ahmad epic counter epic india 1963

8/12/2019 Ahmad Epic Counter Epic India 1963

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Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval India

Author(s): Aziz AhmadReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 83, No. 4 (Sep. - Dec., 1963), pp. 470-476Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/597165.

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EPIC AND COUNTER-EPIC IN MEDIEVAL INDIAAziz AHMAD

UNIVERSITY oF TORONTOMUSLIM IMPACT AND RULE in India generatedtwo literary growths: a Muslim epic of conquest,and a Hindu epic of resistance and of psychologicalrejection. The two literary growths were plantedin two different cultures; in two different lan-guages, Persian and Hindi; in two mutually ex-clusive religious, cultural and historical attitudeseach confronting the other in aggressive hostility.Each of these two literary growths developed inmutual ignorance of the other; and with the rareexception of eclectic intellectuals like Abu'l Fazl inthe 16th century, or the 17th century Urdu poets

of the Southern courts of Bijdp-drand Golconda,their readership hardly ever converged. TheMuslim and the Hindu epics of MedievalIndia cantherefore hardly be described as "epic" and"counter-epic" in the context of a direct relation-ship of challenge and response. Yet one of themwas rooted in the challenge asserting the glory ofMuslim presence, and the other in the responserepudiating it. In this sense one may perhapsuse the term " counter-epic" for the Hindi heroicpoetryof Medieval India as I have done. Also, thecontrast between these two literary growths is notconfinedto what is classified in Westernliteraturesas full-blown epic, but to the epic material ingeneral. Muslim Epic of Conquest

The Muslim epic of the conquest of India grewout of the qasidas (panegyrics) written on the oc-casions of Indian campaigns by the Ghaznawidpoets at Ghaznaand Lahore, and later by the poetsof the Sultanate like Ndsirl and Sangriza in Delhi.AmIr Khusrau's Miftah al-futith 1 is the first war-epic (razmiya) written in Muslim India. It cele-brates four victories of Jaldl al-din Khaljl (1290-96), two of them against Hindu rajas, one againstthe Mongols and one against a rebel Muslimgovernor.The next historical narrative of Amir Khusrau,Khaza'in al-futfxh,2was written in prose, but the

epic style and formulae were retained as well asthe thematic emphasis on the glorification of theTurk against the Hindu. The concentration is onstyle in the tradition of Hasan Nizdml's Tajal-ma'dthirrather than on history; 3 and the styl-ist's effort to make use of the artifices of prosecomposition Khusrau had recommended in histreatise on rhetoric, Icjaz-i Khusrawi,4 is manifestthroughout the work as a continuous tour de force,unfolding itself in extended images, parallelisms,stylistic deductions, conceits and analogies. Forinstance:". . . the Rai became hot at their words and thusdisclosed the fire that burnt in his breast: 'Our oldand respectable fire-worshippers, the lamps of whoseminds burnt bright, have said clearly that never canthe Hindu stay before the Turk, or fire beforewater." 6

In the Khaz&'inal-futiih, the glorification of theKhalj conquestof the Deccan exults in irrepressi-ble bravado of iconoclasm:"There were many capitals of the devs (meaningHindu gods or demons) where Satanism had pros-pered from the earliest times, and where far from

the pale of Islam, the Devil in the course of ageshad hatched his eggs and made his worship com-pulsory on the followers of the idols; but now witha sincere motive the Emperor removed these symbolsof infidelity . . . to dispel the contamination offalse belief from those places through the muezzin'scall and the establishment of prayers." 8Read as epic all this makes sense as a historicalattitude rather than as history. Historically, asthe English translator of the epic points out, the"Deccan expeditions had no clear object-theacquisition of horses, elephants, jewels, gold, andsilver . . . Of course the name of God was

solemnly pronounced. The invadersbuilt mosqueswherever they went . . . This was their habit.

1In Amir Khusrau, Ghurrat al-kamdl, B. M. Add.25,807.2 Amir Khusrau, Khazd'in al-futflh, Eng. tr. by M.Habib, Madras 1931.

8Wahld Mirza, The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau,Calcutta 1935, 223.4 AmIr Khusrau, Icjdz-i Khusrawi, Lucknow 1876,passim.6 Eng. tr. and italics of Wahid Mirza, op. cit., 224.6 Khazd'in (Habib), 49.

