[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935) › c4 # Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4: Introduction Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c4 - **Language:** English ## Contents - [c4.s1 A. The Scope of Treatment](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1) — 3 parts - [c4.s2 B. The Sources of Study](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2) — 6 parts ### Introduction ### A. The Scope of Treatment ### [c4.s1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.1) An attempt has been made in the following pages to present a sketch of social life in Hindustan under the Muslim Sultans of Delhi before the establishment of the Mughal Empire under Akbar. The choice of territory and of the period requires a word of explanation. ### The Territory--Hindustan ### [c4.s1.t1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.1) In spite of their fairly good knowledge of the Indian and the Chinese sea coast, the Arab geographers of the eighth century were very vague in dealing with the lands of India and China (Hind and Chin). The land beyond the Indus (or the Sind of the Arabs) was little explored and China was believed to be situated in an undefined region to the north and the north-east of Sind, without, however, calculating the impenetrable walls of the Himalayas. In fact, many centuries afterwards, the attack of Sultan Muhammad Tughluq on the hills of Kamaon (called Qarajal) was supposed to encroach upon some region of the Chinese Peninsula. Similarly, when Muhammad Bakhtyar Khalji invaded northern Bengal or Assam, he actually imagined he was leading an invasion into Turkistan. The western world roughly divided India into three regions : one up to the Indus, second between the Indus and the Ganges, and the third beyond these two regions. Even so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, John Frampton had no better idea of the country beyond the west coast of India and to the north of Deccan than that this ‘third India’ which is the hygh India is surnamed Malabar and dothe extend unto Cauch, which is the river Gange’,¹ that there grew plenty of ‘sinamon and pearle’, and that the king and the people of this country worshipped the ‘oxe’. ² The one clear fact, however, which one gathers even from these observations is that the Indo-Gangetic plains were believed to form a separate geographical unit, distinguishable from the rest of the peninsula by a distinct type of culture. ### [c4.s1.t1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.2) ¹ Compare Frampton, 136. ### [c4.s1.t1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.3) ² Frampton, 7. ### [c4.s1.t1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.4) Strong physical barriers have divided the north of India from the south; and the points of contact between the two regions have been very few in history and too feeble to effect a cultural fusion between the two peoples. Now and then, ambitious monarchs have attempted to unite the whole of India under one crown to immortalise themselves as a ‘chakravartin’; but the difficulties of communication and administrative control have uniformly thwarted their cherished desires. The well-known experiment of Sultan Muhammad Tughluq, namely the attempt to establish a centrally situated capital for the whole of the Indian Empire, met with complete failure. A few centuries later, the Mughal emperor Aurangzib again attempted to hold the Deccan and spent half his life in camp fighting in a vain attempt to achieve the impossible. In the end his successors, as those of Muhammad Tughluq, wisely contented themselves with their northern possessions. For the Hindu and the Muslim period it may be laid down almost as a historical law that the establishment of a kingdom within the confines of Hindustan signified its vigour and compactness, and an extension into the Deccan its dismemberment and ruin. This moral, of course, does not apply to the modern conditions of administration. Of these two divisions, the neighbouring parts resemble one another to a slight degree, but as one moves towards the extremities one notices the growing contrast, until at last the language, the religious sects, the architecture, the dress, the appearance, the diet—in fact, every aspect of social life appears to differ completely from the other.¹ It is not to be wondered at then, if these two regions (which Vincent Smith aptly describes as ‘geographical compartments’) developed a distinct and a highly complex story of their own.² In the light of these considerations, therefore, it is more convenient to study the social developments of Hindustan as a separate cultural region of the Indian peninsula. ### [c4.s1.t1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.5) ¹ Compare Elphinstone, 187. ### [c4.s1.t1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.6) ² Compare Smith iii; compare also Slater, Chap. I, 13—41 for the origin of the Dravidian Culture of the Deccan. ### [c4.s1.t1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.7) However, when we come to fix the territorial and cultural limits of Hindustan we are faced with many difficulties. The central administration, usually established at Delhi, was practically the only unifying force in the country, and its territorial area differed from dynasty to dynasty, even from sovereign to sovereign. To put it negatively, we might say that strictly speaking, the land to the west of the Indus was not included in Hindustan, for the Sultans of Delhi had no effective political control over it, although isolated attempts may have been made to reduce some parts to subjection.