The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.s3: Bhakti Movement

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c10.s3

Language: English

Bhakti Movement

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The most effective Hindu protest against atrocities was registered by the Bhakti Movement in medieval India. Bhakti means devotion to God. A *Bhakt* may worship Him at home, in the temple, all by himself through meditation, or in congregations through *Bhajan* and *Kirtan* (chorus singing). He need not go out into the streets to organize a movement. But this is exactly what happened at the behest of the socio-religious reformers in the fifteenth-sixteenth century. And the movement triumphed insofar as it succeeded in saving India from total Islamization. The Bhakta saints who spearheaded this movement belonged to all classes, but essentially the protest was a middle class movement and it was a strange combination of Renaissance, Reformation and dissent.

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The Hindus resented conversion of their co-religionists by invaders and rulers by force. Many such converts used to return to their original faith at the first opportunity as vouched by Arabic and Persian chroniclers writing about Muhammad bin Qasims invasion of Sind and Mahmud of Ghaznis campaigns in Hindustan. As early as in the time of Sultan Iltutmish (1210-1236), soon after the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in 1206, some Ulama suggested to him to confront the Hindus with a choice between Islam and death. The Wazir Nizamul Mulk Junaidi replied: But at the moment in India the Muslims are so few that they are like salt (in a large dish). If such orders are to be enforced the Hindus might combine and the Muslims would be too few in number to suppress(them). However, after a few years when in the capital and in the regions and small towns, the Muslims are well established and the troops are larger, it will be possible to give Hindus, the choice of death or Islam.⁶⁸ On the other hand, Hindu saints used to assuage the outraged feelings of Hindus and encourage them reconvert to Hinduism. For instance Harihar and Bukka, sons of the Raja of Kampil ,converted to Islam by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, fled his court. At the instance of sage Vidyaranya they reverted to Hinduism and founded the Vijayanagar kingdom to resist the expansion of Muslim power in the South. Like Vidyaranya, there were scores of Bhakta saints who were helping people to resist injustice and retain their original religion. In Maharashtra, Namdeva in the fourteenth century declared that people were blind in insisting upon worshipping in temples and mosques, while His worship needed neither temple nor mosque.⁶⁹ Such courageous denunciations were infectious and these spread in Gujarat, Bengal, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

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Ramananda, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya, Raidas, Dhanna, Sain, Garibdas and Dadu Dayal and a host of others spoke out in the same idiom openly and repeatedly. They came from all classes of society - Raidas was a *chamar*, Sain was a barber while Pipa was a Raja, Raja of Gauranggarh - but they were all respected and listened to. Of these the three most important saints who turned Bhakti into a movement were Kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya.

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Sant Kabir lived in U.P. from 1425 to about 1505, Guru Nanak in Punjab from 1469 to 1538 and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal from 1486 to 1534. During this period, particularly after the invasion of Timur (1399 C.E.), northern India was broken up into a number of independent Muslim kingdoms like Gujarat, Malwa, Jaunpur and Bengal while the Sultanate of Delhi was ruled by the Saiyyads and Lodis. Sikandar Lodi (1489-1517) revived the strength of the Sultanate and was the strongest and most fanatical ruler of the dynasty. Babur conquered Hindustan from 1526 to 1530 and Akbar ascended the throne in 1556. Thus from the beginning of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century (1400-1556), India witnessed terrible political upheavals resulting in large-scale massacres and conversions. The division of the country into small kingdoms rendered the task of the Muslim rulers easy in pressurising their Hindu subjects in their micro units into accepting Islam. The local Sultans and nobles, in order to control and demoralize the subject people, not only demolished their temples and imposed legal disabilities upon them but also confronted them with the choice between Islam and death - a phenomenon which had been going on since the days of Iltutmish in a rather haphazard manner. It is therefore necessary to cursorily go through this scenario to be able to make a correct appraisal of the services of these great saints, and their disciples and followers, in saving Hindu society from succumbing to Muslim proselytization.

