranianor Turanianlinks in particular:Timuridprinces,
distant relations of the Mughal reigning family, Safavid refugee princes and
many otherIraniswith real or pretendedclaims of Safavidancestry,or descend-
ants of the most distinguishedTuranifamilies. The title was sometimes simply
assumed by men who pretendedto the right lineage; it could also be granted
by the emperor,as it was when Akbar conferredit on BahadurSingh, or Shah
Jahanbestowed it on the famous RajputgeneralJai Singh.80)
In India, however,mirzc and the qualitiesof mirzd'iassociatedwith it came
increasinglyto have a ratherdifferentsecondarysense, which broughtit close
to the sense of personalcultivationin addb. Like addb, the ideals of gentility
78) The Muqaddimahof Ibn Khaldfin is discussed in Gellner 1981, pp. 1-85.
79) The Ma'dsir al-umard is the richest single account of individual negotiations of these
etiquettes, but see also Dhakhirat ul-Khawanin, Desai 1993, from which Shahnavdz Khan
took much of his information.
80) Ahmad 1975, pp. 108-110. As it became more strongly identifiedwith Persian courtly
refinement and literary skill, the term also shifted from its postposed Turkish to its preposed
Persian use: Perry 1990, p. 221.

MANLINESS AND IMPERIAL SERVICE IN MUGHAL NORTH INDIA 71
and cultivationin mirzd'frested on the same implicit connectionbetween out-

ward bodily deportmentand inner moral life. It also carriedthe same intense
emphasison personalcultivation,on the infusion of every action with spiritual
awarenessin the quest for self-perfection.Yet therewere also importantdiffer-
ences. As an ethic, mirzd'fwas shapedby the particularsocial meaningswhich
grewup aroundthetitleof mirzd,as thelongstandingassociationbetweenPersianate
cultureand ideals of civility broadenedthe title to denote the social and spir-
itual refinementof any 'gentleman'of high birth with aspirationsto taste and
culture. Thus, mirzd'f implied the moral and personal cultivation of addcb,
but its meaningswere also colouredby their association with particularkinds
of social pretension,and this gave the terma narrowersemantic range and a
greatersocial specificity. In one sense, mirzd~'was itself a kind of dddb, the
ethic of a gentleman,usually but not exclusively an imperialservant,anxiousto
cultivate the moral and social refinementassociated with princes and great
nobles. However, its contentwas inevitablyinfluencedand given substanceby
the particularnorthIndianurbansettingof these socially aspirantgroups,by the
styles of domestic and materiallife they considereddesirable,and by the forms
of sociability, religious sensibility and sexual self-expressionwhose mastery
was seen as importantfor the culturedimperialservant.Shapedby this setting,
mirzd'icame to imply self-cultivationcarriedto a particularlyexquisitepitchof
spiritualand sensuous awareness,in which a man strove for perfectionsimul-
taneously in his physical environment,his social deportmentand his inner
moral self, and fastidiously avoided disturbance and contaminationby the
world of plebeians and the bazaar.Here too, the wider world of cosmopolitan
knowledge and access to new commoditieswere importantboth in constructing
the right materialsetting, and in providingthe mirzdwith a range of different
possibilitiesthroughwhich he might express his own individualsense of phys-
ical and moral perfection.Not that great materialluxurywas essential:in many
ways the connectionsmadeherebetweenphysicalandmoralbeautysharedmuch
in common with sufi spirituality,and many sufi mystics were known for their
qualitiesof mirzc'i.These associationswith a very particularsocial contextalso
imbued mirzd'iand the model of the mirzadwith importantsocial tensions not
presentin the concept of ciddb:its very self-consciousvirtuousityopened it to
parody.Mirzd'iwas also, as we shall see, a self-consciouslygenderedconcep-
tion, an ideal of personalcultivationspecificallymarkedout as exclusively and
inherentlymasculinein a way that dcdb,for all its typicalassociationswith male
elites, was not.81)Despite these differences,however, the more general concept
81) For women's development of addb, see Metcalf 1984, pp. 184-95.

72 ROSALINDO'HANLON
of adab remainedextremelyimportantin definingthe meaningof mirzd'i,both

in providingculturalauthorityforits emphaseson individualcultivation,andin lay-
ing out a wider semanticfield in which its particularmeaningscould be located.
These developmentsin the term, and particularlythe emergenceof conduct
manuals describing,defining and sometimes deridingthe figure of the mirza,
provide importantinsights into some of the particularmeanings coming to be
associated with elite manlinessin the later seventeenthcentury.They point to
the consolidationin Delhi and other northIndiancentresof a complexly strati-
fied urban elite, of greater and lesser amirs, lower ranking mansabdarsand
merchanthouseholds.These categorieswere not, of course, mutuallyexclusive:
Mughal imperial servantsinvested their cash revenues heavily in trade, both
directly in the purchaseof goods, often luxury commodities,and indirectlyin
capital advances to merchants.As we know, these great householdsand those
that emulatedthem provided,along with the imperialcourt,the most powerful
sources of demandfor luxury commoditiesin the empire, invested very heav-
ily in many types of building besides their own houses, from the charitable
sardy for travellersto mosques, gardens,tanks, bridgesand wells, formed crit-
ical sources of employmentto very large classes of domestic servants,crafts-
men and specialist retainers,and acted as very importantsources of patronage
for poets, scholars,physicians,musicians and dancers.82) Less well understood
are the finer social gradationsthat emerged within these upper and middle
strata of urbansociety and particularlythe culturaletiquettesthat came to be
associatedwith them. Most significantly,the social definitionof a mirzacopened
it as a status and set of aspirationsto any man of taste, cultureand refinement,
from the high-rankingamir to the lowly centurion. This, together with the
elaborationitself of a model for social emulation,suggests the emergenceof
new classes of lesser amirs, inferiorimperial servants,uppergentry and mer-
chant classes, anxiousto know how to cultivatea refinedsocial style. The writ-
ers examinedhere confirmthis impression,in that their principalconcernis to
define the boundariesof mirzd'tagainst upstartsand social inferiorsseeking to
pass themselves off as mirzd, but who had no proper understandingof the
social and spiritualcultivationthat a true mirzc should possess.
There is no doubt that conduct books of this kind can be very difficultto
interpret.We need to ask how far this particulargenre was actually new. In
addition,we cannotread social practiceoff from it in any straightforward way,
and the codes it offeredmust always have been a subjectfor negotiationrather
82) Chandra 1986, pp. 205-17; Ali 1997, pp. 154-170; Blake 1991, pp. 44-82. Contempo-
raries such as the Dutch factor Pelsaert also provided graphic accounts for the early seven-
teenth century: see Moreland and Geyl 1925, pp. 64-8.