¹ Kashmir was similarly shut off from the rest of India, and thus closed to the operation of direct influences from outside.² Again, inaccessibility kept the regions of Rajputana, Gondwana, and Assam more or less immune from effective interference of the Sultans of Delhi. It has been remarked that the kingdom of Delhi varied in its territorial extent from time to time. For example, when Bahlul Lodi was invited to take the throne some time after the invasion of Timur, almost every town had its own ruler, and the titular Sayyid monarch ruled only over the city of Delhi and a few neighbouring villages. So that the humorous people of Delhi used to remark that the dominions of the ‘Lord of the World’ extend from Delhi to Palam (a neighbouring village).³ On the other hand the kingdom of Sultan Muhammad Tughluq penetrated far into the Deccan, and a more central capital was found in Deogir in south. Between these two extremes lay varying types of monarchies, the extent of whose dominions was determined according to the rule of despotism, by the length of their swords. Roughly speaking, we may say that the territory of Hindustan, which was subject to more or less uniform political influences, comprised the Punjab, the valleys of the Indus, the Jumna and the Ganges as far as Gaur or Lakhnauti, and the fertile province of Oudh, with various strongholds such as Ajmer, Bayana, Ranthambhor, Gwalior, and Kalinjar to the West. It did not include the Himalayas, where Hindu princes ruled undisturbed; and a wide tract at the foot of the mountains, including the greater part of Katehr, the modern Rohilkhand, and the sub-montane tracts of Oudh were left unexplored.¹ The political territory, however, is hardly an adequate measure of the spheres of cultural influences, for in the course of time, even the inaccessible regions of Rajputana assimilated the culture of their neighbours so well that it became difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between a Rajput and a Mughal. ### [c4.s1.t1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.8) ¹ Compare T. F. I. 125 for the capture of Ghazni by a general of Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud. ### [c4.s1.t1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.9) ² Compare A. N. I., 169 for the interesting observations of the Mughals on Kashmir as a place of refuge against the advance of Sher Shah. ### [c4.s1.t1.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.10) ³ Compare T. D., 6. ### [c4.s1.t1.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t1.11) ¹ Compare Sir Wolseley Haig in H. U. H. 3168; compare T. S. S. 74-75 for a hundred and thirteen thousand parganas (an administrative unit) of Sher Shah. ### The Period Under Review (1200-1550 A.D.) ### [c4.s1.t2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.1) The period under review is equally important for a study of social developments in Hindustan, and, to a certain degree, for the whole of India. Opinions do not agree as to the division of the various periods—ancient, mediæval, and modern—of Indian history. Some historians choose to close the mediæval period of Indian history with the battle of Panipat in 1526 A.D.; others with the coming of Akbar; and still others with the establishment of British rule. A similar want of agreement is shown in fixing the limits of the ancient period. We have no desire to dispute any opinion, still less to accept a particular division. In most cases these divisions lack a basis for differentiation and appear purely arbitrary. An application of these terms to a social system which has not undergone any substantial material change for thousands of years, is more likely to confuse than to clear the historical perspective. It is not quite safe to borrow them from European history, which finds a clear line of demarcation in the industrial Revolution, which revolutionised the whole basis of European society. The periods of Indian social development on the other hand—by whatever name we choose to call them—have a more or less uniform character, as far as historical records can help us to judge. ### [c4.s1.t2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.2) INTRODUCTION ### [c4.s1.t2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.3) Even at the present day, when the bases of society have undergone a radical change, the old order survives to a considerable degree. ### [c4.s1.t2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.4) Under Muslim rule, therefore, we do not enter upon a new era in Indian history, but only on a stage in the great social