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Punjab was always the first to bear the brunt of Muslim invasions directed against India, and Muslim invaders were keenly interested in making converts. In the first half of the fifteenth century the successors of Timur were holding parts of Punjab to ransom. Under the Mongol invaders too conversions used to take place on a large scale.⁷⁰ Rebellions of Muslim adventurers were also creating anarchical conditions.⁷¹ During this period and after, therefore, the Muslim population of the Punjab swelled considerably mainly due to proselytization. Added to this were the large number of Afghans whom the Saiyyads and Lodis had called from across the Indus with a view to consolidating their position. Like in Punjab, in Sind also the rule of the Turkish Sultans and the pressure of the Mongols had combined to Islamise the northern parts. In southern Sind the Summas became Muslims and Hindus by turns, but ultimately they seem to have adopted Islam, and propagated the religion in their dominions.⁷² in Sind compulsory conversions to Mahometanism were not infrequent, the helpless Hindu being forcibly subjected to circumcision on slight or misconstructed profession, or the false testimony of abandoned Mahometans⁷³ When Humayun took refuge in Sind (1541),⁷⁴ Muslim population in its cities had grown considerably.

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There were Muslim kings in the Kashmir Valley from the middle of the fourteenth century. However, it was during the reign of Sikandar Butshikan (1394-1417) that the wind of Muslim proselytization blew the hardest. His bigotry prompted him to destroy all the most famous temples in Kashmir and offer the Kashmiris the usual choice between Islam and death. It is said that the fierce intolerance of Sikandar had left in Kashmir no more than eleven families of Brahmans.⁷⁵ His contemporary, the Raja of Jammu, had been converted to Islam by Timur, by hopes, fears and threats.⁷⁶ The kingdom of Gujarat was founded by Wajih-ul-Mulk, a converted Rajput in 1396. One of its famous rulers, Ahmad Shah (1411-1442) was responsible for many conversions. In 1414 he introduced the *Jiziyah*, and collected it with such strictness, that it brought a number of converts to Islam.⁷⁷ Mahmud Begharas exertions (1458-1511) in the field of proselytization were more impressive.⁷⁸ In Malwa there were large number of Muslims since the days of Khalji and Tughlaq sultans.⁷⁹ These numbers went on growing during the rule of the independent Muslim rulers of Malwa, the Ghauris and Khaljis (1401-1562). The pattern of growth of Muslim population in Malwa was similar to that in the other regions but their harems were notoriously large, filled as they were with Hindu inmates.⁸⁰

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About the conversions in Bengal three statements, one each from Wolseley Haig, Dr. Wise and Duarte Barbosa, should suffice to assess the situation. Haig writes that it is evident, from the numerical superiority in Eastern Bengal of the Muslims that at some period an immense wave of proselytization must have swept over the country and it is most probable that the period was the period of Jalaluddin Muhammad (converted son of Hindu Raja Ganesh) during whose reign of seventeen years (1414-1431) hosts of Hindus are said to have been forcibly converted to Islam.⁸¹ With regard to these conversions, Dr. Wise writes that the only condition he offered were the Koran or death many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during these seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred years.⁸² And Barbosa writes that It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor, in as much as the Hindus daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers.⁸³ The militant Mashaikh also found in Bengal a soil fertile for conversion, and worked hard to raise Muslim numbers.⁸⁴

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We may linger awhile in Bengal to have a clear picture of the spread of Islam through methods in which medieval Muslims took pleasure and pride while modern Muslims maintain a studied silence.⁸⁵ The details of the conversion of Raja Ganesh bring out the importance of the role of force, of persuasion and of the Ulama and Sufis in proselytization. In 1409 Ra a Ganesh occupied the throne of Bengal and sought to establish his authority by getting rid of the prominent *ulama* and *Sufis*.⁸⁶ Qutb-ul-Alam Shaikh Nurul Haqq wrote to Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi to come and save the Muslims of Bengal. Ibrahim Sharqi responded to the call, and Raja Ganesh, finding himself too weak to face the challenge, appealed to Shaikh Nurul Haqq for help. The latter promised to intercede on his behalf if he became a Musalman. The helpless Raja was willing, but his wife refused to agree. Ultimately a compromise was made by the Raja offering to retire from the world and permitting his son, Jadu, to be converted and ascend his throne. On Jadu being converted and enthroned as Jalaluddin Shah, Shaikh Nurul Haqq induced Sultan Ibrahim to withdraw his armies.⁸⁷ If a Raja of the stature of Ganesh could not face up to the Ulama and the Sufis, other Rajas and Zamindars were still worse placed. Petty Rajas and Zamindars were converted to Islam, with their wives and children, if they could not pay land revenue or tribute in time. Such practice appears to be common throughout the whole country as instances of it are found from Gujarat⁸⁸ to Bengal.⁸⁹

