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The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c26: 20. Society and Culture

The Sultanate of Delhi, 711–1526 A.D. c26

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English

Contents

20. Society and Culture

The Muslim Community

The ruling class

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Throughout the period treated in this volume, the foreign Central Asian Muslims, particularly the Turks during the thirteenth, fourteenth and first-half of the fifteenth centuries and the Afghans in the second-half of the fifteenth and first quarter of the sixteenth centuries, formed the ruling class. Associated with the Turks were the Persians, the Arabs, the Abyssinians and the Egyptians. These foreigners constituted an exclusive ruling oligarchy. The Turk was the most jealous guardian of this foreign aristocracy. He was, in fact, its leader. Throughout the 13th century, he monopolised power and played the role of the leader of the Muslim people in Asia. He believed in the policy of racialism and rigidly excluded the Indian Musalman not only from a share in the power but also from the State service. From Qutub-ud-din Aibak down to Kaiqubad, the Sultanate rigidly adhered to the policy of Turkish monopoly of authority and Balban openly despised ‘low-born non-Turks’. Towards the end of the thirteenth century countless Muslim refugees entered India from the Central Asian countries and swelled the rank of the ruling class. This led to a mixing up of the Muslims of different races and nationalities. Inter-marriages gradually brought about their fusion. The purity of blood of which the Turk was arrogantly proud, gave place to a heterogeneous race. With the advent of the rule of the Khaljis, these social forces began to work so powerfully that the Turk began to lose his monopoly of power and, for the first time in the history of the Sultanate, the policy of associating Indian converts with the administration was adopted. The credit for this must go to Ala-ud-din Khalji who appointed an able, though, in some respect, pervert, converted slave, Malik Kafur, as his deputy.

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A heterogeneous ruling class could hardly be expected to work with a common aim and purpose. The nobility of the Sultanate period, though united during war against non-Muslims, was torn in times of peace by personal ambition, rivalry and even hostility, and generally pursued selfish interest to the detriment of the welfare of the State.

The Indian Muslims

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The converted Muslim population, which must have been very small at the beginning of our period, began gradually to increase with the expansion of the Turkish dominion and authority. It consisted mostly of Hindus of low castes who, for various reasons, had abandoned religion of their forefathers and turned Muslims. The Indian Muslims were not only not admitted into the aristocracy of the conquerors but were not even given a share of their social and economic privileges. No Indian Musalman was appointed to a high post throughout the so-called Slave period except Imad-ud-mulk Rawat, who concealed his parentage and posed to be the offspring of foreign immigrants. Balban had an enquiry instituted into his lineage, and, when it was found that he was of Indian origin, the Sultan’s regard for him was much diminished. It is said that this ruler “could not bear the sight of the native Musalman in his government.” On one occasion, he administered a sharp rebuke to his courtiers for having selected an Indian Musalman for a clerical post in Amaroha. Iltutmish “is also reported to have felt an equal abhorrence for the Indian Muslims.” Imad-ud-din Rayhan, the only other example of a converted Muslim to have reached a high place during this century, was the victim of a conspiracy formed by the haughty Turks. Barani’s account of the cause of Rayhan’s eclipse is significant. “The nobles and servants of the State,” writes he, “were all Turks of pure origin and Tajiks of good stock; but Imād-ud-din was an eunuch and impotent; *he moreover belonged to one of the tribes of Hindustan*. Notwithstanding all this, he exercised authority over the heads of all these chiefs. They were disgusted with this state of affairs and could no longer endure it.” A change, however, came in the fourteenth century when the Mongol successes stopped the flow of Central Asian Turks into India, and the Khaljis found it impossible to man the administration without the support of the Indian converts. So Ala-ud-din introduced the policy of appointing Indian Musalmans to some of the important posts, though no Indian convert was placed in a position which might enable him to lay down policy till the time of Firoz Tughluq when Khwaja Jahan, a Brahman convert to Islam, became prime minister. Muhammad bin Tughluq had preference for foreigners and, also, Firoz Tughluq and all other rulers of the Sultanate period from the beginning to the end; but from the middle of the 14th century the Indian Muslims begin to have a share, though a very slight share indeed, in the State services.

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The Indian Muslim must for long have found himself in an unenviable position. He had little share in the administration of the country and had no place in the aristocracy of the ruling class. He was far inferior in wealth, position and innate pride to the vast majority of his Hindu countrymen. His only consolation was that he professed the same religion as his rulers and could pray with them on Fridays. His constant desire was to be treated on a footing of equality with his foreign co-religionists and to share their power and wealth. To attain his life’s ambition he had to imitate foreign ways and style of living and even to abjure his ancestors. It was an irony of fate that owing to these reasons he was cut off from those who had once been his kinsmen, dead or alive, and was like an alien in his own motherland.

Main classes in Muslim community

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The Muslim population was divided into two categories, namely, men of the sword and men of the pen. Those who belonged to the former category were soldiers and were mostly of foreign origin. They were either commanding officers or soldiers in the military establishment at the capital and in the provinces. They were graded into *khan*, *malik*, *amir*, *sipahsalar* and *sar-i-khail*. This was a descending hierarchy in which the *khan* occupied the highest place and *sar-i-khail* the lowest, and seems to have been only a paper organisation. In practice it had begun to disrupt quite early, so that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it had lost much of its significance. The men of the pen were mostly non-Turkish foreigners or their descendants. They supplied recruits to the clerical, educational and religious services. The most important section in this group was that of the ecclesiastics or theologians who were styled as the *ulema*. They were clergymen, teachers and judges and exercised considerable influence on the government and the rank and file of the Muslim society.