than a rigid templatefor behaviour.On the question of novelty, Indo-Persian

literaturecontains conduct manuals of many differentkinds, from the akhlaq,
sufi and 'mirrors' genres discussed above, to the commonplace books and
works on householdmanagementoften compiledby Mughalwriters.The latter
also frequentlycontain guides to a whole range of gentlemanlyskills, such as
archery,divinationand letterwriting, and to the appropriateuses of commodi-
ties such as perfumes,cosmetics and intoxicants.83) Nevertheless,theredo seem
to be themes that are distinctive and novel in the Mirza Namah texts, which
connect both with what we know of the emergence of much more finely
stratifiedgentrygroups in the towns and courtcentres of northIndia, and with
the growingsense of threatto the exclusivityof imperialservice, which is well
representedin other sources.84)What marksthese texts off from earlier genres
is their self-conscious sense of connectionnot only with this particularurban
milieu, but with lesser gentry and much humblerimperial servantswithin it,
and with the ways in which these might aspire to the mannersof their social
superiors,but on much more modest salaries.Their concernwith commodities
extended beyond instructionin their use, or assessmentof their qualities,to a
very precise account of their significance and nuances in social settings. In
other ways too, there does seem a real social specificityin these very detailed
works, which may give them some value as sources for normativemasculinity.
Contemporariesoften described men of great culture and refinementas pos-
sessing all the talents of mirzd'f,and the title was often claimed in its preposed
Persian form."8)Lastly, the elements of satire in some of these texts suggest
that these codes and their implicationsfor gentlemanlinesswere indeed in some
form partof the culturalcurrencyof Mughalimperialservants,theirresonances
recognisedeven with the briefest or most mocking of reference.
I focus here on two of these conduct books, which contrastin interesting
ways. The first, available in the British Library,is anonymous,and probably
composed around 1660.86)The second has as its author one Mirza Kamran,
whose title playeddeliberatelyon thewordkdmrdn,meaningsuccessful,fortunate,
83) Some of these bayaz are listed in Marshall 1985, p. 577.

84) See, for example, the Tdrikh-i Dilkasha of Bhimsen Burhanpuri,who accompanied
Aurangzeb on his Deccan campaigns: 1972, p. 232.
85) See, for example, the description of the early eighteenth century poet and sufi mys-
tic Mirza Jan-i Jindn in the Muraqqa'-i Delhi of Dargah Quli Khan, Ansari 1982, pp. 64-5.
Interestingly,while he is described as 'having all the arts of mirza'i,' dddb was the term the
author used to denote the skills of the woman singer NOrBai: pp. 102-3.
86) Rieu vol. 2, 1966, p. 826. Rieu dates the BM copy as 1739, but the only other copy,
in the library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, is dated 1660, so it seems likely that the BL
copy reflects writing of this early date. Ahmad 1975, p. 99.

74 ROSALINDO'HANLON
voluptuouslyhappy.87)It is difficultto date, and its authoris hard to identify,

but it probablybelongs also to the later seventeenthcentury.88)Both texts set
themselvesthe same task.TheBL MirzaNamah,its authorexplained,was planned
as a manual to demonstratethe differences between the true mirzd and the
debased impostors the author saw trying to pass themselves off as such.89)
Mirz&Kamranexplainedthat he had travelledthroughHindustan,after having
visited Kashmirand Lahore,and observedthat 'a body of reckless men of this
country'had begun to give themselvesnew social pretensions,and in particu-
lar to pretendto the dignity of mirza't. 'As this slave [the writer] had some
rightfulclaim to this position,my sense of honourdid not allow me to let this
great revolutionand disorderunderminethe rules and regulationson which the
rank of a Mirza is based,' and so he wrote his own guide.90)Although the
details of properaccomplishmentsfor the mirzateach gave were very similar,
the two authorsapproachedtheir subject in markedlydifferentways. The BL
Mirza Namah was an earnest compositiondealing with the subject with care
and respect. Mirza Kamrdn'swork was in large part a wonderfulsatire on this
ideal of cultivatedmanliness,his words 'mixed with wit and humour,'to pro-
duce a deliberateparody, and conclusions 'each one of which may be called
the guide of Plato and the helperof Avicenna.'91)He had many precedentsfor
doing so, and his referenceto Greekantecedentssuggests that he was aware of
them. The classical Persiantraditionsof ethical and political writing had long
generatedtheir own parodies,most notably in the work of the fourteenthcen-
tury satirist 'Obayd-e Zakani,whose Akhlaq al-ashraf, 'Ethics of the nobles,'
lampoonedthe morals of post-MongolIran's ruling elite.92)
Thus, the BL MirzdNamahproposeda serious definitionof the basic quali-
fications for mirza'i:a pure family pedigree, a social position of dignity and a
mansab of at least a thousand,or income from elsewhere such as commerce,
sufficientto maintaina properstyle of life. But wealth alone did not make a
mirzd:rather,'purityof soul and uniquenessof attributesdistinguisha mirza,
whose actions are wholesome,who is pure in outwardappearanceand virtuous
in habits.' Interestinglyhere too, the writer suggested a move away from older
Mughalvalues of devoted personalservice. For the gentlemanconnoisseur,the
87) Steingass, p. 1009.

