The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c19.56

c19.56

In recreation and amusements a taste for chess (shatranj) and gambling (qammarbazi) was probably an earlier acquisition. So was also the out-door game of chaughan, a kind of polo. The royalty combined amusement with military exercise in hunting excursions. Wine was almost an indispensible constituent of gaity; holding of convivial parties with friends (nadims) was considered almost a royal convention. Balban is said to have given up wine altogether after his accession; it was clearly inspired by political expediency as in the case of Alauddin, rather than anxiety to observe the law, for the lawyers themselves were scarce disinclined to allow the monarch some latitude in this matter¹. Music and dancing girls were another means of diversion which, as time went on, became indispensible like wine, and from private amusement, became a conventional court practice. The employment of professional performers and couresans seems to be a development inspired by Indian practice, for in central Asia and even in the Arabian countries, free-born professional musician of the female sex was a rare social phenomenon. The Indian courtesan and nawtch-girl was not paralled by the trained jariya.