The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c7.s4: Incidental Fallout

The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c7.s4

Language: English

Incidental Fallout

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The three waves of invasions under Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghaur, took about five Hundred years to establish Muslim rule in India. For another five hundred years Muslim sultans and emperors ruled over the country. Invaders are cruel and unscrupulous by nature and profession, and there is nothing surprising about the behaviour of these Muslim invaders. But what is unusual is that these invaders left almost a permanent legacy of political and social turmoil in India because their aims and methods were continued by Muslims even after they had become rulers.

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It was the practice of the invaders to capture defenceless people and make them slaves for service and sale. We shall deal with this phenomenon by Muslim conquerors and rulers in some detail later on. Here we shall confine to the taking of captives in the early years of Muslim invasions and how it led to rather strange occurrences. Many captives taken by conquerors like Mahmud of Ghazni were sold as slaves in Transoxiana, and the Arab Empire. But many people also fled the country to save themselves from enslavement and conversion. Centuries later they are today known as Romanies or Gypsies and are found in almost all European countries like Turkey, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain and Britain and even in America. In spite of being treated as aliens in Europe, in spite of persistent persecution (as for example in Germany under Hitler), they are today around 6 millions.⁸¹

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Their nomenclature is derived from roma or man. They also call themselves Roma chave or sons of Rama, the Indian God. Gypsy legends identifying India as their land of origin, Baro Than (the Great Land), are numerous and carefully preserved.⁸² Researches based on their language, customs, rituals and physiogonomy affirm that it is Hindus from India who form the bulk of these people in Europe. They are remarkable for their yellow brown, or rather olive colour, of their skin; the jet-black of their hair and eyes, the extreme whiteness of their teeth, and generally for the symmetry of their limbs.⁸³

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It is believed that the first exodus of the Roma out of India took place in the seventh century which coincides with the Arab invasion of Sind. In about 700 C.E. they are found serving as musicians of the Persian court.⁸⁴ Mahmud Ghazni took them away in every campaign. Their biggest group, according to Jan Kochanowski, left the country and set off across Afghanistan to Europe in the twelfth-thirteenth century after the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan at the hands of Muhammad Ghauri.⁸⁵ Even today a visit to the new community of Romanies (Gypsies) in Skojpe in the southeastern part of Yugoslavia is like entering a village in Rajasthan.⁸⁶

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With regard to their language, a large number of the words in different dialects are of Indian origin as their persons and customs show much of the Hindu character.⁸⁷ They are freedom loving and prefer tent life. Their marriages are simple, Indian type. There is no courtship before marriage. Taking *parikrama* (rounds) around the fire is wholly binding, just as in India. Originally they were vegetarians. Holi and other Hindu festivals are celebrated in Serbia and Spain. Most of them have converted to Christianity but maintain Shivas Trisula (trident) - symbol of Gods three powers of desire, action and wisdom. Gypsies are divided into caste groups who live in separate areas or *mohallas*. There are 149 sub-castes among the Bulgarian gypsies. Their professions comprise working in wood and iron, making domestic utensils, mats and baskets and practising astrology, telling fortunes and sometimes indulging in tricks. Their talent for music is remarkable.⁸⁸ Their dance and music is voluptuous, of the Indian *dom-domni* type. A classic example is the Gypsy womens snake dance, which is still performed in Rajasthan. Their language has many Indian words. They have *manush* for man, zott for Jat, *Yak, dui, trin* for *ek, do, tin*. They have lovari for *lohari* (smith), *Sinti* for Sindhi, *sui* for needle, *sachchi* for true and *duur ja* for go away. We may close with the old Gypsy saying: Our caravan is our family, and the world is our family which is a direct adaptation of the Sanskrit saying *Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam*.⁸⁹

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The Romanies or Gypsies left India or were taken away from here centuries ago. Their history comes down to our own times and is extremely absorbing. But their transplantation cannot now be counted as a legacy of Muslim conquest or rule in India. However, there are other activities of Muslim conquerors and rulers like converting people to Islam or breaking idols and temples which are still continuing and which therefore form part of Muslim heritage. We shall now turn to these.

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Footnotes:

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¹ *Chachnama*, trs. Kalichbeg, p. 11 and n.

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² Yule, *Ser Marco Polo*, II, pp.334-36,359; Alberuni, I, p.208; Biladuri, E and D, I, p.456.

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³ Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Farishtah, a seventeenth century historian, basing his researches (*Khama-i-Tahqiq*) on the works of *Khulasat-ul-Hikayat*, *Hajjaj Nama* and the history of Haji Muhammad Qandhari says that before the advent of Islam Indian Brahmans used to travel to and fro by sea to the temples of Kaaba to administer worship of the idols there, and there was constant movement of people between Ceylon, India and the countries of what is now called West Asia (Farishtah, II, p.311); Biladuri, *Futuh-ul-Buldan*, E and D, I, pp. 118-119; Elliots Appendix, E and D, I, pp.414-484, citing *Chachnama*, p.432.

