Gifts at the Court of Jahangir and Their Depiction

Giving gifts to the emperor and receiving gifts from him was an important part of court ceremonial at the Mughal court of Jahangir. Most of these gifts were obligatory, as nobody could visit the emperor empty-handed. The gifts described by Emperor Jahangir in his diary and in the still unedited account of Muhammad Amin Qazvini on the princely days of Shah Jahan, Jahangir’s son, are highly standardized. Gifts to the emperor are classified into four groups according to function and were intended to give a good show of the giver’s status. Gifts by the emperor fulfil specified functions likewise, for example that of a bonus or a military order today.
We know that the system of gifts was not the “bribery” the British mistook it for, but what was it? This lecture will help to explain the function of these gifts as the sources depict them, specifying their function at court and in the narratives of Jahangir and Qazvini. From an observation of the items the nobles give and receive, the function of the gifts shall be related to the nobles’ function at court, also with regard to the reason that the sources mention the gifts for.
Court ceremonial at the Mughal court is still not understood well. Especially the sources from Shah Jahan’s time still are largely unedited and untranslated but provide insights into Shah Jahan’s ideas of governance and the allegedly “chaotic” times of his father. The question how the Mughal court was run after Akbar is far from being answered, and this lecture will give new insights into the functioning of the Mughal court by examining a major way of representing power.