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In Uttar Pradesh the region to the east and south of Delhi - Katehar, Doab, Bayana and Mewat - had become a problem tract in the fifteenth century, and there the Saiyyad and Lodi sultans contented themselves with the ignoble but customary satisfaction of plundering the people, and obtaining converts in the bargain.⁹⁰ Muhammad Bihamad Khani, the author of *Tarikh-i-Muhammadi*, gives a clear idea of the keenness of the Muslim sultans and their subtle methods in obtaining converts. He writes that sultan Mahmud while fighting Rai Sumer in the vicinity of Irich concluded that if he allowed his brave warriors to wage the war (outright), they would undoubtedly extirpate the infidels but he deemed it fit to delay the operation (or advance slowly) in the hope that the infidels might accept Islam.⁹¹

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Who could save the Hindus from extinction in such a scenario? Obviously, leaders of the society, the Brahmans. What the Brahmans as protectors of their culture achieved in those days, writes Wilhelm von Pochhammer, has never been properly recorded, probably because a considerable number of people belonging precisely to this class had been slaughtered. If success was achieved in preserving Hindu culture in the hell of the first few centuries, the credit undoubtedly goes to the Brahmans. They saw to it that not too many chose the cowardly way of getting converted and that the masses remained true to the holy traditions on which culture rested⁹² Muslim kings knew this and treated the Brahmans sternly, restricting their sphere of activity.⁹³ The Muslim Mashaikh were as keen on conversions as the Ulama, and contrary to general belief, in place of being kind to the Hindus as saints would, they too wished the Hindus to be accorded a second class citizenship if they were not converted. Only one instance, that of Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangoh, need be cited because he belonged to the Chishtia *Silsila* considered to be the most tolerant of all Sufi groups. He wrote letters to Sultan Sikandar Lodi,⁹⁴ Babur⁹⁵ and Humayun⁹⁶ to re-invigorate the Shariat and reduce the Hindus to payers of land tax and *Jiziyah*.⁹⁷ To Babur he wrote, Extend utmost patronage and protection to theologians and mystics that they should be maintained and subsidized by the state No non-Muslim should be given any office or employment in the Diwan of Islam. Posts of Amirs and *Amils* should be barred to them.

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Furthermore, in confirmity with the principles of the Shariat they should be subjected to all types of indignities and humiliations. The non-Muslims should be made to pay *Jiziyah*, and *Zakat* on goods be levied as prescribed by the law. They should be disallowed from donning the dress of the Muslims and should be forced to keep their *Kufr* concealed and not to perform the ceremonies of their *Kufr* openly and freely They should not be allowed to consider themselves equal to the Muslims. He went from Shahabad to Nakhna where Sultan Sikandar was encamping. His mission was to personally remind the Sultan of the kingly duties and exert his influence over him and his nobles. He also wrote letters to Mir Muhammad, Mir Tardi, Ibrahim Khan Sherwani, Said Khan Sherwani, Khawas Khan and Dilawar Khan, making frantic appeals to them to live up to the ideals of Islam, to zealously uphold and strictly enforce the Shariat and extend patronage to the Ulama and the Mashaikh.⁹⁸ Such communications and advices did not go in vain. Contemporary and later chroniclers relate how Sikandar Lodi destroyed idols of Hindu gods and goddesses, and gave their pieces to Muslim butchers for use as meat-weights. Even as a prince he had expressed a desire to put an end to the Hindu bathing festival at Kurukshetra (Thanesar). Subsequently, he ordered that the Hindus, who had assembled there on the occasion of the solar eclipse be massacred in cold blood, but later on stayed his hand. In Mathura and other places he turned temples into mosques, and established Muslim *sarais*, colleges and *bazars* in the Hindu places of worship. The list of his atrocities is endless.⁹⁹ Babur inherited his religious policy from the Lodis. Sikandar Lodis fanaticism must have been still remembered by some of the officials who continued to serve under Babur (who) was content to govern India in the orthodox fashion.¹⁰⁰