88) Husain 1913, p. 1. From stray internalreferences, Husain dates it to 1608, but Ahmad
suggests the late seventeenth century, which seems more plausible as its description of a
mirzd are too elaborated for such a early date.
89) Ahmad1975, p. 100.
90) Husain 1913, pp. 2-3.
91) Ibid., p. 3.
92) Sprachmann 1989, pp. 226-248.

demandsof high rank and personalbondage to the emperorimplied not eleva-

tion, but subordinationand servility: 'If a mirzd has enough for his status, he
should be grateful for it more than being a commanderof seven thousand,
because service and subordinationis degradingfor a mirzd.He should not be
beguiled by the attractionof the greatermansabs and the multitudeof horse-
men and footsoldiersin the service of great nobles. The lesser the headacheof
high status, the better.' For the real mirzd,therefore,it was actually far better
to hold the rank of an inferior amir than to aim for great office, for lesser
prominencewould leave him freer to pursuehis own real refinementof body
and spirit. Interestinglyhere, the authordescribedin great detail the kinds of
men who aspired to mirzd'i, but without success. Failed aspirantsto mirza'i
came from a range of social backgrounds:descendants of nobles who held
lesser ranks in the imperialservice and lacked wealth, but whose refinedtem-
peramentsmade them aspire to it: these were men who deserved sympathy.
Then there were foster brothersof kings, noblemenor great lords, intoxicated
with what was actually a very insecure and dependent position. Then there
were men who had accumulatedmere wealth out of love of money, and would
soon lose it and their pretensionsthroughquarrelsomenessand cupidity.Other
people again thoughtthat being a mirza meant 'pinningflowers to one's head-
gear and wearing a greenish or semi-greenishturbanand strolling througha
garden.' Real mirzd'iwas actually a spiritualand sensual experienceof much
greater depth: it was 'to inhale and imbibe the fragrance of the flower.'93)
MirzaKamran,on the otherhand,dealt with the 'serious' intellectualand artis-
tic accomplishmentsof the properlyeducatedand cosmopolitanmirzd--knowl-
edge of God, philosophy,grammar,correctspeech, the Gulistdnand Bostdn of
Sa'di by the age of thirty, the Arabic, Persian, Hindustaniand Turkishlan-
guages, compositionand accounts-in the form of a brief and deliberatelyslap-
dash list, reflectingas it were the incongruityof such profoundmattershaving
come to be the fashion accessories of men with pretentionsto gentlemanli-
ness.94) He then passed on to a much longer and fuller discussion of what he
clearly felt to be the real substanceof mirzc~'i:correctmanners,properdeport-
ment with superiors,inferiorsand friends, taste, dress, sensibilityand connois-
seurshipof fine things and places.
Both authors,then, dealt at length and in great detail with food, drink, the
etiquetteof bathingand dining, the appropriateways of furnishinga house and
garden in differentseasons, the kinds of smells and sounds properto like and
93) Ahmad 1975, p. 100.

94) Husain 1913, pp. 3-4.

76 ROSALINDO'HANLON
dislike, bodily comportment, hunting and warriorship. For the BM Mirza

Namah, what defined a mirza was not only knowledge, discernment and
the ability to commandcommodities,but also an extraordinaryrefinementof
manners and spirit in the use of these commodities, impelling him to avoid
everythingthatwas coarse, vulgaror undignified.Literary,historicaland philo-
sophical knowledgeswere important,but also Qur'anicexegesis, 'for an irreli-
gious mirzdis even more insigificantin the eyes of the accomplishedones than
an impecuniousmirza.' The mirza should use shikasta script for worldly pur-
poses and naskh for copying the Qur'an and other religious writings, and
should spend some hours in this occupation.He should be able to judge and
train horses and falcons. On the qualities of the warrior,interestingly,the BM
Mirza Namah had only a short paragraph,almost as a gesture to the conven-
tion that a Mughal noblemanwas a soldier as well as a gentleman.His pre-
ferredsport should be chawgan, the favouritesport of the Mughal cavalry. 'A
soldierly mirza is better than an unsoldierly one. He should not be inclined
to enjoy merely watching marksmanship.On the day of battle he should not
choose the ignominy of runningaway; at the time of action he should remain
firm like a soldier, even though he be killed.' At the same time, he should
choose his weapons carefully so as not to offend his sensibilities:'He should
learn to recognise the qualities of swords, and acquirethe science of archery.
He should not be all that inclined to use a matchlockmusket, so that the un-
pleasant smell of its fuse may not reach his nose.'95) Practicalartisticknowl-
edges were importanttoo: in music, the mirzd should know which instruments
and styles of music to like, and which to avoid for their associationwith 'peo-
ple who are shallow and ignorantand lack dignity.' Knowledge of music was
a great art, but the mirzdhimself should not bring ridicule on himself by per-
sonally taking part. He should not disgust his assembledfriendswith his own
unskilful singing, besides which 'Singing can lead to dancing and that neces-
sarily to other disgracefuland ignominiousactions.'96)
It was in the home and the hospitalityof the mirzd,however, that this com-
bination of knowledge, display and bodily discipline came together,to create
an environmentperfectlyconduciveto refinement.The details carefullyset out
here convey a very vivid pictureof the social ambitionsof these lesser amiri
and uppergentryhouseholds,the commoditiesvalued in them, the servantsand
clients they supported,and theirrole in cementingvertical as well as horizon-
tal social ties amongst the elites of the imperial capital. Thus, drinkingfor a
mirzdwas most suitablein the privacyof his home; if he had to drinkout, he
95) Ahmad 1975, p. 101. Chawgdn was the form of polo developed in the Mughal
cavalry.
96) Idem.