470


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AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval India 471Of anything like an idealistic, even a fanatic re-ligious mission the Deccan invasions were com-pletely innocent."7And yet as an unconscious rival of the Hammirepic, the Khazd'in al-fUtMM ffers some interestingparallelisms. It boasts, perhaps as unhistoricallyas the Hammir cycle, of the massacre of thirtythousand Hindus at Chitore,8 and describes theself-destruction of Rajpuft warriors and self-im-molation of Hindu women with a gesture of heroiccontempt: "Everyone threw himself, with his wifeand children, upon the flames and departed tohell." 9Amir Khusrau's next epic 'Cshiqa 10was courtly(bazmiya) in theme, relating the romantic storyof the love of 'Ala al-din Khaljl's son Khizar Khanfor the Hindu princess of Gujarat, Dewal Rdni,setting the pattern for a recognisedtype of IndianMuslim love story in which the hero is invariablya Muslim and the heroine a Hindu, asserting theconqueror'sright not only to love but to be loved,in an attitude of romanticbravadowhich was anti-thetical to the more hysterical sexual jealousy inthe medieval Hindu legend. The atmosphere andsensuous reactions in this beautiful epic of Khus-rau are indigenous, quite unlike the imagic atmos-phere and sensuous appraisalin the Persian ghazalwritten in India; but the glorification of India isthere as a consequenceof the Muslim supremacy." Happy Hindustan, the splendour of Religion,where the (Muslim holy) Law finds perfect honourand security . . . The strong men of Hind havebeen trodden under foot and are ready to paytribute. Islam is triumphant and idolatry issubdued."11Amir Khusrau's Nuh Sipihr,12 combining styl-istic variations and elements of the war epic andthe court epic, was a command performance,writ-ten to celebrate the victories of Qutb al-din Mu-barak Khalj and his general Khusrau Khan inthe Deccan, before the latter murderedhis masterand turned apostate in 1320. The thematic em-

phasis is again on the Turk's destiny as conquerorwho is decreedto hold the Hindu in subjugation,though the commander of the Turkish army inthis case was a convert from Hinduism.Amir Khusrau's last epic narrative TughluqNama, had a real epic scope, the re-establishmentof Muslim power in India by his hero Ghiydthal-din Tughluq and the defeat he inflicted on theapostate Khusrau Khan; but though the poem isfull of religio-political fervor, it lacks in epicmagnitude. Amir Khusrau, now old and failingin genius, concentrates on the historical narrativeand the equation of incident with image, but theopportunities of heroic emphasis are missed.'Isdmi's Futih al-Salatin is directly in thetradition of Amir Khusrau, though it claims in-spiration from Nizami and FirdawsL.13Its heroicemphasis is traditional, glorifying the role ofMah1 ud of Ghaznawho made the Muslimconquestof India possible.14 It emphasizesthroughout theepical superiority of the Turk over the Hindu.15Essentially a historical narrative, told as a razmlya(war epic), it hardly ever misses a chance to weavein the bazmiya (court epic) elements of romance,such as the fanciful account of a Rajpfit princess'srepresentationto Muhammad bin Sam Ghiirl,16 orthe famous love story of Khizar Khan and DewalRanI.17

Versified history, with epic elements fading out,continued to be written in Muslim India until themiddle of the 17th century. Azur , a poet who hadearlier been connected with the court of ShahRukjh n Central Asia, took service under AhmadShah Bahman (1422-36) and composed the Bah-man Nama, a history of the Bahmanids in verse.The last considerable effort in this genre wasMuhammad Jan Quds 's verse rendering of theBadshah Nama of Ldhor during the reign ofShah Jahan.18

The motif of a war waged to protect or avengethe honor of Muslim women, similar to the motif" rape of Helen " in Greekepic and historiography,originally an epic theme, lends itself again andagain to Muslim historiography in India. TheXHabib, Introduction to ibid. xv; cf. N. Venkatara-manayya, Early Muslim Expansion in South India,Madras 1942.

