Encyclopaedic History of India 9789380836508, 9380836503

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ENCYCLOPAEDIC

HISTORY OF INDIA

ENCYCLOPAEDIC

HISTORY OF INDIA Volume 25 Art and Culture of Medieval India

Dr. Mahesh Vikram Singh Professor, Deptt. of History Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth Varanasi (UP)

Dr. Brij Bhushan Shrivastava Head of Deptt., Ancient History, Archeology & Culture SMMTPC College, Ballia (UP)

CENTRUM PRESS

NEW DELHI-110 002 (INDIA)

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Encyclopaedic History of India

© Reserved First Published, 2011 ISBN 978-93-80836-50-8 (Set)

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Printed at Mehra Offset Press, Delhi.

About the Author Dr. Mahesh Vikram Singh is Professor at the Department of History, Mahatama Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi. He has been serving the department as a permanent faculty after taking his Masters in History in 1973 and completing his Ph.D. research on the Mauryan Society in 1979. He has been constantly engaged in academics and been presenting a number of research articles at various seminars and conferences of national and international level. A good many of these have been published in the relevant proceedings, journals and other volumes of merit. He has authored Society Under the Mauryas published in 1984, Samyukta Rajya America ka Itihaas (A history of United States of America—From Reconstruction to the Cold War) published in 1995, A Peep into the Sociopolitical Dynamics of Early India published in 2002, India Rediscovered: A New Vision of History And Call of The Age published iil 2GQ6 and’ again its ffrhdi’ version Bharat ki Punarkhoj: Nayi Itihaas DhristiAur YugDharma published in 2009. He has also contributed a number of articles and chapters in various noticeable volumes on Ancient Indian History. Dr. Brij Bhusan Shrivastava is head of Ancient History, Archeology and Culture at SMMT PG College, Ballia (UP). He is life member of All India History Congress. His some of notable publications are— Political History of South India, A, Study of Economic Aspects of Kautilya Arthashastra and Archeology Explorations of the Ballia District. His over 100 research papers have been published in reputed journals.

About the Book The History of India begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization in such sites as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Lothal, and the coining of the Aryans. Islam first came to India in the eighth century, and by die 11th century had firmly established itself in India as a political force; the North Indian dynasties of the Lodhis, Tughlaqs, and numerous others, whose remains are visible in Delhi and scattered elsewhere around North India, were finally succeeded by the Mughal empire, under which India once again achieved a large measure of political unity. The Rebellion of 1857-58, which sought to restore Indian supremacy, was crushed; and with the subsequent crowning of Victoria as Empress of India, the incorporation of India into the empire was complete. Successive campaigns had the effect of driving the British out of India in 1947. This book would be useful for teachers, research scholars and students.

ISBN 978-93-80836-50-8 (Set)

FOREWORD The term ‘history’ is derived from the Greek word ‘historia’ that means knowledge acquired through investigation. Obviously, this knowledge can be correct if the method of investigation is objective and not vitiated by any kind of bias. In other words, if the study of human past is comprehensive and obtained through scientific inquiry, it can provide perspective on the present day problems and help one plan for the future. A true historian has to identify the sources that can be most useful in a given context. Documents, coins, archaeology, anthropology, geography, travel accounts, oral traditions, mythology and so on can be useful but they can be used only after their veracity is tested and they are critically examined. They should be checked and counter-checked. Over the centuries, one finds the study and writing of history vitiated by biases. There are numerous instances in which historical data have been distorted to support or oppose certain preconceived ideas and purposes. Strictly speaking such history is just like fiction to accord with preconceived notions and serve some ulterior purposes. The study of the past has never been static. Conclusions go on changing because of the discovery of new materials and tools of investigation. To give a concrete example, the carbon 14 or

radiocarbon dating test has revolutionized the study of civilizations and settlements, especially of prehistoric times, for which written documents, coins, etc. are seldom available. This method has enabled historians to determine more accurately than before the time period of a particular civilization or settlement. This method was discovered only 70 years ago by American scientists. In our country, excavations brought to light the Indus Valley Civilization and its various features, hitherto unknown. Similarly, no complete text of Kautilya’s Arthashastra was available before it was discovered by Shamasastry, the chief of the Mysore Government Oriental Library in the first decade of the last century Likewise, people’s knowledge of the history of the Buddhist period got extended after excavations at Sarnath and the ruins of the Asokan period at Patna. In the future, if the Harappan inscriptions-are deciphered, our knowledge of the Indus Valley Civilization will increase enormously. All these instances underline the fact that our knowledge of history is never static and its frontiers go on extending. In the light of what has been said above the encyclopedic history is going to be of great help to students interested in Indian history. It is comprehensive and as far as possible free from biases. It includes the latest materials, and objective conclusions.

Prof. Bipan Chandra Professor Emeritus, JNU Chairman, National Book Trust, India

Preface The people of India have had a continuous civilization since 2500 B.C., when the inhabitants of the Indus River valley developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by agricultural trade. This civilization declined around 1500 B.C., probably due to ecological changes. During the second millennium B.C., pastoral, Aryan-speaking tribes migrated from the northwest into the subcontinent. As they settled in the middle Ganges River valley, they adapted to antecedent cultures. The political map of ancient and medieval India was made up of myriad kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries. In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., northern India was unified under the Gupta Dynasty. During this period, known as India’s Golden Age, Hindu culture and political administration reached new heights. Islam spread across the Indian subcontinent over a period of 500 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans Invaded India and established sultanates in Delhi. In the early 16th century, descendants of Genghis Khan swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal (Mogul) Dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. From the 11th-to the 15th centuries, southern India was dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, the two systems—the prevailing Hindu and Muslim—mingled, leaving lasting cultural influences on each other. The first British outpost in South Asia was established in 1619 at Surat on the northwestern coast. Later in the century, the East India Company opened permanent trading stations at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, each under the protection of native rulers. The British expanded their influence from these footholds until, by the 1850s, they

controlled most of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In 1857, a rebellion in north India led by mutinous Indian soldiers caused the British Parliament to transfer all political power from the East India Company to the Crown. Great Britain began administering most of India directly while controlling the rest through treaties with local rulers. In the late 1800s, the first steps were taken toward selfgovernment in British India with the appointment of Indian councillors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian members; the British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils. Beginning in 1920, Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi transformed the Indian National Congress political party into a mass movement to campaign against British colonial rule. —Authors

Contents Preface 1. Bengal under the Sultans 2. Architecture During Delhi Sultanate 3. Architecture of Rajasthan 4. Architecture of South India 5. Orissan Architecture 6. Architectures of Regional Kingdoms 7. Religion at Akbar’s Court 8. Early Sufis of the Delta 9. Impact of Sufism in India Bibliography Index

1: Bengal under the Sultans Before the Turkish Conquest [The Sylhet region of East Bengal] was outside the pale of human habitation, where there is no distinction between natural and artificial, infested by wild animals and poisonous reptiles, and covered with forest out-growths.

Bengal in Prehistory Physically, the Bengal delta is a flat, low-lying floodplain in the shape of a great horseshoe, its open part facing the Bay of Bengal to the south. Surrounding its rim to the west, north, and east are disconnected hill systems, out of which flow some of the largest rivers in southern Asia—the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. Wending their way slowly over the delta’s flat midsection, these rivers and their tributaries deposit immense loads of sand and soil, which over millennia have gradually built up the delta’s land area, pushing its southern edge ever deeper into the bay. In historical times, the rivers have been natural arteries of communication and transportation, and they have defined Bengal’s physical and ancient cultural subregions— Varendra, the Bhagirathi-Hooghly basin, Vanga, Samatata, and Harikela. The delta was no social vacuum when Turkish cavalrymen entered it in the thirteenth century. In fact, it had been inhabited long before the earliest appearance of dated inscriptions in the third century B.C. In ancient North Bengal, Pundra (or Pundranagara, “city of the Pundras”), identifiable with Mahasthan in today’s Bogra District, owed its name to a non-Aryan tribe mentioned in late Vedic literature. Similarly, the Rad#ha and Suhma peoples, described as wild and churlish tribes in Jain literature of the third century B.C., gave their names to western and southwestern Bengal respectively, as the Vanga

peoples did to central and eastern Bengal. Archaeological evidence confirms that already in the second millennium B.C., rice-cultivating communities inhabited West Bengal’s Burdwan District. By the eleventh century B.C., peoples in this area were living in systematically aligned houses, using elaborate human cemeteries, and making copper ornaments and fine black-and-red pottery. By the early part of the first millennium B.C., they had developed weapons made of iron, probably smelted locally alongside copper. Rather than permanent field agriculture, which would come later, these peoples appear to have practiced shifting cultivation; having burned patches of forest, they prepared the soil with hoes, seeded dry rice and small millets by broadcast or with dibbling sticks, and harvested crops with stone blades, which have been found at excavated sites. These communities could very well have been speakers of “Proto-Munda,” the Austroasiatic ancestor of the modern Munda languages, for there is linguistic evidence that at least as early as 1500 B.C., Proto-Munda speakers had evolved “a subsistence agriculture which produced or at least knew grain—in particular rice, two or three millets, and at least three legumes.” In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., dramatic changes that would permanently alter Bengal’s cultural history took place to the immediate west of the delta, in the middle Gangetic Plain, where the practice of shifting cultivation gradually gave way to settled farming, first on unbunded permanent fields and later on bunded, irrigated fields. Moreover, whereas the earlier forms of rice production could have been managed by single families, the shift to wet rice production on permanent fields required substantial increases in labour inputs, the use of draft animals, some sort of irrigation technology, and an enhanced degree of communal cooperation. As the middle Gangetic Plain receives over fifty inches of rainfall annually, over double that of the semi-arid Punjab, the establishment of permanent rice-growing operations also required the clearing of the marshes and thick monsoon forests that had formerly covered the area. Iron axes, which began to appear there around 500 B.C., proved far more efficient than stone tools for this purpose. Iron plowshares, which also began to appear in the middle Ganges region about this time, were a great improvement over wooden shares and vastly increased agricultural productivity in

this region’s typically hard alluvial soil. The adoption of the technique of transplanting rice seedings, a decisive step in the transition from primitive to advanced rice cultivation, also occurred in the middle Ganges zone around 500 B.C.

Early Indo-Aryan Influence in Bengal These changes were accompanied by the intrusion of immigrants from the north and west, the Indo-Aryans, who brought with them a vast corpus of Sanskrit sacred literature. Their migration into the Gangetic Plain is also associated with the appearance of new pottery styles. Both kinds of data show a gradual eastward shift in centers of Indo-Aryan cultural production: from the twelfth century B.C. their civilization flourished in the East Punjab and Haryana area (Kuru), from the tenth to the eighth centuries in the western U. P. area (Panchala), and from the seventh to the sixth centuries B.C. in the eastern U. P. and northern Bihar region (Videha). Literature produced toward the end of this migratory process reveals a hierarchically ordered society headed by a hereditary priesthood, the Brahmans, and sustained by an ideology of ritual purity and pollution that conferred a pure status on Indo-Aryans while stigmatizing non-Aryans as impure “barbarians” (mleccha). This conceptual distinction gave rise to a moving cultural frontier between “clean” Indo-Aryans who hailed from points to the west, and “unclean” Mlecchas already inhabiting regions in the path of the Indo-Aryan advance. One sees this frontier reflected in a late Vedic text recording the eastward movement of an Indo-Aryan king and Agni, the Vedic god of fire. In this legend, Agni refuses to cross the Gandak River in Bihar since the areas to the east— eastern Bihar and Bengal—were considered ritually unfit for the performance of Vedic sacrifices. Other texts even prescribe elaborate expiatory rites for the purification of Indo-Aryans who had visited these ritually polluted regions. Despite such taboos, however, Indo-Aryan groups gradually settled the upper, the middle, and finally the lower Ganges region, retroactively justifying each movement by pushing further eastward the frontier separating themselves from tribes they considered ritually

unclean. As this occurred, both Indo-Aryans and the indigenous communities with which they came into contact underwent considerable culture change. For example, in the semi-arid Punjab the early Indo-Aryans had been organized into lineages led by patrilineal chiefs and had combined pastoralism with wheat and barley agriculture. Their descendants in the middle Ganges region were organized into kingdoms, however, and had adopted a sedentary life based on the cultivation of wet rice. Moreover, although the indigenous peoples of the middle and lower Ganges were regarded as unclean barbarians, Indo-Aryan immigrants merged with the agrarian society already established in these regions and vigorously took up the expansion of rice agriculture in what had formerly been forest or marshland. Thus the same Vedic text that gives an ideological explanation for why Videha (northern Bihar) had not previously been settled—that is, because the god Agni deemed it ritually unfit for sacrifices—also provides a material explanation for why it was deemed fit for settlement “now”: namely, that “formerly it had been too marshy and unfit for agriculture.” The Indo-Aryans’ adoption of peasant agriculture is also seen in the assimilation into their vocabulary of non-Aryan words for agricultural implements, notably the term for “plow” (langala), which is Austroasiatic in origin. By 500 B.C. a broad ideological framework had evolved that served to integrate kin groups of the two cultures into a single, hierarchically structured social system. In the course of their transition to sedentary life, the migrants also acquired a consciousness of private property and of political territory, onto which their earlier lineage identities were displaced. This, in turn, led to the appearance of state systems, together with monarchal government, coinage, a script, systems of revenue extraction, standing armies, and, emerging very rapidly between ca. 500 and 300 B.C., cities. Initially, these sweeping developments led to several centuries of rivalry and warfare between the newly emerged kingdoms of the middle Gangetic region. Ultimately, they led to the appearance of India’s first empire, the Mauryan (321-181 B.C.). All these developments proved momentous for Bengal. In the first place, since the Mauryas’ political base was located in Magadha,

immediately west of the delta, Bengal lay on the cutting edge of the eastward advance of Indo-Aryan civilization. Thus the tribes of Bengal certainly encountered Indo-Aryan culture in the context of the growth of this empire, and probably during the several centuries of turmoil preceding the rise of the Mauryas. The same pottery associated with the diffusion of Indo-Aryan speakers throughout northern India between 500 and 200 B.C.—Northern Black Polished ware—now began to appear at various sites in the western Bengal delta. It was in Mauryan times, too, that urban civilization first appeared in Bengal. Pundra (or Pundranagara), a city named after the powerful non-Aryan people inhabiting the delta’s northwestern quadrant, Varendra, became the capital of the Mauryas’ easternmost province. A limestone tablet inscribed in Aceokan Brahmi script, datable to the third century B.C., records an imperial edict ordering the governor of this region to distribute food grains to people afflicted by a famine. This suggests that by this time the cultural ecology of at least the Varendra region had evolved from shifting cultivation with hoe and dibble stick to a higher-yielding peasant agriculture based on the use of the plow, draft animals, and transplanting techniques. Contact between Indo-Aryan civilization and the delta region coincided not only with the rise of an imperial state but also with that of Buddhism, which from the third century B.C. to the seventh or eighth century A.D. experienced the most expansive and vital phase of its career in India. In contrast to the hierarchical vision of Brahmanism, with its pretensions to social exclusion and ritual purity, an egalitarian and universalist ethic permitted Buddhists to expand over great distances and establish wide, horizontal networks of trade among ethnically diverse peoples. This ethic also suited Buddhism to large, cross-cultural political systems, or empires. Ashoka (ca. 273-236 B.C.), India’s first great emperor and the third ruler of the Mauryan dynasty, established the religion as an imperial cult. Positive evidence of the advance of Buddhism in Bengal, however, is not found until the second century B.C., when the great stupa at Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh) included Bengalis in its lists of supporters. In the second or third century A.D., an inscription at Nagarjunakhonda (Andhra Pradesh) mentioned Bengal as an important Buddhist region, and in A.D. 40511, a visiting Chinese pilgrim counted twenty-two Buddhist

monasteries in the city of Tamralipti (Tamluk) in southwestern Bengal, at that time eastern India’s principal seaport. Yet Buddhism in eastern India, as it evolved into an imperial cult patronized by traders and administrators, became detached from its roots in non-Aryan society. Rather than Buddhists, it was Brahman priests who, despite taboos about residing in “unclean” lands to the east, seized the initiative in settling amidst Bengal’s indigenous peoples from at least the fifth century A.D. on. What perhaps made immigrant Brahmans acceptable to non-Aryan society was the agricultural knowledge they offered, since the technological and social conditions requisite for the transition to peasant agriculture, already established in Magadha, had not yet appeared in the delta prior to the Mauryan age. All of this contributed to a long-term process—well under way in the fifth century A.D. but still far from complete by the thirteenth—by which indigenous communities of primitive cultivators became incorporated into a socially stratified agrarian society based on wet rice production. In the middle of the eighth century, large, regionally based imperial systems emerged in Bengal, some of them patronizing Buddhism, others a revitalized Brahmanism. The first and most durable of these was the powerful Pala Empire (ca. 750-1161), founded by a warrior and fervent Buddhist named Gopala. From their core region of Varendra and Magadha, the early kings of this dynasty extended their sway far up the Gangetic Plain, even reaching Kanauj under their greatest dynast, Dharmapala (775-812). It was about this time, too, that a regional economy began to emerge in Bengal. In 851 the Arab geographer Ibn Khurdadhbih wrote that he had personally seen samples of the cotton textiles produced in Pala domains, which he praised for their unparalleled beauty and fineness. A century later another Arab geographer, Masudi (d. 956), recorded the earliest-known notice of Muslims residing in Bengal. Evidently long-distance traders involved in the overseas export of locally produced textiles, these were probably Arabs or Persians residing not in Pala domains but in Samatata, in the southeastern delta, then ruled by another Bengali Buddhist dynasty, the Chandras (ca. 825-1035). What makes this likely is that kings of this dynasty,

although much inferior to the Palas in power, and never contenders for supremacy over all of India like their larger neighbors to the west, were linked with Indian Ocean commerce through their control of the delta’s most active seaports. Moreover, while the Palas used cowrie shells for settling commercial transactions, the Chandras maintained a silver coinage that was more conducive for participation in international trade. Under the patronage of the Palas and various dynasties in Samatata, Buddhism received a tremendous lift in its international fortunes, expanding throughout maritime Asia as India’s imperial cult par excellence. Dharmapala himself patronized the construction of two monumental shrine-monastery complexes— Vikramaceila in eastern Bihar, and Paharpur in Bengal’s Rajshahi district —and between the sixth and eleventh centuries, royal patrons in Samatata supported another one, the Saiban Vihara at Lalmai. As commercially expansive states rose in eastern India from the eighth century on, Buddhism as a state cult spread into neighboring lands—in particular to Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, and Java—where monumental Buddhist shrines appear to have been modelled on prototypes developed in Bengal and Bihar. At the same time, Pala control over Magadha, the land of the historical Buddha, served to enhance that dynasty’s prestige as the supreme patrons of the Buddhist religion. Masudi’s remark about Muslims residing in Pala domains is significant in the context of these commercially and politically expansive Buddhist states, for by the tenth century, when Bengali textiles were being absorbed into wider Indian Ocean commercial networks, two trade diasporas overlapped one another in the delta region. One, extending eastward from the Arabian Sea, was dominated by Muslim Arabs or Persians; the other, extending eastward from the Bay of Bengal, by Buddhist Bengalis. The earliest presence of Islamic civilization in Bengal resulted from the overlapping of these two diasporas.

The Rise of Early Medieval Hindu Culture Even while Indo-Buddhist civilization expanded and flourished overseas, however, Buddhist institutions were steadily declining in

eastern India. Since Buddhists there had left life-cycle rites in the hands of Brahman priests, Buddhist monastic establishments, so central for the religion’s institutional survival, became disconnected from the laity and fatally dependent on court patronage for their support. To be sure, some Bengali dynasties continued to patronize Buddhist institutions almost to the time of the Muslim conquest. But from as early as the seventh century, Brahmanism, already the more vital tradition at the popular level, enjoyed increasing court patronage at the expense of Buddhist institutions. By the eleventh century even the Palas, earlier such enthusiastic patrons of Buddhism, had begun favoring the cults of two gods that had emerged as the most important in the newly reformed Brahmanical religion—CEiva and Vishnu. These trends are seen most clearly in the later Bengali dynasties—the Varmans (ca. 1075-1150) and especially the Senas (ca. 1097-1223), who dominated all of Bengal at the time of the Muslim conquest. The kings of the Sena dynasty were descended from a warrior caste that had migrated in the eleventh century from South India (Karnataka) to the Bhagirathi-Hooghly region, where they took up service under the Palas. As Pala power declined, eventually evaporating early in the twelfth century, the Senas first declared their independence from their former overlords, then consolidated their base in the BhagirathiHooghly area, and finally moved into the eastern hinterland, where they dislodged the Varmans from their capital at Vikrampur. Moreover, since the Senas had brought from the south a fierce devotion to Hindu culture (especially QEaivism), their victorious arms were accompanied everywhere in Bengal by the establishment of royally sponsored Hindu cults. As a result, by the end of the eleventh century, the epicenter of civilization and power in eastern India had shifted from Bihar to Bengal, while royal patronage had shifted from a primarily Buddhist to a primarily Hindu orientation. These shifts are especially evident in the artistic record of the period. Behind these political developments worked deeper religious changes, occurring throughout India, that served to structure the Hindu religion as it evolved in medieval times and to distinguish it from its Vedic and Brahmanical antecedents. As Ronald Inden has argued, the ancient Vedic sacrificial cult (ca. 1000-ca. 300 B.C.) experienced two major historical transformations. The first occurred in the third century

B.C., when the Mauryan emperor Ashoka established Buddhism as his imperial religion. At that time the Vedic sacrifice, which was perceived by Buddhists as violent and selfish, was replaced by gift-giving (dana) in the form either of offerings to Buddhist monks by the laity or of gifts of land bestowed on Buddhist institutions by Buddhist rulers. In response to these developments, Brahman priests began reorienting their own professional activities from performing bloody animal sacrifices to conducting domestic life-cycle rites for non-Brahman householders. At the same time, they too became recipients of gifts in the form of land donated by householders or local elites, as began occurring in Bengal from the fifth century A.D. This first transformation of the Vedic sacrifice did not, however, cause a rupture between BuSdhism and Brahmanism. In fact, the two religions coexisted quite comfortably, the former operating at the imperial center, the latter at the regional periphery. The second transformation of the Vedic sacrifice occurred in the seventh and eighth centuries, when chieftains and rulers began building separate shrines for the images of deities. The regenerative cosmic sacrifice of Vedic religion, which Buddhists had already transformed into rites of gift-giving to monks, was now transformed into a new ceremony, that of the “Great Gift” (mahadana), which consisted of a king’s honoring a patron god by installing an image of him in a monumental temple. These ideas crystallized toward the end of the eighth century, when, except for the Buddhist Palas, the major dynasties vying for supremacy over all of India—the Pratiharas of the north, the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan, and the Pandyas and Pallavas of the south—all established centralized state cults focusing on Hindu image worship. Instead of worshiping Vedic gods in a general or collective sense, each dynasty now patronized a single deity (usually Vishnu or ceiva), understood as that dynasty’s cosmic overlord, whose earthly representative was the gift-giving king. These conceptions were physically expressed in monumental and elaborately carved temples that, like Buddhist stupas, were conceptually descended from the Vedic sacrificial fire altar. Brahmans, meanwhile, evolved into something much grander than domestic priests who merely tended to the life-cycle rituals of their non-Brahman patrons. Now, in addition to performing such services, they became integrated into the ritual life of

Hindu courts, where they officiated at the kings’ “Great Gift” and other state rituals. Copper-plate inscriptions issued from the tenth through the twelfth centuries show how these ideas penetrated the courts of Bengal. Detailed lists of state officers found in inscriptions of the major dynasties of the post-tenth-century period—Pala, Chandra, Varman, and Sena—all show an elaboration of centralized state systems, increasing social stratification, and bureaucratic specialization. Moreover, donations in land became at this time a pi”rely royal prerogative, while the donations themselves (at least those in the northern and western delta) consisted of plots of agricultural land whose monetary yields were known and specified, indicating a rather thorough peasantization of society. And, except in the case of Samatata, recipients of these grants were Brahmans who received land not only for performing domestic rituals, as had been the case in earlier periods, but for performing courtly rituals. Indeed, the granting of land to Brahmans who officiated at court rituals had become a kingly duty, a necessary component of the state’s ideological legitimacy. In these centuries, then, the ideology of medieval Hindu kingship became fully elaborated in the delta. The earliest Sena kings, it is true, had justified their establishment of power in terms of their victorious conquests, and in this respect they differed little from their own conquerors, the Turks of the early Delhi sultanate. Yet the Senas’ political theory was based on a religious cosmology fundamentally different from that of their Muslim conquerors. In the Islamic conception, the line separating the human and superhuman domains was stark and unbridgeable; neither humans nor superhumans freely moved or could move from one domain to the other. In the Sena conception, however, as in medieval Hindu thought generally, the line between human and superhuman was indistinct. Since it was the king’s performance of royally sponsored rituals that served to uphold dharma —that is, cosmic, natural, and human order as understood in classical Indian thought—movement between the two domains could be actuated by the intervention of the king’s ritual behavior. “He was never tired of offering sacrifices,” one inscription boasts of Vijaya Sena (ca. 1095-1158), and through his power Dharma [dharma],

though she had become one-legged in the course of time, could move about on the earth, quickly taking the help of the rows of sacrificial pillars. That sacrificer [the king] calling down the immortals from the slopes of [the cosmic mountain] Meru full of the enemies killed by himself, brought about an interchange of the inhabitants of heaven and earth. (For) by (the construction of) lofty “houses of gods” (i.e. temples) and by (the excavation of) extensive lakes the areas of both heaven and earth were reduced and thus they were made similar to one another. By ritually bringing about “an interchange of the inhabitants of heaven and earth,” the king symbolically erased the distinction between the human and superhuman domains. Like Hindu kings elsewhere in eleventh-and twelfth-century India, the Senas projected their vision of the cosmos and their own proper place in it through the medium of architecture, specifically the monumental royal temple. By replicating cosmic order in the medium of stone monuments, in which they placed an image of their patron overlord, and by placing themselves and their temples at the center of the earthly stage, these kings mimicked the manner in which their patron overlord presided over cosmic order. Thus Vijaya Sena proclaimed: [The king] built a lofty edifice of Pradyumnevara, the wings, and plinth and the main structure of which occupied the several quarters, and the middle and the uppermost parts stretched over the great oceanlike space—(it is) the midday mountain of the rising and setting Sun who touches the Eastern and Western mountains, the supporting pillar of the house which is the three worlds and the one that remains of the mountains.... If the creator would make a jar, turning on the wheel of the earth Sumeru like a lump of clay, then that would be an object with which could be compared the golden jar placed by him (i.e., the king) on (the top of) this (temple). The Sena kings also expressed their kingly authority by performing the “Great Gift” ceremony in honour of their patron overlord, who under the last pre-conquest king, Lakshmana Sena, was Vishnu. Although this great god was the ritualized recipient of the “Great Gift,” its effective recipients were officiating Brahman priests.

The Diffusion of Bengali Hindu Civilization By the time of the Muslim conquest, then, the official cult of a cosmic overlord, monumental state temples, and royally patronized Brahman priests had all emerged as central components of the Senas’ religious and political ideology. It was not the case, however, that by that time early Indo-Aryan civilization and its later Hindu offshoot had penetrated all quarters of the Bengal delta evenly. Rather, the evidence indicates that Bengal’s northwestern and western subregions were far more deeply influenced by Indo-Aryan and Hindu civilization than was the eastern delta, which remained relatively less peasantized and less Hinduized. This is seen, for example, in pre-thirteenth-century land use and settlement patterns. A seventh-century grant of land on the far eastern edge of the delta, in modem Sylhet, describes the donated territory as lying “outside the pale of human habitation, where there is no distinction between natural and artificial; infested by wild animals and poisonous reptiles, and covered with forest out-growths.” In such regions, grants of uncultivated land were typically made in favour of groups of Brahmans or to Buddhist monasteries with a view to colonizing the land and bringing it into cultivation. One plate issued by a tenth-century Chandra king granted an enormous area of some one thousand square miles in Sylhet to the residents of eight monasteries; it also settled about six thousand Brahmans on the land. But in the west the situation was different. In the BhagirathiHooghly region, most land grants were made to individual Brahmans and were typically small in size. After the ninth century, royal donations in this area aimed not at pioneering new settlements but at supporting Brahmans on lands already brought under the plow. These grants typically gave detailed measurements of arable fields, specified their revenue yields, and instructed villagers to pay their taxes in cash and kind to the donees. Such terms and conditions point to a far greater intensity of rice cultivation, a higher degree of peasantization, and a greater population density in the Bhagirathi-Hooghly region than was the case in the relatively remote and more forested eastern delta. Differences between east and west are also seen in patterns of urbanization. Using archaeological data, Barrie Morrison has made

comparative calculations of the total area of ancient Bengal’s six principal royal palaces. Pundranagara

22,555,000 sq. ft.

Pandua

13,186,800 sq. ft.

Gaur

10,000,000 sq. ft.

Kotivarsha

2,700,000 sq. ft.

Vikrampur

810,000 sq. ft.

Devaparvata (at Lalmai)

360,000 sq. ft.

The four largest of these were located in cities of Varendra, or northwestern Bengal, whereas the palace sites of Vikrampur and Devaparvata, located in the east and southeast (at Lalmai) respectively, were many times smaller. In part, this reflects the political importance of Varendra, always a potential player in struggles over the heartland of Indo-Aryan civilization owing to its contiguity with neighboring Magadha and the middle Gangetic Plain. Yet the data on palace size also indicate a greater degree of urbanization and a higher population density in the delta’s northwestern sector than was the case in the south and east. With larger cities, too, went greater occupational specialization and social stratification, for in Bengal as in ancient Magadha, the core areas of Indo-Aryan civilization spread with the advance of city life. There are several reasons for the greater penetration of IndoAryan culture in the western delta than in the east. One has to do with persistent facts of climate. Moving down the Gangetic Plain, the monsoon rainfall increases as the delta is approached, and within the delta it continues to increase as one crosses to its eastern side. The Bhagirathi-Hooghly region, comprising most of today’s West Bengal, gets about fifty-five inches of rain annually, whereas central and eastern Bengal get between sixty and ninety-five inches, with the mouth of the Meghna receiving from one hundred to one hundred and twenty and eastern Sylhet about one hundred and fifty inches. If this climatic pattern held in ancient times, the density of vegetation in the deltaic hinterland, formerly covered with thick forests, mainly of ual (Shorea robusta), would have increased as one moved eastward. Cutting it would have required much more labour and organization,

even with the aid of iron implements, than in the less densely forested westerly regions. Also at work here were patterns of Brahman immigration to and within Bengal. West Bengal was geographically contiguous to the upper and middle Gangetic zone, long established as the heartland of Indo-Aryan civilization. Hence, when from the ninth century an increasing number of scholarly and ritually pure Brahmans migrated from this area into Bengal, most received fertile lands in the western delta. On the other hand recipients of lands further to the east, in the modern Comilla and Chittagong area, tended to be local Brahmans or migrants from neighboring parts of the delta. This suggests an eastward-sloping gradient of ritual status, with higher rank associated with the north and west, and lower rank with the less-settled east. Finally, the different degree of Aryanization in the eastern and western delta was related to ancient Bengal’s sacred geography, and in particular to the association of the Ganges River with Brahmanically defined ritual purity. This river was already endowed with great sanctity when Indo-Aryans entered the delta, and for centuries thereafter Hindus made pilgrimage sites of towns along its banks in western Bengal—for example, Navadwip, Katwa, Tribeni, Kalighat, and Ganga Sagar. With reference to the eastern delta, on the other hand, the geographer S. C. Majumdar notes that “no such sanctity attaches to the Padma below the Bhagirathi offtake nor is there any place of pilgrimage on her banks.” This was because from prehistoric times through the main period of Brahman settlement in the delta, the principal channel of the Ganges flowed down the delta’s westernmost corridor through what is now the Bhagirathi-Hooghly channel. It did not divert eastward into the Padma until the sixteenth century, long after the Turkish conquest. As a result, the river’s sanctity lingered on in West Bengal—even today the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River is sometimes called the Adi-Ganga, or “original Ganges”—while the eastern two-thirds of the delta, cut off from the Ganges during the formative period of Bengal’s encounter with Indo-Aryan civilization, remained symbolically disconnected from Upper India, the heartland of Indo-Aryan sanctity and mythology.

By the thirteenth century, then, most of Bengal west of the Karatoya and along the Bhagirathi-Hooghly plain had become settled by an agrarian population well integrated with the Hindu social and political values espoused by the Sena royal house. There, too, indigenous tribes had become rather well assimilated into a Brahmanordered social hierarchy. But in the vast stretches of the central, eastern, and northeastern delta, the diffusion of Indo-Aryan civilization was far less advanced. In the Dhaka area, the city of Vikrampur, though an important administrative center, from which nearly all of Bengal’s copper-plate inscriptions were issued in the tenth through twelfth centuries, shrank before its neighbors to the west in both size and sacredness. And in the extreme southeast, the impressive urban complex at Lalmai-Mainamati, with its distinctive artistic tradition, its extensive history of Buddhist patronage, and its cash-nexus economy, appears somewhat disconnected from the Gangetic culture to the west, looking outward to wider Indian Ocean commercial networks. In sum, although the eastern delta had certainly begun to be peasantized, especially along the valleys of the larger river systems, such as at Vikrampur and Lalmai, the process had not advanced there to the extent that it had in the west and northwest of Bengal. East of the Karatoya and south of the Padma lay a forested and marshy hinterland, inhabited mainly by non-Aryan tribes not yet integrated into the agrarian system that had already revolutionized Magadha and most of western Bengal. As a result, in 1204, when Mohammad Bakhtiyar’s Turkish cavalry captured the western Sena city of Nudiya, it was to this eastern hinterland that King Lakshmana Sena and his retainers fled. It was also in this region that subsequent generations of pioneers would concentrate their energies as Bengal’s economic and cultural frontiers continued to migrate eastward.

The Articulation of Political Authority The world is a garden, whose gardener is the state. We arrived before the Sultan. He was seated on a large gilt sofa covered with different-sized cushions, all of which were embedded with a smattering of precious stones and small pearls. We greeted him

according to the custom of the country—hands crossed on our chests and heads as low as possible. The geographic expansion of Muslim power in premodern Bengal is easy enough to reconstruct. In any given area of the delta, as in the premodern Muslim world generally, the erection of mosques, shrines, colleges, or other buildings, civil or military, usually presupposed control by a Muslim state. Epigraphic data testifying to the construction of such buildings thus form one kind of evidence for political expansion. The same is true of coinage. Since reigning kings jealously claimed the right to strike coins as a token of their sovereignty, the growth of mint towns also reflects the expanding territorial reach of Muslim states. These two kinds of sources, epigraphic and numismatic, thus permit a visual reconstruction of the growth of Muslim political authority in Bengal through time and space, as depicted in map 2. It is more challenging, however, to reconstruct the changing meaning of that authority, both to the rulers and to the subject population. All political behavior derives its meaning through the prism of culture. Equally, invocations of political symbols most effectively confer authority on rulers when they and their subjects share a common political culture. But what happened in the cases of “conquest dynasties,” as in Bengal, where the conquering class was of a culture fundamentally different from that of the subject population? How did rulers in such circumstances remain in effective control without resorting to the indefinite and prohibitively costly use of coercive force? To raise these questions is to suggest that the political frontier in Bengal may be understood not only as a moving line of garrisons, mint towns, and architectural monuments. Also involved was the more subtle matter of accommodation, or the lack of it, between a ruling class and a subject population that, as of 1204, adhered to fundamentally different notions of legitimate political authority. The transformation of these concepts of legitimacy over time —their divergence from or convergence with one another—constitutes a political frontier far less tangible than a military picket line, but one ultimately more vital to understanding the dynamics of Bengal’s premodern history.

Perso-Islamic Conceptions of Political Authority, EleventhThirteenth Centuries By the time Mohammad Bakhtiyar conquered northwestern Bengal in 1204, Islamic political thought had already evolved a good deal from its earlier vision of a centralized, universal Arab caliphate. In that vision the caliph was the “successor” (Ar., khalifa) to the Prophet Mohammad as the combined spiritual and administrative leader of the worldwide community of Muslims. In principle, too, the caliphal state, ruled from Baghdad since A.D. 750, was merely the political expression of the worldwide Islamic community. But by the tenth century that state had begun shrinking, not only in its territorial reach, but, more significantly, in its capacity to provide unified political-spiritual leadership. This was accompanied, between the ninth and eleventh centuries, by the movement of clans, tribes, and whole confederations of Turkish-speaking peoples from Inner Asia to the caliphate’s eastern provinces. Coming as military slave-soldiers recruited to shore up the flagging caliphal state, as migrating pastoral nomads, or as armed invaders, these Turks settled in Khurasan, the great area embracing today’s northeastern Iran, western Afghanistan, and Central Asia south of the Oxus River. As Baghdad’s central authority slackened, Turkish military might provided the military basis for new dynasties—some Iranian, some Turkish—that established themselves as de facto rulers in Khurasan. Important cultural changes coincided with these demographic and political developments. Khurasan was not only Inner Asia’s gateway to the Iranian Plateau and the Indian subcontinent. It was also the principal region where Iran’s rich civilization, largely submerged in the early centuries of Arab-Islamic rule, was being revitalized in ways that creatively synthesized Persian and Arab Islamic cultures. The product, Perso-Islamic civilization, was in turn lavishly patronized by the several dynasties that arose in trys area—notably the Tahirids, the Saffarids, the Samanids, and the Ghaznavids—at a time when Baghdad’s authority in its eastern domains was progressively weakening. Although themselves ethnic Turks, the Ghaznavids (9621186) promoted the revival of Persian language and culture by attracting to their regional courts the brightest “stars” on the Persian

literary scene, such as Iran’s great epic poet Firdausi (d. 1020). Ghaznavid rulers used the Persian language for public purposes, adopted Persian court etiquette, and enthusiastically promoted the Persian aesthetic vision as projected in art, calligraphy, architecture, and handicrafts. They also accepted the fiction of having been “appointed” by the reigning Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Indeed, as recent Muslim converts themselves, Turkish soldiers in Ghaznavid service became avid partisans, defenders, and promoters of Sunni Islam. It was the Ghaznavids, too, who first carried Perso-Islamic civilization to India. Pressed from behind by the Seljuqs, a more powerful Turkish confederation, to whom in 1040 they lost any claim to Khurasan, Ghaznavid armies pushed ever eastward toward the subcontinent—first to eastern Afghanistan, and finally to Lahore in the Punjab. Toward the end of the twelfth century, however, the Ghaznavids were themselves overrun by another Turkish confederation, the chiefs of Ghur, located in the hills of central Afghanistan. In 1186 Mohammad Ghuri seized Lahore, extinguished Ghaznavid power there, and seven years later established Muslim rule in Delhi. A decade after that, Mohammad Bakhtiyar, operating in Ghurid service, swept down the lower Gangetic Plain and into Bengal. The political ideas inherited by Mohammad Bakhtiyar and his Turkish followers had already crystallized in Khurasan during the several centuries preceding their entry into Bengal in 1204. This was a period when Iranian jurists struggled to reconcile the classical theory of the unitary caliphal state with the reality of upstart Turkish groups that had seized control over the eastern domains of the declining Abbasid empire. What emerged was a revised theory of kingship that, although preserving the principle that caliphal authority encompassed both spiritual and political affairs, justified a de facto separation of church and state. Whereas religious authority continued to reside with the caliph in Baghdad, political and administrative authority was invested in those who wielded the sword. Endeavoring to make the best of a bad situation, the greatest theologian of the time, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111), concluded that any government was lawful so long as its ruler, or sultttan, made formal acknowledgement of the

caliph’s theoretical authority in his domain. A sultan could do this, Ghazali maintained, by including the reigning caliph’s name in public prayers (khutttba) and on his minted coins (sikka). In short, a sultan’s authority rested, not on any sort of divine appointment or ethnic inheritance, but on his ability to maintain state security and public order. In this way pre-Islamic Persian ideals of kingship—especially those focusing on society’s inherent need for a strong monarch and, reciprocally, on the monarch’s duty to rule with justice—were assimilated by the sultanates that sprang up within the caliphate’s eastern domains. One of the clearest statements of this political vision was given by Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 1209) of Herat, a celebrated Iranian scholar and jurist who served several Khurasani princes, in particular those of the Ghurid dynasty of Turks. Inasmuch as Razi was at the height of his public career when his own patrons conquered North India (1193) and Bengal (1204) and had even been sent once on a mission to northwestern India himself (ca. 1184), it is probable that his political thought was familiar to the Ghurid conquerors of Bengal. Certainly, Razi and Mohammad Bakhtiyar inherited a shared tradition of political beliefs and symbols current in thirteenth-century Khurasan and the Perso-Islamic world generally. In his Jami’ al-’ulum Razi formulated the following propositions: The world is a garden, whose gardener is the state; The state is the sultan whose guardian is the Law; The Law is a polio/, which is protected by the kingdom; The kingdom is a city, brought into being by the army ; The army is made secure by wealth; Wealth is gathered from the subjects; The subjects are made servants by justice; justice is the axis of the prosperity of the world. Far from mere platitudes about how kings ought to behave, these propositions present a unified theory of a society’s moral, political, and economic basis—a world view at once integrated, symmetrical, and

closed. One notes in particular the omission of any reference to God; it is royal justice, not the Deity, that binds together the entire structure. Islamic Law, though included in the system, appears as little more than a prop to the sultanate. And the caliph, though implicit in the scheme, is not mentioned at all. This ideology of monarchal absolutism was not, however, the only vision of worldly authority inherited by Mohammad Bakhtiyar and his Muslim contemporaries. By the thirteenth century there had also appeared in Perso-Islamic culture an enormous lore, written and oral, that focused on the spiritual and worldly authority of Sufis, or Muslim holy men. Their authority sometimes paralleled, and sometimes opposed, that of the courts of kings. For Turks, moreover, Sufi models of authority were especially vivid, since Central Asian Sufis had been instrumental in converting Turkish tribes to Islam shortly before their migrations from Central Asia into Khurasan, Afghanistan, and India. This model of authority is seen in the oldest Persian treatise on Sufism, the Kashfal-Mahjub of ‘Ali Hujwiri (d. ca. 1072). Written in Lahore in Ghaznavid times and subsequently read widely in India, this treatise summarized Sufi doctrines and practices as understood in the eastern Muslim world in the eleventh century. It also served to shape the contours of Sufism as a complete system of Islamic piety, especially in the Indo-Muslim world. Writing on the place of Sufi saints in the Muslim universe, Hujwiri asserted that God “has made the Saints the governors of the universe; they have become entirely devoted to His business, and have ceased to follow their sensual affections. Through the blessing of their advent the rain falls from heaven, and through the purity of their lives the plants spring up from the earth, and through their spiritual influence the Moslems gain victories over the unbelievers.” Such a vision, in which all things in God’s creation are dependent on a hierarchy of saints, would appear irreconcilable with the courtly vision of the independent sultan and his dependent “herd,” the people. And indeed there is a long history of conflict between these two visions of authority. Yet it is also true that the discourse of authority found in Sufi traditions often overlapped and even converged with that found in courtly traditions. For example, both Sufi and courtly

literatures stressed the need to establish authority over a wilayat, or a territorially defined region. The Arabic term wali, meaning “one who establishes a wilayat,” meant in one tradition “governor” or “ruler” and in the other “saint” or “friend of God.” Again, in courtly discourse the Persian term shah meant “king”; yet Sufis used it as the title of a powerful saint. In the same way, in royal discourse the dargah referred to the court of a king, while for Sufis it referred to the shrine of a powerful saint. And as a symbol of legitimate authoritythe royal crown (taj) used in the coronation ceremonies of kings closely paralleled the Sufi’s turban (dastar), used in rituals of succession to Sufi leadership. These considerations would suggest that in the Perso-Islamic world of this period sultans did not exercise sole authority, or even ultimate authority. They certainly possessed effective power, reinforced by all the pomp and glitter inherited from their pre-Islamic Persian imperial legacy. Courtly sentiments like that expressed by Razi —”The world is a garden, whose gardener is the state”—indeed saw the world as a mere plaything of the state-that is, the sultan. Yet in a view running counter to this, both historical and Sufi works repeatedly hinted that temporal rulers had only been entrusted with a temporary lease of power through the grace (baraka) of this or that Muslim saint. For, it was suggested, since such saints possessed a special nearness to God, in reality it was they, and not princes or kings, who had the better claim as God’s representatives on earth. In the opinion of their followers, such powerful saints could even make or unmake kings and kingdoms. So, while sultans formally acknowledged the caliph as the font of their authority, many people, and sometimes sultans too, looked to spiritually powerful Sufis for the ultimate source of that authority. From a village perspective, after all, kings or caliphs were as politically abstract as they were geographically distant; and after the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258, caliphs all but ceased to exist even in name. Sufi saints, by contrast, were by definition luminous, vivid, and very much near at hand. Thus, by the thirteenth century, when Bengal was conquered by Muslim Turks, sultans and Sufis had both inherited models of authority that, though embedded in a shared pool of symbols, made quite different assumptions about the world and the place that God,

kings, and saints occupied in it. Moreover, both models differed radically from the ideas of political legitimacy current among the Hindu population formerly ruled by kings of the conquered Sena dynasty. For in Islamic cosmology, as communicated, for example, in Muslim Bengali coinage, the human and superhuman domains were sharply distinct, with both the sultanate and the caliphate occupying a political space beneath the ultimate authority of God, who alone occupied the superhuman world. Consequently the sultan’s proper role, in theory at least, was limited to merely implementing the Sharia, Sacred Law. On the other hand, Sena ideology posited no such rigid barrier between human and superhuman domains; movement between the two was not only possible but achievable through a king’s ritual behavior. And far from being under an abstract Sacred Law, the Senas understood religion itself, or dharma, as dependent on the king’s ritual performances. Hence the Senas had not seen themselves as implementing divine order; they sought rather to replicate that order on earth, and even to summon down the gods to reside in royally sponsored temples. How, then, did people subscribing to these contrasting political ideologies come to terms with one another once it was understood that Mohammad Bakhtiyar and his successors intended to remain in Bengal?

A Province of the Delhi Sultanate, 1204-1342 The only near-contemporary account of Mohammad Bakhtiyar’s 1204 capture of the Sena capital is that of the chronicler Minhaj alSiraj, who visited Bengal forty years after the event and personally collected oral traditions concerning it. “After Mohammad Bakhtiyar possessed himself of that territory,” wrote Minhaj, he left the city of Nudiah in desolation, and the place which is (now) Lakhnauti he made the seat of government. He brought the different parts of the territory under his sway, and instituted therein, in every part, the reading of the khutbah, and the coining of money; and, through his praiseworthy endeavours, and those of his Amirs, masjids [mosques], colleges, and monasteries (for Dervishes), were founded in those parts.

The passage clearly reveals the conquerors’ notion of the proper instruments of political legitimacy: reciting the Friday sermon, striking coins, and raising monuments for the informal intelligentsia of Sufis and the formal intelligentsia of scholars, or ‘ulama. Both their coins and their monuments reveal how the rulers viewed themselves and wished to be viewed by others. Both, moreover, were directed at several different audiences simultaneously. One of these consisted of the conquered Hindus of Bengal, who, having never heard a Khutbat, seen a Muslim coin, or set foot in a mosque, were initially in no position to accord legitimate authority either to these symbols or to their sponsors. But for a second audience —the Muslim world generally, and more immediately, the rulers of the Delhi sultanate, the parent kingdom from which Bengal’s new ruling class sprang—the Khutbat, the coins, and the building projects possessed great meaning. It is important to bear in mind these different audiences when “reading” the political propaganda of Bengal’s Muslim rulers. Militarily, Mohammad Bakhtiyar’s conquest was a blitzkrieg; his cavalry of some ten thousand horsemen had utterly overwhelmed a local population unaccustomed to mounted warfare. After the conquest, Bakhtiyar and his successors continued to hold a constant and vivid symbol of their power—their heavy cavalry—before the defeated Bengalis. In the year 1204-5 (601 A.H.), Bakhtiyar himself struck a gold coin in the name of his overlord in Delhi, Sultan Mohammad Ghuri, with one side depicting a Turkish cavalryman charging at full gallop and holding a mace in hand. Beneath this bold emblem appeared the phrase Gauda vijaye, “On the conquest of Gaur” (i.e., Bengal), inscribed not in Arabic but in Sanskrit. On the death of the Delhi sultan six years later, the governor of Bengal, ‘Ali Mardan, declared his independence from North India and began issuing silver coins that also bore a horseman image. And when Delhi reestablished its sway over Bengal, coins minted there in the name of Sultan Iltutmish (1210-35) continued to bear the image of the horseman. For neither Mohammad Bakhtiyar, ‘Ali Mardan, nor Sultan Iltutmish was there any question of seeking legitimacy within the framework of Bengali Hindu culture or of establishing any sense of continuity with

the defeated Sena kingdom. Instead, the new rulers aimed at communicating a message of brute force. As Peter Hardy aptly puts it, referring to the imposition of early Indo-Turkish rule generally, “Muslim rulers were there in northern India as rulers because they were there—and they were there because they had won.” Such reliance on naked power, or at least on its image, is also seen in the earliest surviving Muslim Bengali monuments. Notable in this respect is the tower (tninar) of Chhota Pandua, in southwestern Bengal near Calcutta. Built toward the end of the thirteenth century, when Turkish power was still being consolidated in’that part of the delta, the tower of Chhota Pandua doubtless served the usual ritual purpose of calling the faithful to prayer, inasmuch as it is situated near a mosque. But its height and form suggest that it also served the political purpose of announcing victory over a conquered people. Precedents for such a monument, moreover, already existed in the Turkish architectural tradition. Bengal’s earliest surviving mosques also convey the spirit of an alien ruling class simply transplanted to the delta from elsewhere. Constructed (or restored) in 1298 in Tribeni, a formerly important center of Hindu civilization in southwest Bengal, the mosque of Zafar Khan appears to replicate the aesthetic vision of early Indo-Turkish architecture as represented, for example, in the Begumpur mosque in Delhi (ca. 1343). Clues to the circumstances surrounding the construction (or restoration) of the mosque are found in its dedicatory inscription: Zafar Khan, the lion of lions, has appeared By conquering the towns of India in every expedition, and by restoring the decayed charitable institutions. And he has destroyed the obdurate among infidels with his sword and spear, and lavished the treasures of his wealth in (helping) the miserable. Zafar Khan’s claims to have destroyed “the obdurate among infidels” gains some credence from the mosque’s inscription tablet, itself carved from materials of old ruined Hindu temples, while the mutilated figures of Hindu deities are found in the stone used in the monument proper. Near Zafar Khan’s mosque stands another structure,

built in 1313, which is said to be his tomb; its doorways were similarly reused from an earlier pre-Islamic monument, and embedded randomly on its exterior base are sculpted panels bearing Vaishnava subject matter. How was the articulation of these political symbols received by the several “audiences” to whom they were directed? As late as thirty years after the conquest, pockets of Sena authority continued to survive in the forests beyond the reach of Turkish garrisons. Whenever Turkish forces were out of sight, petty chieftains with miniature, mobile courts would appear before the people in their full sovereign garb—riding elephants in ivory-adorned canopies, wearing bejeweled turbans of white silk, and surrounded by armed retainers—in an apparent effort to continue receiving tribute and administering justice as they had done before. In 1236 a Tibetan Buddhist pilgrim recorded being accosted by two Turkish soldiers on a ferryboat while crossing the Ganges in Bihar. When the soldiers demanded gold of him, the pilgrim audaciously replied that he would report them to the local raja, a threat that so provoked the Turks’ wrath as nearly to cost him his life. Clearly, after three decades of alien rule, people continued to view the Hindu raja as the legitimate dispenser of justice. If Muslim coins and the architecture of this period projected to the subject Bengali population an image of unbridled power, they projected very different messages to the parent Delhi sultanate, and beyond that, the larger Muslim world. Throughout the thirteenth century, governors of Bengal tried whenever possible to assert their independence from the parent dynasty in Delhi, and each such attempt was accompanied by bold attempts to situate themselves within the larger political cosmology of Islam. For example, when the selfdeclared sultan Ghiyath al-Din ‘Iwaz asserted his independence from Delhi in 1213, he attempted to legitimize his position by going over the head of the Delhi sultan and proclaiming himself the right-hand defender (Nasir) of the supreme Islamic authority on earth, the caliph in Baghdad. This marked the first time any ruler in India had asserted a direct claim to association with the wellspring of Islamic legitimacy, and it prompted Iltutmish, the Delhi sultan, not only to invade and reannex Bengal but to upstage the Bengal ruler in the matter of

caliphal support. After his armies defeated Ghiyath al-Din in 1227, Iltutmish arranged to receive robes of honour from Caliph al-Nasir in Baghdad, one of which he sent to Bengal with a red canopy of state. There it was formally bestowed upon Iltutmish’s own son, who was still in Lakhnauti, having just had the erstwhile independent king of Bengal beheaded. By having the investiture ceremony enacted in the capital city of the defeated sultan of Bengal, Iltutmish vividly dramatized his own prior claims to caliphal legitimacy. For the time being, the delta was politically reunitedwith North India, and for the next thirty years Delhi appointed to Bengal governors who styled themselves merely “king of the kings of the East” {malik-i muluk alsharq). But Delhi was distant, and throughout the thirteenth century the temptation to throw off this allegiance proved irresistible, especially as the imperial rulers were chronically preoccupied with repelling Mongol threats from the Iranian Plateau. So governors rebelled, and each brief assertion of independence was followed by their adoption of ever more exalted titles on their coins and public monuments. In 1281 Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Balban, the powerful sovereign of Delhi, ruthlessly stamped out one revolt by hunting down his rebel governor and publicly executing him. Yet within a week of Balban’s death in 1287, his own son, Bughra Khan, whom the father had left behind as his new governor, declared his independence. Bughra’s son, who ascended the Bengal throne as Rukn al-Din Kaikaus (1291-1300), then boldly styled himself on one mosque “the great Sultan, master of the necks of nations, the king of the kings of Turks and Persians, the lord of the crown, and the seal,” as well as “the right hand of the viceregent of God” — that is, “helper of the caliph.” On another mosque he even styled himself the “shadow of God” (zill Allah), an exalted title derived from ancient Persian imperial usage. Exasperated with the wayward province, Delhi for several decades ceased mounting the massive military offensives necessary to keep it within its grip. In fact, the actions of Sultan Jalal al-Din Khalaji (r. 1290-96) betray something more than mere indifference toward the delta. A contemporary historian recorded that on one occasion the sultan rounded up about a thousand criminals (“thugs”) and “gave

orders for them to be put into boats and to be conveyed into the Lower country to the neighbourhood of Lakhnauti, where they were to be set free. The thags would thus have to dwell about Lakhnauti, and would not trouble the neighbourhood (of Dehli) any more.” Within a century of its conquest, then, Bengal had passed from being the crown jewel of the empire, whose conquest had occasioned the minting of gold commemorative coins, to a dumping ground for Delhi’s social undesirables. Already we discern here the seeds of a North Indian chauvinism toward the delta that would become more manifest in the aftermath of the Mughal conquest in the late sixteenth century.

The Early Bengal Sultanate, 1342-ca. 1400 In 1258 Mongol armies under the command of Hulegu Khan sacked Baghdad and executed the reigning caliph, al-Mustasim, thereby formally extinguishing the ultimate font of Islamic political legitimacy. Nonetheless, for a half century after this disaster, coins struck in India continued to invoke the phrase “in the time of the caliph, al-Mustasim,” suggesting the inability of Indo-Muslim rulers to conceive of any legitimizing authority other than that stemming from the titular Abbasid caliph. But finally, in 1320, Qutb al-Din Mubarak, the Delhi sultan, broke from tradition and boldly declared himself to be the caliph of Islam. Although the title did not stick, and was in fact harshly received, the principle was now established that Islam could have multiple caliphs, and that they could reside even outside the Arab world. This revolution in Islamic political thinking occurred just about the time when Bengal again asserted its independence from the Delhi sultanate. In 1342 a powerful noble, Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah (134257), wrested Bengal free from Delhi’s grip and established the first of several dynasties that remained independent from North India for the next two and a half centuries. The break with Delhi was marked by a shift of the Ilyas Shahi capital from Lakhnauti, the provincial capital throughout the age of Delhi’s hegemony, to the new site of Pandua, located some twenty miles to the north. Initially, Delhi did not allow Bengal’s assertions of independence to go unchallenged. In 1353 Sultan Firuz Tughluq took an enormous

army down the Ganges to punish the breakaway kingdom. Although Firuz slew up to 180,000 Bengalis and even temporarily dislodged Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah from his capital at Pandua, he failed to reannex the delta. Six years later, Firuz made another attempt to restore the delta to Delhi’s authority, but he was again rebuffed, this time by Shams al-Din’s son and successor, Sikandar Shah (r. 1357-89). These inconclusive invasions of Bengal, and the successful tactics of the two Bengali kings to elude the North Indian imperialists by fading into the interior, finally persuaded Firuz and his successors of the futility of trying to hold onto the distant province. After 1359 Bengal was left undisturbed by North Indian armies for nearly two centuries. In reality, the emergence of the independent Ilyas Shahi dynasty represented the political expression of a long-present cultural autonomy. In the late thirteenth century, Marco Polo made mention of “Bangala,” a place he had apparently heard of from his Muslim informants, and which he understood as being a region distinct from India, for he described it as “tolerably close to India” and its people as “wretched Idolaters” who spoke “a peculiar language.” Our first indigenous reference to “Bengal” appears in the mid fourteenth century, when the historian Shams-i Siraj ‘Afif referred to Shams alDin Ilyas Shah (1342-57) as the “sultan of the Bengalis” and the “king of Bengal.” The coins of this ruler, and the architecture of his son and successor, clearly reflect the new mood of independence. Shams alDin’s coins are inscribed: [Obverse]: The just sultan, Shams al-dunya va al-din, Abul Muzaffar, Ilyas Shah, the Sultan. [Reverse:] The second Alexander, the right hand of the caliphate, the defender (or helper) of the Commander of the Faithful. Here the sultan not only proclaims an association with the caliphate but lays claim to imperial glory, calling himself “the second Alexander.” Though perhaps not measuring up to the accomplishments of Alexander the Great, Shams al-Din certainly did a creditable job of “world-conquering” in the politically dense theater of fourteenthcentury India: in addition to resisting repeated invasions from Delhi,

he defeated a host of neighboring Hindu rajas, namely those of Champaran, Tirhut, Kathmandu, Jajnagar, and Kamrup (corresponding to modern Bihar, Nepal, Orissa, and Assam). The most spectacular evidence of the dynasty’s imperial pretensions is seen in a single monument built by the founder’s son and successor, Sultan Sikandar (r. 1357-89). This is the famous Adina mosque, completed in 1375 in the Ilyas Shahi capital of Pandua. Although its builders reused a good deal of carved stone from preconquest monuments, the mosque does not appear to have been intended to convey a message of political subjugation to the region’s non-Muslims, who in any event would not have used the structure. In fact, stylistic motifs in the mosque’s prayer niches reveal the builders successful adaptation, and even appreciation, of late Pala-Sena art. The imposing monument is also likely to have been a statement directed at Sikandar’s more distant Muslim audience, his former overlords in Delhi, now bitter rivals. Having successfully defended his kingdom from Sultan Firuz’s armies, Sikandar projected his claims of power and independence by erecting a monument greater in size than any edifice built by his North Indian rivals. Measuring 565 by 317 feet externally, and with an immense courtyard (445 by 168 feet) surrounded by a screen of arches and 370 domed bays, the Adina mosque easily surpassed Delhi’s Begumpur mosque, the principal mosque of Firuz Tughluq (1351-88), in size. In fact, the Adina remains the largest mosque ever built in the Indian subcontinent. Its style, moreover, signals a sharp break from the Delhi-based architectural tradition. The western, or Mecca-facing, side of the mosque projects a distinctly imperial mood, reminiscent of the grand style of pre-Islamic Iran. This wall is a huge multistoried screen, whose exterior surfaces utilize alternating recesses and projections, both horizontally and vertically, to produce a shadowing effect. Whereas such a wall has no clear antecedent in Indo-Islamic architecture, it does recall the external facade of the famous Taq-i Kisra palace of Ctesiphon (third century A.D.), the most imposing architectural expression of Persian imperialism in Sasanian times (A.D. 225-641). Even more revealing in this respect is the design of the mosque’s central nave. Whereas the sanctuary of the Tughluqs’

Begumpur mosque in Delhi was covered with a dome—a feature carried over, together with the four-iwan scheme, from Seljuq Iran (1037-1157) to India in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries —that of the Adina mosque is covered with a barrel vault. Never before used on a monumental scale anywhere in India, this architectural device divided the whole structure into two halves, as did the great barrel vault of the Taq-i Kisra. The mosque thus departed decisively from Delhi’s architectural tradition, while drawing on the much earlier tradition of Sasanian Iran. We know that generations of Iranian architects and rulers had considered the Sasanian Taq-i Kisra palace to be the acme of visual grandiosity and splendor, and a model to be consciously imitated. Thus Sikandar was at least an heir, if not a conscious imitator, of this tradition. The interior of the Adina mosque also projects an aura of imperial majesty. To the immediate north of the central sanctuary is a raised platform, the so-called “king’s throne” (badshah ka takht), which enabled the sultan and his entourage to pray at a height elevated above the common people. And, while the latter entered the mosque from a gate in the mosque’s southeast corner, the “king’s throne” could be reached only through a private entranceway that passed through the western wall. This entire doorway was evidently stripped from some pre-Muslim structure, as can be seen by the defaced Buddhist or Hindu image in its lintel. As if the mosque’s imperial architecture did not speak for itself, Sultan Sikandar ordered the following words inscribed on its western facade: In the reign of the exalted Sultan, the wisest, the most just, the most liberal and most perfect of the Sultans of Arabia and Persia, who trust in the assistance of the Merciful Allah, Abul Mujahid Sikandar Shah the Sultan, son of Ilyas Shah, the Sultan. May his reign be perpetuated till the Day of Promise (Resurrection). One word of praise for God, mentioned in passing, and the rest for the sultan! Both the coinage and the architecture of the early Ilyas Shahi kings, then, indicate a strategy of political legitimization fundamentally different from that of their predecessors. Whereas the governors of thirteenth-century Bengal had merely transplanted Delhi’s architectural tradition to the delta, the sultans, having wrested

their autonomy from Delhi, asserted their claims of legitimacy by placing state ideology alternately on pan-Islamic and imperial bases. If Sultan Sikandar’s architecture and Sultan Shams al-Din’s coinage reflect an imperial strategy of legitimation, we see the pan-Islamic approach in the latter’s claimed association with the caliph, and in the lavish patronage of the holiest shrines of Islam by Sikandar’s son and successor, Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Azam Shah (r. 1389-1410), who sponsored the construction of Islamic colleges (madrasas) in both Mecca and Medina. Moreover, although the Bengal sultans continued to inscribe most of their monuments and coins in Arabic, from the mid fourteenth century on, they began articulating their claims to political authority in Perso-Islamic terms. They employed Persianized royal paraphernalia, adopted an elaborate court ceremony modelled on the Sasanian imperial tradition, employed a hierarchical bureaucracy, and promoted Islam as a state-sponsored religion, a point vividly and continuously revealed on state coinage. Foreign dignitaries who visited Pandua at its height in the early fifteenth century remarked on a court ceremony that we can recognize as distinctly Persian. “The dwelling of the King,” wrote a Ming Chinese ambassador in 1415, is all of bricks set in mortar, the flight of steps leading up to it is high and broad. The halls are flat-roofed and white-washed inside. The inner doors are of triple thickness and of nine panels. In the audience hall all the pillars are plated with brass ornamented with figures of flowers and animals, carved and polished. To the right and left are long verandahs on which were drawn up (on the occasion of our audience) over a thousand men in shining armour, and on horseback outside, filling the courtyard, were long ranks of (our) Chinese (soldiers) in shining helmets and coats of mail, with spears, swords, bows and arrows, looking martial and lusty. To the right and the left of the King were hundreds of peacock feather umbrellas and before the hall were some hundreds of soldiers mounted on elephants. The king sat cross-legged in the principal hall on a high throne inlaid with precious stones and a twoedged sword lay across his lap. Clearly dazzled by the ceremony of Pandua’s royal court, the ambassador continued: “Two men bearing silver staffs and with

turbaned heads came to usher (us) in. When (we) had taken five steps forward (we) made salutation. On reaching the middle (of the hall) they halted and two other men with gold staffs led us forward with some ceremony as previously. The King having returned our salutations, kotowed before the Imperial Mandate, raised it to his head, then opened and read it. The imperial gifts were all spread out on carpets in the audience hall.” The ambassador was then treated to a sumptuous banquet, after which the sultan “bestowed on the envoys gold basins, gold girdles, gold flagons, and gold bowls.” The peacock feathers, the umbrellas, the files of foot soldiers, the throne inlaid with precious stones, the lavish use of gold—all of these point unmistakably to the kind of paraphernalia typically associated with Perso-Islamic and even Sasanian royalty. Only the presence of elephants recalls the ceremony of traditional Indian courts. Whether appealing to mainly Islamic symbols of authority, as was typically the case from 1213 to 1342, or to imperial Persian symbols of authority, as was typically the case from 1342 on, the Muslim ruling class sought the basis of its political legitimacy in symbols originating outside the area over which they ruled. No more were Bengal’s rulers, like the early governors, content with declaring themselves merely first among “kings of the East.” On the Adina mosque, Sultan Sikandar proclaimed that he was the most perfect among kings of Arabia and Persia, not even mentioning those of the Indian subcontinent, where he was actually ruling. In the same spirit his son and successor, Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Azam Shah, tried without success to persuade Hafiz, the great poet of Shiraz, to come and adorn his court at Pandua. The political and cultural referents of these kings lay, not in Delhi or Central Asia, but much further to the west—in Mecca, Medina, Shiraz, and ancient Ctesiphon.

The Rise of Raja Ganesh (ca. 1400-1421) Protracted over many decades, this campaign of selflegitimization by references external to Bengal was bound to have its effect on that other audience to which the Muslim regime addressed itself—the Bengali population, and especially the Hindu landholding

elites whose cooperation was essential for the kingdom’s administration. Tensions between the Indo-Turkish ruling class and Hindu Bengali society surfaced toward the end of the fourteenth century when Sufis of the Chishti and Firdausi orders, who vehemently championed a reformed and purified Islam, insisted that the state’s foreign and Islamic identity not be diluted by admitting Bengalis into the ruling class. In 1397 Maulana Muzaffar Shams Balkhi (d. 1400), a Sufi of the Firdausi order, complained in a letter to Sultan Ghiyath alDin Azam Shah: The vanquished unbelievers with heads hanging down, exercise their power and authority to administer the lands which belong to them. But they have also been appointed (executive) officers over the Muslims in the lands of Islam, and they impose their orders on them. Such things should not happen. But such things did happen; indeed, they had to. Bengali nobles constituted a proud and experienced class of administrators who knew the land, the people, and the way local government had traditionally been managed. Even if the Indo-Turkish ruling class had wanted to recruit foreign administrators from Upper India or the Middle East, Bengal’s physical isolation from those areas, together with its political isolation from North India, dictated that powerful Hindu Bengali nobles be maintained in positions of local authority. Muzaffar Shams’s protest is itself evidence that such had been the policy. In short, though uSe sultanate aligned itself ideologically with the Middle East, it was rooted politically in Bengal. This fundamental contradiction shaped the most severe domestic crisis the sultanate faced, an upheaval focusing on the rise of a remarkable noble named Raja Ganesh. Described in a contemporary letter as “a landholder of four hundred, this noble was evidently descended from a ruling family prominent since Pala and Sena times. By the opening of the fifteenth century, Raja Ganesh seems to have wielded effective control over the rich lands running along the Ganges between modern Rajshahi and Pabna. He definitely belonged to that class of men to whom Muzaffar Shams referred when he wrote in 1397 of “vanquished unbelievers” exercising political authority over the Muslims of Bengal.

