14.12 Science and Technology · Part 5

represented by Shivaji along with Aurangzeb’s Rajput and Deccan policies are related. The salient features of Mughal society are detailed. During this period Tamil literature was dominated by Saivite and Vaishnavite literature. Kumaraguruparar, a great Saiva poet, is said to have visited Varanasi in the late seventeenth century. He composed important literary works such as Meenakshiammai Pillai Tamil and Neethineri Vilakkam. Thayumanavar wrote highly devotional verses with compassion for all humanity and he formulated a sanmarga that tried to bridge differences between the various Saivite sects. The Christian missionaries like Roberto de Nobili and Constantine Joseph Beschi (Veeramamunivar) contributed much to Tamil language. The empire the Mughals built at the national level made an everlasting impact on India as they knit the fragments into a single political unit, well aided by an effective central administration. Multiple identities also got synthesized in the process leading to the evolution of a unique culture that is Indian. Akbar’s period, to , was the period of great rulers. His nearest contemporary was Elizabeth of England. Shakespeare was living around this time. Henry IV of France, first ruler of the Bourbon dynasty, and Abbas the Great of Persia, the strongest ruler of the Safavid dynasty, were ruling their kingdoms during his period. The revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule in Europe that commenced during this period lasted for about eighty years and ended in .