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The Shah-Name Echoes in Sikh Poetry and the Origins of the Nihangs' Name

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The Shah-Name Echoes in Sikh Poetry and the Origins of the Nihangs' Name ASSADULLAH SOUREN MELIKIAN-CHIRVANI Iranian influence on all aspects of Indian liter­ The discovery of at least one manuscript of the ary and artistic culture in Islamic times, first in­ Shah-Name with paintings executed in a thor­ troduced into the subcontinent by conquering oughly Hindustani style around the middle of the Turkish rulers, spread far beyond religious bound­ 9/15th century4 proves that the Persian literary aries. Persian became the language of administra­ work was sung in regional courts long before the tion and intercommunal intercourse in much of advent of Moghul rule in 1526. B. N. Goswamy India. One of the lesser known aspects of the Ira­ who published the manuscript pointed out the nian legacy in India is its imprint on early Sikh difficulty of determining its precise regional prov­ thinking and culture to which I drew attention in enance. Nevertheless, the Indian scholar felt "in­ 1999 in an essay on "Ranjit Singh and the Image clined to place this manuscript in middle India," of the Past."l meaning the area of Mandu and Ahmadnagar in Some typical Sikh institutions such as the lan­ the Deccan.5 gar were set up on lines following the Iranian Another manuscript now in the New York Sufi model. 2 Important Sikh writings were co­ Public Library published by B. N. Goswamy as a loured by Iranian culture, if only in their literary volume of the "Selections of the Shah-Name" mode. illuminated in pre-Moghul times must be left Such is the case with the ?-afar-Name ("The out.6 Its paintings date from the late 19th or 20th Book of Victory"), the epistle in Persian verse century.7 But a number of manuscripts in frag­ written by the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind mentary condition dating from the later years of Singh, to the Moghul emperor <Alamglr, as Akbar's reign and from Jahangir's time prove that Owrang-zib ("Aurangzeb" to Victorian writers) the Shah-Name was well read at the Moghul became known after mounting the throne. The court.8 metre, the style with its archaic phrases, and Any writer striking a Shah-Name note in a occasionally the mood, reveal the Guru's close court milieu would have been sure to touch a familiarity with the 4/10th century "Book of chord, all the more so as the importance assumed Kings" [Shah-Name]. An even more marked by the Shah-Name in the Iranian world and in all Shah-Name influence can be detected in the other lands where Persian was the language of enigmatic Fath-Name ("The Book of Conquest") literature and polished usage went far beyond preserved in fragmentary form. that of a literary work.9 I have shown in the first That the mark left by the Shah-Name on these of two monographs on the Shah-Name that kings epistles has not been analysed so far is no sur­ and their entourage tried to model their conduct prise. The "Book of Kings," a stylized history of on the attitudes and feats accomplished by the the world centred on Iran written by Ferdowsi in heroic rulers of Ancient Iran as sung by Fer­ fifty thousand couplets, was read and recited in dowsi. Cases of princes reciting verses of the all Persian speaking-courts.3 Hindustan followed Shah-Name as they rode out to combat are re­ the Iranian model in this respect as in so many ported by historians of impeccable credentials. others. Shah-Name verses were written on the friezes of 1 MEL I K I A N - CHI R V A N I: The Shah-Name Echoes in Sikh Poetry glazed revetment tiles that ran inside royal pal­ brant profession of monotheistic faith to which aces of the 7/13th and 8/14th century.lO E~l~; any Muslim would unreservedly subscribe. The gistic titles such as "The Second Jamsh1d, first line is slightly surpnsmg: wIhe Second Rostam," and others coined ~fter the names of Shdh-Nc1me characters were mte­ ~;--S ~U 0~~ J~ grated into the official protocol of rulers wh.o ~) ,.5u) J;,\) ~ L.:,) thus fclt they were reenacting the deeds of then Ancient Iranian role models. The role of the Shllh-Nllme as a behavioural model for kings in Kamal-e Kamalat-e Qd>em Karim part explains the Shdh-Nc1me tone retained by Reia-bakhsh-e Razeq Rahli-gu Rabim CurD G()bind Singh in the ?-afar-Nc1me, and also by the unknown author of the Fath-f!