After Ghiyath al-Din’s death in 1410, tensions between Turks and Bengalis considerably intensified, and during the second decade of the fifteenth century, the crisis passed quite beyond the government’s control. According to the historian Mohammad Qasim Firishta (d. 1623), Raja Ganesh “attained to great power and predominance” during the reign of Sultan Shihab al-Din (1411— 14), at which time the Bengali noble became the “master of the treasury and the kingdom.” When the sultan died, he wrote, Ganesh, “raising aloft the banner of kingship, seized the throne and ruled for three years and several months.” But the historian Nizam al-Din Ahmad (d. 1594) makes no mention of Raja Ganesh having actually usurped the throne, recording only that when Sultan Shihab al-Din Bayazid Shah died, “a zamindar [landholder] of the name of Kans [Ganesh] acquired power and dominion over the country of Bangala,” and that his “period of power [muddat-i isfi’a’] lasted seven years.” The only contemporary references to this episode are by Arab chroniclers, who evidently derived their information from pilgrims or other travellers who had journeyed from Bengal to Arabia. Affirming that the throne had passed from Ghiyath al-Din Azam Shah to his son Saif al-Din (1410-11), the chroniclers relate that the latter’s slave rebelled against Raja Ganesh, captured him, and seized control of the kingdom. But then, the chroniclers stated, the son of Raja Ganesh revolted against the usurper, converted to Islam under the adopted name Mohammad Jalal al-Din, and then himself mounted the throne as sultan of Bengal. A continuous run of coins minted by Muslim rulers in Bengal indicates that during the height of the turmoil, from 1410 to 1417, Muslim kings continued to hold de jure authority in the delta. This being the case, Nizam al-Din’s statement that Raja Ganesh had acquired dominion in the kingdom suggests that the Bengali noble at this time ruled but did not reign, preferring to govern Bengal through a succession of Muslim puppets. Yet Ganesh evidently exerted overwhelming influence over these puppet sultans, for the contemporary Arab chroniclers, and later Firishta too, mistook his de facto rule for de jure sovereignty. In 1415, he took the even bolder step of getting his own son—according to a later source, a lad only twelve years old, named Jadu —installed on the throne of Bengal. Now Raja

Ganesh, backed by other Bengali nobles, ruled as regent for his own son. Despite Raja Ganesh’s audacious maneuverings, however, the old guard of Turkish nobles prevented him and his supporters from upsetting the symbolic structure upon which the kingdom’s political ideology had rested for over two centuries. For Ganesh’s son Jadu did not reign as a Hindu raja; nor was he installed with any of the appropriate symbols of Hindu kingship. Rather, ill what appears to have been a compromise formula worked out between political brokers for the Bengali and Turkish factions, he converted to Islam, was renamed Sultan Jalal al-Din Mohammad, and was then allowed to reign as a Muslim king. Immediately upon his accession to power in 1415, the new sultan minted coins in his Islamic name. That these coins were issued simultaneously from Pandua and the provincial cities of Chittagong, Sonargaon, and Satgaon suggests a calculated attempt by Raja Ganesh to ensure the acceptance of his son’s accession to power as legitimate over all of Bengal. If the Muslim nobility, succumbing to political reality, acquiesced and even participated in these new arrangements, the capital’s defenders of Islamic piety, the Sufis, reacted with shock and outrage. “How exalted is God!” exclaimed the most eminent of these, Shaikh Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam: How exalted is God! He has bestowed, without apparent reasons, the robe of faith on the lad of an infidel and installed him on the throne of the kingdom over his friends. Infidelity has gained predominance and the kingdom of Islam has been spoiled. Who knozos luhat Divine wisdom ordains And what is fated for what individual existence?... Alas, woe to me, the sun of Islam has become obscured and the moon of religion has become eclipsed. Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam even wrote a letter to Ibrahim Sharqi, the sultan of neighboring Jaunpur, imploring him to invade the delta and rid Bengal of the usurping Raja Ganesh. “Why are you sitting calm and

happy on your throne,” demanded the Sufi, “when the abode of faith of Islam has been reduced to such a condition! Arise and come to the aid of religion, for it is obligatory for you who are possessed of resources.” Chronicling the years 1415-20, a Chinese source mentions that a kingdom to the west of Bengal had indeed invaded the delta, but desisted when placated with gold and money. Although Central Asian and Arakanese traditions record somewhat different outcomes of Sultan Ibrahim’s invasion, it is nonetheless clear that the sultan of Jaunpur failed to “liberate” the delta for “Islam” as Nur Qutb-i Alam had hoped. With the capital preoccupied with both internal turmoil and foreign invasion, remnants of various pre-Muslim ruling houses seized the moment to assert their independence from Turkish rule and to reconquer a vast stretch of the eastern and southern delta. For the single year A.H. 820, corresponding to A.D. February 1417-February 1418, no sultanate coins are known to have been issued anywhere in Bengal. On the other hand two successive Hindu kings, Danuja Marddana Deva and his son Mahendra Deva, minted coins during precisely that period from Chittagong, Sonargaon, and “Pandunagara,” an apparent reference to Chhota Pandua in southwestern Bengal. These kings appear to have been descendants of the Deva dynasty of kings of Chandradwip, a kingdom centered in what is now the Barisal area of southeastern Bengal, which had controlled a large area between Sonargaon and Chittagong in the thirteenth century. But Danuja Marddana’s and Mahendra’s bid to restore the kingdom met with only brief success. In 1418 Sultan Jalal al-Din began issuing coins from what is now Faridpur, indicating that the forces of Raja Ganesh had managed to establish the sultanate’s authority in the heart of the southeastern delta. Similar coins issued from Sonargaon and Satgaon in that same year, and from Chittagong in 1420, point to the dramatic reassertion of the sultanate’s authority throughout the delta. Although the revolt was snuffed out within a year or so, the coinage issued by its leaders tells us much of its ideological basis snd

of the religious sentiments then prevailing in the Bengal hinterland. On the obverse side of their coins, the Deva kings inscribed the Sanskrit phrase “Uri Candi Carana Parayana,” or “devoted to the feet of Goddess Chandi.” The phrase corroborates the evidence of writings produced somewhat later that celebrate Chandi as a prominent folk deity and depict her as the protectress of Bengali kingship. Yet, while reflecting a distinct memory of Hindu kingship, these same coins indicate the extent to which Islamic conceptions of political authority had by this time diffused throughout the delta. The inscriptions of the Deva coins are enclosed within various designs—single squares, double squares, plain circles, scalloped circles, triangular rayed circles, squares within circles, or hexagons—all of which had been firmly established in the numismatic tradition of Bengal’s Indo-Turkish rulers. This suggests that, even while proclaiming the restoration of Hindu Bengali rule, leaders of the independence movement had to employ Indo-Turkish numismatic formulae to appear legitimate to the general population. The Raja Ganesh period was a turning point in Bengali history. First, it proved that despite the objections of influential members of the Muslim elite, Bengali Hindus would henceforth be formally integrated into the sultanate’s ruling structure. In fact, the political integration of non-Muslims had begun long before the rise of Raja Ganesh, whose own behavior suggests their loyalty to the idea of the sultanate. Immediately upon dealing with the invasion by Sultan Ibrahim of Jaunpur, Ganesh turned his attention to quashing the Deva movements in southern and eastern Bengal, demonstrating his refusal to support explicitly Hindu restorations anywhere in the delta. Only by merging his interests with those of the kingdom as a whole, and by tempering his own power with a policy of conciliation with the powerful Indo-Turkish classes of the capital, did Raja Ganesh retain political influence. Second, the Ganesh episode made telling points respecting the waning power of Hindu political symbolism in the delta. In the capital city, Raja Ganesh did not and could not raise his son to the throne as a Hindu; the future Sultan Jalal al-Din could reign only as a Muslim. As a Sufi source later put it, “In order to be sultan, he became Muslim”. In the country’s interior, on the other

hand, a rebellion raised in the name of Chandi had demonstrated the continued popular association of that goddess with royalty. Yet even here the trappings of Islamic political legitimacy, though not yet its substance, had sunk deep roots, as the coins proclaiming the protection of the goddess were modelled after those of the Bengal sultans. At both royal and popular levels, Bengalis were gradually accommodating themselves to Muslim rule.

Sultan Jalal al-Din Mohammad (1415-32) and His Political Ideology Surrounded by rebellious Hindus in the interior and by alarmed members of the Muslim elite in the capital, how did the boy-king and Muslim convert Sultan Jalal al-Din assert his own claims to the throne? First, he reversed the policy of his Hindu father respecting the highly influential circle of Chishti Sufis in the capital. Sufi sources, naturally partial to the cause of the Shaikhs, depict Raja Ganesh as having systematically persecuted the Sufis of Pandua, even arranging for the murder of one of their next of kin. But Sultan Jalal al-Din broke with this policy by submitting himself to the personal guidance of Pandua’s leading Chishti, Shaikh Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam. Given the young king’s tender age at the time of his accession, it is likely that he had been entrusted to the religious care of the venerable Chishti saint as part of a compromise that Raja Ganesh and influential Indo-Turkish nobles worked out as their price for accepting Ganesh’s son as king. In any event, prominent members of the Chishti order clearly emerged as the principal legitimizers of Islamic authority in Bengal, a role they would continue to play for the remainder of the independent sultanate period, and through the Mughal period as well. Second, the new monarch sought to legitimize his rule by publicly displaying his credentials as a devout and correct Muslim. Contemporary Arab sources hold that upon his conversion to Islam, Jalal al-Din adopted the Hanafi legal tradition and rebuilt the mosques demolished by his father. Between 1428 and 1431 he also supported the construction of a religious college in Mecca and established close ties with Sultan Ashraf Barsbay, the Mamluk ruler of Egypt. Having

plied the latter with gifts, Jalal al-Din requested in return a letter of recognition from the Egyptian sultan, he being the most prestigious Muslim ruler in the Islamic heartlands and the custodian of a remnant line of the Abbasid caliphs. The Mamluk sultan complied with the request, sending the Bengal sultan a robe of honour as well as the letter of recognition. Jalal al-Din also reintroduced on his coins the Muslim confession of faith, which had disappeared from Bengal’s coins for several centuries, since the time of Ghiyath al-Din ‘lwaz (r. 1213-27). In fact, he went a good deal further. Perhaps because he could not inscribe on his monuments and coins the usual self-legitimizing formula, “sultan, son of the sultan,” in 1427 the king, now a mature man with twelve years’ ruling experience, had himself described in one inscription as “the most exalted of the great sultans, the caliph of Allah in the universe.” Having tested the reception of his bold statement on a single mosque, he took the bolder step three years later of including “the caliph of Allah” as one of his titles on his coins. For a convert to the religion to claim for himself the loftiest title in the Sunni Muslim world—second only to the Prophet himself—was indeed a monumental leap. Even while strenuously asserting his credentials as a correct Muslim, Jalal al-Din inaugurated a two-century age when the ruling house sought to ground itself in local culture. Reflected in coinage, in patterns of court patronage, in language, in literature, and in architecture, this was by far the most important legacy of Sultan Jalal al-Din’s seventeen-year reign. Several undated issues of his silver coins and a huge commemorative silver coin struck in Pandua in 1421 not only lack the Muslim confession of faith but bear the stylized figure of a lion. The numismatist G. S. Farid has explained this unusual motif by arguing that the latter coin— which at 105 grams in weight and 6.7 centimeters in width is perhaps the largest and heaviest coin ever struck in India—was minted for presentation to the emperor of China by Chinese ambassadors and soldiers residing at the Bengal court during the early fifteenth century. Chinese chronicles do indeed record that the Bengal sultans presented silver coins to members of their Bengal mission. But this hypothesis would not explain why the same lion motif is found on the

ordinary silver coinage minted by the same sultan. An alternative explanation has been offered by A. H. Dani, who draws attention to Tripura, a small Hindu hill kingdom that managed to maintain a precarious independence on the extreme eastern edge of the delta throughout the sultanate and Mughal periods. Noting that this kingdom depicted lions on its coins, Dani suggests that in addition to reconquering southern Bengal, Jalal al-Din may also have conquered Tripura, or parts of it, and issued this style of coinage in order to gain the support of its people. However, since the earliest known lion-stamped coin minted by the independent rajas of Tripura did not appear until 1464, or thirty-two years after the death of Sultan Jalal al-Din, the sultan could not have been following the established custom of that kingdom. On the other hand, one may see the motif of a lion—some species of which are indigenous to India—as a more generalized symbol of political authority in eastern Bengal, not limited to the rajas of Tripura. When the kings of Tripura began striking their own lion-motif coins from 1464 on, they did so as patrons of the Goddess manifested as Durga, whose vehicle is a lion. Since the lion is also the vehicle of the Goddess as Chandi, in whose name a reconstituted Deva dynasty had unsuccessfully rebelled in 1416-18, the sultan possibly intended his lion-motif coins to appeal to deeply rooted sentiments that focused on Goddess-worship generally. Nor did he attempt to disguise his identity as the son of a Hindu chieftain, but instead proclaimed his paternity in Arabic letters, affirming himself to be bin Kans Rao, “son of Raja Ganesh.” Sultan Jalal al-Din, then, was sending different messages to different constituencies in his kingdom. To Muslims, he portrayed himself as the model of a pious sultan, reviving inscription of the Muslim creed on his coinage and even making a claim, unprecedented in Bengal, to be the caliph of Allah. To Hindus, meanwhile, his coins proclaimed a sovereign who was the son of a Hindu king; moreover, they bore an image that, without actually naming Chandi or Durga, would have struck responsive chords among devotees of the Goddess. He also patronized Sanskritic culture by publicly demonstrating his appreciation for scholars steeped in classical Brahmanic scholarship.

What is more significant, a contemporary Chinese traveller reported that although Persian was understood by some in the court, the language in universal use there was Bengali. This points to the waning, although certainly not yet the disappearance, of the sort of foreign mentality that the Muslim ruling class in Bengal had exhibited since its arrival over two centuries earlier. It also points to the survival, and now the triumph, of local Bengali culture at the highest level of official society. The new mood is seen most vividly in the architecture that appeared in the kingdom immediately after the Raja Ganesh episode. Abandoning Middle Eastern or North Indian traditions of religious architecture, Bengali mosques from the reign of Sultan Jalal al-Din on adopted purely indigenous motifs and structural traits. Although not itself a mosque, the Eklakhi mausoleum in Pandua, believed to be the sultan’s own mausoleum, became the prototype for the subsequent Bengali-style mosque. Here we find all the hallmarks of the new style: square shape, single dome, exclusive use of brick construction in both exterior and interior, massive walls, engaged octagonal corner towers, curved cornice, and extensive terra-cotta ornamentation. The lastmentioned feature, a Bengali tradition dating from at least the eighth century A.D., as in the Buddhist shrine at Paharpur, was now fully reestablished, as witnessed in the facade above the Eklakhi’s lintel. A mature example of the new style is seen in the Lattan mosque at Gaur, built ca. 1493-1519. Whence came the inspiration for this style of mosque? One source was the familiar thatched bamboo hut found everywhere in the villages of Bengal. Their curved roofs, formed by the natural bend of the bamboo structure under the weight of the thatching, were translated into brick for the first time in the Eklakhi mausoleum, with its gently curved cornice. Thereafter until the end of the sultanate, the thatched hut motif became an essential ingredient of Bengali architecture, whether public or private, Hindu or Muslim. The art historian Perween Hasan has suggested still another indigenous source for the Bengali mosque. By comparing sultanate mosques with Buddhist monuments in Burma dating from the eighth to eleventh centuries, together with surviving evidence of Buddhist architecture in pre-twelfth-century

Bengal, Hasan has come to the conclusion that Bengal’s Buddhist temple tradition directly contributed to the revival of the square, brick Bengali mosque in the fifteenth century. Drawing on elements derived both from the rural Bengali thatched hut and from the pre-Islamic Buddhist temple, then, these structures reflect an essentially nativist movement, an effort to express an Islamic institution in locally familiar terms. This style of royal culture became so fixed that it persisted despite the restoration of the old Ilyas Shahi dynasty in 1433, and despite the drastic changes in the social composition of the ruling class that took place during the century following Jalal al-Din’s death in 1432.

The Indigenization of Royal Authority, 1433-1538 The fifty years after Jalal al-Din’s death saw the restoration of the old Ilyas Shahi house and, in a curious throwback to the earliest days of Turkish rule in North India, the appearance of the institution of military slavery. In the 1460s and 1470s, however, instead of Central Asian Turks, black slaves from Abyssinia in East Africa were recruited for military and civil service. But the influence of these men grew with their numbers, and in time they subverted the very purpose for which they had been imported. In 1486 a coup d’etat ended the Ilyas Shahi dynasty for good, plunging the sultanate into seven stormy years of palace intrigues and assassinations as slave after slave attempted to seize the reins of power. Ultimately ‘Ala al-Din Husain, a Meccan Arab who had risen to the office of chief minister under an Abyssinian royal patron, emerged triumphant in another palace coup, which launched the last important ruling house of independent Bengal, the Husain Shahi dynasty. The reigns of Sultan Ala al-Din Husain Shah (1493-1519) and his son Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (1519-32) are generally regarded as the “golden age” of the Bengal sultanate. In Husain Shah’s reign, for example, Bengali Hindus participated in government to a considerable degree: his chief minister {vazir), his chief of bodyguards, his master of the mint, his governor of Chittagong, his private physician, and his private secretary (Dabir-i Khasti) were all Bengali Hindus.

In terms of its physical power and territorial extent, too, this was the sultanate’s high tide. In the second year of his reign, 1494, Sultan Husain Shah extended the kingdom’s northern frontiers, invading and annexing both Kuch Bihar (“Kamata”) and western Assam (“Kamrup”). Writing around 1515, Tome Pires estimated this monarch’s armed forces at a hundred thousand cavalrymen. “He fights with heathen kings, great lords and greater than he,” wrote the Portuguese official, “but because the king of Bengal is nearer to the sea, he is more practised in war, and he prevails over them.” The king thus managed to make a circle of vassals of his neighbors: Orissa to the southwest, Arakan to the southeast, and Tripura to the east. But the palmy days of independent Bengal were numbered. Even as the Husain Shahi dynasty was taking root, Babur, a brilliant Timurid prince, was rising to prominence in Central Asia and Afghanistan. In 1526, resolving to make a bid for empire in North India, Babur led his cavalry and cannon through the Khyber Pass and overthrew the Lodi dynasty of Afghans, the last rulers of a vastly shrunken and decayed Delhi sultanate. As a result of this triumph, defeated Afghans moved down the Gangetic plain and into the Bengal delta, where they were hospitably received by Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah. Thus the span of a century from the death of Jalal al-Din Mohammad (d. 1432) to that of Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (d. 1532) witnessed a wholesale transformation of Bengal’s political fabric. In the reign of the former sultan, descendants of old Turkish families had still formed the kingdom’s dominant ruling group. But in the following century the scope of Bengali participation at all levels of government continually widened, while the throne itself passed from Indo-Turks, to East Africans, to an Arab house, and, finally, to Afghans. How did these changes affect the articulation of state authority? Within the precincts of the court, to be sure, a self-consciously Persian model of political authority was maintained to the end of the sultanate. A member of a Portuguese mission sent to Nasir al-Din’s court in 1521 —the earliest-known European mission to Bengal—vividly describes the projection of royal power during his trip to the capital. Ushered into the sultan’s court, the writer passed by three hundred bare-chested soldiers bearing swords and round shields, and the same number of

archers, on whose shields were painted golden lions with black claws. “We arrived before the place’s second gate and were searched as we had been at the first,” continues the mission’s anonymous interpreter. We passed through nine such gates and were searched each time. Beyond the last gate we saw an esplanade as vast as one and a half arena[s] and which seemed to be wider than it was long. Twelve horsemen were playing polo there. At one end there was a large platform mounted on thick sandal-wood supports. The roof supports were thinner and were covered in carvings of foliage and small gilded birds. The gilt ceiling was also carved and depicted the moon, the sun and a host of stars, all gilded. We arrived before the Sultan. He was seated on a large gilt sofa covered with different-sized cushions, all of which were embedded with a smattering of precious stones and small pearls. We greeted him according to the custom of the country—hands crossed on our chests and heads as low as possible. The polo field at the heart of the court, the royal dais raised on sandalwood columns, the roof adorned with gilded carvings of birds and heavenly bodies, and the ceremonial etiquette before the sultan— all clearly indicate the survival of Persian political symbols at the sultanate’s ritual center. Indeed, this description of the court at Gaur closely compares with that of the court of Pandua given by a Chinese ambassador a century earlier. But this political symbolism seems to have been intended for internal use only, as if the court were only reminding itself of its Persian political inheritance. Publicly, the later sultans placed a much greater emphasis on merging their interests with local society and culture, as in their public displays of lavish generosity. Wrote the Portuguese diplomat just cited: I saw one hundred and fifty cartloads of cooked rice, large quantities of bread, rape, onions, bananas and other fruits of the earth. There were fifty other carts filled with boiled and roasted cows and sheep as well as plenty of cooked fish, All this was to be given to the poor. After the food had been distributed, money ivas given out, the whole to the value of six hundred thousand of our tangas. ...I was

totally amazed; it had to be seen to be believed. The money urns thrown from the top of a platform into a crowd of about four or five thousand people. While a foreign dignitary toas permitted to see a Persianized court with gilded ceilings and sandalwood posts, the common people saw cartloads of cooked rice “and other fruits of the earth.” It was in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, too, that state-sponsored mosques built in native styles proliferated throughout the delta. The court also lent vigorous support to Bengali language and literature. Already in the early fifteenth century, the Chinese traveller Ma Huan observed that Bengali was “the language in universal use.” By the second half of the same century, the court was patronizing Bengali literary works as well as Persian romance literature. Sultan Rukn al-Din Barbak (r. 1459-74) patronized the writing of the Uri Krishna-Vijaya by Maladhara Basu, and under ‘Ala al-Din Husain Shah (1493-1519) and Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah (1519-32), the court patronized the writing of the Manasa-Vijaya by Vipra Das, the Padma-Purana by Vijaya Gupta, the Krishna-Mangala by Yasoraj Khan, and translations (from Sanskrit) of portions of the great epic Mahabharata by Vijaya Pandita and Kavindra Parameswara. Sultan Mahmud Shah (1532-38) even dedicated a bridge using a Sanskrit inscription written in Bengali characters, and dated according to the Hindu calendar. Construction of Dated Mosques in Bengal, 1200-1800 Ordinary

Congregational

Total

1200-1250

2

0

2

1250-1300

3

1

4

1300-1350

2

0

2

1350-1400

4

1

5

1400-1450

5

0

5

1450-1500

52

9

61

1500-1550

23

28

56

1550-1600

15

2

17

1600-1650

7

0

7

1650-1700

17

0

17

1700-1750

8

0

S

1750-1800

4

0

4

Total

147

41

188

Sources: Shamsud-Din Ahmed, ed. and trans., Inscriptions of Bengal (Rajshahi: Varendra Research Museum, 1960), 4: 317-38; Qeyamuddin Ahmad, Corpus of Arabic and Persian Inscriptions of Bihar (Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1973); A. H. Dani, Muslim Architecture in Bengal (Dacca: Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1961), 194-95; Epigraphia Indka, Arabic and Persian Supplement, 1965: 24; id., 1975: 34-36; journal of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan 2 (1957); id., 11, no. 2 (1966): 143-51; id., 12, no. 2 (1967): 296-303; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 28, no. 2 (1983): 83-95; journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 6, nos. 1-2 (1964): 15-16; journal of the Varendra Research Museum 2 (1973): 67-70; id., 4 (1975-76): 63-69, 71-80; id., 6 (1980-81): 101-8; id:, 7 (1981-82): 184; Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 30, no. 3 (1973): 589; Mohammad Yusuf Siddiq, Arabic and Persian Texts of the Islamic Inscriptions of Bengal (Watertown, Mass.: South Asia Press, 1991), 4-123.

In short, apart from the Persianized political ritual that survived within the court itself, from the early fifteenth century on, the sultanate articulated its authority through Bengali media. This resulted partly from reassessments made in the wake of the upheavals of the Raja Ganesh period and partly from sustained isolation from North India, which compelled rulers to base their claims of political legitimacy in terms that would attract local support. But royal patronage of Bengali culture was selective in nature. With the apparent aim of broadening the roots of its authority, the court patronized folk architecture as opposed to classical Indian styles, popular literature written in Bengali rather than Sanskrit texts, and Vaishnava Bengali officials instead of Uakta Brahmans. At the same time, Islamic symbolism assumed a measurably lower posture in the projection of state authority. Political pragmatism seems to have dictated the most public of all royal deeds, the minting of coins. Sultan Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah described himself as “the sultan, son of the sultan, Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah, the sultan, son of Husain Shah, the sultan.” Gone was the bombast of earlier periods, and gone too were references to Greek conquerors or Arab caliphs. Nasir al-Din Nusrat Shah was sultan simply because his father had been; no further justification was deemed necessary. Secure in power, these kings now presented themselves to all Bengalis as indigenous rulers.

It seems, moreover, that this was how contemporary Hindu poets perceived them. In a 1494 work glorifying the goddess Manasa, the poet Vijaya Gupta wove into his opening stanzas praises of the sultan of Bengal that would have flattered any classical Indian raja: Sultan Husain Raja, tiurturer of the world: In war he is invincible; for his opponents he is Yama [god of death]. In his charity he is like Kalpataru [a fabled wish-yielding tree]. In his beauty he is like Kama [god of love], His subjects enjoy happiness under his rule. Similarly, in his Uri Caitanya Bhagavat composed in the 1540s, Vrindavan Das refers to the Bengal king as raja, never using the Arabo-Persian terms shah or sultan. And in the early 1550s another Vaishnava poet, Jayananda, refers in his Caitanya-Mangala to the Muslim ruler not only as raja but as isvara (“god”), and even as Indra, the Vedic king of the gods. The use of such titles signals a distinctly Bengali validation of the sultan’s authority. In 1629, shortly after the Mughal conquest of Bengal, and still within living memory of the sultanate, the Augustinian friar Sebastiao Manrique visited Bengal and remarked that some of its Muslim kings had been in the habit of sending for water from Ganga Sagar, the ancient holy site where the old Ganges (the modern Hooghly) emptied into the Bay of Bengal. Like Hindu sovereigns of the region, he wrote, these kings would wash themselves in that holy water during ceremonies connected with their installation. This isolated reference, if narrated accurately to the European friar, would suggest that balancing the Persian symbols that pervaded their private audiences, the later sultans observed explicitly Indian rites during their coronations, events that were very public and symbolically charged. Contemporary poetic references to these kings as raja or isvara should not, then, be dismissed as mere hyperbole. They had become Bengali kings.

Summary

Having dislodged a Hindu dynasty in Bengal, the earliest Muslim rulers made no attempt on their coins to assert legitimate authority over their conquered subjects, displaying instead a show of coercive power. Their earliest architecture reveals an immigrant people still looking over their shoulders to distant Delhi. In the course of the thirteenth century, however, political rivalry with Delhi compelled Bengal’s rulers to adopt a posture of strenuous religious orthodoxy visa-vis their former overlords. This they did by associating themselves with the font of all Islamic legitimacy, the office of the caliph in Baghdad. After gaining independence from Delhi in the mid fourteenth century, the sultans of Bengal added to this posture a projection of Persian imperial ideology, reflected in the “Second Alexander” numismatic formula and in Sikandar’s grandiose and majestic Adina mosque. By the early fifteenth century, however, too much emphasis upon either foreign basis of legitimacy —Islamic or imperial Persian— provoked a crisis of confidence among those powerful Bengali nobles upon whose continued political support the minority Muslim ruling class ultimately depended. That crisis, manifested in Raja Ganesh’s rise to all but legal sovereignty, in turn provoked a crisis of confidence among the chief Muslim literati, the Sufi elite of the time. These tensions were partially resolved by the conversion of Raja Ganesh’s son, Sultan Jalal al-Din, and the latter’s attempt to patronize each of the kingdom’s principal constituencies—pious Muslims, Sufis of the Chishti order, and devotees of the Goddess— on a separate, piecemeal basis. But a comprehensive political ideology appealing to all Bengalis only appeared with the restored Ilyas Shahi dynasty and its successors. By evolving a stable, mainly secular modus vivendi with Bengali society and culture, in which mutually satisfactory patron-client relations became politically institutionalized, and in which the state systematically patronized the culture of the subject population, the later Bengal sultanate approximated what Marshall Hodgson has called a “military patronage state.” Dropping all references to external sources of authority, the coins of the later sultans relied instead on a

secular dynastic formula of legitimate succession: so-and-so was sultan because his father had been one. And in their public architecture, these kings yielded so much to Bengali conceptions of form and medium that, as the art historian Percy Brown observes, “the country, originally possessed by the invaders, now possessed them.”

2: Architecture During Delhi Sultanate The architecture of the Delhi sultanate represents a gradual evolution from an imported Afghan style using unfamiliar materials to a developed Indo-lslamic style which formed the basis of later Mughal architecture. The first building of the Delhi sultanate was the Quwwat al-Islam Mosque complex built by Qutb al-Din Aibak out of the remains of twenty-seven destroyed Hindu temples. The arcades were supported by two tiers of Hindu temple pillars placed one on top of the other to achieve the desired height. They were built in a trabeated construction and in 1199 an arched facade was added to the east side of the sanctuary to give it the familiar appearance of a mosque. However, the arches of the screen were built out of corbels rather than voussoirs whilst the decoration consisted of Quranic inscriptions contained within dense Hindu-style foliage. In the same year Qutb al-Din began the famous Qutb Minar which has become one of the potent symbols of Islam in India. Other work carried out at this time was the construction of the Great Mosque of Ajmer which like the Delhi Mosque employed re-used Hindu columns and later had an arched screen added to the front. Ala al-Din in particular devoted a great deal of attention to the mosque by extending the area of the sanctuary as well as beginning a new minaret on the same design as the Qutb Minar but more than twice the size. Unfortunately Ala al-Din was unable to finish his work and the only part completed is a monumental gateway. Other work carried out by Ala al-Din was the foundation of Siri, the second city of Delhi. Several new cities were founded including Fathabad, Hissar and Jaunpaur as well as the third, fourth and fifth cities of Delhi. Also at this time the influence of Sultanate architecture was felt in the Deccan when Muhammad Tughlaq II moved his capital to Daulatabad. Characteristic features of this architecture are massive sloping fortification walls with pointed crenulations and the development of

the tomb as the focus of architectural design. One of the more important tombs is that of Khan Jahan built in 1369 which incorporates Hindu features into an Islamic form. The tomb has an octagonal domed form with chhajjas, or projecting eaves, on each side and domed chhatris on the roof. Nevertheless, many of the buildings are sophisticated structures like the tomb of Sikander Lodi which uses a double dome form so that the dome may have a significant form on the outside without disrupting the proportions of the interior (a technique later used in the Taj Mahal). The tomb is also the first Indian tomb to form part of a formal garden which became the established format under the Mughals. In addition to the centralised architectural styles developed during the Delhi sultanate several vigorous regional traditions also developed. The four most significant styles are those of Gujarat, Kashmir, the Deccan and Bengal. The style of Gujarat developed independently for over 200 years from its conquest by the Khaliji sultan Ala al-Din Shah in the early fourteenth century to its incorporation in the Mughal Empire in the late sixteenth century. Characteristic features of Gujarati architecture are the use of Hindu methods of decoration and construction for mosques long after they had ceased to be fashionable in Delhi. After the conquest of Gujarat, the Mughal emperor Akbar adopted this style for his most ambitious architectural project, Fatehpur Sikri. Less well known but equally distinctive is the architecture of Kashmir where the first Islamic conquest was in the mid-fourteenth century. The significant features of Kashmiri architecture are the use of wood as the main building material and tall pyramid-shaped roofs on mosques. The third major regional style is the architecture of the Deccan in southern India. Decaying architecture is characterised by massive monumental stonework, bulbous onion-shaped domes and elaborate stone carving, including vegetal forms, arched niches and medallions. Far to the east, in the region of Bengal and modern Bangladesh, a distinctive architecture developed using baked brick as the main building material Other characteristic features of Bengal include the use of the curved do-chala and char-chala roofs which were later incorporated into imperial Mughal architecture under Shah Jahan.

Alai Darwaza: The Alai Darwaza is a magnificent gateway built by Ala-ud-din Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate, having exquisite inlaid marble decorations and latticed stone screens. It highlights the remarkable artisanship of Turkish and local artisans who worked on it. The Alai Darwaza was an important part of the project undertaken by Ala-ud-din Khalji in his quest to decorate the Qutab complex. The Alai Darwaza represents a new style of architecture, popularly referred to as the Indo-Islamic style of architecture. The Indo-Islamic style is neither a local variant of Islamic art, nor a modification of Hindu art, but it is an assimilation of both the styles, though not always in an equal degree. It is so because each region in India has its own form of Indo-Islamic architecture, which varies from place to place and there is no standardisation. On the other hand, Islamic art itself was a composite style, which had various Muslims influences-Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Though both the Indian and Islamic styles have their own distinctive features, some common characteristics made fusion and adaptation easy. Both the styles favour ornamentation and buildings of both styles are marked by the presence of an open court encompassed by chambers or colonnades. The Qutab Minar, the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, and the tomb of Iltutmish, which were constructed by different rulers of the Slave dynasty (1193-1290), heralded the birth of Indo-Islamic architecture. Of these monuments, the Qutab Minar is a tower symbolising the victory of the first Muslim rulers of India over the indigenous people. This fluted tower with floral patterns and Quranic inscriptions around in a flowing calligraphic style was the first monument of the Indo-Islamic style of architecture. The Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque was the first mosque to be built in India and is made up of the remnants of 27 Hindu and Jain temples, broken down by the Muslim rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. It is also a representation of Muslim power. The tomb of Iltutmish was the first Islamic tomb to be built in India. As the concept of a domed tomb was new to the indigenous craftsmen, the resultant structural flaws in the building let to the collapse of the dome-the first one to have been built in India. Thus, one can say that the monuments belonging to the Slave dynasty mixed two cultures.

The Alai Darwaza is a perfect specimen of architecture belonging to the period of the Delhi Sultanate. It was built in 1311, by Ala-uddin-Khalji, of the Khalji dynasty (which ruled the Delhi Sultanate from AD 1290 to AD 1316). The Alai Darwaza was a part of Ala-ud-dinKhalji’s extension of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. It was one of the four grand gateways; the other three could not be completed because of the death of Ala-ud-din in AD 1316. The main structure of the Alai Darwaza consists of a single hall 34’/2 feet on the inside and 56V4 feet on the outside. The domed ceiling rises to a height of 47 feet. The three doorways on the east, west, and south are lofty pointed arches, in the shape of a horseshoe, which rise above the flanking side bays. The entrance to the north is of an indigenous character, as its arch is semi-circular in shape. The overall outlook and proportions of the Alai Darwaza is pleasing to the eye. The recessed corner arches of the attractive horseshoe forms, supporting a simple spherical dome on top of the square chamber, are an especially happy solution to the perpetual problem of supporting a good dome. It would be well worth noting that the earlier attempts at raising the dome, particularly the tomb of Iltutmish, had been unsuccessful. The dome of the Alai Darwaza, in this respect, is a notable achievement. The plinth on each side is beautifully carved with floral and geometric patterns in both white marble and red sandstone, creating a superb polychrome effect. Perforated latticework window screens (jali) are set in the recessed windows on both sides of the entrances. These marble screens set off the monotony of the vertical lines of calligraphic ornamentation. The most charming aspect of surface decoration is the lace-like interweaving of floral tendrils, repeated with a flawless symmetry on all the three entrances, elegantly designed and perfectly built. The northern entrance is semi-circular with a shallow trefoil in its outline. The facade is elaborately ornamented in sensuous carving and patterns, characteristic of the pre-Turkish days (the first Muslim rulers of India came from Turkey). The Alai Darwaza also shows the influence of Seljuk art. The Seljuks had started fleeing Western Asia after Mongol invasions in the 12th century AD and had reached Delhi for protection. The ‘spear-headed’ embellishment on the three

entrances is of particular importance in this regard. In addition, the surface ornamentation has been done with an eye for lavishness and detail. Siri Fort: Ala-ud-din Khalji was a great patron of architecture and to him goes the credit of getting the Siri Fort in Delhi constructed. The fort was mainly built by Ala-ud-din to protect the people of his capital from the frequent invasions of the Mongols, who easily penetrated the weak defences of India’s borders time and again to reach all the way up to Delhi. He succeeded in his mission of protecting his subjects after building the Siri Fort. Ala-ud-din Khalji built Siri Fort not only as the imperial capital of his kingdom, but also to protect the people of his capital city from the threat of the Mongols marauders. Siri Fort was a formidable fort, having strong Ramparts and unassailable walls. The fort also served as the administrative centre of the Delhi Sultanate, under the rule of Ala-ud-din Khalji (AD 1296-1316). The kingdom of Delhi was constantly threatened by hoards of Mongol tribesmen who had been descending in waves to loot India since the 13th century. The Slave dynasty (AD 1193-1290), which was the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, also faced this threat in the later half of its reign. Balban, the last important ruler of this dynasty successfully countered the Mongol threat. In the course of time, the reins of the Delhi Sultanate passed into the hands of the Khalji Dynasty (AD 1290-1316). Ala-ud-din Khalji ascended the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in AD 1296. He was a strong monarch, who was constantly expanding his empire. Ala-ud-din was also a great builder. He built the fort city at Siri, which served as the administrative centre of the Khalji kingdom and was the first city in Delhi to be built by the Muslim rulers of India. The rulers of the Slave dynasty, who were the first Muslim rulers of India and the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate before the Khiljis, used Lai Kot, the fort city of the last Hindu rulers of Delhi. He also began to put into shape his grand plans of beautifying the Qutab Minar complex. He added the Alai Darwaza, a magnificent gateway with inlaid marble decorations and latticed stone screens, which showcases the remarkable craftsmanship of the Turkish artisans who worked on it. He also planned to build the Alai Minar, which was

conceived as a greater tower than the already existing Qutab Minar but the construction of this tower was abandoned after the completion of the 24.5-meter high first story. The Mongols under their leader Taraghai plundered Delhi in AD 1303, and almost captured it. However the marauders did not capture the city and without reason turned back and left. Meanwhile, Ala-uddin Khalji was away from Delhi, busy in one of his military campaigns in the Deccan region in South India. Returning back to Delhi from his Deccan campaign, Ala-ud-din Khalji decided to build a defensive fortress at Siri with strong fortified Ramaparts and impregnable bastions. This was the third fort to be built within the city of Delhi. The construction of the Siri Fort and the city within it began in AD 1304. The place he chose was a plain ground around five km to the north-east of the Qutab Minar where forces attacking or defending Delhi used to camp. Tamurlane, who invaded Delhi in AD 1398, found Siri a magnificent fortress and damaged it. Later on, Sher Shah Suri (an Afghan chieftain from eastern India who ruled Delhi from AD 15401555 and was a contemporary of the second Mughal Emperor, Humayun) took construction material from Siri to build his own city. Only some portions of the Siri walls can be seen today as all else has been destroyed ar>d stones have been removed.

Influence of Islam A Mixed-Indo-Islainic Architecture: “Nothing could illustrate more graphically the religious and racial diversity, or emphasis more decisively the principles underlying the consciousness of each community, than the contrast between their respective places of worship, as represented by the mosque on the one hand, and the temple on the other.. .Compared with the clarity of the mosque, the temple is an abode of mystery; the courts of the former are open to light and air, with many doorways, inviting publicity, the latter encloses ‘a phantasma of massive darkness’, having somber passages leading to dim cells, jealously guarded and remote ... architecturally the mosque

is wholly visible and intelligible, while the temple is not infrequently introspective, complex and indeterminate.” “On the one hand was the rhythmic mind of the Hindu, on the other, the formal mind of the Musulman.” These quotes from a venerable early architectural historian serve to highlight the utter difference between Muslim and Hindu building types. There were other variations apart from the merely formal: the presence of carving in Hindu temples which was forbidden in Islam, decorative lettering on mosques and tombs which was unknown in Hindu art and architecture, the Hindu propensity for a single stone and the Muslim penchant for inlay work. However in spite of this wide gulf, over the years a certain symbiosis did come into being between Muslim designers and masterbuilders and the Hindu craftsmen who carried out their bidding. Both benefited from the other’s knowledge and what slowly evolved was a distinct new style of architecture-Persian in inspiration but very Indian in execution. Long referred to as Saracenic, it is now more properly termed Indo-Islamic. We will find the development of Indo-Islamic architecture from its crude beginnings in the early 12th century to its heyday. It is not just a story about architecture, it is a whole new civilization developing in the fertile plains of India which is permanent. Mohammad Ghori left as his viceroy in Delhi Qutb-ud-Din Aibak, who was to become the first Sultan in the Slave Dynasty After the death of Ghori, Qutb-ud-Din lost no time in declaring himself the ruler and embarked upon a vigorous campaign to quell dissidence, both in his home cities in Afghanistan as well as in and around Delhi. Recognising the strategic value of the city, Qutb-ud-Din is credited with being the first to realise that ‘he who holds Delhi rules India’. The power could be consolidated in two ways-militarily and theocratically. Once the immediate military aims were achieved, Qutbud-Din set about to establish himself not just as a marauding invader, but a proselytising missionary. The first mosque in India, the Quwwatu Islam (The Might of Islam) was constructed by destroying, in Qutb-ud-

Din’s own words, 27 Hindu and Jain temples in the region. The mosque originally consisted of a rectangular court 43.2 m by 33 m, enclosed by colonnaded cloisters. This enclosure formed the heart of the mosque, delineating a space where the faithful could kneel to pray. It is with a closer examination of the columns that the otherwise undistinguished mosque begins to assume significance. Dismantled from temples, the columns still betray a riot of carving-human forms, gods and goddesses, flora and fauna, jewellery and other motifs-which was characteristically Hindu, but was expressly forbidden in Islamic architectural expression. The shortage of both time and money forced the Muslim ruler to reuse inherently sacrilegious elements. A compromise was effected by knocking off the faces of the deities and other human and animal forms. The result is a curious combination-a structure which is architectonically a mosque with apparently vandalised Hindu components. The riot of defaced carving is complemented with the difference in the columns-they came from not one, but several demolished temples. Above the cloisters rise imperfect corbelled domes-the result of Hindu craftsmen striving to erect a form of which they had no prior experience. With the cloisters complete, it was time to define the qibla or the axis along which lay Mecca. This was done by erecting a stone screen of five arches, the central one the highest at 16 m, flanked on each side by two smaller ones. Ogee-shaped, the arches are again imperfect as they are made by corbelling stone rather than by wedge-shaped voussoirs. Carved in alternating bands of inscriptions and arabesque ornamentation, the hand of the Hindu craftsman is again evident in the sinuous carving as well as serpentine, floral motifs which sneak in every so often. This mosque was later extended and enlarged by two subsequent rulers, Iltutmish and Ala-ud-Din Khalji, who between them nearly quadrupled the size of the original enclosure. The Qutb Minor. Significance: The mosque and its ancillaries finished, Qutb-ud-Din laid the foundation of the world-famous Qutb Minar. Intended to serve a double function-both as a minaret for the mosque as well as the most visible symbol of his growing power, the

Qutb with a height of 72.5 m is the highest stone tower in the world. Repaired and added to numerous times by successive rulers, the Qutb today consists of five storeys, each distinct. The lowest has alternately circular and triangular fluting, the second circular, the third triangular, while the fourth and fifth are mostly plain. Each storey is articulated by a balcony, projecting on a system of stalactite pendentives-this feature appearing for the first time in India and no doubt imported from classical Islamic construction. The Qutb and its associated structures today is the most visible and famous landmark of Delhi, at par with Taj Mahal. Thousands of tourists, both Indian and foreign, swarming the site each day testify to its appeal. However, perhaps more important, in the evolution of the history of Indian architecture, it holds a unique place. This was the first time that Hindu craftsmen and Muslim builders allied together. It could be asserted that the result was forms and details confused and hesitant, structurally incompetent and formally subject to a myriad of influences. Yet at no time does the Qutb complex lose its magnificence, and we see in this first stumbling step the beginnings of a long association between the two contrary cultures of Islam and Hinduism. This was to result in an architecture which was undoubtedly Islamic but distinctly sub-continental-a true fusion between Muslim sensibilities and Hindu capabilities. And ever in the future, there was the Qutb, a lofty symbol of God’s will, enclosing between itself and its counterpart the ‘entire paradise of God’s world’.

Indo-Islamic Culture : Starting The Qutb was the first monumental stamp of Islamic architecture in India and was the start of a long relationship between indigenous craftsmen and their Mamluk masters. The-grandiosity of its concept encouraged several rulers to continue adding to the structure and adding further stages. The Arhai-din-ka Jhompra: Shams-ud-Din Iltutmish (A.D. 12111236), succeeding to the throne after Qutb-ud-Din’s death in a freak polo accident, was an energetic builder. The first of his notable works

was the addition of a facade to the Arhai-din ka Jhompra (literally, hut of two-and-a-half days) mosque built by his predecessor at the military encampment of Ajmer in Rajasthan. Built on the same principles as the Quwwatu Islam at Delhi, this mosque at Ajmer is larger. The facade is similar to the one at the Qutb, but here the similarity ends. The central arch at Ajmer is straighter-Tudor Gothic-and the side arches are multifoil and cusped, a common feature in other Islamic work outside India. The main stylistic difference is evident in the It was not long, however, before several other additions and alterations were made on the same site. The first of these was by Iltutmish, who doubled the size of the original enclosure of the Quwwatu Islam mosque, and added another screen of five arches to define the qibla (the axis towards Mecca). This screen, though superficially the same as in the original mosque, has better stood the ravages of time. The main differences are in the detail, with the carving using a purer Islamic vocabulary, though here too, in the sinuous curves, the hand of the indigenous craftsman is seen. The floriform low relief at the Qutb gives way to a far more geometric, rigid style. This is by no means an advance over the Qutb mosque. The arches seem almost a regression to a purer, stricter form of Islam with their monolithic and sombre appearance. Two broken minarets over the main arch resemble the Qutb in their flutings.

Iltutmish and Sultan Ghari’s Tombs Iltutmish constructed his own tomb as well as that of his son Nasiruddin Mohammed-the so-called Sultan Ghari or ‘Sultan of the Cave’. This is probably due to the subterranean tomb chamber. The octagonal platform above was probably intended to support a pillared pavilion, the whole of which has disappeared or was never built. This platform was surrounded by a square masonry arcade on a high plinth, and according to Percy Brown, it has “such a grim and martial appearance that one of its more remote purposes may have been to serve as some kind of advanced outwork to the main fortress of the capital”.

The second main contribution of Iltutmish was his own tomb, a little to the north-west of the enlarged mosque at the Qutb, built a little before A.D. 1235. A square 42 feet in side and with a height of almost 30 feet, its plain and unadorned exteriors belie its interior-the whole of which is covered from top to bottom on all four sides by rich carvings almost rivaling Hindu temple sculpture on the sandstone-clad walls. The cenotaph and the three arches of the mehrab towards the west (marking the direction of Mecca) are both in marble, again a dispute on the Quranic inscriptions. Architecturally speaking, Iltutmish’s tomb is interesting as it reveals quite clearly the first attempt in India to solve the ‘dome on a square’ problem-or in other words, how do you support a circular shape on a square base? In this case, a ‘squinch’ was employed-a halfarch/dome spanning across the corners of the square base and making the square an octagon. This can be repeated to transform the octagon into a sixteen-sided figure on which the base of the dome may rest. That the dome, if ever fully built, subsequently collapsed was a testimony to the fact that the it was imperfectly constructed-however an important start had been made and future attempts in this direction were to grow ever more confident. After the death of Iltutmish, there is little to be seen architecturally from the early years of the Delhi Sultanate. The main reason for this were the squabbling successors of the Sultan ruling for too short a time for any effective architectural patronage. There was thus an interregnum of 60 years-with one exception. This is the tomb of Sultan Balban of the extremely short-livec: ‘House of Balban’ (A.D. 12661287). Now a ruined and totally unremarkable structure in the extreme south of Delhi, this tomb is notable because it introducea for the first time in India the principle of the true arch with radiating voussoirs. This is not only a significant structural advance, but also a sociocultural one. For it indicated that slowly but surely the Muslim rulers were ceasing to regard North India as invaded territory. Delhi was becoming a city of repute attracting men of art and learning, craftsmen, poets and historians. The early steps of creating a distinct Indo-Islamic culture were under consideration.

The Great Alai Minar: Ala-ud-Din, true to form, felt compelled to increase even further the size of the Quwwatul Islam mosque. His scheme called for increasing the size of the enclosure four times, providing ceremonial entrance gateways on each side, and a great minar, twice the size of the Qutb-the Alai Minar. It would have been clear to anyone less megalomanic- with a vision less obscured by selfexaltation-that such a grandiose project would be impossible in the Sultan’s lifetime. Indeed, the Alai Minar today is a stump (albeit a magnificent one-we can well imagine the proportions of the tower had it ever been finished), its rubble core clearly showing as it rises up to one story. The Alai Darwaza: The only part of Ala-ud-Din’s scheme which was completed was the southern ceremonial entrance-named the Alai Darwaza after its builder. It is clear from its appearance and construction that a fresh new influence was at work-this is a piece of Muslim architecture hitherto unknown in India. Historians have traced its genealogy to the architecture found in Asia Minor under the rule of the Seljuks in the early centuries of the second millennium. The breakup of the Seljuk empire under the weight of Mongol invasions caused craftsmen and builders to be scattered far and wide, and among the places offering sanctuary was the Delhi Sultanate. Because of its revolutionary construction, the Alai Darwaza served as a model for many of its successors. The first innovation in the gateway was the system of walling, alternating between one course of stretchers-stone laid with its longer ends facing outward-and one course of headers-stone laid with its longer end going deep into the wall. The header course enabled the walling to penetrate into the rubble core and thus make the wall as a whole stronger. This method of wallir.g was to continue and was a typical characteristic of Mughal building. The second innovation was the true arch. This imported arcuated tradition was to play an important role as it was to provide the prototype for successive Sultanate tombs. Alai Darwaza is a rectangular building on high plinth into which steps have been cut to access the interior. The three outer faces are very similar with a tall arch over the steps. The plinth is carved in bands, and the wall surface above is divided into two stories, each

further subdivided into rectangular panels. The lower of these panels have a recessed arch while the upper ones into smaller rectangles. At each point, the articulation is marked by a mixture of sandstone and marble arabesque and decorative carving. However, by far the most imposing feature of the^e facades is the central arch, rising to nearly the whole height of the structure. In shape it is rare-a horseshoe or keel arch. Around its outer rim is a band of inscribed white marble. The intrados or the inner rim of the arch shows its most distinctive feature-a fringe of lotus-bud carving. The inner facade, facing the mosque and Qutb Minar, is different. For one, the opening is not a keel arch but a true semicircular one, and for another it is clear that in its sensual and plastic decoration the indigenous craftsman was given a much freer hand. The interior of the structure is no less remarkable for its technological innovation. First started in the tomb of Ilrutmish, the weight of the dome is transferred to the square base by the same mechanism-the squinch. In this case, the squinch consists of five recessed arches gracefully transforming the square into the octagon, and the octagon into a sixteen sided figure. Among the other architectural work of Ala-udDin, little remains except fragmentary and crumbling structures. And though the work of the Khiljis was not entirely confined to the capital city of Delhi, the influence of local workmen in the provinces and the eventual decline of the Khalji dynasty meant that these were never as remarkable nor of as high a standard as the Alai Darwaza at the Qutb.

Period of Tughlaq It was a time of rediscovery and elation. From the corners of the land they came, the master builders, for a new Sultan had taken his seat. And in his old years, he had seen history. Seen empires rise and fall. And was laying the foundation of what he hoped would be an empire that would last far beyond his approaching death. Of the three rulers of the Tughlaq dynasty, the first, Ghiyas-udDin Tughlaq (1320-1325 A.D.) was already aged when he became Sultan, and ruled for barely five years. The warlike conditions

prevailing throughout his reign are best exemplified by his architecture, which though secular or religious, always has strong military overtones, being able to be adapted for a spirited defence if necessary. The major efforts of this man were concentrated on the building of his citadel, the city of Tughlaqabad, one of the historical seven cities of Delhi. Today a neglected but magnificent ruin. According to Percy Brown, “all that remains of this great enterprise is a haunting scene of savage splendour... Nothing resembling this picture (of treasures and palaces) can now be seen in the huge masses of broken masonry, the unadorned nature of which suggests that the project took more the form of a stern and practical stronghold, than a work of architectural significance.” The citadel integrates outer defence with the inner city buildings, though little remains of the latter but scattered ruins. The massive outer walls were sloping, following approximately the topography of the land, sited on a high outcrop of the southern Delhi ridge. At close intervals are semi-circular bastions with eyelets for archers to look down and shoot at the enemy. Little can be identified within these walls, but it is clear that there was some kind of royal palace with its accompanying residences, rooms for the women, halls of audience as well as a connecting passageway to the monument just opposite, Ghiyas-ud-Din’s tomb. The Tomb ofGhiyas-ud-Din: In stark contrast to the dilapidated condition of the fortress, the tomb of Ghiyas-ud-Din is almost perfectly preserved. This originally stood in the middle of an artificial lake, and the arched causeway which connected it to the citadel has now been replaced, with the drying up of the water body, by an offshoot of Mathura Road leading to the Qutb. The tomb itself is almost like a miniature fortress, with sloping crenulated outer walls, complete with eyelets for archery. It is almost like a rallying point for a last, hopeless defence, much in the manner of Sultan Ghari’s tomb. The plan of this fortress-tomb is an irregular pentagon, with a bastion at each angle of its outer walls. The tomb walls are clad for the most part with red sandstone and the dome with marble. The most distinctive feature, however, are its sloping walls, about which much excited scholarly discussion has

taken place. The commonly accepted view is that the tomb is an offshoot, or a descendant, of a similar contemporaneous tomb at Multan (in modern Pakistan) of Shah Rukn-i-Alam. In the latter, the use of sun-dried brick made sloping walls a structural necessity, much like Egyptian temple pylons, but this feature was transferred unchanged to the tomb of Ghiyas-ud-Din, where stone was used for the walls. The tomb continues the lotus-bud fringes found in the arch of the Alai Darwaza, and there are many other stylistic similarities. Another interesting feature is the presence of a structurally redundant lintel over the arched gateways. It is almost as if the indigenous craftsmen, still not trusting the true arch as a means of support, were being safe by introducing a lintel. That this lintel also introduces an element of style was incidental. It is in this tomb that we first begin to get a hint of what would follow in the coming centuries. There is the same vocabulary-begun in the Alai Darwaza-of red sandstone cladding and white marble. The massive outer walls, made for defence, could be easily toned down to graceful perimeter guards. Today, the tomb is overrun by monkeys, hundreds of them at a time, bereft of tourists unlike the nearby Qutb, yet its importance cannot be denied, the last stand of a Sultan who was destined to die at the hands of his son. The site of Tughlaqabad is desolate, ruined and magnificent-very much like the history of the Sultanate which set the base for Muslim rule in India. The Bara-Khamba : History : Bara-khamba Road in modern Delhi is one of the major entrances to Connaught Place, and its high buildings with corporate offices and banks contributes mainly to the city’s burgeoning skyline. It is also famous for Modern School (Barakhamba Road) which has made a regular contribution to the ranks of India’s rich and famous every year. However, the name Bara-khamba or Twelve Pillars derives from the house of a nobleman originally erected there, of which little remains. The surviving evidence is of interest because this is one of the few cases when secular architectureas opposed to religious or military-has been found in any degree of preservation this far back in time. A reconstruction of the house would show it enclosed in a high perimeter wall containing an open courtyard with rooms around, a roof terrace, an court with a chabootra or

platform for sitting in the open, as well as a quirky three-story high tower, probably used for looking at the city. Sultan Mohammed Tughlaq (1325-1351 A.D.) in whose reign this was built, was not known for much else except his wacky, ill-timed policy decisions which, visionary though they may have been, lacked the authority and persistence of the Sultan to make them really work. Among these were the shifting of the Capital to Daulatabad in the Deccan (to administer the empire from a central location). One side effect of this was the undoing of all the good work of the previous generations in Delhi, which became for a time desolate and abandoned. A significant proportion of the population died en route to Daulatabad, and another percentage on the way back, some years later, when it was apparent that the scheme had failed. The introduction of token money instead of precious metals also had similar results, with confusion and even chaos resulting for a time. The throne of Delhi, emasculated by years of incessant warfare in the Deccan and the profligacies of Mohammad bin Tughlaq, had its coffers nearly empty by the time Firoz Shah (1351-1388 A.D.) came to power. This ruler leaves behind a wealth of architectural evidence that is a testimony both to the age in which they were built, as well as to his propensity for architecture. Today, Firoz Shah Kotla and Hauz Khas are more famous, respectively, as a cricket ground and the feeding grounds of Delhi’s hoi-polloi, but they stand as mute witnesses to the dying flickers of the Sultanate. These, and more, in the next column.

After Firoz Shah After the capricious reign of Mohammad bin Tughlaq, his cousin, the devout (and even bigoted!) Firoz Shah Tughlaq (1351-1388 A.D.) became Sultan. Firoz Shah inherited, thanks largely to the disastrous policies of his predecessor, nearly empty coffers and a disintegrating empire. This did not stop him from embarking on a vigorous campaign of building, and in the words of a contemporary historian he was eventually responsible for “1200 gardens around Delhi...200 towns, 40

mosques, 30 villages, 30 reservoirs, 50 dams, 100 hospitals, 100 public baths and 150 bridges.” These claims are no doubt exaggerated but underscore his interest in architecture. In his own words “...among the Gifts that God has bestowed on me...is a desire to erect public buildings.” The architecture of Firoz Shah is stern, utilitarian, almost tragic-at times hauntingly lovely (Hauz Khas Madrasa by night), at times warningly forbidding. This is due in no small measure to its rough exposed finish (the glazed tiles having come off a long time ago) as well as the lack of skilled masons and sufficient capital. The unfortunate and appalling state of neglect of the monuments today does nothing to ameliorate this perception. Formation of a New Capital: Firoz Shah built a new capital city on the banks of the Yamuna, called Firoz Shah Kotla, thereby abandoning the old fort-city of Tughlaqabad. Apart from the desire of the new Sultan to make his mark, this decision could also have been prompted by an increasingly irregular water supply at Tughlaqabad. The fort itself was fairly straightforward, using common-sense building principles used the world over for buildings of a similar type. The king’s quarters as well as those of his wives and concubines were situated along the river-front. Within the perimeter walls of the fort were structures serving as barracks, armorers, rooms for servants, halls for audience, an imposing mosque, as well as public and private baths, a stepped well or baoli, and an Ashokan pillar removed from Ambala and mounted on top of a pyramidal three-tiered construction. Symbolically, this was an icon of the Sultan’s supremacy in North India, very much like the Gupta Iron Pillar in the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutb. Of Firoz Shah’s numerous mosques, the chief ones are the Kali Masjid, the Begumpuri Masjid, Kalan Masjid and Khirki Masjid at Jahanpanah. This last is interesting not only for its cruciform plan, but also because it is one of the few examples of covered mosques in India. The congregational nature of worship in Islam has generally resulted in mosques having a large common open space in which to pray. But the roofing of the Khirki Masjid and dividing of the interior spaces into various small courtyards-perhaps to

avoid the scorching heat of North India in the summer-effectively broke up the congregation into small groups. Whatever the reason for this unusual Masjid, it was apparently not very successful as a building type and was not repeated. Today the Khirki Masjid has its own village-Khirki village-in Delhi, near modern Saket. Indeed, from the road, the mosque can barely be glimpsed. The narrow paths of the village twist and turn until suddenly you are face to face with an imposing structure mounted on an impressively high plinth. The village chokes the mosque, encroaches on its space-but perhaps the very unexpectedness of the building is the reason for its powerful solemnity. A failure as a building type, the Khirki Masjid today is an architectural gem tucked away in a forgotten corner of one of India’s largest metropolises. Hauz Khas Madrasa: To be forgotten is not the fate of the Madrassa-or religious school-at Hauz Khas-having for company some of the most exclusive (and expensive) restaurants and boutiques in the city. The story of modern Hauz Khas village is all too familiar-of an urban village being hijacked for its (initially) low property prices. Today Hauz Khas sells you India-if you’re a foreigner-neatly packaged, right from ‘antiques’ from Kerala and Tamil Nadu to fabrics to paintings, and when you’re tired of it all, there are the restaurants to relax. And spend some more money. All this activity, of course, does not detract from the solemnity of the monument. Originally the site of a large water-storage tank built by Ala-ud-Din Khalji, a large school, mosque and his own tomb were added by Firoz Shah. These buildings are laid out in an ‘L’ shape on a high rocky outcrop overlooking the tank. Firoz Shah’s tomb is at the junction of this ‘L’, and is also the highest building there, surmounted by a dome with its interior finely stuccoed. Exterior surface decorations have long disappeared, of course, so what we are left with is a network of buildings, almost barrack-like in their disposition, with a mosque at one end, and teaching cells at the other, the whole composition hinging on Firoz Shah’s tomb as the pivot. Jaali windows overlooking the tank (and the setting sun) make for a fine place to spend summer evenings,

and the whole complex nestles in the midst of a forest-the Deer Park at Hauz Klias. The important construction of Firoz Shah’s reign would end hereexcept for one example. This is the tomb of Khan-i-Jahan Telengani, an official at the court. His tomb, though otherwise decaying, marks a radical design innovation in the sense that for the first time the plan was octagonal instead of square. This may have been done to facilitate the placing of the dome at the summit, which would be far easier over an octagon than over a square. Whatever the reason, this tomb would be the forerunner and model for tombs of the next two dynasties, each of whom would refine it further, and persist even after the Mughal invasion of India.

Islamic Architecture: Regional Variations In and around Delhi Islamic architecture retained much of the characteristics in both form and detailing of Persian Islam, with only the court at Delhi able to attract and pay the best Muslim architects and artisans from abroad. As one moves away from the main power centre, the regional Islamic satraps-whether governors of the Delhi Sultanate or newly-independent Sultan-patronised an architecture which slowly began to assume a very different identity. This identity was not constant throughout, but varied from place to place, and depended chiefly on: the distance from Delhi, which determined the level of dilution of ‘pure’ Islamic principles; the economic condition of the regime, responsible for the quality of finished and materials used; the local artisans available in the region and their specialisation and experience; and local Hindu architecture, which served as direct or indirect inspiration for Muslim examples. If the Qutb Minar merely had sinuous carving which hinted at the Hindu craftsman at work, examples further away from Delhi illustrated both a riot of carving as well as formal aspects directly influenced by Hindu architecture. The main areas that produced a substantial body of architecture and can be said to have evolved a ‘style’ of their own are Gujarat, Punjab, Bengal, Malwa, Kashmir and some parts of south India.

The End of the Delhi Sultanate Abdur-Rahim Khan-i-Khanan’s Tomb at Delhi: Late in Jahangir’s reign, Delhi witnessed an evolution from the tomb type exemplified by Humayun’s tomb, which had partially continued in Jahangir’s mausoleum as well. A tomb was built near Humayun’s memorial for Abdur-Rahim, the khan-i-khanan during Akbar’s reign. For the first time, this tomb is higher than it is wide, and the chattris on the terrace crowd more closely around the main dome. This composition was to be further experimented with in some more subsidiary tombs before its final refined appearance in the Taj Mahal. Princely States and their Architecture: The confusion accompanying the decline of the Mughal empire saw an abundance of new architecture at the new seats of regional power by the Rajputs, Sikhs, Marathas and the nawabs of Oudh, Bengal and Hyderabad. Hindu rulers started to construct memorials to their dead, much after the style of the Mughals, and restarted the construction of lavish temples, neglected for long because of the lack of power and finances. The Sikhs, persecuted for long by the later Mughals, pillaged Mughal building in their rum to build their own gurudwaras or temples. The nawabs built lavish gardens, tombs, mosques and palaces. Their was no longer a dominant style, but a hybrid where Gujarati, Bengali, Deccan and Persian elements fused to produce an eclectic strain of building. Late mediaeval Rajput architecture was noted both for its town planning and urban architecture. Rulers patronised research into ancient treatises and shastras of Hindu architecture and attempts were made to build accordingly. It would be fair, thus, to discuss two notable examples. Jaisahner : Jaisalmer is particularly noted for its havelis or private houses belonging to the noblesse. Here the court style fusing Mughal and Rajput elements was first emulated by Rawal Amar Singh (1661-1702) for the palaces and temples surrounding the lake and at Bada Bagh. His 18th and 19th century successors continued the eclectic tradition by importing the late architecture of Marwar, with its prominent oriels and balconies, many-cusped arches, half-circular roofs and luxuriant sculptural ornament. The palaces in the fort

although elaborately floral, are not however Jaisalmer’s most celebrated buildings. This status belongs to the dense network of havelis in the town below the fort - the private houses of the rich and wealthy, and the noblesse, who in the dwindling of royal power became the de facto rulers, an oligarcy very much like that of late mediaeval Venice. The havelis of Jaisalmer are thus world-famous for their dense interlocking structure and their architectural devices which keep out the heat and dust. Many examples of modern Indian architecture take their inspiration from Jaisalmer’s urban planning and house clustering pattern, a notable one being Raj Rewal’s Asiad Games Village built for the Asian Games at Delhi in 1984.

3: Architecture of Rajasthan Vibrant and striking land of Rajasthan which was the home of the Rajput warrior clans who had ruled here for many years has many architecture. The desert state has some of India’s most romantic cities like Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur and the list is endless. The vast area of Rajasthan is dotted with the most imposing and magnificent forts and palaces in the world. The Rajputs were prolific builders and today these magnificent structures tell the story of gallantry, courage and tragedy of that bygone era. The majestic forts, intricately carved temples, and decorated havelis are part of the architectural heritage of Rajasthan.Many tourists visit Rajasthan to explore this traditional art. These Forts and Palaces of Rajasthan can be an inspiration for an architecture lover. When we talk about the architecture of Rajasthan the names, which strike our mind, are Jantar Mantar, Dilwara Temples, Chittorgarh Fort, Lake Palace Hotel, City Palaces, and Jaisalmer Havelis. Jaisalmer Havelis depict a true picture of the royal heritage of Rajasthan.The Nathmal Ji Ki Haveli in Jaisalmer was built in the 19th century by two architect brothers. The interesting fact about the construction of this Haveli was that the two brothers concentrated on either side separately, which could give a proper symmetry to the structure. Paintings in miniature style monopolize the walls in the interior. Mighty tuskers carved out of yellow sandstone stand guard to the Haveli.Another popular Haveli in Jaisalmer is Salim Singh Ki Haveli, which was built about 300 years ago and has a beautifully arches roof with superb carved brackets in the form of Peacocks. The architecture of Rajasthan is basically secular and draws a lot of inspiration from the Mughals, while the later day architecture also embraces European interiors. The structures like those of mahals, zenanas, diwan-I-aam, diwan-I-khas, sils, mandir, bagh chatris, and ramparts all display these art forms. One can trace the historic

interventions in the Lodhi and Mughal periods and their absorption into the traditional architecture of Rajasthan. Most of Rajasthan’s early architecture was damaged or destroyed by the first waves of Muslim invaders. Many such buildings dating from the 10th to 15th centuries still exist today. The mixture and brilliance of Rajasthan’s architectural heritage can amaz. Majestic forts, intricately carved temples and havelis (meaning mansion) and even step well make Rajasthan a paradise for an architecture buff. The desert state of Rajasthan is a land of irony and extremes. This vibrant and striking region is the home of the Rajput warrior clans who had ruled here for many years. Rajasthan is also home to some of India’s most romantic cities. The Rajputs were prolific builders and have dotted the arid Aravali landscape with their legacy of some most imposing and magnificent forts and palaces in the world. Today the structures defy time to tell the story of gallantry, courage and tragedy of the bygone era and its story of survival in the harsh Thar Desert.

