Of Kings and the Countrymen

A range of works from the Mughal era, including the prestigious album of two East India Company officers depicting richness of Delhi’s ceremonial life, will go under the hammer at Bonhams, Londo.

The enigma called Delhi drew several explorers back then. Travelling across waters to witness life in the Mughal Capital, they were intrigued by its holy men, Afghan horse dealers and ascetics. The Fraser brothers were no different. While 16-year-old William arrived in India in 1814 as a trainee political officer in the East India Company, his brother James took a commercial position in Calcutta. Together the duo was to explore and document the India that was untouched by the West. The pages from their album are now a memoir of the period. The 90 watercolours that comprise it provide a portrait of life in and around Delhi in the early 19th century. On April 8, Bonhams will auction three works from the prestigious album in the London sale of Indian and Islamic art. “The lots capture the richness of ceremonial life in Delhi and are representative of British fascination with types of transport and servants that appear in other more typical examples of Company School painting. It combines Mughal and European styles,” says Matthew Thomas, Specialist, Islamic and Indian Art, Bonhams, about the works dated between 1815-19.

Discovered among the papers of the Fraser family in 1979, each work is estimated between £20,000-30,000. “The circumstances of its commission and the lives of the Fraser brothers add an almost romantic element to the album, as does its emergence from the family’s papers in 1979 and its first appearance in the salerooms in 1980,” notes Thomas.

The first image is of an elephant and a driver, probably from the Mughal Emperor’s stable, with a hunting howdah (carriage positioned on the back of an elephant) equipped with a rifle, bows and a pistol. The second image is the bullock-drawn carriage of Prince Mirza Babur and the third is that of a cotton-carder at work. It has been attributed to the artist Ghulam Ali Khan and depicts the tedious process of “bowing” or running the taut string of the bow across the pile of fibres to fluff up the cotton.

In addition to the prestigious works from the album, among the total of 306 lots are a group of 61 Kalighat paintings from the 19th century (£ 50,000-70,000) and late 17th century Mewar painting of Mughal emperors Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Great Indian Fruit Bat, a painting from the Impey Album (commissioned by wife of Sir Elijah Impey, East India Company’s Chief Justice of Bengal from 1774 to 1782) by artist Bhawani Das is estimated at £80,000-1,20,000. Also, among the highlights are The Book of Kings and The Book of Akbar. Lavishly illustrated with 110 miniatures, the former is the great Persian epic poem by Firdausi, copied by the scribe Nizam-ad-Din. The latter, estimated between £30,000 and 50,000, is illustrated with 65 miniatures. Coming from the collection of Nathaniel Middleton (East India Company Resident in Lucknow, 1776-1782), the 18th century Persian manuscript on cream-coloured paper features 508 leaves.

Even as Mathew invites bids for the coming auction, he notes that the interest in antique works is on a rise. “In India there has been an increasing interest in these works, where before interest was largely confined to modern Indian paintings,” he notes.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/of-kings-and-the-countrymen/2/

Play likens BJP surge to Aurangzeb reign

KOLKATA: The final scene of 'Karkat Krantir Desh' - Kaushik Sen's play based on Mughal prince and scholar Dara Shikoh's life - shows a band of saffron-clad men, sporting headbands with 'Jai Shree Ram' scribbled on them, triumphantly prancing on the stage. Carrying saffron flags and swords, similar to those used by BJP supporters during the Gujarat riot in 2002, they close in on a helpless Dara after his defeat at the battle of Deorai. The play ends on this chilling note, with fundamentalist chants drowning the distressed cries of Dara's army.

The threat of religious extremism looms large yet again, believes Sen, which makes Dara Shikoh's fall relevant in the current political context. "Dara's persecution and killing by Aurangzeb was essentially the result of a power struggle. He was a poet and a philosopher, but was branded a 'kafir' and a threat to Islam by Aurangzeb to mobilize forces and opinion against him. These were used to dislodge him, just as Hindutva has become a tool in the hands of people who are out to seize political power. We now face a situation where a leader with serious allegations against him is being projected as the next Prime Minister. Narendra Modi is using religion and his so-called development model to influence people. Fundamentalist forces like the RSS are backing him. This is indeed alarming for we are probably heading for a scenario where sane, sobering influences are going to be smothered, just as it had happened 360 years ago," said Sen. The play will be staged in Kolkata on April 6.