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The task of redeeming Hindu society, besides Brahmans, devolved on the Bhakta saints and they performed their obligation with a dedication that evokes our admiration and reverence. Their task was by no means an easy one. How to stop erosion in the Hindu society through. Muslim proselytization? If the trend was allowed to continue unabated, it would pose danger to the entire complex of the Hindu social structure. To check the penetration of Islam, particularly in the rural areas, the Hindu saints after Ramanand began to make Hinduism simple, straightforward and intelligible. They showed that there was nothing superior or inferior about one religion or the other, and there was no reason why Hindus should embrace a religion, implanted from abroad, when their own ancestral religion gave scope for infinite variety of worship and contained a philosophy and a message which could satisfy their social and spiritual needs. But their exhortations were devoid of ill-will towards any other religion or sect.

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Kabir was more than sixty years of age when Sikandar Lodi ascended the throne and Nanak was twenty. Both saw the world around them and were dissatisfied with the unjust social and political order in which they lived. Not far from Nanaks home town of Talwandi, at Shahabad in the Ambala district, resided Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangoh. Nanak must have heard about him and his fundamentalism which was shared by the Lodi monarch in equal measure, and it were the activities of Mashaikh like Abdul Quddus and Sultans like Sikandar Lodi which provoked the Bhakta saints to stand equal to them and confront and encounter them. Kabir openly declared: I have come to save the devotee. I was sent because the world was in misery The Almighty sent me to show clearly the beginning and the end.¹⁰¹ Similarly Guru Nanak regarded himself as (having) received from His door-step the signs (*aitan*), the chapters (*surahs*) and the tradition (*hadis*) of the prophet.¹⁰² He taught that there is one God in the world and no other, and that Nanak the Caliph (or son) of God speaks the truth.¹⁰³ In language, sometimes soft and sometimes hard, they challenged the onslaught of Islam by claiming to have received message from God Himself. Kabir was conscious of his apostolic mission and challenged the concept that Islam was superior to Hinduism. There had been times under Muslim rule when, if one as much as said that Hinduism was as good as Islam, he was summarily executed.¹⁰⁴ Now Bhakta Kabir openly reiterated that Mecca has verily become Kashi, and Ram has become Rahim.¹⁰⁵ So also asserted Guru Nanak when he declared that There is no Hindu, there is no Musalman.¹⁰⁶ Most Hindu saints travelled widely and so did Guru Nanak, acquainting himself with different systems, orders and philosophies. He freely borrowed from Hindu classics and Muslim orders. He established the *Sangat* and the *Langar* after the way in the Muslim *Khanqahs*.

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The Bhakta saints attempted to resist Islamism in two ways - by removing internal weaknesses of Hindu society and resisting proselytization. Both Kabir and Nanak denounced the caste system which was responsible for many evils in Hindu society. Nanak declared himself to be with those who are low-born among the lowly,¹⁰⁷ But like other Bhakta saints Kabirs denunication of the caste system was as much an inspiration of Muslim example as response to its pull of conversion.¹⁰⁸ When Kabir denounced caste and ritual of the Hindus, he also denounced the superstitions and rituals of the Muslims; or, conversely, the idea is best expressed in the words of his disciple Naudhan Pandit (whom Sikandar Lodi executed): Islam was true, but his own religion was also true.¹⁰⁹ This was an open challenge to Muslim propagandism and proselytization. No wonder that Bhakti reformers were disliked by some Sufi Mashaikh, who looked upon them as competitors.¹¹⁰ If a Muslim changed his religion he was liable to be condemned to death for apostasy. But under the influence of these saints many Muslims were converted to Bhakti Hinduism. Namdeva,¹¹¹ Ramdas, Eknath, Ramanand, Kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya and several other saints had Muslim disciples, Chaitanya openly converted Muslims to Bhakti Hinduism.¹¹² The *Bhaktamala* relates many instances of conversions that Pipa effected.

