Ujaan Ghosh
By
Ujaan Ghosh and Amrita Chowdhury
12 August, 2020
On
Janmashtami, as the Kashi-Mathura temple debate rages after the Ayodhya bhoomi
pujan, it is important to focus not just on the binary of victory and defeat,
but also on coexistence. Little is known about how Islamic rulers patronised
coexistence through both literary and administrative means.
A folio from Razmnama, a Persian translation of the Hindu epic Mahabharata carried out during Mughal emperor Akbar’s reign | Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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Hussain
Shahi’s Krishna Biography
The Hussain
Shahi (1493-1538) dynasty of Bengal were great patrons of Krishna’s bhakti
literature, and the little-known financiers of possibly the first Bangla
Mahabharata. Indeed, the Bangla epic came to be composed soon after their chief
general Paragal Khan’s conquest of Chittagong. The newly victorious Paragal
Khan became interested in learning the epic and requested Kabindra Parameshwara
to compose a suitable rendition in Bangla. The text, taking great cognisance of
this endowment, begins with lengthy praise of the peaceful and benedictory rule
of the Hussain Shahis in Bengal. The sultan is not only addressed as “a valiant
warrior” and “a famed ruler”, but also called the Ishwara of Gauda and compared
to Krishna (Sen 1911, p. 202)
The text
was most likely completed during the reign of Chutti Khan (‘choto’ meaning
junior), who much like his father continued to be a great patron. And, Srikarna
Nandi was assigned as the poet. However, some scholars say that Paragal Khan
and Chutti Khan’s Mahabharatas were in fact two distinct accounts. Nandi
likened the prosperity of the Hussain Shahi rule with Rama’s kingdom, and
praised him for upholding the Hindu codes of Sama-Dana-Danda-Bheda.
Nasratshahtāta ati Mahārājā
Rāmbat nitya Pāle Shob Prajā
Nṛpati Hussainshāh Hae ḳhitipatī
Sāmadānadaṇḍa bhede pale Basumatī (Sen 1911, p. 204)
Patronage
of Mahabharata
Recitations
of the epic at the Shahi courts were also encouraged, and the nobles were
active listeners. Indeed, Nandi noted that Chutti Khan had been inspired to
sponsor the composition of the tale after intently listening to the Sanskrit
recitation of the abridged Jaimini Mahabharata — Jaiminibharata — in his court.
Historian Sukumar Sen argues that these courtly recitations, which had stopped
altogether after the dissolution of the Pala dynasty, were revived during this
period.
Another
notable feature of the time was the composition of Krishna’s biographies.
Maladhar Basu, who was granted the title Gunaraj Khan by Ruknuddin Barbak Shah
(who preceded Hussain Shah), composed his immensely popular Srikrishna Bijay, a
Bangla rendition of the final cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Throughout the
text, he chooses to sign as Gunaraj Khan, as is evident from one of his
introductory verses:
Thinking of
Hari’s feet, Gunaraj Khan composes
Srikrishnavajaya,
Oh’ all, listen
Yashoraj
Khan, also known as Damodar Sen, composed a similar narrative poem titled
Srikrishnamangala, (Sukumar Sen 1960, p. 70) under the patronage of Hussain
Shahis. This work, unfortunately, isn’t available anymore, but the essential
information has survived through quotations in later 17th-century texts.
Mughal
Connection With Vrindavan
The period
between 1500-1800 CE witnessed a major political shift in north India — the
expansion of the Mughal empire — and with it, a resounding boom of Vaishnava
devotionalism. Many scholars have elaborately demonstrated how the growth of
Vaishnava bhakti in the medieval north Indian heartland frequently came at the
expense of Shiva-Shakti worship (Vaudeville 1976; Pauwels 2009, 2010; Orsini
and Sheikh 2014). However, our concern here is to chiefly trace how Mughal
patronage benefited the medieval Vaishnava heartland.