should keep his own bottle separateratherthan join in the general circulation
of the common bottle. He should pay careful regard to temperature,drinking
wine only when the weather was cool or damp. Colour, taste and fragrance
were all critical to the pleasureof his discerningguests, who shouldbe able to
enjoy a gold emboideredtable cloth, the shape and shine of glass and gold ves-
sels, and the translucenceof the wine. Tastes were carefully graded:quince or
pomegranateprovidedthe best relish with wine, with pistachios an acceptable
alternative.The mirzd 'should always provide perfumesin his parties:and try
to keep his partyfragrantwith them. All sorts of vases full of flowers in every
season shouldbe on view. He shouldkeep his feast colourful;so thatwhoever
departsfrom it may feel that he has been to the feast of a mirzd;that is to say,
he should departbearingthe fragrantsmell of scent and flower.'97)
Similar etiquettes governed the art of dining. Here, knowledge about the
varying qualities of importedand more local articles of consumptioncounted
as much as mannersat table. He shouldhave appropriatesour condimentswith
his meals accordingto season. To drinkwith his meals he should like juices of
pomegranate,mango, lemon and orange,especially that from Kashmir.Delicate
pilaffswere very appropriate:the writerdescribedhis having dinedwith a great
amir, who had particularlyrecommendedpilaff 'because it did not grease the
hand and he did not have to try hard to cleanse his hand with a towel, which
was disgusting.' Some vegetables were much more fitting than others:cooked
turnip,even in winter,was too coarse for a mirzd,as were thick brothsof goat
meat or barley. Delicately flavouredbroths and vegetables such as beetroot
offered a preferablealternative,for 'beetrootis a food fit for a mirzd, being
agreeable,colourfuland sweet.'"9) He should know which were the best fruits,
pickles and accompanimentsfor differentdishes, such as 'the fruit of Kuch-
Bihar and the Sumatraof Akbarabad,'which were delicacies made especially
for the mirzd.He ought to enjoy sugarcanefrom Bihar and Akbarabad,'on con-
dition that he does not pile up the chewed refuse in front of himself.' Other
foods, such as the radish, should be avoided at all costs, for 'the belch which
follows the eating of radishesis worse and more unpleasantto the mind than
the sound of a gunshot and the smell of gunpowder.'Similar sorts of offence
to his sensibilitycould be caused by an ignorantor gluttonouscompanion,who
did not clean his teeth or face and hands after a meal, or who talkedwith his
mouth full of betel, therebysprayingthe dress of fellow diners: 'the company
of such a person is distastefuland disgusting' and should be avoided.99) And
97) Ibid., pp. 102-3.

98) Ibid., p. 103.
99) Ibid., pp. 103-4.

78 ROSALINDO'HANLON
even as he enjoyed these pleasures,the mirzd should not forget restraint.He

should stop eating while he is still hungry,and if necessaryfill up later, but at
home rather than outside, 'for eating outside is like eating at a shop in the
bazaar.'"00)
The mirzt should also attendto the physical environmentof his house, in its
appearance,perfume,temperatureand texture.It should be carefully secluded
from the bazaar,for 'a house withoutcurtainsand screens is like an open shop
in a bazaar.'A fire of aloe wood shouldbe kept alight in winter,and good qual-
ity carpets used: those from Kirmanif he could afford them, and those from
Kashmiripattuif he couldnot. In summer,he shouldhave a cooling khaskhanah,
fans, a cotton floor covering and rose perfume.His gardenofferedfurtherpos-
sibilities for pleasure,refinementand spiritualcultivation.A mirza 'was bound
to be attractedby a garden.'It ought to be filled with the right sounds, sights
and fragrances.'In every cornerof his gardenthere should be colourfulchirp-
ing and singing birds like nightingalesand parrots.He should hear unpleasant
voices of other birds from a distance, because a mirzd's temperamentcannot
bear listening to such noises.' The writer concluded by associating these in-
tensely emotionaleffects with one of the Persianliterarytradition'smost famil-
iar images of beauty and spirituallove. 'The beautyof these flowers and birds
is not merely for externalview: the beauty of every bird leads one to the con-
templationof its Maker,and its singing leads the heartto the anguish(of divine
love).10)
Particularetiquettesalso governedriding and hunting.For the authorof the
BM Mirza Namah,the palanquinwas 'most harmlessof all the rides available
to a mirzd,'for one riskedfalling off a horse or elephant,'but in the rainy sea-
son, an elephantride is the best; as both in the palki and on the horse there is
the risk of getting soaked in the rain, or of the mud and dirty water from the
rooftops soiling the head and headgear and trousers.' Out hunting, a mirza
should ride a black and white horse with a long mane, and preferthe sparrow
hawk above other huntingbirds. He should make sure that his animals were
accoutredso as to be distinct from those of the vulgar. He should not gallop
his horse too hard, for 'One may well be enamouredof huntingand absorbed
in it; but life is more preciousthan the spectacleof hunting,which is not worth
falling from one's horse, or the falling off of one's headgearor the breakingof
one's neck.'102)
In the high parodyof Mirz Kamran,on the otherhand, all this delicacy and
100) Ibid., p. 104.