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⁴ Elliots Appendix, pp.428-29.

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⁵ *Ibid.*, p.431 citing Abul Fida, *Chachnama* and *Tuhfat-ul-Kiram*.

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⁶ Al Biladuri, p.123; *Chachnama*, p.206.

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⁷ Al Biladuri, *Futuh-ul-Buldan* trs. E and D, I, pp.119-120.

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⁸ For details see Lal, K.S., *Early Muslims in India*, p.14.

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⁹ Al Biladuri, p.119. Also E and D, I, Appendix, p.434.

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¹⁰ Elliot, Appendix, E and D, I, p.435.

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¹¹ *Chachnama*, p.191.

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¹² Al Biladuri, p.119; Elliots Appendix, p.436.

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¹³ *Chachnama*, E & D, I, pp.188, 1819.

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¹⁴ W. Haig, C.H.I., III, p.3.

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¹⁵ Al Biladuri, p.121; *Chachnama*, pp.157-58; Elliots Appendix, E and D, I, p.432. See *Chachnama*, trs. Kalichbeg, pp.85,113,128 for forcible conversions; pp.83,87,155,161,173-74 for massacres; pp.190,196 for enslavement; pp.92, 99, 100, 190 for destruction of temples and construction of mosques at their sites.

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¹⁶ *Chachnama*, pp.122,172.

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¹⁷ Elliots note on Brahmanabad is worthy of perusal (Appendix, E and D, I, pp.369-74).

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¹⁸ Mohammad Habib, The Arab Conquest of Sind in *Politics and Society During the Early Medieval Period* being the collected works of M. Habib, Ed. K.A. Nizami, II, pp.1-35. Al Biladuri, p.122 has 8,000 or 26,000.

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¹⁹ *Chachnama*, pp.185-86.

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²⁰ *Chachnama*, p.206. Al Biladuri, however, has 60 million and 120 million respectively (E and D, I, p.123). See also Elliots Appendix, I, p. 470 and n.

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²¹ Ishwari Prasad, *Medieval India* (1940 ed.), p.63.

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²² *Chachnama*, pp.185-86.

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²³ Exactly at this very point of time a similar story of success and punishment was being enacted at the other end of the then known world. Musa, the governor of North Africa, sent his commander Tariq with 7,000 men to march into the Iberian peninsula. Tariq landed at Gibraltar and utterly routed the armies of Visigothic King Roderick in July 711. He then headed towards Toledo, the capital, and attacked Cordova. Jealous of the unexpected success of his lieutenant, Musa himself with 10,000 troops rushed to Spain in June 712. It was in or near Toledo that Musa met Tariq. Here he whipped his subordinate and put him in chains for refusing to obey orders to halt in the early stage of the campaign. Musa nevertheless continued with the conquest himself. Ironically enough, in the autumn of the same year the Caliph Al-Walid in distant Damuscus recalled Musa. Musa entered Damuscus in February 715. Al-Walid was dead by then, and his brother and successor Sulaiman humiliated Musa, made him stand in the sun until exhausted, and confiscated his property. The last we bear of the aged conqueror of Africa and Spain (he affected to disguise his age by colouring with a red powder the whiteness of his beard), is as a beggar in a

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remote village near Mecca (Hitti, *op. cit.*, pp.62-67; Gibbon, *op. cit.*, II, pp.769-779).

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²⁴ Al Biladuri, p. 126. Also cf. Idrisi, p.89.

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²⁵ Denison Ross, *Islam*, p.18. Also Lal, K.S., *Indian Muslims: Who are They* (New Delhi, 1990), pp.3-4.

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²⁶ Lal, K.S., *Growth of Muslim Population in Medieval India* (Delhi 1973), P.99.

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²⁷ *Muruj-ul-Zuhab*, p.20. Also Idrisi, *Nuzhat-ul-Mushtaq*, p.82.

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²⁸ *Ashkalal-ul Bilad*, pp.36, 37.

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²⁹ Andre Wink, *Al-Hind*, I, p.151, and reference. Dayaram Gidumals Introduction to *Chachanamas* trs. by Kalichbeg, p.vii; M. Habib, *Collected Works*, ed. K.A. Nizami, II, pp. 1-35, esp. p. 32; Lal, *Early Muslims in India*, pp. 21-25.

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³⁰ Utbi, *Tarikh-i-Yamini*, E and D, II, pp.20-21.

