Tales from later Mughals

and had a chance to observe their culture. They found it not
only attractive but useful because it served to raise their
social status to that of the elite class of India; moreover, it
provided them comfort and luxury. They were fascinated
with it and found themselves drawn to it; soon they began to
indianise themselves.
After adopting the Indian culture, it became easy for
them to have social and cultural relations with the nobility
on equal terms. As traders they had to seek commercial
benefits from the ruling classes, therefore, they observed
local etiquettes and customs like presenting nazr or gifts in
order to express their submission. Once they became a part
of this class, they also drew respect in the eyes of the
common people who honoured and obeyed them like other
privileged classes.
Another reason for their Indianisation was that in the
early period they were few in number and it was not
possible to live in separate settlements and retain their
original lifestyle. Therefore, they had no choice but to live
like the Indians. Moreover, away from their homeland and
their culture, they felt a void so they readily filled this gap
with the local culture to enjoy and pass their time
participating in social gatherings and festivals.
As they did not have any political power and
depended on the good-will of the government officials, their
attitude was submissive and their only interest was to earn
as much money as possible and return to their country. To
achieve these objects, they tried to please the officials and
behaved like them to get favours.
They also learnt Persian, which was the court
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