ISSN 2277 – 9809 (Online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print)
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International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanities ISSN 2277 – 9809 (online) ISSN 2348 - 9359 (Print) An Internationally Indexed Peer Reviewed & Refereed Journal Shri Param Hans Education & Research Foundation Trust www.IRJMSH.com www.SPHERT.org Published by iSaRa Solutions IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 Introducing Braj bhasha archive for the study of the history of Mughal India Shreekant Kumar Chandan Brajbhasha derives its name from the region of Braj which included Mathura and Vrindavan where the dialect of Brajbhasha was prominently spoken. Shahnawaj Khan, the author of Tuhfat al Hind (the gift of India) also identified the Brajbhasha with the region of Brajmandal and commented on the nature of its literary culture in the following eulogising way. ―‗Ornate poetry and the praise of the lover and the beloved are mostly composed in this language. This is the language of the world in which we live. Its application (i.e. of the Bhakha as a language) is generally inclusive of all other languages excepting Sanskrit and Prakrit. It is particularly the language of the Birj (i.e. Braj) people. Birj is the name of a country in India four kos round with its center at Mathura, which is quite a well-known district. The language of the Brij people is the most eloquent of all languages……..since this language contains poetry full of color and sweet expressions of the praise of the lover and the beloved, and is much in vogue among poets and people of culture, for that reason its grammatical laws are formulated here. The author of this (grammar) is this humble person.‘1 However its nomenclature clouds its larger circulation in the entire Indian subcontinent barring some southern part of the Indian peninsula in the seventeenth and eighteenth century which can be considered its period of heyday before it was eclipsed by the rise of khadi boli based hindi language. The nationalist Hindi scholars perceived riti poetry, a prominent genre of Brajbhasha poetry which focused on erotic and love poetry in contrast to bhakti poetry as a mark of feudal moral decadence under the influence of colonial knowledge regime. The need to create a body of literature which would be amenable to the project of nation building as a response to colonial critique of the decadence of Indian culture made the sensuous and erotic literature an anathema to the nationalist scholars of Hindi literature. The preoccupation with the bodily beauty of the heroine was to be replaced by poetry on patriotism, national awakening, and duty towards the nation. The discomfort of Nationalist Hindi scholars to Brajbhasha Riti poetry is anachronistic as it was a dynamic, wide spread and once flourishing literary culture in the North India and some parts of the Peninsular India as well.2 Even today, research in Hindi has not been able to shed its sense of discomfort towards Riti poetry and a prominent scholar of Brajbhasha literature has chronicled 1 Tuhfat al Hind of Mirza Khan tr M. Ziauddin, visva-Bharti Bookshop, 1935 p.34-35. 2 Allison Busch, ‗The anxiety of innovation: The practice of Literary science in the Hindi/Riti tradition‘ in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle east, Vol. 24, no. 2, 2004. P.47. Also See, Allison Busch, Poetry of kings, The classical Hindi Literature of Mughal India, (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011) p. 103. International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 355 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 her surprise towards the preoccupation of Hindi Research scholars with Modern literary heritage of Hindi language. In other words, the pre modern legacy of Hindi literature, especially the component of sensuous and erotic poetry awaits a critical evaluation. Some of the scholars who have taken notice of the Riti past of the Hindi literary culture have not been able to shed the baggage of colonial and nationalist mindset and continue to approach this body of literature as symptomatic of a decadent society immerse deeply in the enjoyment of bodily pleasure. This research paper is a humble attempt to introduce and critically evaluate the historical significance of Brajbhasha literature from the point of view of a historian while being sensitive to its literary sensibilities. In the following paragraphs, we would look at its various genre like war narratives, eulogies, biography etc and the varying linguistic registers of Brajbhasa poetry from Sanskritic to Persianised one. We would also look at the social groups who were patronizing Brajbhasha poetry as an attempt to evaluate the admirable extent of patronage from different levels of the ruling class of Mughal society. We would also historicize the community of Brajbhasha poets who fashioned themselves as kavikul and functioned as a corporate body of intellectuals. The significance of vernacular literature for the guild