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The lowest strata of the Muslim society was composed mainly of the artisan, the shopkeeper, the clerk and the petty trader. During this period Muslims were mostly confined to cities and very few lived in villages. Another element that might be included in this group was that of the slaves who were so many in that age. Every king and every noble and every well-to-do man, whether in service or in business, owned slaves who were employed in household work and in various royal *karkhanas*. There must have been many beggars among the Muslims, for poverty was looked upon as a road to piety.

The ulema

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The most influential section of the Muslim literary class was that which consisted of the ecclesiastics, that is, the theologians, who were called the *ulema*. They constituted the Muslim clergy. The clergy was not a hereditary body, nor did it consist of men belonging to any one race or country. There was, however, hardly any Muslim of Indian parentage among them; for, during our period, Indian Muslims did not reach the high distinction of a religious divine. Nevertheless the *ulema* were a “well-knit group and intensely conscious of their importance and jealous of their high privileges.” They were to be found wherever there was a certain number of Muslim population in the country and they practically monopolised judicial, ecclesiastical and educational services. Some of them were teachers in private and government educational institutions, while others had established their own *madrsahs*. Quite a large number were *imams*, *khatibs*, *muhtasibs*, *muftis* and *qazis*, while certain others devoted their time and energy to religious propaganda. Not only all the historians of this period but almost all literary men belonged to this group. All these classes of ecclesiastics or *ulema* were supposed to be deeply learned in Islamic theology. It was open to any of them to give a ruling (*fatwa*) on any religious matter about which conflicting opinions were held.

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The *ulema* from the time of the foundation of the Turkish rule were a highly influential class and were consulted by the Sultan and his ministers not only on important points of law but also on matters of State policy. They had, therefore, gradually acquired a position of great importance. They had come to believe that they had a right to be consulted in all matters, religious or secular. The early Sultans of Delhi were almost completely under their influence. Ala-ud-din Khalji was the first Sultan to show some independence and disregard of their advice. He openly declared that he did not care whether his conduct was in accordance with the spirit of the Islamic law; he did whatever he considered to be right and to be in the interest of the State, or suitable for an emergency. But his successors, being made of less stern stuff, reverted to the policy of consulting the *ulema* in all important matters. Muhammad bin Tughluq made light of the influence of this class during the early years of his reign; but he was so much harassed and vilified by the ecclesiastics that he had to confess his defeat and make amends during the later years of his rule. His successor, Firoz Tughluq, was held in thraldom to their will and could never act independently of their advice. The sway of the *ulema* over the mind of the Sultan was complete. Thereafter no strong Sultan arose who could challenge their authority.

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The influence of the *ulema* on the state and their interference in political and administrative matters proved to be highly injurious. However learned the *ulema* might have been, they were not politicians or administrators. They approached problems from a narrow angle of vision. Hence their advice very often landed the ruler into difficulties. The influence of the *ulema* in religious matters, too, was baneful. They were a narrowminded class who preached war with the infidels and whose policy was one of extirpating not only idolatry but also heresy in Islam. Whenever a Sultan tried to act in conformity with the advice of the *ulema*, he had to become a religious fanatic and a persecutor of the religion of the vast majority of his subjects. The inevitable result was discontent and the undermining of the authority of the State.

The Hindus

Condition

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The Hindus formed the vast majority of the population. Their numerical strength, in those days, could not have been less than 95 per cent of the population of the country. As before the advent of the Turks, they were rulers and in possession of the entire country, they held most of the land even during the Sultanate period. There were many well-to-do chiefs among them. The lower branches of administration, specially the department of revenue and finance, were manned by them. The *khuts*, *chaudharis* and *muqaddams* were all Hindus. The principal merchants, businessmen and traders as well as petty shopkeepers were mostly Hindus. They had almost monopolised the banking and money-lending professions. Multani traders and money-lenders are referred to in the contemporary chronicles. They lent money even to high Turkish officers and nobles. Hindu *banjaras* were attached to the armies, as, there being no regular commissariat arrangements, the provisions to the troops were supplied by these hereditary nomad merchants. A very considerable section among the Hindus was that of the agriculturists. Many must have followed the various professions, such as, teaching, medicine and the like. Brahmans, generally, must have devoted their time to studies and to administering to the religious needs of the people.

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The Turkish process of conquest and subjugation of the country, being co-extensive with the period of its rule, lasted for over 350 years, during which lakhs of Hindus were killed, and lakhs were massacred after wars, and lakhs of their women and children were converted and sold as slaves. Timur, for instance, in one day massacred one lakh of Hindu prisoners on the eve of his battle with Mahmud Tughluq. In no period of our history—not even in early or later British—was there such a wanton destruction of human life as during the 325 years of Turko-Afghan rule. Besides, the Turkish conquests deprived a considerable number of the upper and middle class Hindus of employment in state service, civil and military, which must have brought about a revolution in our society causing hardship to countless families. Politically and socially, the Hindus, as a people, had to suffer deeply during this period. Not only were they deprived of their position as rulers, ministers, governors and commanders of troops, but were also treated contemptuously. The Turkish Sultans and their principal followers sought their brides from well-to-do Hindu families and compelled the proud chiefs to part with their daughters. In accordance with the Muslim law, the Hindu girls were first deprived of their religion, converted to Islam, and then married. All this served as a perpetual humiliation to the proud Hindus who honestly believed, and not merely as a reaction caused by their defeat and degradation, that the newcomers were inferior to them in culture, in religion, in race and, above all, in matters of purity of conduct and morals and ways of life. The political and economic hardships, to which they were subjected by the conquerors, did not inflict upon them so much misery as the humiliating treatment, religious persecution and, above all, invasion on their family honour.