Based on Ibrahim Irani's book "Emperors of the Peacock Throne", the play has been penned by writer Srijato. Sen says the historic play was deliberately given a contemporary touch in the last scene to drive home a political message. "The rest of it is just history. But in the climax, Aurangzeb's army has been deliberately transformed into this modern-day fundamentalist brigade. This is meant to be a direct political comment," added Sen
There are elements as well that have parallels in present-day politics. For instance, the religio-political campaign against Dara evokes similarities with the BJP-sponsored Hindutva movement. 'Karkat Krantir Desh' seeks to remind the audience of a 'Hindutva-development' cocktail that has been designed to fool people, according to its director. "Fundamentalist slogans invariably influence the rural masses. They are gullible and disadvantaged. For centuries, rulers, who rarely tolerate honest and intellectual forces, have been using religion to have their way. It remains unchanged," he said.

The play traces Dara's alienation from the system. It depicts his love for Hindu scriptures, philosophy and his proximity to Sufi saint Bulla Shah. "He was a thinker, an intellectual far ahead of his times. Dara never wanted to be a part of the power struggles. But Shah Jahan had nominated him as his successor. Ironically, when Aurangzeb was hounding him and was questioned by Shah Jahan, the latter was reminded by his younger son that he, too, had often resorted to violence. Today, when you accuse a party of violence, they turn around and tell you that their predcessors had done the same. Nobody denies using muscle power, but looks at it as a legitimate political weapon which is dangerous," observed Sen
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Play-likens-BJP-surge-to-Aurangzeb-reign/articleshow/33202181.cms

EMBROIDERED LEGEND OVER HISTORY

The Moghul ascendancy in India lasted, effectively, for one hundred and eighty years less the fourteen when the Suris snatched the kingdom from Humayun and then lost it to him; that is, from 1526 with Babur’s victories at Panipat and a year later at Khanwa till shortly after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, as the kingdom went swiftly into decline thereafter: Bahadur Shah Zafar’s imprisonment and death in 1862 made up a mere postscript, the Britons had seen to that. Without question, more than any other single, uninterrupted dynasty in history, these one hundred and eighty years have had our creative juices flowing in torrents. Imagine five Arthurian legends, back to back. Babur started it all with his diaries, and passed on his love to his descendants who recorded directly, or had ghost-written, both the trivial as well as the unique in their time. Rembrandt painted Jehangir and Shah Jahan using court paintings as his source material, cash-rich museums sent their buyers all over the world searching for Moghul miniatures and artefacts; today there are all kinds of both serious and ridiculous research work, fiction, expositions and films and theatre and television programmes and government tourism initiatives on the dynasty, and publisher’s eyes light up when anything to do with the Moghuls lands on their desk. I recently met someone who has launched a series of books about a fictional detective in the Moghul court. The franchise keeps growing and everyone’s invited. It’s not difficult to understand why this is so, given not only the fecundity of those years but notably the contradictions central to the period. Working carefully within these umbrella ideas in a domain fostered as much by the strength of legends as of recorded fact, many have tailored theories to validate their favourite points of view and even the very unlikely ones have clung like lichen to the masonry of the house that Babur built. For me, the main reasons lie close to each other. First, all the five monarchs were alpha men, who transcended the push and pull of their times and all others in their enormous supporting casts, including their women who developed recognizable characters only when their monarchs willed it. Second, by some bizarre genetic coding, all the five exhibited identical personality extremes, that of a very cruel and brutal monarch who was also a vastly enlightened, indulgent ruler. They wrote great prose and poetry, were mostly brilliant in battle, laid and built splendidly, prized the good life but subjected themselves to severe hardships when circumstances required it, generally treated their women well, killed off their brothers and cousins and made their parents suffer hellishly. Great grist for the writer’s mill. Given these triggers, even a neophyte could soon find his calling here and Alex Rutherford is no such being, to begin with. The husband-and-wife writing team, using the pseudonym, have degrees in English and history from Oxford under their respective belts and aren’t new to the Moghuls, having earlier written on the period; their book on the Taj Mahal, cleverly titled A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time, sold well, although I doubt whether they were familiar with Rabindranath Tagore’s vision of an introspective, self-questioning and angst-ridden monarch. Their current book, on Jehangir and Mehrunissa, is the fourth in the line and one expects at least two more of the same genre, which for my money, is instant, lightly researched, histo-drama. Mike Brearley, arguably one of Test cricket’s cleverest captains — never mind that many didn’t think so — once said that the majority of sportspersons would maximize their success through relentless application of technique and of mindset, honed in well-run academies under superior teachers, more than through a rush of natural talent. I believe that the craft of writing is no different. Whilst talent is clearly advisable, training, nonetheless, is a distinct advantage. However, the fact is that a perceptive reader can always tell the difference; she will know where that writing is coming from, even if sometimes, when the lessons have been well learnt, the job is an awkward one. Alex Rutherford’s (sic) writing is diligently planned, every image is precisely selected, the responses serve a clear and specific need in the context of the narrative, the entire arrangement of the book is just so. Reading his story, one yearns for some measure of unpredictability, randomness even, in the narrative to lend it a texture, and in spite of a surfeit of happenings, you’re rarely likely to ask, what’s next? Rutherford, in the manner of George MacDonald Fraser, fights shy of history; he’d rather have fun with legends, which is a pity because his rich source material obviates the need for one to look beyond its verities. In dealing with Mehrunissa/Noor Jehan’s political ambitions and hunger for total control, Rutherford’s book paints her in shades of an Oriental Lucrezia Borgia, though less virulent, and in the process uses large dollops of history which I’m not sure happened, like for instance, Noor Jehan’s slow poisoning of Sir Thomas Rowe, England’s first emissary to the Moghul court. In point of fact, in an epilogue to the book, Rutherford goes to some lengths to justify the devices he has used, like the application of dramatic licence, a “little embroidering” and the creation of “composite” characters. A postscript. To the legend-loving Bengali, Mehrunissa was an admired presence in Moghul history, largely due to poets like Satyendra Nath Dutta and others who romanticized her as a deprived girl who married Sher Afghan, the governor of Bengal and later rose to great heights as a dominant queen in Jehangir’s court to quietly fade away after the emperor’s death. Unlike Rutherford’s scheming, power-mad surrogate ruler, the popular view was of a brave, beautiful, loving woman who could do little wrong. Both Noor Jehan and Mehrunissa were born of legends. All of which is of little consequence to Rutherford, as long as there’s a story in it, waiting to be told. Source http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120706/jsp/opinion/story_15639506.jsp#.UAkC72thhP4

