First Command Book Club

The Bhagavad Gita, an extended dialogue from the Mahabharata, one of the great Sanskrit epics, is considered a holy text in Hinduism. Where the rest of the epic tells a grand narrative of war, dynastic politics, and the pantheon, the Gita is a focused philosophical reflection. It has attracted a wide commentary tradition over the centuries and remains an accessible point for understanding an important strain of Indic civilization.

The Emperor Who Never Was is a biography that chronicles the life of Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and brother of the emperor Aurangazeb. Both Darah Shikoh and his brother took a scholarly path instead of the ostentatious of their father, with the former penning great works of comparative religion under the direction of his Qadiri Shaykh, Mian Mir, and Aurangazeb producing one of the great compendiums of jurisprudence. However, Darah Shikoh, originally heir apparent, was executed by his brother in dynastic politics, making him ‘the Emperor who never was’.