development which has been going on since the first dawn of Indian history and still remains to be completed. This, however, does not detract from the importance of the period or the value of its contribution to the stock of Indian culture. No remarks are required to show that the Hindu social system is one of the strongest and most endurable in the world. It happened by a strange chance that the first power with which Hindus were brought into permanent contact was one which differed from them as widely as possible in almost everything, and if we might say so, was a complete antithesis of their whole system. As a result of the Muslim impact, the ancient Hindu order was almost completely destroyed. Political and social divisions were levelled; caste was modified; religious tendencies took a new direction and force; and finally, the conception of India as a whole was made possible. It is in the light of these developments that Muslim rule becomes, if very imperfectly, intelligible.¹ A study of the early Muslim period becomes particularly important in view of the fact that these formative forces of Indian culture came into play at that time. And though they operated somewhat rudely and imperfectly, they succeeded in laying foundations which proved strong enough for the later Mughals in raising their glorious edifice. By the time of Akbar, as the following pages will endeavour to trace in outline, the ground-work was completed, and the Emperor Akbar as well as his successors followed the pattern their Turkish and Afghan predecessors had shaped for them. This period, in view of these considerations, becomes especially important for a correct appreciation of the Mughal contribution to Indian society, as well as for a proper estimate of the present social developments. ### [c4.s1.t2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.5) ¹ Compare F. W. Thomas, 23. ### [c4.s1.t2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.6) A word may be added here as to the nature and value of a study such as the present one. It may be freely admitted that after the Industrial Revolution the life of the western people has become very rich in certain ways. It exhibits everywhere a new urge to strive, to change, to go forward, all of which makes a study of Modern European society so instructive and stimulating. The life of people in India, on the other hand, is still governed, to a considerable degree, by conditions not unlike those of Europe in mediaeval times. This has led some observers to believe that since the people of India show no development, they have no history; apparently they are the same—yesterday, today, and for ever¹. This observation gains additional force from the fact that the Indian chronicles and histories deal almost exclusively with kings and battles. Let us examine these important observations. The fact that people do not change in the East is only true with certain reservations. It should not be forgotten that in comparison with an industrial system, the rate of progress in an agricultural society is necessarily slow. The course of development of an agricultural civilization spreads over centuries and though its advancement is almost imperceptible, it is by no means uncertain. It becomes quicker by the impact of a new social force. At a certain stage, when civilization attains maturity, it exhausts the possibilities of development within the social framework and then begins to stagnate and to decay, or else enters on a new stage of progress. But meanwhile, it has elaborated all the social institutions as far as such elaboration is possible within the frame work of a social structure; in any case, it has carried the people to an advanced stage of culture. In India, an apparent want of change does not signify the poverty of Indian culture but only an advanced stage of maturity, and is worth a careful study on that account. During the period under review the Indian culture was pushed forward by just such a force as quickens the pace of an agricultural society. The other reflection, however, is of a very different import. Until lately history has suffered, at the hands of historians, old and new, both in Asia and Europe, from a rather isolated and narrow conception of its scope. The old eastern court chroniclers, in particular, confined themselves to kings and their battles, and thus turned history into ‘a mere record of butchery of men by their fellow men.’ But these barriers which restricted historical investigation are being slowly broken down. It is now coming to be universally recognised that nothing is ‘beneath the dignity’ of history's notice or outside the scope of its ken, and that all the doings and sufferings of mankind in every walk of life are proper subjects for a historian to investigate. Nay more; it is being asserted that unless historians do, as a matter of fact, take this extended and all comprehensive view of their functions, they are bound to present a distorted picture of whatever age they may profess to portray. ‘In short,’ observes Hearnshaw, ‘it is perceived that history is not an isolated subject of study, but is one of a group of kindred studies which together make up the general science of society.’