101) Idem.
102) Ibid., p. 105.

self-consciousnessconnoisseurshipwere thereto be lampooned.If a mirzdhap-

pened to sit at table with a man of prestigelike a lawyer, he should eat nothing
at all, 'and in case he dies of hunger,he shall have a great rewardin the next
life.' He reeled off what ought to be the properpreferencesof the cultivated
mirzd:'Ruby should be regardedby him as the best among all jewels, and the
palanquinas the best of all conveyances.He should keep a watermelonas the
best of all fruits.' A mirza 'should regardLahore as the best of all the towns
in India. He should recognise the fort of Agra as unequalled in the whole
world. If there be no controversyor dispute on that point, then he must think
Isfahanas the best town in Persia.'103)Conventionsaboutpersonalconsumption
and display came in for similar satire, with the uncomfortablerealities of life
as a low-level imperialservantin India set against the inflatedideal of mirzd1.
Much more scepticalthan the authorof the BM MirzaNamah in his approach,
Mirza Kdmranwas in no doubt here that actuallythose for whom these refine-
ments were importantwere not all amirs of a thousandrank or over, but also
much more middling gentry, concerned to negotiate their relationshipswith
social superiorsin approvedways, and to avoid the risks of incautiousmixing
with others. 'With the rank of a centurion,the Mirza must not cause the cover
of his hubble-bubbleto be made of silver and put silver on the reins of his
horse, because they would not remain with him.'?4) For lesser imperialserv-
ants, hospitalitycould be fraughtwith peril: 'If he be in service, then as long as
he does not get the rankof five hundred,he mustnot takeguests to his house;and
in times of trouble,let him avoid being a guest of low people, for this will end
in insult.' Conversationneeded carefulhandlingtoo: 'In companyhe shouldnot
takepartin controversies,especiallyreligiousones.Lethimkeephis religiousviews
quite secret, lest they cause him some bodily injury.' Even finding a house in
India carriedpitfalls for the unwary;the mirzd 'must not be in search of mere
architecturalbeauty,but must pay due considerationto its stability,lest he may
not suffer an untimelydeath in the rainy season.'105)As for military qualities,
the fastidiousnessof the mirzdbecame a straighttargetfor mockery.'The mirza
must value life and shouldnot go nearwar. If he happensto be on a battlefield,
he must not pursuethe defeated and flying army; on the contraryif his party
suffer a defeat, he must run away as fast as he can."•6)
There were also very careful prescriptionsfor dress, and here, very interest-
ingly, one sees a more overt consciousnessin the BM Mirza Namah that this
103) Husain 1913, p. 5.

104) Ibid., p. 7.
105) Ibid.,p. 6.
106) Ibid., p. 5.

80 ROSALINDO'HANLON
minute attentionto style and self-consciouscultivationof taste could appearto

blur properdistinctionsbetween men and women. In this moment of internal
critique,the BM Mirza Ndmahseems very much to have a particulartargetin
mind: that of young men who deliberatelycultivatedhomoeroticstyles by car-
rying the fastidious refinementof mirzd't to feminising extremes. This clear
sensitivity to the homoeroticpossibilitiesin the cultivationof certainkinds of
masculinerefinementraises the questionof homosexualpracticesin the defini-
tion of mirzd'i,and by implicationthe complex issue of homosexualidentityin
Mughal court society more widely. I cannot address the latter in any detail
here, but three broadpoints are worth making.As arguedelsewhere,normsfor
the sexual comportmentof high imperialservantsthat were disseminatedunder
Akbar had sought to distancethe formerfrom homoeroticattachments,and to
promotean idealised image of imperial servantsas patriarchaland heterosex-
ual householders,a model for authoritativemasculinitythat seemed more in
keeping with local Hindustaninorms than 'Mughal' traditionsof public homo-
sexual attachment.07) Yet the latterproved extremelydifficultto suppress,and
many imperial servantsprovedresistantto suggestions that they abandontheir
sexual attachmentswith favouriteyoung men. In fact, much contemporaryevi-
dence points to an inclusive approachto sexual enjoyment,such that beauti-
ful boys were seen as one amongst a range of sources for sexual pleasure,
ratherthan denoting a particularand exclusive 'homosexual' identity.'"1)Yet
this does not mean that sexual identitiesremainedundifferentiated, or that the
same social toleranceextendedto all varieties of sexual expression.In literary
sources as well as the new norms for imperial servants,overt pederastycon-
tinued to attractconsiderablesocial disapproval,which was directedmost in-
While the evidence here is often
tensely at the passive partner,the catamite.'01)
difficultto read, there do seem to have been young as well as older men in
Delhi and other north Indian courts who cultivated more distinctivelyhomo-
erotic styles. Sometimes these were young singers, dancers and mime artists
valued for their skills at mahfilentertainmentsand reputedfor theirbeauty and
sexual availability; sometimes wealthy amiri patrons themselves with reputa-
107) O'Hanlon, forthcoming. See also Naim 1979, pp. 120-142.

108) This emerges both in normative literature and in reported experience. Thus the
Qdbis Ndmah recommended enjoyment with youths as well as women, the former best in
summer amd the latter in winter: Levy 1951, pp. 77-8. Many sources speak of individual
experience. See, for example, Abfi'l Fazl's Akbar Namdh, vol. 2, pp. 127-8, or for an eight-
eenth century example, Dargdh Quli Khan's Muraqqa'-i Delhi, Ansari 1982, pp. 50-1.
109) For Sa'di, for example, see Murray and Roscoe 1997, 137-9, and Southgate 1984,
pp. 413-52. These were persistent themes in Mughal court culture: the Emperor Babur
reflected them in his description of one of the warriors, 'Baqi the Catamite,' that his band
encountered in Fergana, 'who, although he was called a catamite, was powerful and manly
with the sword.' Thackston 1996, p. 287.