8 Khazd'in, 49.9Ibid; cf. M. L. Mathur, " Chitor and cAla-ud-dinKhalji," Indian Historical Quarterly, Calcutta, XXVII(1951), 52-69.0AmIr Khusrau, cJshiqa in B. M. Add. 25, 807.11Ibid, tr. from Elliot, III, 546.12Amir Khusrau, Nuh Sipihr, ed. by Wahid Mirza,Calcutta 1950.

18 CIsAmI, Futfih al-salatin, ed. by A. S. Usha, Madras1943, 17, 114.14 Ibid, 29.16 Ibid, 230-6, and passim."IIbid, 81-4.17 Ibid, 322-33.18 Ghulam cAll AzAd BilgrAml, Sarv-i Xzdd, I. 0. Pers.Ms. 1852 (Eth-e) 683, ff. 29b-30a.


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472 AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval Indiaofficial casus belli in the case of Hajjaj ibnYfisuf's expedition against Sind reads in al-Bala-dhur very much like the first few pages of Herodo-tus; the expedition was claimed to have been inresponseto the appeal of Muslim women capturedby the pirates of Debal, and since their releasecould not be obtained by negotiation, it was ac-complished by war and conquest.19 One of theexpeditions of Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat (1526-37) against a Hindu chieftain was to avenge thedishonor of two hundred and fifty Muslim womenwhom he had captured. Sher Shah Sfiri's expedi-tion against Pfiran Mal, the Raja of Raisin, wasundertaken on the complaint of some Muslimwomen: "he has slain our husbands, and ourdaughters he has enslaved and made dancing girlsof them." Pfiran Mal was defeated and slain andhis daughterwas given awayby Sher Shah to somewandering minstrels who might make her dance inthe bazars.20

Outsidethe epic proper,the impressions of Cen-tral Asian Muslims freshly arrived in India andrecordedby them in historical or autobiographicalwriting have something of that interesting rawmaterial of antagonism on which epic generallydraws. Kamal al-din 'Abd al-Razzdq, he ambassa-dor of Shah Ruklh to the Hindu courts of theDeccan, regarded the Hindus at first sight as acurious tribe "neither men nor demons," night-marish in appearance, almost naked, incompre-hensibly matriarchal and, of course, idolatrous.21It was only after he had lived for some time in thehighly cultured atmosphereof Vijayanagar that hediscoveredthe beauty and the symmetry of Hinducivilization and paid it glowing tribute.22 Morefamiliar is the damning tribute of Bdbur:"Hindustan is a country that has few pleasuresto recommend it. The people are not handsome.They have no idea of the charms of friendly society,of friendly mixing together, or of familiar inter-course. They have no genius, no comprehension ofmind, no politeness of manners, no kindness orfellow-feeling, no ingenuity or mechanical inventionin planning or executing their handicraft works, no

skill or knowledge in design or architecture; theyhave no horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk-melons, no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no good

food or bread in their bazaars, no baths or colleges,no candles, no torches, not a candlestick." 2SHindu Epic of Resistance

The main intellectual resistance to the Muslimpower did not come from the Brahmins. In thebeginning they believed in Medhdtithi's thesis:"Aryavarta was so called becausethe Xryassprangup in it again and again. Even if it was overrunby the mlechchas, they could never abide there forlong." 24 The faith in this thesis dwindled as theMuslim power came to be more and more firmlyentrenched in the sub-continent. " With theYaminis, the successorsof Mahmfid, continues K.M. Munshi "firmly established in the Punjab, theAryavarta-consciousness ost whatever significanceit had. The belief that Chaturvarnya was a di-vinely appointed universal order, characteristic ofthe land, was shaken; for now a ruling race in thecountry not only stood outside it, but held it incontempt and sought its destruction."25 Hindureformers passed over the question of Muslimdominationin silence as the fruit of karma withoutmaking suggestions for its overthrow.28The literary reaction that echoedthe psychologyof Hindu resistance and reaction was popularrather than learned. It was mainly representedby the bardic tradition of Rdjp-dtdnaand in suchworks as Prithvi Raj Russ, the epics of the Ham-mir cycle and the history of Bundelkhand com-posed by Ldl in the 17th century. This bardicliterature embodies tales of Rajpudt struggleagainst the Muslims as well as internecinechivalricwarfare among the Rdjp-dtsthemselves as specifi-cally treated in the jiha Khand.Of these the Prithvi RWaRds3 is attributed tothe authorship of Chand Bardai, Prithi MRj'sminister and poet-laureate,who is reportedto havedied fighting against the Muslim invaders in1193. It might be assumed that the nucleus ofthe poem was composed soon after the events itnarrates, but additions, interpolations and polish-ing continued until well into the 17th century asthe epic has about ten per cent Persian vocabulary

