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Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4.s2.t1: 1. The Chronicles

Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4.s2.t1

Language
English

1. The Chronicles

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To begin with the chronicles : there is a more or less connected series of Persian chronicles compiled by a number of reliable contemporary historians. There are later compilations of a more general character based on these chronicles and other materials, dealing with past and contemporary events. Among others I have consulted the following :—

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The Tarikh-i-Fakhr-ud-din Mubarak Shah ; the Taj-ul-Ma'asir ; the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri ; the Tarikhi-i-Firuz Shahi of Ziya-ud-din Barani; the Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi of Shams-i-Siraj ‘Afif; the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi; the Zafar-nama of ‘Ali Yazdi; the Waqi‘at-i-Mushtaqi (or the Tarikh-i-Mushtaqi); the Tarikh-i-Daudi; the Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi; the Memoirs of Timur, Babur, Jauhar, Gulbadan Begum, and Bayazid; the Humayunnama of Khvandmir; the Ain-i-Akbari, and the Akbarnama of Abu’l Fazal. Among general histories I have consulted the Tabaqat-i-Akbari; the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh; and the Tarikh-i-Firishta (or the Gulshan-i-Ibrahim). This enumeration is by no means complete, and it is hoped that more histories will come to light in course of time. There was a certain lack of enthusiasm for letters among the later Turkish Sultans and their successors, which led to the disappearnce of many literary works of value, including historical works, which, if they were available, would supplement our information in material details.¹ For instance when Sir Denison Ross examined the Arabic history of Haji Dabir, he noticed the fact that Haji Dabir was the first historian to make use of Husain Khan’s Tarikh-i-Bahadur Shahi, although many others had made a false claim to it.² After an examination of those portions of Haji Dabir’s work which relate to our period, I am convinced that the writer makes important additions to our knowledge. In some cases he gives a new interpretation of facts, and in others additional information which was neither wise nor discreet for a contemporary court chronicler to disclose. We should not be surprised if historians like Bada’uni or Khafi Khan had their predecessors during our period, whose independent version of contemporary events will greatly help our knowledge of Indian history. Husain Khan, according to the learned editor of Haji Dabir, wrote his work in the sixteenth century. Now, if our new information from Haji Dabir is entirely based on Husain Khan’s work, even then the latter writer must have based his history, in part at least, on works of an earlier period of which we are at present totally ignorant. I have digressed for a moment to show that our knowledge of the contemporary historical literature is far from complete, and a good prospect awaits a patient collector of chronicles.

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¹ Compare Mirza, 203 for the disappearance of the works of Shihab-ud-din who was consulted on many occasions by Amir Khusrau. Badr-i-Chach is reported to have compiled a history of the reign of Muhammad Tughluq in verse and to have given it the ambitious title of Shah-nama after the monumental work of Firdausi. This book, as Nawwab Ziya-ud-din Khan of Loharu believed, has disappeared.

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² Ross II ,Int., XXVII-XXVIII.

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In this connection I shall briefly refer to some useful features of certain chronicles which are helpful for a better survey of social life. The *Taj-ul Ma'a'sir* of Hasan Nizami, in spite of its containing so much that is 'rhapsodical and trapological,' is not altogether useless besides its 'powers of fancy and invention'. For instance, it describes, in numerous places, festivals and amusements, and throws valuable side-lights on the spirit of civil administration. Additional, though meagre, information is contained in the British Museum MSS. of *Tabaqat-i-Nasiri* and *Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi* of Barani which is not available in the *Bibliotheca Indica* texts or in Major Raverty's translation of the *Tabaqat*. I may mention, in this connection, that the evidence of the *Masalik-ul-Absar-fi-mamalik-ul-Amsar* of Shihab-ud-din Abu'l 'Abbas Ahmad bin Yahya, though indirect, is not to be under-rated on that account. The author was a contemporary of Muhammad Tughlaq (1297-1348 A.D.), and although he did not visit India personally, he had excellent means of knowing about Hindustan from the frequent intercourse between India and Egypt at that time. His work stood high in Oriental estimation and was often quoted by later historians of no mean talents, for instance the author of *Nuzhat-ul-qulub*.¹ His method of collecting facts, though novel, is critical and strictly scientific.² Among the memoirs, the claims of Malfuzat-i-Timur to authenticity have been disputed on various grounds—the want of the original MS. and the whole circumstances surrounding its discovery at a later date, etc. After an examination of the whole case Professor Dowson was satisfied that the Malfuzat bore the impress of originality and authenticity, and that the whole tenor of the work seemed to point to Timur himself as the man by whom, or under whose immediate direction and superintendence, the book was written.¹ There are few references to Indian social life in the Malfuzat but they are all borne out by the Zafar-nama of ‘Ali Yazdi and the work of Nizam Shami. For the memoirs of Babur, I have mainly adhered to the Persian version of ‘Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan of the Court of Akbar, who presented his translation of the Waqi‘at-i-Baburi to the emperor in 1590. The translator was a versatile scholar in Turkish as well as in Persian and Hindi, and had exceptional opportunities of finding out the correct meaning of the royal author and of observing the social developments in Hindustan. On a comparison with the Turkish version (in the English rendering of A. S. Beveridge) I have noticed that the Persian version (British Museum MS.) gives a few additional facts regarding India. For Gulbadan’s Humayun-nama, I have adhered to A.S. Beveridge’s excellent edition of the text.

