Assistant Professor of History, Ashoka University
Ph.D. Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityPratyay Nath is Assistant Professor of History, Ashoka University. His research lies at the crossroads of environmental history, military history, and imperial history, with a focus on early modern South Asia. He is the author of Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India (Oxford University Press, 2019); with Meena Bhargava, the co-editor of The Early Modern in South Asia: Querying Modernity, Periodization, and History (Cambridge University Press, 2022). and with Kaustubh Mani Sengupta, the co-editor of āĻāϤāĻŋāĻšāĻžāϏā§āϰ āĻŦāĻŋāϤāϰā§āĻ, āĻŦāĻŋāϤāϰā§āĻā§āϰ āĻāϤāĻŋāĻšāĻžāϏāĻ āĻ āϤā§āϤā§āϰ āĻāĻžāϰāϤ āĻ āĻāĻāĻā§āϰ āĻāĻŦā§āώāĻŖāĻž (Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, 2022). His latest publications include âPilgrimage, Performance, and Peripatetic Kingship: Akbarâs Journeys to Ajmer and the Making of the Mughal Empireâ, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (2022): 1-26 and âLooking beyond the Military Revolution: Variations in Early Modern Warfare and the Mughal Caseâ, Journal of Military History 86, no. 1 (2022): 9-31. He is one of the editors of The Medieval History Journal. He writes in English and Bangla.
Nath is currently writing his second monograph, which analyses the military campaigns during the reign of the third Mughal emperor Akbar, and their roles in the overall process of empire-building. His ongoing projects include editing a special issue on âenvironment and empire in the early modern worldâ for Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient; co-editing (with Ranabir Chakravarti), a collection of essays on the history of the horse in South Asia; and co-editing another collection of essays (with Kaustubh Mani Sengupta) for Cambridge University Press on recent methodological shifts and innovations in South Asian historiography.
At Ashoka University, Nathâs courses focus on the history of empires and warfare in South Asia, and global histories of environment, warfare, and empire. Before joining Ashoka University in 2016, he taught medieval and early modern history at Miranda House, University of Delhi. He earned his MPhil and PhD in History from Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Before this, he completed his MA in History from University of Calcutta, and BA in History from Presidency College, Calcutta. He is the recipient of DAAD-funded âShort-Term Guest Professorshipâ (2022) and DAAD-funded âA New Passage to India IIIâ fellowship (2013-14), both to Georg-August Universität, GÃļttingen, Germany.
Monograph
Edited Volumes
Journal Articles
Book Chapters
Short Pieces
In the Vernacular
Book Reviews
Journal Special Issue under Preparation
Monograph under Preparation
Edited Volumes under Preparation
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Pratyay Nath is interested in supervising research on the following fields:
Interested students are welcome to get in touch with him directly at pratyay.nath@ashoka.edu.in.
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