The Horse, Conspicuous Consumption, and Embodied Masculinity in Persianate South Asia, 1650–1800

The horse is recognized as an important symbol of power in early modern South Asia.   Yet, scholarship has focused on ‘the war horse’ as a military instrument while overlooking the cultural wealth represented in the majority of noble stables. Indeed, the correct horse was an essential component of the powerful man’s image. Knowledge about horse breeds and how to cut a dapper figure as a consumer and patron of equestrian culture was one way in which prominent men showcased their own refinement and masculinity.  Their cultural preferences, together with varying concepts of masculinity add an important component to our understanding of power and the embodiment of power.

My paper explores the importance of this image through an analysis of the preface of three popular Persian variations of Salihotra’s horse treatise (farasnama). The text attributed to Salihotra (ca 2300 BCE) is actually a compendium of equine knowledge in a host of South Asian languages.  As Muslim military men, Khwaja Firoz Jang (ca. 1650 CE), Zabardast Khan (d. 1721), and Rangin (d. 1835) all commissioned manuscripts between 1650 and 1800 which circulated widely throughout South Asia.  Although all three began from the same original, they added innovative versions of heroic Islamic celebrity that illustrate changing concepts of masculinity and martial culture. From popular inclusion towards an exclusive brand of Muslim martial culture rooted in equestrianism, they betrayed an underlying evolution of how the powerful man should appear to his comrades, enemies, and public.