Abdul Fazl’s Akbarnamah

Description

This book is a substantially improved and enlarged version of the author’s research project titled ‘Environmental Legacy of India – A Case Study of a Medieval Urban Centre: Ahmadabad’. It surveys the major physical and a physical aspects of urban environment from the time of foundation of Ahmadabad up to the termination of Maratha rule. It explains the rise and growth, and decay and decadence of the quality of living with reference to urban standards, in terms of both physical qualities as it existed and the reality as perceived by the contemporaries. The work pays special attention to the elements of change and continuity in the urban environment: aspects of planning, space utilisation, architectural milieu, state and status of houses, infrastructure, language and learning, the people and their emotional bonds with the city; interface between man and nature, and so on. It brings into focus the flora and fauna, and the nature and role of stewardship. The book demolishes certain historiographical stereotypes created by the communal writings. It gives lie to the view that Indian towns were not urban by urban standards. Ahmadabad presented an example in the socio-economic techniques of progress and the art of togetherness. It is a wholesome well-documented study based on fresh evidence as well. It brings forth-environmental perception and contributions of generations of a bygone era, which remains neglected.