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The Hindu society was caste-ridden. The Turkish rule compelled the Hindus to make the caste rules more rigorous than they were in free India. Owing to the Turkish hobby of seeking beautiful Hindu girls for wives, child-marriage became common. Seclusion of women became a general practice in the upper and middle class Hindu families. Widow remarriage was unthinkable in that age except among low caste people. Except in well-to-do families there seems to have been very little of female education. Elementary education for boys was, however, universal. In every village there was a school where reading, writing and arithmetic were taught. Some kind of military training must have also been in vogue. As it was beyond the strength of the Turkish government to disarm the Hindu population, the latter successfully made their own arrangements for the protection and defence of their villages. The Hindus were devoted to their religion. Though the intellectuals among them believed in the unity of God, a majority worshipped images.

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People believed in superstition and had great faith in astrology, palmistry, magic and sorcery. Their moral and sexual character was very high. Loans taken were almost invariably repaid. If the debtor failed to pay, his son or grandson considered it his obligation to pay it back with interest. On the whole, the standard of individual honesty and purity of conduct was fairly high.

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Of late it has become a fashion with a certain class of our modern writers to endeavour to show that the condition of the Hindus during the Turkish rule was good. One writer¹ has gone to the extent of saying that they were happier under Turkish rule than they had been for a long time under their own indigenous rulers. Doubtful epigraphic evidence has been produced in support of this new-fangled theory. If one or two instances of a Hindu here and there entertaining a favourable opinion about a particular Turkish ruler could be cited, there can be produced a thousand instances of ill-treatment and persecution from the pages of the Muslim historians themselves. Similarly, an attempt has been made to show that State service was open to the Hindus and that some of them were employed on fairly high posts; but when one examines the annals of the period, one fails to see a single Hindu enjoying the post of a governor or a minister or a secretary or even the post of a district officer or the head of a *pargana*. The Hindu *khuts*, *chaudharis* and *muqaddams* were hereditary revenue officers in the local areas without whose co-operation the administration could not be carried on. Inspite of a thorough search, two modern biographers of the liberal minded Muhammad bin Tughluq have not been able to find any other Hindu than one Ratan holding the position of importance during his reign.

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But the consequence resulting from the appointment of even one Hindu officer would throw lurid light on the narrowness and intolerance of the ruling oligarchy as well as of the Muslim population as a whole rather than establish the liberal character of the administration. Ratan’s appointment to Sindh—not as governor, as Dr. Mahdi Husain says, but as a revenue officer—gave a rude shock to the arrogant Muslim population of the province. The notables among them hatched a conspiracy against him and brought about his murder. The first and the last Hindu notable to find a place at the court of Delhi, during the Sultanate period, was one Sidhapala who had come to importance not because the court's policy was to patronise Hindu nobility but because Sidhapala's character was in keeping with that of the Turkish nobility, specially that of the *wazir* who was on the look-out for an ally to bring about the murder of his royal patron. Moreover, the Sultanate was then on its last legs. It was unthinkable for a Hindu occupying even a fourth-rate place at the court under any of the Khalji and Tughluq rulers. The employment of the Hindus in the armies of the Sultans, whether as soldiers or as petty officers, proves nothing, as they were employed as mercenaries, like the troops of other nationalities, as early as the time of Mahmud of Ghazni. If the Hindus were in possession of most of the land it was so because it could not be helped.

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No medieval government, however powerful, could have succeeded in dispossessing such a large and powerful community as the Hindu of its lands. The confidence of our ancestors is reflected in the medieval proverb: "Land is not a carpet that a foreigner or a Sultan will roll it up and take away on his shoulders." It is a pity that most of the Muslim writers refuse to appreciate the sentiments and sufferings of the indigenous population under the foreign rule. The wearer alone knows where the shoe pinches. Besides unimpeachable contemporary evidence, we have unbroken tradition coming down from hundreds of years that the Turkish rule was oppressive. At the time of a natural calamity the Hindu public used to cry out in agony: "Both God and Turk are after us." One can easily understand these sentiments, for religion and family honour—two of the dearest human possessions—were not safe during the Turkish rule. Years ago the author had several opportunities of hearing the comparison made by our rural people between the Turkish and the British rule. The British rule, according to them, was bad because it exploited the people economically; the Turkish rule was worse as it made unbecoming inroads on the people's religion and honour.

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¹ Dr. I. H. Qureshi; also Dr. Mahdi Husain.

Economic Condition

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During the medieval age our country was famous for her fabulous wealth. The story of our enormous riches tempted Mahmud of Ghazni and his plundering hordes to invade the prosperous capital of our kingdoms and sack our temples. One can easily believe from the contemporary accounts of the vast plunder acquired by Muhammad bin Qasim in Sindh and Multan and Mahmud of Ghazni in Hindustan proper—coined and uncoined money, precious stones of various kinds and a variety of other goods valued at crores of rupees—that the stories were not fairy tales and had foundation in fact.