Ahluwalia, wife visit Khuda Bakhsh Library

Source: TNN 19 November 2009, 04:17am IST

PATNA: Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and his wife, I J Ahluwalia, visited the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library

Library director Intiaz Ahmad apprised them of the history and activities of the Library. Ahluwalia paid rich tributes to institution founder Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh for his vision in collecting and preserving the rare cultural heritage of the country.

The visiting dignatories were shown rare Persian manuscripts preserved at the library, including Timur Namah, Shah Namah, Badshah Namah, Diwan-e Hafiz and Safinatul Auliya, carrying the autograph of Moghul Emperors and princes. They were also shown specimens of Mughal paintings, calligraphy and book decoration and Arabic and Urdu manuscripts. They were also shown the book of Military Accounts of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, besides a page of holy Quran written on deer skin. The visiting guests were presented a memento and recent publications of the library.

Mughals on the big stage

Amir Raza Hussain’s Shahenshah Nama is a theatrical extravaganza..

 

Source: The Hindu Business Line 

Ronita Torcato

On the sprawling ground adjoining the Grand Hyatt at Kalina, Mumbai, one could spot the Qutub Minar, the red sandstone Agra Fort, and pristine-white marble corridors culminating in splendid, arched palaces. Delhi-based theatre artiste Amir Raza Hussain had brought over his latest production — Shahenshah Nama — portraying the history of the Mughals in India. The sets consisted of these elaborate edifices crafted from wood, metal and plaster of Paris.

The last time Hussain was in the city, he had got a 100-member crew to build 19 sets on a three-acre plot to stage The Legend of Ram with 35 characters. He’d called it “the greatest story in the world”.

Besides acting in numerous productions, Hussain has directed 73 plays including The Fifty Day War, One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, comedies such as No Sex please, We Are British, and a film — Kim — for BBC starring Peter O’Toole.

