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The Development of Literature under Delhi Sultanate during the medieval period of India Manash Jyoti Nath Research Scholar, Dept. of History, Gauhati University Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India, 781014 Email - [email protected] ______

Abstract The Sultanate witnessed the flowering of a rich corpus of literature. The Sultans of Delhi and the rulers of provinces dynasties patronized different scholars, poets who produced many historical and religious literatures during this period. There are five dynasties who ruled over the Delhi Sultanate and they are Slave dynasty (1206-1290), the Khilji dynasty (1290-1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320-1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414-1451) and the Lodi dynasty (1451-1526). This was a period when new languages were introduced with a remarkable growth in the sphere of culture and literature. This cultural and literary synthesis is manifested in the origin and growth of a synthetic language like Urdu and in the interchange between Persian and Sanskrit. The regional languages and literature which were considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Persian mirrored the religious, social and popular attitudes of the period under study.

Keywords: Delhi Sultanate, Literature, Patronize, Urdu, Regional language.

Introduction The Delhi Sultanate refers to the five short lived Muslim kingdoms which belonged to Turks and Afghans that ruled the territory of Delhi during 1206 to 1526 A.D. The Turks who came to India were deeply influenced by the Persian language which had become the literary and administrative language of Central Asia from the ten century onwards. From the begging the ruler of Delhi Sultanate adopted Persian as the language of literature and administration in the country. From Qutubuddin to Sikandar Lodi, all the rulers of Delhi Sultanate gave liberal patronage to Persian writers, poets, philosophers, and theologians. Some of the Sultans had their own court historian. The Sultanate witnessed the flowering of a rich corpus of literature. This was a period when new languages were introduced with a remarkable growth in the sphere of

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culture and literature. This period produce brilliant poet like Amir Khusrau who had great contribution towards literature. The Sultanate period is remarkable for the immense production of literary works in different branches of Sanskrit literature. During that time Sanskrit was patronized by many kings especially in South India and Rajasthan. Regional languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Marathi and Gujarati also developed rapidly during the Sultanate period. Amir Khusrau hated noted the existence of regional language and remarked: “These languages have from ancient times applied in every way to the common purpose of life”. This period witnessed the growth of literature in different fields and different languages.

Objectives The objective of the study is to evaluate the development of literature under the ruler of Delhi Sultanate during the period of Medieval India. An attempt will also be made to study the progress of different regional language during that period.

Methodology The present study will be based on Historical analytical method. In analytical method, we have to use facts or information already available. The study will be based on both mainly secondary sources. Data from the secondary sources include various published and unpublished documents, relevant Books, and materials available in the internet.

Discussion Historians hold divergent opinions regarding the position of Persian literature. Some Scholar believes that Delhi Sultanate was a cultural kingdom, but the others have the opinion that the Sultanate period was a dark age from cultural point of view. No doubt, the Turkish rulers are lover of art and literature and almost all the rulers patronize Persian literature.

Persian was introduced in India during the period of Ghaznavi rule in the Punjab. There was remarkable growth in Persian literature in Iran and Central Asia from the tenth century onwards. Some of the great poets of Persian language like Firdausi and Sadi composed their works during this phase of-growth of Persian literature in Iran and Central Asia. Lahore which was the centre of Turkish political authority in