¹ We can be indulgent to a court chronicler of an earlier date, who made his living by singing the praise of his patron, for not living up to the expectations of the science in the twentieth century. ### [c4.s1.t2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.7) ¹ Lane-Poole Int., V. ### [c4.s1.t2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.8) ¹ Art : ‘Science of History’, Outline of Modern Knowledge, 809. ### [c4.s1.t2.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s1.t2.9) Before dealing, however, with the sources of the present study, I may state here the limitation I have set to the scope and treatment of this subject. I have used mainly, almost exclusively, the evidence from literature, and very little, if any, from inscriptions or from epigraphical, numismatic or architectural data. My use of the Sanskrit texts is limited to the available translations into English; and I claim no responsibility for examining the originals. With such exceptions my material, though not exhaustive, is copious enough to warrant a study of the culture of Hindustan during this period. The following pages are a sketch rather than a definitive treatise of social life under the early Sultans of Delhi. They exclude all references to the civil administration, the system of land revenue, the army, the system of transport, the ideas on education, and the development of literature, or even to the religious life of the people. It is not possible to deal within the limits of this work with any but a very few aspects of social life. The treatment within these limits is further subject to the qualification that the account of these few aspects in these pages can only claim to be true in outline and may be falsified by local and provincial details which varied infinitely from place to place. ### B. The Sources of Study ### [c4.s2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.1) I shall confine myself to a brief survey of the sources of my study. A detailed examination is neither possible nor even desirable within the limits of this work. I may confess at the outset that I have barely explored a few directions, and I have succeeded in using only a part of the material. A more vigorous search, I am sure, would yield information of greater value and of more comprehensive character. However, a caution may be given here against making an uncritical use of such evidence. When a person wanders away from proper historical books into the illusive realm of imaginative fiction, poetry or folklore, there is every danger of his being seduced by the charms of fancy, which damages the scientific value of the results so obtained. I have taken as much care as possible to avoid this danger, by securing both corroborative and contradictory evidence for a fact before relying upon it. The material for the study of social history is scattered in a variety of books : the chronicles, the works of Amir Khusrau, folklore and fiction, poetry and songs, the works of mystics, Hindu and Muslim, books on practical arts, and compendiums of law and ethics, the accounts of foreign travellers, and some collections of official and private letters. ### 1. The Chronicles ### [c4.s2.t1.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.1) 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 :— ### [c4.s2.t1.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.2) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.3) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.4) ² Ross II ,Int., XXVII-XXVIII. ### [c4.s2.t1.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.5) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.6) 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\*. ### [c4.s2.t1.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.7) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.8) ¹ E.D. III, 563. ### [c4.s2.t1.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.9) 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; ### [c4.s2.t1.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.10) ² T.S.S. 3. ### [c4.s2.t1.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.11) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.12) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.13) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.14) ² K., 125. ### [c4.s2.t1.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.15) 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. ### [c4.s2.t1.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.16) 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.’ ### [c4.s2.t1.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.17) ⁴ A.A. (Eng. Trans.), I, Int., V. ### [c4.s2.t1.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.18) ¹ A.A. II, 255. ### [c4.s2.t1.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t1.19) ² A.A. II, 252. ### II. Amir Khusrau ### [c4.s2.t2.