Chapter six examines developments from 1550 to 1650, with attention paid to aspects of early modernity. We begin with the careers of the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan and then to a consideration of trade during their reigns, especially the maritime textile trade that brought Europeans to Gujarat’s ports. Active merchant-traders, both Indian and European, illustrate the diversity of Mughal commercial activity. We then turn to the Bahmani successor states in the Deccan, Bijapur and Golconda, focusing on their artistic production, multicultural nobility, and flourishing trade. Following this is an overview of the post-1565 Vijayanagara kingdom and its successor states. An account of the textile production, European enclaves, and maritime trade along India’s southeastern coast concludes the chapter.

India is a land of enormous diversity. Cross-cultural influences are everywhere in evidence, in the food people eat, the clothes they wear, and in the places they worship. This was ever the case, and at no time more so than in the India that existed from 1200 to 1750, before the European intervention. In this absorbing and richly illustrated second edition, the authors take the reader on a journey across the political, economic, religious, and cultural landscapes of India from the Ghurid conquests and the Delhi Sultanate, through the rise and fall of the southern kingdom of Vijayanagara and their successors, to the peripheries of empire, and finally, to the great court of the Mughals. This was a time of conquest and consolidation, when Muslims and Hindus came together to create a literary, material, and visual culture which was uniquely their own and which still resonates in today’s India.

Chapter five begins with the ousting of the Lodi dynasty by Babur, the first Mughal, and continues to his son Humayun’s reign. Sher Shah Sur, an Indo-Afghan warlord, briefly seized control from Humayun instituting several administrative practices that the Mughals adopted. After surveying Akbar’s military conquests and alliances, we consider how Akbar’s concept of state evolved and its impact on politics and policies regarding India’s multicultural, multiethnic population. We then analyze how these policies affected cultural production, arguing that the use of specific languages and the production of art and architecture were part of a carefully planned political campaign. The chapter ends with an exploration of the political careers and artistic patronage of two top nobles at Akbar’s court.

In Chapter 11 of FSR, we introduce the multiple regression model in which we are able to estimate the effect of 𝑋 on 𝑌 holding 𝑍 constant. Here, we show you how to execute such models in Stata.

Unlike the previous two chapters, in Chapters 3 through 6, there will not be any computer-based lessons in Stata. Not to worry, though. There will be more than enough time for intensive computer work later in the book. We promise!