Education and Learned Practice in Mughal South Asia

Across the Mughal period (1526–1857), learning took place in schools, scholars’ homes, administrative writing rooms, court workshops and productive households. Accounts from Akbar’s late-sixteenth-century court and an early-eighteenth-century debt record from Malwa in central India show routes into learned or skilled work, from joining letters to studying law with a particular teacher or practicing an occupation.

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Letters and the first lessons

In the Ain-i Akbari, Abu’l-Fazl’s account of Akbar’s administration, the court writer describes the emperor’s preferred lessons for boys. A pupil first learned the forms and names of letters, then practiced joining them. Next came memorized prose, poetry and moral verses, followed by daily copying of a line or verse. Abu’l-Fazl says the teacher should check both the handwriting and the pupil’s grasp of word meanings and the previous lesson. The sequence connected copying with understanding rather than treating penmanship as an isolated exercise.

The same prescription widened the curriculum beyond reading and writing. Abu’l-Fazl lists arithmetic and its notation, agriculture, measurement, geometry, astronomy, household subjects, government, medicine, logic and history. He also names grammar and philosophical traditions for students of Sanskrit, a classical South Asian language of learned and religious writing.

Study with specialist teachers

Historian Nandini Chatterjee describes a path into work as a qadi, a judge who heard disputes and authenticated legal documents. Early study could include recitation and memorization of the Qur’an, Islam’s scripture, together with Arabic grammar and rhetoric. At a madrasa, a school for advanced study, learners might study Qur’anic interpretation, hadith (reports of the sayings and actions of Muhammad, Islam’s prophet), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and the principles used to interpret it. Logic and medicine also appear among the advanced subjects Chatterjee describes.

This learning depended on particular teachers and texts. Students sought scholars known for a discipline or book, and instruction could take place in a teacher’s residence within a setting that also included a mosque, Sufi shrine, a center of Islamic devotional mysticism, or madrasa. When a teacher judged a student ready to teach a specific subject or text, the teacher could grant an ijaza, an authorization to teach it. Chatterjee describes specialized training shaped by scholarly relationships.

Writing for courts and government

A munshi was a trained writer who prepared letters, petitions and other documents. Chatterjee describes munshis learning Persian literary forms such as history and diplomatic correspondence, alongside account-keeping and revenue management that could use local languages and specialist scripts. From the seventeenth century, collections of model prose letters also included sections on legal deeds, making documentary form part of a writer’s professional repertoire.

A 1721 debt acknowledgment by Hamir Chand of Dhar, in Malwa, central India, sets out a loan and the borrower’s promise to repay in Persian. A qadi added a legal acknowledgment and seal above it, while the borrower’s name appears in Hindi written in Nagri script in the margin.

Learning through homes and work

Many practical skills were acquired through repeated tasks in household and village work. Historian Shireen Moosvi describes women in agriculture weeding and transplanting, husking and grinding grain, tending cattle, ginning cotton and spinning yarn. In pottery, women prepared the clay while men worked it on the wheel. The sequence shows how a craft divided connected stages of production across household members, with skill gained by handling materials and tools.

In village service arrangements, hereditary barbers, potters, carpenters and blacksmiths carried out recognized work for villagers. Their customary return could include a small tax-free plot or a share of the grain harvest, with extra payment for work beyond those services.

Mentoring in a court workshop

A court workshop offers a named example of direct instruction. Abu’l-Fazl’s account says Daswanth, the son of a palanquin bearer, drew designs on workshop walls. Akbar noticed the drawings and placed him under the guidance of Abd al-Samad, a senior painter. The episode shows how observation and practice could lead to a master’s attention and more focused teaching within a specialized workplace.

Historical writing in the royal household

Gulbadan Begum, daughter of Babur and sister of Humayun, wrote the Persian Humāyūn-nāma, a history of her family. The text says that a royal order called on her to write down what she knew of Babur and Humayun. She records that she set down what she had heard and remembered, turning household experience into historical writing.