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That the early Turkish invaders did not completely drain away our wealth, much less uproot our sources of production, is clear from the enormous booty that the Sultans of Delhi gathered in their expeditions, both in northern and southern India and huge expenses incurred by them on their wars and the money lavished by them on their courts and households. And yet, there was left enough in the land to be carried away by Timur at the end of the 14th century from only one corner of our country, not in thousands but in hundreds of thousands. The economic prosperity of our country, during the Turko-Afghan period, is thus beyond question.

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The main source of our wealth was agriculture. The natural fertility of the soil in most parts, copious rainfall and irrigation facilities provided since the early times and their systematical reinforcement by Firoz Tughluq, combined with the industry of our peasants led to the production of so much of corn that it not only supplied the need of the country but was also exported abroad. Rich crops, such as, cotton, sugar-cane, lintels, oilseeds, poppy, Indigo, etc., were produced on a large scale. Fruits of numerous variety were produced in many parts of the country. We have already seen in a previous chapter that a considerable portion of the revenues of Firoz Tughluq came from gardens. But, though agriculture was the occupation of the bulk of the people, there were many important industries in the rural as well as the urban areas. Centuries before the advent of the Turks, our country was industrially well organised. There were guilds and crafts in the villages and in towns which carried on widespread commerce. Inspite of the absence of State support, these industrial institutions survived the shocks of foreign invasions and internal revolutions. There were two kinds of industries—those that were under state patronage and those that were purely private. The Sultans had their own *karkhanas* or workshops in Delhi, which employed many thousands of weavers of silk and other stuffs. Every year thousands of yards of silk and cotton cloth were produced by the royal workshops for preparing robes of honour. There were other kinds of workshops, such as, those for gold and silver articles and embroidery, and so on. As for private industries, the most important among them were the textile industry, including the manufacture of cotton, woollen and silk cloth, dyeing industry, printing industry, calico printing industry, sugar industry, metal work, paper industry, stone and brick work and various other industries, such as inlay of stone work, enamelling etc. There were some minor industries, such as, shoe-making, manufacture of arms, manufacture of liquors, brass and other metal industries and clay industry. Textile industries were common to all the provinces of the country; but Bangal and Gujarat were particularly renowned for the manufacture and export of textile goods.

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Although during the Turko-Afghan period the State did not adopt a comprehensive economic policy with the object of improving the material condition of the people, yet the volume of trade, both internal and external, carried on by our countrymen, was enormous. India had commercial relations with the outside world. She exported agricultural goods, textile manufactures, both cotton and silk, and some other things, such as, tutenag, opium, indigo, etc. Her chief imports were horses, mules and articles of luxury for the royal family and nobility. It is clear that the value of her exports was much greater than that of the imports and the balance of trade was always in her favour. That was why it was generally believed that "Merchants of all countries never ceased to carry pure gold into India, and to bring back in exchange commodities of herbs and gums." We had, during this period, commercial relations with China, the Malay Islands and other countries in the Pacific Ocean which were connected with us by sea-routes. Our trade with Bhutan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Persia and other countries in Central Asia was carried on through land-routes.

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But our wealth was unevenly distributed. In fact, it was concentrated in the hands of a small minority. The Sultans and their nobility and the high official class were enormously wealthy and so also were the Hindu rajas and chiefs and top-ranking Hindu merchants and bankers. We have seen that the salaries of important civil and military officers in the Sultanate period were very high. The officials and nobles lived in big mansions, were attended by a large array of servants and rolled in wealth and luxury. The middle class, which consisted of the professional men and important clerks and merchants, was also fairly well-to-do. But the masses, who, of course, formed the bulk of the population, were poor and did not have enough to satisfy their needs. It has been shown in the last chapter that the tiller of the soil was left with about one-third of his produce. The incidence of taxation fell heavily on him; but, it seems, that in normal times he did not starve. His wants were few, in fact, fewer than he has in our day and things of everyday use were much cheaper. But, when there was famine, whether due to failure of rains or some other natural calamity or due to destruction of crops owing to military expeditions, common people died in hundreds and, sometimes, in thousands. Famines did occur during the period—for example, one in the time of Jalal-ud-din Firoz Khalji when hundreds of people drowned themselves into the Yamuna, and another in the Doab in the time of Muhammad bin Tughluq which, too, was very severe and caused a considerable loss of life.

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Owing to the difficult means of communications, prices were not uniform in the various parts of the country. It should not, of course, be expected that they could be uniform throughout the period. In normal times things were very cheap; but, in times of famine and scarcity, prices of goods rose abnormally high. For example, during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq when a famine occurred grain was sold at sixteen to seventeen *jitals* a *seer*. Similarly, prices would go up during war. When Firoz Tughluq invaded Sindh for the second time, the price of grain there rose to eight to ten *jitals* per *seer*. During Ala-ud-din’s reign the prices of most of the articles of daily use were considered as normal. At that time wheat used to sell at seven and a half *jitals* per maund, barley four *jitals*, rice five *jitals*, pulses five *jitals*, white sugar one hundred *jitals* a maund, soft sugar sixty *jitals* a maund, oil-seeds three *jitals* a maund, mutton ten *jitals* a maund and ghee sixteen *jitals* a maund. The prices of various kinds of cloth were: muslin of Delhi cost seventeen *tankas* a piece, that of Aligarh six *tankas* and a fine blanket cost thirty-six *jitals*, while a coarse one six *jitals*. Prices were exceptionally low during the later years of the reign of Sikandar Lodi and throughout that of Ibrahim Lodi. During Ibrahim’s time one could purchase ten maunds of grain, five seers of oil and ten yards of coarse cloth for one *Bahloli*, a coin introduced by Bahlol Lodi and equivalent to one-sixth of a *jital* in value. Nowhere were the things of everyday use cheaper than Bangal which the Turks considered as a “hell crammed with good things.”