Forts & Palaces The architecture is basically secular and draws a lot on stimulation from the Mughals, while later day architecture also embraces European interiors. These structures encompass mahals (palaces), zenanas (women’s quarters), diwan-I-aam (public audiences), diwan-1khas (private audiences), sils (galleries), mandir (temples), bagh (garden) chatris and ramparts for display and parades. Moti Dungari, Jaipur In the middle of Jaipur rises a small hill Moti Dungri meaning pearl hill, because it looks hill a drop of pearl. An exotic palace is parched which is a replica of Scottish castle once occupied by Maharaja Madho Singh’s son. From There on remained as a private property of the ruling family. In the recent past it served as a home for Rajmata Gaytri Devi and her estranged son Jagat Singh. The mere view of this castle is exotic enough. The highlight of this place is the

famous and auspicious temple of Lord Ganesh, which is frequently visited by almost whole of Jaipur and people from outside. Hawa Mahal The Hawa Mahal, or the “Palace of Wind” built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in 1799 A.D. is characterised by elaborate and fanciful architecture. The broad pyramidical facade comprises five storeys of semi octagonal overhanging windows with perforated screens, domes and spires. Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur The Jaigarh fort is the most spectacular of the three-hilltop forts that overlook Jaipur. In Mughal times, the Jaipur region was a major weapon-producing centre for the Mughal and Rajput rulers, several of which are on display in the fort’s museum. It is one of the few military structures of medieval India preserved almost intact, containing palaces, a granary, a well-planned cannon foundry, several temples, a tall tower and a giant mounted cannon-the Jai Ban (Jaivan) which is the largest cannon in the world. Jaigarh Fort is also known as the fort of victory. The display includes a collection of canons, many of which are exquisitely decorated and were used in the Mughal campaigns led by the Rajput King, Raja Man Singh. Of the Jaipur’s three forts, Jaigarh is perhaps the most motivating. It does not have those delicate structures or palaces like that of Amber but if you want a quick look at a hard-core fortress, this is it. Jaigarh means ‘Victory Fort’ and was built between the 15th and the 18th century, and stands 15 km from Jaipur, amidst rock-strewn, thornscrub covered hills, its forbidding stone ramparts are visible from the Jaipur town. A steep road goes up to the main gate, the Dungar Darwaza, from where the view is stupendous. It was the royal treasury for several years. It was one of the few ancient Indian military structures to be kept intact through the ages. There are passageways among the palaces and you can see a collection of coins and puppets. This fort is open to public since a few years only. It was sealed for seven years, due to a rumour, that an enormous treasure in gold was buried, in the fort area. The government ransacked

the fort, emptied the reservoirs of water but found nothing. Jaigarh was once responsible for the security of both Jaipur and Amber, is a huge moated fort and contains all the accoutrements of a full-fledged citadel. Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur Nahargarh Fort is located on the sheer rugged ridge of Aravali Hills and it forms an impressive northern backdrop of Jaipur. It looks most classy when floodlit at night. The fort overlooks the city and presents a glittering view of the city lights. It was built in 1734 and extended in 1868. Nahargarh meaning abode of the tigers was built by Jai Singh to bolster the defence of Amber. The legend also have it that it was named Nahargarh after Nahar Singh a prince whose spirit would destroy the construction and not allow its progress further. So after a tantrik prayer to the spirit it agreed to leave on condition that the fort is named after him. The Madhavendra Bhawan, built by Sawai Ram Singh II has uniquely a cluster of 12 identical suits for queens and at the head is a suit for the king himself. The rooms are linked by corridors and retain some delicate frescos as well as toilets and kitchen hearths. It was used by members of the royal family for excursion in summers and is now even a favoured picnic spot. Durg Cafeteria just above the entrance sells meals and refreshments, while Padao Restaurant on the west sells drinks around sunset. Amber Fort, Jaipur Amber (pronounced Amer) is situated about 11 kilometres from Jaipur and was the ancient citadel of the ruling Kachhawa clan of Amber, before the capital was shifted in the plains to present day Jaipur. The Amber Fort set in picturesque and rugged hills is a fascinating blend of Hindu and Mughal architecture. Constructed by Raja Man Singh I in 1952 and completed by Sawai Jai Singh 1 the fort is made in red sand stone and white marble. The rugged forbidding exterior belies an inner paradise with a beautiful fusion of art and architecture. Amber is the classic and romantic fort- palace with a magnificent aura. The interior wall of the palace depicts expressive

painting scenes with carvings, precious stones and mirror settings. In the foreground is the Maota Lake providing a breathtaking look. Built mainly for the warring enemies as a safe place, the heavily structured walls could defend the residents within the ramparts of the fort. All the means of survival & luxuries for the royal families and the people who were concerned with the functioning of this small kingdom of the Kachhawas were well provided. The Rajputs who had apparently won a small structure passed on by Meena tribes, later on renovated it into the grand Amber Fort. Holding a history so old as 7 centuries, this place vibrates with its legendry past, in the archaeological history. Although many of the early structures have been literally ruined but at the same time, those dating from the 16th century on are remarkably preserved by sincere efforts The fort has 4 sections; each with the premises and one has to climb up through the imposing stairway or else the broad aisle, where one can ride on the elephant back for royal feel. The main gate Suraipol that leads to the Jaleb chowk, which is the main courtyard from where one can walk up the stairway that leads to the palace. Jaleb Chowk was also the area where returning armies were welcome and they would display their war earnings to the population at large. Before you enter the palace just towards the right is a sleep aisle and a narrow staircase reaching up to Kali Temple also called Shila Devi Temple famous for its mysterious history and the huge silver lions. It is a gorgeous temple featuring silver doors with raised relief. According to a legend, Maharaja Man Singh I had worshiped the Goddess for a victory over the rulers of Bengal. The Goddess appeared in the Maharaja’s dream and ordered him to recover her statue lying under sea near Jessore (now in Bangladesh) and install it in a befitting Temple. True enough, after subjugating the enemies the Maharaja recovered the statute from the bed of the sea. The temple is called after Shila Devi, “shila” meaning stone slab. Like all temples this too has an image of Ganesha on the doorway, but carved from a single piece of coral

Getting back from the temple the main stairways lead to the second courtyard of the fort. Here situated is the imposing Diwan-IAam, the hall of public audiences where the Maharaja received the populace and their petitions. This is a pavilion of double row of columns each capped by an elephant shape. There is a lattice gallery also. Behind the exquisite and fabulous Ganesh Pol, “pol” meaning gate are located in the residential apartments of the Maharaja. The Jai Mandir, the Hall of Victory is famous for its inlaid panel and dazzling mirror ceiling. Much of it had deteriorated with neglect and is under restoration. On the other side is Sukh Niwas, the residence of pleasure or pleasurable residence. The palace has an ivory inlaid sandalwood door. A channeled lay for flow of water is an inventive system of cooling. The water flowing from the channel wasn’t wasted as it was allowed to flow in the garden. From there you can also take pleasure in viewing of the fort rampart and its reflection in the Moata Lake. The Zenana or the palace of the women are in the forth courtyard. The rooms are though connected through a common corridor are cleverly designed to give each room privacy so that the Maharaja can have nocturnal visits to his various Maharanis without notice of the other. City Palace, Jaipur Located in the heart of the walled city, The City Palace Complex gives you an idea about the farsightedness of the founder of Jaipur Sawai Jai Singh. He left behind a legacy of some of the most imposing and magnificent architecture, art and craft structure in the city. Sawai Jai Singh built its many buildings but some of some of the structures were also built by later rulers and some of them are even dated in the in the twentieth century too. The palace is a blend of Mughal and Rajasthani architecture and the royal family still lives in a part of the palace. On entering the complex and before the palace proper lies the Mubarak Mahal, the palace of welcome or reception. Sawai Madho Singh built the palace in the nineteenth century. It was used as a reception centre for the visiting personage. The building now forms the

Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum and on display here are a wide array of royal costumes, some very exquisite and precious Pashmina (Kashmiri) Shawls, Benaras silk saris, Sanganeri prints and folk embroidery. An unusual display is that of voluminous clothes worn by Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh I (ruled 1750-68). The Maharani’s Palace, the palace of the Queen paradoxically puts a display of the Rajput weaponry. The inestimable collections of weapons date back to even 15th century and are in a remarkable state of preservation. Remarkable amongst them is scissor-action dagger. This deadly weapon when thrust in bodies the handles was release to spread the blades. The dagger was then withdrawn tearing limb from limb of the body of the hapless victim into certain fatality. Other exhibits include protective chain armours, pistols, jewelled and ivory handled swords, a belt sword, small and assorted cannons, guns, poison tipped blades and gun powder pouches. The frescos on the ceiling are amazing and well preserved. The art gallery is located in the Diwan-I-Aam, which literally mean the Hall of public audience. The exhibits here included some very precious and ancient handwritten original manuscripts of Hindu scriptures. Particularly intriguing in miniature copies of Bhagwat Gita made in this manner so that it can be concealed out of sight of Emperor Aurangzeb’s onslaught on Hindu scriptures. Some very delicate miniature paintings in Rajasthani, Mughal and Persian schools on various themes including the Ramayana are very engrossing displays. Visitors must also take a good at preserved painted ceilings. Also on display are elephant saddles called “haudha”. The Chandra Mahal Palace is still occupied by the royal family but visitors can visit the ground floor where some exhibits are on display. However the visit here is worthwhile for the exquisite Peacock in the courtyard outside. The present day royal family that takes charge of the museum has done exceptionally well in preserving this legacy in fine state maintenance and presentation. A visits to the palace is enlightening one for its extraordinary occurrence.

Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur Maharaja Umaid Singhji who built this palace was fascinated with western lifestyles so he marshalled the services of a well-known Edwardian architect, Henry Vaughan Lanchester, a creditable equal of Edward Lutyens (architect of New Delhi) to construct a three hundred and forty seven roomed Umaid Palace. This was to become India last of the great palaces and the biggest private residence in the world. Spectacular Central Rotunda, the cupola rises to a hundred and five feet high; the Throne Room with its exquisite Ramayana murals; an elegant wood-panelled library, and even a private museum; an indoor swimming pool, a Billiards Room, tennis courts and unique marble squash courts makes Umaid Bhawan Palace is unabashedly the most magnificent. The palace was also built with superficial intentions of providing employment to famine stricken farmers. The Palace now is a five star deluxe palace hotel. The museum of the palace is highly recommended for its display of weapons, an array of stuffed leopards, a huge banner presented by Queen Victoria and an incredible collection of clocks. Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur Perched on a 150 m high hill its sprawl is the most formidable and magnificent fort in Rajasthan. Rao Jodha founded it in 1459 but subsequent rulers of Jodhpur have also added to it over the centuries. A meandering road leads to the from the city 5 kms below. Battle scars of canon ball hit by attacking armies of Jaipur can still be seen on the second gate. To the left is chhatri of Kirat Singh Soda, a soldier who fell on the spot while defending the fort against the armies of Amber. There are seven gates, which include Jayapol meaning victory built by Maharaja Man Singh to commemorate his victories over Jaipur and Bikaner armies. Fattehpol also meaning victory gate was built by Maharaja Ajit Singh to mark the defeat of Mughals. And Lohapol meaning Iron Gate has a moving memorabilia on palm print of the queens of Maharaja Man Singh who threw themselves on his funeral pyre in an act of sati [self-immolation]. The palm imprints still attract devotional attention and are covered by vermilion paste and paper-thin silver foil.

Fort Museum This is one of the finest museums in Rajasthan and certainly the best layed out. In the palanquin section of the fort museum, you can see an interesting collection of old royal palanquins including the elaborate domed gilt Mahadol palanquin, which was won in a battle from the Governor of Gujarat in 1730. The museum exhibits the heritage of the Rathores in arms, costumes, paintings and decorated period rooms. Phool Mahal The grandest of Mehrangarh’s period rooms, the Phool Mahal was in all likely hood a private and exclusive chamber of pleasure dancing girls once swooned in exhaustion here under a ceiling rich in gold filigree. The Phool Mahal was created by Maharaja Abhaya Singh (1724-1749) and the gold came from Ahmedabad in Gujarat as war booty after his famous victory over the rebellious Mughal governor, Sarbuland Khan. The paintings, royal portraits and the ever-popular raga mala, came much later, in the reign of Jaswant Singh II. Janki Mahal The Jhanki Mahal, from where the royal ladies watched the official proceedings, in the courtyard, today houses a rich collection of the royal cradles. The cradles are decorated with gilt mirrors and figures of fairies, elephant and birds City Palace, Udaipur City Palace towers over the Pichola Lake. Maharana Uday Singh initiated in the construction of the palace but succeeding Maharanas added several palaces and structures to the complex retained a surprising uniformity to the design. The entry to the Palace is from the Hati Pol, the Elephant gate. The Bari Pol or the Big gate brings you to the Tripolia, the Triple gate. It was once a custom that the Maharana would weigh under this gate in gold and silver, which was distributed to the populace. It is also now the main ticket office. Balconies, cupolas and towers surmount the palace to give a wonderful view of the lake. Suraj Gokhada or the balcony of the sun is where the

Maharana would grant public audiences mainly to boost the morale of the people in difficult times. The Mor Chawk is the peacock square and gains its name from the vivid blue mosaic in glass of a peacock that decorates its walls. The main part of the palace is now preserved as a museum display ing a large and diverse array of artefacts. Down steps from the entrance is the armoury museum exhibiting a huge collection of protective gear, weapons including the lethal two-pronged sword. The City Palace museum is then entered through the Ganesh Deori meaning the door of Lord Ganesh. This leads to the Rajya Angan, the royal courtyard that is the very spot where Maharana Udai Singh met the sage who told him to find a city here. The rooms of the palace are superbly decorated with mirror tiles and paintings. Manak Mahal or the Ruby Palace has a lovely collection of glass and mirror work while Krishna Vilasdisplay a rich collection of miniature paintings. Moti Mahal or the pearl palace has beautiful mirror work and the Chini Mahal has ornamental tiles all over. The Surya Chopar or the sun square depicts a huge ornamental sun symbolising the sun dynasty to which the Mewar dynasty belongs. The Bari Mahal is a central garden with view of the city. Some more beautiful paintings can be seen in the Zenana Mahal or the ladies chamber, which leads to Lakshmi Chowk a beautiful white pavilion. Chowk, are the Shiv Niwas and Fateh prakash Palace, which are now run as hotels. The Sunset view terrace and gallery restaurants, the crystal gallery and the boat wharves for trips to Jagmandir and the Lake Palace. Fateh Prakash Palace, Udaipur It’s like being cocooned in authentic royal luxury at the Fateh Prakash Palace, the grand heritage palace of the HRH group. The warmth of royal hospitality greets you as you walk along the corridors lined with large paintings of the Mewar school that flourished in the seventeenth through nineteenth century. The lake facing suites in the turrets are suitably appointed with four poster beds and period furniture, festooned with maroon velvet curtains and delicate silk tassels. It’s a legacy kept alive since the early decades of the twentieth

century when Maharana Fateh Singh (period of reign : 1884 -1935) used to be the royal occupant of this palace. Till date the formality of royal occasions are maintained.. Crystal Gallery: It is situated in the Fateh Prakash Palace is a breath taking collection of crystals. Maharana Sajjan Singh mainly ordered these crystals from F & C Osier England. But he could not see the crystals because of his untimely death. The crystal item includes tables, sofa sets, dinning table, dressers, fountains and even beds besides a whole array of washing bowls, decanters and perfume bottles. There is also an exquisite jewel studded carpet, which is beyond description. Durbar Hall: In India the Durbar Hall is generally a place where state banquets are held and is also used for formal and informal meetings. The Durbar Hall at the Fateh Prakash Palace is undoubtedly the most lavish Durbar Hall in India. It is one of the grandest chambers in Udaipur and its sheer size makes one gasp in awe. The chandelier in the middle is the most impressive and is complimented with paintings of Maharanas and various weapons adore the walls. The hall has an exquisite ceiling and is surrounded by viewing galleries from where the ladies of the palace could get a view from the privacy of their veils. Lord Minto, the Viceroy of India laid the foundation stone for the Durbar hall in 1909. Lake Pichola: Pichola Lake derives its name from Pichola Village was submerged and Maharana Udai Singh enlarged the lake after he founded the city. He built a masonry dam known as Badipol and lake is now 4 km long and 3 km wide. This picturesque lake encloses the Jag Niwas Island and the Jag Mandir. And, the City Palace extends along its eastern banks. Sajjangarh, Udaipur High on a hilltop just outside Udaipur lies this dramatic 18th century palace, with a breathtaking view of the Mewar countryside. Originally intended to be a towering five-story astronomical centre, it was later abandoned and used as a monsoon palace and hunting lodge.

It was built by Maharana Sajjan Singh to house and observatory and was planned as a nineteen-storied structure. However the Maharana died prematurely & the plans were curtailed. The now derelict palace dominates the skyline 2468 feet high on top of Bansdara Mountain. It is visible from a great distance & affords splendid scenic views. Kumbhalgarh Fort, Udaipur Located 64 kms north of Udaipur in the wilderness, Kumbhalgarh is the second most important citadel after Chittorgarh in the Mewar region. Cradled in the Aravali Ranges the fort was built in the 15th century by Rana Kumbha. Because of its inaccessibility and hostile topography the fort had remained un-conquered. It also served the rulers of Mewar as a refuge in times of strife. The fort also served as refuge to the baby king Udai of Mewar. It is also of sentimental significance as it is the birthplace of Mewar’s legendary King Maharana Partap. The fort is self-contained and has within its amalgam almost everything to withstand a long siege. The fort fell only once that too to the combined armies of Mughal and of Amber for scarcity of drinking water. Many magnificent palaces an array of temples built by the Mauryas of which the most picturesque place is the Badal Mahal or the palace of the clouds. The fort also offers a superb birds view of the surroundings. The fort’s thick wall stretches some 36 kms and is wide enough to take eight horses abreast. Maharana Fateh Singh renovated the fort in the 19th century. The fort’s large compound has very interesting ruins and the walk around it can be very rewarding. Tower of Fame: Kirti Stambh Dedicated to Adinathji the lstjain Teerthankar adorned by the naked figures of the Digambars [Adherents of the Digambar sect who does not believe in covering the natural body] A narrow stairway goes through seven stories of the tower to the top. The 22 metres high tower was build by a wealthy jain merchant in the 12th century A.D. Junagarh Fort, Bikaner

It is an unassailable fortress, which has never been conquered. Built in 1593 A.D. by Raja Rai Singh, one of the most distinguished generals in the army of Emperor Akbar, the fort is a formidable structure encircled by a moat. Lai Garh Palace, Bikaner This grand palace is an architectural masterwork in red sandstone, and was built by Maharaja Ganga Singh Ji in the memory of his father Maharaja Lai Singh Ji in 1902. Sir Swinton Jacob designed this oriental fantasy. This architecture is a fusion of Rajput, Mughal and European architecture. The exterior contrasts dramatically with the oriental interiors and amenities. The palace has beautiful latticework and filigree work, which are hallmarks of a great craftsmanship. The Palace has an amazing collection of well-maintained paintings and hunting trophies. Sprawling lawns with blooming bougainvillea and dancing peacocks make a visual extravagance. Taragarh Fort, Ajmer The giant fort stands guarding the city. It has six gates. The fort also has Miran Saheb ki Dargha who was the governor of the fort and laid down his life in an encounter. It gives a panoramic view of the city situated in Nagpahari of Aravalli ranges, this fort has immense archaeological and historical importance. Man Mahal, Ajmer Raja Man Singh I of Ajmer built this largest royal house in Pushkar Located on the east of Sarovar, the sacred lake. It gives view of the banks and temples located around the lake. It was built as a royal guest house for Raja Man Singh I on his Trips to the holy town. This traditional guest house has now been converted into a hotel. Jaisalmer Fort, Jaisalmer Known as SONAR QUILA, rising from the sand , the mega structure merges with the golden hues of the desert ambience and the setting suns in its most colourful shades gives it a fairy tale look. Its simply a magic, the bastions envelops a whole townships that consist of palace complex various security sources and the havelis of rich

merchants carved with an incredibly light touch, several temples and the residential complexes of the armies and traders placed strategically on the trade route, from where the ancient caravans passed en-route passing all the riches for the prosperity to an otherwise non source full kingdom. These merchants served and acquire a great deal of power and noble status in the royal courts of Bhatti Rajputs who founded the state in the 12th century and proceeded further. But the rich merchant inspired by the classic style of the royals , constructed huge mansions (havelis) adjacent to each other in the nature of medieval culture and profusely decorated walls and ceilings and intricately carved outdoors and interiors. The colourful art forms and some how side kind the royal heritage and made it appear more pale in comparison . The craftsmen were usually muslims who were induced on their journey to exhibit their skills. The results was architectural purity that cannot be seen elsewhere. Sukh Niwas Palaces, Bundi Sukh Niwas Palaces evokes memories of Rudyard Kipling who not only stayed here but found inspiration for his famous work Kim. Sar Bagh, Bundi SAR BAGH has 66 royal cenotaphs. Step wells (Bawari) are another prominent highlights of Bundi, these served as water reservoirs in the months of summers, there were over 50 wells but many of them had to suffer the ravages of the time. The Chhatar Mahal is adorned with beautiful wall paintings of the famous Bundi School. And so are the Zanana Mahal (palace for the queens) and BADAL MAHAL. Taragarh Fort, Bundi It was built in 1345 and is great ramble around at leisure. This is rather a ramshackle fort, with its overgrown vegetation. The view over the town and surrounding countryside from the top are magical, especially at sun set. Inside the ramparts are huge reservoirs carved out of solid rock, and the Bhim Burj, the largest of the battle- fields, on which there is mounted a famous cannon.

Taragarh is reached by steep road leading up the hillside to its enormous gateway. Take a path up behind the chitra Shala, go east along the inside of the ramparts then left up the steep stone ramp just before the Dudha Mahal, a small disused building 200m from the palace. Achalgarh, Mt. Abu Medieval monument of Mt Abu, is the Achalgadh fort commissioned by Rana Kumbha, who was responsible for dozens of gigantic fortresses in southern Rajasthan, with massive battlemented walls and a situation on a mountain peak offering great views. A steeply winding path leads up to the 15th century fortress and the temples within the fortified walls, great for a view of the countryside. The carved Jain temples are a 10 minute climb, worthwhile for the view and the sculpture. Below the path is the Achleshwar temple, with a Nandi said to be made of the five metals-gold, silver, copper, brass and zinc, called Panchadattu, and weigh more than 4 tons. The temple is believed to have been built in the 9th century around a toe print of lord Shiva, with a hole claimed to reach the netherworld, a natural Shivalinga and idols of a crystal like stone, which looks opaque, but when a candle is placed behind it sparkles like crystal. Nearby is the pleasant looking Mandakini Lake, enclosed by rocky hills, with images of a Rajput king and buffaloes. According to legend, the tank was rilled with ghee and the watering hole of demons disguised as buffaloes until they were shot by Raja Adi Pal. Temples The great architectural movement which swept Rajasthan from the 8th to the 11th century was really a later flowering of the virile development inspired by the Guptas during the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries. The 8th and 9th century also saw new styles of temples emerging from the Gurjara Pratihara dynasty from Mandore. Temples built around this time also include temples at Chittorgarh and Osiyan in western Rajasthan. The familiar feature of these temples is single sikhara or spire and intricately carved outer chamber called the mandup before the inner sanctum. In many temples the main

temple would be surrounded by series of small and finely carved temples. Good examples of these are Kalika Mata Temple and Kumbha Shyam temples in the Chittorgarh fort. Temples at Kiradu in western Barmer known as Solanki style are known for sculptured frescos. The best example in this is the Someshvara Temple, which has fine sculptured fresco, and a multi tiered spire. The 10th century saw the constructions of many splendid Jain Temple, notable amongst them are the Dilwara Temples at Mt Abu, Mahavira Temple at Ghanerao in southern Rajasthan and Ranakpur near Udaipur. At Ranakpur the Chomukha meaning four faced is the finest. It features a series of mandupas decorated with intricate carving giving a breath taking symmetry. A group of Jain Temples at Jaisalmer are also noteworthy. A great deal of this fine architecture, however, was destroyed during the earlier Muslim invasions. Havelis The Merchants of Rajasthan built sumptuously decorated mansions as residences known as havelis. The merchants had commissioned artisans to ensure that they construct and decorate the havelis in a manner that befits the prosperity of the owner. Havelis are common everywhere in Rajasthan but havelis at Shekhawati and Jaisalmer are worth visiting. Havelis of Shekhawati: Shekhawati as a region is known for its beautifully painted Havelis that spreads over Jhunjhunu, Sikar and Churu districts in north-western Rajasthan. Built by rich Marwari merchants of the region, Shekhawati’s magnificent mansions display a unique architectural style that evolved around the courtyards to ensure safety and privacy of the womenfolk and protection from the heat of the long and harsh summers. Painted predominantly in blue, maroon, yellow, green and indigo, the Havelis of Shekhawati have beautiful frescoes that adorn their walls. Earlier wall paintings were largely based on the mythological themes, depicting gods, heroes, epics and local legends; animals, portraits of hunting and wrestling scenes and glimpses of every day life.

The turn of the 19th century saw the appearance of new motifs, an outcome of the British Raj’s influence upon the Indian Culture. The paintings continued with the mythological themes, but the new entries included European oleographs, lithographs and photographs. Trains, cars, balloons, telephones, gramophones, English men in hunting attires and portraits of Haveli owners primly dressed were painted profusely.

4: Architecture of South India Temple Styles of Kerala and Coastal Karnataka Karnataka has innumerable sites in the Temple Map of India, with its some of its still surviving monuments going back to the 7th century. The Badami Chalukyas were the builders of rock cut caves and ancient temple complexes. At Pattadakal, there are Temples in the Dravidian style along with Temples in styles that were later adopted in Eastern and Central India. The sculptural quality in these temples is outstanding. The subordinate rulers of the Chalukyas were the Gangas and the Kadambas. The colossal monolithic statue of Gomateswara was built by the Gangas in the 10th century. The Badami Chalukyas were succeeded by the Rashtrakutas and the Kalyani Chalukyas. In Southern Karnataka, the Hoysalas reigned supreme. The Hoysalas (12th century CE) were great builders and they built great temples at Halebidu, Belur and Somanathapura. The Hoysalas built temples on raised complex star shaped platforms. This star shaped plan is carried all the way from the platform to the shikhara. Horizontal bands of sculptural motifs and monolithic pillars adorn these temples. There is a profusion of sculptural work in the Hoysala style of temple building. Also in Southern Karnataka, are temples which benefited from the patronage of the Chola rulers of Tamil Nadu. A notable example is the Kolaramama temple at Kolar. Next, the Vijayanagar Empire founded in the 14th century marks the period of great Temple building activity in Kamataka and these temples are characterised by the building of pillared mandapas and lofty entrance towers. Vijayanagar temples have several of the features exhibited by the temples of Tamil Nadu, such as a covered pradakshinapatha (circumambulatory path) around the sanctum, and a mahamandapam in front. The ornate pillars are a distinctive mark of the Vijayanagar style. Several of the monuments in the capital Vijayanagar-now in ruins at Hampi are attributed to Harihara II, Sadasiva and Krishna Deva Raya.

The Vijayanagar Empire was destroyed by the Deccan Sultanates in the 16th century and the ruins can be seen at Hampi. The Mysore Maharajas (Wodeyars) who ruled from around 14th through the British period, with the brief lapse during Tipu Sultans rule, have also made contributions to temples in this State, the Chamundeswari temple near Mysore being a point in illustration. The temples of the southern coastal/ghat region of Karnataka (such as Kollur) are markedly different in architectural styles and they resemble the Keralite temples to a larger extent. The history of ancient Kerala is closely related to that of the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. The State of Kerala was by and large a part of the Tamil cultural domain, during the rule of the Cheras, up to the 3rd century. The earlier cave temples of Kerala were influenced by the rock cut temple styles of the Tamil region. An indigenous temple architecture based on the utilitarian residential types of Kerala and the Konkan region originated later in Kerala. Finding expression in a mixed medium of stone, brick, laterite and wood this unique approach to temple building resulted in a distinctive form of architecture, laying stress on sanctity, simplicity and a prevailing naturalism which marked the worship in temples. This approach naturally leads to an old-world charm, not seen elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent. Bhagawati and Sastha are the most popular of the deities enshrined in temples. So is Sankaranarayana-the Hari-Hara manifestation of Shiva and Vishnu. Bhagawati is considered to be Narayani-or the Vishnu-Maya. Sastha is considered to be the son of Hari and Hara. Shiva and Vishnu are worshipped with equal devotion in Kerala, and there are no distinctions based on the sub religions such as Saivism and Vaishnavism as seen elsewhere. In fact, Anantasaayi, or Vishnu enshrined in a reclining posture, is depicted with a Shiva lingam below his extended right arm, unlike in Tamil Nadu. The Shiva Vishnu synthesis in general modes of worship based on earlier Indian societies of the pre Christian era has been preserved in Kerala. The temple culture of Kerala also stresses the importance of the ancient Indian epics.

The temple culture in Kerala is based on Vedic moorings, in contrast to the Agamic traditions of Tamil Nadu. The sustenance of ancient practices of worship, causes devotees to step into a different world upon entering the temple precincts. For instance, the use of oil lamps in contrast to electric lamps, lends an air of serenity and mysticism to all Keralite temples. In contrast to Tamil Nadu, the Keralite temple tradition focuses only on the deity enshrined in the sanctum (moola bhera) and has no importance laid on processional deities (utsava bhera). Most temples do not have shrines to the consorts of the presiding deities, although the concept of Bhoga Shakti prevails. The earlier temples of Kerala were primarily for Shiva and Vishnu or their manifestations (Krishna, Parasurama, Rama, Vamana). Shiva is worshipped both in the iconic and the aniconic Linga form. Swayampradhana shrines to Ganesha, Kartikeya are of later origin, and are seen more in the temples of the peripheral regions of Kerala adjoining Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. Inscriptions in Kerala are mostly in the ancient Vattezhuttu script of Tamil Nadu. Malayalam inscriptions are seen from the 16th century onwards. Temples have been constantly rebuilt and renovated, unlike in Tamil Nadu where more permanent structures of granite were built and engraved upon. The temples of Kerala are referenced in the works of the Tamil Alwar Saints and the Nayanmar Saints. Kulasekhara Alwar and Cheraman Perumaal (one of the Nayanmaars) belonged to the Cheras of the ninth century. There are several works on temple architecture written in Kerala during the 15th and the 16th centuries. The Bhakti literature of the 16th century played an important role in the temple culture of Kerala. The Maharajas of Travancore were ardent patrons of temples. Temple architecture in Kerala is different from that of other regions in India. Largely dictated by the geography of the region that abounds in forests blessed with the bounties of the monsoons, the structure of the temples in Kerala is distinctive. The roofs are steep and

pointed, and covered with copper sheets. The Kerala roof resembles those found in the Himalayan regions and those in East Asia. The shape of the roof is in accordance with the plan of the sanctum below. With a circular plan, one sees a conical roof, while with a square plan the roof is pyramidal. The roof is constructed with wood and is covered with copper plates. Most of the temples seen in Kerala today, have undergone several phases of renovation, given the perishable nature of the construction materials. The central sanctum of a Keralite temple is referred to as the Sree Kovil. It is surrounded by a cloistered prakara, pierced at one or more cardinal points with a gopuradwara. The cloistered prakarama has a namaskara mandapam located directly in front of the sanctum. This prakarama also houses subsidiary shrines. A kitchen is located in the south eastern corner of the cloistered prakarama. The mukha mandapam is integrated with the gopura entrance. The flagstaff or dwaja stambham is located outside of the dwajastambham. The balipitham may be located in the mukhamandapam or in the outer courtyard. The outer prakarama or courtyard houses other subshrines, and optionally a temple tank. The Kuttambalam or the theater hall of the Keralite temple is located either as a part of the inner prakara, on the south east corner facing north, or as a separate hall outside the innermost prakarama, either facing into the temple or facing north. This has a stage, raised from the rest of the floor, and a backstage area. This is the site of the performance of Kathakali or Chakkiyar koothu recitals. Thus the kuttambalam plays a role in educating visitors on the rich legends of the Indian cultural fabric. The Keralite temple is an amalgam of stonework, wood work, stucco work and painting-harmoniously blended into a structure vibrant with traditions of the region. The wood work here is of great importance, and it gives the essential verve and character to the Kerala temple silhouette. The inner skeletal framework of the temple is of wood, although the base and the structure above are of granite and laterite respectively. The roof projects out at several levels, in order to protect the inner skeletal framework from the vigorous monsoons that inundate the region.

The Kerala temple walls are of coursed laterite stone masonry plastered in mud and lime. Murals are seen on several of these temple walls. Another desiccative feature of Keralite temples is the use of vilakku maadam, or the multi-tiered brass lamps in front of temples. Lakshadeepam is a spectacular celebration of traditional lighting where tiers of small oil lamps lining the outer walls of the inner prakarama are lit. Temples have held an important place in the life of Keralites. Several temples in Kerala trace their origins to antiquity. However, they were renovated frequently and the current structures that are seen are vastly a result of the numerous renovations. Temple styles in these areas real another facet of the impact of the environment. The heavy tropical rainfall in these regions has led to the creation of unique roof systems, consisting of low and overhanging eaves with a series of diminishing gables covered with tiles. The plans for these temples have a variety of shapes-square, circular and apsidalended.-sometimes in combination with columned halls. The Ayyappa and Krishna shrines at SSVT are examples of this style of architecture. Muslim invasion since the sixteenth century saw a mix of suppression of Hindu temples and tolerance or reverence by some enlightened Muslim rulers. The British, on the other hand, had a policy of benign neglect. In either case temple architecture did not flourish to any significant extent. Since Independence and more recently in the past few decades, a vigorous return to this art form is discernible; many temples are being constructed or renovated in India and overseas, and architectural talent is again being nourished. Khajuraho-The Style of South: The classic central Indian style of temples of Khajuraho, according to historical inscriptions were built exactly 1000 years ago by the Chandella dynasty. Unfortunately, human history, this past millennium, has been one of bloodshed and greed, of terrible wars to establish unstable, petty, provincial identities. Surely this millennium will have to be dedicated to caring for our common human heritage and our common human future. What is this heritage and future that all human beings share? A beautiful little jewel-like planet, with its waters, air, exquisitely diverse landscapes

and all the species that inhabit and share it with us. The varied cultures of the world, the architecture, sculpture, painting, music, dance, theatre and crafts are examples of the enormous creativity that distinguish the human race from all other species. In a world shattered by human destruction the arts of the world are enduring symbols of human creativity. We need to preserve our collective heritage as a reminder that human beings can be creative, caring and productive. The temples of Khajuraho, like all world heritage sites across the globe, remind us of the heights of imagination, skill and aesthetic beauty that human beings have achieved during the last few millennia. A perception of what our heritage has to do with our future is, therefore, critical. Any investment in education about our common concerns, about the conservation of our little planet, will ensure the well-being of our species and also that of others. Education in the arts and creative activities are now crucial for every child. We need to nurture creativity to enable the young to find ways of making this a more beautiful world to live in. If we don’t, we will break and destroy it. Khajuraho is a well-known historical site, famous for its architecture and infamous for its erotic sculptures. Khajuraho was rediscovered by a British officer in 1838. He had said that this site had been abandoned and neglected for centuries. It was Captain Burt who also began the debate on the meaning and purpose of the erotic sculptures on religious architecture. This debate continues after 16 years. Is it not pertinent to ask why the Government of India, indeed, why the citizens of India have not sponsored a thorough debate on the meaning and purpose of their culture. Why has there been so little discussion on how our culture should be interpreted, how it should be presented to the world? The Archaeological Survey of India, under whose protection these monuments of national importance are placed, remains closed to any debate. The ASI is the custodian of our monumental heritage not its owners-we are and we have the right to determine how our culture is being cared for.

India is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, its cultural assets both in terms of the past and of skilled living artists, far exceeds several nations. But this country chooses to neglect and ignore its true value and that is the tragic story of India. The need of the next millennium is to reinterpret our past, to let a new generation of scholars and students understand India for what she really is. We need to free our common heritage from small-minded bureaucrats, selfserving politicians, and employ science as the handmade of the arts so that we can celebrate the diversity of human cultures, and rejoice at the multiplicity of life around us. All development plans around the temple complex of Khajuraho need to address the health of the natural environment as an essential ingredient of the site. According to a local legend there were once 84 temples that formed the 10th century temple complex. The local people understood the lay of the land and created a wonderful township of 84 temples, 84 lakes and 84 wells. Only 25 out of 84 of the Chandella 10th century temples remain. Most of the lakes are dry and the wells are dysfunctional or filled with garbage. Khajuraho has an airport, five star hotels with hot and cold running water and artificially blue swimming pools but the village tanks are dry and the children have no clean drinking water. Each year thousands of people, who live around Khajuraho, come to the temples to celebrate Mahashivratri. For them Khajuraho is not a tourist destination, a place to see erotic sculptures. They come to Khajuraho not as aggressive tourists, but with the gentle spirit of pilgrimage. For at Maha-shivratri in Khajuraho, they celebrate the marriage of Shiva and Parvati. On the night of Shivratri they re-enact the wedding of Shiva, the destroyer of Kamadev (desire that causes all suffering) and father of Ganesha (Lord of Wisdom). The erotic sculptures are a metaphor of the union of Shiva and Parvati, the marriage of two cosmic forces, of light and darkness, sky and earth, spirit and matter. Therefore, it is the people who infuse meaning and soul into a historical site, without that pilgrim spirit, buildings are just a heap of stone and human greed is insatiable. One of the most celebrated manifestations of Indian architecture is to be found in a group of temples at Khajuraho in central India. Situated a hundred miles south-east of the town of Jhansi in the

modern-day state of Madhya Pradesh, these temples are over thirty in number. These temples, unlike many others in central or south India, do not illustrate a development over a long period of time, but were erected over a relatively narrow period of hundred years from A.D. 950. The Khajuraho temples represent, one might say, a happy and almost unique coincidence of religious emotion, abundant patronage, artistic genius, and aesthetic sensibility. Fortunately, these temples have weathered the climate for a thousand years and have withstood neglect surprisingly well. The Khajuraho temples were built during the reign of the Chandelas. While some show marks of a Shaivite sensibility, others clearly manifest the influence of Vaishnaism, Jainism, and tantrism. These temples have an architectural character distinct from that of any other group of temples elsewhere in the country. Instead of being contained within the customary enclosure wall, each temple stands on a high and solid masonry terrace. Though none of the temples are very large, they are still imposing structures because of their elegant proportions and rich surface sculpture. Unlike the rather plain treatment of other central Indian temple interiors, the Khajuraho temples are richly decorated with sculpture. Other than numerous deities enshrined in wall niches, there are attendants, graceful “maidens” in a variety of provocative postures, dancers, musicians and embracing couples. On one temple alone, the figures thus depicted are over six hundred and fifty in number. Many of these compositions display great sensuality and warmth. There are also scenes of explicit sexual activity which possibly illustrate the tantric rites that accompanied temple worship. It is quite reliably said that some of the sexual postures follow the Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian manual of love-making. Sexual Pose at Khajuraho: The Khajuraho temples now grace the posters of the Indian Tourist office, and numerous films have been shot at the temple grounds. It is with these temples in the background that some of the greatest exponents of Indian classical dance have performed for admiring audiences. But it is in discussions ranging around the cultural construction of sexuality that Khajuraho has featured prominently. The sheer eroticism of the sculptures is often

pointed to as evidence of India’s libertine past. Thus, gays and lesbians have found in Khajuraho evidence of the enlightened attitudes of the pre-modern Indian culture, while others point the allegedly baneful influence of the Islamic and British presence in India, which is supposed to have led to repressive sexual mores. But few have asked what Khajuraho tells us about everyday notions of sexuality, or what inferences we are to derive about Indian sexual mores and practices from these temples. Chaturbhuja Temple: Chaturbhuja temple was built in the declining years of the Chandella dynasty. It is crudely built and lacks the ornamentation and sexual imagery of the other Khajuraho temples. It was constructed by Emperor Lakshavarman primarily to enshrine an image of the four-armed ‘Chaturbhuja’ Vishnu brought from Tibet. In addition, the temple also enshrines another incarnation of Vishnu known as the ‘Narasingha avatar’ (an incarnation of Vishnu that is part-man, part-lion). There are also images of the god Shiva, including Shiva’s incarnation as the ‘Ardhanarishvara’, an androgenous deity, as well as his incarnation as the four-armed god of destruction. Duladeo Temple: Duladeo Temple, constructed in 1130 AD, is among the last to be built at Khajuraho by the Chandella kings. It was sponsored during the reign of King Madana-varman, a devout worshipper of Shiva (in the ‘womb’ of the temple is a large Shiva lingam). The entire temple is decorated with carvings of Shiva and his consort Parvati, many in erotic poses. On the inside of the temple the roof is supported by ‘apsaras’ that are carved into the brackets. Legend says that as a wedding procession passed by its gates, the groom died and became a god. Jagdambi Temple shares the same plinth as Kandariya temple to the south. It is one of most finely decorated temples at Khajuraho, with numerous erotic carvings. In the temple “womb”, the griha, is an enormous image of the goddess Devi, though it was probably originally designed as a Vishnu temple. Kandariya Mahadeva temple sits just to the west of Lakshmana temple. Built in 1025-1050 AD, it is 30 meters tall and the largest in the Khajuraho complex. It is dedicated to Shiva and its name consists

of the word “cave” (Kandariya) and Mahadeva, another name by which Shiva is known. The temple is considered to be the most impressive and refined in the Khajuraho complex, with over 900 sculptures carved into sandstone stacked without mortar. The vibrantly carved exterior contrasts with a very plain interior space that houses a Shiva lingam in the womb, or ‘griha’, of the temple located beneath the main ‘shikhara’ (spire). Lakshmana temple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu, was built from 930950 AD during the reign of King Yasovarman of the Chandella kingdom. It houses a sacred image of Vaikuntha-Vishnu brought from Tibet. Though the temple is one of the oldest in the Khajuraho fields, it is also one of the most exquisitely decorated, covered almost completely with images of over 600 gods in the Hindu Pantheon. The main shrine of the temple, which faces east, is flanked by four freestanding subsidiary shrines at the comers of the temple platform. The temple is famous for the explicitly sexual carvings on the southern side of the temple, though these make up only a small fraction of the total. This is the largest of the Jainist temples in the southeastern group of the temples of Khajuraho. It is also one of the finest in the total temple complex. Measuring, it lies within a walled enclosure and is noted for the precision of its construction and its beautifully sculpted figures. The temple has a solid outer wall embellished with three bands of graceful sculptures depicting Hindu Gods (despite its affiliation as a Jain temple). More figures can be found on the outer face of the sanctum, depicting ‘apsaras’ (heavenly nymphs) in a variety of poses. The temple was originally dedicated to the deity Adinath, but in the late 19th century an image of Parsvanath was installed there and the temple assumed this new name. The Parvati temple is a restored shrine just to the south of Vishvanath temple. Parvati is one incarnation of the wife of Shiva This is one of the finest of the Khajuraho temples and was built by the Chandella king Dhanga in 1002. The temple itself has a most delicate balance. The sculptures are particularly striking in the carving

and in some of the subject matter. Dedicated to Shiva, the temple enshrines not only a Shiva lingam but also his “vehicle”, the bull Nandi, as well as an image of his consort depicted as Durga. In another subsidiary corner shrine on the temple podium is an image of the Shiva lingam with four faces attached. Tlie Glory of Khajuraho: The sleepy town of Khajuraho is home to some of the finest examples of Hindu temple construction. Among the many temples that exist, most have been deserted. Hence Khajuraho is not a religious pilgrimage; rather it serves as a magnet for tourists from all over the world. Khajuraho group of temples in Central India is one of the most illustrious manifestations of Indian architecture. These lOth-llth century temples represent religiosity, patronage, artistic genius and aesthetic sensibility all at once. Built in the typical ‘Nagara’ style of architecture, over 20 of the original 85 temples have survived the climate for more than a thousand years despite being lost into obscurity and hence, suffering neglect for a long period of time. Believed to have been constructed during the Chandela rule, the temples belong to Shaivism and Vaishnavism sects of Hinduism, Jainism and ‘tantrism’. Unlike other temple complexes in the country, there is no enclosure wall surrounding these temples and each of them on a high and solid raised masonry platform. Though not very large, they have elegant proportions and are adorned with sculptures on their exteriors and even interiors. These walled sculptures include depiction of numerous deities, their attendants, celestial maidens in sensuous positions and provocative postures, embracing couples (some of them in erotic sexual positions), dancers and musicians and couples engaged in various refinements of courtly love. It is believed that one temple alone sports over six hundred and fifty such figures ranging from sensual and warm depictions to explicit sexual activity (believed to illustrate the tantric rites by some). Some of these much-famed or much-notorious sexual postures are said to follow the Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian manual of art of making love. One of the most preferred destinations after Taj Mahal, Khajuraho has provided a scenic

backdrop for many movies as well as many Indian classical dances that have been performed here. Expectations of Khajuraho Just like people’s perception of Taj Mahal changes after seeing it in reality, the feeling one gets at the Khajuraho temples is totally different from one’s expectation. The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and the same object may appear differently to different people. A maiden may appear as a mother to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, as a sister to Swamy Vivekananda, as a daughter to an elderly person and as a lover to a romantic.

Southern Temple Cities In our last article, we explained how the typical south Indian city came to be surrounded by a ring of walls because of the need for defence, and then population growth. This led to a number of interesting solutions in city planning and the most visible architectural feature of this expansion was the Gopuram. Gopuram: The Gopuram (literally Cow-Gate), was erected primarily to emphasis the importance of the temple within the city precincts without in any way altering the form of the temple itself. The formal aspects of the Gopuram were evolved slowly over time. It had to be towering, massive and impressive. But it was not felt necessary to repeat verbatim the square-based form of the temple Vimana. This could be due to the fact that the square was a essentially a static form, signifying calm and rest, while the entrance gateway needed to have some dynamism. Elongating the square and converting into a rectangle with an open entrance in the middle solved this problem. Above this base could be raised tier upon tier of a pyramidal structure comprised of brick and plaster with the topmost tier also a rectangle, albeit much smaller. The ‘Annular’ Growth of Cities: Such an increase in importance of the city led to a natural population increase as well as demands for more resources. But growth was also constrained by the huge battlements thrown up around, punctuated by the massive Gopuram. The only viable solution was to erect yet another wall around the existing one. The new wall, too, had its own huge Gopuram. In this

way the city grew much like the annular rings of a tree, with successive perimeters being added as population growth dictated. Thus, the great temple of Srirangam at Tiruchirapalli acquired several concentric rings of growth over a period of 500 years. Ultimately, the concentric city and Gopuram, which evolved out of necessity rather than conscious design, came to be accepted as the standard ‘form’ of temple construction in the south. Madurai: Meenakshi Temple So, it came to pass that the Meenakshi temple was designed as a series of concentric courtyards, or parikramas. The spaces around the shrine became hierarchical, diminishing in religious value; the further one went from the main shrine. The outermost ring had buildings of a more practical nature-accounts, dormitories, kitchens, shops selling items for rituals, maintenance areas and ‘parking’ for the increasing number of chariots. The inner circles contained parikramas for singing and religious tales, bathing tanks and guest houses. And in the innermost courts were the pavilions for the dancing girls and the treasury-both jealously guarded by the priests! Admittance was restricted to the upper castes only. And finally, the holiest of holies, the Cella containing the idol of the deity was open only to the head pujari and out of bounds for even the king of the land. One Thousand Pillar Hall: With temple building losing its architectural challenge and becoming more and more a town planning exercise, the craftsman was restricted to working on pavilions, halls and Gopuram, the last of which grew ever larger and imposing. The huge hall in the Meenakshi temple needed 985 pillars to support its roof. This is the famous ‘Hall of a Thousand Pillars’. Unfortunately its size cannot compensate for its architectural mediocrity, and according to Satish Grover: ...the hall, surely one of the more arid products of Indian craftsmanship is a museum of drawings and photographs of the entire gamut of the 1200 years of temple architecture of the South.

Rameshwaram Corridors Rameshwaram, on a tip of land jutting out into the sea, is a maze of huge pillared verandahs. Not only is the temple surrounded by corridors, but it is also linked to the entrances by covered passages. Rameshwaram thus has the distinction of possessing the longest corridors in the world. But, in spite of their huge proportions, the Gopuram and pillared corridors were the last gasp of conceptually revolutionary Hindu architecture in the country. The invasion of Islam had already resulted in the North being a bustling hive of mosque and tomb building. The Hindu stonecutter proved to be equally adept at carving Islamic masterpieces as sculpting nubile forms on the surface of temples. This will form the subject of a later article.

Karnataka Hoysalas The flourishing temple styles in North India-both the Khajuraho and the Orissi versions-were brought to a rude end with the Muslim invasion. When the Muslims consolidated their hold over North India, temple-building activity virtually stopped. Entire families of skilled craftsmen were now presented with two choices-the first of which was to work for their new masters and abandon the idea of building a temple as an offering to God. This resulted in the fusion of Persian and Indian building styles and was to result in an entirely new idiom. Second option was to migrate further and further south, in search of work and new patrons, where Muslim influence had not yet made inroads. This was the region around modern Mysore, where the hitherto unknown Hoysala tribe was making its first moves towards glory. Having overthrown their former overlords, the Cholas, the Hoysalas were in no mood to imitate their architectural style and were looking for something with its own distinct identity. The mixing of the Dravidian and North Indian styles created a temple that is unique, so much so that it is often classified as the Hoysala style. The early experiments were found on the extreme edges

of the kingdom, around ancient Dwarasamudra. The profile of the temples at Ittagi, Gadag and Lakhundi reveals that the craftsman’s most visible contribution was a subtle merging of the two spire formsthe horizontal tiers of the pyramidal south Indian vimana and the round-shouldered elegance of the northern shikhara. Gradually this hybrid evolved into an identifiable style, rivaling its predecessors in grace and beauty. The Star in Plan: To add to its distinctiveness, the Hoysala temple in plan composed of numerous cellas or garbha-grihas served by a common mandapa. The plan of each of these cellas was a star. The departure from the accepted square form of the temple is understandable when we analyze the plan and see that it is made up of a grid of rotating squares. The resulting outline thus emerges as a star. The mandapa remained a square, though it was now distinguished by circular columns, the shafts of which had been lathed and thus acquired a number of parallel knife-edges. Among the examples of the developed Hoysala style, the Chenna Kesava temple at modern Belur is one of the finest. This was designed and planned by the architect Janaka Acharya at the behest of King Vishnuvardhan. Though built around a single shrine, the temple has all the distinguishing features of the Hoysala style-a pillared mandapa, bell-shaped towers and above all the starshaped plan. The gaps between the outer pillars were covered with a jaali meant to provide privacy for the Brahmins, and especially the ‘highly seductive dancing of the devdasis’. The mandapa of this temple has an extremely beautiful circular stone platform, lustrously polished after years and years of dance on it-the ritualistic, devotional Bharata Natyam of the South. Splendour in Halebid: Not content with this little gem in Belur, the king commissioned an even larger and more magnificent temple in his new capital city of Halebid. The architect proceeded to lay out two identical temples, parallel and connected at their transepts. The Halebid temple is one of the most fitting climaxes to the sculptor’s art in India. While architecturally it was not revolutionary, especially after

Belur, it is in its rich sensuous sculpture that this example comes into its own. The high plinth of the temple is a virtual tapestry of sculpture, with bands of dancing figures, animals, vegetation and other objects coming to life on its surface. According to Percy Brown, the ‘Halebid Temple and the Parthenon are probably the two extremes of the architectural art of the world’. “The one revels in the cold purity of its form and the other in the warm complexity of its sculptural architectonics’. The Hoysala temples were among the last temples of consequence to be built in India. Muslim invasions were fast taking their toll and kings were more concerned about fighting off the invaders than with artistic and architectural endeavors. However, the Vijayanagara empire further south held on a little bit longer. The marvels at Hampi are the last examples of mediaeval Hindu architecture we shall discuss-in the next column. Death of an Empire The Ruins of Hampi: The conquest of the North by the marauding forces of Islam had already sounded the death-knell for most of the Hindu empires, with the exception of a few proud Rajput strongholds. The Sultans of Delhi were now in the process of consolidation and administration, and little by little Muslim rule and the Persian-Saracenic way of life began to permeate throughout the land. The south however was largely ignored, with the rulers of Delhi leaving a governor in Daulatabad who nominally ruled in the name of the Sultan but in reality was a law unto himself. Before long, the inevitable happened with these governors revolting and naming themselves the true rulers. In this melee of changing power, two Hindu princes managed to carve out for themselves a stronghold at Hampi, and established an empire which would be the last great Hindu kingdom before the coming of the British. A million-strong army ensured that the empire continued to grow in size and importance and numerous military successes resulted in

Hampi itself being renamed Vijayanagar-the City of Victory. The site of Vijaynagar is spectacular, a city carved out of low lying hills and massive boulders, the treacherous terrain provided ample defense with only a few well-defended accesses. The Tungabhadra river meanders gently through, and at night the boulder-strewn landscape has an almost magical quality. Fortifications, outlying fields and a fifteen mile long aqueduct were the defence against a siege. This city has been the subject of many an impassioned travelogue by foreigners-Portuguese and Persians: “The city of Bidjanagar (Vijayanagar) is such that the pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it and the ear of intelligence has never been informed that there existed anything to equal it in the world. It is built in such a manner that seven citadels and the same number of walls enclose each other... The outer citadel has a fortress, of round shape, built on the summit of a mountain and constructed of stone and lime.” Living Architecture: The site provided ample raw material for building, and the huge massifs of rock were often themselves sculpted to produce a unique architecture that is part organic, part man-made and often is difficult to distinguish from natural features. Hampi shows us a change from the normal centralised temple with outlying ancillaries, in the sense that the religious buildings are scattered around in small units, each with its own importance and function, the planning of the whole obeying the diktat of the terrain. Of the numerous temples and shrines scattered around, we will illustrate two. The Vithala Temple: It was commissioned by Krishnadeva Raya, the greatest of the Vijaynagar rulers. Its chief peculiarity lies in the extent of its conception (an area of 500 by 300 feet) and the numerous columns, each an orgy of sculpture in itself. Like a dying gothic monster, the columns rise from massive pedestals and scream upwards into grotesque brackets of enormous proportions. The large space is completely devoured by the forest of

columns, and does not have any pretensions to cohesiveness or concept, becoming instead a maze of intricacy, art rather than architecture. The other major feature in the complex of the same temple is a chariot in granite, whose stone wheels lifted off from the ground are actually capable of moving around it. Hazari Rama Temple: The same suggestion of the grotesque and the fanciful by private chapel of the same ruler. A combination of forms, including the Buddhist barrel vaulted roof, adds to the repertoire of shapes. The fascination of Vijayanagar continues with its secular architecture. It is a mix of Hindu and Islamic features, as if the rulers were sufficiently impressed to import craftsmen and master-builders from neighbouring Islamic states. Among the most elegant constructions are the so-called ‘watch-towers’, although in reality most of them may have been built for pleasure, for the nobility to look out over the city. These towers have elements from both Hindu and Islamic vocabulary with typical Islamic arches, an octagonal or square plan, projecting eaves, corbelled brackets under the windows, and a decidedly Hindu finial. The Elephants’ Stable, in consonance with the beast’s position as an animal for pomp and war, is mighty in conception and is perhaps one of the most impressive buildings in Vijayanagar. This long, 10domed structure has mighty arched opening for the animals, very reminiscent of the Lodi tombs in Delhi, and the domes are alternately totally Islamic and with a hint of Hindu influence. The recessed arches in the front elevation as well as the central structure on top (perhaps for drummers and musicians) all combine to make this a must-see. In the ultimate analysis, the beauty of Vijayanagar-Hampi, lies as much in its architecture as in what it represents. For this was the last stronghold of Hindu architecture and art, which were rapidly disappearing in an increasingly Muslim ruled subcontinent. And here too, the influence of Islam was already visible, slowly subsuming Hindu craft in a Hindu kingdom. For this would be the last Hindu fling at monumental architecture. Hindu craftsmen and traditions would

continue, would influence the Islamic style, but would never again be significant. The sculpture at Hampi, the barren rocky site, the haunting beauty of the landscape by night all contribute to painting for us, as we stand there today, a picture of battles fought, dying elephants and men, charging horses, and finally the eventual sack of the city as it fought vainly to stem the swelling tide of invasion. According to Percy Brown, ‘..the proud capital was (soon) a forlorn ruin inhabited only by tigers and other wild beasts’.

The Deccan, Gulbarga and Bidar Beggar turned Prince: The Delhi artists transported to Daulatabad by Mohammad bin-Tughlaq took the Sultanate style with them to the north-western Deccan but trade had long exposed the region to western Asia. The tale of Zafar Khan, the first ruler of Gulbarga, is eminently recitable. According to some accounts, Zafar Khan was a poor laborer who was nominated to the Sultan’s service by his master, who was impressed by his zeal and honesty. Later distinguishing himself in battle, Zafar Khan rose through the ranks to become eventual governor of the province of Daulatabad. With the weakening of power at Delhi, he declared the province independent of central authority and assumed the name of Alauddin Bahman.

The Deccan: Golconda and Bijapur The dynasties which supplanted the enfeebled Bahamanis in the Deccan early in the 16th century continued ardently patronage of architecture. Of these, the Qutb Shahis of Golconda and the Adil Shahis of Bijapur were especially active. Of their military works, the citadels, one each aC Golconda and Bijapur, are testimony to the eventual might of these dynasties and cause for their long resistance against the Mughals. The heroic exploits of Chand Bibi, the Sultana of Bijapur, against Murad, son of Aurangzeb, are at least as celebrated as those of Razia Sultana or Rani Lakshmibai.

Tlie Qutb Shahis of Golconda: Golconda fort was built on the remains of a Kakatiya citadel by Sultan Quli about 1544. The main fortress dominates the town 30 metres below. The three successive walls with numerous bastions for artillery and convoluted approaches for better defence testify to a time when wars were common and imminent attack around the corner. Golconda Fort : On the gates the Hindu motifs show a continued trend of using local craftsmen and decorative vocabulary, and may also be proof of the religious tolerance of the Qutb Shahis. Later architecture of the Qutb Shahis showed a tendency to degenerate into a sort of tired decadence, when the urge to monumentaiity and impressiveness was muted by the addition of small-scale decorative elements. This trend is only too visible in the tomb of Sultan Mohammad (c. 1612) at Golconda. Incongruous elements in this otherwise wellproportioned structure, such as the over-thin column’s in the gallery on the ground floor, prevent this tomb from attaining the status of a masterpiece. Similarly, another judgement may be passed on the Char Minar at Hyderabad. Its overwhelming status as the main landmark in Hyderabad, and indeed, as the very symbol of that city, does not add to its architectural effect. The Char Minar is ungainly as a structure and incoherent in its use of decorative features. Be that as it may, its sheer monumentality and visibility have contributed to make it a source of national pride. Jama Masjid, Bijapur: The chajja on top of the outer arches of the court is supported by numerous brackets, and the central arch in axis with the mihrab stands out by the addition of cusps to its inner curve. The later mosques of the dynasty, like the Anda Masjid of 1608 and the Mihtari Masjid of 1620 show an increasing elaboration of forms. Of the rauzas (combination of mosque and tomb) the best example is perhaps that of Ibrahim II. Here mosque and tomb are directly facing one another, with the middle space occupied by an ornamental pool, on a rectangular terrace set out along the charbagh concept. The highly

elaborate detailing of both structures does not detract in the least from their fine proportions but rather complement them. Mohammad I tried to outdo his successor, and in this he partially succeeded, at least in terms of sheer grandeur. For it is to him that can be attributed the Gol Gumbaz with its huge dome, the largest in India, and indeed among the largest in the world, along with its famous whispering gallery. It should be said here that the sheer size of the structure is alas, not matched by a corresponding fineness of proportion. For the bulky and squat corner minars, the relatively blank facades of the walls, the out-of-scale detailing of the arcades around the dome, all combine to make the Gumbad magnificently confused. This said, the sheer overwhelming size of the building leaves one wondering at its boldness of conception, surely among the most advanced in late medieval India.

Architecture of Andra Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah (1580-1612) the son of Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah ascended the throne at the age of 15. The famous Charminar, Char Kaman, Badshahi Ashur-Khana, Jame-Masjid, and Daru-Shifa were built during his reign. Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III was famous for his collection of antiques and beautiful objects from all over the world. His collection can be seen at the Salar Jung Museum and is regarded as the largest one man collection in the world. Chrminar Charminar built in 1591 by Sultan Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutub Shahi dynasty, is a masterpiece of Qutub Shahi architecture. The profiiseness of stucco decoration and the design on the balconies are remarkable. It is a magnificent square edifice of granite, built upon four grand arches facing North, South, East and West. These arches support two floors of rooms and gallery of archways. At each corner of the square

structure is a minaret rising to a height of 24 meters, making the building nearly 54 meters tall. It is these four (char) minarets (minar) that give the building, its name ‘Charminar’. Each minar stands on a lotus-leaf base, a special recurrent motif in Qutub Shahi buildings. The first floor was used as a madarasa (college) during the Qutub Shahi period. The second floor has a mosque on the western side, the dome of which is visible from the road, if one stands some distance away. A spectacular view of the city may be had from the roof of the Charminar, although, due to severe overcrowding of the minarets, only visitors with special permission from the Archaeological Survey of India, Hyderabad Circle are allowed to go to the top of the minarets. The clocks above each of the four archways were added in 1889. Walking around the Charminar area, one is constantly surprised by vestiges of the past intermingling with the present. Towards the Southeast of the Charminar is located imposing edifice of the Nizamia Unani Hospital. About 50m to the West, the line of shops in Lad Bazaar is interupted by an old, crumbling brown wall, which marks the entrance to the old Nizama’s Jilau Khana (parade ground). The grounds are now being used for the development of a large commercial complex. Further down, a road to the left leads to the Khilawat Complex (Chowmahalla Palace). The Lad Bazaar road terminates in a square called Mahaboob Chowk where a large 19th century clocktower looms over a delicate white mosque of the same period. Badshahi Ashur Khana was built by Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah in 1594. Nearly four centuries later, the Ashur Khana still exudes certain freshness, as the enamel tiles have retained their lustre and vibrant colours. Gun Foundry located opposite the Mahboobia Girls School was one of the several cannon and cannonball factories set up in 1786 by the French General Monsieur Raymond. This is the only existing gunfoundry today as the rest were dismantled. Lad Bazar: is one of the oldest shopping centers of Hyderabad. Noted for the sale of traditional bridal wares such as bangles, textiles, cosmetics, this shopping centre attracts many tourists.

The Mosque on the western side on the roof of Charminar is one of the finest mosques built by the Qutub Shahi artisans. Mauzam Jahi Market building was inaugurated by Nizam VII in 1935 and the building was named after Mauzam Jah Bahadur, the second son of Mir Osman AH Khan. Saroomagar Palace was built by Mir Mahaboob Ali Khan, Nizam VI in 1804.Later he donated the palace for an orphanage - the ‘Victoria Memorial Orphanage’. The tomb of Muhammed Quli Shah, the founder of Hyderabad represents the first attempt at building a tomb of gigantic proportions to impart the monument an imposing stature. Rich ornamental parapets and turrets at the corner are distinctively visible. A customary practice followed by the nobility and the rich was to offer perfumes called ‘itar’ to visitors at the time of their departure. The itars were kept in beautiful glass containers called ‘itardans’. Chowmahalla Palace, situated near the Mecca Masjid was built in 1750 by Salabat Jung. Hyderabad was the only state in India where the ruler was allowed to print the currency notes. This 100 rupee note was introduced in 1918. The tomb of Michael Raymond, a French Military Commander during the reign of the second Nizam. Asman Garh Palace -Sir Asman Jah, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad (1887-1894) built this palace at Malakpet as a shikar rest house. At present the Palace houses the Birla Archaeological Museum. The famous Abids shop belonged to the valet of Nizam VI. Today the whole street is known as Abid Road. The High court stands on the south bank of the river Musi. This is one of the finest buildings in the city which was completed in 1919 during the reign of the Seventh Nizam. The construction of the Residency was completed in 1868. Its is now the University College of women.

The legislative assembly was originally a Town Hall. The citizens of Hyderabad raised money to build it to mark the 40th birthday of Nizam VI in 1905. The beautiful temple is situated near the Nehru Zoological Park. It was built in 1822 by Raja Raghu Ram Brahma Katri. The Falaknuma Palace was built by Sir Viqar-ul-Umara, a Paigah noble in the late 19th century. In 1897 it was bought by the Nizam VI. The main entrance of the famous Golconda Fort, situated on the eastern side. The design of peacocks and lions is a blend of HinduMuslim architecture. The palace of Maharaja Kishen Prasad who was the Prime Minister of Hyderabad from 1900 to 1912. Three granite walls of megalithic construction encircle the Golconda Fort with the outermost wall having a circumference of about 7 kms. Wearing of waist belts also known as ‘Buglus’ was compulsory at all official functions during the reign of the Nizams. Purani Haveli also known as ‘Haveli Khadeem’, which means old mansion, was constructed for Sikander Jah (1803-1829) by his father Ali Khan Nizam II. Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan was one of the richest men in the world during the 1940s. He is seen with his daughter-in-law, Princesss Nilofer, who was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world. The Nilofer hospital was named after her. The Jubilee Pavilion, situated in the Public Garden, was built by the Seventh Nizam in 1937 to commemorate his Silver Jubilee. Basheer Bagh Palace: constructed by Sir Asman Jah, a Paigah noble and Prime Minister of Hyderabad (1887-1894). However the Palace was dismantled but the area is still known as Basheerbagh. In July 1934, Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam VII laid the foundation of the Osmania University. An imposing granite structure, it is the example of late Osman Shahi architecture, which combines the Hindu style with that of “Saracenic”.