19 al-Baladhuri, Futi/h al-bulddn, Cairo 1932, 423.20 cAbbas Khan SarwAni, Tirikh-i Sher Shdhi, relevantsection tr. in Elliot, IV, 402-3.21 Kamal al-din cAbd al-Razzaq, Matlcal-Sacdayn, B. M.Or. 1291, ff. 204b-205a.22 Ibid, ff. 208a-210b.

23 BAbur, Tuzuk (Leyden and Erskine), II, 241; cf.ibid, II, 201.24MedhAtithi on Manu, II, 22, quoted by K. M.Munshi, Introduction to R. C. Majumdar (ed.) TheStruggle for Empire, Bombay 1957, x.25 Ibid, xiii.26 K. M. Ashraf, "Life and Conditions of the Peopleof Hindfistan (1200-1550)," JRASB, Calcutta 1935,Third Series, I, 142.


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AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval India 473and mentions the use of artillery.27 As such itsanti-Muslim epic-content goes far beyond thetragic situation of a single historical event, andweaves around it an accumulated arena of heroicresistance spreading over several centuries andanachronistically telescoping within the time andspace of Gh-frid invasions the eponymous repre-sentatives of later ethnic groups of Muslim in-vaders, as the names of Muslim generals in theepic like Thtar Khan, Klian Mongol Lalarl, KhanKhurdsdn Babbar, UCzbekKhan and Khildai(KhaljI? Ghilzai?) suggest. The poem aboundsin heroic similes of considerable emotion andsensitiveness:

"The warriors in columns are like a line ofdevotees of the Yoga; the comparison the poet hasdevised. Abandoning error, illusion, passion, theyrun upon the gleaming edge (of the sword) as to aplace of pilgrimage." 28"As the infidels with a rush greedily fall (uponthe Hindus) they resemble pigeons, which, turninga circuit settle down." 29"The Hindus, catching the mlechchas by theirhands whirled them round, just as BhIma did to theelephants; (but) the comparison does not do justice(to the fight)." 80

Another epic of the Prithvi Rdj cycle is Prithvi-raja Vijaya, probably composed by the KashmiriJaydnaka between 1178 and 1200.31 The poemaccuses Muslims of confiscating charity lands andoppressing Brahmins. The Turushica (Turkish)women are condemned for bathing in the sacredlake while in their menses.32 The epic seems toconfuse Mahmfid of Ghazna'sinvasion of Gujaratwith the Ghfrid invasion of Ajmer. The victoryof a Hindu hero Anoraja is celebrated who com-pelled the defeated Turks to retreat, who in theirplight in the desert had to drink the blood of theirhorses to survive,33-obviously an exaggeratedechoof the plight of MahImfid's rmy in the desert ofSind after his sack of Somndt. Equally confusedin historical perspective is the joyful news of thedefeat of Gh-fr at the hands of the " Rdja of