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They also infused in the Mughal Emperors a spirit of tolerance. Babur appreciated the teachings of Guru Nanak,¹¹³ and on learning how much the people of the country prized their institutions, Akbar began to look upon them with affection.¹¹⁴ But the influence of Bhaktas on Muslim royalty and nobility should not be overrated; the influence of Sufis like Gangoh on them was much more. There is a tendency to seek and find influence of Sufism on the Bhakti movement. But there is no evidence of such impulsion. Muslim Mashaikh were as keen on the spread of Islam as the Ulama. No Sufi could say with Kabir that Mecca has verily become Kashi and Ram has become Rahim, or with Naudhan that Hinduism is as true as Islam. The Bhakti movement was an entirely Hindu reformist and resistance endeavour. All the Bhakta saints were Hindus. There is some controversy about Kabirs parentage, but the whole background of Kabirs thought is Hindu.¹¹⁵ If these Bhakta saints sometimes spoke in terms of Ram-Rahim, Krishna-Karim, Allah-Govind and Kashi-Kaba, it was to bring about Hindu-Muslim unity and to impress upon the neo-Muslims the futility of conversion. Else, they drew their inspiration from ancient Hindu philosophy and scriptures instilled into them by their Gurus or gained through intuitive consciousness.

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Some Bhaktas confined themselves to purely Hindu language and lore with equal if not greater success. Such an one was Tulsidas. Through his *Ramcharitmanas*, he slakes the thirst of those who are weary and heavy laden with the sorrow of the world.¹¹⁶ Sometimes directly and at others symbolically he brings into focus contemporary problems of Hindu society, like the excruciating experience of exile in the forests (seen in next chapter), the relentless struggle of the righteous against *rakshasas*, the unflinching loyalty of the mace-warrior Hanuman (missing in contemporary scenario), the profound love among brothers (lacking in Mughal royalty), and above all the ultimate victory of truth over treachery (personified in Ravan). Tulsidasas impulsion has been immense and lasting. His *Ramayan* is widely read with emotion. Ram, Hanuman and Anjaneya temples are spread all over the country and thronged with devotees.

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So, from the very beginning of Muslim rule, from the thirteenth century onwards, from Namdeva in Maharashtra to Ramanand, Kabir, Nanak, Chaitanya and Tulsidas in North India, right upto the seventeenth century and thereafter, a galaxy of middle class socio-religious reformers tried to help Indian society through sermon and song. They showed the futility of religious conflicts. They helped check excessive proselytization by attacking the caste system and reaching out to their audience in the languages of the common people throughout the country. Early Bhakta saints adhered to peaceful methods, but not all their disciples in later years. Kabirs followers spread out throughout North India and the Deccan. Jiwan Das was the founder of the Satnami sect which took up arms against the Mughals. The Sikh disciples of Nanaks successor Gurus, for varied reasons, fought against the Mughals and many times converted people by force. So did the Marathas.¹¹⁷ According to Abdul Majid Khan it is because of Chaitanyas influence that large-scale conversions to Hinduism took place at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century.¹¹⁸ Hindu saint reformers continued to appear in a chain in the succeeding centuries of medieval India, infusing courage and confidence among the people. The present day strife for Ramjanmabhumi shrine is another legacy of *Hindu* *Bhakti* resistance to Muslim political and religious vandalism in the medieval age.