Birla Planetarium, one of the most modern planetariums atop Naubhat Pahad. Palaces of the Nizam: Asafjahi Style (Mainly in and around Hyderabad City) The Asaf Jahis who succeeded the Qutub Shahis were prolific builders. Several palace complexes of the Nizam, landmarks like the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the Osmania Arts College and the Osmania Medical College building are among their well-known contributions. Asaf Jahi rulers also experimented with European styles and attempted a synthesis of European traditions with Hindu and Islamic forms and motifs. Chow Mahalla Palace: Among two intervening rulers, Salabat Jung spent a greater part of his time in Hyderabad (Salabat Jung, the officially un-crowned Nizam ruled for a short period during the power struggle between the British and the French, compounded by the interference of the Marathas). By some accounts, he is credited with the building of the first Asaf Jahi Palace in Hyderabad i.e. the Chow Mahalla palace. The Asaf Jahis deserted the former Qutub Shahi palace quarter lying North West of Charminar and decided to construct a new palace complex for themselves to the south west of Charminar. In “The Unpublished Diary of a French Officer of Bussy’s Army’, the Officer describes Salabat Jung’s palace with its approach from Chowk (later known as Mahboob Chowk) as follows: “the other or second building is the mansion of the Nawab, which is made up of three blocks of residences......We here see a reservoir, the garden and the reservoir lead up to a large courtyard.... in the midst of this court is the first apartment, which is a large carpeted hall, one storied; its ceiling is supported by a number of small wooden pillars......the second block of houses is also a great hall of which the ceiling is supported by a number of wooden pillars, each of a single piece, it is carpeted and one-storeyed. In the centre of the hall is the Nawab’s throne between four pillars, where he receives the ambassadors.......as for the

third block of houses, it lies to the left as you enter the preceding hall. Here are two houses facing each other, betiveen which is a fruit garden with a square medium sized reservoir and a small fountain. In the house on the right is a large screen, and it is here that the Nawab dines and sleeps with his concubines. ....such is the apartment of Nawab Salabat Jung.” The above account is vague and does not clearly correspond to the buildings in Chow Mahalla as they stand now. This however confirms that Salabat Jung selected the site and created the nucleus of perhaps modest structures laid along a series of inter-linked courtyards, the old structures being later replaced by grander ones. The Chow Mahalla Palace complex in fact extends from the Lad Bazaar on the north to the Aspan Chowk road on the south. During different phases of Asaf Jahi rule, portions of Chow Mahalla were built. The durbar was held in the hall or pavilion called the Khilwat. This was built around 1780 during the reign of Nawab Nizam Ali Khan, Asaf Jah II but later extensively renovated in 1911. Khilwat has a composite architectural style with Mughal as well as Qutub Shahi arches, topped by twin octagonal pavilions on the parapet. It is an over decorated building with huge proportions with a curious Asaf Jahi Baroque. Jilu Khana facing the Lad Bazaar and Daulat Khana e Ali was built during the reign of Asaf Jah I (1724-1748). South of Khilwat one enters the next courtyard around which the main four palaces are located lending the Chow Mahalla name. It is believed that this complex was built during the reign of Nawab Afzal -ud Doula Bahadur, the Nizam or Asaf Jah V (1857-1869). The palaces are named Afzal Mahal, Mahtab Mahal, Tahniyat Mahal and Aftab Mahal. Of these, Afzal Mahal is the most imposing and a two storied building with a European facade of Corinthian columns and a parapet without pediment. Other three buildings are single storied structures with relatively modest scale and facades of Corinthian columns. All the four buildings are laid around a large courtyard garden with a marble cistern at the centre. There are later additions to the complex in late Mughal style with facades of cusped arches, made between 1912 and 1926 when the

older buildings were also renovated. Chow Mahalla was used even by subsequent Nizams and state banquets were held here. Well known among those is the banquet held in honour of T.R.H the Prince and the Princes of Wales on 10th February 1906. For several decades, the sprawling Chow Mahalla Complex has been lying vacant. Purani Haveli Palace Asaf Jah II apparently lived in the Chow Mahalla complex buildings built by his predecessors, since the main palaces were built by Asaf Jah V nearly hundred years later. In 1777, between Chatta Bazaar and Dabirpura Main road, towards north east of Charminar, he started construction of the first buildings of Purani Haveli for his son, Sikandar Jah. But Sikandar Jah, on becoming the third Nizam (18031829) went to live in the Khilwat palace in Chow Mahalla. The buildings built by Asaf Jah II therefore came to be known as Purani Haveli. Purani Haveli regained its glory only when the sixth Nizam, Nawab Mir Mahboob Ali Khan made it his official residence. Purina Haveli Complex is U shaped with a single storied central building in European style flanked by two double storied oblong wings (nearly 1000 feet) of which the western one has the famous wooden wardrobe. Both the wings are wider towards the southern end where these are only single storied and have two extremely well proportioned courtyards surrounded by rooms and deep verandahs with semicircular European arches. Purani Haveli is one of the most important architectural landmarks of Hyderabad combining European facades with traditional Indian courtyards. The complex also includes two annexes attached to the northern ends of the parallel wings. Purani Haveli on the whole is under- used. A training institute runs in parts of the building beside the offices of the Muffakham Jah Trust. Nearby there is another beautiful courtyard house now used as the Princes Esin Women’s Education Centre. King Kothi Palace Of the three principal buildings of the King Kothi Complex, the main’ King Kothi building now housing a hospital and the Mubarak

Mansion (Nazri Bagh) accommodating the offices of the Nizam’s Private Estates (Sarf E Khas) only survive. The third building, Usman Mansion was demolished in the early eighties and in its place a new hospital building is constructed by the State Government. Originally built by one Kamal Khan, the complex was acquired by the Nizam VII. Both the surviving buildings in King Kothi are in European style. Nizam VII, the last ruling Nizam (1911-1948) lived here and passed away in this building on February 24th 1967. The northern and the main road-facing gateway of Mubarak Mansion is called the Purdah Gate where always a big purdah or curtain hung. When Nizam went out of the Palace, the purdah was lifted up which showed that he was not present. The gate was guarded by Maisaram Regiment, police and Sarf E Khas Army with lances in their hands. To the east of Mubarak Mansion, stands the Ghadial Gate: the gate with a clock. King Kothi complex has various European styles incorporated in it. The canopies over windows, the intricate woodwork, the sloping tiled roofs in octagonal pyramid shapes of the Ghadial Gate complex, and the classical semicircular arches are among the characteristic features of King Kothi. As mentioned earlier, the King Kochi Complex has remained in use for offices and Hospital. Falaknuma Palace Falaknuma palace mainly served as a royal guesthouse for the Nizams. The palace was built by Nawab Vikarul Umra Bahadur, a noble from the Paigah family, who later became Prime Minister of Hyderabad (1894-1901). The main buildings were completed in 1884. Nizam VI, Nawab Mir Mahboob AH Khan Bahadur purchased it in 1897 and later added other structures like the Coronation building. The sixth Nizam occasionally lived here and died in this building in 1911. Falaknuma palace complex is dramatically located on top of a hill about four km south of the Charminar. The main palace was designed by English architects in 1872. The central building is placed over a large terrace accessed through two levels of basements. The building is in classical style with a two storeyed deep and colonnaded verandah carrying a pediment. Though basically Palladian, the columns are thicker in proportion. The facade has Ionic columns at the ground floor

and Corinthian columns at the first floor. A wide staircase leads to the ground floor. On both sides of the main central palace are two identical crescent shaped blocks with classical facade and pediments. At the rear, there is a long and imposing courtyard, nearly 600 feet long, surrounded on all sides by rooms and corridors. At the southern end, there is a round shaped hall with deep verandas faced by colonnade in Ionic style called Gol Bungla and an interesting glass roofed large verandah overlooking the vast expanse down below. Parts of the side wings are older structures incorporating Islamic features. The Coronation building and a few ancillary structures are in late Mughal or Rajasthani style. The interior of the main building has a marble entrance hall and fountain, and an Italian marble staircase supporting marble figures, lined with portraits of British Governors General. The reception room is in Louis XIV style. Elsewhere there are French tapestries, beautiful inlaid furniture from Kashmir, and Victorian artefacts. Dignitaries who stayed at Falaknuma as guests include the future King George V and Queen Mary, Prince of Wales, and Viceroy Lord Wavell. Falaknuma is one of the largest and most important palaces of India After years of neglect and non-use Falaknuma Palace is now being given a major face-lift by the Taj Group for a Heritage Hotel. Mahboob Mansion: This palace, presently in disuse and poor condition, is named after Nawab Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the Vlth Nizam who used to occasionally live here though his permanent residence was the Purani Haveli described earlier. Built in the late nineteenth century, this is a very interesting and large palace in a combination of classical European and Mughal style. It has roofs somewhat similar to the eastern blocks of Mubarak Mansion (Nazri Bagh) in King Kothi. Anand Buddha Vihara: Located in Mahendra Hills of Secunderabad, this Vihara was established in 1974, and aims to preserve the Buddhist Culture .The trust plans to construct a temple

vihara, a cultural centre, a hospital, a school and a meditation centre. Daily prayers, meditation and Dharma discourse take place here. Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly: Few would believe that this imposing edifice, completed in 1913, was the town hall in the old Hyderabad State. The citizens of Hyderabad raised money to build it to mark the 40th birthday of Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan in 1905. This white gem of Hyderabad’s architectural splendour was designed by specially commissioned architects from Rajasthan .This blend of Rajasthan and Persian architecture is now the home of the 295-seat Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. Ashta Lakshmi Temple: A magnificent temple dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi in eight forms of the deity stands distinctly on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad in Vasavi Nagar, Dilshukhnagar. Amidst the varied Islamic architectural monuments in Hyderabad, this temple has a different style - a touch of the south-Indian architecture. The well-known Sculptor, Padmashri Ganapati Sthapathi, conceived the structure and designed the temple. Subbaiah Sthapathi designed the idols of Ashta Lakshmi, Srimannarayana, Sri Ganapathi and Sri Garuda. About 134 vigrahas (idols) of lesser - known Gods adorn the mahagopuram. Asman Ghar Palace: The palace was designed and built by Sir Asman Jah, a noble belonging to the Paigah family and one time Prime Minister of Hyderabad State. The granite turrets and arched windows of Asman Garh stand atop a hill some distance ahead of the Hyderabad TV tower. The palace now houses an archaeological museum. Birla Archaeological Museum: A lesser known museum but consisting of exquisite excavations from historical sites. The entire collection is housed in Asman Ghad palace. Birla Mandir: This beautiful white marble temple of Lord Balaji is built on a hillock, the Kala Pahad. This exquisite temple has great sculptural excellence and a profusely carved ceiling. It is a beautiful sight at night when illuminated, standing against the dark sky and looking down on Hussain Sagar Lake.

Birla Observatory and Planetarium: The most modern and the first of its kind planetarium in India, it is equipped with the most advance equipment from Japan. This is built on the Naubat Pahad, neighbouring the Kala Pahad on which stands the Birla Temple. Mecca Masjid: Southwest of Charminar lies Mecca Masjid, the most impressive mosque in South India. It was started in 1614 A.D. by the sixth Qutub Shahi King Abdullah Qutub Shah and completed in 1687 A.D. by Aurangzeb, when he annexed Golconda. This mosque is said to have bricks from Mecca built into its central arch. Its lofty colonnades and entrance arches are made of single slabs of granite brought from a stone quarry, 11 Km north of Charminar. Legend says, 1400 bullocks were required to pull these. Mecca Masjid is poetry in stone, with a hall measuring 67 m and soaring to a height of 54 m. The roof is supported by 15 graceful arches. It can accommodate 10,000 worshippers at a time. The southern end of the mosque has the tombs of all Nizams, from the time of Nizam Ali Khan (who died in 1803) and his successors, except that of Osman Ali Khan Nizam VII. Hi-Tech City: One of the modern monuments of trade and technology, it embodies the new found attitude of Hyderabad and today finds a place of pride. Situated on the outskirts of the city, it is the nucleus of Cyberabad, the IT destination in these parts of the world. Kothi - Residency; According to the book “Pictorial Hyderabad: The British Residents”, a Madras civilian named Mr. Holland was sent by the Governor and Council of the fort St. George Factory, to the court of the “ Subedar “ of the Deccan on a purely diplomatic mission. The successors of this envoy, in course of time, when ascendancy of the British over the political affairs of the Nizam gradually asserted itself, came to be known as Residents. Osmania University: This University is named as “Osmania University” by Nizam the VII. In July 1934, the Nizam laid the foundation stone for the university. The university was started in a rented building near Abid Road and later shifted to its present site.

Jasper was the architect. More than 35,000 labourers were employed to construct the university. The University covers an area of 1400 acres. The main building on the campus is the College of Arts & Commerce. An imposing granite structure, it is the best example of the Osman Shahi architecture. It was completed in 1939 at a cost of Rs.36 lakh and was inaugurated in the same year by its founder, Nizam VII. Other buildings were gradually added to the campus. The Law College, Engineering College, and Science blocks have a similar architectural design. The main post-graduate library building was built later. The Tagore Auditorium was built to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1968. The University has a large swimming pool. The several hostels on the campus accommodate a large number of students from different parts of the State. The University campus also houses the American Studies Research Center and the Institute of Public Enterprise. There are ten faculties - Arts, Social Sciences, Commerce, Education, Law, Science, Engineering, Technology, Medicine and Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy. There are special facilities for the study of Islamic culture, Russian, German and French languages. Special degree courses are available in modern subjects like Electronics, Astrophysics, Genetics, Astronomy, Journalism, Business Management, Public Enterprise and Public Administration. The university is the first and the only one in India to offer Military Science as a subject of special study. In 1983, a department of Theatre Arts was started which trains students in all aspects of the theatre, from folk forms, classical theatre to the contemporary theatre. There are 167 colleges affiliated to the university. Raymond’s Tomb: Raymond’s Tomb is situated in Malakpet near Osmanagar Palace, on the top of a small hill rising to a height of 100 feet from the ground. A gallant French General, Raymond was known as Michel Joachin Marie Raymond. He was employed by the Nizam to completely reorganise his armed forces. He was bom in France on 25th September, 1755 AD but died at Hyderabad on March 25, 1798 AD at the young age of 43.

Paigah Tombs: There are many tombs of several generations of the Paigah nobles including Asman Jah, Viqar-ul-Umara and Shamsul-Umara. The tombs are magnificent structures, decorated in stuccowork, and represent the Asaf Jahi and Rajasthani styles. The geometrical designs in the Paigah Tombs are unique and perforated with screens. This style is unique to the Paigah tombs and is not found elsewhere in the world. Sanghi Temple In the nearby industrial town Sanghi Nagar, this temple named after its patron family, Sanghi, is situated on top of a hill. This is a beautiful temple constructed in the South Indian style of temple architecture and hosts all important Hindu god idols. It is a favourite getaway point for the Hyderabadis as well as a popular tourist spot. Amaravati Museum The collection includes the antiquities from other Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh belonging to the 3rd Century BC to about the 12th Century AD, a gold necklace from Gummadidurru, relic-caskets with bone-relics and gold flowers. The exhibits in the Museum are arranged in different galleries. Gallery I contents: This gallery displays some of the selected examples of the art-tradition of Amaravati, besides an inscribed relief of Buddha from Gummadidurru. Image of Buddha, Coins, Beads, Terracotta, Pottery, and Drum slabs, Dome-slabs, Pillars & Rail fragments and Miscellaneous Sculptures. Gallery II contents: The exhibits in the gallery comprise a few early relics of the 2nd Century BC, inscribed pillars, drum & dome slabs, Two Buddha images from Alluru and a stone-wheel from Lingarajapalli. Gandhi Hill: The first Gandhi Memorial with 7 Stupas in the country was constructed on this hill at a height of 500 ft. The 52 ft. Stupa was unveiled on 6th October, 1968 by Dr. Zakir Hussain, the then President of India. Gandhi Memorial Library, the Sound and Light Show on Mahatma Gandhi’s life and a planetarium are the other attractions.

Salarjung Museum Salarjung III, who was interested in collecting rare objects of art resigned from his Prime Ministership at the age of 24 to collect pieces of art from around the world. The Prime Minister of India Shri Jawaharlal Nehru had declared open the entire collection of Salarjung to the public on December 16,1951. The collection was shifted to its present building in 1968. Here one can find art works from Oriental as well as Western countries. The Salar Jung Museum has different sections based on the antique value. The first gallery introduces the visitors to the Salarjung and their times. The second gallery has major and minor arts of South India, Stone Sculptures, Textiles, Ivory, Metal Ware, Arms and Armor and Indian Miniature Paintings. A separate section for children is on the ground floor. The textile and costume gallery has some rare exhibits of Mughal Curtains, Kashmiri Shawls and Brocades. The miniature painting gallery abounds with Western, Indian & Mughal miniatures. The painting gallery possesses the works of famous Raja Ravi Varma, Tagore brothers, Ghughtai and contemporary artists of Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India. The Veiled Rebecca carved by the well-known Italian sculptor, Benzoni, is an unsurpassed masterpiece & a major attraction of the museum. Another remarkable piece is the two sided wooden statue of Mephistopheles and Margaretta symbolizing good and evil. The same log of wood is used to carve two diametrically opposite characters. The Japanese section exhibits Nikko Furniture, Embroidered Silk Screens, Needlework, Ivory Carvings and Satsuma ware. Ghantasala: Ghantasala lies in the Divi taluk of Krishna district 21 km west of Machilipatnam. It is a rare and reputed center for Buddhist sculptures. Here the remains of an important Buddhist stupa and sculptural slabs were found in 1919-20. Monuments & Antiquities: The main scene here portrays a circular medallion in the style of Amaravati sculptures, which shows the return of Budhistva Siddhartha to Kapilavastu after his renuniciation. There is a museum in this village, which has a collection

of Buddhist statues and art. A considerable number of Roman gold coins and Satavahanas coins have been discovered here. Gumtnadidurru: Excavations undertaken at the place unearthed a part of the main stupa and a dozen small stupas. The site has also yielded a number of inscriptions dating back from 2nd century AD to late medieval period. Gunadala Mary Matha shrine: An annual feast is held every year to commemorate the appearance of Mother Mary at Lourdes on February 11th 1858. A church and a museum of valuable articles offered by the devotees and sacred relics of the past are present. An iron cross is erected atop the hill. Hazratbal Mosque: A holy relic of the Prophet Mohammed is kept here and displayed once a year. A large number of Muslim population joins the celebrations. Hinkar Thirtha (Jam Temple), Mangalagiri: A Jain temple being constructed is almost nearing completion. With great artistic work, it is slated to be the biggest Jam temple in the region. Kanaka Durga Temple: This famous temple is on a hill connected by steps and a ghat road. Inscriptions of different dynasties are found in the temple. The festival of Dussera for Goddess Durga is celebrated here colourfully every year. A large number of pilgrims attend the celebrations and take a holy dip in the river Krishna. Kondapalli Fort: The fort is located 16 km away towards West from Vijayawada City and is built on a hill. Prolaya Vema Reddy, constructed this fort during 14th Century. The king used to visit this fort for relaxation and recreation. It was the residence of “Bhogamalas” meaning the prostitutes of the kings. Near the fort, there is a Dargah of a Persian Saint, Gareeb Saheeb. A legend goes that the palace women and the saint were always at loggerheads. Unable to bear the trouble, the queen of the palace ordered the beheading of the Saint. Even after he was beheaded the Saint fought valiantly and dragged the fort soldiers to a distance of 20 km without his head.

Mangalagiri Temple: The unique feature of this temple is that the deity accepts only half the quantity of Panakam (Jaggery dissolved in water) offered by devotees. It has a very tall gopura. The presiding deity is that of Lord Narasimha. Ovva Temple: Mowa is the birthplace of Siddhendra Yogi, the founder of Kuchipudi dance. This ancient town has temples of Vishnu and Shiva. Prakasam Barrage: Built across the river Krishna, Prakasam Barrage has created a panoramic lake. Its three canals that run through the city give Vijayawada a Venetian look. Victoria Museum: A place for archaeology lovers, Victoria Museum has a carefully preserved collection of ancient sculptures, paintings, idols, weapons, cutlery and inscriptions. Sri Bedi Anjaneya Swami: The temple of Sri Anjaneyaswamy facing the Mahadwaram of Sri Venkateswara shrine houses the image of Bedi Hanuman. According to a legend Hanuman attempted to flee from the holy hills in search of his Onte Vahanam (Camel Vehicle). In order to prevent Anjaneya’s flight his mother Anjana Devi residing near Akasa Ganga at Anjanadri of Sapthagiri (7 Hills) prevailed upon her son and tied the celestial bedi (Hand-cuffs) to his hands with the aid of several monkeys living there, so as to make Anjaneya stay in devotion in front of the Lord’s temple to fulfill her desire. Lord Sri Varaha Sivamy: It is customary for the devotees to offer worship at the shrine of Sri Varahaswamy located beside the Pushkarini. Lord Vishnu assumed the form of a boar to rescue Bhudevi from the clutches of the demon Hiranyaksha. According to the legends, Varahaswamy was the Kshetrapala of the hill of Lord Venkateswara and approached him for some space to reside there. Therefore it is ordained that worship should be offered to Varahaswami varu first before proceeding to Lord Venkateswara’s shrine. In this temple Sri varahaswamy stands with his leg raised up and holds Bhudevi in his arms.

Akasaganga: The Temple is about 21 km. from Tirupati railway station and 3 km from Tirumala bus stand. There are frequent buses from this place. The place is known as the meditation place of Anjana Devi, mother of Hindu God, Hanuman. The water, which flows here, is to date not known of its origin.

5: Orissan Architecture The temples at Orissa, or Kalinga which is its ancient name, provide some of the finest examples of the Indo-Aryan style of temple architecture, which is distinct from the south Indian style. The main group of temples is concentrated in the town of Bhubaneshwar where there are over thirty of them. A few miles from this temple town are two of the largest buildings in eastern India, the temple of Jagannath at Puri and the Sun temple at Konark. Other examples of this style of architecture can also be seen further north on the southern borders of Bengal. The earliest of these temples date from the eighth century A.D and the largest and latest, the Sun temple at Konark, was erected in the middle of the thirteenth century. Thus these temples represent the scene of sustained architectural activity for nearly five hundred years. The earliest temples (about A.D 750 to 900) are all present in Bhubaneshwar. Even in this early phase, the sculptural treatment was elaborate. The two temples of monumental proportions, the Lingaraja at Bhubaneshwar and the Jagannath at Puri, were constructed around A.D 1000. Both these temples consist of four structures which comprise the fully developed Orissan style of temple architecture. Even today, the great tower of the Lingaraja dominates the entire town of Bhubaneshwar with its height and size; the Jagannath temple at Puri is still larger and of a slightly later date. In colonial times, an elaborate set of representations was built around the Jagannath temple: it became iconic of Hindu fanaticism, as devotees were supposed to hurl themselves in front of the temple’s large chariot and get crushed by its gigantic wheels. The word ‘Juggernaut’ is derived from Jagannath. The grandest achievement of this school of architecture is the Sun temple at Konark (about A.D. 1250), standing entirely by itself some twenty miles from Puri. The temple is dedicated to Surya, the Sun god, who has traditionally been represented as riding his winged chariot

drawn by seven horses. The temple is therefore fashioned like a ratha (chariot) and the base of the structure has 12 giant wheels, each nearly ten feet high. The entire surface is filled out with sculpted forms, some of outstanding beauty, while the others are of a markedly erotic character. These indicate the emergence of a particular phase of Hinduism, better known as Tantrism. However, it appears that this cult soon lost much of its following, and today the temple lies abandoned, under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, unlike the Jagannath temple at Puri which is an important pilgrimage site. Though much of this structure is now in ruins, its sheer grandeur and size still inspires awe. The greatest centre of this school is the ancient city of Bhuvanesvara, in which are concentrated almost 100 examples of the style, both great and small, ranging in date from the 7th to the 13th century. Among the earliest is the Parasuramesvara temple (7th-8th century), with a heavy, stately latino sikhara, to which is attached a rectangular gudhamandapa with double sloping roofs. The walls are richly carved, but the interiors, as in almost all examples of the style, are left plain. The Muktesvara temple (10th century), which has a hall with a phamsana roof, is the product of the most exquisite workmanship. The enclosing wall and the arched entrance, or torana, are still present, giving a clear idea of a temple with all its parts fully preserved. The Brahmesvara temple, which is dated on the basis of an inscription to the mid-lOth century, is a panchayatana, with subsidiary shrines at all of the comers. The most magnificent building, however, is the great Lingaraja temple (11th century), an achievement of Orissan architecture in full flower. The latina spire soars to a considerable height (over 125 feet); the wall is divided into two horizontal rows, or registers, replete with statuary; and the attached hall is exquisitely and minutely carved. The most famous of all Orissan temples, however, is the colossal building at Konark, dedicated to Surya, the sun god. The temple and its accompanying hall are conceived in the form of a great chariot drawn by horses. The sikhara over the sanctum has entirely collapsed; and all that survives are the ruins of the sanctum and the gudhamandapa, or enclosed hall, and also a separate dancing hall. Of these, the gudhatnandapa is now the most conspicuous, its gigantic phamsana sikhara rising in three stages and adorned with colossal

figures of musicians and dancers. Because the Orissan style usually favours a latina sikhara over the sanctum, the sekhari spire of the Rai Iani temple (11th century) at Bhuvanesvara (Bhubaneshwar) is quite exceptional. Of particular interest as a late survival of early building traditions is the Vaital Deul (8th century), the sanctum of which is rectangular in plan, its sikhara imitating a pointed barrel vault. Besides Bhuvanesvara, important groups of temples are to be found at Khiching and Mukhalingam. Archaeological treasures abounding in Orissa dating from the prehistoric times upto the end of the Muslim rule in the middle of the sixteenth century. The excavations at Sisupalgarh and Jaugada testify to the presence of a highly developed prehistoric civilisation in Orissa. The caves of Khandagiri and Udayagiri represent Orissan cave architecture dating back to the first century BC The caves were cut out in the solid rock on the orders of King Kharavela for the use of Jain ascetics. There are altogether eighteen caves in Udayagiri and fifteen caves in Khandagiri. The caves are decorated with sculptural motifs. The Ranigumpha cave in Udayagiri is a two-storeyed structure and bears highly artistic sculpture. The caves consist of one or more cells and a few of them are fronted by pillared verandahs. The sculptures of Khandagiri and Udayagiri form a landmark in the history of Indian art. Buddhism also provided inspiration like Jainism for the development of art and architecture. It was Emperor Ashoka who directed the entire state machinery for the dissemination of Buddhism. We find two versions of his major rock in Orissa one at Dhauli and the other at Jaugada. The archaeological excavations at Ratnagiri have brought to light the remains of a main stupa, two viharas and eight temples containing Buddhist images. A large number of images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of great artistic merit have been collected from the hills of Lalitgiri, Olashuni, Landa and Parabhadi hills. A colossal image of Bodhisattva Padmapani has been found at Jajpur it measures 15’8” inches. Buddhist remains have also been discovered at Boudh, Khiching and Solampur. It is seen that the Lalitgiri sculptures contain the living influence of Gupta art tradition. Architecture of Temple: Architecture in Orissa found its supreme expression in the form of temples, some of which are among, finest in

the country. Of these, three are most famous the Lingaraja temple at Bhubaneshwar, the Jagannath Temple at Puri and the great Sun Temple at Konark. These mark the culmination of a distinct style of architecture called the Kalinga style remarkable in its plan elevation and details of decoration. In the simplest form, a temple of this style consists of a structural due, the main temple or shrine and the frontal porch. While the main temple, called Vimana or Deula, is the sanctum enshrining the deity the porch or assembly hall called Jagamohana is the place for the congregation of devotees. The former, constructed on a square base, has a soaring curvilinear tower (sikhara) and is known as Rekha Deula. This two-part structure in the earliest form of temple construction is noticeable in the Parsurameswar temple of Bhubaneshwar (7lh century). A modest specimen of the Bhubaneshwar-Lakshmaneswar group of early temples, it has a squattish type of curvilinear sikhara and an oblong pillared jagamohana. The sculptress on the temple walls are also notable for their simplicity and beauty. The Kalinga style reached its perfection during the Genae period when two more structures were added the front of the two-part temple in order to meet the needs of the elaborate rituals; these are the natamandira (dancing hall) and the bhogamandapa (hall of offerings). The four halls of structure as at Lingaraja and Jagannatha, stand in one line with emphasis on the towering sikhara of the main shrine. However, the devotees have to enter through the side doors of the jagamohana leaving the tamandira and bhogamandapa behind. Temple building activities in Orissa continued uninterrupted between the 7th and 16th centuries. As different religious sects had their successive sway over the land during this period, they provided the necessary fillip for modifications in the architectural designs and sculptural details. The Vaital temple at Bhubaneshwar and the Varahi temple at Chaurasi in the Prachi Valley with their semi cylindrical roofs are examples of a different order of temples described as Eshakhara type in the shilpasastras. The former with its tower resembling a topsyturvied boat and the later with its barrel-vaulted top are dedicated to the goddess Chamunda and Varahi respectively. The silhouetted

interior of the sanctum and the sculptural motifs in the niches of the temples bear the influence of Shakti cult. There is yet another class of temples which are almost unique in their conception and execution in the whole country; these are the circular shaped, hypaethral or ruffles structures dedicated to the sixtyfour yoginis belonging to the Tantric order. Out of all the five shrines of yogini worship existing in the whole country, two are situated in Orissa, the Chausathi Yogini temples one at Hirapur near Bhubaneshwar and the other at Ranipur-Jharial in Titlagarh subdivision of Balangir district. At the centre of these temples is pedestalled the image of Bhairava around which are located the yoginis, each in a niche. The artistic figures of the yoginis, their hair style varying totally in case of each at Hirapur, are superb in execution. However, the Kalinga style of architecture which was the most common order throughout progressed well under the patronage of the Somavamsi Kings of Orissa during the 10lh and lllh centuries. The Mukteswar temple (10lh century) of Bhubaneshwar is considered a “gem of Orissan architecture” and is accepted as one of the most beautiful temples of India. Elegantly decorated from top to bottom, it stands within a gracefully laid out compound with an exquisite makara torana in front. The rekha sikhara and rhythmic in treatment, is unrivalled in beauty. The Jagmohana is a harmonious pidha deula crowned with a kalasa at the top. The Rajarani temple (11th century) owing its name to a type of stone known as ‘rajarania’ is an architectural specimen of the later Somavamsi period. Picturesquely set amidst a wide expanse of rice fields, this temple in its execution combines grace and elegance, beauty of form and sculptural embellishments The deula, adorned with a cluster of miniature temples is reminiscent of Khajuraho. The Brahmeswar temple (lllh century) characteristic continuation of the Drissan style. The great temple of Lingaraja (11* century) at Bhubaneshwar is the quintessence of Orissan architecture With all the features of temple architecture fully developed and perfectly executed, it is undoubted one of the most finished temples in India. The elaborate temple complex consisting of the lowering sikhara (45 m. in height),

jagamohana, natamandira and bhogamandap all in perfect harmony along with the lesser shrines around has a unique grander and majesty. The earliest Ganga monument of Orissa is the temple of Jagannatha at Puri is the massive edifice standing on a high platform connected with the ground led by a flight of 22 steps is the product of accumulated experience of the past temple architecture. The whole of the main temple was covered by a thick consisting of plaster, which earned for it the name ‘White Pagoda’. The plaster has since been removed by the Archaeological Survey of India to reveal the beautiful stone carvings. Finest specimen of Ganga art and the greatest monument of Hindu architect in India is the famous Sun Temple of Konark which is conceived as a chart driven by horses. The chariot had twenty-four wheels and seven horses. The when of the chariot are masterpieces of art. The temple is perfectly proportioned in stupendous size. It is one of the wonders of workmanship in the wood. In the words of Rabindranath Tagore, “Here the language of man is defeated by the language of stone”. The temples of Orissa exhibit a majestic grandeur. An Orissan temple (deul) usually consists of a sanctum, one or several front porches (jagamohana) usually with pyramidal roofs, a dancing hall (nata mandir) and a hall of offerings (bhog mandir). In fact, the Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneshwar boasts of a 150 foot high deul while the Jagannath Temple at Puri is about 200 feet high and it dominates the skyline of the town. Only a portion of the Sun Temple at Konark, the largest of the temples of the Golden triangle exists today, and it is still staggering in size. It stands out as a masterpiece in Orissan architecture. Orissa’s history dates back to the days of the Mahabharata. It was under the rule of the Nanda Kings in the pre Christian era and then under the Mauryan rule. Rock edicts of Emperor Ashoka are found in the State. The impact of the invasion of the Guptas is seen in the early temples of Bhubaneshwar. The Matharas ruled Orissa from the later half of the 4th century AD. The Sailodbhavas who followed constructed several shrines the ruins of which can be seen today. The period between 8th to 11th c. AD was crucial Saivism dominated the religious scene although Budhist, Jain and Vaishnavite monuments also came into being. The Gangas took over after the

decline of the Somavamsis. The early Eastern Gangas ruled from Kalinganagara (Mukhalingam near Srikakulam Andhrapradesh). They shifted their capital to Cuttack in the 12th century. Saivism began to decline while Saktism flourished. Further, the religious leader Ramanujacharya had a great influence on the monarch Chodagangadeva who built the great temple at Puri. The Gangas Were champions of Vaishnavism. It was during the Ganga rule that Orissan architecture reached its peak. Narasimhadeva of this dynasty built the Sun Temple at Konark. The Suryavamsi Gajapati rulers succeeded the Gangas, under whom Vaishnavism in the form of Jagannatha worship reached new heights. This period was marked by the influence of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and by the construction of Jagannatha temples across the length and breadth of the empire. After the decline of the Gajapatis, the kingdom began to disintegrate and was taken over by followed by Muslim rule, the rule of the Mughals, the Marathas and then the British. The Bhoi Gajapatis who ruled Orissa over a small territory built may temples. Bhubaneshzvar and the Great Lingaraja : Meanwhile, the temple city of Bhubaneshwar, which we have discussed in a previous article, was witnessing the construction of its biggest temple - the Great Lingaraja. As is evident from its name, the temple was dedicated to Shiva. Unlike the temples at Khajuraho, the ones in Bhubaneshwar are still active, the most famous example being the temple of Jagannath at Puri. To accommodate the increasing number of pilgrims, a number of additions were made to the Lingaraja in subsequent years. The Nat Mandir, or Hall of Dance, and the Bhog Mandir, or the Hall of Offering, were the major ones. Unfortunately, these were rather unimaginative and had a detrimental effect on the silhouette of the Jagannath temple as a whole. Thus, though the Lingaraja is unsurpassed in its importance as a centre of pilgrimage in Orissa, many smaller examples can be cited. The great Lingaraja temple, believed to have been built around 1000 A.D., is a later product of this revivalist movement and has been acclaimed by many as the finest example of a Hindu temple in India. It stands in a cluster of sixty-five smaller shrines in a spacious compound

measuring 520 feet by 465 feet and its mighty tower (the vimana, see also: parts of a temple) dominates the landscape for miles around. Constructed without mortar, this tower is 127 feet high and is divided into vertical sections. The angles of the recesses are filled in with miniature vimanas and on the top, are figures representing a lion crushing an elephant. The vimana is hollow and consists of several superimposed chambers accessible by a stairway built through the wall, which is seven feet thick. The temple as originally designed, consisted of the vimana, called Sri Mandir locally, where the image of Tribhubaneswar (the Lord of the three worlds) popularly called Lingaraja is housed, and the jagamohan or the entrance porch to the inner chamber. In the garbha griha (sanctum sanitorium) is enshrined the swayambhu linga, or selfestablished Linga, the symbol of Shiva. The natyamandir or dance hall, and the bhogmandir were probably added a century or so later, although they are in perfect harmony with the architectural scheme as a whole. The interiors of these halls are, generally speaking, devoid of all ornament, but-the outer walls of the building are lavishly carved and embellished with sculptures which are among the best specimens of Orissan decorative art. Although the pilaster decoration presents an effect of exuberance and luxury, particularly in the case of the human figures, there is little of the florid extravagance which characterises some of the southern temples. Among the other notable temples in the neighborhood are those of Bhagavati, Parvati, Ananta, -Basudeva, Brahmeshwar, Bhaskareswar, and Kedareswar. The temple is about a thousand years old and dominates the skyline of Bhubaneshwar from as far as 15 kms. away and exhibits the skill of the Orissan temple architects. This temple is dedicated to Tribhubaneshwar or the Lord of Three Worlds. Interestingly the Lingaraja temple is said to have been built first by the ruler Yayati Kesari in the 7th century who shifted his capital from Jaipur to Bhubaneshwar. Bhubaneshwar remained as the Kesari capital, till Nripati Kesari founded Cuttack in the 10th century. Inscriptions from the period of the Kalinga King Anangabhima III from the 13th century are seen here. Lingaraja temple is an architectural marvel.

The temple is named after the “Linga” or phallic symbol enshrines in it. Built in 617-657 A.D. it soars up to a height of about 54 meters, dominating the skyline for kilometres around. The temple consists of curvilinear walls, a pillared hall, a dancing hall and a hall for serving the offerings. It can be rather called a temple complex as more than a hundred temples of different sizes are situated within its premises. This is one of the famous Shiva Pitha in India. It represents the peak of Kalinga style of architecture spanning over 25 centuries of progressive history. This temple is one of the best archaeological monuments of the East. This great temple represents the quintessence of the Kalinga type of architecture and the culminating result of the architectural activities at Bhubaneshwar. It sure is a product of the accumulated and crystallised experience of several centuries. In the elegance of its proportions and the richness of its surface-treatment, it is one of the most finished and refined manifestations of the temple-architecture in India. The treatment of its different elements displays the consummate skill of its master-designer; all its constituent parts are effectively integrated into a compact unity of supreme dignity. The crowning achievement of the architect is the design of the graceful contour of its towering ‘Gandi’. The Gandi’s soaring height and grandeur are almost a marvel. The plastic embellishment of the temple is of equally exquisite workmanship, where all the panoply of Orissan decorative motifs is mustered with a rare aesthetic sense. Every piece of carving serves its appointed role enhancing the majesty of the edifice as a whole. With all the features fully evolved, it is the culmination, in every respect, of the architectural movement at Bhubaneshwar. The temple is a combination of four structures, all in the same axial alignment-’Deul’, ‘Gahamohana’, ‘Nata-Mandira’ and ‘BhogaMandapa’. The spacious courtyard is full of shrines, big and small, of varying dates, their number exceeding a hundred, of which only a few are of outstanding merit. The complex is enclosed by a massive compound-wall pierced by an imposing portal on the east and two secondary gates on the north and south. Temple of Parashurameszvar: The small temple of Parashurameswar, also at Bhubaneshwar, is believed to be a good

specimen of early Orissan architecture of the post-Buddhist period, as is seen from its rudimentary vimana. Although dating as far back as about 750 A.D., it is still in a good state of preservation. It is notable for its intricate stone engraving of the marriage of Shiva and Parvati (Uma) and for the elaborately sculptured medallions on its front facade. The royal lion, Kesari’s proud symbol, is conspicuous by its absence. In place of the bold, strapping animals depicted on the walls of other Orissan temples, those at Parashurameswar are almost invariably victims of the huntsman’s spear. The Vaital Deul is another example of the early phase, although it differs fundamentally from the Parashurameswar temple in that it derives from quite another tradition. The tower of its inner sanctuary is reminiscent of the gopuratn of the Dravidian temples, and many architectural features, such as its elongated vaulted roof in two stories, its ridged finials and its gable-ends, suggest that like those structures, it too developed from the Buddhist chaitya-hall. The Vaital Deul has four replicas of the main shrine in each angle of the jaganmohan, which is also of uncommon design, and is thus representative of a panchayatana. Tlie Raj-Rani Temple: The Raj-Rani temple belongs to a much later period of Orissan architecture (1100-1250 A.D.) and in its pilaster decoration and certain other features, such as the deul suggests a strong kinship with the central Indian type of temple represented at Khajuraho. It is built of a yellowish sandstone, locally called Rajrania, which probably accounts for the somewhat unusual name. The various parts of the temple are not in the same alignment, but follow a diagonal arrangement, which may have been the beginning of the use of the same principle in other regional styles. Small but elegant, the Mukteshwar temple probably dates back to about 975 A.D. and represents the middle period (approximately 9001100 A.D.) of the Orissan style in its early prime. It has been called a miniature gem of architecture for its graceful proportions and beautiful finish. The arched gateway or torana is the “creation of an artist of superior vision and skill”.

The Jagannath Temple: This, is a much larger and somewhat later structure than the Lingaraja temple, although both these great structures are built on more or less the same principle. Historical evidence suggests that this temple was originally built as tower of victory by Choda Ganga in 1030 A.D. when he conquered Kalinga, but that it was consecrated many decades later. There are earlier inscriptions which mention Purtishottam Kshetra - of which Puri is an abbreviation. Adi Shankaracharya is believed to have visited this temple in the 9th century. The temple consists of four edifices in one alignment from east to west, the bhogmandir, the natmandir, the jaganmohan and the deul or the inner sanctuary, which is surmounted by a conical tower of immense proportions. The natmandir, with its ceiling of iron beams and the bhogmandir, however, are believed to have been added in the 14th or 15th century, long after the original structure had been completed. The former, with its 16 pillars, is the only real example of a hypostyle hall in Orissan architecture. A significant feature of the inner enclosure is that, as in the Lingaraja temple, it stands in a large courtyard measuring 440 feet by 350 feet and is surrounded by a high wall. In the inner sanctuary are the three holy images of Jagannath, his brother Balbhadra, and his sister Subhadra. The entrance to the shrine is decorated with scenes from the life of Krishna, and the gates and walls are heavily ornamented with marble figures of lions and sentries. The profuse decoration on the walls of the nat and bhog-mandirs is, however, stylised and comparatively lifeless. This clearly indicates that when these structures were erected, the Orissan style of architecture had entered a period of decline. In order to preserve the temple from the corroding effects of the sea breeze, parts of the stone masonry and the elaborate carvings have been covered with thick plaster. Crowned with Vishnu’s flag and wheel, the tower, however, retains its commanding appearance in spite of the heavy cement overlay. Distributed around the main building are some thirty to forty shrines of various dimensions and designs, as in the case of the Lingaraja temple, but here these secondary structures are on higher ground, thus adhering closely to the Buddhist stupa

tradition. The temple of Lord Jagannath (‘Lord of the Universe’) at Puri is one of the most sacred pilgrimage spots in India, one of the four abodes (dhamas) of the divine that lie on the four directions of the compass. The present temple structure was built in the twelfth century by the Ganga king, Chodagangadeva, replacing an earlier structure which probably dated to the tenth century. Long before one reaches Puri, the 214 feet (65 meters) spire of the temple can be seen towering over the countryside. This visual dominance is symbolic of the influence which the temple commands over almost every aspect of life in Puri. The huge temple compound, each side of which measures 650 feet (some 200 meters), is surmounted with a 20 foot (6 meters) wall. Within the compound is a city, or, more accurately, a universe unto itself. With 6000 direct temple servitors, a temple kitchen which feeds 10,000 people daily (and some 25,000 on festival days), and a central deity who has become the focus of religious life throughout Orissa, the Jagannath temple is truly an institution unique in the world. Until recently, almost the entire temple was covered in white plaster, so much so that European sailors in previous centuries used it as a navigation point, referring to it as the ‘white pagoda’ (in contrast to the ‘black pagoda’ of Konark, further up the coast). Scholars, however, were long puzzled by the plain facade on this holiest of holy temples, and wondered why it was untouched by Orissa’s rich sculptural heritage. The answer was found in 1975, when archaeologists first began removing the plaster, and found that the sculpture underneath indeed rivals that of the other masterpieces of Orissan temple art. Given the religious importance and hallowed traditions, entrance is forbidden to non-Hindus. To have a good view of the temple and its compound, visitors are welcome to ascend to the roof of the Raghunandan Library which is across the street. In the bazaar area surrounding the temple, dozens of shops display and sell images of the central temple deity, Lord Jagannath, presented in a trinity with his ‘brother’ Balbhadra and his ‘sister’ Subhadra. The pervasive quality of the Jagannath cult will be seen when travelling in other parts of Orissa, where the distinctive image of Jagannath appears with great frequency. Even to the non-religious eye, the image is fascinating, perhaps

because of the unlikely combination of the endearing, charming form with an undeniable sense of power. Even the non-Hindu visitor to Puri will feel some of the power of this throbbing pilgrimage centre. The bazaar streets immediately surrounding the temple are filled with activity and bustle, but it is all infused with a palpable sense of gentleness and good spirit. Walk around the bazaar in the early evenings just as the lights are coming on. (Don’t worry, your taxi or rickshaw driver will keep an eye on you, and appear like magic when you are ready to leave). Look up to the magnificent tower of Jagannath towering over everything, surmounted by the flag of Vishnu flying in the breeze. Gaze at the faces of the pilgrims entering or leaving the temple, inhale the scents of incense mixed with the tantalising sizzles of frying sweets and snacks, and just let your feet take you where they may. Even the most secular-minded of visitors are bound to feel that they, too, have embarked on a kind of pilgrimage to a uniquely special place. Yogini Shrines: On the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar, 15 km southeast of the city, is a small, circular temple, the Yogini Temple, dating to the early ninth century. It is hypaethral (open to the sky), and belongs to a genre of architecture completely apart from the major Orissan school. Although it seems that temples of this type existed throughout India at one time, today only four remain. Two of them are in Orissa; the shrine at Hirapur, and one at Ranipur-Jharial, located 104 km from Bolangir.

Growth of Architecture in Orissa Bhubaneshwar: Popularly called, city of Temples, it is situated on the main railway line that connects Howrah in the north with Chennai in the south. Geographically it is placed at 20 The city is well connected by air as well as land routes with other parts of the country. This place is a bit hot in summer with the mercury occasionally rising to 42 Celsius, sweltering and humid during the monsoon as the onrush of the south-east monsoon wind brings down the gushing rains and is relatively dry in winter, rarely the mercury plunging below 11 Celsius. The Bay of Bengal, barely 100 kms away as the crow flies, exercises a

moderating influence over the climate and keeps it temperate. Of course, the seasons have their own charm and the distinctive appeal and Bhubaneshwar can be visited at anytime of the year. The period between mid-September and mid-March is considered as the tourist season when the sun is bright and warm, the sky is blue, the air is cool and the weather is generally pleasant. To the visitor, Bhubaneshwar is a city of contrasts, coexistence and continuity. There is a happy encounter of past and present in this temple town which has a history of about 2500 years. All religions and sects flourished here. The famous Lingaraj Temple which has been a centre of Shivaworship is also there is Orissa. Buddhism and Jainism also received royal patronage and general acceptance. Emperor Ashoka won a bloody war in 261 BC but lost his style victory in remorse and repentance and thus he embraced Buddhism. This is also the land of the great Orissan emperor Kharavela whose exploits and achievements have been recorded in the rock-cut inscriptions in the caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri. The grace and majesty of Orissan art can be seen in the great temples of Lingaraj, Rajarani and Mukteswar. In the modern part of the city which is only about forty years old, one finds the temples of our time, the major academic and research establishments such as Utkal University, the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, the Utkal University of Culture, Regional Research Laboratory, the Institute of Physics, the Indian Council of Medical Research, and so on. Life is quicker here compared to what it is in the ancient section. The city traffic cannot be called heavy even during the peak hours and parts of the city wear a deserted look for the better part of the day. The city is generally safe for travel at all hours. But as a precaution one need not venture out at odd hours at night. One invariably returns from Bhubaneshwar with pleasant memories and a rich haul of memorabilia consisting of exquisite artifacts or beautifully designed hand-woven silk or cotton material or plenty of photographs of temples, caves, landscape and so on, and above all, with a fond desire to come back someday to the land of history and culture, into the folds of affection of the place and the people. Important places of interest are listed in alphabetical order. Bhubaneshwar has two distinct zones: one belonging to the glorious

past that includes the majestic temples, the ruins of ancient shrines and cities, the caves and the historically significant rock-cut inscriptions and royal edicts, and the other belonging to our times with all the signs and symptoms of a modern city, such as the massive complex of the Orissa Secretariat, the nerve centre of state administration, tall buildings that are the veritable beehives of commercial activities, beautiful shopping areas, lovely parks and posh housing localities, the Universities and many other institutions of learning and research, luxurious hotels and restaurants offering comfort and food that would compare favourably with the best anywhere, and so on. This modern city is also the capital of the State. There is a sense of continuity as one finds the spire of the Lingaraj temple looking over the modern high-rise steel and concrete structures, office complexes and hotels. The city is a living phenomenon expanding and growing with the passing of every day. The visitor to this temple town can reach Bhubaneshwar by air or bus or train. Once in the town he may choose his own mode of travel either by city buses or hired cars and autorickshaws. But to absorb the ambience of the place and have a leisurely pace to his visits, he may prefer the cyclerickshaw to other modes of fast transport. Figures against each entry indicate the approximate distance between the proposed place of visit and the railway station that is at the centre of the city and the gateway of entry to the majority of visitors to Bhubaneshwar Ananta-Vasudeva Temple 1278 A.D. (4 km) Often considered to be a watered down version of the magnificent Lingaraj temple as far as the architecture is concerned, this 18.29 metre high lone Vaishnav shrine is the most finished temple situated on the east bank of the Bindu Sarovara. It was erected by Chandradevi, the daughter of Anangabhima III during the rule of Bhanudeva in 1278 AD. In support of this date eminent historians offer a fresh reading and interpretation of the text found on the commemorative inscription of the temple. This piece of evidence now is under the custody of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Other scholars think 1200 AD as a probable date of its construction. The temple has four component parts; their roofs ascending upward, culminating in the mastaka of the deul. The shrine has a

profusely carved exterior and an ornamental platform within the complex. Ananta-Vasudeva temple is an important Vaishnavite place of worship with the images of the Holy Trinity, Krishna, Balarama and Subhadra in the sanctum. The parsva-devatas include at least three incarnations of Vishnu, the Preserver. It is customary for the devout to visit the temple after taking a holy dip in the Bindu-Sarovara, prior to the darshan of Lord Lingaraj. Scores of pilgrims from different parts of the country entering the temple with fresh flowers, sweets, coconuts and bananas as offerings to the deities is a colourful sight. They eagerly await their turn in the rush to partake of mahaprasad or holy food. Bhaskareshwar Temple: This small temple is remarkable for its ‘stepped’ design and the unusually high linga in its sanctum. The peculiarity of the temple structure seems to have been dictated by the practical necessity of performing rituals like bathing or garlanding or putting pastes of sandalwood and other perfumery on the tall linga which rises to a height of nearly three metres from the floor level. Some scholars believe that the linga was originally a free standing pillar. Bindu Sarovara (4km) Situated to the north of the Lingaraj temple this large pool. The devotees believe this Sarovara to contain water from every holy stream, pool and river of India and can purify them of all sins. Hence on its banks, they perform many rituals, or tonsure their heads and take a dip in its water. Once upon a time the tank had all its sides covered with stone. Today only the southern side and parts of the eastern side have the original linings made of blocks of laterite stone. At the centre of the tank there is an island temple to which the icon of Vishnu is customarily taken during the Snana Yatra. The embankment on all sides is dotted with innumerable shrines and temples, some of which are still under active worship. Brahmeshwar Temple 1061 AD. This temple was built by Kolavati, the mother of the Sorr.avansi king Udyotakesari, in the eighteenth regnal year of his reign, in the Siddhatirtha locality at Ekamra. One of the inscriptions, now believed lost, stated that Kolavati presented many beautiful women to the temple. This presentation is interpreted as an early evidence of the devadasi (God’s Maids) tradition. This tradition influenced the

socioeconomic as well as the cultural life of the Odissan people at a later date and formed a dominant and recurrent motif in Orissi music and dance. The importance of this system can be realised from the fact that this motif had come to be part of the art idiom too. The temple is a fine specimen of innovative and mature Orissan style of temple building. For the first time iron beams have been used to build up the structure. This is the second temple, after the Mukteshwar, to boast of a Jagamohana that has a finely carved interior. The sculptural details and the immaculate iconography show expert workmanship of the Orissan artists of the era. The figures of the musicians and dancers, the lionhead motif, the amusing and erotic figures and others exude a special charm. One must notice the beautiful figure of a young woman appearing a little bewildered and perhaps a little surprised at her lover’s unexpected naughty probe into her body. The floral motifs, the intricately designed creepers, the flying figures, the images of the eight directional guardian deities and so on, are all meticulously executed and the chiselling shows an excellent sense of proportion, harmony and an eye for aesthetic embellishment on the part of the artists. The usual Shaivite door keepers stand above the double vidalas at the bottom of the jambs; the figure of the Gajalakshmi adorns the mid section of the lintel and those of the navagrahas are there on the architrave. This shrine, though dedicated to Lord Shiva, shows a number of images which might have been inspired by the Tantric cult of the time. On the western facade the figure of Chamunda stands on a corpse with a trident and a human head. Elsewhere many other deities, including Shiva, are depicted in their horrific aspects. B. K. College of Art and Crafts: The college offers higher studies in certain modes of art and craft including wood carving, palm leaf etching, stone sculpture, clay modelling, commercial art, graphic art, line drawing and painting. The college is located in Khandagiri area. It is affiliated to the Utkal University of Culture. Dhauli is a small hillock rising conspicuously on the southern bank of the river Daya, in the midst of green fields that seem to reach out to the horizon.

This is the site where Ashoka waged the final battle against Kalinga in 261 BC. The victory came to him riding over a million corpses bringing him a macabre confirmation of his military prowess that had already earned him the sobriquet, Ashoka the Slayer (Chandasoka). Legend has it that the gory sight of the battle with dead men chocking the flow of the Daya river (literally, the river of compassion) that had turned to be a river of blood, filled the heart of the conqueror with an hitherto unknown feeling of compassion and bouts of remorse. He realised the futility of digvijaya (military conquest) and the nobility of dharmavijaya (spiritual conquest). Thus Ashoka the Slayer changed into Ashoka the compassionate (Dharmasoka). He embraced Buddhism, it is believed, here, at the Dhauli foothill. This is the place where gory deeds were amended by hoary corrections. At the base of Dhauli, where the approach road to the top begins its incline, one can see on the left the Ashokan rock-edicts, well preserved under a large rock outcropping with a rock-cut elephant head. The edicts are public injunctions, instructions from the emperor to the local administrators to imbibe and adopt the spirit of justice and compassion towards the people in all matters pertaining to the civil administration. Two new edicts, pacifistic in nature, have been added and the 13th edict, that glorified Ashoka’s conquest of Kalinga, is conspicuous by its absence. The elephant head over the edicts is a sacred Buddhist motif testifying to the emperor’s change of heart. To commemorate the historic events of the past, the Japanese Buddhists have lavishly contributed to erect a peace pagoda on the hilltop. On a clear day, standing on the steps of the pagoda, the visitor can have a magnificent view of the temple town with the majestic Lingaraj temple rising to the sky or watch at the foothill the silver strip of the river Daya meanderinglazily past its serpentine bends, touching softly the embankments where the glorious past of Orissa has remained hidden. It is a wonderful experience watching the glorious sunset beyond the unending Ekamrakanan. Spread over a large area, Ekamrakanan is a modern nursery-cum-flower garden. It is a favourite haunt of the plant lovers as well as casual visitors as round the year the well-preserved beds of flowers offer a feast for the eye. The rose-beds

present a riot of colours and the air is often thick with sweet smell. Many varieties of cacti can also be seen us. Harekrishna Mahtab State Library: The building quite close to Rabindra Mandap on Jawaharlal Marg houses the State Library. It is named after late Harekrushna Mahtab, one of the former Chief Ministers of Orissa. There are a large number of books including some old and priceless volumes. It caters to the need of the reading public of the city. It remains open from 8.00 A.M. to 8.00 P.M. on all working days. Institute of Physics: This is a premier institute of study and research in Physics where scholars from different arts of the country and abroad conduct full time research in different branches of Physics. It has a beautiful campus with hostels for scholars, faculty building and residential quarters for the staff. Jayadev Orissa State Museum: This is rather a small museum with limited sections of exhibits. But the archaeological wing boasts of some of the rare findings of historical as well as sociological importance. Some of the collections are exquisite specimens of Orissan sculpture. The manuscript section of the museum has a large collection of palm leaf writing locally known as pothi Scholars are engaged in research in this section. The section devoted to the history and culture of Orissa provides a glimpse of the composite character of Orissan culture through carefully arranged exhibits and show windows. Puri-City of the Lord: A heaven on earth is the common description of Puri. Both the devout and the pleasure-seeker bestow such praise on the place. The world’s biggest Vishnu temple dividing the skyline through a host of smaller temples overlooking Puri’s wide, sprawling, clean, sunny, buoyant, and vibrant beach, which too is one of world’s finest of its kind are its chief attractions. Puri is also famous for the greatest of the temple festivals, the Rath Yatra or the Car Festival which falls in June/July. According to tradition, Puri was originally a densely wooded hill inhabited by Sabaras, a pre-Aryan and pre-Dravidian tribe. Chodaganga Dev, the illustrious ruler of the Ganga dynasty, built the present Jagannath Temple in the twelfth

century A.D. Kapilendra Dev, Purusottam Dev and Prataprudra Dev, all rulers of the Surya dynasty, left their distinctive marks on the history, art and culture of Puri. Jagannath worship flourished even during the Mughal and Maratha periods. The British occupied Puri in 1803 and soon took over the administration of the temple. Modern Puri—its hospitals, its government buildings, its light house, its schools and colleges, its beautiful villas and hotels along the sea front was built during the British rule. Ai Tota: Ai Tota is the place towards the left side of the Gundicha Temple where Chaitanya used to stay during Car Festivals. Angira Bata: On the east of the temple of Lord Jagannath can be seen a shady banyan tree known as Angira Bata surrounded by an old boundary wall. The place is associated with the legendary sages Angira. Annapurtta Theatre: Murari Mishra records the first staging of his play at Puri sometime in the 9th century AD. Though the ancient stage is no longer existent, this seventy year old theatre house can still be seen at Puri. Ardhasani: About 3 km from the Jagannath temple, on the Grand Road, is a small white-washed temple for goddess Ardhasani or Mausi Ma. A Subhadra image is worshipped here. The Puranas describe how the goddess used to drink half of the flood water at the time of deluge, thus saving the creation. On his way back from the Gundicha Temple during the Car Festival, Jagannath is offered here a delicacy known as podapitha (fire-baked cake). Asta Shambhw A small temple in Tiadi Sahi houses a cluster of eight Shiva lingas made of semi-precious stones which appear different in colour when looked at from different directions. Atharanala: A marvel of medieval Orissan architecture the Atharnala or the bridge with eighteen arches was built by Bhanu Deba of the Ganga dynasty in the thirteenth century. It is a ferruginous stone structure and is still used as the gateway to the holy city Puri. During

the nineteenth century the British Government collected pilgrim taxes here detaining millions of eager devotees enroute for days together. Aurobindo Dham: This is a newly established institution which popularises the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, a twentieth century philosopher of India. It has a small library. Its impressive complex of buildings can be reached by going to the west from Swargadwar. Bata Lokanath: The impressive temple on the Swarga Dwar Road is dedicated to Lord Shiva. A beautiful Kali image is also worshipped in the near by place. Batamangala: At a distance of about three kilometre from Atharnala on the Puri-Bhubaneshwar road is a small temple dedicated to goddess Batamangala. Pilgrims usually pray this goddess for safe journey to Puri. Bauli Math: The well dug by Guru Nanak popularly known as Dedhasur Bhai Bohu Kua is still to be seen here and this place, the Bauli Math is visited by the devotee round the year. Bedi Mahavira: A small sea-side temple containing the image of the monkey-god Hanuman, a devotee of Rama. The legend goes that once Hanuman went on a short visit to Ayodhya. In the meantime sea water entered the city, causing considerable damage. The devotees prayed to Jagannath who asked Hanuman to explain his absence. On hearing about Hanuman’s unscheduled visit to Ayodhya, Jagannath got his hands and feet tied with rope (bedi) and asked him to be vigilant on the seashore day and night. There is a popular belief that since then, the sea has not ventured into the city. Bharat Seva Ash Rama: This institution is situated near Swarga Dwar. It is a philanthropic organisation which does commendable work during the Car Festivals. Bhrugu Ashramaa: Bhrugu Ashramaa or Bhrugu’s hermitage is near Atharanala. It is associated with the sage Bhrugu. Chakhi Khuntia’s House : Chakhi Khuntia, a priest of Jagannath, fought the British during India’s First War of Independence in 1857. Khuntia was the family priest of Queen Laxmi Bai of Jhansi who led the heroic revolt against the British. His house is situated in

Harachandi Sahi. His descendants still live here and a visit to the house can, however, be arranged through the people living there. Chakra Tirtha: This place on the seashore is believed to be the house of the father of Laxmi, the consort of Jagannath. A small but beautiful temple houses the images of Laxmi and Narsimha. The belief goes that in ancient times a sacred log of wood came floating in the sea out of which the Jagannath triad were carved. To many, this is also the very spot where vishnu saved the elephant from the clutches of a cruel crocodile. Chaturdham Veda Bhawan: This is a school teaching the Vedas to the young. The students of this school recite the Vedas to the measured movement of hands, fingers and palms. The Yajna Vedi or the traditional vedic altar for burning sacrificial fire may also be seen by a visitor here. Chudanga Sahi: Though the sanctum sanctorum of the Jagannath temple was the cradle of Odissi dance and music, the singers, dancers (Maharis) and musicians used to reside in Chudanga Sahi, said to have seen established by Chodaganga Dev in the twelfth century AD. Dasavatara Math: Dasavatara means the ten incarnations of Vishnu, the significance of which is emphasised in the monastery. The place is dedicated to the memory of Jayadeva (twelfth century A.D.), the famous author of Gitagovindam. A quiet place in front of the Gundicha temple, it reverberates with activities during the Rath Yatra. Dolavedi: An open air museum Dola Vedi is at the northern end of Laxmi Bazar. An exquisitely carved black stone arch atop an equally beautiful altar is the main attraction of Dola Vedi. The miniature images of Jagannath are taken to this place on the fullmoon day of Falguna (March) and are placed in a swing to commemorate Krishna’s sports with Radha at Brindaban. Emar Math : A prosperous monastery near the Lions’ Gate dedicated to the sacred memory of the saint-philosopher Ramanuja, an exponent of Vishishtadwaita Vedanta or qualified monism. The monastery has its famous Raghunandan Library containing many palmleaf manuscripts. A non-Hindu visitor can have a clear sight of

the Jagannath temple complex by climbing a flight of steps and reaching the third floor. Permission for doing so, is, however, to be obtained from the library on any day of the week except on Sundays and other public holidays. Gandhi Ghat: A statue of Mahatma Gandhi installed near the Light House at the sea shore commemorates his associations with Puri. Gandhiji’s ashes as well as that of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were immersed in the sea here. On his visit to Puri in the first half of the century the Mahatma wanted to take a band of his harijan followers to the Jagannath temple. But the orthodox priests objected to such entry. So Gandhi left Puri without entering the temple. His wife Kasturba and his Secretary Madev Desai went inside but had to face Gandhi’s displeasure immediately after. Gangamata Math: Situated on the bank of Sweta Ganga, this monastery is the place of Basudeva Sarvabhouma a famous philosopher who was an associate of Chaitanya. Ghumusar Math: Situated on the Marichikote Lane, this monastery is the place of Upendra Bhanja, the greatest medieval Oriya poet. Girnarbant: It is a beautiful place where lived a sadhu named Totapuri. This sadhu is believed to be the guru of Sri Ramakrishna, the great nationalist saint of Bengal who in his turn was alsp the teacher of Swami Vivekananda. Gundicha Temple: Gundicha Temple or the garden house of Jagannath is towards northeast direction of the Jagannath Temple. A major part of the present precinct was built during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The compound has two walls, one outer and another inner in the middle of which stands the main shrine. Unlike any other Orissan temple design it is almost a dome with Vishnu’s wheel on the top. The inner and parts of the outer walls are full of murals and paintings belonging to the sixteenth century. A beautiful Garuda idol adorns the eastern most corner of the temple. The images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are annually taken in a chariot procession to the place. The Jagannath triad

stay here for seven days. The pious believe that a sight of the Lord here is equal to thousand visits to the main Jagannath temple. Many devotees from North India consider this spot as the birth place of Sita, the consort of Rama. Gundicha temple has two gateway temples-one for Jagannath’s entry and the other for his exist. In front of the latter one sees a stretch of land known as Saradhabali or the sand of divine love. It is so named because the devotees flock around Jagannath and his car here out of sheer love and devotion. Guru Nanak’s Places: It is very near the sea on the way to Swargadwar from the Temple. It is believed that when Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, came to Puri he soon sat on the spot and was lost in meditation in which state he remained for days together. The two disciples who accompanied him were starving. When the Guru’s mediation came to an end, the disciples were extremely thirsty. But how to get fresh water on the sea shore ? The Guru dug the sand and fresh water gushed out immediately. The well dug by Guru Nanak, popularly known as Dedhasura Bhaibohu Kua, is still to be seen here and this place, the Bauli Math is visited by the devout round the year. Governor’s House: One of the most beautiful specimens of late nineteenth century British architecture, the Governor’s House on the seashore is an official bungalow. The President and Prime Minister of the country and other dignitaries normally stay in the building during their visits to Puri. Holy Lakes: The city of Puri is famous for five holy lakesMarkanda, Shweta Ganga, Narendra, Indradyumna and parvati Sagar. The first one is located in the north. The ancient Markandeshwar Shiva Temple situated on the bank of the lake makes Puri one of the fifty-two sacred Shiva places of the country. A few inscriptions found on the steps to the lake and the Markandeshwar Temple, are of great interest to historians. The second lake Shweta Ganga is towards the south of the Jagannath temple. Shweta Ganga means the White Ganga. It is believed that once in a year the blue water of the lake turns white when Ganga manifests hereself in the lake. The third lake Narendra is known to North Indians as the Chandan Talab. Here the Chandan Festival of Jagannath is held.

Chaitanya, the great exponent of the cult of devotion, used to take his bath thinking the lake to be Krishna’s Yamuna. The fourth lake Indradyumna is near Gundicha Temple. Numerous turtles living in the lake entertain the pilgrims. They are believed to be the very people who carried stones on their back for the construction of the Jagannath temple. The fifth lake Parvati Sagar is near the Lokanath Temple. Pilgrims enter the Shiva temple here after sprinkling water on their heads. Jagannath Ballav Math: Opposite the Municipal Market is situated Jagannath Ballav Math, a monastery which perpetuates the memory of Ray Ramaaananda, the administrator-turned saint of Orissa who lived during the sixteenth century. The garden behind the monastery building has a beautiful temple in the middle dedicated to Hanuman, the monkey-god who is believed to be protector of the trees and plants grown here. Jagannath Temple Complex: The Jagannath Temple Complex which spreads over an area of about 4,20,000 sq.ft. has four distinct sections-the outer section, the outer compound, the inner compound and the main temple. The outer section has four gateways and each such gateway has four temples. The eastern gate, known as the Lions’ Gate, has a black stone pillar in its front having the idol of Arun (Sun) on the top. This tall pillar which is about 12 metres in height is made out of a single block of stone. On entering the temple through the eastern gate or Lions’ Gate the visitor comes across the mural of Patitapabana, literally “Saviour of the Fallen”. It is a representation of the Jagannath image. Baisi Palladia: On entry the visitor ascends the twenty two steps which have Jain significance. On its left side is situated Jagannath’s kitchen which has provision for cooking food for about two lakh people at a time. On its right is the Ananda Bazaar or the Market of Joy where Mahaprasad of various kinds are sold : rice, dal, curry, cakes, sweets, etc.

Cuttak: City of the Fort situated at the apex of a delta formed by the river Mahanadi on the north and its distributary, the Kathajodi on the south, and located at 14.62 metres above sea-level, the city of Cuttack has a history of more than one thousand years. Geographically, it is between 20-55’ E longitude. Hot in summer, humid during the monsoon and dry in winter, this densely populated city is spread over an area of 59.57 square kilometres. Cuttack (or Kataka) was founded by King Nrupa Keshari in 989 A.D. King Marakata Keshari built the stone revetment on the left bank of the Kathajodi in 1006 A.D. to protect the city from the ravages of floods. Due to its strategic location, King Anangabhima Dev III shifted his capital from ‘Choudwar Kataka’ to the present Cuttack, then known as ‘Abhinaba Varanasi Kataka’ and built the fort of Barabati in 1229 A.D. Cuttack has witnessed the rule of several dynasties: the Kesharis, the Gangas, the Gajapatis and the Bhois. The Chalukya King, M.ukundadev Harichandan, built a nine-storey building in the precincts of Barabati Fort in 1560 A.D. This last independent Hindu king of Orissa died fighting the Sultan of Bengal, Sulaeman Kami in 1568 A.D. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Barabati Fort was defended by two rings of forts on either side of the Mahanadi and the Kathajodi. In 1568 A.D., the city passed to the hands of Afghan rulers of Bengal, then to the Moghuls in 1592 and the Marathas in 1751. Cuttack, with the rest of Orissa, came under the British rule in 1803. The Bengal-Nagpur Railways connected Cuttack with Madras (Chennai) and Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1919. It became the capital of the newly formed State of Orissa in 1936 and continued to be so till 1948 when the capital was shifted to Bhubaneshwar. The city completed one thousand years of its existence in 1989. The major places of interest are listed in alphabetical order and distance from the railway station is indicated in respect of each entry. Although town buses ply to certain areas, it is not always possible to reach most places by them because of narrow lanes and by lanes and traffic congestion. A cycle-rickshaw is a better way of getting around. The ruins of the old Barabati Fort lie on the right bank of the Mahanadi, in the western part of the city.