Gujarat,"34 while Prithviraj was planning to de-stroy Ghfirl and the mlechchas, "the fiends in theshape of men."The unhistorical epic legend 35of Raja iammirDev's (c. 1300) gallant fight against 'Ala al-dinKhaljl, and his heroic death, was celebrated inbardic literature of several Indian languages.36Chief among these are Hammir Rdysa, and Ham-mir Kavya by Sarang Dhar, a bard of mid-four-teenth century.In the middle of the 15th century Naya-chandra S-drirewrote this legend in his HammirMahalcviya. Though a Jain, he invoked the bless-ings of Hindu gods on this epic, because of itsHindu chivalric theme and because of its anti-Muslim content.37 The epic weaves in the heroichistory of the Chauhansfrom Prithvi Raj to Ham-mir, and has a section of Prithv Raj's exploits.RajpfutrAjAsgather in gloom round Prithvi Rajto tell him of Ghiir who is accused of burningHindu cities and defiling Hindu women, and whois said to have been sent to this earth "for theextirpation of warrior caste."38 Then follows thelegend of Prithv Raj taking Muhammad bin SamGhfir a prisoner in Multan, presumablyafter hisvictory at Tara'in, and later setting him free.Unable to defeat Prithvi Raj in open battle, theGhiir invader has recourse to a ruse; he sendssome Muslim minstrels in disguise in the Rajpudtarmy, who enchant the Rajpfut hero's horseNatyarambhawith their music, and Prithv Raj ishimself so enthralled with the dancing of his horsethat he forgets to fight and is taken prisoner bythe Muslims.39Another anti-Muslim hero in NayachandraSfiri's epic is Viranarayanawho turns down JalAlal-din Khaljls offer of alliance,-alliance with themlechchas would have been disgraceful betrayal ofRajpudt hivalry-as also does VAgbhatawho seizesthe throne of Mdlwa, and whose son Jaitra Singhhas a beautiful queen lira, Devi, who is at times"possessed with a desire to bathe herself in theblood of Muslims" duringherpregnancy," a desirewhich was often gratified by her husband." 0 The27 Mahmfid SherAni, Punjab men Urdii, Lahore 1930,122-3.

28 Chand Bardai, Prithvirdj Rds5, Part II, Vol. I, ed.and tr. by A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, Calcutta 1886, 29.29 Ibid, 23.80 Ibid, 63.I"Har Bilas Sarda, " The Prithviraja Vijaya,"' inJRAS 1913, I, 260-1.82 Ibid 262.88Ibid, 273.

34 Ibid, 279-80.3 Mathur, op. cit., 52-7." G. A. Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literatureof Hindustan, Calcutta 1889, 6.3 Nayachandra Suri, Hammira Mahdkdviya, ed. by N.J. Kirtane, Bombay 1879, 8.38 Ibid, 17.40 Ibid, 17-20.'? Ibid, 26.


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474 AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval Indiachild she gave birth to was the last great hero ofthe Rajpfit epic, Hammir.The Hammir epic narrates the legendary storyof 'Ala al-din Khaljil's expeditions against Ham-mir, the Rdja of Ranthambore,who had ceased topay tribute to the Muslim Sultan. Bhoja, a for-merly vanquished foe of Hammir takes refuge in'Ala al-din's court. The first Khalj expeditionled by the Sultan's brother lYUlugh han wins aninconclusive victory because of the treachery of aRajpfut noble, the second is defeated by theRdjpfits, who also capture some Muslim womenwho are forced "to sell buttermilk in every townthey pass through."41 Significantly, the Mongolsare in alliance with iammir against the KhaljiSultan, though Hindu chiefs all over India allythemselves with him against Hammir.42 'Alaal-din offers three alternative terms for peace toHammir, to resumepaying tribute, or to hand overthe four Mongol chiefs who had taken refuge withhim or to give his daughter to 'Ala al-din inmarriage. As Hammir rejects all the three alterna-tives, 'Ala al-din personallyundertakesthe siege ofRanthambore. One of 'Ala al-din's (Hindu)archerskills by an arrowa Hindu courtesanRAdhaDevi defiantly dancing on the wall of the fort, butHammir gallantly forbids his archers to shoot at'Ala al-din when they have a chance. Finally'Ala al-din wins over Hammir's minister Ratipdla,by permitting him to seduce his younger sister-humiliation of Muslim women being a recurringtheme in the Hammir cycle of epics. Ratipdla aswell as Hammir's wives urge bestowing the handof Hammir's daughteron 'Ala al-din to put an endto the hostilities, and the girl herself requests herfather to "cast her away like a piece of brokenglass," but Hammir regards giving his daughteraway to an unclean mlechcha "as loathsome asprolonging existence by living on his own flesh."Hammir's womenfolk, including his daughter,throw themselves into flames to escape dishonorat the hands of the Muslims, and Hammir himselfperforming jawhar throws himself on the Muslimarmy, but "disdaining to fall with anything likelife into the enemy's hands, he severed, with onelast effort, his head from his body with his ownhands."43Neither this,44 nor other legends about Hammir