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There were two major classes of society, the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. In between these two, there was a middle class. The middle order in medieval India had certain peculiarities which made it different from the middle class of today. It was small in numbers and, therefore, sometimes it escaped notice especially of foreigners. With its small numbers its influence was also limited. Its life-style also made it insignificant. But the middle class remained custodians of public weal even in the medieval period. The middle class people sometimes used to demonstrate and protest, at others beg or purchase, if they did not actually wrest concessions from the ruling classes. The Bhakti Movement in medieval India was a middle class movement with far reaching consequences. It was an age of religious conflict and violence. The Bhakta saints tried to minimise it. Their mission was to save Hindu society from ceaseless Muslim onslaught. How was it to live under a polity hostile to its wellbeing? For an Akbar was a rare phenomenon while Sikandars and Aurangzebs were many. The *Girvan-Vanmanjari* of Dhuniraj¹¹⁹ written in 1702-04 during the reign of Aurangzeb, brings out this problem clearly. The book is written in the form of a catechism between two Brahmanas discussing the correct course of action to be adopted to put a stop to the injustices of Aurangzeb. One of them advocates protest and resistance. The other is of the view that such a course would still more exacerbate the tyranny of the King, but if they cooperated with the regime, they might obtain some relief and minimise the tribulations of the Hindus under the Mughal government. Centuries have rolled by, the country has been partitioned on religious lines, and yet the problem remains as a legacy of Muslim rule in India. How to live with the Muslims who cannot but discriminate between the faithful and the infidels? Through appeasement or confrontation? Not a happy legacy indeed.

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Footnotes:

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¹ Bernier, p. 252.

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² Jean Baptist Tavernier, *Travels in India* trs. and ed. V. Ball, 2 vols. (London, 1889), I, p. 152.

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³ Misra, B.B., *The Indian Middle Classes* (Oxford, 1961), pp. 1-65, esp. 164.

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⁴ Bernier, pp. 239-99.

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⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 252.

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⁶ Bernier, pp. 246-53.

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⁷ *Babur Nama*, II, p. 518.

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⁸ The *Korrah* finds repeated mention in Bernier, eg. pp. 228, 252, 256.

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⁹ Ira Marvin Lapidus, *Muslim Cities in the Later Middle-Ages* (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), p. 81.

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¹⁰ Ibn Battuta, p. 64.

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¹¹ Grunebaum, Gustav E. Von, *Medieval Islam*, p. 171 cited in N.B. Roy, *History of the Afghans* (Santiniketan, 1958), p. 92n.

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¹² Ibn Battuta, p. 191;Varthema, p. 152 ff; Mukerjee, R.K. *A History of Indian Shipping* (Orient Langmans, 1957), 2nd ed., pp. 143-44.

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¹³ J.R.A.S. 1895, pp. 530-31.

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¹⁴ Al Qalqashindi, p. 51.

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¹⁵ Yahiya Sarhindi, *Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi*, pp. 107-108.

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¹⁶ Barbosa, Duarte, *The Book of Barbosa*, II, p. 73.

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¹⁷ Della Valle, I, p. 41.

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¹⁸ Moreland, *India at the Death of Akbar*, p. 265.

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¹⁹ *Ibid.*, pp. 23-24.

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²⁰ For details see Lal, K.S., *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India*, pp. 58-62.

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²¹ Afif, p. 383.

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²² Bernier, p. 225.

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²³ Pelsaert, pp. 77-78.

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²⁴ Terry, p. 391.

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²⁵ Moreland, *op. cit.*, p. 264.

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²⁶ Barani, pp. 306-307.

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²⁷ See the views of Barbosa, Terry and Bernier in Moreland, *op. cit.*, pp. 264-65.

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²⁸ Major, trs. Conti., p. 23, Nikitin, p. 12 and Abdur Razzaq.

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²⁹ Macpherson, *History of European Commerce with India* (London, 1812), p. 391.

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³⁰ Forbes, James, *Oriental Memoirs* (London, 1834), II, pp. 158-159.

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³¹ Barani, pp. 171-72.

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³² Bernier, pp. 98-100.

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³³ Khafi Khan, *Muntakhab-ul-Lubab*, pp. 245-46.