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(In short, the general prosperity of the country is testified to by contemporary sources, both Indian and foreign.) Among the foreign travellers the names of Marco Polo, who visited southern India between 1288 and 1293, Ibn Battuta, who travelled in most parts of our country between 1334 and 1342, and Mahuan, (a Chinese, who visited Bangal in 1406), are of special interest, as all of them have left an account of the country which shows that/both industrially and economically India was prosperous and that there was a “great abundance of all the necessaries of life.”,

Persian literature

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A modern writer² has recently advanced a claim on behalf of the Sultanate of Delhi that it was a culture-State. Older historians, on the other hand, cling to the opinion that the period (1206—1526), from literary and cultural points of view, was entirely barren. Both the theories represent extreme views and, therefore, miss the truth. For a government that was theocratic and was based on naked force, whose personnel was almost completely foreign and which borrowed its language, culture and ideology and, even inspiration, from a foreign land and spurned and repressed those of their adopted country and of ninety-five per cent of its population, it cannot but be a tall claim to be looked upon as a culture-State. Culture and religious fanaticism go ill together. On the contrary, it will be unjust to think that the Sultans of Delhi and their nobles were semi-civilised fighters, devoid of interest in literature, poetry and the arts. Though primarily a military people, our Turko-Afghan rulers patronised Islamic learning and arts. There were Persian writers and poets, philosophers and logicians, theologians and lawyers at the court of almost every Sultan from Qutub-ud-din Aibak down to Sikandar Lodi. Some of them had even chronicles. The most important names of the latter category are Hasan Nizami, the author of the *Taj-ul-Maasir*; Minhaj-ud-din Siraj, the author of the *Tabqat-i-Nasiri*; Zia-ud-din Barani, the author of the *Tarikh-i-Firozshahi* and the *Fatwah-i-Jahandari*; Shams-i-Siraj Afif, the author of *Tarikh-i-Firozshahi*; Yahya Bin Ahmad, the author of the *Tarikh-i-Mubarakshahi*; and Isami (Dakhin), the author of the *Futuh-us-Salatin*. Besides, there were writers of semi-historical works, such as, Amir Khusrav and Ain-ul-mulk Multani. It is unnecessary to recount the names of numerous poets and theologians of the age. The most notable among them were two, namely, Amir Khusrav and Amir Hasan Dihalvi. Amir Khusrav's original name was Muhammad Hasan and he was born at Patiala in 1253 A.D. His father was a Turkish refugee who had taken shelter there a few years before. Amir Khusrav took up service as a court-poet under Prince Muhammad Khan, the eldest son of Balban, and, thereafter, served successive Sultans from Balban to Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq. Later in his life he abandoned the world and became a disciple of Shaikh Nizam-ud-din Auliya. He was a prolific writer and is said to have written more than four lakhs of couplets. He was, unquestionably, the greatest of the Indian poets writing in Persian. He wrote a number of prose books also. The most well-known of this category are the *Khazain-ul-Futuh*, *Tughluqnama*, and the *Tarikh-i-Alai*. He was the first Muslim writer to make use of Hindi words and to adopt Indian poetic imagery and themes. Unfortunately, his lead was not followed by the later writers who deliberately stuck to foreign vocabulary, poetic imagery and themes. Amir Hasan Dihalvi, whose full name was Najm-ud-din Hasan, was, like Khusrav, a poet of great ability and genius. He migrated to Daultabad where he died in 1338. At the provincial courts, too, there were poets and scholars who produced a crop of literature in Persian. The writers of this period derived their inspiration from Arabia and Persia, blindly imitated foreign writers and abandoned the lead given by the great poet, Amir Khusrav, by following the notorious practice of ‘Matruk’ which enjoined deliberate weeding out of words of Indian origin from their compositions. Indian themes, Indian poetic imagery and Indian heroes, mountains and rivers were all tabooed. The Sultans, thus, though lovers of literature and art, patronised the culture of a rather limited type. Moreover, all cultural activity was confined to the court and to the nobility; it did not touch the people.

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² I. H. Qureshi.

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Although the Sultans did not consider it to be their duty to educate the public, they took interest in establishing schools and *madrsahs*, which might be called colleges, for the education of their Muslim subjects. As a rule, an elementary school was attached to every mosque where reading and writing of Persian, besides instructions in the *Quran*, were taught. In the *madrsahs*, which were to be found in important towns, such as, Delhi, Agra, Jalandhar and Firozabad and, at a later stage, at the capitals of independent provincial dynasties, higher literature, poetry, theology, philosophy and some other branches of knowledge were imparted. Libraries were also established at prominent centres of learning, the most important of them being the royal library at Delhi. Amir Khusrav was appointed librarian of this library by Jalal-ud-din Khalji. When, owing to the pressure of the Mongol expansion, learned scholars from Central Asia flocked to Delhi, it became the unrivalled centre of Islamic learning in the East.