AND IMPERIAL
MANLINESS 81
tions for theirsexual connoissershipas well as the range of their culturalaccom-

plishmentsand the sensual pleasuresof their hospitality.'10)
The author of the BM Mirza Namah negotiated his way very carefully
aroundthese sexual complexities,taking care to affirmthe principleof mirzd'i
as a form of cultivated masculine power. Thus the mirzd 'should avoid the
company of such [self-proclaimed],self-opinionated,bastard mirzas who tie
their turbanswith great delicateness,who talk with the movementof head or
with the gestures of body or of eyebrows, who are over-emphaticin speech.'
Such people 'who turn away with affected delicacy from whatever is invigo-
rating, who do not clean their teeth without looking in the mirror,who clad
themselvesin the single layer of a thin and transparentuppergarmentand wear
trousersof satin and kamkhab(many-coloured,embroideredcloth), and who
have the habit of eating pan frequentlyand blackeningtheir teech with missi.
Such mirzas are no good. Mirza-hoodis to be mirza khan or mirza-beg;not to
be a mirzada-begumor mirzada-khanum."")
These emphaseson the manlinessof personalrestraintwere reflectedin other
prescriptionsfor dress. Interestingly,the writerrecommendedplainerand more
naturalmaterials,in place of the glossy fabrics or elaborateornamentsusually
associatedwith luxuryand prestige:a kind of conspicuousabstinencein which
the sophisticationof an understatedstyle and the need for economy met in
happy coincidence.The mirzd 'should use pearls for buttons,for pearl is nat-
ural while otherjewels have to be cut. In winter,he shouldwear a shawl, either
plainor imprintedwith gold and silver leaves.' His garmentsshouldbe threaded
with silver, ratherthanof emboideredbrocade,cloth of gold or satin. The same
considerationsappliedto flowers in the turban:'He should not wear flowers in
his turban,as it is effeminateto do so. It is a blemish for the mirza,who is a
[masculine]lover.' But he could occasionally, and in privacy, put a bunch of
feathery nafarmanflowers in his turban,which looked becoming. Restrained
dress of this kind also had the advantageof being less costly: therewere work-
shops which producedhigh quality stripedcloth for turbansat very low prices.
The mirzdshould certainlyavoid trousersof satin or cloth of gold, which were
not dignified:these were better fitted for pillowcases or curtainsor for giving
away as a ceremonial dress.'12) The dagger or jamddr, an essential item of
court dress worn tuckedinto the sash, was likewise obligatoryfor the mirzd,as
110) DargMhQuli Khan is an excellent source here: see, for example, Ansari 1982, pp.
92-3 for Taqi, the gregarious eunuch and master conjurorwho attractednumerous pederasts
and beautiful catamites to his mahfil, and pp. 56-7 for the amir Sadiq Quli Khan, famous
for his patronage of musicians and his connoisseurship of beautiful faces.
111) Ahmad 1975, p. 105.
112) Ibid., pp. 105-6. Pious Muslims were often warned against the sensual temptations
of silk: see Bayly 1986, pp. 290-2.

82 ROSALINDO'HANLON
were rings of ruby, emerald,turquoiseand cornelian,for their differentbenev-

olent effects on the body.13)
This kind of manliness also manifesteditself in restraintand dignity in the
conductof the householdand sexual life. The mirzi 'shouldtotally abstainfrom
giving a chance to his male friends and companionsto listen to the singing of
his privateconcubines;otherwise,it will amountto pandering,and may lead to
a greatdeal of mischief.' The dangerousattractionsof beardlessboys were par-
ticularlyemphasised.To avoid temptationto his guests at his drinkingparties,
'he shouldregarda beardedcupbearerbetterthan an unbearded,handsomecup-
bearer,'while 'the attendantat dinner should be a young man of wholesome
appearance,who offershis prayersregularly.One must not employ a handsome
or good looking boy as a dinner attendant,as this leads to well-known errors
and is imprudent.For it may induce the guests to eat the bread but to break
the salt-bottle.'And there should be a clear end to his parties:'After smoking
the tobacco from a pipe, and after the perfumeshave been served in the party
and he has listened to some music, he should rise, makingthe excuse that it is
time to go to bed; and then he should say farewell to his departingguests.'"14)
Friends and good company were indispensablefor the mirzd too, but they
needed to be carefully chosen. 'He should not dance attendanceat the houses
of great men, since this is undignified."') Rather, he should choose people
like himself, both to enjoy the pleasuresof his hospitalityand to share in his
refinementof sensibility. 'All his qualitiesare as elegant as his appearance;on
his staturehis dress looks becoming; his dispositiondraws others to him; in
generosityhe is ahead of others so that his expenses sometimesexceed his in-
come.'116) With his costs sometimes running ahead of his purse, the mirzd
needed to avoid familiaritywith people in need who were simply looking for
money, whatevertheirrank.But those genuinelyin distresshe shouldhelp, not
only 'in gratitudeof the means which he has,' but because the power to spend
and give on a superiorscale markedthe real mirzd:'he should not be one of
those mirzas who "spend little and sit high". He should not accept anything
from anyone, in returnof which he does not intend to give somethingelse of
greater value.'"117)
Set against this intimacywith friendsand peers, the BM Mirza Namah sug-
gested extremely elaborateboundariesagainst the world of servants, menials
113) Ahmad 1975, p. 106.

114) Ibid.,p. 102.
115) Ibid., p. 101.
116) Ibid., p. 100.
117) Ibid., p. 106.

AND IMPERIAL
MANLINESS 83
andthe bazaar.'He shouldnot trustthe cleanlinessof his cooks; but shouldtake