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India before the beginning of the 13th century, was attracted many Persian poets from the Islamic countries of Iran and Central Asia. The works of only a few of the early writers of Persian literature in India have survived. It was after the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate that Indian influence began to exert itself on Persian works written in India as is evident from the literary compositions of Amir Khusrau. The reign of the Khaljis was a glorious period from the viewpoint of growth of Persian literature in India. According to Ziauddin Barani, the famous contemporary historian, "there lived at Delhi scholars of such eminence and caliber as were not to be found in Bukhara, Samarqand, Tabriz and Isfahan, and in their intellectual accomplishments they equaled Razi and Ghazali. Under every stone lay hide a precious gem of literary excellence". The most outstanding of the Persian scholars and poets of the period was Abul Hasan, usually known by this pseudonym of Amir Khusrau. Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) was one of those few Indian writers of Persian poetry whose works have been read and admired beyond their own country. His works represent the beginning of a new trend in Indian-based Persian literature - the trend of the growing familiarity with Indian literature and influence of Indian literature on Persian writings in India. Amir Khusrau was the Indian born son of a Turkish immigrant. He began his career as a courtier and poet during the reign of Sultan Balban. He became a disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, the famous Sufi saint of the Chisti order. He was the court-poet during the reigns of Jalaluddin Khalji and Alauddin Khalji. Later, Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughluq also patronised him. He lived through the reigns of six Sultans of Delhi and was connected with their courts. Arnir Khusrau was a prolific and versatile writer and is said to have composed half a million verses and ninety-nine works on different themes. His poetry consisted of a great variety of forms - lyric, ode, epic, and elegy. His poetry was essentially Indian in sentiment though he followed Persian models in technique. Thus he created a new style of Persian which came to be known as sabaq-i- Hindi or the Indian style. Some of the works composed by Amir Khusrau have been lost. Five literary masterpieces composed by him are Mutla-ul Anwar, Shirin Khusrau, Laila Majnun, Ayina-i Sikmdari and Hasht Bihisht. He dedicated all of them to Alauddin.Khalji. Amir Khusrau also wrote historical masnavis (narrative poems) which have great literary and historical value. He was not a historian in the actual sense of the term but since he enjoyed the patronage of successive Sultans of Delhi and since he selected historical themes for his masnavis, the historical content of his writings is of great interest to the students of the history of his times. In Qiran-us Sadain, Amir Khusrau describes the quarrel and reconciliation between Sultan Kaiqubad and his father Bughra Khan. Miftah-ul Futah deals with the military successes of Sultan Jalauddin Khalji. 'Ashiqa' is the story of romantic love between Khizr Khan, the eldest son of

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sultan Alauddin Khalji and Deval Rani, daughter of Rai Karan, the Raja of Gujarat. The Tugqluq Nama describes Ghiyasuddin Tughluq's rise to power. Anothsr historical work written by Amir Khusrau was Khazain- ul Futuh in which he gave an account of Alauddin Khalji's conquests in the South. However,it must be noted that Amir Khusrau, being a court-poet, looked at events largely through official eyes. Shaikh Nijamuddin Hassan popularly known as Hasan Dehlawi was another famous Persitin poet during the Sultanate period. He was a friend of Amir Khusrau. He was one of the court poets of Sultan Alauddin Khalji. The quality of his ghazals earned him the title of S'adi of Hindustan. Poetical writings in Persian continued during the reigns of the Tughluq and Lodi Sultans. The expansion of the Delhi Sultanate led to the extension of the Persian literature to various parts of India. The emergence of provincial kingdoms following the disintegration of the Delhi Sultanate also contributed to this process. With the foundation of the Bahmani kingdom in the Deccan, many Persian poets and scholars migrated to Gulbarga where they were patronized by the Bahmani Sultans. One of the important contributions of Persian literature during the Sultanate period was in the sphere of history writing. Many historians wrote the history of the period in Persian language. The most important of these historians were Minhaj us Siraj (author of the Tabaqat-i Nasiri), Isami (author of the Futuh-us Salatin), Shams Siraj Afif (author of the Tarikh-i Feroz Shah). Among the Sultans, Feroz Shah Tughluq wrote the Futuhat-i Ferozshahi. But the greatest historian of this period was Ziauddin Barani. His Tarikh-I Firozshahi is the most valuable work of history writing of the period. During the Sultanate period, large amount of religious and philosophical literature was produced in Persian. The sufi literature written in Persian is of great value both from religious and literary points of view. It is generally believed that the loss of official patronage caused the decline of Sanskrit literature during the Sultanate period. While it is true that Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language, there was no quantitative decline in the production of Sanskrit literary works as such. This period produced greater works in in Sanskrit rather than the previous periods. Following the great Sankara, works in the field of Advaita philosophy by Ramanuja, Madhava, Vallabha, etc. contuned to be wriiten in Sanskrit. Some of the oldest available text of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata belonged to the period from the eleventh or twelfth century onward. A large number of commentaries and digests on the Hindu law (Dharmashastras) were prepared between the twelfth and the sixteenth century. The great Mitakshara of of Vijnaneshwar, which forms one of the two principal Hindu schools of law, cannot be placed earlier than the twelfth century. Another famous commentator was Chandeshwar of Bihar who lived in the fourteenth century.