All that remains of the Fort is an arched gateway and the earthen mound of the nine-storeyed palace. Archaeological surveys reveal that the Fort was roughly rectangular in structure having an area of over 102 acres, and it was surrounded on all sides by a wall of laterite and sandstones. To the west of the mound there is a tank. In the northeastern comer of the mound are remains of what once was a temple. The temple was made of whitish sandstone over foundations of laterite blocks. About four hundred fragments of mouldings and some mutilated pieces of sculptures have been recovered so far. This temple of the Ganga period containing a stone idol of Lord Jagannath was razed to the ground by Feroz Shah Tughlaq in 1361 A.D. The idol of Gadachandi is enshrined in a newly built temple. It has a seating capacity of nearly thirtyfive thousand. The structure of the Stadium closely resembles that of the Brabourne Stadium of Bombay. Towards the southern part of the Fort area stands the modern Jawaharlal Nehru Air-conditioned Indoor Stadium with a seating capacity for six thousand spectators. Central Rice Research Institute: The Institute was established in 1946. Its basic aim is to conduct research on crap development in order to increase overall productivity of rice. It has so far produced 42 highyielding varieties. Chandi Temple the temple of Goddess Chandi, the presiding deity of the city, to the south of the Barabati area is visited by hundreds of devotees everyday. The image of the deity is older than the temple. Church, Baptist: The present Baptist Church or Jubilee Church at Mission Road was constructed in 1872 to commemorate the golden jubilee of the work of the Baptist Missionary Society at Cuttack. Established in 1822, the Mission conducted church services first in a bungalow before shifting its activities to a Church at Tinkonia Bagicha which was washed away by a flood. A new church was built in its place in 1828. Church of England: Church of England, later known as the Anglican Church, is presumed to have been established during the days of the East India Company. The Church conducted services in a

bungalow at Cantonment Road. The present church building was, however, constructed later. Church of God : The building of the present Church of God at Cantonment Road was constructed in 1928. But the congregation started its services at Cuttack in 1905 with the visit of John A.D. Khan, the President of the Church of God Association of India. Sunday services were held in the verandah of the Mount House till the construction of the new building. Church, Roman Catholic: Situated at Cuttack Chandi, to the north of the Mount House, the Catholic Church is one of the oldest in Orissa. It is believed that the first Catholic Church at Cuttack was built on the rank of the Kathajodi by the Portuguese merchants, but there is no trace of it now. Gadagadeswar Temple: The temple of Lord Shiva on the banks of the Mahanadi towards the northern part of the Barabati area is not very old. The modem temple probably stands in the place of a certain Visvesvara temple of the fifteenth century mentioned in the Oriya by Sarala Das. Gurudwara Guru Nanak Datan Sahib: Situated on the bank of the Mahanadi to the west of the NH-5, Gurudwara Guru Nanak Datan Sahib is one of the oldest gurudwaras of Orissa. It was built in 1935 in memory of Guru Nanak Dev who visited Orissa in 1506 A.D. Hanuman Temple: Situated on the bank of the river, Kathajodi, the temple of Panchamukhi Mahavira, a form of Hanuman is visited by the devout. A small temple established in 1914 has been renovated and modernised, There are the shrines of Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Lord Shiva in the temple premises. Jaini Masjid: Built by Nawab Ik Rama Khan in 1689 A.D. on the orders of Aurangzeb Alamgir, the Jami Masjid at Balu Bazar is an Islamic prayer hall. The mosque stretches from east to west to enable the devotees to turn towards Mecca while praying. The present access to it is through the southern gate built much later. There is a ‘hauz’ (distrain) in the courtyard and a pulpit in the main hall. There are two

tall and elegant towers on both sides of the mosque. One can get a view of the city from the top of the towers. Municipal Office : Cuttack Municipality was constituted in 1876 before which the affairs of the town were looked after by the Town Committee consisting of both native. European members. The area of the Municipality gradually went on increasing to bring the adjoining places under its control. The present office building is, however, a structure raised at a later date. Orissa High Court: This majestic red-brick structure, with slim decorative columns on the top was constructed in 1948. Oriya Bazar: The house at Oriya Bazar where Subhas Chandra, the ninth child of Prabhabati and Janaki Nath Bose was born, is visited by many people particularly on 23 January, the birthday of Netaji. Publishing Houses : Almost all the major Oriya publishing houses are located at Balu Bazar-Binod Behari-Banka Bazar area. Cuttack Students, Stores, Friends Publishers, Grantha Mandir, Vidyapuri are some of the leading publishing houses. Although the first Oriya printing was made in the early nineteenth century in Calcutta soon after a press was set up at Cuttack for missionary purposes. The number of presses have increased manifold since then. The first Oriya newspaper, Utkal Dipika was brought out in Cuttack in 1868. The Samaja (Buxi Bazar) and The Prajatantra (Chandinichowk), the oldest of the existing Oriya dailies also come out from the city. Qadam-i-Rasool : Located almost at the centre of the city, Qadam-i-Rasool is enclosed on all sides by high stone walls. Covering an area of 57 acres and having a tower at each of the four corners, it has three mosques with beautiful domes and a Nawabat Khana (music gallery) inside. The central building with a magnificent dome shelters the footprints of Prophet Mohammed engraved on a circular stone. The main burial ground of Muslims in Cuttack, Qadam-i-Rasool has the graves of some of the nazims who were in charge of the administration of Orissa in the early eighteenth century. It is a good example of IndoIslamic architecture and a shrine dear to both Hindus and Muslims.

Raghunath Jee Temple: A monument of Maratha period, the temple of Sri Raghunath Jee, also known as ‘Sita Rama Thakurbari’ is situated at Telenga Bazar in the southern part of the city. The images of Sri Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Bharata and Shatrughna are enshrined in the temple. In another temple within the precincts and images of Sri Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan are worshipped. The images of Lord Shiva and other deities are also there in separate temples. Sri Rama in this temple is like Narayan and he holds sankha, chakra, gada and padma in four hands. Ravenshaw College: The premier educational institution of the State, Ravenshaw College had its origin in a school established by the British Government in January 1841. Intermediate classes started in 1868 and the college was affiliated to Calcutta University. In 1875, largely through the efforts of Mr. T.E. Ravenshaw, the then Commissioner of Orissa, it became a full-fledged first-grade college. At the instance of the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj the college was named after the Commissioner to commemorate his services to the cause of education in Orissa. The affiliation of the college was transferred to Patna University in 1917 and Utkal University in 1943. It has been upgraded to the status of an autonomous college. The college was shifted to its present location with a large campus spread over 87 acres of land in 1921. The magnificent red building looks very British in its architecture and general layout. The college hall was the venue of Assembly sessions of the newly carved State of Orissa. The Centenary Library, the new open-air pandal and the gymnasium are some of the newly added structures of the college. Sari Chaura: The historic graveyard on the banks of the Kathajodi can be approached by the ring road. The tombs of poets, writers and greatest social workers remind the visitor of their services and sacrifices. S.C.B. Medical College: The small dispensary during the days of the Maratha rule in late eighteenth century, set up primarily to attend the sick pilgrims to Puri, was converted to small hospital by the British during the Great famine of 1865-66. In 1875 Dr. Stewart, the then

Civil Surgeon of Cuttack, mooted the idea of starting a medical school there. In 1916-17 the Orissa Medical School was affiliated to the Bihar and Orissa Medical Examination Board. Orissa Medical College was established in 1944 and was affiliated to the Utkal University. It was renamed Sri Rama Chandra Bhanj Medical College in 1951 in appreciation of the generous contribution of the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj to the cause of medical education and health care in the State. Shailabala Women’s College: The oldest Women’s College in Bihar and Orissa, presently known as Shailabala Women’s College, started in Ravenshaw Girl’s School in 1913. The institution, then known as Government Women’s College was separated from the School in 1946 and was shifted in 1952 to its present Premises which was the residence of late Madhusudan Das, the architect of modern Orissa. Tine College was named after late Shailabala Das, the daughter of Madhusudan Das. Sri Rama Chandra Bhavan : Sri Rama Chandra Bhavan near the Municipality Town Hall was built in 1928 with the contributions of the princely states, particularly the state of Mayurbhanj. It has been the centre of social and literary activities of Orissa over the years. Stewart College: Established in 1944, as a concern of the Baptist Missionary Society, London, the College has developed to a leading institution for higher education in the city. The management of the College has been transferred to the Church of North India. Stone Revetment: The southern part of the city was protected from the fury off loods of the Kathajodi by a stone revetment, a great engineering feat of the early eleventh century. It is said that Maharaja Marakata Keshari ordered the construction when Baimundi, a commoner from the Bidanasi region made a personal prayer to the King. Utkal Sahitya Satnaj: The oldest among the existing literary associations of the city, Utkal Sahitya Samaj, is located at Sri Rama Chandra Bhavan. The informal meetings convened by the veteran Oriya poet, Madhusudan Rao in 1890s later took the shape of the Samaj and become the forum of many literary meets.

Arun Kumar Mohanty has translated Gopinath Mohanty’s novel, Dadi Budha The Ancestor Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1997) and co-translated Manoranjan Das’s play August. The Ninth of August Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1998) into English. Martyrs’ Memorial at Bhubaneswara decision has been taken to build a Martyrs’ Memorial at Bhubaneshwar at a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, Shri Naveen Patnaik on August 23,2000. Doordarshan Studio Inaugurated a Doordarshan Studio was inaugurated at Bhawanipatna on September 3,2000 by the Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Dr. Debendra Pradhan. The meeting arranged on the occasion was presided over by the Honble Member of the Parliament, Shri Bik Rama Keshari Deo. The officials of the Doordarshan and several dignitaries were present.

6: Architectures of Regional Kingdoms Chittorgarh, Kingdom of Mewar There is a long stretched hill of about 150 m-high in Chittorgarh of North India. This is the citadel of Chittorgarh, which was once reputed as impregnable in the era of the Mewar Kingdom. Heroic battles fought here against Muslims of Delhi left tragic tales which have been passed down from generation to generation for a long time. When defeat seemed certain after several times of offensive and defensive battle, the queen along with her thousands of women in the citadel threw themselves into a fire to keep their chastity, and thousands of soldiers took to the field and died in the battle. Presently, there is a small village, many temples and palaces as well as water related structures left half ruined on the hill. Above all, two towers attract our attention. One is called “Kirti Stambha” (Tower of Fame), the other is called “Jaya Stambha” (Tower of Victory). Against our expectations, there is no tower except these two towers in Chittorgarh, older than minarets in the times of Islam or clock towers built under British rule. These two towers are all the more rare and valuable in this regard. Kirti Stambha is older than the other, and it seems to have been built in the 13th century. The tower soars to 24m-high and has seven stories on the basement. The top floor is an observation hall, from which we can command a view of not only inside the citadel, but also surrounding plains and the horizon. This tower is dedicated to the first Tirthankara (Jina) Adinatha. In each niche of four faces at the 2nd story, his statue is enshrined. Kirti Stambha (Tower of Fame), Chittorgarh: What distinguishes this tower from other stone masonry ones in the world would be its ingenious formation. Since it is rather difficult to build a tower by masonry, most of them have simple shapes that directly reflect the

structural form. However, this Jain tower has extremely complicated formations: it is covered with carvings of the statues of Jain and others, has a shaft of combination of narrow and thick parts, and shaded by niches and balconies. A kind of taste similar to expressionism is seen in this unparalleled design. Jaya Stambha is more remarkable in this respect. An inscription indicates that King Rana Kumbha built it in 1448 to commemorate a victory in a battle against Muslims. Since it was built after its model of the other one, it developed into a nine story, 37m-high tower. The interior of the tower is more spacious, and it is possible to climb up staircases without bending our bodies. These staircases are not just a simple spiral type. The tower plan consists of two concentric squared walls, which provides a way of climbing full of variety. When we finish climbing up the central spiral staircase for one floor, next we walk up a corridor and steps along the outer walls. Then again we go up the central spiral staircase. And yet, when comparing these two towers, there is scarcely any difference between them from an architectural point of view, even though iconological appearances are totally different. Inside the citadel, a number of both Jain and Hindu temples are standing as if vying with each other. These temples and towers were built depending on a religion supported by a king and ministers as well as ordinary citizens of each era, in which they were either Hindus or Jains. These two religions had not ousted one another, and freedom of worship had been secured. It also indicates that architects in those days designed both Jain and Hindu temples regardless of the religion they belonged to. Like modern architects who make plans for Buddhist temples and also work out designs for Christian churches, this kind of open-minded practice has been conducted since a long time ago in places where different religions have coexisted. Satbis Deori Temple: Both two towers in Chittorgarh are called “stambhas,” and actually the term “stambha” represents a pillar, in particular a memorial one. In ancient times, mainly Buddhists built stambhas, and above all, those that were raised by King Ashoka in various places are famous. Since Jainism inherited this tradition of

building stambhas most faithfully, their temples in South India almost invariably have stambhas in front of them.

Rajput Architecture The infighting among the various nobles of the Delhi Sultanate has caused many kingdoms and provincial governors to assert their freedom. From this vacuum come the kingdoms of Vijayanagara, Golconda and Bijapur in the south. In the north, in Rajasthan and Gujarat, the proud fighting clans of the Rajputs too seize this opportunity. This will be the time of chivalry, of great forts under the hot sun, of pomp and splendour, the making of a warrior tradition which will provide eventual stiff resistance to the Mughal onslaught. However, a break in building tradition-caused by the Delhi Sultanate in the preceding years-means that the science of architecture is no longer the same-the ancient texts which were followed in early temple building have either been lost, or forgotten, or need to be modified in response to changing needs. The current of cultural exchange now flows both ways-earlier it was Islam which had to forcedly borrow indigenous craftsmen for its architecture-and now it is these very same guilds who return to the service of Hindu kings. Architecture will now be truly a fusion, and will be one of the first, and among the most prominent, tools of a subcontinental identity, a true Indo-Islamic culture. Meanwhile the principal players in this drama are of course a little less aware of their eventual place in history, and are more occupied by the more mundane aspects in life. This is the old story of kingdoms waging war against each other and rulers erecting palaces and monuments to their glory, and fortresses to sustain their command. The Legend of Chittor: The Sisodias of Chittor and Rana Kumbha (1433-68) were among the most active patrons of building. The Jayastambha (Tower of Victory) is an odd structure, combining as it does the urge to commemorate a victory (that over Malwa in 1458), with the principles of temple building. The structure thus becomes quasi-religious, a sort of vertical temple.

Chittorgarh today is a sleepy little town, much like many others in semi-rural India. The youth all want to leave, the cows blink stupidly in the ferocious heat of the mid-day sun, and the halwai is the main cultural centre, where politics is discussed over chai. It doesn’t even have a proper train line, the only connection is by an old metre-gauge to Delhi and Ahmedabad. This is the fort of Chittor, once home to kings and nobles, of beautiful queens and princesses, of stirring tales of manhood and valor, of noble but futile chivalry, and of eventual, glorious death. Chittor fort, along with Mandu and Chanderi, represent the start of the tradition of synthesis between native and imported ideas, which was to be carried on with increasing skill in the forts of Gwalior, Orchcha and finally Fatehpur Sikri. Gwalior: Located strategically Gwalior fort was fair game, in its position as the gateway to central India, for all would-be potentates. The climb up to Gwalior plateau is tortuous and not easily accomplished even by a motor vehicle. This no doubt contributed to its fine system of defences designed to slow down and eventually stop any attacker. Among its many remarkable buildings, its greatest is perhaps the palace of Man Singh Tomar built in the 15th century. Unlike even its successors, Man Singh’s palace is in an excellent state of preservation, with even the blue and yellow tile work on the facade still visible. Raj Mahal: All three palaces, built in tine time when the Mughal influence had begun, have square courts-like most Muslim buildingssurrounded by living quarters. Arches and domes mingle with beams and columns. The fusion experiment at Orchha culminated in Bir Singh’s Govind Mahal at Datia. In plan the Govind Mahal distinctly follows the Muslim concept of a central court, with a symmetrical disposition of elements around it. The four coiners culminate in domes which set off the larger one crowning the central royal quarters. However, perhaps the most surprising creation at Orchha is the giant Chaturbhuja temple.

More than its size, the architectural plan is surprising, resembling more a cathedral, being a cross in plan. The other astonishing thing is the large interior space, quite unusual for a temple where the interiors tend to be closed and repaired. This trend of fusion was to be evident in Muslim architecture of the period as well. So if architecture can define a nation, it is at this period in history that we witness a remarkable change-a sort of rapprochement between Hindu and Muslim-at least in the domain of architecture. For craftsmen do not know any religion except for what feels good to build, and what pleases the eye.

Gujarat: Significance The Muslim rulers of Gujarat produced architecture on as grand a scale as their Hindu and Jain predecessors. As in Delhi, the first building material for the earliest mosques and tombs came from the demolition of temples in the area. It was with the reign of Ahmed Shah (1411-42), that the city of Ahmedabad was founded. Some of the most spectacular architectural remains at Ahmedabad are the stepped wells or wavs. More than simply a means of bathing, these wavs were associated with stylistic ritual which spanned back to the time of the Rajputs. Imposing steps lead down to the water table and the vertical exposed walls were treated with rich carving. The mosques at Ahmedabad show a development from the relatively primitive, with an open facade, to the arcaded screen type prevalent in Delhi, with carved pillars visibly produced by Hindu craftsmen discernible through the arcade. Of the second, arcaded type of mosque, the two most impressive examples are the mosque of Ahmed Shah and the Jami-Masjid. Ahmed Shah’s mosque has original Hindu pillars behind a simple arcaded facade, the central arch of which is flanked by two rather bloated minarets rising from the ground, almost like pilasters. The form of the minarets, indeed, brings to mind the battlements of Rajput fort rather than the graceful tapering classical Islamic minaret. In the Jama Masjid, the minarets do not become any more graceful, but their power

depends mainly on their massive proportions and the riot of carving on their faces. The base of the minarets is covered by what seems to be almost temple shikharas rising one upon the other, vocabulary extensively used in a classical temple.

Mandu and Pleasure Palaces In modern Madhya Pradesh, the province of Malwa had as its capital the ancient Hindu city of Dhar, about 24 miles north of Mandu, till it was conquered by the Delhi Sultanate-by Alauddin Khalji in 1305 A.D.-and a governor installed in place. As with all conquests, among the first state buildings to come up were mosques, built with pillars taken from Hindu temples, very similar to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutb, Delhi. The decline of the ruling power at Delhi after the sack of the city by Timur prompted the Ghauri governor of Mandu to declare his independence in A.D. 1401, with Sultan Dilawar Khan declaring himself Shah. It was left to his son, Hoshang Shah, to shift the capital from Dhar to the plateau of Mandu. Bounded on three sides by a rift valley, and overlooking the Narmada to the south from a height of 300 metres, the fortress of Mandu was virtually impregnable. The Plateau of Mandu Chronology detailing main events-Sultan Dilawar Khan Ghauri A.D. 1401, Sultan Hoshang Shah A.D. 14051434, Mahmud Shah A.D. 1436 (Contemporary of Rana Kumbha of Chittor), Malwa/Mandu annexed by Akbar A.D. 1569. The fortress enclosed an area of approximately 12 square miles within walls over 25 miles in circumference. The inspirational landscape of Mandu, jutting out from the Vindhyas range, became the site of some of the finest provincial Islamic architecture, with mosques, madrassas and pleasure-palaces dotting the landscape. Tlte Jama Masjid at Mandu: Near the centre of the Mandu plateau the Jama Masjid was one of the finest achievements of the Ghauri dynasty. A mosque, with its necessarily vast scale to accommodate numerous worshipers, is monumental by its nature, and to endow it with elements of humanism can be counted as a very

difficult exercise in design. This problem has been fairly successfully addressed. Of the elements that make up this mosque, the monumental entrance from the east is a fine exercise in elegance, with a main arched doorway flanked by two smaller openings. A squat yet wellproportioned dome crowns this entrance, with its profile being reflected in smaller domes over the cloisters surrounding the central court, their proportions being ‘not unlike in profile to the so-called shoulder shaped contours of the shikharas of Orissan temples. The courtyard is surrounded on three sides by columned cloisters with galleries of majestic arches. All the construction is faced with red sandstone, with little concession to decoration. Indeed, the6hly departure from sobriety is in the chattri inside the mosque, next to the mihrab, which shows influences from florid Gujarati architecture. Situated as it was on a plateau, with numerous water bodies through its length, and the home of a prosperous dynasty, Mandu became the site for various pleasurepalaces and resorts for royalty, be they for the women of the harem, the fine arts or hunting. In Mandu we have architecture dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure on a large scale, in the form of the Jahaz, Lai, Chappan, Baz Bahadur and Rupmati palaces. The Jahaz Mahal, built by Mahmud Khalji, was a departure from the previously stolid and somber style at Mandu. The most striking thing about this monument is its location between two water bodies, the Kaphur Talao and the Munja Talao, which gives the building the appearance of floating on water, hence its name, literally the ‘ship palace’. Architecturally, the building consists of a series of compartments and corridors over the Munja Talao, with terraces, kiosks and numerous open-air baths conforming to the lifestyle at Mandu, which was slowly sliding into decadence. The Jahaz Mahal proved an inspiration for later Khalji sultans to dot the landscape with their own pleasure pavilions and summer retreats. The esoteric character of Mandu later prompted the like-minded Mughal emperor Jahangir to spend a considerable amount on its maintenance.

And so, even though the city of Mandu was eventually absorbed into the Mughal empire, its legend lives on as the city of Joy, and in the forests of the Vindhyas today, if you listen hard enough, echo the strains of the romantic tales of Rupmati and Baz Bahadur to this day. Tomb ofHoshang Shah: To the south-west of the Jami-Masjid lies Hoshang Shah’s tomb, among the earliest Muslim buildings in India to be sheathed entirely in white marble, possibly exerting an influence on buildings to follow elsewhere, and documented fact says that Shah Jahan sent a team of surveyors here for case studies before commencing construction of the Taj Mahal. Asharfi Mahal vs Hindola Mahal: Although little remains of the Asharfi Mahal, to the east of the Jami-Masjid, it was an extraordinary achievement in its time, serving as a madrassa with open courts surrounded by cells for students on several levels. Here also are the remains of a seven-storey victory tower-which collapsed in the 17th century-echoing Ala-ud-din’s megalomaniac flights of fancy near the Qutb. From the remains of Hoshang Shah’s palace, it is clear that the whole area was divided into three zones-ceremonials with halls of audience, the king’s private chambers and the ubiquitous zenana, or women’s chambers.

Bengali Brick and Bamboo Chronology of events- Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khalji conquers Bengal A.D. 1193, Nasir-ud-Din Bughra Khan appointed Governor A.D. 1282, Shams-ud-Din Ilyas founds Purbiya dynasty A.D. 1352, Sher Shah invades Bengal A.D. 1537, Bengal absorbed into Akbar’s empire A.D. 1576. Curved Roof Form at Bengal. It was one of the foremost provincial Islamic outposts, beginning with A.D. 1193, when Mohammad Bakhtiyar Khalji extended Muslim rule right down to the ancient capital of Gaur. It is interesting to note that it was in the same year that Qutb-ud-Din Aibak established the Sultanate in Delhi. The reason for this rapid conquest, when closer places like Malwa took many years to subdue, was principally that the Ganges provided a great waterway to facilitate the movement, and so hordes of troop transports could navigate the river with ease all the way down to its

estuary. The lack of building stone in Bengal meant that most construction was carried out in brick, of which there was an abundant supply, and this meant that no building was possible using the usual column-beam construction so characteristic of early Islamic structures. Instead, right from the beginning, arches were used to span spaces and to support the weight above. Brick thus lends Bengal architecture a style which is distinct, with its pointed arches and finishes so different from those in stone. Another remarkable feature which predominates is a curved roof form, no doubt derived from its bamboo predecessor. This curved roof was to prove very popular in north India in general, with later Rajput, Mughal and even Sikh architecture being influenced. The harsh climate of Bengal also means that antiquities decay rapidly; indeed, according to Fergusson: “...the climate of Bengal is...singularly inimical to the preservation of architectural remains. If the roots of a tree of the fig kind once find a resting-place in any crevice of a building, its destruction is inevitable; and even without this, the luxuriant growth of the jungle hides the building so completely, that it is sometimes difficult to discover it-always to explore it.” Of the pre-Islamic architecture, there are traces of Sena and Pala constructions in Gaur, which was long a Hindu capital city. Many fragments of Hindu architecture are still to be found, though not enough to accurately reconstruct the architectural style used. Their chief worth, however, is the influence they had on Islamic architecture in terms of short squat pillars used to support the superstructure above. The architecture in Bengal can be further divided into two periods-the first from the 13th to 15th century when it was a provincial outpost of the Delhi Sultanate, and the second in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Bengal Sultanate was established. The first period is marked by construction influenced by Hindu remains, and the major traces of this are to found at Tribeni on the Hoogly river. The mosque and tomb of Jafar Khan Ghazi are adapted from the remains of a Hindu temple but have brick walls, as well as the earliest pointed arches in

the province. In the nearby village of Chotta Pandua, the large ruined mosque is a similar mixture of arched and column-beam construction. The Bengal Mosque: Once again, after the lessons of the Adina Mosque, the climate of Bengal proved to be a decisive factor in determining the plan. It was evident that a large open courtyard was useless in the long monsoons in Bengal. And so the courtyard was replaced by an enclosed hall. Once this principle had been established, a large number of mosques came up in and around the city of Gaur. Notable among these are the Chotta Sona and Bara Sona masjids. Both apparently had gilt applied to their curved roofs, which gives them their name-literally, ‘Golden Mosques’. Bara Sona Masjid: Situated as it was on a plateau, with numerous water bodies through its length, and the home of a prosperous dynasty, Mandu became the site for various pleasure-palaces and resorts for royalty, be they for the women of the harem, the fine arts or hunting. In Mandu we have architecture dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure on a large scale, in the form of the Jahaz, Lai, Chappan, Baz Bahadur and Rupmati palaces. The Jahaz Mahal, built by Mahmud Khalji, was a departure from the previously stolid and somber style at Mandu. The most striking thing about this monument is its location between two water bodies, the Kaphur Talao and the Munja Talao, which gives the building the appearance of floating on water, hence its name, literally the ‘ship palace’. The building consists of a series of compartments and corridors over the Munja Talao, with terraces, kiosks and numerous open-air baths conforming to the lifestyle at Mandu, which was slowly sliding into decadence. It proved an inspiration for later Khalji sultans to dot the landscape with their own pleasure pavilions and summer retreats. The esoteric character of Mandu later prompted the like-minded Mughal emperor Jahangir to spend a considerable amount on its maintenance. And so, even though the city of Mandu was eventually absorbed into the Mughal empire, its legend lives on as the city of Joy, and in the forests of the Vindhyas today, if you listen hard enough, echo the strains of the romantic tales of Rupmati and Baz Bahadur down to the

present day. One of the last of the mosque examples in the Qadam Rasul mosque, a rather smaller example with stocky basalt pillars supporting the arches above. The mosque, according to Satish Grover, is ‘flaccid and formless’, but possesses nevertheless beauty in its robust proportions, in the aggressive outward thrust of the column bases, and indeed in the columns themselves which are divided into tiers, emphasising their low height and posture. The Dakhil Darwaza, marking the entrance to the remodeled city of Gaur with its broad thoroughfares, as well as the Feroza Minar or ‘Blue Tower’ marked some of the finest late examples of the Bengal style before the Ilyas Shahi dynasty succumbed to an Abyssinian mercenary in 1489.

Punjab Architecture Harappan Civilization: The oldest examples of architecture sculpture, and painting in the Punjab belong to the Harappan civilization. The Vedic age, which followed the Harappan age, has not left any artistic relics. The Vedic Aryans lived in villages. They used perishable materials such as wood and bamboo. Some scholars believe that the plan of an Aryan village was based on that of a fortified military camp. Its layout was rectangular. Its sides oriented to four quarters and it was interacted by two roads or streets, which terminated in four gateways. But no actual remains of a Vedic village have survived. The literature refers to great cities of the age of the Buddha. These cities were well planned, built of bricks and timer. They had beautiful buildings, royal palaces, broad streets and high gateways. A wall surrounded the entire city. But no example of such and ancient city has survived to this day. The reason is that most of the buildings of wood have perished. In eastern India we have some monuments dating from the Pre-Mauryan times. These are at Rajagriha and at Lauriya Nandangarh in Bihar. No buildings of Pre-Mauryan epoch exist in the Punjab. Importance of Takshashila: The earliest historical example of art and architecture in the Punjab are those of the Maurya period. The city of Takshashila was the capital of the Uttarapatha province of the Maurya Empire. It was famous city has been excavated in modern

times. The ruins of Takshashila consist of three city-cited: Bihar mound, Sirkap, and Dirsukh. These represent three successive phases in the history of the city. At Bihar mouns we have evidence of settlement from sixth to the second century BC Sirkap site represents the second city of Takshashila. Bactrian Greeks built it in the second century A.D. unlike Bihar mound and Sirkap, the site of Sirsukh has not been excavated. Taxila Jewellery : The city of Sirkap was built on the Greek chessboard pattern, with streets cutting one another at rights angles and regularly aligned blocks of buildings. Besides bricks, coursed rubblestone was used in building houses. The city had a rempart. But the Parthian and Shaka rules built a defence wall of stone 3, 1/2 miles long. The city had several Buddhist shrines and stupas. There was an upsidal temple also. More important religious establishments lay outside the boundaries of the three city-sites. The most ancient and the most important sacred building is the Dharmarajika-stupa. Emperor Ashoka originally built it. A stupa is a Buddhist shrine. It is covered from all sided and its shape is semicircular like a cup turned upside down. Inside a stupta are preserved sacred relics either of a Buddha or Buddhist saints. The Buddhists adore the stupa. Emperor Ashoka had the title Dharmaraha or the ‘Righterous King’. The Dharmarajika stupa built by him was elaborated and renovated by later kings. It is built on a high platform of stone. It is circular in plan and hemispherical in elevation. From its central hub radiate sixteen thick walls. On the southern portion of Sirkap are a stupa and a monastery of vihara. A vihara is also a sacred Buddhist building. It contains roomed for monks as well as prayer hall and a shrine-room. Towards the northern gate of Sirkap lie the ruins of a temple at Jandial. It was a Zoroastrian temple. It resembles a Greek temple. It has two pillars at the entrance and two pillars at the front porch, which leads to the sanctuary. Amount the finds at Takshashila are coins of kings of different dynasties, seals, jewellery, sculptures and peltry pieces.

Stupas City-sites : Another important city-cite in the Punjab is Charsdda on the Swat river in Peshawar district. It is the site of Pushkalavati, the capital of Gandhara. Excavations brought to light the existence of Buddha stupas and viharas and other buildings. Traces of stupa architecture have been found at several other places in the Punjab and the northwest. Thus the stupas at Manikyala in Rawalpindi district at Takht-i-Bahai, Sahri-Bahlol and Jamalgarhi near Hoti Mardan, and at Shahji-Ki-Dheri near Peshawar may be mentioned. Kanishka built the great stupa at Shahji-Ki-Dheri. It is cruciform on plan. Inside it was found a casket containing sacred relics of Buddha. This stupa built by Kanishka was seen by Husan Tsang in the 7th century and by Alberuni in 11th century AD. The stupa at Takht-iBahai is famous for its great statue of standing Buddha. The ruins of monasteries were also identified at these places as well as at SahriBahlol. A chatya of Buddhist shrine was also fount at Sahri-Bahlol. Numerous Buddhist monasteries and stupas were built also in Sind and Balochistan; A stupa built of Bricks existed at Mirpurkhas. It had three vaulted cells, which contained in .ages of the Buddha. This stupa was ruined during the Arab invasions in 712 AD. The stupa may have been built during the early Kushana times. The remains of a stupa also exist at a place called Tor-Dherai in Loralai district of Balochistan. The site of Branmanbad in Sindh had at first Buddhist monasteries and stupas. Later on in the Gupta period, Brahmanical temples were built at this site. Recently Sanghol in Ludhiana District has been excavated. It represents the site of a Buddhist establishment. The very name may be connected with sangha or the Buddhist community. Remains of a Dharma-chakra-stupa have come to light at Sanghol. Hsuan Tsang’s Description: “In the seventh century AD. the Chinese Buddhist scholar and pilgrim visited many places in the northwest. He has described a number of sacred buildings, which existed during his time. We will briefly sum up his account of cities, monasteries, temples and stupas.” The walls of towns and cities of Indians were broad and high. But thoroughfares were narrow. The shops are on the highways and booth

line the roads. Butchers, fisherman, public performers, executioners, and scavengers have their habitation marked by a distinguishing sign. They are forced to live outside the city... As to the construction of houses and enclosing walls the country of bricks while walls of houses and enclosures are of wattled bamboo or wood. Their halls and terraced belvederes have wooden flat roofed rooms and are coated with chuna and covered with tiles gurnt of unurnt. They are of extraordinary height, and in style like those of China. The houses thatched with xoarse of common grass are of bricks or boards; their walls are ornamented with chunam; the floor is purified with cowdung and strewn with flowers of the seadon; in these matters they differ from us. But the Buddhist monasteries are of most remarkable architecture. They have a tower at each of the four corners of the quadrangle and three high halls in a tier. Hsuan Tsang also mention the viharas or monasteries, stupas and the temple in different cities he visited personally. In Lampaka or Lagman in Afghanistan he saw more than ten Buddhist monasteries and about a score of non-Buddhist temples. In Nagarahara country around Jelalavad district) he was a stupa made of stone and in height 300 feet. There was also a vihara with a smaller stupa. Both these stupas had been built by Ashoka. There were also fine Deva-temples. In Hadda near Jelalavad he saw a two-storeyed shrine in which were preserved some Buddhist relics. In Gandhara there were above 1000 Buddhist monasteries in the country but they were utterly dilapidated and untenanted. Many of the topes also were in ruins. There were above 100 Deva-temples, and the various sects lived pell-mell. This sorry state of Buddhist viharas and stupas was due to the destruction carried together were Branamanical sects such as Shaktism, Shaivism, and Vaishnavism. He writes: “The treat stupa built by Kanishka was 400 feet high, Near the stupa were large in ages of the Buddha. To the southeast of this great stupa was a stone image of the standing Buddha. It was 18 feet in height. Around this image were more than 100 small stupas.” In the city of Pushkalarvti there was Deva temple with a marvelworking image of the Deve. This was possibly a Shiva temple. Here Deva means Shiva or Mahadeva. To the east of the city was an old

stupa built by Ashoka. At a shorty distance from the city was monastery in ruins; close to it stood another stupa erected by Ashoka. At was some hundreds cf feet high, the carved wood and engraved stone of which seemed to be the work of strangers. At Palusha in Gandhara he saw Mahesbara’s spouse Bhimadevi of dark-blue stone. At the foot of the mountain was a temple to Maheshvara-deva in which ash-smearing Tirthikas performed much workship. According to this passage there was a temple of Shiva at the bottom of the mountain where the devotees worshipped. At the top of the mountain was an in age of goddess called Bhma or Bhishana. She is the same as Durga of Uma. In Uddiyana on Swat river there had been formerly 1400 monasteries but many of these were now in ruins. Most of these monasteries had been destroyed by the Huna armies. There were ten Deva-temples in the 7th century AD. Buddhist stupas and monasteried were also seen by the Chinese pilgrim in the Mahaban area. Many stupas existed in Mongkil and Darel. The monasteries at Takshashila though numerous were desolate. Stupas built by Ashoka were still in tact. At Simhapura there was an Ashokan stupa 200 feet in height. Several stupas existed in Balochistan some of them were 100 feet in height. The Gandhara Sculpture: “The Gandhara art represents one of the greatest culture achievements of ancient Punjab. It is called the Ganghara art because it is originated and flourished in the region anciently known as Gandhara. The region in represented by Rawalpindi and Peshawar divisions now in Pakistan. It is also called the Buddhist art of contents. Generally speaking the word Gandhara art is applied to the architecture, sculpture and painting which developed in north-western India form the first to the fifth centuries AD. Formerly some scholars held the opinion that this art was derived from the Greek art. But this opinion is no longer held by anyone. In style and manner of execution some of the Gandhara sculptures resemble between the subject-matter of the Roman art and the Gandhara art. A few examples of foreing origin have been found in Gandhara region. These include figures in metal of Dionysius and Harpocrates and a bronze figure of Herakles. These articles obviously came from aborad with merchants and soldiers. During the rule of the Bactrian Greeks and Parthians the Punjab had close contacts with Roman Empire. West

Asian Hellenistic and Roman artists may also have come to Gandhara to work for the Kushana Kings. The Kushana emperors, Kanishka I and his successor, were the greatest patrons of Ganhara art.” Scholars holds that the first image of the Buddha in human form was made in the Gandhara school of sculpture. But the Mathura school of sculpture claims equal credit. It seems that the image of the Buddha began to be made in Mathura and Gandhara school at the same time. Before the first century AD. the Buddha was worshipped through sacred symbols such as a stupa, a bodhi, tree a dharma-chakra, and foot-prints. This form of Buddhist worship by employing symbols and emblems is well known form the art of Bodh Gaya, Bharhut, and Sanchi. The growth of Mahayana form of Buddhism During 200-100 BC. had inspired the production of figures of the Buddhas and Bodhisativas. Image-worship became popular among the Jainas, the Buddhist as well as the Shaivas and Vaishnavas. The creation of a Buddha image was a religious act. The development of Buddhist sculpture was inspire by a religious act. The development of Buddhist sculpture was inspired by a religious emotion. It was considered meritorious to make an image of the Buddha to install it in a shrine, and to adore it. The growth of Buddhist art in Ganghara was goth a cause and consequence of the growth of Buddhist in this area. The Buddha is depicted standing on one side of the coin. On the other side is a standing figure of King Kanishka wearing a long coat resembling achkan. Another early representation of the Buddha is found in a relic casket of Kanishka’s time. The standing Buddha figure from Hoti Mardan near Peshawar shows the influence of the figure of the Greek god Apllo. Cheif features of Gandhara sculpture are wavy hair or curly hair, youthful face like that of Apollo, prominence of physical features and ridged folds on the dress. Some time moustachion are shown on the Buddha’s face. This error was due to the artist’s ignorance about the details of Buddha’s life. The artist, though worked under the guidance of Indian Buddhist scholars, often south to emphasise Greek and Roman features.

Thus even on the Buddha’s sanghati or outer garment attempts were made to carve drapes. It is possible hat some text such as the Laita-vistara or the Buddhacharita giving details of the life of the Buddhawas used by the sculptors. The Buddha’s human body had 32 marks of a Great Manurna between the two eye-brows, ears-lobes, on the head, etc. The artists have often tried to depicts these marks on the Buddha figures. The figures of Buddha and the events in his life form the main subject-matter of the Gandhara sculpture. The Buddha is shown either as standing or as seated. The seated Buddha is in a variety of postures. Thus the Buddha seated crossed legged in meditation wit half closed eyes shows the dhyanamudra. This yogic pose is the most common form adopted in seated images. The main events in the life of the Buddha were birth, renunciation of home-life, austerities, struggle with Mara or the forces of ignorance, attainment of Enlightment, first sermon performance of miracles, and the great the’ passing away. All these events are carved on stone in a variety of forms. The other series of sculpture depicts scenes form the Jataka stories of Buddha’s former births. A large number of figures are those of the Boddhisattvas. The Boddhisattvas are the saviour gods and saints of Mahayana Buddhism. Maitreya and Avalokiteshvara are the two most famous Boddhisattvas depicted in Gandhara sculpture. interesting also are the figures of Indra and Brahma. Both these Vedic gods are well known devotees of Lord Buddha. They are shown standing with folded hands facing the Buddha. The Buddha is at the centre flanked by those two gods. The two pieces of sculpture are both on metal. The one called the Reliquary of Kanishaka was found under a stupa at ShahjiKi-Dheri near Peshawar. The other called the Bimaran Reliquary, was discovered from the ruins of a stupa near Jelalabad in Afghanistan. Areliquary is a casket box containing sacred relics either of the Buddha or of a Buddhist saint. These two pieces are the only surviving important examples of Gandhara sculpture in metal. All the other sculptures are on stone pieces. There are two fine Muhammedan tombs situated close together outside the Nakodar town. These are maintained as protected monuments by the Archaeological Departments. One of these tombs

was built in A.D.1612 in the beginning of the reign of Jahangir (A..D.1605-1627 A.D.) and the other in 1657 A.D towards the close of the reign of Shah Jahan (1627-1658 A.D.). The Tomb of Mohammed Momin was erected over the mortal remains of Ustad Mohammad Momin also known as Ustad Ustad Mohammad Husseini alias Hafizak, a tambura player in the service of Khan-I-Khanan, one of the Mavaratnas in the court of Emperor Akbar in AD 1021 (AD 1612). Standing on an octagonal platform and approached by a flight of steps on two sides, it is square from inside and octagonal on outside. Surmounted by a pinnacle, the hemispherical dome sits over a low cylindrical drum and is relieved by four cupolas. Each of the longer face is pierced by deep recesses while the shorter by half octagonal recesses placed one over the other, all covered by pointed arches. The entrances are on the northern and southern recesses while the other recesses are blocked with pierced tracery screens. The middle portions of the panels on the exterior and the arch spandrels are decorated with geometric design in glazed tile work. The upper and lower panel, arranged in lines of red plastered bricks, contain painted designs showing guldastas. Originally within the burial chamber are two elegant sarcophagi of sienna coloured marble inlaid with white marble inscription, which are now lost. Tomb of Haji Jamal is close to the tomb of Mohammad Momin. This tomb was raised over the mortal remains of Haji Jamal, a pupil of Ustad Mohammad Husseini, the tambura player, towards the close of Emperor Shah Jahan’s region. The two lined inscription engraved on the entrance gate of the tomb refers to its bing the tomb of Haji Jamal and gives a date of AH 1067 (AD 1657). It stands in the middle of the square platform, paneled on all sides with deep recesses concealing two flight of steps on each side. Each of the four faces have octagonal recesses covered by pointed archs. The southern one gives access to the burial chamber while the remaining ones are closed with pierced tracery screens. Its inner chamber is octagonal where as the outer plan is square having octagonal turrets surmounted with domed cupolas added to the corners. A bulbous dome crowned with pinnacle sits over a high drum and is balanced by the four cupolas crowning the turrets at the cornor.

The facade is divided into red stucco covered brick framed panels and painted with white lines. The larger panels are filled with flower pots and the smaller with geometrical designs. The broad belts between the panels are ornamented with diper designs in tiles of different colours. The octagonal towers and the battlements as well as the pinnacles of the domes are ornamented with glazed tiles. (Notification no. 4687 dated 18-02-1919 Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle) On the west of the tombs is a gateway said to have been built in A.D. 1667. There is another smaller gateway on the east, now in ruins. To the north is a tank, the bricks of which were largely used in the building of Nakodar Cantonment, on one side of it is a summer house, now used as the Sub-Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate’s Court. Deyond the tank is Baradari containing the shrine of Bahadur Khan who died during the reign of Jahangir, and also an old mosque which is now in a dilapidated condition. Dakhni sarai is one of the finest and best preserved specimens of Mughal caravan sarais built along the old highway. It stand in the village Dakhni (31.10’ N; 75.25’ E) on the Nakodar-Kapurthala road, about 12 km from Nakodar. The sarai is said to have been built by the well known Mughal noble Ali Mardan Khan during the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan about AD 1640. It comprises of one hundred & twenty four cells around a closed quadrangle with two imposing gateway in the centre of the eastern and western quadrangle. Inside the quadrangle is a mosque and a well. The half dome portal of which is decorated with glazed tiles while its interior contains painted motifs over lime plaster. The wall closing the sarai on the outside at the four comers are strengthened by circular bastion. The three storyed facade of the gateway shows recesses and openings on either side, the smaller one being closed with finely pierced tracery screens in red sandstone. The gateway projecting out of the wall is strengthened with octagonal towers, crowned with domical cupolas. The arch spandrels and panels framing the central arch and side openings are decorated with glazed tile-work showing geometrical and floral designs. (Notification no. 4687 dated 18-02-1919 Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle).

The Mughal Bridge is to the south of the village Mahlian Kalan on Nakodar-Kapurthala road, about 12 km from Nakodar. This is one of the extant Mughal bridge built during the reign of Shah Jahan (AD 1627-1658). The bridge spanned the Dhauli-veni river to the east of the Dakhni Sarai. It is of Lakhauri bricks and has five arched spans, the central begin the highest and other four in receding order. (Notification no. PN, 16721 dated 04-06-1923 Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle) Nurmahal is due to the fostering of Nur Jahan (after whom it is named), the consort of Emperor Jahangir (1605-1627 A.D) and who is said to have been brought up here. She had the imperial serai constructed by Nawab Zakariya Khan Governor of the Doab between 1619 and 1621 A.D and settled numerous families in her new town. In 1738-1739 Nadir Shah exacted a ransom of three lakhs of rupees” from Nurmahal, which seriously injured its prosperity. “In 1756-1757 Ahmad Shah demanded a like sum and the people being unable to pay he ordered them to be slaughtered and plundered, and burnt the town”. Almost immediately afterwards the Punjab independent of Delhi and Nurmahal was seized by the Ahluwalia Sikhs and was held for the Kapurthala Chief by Sirdar Kaur Singh and his descendants. It would seem as if before this the Taiwan Rujputs had taken possession of the town. They subsequently on the final invasion of Ahmad Shah recovered the serai. The west gateway of this building was restored at public expense during the British rule towards the close of the nineteenth century. The sarai is remarkable specimen of oriental architecture. The serai is maintained as a protected monument by the Archaeological Department. This closed quadrangle consists of one hundred forty cells on all over the four sides, two gateway placed in the central of the eastern and western wings and double storeyed pavilions in the centre of the northern and southern wings, two storied octagonal tower having three cells on the basement at the comers; a well and a mosque with in the quadrangle of the two gateways, the eastern on is simple while the western one is ornamented. The gateway comprising guard rooms on either side of a central passage and projecting out has casing of red sandstone. The sliced outer angles are relieved with arch recesses placed one over other. The

whole facade is divided in to panels, ornamented with sculptures in bas-relief and foliated scroll work with birds sitting in branches. The arched opening of the entrance is encased with in a bigger arch and its spandrels being decorated with lotus medallions on either side of the spandrels are placed- projecting domed balconies supported on four pillars topped with carved brackets. The space in between the pillars is closed with low stone railings showing fine pierced tracery work. To the corner of the gates are added guldastas which rise above the battlements of the terrace. (Notification no. 4687 dated 18.02.1919 Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle) Ancient site (Theh Ghatti), Nagar (Jalandhar). The village Nagar (31” 05’ N, 77’ 50’E) is situated about 9 km north-east of phillaur with a threefold sequence of culture. Period I is represented by the painted Grey ware with sprinkling of the late Harappa sturdy red ware. Semi-circular huts and two ovel structures of burnt earth, probably of religious nature, have been noticed. Copper objects, bone styli, terracotta ear-ornaments and animal figures, besides beads and bangles, have been found. Period II has the typical Kushan pottery, terracottas and coins. A terracotta seal reads” srimahasenapati-Ramaguptasya’ in characters of third century is an important discovery. In period III there was a prosperous medieval occupation. (Notification of 1954 dated 02.01.1954 Archaeological Survey of India, Chandigarh Circle) Ancient site, Katpalon (Jalandhar): The ancient site in the village Katpalon (31’ 05’ N; 75’ 52’ E) about 7 km east of phillaur and it was excavated by the survey in 1976-77. In period I the painted Grey ware was found interlocked with the late Harappan pottery. Copper antimony road and terracotta beads and wheels are the other main finds. This was followed after a break by period II, kushna. In period III, medieval, the strata are much disturbed by pits.

7: Religion at Akbar’s Court OF ALL the aspects of Akbar’s life and reign, few have excited more interest than his attitude toward religion. There is every indication that he began his rule as a devout, orthodox Muslim. He said all the five prayers in the congregation, often recited the call for prayers, and occasionally swept out the palace mosque himself. He showed great respect for the two leading religious leaders at the court, Makhdum-ul-Mulk and Shaikh Abdul Nabi. Makhdum-ul-Mulk, who had been an important figure during the reign of the Surs, became even more powerful in the early days of Akbar. Shaikh Abdul Nabi, who was appointed sadr-ul-sadur in 1565, was given authority which no other holder of the office (the highest religious position in the realm) had ever enjoyed. Akbar would go to his house to hear him expound the sayings of the Prophet, and he placed his heir, Prince Salim, under his tutorship. “For some time the Emperor had so great faith in him as a religious leader that he would bring him his shoes and place them before his feet.” Further indication of Akbar’s orthodoxy and of his religious zeal was shown in his devotion to Khwaja Muinuddin, the great Chishti saint whose tomb at Ajmer was an object of veneration. He made his first pilgrimage to the tomb in 1565, and thereafter he went almost every year. If there was a perplexing problem or a particularly difficult expedition to undertake, he would make a special journey to pray at the tomb for guidance. He always entered Ajmer on foot, and in 1568 and 1570, in fulfillment of vows, walked the entire way from Agra to Ajmer. It was probably devotion to Khwaja Muinuddin that was responsible for Akbar’s interest in Shaikh Salim Chishti, a contemporary saint who lived at the site of what was to become Akbar’s capital at Fathpur Sikri. It was there that he built the Ibadat Khana, the House of Worship, which he set apart for religious discussions. Every Friday after the congregational prayers, scholars,

dervishes, theologians, and courtiers interested in religious affairs would assemble in the Ibadat Khana and discuss religious subjects in the royal presence. The assemblies in the Ibadat Khana had been arranged by Akbar out of sincere religious zeal, but ultimately they were to drive him away from orthodoxy. This was partly the fault of those who attended the gatherings. At the very first session there were disputes on the question of precedence, and when these were resolved, a battle of wits started among the participants. Each tried to display his own scholarship and reveal the ignorance of the others. Questions were asked to belittle rivals, and soon the gatherings degenerated into religious squabbles. The two great theologians of the court, Makhdumul-Mulk and Shaikh Abdul Nabi, arrayed on opposite sides, attacked each other so mercilessly that Akbar lost confidence in both of them. His disillusionment extended to the orthodoxy they represented. Of the two, Makhdum-ul-Mulk was a powerful jurist and had received the title of Shaikh-ul-Islam from Sher Shah Suri. He used his position for two main purposes: to persecute the unorthodox and to accumulate fabulous wealth. Badauni says that when he died, thirty million rupees in cash were found in his house, and several boxes containing gold blocks were buried in a false tomb. Shaikh Abdul Nabi, although not personally accused of graft, is said to have had corrupt subordinates. He was a strict puritan, and his hostility toward music was one of the grounds on which his rival attacked him in the discussions in the House of Worship. The petty recriminations of the ulama disgusted the emperor, but probably a deeper cause for his break with them was an issue that is comparable in some ways to the conflict between the church and the state in medieval Europe. The interpretation and application of Islamic law, which was the law of the state, was the responsibility of the ulama. Over against this, and certain to come in conflict with it, was Akbar’s concentration of all ultimate authority in himself. Furthermore, with Akbar’s organization of the empire on new lines, problems were arising which the old theologians were unable to comprehend, much less settle in a way acceptable to the emperor.

One such problem brought matters to a climax in 1577. A complaint was lodged before the emperor by the qazi of Mathura that a rich Brahman in his vicinity had forcibly taken possession of building material collected for the construction of a mosque and had used it for building a temple. “When the qazi had attempted to prevent him, he had, in presence of witnesses, opened his foul mouth to curse the Prophet, ... and had shown his contempt for Muslims in various other ways.” The question of suitable punishment for the Brahman was discussed before the emperor, but, perplexed by conflicting considerations, he gave no decision. The Brahman languished in prison for a long time. Ultimately Akbar left the matter to Shaikh Abdul Nabi, who had the offender executed. This led to an outcry, with many courtiers like Abul Fazl expressing the view that although an offence had been committed, the extreme penalty of execution was not necessary. They based their opinion on a decree of the founder of the Hanafi school of Islamic law. Abdul Nabi’s action was also severely criticized by the Hindu courtiers and by Akbar’s Rajput wives. Akbar was troubled not only by this incident but by the general legal position which gave so much power to the ulama that he was at their mercy on such vital issues. He explained his difficulties to Shaikh Mubarik, the father of Faizi and Abul Fazl, who had come to the court on business. The Shaikh, who was liberal minded and independent in his views, had suffered at the hands of Makhdum-ul-Mulk. He stated that according to Islamic law, if there was a difference of opinion between the jurists, the Muslim ruler had the authority and the right to choose any one view, his choice being decisive. He drew up a brief but important document, the arguments of which were supported by quotations from the Holy Quran and traditions of the Prophet. It read as follows: Whereas Hindustan has now become the center of security and peace, and the land of justice and beneficence, a large number of people, especially learned men and lawyers, have immigrated and chosen this country for their home. Now we, the principal u’ama, who are not only well versed in the several departments of the law and in the principles of jurisprudence, and well acquainted with the edicts which rest on reason or testimony, but are also known for our piety and

honest intentions, have duly considered the deep meaning, first, of the verse of the Quran: “Obey God and obey the Prophet, and those who have authority among you”; and secondly, of the genuine tradition: “Surely, the man who is dearest to God on the day of judgment is the imam-i-adil; whosoever obeys the Amir obeys Thee; and whoever rebels against him rebels against Thee”; and thirdly, of several other proofs based on reasoning or testimony; and we have agreed that the rank of a sultan-i-adil is higher in the eyes of God than the rank of a mujtahid. Further, we declare that the King of Islam, Amir of the Faithful, Shadow of God in the world, Abul Fath Jalal-ud-din Mohammad Akbar Padshah Ghazi (whose kingdom God perpetuate), is a most just, most wise, and a most God-fearing king. Should, therefore, in the future, a religious question come up, regarding which the opinions of the mujtahids are at variance, and His Majesty, in his penetrating understanding and clear wisdom, be inclined to adopt, for the benefit of the nation, and as a political expedient, any of the conflicting opinions, which exist on that point, and issue a decree to that effect, we do hereby agree that such a decree shall be binding on us and on the whole nation. Further, we declare that should His Majesty think it fit to issue a new order, we and the nation shall likewise be bound by it, provided always that such order be not only in accordance with some verse of the Quran, but also of real benefit to the nation; and further, that any opposition on the part of his subjects to such an order passed by His Majesty shall involve damnation in the world to come, and loss of property and religious privileges in this life. This document has been written with honest intentions, for the glory of God and the propagation of Islam, and is signed by us, the principal ulama and lawyers, in the month of Rajab of the year nine hundred and eight-seven. The document has been referred to as the “Infallibility Decree of 1579,” with the implication that it gave to Akbar unlimited powers in both the spiritual and temporal spheres. This is an erroneous reading, for the king’s authority was confined to measures which were “in accordance with some verse of the Quran” and were of “real benefit for the nation.” The modern Islamic scholar Abul Kalam Azad has argued that the central thesis of the document was in line with

traditional Islamic political theory. “The khalifa of the day and those in charge of affairs, and their advisers have the right of ijtihad (independent judgment) at all times and in all ages, and its denial has been responsible for all the misfortunes of Islam.” But the limitations laid down in the declaration of 1579 were not observed by Akbar, and in practice it became an excuse for the exercise of unrestrained autocracy. Soon the gatherings of the Ibadat Khana were exposed to new and more hostile influences. Before long, in addition to the Muslim scholars, Hindu pandits, Parsi mobeds and Jain sadhus began to attend the gatherings. They expressed their own points of view, and the emperor, ever open to new ideas, was attracted by some of their practices. A more serious complication arose when the emperor invited Jesuits from Goa to the discussions. They did not confine themselves to the exposition of their own beliefs, but reviled Islam and the Prophet in unrestrained language. When the news of these discussions and the new decrees promulgated by the emperor became known, there was serious disaffection among the Muslims. The first to criticize the new developments was Mullah Mohammad Yazdi, the Shia qazi of Jaunpur, who declared in 1580 that the emperor had ceased to be a Muslim and the people should rise against him. Even some courtiers like Qutb-uddin Khan Koka and Shahbaz Khan Kamboh criticized the emperor in the court. Akbar sent for Mullah Mohammad Yazdi and Muiz-ul-Mulk, the chief qazi of Bengal, and had them put to death by drowning. His punitive action against others did not prevent open rebellion from breaking out in 1581. Akbar’s enemies did not confine themselves to sporadic outbursts and regional risings, but made a serious attempt to dethrone him and place his brother Mirza Mohammad Hakim, ruler of Kabul, on the throne. Akbar’s brilliant diwan, Khawaja Shah Mansur, was executed for alleged conspiracy with Mirza Hakim, who got as far as Lahore, but being no match for Akbar, was driven back to Kabul. The historian Vincent Smith, in his biographical study of Akbar, declares that the emperor, after he had returned from his successful expedition against the rebels, called a formal council to promulgate his new religion the Din-i-Ilahi. This reading of the evidence is, however, almost certainly erroneous. The Jesuits apparently had not heard of any

such proclamation. In fact, Father Monserrate, who accompanied Akbar to Kabul and back, thought that the emperor had grown more cautious in the expression of his views. On the return journey Akbar performed prayers in the customary Muslim manner in a mosque near Khyber, was reluctant to have religious discussions with the Jesuits, and during one debate in which Muslim spokesmen appeared likely to lose, Akbar took their side and brought his own knowledge into play. Not only Smith, but most European historians, have assumed that Akbar abandoned Islam. Hindu writers, on the other hand, have generally held that although he followed a tolerant policy, he lived and died a Muslim. Muslim historians are about equally divided on the question. These conflicting judgments partly reflect the inevitable differences that result from assessing a complex personality, but they are due also to conflicting contemporary accounts and, in no small degree, to erroneous translations of the relevant Persian texts. The foundation for the misunderstanding of Akbar’s religious history was laid by Blochmann in the introduction to his translation of Abul Fazl’s Ain-i-Akbari; here he set the pattern for relying on Badauni, Akbar’s enemy, rather than Abul Fazl, his friend, for studying Akbar’s religious history. The crucial question about Akbar’s religious activity is whether he established a new religion or a new spiritual order. Badauni’s account is clearly intended to give the impression that Akbar no longer respected Islam and, indeed, actively persecuted it. The expressions used by both Abul Fazl and Badauni in this connection, however, are iradat or muridi (discipleship) but Blochmann habitually translates these expressions as “divine faith,” thus converting a religious order (or even a bond of loyalty) into a new religion. He translated the expression ain-i-iradat gazinan, which correctly means “rules for the (royal) disciples,” as the “principles of divine faith,” and gives the subsection the heading, “ordinances of the divine faith,” although there is no such heading in the original text. The sharp difference between the viewpoints of Abul Fazl and Badauni is obvious, but our study of the subject has revealed a surprisingly large area of common ground between them, and if the present divergence of opinion about Akbar’s religion is to be resolved, more attention will have to be given to what is common ground

between these two principal sources of our information. It appears that modern historians, fascinated by the wit and sarcasm of Badauni, have paid scant attention to Abul Fazl’s informative sections on Akbar’s religion contained in his Akbar-Nama and Ain-i-Akbari. Akbar’s regulations which were not of an ephemeral or tentative character have been preserved in the voluminous Ain-i-Akbari, and it would be illogical to suppose that important royal orders, which were to be given general currency in the empire, would have been omitted. Since the Ain’s accounts of Akbar’s religious innovations and of the practices of the royal disciples contain much that would shock an orthodox Muslim, there is no reason to suppose that regulations for the Din-iIlahi would not have been included. Judging by its contents and the public nature of the information which is sought, the Ain appears to be the most dependable source of information regarding Akbar’s religious regulations and spiritual practices. According to Ain-i-Akbari the emperor discouraged people from becoming his disciples, but the person whom he accepted for initiation approached him with his turban in his hand and put his head on the emperor’s feet. This was to express that the novice had “cast aside conceit, selfishness—the root of so many evils.” The emperor then stretched out his hand, raised up the disciple and replaced the turban on his head. ... The novice was given a token containing the ruler’s symbolic motto Allah-u-Akbar (God is Great). When the disciples met each other, one would say, “Allah-u-Akbar” and the other responded, “Jall-u-Jallaluhu.” “The motives of His Majesty in allowing this mode of salutation,” Abul Fazl wrote, “is to remind men to think of the origin of their existence and to keep the Deity in their fresh, lively and grateful remembrance.” The disciples were to endeavor to abstain from flesh and not to make use of the same vessels as butchers, fishermen, and bird catchers. Each disciple was to give a party on the anniversary of his birthday and to bestow alms. The dinners customarily given after a man’s death were to be given by a disciple during his lifetime. For students of history, general orders intended for compliance by all are more important than the regulations framed for the royal disciples. According to Abul Fazl, the kotwals were asked to ensure that no ox or bufalo or horse or camel was slaughtered, and the killing

of all animals was prohibited on many days of the year— including the whole month of Aban—except for feeding the animals used in hunting and for the sick. Akbar interested himself in the reform of marriage customs. He abhorred marriages before the age of puberty, and also considered marriages between near relations highly improper. He disapproved of large dowries, but admitted that they acted as a preventative to rash divorces. “Nor does His Majesty approve of everyone marrying more than one wife; for this ruins the man’s health, and disturbs the peace of the home.” Circumcision before the age of twelve was forbidden. The kotwals were to “forbid the restriction of personal liberty and the selling of slaves,” and a woman was not to be burned on her husband’s funeral pyre without giving her consent. Government officers were not to consider homage paid to the sun as worshiping fire. A governor was expected to accustom himself to night vigils and to partake of sleep and food in moderation. He was to pass the dawn and evening in meditation and pray at noon and midnight. Nauroz, the Parsi New Year, was to be celebrated officially, with the kotwal keeping a vigil on that night. It was true that Akbar adopted and prescribed for his disciples and even others many practices which were borrowed from alien creeds, but precedents for this may be found in the lives of many Sufi saints who continue to be considered Muslims in spite of wide departures from traditional Islam. For all of his innovations, Islamic texts or precedents, genuine or spurious, were cited by his courtiers. But while Akbar did not claim to be a prophet or to establish a new religion, Islam lost its privileged position and many of his practices and regulations differed widely from the normal Muslim practices. It is not surprising that by many Muslims he was—and is—regarded as having gone outside the pale of Islam. Writing of the proclamation of 1579, Abul Fazl very ably summed up the popular misconceptions concerning Akbar, noting that he was accused by the “ill-informed and the unfair” of claiming divinity, or at least prophethood, of being antiMuslim, a Shia, and partial to Hinduism. While Abul Fazl answered these criticisms, he admitted that Akbar’s policy and some of his regulations facilitated the task of his enemies. Possibly Akbar

sincerely believed that the powers conferred on him by the ulama in 1579 authorized him to initiate his regulations, and the court flatterers pandered to this belief by citing precedents in Islamic history. That they caused serious misgivings and resentment among orthodox Sunni Muslims was to be expected. In any assessment of Akbar’s religious policy, it is important to see that it had two quite distinct aspects. On the one hand were the political and administrative measures which he took to broaden the basis of his government and secure the goodwill of all his subjects. For this policy of religious tolerance and of giving an adequate share in the administration to all classes there can be nothing but praise, and it became a part of the Mughal political code. In themselves, these measures involved nothing more than what Mohammad ibn Qasim, the Arab conqueror of Sind, had adopted eight centuries before with full concurrence of the ulama of Damascus. Zain-ul-Abidin introduced similar measures in Kashmir without a murmur on the part of Muslims. They were adopted by Akbar in the very beginning of his reign—mainly between 1662 and 1665—at a time when the ulama were dominant at the court, without offending Muslim opinion. An aspect of Akbar’s religious policy that began several years after the acrimonious debates of the House of Worship was on a different footing. His attempt to set himself up as a jagat guru, the spiritual leader of the people, was a political mistake. Akbar’s Hindu well-wishers like Raja Bhagwan Das and Raja Man Singh left him in no doubt about their dislike of his religious innovations. The only prominent Hindu who became his disciple was Birbal, regarded by succeeding generations as the c/iurt jester. Muslims were greatly offended and a reaction began against Akbar’s policy which was to destroy much that he had created. Akbar’s failure was also due to forces operating outside the court. At this time a great Hindu religious revival was sweeping the country. It commenced in Bengal, but under Chaitanya’s successors, Mathura in northern India became the great center of resurgent Hinduism. It was there that the great crisis had arisen over the wealthy Brahman who had taken building material collected for the construction of a mosque, and used it for building a Hindu temple. It is possible that this

particular incident occurred in connection with the large-scale Vaishnava temple-building operations which were going on at Mathura at this time. Among the temple-builders was Raja Man Singh, Akbar’s great Hindu general. The defiant spirit which had been inculcated by the new movement can be seen in the Brahman’s action. With such developments in the country, possibly with the support of his Hindu officers, Akbar’s efforts at religious syncretion were doomed to failure. In fact, as we shall see, the new aggressive attitude of the Hindu revivalists and the offence which the emperor’s religious innovations gave to the Muslims led to a reaction which was to destroy even the existing basis of harmony.

The Orthodox Reaction THE OLD spiritual orders of Islam in India adopted the practice of keeping out of affairs of state, but toward the end of Akbar’s reign a new religious group, following quite different traditions, entered the subcontinent. This was the Naqshbandi movement, which was introduced into India under the leadership of Khwaja Baqi Billah. The order’s intention of seeking to influence temporal rulers is indicated in the statement of one of its leaders: “If I were after spiritual prominence, no disciple would be left with the other saints. But I have another mission—to bring comfort to the Muslims. To achieve this, I have to associate with the worldly rulers, gain influence over them, and thereby fulfill the objects of the Muslims.” Khwaja Baqi Billah was born at Kabul in 1563, and after completing his scholastic education there and at Samarqand he visited several saints for spiritual training. Ultimately he was initiated in the Naqshbandi order by a leading saint of Bukhara, who asked him to make India the center of his work. Khwaja Baqi Billah came first to Lahore, where he spent more than a year before moving to Delhi. Partly owing to his great spiritual powers, and partly because he represented the order belonging to the native land of the ruling family, he acquired a prominent position in the religious life of the capital. He was particularly active as a link between the various nobles who were displeased with Akbar’s religious innovations. One of these was

Shaikh Farid, who, according to Jesuit accounts, extracted a promise from Jahangir, Akbar’s heir, to uphold Islam in the kingdom. Other nobles who had great regard for the khwaja included Qulich Khan, the devout viceroy of Lahore, Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khanan, the commander-in-chief of the Deccan, and Khan-i-Azam, the deputy of the realm. In some of the khwaja’s letters there are references to Sadr Jahan (the head of the religious endowments under Akbar) coming to him for spiritual training. The khwaja died in 1603, but before his death the Naqshbandi order had been firmly established in India. Khwaja Baqi Billah’s most prominent disciple was Shaikh Ahmad, popularly known as Mujaddid Alif Sani (reviver of Islam during the second millennium). He was born at Sirhind on June 26, 1564, and was educated there and at Sialkot. He established himself at Sirhind, but he was soon attracted to Akbar’s capital, Fathpur Sikri. Here he moved in the most distinguished intellectual circles, and seems to have favorably impressed Abul Fazl and his versatile brother, Faizi. Shaikh Ahmad’s views and temperament had little in common with those of the two brothers (though he himself passed through a period of youthful free-thinking and at one time wrote verses with the poetic surname of Kufri, the “heretic”), but they had enough respect for each other’s learning to be able to carry on this intellectual comradeship in spite of the difference in views. The Shaikh is even stated to have helped Faizi in the completion of his commentary on the Quran. He visited Delhi in 1599 and went to see Khwaja Baqi Billah, who asked him to spend a few days in his hospice. Within two days Ahmad requested the khwaja to take him into discipleship. After having initiated Shaikh Ahmad into various stages of spiritual development under the Naqshbandi order, the khwaja wrote: “Shaikh Ahmad is ... rich in knowledge and vigorous in action. 1 associated with him for a few days, and noticed truly marvelous things in his spiritual life. He will turn into a light which will illuminate the world.” Shaikh Ahmad returned to Sirhind, convinced that he had a major role to play in the religious life of the times. He twice visited Delhi during the lifetime of the khwaja, who deputed him to work at Lahore. After the khwaja’s death, he retired to Sirhind, which remained the

main seat of his activities. He carried on his work partly through personal guidance and oral instructions, but he had discovered his literary gifts, and believed that he could also fulfill his mission by writing letters on religious and public subjects to important personages of the day. Khwaja Baqi Billah had, by his warm praise and encouragement, made Shaikh Ahmad aware of his potentialities. He had also facilitated the achievement of his task by providing him useful contacts with persons in key positions in the state. Shaikh Ahmad was able to make full use of these opportunities. A profound scholar, a master of polemics, and possessing a polished and forceful literary style, he began sending letters to important nobles bemoaning the sad state into which Islam had fallen in India and reminding them of their duty. The rhetoric and appeal of these letters kindled a religious fervor which, although it took some time to bear fruit, profoundly affected the history of Islam in India by strengthening the position of the orthodox in places of power. But Shaikh Ahmad’s letters touched on more than just religious revival, and it was this that placed him in serious difficulties. Some of his letters stated that in his trances he saw that at one time he had gone ahead of all the Companions of the Prophet. The theologians criticized these claims, and asked Emperor Jahangir to take action. The wazir, Asaf Khan, who was a Shia, could not have been fond of the anti-Shia views of Shaikh Ahmad, and he is said to have pointed out the political dangers inherent in the growing influence and organization of Shaikh Ahmad. In 1619, through the governor of Sirhind, he was summoned to the emperor’s court and asked to explain his statements. The Shaikh behaved at the court with great dignity and courage. He made it clear that there could be no question of his considering himself superior to the Companions of the Prophet, and gave an explanation of the relevant entry in his letters. The emperor seemed to be satisfied with this, but he took offence when somebody pointed out that the Shaikh had not performed the sijdah (deep obeisance), which Akbar had prescribed for everybody coming in the royal presence. The Shaikh’s reply that he was not prepared to perform the sijdah before any human being seemed to be open defiance, and he was imprisoned in Gwalior fort.