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³¹ Ibid., p.20; Ufi, *Jamiul Hikayat*, p.181. Elliots Appendix, on the authority of Abul Fazl, specifically mentions animals flesh. p.439. The trick was common. The Fort of Sevana was captured by Alauddin Khalji by contaminating the forts water supply by throwing a cows head into the tank. See Lal, *Khaljis*, p.115.

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³² Utbi, *op. cit.*, p.21.

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³³ Utbi, op. cit., pp.22-23.

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³⁴ Bosworth, C.E., *The Ghaznavids* (Edinburgh, 1963) p.129; Utbi, *Kitab-i-Yamini*, trs. by James Reynolds (London, 1885): pp.438-39 and n.

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³⁵ Hodivala. S.H., *Studies in Indo-Muslim History* (Bombay,1939).

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³⁶ For conversions at various places under Mahmud see Utbi, *Kitab-i-Yamini*, Eng. trs. Reynolds, pp.451-52, 455, 460, 462-63 and Utbi, *Tarikh-i-Yamini*, E and D, II, pp.27, 30, 33, 40, 42, 43, 45, 49. Also Appendix in E and D, II, pp.434-78.

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³⁸ Utbi, p.⁴⁴; Farishtah, I, p.29 for temples at Mathura.

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⁴⁴ The house was quite large, covering an area of about a thousand square feet. Hodivala also says that the canopy must have been what the old annalists of Gujarat call a Mandapika. It was a folding pavilion for being used in royal journeys, and not a throne (Hodivala, *op. cit.* p.143).

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³⁹ Alberuni, II, p.103.

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⁴⁰ *Siyasat Nama* (ed. Shefer), pp.77-80,138-156.

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⁴¹ Aziz Ahmad, *Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment* (Oxford, 1%4), p.79.

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Shah Waliullah considered Mahmud as the greatest ruler after *Khilafat-i-Khass*. He argues that in reference to Mahmud historians failed to recognize that his horoscope had been identical to the Prophets and that this fact had abled him to obtain significant victories in wars to propagate Islam (Rizvi, *History of Sufism*, II, p.382 citing from Shah Waliullah, *Qurrat al-aynain fi tafil al-shaykhayan*, Delhi, 1893, p.324).

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⁴² Farishtah, I, pp.30, 35.

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⁴³ Utbi, Reynolds, p.282.

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⁴⁵ On return to Ghazni Mahmud ordered this impressive treasure to be displayed in the court-yard of his palace. Ambassadors from foreign countries including the envoy from Taghan Khan, king of Turkistin, assembled to seethe wealth which had never been accumulated by kings of Persia or of Rum (Utbi, Reynolds, pp.342-43; E and D, II, p.35).

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⁴⁶ Utbi, E and D., II, p.45, Reynolds, pp.455-57. I have elsewhere calculated that 70 *misqals* were equal to one seer of 24 tolas in the Sultanate period. See my *History of the Khaljis* (2nd ed. Bombay, 1967), pp.199-200. On the basis of the above calculation the weight of five gold idols comes to 10.5 maunds, each idol being of about 2 maunds.

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⁴⁷ Bosworth, *op. cit.*, P.78.

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⁴⁸ A. Cunningham, *Coins of Medieval India* (London, 1894), Reprint by Indological Book House (Varanasi, 1967), p. 65.

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⁴⁹ J.R.A.S. 1848, pp.289, 307, 311; J.R.A.S., 1860, p.156; Bosworth, pp.78-79.

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⁵⁰ A.S. Altekar in *Journal of the Numismatic Society of India*, II, p.2.

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⁵¹ Muhammad Ufi, *Jami-ul Hikayat*, E and D, II, p.188; Thomas in J.R.A.S. XVII, p.181.

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⁵² Bosworth, *op. cit.*, pp.79, 149-52. Also Khurdadba, E and D, I, p.14, and *Jami-ul-Hikayat*, E and D, II, p. 68.

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⁵³ Utbi, *op. cit.*, Reynolds, 362; E and D, II, 36.

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⁵⁴ Bosworth, *op. cit.*, pp.76,120,126; Hodivala, *op. cit.*, pp. 139-40,176; Alberuni, pp. I, p.61; Fakhr-i-Mudabbir, *Adab-ul-Harb*, trs. in Rizvi, *Adi Turk Kalin Bharat* (Aligarh 1965), p.258; Utbi, *op. cit.*, p.33; *Taj-ul-Maasir*, E and D, II, p.227.

Cites (4)

Muntakhab al-tawārīkh — ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī 1590, Persian
Tāj al-maʾāthir — Ḥasan Niẓāmī, Persian
Chachnāma — ʿAlī b. Ḥāmid al-Kūfī, Persian
Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī — Minhāj al-Dīn Jūzjānī, Persian