Wājid 'Alī Shāh Plays Krishna's Stolen Flute: the Multiplicity of Voices In
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Wājid ‘Alī Shāh Plays Krishna’s Stolen Flute: The Multiplicity of Voices in the King of Awadh’s Dramatic Work Genoveva Castro A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2016 Reading Committee: Heidi Pauwels, Chair Richard Salomon Michael Shapiro Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Asian Languages and Literature ©Copyright 2016 Genoveva Castro 2 University of Washington Abstract Wājid ‘Alī Shāh Plays Krishna’s Stolen Flute: The Multiplicity of Voices in the King of Awadh’s Dramatic Work Genoveva Castro Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Heidi Pauwels Department of Asian Languages and Literature This dissertation is a study of an instance of cultural exchange between Hindus and Muslims in the context of 19th century theater in South Asia. Specifically, it investigates Hindu-Muslim assimilation in the artistic production at the court of the last king of Awadh. Through an analysis of text and performance traditions present at the court the narrative of Hindi-Urdu drama at the beginning of the modern period is reframed. Wājid ‘Alī Shāh (1822-1887) was the king of Awadh on the eve of the colonial takeover. He ruled from 1847 to 1856, and subsequently moved to Calcutta after the British assumed control of the kingdom. He was not only a ruler during a turning point of Indian history, but also a poet and dramatist. His literary work was often a reflection of his interest in dance and music, as well as of the multifaceted milieu in which he lived. Thus, although Wājid ‘Alī Shāh was a Muslim, he wrote two versions of a dance-drama entitled Rādhā Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah based on a Hindu theme that was popular in Vaishnava circles. This dissertation presents an annotated 3 translation of the two versions of the Rādhā Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah occurring in Banī (1877), the first such translations into English. Framed within the historical and cultural context, the literary work of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh is analyzed here, considering a diversity of influences in comparison to several contemporary plays. Wājid ‘Alī Shāh’s dance-dramas are contrasted with the contemporary Indar sabhā, a commercial play by the Muslim poet Amānat. Specifically, this juxtaposition reveals the common folk song and courtesan performance borrowings of the court-based dance-dramas and the Indar sabhā. But the difference rests on the heavier influence of Urdu poetry and Persian narrative of the Indar sabhā on the one hand and the Krishnaite idiom of the qiṣṣah on the other. Further insight is obtained by a subsequent comparison with a Braj devotional play by Lalit Kiśorī, also a contemporary playwright. A translation and edition of the unpublished play by Lalit Kiśorī is provided along with a contrastive examination with the qiṣṣah. The previous inspection exposes the same theme of the stolen flute of Krishna in the court and the temple setting which signals the influence of Braj devotional theater in the work of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh. Moreover, the relation between the court and the temple calls for an integrated narrative of Hindi and Urdu theater, instead of a treatment of Hindi and Urdu literary cultures as two separate exclusive categories. Finally, the theme of the stolen flute is traced in Vaishnava literature in Sanskrit and Braj over the centuries to reinforce Wājid ‘Alī Shāh’s adaptation of a literary tradition. This dissertation concludes that cultural productions at the court were not fixed according to a religious identity or particular language, but rather constitute an example of a Hindu-Muslim encounter. 4 Note on translation and transliteration All translations are mine unless otherwise stated in the footnotes. I have read a number of English translations from South Asian languages that have helped me with me with my own translations. Whenever this is the case I have acknowledge the sources. This dissertation uses sources in Urdu, Hindi, Braj bhāshā and Sanskrit and there is no simple solution for transliterating all these languages on the same page. I mostly follow the conventions of John Platts’s Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi, and English for all the words written in nasta’līq and the conventions of McGregor’s The Oxford Hindi English Dictionary for words written in devanāgarī. To avoid the as “sh”, ऋ as “ri” and ش/ṣ” and ष“ ص overlap between the transliteration systems I transliterated as “ṛ”. The diacritics were dropped for names of places and for the name Krishna and ڈ /蔼 Vaishnava. All foreign words are italicized with the exception of proper names. ,t ت ,p پ ,b ب ,a ا ,c چ ,j ج , s̤ ث ,ṭ ٹ ,ḍ ڈ ,d د ,kh خ ̣,h ح ,z ز ̣,r ڑ ,r ر ,z ذ , ṣ ص ,sh ش ,s س ,zh ژ ,‘ ع , z̤ ظ ,t̤ ط ,ẓ ض ,g گ ,k ک ,q ق ,gh غ ,n ن ,m م ,l ل w, ū, o, au و h ہ ھ h .