~me. This Perfection of Perfections, Eternal, Generous imprint in turn sheds light on the ongms of the That grants Contentment, that nourishes, that . I~ metaphorical designation adopted for themselves liberates, that IS compasslOnate by the Sikh Nahangs (Nihangs, as the word is pronounced nowadays in India) the well-known An opening couplet is almost certainly miss­ martial community reputed for its fearlessness ing. One would expect the text to begi~, wit.h the in combat. traditional invocation "In the name of, as IS the case with the Fath-Nlime (see below). This is probably one of the reasons that induced the_ ed­ Part One: The Shah-Name and itors of the Amritsar version of the ~afar-Name to consider the Fath-Nlime to be part of it. How­ Sikh Poetry in Persian ever, as will be se'en, this is made unlikely both by the style and the tone. The wording of the first few couplets IS m­ 1. The Shah-Name Echoes in the teresting. At times, the Guru uses Arabic loan ~afar-Namc words adopted in Persian to convey fundamen­ tal Koranic concepts, and at others, he draws The ?-afar-Ndme consists of one hundred and mostly or solely on the Persian vocabulary of the cleven Persian couplets, one of which actually Shc1h-Name. In the first line, the qualifiers Ka­ paraphrases a Shdh-Ndme maxim and names rim, "Generous," Rabim, "Compassionate," ar.e FerdowSI as its author. 11 Koranic adjectives defining some of the attn­ It was written in 1706 by GurD Gobind Singh butes of God-through which man is made cog­ who had already lost his two elder sons at Cham­ nizant of His Essence to which he has no direct bur in the armed conflict that pitched the Sikhs access. In fact all the words, with the excep­ against the Moghul armies. As all commentators tion of Persian -bakhsh in the compound reia­ have noted, this was a response to the treacher­ bakhsh, "that grants contentment," are Arabic ous execution of the GurD's two younger sons by loan words. They convey Islamic notions even Wazlr Khan, CAlamgIr's military commander, in when used with a meaning that they do not have breach of the solemn oath on the Koran taken by in the Koran. Qli>im is to be understood as "stan~­ the emperor who personally guaranteed the safe ing" in the three chapters of the Koran where It passage of the Guru and his entourage. 12 In ex­ appears. In the present case, it conveys the notion change, it had been agreed that the Guru's forces that God stands by Himself in eternity-God, un­ would evacuate Anandpur, which they did. like created beings, has no need for support. IS . The same commentators, however, have given Reid, the Persian pronunciation for ArabIc no attention to the literary characteristics of ricj.a>, expresses a concept that is central to Su­ the ?-afar-Ndme, let alone to the Shdh-Nc1me imprint.1.l fism, that of man's contentment with the lot assigned to him by God. In the 6/12th century, The ?-afar-NcIme is composed in couplets with Man~ur b. Ardeshlr SanjI cAbbadI MarvazI writ.es inner rhyme in the Motaqdreb metre of the type in his section "On contentment" in "On the Vu­ adopted by FerdowsI for the ShcIh-Ndme. tues of the Sufis" [Dar Manaqeb-e Mota$avvefe]: Like any Persian work in verse or prose, the "know that the [accomplished] man, as he ?-afar-Ndme begins by celebrating God in a vi- a~­ tains certainty, is always contented with the d1- 2 MEL I K I A N - CHI R V A N I: The Shah-Name Echoes in Sikh Poetry More specifically, the intention was to make vine decree [qazal. For the Sufis, there is no the Moghul monarch aware of his scandalous better attribute than contentment [rezal in all action when measured by the standard of his spiritual conditions [ah-vall·"16 In the second cou­ own Muslim faith. Doing so in the Shah-Name plet of the Z;afar-Name, the Guru gives prece­ style allowed the vehemence of the reproach to dence to Persian words over loan words borrowed become acceptable. As early as the second and from Arabic. third couplets, a thinly veiled allusion is made to the circumstances that prompted the Guru to send the epistle to (Alamglr. In the second couplet, God is celebrated as "He that grants Safety," aman-bakhsh. Aman is a word with multiple connotations. It can be the "pardon" Aman-bakhsh-o Bakhsande-vo Dasteglr bestowed upon a captive or a person considered Khata-bakhsh-o Rflzldeh-o Del-pa~lr to have perpetrated a criminal act. Or it can be the "safe passage" promised in the course of He that Grants safety and Forgives and Succours hostilities-both meanings are recorded by the That Remits errment and Gives sustenance and Hindustani lexicographer QazI Khan Badr Mo­ Raptures the SOUlll hammad Dhar in his Arabic-Persian dictionary.2o Aman is what (Alamglr had committed himself to grant to the Guru's sons.
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