of historians have been underlined by a number of prominent historians. Velcheru Narayan Rao, David Shulman and Sanjay Subrahmanyam suggested a sensitive examination of the texture of literary text in order to hear the voices contained in them. They caution historians from adopting a rigid approach to poetry as fictional and prose as more suitable as repository of historical information. In fact, their intervention has taken away the sheen usually associated with the conventional archive in prose produced by the state and brought in significance more fluid literature, layered poetic narrative to the focus of historical inquiry.3 The significance of Brajbhasha literarue vis a vis Persian archive lies in its ability to subvert the gaze of the historians of Mughal India. It facilitates an evaluation of the Mughal state from the below, a peep into the crevices of the Mughal society which should be seen as its strength as a source of studying history. For example, in the Brajbhasha war narratives chronicling the war of succession fought among sons of the Mughal emperor, the Mughal Princess appear to be vulnerable characters plucked away from the aura of invincibility created by the Persian archive. The Persian archive portrays Mughal society as a completely persianised society with little room for a vernacular culture like Brajbhasha literary culture so much so that Muzaffar Alam argued in his study of the rise of Persain language in the Mughal state under Akbar and later that vernacular could make its presence felt in the Mughal court and literary culture only in the eighteenth century in the light of political pressure created by the regions in the form of 3 V. Narayan Rao, David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Textures of Time: Writing History in South India, 1600- 1800, New York: Other Press, 2003. International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanity Page 356 www.irjmsh.com IRJMSH Volume 5 Issue 3 [Year 2014] online ISSN 2277 – 9809 rebellions.4 Such a perception comes under question if one uncovers continuous patronage of brajbhasha literature especially its riti poetry by the imperial Mughal court and by the Mughal ruling class which included Mughal Princes, high mansabdras and middle ranking mansabdars as well. Some of these Mughal men were participants in the brajbhasha literary cultre in the role of poet and not simply as patron of vernacular poets. The name of Abdur Rahim khan-i-Khanan, the polyglot Mughal Noble remains the best example of this tradition who was famed for his reputation to art and literature. His poetry has become immortal under the pen name of Rahim in the canon of literary history of Hindi language. Patronage of Braj poets by several of Awrangzeb‘s other courtiers and at least one of his sons is also well attested. Himmat Khan Mir Isa (d.1681), a mansabdar of Awrangzeb, has been dubbed the ―Rahim Khankhana of his age‖ for his patronage of poets, including the Braj writers Shripati Bhatt (fl.1674, author of Himmatprakash), Balbir and Krishna kavi. A few of Mir Isha‘s Braj poems also survive under the chaap ―Miran‖. Fazil Ali, a minister of Awrangzeb commissioned Sukhdev Mishra to write the Nayikabhed work Fazilaliprakash (Light on Fazil Ali, 1676).5 In the following paragraphs, we would do a brief survey of some brajbhasha poets who played critical role in popularizing a vernacular literary culture in the Mughal society which has been otherwise presented as Persianised society. This will also help historians in pluralizing the cultural space during Mughal rule where Persian literary culture was in tight embrace with vernacular literary culture as argued by Shantanu Phookan in his recent researches on bilingual poetry composed by Persianised poets. The Brajbhasha poets identified themselves as members of a vernacular literati or larger poet community and fashioned themselves as kavi kul. This poet community was heterogeneous group as it had members from various castes as well as religious communities. In a way, the Brajbhasha literary culture was another cultural avenue which contributed to the creation of a syncretic culture. Form the literary oeuvre of these poets, it becomes clear that there was a basic training in the art of writing Brajbhasha poetry, text books on the genre of nayika bhed, critical evaluation by the master poets and recital in a salon or gathering of poets which can be summed as symptoms of mature literary culture. Bihari (1595-1663) Some tradition claims that Bihari was the son of the riti poet Keshavdas and Agra Mathura, Gwalior and Orchha hav been associated with his birth. Other tradtion however trace him to Keshav Rai, A Brahmin near Gwalior in 1595 and his father settled in Orchha. It was here that Bihari got an opportunity to learn to write poetry from Keshavdas. It is also believed that he encountered Mughal emperor Shahjahan during his stay at Vrindavan and became a part of the 4 Muzzafar Alam, ‗The Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal politics‘, Modern Asian Studies, vol.