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Very few Muslims cared to study Sanskrit. After Al-Beruni we do not come across any outstanding Muslim name connected with Sanskrit learning. One or two Sultans, such as Firoz Tughluq and Sikandar Lodi, ordered the translation of a few Sanskrit works into Persian. It is erroneously supposed that it amounted to a patronage of Sanskrit literature and Sanskrit writers. The works translated were of practical interest. We have no evidence whatever to show that there was any Sanskrit scholar at the court of any of the Sultans of Delhi. Provincial rulers, specially in Bangal, did, however, encourage translation of Sanskrit works.

Sanskrit and Hindi literatures

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The Hindu cultural activity was confined to the courts of the Hindu rajas and to our chief centres of learning and pilgrimage. It is natural that during an age of upheaval and insecurity, lacking in royal patronage, no great and immortal literary work that could compare with the masterpieces of Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti and Bana or of Tulsidas and Sur of a later age, could be produced by the Hindus. Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that the Hindu mind had become sterile as the result of Turkish conquest. The Hindus did not recognise Turkish superiority in the sphere of cultural and artistic activity. He went on with his own literary enterprise without minding the cramping effect produced on his mind by foreign conquest. The result was an abundant production of religious and philosophic literature, though not of the highest excellence. Ramanuja produced his commentaries on the *Brahmasutra* and Parthasarathi wrote a number of books on *Karma Mimansa*. The most important of these was *Shastra Dipika*. Jayadeva produced his famous *Gita Govinda* in the twelfth century. Several dramas were composed, such as, *Harakeli Nataka*, *Lalitavigraharaja Nataka*, *Prasanna Raghava* by Jayadeva in about 1200 A.D., *Hamir Mad-mardana* by Jai Singh Suri during 1219-1229, *Pradyumna-abhyudaya* of Ravi Varman, *Prataprudra Kalyan* of Vidyanath, *Parwati Parinaya* by Vaman Bhatta Bana, *Gangadas Pratap Vilas* by Gangadhar and *Vidagdha Madhava* and *Lalita Madhava* by Rup Goswami. One of the most notable works of Hindu law, named *Mitakshara*, was produced by Vijnanesvara during this period. Another work of law was *Dayabhaga* produced by Jimuta Vahana. The great astronomer, Bhaskaracharya flourished in this age. There were many commentators of *Yoga*, *Vaisesika* and *Nyaya* systems of our philosophy. Logic was also cultivated. Buddhist and Jain writers produced a number of works on logic. The greatest Jain logician of the period was Deva Suri. There were many religious reformers, and the Bhakti movement was the special product of the age. The court of Vijayanagar patronised Sanskrit learning on a large scale. There lived in that empire many notable scholars. The most important among them was Sayana, the commentator of the *Vedas*. While every form of literature in Sanskrit was cultivated during the period, little attention was paid to historical composition and only one treatise that might be called a chronicle was Kalhan's *Raja-tarangini* which was written about the middle of twelfth century A.D.

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Hindi literature began to come into vogue during this period. Chand Bardai, Prithviraj's court poet, was one of the earliest writers of Hindi. He produced his famous work entitled *Prithviraj Raso*. Another poet was Sarangdhar who wrote two big poems about Hamir of Ranthambhor, called *Hamir Raso* and *Hamir Kavya*. Jagnayaka wrote a long poem, called *Alhakhanda*, which describes in stirring language the exploits of Alha and Udal, the two brave warriors of the Chandel king, Pramardi Deva of Mahoba. Amir Khusrav is considered by some critics as a Hindi poet also. Maithil literature, too, was greatly developed. One of the greatest writers of this language was Vidyapati Thakur who flourished towards the end of the fourteenth century and wrote works in Sanskrit, Hindi and Maithil. Many Bangali scholars produced a crop of literature. Raghunandan Misra's work on *Smriti* is too well-known to be mentioned in detail. Mirabai composed poems in Rajasthani. Several Marathi poets, notable among whom was Namadeva, flourished during the age. Guru Nanak produced verses in Panjabi. The bhakti movement became responsible for the growth and expansion of our modern Indian languages.

Urdu language

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A common language that gradually began to emerge as a consequence of contact between the foreign Turks and other Central Asian peoples on the one hand and the Hindus on the other had its birth during this period. This was originally called *Zaban-i-Hindavi* and subsequently Urdu. It was a dialect of the western Hindi spoken for centuries in the neighbourhood of Delhi and Meerut. The grammatical structure of this language is Indian; but gradually it began to have a preponderating vocabulary of Persian and Arabic words. Amir Khusrav is considered to have been the first Muslim writer who used this language as a vehicle for the expression of his poetic ideas. It was not patronised by the Turkish rulers during this age, as they favoured Persian and not this hybrid, though indigenous, product.