every possible care in the investigationthat they are clean.'"8)Even his gar-
dener might be a source of contamination:'If he wants a flower to yield fra-
grance,he shouldhimself pluck it from the bough. He shouldnot acceptit from
the hands of the gardener,for there is no hand cleaner than the hand of a
mirz.'"19)In the bath, 'he should not allow a beardedbath attendantto rub his
body with the brush:for the sweat which falls from his hair and beardis as un-
pleasant as water with brimstone.'120)The mere physical proximityof a mean
or vulgar person offended him: 'he should not look at such a person if he
stands in front of him; and he should regardhis presenceas disturbingto the
mind.' Even his servantsshould remove themselves from his sight as soon as
possible, and he should not have actually to speak to them, 'but communicate
through gesture.'121)
Here, then, we have a very interestingand internallycomplex set of dis-
courses about ideal manlinessin the imperialservice. In these later seventeenth
centurydevelopments,therewas still a strongsense of connectionbetweenforms
of ideal cultivatedmanhoodand the imperial service, an unstatedassumption
that imperialservantswere those most likely to possess these forms of knowl-
edge and sensibility,and to be able to commandprized commodities.Yet there
were also important,if sometimesimplicit, shifts in style and social reference.
What mirzda'offeredwas a model for social and spiritualrefinementaccessible
not only to great nobles but also to lesser amirs and inferiorimperialservants,
particularlyin the dilute and routinisedforms expressedin the mirzc neamahlit-
erature.What also put this kind of mirzd'fwithin reach of the humblerimperial
servantwas that its personalcultivationwas declared,to some extent at least,
to be independentof income:gentlemanlyrefinementwas a state of mind,which
with the right sensibilitycould be cultivatedon a very moderateincome. If this
was a more socially accessiblemodel, it was also one with a much strongerem-
phasison the bodily and moral self-cultivationof the individual,throughcareful
deploymentof the rightkindsof domesticenvironment,commodities,knowledges
and social connections. Here, indeed, the elements of tension and ambiguity
describedabove meant a wide range of possibilities for individualinterpreta-
tion and self-expression.At this level, mirzd'fofferednot so much a unitaryor
rigid model, so much as a set of relatedthemes,which individualsmight nego-
tiate in very differentways. As suggested above, individualengagementwith
118) Ibid., p. 103.

119) Ibid., p. 106.
120) Idem.
121) Idem.

84 ROSALINDO'HANLON
its values was not a questionof adherenceto a single rigid set of prescriptions,
but much more a personalnegotiationof a set of relatedthemes. In an impor-
tant sense the mirzdwas a bricoleur, assemblinghis own particularforms of
self-cultivationin the commoditieshe knew about and consumed,in his bodily
disciplines, norms for dress and comportment,his literaryand artisticleanings
and sexual preferences,and his handlingof the potentialtensionsbetween mar-
tial bearingandpersonalrefinement.Fromthe pointof view of the writersexam-
ined above, of course, this was precisely the problem:all sorts of inferiorpeo-
ple were calling themselvesmirzdwhen they had no business to, and they were
interpretingits codes of behaviourin sometimes unorthodoxand transgressive
ways. For the BM Mirza Namah, the point was to make a serious distinction
between the real mirzdon the one hand, and mere vulgarupstarts,and the 'bas-
tard' mirzd'i of men effeminate in dress and love, on the other. For Mirza
Kamran,the whole routinisationof mirzd'i,and the affectionsof parvenuswho
identifiedwith its values, offered an open invitationto parodyand ridicule.
Conclusions
Why did these novel codes for elite masculinityemergein this way from the
later seventeenthcentury?This is a complex question,to which only very tenta-
tive answers can be suggested here. These codes emerged in the context of a
court culture in which consumptionand display were importantindicatorsof
authority.Here, new classes of moderatelywealthy imperialservantsand gentry
were seekingways of assimilatingtheir own social styles to those of courtelites,
even as their sense of personalconnectionwith imperialauthorityweakened,
and a degree of dignifiedmoraland personalindependenceseemed more appro-
priate for a man of culture.Its fusion of moral and spiritualrefinementwith
the pleasuresof gentlemanlyliving also made mirzd•ia particularlyappropri-
ate ethic in the more conformistreligious culture of the seventeenthcentury
court: a mirzd could integrate the qualities of a pious sufi mystic perfectly
within his daily life as a culturedgentleman.Perhapsmost importantly,these
new codes developedwithin a culturalworld alreadyaccustomedto making an
art of mundaneliving and infusing it with moral significance,and in which the
links between elite manlinessand imperialservice were alreadywell-forged.
These developing discourses were to have importantimplications for the
widerculturalauthorityof Mughalimperialservice, at a time when Aurangzeb's
prolonged campaignsin the Deccan placed existing loyalties as well as sala-
ries understrain.At one level, theireffect was undoubtedlyfurtherto strengthen
the position of the courtas a culturalarbiter,and the image of the ideal impe-
rial servant as embodimentof cultivatedmanliness. The etiquettesof mirzd'i

helped to disseminatenew and more accessible styles of personal refinement

and conspicuousdomesticdisplay, whose culturalreferentwas still the imperial
court,and whose relianceon a wide rangeof commoditiesas the means to per-
sonal cultivationstrengtheneddependenceon imperialsalaries. In two particu-
lar ways, however,these shifts may have posed seriousproblems.As described
above, mirzd'irepresenteda move away, at least implicitly,from the older ethic
of the khcnazfdd.It emphasisedinstead the dignified independenceof a culti-
vated gentleman,whose inner equilibriumwas likely to be disturbedby the
anxieties of high office. Moreover,cultivationof the self took priorityover cul-
tivation of imperial superiorsfor the mirzd, for whom it was undignifiedto
dance attendanceat the houses of great men. His commandover the right com-
modities enabled a mirzdto display his personalaccomplishmentsto his peers,
to give individualexpressionto his bodily virtuousity,and at the same time to
pursuehis own inner quest for spiritualrefinement.In these new contextsof an
expandedand more accessible world of commodities,older theories about the
body still held good: a man's spiritualand emotionalstates were most power-
fully affectedby techniquesof the body, and by careful controlof his physical
environment.But this was now a much more individuatedbody, markedout as
such by carefully chosen forms of knowledge and consumption,and deployed
more self-consciouslyas an instrumentto perfectthe soul. For all theircultural
ties to the imperial court, and their materialdependenceon imperialsalaries,
these more individual forms of bodily and personal self-cultivationwere in
undeniabletensionwith older ideals of absolutepersonaldevotion and subordi-
nationto the emperor.122)At the same time, the internalambiguitiesin theseideals
of personalcultivationmay have weakenedtheirpotentialas models for author-
itative masculinity.In the hands of some men they seemed dangerouslyclose
to a kind of feminisation;carriedto extremesby others,they became fit mate-
rial for parody. Here, earlier Mughal strategiesto make the qualities of ideal
manhoodthe monopolyof imperialservantswere at risk of being turnedupside
down, mocked for their anxious self-concern,even stigmatisedas debased and
deviant. Nor was this sense of tension only an internalone. As I have argued
elsewhere, other critiqueswere emergingin the very differentforms of norma-
tive militarymasculinityassociatedwith Maratha,Sikh and Afghan warbands,
as these brotherhoodsof warriorscontrastedtheir own martialand egalitarian
styles with the luxury and hierarchyof the Mughal court.123)
122) For importantcontemporary

parallelsin SouthIndiancourtculture,also developing
around an emerging sense of the gendered body as instrumentfor new forms of subjectiv-
ity, see Narayana Rao et al. 1992, pp. 113-168.
123) O'Hanlon 1997, pp. 8-12.