ī, ai ے ,y,i, e ی iẓāfat-e क k, ख kh, ग g, घ gh, ङ ṅ, च c, छ ch, ज j, झ jh, ञ ñ, 5 ट ṭ, ठ ṭh, ड ḍ, ढ ḍ, ण ṇ, त ta, थ th, द d, ध dh, न n प p, फ ph, ब b, भ bh, म m य y, र r, ल l, व v, श ś, ष sh, स s, ह h अं ṃ 6 List of Figures Figure 1 Wājid ‘Alī Shāh’s linage. Figure 2 The ascension to the throne from ‘Ishq nāmah. Figure 3 Raqs rahas dhārī from ‘Ishq nāmah. Figure 4 Portrait of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh. Figure 5 Early 20th century rāsdhārī notebook. Figure 6 Early 20th century rāsdhārī notebook II. Figure 7 Figure 7 Ras kalikā manuscript. Figure 8 Shāh Kundanlāl and Shān Phundanlāl. Figure 9 Lalit Kiśorī. Figure 10 Detail. Figure 11 Ceiling Shāh jī temple. Figure 12 Wājid Alī’ Shāh dressed as a gopī. Figure 13 Svāmī Śrī Fateh Krishna Śarmā. Figure 14 Krishna and Madhumangala. Figure 15 Madhumangala and the gopīs. Figure 16 Madhumangala being dressed as a gopī. Figure 17 The theft of the flute. Figure 18 Krishna trying to recover his flute. Figure 19 Rādhā and Krishna being worshipped. 7 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Note on translation and transliteration ...................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 1 Visions of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh, his life and his world ............................................ 21 The History of Awadh and the life of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh ............................................................ 21 The literary work of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh ....................................................................................... 32 Perceptions of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh: Views on the government ..................................................... 39 Perceptions of Wājid ‘Alī Shāh: Views on patronage............................................................... 43 CHAPTER 2 Wājid ‘Alī Shāh’s dramatic work and the Indar sabhā ................................... 49 The Rādhā Krishna performance in Lucknow .......................................................................... 49 The performance of the Rādhā Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah .................................................................. 55 Indar sabhā by Amānat .............................................................................................................. 58 Staging the Indar sabhā ............................................................................................................. 64 The plot of Rādhā Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah and Indar sabhā ........................................................... 66 The structure of the dance dramas............................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER 3 Annotated translation of the rahas entitled Rādhā and Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah .. 78 Text and translation ................................................................................................................... 79 8 The first qiṣṣah regarding the circumstances of the declaration and display of love between Rādhā and Kanhaiyā.................................................................................................................. 80 Second qiṣṣah of Rādhā and Kanhaiyā ................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER 4 The Braj rās līlā tradition and Wājid ‘Alī Shāh ............................................. 115 The Braj rās līlā performance tradition ................................................................................... 116 Lalit Kiśorī: a rās līlā playwright from the 19th century .......................................................... 121 The script of the Vaṃśī naṭ līlā ............................................................................................... 124 Wājid ‘Alī Shāh’s perspective of his rahas and Hindu devotional drama .............................. 133 Vaṃśī naṭ līlā and the Rādhā Kanhaiyā kā qiṣṣah .................................................................. 135 CHAPTER 5 The story of the theft of the flute in Vaishnava literature ............................. 148 Devotional texts in Sanskrit in the 16th century ...................................................................... 149 Rūpa Gosvāmī ........................................................................................................................