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The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s3: Paucity of Hindu Source-materials

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s3

Language
English

Paucity of Hindu Source-materials

c6.s3.1

Professor D.P.Singhal asserts that, contrary to the general belief, Indians in ancient times did not neglect the important discipline of historiography.

c6.s3.2

On the contrary, they were good writers of history. He states: Ancient India did not produce a Thucydides, but there is considerable evidence to suggest that every important Hindu court maintained archives and geneologies of its rulers. And Kalhanas *Rajatarangini*, written in twelfth century Kashmir, is a remarkable piece of historical literature. Despite his lapses into myths and legends, Kalhana had an unbiased approach to historical facts and history writing. He held that a true historian, while recounting the events of the past, must discard love (*raga*) and hatred (*dvesha*). Indeed, his well-developed concept of history and the technique of historical investigation have given rise to some speculation that there existed at the time a powerful tradition of historiography in which Kalhana must have received his training.²⁰

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If that was so, why is there hopeless deficiency of Hindu historical writings during the medieval period? In this regard, James Tod, the famous author of the monumental classic *Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan*, has this to say: 1. that ardent Hindus were good historiographers; 2. that medieval times were not propitious for them for writing history; and 3. that much of the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist literature was destroyed by Muslim invaders and rulers. He needs to be quoted at length. Those who expect, writes he, from a people like the Hindus a species of composition of precisely the same character as the historical works of Greece and Rome commit the very gregarious error of overlooking the peculiarities which distinguish the natives of India from all other races, and which strongly discriminate their intellectual productions of every kind from those of the West. Their philosophy, their poetry, their architecture, are marked with traits of originality; and the same may be expected to pervade their history, which, like the arts enumerated, took a character from its intimate association with the religion of the people. It must be recollected, moreover, that the chronicles of all the polished nations of Europe, were, at a much more recent date, as crude, as wild, and as barren, as those of the early Rajputs. He adds, My own animadversions upon the defective condition of the annals of Rajwarra have more than once been checked by a very just remark: When our princes were in exile, driven from hold to hold, and compelled to dwell in the clefts of the mountains, often doubtful whether they would not be forced to abandon the very meal preparing for them, was that a time to think of historical records? ²¹ If we consider the political changes and convulsions which have happened in Hindustan since Mahmoods invasion, and the intolerant bigotry of many of his successors, we shall be able to account for the paucity of its national works on history, without being driven to the improbable conclusion, that the Hindus were ignorant of an art which has been cultivated in other countries from almost the earliest ages. Is it to be imagined that a nation so highly civilized as the Hindus, amongst whom the exact sciences flourished in perfection, by whom the fine arts, architecture, sculpture, poetry, music, were not only cultivated, but taught and defined by the nicest and most elaborate rules, were totally unacquainted with the simple art of recording the events of their history, the character of their princes and the acts of their reigns? The fact appears to be that After eight centuries of galling subjection to conquerors totally ignorant of the classical language of the Hindus; after every capital city had been repeatedly stormed and sacked by barbarous, bigoted, and exasperated foes; it is too much to expect that the literature of the country should not have sustained, in common with other interests, irretrievable losses.²²

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Indians as a whole today exhibit keen interest in history. This interest has not sprung all of a sudden. It has always been there. To the uneducated common man it has come down in legends, stories, mythologies and anecdotes. There is no dearth of professional historians. The works produced by Jadunath Sarkar, G.S. Sardesai, G.H. Ojha, Tara Chand, Mohammad Habib and R.C. Majumdar apart, the sustained assiduity shown by hundreds of other writers of history in modern times is proof enough of the fact that the Indian mind is not devoid but indeed keenly concerned with its history and culture. If it did not produce historical works in medieval times to the extent expected, the reasons are obvious; it is not necessary to repeat what has been said above. But a few words from Jadunath Sarkar may be reproduced. He says that when a class of men is publicly depressed and harassed (as under Muslim rule) it merely contents itself with dragging on an animal existence. The Hindus could not be expected to produce the utmost of what they were capable Amidst such social conditions, the human hand and the human mind cannot achieve their best; the human soul cannot soar to its highest pitch.²³ The barrenness of the Hindu intellect is just one more bestowal of inheritance of Muslim rule in India.

c6.s3.5

There is no doubt that whatever Hindu historical literature was extant, was systematically destroyed by Muslim invaders and rulers. It is well known that pre-Islamic literature was destroyed by the Arabs in their homeland as they considered it belonging to the *Jahiliya*. It is not surprising therefore that many Muslim heroes in their hour of victory just set libraries to flames. They razed shrines to the ground, burnt books housed in them and killed Brahman, Jain and Buddhist monks who could read them. The narrative of Ikhtiyaruddin Bakhtiyar Khaljis campaigns in Bihar is full of such exploits. Only one instance may be cited on the destruction of the works of the enemy. Kabiruddin was the court historian of Sultan Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) and wrote a history of the latters reign in several volumes. But his work entitled the *Fatehnama* is not traceable now and a very important source of Alauddins reign has been lost. It is believed that the *Fatehnama* contained many critical and uncomplimentary comments on the Mongol invaders whom the Sultan repeatedly defeated, so that when the Mughal dynasty was established in India, this work was destroyed.²⁴ Similarly, only one instance may be given to show how the Indians tried to protect their books from marauding armies. In the Jinabhadra-Sureshwar temple located in the Jaisalmer Fort in Rajasthan, I saw a library of Jain manuscripts called Jain Cyan Bhandar located in a basement, 5 storeys deep down, each storey negotiated with the help of a staircase, and in each floor manuscripts are stacked. The top of the cell is covered with a large stone slab indistinguishable from other slabs of the flooring to delude the invader. Such basement libraries set up for security against vandalism are also found in other places in Rajasthan.

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Bards and Charans were the historians of the Rajputs. They indulged in gross exaggeration while praising their patrons. But the beauty of their work lies in the fact that these chroniclers also dared utter truths, sometimes most unpalatable to their masters. Only a few of their works have survived and have been rescued from princely states which were generally friendly to the Mughals and therefore escaped repeated sackings. From Chand Bardais *Prithviraj Raso* to the accounts by the Brahmans of the endowments of the temples, from the disputations of the Jains to *Kalpadruma*, a diary kept by Raja Jai Singh of Datia in which he noted every event, Tod was able to get lot of historical material. Padmanabhs *Kanhadde-Prabandh*, Bhandu Vyas *Hammirayan*, Nainsis *Khyat*, Vidyapatis *Purush Pariksha* and *Kirtilata* and Kaviraj Shymaldas Vir Vinod, are regular and not so regular historical works of Hindus through the centuries.²⁵ When the Marathas mounted national resistance against the Mughal empire there was so much to write about, and they wrote excellent histories. And all these works corroborate Muslim chronicles. Persian writers boast of the achievements of their conquerors secured through brute force. The Indians confirm the facts and denounce their atrocities.²⁶

Cites (7)