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Most of the works were produced in the south, followed by Bengal, Mithila and western India under the patronage of Hindu rulers. The Jains too, contributed to the growth of Sanskrit. Hemchandra Suri was the most eminent of these. Oddly enough, these works largely ignored the presence of the Muslims in the country. Little attempt was made to translate Islamic works on Persian literature into Sanskrit. Possibly, the only exception was the translation of the love story of Yusuf and Zulaikha written by the famous Persian poet, Jami. Literary works of the regional languages were also produced during this period. Many of the language such as Hindi, Bengali and Marathi, trace their origin back to the eight century or so. Some others, such as Tamil, were much older. The rise to maturity of many of these languages and their uses as means for literary works may be considered a striking feature of the medieval period. There were many reasons for this. Perhaps, with the loss of prestige by the Brahamans, Sanskrit also lost some of its prestige. The use of the common language by Bhakti saints was undoubtedly an important favtor for the the rise of these languages. Moreover, regional language like Tamil, Kanada, and Maratha were used for administrative purpose in addition to Sanskrit. Under the patroaze of Vijayanagar ruler, Telegu literature was greatly developed in South India. Marathi was one of the administrative languages in the Bahamani kingdom and later, at the court of Bijapur. In Assam, Assamese language was begun to develop under the Ahom ruler. In course of time when these languages had reached certain stage of development, some of the Muslim king gave them patronage for literary Purpose also. For example Nusrat Shah of Bengal had the Mahabharata and the Ramayana translated into Bengali, Maladhar Basu also translated the Bhagavata into Bengali under his patronage.

Conclusion Besides Persians, Hindi and Sanskrit and some other languages also flourished during this period. It can be said that the Sultanate of Delhi was literary state and all literatures developed during this period. A new language flourished during the reign of the Sultans of Delhi known as Urdu. It was a link amongst the Turks andf the central Asian tribes and Hindus. Earlier, it was known as Hindivi but later it came to to be known as Urdu. Amir Khusrau was the first writer who made use of it but the Turkish rulers did not patronize it as they were lovers of Persian.

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References 1. Ahmad, Aziz (1969), “An Intellectual History of Islam in India”, T & A. Constable, Edinburg. 2. Ahmad, Mohammad Aziz (1972), “Political History and Institutions of the Early Turkish Empire of Delhi”, Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, New Delhi. 3. Askari, S. H. (1992), „Amir Khusrau As A Historian”, Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna. 4. Bhargava, K.D. (1960), “A Survey of Islamic Culture and Institutions”, Kitab Mahal, Allahabad. 5. Bhattacharya, N.N (1989), “Medieval Bhakti Movements in India”, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. 6. Chandra, Satish (2001), “Medieval India from Sultanate to the Mughals”, Haranand Publications, New Delhi. 7. Chattopadhayaya, D.P. (2011), “History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization”, New Delhi, Vol. VIII, Part One. 8. Chitnis, K.N. (1990), “Socio-Economic History of Medieval India”, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. 9. Habib, Irfan (2008), “Medieval India-The Study of Civilization”, National Book Trust, New Delhi. 10. Mohammad, Qamaruddin (1985), “Society and Culture in Early Medieval India (712- 1526)”, Adam Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi. 11. Nizami, K.A. (1966), “Studies in Medieval Indian History and Culture”, Kitab Mahal, Allahabad. 12. Prasad, Ishwari (1966), “History of Medieval India”, Indian Press, Allahabad. 13. Raj, Kumar (2000), “Medieval Art and Culture”, Anmol Publications, New Delhi, First Edition

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