Historian Lizzie Collingham credits the Mughal royal kitchens under Akbar (r. 1556-1605) with developing the modern biryani from Persian pilau and Hindustani rice cookery; other historians hold that biryani reached South Asia's Deccan region earlier, via Persian-influenced soldier-statesmen and pilgrims, predating the Mughal era.
What would resolve this Textual or archaeological evidence confidently dated to before Akbar's reign (1556), describing a layered rice-and-meat dish recognizably like biryani in the Deccan, or a reliable absence of any such evidence, would settle which theory better fits the record.
OpenCulinary history / South Asian historyBiryani (Wikipedia)