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Impact Of Feast And Parties In The Mughal Period

Decent Essays

1: Feast and parties in early Mughal period.
Feasts and drinking parties acquire a large space in the memoirs and biographies of early Mughal period. In this chapter we will try to look at various aspects around Mughal feasts and drinking culture which influenced a political and social transition from Babur to Akbar.
Impact of ancestral influence in feast and parties.
Feasts and intoxicants played a pervasive role in both Mongol and Persian societies, which carried through into Mughal culture. Some or the other form of Timurid panache and practise was visible throughout the early Mughal period. As for Babur, easily, he seemed influenced by the conviviality and carousing approach of Timur, had a clear affinity for feast, opium and alcohol. Like his illustrious …show more content…

Babur's habits were characteristic of the larger itinerant ethos from which he hailed, whereby intoxicant use was relative to the search for pleasure respite amidst continual movement. Parties used to go on till next morning and leaving wine undrunk in the cup was considered unacceptable.
These practices were also common among the earlier Mongols, alcohol was definitely a central component of their social life and often had occasions of overindulgence which lead to demise. Two of Genghis Khan's sons - Ogedei and Tolui - died because of alcohol binge at comparatively young ages.
Babur’s own father Umar Shaykh was also fond of intoxicants, poetries and good company at the drinking parties which he himself held often. However, the clear influence for Umar Shaykh’s sessions were those of Timur himself. Babur described his father’s charming, outgoing personality, which energized these get-togethers. Both father and son enjoyed and valued the comradeship of these gatherings, which may have helped in creating stronger bonds in delicate late Timurid

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