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³⁴ Ibn Battuta, p. 94.

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³⁵ *Ibid.*, 83-93.

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³⁶ Persian Text, pp. 158-60.

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³⁷ *Ibid.*, p. 227.

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³⁸ Ahmad Yadgar, *Tarikh-i-Salatin-i-Afghana*, Persian Text, p. 36.

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³⁹ Afif, pp. 382-84.

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⁴⁰ Khafi Khan, trs. E and D, VII, p. 296.

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⁴¹ Mamuri, pp. 525-26.

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⁴² Khafi Khan, Text, pp. 278-79, 339.

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⁴³ S.R. Sharma, *Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors*, p. 143, quoting News Letter 11 December, 1694 and 18 April, 1694.

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⁴⁴ Saqi Mustaad Khan, *Maasir-i-Alamgiri*, trs. and annotated by Jadunath Sarkar (Calcutta, 1947), pp. 78, 94, 95.

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⁴⁵ Moreland, *India at the Death of Akbar*, pp. 155-56.

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⁴⁶ Bernier, p. 228.

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⁴⁷ Also Moreland, *op. cit.*, p. 187.

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⁴⁸ Manucci, I, pp. 143-44.

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⁴⁹ Barani, p. 343.

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⁵⁰ Afif, pp. 376-77.

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⁵¹ Tavernier, *op. cit.*, p. 35.

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⁵² Manucci, II, pp. 61-62.

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⁵³ B.G. Gokhale, The Merchant Community in 17th Century India, *Journal of Indian History*, Trivandrum, Vol. LIV, April 1976, Pt. 1, pp. 117-

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141, esp. pp. 126-27.

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⁵⁴ Ali Muhammad Khan, *Mirat-i-Ahmadi*, I, p. 263.

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⁵⁵ *Chachnama*, trs. Kalichbeg, p. 190.

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⁵⁶ Sharma, S.R., *Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors*, p. 133.

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⁵⁷ *Ibid.*, p. 130.

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⁵⁸ *Maasir-i-Alamgiri*, p. 88.

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⁵⁹ Sharma, *op. cit.*, p. 133.

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⁶⁰ *Maasir-i-Alamgiri*, pp. 95-96.

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⁶¹ Ojha, Gauri Shankar, *History of Udaipur*, I, p. 35.

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⁶² *Mirat-i-Ahmadi*, I, p. 261.

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⁶³ Jaipur Records, XII, 72-74 cited in Sharma, *op. cit.*, pp. 135-36.

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⁶⁴ Jaipur Records, XVI, p. 58.

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⁶⁵ Sharma, *op. cit.*, p. 137.

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⁶⁶ Manucci, III, p. 245.

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⁶⁷ For detailed references see Sharma, *op. cit.*, p. 139.

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⁶⁸ Ziyauddin Barani, *Sana-i-Muhammadi* in *Medieval India Quarterly*, Aligarh, I, Part III, pp. 100-105.

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⁶⁹ Parasuram Chaturvedi, *Sant Kovya*, p. 144.

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⁷⁰ Mohammad Habib, *Some Aspects of the Foundation of the Delhi Sultanate*, Dr. K.M. Ashraf Memorial Lecture (Delhi, 1966), p. 20.

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⁷¹ For details see Lal, *Twilight of the Sultanate*, pp. 79-100.

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⁷² C.H.I., III, p. 501.

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⁷³ *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1841, p.20. Also Thornton, *Gazetteer*, IV, p. 296.

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⁷⁴ C.H.I., III, pp. 501-502.

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⁷⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 281.

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⁷⁶ Yazdi, *Zafar Nama*, II, pp. 168-69.

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⁷⁷ Farishtah, II, pp. 184-85.

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⁷⁸ Farishtah, II, p. 202; C.H.I., III, pp. 305-06, 310.

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⁷⁹ Day, U.N., *Medieval Malwa* (Delhi, 1967), pp. 6-7.

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⁸⁰ *Ibid.*, p. 244.