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.1) Before we take leave of historical literature, we wish to digres for a moment on the historical value of the books of Amir Khusrau and his estimate as a historian. We have derived a large part of our information from his work alone. He has composed at least three poems and one book of prose—the Qiran-us-Sa'dain, the Miftah-ul-futuh (or Fath-ul-futuh), the Nuh Sipahr, and the Khaza'in-ul-futuh respectively, of a professedly historical character, besides numerous other poems. If we add to these books his poem called Dewalrani Khizr Khan which, though a romantic story, is intermixed with contemporary historical events, and the Tughluq-nama which deals with the rise and fall of Khusrau Khan the usurper and the accession of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughluq, the number of his historical books amounts to six, which give us a more or less connected account of an interesting period of about forty years (1285—1325) in which the author lived and personally witnessed most of the events related.¹ ### [c4.s2.t2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.2) ¹ My friend Maulvi Hashmi of Hyderabad (Deccan) has recently brought to light a copy of the Tughluq-nama of Amir Khusrau which was originally discovered by the late Maulana Rashid Ahmad of the M.A.O. College (and later of the Jami'a Millia Islamia) Aligarh who helped the publication of Khusrau's works by the M.A.O. College authorities and made a long tour of India in search of original MSS. This manuscript, which I have examined only in part, bears the impress of being genuine. Its contents are further supported by occasional quotations in the Firishta and other histories. ### [c4.s2.t2.3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.3.1) As to the nature of his treatment : Amir Khusrau tries to conceal nothing from his readers. For example, he tells us frankly that he undertook to write the Qiran-us-Sa'dain in obedience to a royal command. The Sultan flattered him by calling him 'the seal of authors' and promised to give him a big reward which would free him from all worldly cares ever afterwards. The plan of the book and the scope of its treatment was defined by the royal patron.² Under the next patron, Sultan Jalal-ud-din Khalji, when the author was asked to compose a book, he felt morally stronger. He frankly told the Sultan that whenever he was inclined to drift away from historical truth in accordance with the demands of poetical conventions and the accepted standards of eulogies, he was stung by the inward reproaches of conscience. So that, he told him, he had made up his mind to adhere to truthfulness, whatever his position demanded.³ However, Amir Khusrau served a continuous succession of monarchs, Sultan Muizz-ud-din Kaiqubad, Jalal-ud-din Khalji, Ala-ud-din Khalji, and Mubarak Shah Khalji respectively, and when any honest man lives too long in courtly environments, his standards of ethical judgment usually undergo a change. ### [c4.s2.t2.3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.3.2) It was perhaps due to such a reflection that poet warned his son, some time later, against following in the footsteps of his father who, as he told him, had spent the whole of his life in ‘spinning a yarn.’¹ Thus it should be remembered that Amir Khusrau often plays a double character in his writings. He is a historian without completely renouncing the office of a court poet and a courtier; and amazing as it may appear, he meets the demands of all three positions in his writngs. The Kaza'in-ul-Futuh, in particular, has a value of its own. Here the author gives a systematic account of the first fifteen years of Sultan ‘Ala-ud-din Khalji and it appears from its topographical and other details that the author was a personal witness of some at least of the scenes, even of those in the distant South. It is the only contemporary history of the period and the facts are narrated with admirable accuracy and wealth of detail.² On the whole, we can agree in our estimate of Amir Khusrau with Professor Cowell, that although his style is full of exaggeration and metaphorical description, the facts of history are given with tolerable fidelity.³ I may add here in passing that many historians of a later date have followed his version of contemporary events, without however, always acknowledging the source of their information.⁴ I am, however, concerned with Amir Khusrau in an even wider sense. I consider him pre-eminently as a historian of contemporary social life. ### [c4.s2.t2.3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.3.3) This has led me to examine not only his history and historical poems but also his complete Diwan, his Kulliyat (collected poems) particularly his Matl'a-ul-anwar exposing the manners and the morals of his day, and even his voluminous and rather abstruse book on epistolography, the I'jaz-i-Khusravi. As a 'high-brow' artist or chronicler, Khusrau could have confined himself to courtly environment and association with a few cultured men of letters ; even as a social historian he could have written with the detachment of an academician like Abu'l Fazl. But Khusrau came from the people and feels at his best only when he moves among the