86 ROSALINDO'HANLON
Theremay, therefore,have been a furtherand gendereddimensionto the dis-

integrationof Mughal service morale from the later seventeenthcentury that
Richardsamong others has described."24) Certainly,the older ethic of service,
obligation and reward did appear to lose much of its meaningin the context of
Aurangzeb's prolonged absences in the Deccan. But just as importantly,the
older model of the imperialservantas embodimentof ideal manlinessseemed
to have fractured.Some of its fragmentswere incorporatedinto the new and
powerfulconceptionof man as sophisticatedgentlemanconnoisseur,but it fitted
less easily with an ethic of absolute personal subordinationto the emperor.
Rather,the inner dynamicwhich connectedbody, moral self and environment
in this conceptionimplied a strengthenedconcernwith the individual,and with
self-cultivationas both ambitionand reward.These themes were to be strength-
ened ratherthan weakened over the first half of the eighteenthcentury,as the
drasticcollapse of the emperor'spersonalauthoritycoincidedwith the remark-
able floweringof a wider and more overtly celebratoryurbancultureof pleas-
ure at the imperialcapital.125)
These seventeenthcenturydevelopmentsin India may also suggest questions
for the study of other early modernsocieties in Asia, particularlyin the con-
text of the new 'connective' historiesreferredto above. Liebermanand others
have proposedimportantparallelsbetween the ways in which many European
and Asian states sought to create new kinds of culturalallegiance and shared
loyalty amongsttheir militaryand urbanelites. These effortsat political conso-
lidation emergedarounda range of culturalmarkers:language,religious ritual,
dress and bodily comportment,styles of consumptionand modes of learning.
Their study certainlydoes much to blur hard distinctionsbetween premodern
politicalloyaltiesandthoseof theeraof 'modern'nationalism,of thekindfavoured
a decade ago by ErnestGellnerand BenedictAnderson.126)This willingness to
questionold paradigmsand to forge new connectionsmake it the more remark-
able that these new historieshave yet really to pose the questionof genderand
the statein a focussedway, or to explore the potentialfor discoursesaboutideal
manhoodboth to createnew solidarities,and to help fix the culturalboundaries
between urbanand militaryelites and their social inferiors.If the Indianexam-
ples above have any value, they surely suggest that these questionsare worth
posing in other early modernAsian contexts.
124) Richards 1984, pp. 286-8.

125) This culture is most vividly described in the descriptions of the Hyderabadiofficial
Dargah Quli Khan, who stayed in Delhi during the period of Nadir Shah's invasion:
Muraqqa'-i Delhi, Ansari 1982.
126) Liebermann 1997, p. 492.

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Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India

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Manliness and Imperial Service in Mughal North India

Author(s): Rosalind O'Hanlon

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? KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden, 1999 JESHO42,1

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2) Tosh 1994, p. 180.

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social contexts,and to which the recognitionof peers is essential.Thus the con-

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pervasive and attractive,moreover,is that its origins lie seemingly in an un-

Genderand the Meaningsof Manlinessin MughalNorth India

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with manhood,and in the wider deploymentof sexual meaningsto creatediffer-

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infusion of all mundaneactivity with spiritualawareness.'6)Underpinningthese

16) Metcalf 1984, pp. 2-5.

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ism often elaboratedsimilarlypolarisedroles for men and women, based on the

20) Lawrence1994, p. 153.

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essentially spiritualdistinctionbetween the illuminatedfew and the many still

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elementsin the politicaldiscourseof the Sultanate--Persian'mirrorsfor princes'

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friendshipand alliance in the overwhelminglymale public world of imperial

Reworking Tradition: Muhammad Bdqir Najm-i Sdni

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Shah Jahdn, serving as governor of Patna, Bihar, Bengal, Orissa, Gujurat,

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between the adddbof personalstrivingand devotion in the service of kings, and

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wa pur-dili, 'self restraintand courage.'43) Many of his anecdotes illustrated

43) Nasihat al-Mulfk, tr. Bagley 1964, p. 119.

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these corporationsembeddedthemselves in local societies in a wide range of

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ice of kings. What emergedwas his strongsense of an importantpracticalasso-

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of poverty and austerity."55) Poverty he saw unambiguouslyas a source of dis-

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shape and decoration came to be powerful signifiers of personal allegiance.

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67) Ibid., p. 95; 201.

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Changing Codes in the Later SeventeenthCentury

72) Ibid., p. 49; 151.

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in the Mughalcourtunderthe emperorsJahangirand Shah Jahan,and the elab-

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pean exceptionalism,and to suggest parallel patternsin state building and the

For a widerdiscussionof the significance

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was vulgar and low, and the reductionof intellectualaccomplishmentalmost to

Knowledge,Connoisseurshipand Consumption:Defining the 'Real' mirza

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and cultivationin mirzd'frested on the same implicit connectionbetween out-

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of adab remainedextremelyimportantin definingthe meaningof mirzd'i,both

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than a rigid templatefor behaviour.On the question of novelty, Indo-Persian

83) Some of these bayaz are listed in Marshall 1985, p. 577.