Abstract

In this article I am concerned with recreation in Mughal India, during the period of roughly 1550-1650, when this great empire was at its height. Sports, that is competitive games with systematized rules, are included, but recreation is a very wide term. It could be considered to include all activities other than those undertaken to earn a living. Even here there are no clear boundaries. Various festivals and other rites were meant to ensure crop fertility, and thus were, among other things, activities connected with occupation. Given this lack of specificity, I have arbitrarily excluded education, literary activity, art and architecture. Nevertheless, I have drawn the bounds rather widely to include as recreation not only sports but also festivals and pilgrimages, court celebrations, hunting and harem activities. Verf.-Referat