crowd. When behaving as a courtier or as a man of letters, he is conscious of playing a part : his ascetic and puritan moods are decidedly morbid and only temporary, and he avails himself of the first opportunity to throw away these masks and morbid gloom and to start laughing and pleasing himself like other people. Nay, to assure the crowd that no amount of intellectual attainments and secular elevation can stop him from being congenial to them, he even borrows sometimes the vulgarity of the undeveloped mind, and the unrefined taste of the illiterate. When he is among common people he takes a detached view of his previous stately environments and spiritual heights and gives an honest and frank opinion about men and things, not excluding himself. ### [c4.s2.t2.3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.3.4) In trying to express himself with this attitude of mind, however, he finds sometimes that plain and easily intelligible language is not altogether discreet and may involve him in trouble. This shrewdness drives him to subterfuge. He now deliberately takes to grandiloquent style, to florid and bombastic language, and to puns and puzzles ; but he must speak out his mind, as it were, to relieve his agitated and indignant soul. Thus, he takes good care to conceal his meaning in a mass of words, but is still as clear as possible if one knows his feelings and his surroundings. This is my reading of the I'jaz-i-khusravi, professedly written to demonstrate his powers of rhetoric (Balaghat), and his skill in the use of words, and to add to the existing nine styles of epistolography a tenth of his own.¹ Superficially read, ‘the documents it contains are, as usual, written in the most grandiloquent style, a very small amount of information being wrapped up in a bewildering maze of words’. But if these documents are carefully examined they yield interesting and instructive information of a varied character, besides many graphic descriptions of various social phenomena and references to manners and morals. It might be said that it is hardly proper to read into apparently disjointed phrases and uncertain epigrams meanings of social import, in any case, it does not appear scientific to draw historical references from them. ### [c4.s2.t2.3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.3.5) It is true that the author is reluctant to admit anyone into his secrets but the reluctance is only apparent. The I’jaz-i-khusravi was not written at the command of a monarch, or for the benefit of a noble or those in power. It is a private document in which the spirit of the author has a free and unfettered play. The only fetters he has put upon himself are those of style, and these self-imposed restrictions are justified by the political conditions of the age. To appreciate the I’jaz-i-khusravi of Amir Khusrau, the reader will be well advised to make a detailed study of comparative literature.² ### [c4.s2.t2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.4) ² Q.S., 169-70. ### [c4.s2.t2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.5) ³ K.K., 890. ### [c4.s2.t2.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.6) ¹ Compare K.K., 245 and 674. ### [c4.s2.t2.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.7) ² Professor Muhammad Habib of Aligarh has recently published an English version of this history in the Journal of Indian History. ### [c4.s2.t2.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.8) ³ J.A.S.B., 1860, p. 227. ### [c4.s2.t2.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.9) ⁴ Compare among others the Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi for the events leading to the succession of Mu'izu-ddin Kaiqubad : the attempt of his father Bughra Khan to dispute the succession, so that it was only after his renouncing a claim to the throne of Delhi that a potential battle was turned into a happy meeting between the father and the son. This is borrowed from the Qiran-us-Sa‘dain. Similarly, the version of the Dewalrani Khizr Khani is followed for the events of the closing years of Sultan ‘Ala-ud-din Khalji. The famous elegy of Amir Khusrau on the death of Prince Muhammad the ‘Khan-i-Shahid’ is extensively quoted by men of letters and historians, for instance, Buda'uni and Nizam-ud-din. (Vide T.M.S., 359-60 and 374-375). ### [c4.s2.t2.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.10) ¹ Compare I.K., 53. ### [c4.s2.t2.