Current Reads: Mughals

I am currently reading two books, more or less simultaneously, both of which have to do with the Mughals and their lives/rule in India. The first one is

The Last Mughal - the Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857, by William Dalrymple

and the other is

Empire of the Moghul - Brothers at War, by Alex Rutherford.

The former, I had on my Amazon Kindle for the past few months and only started reading it recently. William Dalrymple is one of my favourite authors. I read his "City of Djinns" way back in 2001 and was very impressed with the depth of his research on Delhi. His passion for the city and its history is apparent. "The Last Mughal" tells the story of the last days of Bahadur Shah Zafar's reign. It is inevitably linked to the 'Great Indian Mutiny' of 1857, which I knew best only with reference to the Sepoy Mutiny and Mangal Pandey. Though I'm only halfway through the book, I can say that it gives a very clear picture of those days of conflict, confusion, brutality, patriotism and mayhem that followed the uprising of soldiers. The movie "Junoon" featuring Shashi Kapoor, Jennifer Kendall and Nafisa Ali among others is another thing that comes to mind while on the subject.

"Brothers at War" is the second book in the "Empire of the Moghul" series by Alex Rutherford. The first one, "Raiders from the North", narrated a fictional account of the life of Babur, the first Mughal emperor. "Brothers at War" is the story of Babur's son, Humayun - his life, his conquests, his defeats, his personal demons and more.

While one book is a painstakingly researched study of historical events, the other is a work of fiction, though having historically genuine threads running through it. What makes it interesting for me, especially the timing of reading both of them, is that it is like looking at almost two ends of the Mughal empire: the beginning and the end. And it is fascinating!