Daily Life in Mughal South Asia

Daily life in Mughal South Asia was shaped by work, household resources and the institutions of a particular town or village. Cultivating families, artisans, merchants, servants and royal households had different access to land, money, water and skilled services. Villagers paid service workers with grain shares or plots, merchants financed production, and families recorded property transfers and disputed inheritance. Most of the practices described here belong to dated sixteenth- to eighteenth-century settings within a dynasty that lasted from 1526 to 1857.

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Living in towns and villages

Villages joined cultivating households with smiths, carpenters, potters, barbers, watchmen and other service groups. Some services were supported through grain shares or land entitlements rather than a daily wage. Headmen and record keepers supplied knowledge for revenue and local disputes.

Towns concentrated production and exchange. Bernier’s Delhi of the 1660s contained artisans, bankers and merchants working beneath rows of street arches, with storage and residences nearby. Ports and provincial centres drew on other networks, while the travelling court generated temporary markets and employment.

Homes, shade and water

Housing used earth, thatch, timber, brick and stone in combinations shaped by cost and local materials. Courtyards and shaded rooms supported circulation and household work, and terraces could become sleeping spaces in hot weather. Bernier describes both modest troopers’ dwellings and spacious compounds, whose cane-supported roofs and lime-coated walls could enclose furnished rooms.

Water carriers, wells, tanks and stored supplies made domestic use possible. Wealthy households could employ servants to wet cooling screens or maintain water features. Royal channels and baths, such as those of the Red Fort, used a channel supplied from the Yamuna and separate heated bathing rooms.

Households, marriage and property

Households included relatives and dependants as well as a married couple and children. Marriage joined family interests, with religious and community norms shaping its terms. Muslim mahr was money or property owed by a husband to his wife under their marriage agreement; her own family could supply separate gifts. Gulbadan’s account of Hamida Banu’s marriage to Humayun in 1541 records resistance, mediation and negotiation within the dynasty.

Kin relationships could support work and care, but also produce conflicts over property. Malwa (a region in central India) documents show inheritance disputes and relatives discharging older debts. Written acknowledgments, witnesses and petitions helped households preserve claims across generations. Children’s learning likewise ranged from letters and recitation to practical participation in family work.

Slavery, service and obligation

Enslavement, hired service, inherited village duties and compulsory labour imposed different forms of dependence. Purchased slaves occupied a different legal position from servants receiving wages and support. Akbar prohibited forcible enslavement and released imperial slaves, while later records still describe slaves in households.

Domestic employees cooked, cleaned, carried water and attended animals. Larger establishments divided these duties among specialists, while a smaller household might employ one person for mixed work. Village service could be tied to caste groups, hereditary communities whose members generally married within the group and inherited occupational expectations, and to customary payments. Begar was compulsory unpaid labour, imposed for carrying baggage, timber and other tasks.

Ingredients, cooking and supply

Grains, pulses, vegetables and dairy products formed many preparations, with meat, fish and other ingredients varying by resources, region and observance. Cleaning, grinding, husking and cooking required labour. Markets supplied goods beyond a household’s own production, and grain carriers provisioned towns and camps.

Akbar’s kitchen records specify dishes such as rice-and-pulse khichri, milk rice and meat with crushed wheat, alongside purchasing and sealed storage. Fruit came from Kabul (in present-day Afghanistan) and Kashmir; water servants carried Ganges drinking water in sealed jars and transported ice through northern relay stages.

Dress, fabrics and gifts

Cotton, wool and silk supplied garments suited to different seasons and uses. Tailored upper garments, trousers, sashes and turbans coexisted with wrapped clothing. Akbar’s wardrobe distinguished cuts, linings and padded garments, recording purchased and commissioned items before issue.

Fine shawls and decorated clothing involved specialized manufacture. A costly early-seventeenth-century hunting coat has embroidered animals and plants, whose motifs resemble contemporary court paintings. Robes of honour expressed patronage and rank.

Tasks, skills and payment

Farm work followed sowing, watering and harvest, while textile production followed the preparation, spinning, weaving and finishing of fibre. Women contributed to cultivation, processing and manufacture alongside care.

Daily wages, monthly service pay, produce shares and earnings from sold goods supported different workers. A merchant’s advance could help a weaver obtain working capital while binding the next output. Clerks needed accounts and documentary style, and building workers combined specialist tasks with carrying and preparation.

Games, music and recreation

Court records describe chaupar, in which paired players moved four coloured pieces each around a cross-shaped board toward its centre according to dice throws. Polo riders struck a ball toward a goal with curved sticks; drums announced a score. Royal hunting added beaters, guards, animal keepers and a travelling establishment.

Musicians worked for patrons and participated in ceremonies or devotional gatherings. Abu’l Fazl describes court performers striking deep-sounding drums and blowing metal horns, with wind instruments beginning a morning sequence before kettledrums and the full band joined. Diyanat Khan commissioned a collection of Arabic and Persian texts on sound, rhythm and instruments in 1662. Trained writers copied its fourteen texts in Delhi, Ambala (a town in northern India) and Lahore (in present-day Pakistan), and Diyanat Khan checked Arabic passages against source manuscripts in Kashmir in 1663.

Prayer, pilgrimage and festivals

Prayer, fasting, offerings and recitation joined household observance to mosques, temples, shrines and community gatherings. Different calendars organized Ramadan, pilgrimage anniversaries and regional festivals. Food preparation, gifts and travel formed part of participation.

Mughal gifts to the shrine at Ajmer included large cooking vessels and buildings supporting pilgrimage. Bernier’s account of Hindu bathing during a solar eclipse in 1666 records prayers, changing clothes and alms beside the Yamuna. At court, Nawruz, the Persian spring New Year, brought nineteen days of celebrations, gifts and ceremonial music under Akbar.

Watches, complaints and local protection

Kotwals, officers supervising town security and markets, guards and watches supported security, while nobles maintained protection for their compounds. Bernier describes patrols through the imperial camp’s bazaars and watches around its quarters. Storage and controlled entrances helped protect goods, while fire remained a threat in areas of thatched housing.

Local landholders could be held responsible for theft or called upon to apprehend offenders. Faujdars, military officers responsible for district order, supplied armed intervention, and complaints could lead to witness statements or investigation.

Journeys, provisions and lodging

Travel used walking, animals, carts, boats and carried litters according to route and resources. River crossings, monsoon roads and snowbound passes changed what was possible. People needed provisions and animal feed as well as transport, while porters could bear heavy demands imposed through compulsory carriage.

Sarais, lodging complexes for travellers and their goods, and personal contacts offered accommodation. Bara Katra in Dhaka (in present-day Bangladesh) was endowed with shop income for upkeep and charitable provision, including rent-free lodging for deserving travellers. The travelling imperial court instead sent tents and services ahead to prepare its next halt, carrying clerks and household workers with it.

Healing, care and epidemic illness

Hakims were physicians trained in Greek and Arabic medical traditions, while vaidyas used Sanskrit, a language of South Asian learned writing, and other local medical learning. Teachers, texts and family careers transmitted knowledge. Drug dictionaries and medical encyclopedias connected Arabic, Persian and South Asian materials. Physicians identified Indian substitutes for ingredients named in Greek and Arabic texts that were difficult to obtain locally.

Jahangir’s memoirs report recurrent plague at Agra, and Bernier describes treatment debates concerning fever in the 1660s. Jahangir’s report describes swellings and outbreaks recurring over three winters; Bernier records physicians restricting meat broth during fever and using bloodletting, the deliberate removal of blood, for inflammation.