After about a year the Shaikh was released from the fort, presented with a dress of honour and a thousand rupees for expenses and given an option of accompanying the royal camp or returning to Sirhind. The Shaikh preferred to remain in the royal camp, and this enabled him to visit the whole of the empire, and even establish friendly contacts with the emperor. It appears that Jahangir came to hold the Shaikh in great respect; in his autobiography he twice refers to having made large offerings to the saint, and among the Shaikh’s letters there is one addressed to the emperor. In another letter the Shaikh gave a detailed account of a lengthy conversation he had with the emperor on religious subjects, with the emperor apparently taking a great interest. Shaikh Ahmad was in the royal camp for nearly three years. His letters written during this period contain few biographical details, but the entries in Jahangir’s autobiography suggest that during this period the easy-going Jahangir was unusually religious. It would not be surprising if the emperor’s orthodox mood were due to the Shaikh’s presence in the camp. For example, in describing the conquest of Kangra and his visit there in early 1622, Jahangir says: “I went to see the fort of Kangra, and gaVe an order that the qazi, the Chief Justice, and other learned men of Islam should accompany me and carry out in the fort whatever was customary, according to the religion of Mohammad. Briefly ... by the grace of God, the call to prayer and the reading of the khutba and the slaughter of a bullock, which had not taken place from the commencement of the building of the fort till now, were carried out in my presence. I... ordered a lofty mosque to be built inside the fort.” It is more than probable that Shaikh Ahmad was one of “the learned men of Islam” who accompanied Jahangir to Kangra. Soon after, the saint’s health began to fail, and with the emperor’s permission he returned to Sirhind. Here he lived in seclusion, devoting himself to charity and prayers, until his death on December 10, 1624. Shaikh Ahmad was the most forceful and original thinker produced by Muslim India before the days of Shah Waliullah and Iqbal. Indeed he occupies a high place in the religious history of the entire Muslim world, for his exposition of tawhid-i-shahudi was a

distinct contribution to Islamic thought. Perhaps even more important was the attitude of vigorous self-confidence and self-assertion which he contributed to Muslim thinking, the like of which had been seen rarely since the days of Ibn Taimiya in the eighth century. The white heat of revivalist fervor which one finds in his writings is not visible among early members of his order, the Naqshbandi. In spite of Shah Waliullah’s emphasis on moderation, the Mujaddidiya revival, associated with the Shaikh, ultimately superseded other branches of the Naqshbandi order, not only in the subcontinent but in the Ottoman empire as well. This is remarkable considering that the main order was of Central Asian and Turkish origin. The influence of the Mujaddidiya seems to have been a factor in creating those forces which ultimately led to the rise and widespread acceptance of Wahhabism. In discussing Akbar’s religious policy, reference was made to the circumstances which made its failure inevitable. The inability of the Hindus and Muslims to evolve a common spiritual brotherhood was the result of the basic fact that to the Hindus the Muslims were (and are) untouchables. This attitude of the Hindus, nourished by the revivalistic fervor of the Vaishnava Gosains of Mathura, became more marked during Akbar’s era of toleration. The writings of the Shaikh, which reveal the anguish he felt at the low position of Islam under Akbar and even later, also militated against the success of Akbar’s policy. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that the swing of religious policy from Akbar to Aurangzeb was in some measure due to the influence and teachings of Shaikh Ahmad. His forceful and eloquent letters addressed to the leading nobles at Jahangir’s court, calling on them to rise in defense of Islam and uphold the dignity of their religion, have great power and effectiveness. These letters were meant not only for the individuals to whom they were addressed; they were really “open letters” and were no less forceful than the poems with which Byron tried to engender enthusiasm for the cause of Greek independence, or with which Hali tried to reawaken Indian Muslims. Copies of them were supplied to the Shaikh’s disciples and admirers, and given wide circulation.

Some Naqshbandi writers state that Aurangzeb became a disciple of Khwaja Mohammad Masum, son and successor of Shaikh Ahmad, but even though Aurangzeb’s contemporary, the satirist Nimat Khan Ali, refers to it in his Wiqaya, the connection is not certain, since it is not mentioned in the historical accounts of the reign. The official history of the period, however, does refer to his visits to the emperor’s court, where he received high honors and rich gifts. After his death, his son, Shaikh Saif-ud-din, came to stay at the royal capital and apparently was in close contact with Aurangzeb. The court history speaks of his being a formal witness at the wedding of Prince Azam Shah. Next year, on June 3, 1669, the emperor visited the saint at his residence for one hour late at night, and then returned to the palace. Even more remarkable than these historic links between Aurangzeb and Shaikh Ahmad’s family is the fact that almost all the steps which are associated with Aurangzeb’s religious policy had been advocated so forcefully by the Shaikh in his letters. Shaikh Ahmad had seen those days when, according to him, “non-Muslims carried out aggressively the ordinances of their own religion in a Muslim state and the Muslims were powerless to carry out the ordinances of Islam; if they carried them out, they were executed.” He had described with great anguish those tragic days those who believed in the Holy Prophet were “humiliated and powerless, while those who denied his prophethood enjoyed high position, and used to sprinkle salt on the wounds of the Muslims with ridicule and taunts.” These developments had filled Shaikh Ahmad with anger and hatred against Akbar and the non-Muslims. What had troubled him even more was that with Akbar’s withdrawal of patronage from Islam, and an aggressive religious revival among the Hindus, non-Muslims had started persecuting Islam. “The non-Muslims in India,” he wrote, “are without any hesitation demolishing mosques and setting up temples in their place. For example, in Kurukshetra there was a mosque and the tomb of a saint. They have been demolished and in their place a very big temple has been erected.” Hindus were even interfering with Muslim observances. “Moreover, non-Muslims openly carry out their observances, but Muslims are powerless to carry out openly many of the Islamic injunctions. During Ekadashi, Hindus fast

and strive hard to see that in Muslim towns no Muslim cooks or sells food on these days. On the other hand, during the sacred month of Ramadan, they openly prepare and sell food, but owing to the weakness of Islam, nobody can interfere. Alas, the ruler of the country is one of us, but we are so badly off!” Shaikh Ahmad was convinced that the considerations shown to Hindus in Akbar’s reign had emboldened them, and that this policy must be reversed. In a number of his letters he expressed regret at the abolition of jizya and urged its revival. In another letter he demanded the abolition of the ban on cow slaughter. He called upon the Muslim nobles not to associate with non-Muslims and unorthodox Muslims, including Shias. In a letter to Shaikh Farid, one of the chief nobles, he went so far as to say that the company of Muslim nonconformists was worse than that of non-Muslims. Once the preacher at the principal mosque of Samana did not follow the Sunni practice of mentioning all the four caliphs in his Id sermon; Shaikh Ahmad immediately wrote an open letter to the religious leaders of the city, rebuking them for the neglect of their duties, and for their failure to deal “aggressively and offensively” with that “unjust preacher.” Shaikh Farid and other leaders did not accept the extremist point of view, and in some of his letters Shaikh Ahmad has expressed his disappointment with Farid’s failures and omissions. But his warnings and his denunciations had their effect, and there is no doubt that he had a wide following in the highest places. Is it a mere coincidence that the attitude which Aurangzeb had toward Shias—at least during his early days—was identical with that of Shaikh Ahmad? Elsewhere in India other saints and prophets were upholding orthodoxy with scarcely less vigor and success than Khwaja Baqi Billah and Shaikh Ahmad. On the northwest frontier Sayyid Ali Shah Tirmiz, known as Pir Baba, and his disciple Akhund Darweza took as their special task the uprooting of the heretical Raushaniya sect which flourished in the mountains. Pir Baba’s descendants wielded great influence among the Pathan tribesmen, and three centuries later provided a rallying point against the Sikhs and the British. Signs of religious activity of a somewhat different nature, but conducive to the strengthening of the forces of orthodox Islam, were

visible at about the same time in Bengal. The religious history of Muslim Bengal is as yet unwritten, but there are indications that after the vigor and energy displayed by Chaitanya and his prominent disciples, and particularly the vigorous expression which their devotions and religious yearnings found in the new Bengali literature, Islamic influences in the area gradually weakened, especially outside the principal cities. This happened partly because the waves of the immigrant Sufis and preachers had subsided, but the lack of knowledge of Persian and Arabic among the general populace also prevented the propagation of Islam. At the same time, a vigorous new Bengali literature was coming into existence, often under the patronage of the Muslim rulers. This was concerned largely with the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the Muslim masses, not well-versed in any language other than Bengali, heard the Bengali poems and stories connected with these themes or saw them acted at Hindu festivals under the patronage of the Hindu landlords. Their mental background thus became more Hindu than Islamic. As a counter-measure to the popular Bengali Hindu literature, marked literary activity among Bengali Muslims took place at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, with a special emphasis on the writing of lives of the prophets and other saints in the language of the people. Sayyid Sultan, a leader of this movement, gave the reasons for the literary activity in his Wafat-iRasui. All the Bengalis do not understand Arabic; None understands the words of your religion. Everyone remains satisfied with [Hindu] tales. I, the despised and sinful, am in the midst of these people: I do not know what Ilahi [God] will ask me in the afterlife. If He asks, “ Having been in their midst, why did you not tell them about the religion?” and blames me for this fault, I will have no power to give a proper reply. Considering this, I have composed Nabi-vamsa [a history of the Prophet’s family] for the benefit of the ignorant people.

For this reason many people blame me for having polluted this religious book. When the learned read from the books, which are in Arabic, and do not translate them into Hindustani [i.e., Bengali], how can our people follow? In whatever language God has given one birth, that alone is his highest treasure. Thus, as men like Shaikh Ahmad appealed to the upper classes to maintain the Faith through their political power, men like Sayyid Sultan took the Prophet’s message to the common people. Both appeals explain the resurgent power of Islam in the century following Akbar’s experiments.

The Age of Splendor AKBAR’S only surviving son, Prince Salim, succeeded to the throne on November 3,1605, under the title of Jahangir. To prove his desire to end the bitterness that had divided the court when he had made an unsuccessful attempt to usurp power during the last years of his father’s reign, he granted a general amnesty to all his former opponents. Abdur Rahman, the son of Abul Fazl (Akbar’s friend who had been murdered at Jahangir’s instigation), was promoted to higher rank. The nobles who had endeavored to have Jahangir’s son, Khusrau, made Akbar’s successor were allowed to retain their ranks and jagirs. Despite his attempts at conciliation, Jahangir was soon faced with the task of suppressing a revolt led by Khusrau, who had fled to the Punjab. The revolt was quelled without great difficulty, with Khusrau brought back in chains, but it led, incidentally, to one important development. Khusrau had received help from Arjan Dev, the guru or leader of the Sikhs. After Khusrau’s defeat, Arjan Dev was summoned to the court to answer for his conduct. Sikh historians say that the enmity of Chandu Lai, the Hindu diwan of Lahore, who had a family quarrel with the guru, was responsible for his troubles. When the guru was unable to give any satisfactory explanation for his part in the rebellion, he was put to death. He might have ended his days in peace

if he had not espoused the cause of the rebel, but this punitive action against him marked the beginning of a long and bitter conflict between the Sikhs and the Mughal government. An event of Jahangir’s private life that was to have great significance for his reign was his marriage to Nur Jahan in 1611. She was the widow of a Persian nobleman, Sher Afghan, a rebellious official of Burdwan who met his death while resisting arrest at the hands of Qutb-ud-din Khan Koka, the viceroy of Bengal. Nur Jahan was taken to the court, and three years later, at the age of forty, she became the royal consort. A capable woman, she acquired such an ascendency over her husband that she became in effect the joint ruler of the kingdom. Coins were struck in her name, and Jahangir used to say that he had handed her the country in return for a cup of wine and a few morsels of food. Nur Jahan’s relatives soon occupied the chief posts of the realm. Her brother, Asaf Khan, became the prime minister, and his daughter, Mumtaz Mahal, the Lady of the Taj, married Prince Khurram, who succeeded his father as Shah Jahan. The influence of the gifted but masterly queen and her relatives was not entirely beneficial, but they were all capable people, and until toward the end of the later part of Jahangir’s reign they administered the empire efficiently. Their influence attracted a large number of brilliant soldiers, scholars, poets, and civil servants from Iran who played an important role in the administration and the cultural life of Mughal India. One of the most fruitful achievements of Jahangir’s reign was the consolidation of Mughal rule in Bengal. This province had been incorporated in the empire under Akbar, but the governors of Akbar’s time had not attempted to bring the existing local chiefs—Hindu and Muslim—under the full control of the central government. The imposition of Mughal power and the crushing of local resistance was largely the work of Jahangir’s foster-brother, Shaikh Alauddin, entitled Islam Khan, who was viceroy of Bengal from 1608 to 1613. He employed all possible methods—force, reward, and diplomacy—to terminate the independence of the powerful zamindars. He also enlarged the territorial limits of the empire by subjugating Cooch Behar in 1609 and Kamrup in 1612.

Hrt612~he shifted his capital from Rajmahal to Dacca, a singularly appropriate choice in view of the menace of Magh raids on the eastern rivers. Islam Khan died in 1613, and after an interval of four years, during which his incompetent brother was in charge of the area, his good work was continued by another capable viceroy, Ibrahim Khan Fath-i-Jung. He devoted the six years of his viceroyalty (1617-1623) to consolidating the gains already made and died fighting loyally against Prince Khurram when he revolted against his father the emperor and tried to seize the government of Bengal. Outside Bengal, the main military events of Jahangir’s reign were the victory over the Rajputs of Mewar in 1615, the reassertion of the Mughal authority in the Deccan, and the capture of Kangra in 1620. Two years later the Mughals lost the great fort of Qandahar to the Persians, and in spite of efforts made during Jahangir’s and Shah Jahan’s reigns, they were never able to recover it. This was also a time of internal difficulties. Hitherto, Nur Jahan, Asaf Khan, and Prince Khurram had cooperated in controlling the affairs of the country, and Khurram had been the leader of victorious expeditions in Rajputana and the Deccan. Nur Jahan, however, had now attained complete ascendency over the emperor, and tried to promote the claims of his youngest son, Prince Shahryar, to whom her daughter by Sher Afghan was married. This brought her into conflict with Prince Khurram, who revolted in 1623, He became master of Bengal and Bihar for a brief time, but was ultimately defeated and obliged to retire to the Deccan. In the end he asked his father’s pardon and was reconciled in 1626. Jahangir died in the following year on his way back from Kashmir, and was buried at Shahdara, a suburb of Lahore. Through a relay of messengers, Asaf Khan sent word to Prince Khurram, his sonin-law, who was still in the Deccan, and the succession was secured without much difficulty. Prince Shahryar, Nur Jahan’s son-in-law, was captured and blinded; Nur Jahan herself retired from the world she had dominated, living quietly until her death sixteen years later. Owing to his likable personality, the brilliance of his court, and his friendliness toward foreigners, Jahangir has been favorably treated, especially by English writers. There are, however, certain aspects of his administration which cast a shadow on his regime and darken the

course of the later Mughal history. The extension of the Mughal dominion came practically to a halt in his reign, and the empire suffered a serious blow in the loss of Qandahar. In spite of vast imperial resources, no serious attempt was made to bring the great unconquered areas of the Deccan under the empire. A contemporary Dutch writer commenting on this said: • The probable explanation is to be found in the sloth, cowardice, and weakness of the last emperor, Salim, and in the domestic discords of his family.” There is little reason to doubt the essential truth of this harsh judgment. A significant change took place in the composition of the nobility and the holders of high office during the years of Nur Jahan’s ascendency. Akbar had made good use of the indigenous element— such men as Abul Fazl, Faizi, Todar Mai, Shaikh Farid, Man Singh, and Bhagwan Singh come to mind —and had maintained a due balance between the Irani and Turani elements. Under Jahangir this balance was upset, and the Iranis became all-powerful. This was facilitated by the early death of Shaikh Farid and by the stigma attached to Man Singh, the Rajput leader, and to Khan-i-Azam, the premier Turani noble, because of their association with Khusrau. Held in check, the Irani element was a source of strength, but this ceased to be the case in the eighteenth century, when its political role during the decline of the empire weakened the realm. Even more objectionable was the mushroom growth of bureaucracy and the resultant increase in government expenditure. No large territory was added to the empire, but the number of mansabdars, which under Akbar numbered about eight hundred, was increased to nearly three thousand in Jahangir’s reign. The author of Maasir-ulUmara, himself a financial expert, in dealing with the fiscal history of the Mughal period, said: “In the time of Jahangir, who was a careless prince and paid no attention to political or financial matters, and who was constitutionally thoughtless and pompous, the fraudulent officials, in gathering lucre, and hunting for bribes, paid no attention to the abilities of men or to their performance. The devastation of the country and the diminution of income rose to such a height that the revenue of the exchequer-lands fell to five million rupees while expenditure rose

to fifteen million, and large sums were expended out of the general treasury.” Jahangir must bear the ultimate responsibility for this state of affairs, but the immediate cause was the dominance and policy of Nur Jahan. She was a woman of noble impulses and good taste who spent large sums in charity, particularly for the relief of indigent women, and worked hard to relieve the drabness of Indian life. Many innovations which enhanced the grace and charm of Mughal culture can be directly traced to her, and her influence led to the maintenance of a magnificent court. But all this strained the royal resources. The lavish style of living introduced at the royal court was initiated by the nobility, and an era of extravagance, with its concomitants of corruption and demoralization among officers of the state, was inaugurated. This corroded the structure of the Mughal government. A” contemporary Dutch account sharply criticized Nur Jahan and her “crowd of Khurasanis” for what it was costing the state to maintain “their excessive pomp,” and complained that the foreign bureaucrats were particularly indifferent to the condition of the masses. To Nur Jahan herself belongs the doubtful honour of introducing the system of nazars or gifts to the court—corruption at the royal level. Asaf Khan emerges in the pages of Sir Thomas Roe’s account of his negotiations at the Mughal court as exceedingly greedy for such gifts. The era of extravagance which was ushered in during Jahangir’s reign was fed from two other sources. One was the change in the prevalent philosophy of life. The old Indian emphasis on plain living and the excellence of limitation of wants was not consistent with the way of life introduced by Muslim rulers in the subcontinent, but (coupled with the Sufi philosophy) it was not without a certain influence. In Akbar’s days in particular, with emphasis on the spiritual side of things, it is easy to trace a certain idealism, an otherworldliness, and the ability to rise above purely materialistic values, in spite of the elaborate grandeur of a great empire. The Irani newcomers were alien to this approach, and under their influence the gracious living became the summum bonum, the goal of human existence.

The other factor responsible for increased extravagance was the vast opportunity for spending provided by the new commercial contacts with Europe. By now the fame of the Mughal empire had spread to distant lands, and in Jahangir’s day embassies came to his court from European countries. England sent Captain Hawkins in 1608, and Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of James I, came to conclude a commercial treaty in 1615. By September, 1618, he was able to obtain afarman signed by Prince Khurram as viceroy of Gujarat which gave facilities for trade, but owing to the prince’s opposition, did not allow a building to be built as a residence. The new trade, which will be noted more fully later, brought out some pathetic propensities in the Mughal nobility. Costly toys were devised to please the taste of the court. In this Jahangir led the way. He was described as “an amateur of all varieties and antiquities, and displayed an almost childish love of toys.” One traveller tells how he presented the emperor with “a small whistle of gold, weighing almost an ounce, set with sparks of rubies, which he took and whistled therewith almost an hour.” The Reign of Shah Jahan The charge made against Jahangir—that he had been too slothful to extend the empire—could not be made against his son, Prince Khurram, who ascended the throne as Shah Jahan on February 6, 1628. Although under him the splendor and luxury of the court reached its zenith, he revived the expansionist policy of Akbar, and widened the frontiers of the empire to include territories that had so far escaped Mughal domination. Before he could bring new areas under his sway, however, he had to meet a number of threats within the existing empire. One came at the very beginning of his reign: on the death of Bir Singh Bundela, the favorite of Jahangir and murderer of Abul Fazl; his son revolted and tried to establish himself as an independent chieftain in Bundelkhand. This revolt was put down quickly. More serious was one in the south led by Khan Jahan Lodi, a former viceroy of the Deccan, who gained some support from Hindu chieftains. He fought Shah Jahan’s troops for three years but was finally killed in 1631. Another threat

came from the Portuguese who had been permitted by the last independent king of Bengal to settle at Hugli. They had received commercial privileges, but they began to abuse their position through their relations with the Portuguese at Chittagong, who indulged in piracy in the Bay of Bengal and on Bengal rivers. Another cause for dispute was that the Portuguese had fortified their settlement at Hugli and, owing to their command of the sea and superiority in the use of firearms, the Mughal authorities “could not but conceive great fears,” to quote a contemporary Portuguese account, “lest His Majesty of Spain should possess himself of the kingdom of Bengal.” Shah Jahan, who had become particularly aware of the problem in the course of his wanderings in Bengal during his revolt against his father, gave orders in 1631 to Qasim Khan, viceroy of Bengal, to drive them out. As the Portuguese were well-organized, elaborate measures were necessary. They offered stiff resistance, but Hugli was captured in 1632, and the garrison was severely punished. This was followed by the reconquest of Kamrup (1637-38), which had been lost to the Ahom ruler of Assam in the previous reign. In the Deccan, Shah Jahan was faced by the opposition of the virtually independent Muslim ruler of Ahmadnagar. Akbar had succeeded in annexing Khandesh, Berar, and a part of Ahmadnagar, but the ruler of Ahmadnagar took advantage of Jahangir’s preoccupation with the rebellion of Shah Jahan to reassert his independence. Shah Jahan, having acted as governor for the area, knew the Deccan well, and adopted a vigorous policy. In 1633 the last king of the Nizam Shahi dynasty of Ahmadnagar was captured, and the famous fort of Daulatabad fell into the hands of the Mughals. Three years later Shah Jahan went to the Deccan himself, and compelled the rulers of Golkunda and Bijapur to acknowledge the Mughal suzerainty and to pay tribute. He appointed his son Aurangzeb as viceroy of the Deccan. Under him were the four provinces of Khandesh, Berar, Telingana, and Daulatabad. In 1638 Aurangzeb added Baglana to the empire.

Having attained his goal in the Deccan, Shah Jahan turned his attention to the northwest. The Mughals had not reconciled themselves to the loss of Qandahar, and in 1638 Shah Jahan’s officers persuaded AH Mardan Khan, the local Persian governor, to hand over the fort to the Mughals and enter their service. Ali Mardan Khan was a capable officer and proved a great acquisition to the empire. While governor of Kabul and Kashmir he erected many magnificent buildings. The recovery of Qandahar was only temporary, however, for the Persians regained the fort in 1648. Attempts made by the Mughals in 1649,1652, and 1653 to dislodge them were all unsuccessful. Shah Jahan’s efforts to interfere in the affairs of Central Asia were equally fruitless. In 1645 conditions at Bukhara were disturbed, and Shah Jahan took this opportunity to send an army under Murad, who entered Balkh in 1646. Aurangzeb, who was appointed governor, fought bravely to hold his own against the Uzbegs, but he found it impossible to hold the country, and evacuated Balkh in 1647. Despite Shah Jahan’s failures in Central Asia, he was singularly successful in dealing with the northwest frontier. This area had given trouble in the days of Akbar, mainly because of the opposition of the Yusufzais and the followers of the Raushaniya sect. Shah Jahan’s chief official in the area, Said Khan, who was appointed governor of Kabul, dealt with Abdul Qadir, the Raushaniya leader, in an effective way. He dispersed the hostile tribesmen with heavy casualties, but by tact and firmness he persuaded Abdul Qadir and his mother to surrender on promise of safe-conduct. Abdul Qadir died shortly thereafter, but his mother, with other relatives and Raushaniya leaders, appeared before the emperor at Delhi. “They were kindly treated, and sent with rank and dignity to the Deccan provinces, where they were allowed to gather round them their adherents in the empire’s service.” Aurangzeb, who was the viceroy of the Deccan from 1636 to 1644, had placed the affairs of the newly conquered territory on a satisfactory basis, but the viceroys who succeeded him were unable to administer the area effectively. A large number of soldiers and officials belonging to the Deccani kingdoms, who had been displaced, fomented unrest; cultivation was neglected; and revenues diminished.

Aurangzeb was sent back to the Deccan in 1653, and worked arduously to restore order and good government. He introduced the land revenue system which Akbar had adopted in the north, and with the adoption of a regular system of land revenue, cultivation was extended and revenue increased. Aurangzeb’s relations with his eldest brother, Dara Shukoh, who had gained great power at the capital with their father, were not happy. His requests for additional funds received little attention, and many other difficulties were placed in his way. He was hampered even in his dealings with the rulers of the Deccan. They failed to pay the annual tribute regularly and, after obtaining the approval of the court, Aurangzeb demanded from the ruler of Golkunda a part of his territory to cover his tribute. He marched on Golkunda and laid siege to the fort, but the sultan made representations to Delhi and Aurangzeb was ordered to pardon him. Lack of harmony between the viceroy of the Deccan and the authorities at Delhi became even more manifest in the case of Bijapur. In 1657 disorder broke out in that kingdom, and after obtaining the permission from the emperor, Aurangzeb set out to conquer Bijapur. Bidar and Kalyani were captured and the Bijapur army was decisively defeated, but again Dara Shukoh and Shah Jahan interfered. Aurangzeb was ordered to withdraw. Shah Jahan fell seriously ill in 1658, and was unable to attend to affairs of state for so long a time that there were even rumors of his death. His sons, feeling that his end was near, began to assert their claims. Dara Shukoh, the eldest, viceroy of the Punjab and Allahabad, had been treated practically as heir-apparent, and toward the end of Shah Jahan’s reign the administration of the state had been left largely to him. His brothers, who also were in charge of vast territories— Aurangzeb as viceroy of the Deccan, Shah Shuja in charge of Bengal, and Murad ruler of Gujarat-contested Dara’s claims. On hearing of their father’s illness and Dara Shukoh’s assumption of the administration of the imperial affairs, Shuja and Murad claimed the succession, but the ever-cautious Aurangzeb bided his time. He corresponded with Shuja and Murad, and all three brothers started moving toward the capital from their respective territories. The forces

of Murad and Aurangzeb met near Ujjain in Central India and continued toward Agra. Dara sent Jaswant Singh to oppose them, but he was defeated, and the victorious armies of the allies reached Samugarh, near Agra. Here Dara, with the bulk of the imperial army, gave them battle, but he was no match for Aurangzeb in generalship, and the battle ended in his complete defeat. Aurangzeb entered Agra and was invited by Shah Jahan to meet him, but his well-wishers, Khalil Ullah Khan (who had originally been sent by Shah Jahan as an intermediary and later switched allegiance to Aurangzeb) and Shayista Khan, informed him that there was a plot to have him arrested and assassinated. Shah Jahan was so closely allied with Dara that Aurangzeb refused to trust him. A point had been reached where there could be no turning back; Aurangzeb therefore placed his father under restraint and assumed the imperial authority on July 21, 1658. In the meanwhile, Murad, who had shown resentment at the growing power of Aurangzeb, was arrested and imprisoned in the fort of Gwalior. Some three years later, after an attempt at escape, Aurangzeb decided that alive he was dangerous. A complaint was lodged by the son of a former diwan of Gujarat whom Murad had put to death, and, obtaining a legal decree, Aurangzeb had Murad executed on December 4, 1661. Dara fled to the north, but after wandering in the Punjab, Sind, Gujarat, and Rajputana, he was captured and put to death in 1659. Shuja, after the initial setback, reorganized his forces and moved toward Allahabad. Aurangzeb met him at Khajuha and decisively defeated him. He took refuge in Arakan, where the Magh chief had him assassinated. Thus ended the grim struggle for the throne, and Aurangzeb, who was already exercising royal powers, held a grand coronation ceremony in 1659. Shah Jahan recovered from his illness, and though there was an exchange of bitter letters between him and his son, ultimately he became reconciled to Aurangzeb’s assumption of power. When he died in 1666, his daughter Jahan Ara Begum, who was with

him throughout his internment, presented Aurangzeb with a letter of pardon written by Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan, whose reign ended on such a sad note, was perhaps the most magnificent of the Muslim rulers of India. His empire extended over an area greater than that of any of his Mughal predecessors. Largely due to the financial ability of his wise wazir, Saadullah Khan, the royal treasury was full. Because of this, Shah Jahan was able to embark on a great building program in Delhi and Agra and to encourage the other arts, particularly music and painting. Shah Jahan wanted to earn the title of Shahanshah-i-Adil, the Just Emperor. He took a personal interest in the administration of justice, and tried to be like a father to his subjects. During the first few years he seems to have been under the influence of religious revivalists, although later, under Sufi influences, he became more tolerant. The apathy and indifference that had characterized Jahangir’s attitude disappeared, and the regime was marked by attempts to approximate the administration to orthodox Islamic law—including the creation of a department to look after new converts to Islam. But if the developments of the period are closely studied, a major Hindu revival is also noticeable in the reign of Shah Jahan. In Jahangir’s time the rebellion of his son Khusrau, who had a Rajput mother, drove the Rajput nobility into the background, and after his marriage with Nur Jahan, Persians became supreme in the state. Shah Jahan’s reign was marked not only by the predominance of the indigenous Muslim elements, but also by the dominating position of Rajputs in the army and Hindu officials in the imperial secretariat. Rai Raghunath officiated for some time as diwan, while Rai Chandra Bhan Brahman was in charge of the secretariat. The explanation seems to be that by now Hindus were in a position to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Mughal polity, and with the increasing influence of their patron, Dara, they made rapid headway. Akbar had based his policy of equal treatment for all subjects on laws of natural justice; in Shah Jahan’s time the Muslim scholars advocated it on the basis of Islamic law and principles. Shah Muhibullah of Allahabad wrote in a letter to Dara Shukoh that the

Holy Prophet had been referred to as Rahtnat-ul-lil-Alimin—a blessing to all the worlds and not only to Muslims. Mulla Abul Hakim, the greatest scholar of the day, gave a ruling that according to Islamic law a mosque could not be set up on the property of another, and that the conversion of a Jain temple into a mosque by Prince Aurangzeb was unauthorized. Such discussions remind one of the controversies of Akbar’s time, but as they were without Akbar’s excesses and innovations, the Hindu case gained more general support. But it also awakened anxieties, and the support which Aurangzeb was able to get against Dara Shukoh was probably due not only to Dara’s arrogance and tactlessness, but also to a feeling among the Muslim nobility— especially among the Persian nobles, who had lost their privileged position—that their interests were not safe. Involved in this was not just the problem of increasing Hindu influence, but also what may be called an “Indian-Irani” controversy. In the rebellion against his father, Shah Jahan’s main collaborator had been Mahabat Khan, whose opposition to Nur Jahan and Irani nobles was well known. It is true that after his accession, Shah Jahan maintained his father-in-law Asaf Khan, an Irani, as the prime minister, but his two successors—Fazil Khan and Saadullah Khan— were of indigenous origin. Irani influence seems to have decreased in the secretariat. This Irani-Indian competition in the administrative sphere found an echo in the literary controversies of the day. Munir, a well-known poet of Lahore, complained of the airs assumed by Irani writers, and Shaida, another prominent poet of the day, challenged contemporary Irani poets, rated high by the Irani nobles on points of Persian language and style, to compete with him. These developments indicate that by now indigenous elements, benefiting by the spread of learning and orderly government in the country, were able to assert their claims in administrative and literary fields. Shah Jahan’s own vision was not narrow or parochial. The way in which the Taj Mahal was built is indicative of his policy. At one time it was thought that it had been designed by a Venetian architect, but this view has been abandoned. The Taj represents the culminating point of the development of Indo-Muslim architecture.

The particulars of those who took part in the production of this incomparable masterpiece indicate that no effort was spared to obtain the services of specialists in every phase of the work: craftsmen from Delhi, Lahore, Multan; a calligraphist from Baghdad and another from Shiraz to ensure that all the inscriptions were correctly carved; a flower-carver from Bukhara; an expert in dome construction, Ismail Khan Rumi, who, by his name may have come from Constantinople; a pinnacle-maker from Samarqand; a master-mason from Qandahar; and lastly, an experienced garden designer. The chief supervisor who coordinated the entire work was Ustad Isa, according to one account an inhabitant of Shiraz whose family had settled in Lahore. Shah Jahan’s reign represents the golden age of the Mughal empire, but as some students have pointed out, the artistic productions of the period give an impression of over-ripeness and a certain loss of vigor. Mughal civilization had reached its climax and was moving toward its declining phase. But the resolute vigor of Aurangzeb, a man of iron will, held the structure together for another half a century and gave it new support, so that the end came very gradually. A special word must be said of Dara Shukoh, who, except for Aurangzeb, is the best-known of Shah Jahan’s four sons. That he was not the paragon of virtue his partisans would have him is indicated by the statement of the French traveller Bernier that he had poisoned Saadullah Khan, Shah Jahan’s able prime minister. And his interference with Aurangzeb’s efforts to extend the empire in the south shows his inability to rise above personal enmity. But as a figure in the religious history of India he holds a unique place, and it is for this that he is remembered. When he was nineteen, Dara had recovered from a serious illness after having visited Mian Mir, a famous saint who lived at Lahore. From this time on, his faith in the power of saints and his interest in religion were firmly established. In 1640 he became a disciple of Mullah Shah, one of Mian Mir’s successors. In the meanwhile he had already completed a book containing biographies of Sufi saints. A biography of Mian Mir and his principal disciples followed two years later. He also wrote brief Sufi pamphlets, one of which was a reply to those who criticized Dara for his heterodox statements. In order to justify himself, he collected a number of

utterances and statements similar to those attributed to him by celebrated Sufis. In Majma-ul-Bahrain (The Mingling of Two Oceans), which was completed in 1655, Dara Shukoh tried to trace parallels between Islamic Sufism and Hindu Vedantism. In the introduction he says that after a deep and prolonged study of Islamic Sufism and Hindu Vedantism he had come to the conclusion that “there were not many differences, except verbal, in the ways in which Hindu monotheists and Muslim Sufis sought and comprehended truth.” Here he sounded a note that was to become the hallmark of many Hindu thinkers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. None of his books is without interest, but his translation of the Upanishads, which he made with the help of Sanskrit scholars, had a particularly interesting history. It was completed in 1657, just before his disastrous struggle for the throne. A French traveller, Anquetil Duperron, translated Dara Shukoh’s Persian version of the Upanishads into Latin. It was this version, which was published in two volumes in 1801 and 1802, that fell into the hands of Schopenhauer. His enthusiasm for the new world of speculation profoundly influenced many others, including Emerson and other Transcendentalists in the United States. In India itself Dara Shikoh’s work had a considerable influence. Majma-ul-Bahrain was translated into Sanskrit by a Hindu scholar, and Hindu proteges of Dara Shukoh gave expression to ideas of Islamic Sufism in moving Persian verse. Among the distinguished people whom Dara attracted were the celebrated poet and Sufi, Sarmad; the unknown author of that remarkable history of religions, Dabistan-i-Mazahib; and Muhandis, the son of Ustad Isa, the architect of the Taj. Indeed, Dara Shukoh seems to have been a center of an entire literary, spiritual, and intellectual movement, but with his defeat by Aurangzeb, the liberal group also lost its cohesion and potency.

8: Early Sufis of the Delta In the country of Bengal, not to speak of the cities, there is no town and no village where holy saints did not come and settle down.

The Question of Sufis and Frontier Warfare Bengal’s earliest sustained contact with Islamic civilization occurred in the context of the geopolitical convulsions that had driven large numbers of Turkish-speaking groups from Central Asia into the Iranian plateau and India. Whether as military slaves, as adventurers, or as refugees fleeing before the Mongol advance, Turks gravitated not only to the older centers of the Islamic world— Baghdad, Cairo, Samarkand—but also to its fringes, including Bengal. Immigrant groups were often led by a man called alp or alp-eren, identified as “the heroic figure of old Turkic saga, the warrior-adventurer whose exploits alone justified his way of life.” Migrating Turks also grouped themselves into Islamic mystical fraternities typically organized around Sufi leaders who combined the characteristics of the “heroic figure of old Turkic saga,” the alp, and the pre-Islamic Turkish shaman —that is, a charismatic holy man believed to possess magical powers and to have intimate contact with the unseen world. It happened, moreover, that the strict authority structure that had evolved for transmitting Islamic mystical knowledge from master (murshid) to disciple (murid) proved remarkably well suited for binding retainers to charismatic leaders. This, too, lent force to the Turkish drive to the Bengal frontier. The earliest-known Muslim inscription in Bengal concerns a group of such immigrant Sufis. Written on a stone tablet found in Birbhum District and dated July 29, 1221, just~seventeen years after Mohammad Bakhtiyar’s conquest, the inscription records the construction of a Sufi lodge (khanaqah) by a man described as a faqir —that is, a Sufi—and the son of a native of Maragha in northwestern

Iran. The building was not meant for this faqir alone, but for a group of Sufis “who all the while abide in the presence of the Exalted Allah and occupy themselves in the remembrance of the Exalted Allah.” The tablet appears to have been part of a pre-Islamic edifice before it was put to use for the khanaqah, for on its reverse side is a Sanskrit inscription mentioning the victorious conquests made in this part of the delta by a subordinate of Nayapala, Pala king from ca. A.D. 1035 to 1050. The inscription refers to a large number of Hindu temples in this region, and, despite the Buddhist orientation of the Pala kings, it identifies this subordinate ruler as a devotee of Brahmanic gods. Thus the two sides of the same tablet speak suggestively of the complex cultural history of this part of the delta: Brahmanism had flourished and was even patronized by a state whose official cult was Buddhism; on the other hand, the earliest-known representatives of Islam in this area appear to us in the context of the demolished ruins of Bengal’s pre-Muslim past. But were these men themselves temple-destroying iconoclasts? Can we think of them as ghazis—that is, men who waged religious war against non-Muslims? Such, indeed, is the perspective of much Orientalist scholarship. In the 1930s the German Orientalist Paul Wittek propounded the thesis that the Turkish drive westward across Anatolia at the expense of Byzantine Greek civilization had been propelled by an ethos of Islamic holy war, or jihad, against infidels. Although this thesis subsequently became established in Middle Eastern historiography, recent scholarship has shown that it suffers from lack of contemporary evidence. Instead, as Rudi Lindner has argued, the association of a holy war ethic with the early rise of Ottoman power was the work of ideologues writing several centuries after the events they described. What they wrote, according to Lindner, amounted to an “ex post facto purification of early Ottoman deeds, [speaking] more of later propaganda than of early history.” A similar historiographical pattern is found in Bengal. While it is true that Persian biographies often depict early Sufi holy men of Bengal as pious warriors waging war against the infidel, such biographies were not contemporary with those Sufis. Take, for example, the case^of Shaikh Jalal al-Din Tabrizi (d. 1244-45), one of

the earliest-known Sufis of Bengal. The earliest notice of him appears in the Siyar al-Arifin, a compendium of Sufi biographies compiled around 1530-36, three centuries after the Shaikh’s lifetime. According to this account, after initially studying Sufism in his native Tabriz (in northwestern Iran), Jalal al-Din Tabrizi left around 1228 for Baghdad, where he studied for seven years with the renowned mystic Shaikh Shihab al-Din Suhrawardi. When the latter died in 1235, Jalal al-Din Tabrizi travelled to India and, not finding a warm welcome in the court of Delhi, eventually moved on to Lakhnauti, then the remote provincial capital of Bengal. There he remained until his death ten years later. “When he went to Bengal,” the account records, all the population there came to him and became his disciples. There he built a hospice and a public kitchen, and bought several gardens and lands as an endowment for the kitchen. These increased. There was also there a (river) port called Deva Mahal, where an infidel had built a temple at great cost. The Shaikh destroyed that temple and in its place constructed a (Sufi) rest-house [tab/a]. There, he made many infidels into Muslims. Today [i.e., 1530-36], his holy tomb is located at the very site of that temple, and half the income of that port is dedicated to the upkeep of the public kitchen there. Since no contemporary evidence shows that he or any other Sufi in Bengal actually indulged in the destruction of temples, it is probable that as with Turkish Sufis in contemporary Anatolia, later biographers reworked Jalal al-Din Tabrizi’s career for the purpose of expressing their own vision of how the past ought to have happened. For such biographers, the Shaikh’s alleged destruction of a Hindu temple, his conversion of the local population, and his raising a Sufi hospice on the temple site all defined for later generations his imagined role as one who had made a decisive break between Bengal’s Hindu past and its Muslim future. Much the same hagiographical reconstruction was given the career of Shah Jalal Mujarrad (d. 1346), Bengal’s best-known Muslim saint. His biography was first recorded in the mid sixteenth century by a certain Shaikh ‘Ali (d. ca. 1562), a descendant of one of Shah Jalal’s companions. Once again we note a gap of several centuries between the life of the saint and that of his earliest biographer. According to

this account, Shah Jalal had been born in Turkestan, where he became a spiritual disciple of Saiyid Ahmad Yasawi, one of the founders of the Central Asian Sufi tradition. The account then casts the Shaikh’s expedition to India in the framework of holy war, mentioning both his (lesser) war against the infidel and his (greater) war against the lower self. “One day,” the biographer recorded, Shah Jalal represented to his bright-souled pir [i.e., Ahmad Yasawi] that his ambition was that just as with the guidance of the master he had achieved a certain amount of success in the Higher (spiritual) jihad, similarly with the help of his object-fulfilling courage he should achieve the desire of his heart in the Lesser (material) jihad, and wherever there may be a Dar-ul-harb [i.e., Land of non-Islam], in attempting its conquest he may attain the rank of a ghazi or a Shahid [martyr]. The revered pir accepted his request and sent 700 of his senior fortunate disciples...along with him. Wherever they had a fight with the enemies, they unfurled the banner of victory. It is true that the notion of two “strivings” (jihad)—one against the unbeliever and the other against one’s lower soul—had been current in the Perso-Islamic world for several centuries before Shah Jalal’s lifetime. But a fuller reading of the text suggests other motives for the Shaikh’s journey to Bengal. After reaching the Indian subcontinent, he and his band of followers are said to have drifted to Sylhet, on the easternmost edge of the Bengal delta. “In these far-flung campaigns,” the narrative continued, “they had no means of subsistence, except the booty, but they lived in splendour. Whenever any valley or cattle were acquired, they were charged with the responsibility of propagation and teaching of Islam. In short, [Shah Jalal] reached Sirhat (Sylhet), one of the areas of the province of Bengal, with 313 persons. [After defeating the ruler of the area] all the region fell into the hands of the conquerors of the spiritual and the material worlds. Shaikh [Jalal] Mujarrad, making a portion for everybody, made it their allowance and permitted them to get married.” Written so long after the events it describes, this account has a certain paradigmatic quality. Like Shaikh Jalal al-Din Tabrizi, Shah Jalal is presented as having brought about a break between Bengal’s

Hindu past and its Muslim future, and to this end a parallel is drawn between the career of the saint and that of the Prophet of Islam, Mohammad. The number of companions said to have accompanied Shah Jalal to Bengal, 313, corresponds precisely to the number of companions who are thought to have accompanied the Prophet Mohammad at the Battle of Badr in A.D. 624, the first major battle in Mohammad’s career and a crucial event in launching Islam as a world religion. The story thus has an obvious ideological drive to it. But other aspects of the narrative are more suggestive of Bengal’s social atmosphere at the time of the conquest. References to “far-flung campaigns” where Shah Jalal’s warrior-disciples “had no means of subsistence, except the booty” suggest the truly nomadic base of these Turkish freebooters, and, incidentally, refute the claim (made in the same narrative) that Shah Jalal’s principal motive for coming to Bengal was religious in nature. In fact, reference to his having made “a portion for everybody” suggests the sort of behavior befitting a tribal chieftain vis-a-vis his pastoral retainers, while the reference to his permitting them to marry suggests a process by which mobile bands of unmarried nomads— Shah Jalal’s own title mujarrad means “bachelor”—settled down as propertied groups rooted in local society. Moreover, the Persian text records that Shah Jalal had ordered his followers to become kadkhuda, a word that can mean either “householder” or “landlord.” Not having brought wives and families with them, his companions evidently married local women and, settling on the land, gradually became integrated with local society. All of this paralleled the early Ottoman experience. At the same time that Shah Jalal’s nomadic followers were settling down in eastern Bengal, companions of Osman (d. 1326), the founder of the Ottoman dynasty, were also passing from a pastoral to a sedentary life in northwestern Anatolia. Fortunately, we are in a position to compare the later, hagiographic account of Shah Jalal’s career with two independent nonhagiographic sources. The first is an inscription from Sylhet town, dated 1512-13, from which we learn that it was a certain Sikandar Khan Ghazi, and not the Shaikh, who had actually conquered the town, and that this occurred in the year 1303-4. The second is a

contemporary account from the pen of the famous Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta (d. 1377), who personally met Shah Jalal in 1345. The Shaikh was quite an old man by then and sufficiently renowned throughout the Muslim world that the great world traveller made a considerable detour—he had been sailing from South India to China— in order to visit him. Travelling by boat up the Meghna and Surma rivers, Ibn Battuta spent three days as Shah Jalal’s guest in his mountain cave near Sylhet town. As the Moroccan later recalled, This Shaikh was one of the great saints and one of the unique personalities. He had to his credit miracles (karamat) well known to the public as well as great deeds, and he was a man of hoary age....The inhabitants of these mountains had embraced Islam at his hands, and for this reason he stayed amidst them. /One would like to know more about the religious culture of these people prior to their conversion to Islam. The fragmentary evidence of Ibn Battuta’s account suggests that they were indigenous peoples who had little formal contact with literate representatives of Brahmanism or Buddhism, for the Moroccan visitor elsewhere describes the inhabitants of the East Bengal hills as “noted for their devotion to and practice of magic and witchcraft.” The remark seems to distinguish these people from the agrarian society of the Surma plains below the hills of Sylhet, a society Ibn Battuta unambiguously identifies as Hindu. It is thus possible that in Shah Jalal these hill people had their first intense exposure to a formal, literate religious tradition. In sum, the more contemporary evidence of Sufis on Bengal’s political frontier portrays men who had entered the delta not as holy warriors but as pious mystics or freebooting settlers operating under the authority of charismatic leaders. No contemporary source endows them with the ideology of holy war; nor is there contemporary evidence that they slew non-Muslims or destroyed non-Muslim monuments. No Sufi of Bengal—and for that matter no Bengali sultan, whether in inscriptions or on coins—is known to have styled himself ghazi. Such ideas only appear in hagiographical accounts written several centuries after the conquest. In particular, it seems that biographers and

hagiographers of the sixteenth century consciously (or perhaps unconsciously) projected backward in time an ideology of conquest and conversion that had become prevalent in their own day. As part of that process, they refashioned the careers of holy men of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries so as to fit within the framework of that ideology.

Bengali Sufis and Hindu Thought From the beginning of the Indo-Turkish encounter with Bengal, one section of Muslims sought to integrate into their religious lives elements of the esoteric practices of local yogis, together with the cosmologies that underpinned those practices. Contemporary Muslims perceived northern Bengal generally, and especially Kamrup, lying between the Brahmaputra River and the hills of Bhutan, as a fabulous and mysterious place inhabited by expert practitioners of the occult, of yoga, and of magic. During his visit to Sylhet, Ibn Battuta noted that “the inhabitants of these mountains are noted for their devotion to and practice of magic and witchcraft.” Around 1595 the great Mughal administrative manual Ain-i Akbari described the inhabitants of Kamrup as “addicted to the practice of magic \jadugari].” Some twenty-five years later a Mughal officer serving in northern Bengal described the Khuntaghat region, in western Kamrup, as “notorious for magic and sorcery.” And in 1662-63 another Mughal chronicler, referring to the entire Assam region, of which Kamrup is the western part, remarked that “the people of India have come to look upon the Assamese as sorcerers, and use the word Assam’ in such formulas as dispel witchcraft.” Since Sufis were especially concerned with apprehending transcendent reality unmediated by priests or other worldly institutions, it is not surprising that they, among Muslims, were most attracted to the yogi traditions of Kamrup. Within the very first decade of the Turkish conquest, there began to circulate in the delta Persian and Arabic translations of a Sanskrit manual on tannic yoga entitled Amritakunda (“The Pool of Nectar”). According to the translated versions, the Sanskrit text had been composed by a Brahman yogi of

Kamrup who had converted to Islam and presented the work to the chief, or judge, of Lakhnauti, Rukn al-Din Samarqandi (d. 1218). The latter, in turn, is said to have made the first translations of the work into Arabic and Persian. While this last point is uncertain, there is no doubt that for the following five hundred years the Amritakunda, through its repeated translations into Arabic and Persian, circulated widely among Sufis of Bengal, and even throughout India. The North Indian Sufi Shaikh ‘Abd al-Quddus Gangohi (d. 1537) is known to have absorbed the yogic ideas of the Amritakunda and to have taught them to his own disciples. In the mid seventeenth century, the Kashmiri author Muhsin Fani recorded that he had seen a Persian. Translation of the Amritakunda, and in the same century the Anatolian Sufi scholar Mohammad al-Misri (d. 1694) cited the Amritakunda as an important book for the study of yogic practices, noting that in India such practices had become partly integrated with Sufism. In both its Persian and Arabic translations, the Amritakunda survives as a manual of tantric yoga, with the first of its ten chapters affirming the characteristically tantric correspondence between parts of the human body and parts of the macrocosm, “where all that is large in the world discovers itself in the small.” In the mid sixteenth century, there appeared in Gujarat a Persian recension of the Amritakunda under the title, attributed to the great Shattari Shaikh Mohammad Ghauth of Gwalior (d. 1563). A prologue to this version, written by a disciple of the Shaikh, records how these yogic ideas were thought to have entered the Bengali Sufi tradition: This wonderful and strange book is named in the Indian language [i.e., Sanskrit]. This means “Water of Life,” and the reason for the appearance of this book among the Muslims is as follows. When Sultan Ala al-Din [i.e., Ali Mardan] conquered Bengal and Islam became manifest there, news of these events reached the ears of a certain gentleman of the esteemed learned class in Kamrup. His name was Kama, and he was a master of the science of yoga. In order to debate with the Muslim [scholars] he arrived in the city of Lakhnauti, and on a Friday he entered the Congregational Mosque.

A number of Muslims showed him to a group of, and they in turn pointed him to the assembly of Qazi Rukn al-Din Samarqandi. So he went to this group and asked: “Whom do you worship?” They replied, “We worship the Faultless God.” To his question “Who is your leader?” they replied, “Mohammad, the Messenger of Allah.” He said, “What has your leader said about the Spirit” They replied, “God the All-nourishing has commanded (that there be) the Spirit.” He said, “In truth, I too have found this same thing in books that are subtle and committed to memory.” Then that man converted to Islam and busied himself in acquiring religious knowledge, and he soon thereafter became a scholar {mufti). After that he wrote and presented this book to Qazi Rukn al-Din Tamami [Samarqandi]. The latter translated it from the Indian language into Arabic in a book of thirty chapters, and somebody else translated it into Persian in a book of ten chapters....And when Hazrat Ghauth al-Din himself went to Kamrup he necessarily spent several years in studying this science....The name of this book is Bahar alhayat. The exchange between the yogi and the ghazi cited here appears to have been modelled on a passage in the Qur’an (17:85), in which God tells the Prophet Mohammad: “They [the Jews] will ask thee concerning the Spirit. Say: the Spirit is by command of my Lord.” By putting into the mouth of a yogi words that in the Qur’an were those of the Jews of Mohammad’s day, the author of this recension apparently intended to make the yogi’s exchange comprehensible to a Muslim audience. A second prologue to the Bahar al-hayat established a framework within which a text on yoga could be accommodated within the rich body of classical Sufi lore. In it, the translator tells of once being in a country whose king summoned him and ordered that he undertake a great journey to a distant but fabulous realm. The king reminded the traveller that they were joined together by a covenant and that they would meet again at the end of the traveller’s voyage. Then the translator/traveller describes the hardships he endured while on his journey: the two seas (the soul and nature), the seven mountains, the four passes, the three stations filled with dangers, and the path

narrower than the eye of an ant. Ultimately, he reached the promised land, where he found a Shaikh who mirrored or echoed each of his own moves and words. Realizing that the man was but his own reflection, the traveller remembered his covenant with his master, to whom he was now led. The story’s climax is reached in the traveller’s epiphanic self-discovery: “I found the king and minister in myself.” The dominant motifs of this second prologue—the traveller, the arduous path with its temptations and dangers, and the ultimate realization that the goal is identified with the seeker—all show the influence of Sufi notions current in the thirteenth-century PersoIslamic world. The placement of the yogic text immediately after this prologue suggests that the esoteric practices described therein constitute, in effect, the means to achieving the mystical goals stated in the second prologue. Although some scholars have regarded the Bahar as a work of religious syncretism, this judgment is difficult to sustain if by syncretism one means the production of a new synthesis out of two or more antithetical elements. Rather, the work consists of two independent and self-contained worldviews placed alongside one another—a technical manual of yoga preceded by a Sufi allegory— with later editors or translators going to some lengths to stress their points of coincidence. Although Islamic terms and superhuman agencies are generously sprinkled through the main text, allusions to Islamic lore serve ultimately to buttress or illustrate thoroughly Indian concepts. Here, at least, yoga and Sufi ideas resisted true fusion. Nonetheless the book’s popularity illustrates the Sufis’ considerable fascination with the esoteric practices of Bengal’s indigenous culture. The renowned Shattari saint Shaikh Mohammad Ghauth even travelled from Gwalior in Upper India to Kamrup in order to study the esoteric knowledge that Muslims had identified with that region. In doing so he was following a tradition of Sufis of the Shattari order, whose founder, Shah ‘Abd Allah Shattari (d. 1485), included Bengal on his journey from Central Asia through India. Although one cannot establish a continuous intellectual tradition between Bengali Muslims of the thirteenth century and the Shattari Sufis of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the association of the

Bahar al-hayat both with Rukn al-Din Samarqandi in the former century and with Shaikh Mohammad Ghauth in the latter century suggests the likelihood of its continued use in Bengal during the intervening period.

Sufis of the Capital The principal carriers of the Islamic literary and intellectual tradition in the Bengal sultanate were groups of distinguished and influential Sufis who resided in the successive capital cities of Lakhnauti (from 1204), Pandua (from ca. 1342), and Gaur (from ca. 1432). Most of these men belonged to organized Sufi brotherhoods— especially the Suhrawardi, the Firdausi, and the Chishti orders—and what we know of them can be ascertained mainly from their extant letters and biographical accounts. The urban Sufis about whom we have the most information are clustered in the early sultanate period, from the founding of the independent Ilyas Shahi dynasty at Pandua in 1342 to the end of the Raja Ganesh revolution in 1415. The political roles played by Sufis in Bengal’s capital were shaped by ideas of Sufi authority that had already evolved in the contemporary Persianspeaking world. We have already referred to the central place that Sufi traditions assigned to powerful saints, a sentiment captured in ‘Ali Hujwiri’s statement that God had “made the Saints the governors of the universe.” Being in theory closer to God than warring princes could ever hope to be, Muslim saints staked a moral claim as God’s representatives on earth. In this view, princely rulers possessed no natural right to earthly power, but had only been entrusted with a temporary lease on such power through the grace of some Muslim saint. This perspective perhaps explains why in Indo-Muslim history we so often find Sufis predicting who would attain political office, and for how long they would hold, it. For behind the explicit act of “prediction” lay the implicit act of appointment—that is, of a Sufi’s entrusting his wilayat, or earthly domain, to a prince. For example, the fourteenth-century historian Shams-i Siraj ‘Afif recorded that before his rise to royal stature, the future Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughluq dynasty of Delhi (1321-1398), had been one of many local notables attracted to the spiritual power of the grandson of

the famous Chishti Sufi Shaikh Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakar (d. 1265). The governor made frequent visits to the holy man’s lodge in the Punjab, and on one occasion brought along his son and nephew, the future sultans Mohammad bin Tughluq and Firuz Tughluq. All three were given turbans by the saint and told that each was destined to rule India. The length of each turban, moreover, exactly corresponded to the number of years each would reign. In this anecdote one may discern the seeds of the complex pattern of mutual patronage between Shaikhs of the Chishti order and one of the mightiest empires in India’s history. Similar traditions circulated in Bengal concerning the foundation of independent Muslim rule there. In 1243-44 the historian Minhaj alSiraj visited Lakhnauti, where he recorded the following anecdote. Before embarking for India, the future sultan of Bengal Ghiyath al-Din ‘Iwaz (1213-27) was once travelling with his laden donkey along a dusty road in Afghanistan. There he came upon two dervishes clothed in ragged cloaks. When the two asked the future ruler whether he had any food, the latter replied that he did and took the load down from the donkey’s back. Spreading his garments on the ground, he offered the dervishes whatever victuals he had. After they had eaten, the grateful dervishes remarked to each other that such kindness should not go unrewarded. Turning to their benefactor, they said, “Go thou to Hindustan, for that place, which is the extreme (point) of Muhammadanism, we have given unto thee.” At once the future sultan gathered together his family and set out for India “in accord with the intimation of those two Darweshes.” In the Perso-Islamic cultural universe of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Bengal really did in some sense “belong” to those two dervishes, that they might “entrust” it to a kind stranger. In Bengal as in North India, the connection between political fortune and spiritual blessing is most evident in the early history of the Chishti order, the order to which the most ascendant Shaikhs of earlyfourteenth-century Delhi belonged. “Anybody who was anyone,” as Simon Digby puts it, visited the lodge of Delhi’s most eminent Shaikh of the time, Nizam al-Din Auliya (d. 1325). Indeed, the two principal Persian poets of the early fourteenth century, Amir Khusrau and Amir

Hasan, together with the sultanate’s leading contemporary historian, Zia al-Din Barani, were all spiritual disciples of this Shaikh. Since Delhi at this time happened to be the capital of a vital and expanding empire, it is not surprising that the literary, cultural, and institutional traditions of that city— together with the Shaikhs and institutions of its dominant Sufi order—expanded along with Khalaji and Tughluq arms to the far comers of India, including Bengal. But there was a deeper reason why Indo-Muslim courts patronized Chishti Shaikhs. By the fourteenth century, when other Sufi orders in India still looked to Central Asia or the Middle East as their spiritual home, the Chishtis, with their major shrines located within the Indian subcontinent, had become thoroughly indigenized. Seeking to establish their legitimacy both as Muslims and as Indians, Indo-Muslim rulers therefore turned to prominent Shaikhs of this order for blessings and support. For the same reason, leading Chishti Shaikhs dispersed from Shaikh Nizam al-Din’s lodge to all parts of the empire and often enjoyed the patronage of provincial rulers. Conversely, many young Indian-bom Muslims journeyed from all over India to live in or near that Shaikh’s lodge, later to return to their native lands, where they would establish daughter Chishti lodges and enjoy the patronage of local rulers. The first Bengal-bom Muslim known to have studied with Shaikh Nizam al-Din was Akhi Siraj al-Din (d. 1357), who journeyed to Delhi as a young man. Having distinguished himself at the Sufi lodge of the renowned Shaikh, Siraj al-Din received a certificate of succession and so thoroughly associated himself with the North Indian Chishti tradition that he was given the epithet “ayina-yi Hindustan,” or “Mirror of Hindustan.” Returning to Bengal some time before 1325, when his master died, he inducted others into the Chishti discipline, his foremost pupil being another Bengal-born Muslim, Shaikh ‘Ala al-Haq (d. 1398). But unlike his own teacher, who had no known dealings with royalty, Shaikh ‘Ala al-Haq was destined to play a special role in the political history of Muslim Bengal. In fact, the earliest-known monument built by the founder of Bengal’s longest-lived dynasty, the Ilyas Shahi line of kings (1342-1486), was dedicated to this Shaikh. On a mosque built in 1342 in what is now part of Calcutta, Shams alDin Ilyas Shah praised the Sufi as “the benevolent and revered saint (Shaikh) whose acts of virtue are attractive and sublime, inspired by

Allah, may He illuminate his heart with the light of divine perception and faith, and he is the guide to the religion of the Glorious, AlaulHaqqmay...his piety last long.” The importance of this inscription derives from its political context. Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah, an ambitious and politically astute newcomer to the delta, was just then launching a bid for independence from Delhi, evidently using southwestern Bengal as his power base. The imperial governor of nearby Satgaon having recently died, Shams al-Din, aware that Delhi was convulsed by the various crises provoked by the eccentric Sultan Mohammad bin Tughluq, seized the moment to attain provincewide power. As his earliest-known coin was minted at Pandua in A.D. 1342-43 (A.H. 743), Shams al-Din’s ascendancy exactly synchronizes with the dedication of this mosque and his patronage of Shaikh Ala al-Haq. Moreover, the patronage of the two men was mutual, since Shaikh Ala al-Haq, attaching himself to this rising political star, adopted Shams al-Din as a recipient of his teachings and blessings. This early connection cemented an alliance between government and prominent Chishti Shaikhs that would last for the duration of Muslim rule in Bengal. Not all alliances between Sufis and sultans were initiated by would-be rulers seeking to broaden their political bases. Some Sufis were drawn to the court out of a fervent desire to advance the cause of Islam as they understood it, and to augment the welfare of Muslims in the realm. We see this in the correspondence between Muzaffar Shams Balkhi (d. 1400) and Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Azam Shah (r. 1389-1410). An immigrant from Central Asia, Muzaffar had left his native Balkh for Delhi, where he taught at the college of Firuz Shah Tughluq. But the man’s restless spirit led him to Bihar city, where, after meeting and becoming the disciple of the great Firdausi Shaikh Sharaf al-Din Maneri (d. 1381), he experienced a major change in life-orientation. Abandoning his pride in scholarship, Muzaffar subjected himself to various austerities and distributed all his worldly possessions in charity. He also made several pilgrimages to Mecca, where he once stayed for four years, teaching lessons in hadith scholarship. His extant letters reveal him not as an ecstatic, quiescent, or contemplative sort, but as committed to imposing his understanding of the Prophet’s

religious vision on the here-and-now world, a man inclined to scrutinize human society by scriptural standards and, finding it wanting, to transform it so as to meet those standards. In the sultan of Bengal, the Sufi found an outlet for these impulses. Muzaffar Shams first seems to have become concerned about tutoring Sultan Ghiyath al-Din while waiting in Pandua for official permission to embark on a trip from Chittagong to Mecca. “The four months of the ship season are ahead of us,” he wrote; “there are eight months still left; during all this while I have spent my life as a guest in the auspicious threshold of your majesty, may not your exaltation lessen.” Although the Sufi politely described himself as a mere “guest” of the sultan, it is evident that he felt himself entrusted with a higher calling. “In my opinion,” he wrote the king, by the gifts of God, the cherisher of mankind, you have developed a capacity of looking at the inside of things of the pure faith and the understanding of things of manifold signification. It appears that my heart would be opened out to you. A pious inspired man, Abdul Malik, has been a recipient of my letters[,] which might form a volume. It may be at Pandua or at Muazzamabad, but I don’t remember where it exactly is. Oh, my son, get the permission and go through its contents. Something of my inward part may be opened out to you. You are the second person on whom I have poured out my secret (mystic) thoughts. It behooves you not to disclose these to anyone else. Who, here, is patronizing whom? The Sufi’s reference to the sultan as his “son” signals a clear inversion of the usual relationship between a patrimonial king and his subjects. Nor would the Sufi give the king privileged access to his personal correspondence; to see it the monarch had first to secure permission from a third party. Muzaffar Balkhi also reminded the king that although Sultan Firuz Tughluq of Delhi had repeatedly requested letters and spiritual guidance from Muzaffar’s own master, Shaikh Sharaf al-Din Maneri, the latter had refused to oblige him, choosing instead to correspond with Sultan Sikandar of Bengal, Ghiyath al-Din’s father. “You,” he noted pointedly, “have had the effects and legacy of those blessings on yourself.” In short, Muzaffar felt that he and his own master had been

doing the Bengal sultans a favour by bestowing their blessings and advice on them instead of on the sultans of Delhi. In addition to his recommendations concerning Islamic piety— for example, on the need to suppress innovation not prescribed by the Sharia, or to enforce the payment of alms by Muslims — Muzaffar cautioned the king against placing non-Muslims in positions of authority. “The substance of what has come in the tradition and commentaries,” wrote the Shaikh, “is this”: “Oh believers, don’t make strangers, that is infidels, your confidential favourites and ministers of state.” They say that they don’t allow any to approach or come near to them and become favourite courtiers; but it was done evidently and for expedience and worldly exigency of the Sultanate that they are entrusted with some affairs. To this the reply is that according to God it is neither expediency nor exigency but the reverse of it, that is an evil and pernicious thing... .Don’t entrust a work into the hands of infidels by reason of which they would become a wali (Governor-ruler or superior) over the Musalmans, exercise their authority in their affairs, and impose their command over them. As God says in the Quran, “It is not proper for a believer to trust an infidel as his friend and wali, and those who do so have no place in the estimation of God.” Hear God and be devout and pious; very severe warnings have come in the Kitab (holy book) and traditions against the appointment of infidels as a ruler over the believers. The Sufi thus saw in Islamic Law a clear course of action the sultan should take in order to avert certain disaster. For in Bengal’s affairs Muzaffar Shams discerned more than just a political crisis. Referring to Timur’s recent sacking of Delhi (A.D. 1398, or A.H. 801), which marked the eclipse of the once-mighty Tughluq empire, he wrote: “The eighth century has passed out, and the signs of the coming Resurrection are increasingly visible. An Empire like that of Delhi with all its expanse and abundance, spiritual and physical comfort, peace and tranquility, has turned upside down (is in a topsy-turvy condition). Infidelity has now come to hold the field; the condition of other countries is no better. Now is the time, and this is the opportunity.” His gaze riveted on scripture, Muzaffar saw a palpable

link between worldly decay and the Day of Judgment, heralded by that decay. Only by removing infidelity could Muslims forestall an otherwise inevitable cosmic process. And since the sultan had the power to stamp out infidelity by suppressing non-Muslims in a kingdom originally established by Muslims, the Sufi saw the sultan as capable of playing a pivotal role in implementing what he understood as God’s will in that process. It was Shaikhs of the Chishti order, however, who by the early fifteenth century had emerged as the principal spokesmen for a Muslim communal perspective in Bengal. If Shaikh ‘Ala al-Haq had risen to prominence with the ascending fortunes of the founder of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty, his son and successor, Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam (d. 1459), presided over Bengal’s Chishti tradition when Ilyas Shahi fortunes had sunk to their lowest point—the period of Raja Ganesh’s domination over the Ilyas Shahi throne. According to Sufi sources, Raja Ganesh even persecuted Chishti Shaikhs, banishing Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam’s own son, Shaikh Anwar, to Sonargaon, and plotting the death of the son of another Chishti Shaikh, Husain Dhukkarposh. In these circumstances, the Shaikh implored Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi of Jaunpur to invade Bengal and remove the “menace” of Raja Ganesh. The following passage shows the extent to which the Chishtis of Bengal had come to identify the fortunes of Islam with the political fortunes of the Ilyas Shahi dynasty. “After a period of three hundred years,” wrote the Sufi, “the Islamic land of Bengal— the place of mortals, the kingdom of the end of the seven heavens— has been overwhelmed and put to the run by the darkness of infidels and the power of unbelievers.” The Shaikh elaborated this point using the Sufi and Qur’anic metaphor of light: The lamp of the Islamic religion and of true guidance Which had [formerly] brightened every corner with its light, Has been extinguished by the wind of unbelief blown by Raja Ganesh.

Splendor from envy of the victorious news, The lamp of [the celebrated preacher, Abul-Husain] Nuri, and the candle of [the Shia martyr] Husain Have all been extinguished by the might of swords and the power of this thing in view. What does one call the lamp and candle of men Whose nature is devoid of virility [lit., has eaten camphor]? When the abode of faith and Islam has fallen into such a fate, Why are you sitting happily on your throne? Arise, come and defend the religion, For it is incumbent upon you, O king, possessed of power and capacity. While publicly clamoring for military intervention, privately, in a letter to his exiled son, Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam brooded over the theological implications of Raja Ganesh’s appearance in Bengali history. To the anguished Sufi, it seemed that God had not been heeding the supplication of the very people to whom the Qur’an had promised divine favour and protection. “Infidelity,” he wrote; Has gained predominance and the kingdom of Islam has been spoiled....Neither the devotion and the worship of the votaries of God proved helpful to them nor the unbelief of the infidels fettered their steps. Neither worship and devotion does any good to His Holy Divine Majesty, nor does infidelity do any harm to Him. Alas! Alas! O, how painful! With one gesture and freak of independence he caused the consumption of so many souls, the destruction of so many lives, and shedding of so much of bitter tears. Alas, woe to me, the sun of Islam has become obscured and the moon of religion has become eclipsed.

But the fortunes of Bengali Muslims did not ebb as the Shaikh had feared. Once the stormy period of Raja Ganesh had subsided, his converted son resumed the patronage of the Chishti establishment, reconfirming the Chishti-court alliance that had been established between Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam’s father and the dynasty’s founder. Both Sultan Jalal al-Din and his son and successor Ahmad (r. 1432-33) became disciples of Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam himself, and twelve succeeding sultans down to the year 1532 enlisted themselves as disciples of the descendants of Shaikh ‘Ala al-Haq. By the end of the fifteenth century, the tomb of Shaikh Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam in Pandua had become in effect a state shrine to which Sultan ‘Ala al-Din Husain Shah (r. 1493-1519) made annual pilgrimages. Despite the mutual patronage and even dependency between Bengal’s Sufis and its rulers, one also detects an undercurrent of friction between the two. Occasionally erupting into open hostility, this friction derived from the radical distinction made in Islam between din and dunya, “religion” and “the world.” Withdrawn from worldly affairs and living in a state of poverty, self-denial, and remembrance of God, the Sufi recluse was in theory dramatically opposed by the ruleradministrator, glittering in his wealth and utterly immersed in worldly affairs. Sufis who rejected the world made much of their refusal to consort with “worldly” people—including above all royalty. Conversely, rulers sometimes suspected their Sufi allies, or even feared having around them such popular, charismatic leaders who might conceivably stir up the mob to riot or rebellion. Here we may consider an inscription of Sultan Sikandar Ilyas Shah, dated 1363, in which the king dedicated a dome he had built for the shrine of a saint named Maulana ‘Ata. Although the Shaikh may have been the king’s contemporary, Maulana ‘Ata was more likely an earlier holy man whose shrine had become the focus of an important cult by the time the inscription was recorded. “In this dome,” the inscription reads, Which has been founded by ‘Ata, may the sanctuary of both worlds remain. May the angels recite for its durability, till the day of resurrection: “We have built over you seven solid heavens” [Qur’an 78:12].