His choice of the son et lumière (sound and light) medium is apt for period pieces such as The Legend of Ram and Shahenshah Nama. This night-time theatrical device lends itself to the grand spectacle demanded of such productions, including opulent wardrobes and magnificent sets.

Shahenshah Nama premiered some months ago at Hyderabad’s Chowmahallah Palace, which was beautifully lit up to exude royal splendour.

Theatre lovers in that city were delighted with the novel experience of watching the open-air production by moving from set to set (seven in all).

At the Mumbai show, the lights (handled by Hussain’s wife Virat) dimmed and a rich baritone boomed over the music, which swelled to a crescendo. For about an hour, the senior citizens in the audience chose to sit around tables some distance away, while the rest walked slowly from set to set, as the tumultuous history of the Mughals unfolded.

Revisiting the Mughals

The reference material for Babar, who invaded India in 1526 A.D., was his own meticulously recorded diaries in which he talks of hunting rhinoceros in the Punjab and complains about things Indian, comparing them to his native Samarkhand. The Babarnama also records natural history — the plants that he saw and even the fruits he ate. On the ‘King of the Fruits’, he says, rather prosaically, “The mango is one of the fruits peculiar to Hindustan. It is eaten in two ways: one is to squeeze it to a pulp, make a hole in it and suck the juice; the other is to peel and eat it like a peach.”

The production included tales of Babar’s son Humayun, who was addicted to opium; the best and wisest of them all, Emperor Akbar; Jahangir and his ambitious chief queen Noorjahan; Shah Jahan, a lover of beauty who immortalised his beloved Mumtaz in a breathtaking white tomb; and the controversial Aurangzeb. In Hussain’s production the monarchs were fleshed out by a cast attired in lush costumes, and the miming and dancing brought alive the medieval period. The Mughal women, especially Noorjahan, were depicted as steel magnolias.

Hussain has clarified that his Shahenshah Nama is “not a textbook lesson in history”. Which is probably why it glosses over Aurangzeb’s excesses, while amplifying slivers of legend. One of the more riveting sequences shows how the powerful singing (Raga Deepak) of Tansen, one of the nine jewels or Navaratnas at the court of Akbar, sets the trees on fire and how this, in turn, is doused by the rains resulting from the mellifluous singing (Raga Megh Malhar) by his daughter. Abul Fazal writes in Ain-e-Akbari (which Hussain sources for his script) that Akbar, a great lover of music, had personally chosen each of the gems in his court.

Despite the grey skies and predictions of rain, the crowd thronged the dusty maidan for the weekend show. We enjoyed the royal spectacle as a balmy breeze blew around us, and just as the show ended the skies opened up.

Chequered past : HISTORY

Source: The Hindu

C.N.ANAND

History throws open unanswered questions on Rajmata Gayatri Devi’s vast property and treasure.

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Apart from the wealth she brought as a princess from Cooch Bihar, the wealth bequeathed to Gayatri DEvi by Maharaja Man Singh was considerable

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Photo: S. Subrahmanium

Jaigarh fort: Witness to lives and legends

News about the claimants to the 1000-acre estate of late Rajmata Gayatri Devi has been making headlines. Apart from the wealth she brought as a princess from Cooch Bihar, the wealth bequeathed to her by Maharaja Man Singh was considerable and has a rich history with a Mughal connection.

Travelling by road from Delhi to Jaipur, the gradual transformation of the land from a fertile one to a rocky and sandy terrain with little tree cover is noticeable. There are many hillocks en-route, almost all crowned with a fort. One wonders how such a sparse land could throw up surplus labour to afford these forts. Surely, the land must have been more fertile in earlier centuries, before the desert encroached.

Original capital

As one approaches Jaipur, a hill range looms offering an obstacle to an invading force. The road runs through a pass in the hill range. At the end of the pass is Amber, the original capital of the Jaipur family. Overlooking Amber to the West is a hill on which Jaigarh fort was constructed. If Amber was threatened, the inhabitants could retreat into the fort to withstand a siege. While on a visit to Amber Emperor Akbar saw Jodha Bai, sister of Maharajah Man Singh. The marriage of Akbar to Jodha Bai cemented the ties between the Mughals and the Jaipur family and Man Singh was trusted with the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Mughal army. History tells us that Akbar ordered Man Singh to subjugate the Afghans. Jaipur folklore has it that Man Singh plundered Afghanistan and returned with a lot of treasure. It also alleges that he did not share the treasure with Akbar but hoarded it in Jaigarh fort.