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¹ Compare Dowson in E.D. III, 574. Some portions of the work have been published by the Egyptian Government, but the portion relating to India is not yet available in print. A French version is printed in Tome XIII of the *Notices et Extraits de Mss*, etc. (for the English rendering of which I am indebted to a friend). Some extracts are given in E.D. III. Compare also, Qalqashandi's account in *Subh-al-A'sha*.

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² In the preface to his book the author tells us that whenever he met a party of Indian oversea visitors, he used to put to each one of them separately specific questions on which he sought information. Then from their answers, he took down only those points on which there was unanimous agreement. After abstaining from talking to them on those questions for a time, sufficiently long for them to have forgotten their remarks, he used to repeat his original questions. And if their replies again agreed with their earlier versions, only then, he transcribed the information which is given in his work. It is needless to add that his informants were, in most cases, men of learning and position who usually spoke of things at first hand.—Compare Notices etc. 165-166.

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¹ E.D. III, 563.

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For the study of the Afghans (Lodis and Surs) I have consulted the Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi, the Tarikh-i-Daudi and the Waqi‘at-i-Mushtaqi. The Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi is well-known for its careful compilation of numerous biographies of those who lived and moved among the scenes and afterwards related their experiences to the author, who incorporated them with due care and examination.² The other two chronicles, however, do not show the same discrimination or historical judgment. The Tarikh-i-Daudi is ‘fragmentary and disjointed, and amounts to little more than desultory memoirs.’ Similarly, the Waqi‘at-i-Mushtaqi is ill-arranged and contains long digressions. Both of them are further full of marvels and superstitions;

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² T.S.S. 3.

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in the Waqi‘at especially ‘anecdotes are interspersed, of the celebrated chiefs and saints of the time; silly stories of miracles, apparitions, demons, enchantment, and jugglery deform the work, exhibiting the extraordinary credulity of the author, as well as that of the age in which he lived.¹ It goes without saying that for a proper appreciation of religious life, if on no other account, knowledge of these alleged deformities is invaluable.

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¹ E.D. IV. 537. A more connected account of the Afghans is to be found in the Makhzan-i-Afghani of Ni’mat Ullah composed in 1613 A.D.

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Among the chronicles, another interesting document is the Hamayun-nama of Khvandamir. This is the last work of the celebrated historian, who wrote it about the beginning of 1534 A.D. (941 A.H.) at the special request of the Mughal emperor Humayun. Its special feature is the account of new devices and novel mechanisms introduced by the emperor.² A reference has already been made to the Arabic history of Gujarat of Haji Dabir, now available in an excellent edition.

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² K., 125.

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Finally some remarks may be made about the celebrated work of Abu’l Fazl, the Ain-i-Akbari so ably edited by Blochmann, and rendered into English by Blochmann and Jarrett. The learned author and the editors are warm in praising the great merits of the work. The author claims to have compiled a work of encyclopedic character, where useful information of all kinds is to be found and to which people in every walk of life resort for reference, instruction, and amusement.³ Blochmann correctly emphasised the unique position of the Ain among the Persian chronicles, inasmuch as it placed the life of the people in the foreground where ‘for the first time people live and move before us, and the great questions of the time, axioms then believed in and principles then followed, phantoms then chased after’, are placed before our eyes in truthful and vivid colours.⁴ As to the care with which he collected his materials, Abu'l Fazl tells us what unusual pains he took to gather his information. Instead of relying on verbal replies from his informants, he circulated among them a questionnaire and asked them to submit well-considered replies after due deliberation. For every topic with which he deals in his book he had twenty such carefully prepared memoranda, and incorporated the facts in his book only after a careful comparison and examination.¹ There is one aspect, however, in which the monumental work of Abu'l Fazl does not compare very favourably with a modern scientific work. He does not disclose to us very fully the actual sources of his information or of his informant who wrote the various memoranda for him. In one place he makes a casual remark that he came across certain 'old books' during the course of his investigations, but leaves us in complete ignorance as to the nature or content of these 'old books'.² Moreover, Abu'l Fazl betrays unbalanced judgement in illustrating the 'worldly side' of Akbar and his 'greatness as a king', by giving his patron all the credit of originality, and wisdom which leads him to ignore completely and deliberately the amount and value of the contribution of the Turkish, the Afghan and even the Mughal predecessors of Akbar. It was easier for him than it is now for us to trace the origin and development of various social phenomena of Hindustan. The Ain-i-Akbari is a monument of social history but its importance lies primarily in recording the various developmen's that had taken shape until the reign of Akbar, when the great Mughal emperor picked up the threads and carried the work of social progress one step forward. Otherwise, the Ain could as well have been compiled fifty years earlier, without suffering very much in contents and value. It would have been considered even then, an equally faithful record of contemporary social and political life.

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³ Compare A.A., III, 282 ‘It is a treasure of learning of every variety : the skilled and the experts can refer to it ; and even the buffoons and mountebanks can use it with profit ; to the youngsters it will be a source of amusement, and for those grown up and matured, a treasure of information ; elderly wisdom will find in it ripe wisdom of ages and the nobility and the virtuous a code of upright behaviour.’

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⁴ A.A. (Eng. Trans.), I, Int., V.

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¹ A.A. II, 255.

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² A.A. II, 252.

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