By the grace of (the builder of) the seven wonderful porticos “who hath created seven heavens, one above another” [Qur’an 67:3], may His names be glorified; the building of this lofty dome was completed. (Verily it) is the copy of a vault (lit., shell) of the roof of Glory, (referred in this verse) “And we have adorned the heaven of the world” (lit., lamps) [Qur’an 67:5]. (This lofty dome) in the sacred shrine of the chief of the saints, the unequaled among enquirers, the lamp of Truth, Law and Faith, Maulana ‘Ata, may the High Allah bless him with His favours in both worlds; (was built) by order of the lord of the age and the time, the causer of justice and benevolence, the defender of towns, the pastor of people, the just, learned and great monarch, the shadow of Allah on the world, distinguished by the grace of the Merciful, Abul Mujahid Sikandar Shah, son of Ilyas Shah, the Sultan, may Allah perpetuate his kingdom. The king of the world Sikandar Shah, in whose name the pearls of prayer have been strung; regarding him they have said, “May Allah illuminate his rank,” and regarding him they have prayed “May Allah perpetuate his kingdom.” While outwardly acclaiming the greatness of Maulana ‘Ata, Sultan Sikandar was also asserting his own claims to closeness to God, styling himself the one in whose name “the pearls of prayer have been strung,” and “the Shadow of God on Earth.” And by referring to this shrine as a copy (nuskha) of the heavens, the sultan drew attention to parallels between God’s creative activity and his own. For if it had been God’s creative act to adorn the seven heavens with lamps, that is, stars, it was Sultan Sikandar’s creative act to adorn the earth with a tomb for the lamp (Siraj) of Truth, Law, and Faith, that is, Maulana ‘Ata. Implicitly, then, had it not been for the munificence of Sultan Sikandar, Maulana ‘Ata would have remained shrouded in obscurity. Royal distrust of or aversion to Sufis, even those of the Chishti order, is seen in other ways. Although Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah had patronized a prominent Chishti Shaikh while establishing a new dynasty, the king’s son and successor, Sultan Sikandar, was suspicious of the disciples of his father’s saintly patron. He was especially suspicious of the most eminent of these, Shaikh ‘Ala al-Haq, whose shrine complex had become in Sikandar’s day a major nexus for

economic transactions, redistributing amongst the city’s poor large sums of money received in the form of pious donations. Alarmed at the Sufi’s substantial expenditure on the urban populace, Sikandar declared: “My treasure is in the hands of your father [the kingdom’s Treasurer]; [yet] you are giving away as much as he spends.” Evidently jealous of the Shaikh’s wealth and influence, the king banished the Sufi to Sonargaon. Bengal’s Sufis and sultans, then, were fatefully connected by ties of mutual attraction and repulsion. Generally, when they were first establishing themselves politically, and especially when launching new dynasties, rulers actively sought the legitimacy powerful saints might lend them. Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Twaz’s earliest chronicler situated the launching of Bengal’s first independent dynasty (1213) in the context of the grace, or baraka, of two simple dervishes in Afghanistan. And in 1342, when Sultan Shams al-Din Ilyas Shah launched the longest-lived dynasty in Muslim Bengal, he did so with the blessings of a renowned scion of the prestigious Chishti line. Struck by the awesome spiritual powers people attributed to charismatic Shaikhs, or believing that their own lease on power was somehow extended by such forceful men, new Muslim kings sought their favour, built lodges or mausolea for them, or made public pilgrimages to their tombs. Conversely, some Sufis sought royal patronage out of their own reformist impulses to bring “the world” (dunya) into proper alignment with their understanding of the dictates of normative “religion” (din). On the other hand, once dynasties were securely entrenched in power, some kings no longer considered it necessary to call upon the charismatic authority of holy men to legitimate their rule. In fact, the wealth and influence of charismatic Shaikhs were sometimes seen as potential threats to royal authority. Sikandar Ilyas Shah only begrudgingly patronized a saint on whose mausoleum he heaped more praise on himself than on the saint. And he actually banished the most eminent Shaikh of the day from his capital when he felt his authority rivaled. Only after the death of Nur Qutb-i ‘Alam in the mid fifteenth century, when Sufism’s intellectually vibrant tradition was replaced by

a politically innocuous tomb-cult, did the state once again wholeheartedly ally itself with the Chishti tradition.

9: Impact of Sufism in India The contacts and conflicts between sufis and yogis became more frequent and meaningful. The various branches of qalandars and sufis of the Rifaiyya order, confined mainly to Turkey, Syria and Egypt, were significantly influenced by wandering yogis. Unfortunately existing literature throws little light on yogis, who are constantly referred to as “jogis”. In one reference the perfect yogi is associated by Shaikh Nasirud-Din Chirag-i Dihli with the Siddhas. The topics discussed at the Jamaat-khana gatherings of Baba Farid were of great interest to visiting Siddhas whose beliefs were founded on Hatha Yoga. Supplementing these scraps of information is al-Biruni, unquestionably a profound authority on comparative religions, who notes sufi parallels in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, which he himself translated into Arabic. He also mentions similarities with Samkhya, one of the six schools of classical Hindu philosophy, and with the Bhagavad Gita. Patanjali’s theories of the soul are defined by AlBiruni as follows: “The soul, being on all sides tied to ignorance, which is the cause of its being fettered, is like rice in its cover. As long as it is there, it is capable of growing and ripening in the transition stages between being born and giving birth itself. But if the cover is taken off the rice, it ceases to develop in this way, and becomes stationary. The retribution of the soul depends on the various kinds of creatures through which it wanders, upon the extent of life, whether it be long or short, and upon the particular kind of its happiness, be it scanty or ample.” He goes on to say: “The same doctrine is professed by those sufis who teach that this world is a sleeping soul and yonder world a soul awake, and who at the same time admit that God is immanent in certain places—for example, in heaven—in the seat and the throne of God (mentioned in the Quran). But then there are others who admit that God is

immanent in the whole world, in animals, trees and the inanimate world, which they call His universal appearance. To those who hold this view, the entering of the souls into various beings in the course of metempsychosis is of no consequence.” Referring to the Samkhya theory of the rewards of paradise as being of no special advantage, Al-Biruni adds: “The sufis, too, do not consider the stay in Paradise a special gain for another reason, because there the soul delights in other things, but the Truth, that is, God, and its thoughts are diverted from the Absolute Good by things which are not tlte Absolute Good.” On the nature of liberation from the world and the path by which this can be achieved, Al-Biruni quotes Patanjali’s text as follows: “The concentration of thought ont he unity of God induces man to notice something besides that with which he is occupied. He who wants God, wants the good for the whole creation without a single exception for any reason whatever; but he who occupies himself exclusively with his own self, will for its benefit neither inhale, breathe, nor exhale it (svasa and prasvasa). When a man attains to this degree, his spiritual power prevails over his bodily power, and then he is gifted with the faculty of doing eight different things by which detachment is realised; for a man can only dispense with that which he is able to do, not with that which is outside his grasp.” According to Al-Biruni the sufi parallel is contained in the following theory: “The terms of the sufi as to the knowing being and his attaining the stage of knowledge come to the same effect, for they maintain that he has two souls—an eternal one, not exposed to change and alteration, by which he knows that which is hidden, the transcendental world, and

performs wonders; and another, a human soul, which is liable to being changed and being born.” Al-Biruni also quotes this passage from the Yoga Sutra to indicate the relation of the body to the soul. “The bodies are the snares of the souls for the purpose of acquiring recompense. He who arrives at the stage of liberation has acquired, in his actual form of existence, the recompense for all the doing of the past. Then he ceases to labour to acquire a title to a recompense in the future. He frees himself from the snare; he can dispense with the particular form of his existence, and moves in it quite freely without being ensnared by it. He has even the faculty of moving wherever he likes, and if he likes, he might rise above the face of death. For the thick, cohesive bodies cannot oppose an obstacle to his form of existence (as, for example, a mountain could not prevent him from passing through). How, then, could his body oppose an obstacle to his soul?” The similarities in the sufi approach is demonstrated by this story: “A company of sufis came doion (to) us, and sat at some distance from us. Then one of them rose, prayed, and on having finished his prayer, turned towards me and spoke: “Oh master, do you know here a place fit for us to die on?” Now 1 thought he meant sleeping, and so I pointed out to him a place. The man went there, threw himself on the back of his head, and remained motionless. Now I rose, went to him and shook him, but lo! He was already cold.” Again the likenesses between Patanjali’s views and those of sufism concerning meditation of the Truth (that is, God) is reflected in the following sufi theory: “...they (sufis) say: ‘As long as you point to something you are not a monist; but when the Truth seizes opon the

object of your pointing and annihilates it, then there is no longer an indicating person nor an object indicated.” There are some passages in their system which show that they believe in the pantheistic union; for example, one of them, being asked what is the Truth (God), gave the following answer: ‘How should I not know the Being which is I in essence and Not-I in space? If I return once more into existence, thereby I am separated from Him; and if I am neglected (that is, not born anew and sent into the world), thereby I become light and become accustomed to the union, (sic).’ Abu Bakr Ash-Shibli says: ‘Cast off all, and you will attain to us completely. Then you will exist; but you will not report about us to others as long as your doing is like ours. Abu Yazid Albistami once being asked how he had attained his stage in sufism, answered: ‘I cast off my own self as a serpent casts off its skin. Then I considered my own self, and found that I was He/ that is God. The sufis explain the Quranic passage “Then we spoke: Beat Him with a part of her/ in the following manner: “The order to kill that which is dead in order to give life to it inidicates that the heart does not become alive by the lights of knowledge unless the body be killed by ascetic practice to such a degree that it does not any more exist as a reality, but only in a formal way, whilst your heart is a reality on which no object of the formal wolrd has any influence.’ Further they say: ‘Between man and God there are a thousand stages of light and darkness. Men exert themselves to pass through darkness to light and when they have attained to the station of light, thee is no return for them.’ Regarding the sufi doctrine of love as being a total obsession with God, al-Biruni quotes interesting parallels from the Bhagavad Gita. The encounter of Shaikh Safiud-Din Kaziruni with a yogi, also described earlier, demonstrates the type of contacts early sufis had with yogis. From the thirteenth century onwards Hindu mystical songs were recited at Sama’ gatherings and many of the most talented musicians

were newly converted Muslims. Shaikh Ahmad from Naharwala in Gujarat, who gave expert renditions of Hindawi ragas, lived during this century. The Shaikh undoubtedly attended the most significant Sama’ performances, as is clear from his presence when a Persian verse produced such powerful ecstasy in Shaikh Qutbud-Din Bakhtiyar Kaki that he died a few days later. Ahmad was said to have been a disciple of Faqir Madhu, the Imam of the Jami’ mosque in Ajmer, who retained his Hindu name even after conversion. The recitation of Hindawi music at Sama’ was popular at all sufi centres, particularly those some distance from Delhi. Saiyid Gisu Daraz admitted that each language was endowed with a characteristic of its own and to him none was as effective as Hindawi for through it esoteric ideas could be so clearly expressed. Hindawi music, the Saiyid believed, was also subtle and elegant, penetrating deeply into the heart and arousing humility and gentleness. When hearing it people became more aware of their faults and therefore, it was natural, to the Saiyid that Hindawi music was becoming increasingly popular. Most of the Hindawi songs recited at Sama’ gatherings held during this period have been lost, but afew verses that have survived have been ascribed to Shaikh Hamidud-Din Nagauri and Baba Farid. What is significant, however, is the spontaneous expression of subtle mystical beliefs through verses in regional dialects. Such songs were not composed for propaganda purposes but were a natural evolution from the deep and personal involvement of these two great mystics with their environment. Hindawi was a more convenient language in which to utter the feelings of a heart filled with divine love. In a Persian work, the Sururus-Sudur, Shaikh Hamid quotes a touching verse emphasizing the fact that differences in nomenclature failed to undermine the truth that Reality is One. An object could assume hundreds of different forms and be known by the same number of names but this did not alter the fact that they all emanated from One. Although earlier sufis had expressed this idea in many different ways in both Persian poetry and prose, the later use of Hindawi in further explanations of this concept was most probably a significant factor in the arousal of Hindu interest in sufism.

In another verse on the misuse of drugs and medicinal herbs. Shaikh Hamid attacks the yogi emphasis on the use of drugs and medicinal herbs, without denying their efficacy in certain circumstances. A sick man could go to China, the original source of Hindu theories of alchemy, and not being cured attribute the failure to the lack of effectiveness of resayana (the compounding of the elixir vitae) but, argued the Shaikh, a real understanding of the illness involved a belief that human effort operated only within a very limited sphere. In Persian and Hindawi verses Shaikh Hamidud-Din emphasized that drugs were not necessarily evil, only the people who misused them were. In a Hindawi verse the Shaikh wrote that for all the claims to cure diseases it was impossible to transform a sick person into a yogi. Although the famous poet of the romantic epic, Iliyas bin Yusuf Nizami of Ganja, in Azerbayjan, died on 4 Ramazan 605/ 12 March 1209, his ghazals and masnazois quickly reached India and aroused the interest of those Indians who had a knowledge of Persian. Shaikh Hamidud-Din Nagauri made a free Hindi translation of one of Nizami’s ghazals and included in the text both the Persian original and their equivalent Hindawi dohas. The Siyarul-Auliya quotes a verse composed by Baba Farid in the Multani dialect whose precise meaning is difficult to decipher. The Saba-Sanabil of Mir Abdul-Wahid Bigarami contains two dohas by Baba Farid with a Persian translation. The Mir himself was a good poet in Hindawi and his version makes the doha more intelligibK Here are two verses of the baba’s translated from the Hindawi. You are yourself ignorant but you seek to make others your disciple, You give a cap as a mark of initiation, and this indicaes that you are presumptuous. A mouse who is unable to enter into a narrow hole, Puts a heavy load over his head, although he moves in a narrow place!” The other doha says:

“You shave your head but what you should do is to cut lust from the heart. By shaving the head, the path of faith is not acquired. Several thousand sheep whose wool are cut, move about in different directions, None of these is accepted in the court of the Master.” Controversy surrounds more than a hundred slokas ascribed to Baba Farid Ganj-i Shakar in the Guru Garanth, compiled by the fifth Sikh Guru, Arjan, in 1604. some scholars assert they were composed by Baba Farid himself but the language indicates they were the work of his successors who may have rewritten some of Baba Farid’s original slokas into a more intelligible Multani. Some of these slokas are even ascribed to Kabir. The Janam Sakhis includes a number of slokas which Guru Nanak and his successors composed to support, rather than dispute, the ideas contained in Baba Farid’s slokas. Others believe that the slokas in the Guru Garanth were composed by Shaikh Ibrahim, a successor of Baba Farid, whom Guru Nanak visited at Ajodhan. A careful analysis of Baba Farid’s slokas in the Guru Granth would tend to suggest they were not composed by one individual. Therefore it is wrong to ascribe them either to Shaikh Ibrahim or another of Baba Farid’s descendants, known as Farid Sani. They represent the teachings of Baba Farid through the years from his own time to the fifteenth century and were therefore composed by a number of different descendants, all using Farid as their nom de plume. The period in which the poetry of Shaikh Hamidud-Din Nagauri and Baba Farid was written was preceded by one in which two significant poetic traditions were established in north Indian dialects. Firstly there was the poetry of the Siddhacharyas, followers of the Buddhist Sahajiya cult which began during the eighth century. This literature continued to influence, in both style and spirit, the poetry written in local dialects until the twelfth century. Secondly this type of poetry was succeeded by that written by members of the Nath cult. Sahajiya Buddhism was an offshoot of Tantric Buddhism, the Vajrayana or “Vehicle of the Thunderbolt”, which was patronised by the Pala kings of Bengal. In northern India Vajrayana, the third vehicle, superceded Mahayana Buddhism, the second. It featured the

worship of feminine deities and magico-religious practices by which superhuman powers and salvation could be attained. The supreme deity of the Vajrayana is the Vajra-Sattva (vajrasunyata: vacuity; sattva: quintessence), who is the nature of pure consciousness (the vijnapti-viatrata of the Vijnana Vadin Buddhists) as associated with sunyata in the form of the absence of subjectivity and objectivity. The Vajra-Sattva is often identified with man’s self and with the Ultimate Reality in the form of the Bodhicitta. The latter: “presupposes two elements in the citta, sunyata (the knowledge of the nature of things as pure void) and karuna (universal compassion).” This is conceived as an extremely blissful state of mind produced through sexo-yogic practices. The Sahajiyas differed from the Vajrayanists because of the emphasis they laid on protesting against the formalities of life and religion. According to them truth was to be unconventionally understood through initiation in the tattva (secret truth) and the physical practice of Yoga. The Sahajiva recommended the transformation and sublimation of sexual impulse, rather than its annihilation. The dohas by Tillo-Pada and Saraha-Pada, who flourished between the eight and ninth centuries AD emphasized that Truth could be realized only through the individual. According to Saraha-Pada, the Brahmanical claims of class superiority were unfounded, the naked Jaina Ksapanaka-Yogins were frauds, the Buddhist monks were superstituous, the Tantras and the Mantras led to confusion and only Sahaja helped a mystic to gain a true understanding of the real nature of yogic discipline. Brahmanical sacrifices, pilgrimages and penances were of no avail, what had to be done was to fix the mind to the Niranjana or Stainless One. The Hevajra-tantra says: “The whole world is of the nature of Sahaja—for Sahaja is the quintessence (svarupa) of all; this quintessence is nirvana to those who possess the perfectly pure C/f to.” A Sahajiya poet compared the Sahaja stage to the flowing of nectar; according to Tillo-Pada: “Sahaja is a state where all thought— concentration is dead (that is, destroyed) and the vital sind (which is the vehicle of the defiled Citta) is also destroyed— the secret of this

truth is to be intended by the self—how can it be explained (by others)” Saraha-Pada continues by saying: “In Sahaja there is no duality; it is perfect like the sky. The intuition of this ultimate truth destroys all attachment and it shines through the darkness of attachment like a full moon in the night. Sahaja cannot be heard with the ears, neither can it be seen with the eyes; it is not affected by air nor burnt by fire; it is not wet in intense rain, it neither increases nor decreases, it neither exists nor does it die out xvith the decay of the body; the Sahaja bliss is only oneness of emotions, — it is oneness in all. Our mind and the vital wind are unsteady like the horse;—but in the Sahaja-nature both of them remain steady. When the mind thus ceases to function and all other ties are torn aside, all the differences in the nature of things vanish; and at that time there is neither the Brahman nor the Sudra. Sahaja cannot be realized in any of its particular aspects—it is an intuition of the tvhole, the one underlying reality pervading and permeating all diversity. As the truth of tlie lotus can never be found either in the stalk or in the leaves, or in the petals or in the smell of the lotus, or in the filament,—it lies rather in the totality of all these parts, -so also Sahaja is the totality zohich can only be realized in a perfectly non-dual state of mind. From it originate all, in it all merge again, —but it itself is free from all existence and non-existence,—it never originates at all.” The first step in achieving the Supreme Bliss of the Sahajiya was the selection of an appropriate teacher. Sahajiya esoteric practices depended on the conception that the human body was a microcosm of the macrocosm. The psycho-physical process of yoga should be undertaken only by a mature body. The yogini of the Sahaja-damsel of the Sahajiyas was not a woman of normal existence but an internal force of the nature of vacuity (sunyata) or senselessness (nairatma)

and great bliss residing in the different plexuses in different stages of yogic practices. Founded on the psycho-chemical of yoga in which the old Siddha cult of the yogis specialized, the Shaivite Nath cult developed, assimilating elements from the Buddhist Sahajiya cult. The Adi Nath, the First Lord of the Naths, is the Shiva of the Hindus as is the Buddha, in the form of the Vajra-Sattava, of the Buddhists. The first human guru of the cult was Matsyendra, reported to have lived in the tenth century AD. According to legend, while swiming like a fish he overheard the esoteric doctrines of the Nath which the Lord Shiva was imparting to his spouse, Parvati. Matsyendra is therefore known by such names as Mananath or Lui-pa, meaning fish Lord in Tibetan. Matsyendra’s weakness for women tended to associate him with the left-handed cults of the female deities. These centred around Lakshinkara, a legendary princess of the mythical kingdom of Indrabhuti which was successively ruled by female issue. Lakshinkara has been compared to Eleanor of Aquitain. Gorakhnath, Matsyendra’s disciple, believed to have been born from the sweat of Shiva’s breast, saved his master, in whose service he had earlier lost an eye. Much mystery and legen also surround Gorakhnath’s personality, but we know he wrote some treatises in Sanskrit. A number of verses in Panjabi and Hindi also attributed to him were written by successive generations of disciples using the name Gorakhnath in order to establish a spiritual link with their master. A corpus of dohas with Farid as the nont de plume which were compiled by a number of descendants of the Baba show that their authors were also influenced by this trend. The same is true of the verses written by Guru Nanak’s successors, which shall be discussed in subsequent pages. Gorakhnath’s disciples were the authors of a number of treatises on magic, alchemy and left-handed occultism and Hatha-Yoga. Of the Sanskrit treatises by Gorakhnath, unlike the Hatha-Yoga, the Goraksha-Sataka has survived and has been edited and translated into English.

Other names associated with the Nath cult are “Nimnath, probably Nemi, the twenty-second Jain tirthankara; Parasnath, probably Parsava, the twenty-third Jain Hrthankara; Bhutanath, “Ghost Lord,” probably the Buddha; Dayanath, “Compassionate Lord,” probably a form of a Bodhi-citta, Nagarjunanath, theBhuddist philosopher Nagarjuna (c. AD 100-200); Bharatinath, noted for his asceticism; Ratannath, a contemporary of Gorakhnath, and the subject of many miraculous tales; Dandanath, founder of a cult of staff-bearing yogis; Puranbhagat who, with his half-brother Rasula, has inspired hundreds of miraculous tales; Charpati (or Charpatinath), a rasavada or alchemist and poet, some of whose verses in Panjabi are extant; Guga (or Guganath) whose power over serpents was phenomenal; Manikchandra, a bania by caste, who left his wealth to jc’n the Naths; Gahininath, initiated by Gorakhnath, himself initiated Nivrittinath, brother of the Maratha saint Jananadeva at Tryambaka; Dharamnath, probably the Lord Dharma of the crypto-Buddhist Dharma cult of Bengal; Jalandhari-pa: Kanu-pa; Mainamati and Gopi-Chand. The framework of the order of the Kanphata (Split Ear Yogis) or the Naths founded by Gorakhnath serves to illustrate the latter’s remarkable organizational capacity and foresight. At the time of initiation, the ear cartilages of a novice were as is still customary today split, and two enormous ear-rings were inserted in the holes. Ear splitting was believed necessary to open a mystical channel in order to assist the development of yogic powers. During the ceremony a knife was driven into the ground and vows recited over it by the initiate; these included a vow to protect the ears which, according to Hindu mysticism, were believed to contain a network of invisible nadis (ganglia) connecting them with the inner organs of perception. The rites also included the symbolic slaying of the neophyte, the washing of his entrails, and the hanging of his body on a tree. The traditions venerate nine Naths and eighty-four Siddhas but this does not imply the historical authenticity of these figures. The eighty-four Siddhas represent the “totality of a revelation.” The transmission of the Nath doctrine however is founded on the trinity: Shiva, Matsyendra-nath and Gorakhnath. The Naths initiated members of all castes, including those outside the Hindu caste system, such as

Chandalas and sweepers, into their non-hierarchical order. Generally it would seem the Brahman caste were not attracted to the Naths. The Shaivite ascetics who haunted cemeteries, ate from skulls and even consumed corpses at the burning ghats, known as Aghoris or Aghorapanthis and the ascetic order of Kapalikas (wearers of skulls) are also known as yogis but are basically different to the Naths. From the elevent century the Nath yogis began to spread throughout northern India, and from their centre at Peshawar moved to all parts of Central Asia and Iran, at the same time influencing both qalandars and sufis. Aghoris and Kapalikas were uniterested in Middle Eastern regions where there were no burning ghats. Some of the yogis who thronged the court of the Mongols were Buddhist Tantrics, but they were hardly distinguishable from the yogis. Many Naths might have indulged in homosexuality, orgiastic practices, necrophilia, scatology, bestiality and other sexual perversions, but there were many groups of sober Naths who disseminated the real spiritual tenets of their foundres. All Naths however were hostile to Hindu caste distinctions, particularly those practised by Brahmans and respected een the pariah and the untouchable. The Siddha Siddhanta Paddliati, and some authentic works by Gorakhnath’s followers formed the basis of the doctrines of the puritanical Naths and offered a common ground for the exchange of ideas with such sufis as Shaikh Hamidud-Din Nagauri and Baba Farid. Discussion on the conception of the Ultimate Reality enhanced the mutual respect of the Naths and the sufis. According to Gorakhnath, Ultimate Reality could not be conceived by logical reasoning; it was a super sensuous, super intellectual, direct experience in the state of samadhi (trance) or a perfectly illuminated state of consciousness. Those who attained the direct transcendental experience of Reality during samadhi, felt united with the Absolute Truth: “....Absolute Reality unveils Itself to our consciousness in its super-sensuous super-mental super-intellectual transcendent state, in which the subject-object relation vanishes and the consciousness realises itself as perfectly

identified with the Absolute Reality. The Absolute Reality is thus experienced as the Absolute Consciousness, in which all time and space and all existences in time and space are merged in perfect unity, and the One Infinite Eternal Undifferentiated Changless Self-Effulgent Consciousness shines as the Ultimate Reality.” Sat-Cit-Ananda-Murti (One who reveals Himself as Being, Consciousness and Bliss), Goraknath believed was the highest form of God, the self-manifestation of the Formless and Manifestationless One —Brahma, Shiva, parmatma, Parmeswara, the holiest names of the Nameless One. To Gorakhnath and the Siddhas the phenomenal cosmic system was not false or illusory, nor did it have merely subjective Reality. Pure Will (icha-matra) inherent in the perfect transcendental nature of the Supreme Spirit was the source of the entire spatio-temporal order and of many different kinds of empirical realities. The Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati demonstrated the relationship between advaita (non-dualism) and dvaita (dualism) by using the analogy of water and bubbles familiar to that used by sufis in the Wahdat al-Wujud system. Bubbles appear at the surface of the water, then both bubbles and water appear merged with each other, the former loosing their ephemeral identity. The changing multiplicity of bubbles fails to separate them from the water. Thus: Akulam kulam adhatte kulam cakulatn icchati jala-budbuda-bat nyayat ekakarah Parah Sivah. Akula embraces Kula (the phenomenal self-expression of Reality) and Kula yearns for Akula (the noumenal essence of Reality). The relation is analogous to that between water and water bubbles. In reality Para-Siva (Supreme Spirit) is absolutely one. In Nath terminology the Absolute Spirit is called Shiva and His Unique Power is Shakti. There is no difference between the two, Shiva is the father of the universe and Shakti is the mother. Creation or the origin of the cosmic system is in reality the gradual revelation of Shiva’s inherent Shakti; the process of creation and dissolution has no absolute beginning or end in time. The Physical Cosmic Body is the

most complicated and diversified form of free self-manifestation of the Absolute Spirit through the gradual self-revelation of His infinite and eternal Spiritual Power. The human body is the microcosm of the entire cosmic body of Shiva. The divine Shakti who in the process of cosmic self-manifestation gradually descends from the highest transcendent spiritual plane of Absolute Unity and Bliss to the lowest phenomenal material level of endless diversities and imperfections, again ascends by means of the self-conscious process and imperfections, again ascends by means of the self-conscious process of Yoga Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion) to the transcendent spiritual plane where the divine spirit becomes perfectly and blissfully united with the supreme spirit, Shiva. Man with his developed individuality can experience Shiva, the supreme spirit, as his own true soul as well as the true soul of the universe. Yogic introspection and meditation calls for the attainment of a real understanding of the nature of the human body and of its esoteric aspects. These consist of nine cakras or centres of psycho-vital forces. The supreme divine power, dormant like a coiled serpent is located in the lowest muladhara cakra of every human body; yogic discipline enables it to rise step by step to the higher planes of spiritual illumination, finding its culmination in the highest cakra (sahasrara), the plane of blissful union of Shakti and Shiva. The region below the navel is the region of Shakti, while that above it is that of Shiva. Adhars, according to Goraknath, are the main sources of the vital and psychical functions which have to be controlled. Laksyas are objects on which a yogi should temporarily concentrate while summoning his psycho-vital energy with the ultimate aim of elevating it to the highest spiritual plane which can be internal, external or non-located. The processes of asana (posture), dhauti (washing), bandha (different kinds of motionlessness), mudra (gesture), pranayama (breathing) and other techniques of Hatha-Yoga are prescribed so as to achieve the transformation of the body in order to achieve the full control of the mind. The prerequisite of Nath discipline is the control of the vayu (the vital wind). This entire philosophy is called Hatha-Yoga, the union of the moon (tha) and the sun (ha).

The perfect yogi can transform his body according to his will and is therefore free of all diseases and death. Siddhas, such as the disciples of Gorakhnath and others are believed to have achieved the practical aspects of this philosophy while in the foothills of the Himalayas and came to be known as the jivan-mukta (lebarated while living). In fact it is the only state of true perfection in which the body is made whole throughout by control of the vital wind. Besides poetry which offered sufis an acquaintance with various aspects of the discipline of Hatha-Yoga, the most significant impact of Hatha-Yoga was the treatise, the Amrita-Kunda. It is believed that it was translated by Qazi Ruknuddin Samarqandi who was probably Qazi Ruknuddin Abu Hamid Mohammad bin Mohammad al-Amidi of Samarqand, the author of the Kitab al-Irshad who visited Lakhnauti between 1209-10 and 1216-17 and was initiated into Hatha-Yogic principles by a Siddha, called Bhojar Brahman. The work was later translated into Persian. A further Arabic version was again prepared by a Brahman from Kamrup, apparently in collaboration with a Muslim scholar. This version was retranslated into Persian by Shaikh Mohammad Ghaus Shattari (906/1500-01-970/1562-63). Shaikh Abdul-Quddus Gangohi who had an extensive knowledge of the Arabic and Persian versions of the Amrita-Kunda, which were widespread before the translation by Shaikh Mohammad Ghaus, imparted its essence to one of his disciples, Shaikh Sulaiman. Laying special emphasis on the human body as the microcosm of the macrocosm, the Amrita-Kunda deals at some length with importance of this belief. The work goes on to prescribe exercises by which one could achieve the Nath-Yogic goal of transubstantiation of the body into a state of samadhi. It main emphasis is on the discipline of the body, the senses and the mind, and it prescribes methods for the continued suppression of respiration, which involves inhaling and exhaling the breath in a specialised manner, and fixed the eye on the tip of the nose in order to effect a union between part of the vital spirit resideing in the body and that which pervades all nature. A prerequisite for yogic discipline is the control of the semen, particularly in the initial stages of ascetic exercises, and an accurate

knowledge of the organs and their functions. The goal of the yogi is to transmute the physical body into a subtle body, enabling it to obtain the state of jivan-mukti. The knowledge of some Indian sufis, such as Shaikh AbdulQuddus and his Rudauli pirs, was not limited to understanding and practising pranayama or pas-i anfas and to some semantic similarities and dissimilarities. The Shaikh’s Rushd-Nama which consists of his own verses and some of his pirs identity sufi beliefs based on the Wahdat al-Wujud with the philosophy and practices of Goraknath. In fact some verses with slight variations are included in Nath poetry as well as in that of Kabir and Gorakhnath. Such verses were regarded as the common property of both Muslim and Hindu mystics. Of the many verses in the Rushd-Nama there are six references to either “Gorakhnath,” “Shri Gorakh,” “Nath” and “O! Nath.” As in many Nath texts, these words at five different places throughout the work imply Ultimate Reality and Absolute Truth, while in the sixth place, the word refers to the Perfect Siddha or Perfect Man. The term Sabad used by Shaikh Abdul-Quddus identifies mystic contemplation with Shakti as well as Shiva and their union as the course of the existence of the three worlds. In other words the union of Shakti, the sun, and Shiva, the moon, according to the Shaikh, is the salat-i-makus of the sufis. The yogi equivalent is the ulti sadhna (regressive process) involving the “complete reversal of human behaviour, from ‘respiratory behaviour’ (replaced by pranayama) to sexual behaviour (annulled by the technique of the return of semen)”. In a Persian verse Shaikh Abdul-Quddus says: “Unless the brain comes down to the foot, None can reach the doors of God.” The Nath describes the Supreme Creator as Alakh-Nath (the Incomprehensible or Unseeable One) or as Niranjana. Shaikh AbdulQuddus also uses the name Alakh Niranjan in the same sense. He says that his Lord is Unseeable (Alakh Niranjan) but those who are able to comprehend Him are lost to themselves. In another verse the Shaikh identifies Naranjan with Khuda and calls Him the creator of the different worlds.

Like the Naths, Shaikh Abdul-Quddus attaches great importance to Onkar. To the Naths the word represents Para-Brahma (transcendent Brahm or the undefinable Absolute). The physical culture of the Naths is designed to make the body incorruptible and purified: Onkar is the basis oi pranayama. In the initial stages, breath is drawn up through the left nostril, the ira, while the sacred Hindu syllable “Om” is repeated slowly sixteen times. The breath is then suspended in the upper part of the nose where the breath nostrils meet. The junction of the nostrils is called the sukhmana. Just as the breath has been drawn up by theleft nostril, so it is forced down through the right nostril to pingala, while the syllable is again repeated sixteen times. The highest degree of perfection is extremely difficult to achieve, but Shaikh Abdul-Quddus expects sufis to absorb themselves in Onkar through zikr. To him Onkar is the Absolute Oneness, is interchangeable with Niranjana and indicates the state of sunyata (void). Shaikh Abdul-Quddus also explains the concept of sahaja according to Nath traditions. He emphasizes it in the sense of the union between Shakti and Shiva. However, the realization of sahaja, says the Shaikh leads to the achieving of ontological immortality or the sufi baqa’. A state of perfect equilibrium, it transcends perceptual knowledge with positive and negative experience. The Nath in such a state is simultaneously both the meditator and the meditation and the divinity meditated upon. The sunya, or sahaja of the Shaikh is also identical with the sunya and the sahaja of the Naths. To both the Naths and Shaikh Abdul-Quddus, sabad stands for the indefinable divine word. It is the source of all words, both heard and undeard, and is precieved by only perfect mystics. Yogic exercises do help to register such mystical sounds but the most important step in the comprehension of sabad is to make the Truth dwell in the heart through centemplation. The Shaikh exhorts sufis to meditate on the True Name or ism-i Azant. In the words of Gorakh, Shaikh AbdulQuddus warns yogis that wearing rings in their ears and rosaries of Eleocarpus ganitrus around their necks, or the recitation of sakhi and sabad (Nath poetry), fails to make one a yogi. These were only means to achieve worldly ambitions and were not true Yoga. In the same

strain he warned the ulama that they were selling knowledge in return for a living, and would not achieve Marifa. Mohammad was a deep mystery, believed Shaikh Abdul-Quddus and could not be approached by the mere crying of his name. In fact Ahmad (Mohammad) and Ahad (One or God) were the same and everyone in the world was misguided because of a failure to understand the true significance of the intervening mint (M) in the wordss Ahmad and Ahad. Although it was a Hindi version of some of Shabistari’s verses from the Gulshan-i Raz, Shaikh Abdul-Quddus impressively expressed the same idea of the truth in relevance to Nath verses. Shabistari says: “All these varied forms arise only from your fancy, They are but one point resolving qucikly in a circle. It is but one circular line from first to last Whereon the creatures of this world are journeying; On this road the prophets are as princes, Guides, leaders and counsellors. And of them our lord Mohammad is the chief, At once the first and the last in this matter. The One (Ahad) was made manifest in the mim of Ahmad In this circuit the first emanation became the last A single mim divides Ahad from Ahmad The world is immersed in that one mim. In him is completed the end of this road, In him is the station of the text ‘I call to God’.” Some verses ascribed to Gorakhnath in the Hindi Gorakhbani challenge qazis fro mechanically crying the name “Mohammad” and remind them that it was most improper for them to call themselves Muslims for they recited the Kalima without gaining its real meaning. A true Muslim was expected to develop spirituality in the same way as

Mohammad and to die to self before the death of his earthly body. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus finds the teachings of the Naths identical to the Wahdat al-Wujud. According to Gorakhnath the Absolute Truth realized in the highest spiritual experience is above the concept of bhava (existence) and abhava (negation of existence), absolutely devoid of origination and destruction, and beyond the reach of all speculation and imagination. This is Paru-Brahma, which is without name, form, ego, causality or activity, self-manifestation or internal and external differences. This philosophy of Grakhnath and the Siddhas called the Dwaita-dwaita-vilakshana-vada or Pakshapatabinirmukta-vada is nearest to the Wahdat al-Wujud. The simile of the relationship between river water and bubbles applied to the Naths could also be used to explain the Wahdat al-Wujud. More Hindi verses in support of the Wahdat al-Wujud were added by the Shaikh in the Rushd-Nama. He argued that steam rising from a river water from the cloud falls into a vessel it s known as water of whatever receptacle it finds itself, it if falls in the form of rain it is known as rain water. The following verses of the Quran continues the same theme: “Everyone that is thereon will pass away; There remaineth but the countenance of thy Lord ofMigh and Glory.” “And cry not unto any other god along xoith Allah. There is no God save him. Everything will perish save His countenance. His is the command, and unto Him ye will be brought back.” Duality according to the Shaikh Abdul-Quddus is a false concept and the idea of anything besides God is misguided. People should believe only in the Unity of Being. The sufi theory of creation is also neatly reconciled with the corresponding Nath theory. All sufis believe in the following eplanation of creation, said to have been revealed by God to David:

“I ivas a Hidden Treasure and I wished to be known, so I created creation that I might be known.” This desire is identical with the concept of divine will as held by the Naths. The Nath theory of the Lord existing alone in a void is no different from Jili’s theory of al-Ama (the dark mist and blindness). To Shaikh Abdul-Quddus the Nath theory of cration was a replica of Ibn al-Arabi’s theory which the former expressed this way: “When God willed in respect of_ His Beautiful Names (attributes), which are beyond enumeration, that their essences (ayun) — or if you xvish, you may say “His essence (‘aynuhu)”—should be seen, He caused them to be seen in a microcosmic being (kawn jami’) which, inasmuch as it is endowed with existence, contains the whole object of vision, and through which the inmost consciousness (sirr) of God becomes manifested to Him. This He did, because the vision that consists in a thing’s seeing itself by means of itself is not like its vision of itself in something else that serves as a mirror for it; therefore God appears to Himself in a form given by the place in which He is seen (that is, the mirror), and He would not appear thus (objectively) without the existence of this place and His epiphany to Himself therein. God had already brought the universe into being with an existence resembling that of a fashioned soulless body, and it was like an un-polished mirror.” All the verses by Shaikh Abdul-Quddus relating to the simile of the mirror and the polishing of the heart are based on ideas expressed by Ibn al-Arabi and Gorakhnath. The pas-i anfas, founded on the yogic pranayama and the ontological physiology of the Naths were subjects around which the Shaikh wrote a number of eloquent verses, and his arguments were presented very forcefully. Quoting the sufi belief that those who had no human pir were disciples of the devil, in a Hindi verse the Shaikh said that if a blind man led another blind man, both were bound to fall into a well. A ceaseless effort was needed to find the perfect guru

whom the Shaikh likened to a diamond mine—unless it was dug patiently and assiduously, the diamonds would never be found. The Shaikh’s interest in Nath teaching was not merely theoretical. In several ways he found Nath ascetic exercises compatible with Chishti practices. Besides obligatory prayers the Shaikh would perform four hundred rakats of namaz during the day and four hundred rakats at night. The clothes covering his knees would be threadbare from kneeling Winter’s excessive cold and frost were no obstacle to his prayng. After performing the evening namaz he would begin the zikr-i jahr. Those who joined him would tire, but the Shaikh’s absorption in the Wahdat al-Wujud failed to quench his enthusiasm. For years after the evening namaz he would perform the namaz-i makus. This was carried out by hanging, probably head downwards, and was generally continued the whole night. Although Chishtis believed this type of namaz to be a legacy from the Prophet, as pointed out earlier, Shaikh Abu Sa’id bin Abil-Khair was the first known sufi to have practised it; the first Indian sufi to perform it was Baba Farid. Shaikh AbdulQuddus considered it to be the counterpart of the ulti sadhna. Continual performance of namaz-i makus produced in the Shaikh a condition he called sultan-i zikr in which one experienced strange changes in the physical and spiritual condition including a deprivation of the senses and a lack of feeling of consciousness. Repeated appearances of the sultan-i zikr led to the state oifana’ al-fana. A description of this spiritual experience, given by Shaikh Ruknuddin, would tend to indicate that sultan-i zikr was comparable to the Nath Siddha’s, and that fana’ al-fana was a state experienced by the jivanmukta. Sultan-i Zikr, Shaikh Ruknuddin’s description contininued, would appear just before walking. During that period external senses were very weak, the inner contemplation made wakefulness and sleep appear identical. Later the state would reappear during consciousness. Initially the contemplative was quite frightened, but gradually he became accustomed to the condition. The seeker of God waited for the reappearance of this state in which he could simultaneously percieve

both the entire world and identify those who were obsessed with it. Sometimes the mediator consciousness of himself as a spatial entity and was plunged into the state offana’ al-fana. Shaikh Ruknuddin then compared the condition of sulan-i zikr with that experienced by the Prophet Mohammad when he received wahi. In short, he added that at the commencement of sultan-i zikr, the meditator felt as if he were listening to the humming of a bell whose sound then gradually became thunderous. According to Shaikh AbdulQuddus this had special relevance to nad and was a privelege of only a few outstanding sufis. The author of this remarkable Nath Hindi poetry, Shaikh AbdulQuddus Gangohi, used Alakh as his Hindi nom de plume. The Shaikh was initiated into the Chishti-Sabiri order of Shaikh Ahmad AbdulHaqq wo, like his father, wrote Hindi verses, some of which were incorporated by Shaikh Abdul-Quddus into the Rush-Nama. Shaikh Arif’s successor was Shaikh Mohammad who was the same age as Shaikh Abdul-Quddus. In order to have a living pir as a guide, the latter obtained initiation from Shaikh Mohammad and also claimed to have directly obtained inspiration from the spirit of Shaikh Ahmad Abdul-Haqq. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus came from Rudauli and was born about AD 1456. His father Shaikh Isma’il was an ‘alim but he was also a friend of Shaikh Ahmad Abdul-Haqq. From his childhood, Shaikh AbdulQuddus was drawn to a life of ascetism and although he obtained a formal education from eminent ‘ulama his absorbing interest was in the Wahdat al-Wujud. He decided to dedicate his life to the service of Shaikh Ahmad’s khanqah and to live the life of a celibate. Forced by his parents to marry, the Shaikh continuously neglected his family by spending every possible moment in prayer and meditation. He seems to have written his two most significant works, the Anwarul-Uyun and the Rush-Nama at Rudauli. In c. 1491 Shaikh Abdul-Quddus migrated to Shahabad, in Ambala near Delhi. On 5 Jumada I 897/5 March 1492, his son Shaikh Ruknuddin, the commentator of the Rushd-Nama and the author of the Latif-i Quddusi, was born. The reason for the Shaikh’s migration, as

given in the Lataif-i Quddusi, are emotional. The work states that Rudauli had succumbed to the infiltration of kafirs, Islamic practices disappeared and pork was openly sold in the bazaar. So converned was the Shaikh that he left Rudauli for Sultan Sikandar Lodi’s camp at Nakhna. One of the Shakih’s servants informed Umar Khan Sarwani, the vizier of Sultan Sikandar, of the situation, and he invited him to settle in his pargana at Shahabad. It would appear, however, that the move was precipitated more by expedient than pious motives and that it was Umar Khan’s offer of hospitality rather than the threat to Islam in Rudauli that prompted the Shaikh’s migration. The relationship between Shaikh Abdul-Quddus and Umar Khan Sarwani was long-standing. The latter had been an important Afghan chief under Sultan Bahlul and had been despatched to serve Prince Nizam Khan, who later succeeded his father as Sultan Sikandar. Umar Khan’s relations with Prince Nizam deteriorated and he fled to the court of a rival, Prince Barbak Shah, the governor of Jaunpur. Not succeeding at Jaunpur, Umar Khan sought shelter with the saints of Rudauli. There Shaikh Abdul-Quddus prayed that Umar Khan’s fortune might change. Soon afterwards he was reconciled with the Prince. The Rajput invasion of Rudauli and other predominantly Muslim towns in the Sharqi kingdom were commonplace occurences. In the lifetime of Shaikh Ahmad Abdul-Haqq, Rudauli was invaded by a neighbouring Hindu chief. The Afghan wars with the Sharqi kings, whom the Rajput chiefs supported, and later Barbak’s struggle to succeed Sultan Bahlul, greatly assisted the consolidation of Rajput power in that region. After his succession, Sultan Sikandar defeated Barbak near Kanauj but in order to further strengthe his position, he restored the throne of Jaunpur to Barbak. Barbak was not however interested either in crushing the Rajput power or uprooting Husain Shah Sharqi. The region remained torn with war until Barbak was finally expelled from Jaunpur in 1493. It is little wonder therefore that Shaikh AbdulQuddus preferred to migrate to a more peaceful region and seized the

opportunity when it arose. However, he does not seem to have accepted either financial assistance or land grants. His family then faced a severe economic crisis often starving for days. But like many other outstanding sufis, the Shaikh’s meditation was undisturbed by such a situation. After settling in Shahabad, Shaikh Abdul-Quddus visited Ajodhan and Multan. He seems to have visited Delhi more than once and became friendly with Sultan Sikandar Lodi. In a letter to the Sultan, the Shaikh reminded him of his duties as a ruler. His advice was based on the traditional Perso-islamic political theories defined by Ghazali, but it marks a departure from the traditional Chishti practice of unreserved non-involvement in politics. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus wrote to Sikandar Lodi that an hour spent by rulers in the pursuit of justice was more commendable than sixty hours of prayers by others. He went on to write that religious faith and the well-being of the state depended on the Sultan; in hs absence men would devour each other. Communities needed kings just as the body needed the soul. Sultans were distinguished by the title “Shadow of God on Earth.” If a monarch neglected to protect the weak, the holy, the ulama and mystics, the world would become anarchic. The numbr of Shaikh Abdul-Quddus disciples increased and he corresponded with many who lived away from Shahabad. Babur’s victory over Dipalpur and Lahore in 1523-24 made regions around Delhi exceedingly unsafe both to Muslims and nonMuslims. According to Shaikh Ruknuddin, a large number of ulama and holy men were killed and their libraries destroyed. A lot of Punjabi families moved to safer areas and amongst the emigrants was the Shaikh who settled at Gangoh in the Saharanpur district of U.P. He returned to Shahabad again when his house and thatched Jamaatkhana there were burnt in an accidental fire. Meanwhile, Babur marched to panipat where the Mughal army was opposed by Ibrahim Lodi’s forces. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus and his family acoompanied the rear of the Lodi army for safety. Sultan Ibrahim had the Shaikh brought to his camp where the latter predicted his impending defeat. The Shaikh told his disciples and family to flee to the eastern districts.

Only the Shakh, his son and a Saiyid servant remained at the Afghan camp. After Ibrahim Lodi’s defeat at panipat on 20 April 1526, the three were captured and taken to Delhi where they were released by Babur. Leaving Delhi the Shaikh retired to Gangoh where he remained for the rest of his life. There is no tangible evidence that Babur met the Shaikh, however, it is likely as the Emperor always showed a great interest in sufis and holy men. Moreover a letter written by the Shaikh to Babur indicates that they were acquainted with each other. Apparently Babur had suggested the imposition of ushr upon the wajah-i maash of the ulama and the sufis. While requesting the Emperor to honour, ulama, aima and the weak, the Shaikh commented, that the imposition of ushr upon the ivajah-i maash of these classes should not be permitted and should be considered a heinous sin; he added it was a particularly unwise act to ask for money from dervishes. The tax should remitted so that all those people who would have fallen into such a category could live peacefully and pray for the prosperity of the Emperor and the Muslim community. The muhtasibs should be appointed in towns and bazaars so that the Sharia could be enforced. The jama’ should be realized according to the traditions of the Khulfa-i Rashidun, the First Four Caliph, and their successors. Only the pious should be appointed as government officers so that revenue could be collected according to the Sharia. No kafir should be appointed to any post in the diwan of a Muslim capital or should hold offices such as amirs and ‘amil. They should receive no financial assistance from the government, and should live in a miserable condition. Kafirs should be forced to pay regular revenue and taxes on their agricultural and commercial undertakings, their dress should differ from Muslims, their worship should be in secret and they should not openly indulge in heretical practices. They should not draw salaries from the Baitul-mal but confine their activities to their traditional trades and professions. Equal treatment with Muslims was not to be given in the interests of Islam. The puritanically severe demands made by the Shaikh to Babur were matched only by those emanating from the most conservative

amongst the orthodox. No doubt his attitude was prompted by the imposition of ‘ushr on the property held by the ulama and sufis, and like many he considered the Hindu officers of the diwan responsible for the financial difficulties of the upper class Muslims. As we shall see, Guru Nanak exhibited more equanimity and resignation in the divine will than Shaikh Abdul-Quddus. It is interesting that the Shaikh objected to Hindus holding high administrative posts, at the same time failing to censure the Rajput military classes and showing no concern for Hindus charging high interest rates as long as they were involved in traditional roles. It would not be unfair to suggest that theShaikh’s views were inconsistent and extreme and the result of a sufi theorist indulging in politics in a polarized fashion. Another letter was written by Shaikh Abdul-Quddus to Prince Humayun recommending that he accord honourable status to the ulama and holy men. Humayun paid a visit to the Shaikh’s hermitage in Gangoh. On 23 Jumada II 944/27 November 1537 the Shaikh died. Shaikh Ruknuddin was, however, critical of Humayun’s religious policy. The Lataif-i Quddusi was commenced a month before his father’s death and completed after it. In it Humayun was accused of not making distinction between the kufr and Islam. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus had a large number of sons who in turn had many disciples. His successor was Shaikh Ruknuddin who died in AD 1575-76. His khalifa was, however, Shaikh Jalal Thaneswari, who died in 1581-82. Besides the Lataif-i Quddusi, Shaikh Ruknuddin compiled a commentary on the Rushd-Nama. His most difficult problem was to justify the contents of his father’s above work. He was asked how could the poetry of the yogis and sanniyasis embody truths about the Tazvhid as the moral principles of religions came from the prophets alone who were themselves divinely inspired. The Shaikh’s reply was that a number of Quranic verses indicated that from the time of Adam to Mohammad more than a hundred thousand prophets were sent to guide different religious communities. Each country and nation received its own prophet. The verses in the Quran say:

“Lo! We have sent thee with the Truth, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and there is not a nation but a warner hath passed among them.” “Whosoever goeth right, it is only for (the good of) his own soul he goeth right, and whsoever erreth, erreth only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another’s load. We never punish until We have sent a messenger.” The prophets taught their respective communities in the local language and also received divine books in the vernacular. This was so that people might not be reproachful on the Day of Ressurrection that the prophet had not taught them in their own language. Thus the Quran says: “And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make (the message) clear for them. Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” Therefore argued Shaikh Ruknuddin, it was impossible to believe that a prophet had not been sent to India and that the Tawhid had not been taught in Indian languages. Kafirs had distorted their prophets’ message and had reverted to idol worship because of the interference of devils. The Quran states: “And for every nation there is a messenger. And when their messenger cometh (on the Day of Judgement) it will be judged between them fairly, and they will not be wronged.” Shaikh Ruknuddin reinforced his arguments by also quoting from works on Hadis implying that Indian religions were founded on the Tawhid and must therefore contain the essence of Reality. Turning now to other works of Shaikh Abdul-Quddus we should first mention his earliest literary attemp which was begun before his migration to Shahabad. This was a Persian poetical translation of the Chunda’in. The manuscript however was lost during the upheavals in Rudauli caused by the wars between Sultan Bahlul and Husain Shah Sharqi. A short treatise by the Shaikh entitled Nurul-Huda included an

account of creation and was intended to supplement the Rushd-Nama. The Qurratul-Ain was another detailed work on the Wahdat al-Wujud. One of his treatises, the Risala-i Qudsiyya, was mentioned by Shaikh Abdul-Haqq. The letters which Shaikh Abdul-Quddus wrote were collected by his disciple, Buddhan, the son of Rukn Siddiqi of Jaunpur, under the title the Maktubat-i Quddusiyya. The work contains 189 letters which deal with almost every significant sufi theme. Also included are several Hindi verses. In a letter to Qazi Abdur-Rahman Sufi of Shahabad the Shaikh wrote that the world was full of impostors and charlatans and then quoted the verse from the Rushd-Nama relating to the blind leading the blind, at the same time stating that it had been written by Shaikh Nur. A disciple worshipping his pir was better than the worshipper of the Lord, argued the Shaikh, for the latter was busy with the contemplation of his own self and therefore neglected God; one who adored his pir, however, worshipped God through the contemplation of His creature. A Hindi verse, Girt Purbat Bich Base Hamaro Mit, “Our Love Crosses Obstacles of Mountains,” so strongly stimulated Shaikh Abdul-Quddus to meditate on the Omnipotence of the Lord that this prompted him to write a long letter to Bahlul Sufi explaining the subtleties contained in the Wahdat al-Wujud. He went on to say that kufr and sin alone were not obstacles to the perception of the Wahdat al-Wujud; faith, obedience, prayer, piety and so on, could also serve as great hindrances. The letters of Shaikh Abdul to Shaikh Jalal Thaneswari feature very subtle explanations of the Unity of Being. They emphasize that love is the principal cause for the creation of the world. From a superficial viewpoint love appears easy, in reality, however, it reduces the lover to ashes. He supports this idea by quoting a number of Hindi verses on the subject, some of which from the Rushd-Nama. In another letter to Shaikh Jalal, Shaikh Abdul-Quddus quotes the verse “Had the idol worshipper been able to know the truth about the idol, they would have not been misled.” He adds that one who had learnt to perceive God saw nothing but Him, however one who had learnt to see everything else but God failed to see Him at all. To the Shaikh he who saw God and not a stone idol was in fact His worshipper, whereas one

who never saw God but stone was given to vanity and infidelity. He then quoted the following Pesian verse by Shaikh Bu Ali Qalandar, and used a doha from the Canadian to support it. The verse can be translated as follows: “Whatever form Thous assumeth people prostrate But they don’t eat any fruit from the garden of Thy love.”

Yogic Syncretism The Naths and the Siddhas spread from the Panjab to Bengal lived in forests, wandered in towns and also established permanent monasteries. By the fifteenth century many groups of Muslims also became yogis, though not necessarily Naths or Siddhas. Some became professional beggars and acrobats. Mixed with the Muslim followers of Shah Madar and qalandars, a section of yogis also popularized syncretic beliefs. They considered Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh to be both angels and disciples og Gorakhnath. They also claimed all the prophets and apostles as his disciples. To yogis the prophet Mohammad was a pupil and disciple of Gorakhnath but they concealed this belief for fear of Muslim retribution. Baba Ratan Hajji was identified with Gorakhnath and it was asserted that the Prophet had learnt Yoga through the Baba. The Vaishnavites The Vaishnavite influence on sufism made itself felt mainly through its devotional poetry. This form of Hinduism involved the worship of Vishnu or Narayana, a major god of the Hindu pantheon who was generally adored in the form of two of his ten incarnations. Rama and Krishna, and also in the form of the worship of their consorts. The Vaishnavism of al-Biruni’s days was founded oh four works: the Vishnu-Purana, the Bhagavata-Purana, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Harivamsa. Its earliest known expression was in the Pancharatra Agamas of Sandilya who lived around AD 100, but the movement was temporarily checked by the influence of the great Vedantic philosopher, and uncompromising monist, Shankaracharya. In the tenth and eleventh centuries Vaishnavism was revived by

Nathamuni, Yamuna and most significantly by the philosopher and bhakta (Hindu devotee), Ramanuja. All emphasized devotion through image worship and simple rituals rather than by means of knowledge, the antithesis of Shankara’s philosophy. The hymns of the Alvars, in South India during the seventh and ninth centuries became models for the latter Marathi and Hindi Vaishnavite songs. The Alvars wandered from one town to the next singing ecstatic songs and dancing rapturously. They advocated the personal existence of the One Supreme Being and sang in praise of Narayana, Rama and of the love beteen Krishna and the gopis (cowgirls). Rebels against the superior caste claims of the Brahmans, the greatest of the Alvars was Namalvar (c. AD 800), himself a lowly Sudra. Trimulisari, another Alvar, like Saraha-Pa wrote: “Jains are ignorant: Buddhists have fallen into a snare; Shaivites are xvithout enlightenment and those who will not worship Vishnu are loio indeed.” Ramanuja whose dates are believed to be 1050 and 1137, was bom near what is now Madras and was educated at Conjeeveram. Visiting all the Hindu centres of pilgrimage in northern and southern India, he settled in Srirangam in the south flaunting tradition he taught that all classes should bt given access to the sacred Vedas. Although he wrote in Sanskrit, his disciples used the vernacular Tamil. Ramanuja permitted idol worship and accepted the Hindu division of society into castes, but he admitted Sudras and outcastes to his order. Criticizing the theories of Shankaracharya, a Shaivite, he scathingly wrote: “This entire teaching is nothing but a web of false reasoning. His understanding must have been disturbed by illusory imaginations arising from sins lie had committed in his previous births. He zoho knows the right relation of things must reject such foolish doctrines.” Rumanuja preached that the individual human soul is not identical with the Supreme but is a fragment of the latter. Dependant on the Supreme Being the human soul has a separate identity but both possess

Reality. His doctrine became known as the vishisht-advaita, that is, qualified non-dualism, as opposed to the pure monism, advaita, that is, qualified non-dualism, as opoosed to the pure monism, advaita (allowing no second), of Shankara. The knowledge of this separation assisted in the practice of devotion through which one could achieve mukti (redemption). To Ramanuja, Shankara’s philosophy, involving salvation through knowledge, was on an inferior level to the path of Bhakti. Madhava (1197-1280) was a Kanarese Brahman who also opposed Shankara’s advaita and formulated the idea of dvaita, total dualism. He emphasized that Brahma or God was Supreme and the creator of the world and that assuch was in essence different to the Jiva or human soul. Although he did not reject devotion to Shiva, Madhava was basically a Vaishnavite. Nimbarka (c. 1130-1200), a Telugu Brahman, taught that Brahma had an independent Reality, that he was absolute existence and the creator and sustainer of the universe. The individual soul of man possessing self-consciousness was both created, finite and sustained by Brahma, but not identical to Him. Devotion at the lotus-feet of Krishna and his consort Radha was the most effective path to salvation and the end of the eternal process of samsara (transmigration). Nimbarka’s philosophy was known as dvaitadvaita (dualistic non-dualism). Anew dimension was added to Vaishnavite devotionalism by a contemporary of Nimbarka, the Sanskrit poet Jayadeva (c. 1100) a protege of the Sena court in Bengal. His masterpiece is the poetic drama the Gita-Govinda involving stories of Krishna, Radha and the gopis. It has been suggested that Jayadeva’s Sanskrit version is based on the Apbrahmsa (Transitional Vernacular or Archaic Bengali) and that the Krishna cult had really begun much earlier than the twelfth century. The Granth Sahib incorporates some hymns by Jayadeva in Hindi and gives the author a prominent place in the list of bhaktas. The great Marathi poet, Jnanadeva (1275-96), wrote a Marathi version of the Bhagavad-Gita, fusing the poems with devotional philosophy. He also composed emotive Vaishnavite songs in the same language. Born around 1270, Namdeva came from a low caste family

of Pandharpur tailors. His hymns in both Marathi and Hindi are marked by a deep Vaishnavite faith and contain elements which were the basis of the Nirguna Bhakti movement, discussed at the end of this chapter. To Namdeva the invisible and wonderful God who alone is Reality speaks to every heart. There is a story that once he fell into a trance and believed himself to be playing cymbals in God’s honour; God finally appeared and took the instruments from him. On awaking Namdeva composed the following hymn of praise: “Come God, the Qalandar Wearing the dress of an Abdali. The firmament is the hat on Thy head, The seven nether regions Thy slippers; All animals with skins are Thy temples; thus art Thou decked out, O God! The fifty-six millions of clouds are Thy robes and The sixteen thousand queens of Krishan Thy zvaistbands; The eighteen loads of vegetables are Thy clubs, The whole world is Thy salver; Noma’s body is Thy mosque, his heart They priest Who tranquilly prayeth. O Thou with and zuithout form, Thou who art wedded to lady Lakshmi, While I was zuorshipping Thou had any cymbals taken from me: To whom shall I complain? Noma’s Lord is the searcher of all hearts, And wandereth in every Land.”

The traditions established by Ramanuja were put on a firm basis by Ramananda (c. 1360-1470). During his lifetime Ramananda travelled all over India spending some time teaching in Banaras and Agra. He advocated devotion to the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of Rama, and of his consort Sita. His disciples belonged both to the Vaishnavite and Nirguna Bhakti north Indian sant (Hindu saint) traditions. His influence was far-reaching and he helped to establish Ramanuja’s system of visisht-advaita as a significant force in Indian classical philosophy and as an important influence amongst the many emerging Bhakti cults. The most prominent of Bengali Vaishnavites was Chaitanya (1485-1534), a native of Navadvipa (Nadia). Chaitanya believed that knowledge, meditation, charity and virtue should be subordinated to the devotion of Krishna and Radha. His favourite form of worship as a bhakta was in kirtan or samkirtan (group singing) which was accompanied by drums, cymbals or a one-stringed fiddle and during which the words Hari and Krishna were constantly chanted. Chandidas (c. 1350-1430), and other Vaishnavite poets preceding Chaitanya identified themselves with the Shaktis or female companions of Krishna. Chaitanya became even more radical by personally identifying himself with Radha and her love for Krishna, which gradually came to symbolize the search of the soul for God. Chaitanya’s emotional attachment to the Krishna led to prolonged spells of ecstasy and epileptic fits. A theory called achinty bhedabheda (incomprehensible dualistic monism) was developed by Chaitanya to express the relationship between God and the soul and he drew the analogy of the connection between fire and a simple spark which neither were identical nor different. Chaitanya’s followers defined their goal this way: “At the mention of the word sayujya (loss of identity) the bhakta (believer) feels fear. He prefers hell to it. At the word mukti (redemption) hatred arises in the mind. But at the toord Bhakti (devotion) he feels only joy.” Like the Alvars, Chaitanya was opposed to class distinctions, but his followers allowed the practice to creep back into the movement.

They not only worshipped Vishnu, Krishna and Radha, but also relics associated with their founder. A modern Muslim scholar who appears not to be conversant with the different forms of Bhakti argues that Chaitanya was influenced by Shaikh Nur Qutb-i Alam. There would seem to be little in common with the puritanical Vaishnavism of Chaitanya and his follower and sufis such as Nur Qutb-i Alam and his Khalifas. However, the deep impact made by Chaitanya was felt on a more popular level, for example in the Baul movement. The Bauls were a popular group of Muslim and Hindu singers in Bengal who used mainly songs in the tradition of Chaitanya. The Muslim Bauls followed sufi traditions while the Hindu Bauls were Vaishnavites. The movement began in Nadia from where it spread to all parts of Bengal. Among the beliefs of the Hindu Bauls was that Bhirbhadra, a son of Nityananda (1473-1544) was their first guru and received the Baul faith from a Muslim woman called Madhava Bibi. But the beginnings of the movement are as shrouded in mystery as is the origin of the word Baul. The Sanskrit words vatula (affected by wind-disease, that is, crazy) and vyakula (impatiently eager) are suggested as possible roots of the word. A Hindi variation, baur (also meaning crazy) has been suggested, as a closer Hindi equivalent baula, with the same translation. All these words are compatible both with the poetry of the Bauls and their philosophy of life. They borrowed ideas from the Vaishnava Shajiyas who prefereed to achive the state of sahaja (the ultimate nature of the self) not through yogic practices but by a process of the divinization of human love, as represented in the Radha/ Krishna union. Both the Vaishnavite and sufi Bauls were regarded as “Men of the Hearts.” They were non-dualistic, conceiving the body as the microcosm of the universe. A Baul poet wrote: “The Man of the house is dwelling in the house,—in vain have you become mad by searching Him outside. It is... your own fault that you are roaming about for ever. You have been to Caya, Benares (Kasi) and Vrndavana,—and have travelled through many rivers and forests and other places of pilgrimage; but say, —have you seen in all these anything of Him of Whom you have heard?

Through false illusion you have lost all your power of understanding,—with jexvel tied in your own skirt, you have been swimming in search of it. With care you might have easily got the gem,—but you are losing everything carelessly, —the jeioel shines sso near to your eyes, but alas! You are keeping your eyes shut—and you do not see.” The popularity of Vaishnavite themes used in sufi Sama’ rituals of Hindi speaking regions is a most remarkable development. The sufis regarded them as welcome additions to their devotional poetry to induce ecstasy. In 1566 Mir Abdul-Wahid Birgarami compiled a Persian dictionary of Hindi songs which had been well-known to sufis giving prominence to those known by Vaishnavites. The work is entitled the Haqaiq-i Hindi and is divided into three sections. Tine first section gives a mystic explanation of Hindi words used in Durpad songs. The second section allegorically explains the words used in Vaishnavite songs in Braj Bhasha, the dialects of the Mathura region. The Mir justifies the popularity of the names of kafirs used in sufi Sama’ on the grounds that the Quran itself uses the names of both kafirs and enemies. The third section gives the sufi explanation of the words used in Hindi sufi poetry. It was not, however, only to satisfy the orthodox that the need for an explanation of Hindi terms was felt. The sufis used even Arabic and Persian words in a mystical and technical sense which was vastly different from common usage. Several dictionaries of sufi technical terms were written. The ancient Indian mystics such as the Sahajiyas, Tantrics and the Nath-Yogis also compiled dictionaries of their own mystical and technical terms. Nabhaji, the author of the Bhagat Mai, the celebrated biographical dictionary of the sants written at the end of the sixteenth century also thought it appropriate to explain allegorically the Gita-Govinda. He wrote: “....the love scenes and rhetorical graces of the poet are not to be understood in the sense that persons of evil minds and dispositions attach to them. Radhika the heroine is heavenly wisdom. The milkmaids zvho divert Krishanfrom his allegiance to her, are the senses of

smell, sight, touch, taste and hearing. Krishan represented as pursuing them is the human soul, which attaches itself to earthly pleasures. The return of Krishan to his first love is the return of the repentant sinner to Cod, xohich gives joy in heaven.” The Haqaiq-i Hindi of Mir Abdul-Wahid Bilgarami, was therefore written in the same tradition. An explanation by Mir Abdul-Wahid about the Krishna theme is as follows: Krishna: Sometimes Krishna and his other names in Hindawi (Hindi) indicate the Prophet Mohammad and sometimes the (Perfect) Man. Often it indicates the Reality of the creation of man which is related to the Unity of Being. Sometimes it represents /Wis. Often it stands for idols, Christians or the sons of fire-worshippers, as the following lines indicate: Idol and Christian-boy represent manifestations of divine light Which illuminate beautiful faces; This light which illuminates beautiful faces gives rest tothe heart; Sometimes it is epitomized in a singer and sometimes in the saqi (cup bearer). Gopi and Cujari (milkmaid): Sometimes these words represent angels; sometimes they indicate the reality of mankind in relation to the Unity of Being. If wise men perceive into them a different meaning, the source of difference is the intellect itself. The symbols themselves do not warrant any difference. For example once Shibli recited the following verse: “I ask about ‘Salma’ but none in the luorld answers me.” It is evident that “Salma” in the above verse indicates a woman but to Shibli she meant God. The sufis use several such symbols and give innumerable reasons for their allegorical interpretations. Kubrhi or Kubija (Hunch-backed Woman): These words indicate human beings and their faults. Uddhava (A companion and relation of Krishna): Sometimes it indicates the Prophet Mohammad, sometimes it indicates his followers

who are intermediaries between him and God. Sometimes it indicates Gabriel. Patiya (sent): Sometimes it indicates divine books, and sometimes it stands for the book of mankind’s deeds, believed to have been maintained by observing angels and to be produced on the Day of Judgment. Sometimes it indicates the divine command censuring men for being engrossed in the thoughts of pleasures of heaven and forgetting the vision of God. Sometimes it indicates the universe which is a compendium of Essence and manifestations. In fact this in itself is the divine book. Verse One whose soul rests in the divine light, Considers the entire universe as a divine book. The vowels and diacritical marks and punctuations and pauses in this book are the manifestation of the divine. Each page of the book of the universe is a volume of Marifa. Verse Consider esoteric and exoteric as the embodiment of Being and all objects in the universe (such) as the Quran and its verses. Sometimes this word symbolized those hearts which are steadfast in faith. Braj and Gokul (region of Mathura associated with Krishna’s life). These words stand for the three ontological dominations of the Jabarut, representing the highest point in the spiritual world; the nasut or physical world, and the Malakut or intermediary psychic world. The Jamuna, Ganga or Kalindi (rivers): Sometimes these indicate the river of the Wahdat, sometimes the ocean of Marifa, sometimes the streams of creation or contingent existence. Truly all contingent existences are like waves and canals. Murli or Bansuri (flute): This indicates the appearance of existence out of the void.