Akbar was a
patron of the Vaishnava tradition and was known for his many grants and
endowments — the earliest being in 1565 to the priest of Govindadeva temple
(Burchett 2019, p. 118). Akbar kept granting lands to temples till the last
years of his reign. This is evident from how he “enlarged and consolidated all
grants to temples and temple-servants in the Mathura region by his farmans of 4
and 19 Shahriwar 43 Ilahi year (27 August and 11 September 1598), which
provided for a total grant of 1,000 bighas of land to 35 temples in Mathura,
Vrindavan and their environs” (Mukherjee and Habib 1988, pp. 287-300).
It is also
interesting to note, as Pika Ghosh points out to demonstrate the Hindu-Muslim
syncretism of the site, “the series of five early temples (Madanmohan,
Gopinath, Radha Vallabh, Jugal Kishor, and Govindadeva)… flaunt the red
sandstone marked unmistakably by their immediately precedent use at Akbar’s
capital at Fatehpur Sikri” (Ghosh 2002, p. 205). Further evidence suggests that
“Vaishnavas belonging to different sampradayas (communities) — including
Bengalis of the Chaitanya sect — who… gathered in Mathura–Brindavan, quite
regularly petitioned and lobbied the imperial durbar for the settlement of
grievances as well as for additional land and other material grants”
(Chatterjee 2009, p. 156).
Akbar was,
however, not alone in his household in his support for Vaishnavism. Hamida
Banu, his mother, had particularly supported the Vallabha sampradaya. In 1581,
in no uncertain terms, she ordered that “the cows of Vithaleshwar may graze
wherever they are and not a single individual of the Khalisa and jagirdar
should molest them or prevent them. They must allow his cows to graze and the
aforesaid person should feel perfectly at ease” (Edicts from the Mughal Harem
2009, p. 4).
Jahangir
not only continued Akbar’s grants but added considerably to it. He turned Todar
Mal’s 1584 grant of 100 bighas into a permanent imperial grant “in favour of
Srichand, Gopaldas’s successor, as sevak of the temple of Madan Mohan. That is,
it was no longer resumable by jagirdars” (Mukherjee, Habib 1988, p. 288). He
also financed the construction of two temples, one in Vrindavan and another in
Mathura, and issued a number of grants to the influential gurus: Kamadev
Acharya and sons received 24 bighas in 1612, Narayan Das and sons 12 bighas in
1612, Brindaban Das and Nanda Lal 50 bighas in 1612, Swamidas 20 bighas in
1613, and Shyam Krishan 15 bighas in 1615 (ibid.). Shahjahan, faced with a
dwindling treasury, wasn’t nearly as open-handed as his predecessors when it
came to temple-grants, but he nonetheless preserved the earlier ones (Ibid., p.
288).
Looking
into The Past
What
necessitated Islamic patronage of Vaishnav texts and sites? Was it personal
proclivities? The influences of sectarian leaders (Chatterjee 2009)? Marital
alliances (Burchett 2019)? Or administrative matters (Rana 2006)? There are too
many reasons to be summed up here. Nonetheless, even a brief engagement with
the available scholarship is bound to demonstrate the complexity and
interconnectedness of the pre-modern religious history of the subcontinent.
After the
Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan in Ayodhya on 5 August, many Right-wing public
intellectuals have claimed that “rebuilding is a civilisational responsibility
Indians owe to their ancestors”. This cannot be possibly more anachronistic. As
one can see, it is not rebuilding where our responsibility lies, but rather in
preserving our united efforts, preserving India’s multicultural and
heterogenous religious histories that we often overlook due to populist,
rhetorical hyperbole. In this regard, one might as well look for inspiration in
this syncretic, and now routinely demonised, past.
Ujaan Ghoshand Amrita Chowdhury are graduate
students of history and art history at Mcgill University and the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Views are personal.
Original
Headline: Hussain Shahis’ Krishna Bhakti, Mughals’ Mathura link — lesser-known
facts about Muslim rulers
Source: The Print
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/how-islamic-rulers-patronised-coexistence/d/122649