Twilight of the Sultanate c17.s10.17

c17.s10.17

Commoners of both the communities enjoyed and participated in the festivals of one another. Chroniclers of the century do not give details of Hindu festivals, but Chandreshwar Thakur in *Kritya Ratnākar* gives names of many festivals.¹⁹⁷ Important ones like Holī, Dasherā and Dīwālī certainly were enjoyed by all. Similarly there were many Muslim festivals which all sections of the people enjoyed. Shab-i-Bārāt which was probably copied from Shiva Rātrī, as fireworks were common in both,¹⁹⁸ was enjoyed by both Hindus and Muslims.¹⁹⁹ Similarly the idea of Taziās in Muharram was borrowed from the Jagannath Rath Yātrā, Krishna Līlā and Mahānadī festival of south India.²⁰⁰ The celebrations in the capital city in the wake of a successful campaign were an occasion of joy for all.²⁰¹ Thus the things common between the two communities out-weighed those of differences of religion. Even in the religious sphere Sūfī saints, Hindu Yogīs and particularly the socio-religious reformers of the fifteenth century, about whom we shall study in the next chapter, helped to bring the people to understand one another, and contributed greatly towards the evolution of Indian national life. There were even reconversions of converted Muslims to Hinduism.²⁰² This was certainly not the India which Alberunī or Ibn Battūta had seen or visualised.