Verse The entire world is the humming of His song. None has heard such a prologned voice. It also points to the contents of the Quranic verse: “ and breathed into him (Adam) of My Spirit” and the divine command in the Quran namely “Be.” Verse The world of creation and command emanates from a breath. This breath is ephemeral. Both worlds were created from the breath; the existence of Adam also took place from the breath. Breath is melody. It does not contain any letter, Sound or pulling and breathing. There is no sound or letter in the song of spirit; A unique mystery is concealed in it. Kans: Sometimes the name symbolizes the nafs, sometimes the devil, sometimes it indicates the aspects of the names of Allah related to His Majesty and Power. Sometimes the name may indicate the Sharia of the prophets prior to the advent of Mohammad. Mathura: This indicates the temporary stations in the Marifa which are related to nasut. The permanent stations are Malakut or Jabarut. Starting from the temporary stations, the sufi joerney leads to the permanent stations. The sufis accordingly say that one who is not born twice does not enter the loftiest of spiritual stages. Dzvarika: This is the permanent station of sufis. The knowledge and ascetic exercises of perfect sufis carry them to permanent stations. This it the maad or ultimate state of mystics. Jasodha (Yashoda, mother of Krishna): This indicates divine mercy which God has promised to the worldly.

The author of this unique dictionary, Mir Abdul-Wahid was born in c. 915/1509-10. he belonged to the family of eminent sufis from Bilgaram in Hardoi, near Lucknow. He was married in Kanauj where he remained for many years. Mulla Abdul-Qadir who met the Mir in 977/1569-70, latter indulged in ecstatic exercises and songs to induce trance-like states. At Akbar’s invitation, he visited the Emperor’s court and received a huge grant from him for his living expenses. The Mir died on 3 Ramazan 1017/11 December 1608. Mir Abdul-Wahid’s Persian work Saba-i Sanabil is a very famous treatise on sufi doctrines and ethics. Written in 969/1562, it included many Hindi quotations. The Mir also wrote another short treatise on sufism entitled the Kalimat’i Chand. A commentary on the Nazhatul-Arwah of Fakhr-i Sadat Husaini, compiled by the Mir and mentioned by Badayuni, has not survived. Some works mentioned by Mir Ghulam Ali Azad Bilgarami, such as a tale of four brothers, the Qissa-i Chahar Baradar, and a commentary on the technical terms of the Persian sufi poet Khwaja Hafiz (c. 1325-89) have also not been traced. A collection of the Mir’s ghazals is available in the Aligarh University Library. His verses lack the lyrical impact of Hafiz and in some of them, the mysticism is rather laboured. The Mir claimed that in a vision the Khvvaja had made him his disciple. Much better understood and more widely known than the above work by Mir Abdul-Wahid is the Hindi sufi poetry modelled on the Persian masnawis of Nizami Ganjawi. The masnawis of the great sufi poets, Sanai, Attar and Rumi mentioned earlier, were characterized by a much greater degree of ecstasy and intense emotion expressed through the use of anecdotes than the poems of Nizami. Ilyas bin Yusuf Nizami of Ganja also began writing a collection of five epics (Khamsa) along the lines of Sanai masnawis, a trend which he continued in the Makhzanul-Asrar (Treasure Chamber of Mysteries). Soon, however, he realized that parables and allegories did not offer him enough scope for lyrical artistry. He then decided to relate the adventures of the Sasanian king Khusraw Parviz (AD 591-628), his amours with the beautiful Shirin and the fate of his rival Farhad. The work took four years between 573-6/1177-81 to complete. The success of this masnawi prompted

him to write the Arabian folk story the Lail-u Majnun; later he produced the Haft-Paikar (Seven Portraits). The hero of this masnqwi was again the Sasanian king Bahram Gur (AD 421-39). “The Seven Portraits in question, discovered by Bahram one day in a secret chamber in his castle... represented seven princesses of incomparable beauty... Bahram falls in love xoith these portraits, and, succeeding almost immediately afterzvards to the throne vacated by the death of his father.... he demands and obtains these seven princessess in marriage from their respective fathers. Each one, representing one of the Seven Climes... is lodged in a separate palace... and Bahram visits earch of them on seven successive nights.... Each of the seven princessess entertains him in turn with stories, somewhat after the scheme of the Arabian Nights....” The last of Ilyas bin Yusuf Nizami’s epics was a poem of the Islamic legend of Alexander the Great, which was written with excessive poetical and philosophical depth. The Persian poets left no stone unturned to imitate Nizami but even the great Amir Khusraw was no match for him. Only Faizi (154795), succeeded in matching Nizami’s genius by selecting the Indian romantic theme surrounding the love of Raja Nal for his beloved Damyanti. From the fourteenth century the sufi poets who chose Indian themes and wrote masnawis in Hindi and other regional languages were prompted to do this because such themes offered them wide opportunities to express their thoughts on mysticism. Indian imagery and symbolism were not only new but were also artistic. The success of Nakhshabi’s Persian Tuti Nama was a further incentive to them. Non-Indian sufis of the early centuries of Islam did not hesitate to learn lessons from the Magian and Manichaean interaction of Being and non-Being where the Phenomenal World emanated and also from the Christian Trinity typifying the Light of Being, the Mirror of the purified Human soul and the rays of the divine outpouring. They were impressed with the Buddhist nirvana as well as with the enthusiasm for their idols. They believed in the well-known sufi

saying al-majazu quntartul Hhaqiqa (the phantasmal is the bridge to the Real). To them earthly beauty was a mere reflection of Eternal Beauty, which appeared in thousands of mirrors, but which essentially was One. Centuries earlier Amir Khusraw reminded sufis: “Khusraw, in love rival the Hindu wife, For the dead’s sake she burns herself in life.” The motive of these sufi poets who wrote Hindi masnaivis was to arouse indescribable ecstasy both in themselves and in others thus obliterating the distinction between “Thou” and “I.” Their writings were not designed to fulfil a missionary aim, as some admirers have suggested. The works based on the model of Persian masnawis always began with verses of gratitude to Allah, followed by praise for Mohammad and his comapanions, the reigning monarch and lastly tributes to the particular pir. Then the tale was related effusively but with great fervour. The earliest known masnawi written in Hindi is the Canadian of Maulana Dawud, popularly known as Mulla Dawud. He came from Dalmau in the Rae Bareli district, near Lucknow and was a khalifa of Shaikh Zainud-Din who in turn was the son of the sister of Shaikh Nasirud-Din Chiragh-i Dihli and his uncle’s khalifa. Probably the work was started in 722/1370-71 and completed in 781/1379-80. Mulla Abdul-Qadir Badayuni says: “In 722/1370 Khan-i Jahan, the wazir, died; and his son Juna obtained that title. Maulana Dawud, wrote in his honour Canadian, a masnawi in Hindawi, relating the story of the love ofLorak and Chanda. It is a very touching piece indeed, and too well-known to need praise. Even Maulana Shaikh Taqiud-Din, a godly preacher (wa’iz-i Rabbani) used to recite its verses from the pulpit. It had an indescribable ecstatic effect upon the audience. When certain learned men asked the Shaikh why he chose that masnawi/or his discourss, he replied, ‘the whole of it is divine truth and is not only agreeable to the taste of people xoho are interested in divine Love, but it is compatible with the interpretation of some verses of the Quran. Even now sweet-singers of India captivate the heart by reciting it.”

The story is based on a Dalmau folk tale. The heroine of the masnawi lived in Gobargarh and was married as a child of four. At twelve a beggar-bard chanced to see her. So enchanted with her beauty was he that he composed songs lamenting the fact that he could no longer see her. At the court of the Raja of Rajapur the bard’s songs of Chanda’s beauty so inspired the monarch that he invaded Gobargarh. Chanda’s father invited Laurik Vir, a neighbouring raja to Gobargarh’s assistance. Rup Chand was defeated but the victor and Chanda fell in love. Leaving his wife, Laurik Vir and Chanda remained together until the news of his wife’s intense anguish forced him to return. The most fascinating portions of the masnawi are the nakh-shikh (top to toe) description of Chanda given by the bard at theRaja’s court. Maulana Dawud sees the eye-brows of Arjuna in theheavens but finds those of Chanda even more beautiful. As she\ walks, men prostrate themselves before her only to find their sins washed away. Rishis and gods such as Indra, Brahma, Vishnu, Murari and Gandharya are enchanted by her. The nakh-shikh of the Canadian made a deep impact on later writers of Hindi masnawis and were reproduced chiefly because of the great prestige of its author as a mystic. Shaikh Abdul-Quddus, in a letter to Shaikh Jalal Thaneswari on the Wahdat-al Wujud, quoted a doh.; from the Canadian to prove that although lovers sought to meet their beloveds, they were always thwarted. The doha is immediately followed by lines from a verse from the Quran in which Moses urges God to reveal Himself but his request is rejected on the grounds that it was impossible for Moses to see his Creator. In the sufi path, Arani and Lan Tarani represented constant conflict between the devotee, who wished to see the divine vision, and God. In another letter to Shah Mohammad about the spiritual ambitions of holy men, Shaikh Abdul-Quddus argued, using for emphasis a doha from the Canadian, that only the spiritually adventurous were real men. It is interesting that Shaikh Abdul-Quddus lectured on the Canadian with the same intensity as when he lectured on the works of Ibn al-Arabi, Fakhrud-Din Iraqi and Saudi. As pointed out earlier, his Persian translation of the Canadian was not available even to his son but three verses of the Persian translation that Shaikh Ruknuddin was

able to quote, indicate the extent to which the Canadian could be reconciled with Persian ideas on mysticism. The verses translated by Shaikh Abdul-Quddus refer to Bajir’s sighting of Chanda for the first time. The Persian translation allegorically describes Chanda as a piece of unreachable fruit. “A fruit is seen in the heavens on a lofty tree Our hands cannot hope to reach it. Anyone who is able to extend his hands high, How can he touch the branches of that heavenly tree. There are lots of people to guard the fruit throughout the day and nigh He who tries even to look at it is likely to be killed.” The analogy is subtle: Mystics get a glimpse of the Supreme but God Himself is beyond their reach. Like the story of Canadian, that of Mrigawati is also based on local folklore. It revolves round an Elysian beauty Mrigawati. Below is a general outline of the story. Ganpati, the raja of Chandragiri, was finally blessed with a son because of his great generosity. The child was named Raj Kunwar. Learned at the age of ten, he was devoted to hunting. Once, chasing a doe, he became separated from his companions. Reaching a lake the doe disappeared into the forest. Raj Kunwar, who had fallen in love with the doe, waited for many months but she never re-appeared. The love-lorn prince was miserable, so his father constructed a temple near the lake in which the prince could live. One day seven fairies came to bathe in the lake; one of them was called Mrigawati. An old woman told the Prince how to lure Mrigawati away from her companions and while she bathed, he stole her clothes. The prince refused to return them saying that he had waited two years for her, to which she replied that she had disguised herself as a doe to catch his eye. The two were married in the temple.

The Prince went to visit his father and to test his love Mrigawati donned the clothes which had been stolen and disappeared. Hertbroken the Prince became a yogi and after a hazardous journey found his wife at Kandrapur, her home town. Finally the Prince returned to Chandragiri to comfort his lonely father and died after failing from an elephant after a hunting expedition. Mrigawati and Princess Rukmani, who had married the prince during Mrigawati’s absence, became satis by throwing themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre. The introduction gives a direct and more detailed description of sufi ideas. On the analogy that the painting should arouse interest in the painter, it suggests and promises that a genuine searcher will inevitably reach God. Mrigawati is the reflection of Eternal Beauty and the symbol of divine. A true understanding of Beauty is enjoyed by one who is prepared to become self annihilated and to see the beloved through love., love is the embodiment of affiction and only the stupid anticipate an eternity of happiness in love. Like other sufis the author, Shaikh Qutb AH Qutban, describes the Essence as Light and using Hindu terminology he calls Him Niranjan, Kratar, Vidhata, pramesh, Ek-Onkar, Alakh. Defining Mohammad as the cause of creation, the author draws on the concept of Shiva and Shakti as two bodies. The Shaikh was the disciple of Makhdum Shaikh Budhan, in turn the disciple of Shaikh Mohammad Isa Taj of Jaunpur. Although Shaikh Isa Taj was a distinguished Chishti, Shaikh Budhan seems to have been initiated into both the Chishtiyya and Suhrawardiyya orders. Qutban preferred to call himself a Suhrawardi. According to Shaikh Abdul-Quddus both Shaikh Buddhan and Shaikh Isa Taj were revered personalities, expert in the interpretation of dreams. Qutban’s patron was Sultan Husain Shah Sharqi of Jaunpur whom he considered to be a great and generous king, and a wise and learned man. Qutban completed his masnawi in Muharram 909/June-July 1503, after working on it for just over two months. At the time Sultan Husain lived as a dethroned refugee in Kahalgaon in Bengal, and continued to issue coins like a ruler. The loyal Qutban had not lost hope of his master regaining the throne and wrote of him as if he were still a

reigning monarch. Some scholars suggest that Qutban also retired to Bengal with his master, although the paucity of evidence would make such assertion difficult to sustain. Unlike the Canadian or Mrigawati, the story of the Pdumavati by Malik Mohammad Jaisi is based on the bardic songs of Rajasthan. The work begins with an invocation in traditional sufi style to God, Mohammad and his companions, then it mentions Sher Shah (1539-45) as the ruling king, introduces the author’s pirs and then states that the poet commenced the work in 947/1540-41. The story, summed up by Jaisi himself, is as follows. Queen Padmini or Padumavati came from Simhala-dvipa (Ceylon or Sri Lanka). She was taken from there by Ratna-Sena to his Chitor Fort. At the time Alaud-Din (Khalji) was the Sultan of Delhi. Raghava-Chaitan (an exiled Brahman from Chitor) told the Sultan of Padmini’s enchanting beauty. The Sultan proceeded to lay siege to Chitor and this led to a war between the Hindus and the Turks. The story is divided into two parts. The first deals with Simhala-dvipa, the birth of Padumavati and her love for her parrot, Hiramani, and the birth of Ratna-Sena at Chitor. A Brahman accompanied by a merchant from Chitor goes to Simhala-dvipa where he buys the parrot who had been taken from padumavati and had fallen into the hands of fowlers. The Brahman returns to Chitor where Ratna-Sena who had succeeded his father buys the parrot. One day in Ratna-Sena’s absense, the parrot arouses the jealousy of his chief queen Nagamati by praising Padumavati’s beauty. So incensed is the queen that she orders her maid-servant to kill the parrot, but the latter decides to spare the bird’s life by concealing it. To her husband the Queen reports that the parrot has been killed by a cat, but the fury of the king prompts her maidservant to restore the parrot. Again the parrot relates the loveliness of his former mistress and the king, not being able to live without Padumavati, relinquishes his throne to become a yogi. Taking the parrot with him, after a long and hazardous journey he reaches Simhaladvipa. The parrot visits Padumavati and trough the power of the king’s austerities she falls in love with him. Although nine Naths and eighty-four Siddhas also assist Ratna-Sena in his pursuit, in reality it is the parrot’s efforts which enable him to marry padumavati.

The second part of the work deals with Ratna-Sena’s return to Chitor with padumavati. There he banishes Raghava-Chaitan who immediately goes to Sultan Alaud-Din Khalji and arouses his interest in the beauteous Padumavati. He invades Chitor, seizes Ratna-Sena and has him imprisoned in Delhi. Padumavati appeals to Gora and Badal, two Kshatriyas to help release Ratna-Sena. Accompanied by an army the two invade Delhi and liberate Ratna-Sena. Gora is killed but Badal returns to Chitor with Ratna-Sena. Shortly afterwards RamaSena is killed in a battle against a Rajput chief. As in the Canadian, the two widows, Padumavati and Nagmati, immolate themselves on their husband’s pyre. It was not only that Rama-Sena became a yogi in the Padumavati which prompted Jaisi to describe Nath beliefs and practices but his own deep interest in Naths. The author describes a number of other situations in a way which can only be meaningfully interpreted in the light of the traditions and customs of Naths and sufis. One such example is the comparison of Simhala-dvipa with Sumeru, the mythical peak round which all the heavenly bodies revolve. Jaisi goes on to say: “The sun and moon (cannot go over Shimhala-dvipa Fort but) make a circuit round it, or else the steeds and their chariots would be broken into dust. The nine gate-ways are fortified with adamant, and a thousand thousand foot soldiers sit at each. Five captains of the guard go round their watch, and the gate-ways tremble at the trampling of their feet. At each gate-ways of the fort is a molten image of a lion, filling the hearts of kings with fear. With great ingenuity were these lions cast, in attitude as if roaring and about to leap upon thy head. With lolling tongue they lash their tails. Elephants are filled with terror at them, lest they should fall upon them with a roar. A staircase fashioned of gold and lapis lazuli leadeth up into the castle, which shineth above, up to the very sky.” According to Nath esoteric practices, the human body is a fort in its own right. There the sun (Shakti) and the moon (Shiva) exist separately, but finally their union leads to a state of bliss. The nine cakras are impregnable because of thousands of evil which surround them. Five calamities, acting as guards, prevent the yogis from

obtaining control over the cakras. Yogic exercises are exceedingly difficult and call for great caution. Each cakra is controlled by a goddess who is guarded by a lion, who refuses to allow the yogis to penetrate the cakras. Elephants representing ignorance are frightened by the lions. The golden staircase is Susumna-nadi (literally vessels, here meaning nerve) whose substance is the three-fold gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas which respectively produce virtue, passion and dullness, and whose form is the moon, sun and fire. Yogic obstacles and stages correspond with those along the sufi path. They are numbered differently; the four stages of the sufi journey are nasut, Malakut, Jabarut and Lahut. According to the sufis of Ibn al-Arabi’s school, nasut (human nature) is like a vessel which contains the Lahut (Divine Nature). In the Pdumavati Jaisi gives an interesting list of objects needed to complete the outer appearance of a yogi. But through the parrot, Jaisi warns Ratna-Sena of the difficulties of the life of a real yogi. The parrot says: “But what is the use of telling the tale of Yoga; Ghee (butter clarified) is not produced without churning curds. So long as a man does not lose himself, so long will he not attain what he seeks. God has made the mountain of love difficult of access: only he can ascend it who climbs zuith his head. On that path the sharp point of a stake arises: a thief will be impaled thereon, or a Mansur (Hallaj). You are a King: why should you clothe yourself in rags? You have the ten ways at home (that is, in your body). Lust, anger, greed, pride and delusion, these five thieves never leave your body. They are looking out for the nine entrances, and will rob your house by night or by day. Awake now, O senseless one, the night is becoming dawn. Nothing xvill come to your hand when these thieves have robbed you.” Jaisi says that a yogi becomes a Siddha only after meeting Gorakh, a counterpart of the Mahdi. Both Gorakh and Siddhas exhibit the distinctive features of the Mahdi.

“The Siddha is one on whose limbs flies do not settle: the Siddha does not close his eyes for an instant. The Siddha is one tvho is not attended by a shadoiv: The Siddha is one who feels neither hunger nor confusion of thought. He whom the Lord has made a Siddha in this ivorld, none can recognise him whether he be revealed or disguised.” Malik Mohammad Jaisi was also known as known as Muhaqqiq-i Hind (Researcher of Indian Truth). Born in 900/1494-95 he began to write good poetry at thirty. Padumavati, begun in 927H/520-21 was a preliminary literary exercise by its author, who finally took it up seriously in the reign of Sher Shah completing it in 1540. Jaisi also wrote the Akhiri-Kalam in Babur’s reign and another work the Akhravat apparently before the Padumavati. His other works in Hindi are the Kanhavat, the Kahra-Nama, Pusti-Nama and Holi-Nama and other Sorathas which are still unfounded. A Hindi masnaiui entitled Chitra-Rekha which is not mentioned in the Maarijul-Wilayat has been published. In his Maarijul-Wilayat, Qasuri reproduces a number of Sorathas from the Akhravat and explains them on the basis of the Wahdat al-Wujud. For example he quotes the following Soratha in Persian script and then explains it this way: Soratha “Sain Kera Nav Hien Pur, Kaya Bhari, Mohammad Raha na Thanv, Dusar kahan sama’i-ab.” Explanation The name Khundawand Taala (God Most High) indicates one of His holy names. God combines within Himself all aspects of negation and affirmation. His name is one of the Beautiful Names (of Allah). It has rendered the heart accomplished and the physical being is filled with the Name. The poet Mohammad says that in his physical being there is no place where the name of Khuhdawand Taala has not

penetrated. There is no place for anything else in his heart. Not only heart and body are filled with His name. Anything other than God cannot be conceived anywhere in the world, in the heart or in the body. I became you, You became I; I became body, You became spirit. So that from now none is able to say I and You are separate. Like some other members of the Chishti order, Malik Mohammad Jaisi, also became a Mahdawi under the influence of his -Mahdawi pir, Shaikh Burhan of Kalpi. Shaikh Burhan wrote Hindi poetry of a highly ecstatic nature. Although his works are lost, he gave Jaisi a taste for Hindi poetry which helped immortalize the works of his disciple. According to the Maarijul-Wilayat, Jaisi lived until the reign of Akbar. It would seem he died sometime at the end of that period. Shortly after the completion of Padumavati, Manjhan’s Madhumalti was written. We shall be discussing Manjhan in the next volume. The traditions of the Hindi sufi poets continued into the seventeenth century. Some eminent Hindi poets, such as Usman, the author of the Chitravali, in 1022/1613-14 and Shaikh Nabi in 1023/1614-15 wrote Gyandip. Aesthetic sensitivity and taste combined with literary skill were a feature of seventeenth century Bengali poets who were patronized at the Arakanese court. They used these qualities to present such themes as those contained in the Canadian and the Padumavati, Satimaina Lor-Chandrani was begun on the model of the Canadian. Daulat Qazi, its author, was lucky enough to have a prominent patron, Ashraf Khan, the laskkar wazir (war minister) of the Arakanese king, Thiri Thudamma Raja (1622-38). Daulat Qazi was unable to complete the Satimaitta Lor-Chandrani and the task fell to the celebrated Muslim Bengali poet, Alaol, a resident of the Arakanese court, after a request by Srimat Sulaiman, a minister of the Arakanese king, Thanda Thudamma (1652-84). Alaol’s masterpiece, however, was a Bengali version of the Padmavati which the poet composed in 1651 at the insistence of Magan Thakur, the prime minister of the Arakanese King, Thado Mintari Sad Umangdar (1645-52).

A distinctive contribution by the Bengali sufi poets was the creation of a corpus of mystical poetry based on Persian mystical masnaiois. Their models were Nizami Ganjawi and Nuruddin AbdurRahman Jami. The most popular theme was that featured in Jami’s Yusuf-Zulaykha or the Romance of Yusuf (Joseph) and Zulaykha (Poliphar’s Wife). The story based on the Yusuf chapter of the Quran had been written earlier in poetic form by Firdawsi with great artistry. In Jami’s hands it became a masterpice of mystic poetry. The Bengali poets were to add their own delicate touches. Abdul-Hakim, the Bengali poet from Sandvip, wrote the Yusuf-Zuleikha. Gharibullah, a poet of the eighteenth century also composed another Yusuf-Zuleikha. Alaol, wrote the Haft-Paikar based on Nizami’s famous masnawi as well as the Bengali Sikandar-Nama. The theme of Mohammad’s Nur (Light) gave great scope to Bengali Muslim poets in their expression of the mystic state. The Nur-Nama or the Nur-Kandil of Saiyid Murtaza, the author of the Yoga-Qalandar, using Nath-sufi terminology presents Mohammad’s light as the source of creation. The Nur-Nama of Razzaq Nandan Abdul-Hakim is similar in approach but militantly seeks to assert it is misguided to conceive that Bengali was one of the languages of Hindus. In 1684 Abdun-Nabi composed the Dastan-i Amir Hamza. Its hero was often confused with Hamza bin Abdul-Muttalib, the uncle of the Prophet. In reality he was the Irani adventurer Hamza who rebelled against Caliph Harun ar-Rashid. In legend his exploits are staged against such background as Ceylon, China, Central Asia and Turkey. The work was very popular at Akbar’s court and became the theme for many paintings. We have referred already to the Nabi-Bangsa of Saiyid Sultan. Many other Bengali poets also put into verse the legendary tales of the Prophets and apostles; one such poet was a protege of the Arakanese war minister, Ashraf Khan. Rasti Khan, a disciple of Saiyid Sultan, chose for his Bengali poetry themes from the battle of Karbala. His Maqtul Husain is based on the Persian stories of the martyrdom of Imam Husain. The HanifarLarai narrates the legendary wars of Mohammad Hanifiyya, a son of

Ali, the fourth Caliph, to avenge the coldblooded murder of his brother, Imam Husain. Sayid Murtaza’s Kifayat-i Musallin is a theological work outlining rules for prayers. It is founded on the Tuhfatun-Nashaih, a didactic poem written by the sufi, Yusuf Gada, Alaol also composed a Bengali translation in 1664. the author of the original work, Yusuf Gada, who completed it on 10 Rabi’ II795/23 February 1393 was a disciple of Shaikh Nasirud-Din Chiragh-i Dihli. Yusuf Gada’s poem was popular with both sufis and ulama and was therefore a wise choice for a Bengali translation. These spiritual trends and movements which we have discussed drew from each other in a conscious and unconscious way; in general, however, they remained within a framework of their respective religious traditions. For example Muslims never subscribed to the Hindu belief in transmigration. Their main concern was with selfrealization through Yoga or love or both, and this goal was realized differently according to the varying tenets of Islam and Hinduism. An unending war against obstinate orthodoxy and meaningless ritualism was waged by the Hindu bhaktas or sants of the fifteenth and sixteenth century in the Hindi and Panjabi speaking regions of northern India. They were hostile to all idolatrous practices and caste distinction and with equal vehemence ridiculed Muslim forms of worship. Bhaktas came from all classes of Hindu society, but their devotionalism was not concerned with any particular God or one of His incarnations. Their mystical experience in local dialects was expressed in a lyrical form which showed little adherence to conventional literary traditions of Sanskrit. The bhaktas were filled with fervent and rapturous ideas of what they believed to be Reality or the Supreme. The movement known as Nirgima Bhakti was founded on the movements which had begun with the Alvars and developed through the thoughts of the medieval religious reformer, Ramananda. In a verse, Kabir admitted that Bhakti had been born in the Deccan and brought to northern India by Ramananda. Although Kabir was not the founder of Nirguna Bhakti as such, he was the movement’s earliest

known exponent in medieval India which was to reach a climax with Guru Nanak. In Hindu mystic tradition, the school was known as Nirguna (without attributes). Nirgana bhaktas were concerned mainly with selfpurification and self-realization. The Nameless Supreme became the sole object of worship of the Nirguna bhaktas. The Saguna bhaktas worshipped Vishnu and his different avatars (incarnations). Sufis considered Kabir to be a muwahhid (follower of the Wahdat al-Wujud). Once Shaikh Ruzqullah Mushtaqi (1491-c. 1581), asked his father, Shaikh Sadullah (d. 928/1522), a contemporary of Kabir, whether the celebrated Kabir, whose Bishunpads were on everyone’s lips, was a Muslim or a Kafir. The reply was that he was a muwahhid. The Shaikh then asked whether a muwahhid differed from both. Shaikh Sadullah replied that the truth was difficult to understand and such knowledge could only be acquired gradually. The Ain-i Akbari mentions Kabir in connection with the history of Orissa and Awadh. In both states he is referred to as a muzoahhid. At one place the author states that many subtle truths relating to his sayings and exploits were current among the people. Because of his catholicity of doctrine and charismatic personality he was a friend to both Hindus and Muslims. At another place the author writes that Kabir Muwahhid lived during the reign of Sikandar Lodi. Earlier Khwaja Yaqub, a sonof Baba Farid, defined a muwahhid as follows: “The muwahhid is he whose main concern is good action. Whatever he does aims at seeking divine grace. Water does not drown him and fire doesn ‘t burn him. Absorbed in Tawhid (Wahdat al-Wujud) he is in a state of self-effacement. A sufi or a lover belonging to this category is concerned with nothing. If he makes a quest for himself, he finds God, if he seeks God, he finds himself. When the lover is completely absorbed in the Beloved, the attributes of the lover and Beloved become identical.” Factual details of Kabir’s life and activities are few and far between His followers and the authors of the biographical dictionaries.

The bhatlas, the Bhaktamal, constructed his life story mainly from legends and his own verses, which had generally been intended to satisfy the thirst of the soul to attain the return to God from Whom it was separated. They were also a teching device used to express beliefs. The Dabistan-i Mazahib gives Kabir’s background according to the legends of the Vaishnavite vairagis (mendicants) with whom he was later identified. The only reliable facts about his life are that he lived in Banaras about the fifteenth century and was a weaver. The earliest authentic collection of his hymns and slokas was compiled in the Granth Sahib. A number of eighteenth century painters made portraits of him according to suggestions from their patrons. Some legends state Kabir was the illegitimate son of a Brahman widow. One version of the legend is that he was conceived by a widow because of Ramananda’s blessings, and that, like Christ, this occurred without a natural father. In order to protect herself from public slander, the widow left her baby near a pond some way out of the city. A Muslim weaver called Ali, popularity known as Niru, saw the baby and being childless he and his wife Nima decided to adopt it as their own. This story is reminiscent of the adoption of Moses by the Pharoah’s daughter after she had found him abandoned in the bulrushes. The local qazi gave the child the name Kabir. This story was an obvious invention and was an attempt to associate Kabir’s parentage in some way with Hinduism. What is more probable is that Kabir was born into a Muslim family, the membres of which were deeply imbued with Nath beliefs. That his parents’ ancestors were yogis is not impossible. Of various dates for his birth 1425 is the most acceptable. Considerable controversy surrounds the name of his guru. A pir called Pitambar has been suggested as the person who filled this role. A Hindi scholar identified Pitambar Pir with the Hindu god, Rama. According to the Khazinatul-Asfiya’, Kabir was the disciple of Shaikh Taqi. Shaikh Taqi of Kara Manikpur, also a weaver by trade, should not be identified as Kabir’s guru for he was a disciple of Shaikh Salim Chishti (1479-1572). According to the Khazinatul-Asfiya, Shaikh Taqi

died in 984/1576-77 and Kabir died in 1003/1594-95. nothing can be said about the authenticity of Shaikh Taqi’s date of death but that for Kabir is undoubtedly incorrect. Another Shaikh Taqi lived in Jhusi, near Allahabad, although nothing else is known of him. According to Vaishnavite devotional traditions, Kabir was a disciple of Ramananda, however, legend fails to suggest he was formally initiated by the saint. Some authors imply that Kabir had no earthly guru and like a Uwaisi sufi, was mystically initiated by God. Kbari constantly travelled around the Banaras area and was directly in contact with a number of eminent Hindu saints and sufis. It is not unlikely that he exchanged ideas with eminent sufis of Kara, Manikpur and Rudauli whose views on the Wahdat al-Wujud, expressed in Hindi, impressed Kabir. The Hindi verses called sakhis, dohas and doctrinal poems, jointly known as Ramaini, form the majority of Kabir’s poems. The most important of his verses were generally memorized by his disciples after they had been uttered, and then written down immediately or soon afterwards. This process gave rise to considerable interpolation and naturally many unauthentic verses are included. The verses in the Adi Granth, the Kabir Granthaioali and the Bijas (Treasury) are the most reliable. Kabir was married and although he was unhappy with his role as husband and father he preached neither renunciation nor celibacy. Throughout his life when he was not travelling he lived the traditional life of a married man. Before his death he is said to have migrated from Banaras to Maghar. Some authors suggest that Maghar was close to Banaras, others believe it was in the district of Basti, near Gorakhpur in U.P. the decision was deliberately taken by Kabir in order to belie the current Hindu belief that one who died in Maghar would return in a following life as an ass. Of the many dates given for Kabir’s death 1505 is the most reliable. After his death Kabir’s body was claimed by both Muslims and Hindus the former wishing to bury it and the latter to cremate it and the latter to cremate it. When the door of the room where the ded body was lying was opened it was missing. According to tradition only a

bunch of lowers was found under the sheet and these were divided amongst the two groups. The story undoubtedly owes much to the tale mentioned in Chapter One of the bier of Maruf Karkhi which was fought over by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and may therefore be of sufi origin. Abul-Fazl refers to two different tombs of Kabir; one at Puri in Orissa and the other at Ratanpur in Awadh. Kabir’s concept of Absoulte Reality was founded on the dvaitadvaita-vilakshana-vada of the Naths. Its compatibility with the Wahdat al-Wujud was responsible for Kabir’s fame as a muwahhid. He says: “‘As the bubbles of the river are accounted water and blend with the water of the ocean, So the man who looketh on all with an equal eye, Shall become pure and blend with the Infinite.” Kabir’s Nirguna Brahma has both a transcendental and immanent nature. He is God of gods, Supreme Lord, primal and omnipotent. He is unfathomable, unknowable, stainless and changeless. He is neither low nor high; in Him is neither honour nor dishonour. He is eternal allpervading, diffused and equally contained in all things. He extinguishes worldly sparks from the hearts of his saints and dwells in their hearts permanently. Their music is intoxicated with God’s elixir. The man in whose heart nothing dwells but God is perfect. To sum up are Kabir’s own words: “Though styled inaccessible and invisible, dwelleth within the heart. None can find the limit or the secret of the Sustainer or the earth; He shineth in the plantain blossom and in the sunshine, And hath taken His dwelling in the pollen of the lotus. God’s spell is within the twelve petals of the heart Where the holy Lord of Lakshmi reposeth.

The great God rechethfrom the lower to the upper regions,of the firmament: He illumineth the silen realm, Where there is neither sun nor moon. He was in the beginning; He is without stain and happy. Know that He pervadeth the body as well as the universe. He batheth in Mansarowar (the lake of the heart); His pass-word is ‘Soham’ (I am He); He is not subject to merits or demerits, Nor concerned with caste, with sunshine, or with shade; He is only found in the guru’s asylum. He who fixeth his attention on Him removeth it not, Becometh released from trasmigration. And absorbed in the Infinite. He who knoiveth God in his heart And repeateth His name, becometh as He Saith Kabir, the mortal shall be saved Who fixeth in his heart God’s light and spell.” Kabir’s void referred to sunya, a concept in Mahayana Buddhism and to Hindu esoteric philosophy. It represented his concept of the Ultimate Reality. In order to convey the idea of Reality transcending the causal relationship, he indulged in the ancient Indian practice of describing Reality through negatives: neti, neti (not this, not this). It was only to explain Reality in more commonly known terminology that he used such words as Brahma, Om, Niranjan, Kartar, Sain, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Hari, Govind, Murari, Visambhar, Gopinath, Jagannath, Madhava, Allah, Rahim, Karim dan Khuda. The name most frequently used is Rama who, as he himself explains, is Nirguna Rama. He reminds:

“Kabir, call Him Ram who is omnipresent; we must discriminate in mentioning the two Rams; The one Ram (God) is contained in all things; The other (Ram Chandar) is only contained in one thing, himself.” Again drawing on an everday analogy in a sloka, Kabir wrote that God was like sugar scattered in sand, elephants could not find it, but the lowly ants could. Another example used was that he could feel himself absorbed in God just as the sound of a bronze vessel was absorbed back into the pieces after it was broken. Fearlessly and cuttingly Kabir criticized ritualism and priestcraft, refusing to spare even monasticism in his scathing attacks. He also denounced hypocrisy, falsehood and deceitfulness in both religious and social ethics. Devotion, penance, austerity, fasting and ablutions were meaningless without knowing the way to love and serve God. Frequently Kabir came into contact with yogis, but he always remained unimpressed by their matted locks and unkempt appearance. In their emphasis on ascetic pursuits and obsession with physical exercises, he believed they had failed to inherit Gorak’s real absorption with the Supreme. To Kabir, one who was united with God was the real yogi. Using the technical terms of yogis in his verses, Kabir often argued with their beliefs. One such hymn is as follows: “Meditation and rememberance of God are my two earrings, independence of the world my patched coat; Dxvelling in a silent cave my devotional posture, The abandonment of xvorldly desires my sect. My king, I am a (Jogi) without temporal love; I repine not at death and separation. In the region of the universe I find my horn; The -whole world, which I hold as ashes, is my wallet;

Riddance of the three qualities and release from The world are my contemplative attitude. I have made my heart and breath the txvo gourds of my lyre, And unbroken atention on God its frame. The strings are strong and break not; Tire lyre playeth spontaneously; On hearing it the perfect are enraptured, And I no longer feel the swaying of zuorldly love. Saith Kabir, the soul xvhich hath played in this xuay Shall not be born again.” Kabir strongly denounced idol worship. Often he said that if God was found worshipping stone, he would worship a mountain. He goes on to say: “Better than that stone is a hand-mill which grindeth corn for the world to eat.” Kabir noted that sculptor while carving idols stood on them yet were not instantly struck dead. Idol worshippers offered food to their gods, which in reality was eaten by Brahmans, said Kabir and he expressed shock to see that people killed creatures in ordr to feed these clay gods. To Kabir, the prayers, pilgrimages and fasting of the Muslims were equally abominable. He was critical of qazis, mullas and Shaikhs and reminded them: “Make thy mind thy Kaaba, thy body its enclosing temple, Conscience its prime teacher; Then, O priest, call men to pray to that mosque Which hath ten gates.

Sacrifice wrath, doubt, and malice; Make patience thine utterance of the five prayers. The Hindus and the Musalmans have the same Lord; What can the Mulla, what can the Shaikh do for man ? Saith Kabir, I have become mad; Stealing my mind aioay from the world 1 have become blended xoith God.” In one of his hymns Kabir tells Brahmans and mullas alike that they should not condemn each other’s religious texts as false. What was untrue was the attitude which prevented the understanding of the Reality. According to Kabir, jnana (knowledge) and bhakti complemented each other, but jnana was a spiritual experience not to be acquired through books. The Hindu Vedas and the Gayatris to Kabir helped their readers forget God and he argued that he himself had beensaved through the repetition of God’s name, one who relied totally on the Vedas would be lost. In the same strain he declared that Smriti, “the daughter of the Vedas,” was a fetter for men, and could even be called a serpent. Those who kept themselves aloof from the Vedas and the sacred books of Islam were pure. His own goal was described as follows: “The Musalmans accept the Tariqat; The Hindus, the Vedas and Purans; But for me the books of both religions are useless. A man ought to study divine knoiuledge To some extent to instruct his heart.” Kabir’s criticism of contemporary religious beliefs and his faith in his own salvation do not imply an arrogance on his part. He considered himself to be the worst person alive and that everyone else was worthy. But he advised others to also hold this view, and even went to the extent of asking people to slander him, so his egoism could be reduced to nothing and his salvation secured. There is on story that he became so disturbed by visitors that, in true malamati style, he pretended to be

drunk and walked round the city with his arm around the neck of a courtesan. Among the criticism levelled against him were that his severity made him like a police inspector and that his words were reminiscent of a dog’s bark. Although Kabir’s earthly guru is unknown, in his verses he speaks frequently of the necessity of a guru to assist in the search for the Absoulute, rather than to merely relay on Yoga. Without such a teacher, a man would slip and perish. Through the guru’s instructions, a man was taught to remember God’s name in his heart and was released from eternal transmigration. On meeting his guru, Kabir relates a feeling of great comfort and peae of mind. He believed that if Hari (God) was estranged one could seek refuge in a guru, but if the guru was alienated there was no shelter. Only true saints should be sought as companions and those who even spoke to them received blessings transferred by them. One of Kabir’s slokas says: Kabir, associated with holy men even though thou eat only barley bran: What will be, will be; associate not with the apostate Even though he give thee better fare. When Kabir’s wife criticized him for neglecting his profession and associating with shaven headed saints Kabir told her they helped the spiritually needy, hence he accepted their protection. Breeding was unimportant in saintliness. The dust from a saint’s foot had more value than a rosary or any other such objects. To Kabir saints didn’t really die they just returned home, while infidels and the unholy remained subject to the endless cycle of transmigration. With regard to death, Kabir compared the body with an earthen pot filled with water which inevitably would burst. Death came suddenly the things of this world were fleeting and it was then too late to repent for ignoring God’s name. As one had to account for one’s deeds in this life, it was necessary to work for an end to transmigration. A saint’s life says Kabir, was a triumph over continual re-birth for it resulted in supreme bliss.

“If while living thou be dead, while dead return to life by means of divine knowledge, and thus become absorbed in God; If thou abide pure amid impurity, thou shalt not again fall into The terrible ocean of the world. According to Kabir the remembrance of God in the form of the repetition of his name succeeded in annihilating transmigration for through it sins could be obliterated. Although Kabir described heaven through the use of negatives, to him it was a society of saints; he himself, however, craved only absorption with God. He says: “Everybody saith he is going thither (to heaven); I know now where heaven is. who know not the secrets of their own hearts Glibly talk of heaven. As long as man desireth heaven, He shall not dwell at God’s feet. I know not where heaven’s gate is, Nor its moat, nor its plastered fortress. Saith Kabir, what more can I now say Than that the society of saints is heaven?” Essentially a bhakta, Kabir was totally absorbed in his quest for the Supreme. But he was also deeply concerned with the religious differences between the Hindus and Muslims which, according to him were founded on false notions of religious superiority, while each lost the essence of their own beliefs. A man was courageous who ignored the rituals of his own caste and this could lead to saintliness and he rebuked Brahmans who found defilement in almost everything, reminding them that no impurity was attached to those who had God in their hearts. Being a member of a lowly caste of weavers was a source of great pride to Kabir. He advised people to seek a simple existence through God in the fields, in the weaver’s shop and in humble households. Poverty, patience and humility were the marks of a saint; men of high rank were strangers to religion. They were like animals

who stuffed themselves with food, forgetting their human nature and so making their salvation difficult. Although not specifically stated, Kabir’s above criticism were directed aginst Muslim state officials. Those who accumulated wealth and property without spending it, were also targets for Kabir’s attack. “God gave the miser wealth to keep, but the blockhead calleth it his own. When Death’s mace toucheth his head, It shall be decided in a moment whose wealth it is.” Again, he reminds the wealthy: “Kabir, this body shall depart; put it on some road On which it may either hold converse with saints, or sing God’s praises.” Kabir frequently referred to maya. In the Rig Veda, the term is used in the sense of magical power and the Upanishad use it in the sense of false knowledge. In Shankar’s advaita, the phenomenal world of nature and all beings which have no real existence emanate from maya. According to a general interpretation, maya leads created beings to an infatuation with the transitory pleasures of the world and the flesh. It is the counterpart of the sufi nafs-i lawwama, and Kabir uses it in this sense. He calls it a thief which breaks into the hearts of the worldly and deprives them of their virtue. In a hymn Kabir describes maya as a hideous and repulsive (woman), whose nose he says only a few discriminating people could chop off. Kabir lived far from the Lodi capital. During the last days of the Sharqis and in the reign of Bahlul Lodi, the Banaras region whe.e Kabir lived was plagued with civil war and political struggle. The saint remained detached from this situation, his main concern being only with social and ethical regeration. Kabir noted with distress how people dealt in bronze, copper, cloves and betel nuts. Thakurs measured the fields and the villagers were never free of debts entered in the Patwari’s books. To him the most important accounts were those with God.

According to tradition, early in the reign of Sikandar Lodi, after crushing his rival, Barbak, the Sultan remained for a period in Banaras. There the Muslims, led by Shaikh Taqi and the Brahman community, complained that those who accepted Kabir’s ideas automatically ceased to be Hindus or Muslims. Kabir was imprisoned but various super-natural feats saved his life. Although such a story would seem mythical, according to historical sources during Sikandar Lodi’s reign, a Brahman called Bodhan or Lodhan declared Islam and Hinduism as both true religions. The Brahman may have come from either Lakhnauti in the Bijnor district or Lakhnur in Sambhal. In both these regions the impact of Kabir’s ideas was not great. Lodhan seems instead to have been influenced by the spiritual milieu of the fifteenth century. Qazi Piyara and Shaikh Budh gave conflicting/atoas as appropriate retribution for such heresy. At his camp at Sambhal the Sultan convened an assembly of the empire’s leading ulama. The result was that Lodhan was imprisoned, instructed in Islam and after he refused to convert, was executed. Persecution, however, did not silence the bhaktas and sants and they continued to increase both in number and significance. With a faith as strong as the Prophet’s and belief that he was the vehicle for divine inspiration, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, asserted that there was neither Hindu nor Musalman. Although he did not denounce Hinduism or Islam, like Kabir, he condemned everything he believed interfered with the essential message of these religions. In Guru Nanak’s view, only realization of the divine mystery which brought seekers near Ultimate Reality and Creative Truth merited attention; the literal meaning of the Vedas or the Qur’an was no help. They should not necessarily be rejected, but the perception of Reality and Being which he called Ek-Onkar or Par-Brahm, should not be confined to narrow religious principles. Unlike Kabir, the broad outline of Guru Nanak’s life is reasonably clear. The fifth Guru, Arjan Dev (1563-81-1606) collected the inspiring hymns written by Guru Nanak and his disciples in the Sikh “Bible,” the Adi-Granth which is also known as the Granth-Saheb or the Guru-Granth. He also went to the extent of incorporating the authentic poems of the foruteen bhaktas preceding Guru Nanak. This appendix to the Guru-Granth is the most

authentic anthology of the movement and a memorable collection of medieval devotional literature. The Guru-Granth was completed at Amritsar in 1604 and gradually came to be considered divine revelation. It is disappointing for one, like W.H. McLeod who wishes to find historical details amongst its pages, particularly of events in the Guru’s life. The JanamSakhis, as W.H. McLeod states, are hagio-graphic accounts from the life of Guru Nanak and like all such writings are intended to fulfil the spiritual cravings of the Guru’s followers. They were modelled on the pattern of the Maulid-Namas of the Prophet Mohammad, the Puranas and the legendary sufi hagiologies. Inevitably supernatural and miraculous material predominates, in order to inspire devotion to the Guru. The disinterring of the “historical Nanak” is an interesting intellectual exercise, attempted by many scholars, the latest being W.H. McLedo. What is disconcerting is the general dependance, notably by McLeod, on historically unreliable material and an interpretation founded on nineteenth and twentieth century condition. Guru Nanak was born in 1469 in the village of Talwandi later known as Nankana Sahib, about forty miles south-west of Lahore, now part of Pakistan. Most of his life occurred during the reign of the Lodis. The earliest account of this age is in the Waqi’at-i Mushtaqi, a collection of anecdotes, interesting for ist social history rather than the general recreation of the period. It is the work of Shaikh Rizqullah Mushtaqi and was completed some time before the author’s death in 1581. The board of scholars appointed by Akbar to write one thousand years of Islamic history from the time of the death of die Prophet, admitted that they had no written record of the Afghan days and compiled an accoun of that period from Mughal sources and oral traditions. Nizamuddin Ahmad’s Tabaqat-i Akbari, completed in 159293, draws upon the Tarikh-i Alfi. Afghan historians who wrote during Jahangir’s reign based their compilations on the Tabaqat-i Akbari with occasional recourse to Waqiaat-i Mushtaqi and anecdotes from members of old Afghan families.

This material cannot be safely relied on to dispute the account ? written by Bhai Gurdas Bhalia, who assisted in the compilation of the Adi-Granth. The account known as Bhai Gurdas’ Var I was written in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century, the protracted political struggles between the Sikhs and the Mughals warranted self-confidence rather than humility and the Janam-Sakhis writers of that century naturally represented the founder of their faith as supernatural being. The authors of the Janam-Sakhis were not aware of the geography, history and customs of the regions in which Guru Nanak had travelled and gaps were filled in on the basis of his hymns. This does not necessarily imply that he basic outline of Guru Nanak’s itinerary is unreliable. In die fifteenth century, the Panjab enjoyed a peaceful period due to Afghan rule. The Mongoli invasions between the thirteenm and fourteenth centuries had devastated portions of the Panjab and the Afghans had successfully contributed to its re-settlement and urbanization by founding many new towns and promoting trade and commerce. The parents of Guru Nanak came from the Khattri community which was closely connected with the Afghan rulers in the fields of commerce and administration. Guru Nanak’s father, Kalu, was a village accountant and as was customary with members of that profession he supplemented his income through agriculture. When seven years old, Nanak was taken by his father to receive instruction in Hinduism. Two years later, attempts were made to teach him Persian. Following Islamic traditions that Prophet Mohammad was an utntni, the Janam-Sakhis imply that Guru Nanak failed to benefit from such a formal education. It would, however, seem that he learnt both Sanskrit and Persian. In those days Saudi’s Karitna and the Gulistan, as well as general sufi verses were taught to both Hindu and Muslim youths. But the Guru’s heart was in meditation, not learning. Moreover he whosed no interest in a worldly profession. When about sixteen, Nanak was married by his parents and under pressure from his family he later became: trader and farmer. Nevertheless most of Nanak’s time was spent with yogis who lived in the surrounding jugnles.

Guru Nanak’s brother-in-law, Jai Ram, a steward of Daulat Khan in Sultanpur secured for him a position in the Khan’s commissariat. There the minstrel, Bhai Mardana, a favourite friend of the Guru’s, joined him. While at Sultanpur the Guru shocked both Muslims and Hindus by declaring that there was neither a (true) Hindu not a (true) Muslim. He also incensed a qazi who forced him to perform congregational prayers by telling him that his namaz was mechanical as he had been busy thinking only of his business ventures. Soon afterwards, accompanied by Bhai Mardana, Nanak left Sultanpur. En route to Panipat, after hearing Nanak’s hymns, Shaikh Sajjan relinquished his life as a robber and became a sufi saint. In keeping with recognized sufi practices, Guru Nanak advised Sajjan to openly confess his sins and make reparation to his victims. At Panipat Nanak also had discussion with the spirit of Shaikh Sharafud-Din Abu Ali Qalandar. When Guru Nanak reached Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi (1517-26) was on the throne. The Guru was dressed like a malamati. His itinerary from Panipat to Assam is related in a confused way by different JanamSakhis but he seems to have visited the main centres of Hindu pilgrimage as well as the monasteries of leading Hindu and Muslim saints. The Janam-Sakhis give the impression that the Guru conversed with deceased bhaktas, but what really is implied is that he did so in a spiritual sense. About 1520 Guru Nanak returned from his visit to eastern India only to find the Panjab plunged into a number of significant political crises. Zahirud-Din Mohammad Babur (b. 6 Muharram 888/14 February 1483) who had legitimately succeeded to his father’s throne in Farghana in June 1494 was driven from his kingdom. In June 1504 he seized Kabul but thereafter followed twelve years of frustrated struggle in Khurasan and central Asia. Finally he turned his attention to India and started unsuccessful negotiations with Ibrahim to annex west Panjab to Kabul. After two minor raids around the region between the Indus and Jhelum, Babur invaded a third time over the Panjab in 926/1520 reaching as far as Sialkot.

Guru Nanak and Mardana witnessed the massacre of the inhabitants of Saiyidpur (Amanabad) and were taken captive. Six years later even a sufi of such prominence as Shaikh Abdul-Quddus was forced to undergo similar hardships at the hands of the Mughal troops. Along with other prisoners. The Babur-Vani chapter in the Adi’Granth fills in the gaps of the existing political histories, which tend to describe military details rather than the sufferings of the common people. The Lataif-i Quddusi supports the evidence by Guru Nanak contained in the Babur-Vani. Here is part of his description of his period: “Millions of priests tried by their miraculous power to restrain the Emperor when they heard of his approach. He burned houses, mansions, and palaces; he cut princes to pieces, and had them rolled in the dust. No Mughal hath become blind; no priest hath wrought a miracle. There was a contest between the Mughals and Pathans: The sword has wielded in the battle. One side aimed and discharged their guns, the other also handled their weapons: They whose letter (death notice) hath been torn in God’s court must die my brethren. There were the wives of Hindus, of Turks, of Bhattis, and of Rajputs. The robes of some were torn from head to foot; the dwellings of others were their places of creamtion. How did they whose husband came not home pass the night? The Creator acteth and causeth others to act; to whom shall man complain? Misery and happiness are according to Thy pleasure; to who shall we go to cry? The Commander is pleased issuing His orders; Nanak, man obtaineth what is allotted him.” There can be no better comment on Shaikh Abdul-Quddus’ letter protesting the imposition of ushr on Muslim rent-free grants than the following hymns of Guru Nanak: “The Primal Being is now called Allah; the turn of the Shaikhs hath come. There is a tax on the shrines of the gods; Such is the practice established.

There are ablution-pots, calls to prayer, five daily prayers, prayercarpets, and God appeareth dressed in blue. In every house all say Mian (a Muslim title); your language hath been changed. Since Thou, who art Lord of the earth has appointed Babar a Mir (Lord) what power have we? In the four directions men make. Thee obeisance, and they prasies are uttered in every house. The profit which is obtained from pilgrimages, repeating the Smritis, and bewtowing alms all day long, Is, O Nanak, obtained in one ghari by remembering the Name Which conferreth greatness.” Guru Nanak’s second journey took him down south, perhaps as far as Ceylon. The fact that there was no ruler named Sivanabh in Ceylon at the time as mentioned in the Janam-Sakhis does not make such a trip unlikely. Besides Hindu Tamils there were Muslim immigrants from the Persian Gulf and regions around the Indian Ocean, known by the Portuguese and Spaniards as Moors. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a number of sufis are known to have visited Ceylon to pay homage to the legendary foot-prints of Adam. According to Ibn Battuta, Adam was known in Ceylon as Baba (Father) and Eve as Mama (Mother). The exploits of a sufi named Shaikh Abu Abdullah bin Khafif had helped to make Islam respectable in Ceylon. Near the footprints were several caves associated with legendary Muslim holy men and Ibn Battuta reports of a famous Hindu temple in a town nearby where he found three thousand Brahmans and yogis and five hundred Devadasis dancing before an idol. The town’s entire revenue from taxes was spent on this temple. Trumpp says that the account of the trip was unhistorical and a later invention. His remark that the Sikh authors were generally unaware of the fact that the popular religion in Ceylon was Buddhism proves his ignorance of the Ceylonese religious and racial composition. After his return from Ceylon, Guru Nanak seems to have visited Kashmir. Trumpp concurs with this but is sceptical that he may have visited the legendary Mount Sumeru or Maru where he was alleged to have held with Naths and Siddhas. In fact the JanamSakhis were concerned with providing a geographical background for Guru Nanak’s criticism of what he believed to be deviation of the

Naths and Siddhas from the true teachings of their masters, and the suggestion of a visit to Sumeru need not be accepted literally. Guru Nanak’s second and third visits seem to have been completed between 1520 and 1527. By 1528 he was back in the Panjab and Babur, having defeated Ibrahim Lodi and Rana Sanga, had become the Padhah of Hindustan. Babur’s extravagance neccessitated the imposition of new taxes including ‘ushr on the madad-i maash. Although this distressed the Muslim community, Guru Nanak saw it was the divine will. Later the Guru went to Mecca and Baghdad. Trumpp summarily dismisses this as impossible, but McLeod, based on his knowledge of the adventures of Barton and Keane and using his own intuition, argues that the account in the Janam-Sakhis is untrustworthy. To him it is highly improbable that a non-Muslim could openly enter Mecca in the manner indicated in the Janam-Sakhis, and he adds that the entry of Guru Nanak in a complete disguise would have been “altoghether uncharacteristic of him.” McLeod’s arguments are founded on an ignorance of contemporary sufi account. For example, the Strajul-Hidaya mentions a yogi accompanying a Muslim saint to the Kaba. Moreover to Muslims travelling to Mecca, Guru Nanak would not have been considered a Hindu, but a muwahhid dressed as a malamati so as to edify them through his example. Qalandars, malamatis and majzubs frequently visited Mecca dressed in a manner which might appear bizarre, fantastic and even ludicrous to some, but from the time of Hallaj to Jamali, many sufis travelled to Mecca barely clad and their bodies encrusted in dust. The legend that the Kaba or the mihrab of the principal mosque, moved in the direction of the Guru’s feet need not be interpreted literally. The story is based on the sufi belief that great saints did not need to circumambulate the Kaba, for whichever way they looked it would appear before them. In fact sufis believed that eminent saints and holy men were recipients of the divine light, while the Kaba itself was a building of mere stone and rubble. The discourses in the JanamSakhis are obviously meant as a teaching device to show Indians that Ram and Rahim were the same Being, and one too pedantic to be interpereted literally. Some Sikh scholars have sought archeological confirmation of Guru Nanak’s journey to Baghdad and their attempt

shows more enthusiasm than judgement. The better type of sufis and saints or bhaktas always shrank from publicity; service to mankind was their aim, not personal glory. The Arabic inscription at Baghdad which is alleged by some to refer to the Guru in fact does not and is in sixteenth century Turkish. Guru Nanak travelled to Baghdad to obtain first-hand knowledge of the centre of the Qadiri order of Pir-i Dastgir Shaikh Abdul-Qadir Jilani. He could not become interested in Bahlul Dana. Guru Nanak, preoccupied with discovering and disseminating Truth, would not have cared about a lasting material memorial to himself and certainly nothing of this kind was left by him in his own country. A similar effort is made by other scholars to authenticate Guru Nanak’s visit to Ceylon on the basis of epigraphical evidence but such pursuits have no real relevance to the great Guru’s life. After his return from the Middle East, Guru Nanak seems to have remained in the Panjab, occasionally visiting Ajodhan, Multan and a place called Gorakhtari. According to Trumpp the existence of such a town has not been substantiated by modern geographers. McLeod rightly locates the site in Peshawar. Babur mentions his visit to a place which according to Persian script is either “Gorkhattari” or perhap “Gorakhtari.” According to Dani the spot was associated with “the tower of Buddha’s bowl.” Like other Buddhist sites accupied by hogis, it became a centre for their activities. In the reign of Akbar and Jahangir it was an important yogi centre of pilgrimage. At Ajodhan and Multan, Guru Nanak was reported to have had discussions with Baba Farid and Shaikh Bahaud-Din Zakariyya. Some scholars have suggested that there may have been some descendants of the two great saints with the same names with whom the Guru may have exchanged ideas. The suggestion is farfetched although Guru Nanak did undoubtedly enjoy the company of sufis in these towns. The suhbat (company of the pious) was as important a spiritual institution to sufis as the satsang (society of holy men) was to the bhaktas. However, the Janam-Sakhis expressed the sufi and Nath belief that great saints did not die but remained accessible to important mystics in later ages through spiritual conversation. Affifi says:

“His (Ibn al-Arabi’s) own imagination was an active in his dreams as in his waking life. He tells us the dates when and the places where he had the visions, in which he saw prophets and saints and discoursed with them; and others in which a whole book like the Fusus was handed to him by the Prophet Mohammad who bade him ‘take it and go forth, with it to the people that they may make use thereof” Thus when the Janam -Sakhis describe Guru Nanak’s conversation with the saints of the past, this should invariably be interpreted as a mystic experience or, in the sufi sense, a chat with the spirits, although presented as if taken place by two living people. Although Guru Nanak was a monotheist, it was not the Unity of God which the orthodox Muslims believed to be his main interest but the Unity of Being or the Wahdat al-Wujud represented as Dvaitadvaitavillakshana-vada by the Nath sages. Beased on Om, the Absolute of Nanak’s teachings is Ek-Onkar (The One Indivisible Absolute Being) or the Absolute Reality. The Absolute is beyond the time process, is unincarnated and named Par-Brahm (Transcendent). The Japji, the opening chapter of the Adi Granth which all Sikhs are required to repeat in the morning, reminds them: “There is but one Cod whose name is true, the Creator, devoid of fear and enmity, immortal, unborn, selfexistent; by the favour of the Guru.” :Like the God of Ibn al-Arabi, Guru Nanak’s God creates, but He also manifest Himself in an infinite number of forms. The divine essence is the knower, the known and the knowing: “And Filling all, He Upholdeth all, and is yet Detached: O, He is the One who is both Manifest and Unmanifest all over.” Guru Nanak’s Lord is self-existent, infinite, unfathomable, creator, sustainer, destroyer, formless, imperceptible, without family, immaculate, transcendent, immanent and ineffable. In His primal aspect He is the eternally unchanging formless one (Nirankar), inscrutable (agam), boundless (apar) and beyond time (akal). He is the

‘one husband.’ His Qudrat in the technical sense of sufism is beyond comprehension. He is immanent and should not be sought outside the soul. His light pervades and illuminates all hearts. He is revealed only through the True Word and accodingly Guru Nanak’s theology gives the highest importance to the True Name. Muslims assigned ninetynine Most Beautiful names to God. However Rumi warns: “God has called Himself Basir (Seeing), in order that His seeing thee may at every moment be a deterrent (against sin). God has called Himself Sami’ (Hearing), in order that thou mayst close thy lips (and refrain) from foul speech. God has called Himself Alim (Knowing), in order that thou mayst fear to meditate a wicked deed. These are notproper names applicable to God: (proper names are merely designations), for even a negro may have the name Kafur (Camphor).”‘ Of the ninety-nine names, it is believed that one is the Ism-i Azam (The Great Name). Sufi literature has taken great pains to search for that One name. Ibrahim bin Adham, who was once asked about Ism-i Azam, said: “Keep your belly free from unlawful food; exclude the world from your heart; then whatever name you use to invoke Him will be Ism-i Azam.”‘ R.C. Majumdar suggests: “... the role of both medieval mysticism and sufism in the history of Indian culture is often exaggerated beyond all proportions. Whatever might have been the value of either as a distinctive phase of Hinduism and Islam, from moral, spiritual and philosophical points of view, their historical importance is considerably limited by the fact that the number of Indians directly affected by them, even at their heyday which was shortlived, could not be very large. The number dwindled very appreciably in (the) course of time, and the two orthodox religions showed no visible signs of being seriuosly affected by this sudden intrusion of radical elements. They pursued their even tenor, resembling the two banks of a river, separated by the stream that flows between them. Attempts were made

to build a bridge connecting the two, but ended in failure. Even if these were any temporary bridge, it collapsed in no time.” This is not the place to discuss the circumstances which may have made, as Majumdar suggests, the so-called temporary bridge collapse, however, two observations should be made. Firstly, the influence of sufism was not short-lived; secondly, members of the orthodox sections of both Hinduism and Islam moved in different spheres, while both sufis and Hindu saints (bhaktas) remained unconcerned with the activities pursued by the orthodox. As we have seen, the Suhrawardi and other dervishes, such as Shaikh Aiyub and Sidi Maula, played an important role in the power struggles and political upheavals of the ruling classes and the aristocracy. They also amassed large fortunes and tried to prossurize the government into taking a very narrow view of the world. Through the Suhrawardis petitions from the people were presented to rulers and their periodic visits to Delhi were eagerly awaited. Assistance from the withdrawn and ascetic Chishtis who had turned their backs on the world was also sought to avert such calamities as drought and panic, for example, during times of political crises. They- offered consolation to the masses and reminded them, as well as members of the ruling classes, through their own advice and example, of the ethical side of Islam. Until the death of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, the Chishtis had also refused to play any role in the conversion of Hindus to Islam. They believed that contact with the saintly was the only means by which people would renounce evil or adopt Islam. Large numbers of Chishtis continued to follow this policy, but some eminent members of the order, such as Gisu Daraz, unsuccessfully tried to convert Brahmans to Islam. What is noteworthy is that both Chishtis and Suhrawardis only managed to convert high caste Hindus. The theory that the influece of sufism and of Islamic “egalitarianism” were significant factors which led members of the Hindu lower classes to embrace Islam is unfounded. The Muslim conquests did not unleash forces of liberation or change the position of

the exploited castes of Hindus and of the untouchables. The social and economic position of the masses of Muslim converts who accepted Islam under a variety of pressures, all which have been analysed by the Chishti khanqahs did offer consolation, peace and nourishment to the thousands of Muslims who crowded the towns. From the time of the Khurasanian, Abu Said, khanqahs were rendezvous for artisans and merchants. All khanqahs in India followed this Khurasanian tradition for the mutual benefit of both sufis and their visitors. Merchants at this time were continually undertaking hazardous journeys to distant countries, while engaged in risky commercial ventures. Some khanqahs operated a type of “spiritual insurance” scheme in which financial pledges were made by merchants in return fro sufi prayers for chain of khanqahs of Shaikh Abu Ishaq from Kazirun to China is one case in point. Naturally the system was one-sided and hardly compares with a modern insurance scheme. If the prayers of a great sufi saint failed, the unfortunate merchants and travellers were killed, and there was no means by which the money advanced could be restored. Nevertheless the network of Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya and Firdawsiyya khanqahs in India and those of the Kubrawiyya and of other orders in Kashmir, offered greatly needed psychological comfort to merchants and other travellers during this period. The ‘urs ceremonies and other anniversaries celebrated in khanqahs developed into significant cultural institutions and were eagerly awaited by both the poor and affluent alike. Sufism gave birth to a very wide range of mystic symbolism and became an indispensable part of Persian poetry. This poetry was not only an expression of the mystic love of a thirsty soul seeking an intuitive understanding of God, but an avenue for emotions and feelings which would otherwise have neer been expressed due to the fury of the orthodox, social inhibitions and political repression. Although this form of poetry gradually tended to degenerate as it became conventionalized and developed grotesque language, erotic obsessions and imitative and repetitive thinking, nevertheless it served to manifest the personal emetions and judgements of individual sufis.

Sufi poetry written in Hindi added a new dimension to Indian mysticism and a new lyrical and colourful way by which to achieve an ecstatic state. The subtle refinement of Hindi music, combined with Persian conventions and artistry, gave fresh meaning and depth to Indian sufi thought. The use of ancient Indian music and language was not chosen with a missionary intent for the recital of the Canadian in mosques could in no way serve Islamic proselytization. Hindi offered to sufis at that time a spiritual satisfaction they could then share with Hindu bhaktas, whose spirits equally thirsted for the higher reaches of Reality. The Hindi sufi poets and the bhaktas rebelled against all forms of religious formalism, orthodoxy, falsehood, hypocrisy and stupidity and tried to create a new world in which spiritual bliss was the allconsuming goal. They were unconcerned with the idea of achieving any form of union between the two religions and instead tended to work within their respective religious communities for an understanding of the spiritual and social values of each other. The Ghazalian tradition in sufism in India did inculcate hostility towards philosophy. The sufi movement tended to promote gullibility and credulity and discourage self-reliance. Most sufi khanqahs urged their disciples to pursue hard manual labour in order to crush the lower self, but unlike medieval Christian monasteries they did not invent labour saving devices, for example in a field like agriculture. The continual flow of futuh became a source of degeneration to khanqahs and led to the gradual dependence of their inmates on the state, merchants and the nobility. The most serious threats to the survival of sufism were the presumptuous and preposterous claims of sufi charlatans and impostors. The latter exploited the influence of sufism, and the popular passion for the occult and thamaturity, to their own advantage. Their poetry and music promoted immoral practices, the use of drugs and the practice of homosexuality. Such developments shocked genuine and spiritually gifted sufis, however, they faced all challenges with an awareness of the magnitude of these problems, and worked for the eradication of evil from society

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