Audrey Truschke

Audrey Truschke () is a historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on inter-community relations in medieval South Asia, especially during the Mughal Empire. In 2017, she was conferred with the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by American Historical Association.

Truschke has been a frequent target of harassment by right-wing Hindu nationalists, who accuse her of having prejudiced views on Hinduism, and making offensive statements; scholars reject the charges.

Education and career

Truschke earned her bachelor's degree in religious studies from the University of Chicago in 2004. She earned her MA from Columbia University in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies in 2007 before going on to receive a MPhil in the same discipline in 2008. She received her PhD from Columbia University in 2012, and was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge (2012–2013) and Stanford University (2013–2016).

In 2015, Truschke joined Rutgers University as an assistant professor of South Asian history and in 2020, she was promoted to associate professorship.

Publications and reception

Monographs

''Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court''

In 2016, Truschke's ''Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court'', was published by Columbia University Press. It dwelt upon the literary, social, and political roles of Sanskrit in the Mughal courts from 1560 to 1650, and was reviewed in multiple journals.

Aria Fani, in the journal ''Iranian Studies'', found the work to be an invaluable contribution to South Asian studies. Edmond Smith of the University of Kent, writing for '' Reviews in History'', found the work to be "evocative, ndexpertly researched", where Truschke used her "exceptional linguistic talents" to pose and answer provoking questions about the Mughal Empire while inspiring other scholars to re-examine their approaches to studying religions.

''Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King''

In 2017, Truschke published ''Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King'' about the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, with Stanford University Press. Truschke, in her reading of sources, suggests that Aurangzeb was not the anti-Hindu tyrant he has been made out to be in popular scholarship; there was no "systematic" attack on Hindus and his sporadic destruction of temples or imposition of jizya must be interpreted from within a political and economical milieu.

Munis D. Faruqui, a historian of Mughal India, found the book to be an excellent work aimed at non-specialists, and praised Truschke's willingness to tackle the topic despite being aware about the inevitability of "vicious personal attacks from mostly nonacademic critics". However, Faruqui cautioned that the book " idnot fill unexplored gaps in the historiography." Sara Mondini, a scholar of Indo-Islamic art and architecture, commended Truschke for having penned a "precise and exhaustive" volume on the subject with due regard to sources; it was far more "rich and complex" than the "stereotypical nationalist" ones prevailing in scholarship, and was "pivotal" to the understanding of Hindu-Muslim encounters in the premodern era.

''The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule''

Truschke's third monograph, ''The Language of History: Sanskrit Narratives of Indo-Muslim Rule'', was published in January 2021 by Columbia University Press. Sheldon Pollock, Romila Thapar, Cynthia Talbot, and Richard M. Eaton provided blurbs for the publication.

Edited volumes

In May 2021, Truschke co-edited "''The Ramayana of Hamida Banu Begum.

Honors

In 2017, Truschke was awarded the John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History by the American Historical Association for ''Culture of Encounters'' being the "most distinguished work of scholarship on South Asian history, ublished in 2016. She received the Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence in 2020.

Social media activity

Translation controversy

In one of her tweets in 2018, Truschke, referring to an episode in the ''Ramayana'', said that Sita had admonished Rama as a "misogynist pig"; she cited a critical translation of the Valmiki Ramayana by Robert P. Goldman