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⁸¹ C.H.I., III, p. 267.

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⁸² *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal*, 1894, Pt. III, p. 28.

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⁸³ Barbosa, II, p. 148.

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⁸⁴ Qanungo, K.R., *Historical Essays*, p. 151; Abdul Karim, *Social History of Muslims in Bengal*, pp. 136-38, 143-46; Qureshi, I.H., *The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent* (610-1947), Monton & Co., S-Gravenhage, 1962, pp. 70-71, 74-75.

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⁸⁵ In a *majlis* held at the Khanqah of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, the Shaikh averred that the Hindus are a very determined people and it is difficult to convert them through persuasion. He then narrated a story of the time of Hazrat Umar as an illustration. The king of Iraq was defeated and brought as a prisoner before the Caliph. Hazrat Umar gave him a choice between Islam and death. The king refused to become Musalman, at which

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the Caliph summoned the executioner. The king was very astute and he begged Umar to let him quench his thirst before he died. His request was granted, and as he was a king, a slave brought him water in a bowl of gold. This he did not accept, nor in a bowl of silver. He said that the water should be brought in an earthen cup. When this was done, the king requested the Caliph that until he had taken the water, he may not be killed. The plea was conceded. The king then dashed the cup to the ground. It was broken and its contents spilt. The king addressed the Caliph to keep his promise of not killing him until he had drunk the water. Hazrat Umar was as perplexed as he was impressed by the intelligence of the king. At last he handed him over to a respectable person to bring him round to accepting Islam. In his company, over a period of time, the kings heart was changed and he agreed to be converted (Sijzi, *Favaid-ulFvad*, trs. Ghulam Ahmad Biryan, pp. 297-98).

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⁸⁶ M. Mujeeb, *op. cit.*, p. 292.

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⁸⁷ Ghulam Husain Salim, *Riyaz-us-Salatin*, trs. Abdus Salam, pp. 112 ff.

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⁸⁸ C.H.I., III, pp. 305-06.

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⁸⁹ Satya Krishna Biswas, *Banshasmriti* (Bengali, Calcutta, 1926), pp.6-10; Census of India Report, 1901, VI, Part I, Bengal, pp. 165-181.

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⁹⁰ Lal, K.S., *Indian Muslims: Who Are They*, p. 46.

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⁹¹ Muhammad Bihamad Khani, *Tarikh-i-Muhammadi*, English trs. by Muhammad Zaki, pp. 57-58.

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⁹² *Indias Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Sub-Continent* trs. by S.D.Marathe, Allied Publishers (Bombay, 1961).

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⁹³ Afif, pp. 382-83; Farishtah, I, p. 182; Dorn, *Makhzan-i-Afghana*, I, p. 65.

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⁹⁴ *Maktubat-i-Quddusiya* (Delhi, 1871), pp. 44-46.

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⁹⁵ *Ibid.*, pp. 335-37.

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⁹⁶ *Ibid.*, p. 338.

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⁹⁷ S.A.A. Rizvi, *Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbars Reign*, pp.

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⁹⁸ For details see Zamiruddin Siddiqi, Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangoh and the contemporary rulers, paper read at the Indian History Congress, December, 1969.

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⁹⁹ Abdullah, *Tarikh-i-Daudi*, pp. 39, 96-99; Dorn, Niamatullahs *Makhzan-i-Afghana*, pp. 65-66,166; Nizamuddin Ahmad, *Tabqat-i-Akbari*, I, pp. 323, 331, 335-36; Farishtah, I, pp. 182, 185-86; Ahmad Yadgar, *Tarikh-i-Salatin-i-Afghana*, pp. 47, 62-63.

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Muntakhab al-tawārīkh — ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī 1590, Persian
Rāmacaritamānasa — Tulsīdās 1574, Hindi
Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Bījak — Kabīr 1550, Hindi
Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf, Persian
Bhaktamāl — Nābhādās alias Nārāyaṇ Dās 1575, Hindi
Fawāʾid al-fuʾād — Amīr Ḥasan Sijzī Dihlavī