Travels in the Mogul Empire

The first modern English translation of a book on travel in seventeenth-century India reasserts its interest for imperial Britain.

Narrating in detail grand events and quotidian anecdotes, and observing religious practices and customs, François Bernier provides a Eurocentric perspective on northern India, its people, and its places. Brock's interventions as translator affirm that perspective while drawing attention to Britain's presence in India and adding explanatory details to Bernier's account.The first English version of Bernier's 1670 work since its initial translation from the French in 1672, Irving Brock's 1826 edition vastly improved his predecessor's work. François Bernier (1625?–1688) trained as a physician at Montpellier and left France for Syria in 1654, travelling to Egypt and finally to India ('Hindustan'), where he spent twelve years as the court physician to the Great Mogul Aurangzeb. Celebrated and influential, his Travels shaped European opinions and knowledge of India. Volume 2 details religious practices, the Great Mogul's journey to Kashmir, and many other topics, concluding with an appendix of north Indian history and a chronology of its rulers. Including Brock's interventions to relate the narrative to imperial Britain, this work will be of interest to scholars of post-colonialism, of early modern travel and of Asian and European encounters.