Fast-forward to Aurangzeb’s era. History tells us that Man Singh’s counterpart in Jaipur was Jai Singh. During one of Aurangzeb’s campaigns, Jai Singh was summoned. But he arrived late as he had a love affair on the way. Jai Singh saved the day by conjuring up a smart excuse that led Aurangzeb to remark, “You are more than one; you are one plus a quarter.” Since then the title Sawai stuck and to this day the Jaipur royal family flies two flags: a full-sized one and a quarter flag below it. It was Sawai Jai Singh who planned and constructed Jaipur city with broad and straight roads to form a grid across the town.

Furore

Fast-forward to pre- and post-Independence days. Just before Independence, the Maharaja of Jaipur was another Man Singh who married Gayatri Devi. In 1955, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed in Jaipur as Sawai Man Singh’s guests during their tour of India. A tiger hunt was arranged and Prince Philip bagged a tiger causing a furore among conservationists. After Maharajah Man Singh passed away, relations between Indira Gandhi and Rajmata Gayatri Devi soured.

During the Emergency, the Rajmata was imprisoned and an income tax raid conducted. Rumour has it that four quintals of gold and many priceless gems were seized. An old document from Sawai Jai Singh’s time, which mentioned the existence of treasure in the Jaigarh fort, was discovered. Curiously, all forts in Jaipur were under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, except Jaigarh fort, which was in the custody of the Jaipur Royal family. The fort was not open for tourists.

The Government of India dispatched an Army unit to Jaigarh fort to investigate if the treasure existed. After a three-month search, nothing was found. Could Sawai Jai Singh have used the treasure to construct the city of Jaipur?

C.N. Anand is the author of Tarbela Damned – Pakistan Tamed.

Aurangzeb records lie unread here

This report from the Times of India shows how poorly our researchers and GOI are equipped and fall short of protecting something so important.

Ch Sushil Rao, TNN 15 July 2009, 03:59am IST

HYDERABAD: Nearly a century after they were chanced upon in Aurangabad and brought to Hyderabad, mystery surrounds the contents of more than 1.2 lakh handwritten documents dating back to the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Researchers from across the world, including the US, the UK, Japan and other parts of India are curious to know what the handmade fabric paper documents in Persian contain, but they are meeting a roadblock. There are not enough experts available to read the documents that are written in ‘Shikasta’ or cursive style of writing. The documents if read, would provide a significant insight into the reign and administration of Aurangzeb.

In all, there are more than 1.55 lakh documents pertaining to the administration of Mughal emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb at the AP State Archives and Research Institute at Tarnaka. In addition, there are 15,000 documents in the National Archives of India in New Delhi and 1,700 documents in the Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner. Director of AP State Archives and Research Institute, Zareena Parveen, says that catalogues on just 32,000 documents at the centre have been prepared so far. Of these, 5,000 documents date back to the rule of Shah Jahan (1628-1658 AD) and nearly 27,000 go back to the reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707 AD).

Before she was appointed director of the museum, Zareena Parveen herself had been involved in preparing the catalogues of the rare and authentic documents, including identifying the document by its time, and its contents. “One gets an insight into the administration of the Mughal emperors through the documents,†Zareena Parveen told TOI. For instance, one document reveals that since Aurangzeb was always waging wars and was moving with his troops, his soldiers never got their salaries in time. “This was one of the reasons for the downfall of Aurangzeb,†she said.

However, for the past several years, no catalogues have been prepared for the rest of the documents, largely due to a lack of staff and funds for the archives. Zareena Parveen said this has already been brought to the notice of the state government and soon some staff would be appointed specifically to work on the Mughal documents. Once this is done, and it might take several years to complete the work.

The documents pertaining to Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb landed in Hyderabad is in itself an interesting story. It was in 1916 that the accountant general of the erstwhile Hyderabad state, Md Sayeebuddin, went to Aurangabad for an inspection. In a hall at the Qala-i-Arak, he happened to notice some old documents dumped casually. Back in Hyderabad when he expressed interest in acquiring them with then Daftar-i-Diwani (archives) superintendent Syed Khursheed Ali, the records were brought to Hyderabad.