have any sound historical foundation. Anotherequally fantastic RAjp-atheroic legend describesMuhammad bin Tughluq's defeat and imprison-ment at the hands of Hammir.45On the other hand the Rajpfit epic of inter-necine chivalry is generally neutral to the Muslims.An outstanding instance of this genre is AlhaKhand,46which belongs to the counter-PrithvIRajcycle of Qannfaj and Mahoba, and celebrates inBundeli Hindi the exploits of Alha and Uden,heroes of Mahoba. Muslim characters in this epicare merely decorative. Prithvl Rdj is confusedwith the Bddshah in Delhi. Though the centraltheme of the epic, the rivalry between Prithvi Rdjand Jay Chand, is based on a twelfth centurylegend, additions seem to have been made by thereciting bards until as late as the middle of the18th century, for there is a referencetto the incur-sions of (Ahmad Shah) DurrdnL. TowardMuslims the epic occasionally shows an attitude ofreconciliation,which had its historical basis in theassimilation of Rajpuatchivalry in the compositemachineryof the Mughal Empire by Akbar.

The 9th century Khuman Raysa was recast inthe 16th century, devoting a large section to 'Alaal-din Khalji's sack of Chitore.48 This and theHammir cycle are the closest parallels and prob-ably relative sources of Malik Muhammad Jais 'sPadmavat (1540). The case of Jdis in the historyof anti-Muslim Hindu epic is a remarkable one.Himself a practising Muslim, saturated in theslightly heterodoxrural version of the Chisht Suftforder as representedby his opium-eating preceptorShah MubdrakBodle, Jdisi seems to have had somefamiliarity with the Vedanta, though much lesswith the Purdnas; shows strong influences ofKabir, and an interest, extraordinary even for aMuslim living among the Hindus in a village likeAmethl, in Hindu lore.49 His patron Jagat Devwas a Hindu ally of Sher Shah S-drl. Among hisfriends was a Hindu musician GandharvRaj; and

41 Ibid, 34.4.2 Ibid, 35-6.4" Ibid, 29-47.44 Mathur, op. cit.

45Mahdi Hasan, Rise and Fall of Muhammad binTughlaq, London 1938, 97-100.46A lh-Khand, Eng. tr. by W. Waterfield and G. A.Grierson (The Lay of Alha) London 1923.47 Ibid, 159.48 Grierson, 1-2.49Malik Muhammad JEisW,Padmdvati, ed. by G. A.Grierson and SudhArka Dvivedi, Intro. I; JAisI, Gran-thdtvali, Padmdvat, Akhrdwat and Akhri KalZm, ed. byRam Chandra Shukla, Allahabad 1935, 49; Kalb-iMustafa, Malik Muiammad Jdisi, Delhi 1941, 29-30,34-7.


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AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval India 475he had studied Sanskrit grammar and rhetoricunder Hindu pandits.50 Under all these influencesand away from the Muslim-orientated atmosphereof cities, where the Muslim elite was developingan insular anti-Hindu literature, Jais accepted inall simplicity, at a non-sectarian level, the bardiclegends of Rajpuatheroism against 'Ala al-din attheir face value, and moulded his Ratan Sen onHammir.

The story of Jdisl's Padmavat falls in two parts.The first deals with the love-quest of Ratan Senfor Padmini (Padmdvat ) the princess of Ceylon,inspired by the pandering wisdom of HlIrdmanheparrot (allegorically the wise preceptor,the Hindu'guru,' the Siif 'pir'), and with the adventuresthat befall the hero on his return journey to hiscapital Chitore. This part of the story is straight-forward romance, without any epic element; andthe legend of the wise parrot was popular in theoral tradition of Avadh,51 as well as in Sanskritanti-feminist literary story. This early part bor-rows elements from such earlier versions asUdayana's Padmdvati and the Ratnavali.52The second part of Jaisl's poem assumes theform of an epic with an allegorical clue. RaghuChItan Pandit (the devil), a minister of the courtof Ratan Sen (epically sublimated Hammir, alle-gorically the human mind or soul) disgraced byhis master for sorcery, tempts 'Ala al-din (epicallycounter-hero, allegorically miyd, majez (unreal)