The Bhakti Movement

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According to ancient Hindu thought salvation or freedom from the bondage of birth and death, which is the ultimate end of human life, can be attained by three means, namely, *gyana* (knowledge), *karma* (action) and *bhakti* (devotion). During the period of the Sultanate of Delhi a series of Hindu religious thinkers and reformers set on foot a movement for religious reform which emphasised the last, namely devotion, which became known as the Bhakti movement. It will, thus, be seen that the movement was not altogether new and it did not owe its origin to Islam as has been erroneously supposed by some modern writers. What really happened was that this movement received impetus from the presence of iconoclastic Muslim preachers who vehemently criticised the Hindu religion and thought. The history of the movement goes back to the time of the great reformer, Shankaracharya, who successfully combated Buddhism and gave Hinduism a common solid philosophical background. He established a logical monistic system and laid emphasis on the first of the three methods of attaining salvation, namely, knowledge. But this failed to evoke a hearty response from the common people. Anxious to attract the popular mind towards Hinduism and make it a living and active force in the life of the common people, our religious thinkers of the medieval age laid stress on the third means, namely, *bhakti* (devotion). As a vast majority of the Hindus could not pursue careers of material, political and cultural advancement under the alien rule, a dominant feature of the *bhakti* movement was 'escapism'. The people as well as the leaders of the movement sought solace in other-worldliness.

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The earliest exponent of this school of religious thought was a great *Vaishnava* teacher, Ramanuja, who flourished in the early years of the twelfth century. He did his best to popularise the cult of devotion to a personal God and preached that salvation can be had by this means alone. The next reformer was Ramananda, a follower of the Ramanuja school, who was born in a Kanyakubja family of Allahabad. A worshipper of Rama, he preached the doctrine of *bhakti* to people of all castes and to both the sexes. He had twelve principal disciples, one of whom was a barber (Saindasa), another a cobbler (Raidasa) and the third a Muhammadan weaver (Kabir). The third teacher of the school was Vallabhacharya who was a worshipper of Krishna and, therefore, an exponent of the Krishna cult. He was born near Banaras in 1479 and his parents were Telugu Brahmans who had come to northern India for pilgrimage and settled here. He was a man of remarkable literary talent even in his early life. After completing his education at Kashi, he went to the court of Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar where he won a victory over some scholarly followers of *Shaivism*. He preached monism of the pure type, known, technically, as *shuddhadwaita* or pure non-duality. He became very popular with the common people; but, later on, abuses appeared among his followers who were mostly well-to-do people and, eventually, it became ‘the Epicureanism of the East’.

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The greatest saint of the bhakti movement was Chaitanya who was born in a learned Brahman family of Nadia in Bangal in 1485. From his early life he showed literary ability of a high order. At the age of twenty-four he renounced the world, became a *sadhu* and spent the rest of his life in preaching his message of love and devotion. He travelled over most parts of the country, both in the north and in the south, and spent a considerable time at Vrindaban. The essence of his teaching has been summed up thus: “If a creature adores Krishna and serves his *guru*, he is released from the meshes of illusion and attains to Krishna’s feet...” This leads him to rise above the fetters of this world. “He believed that through love and devotion, song and dance, a state of ecstasy could be produced in which the personal presence of God would be realised.” Chaitanya was opposed to the domination of the priests and to outward forms and ceremonies of religion. He preached to all irrespective of caste and creed. His influence was so profound and lasting that he is considered by his followers as an incarnation of Vishnu. He died in 1533.

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Another preacher of the bhakti movement was Namadeva. He was a Maharashtrian and his followers belonged to all castes and classes, including a few Muslim converts to Hinduism. He belonged to the caste of tailors and flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century. Like other reformers of the age, he had faith in the unity of God and was against image-worship and priestly ritualism. He believed that one could attain salvation only through love of God.

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Of the notable exponents of the bhakti cult, two, namely, Kabir and Nanak, stood definitely for a compromise between Hinduism and Islam. Kabir’s early life is shrouded in mystery. He is said to have been born of a Brahman widow of Banaras who left him near a tank from where he was picked up by a Muhammadan weaver. Scholars differ about his date of birth. It seems almost certain that he flourished towards the close of the fifteenth century. From his early life he was a boy of meditative turn of mind and thoroughly religious, though in an unconventional sense. He is said to have become a disciple of Ramananda. Kabir might have been only nominally a Muslim, for his poems are, beyond the shadow of doubt, saturated with the Hindu religious and philosophical thought of a high order. He was also influenced by the *sufi* thought and practices. Kabir led the life of a householder and performed the daily duties of his life, and yet he was a *bhakta* of eminence. He preached the religion of love to all people irrespective of caste and creed and made it the main concern of his life to promote unity between Hinduism and Islam. Like other reformers of the bhakti cult, he was against caste and ritual and the external formalities of religion. He was a firm believer in the theory that salvation could be attained only through love and devotion to God. So he believed in *bhajana* and condemned all kinds of sham, insincerity and hypocrisy. The following poem of Kabir admirably sums up his teachings:

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*If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world belong?*
*If Rama be within the image, then who is there to know what happens without?*
*Hari is in the east; Allah is in the west. Look within your own heart, for there you will find both Karim and Rama.*
*All the men and women of the world are His living forms.*
*Kabir is the child of Allah and Rama; He is my guru; He is my pir.*
*Vain, too, are the distinctions of caste.*
*All shades of colour are but broken arcs of light.*
*All varieties in human nature are but fragments of humanity.*
*The right to approach God is not the monopoly of Brahmans, but belong to all who are sincere of heart.*