of the Siifis, illusion) with jewelled bracelet(symbol) and description of the beauty of Padmd-vat (epically the Hindu heroine personifyinghonor, allegorically 'intelligence' or firdsat, re-garded as a supreme merit for a monarch and hiscourtiers in Muslim political philosophy). 'Alaal-din demands of Ratan Sen to surrenderPadma-vati, and when the hero refuses indignantly thecounter-hero besieges the fort of Chitore (alle-gorically human body), but because of the Mongolpressure (an element also borrowedfrom the Ham-mir cycle) negotiates for truce, and Ratan Sen(mind), against the advice of his trusted generalsBadal and Gord (heroic "twins " as Alha andUden in Aflha Khand) entertains 'Ala al-din(illusion) who sees the reflection of Padmdvat(intelligence) in a mirror, falls in love with herand takes Ratan Sen prisoner by a treacherous

ruse. Gord and Badal enter the imperial fort ofDelhi by a counter-ruse (which is a parallel to the"Trojan horse" motif) and rescue Ratan Sen(mind), who returns to Chitore and fights againstDeopdl (character and episode of unestablishedallegorical significance, borrowed from the cyclesof Rajpudtnternecine chivalry) who had insultedPadmdvat in his absence. Ratan Sen kills Deopdlbut himself receivesa mortal wound. His (mind's)two consorts, Padmdvat (intelligence) and Nag-mat (world chore) burn themselves to ashes onhis funeral pyre. 'Ala al-din (illusion) arrivesand storms Chitore (body) only to find Padmdvat(intelligence) reduced to ashes with Ratan Sen(the mind). This allegorical epic of Rajpuatchivalry, written by a Muslim, ends with an anti-Islamic finale: "and Chitore became Islam."As the author is a Muslim, the array and mightof the Turks is not belittled, though his sympathylies with the Rdjp-ats.He makes an open referenceto Hammir,53 sees in the Rajpuatstruggle some-thing of the epic grandeur of MahdbhArata54 andquoteswithout contradiction Goraand Badal's ver-sion of the inherent treachery of the Turks.55Much more remarkableis his complete self-identi-fication with the sense of tragic intent in a Rajpfutepic-theme, and its view of his own culture andreligion; for the outwardly simple phrase 'Chitorebecame Islam' signifies, in its allegorical equation,the unsubstantial victory of illusion.

Historically, the story of 'Ala al-din Khalji'slove and pursuit of PadmavatY s not related byany Muslim historian before Abu'l Fazl, who hasborrowed it from JdisI56 or from other cognateRajpfit legends. None of the historians of theSultanate mentions it, not even 'Isam who hardlyever misses a chance to introduce romantic mate-rial, or Khusrau who might have found in thestory a theme more interesting than that of KhizarKhan's love for Dewal RanI.An examination of the historical material ofJaisi's allegorical epic yields interesting results.-7Ratan Sen, (1527-32) the Rdna.of Chitore, was acontemporary not of 'Ala al-din Khaljl, but of

r?Grierson, introduction to his edition of Padmdvat, 2.51Kalb-i Mustafa, 100.52 Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature ofHindustan, 18.

5sJais , Padmavati, Eng. tr. by A. G. Shirreff, Cal-cutta 1944, 287.54Ibid, 361.665Ibid, 350.56 Kalb-i MustafA, 105.57 For details see Ihtish5m al-Haqq, Afsdna-i Padminf,Delhi 1939; K. S. Lal, " The Myth of Ran Padmin andcAla-ud-din Khalj ," Annual Bulletin of the Nagpur His-torical Society, I, 1946.


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476 AHMAD: Epic and Counter-Epic in Medieval IndiaJdis himself and of Sher Shah Surl.58 The ruse ofwarriors entering an enemy fort in women's palan-quins, though a motif paralleled in epic and ro-mance, had also some historical basis as it wasused by Sher Shah to capture the fort of Rohtds.59In 1531, nine years before the composition ofPadmavat, a case of mass sati by Rajpfut noble-women had occurred in a Rajpuit fort sacked bySultan Bahadur of Gujarat to avenge the dis-honor of two hundred and fifty Muslim womenheld captive in that fort.60 There might havebeen a conscious or unconscious confounding inJdisl's mind of CAld al-din Khalj1 with Ghiydthal-din Khalj1 of Mdlwa (1469-1500) who had aroving eye, and is reportedto have undertakenthequest of Padmini, not a particular Rajpuitprincess,but the ideal type of woman according to Hinduerotology.61 Ghiydtb al-din Khalji, according toa Hindu inscription in the Udaipur area, was de-feated in battle in 1488 by a Rajpuit chieftainBddal-Gord,62multiplied by Jdis into twins. Ittherefore seems that Jdisl, or possibly the trans-mitters through whom the changed version of theHammir legend reachedhim, incorporatedseveralnear-contemporary historical or quasi-historicalepisodes in the original legend. Jdis himself con-fesses at the end: "I have made up the story andrelated it."In Jdisl's legend 'Ala al-din Khalji, the counter-hero is not exactly the villain of the piece; hisimperial title is acknowledged, and though hisunchaste love for Padmdvat is condemned,muchof the Muslim tradition favorable to him has beenwoven in and he is complimented as a righteousand noble Sultan.68 On the whole the allegory isloose and the epic strain second-hand and sub-ordinated to the didactic. Jdisl's real intentionseems to be to tell a good story which would appealto his fellow-villagers, the large majority of whomwere Hindus.

Long before the composition of Padmavat by aMuslim, Hindu secondary epic occasionally ad-justed itself to eclecticism as in the case of Vidya-patl Thakur's Purusha Pariksha, which tells of

Hindu rajas coming to the aid of Muhammad binTughluq against a fellow-Hindu raj&and Kafiir.64The idealisation of Hindu women who preferreddeath to the embraces, conjugal or otherwise, ofMuslims passed on from Rajpudtepic to popularsong in other areas such as Bihar.65 Sexual hos-tility producedon the popularHindu mind curiousjuxtapositions such as the one describingAkbar asthe illegitimate son of the Hindu poet NarharSahay, who was given, according to the legend,Chol Begum (The Lady Brassiere), a (non-existent) wife of lumdyiln, as a gift by SherShah.66

Anti-Muslim secondary epic burst into boilingfury in Mahardshtra,after Aurangzeb'sreversalofAkbar's tolerant policies, especially in the Granthd-vali of Kav Bh-ashanwhose idealisation of Shivajias a hero has little in common with the tragicheroismof Rajpuitepic and is much more intenselyreligious.67 It formulates the epic of revival, notof resistance: "The Muslims have destroyed allour temples; they are hoisting 'All's (Allah's?)flag everywhere; rdjas have fled; everywhere onesees (Muslim) pirs (saints), and payghambars(prophets), nowhere Hindu sants and sldhiis;Kdsh has lost its splendor and there are mosquesin Mathura. If there were no Shivaj everyonewould have been circumcised." 8 According toKav Bhfishan Aurangzeb is the incarnation ofKumbhkaran (elder brotherof Rimeyana's villainRdvana).69 Shivaj is his antithesis. He is thearch-hunter,who chases Mughal generals who arelike storks, Mughal amirs who are like peacocks,Bangash Pathdns who are like herons, Balfichiswho are like ducks, whereas the horses of theMaratha hunter are like hawks.70 The epic con-tinues with obvious self-satisfaction: " The goddessKIl has become fat eating the heads of the pig-tailless Muslims."71

118Kalb-i Mustafl, 11169Ibid, 112-3.'OIbid, 113.61 Ibid, 114-5.62 Ibid, 116.63 Shirreff, 270-1.

"4 Maheshwar Prasad, Purusha Pariksha of Vidyapati,20 et sq.65 G. A. Grierson, "The Popular Literature of North-

ern India," BSOS, 1/3 (1920), 97-100.66 Grierson, The Modern Vernacular Literature ofHindustan, 38-9.67 Kavi Bhfishan, Granthdvali, Lahore 1937, 312-3.68Ibid, 310-11.69Ibid, 313-4.70Ibid, 347.71 Ibid, 344.

ahmad epic counter epic india 1963

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