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Guru Nanak, like Kabir, preached harmony between Hinduism and Islam. He was born of Khatri parents in 1469 at the village of Talwandi (modern Nankana), thirty-five miles to the south-west of Lahore and situated in the Shaikbupura district of the West Panjab. His father was a *patwari*. Nanak was given formal education and employed as an assistant to his brother-in-law, Jai Rama of Sultanpur Lodi, who was a grain merchant in the service of Daulat Khan Lodi. But his accounts fell into disorder, and he left service. At Sultanpur Lodi began his religious career and his first notable saying to attract attention was: “There is no Hindu and no Musalman.” He spent the rest of his life in preaching and wandering over the country and even beyond as far as Mecca and Madina. He died in 1538 at Kartarpur in the Jalandhar Doab. Nanak had married, lived the life of a householder and had two sons. He believed that married life was not a bar to spiritual progress. He preached the gospel of universal toleration and was against external formalities of Hinduism and against caste and religious fanaticism. His message was one of unity of God and personal love for him. He had both Hindu and Muslim disciples. He nominated Angada, one of his disciples, as his successor who gave unity and organisation to his followers. Gradually they became known as the Sikhs.

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The bhakti cult was a widespread movement and embraced the whole of the country. It was a movement of the people and aroused intense interest among them. Perhaps, after the decline of Buddhism, there had never been a more widespread and popular movement in our country than the bhakti movement. It had two main objects in view. One was to reform the Hindu religion so as to enable it to withstand the onslaught of Islamic propaganda and proselytism. Its second object was to bring about reconciliation between Hinduism and Islam and to foster friendly relations between the two communities. It succeeded in realising the first object by bringing about the simplification of worship and liberalisation of the traditional caste rules. The high and the low among the Hindu public forgot many of their prejudices and believed in the message of the reformers that all people were equal in the eyes of God and that birth was no bar to religious salvation. The movement failed in achieving its second object, namely, Hindu-Muslim unity. Neither the Turko-Afghan rulers nor the Muslim public accepted the Rama-Sita creed. They refused to believe that Rama and Rahim, Ishwara and Allah were the names of the same God. The movement, however, incidentally became responsible for another solid achievement, namely, the evolution and enrichment of our vernacular literatures. The reformers preached to the masses through their mother-tongue and, therefore, gradually enriched our modern languages, such as, Hindi, Bangali, Marathi, Maithil, etc. The period of bhakti movement, therefore, proved to be a golden period in the history of the growth of our vernacular literatures.

The Fine Arts

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We have little evidence about the cultivation of art, other than architecture, during the Sultanate period. One, however, comes across stray and infrequent references to ornamental designs painted on walls or engraved on furniture, arms and saddles and embroidered on flags and costumes. Besides, ornamental pottery and metal work were well developed. Inlaid metal basins, porcelains and bidri vessels and profusely decorated brass and silver pots were used in the royal household and also in the houses of the nobles and high officials.

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But, owing to the Quranic prohibition, the art of painting proper was shunned by the Sultans and the Muslim nobility. Nonetheless, the art of calligraphy was widely practised. Music, though disliked by orthodox Muslims for religious reasons, had such irresistible appeal that it could not altogether be banished. There were, therefore, some musicians of note during the period among whom the great poet, Amir Khusrav, occupies the first place. He set some of his poems to the Indian tunes and is even reputed to have invented new *ragas*.

Architecture

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The Sultans were great lovers of architecture. By the time of the Turkish conquest of our country the various races of Central Asia had developed a style of architecture which was the result of the fusion of indigenous styles of architecture with those of Trans-Oxiana, Iran, Afghanistan, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Northern Africa and the countries of the south-western Europe on the one hand and Muslim Arabia on the other. The architecture brought by our Turkish conquerors to India in the last decade of the twelfth century was, thus, not exclusively Muslim or even Arabian. The distinctive features of this imported architecture were : (1) the dome, (2) lofty towers or minarets, (3) the arch, and (4) the vault. When the Turks came to our country they found a highly developed indigenous style in the land. Nevertheless, being conquerors, they naturally introduced in the country their own ideas and forms and also the method of construction of buildings; but they did not succeed in erecting buildings that could be exact copies of their prototype in Central Asia. Their buildings were greatly influenced by indigenous art traditions, and, hence, the new architecture that emerged was neither completely foreign nor purely Indian. The amalgamation of the foreign and the indigenous architectural styles was made possible by certain factors. Firstly, our foreign rulers had to employ Indian craftsmen and sculptors who had their own clear ideas about the form and method of construction and, therefore, unconsciously introduced into Muslim buildings many decorative and architectural details which had been in vogue in this country for centuries in the past. Secondly, the early conquerors almost invariably built their mosques, palaces and even tombs out of the materials of Hindu and Jain temples which they had callously destroyed. This, without doubt, modified in execution the foreign models which they might have had in view. Thirdly, notwithstanding, the striking contrasts between the Muslim and Hindu styles, their buildings resemble in some particulars and, therefore, the Turkish Sultans sometimes converted the Hindu and Jain temples into mosques by demolishing their flat roofs and providing domes and minarets in their place. In the words of Sir John Marshall, one feature common to Hindu temples and Muslim mosques was “the open court encompassed by chambers or colonnades, and such temples as were built on this plan naturally lent themselves to conversion into mosques and would be the first to be adapted for that purpose by the conquerors. Again, a fundamental characteristic that supplied a common link between the styles was the fact that both Islamic and Hindu arts were inherently decorative. Ornament was as vital to the one as to the other; both were dependent on it for their very being.”

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Cites (25)