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t2.11) ² Compare E.D., III, 566. Curiously enough the only extract of the book made for Sir H.M. Elliot by ‘a munshi’ and incorporated by him in his work (Volume III, 566-7) is the one which least deserved to be incorporated. It purports to be a despatch from a State official designated as Badr Hajib and addressed to the Crown Prince, announcing a victory over the Mongols and the occupation of Ghazni by the royal armies. This relates, as the editor remarks, to ‘a matter upon which the historians are silent’. The original passage occurs in Vol. IV, pp. 144—156 (Lucknow text). Sir H.M. Elliot and his munshi both overlooked the fact that it was never meant to be treated as a genuine royal document but only a model for epistolography. On page 18 of Vol. IV, Amir Khusrau makes it plain that he has ‘coined’ the letter herein inserted and again repeats, on page 22 of the same volume, that he made ample use of his own fruitful imagination in writing fictitious letters and that of others who had done the same before him and thus had given shape to a book of charm and originality by skilfully editing these ‘single and compound words, short and long phrases and brief and lengthy documents purporting to be official’. The mention of this paricular fact—the occupation of Ghazni and the defeat of the Mongols as well as the style of the letter may have been borrowed from an earlier date when Sher Khan occupied Ghazni on behalf of Sultan Nasir-ud-din Mahmud, to which a reference has been made in an earlier footnote. ### III. Literature ### [c4.s2.t3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.1) Thanks to the efforts of the Orientalists we have a number of books on various subjects : folklore and fiction ; poetry and songs; practical arts; and a few compendiums of legal and political precepts, besides other books of Hindu and Muslim mystics and religious reformers. ### [c4.s2.t3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.2) 1. Folklore and Fiction.—Few words are needed to recommend to a student of social history the examination of folklore. Folklore lacks the flourish and glamour of a court chronicle, and the accuracy and lucidity of other books of history or historical documents. But in its own way it professes ‘to reconstruct a spiritual history of Man, not as exemplified by the outstanding works of poets and thinkers, but as represented by the more or less inarticulate voices of the ‘folk.’¹ The claims of Folklore to the status of a scientific study are being slowly recognized. The period under review begins with the voluminous collection of stories, namely, the \*Jawami‘-ul-Hikayat\* of Muhammad ‘Awfi. The author lived in the reign of Sultan Iltutmish and dedicated his great work to his minister, Nizam-ul-mulk Junaidi. It is a neatly compiled book, carefully classified into chapters and sections according to its contents.² It was too early to expect from a Muslim writer an intimate touch with the social life of the country of his domicile. Thus the \*Jawami‘-ul-Hikayat\* speaks more of foreign Muslim centres, like Ghazni and Bagdad, and very little of Multan or Delhi. It does not forget, however, to give some interesting side-lights on the life of the Sultans. As a whole, its value is meagre. \*Purush-Pariksha\* of Vidyapati Thakur, though written in the conventional style of the contemporary books of ethics, is very useful for our purpose.³ It starts with an examination of Hindu ethical ideals, and illustrates its moral from illustrations with examples from the ancient as well as from the contemporary social life; the range of choice of historical examples does not exclude the Muslims or the lower Hindu classes. As a whole, our period is marked by the decay of Sanskrit literature, and we can turn with profit to the rising Prakrits or provincial dialects for information of value. ### [c4.s2.t3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.3) ¹ Krappe, Int., XV. ### [c4.s2.t3.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.4) ² A list of contents of the book with a valuable introduction was recently published on behalf of the Gibb Memorial Fund Series, by M. Nizam-ud-din in 1929. ### [c4.s2.t3.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.5) ³ The date of Vidyapati Thakur is not yet fixed with certainty. B.K. Chatterji holds that he was definitely alive from 1400 A.D. to 1438 A.D. (vide \*J.D.L.\*, 1927, 36). I have used an old English translation published in Bombay presumably for school or college purposes. ### [c4.s2.t3.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.6) Under Sher Shah flourished the famous poet of Oudh, Malik Muhammad Jaisi, who wrote and sang in his sweet native Awadhi, and was proud of the fact. In some ways, he was greater even than Amir Khusrau, for while the latter was more or less confined in his treatment to Muslim society and adhered to the orthodox view of Islam, the former had drunk deep at the springs of both Hinduism and Islam, and was, as a matter of fact, more Hindu than Muslim in his outlook on life. He is the oldest vernacular poet of Hindustan of whose works we have any uncontested remains.¹ In his well-known book \*Padumavati\*, Malik Muhammad Jaisi deals with the events of the popular story of Raja Ratansen of Chitor : the marriage of the Raja with Padumavat, a princess of the distant Simhala ; his battle against ‘Ala-ud-din Khalji and imprisonment in Delhi ; and finally, his thrilling escape from the royal prison through the device of his queen and the valour of his two loyal adherents. The Simhala of the story (popularly believed to be Ceylon) is no other than an average Hindu capital in Northern India. The descriptions of the seas and the southern countries (given in the book to meet the requirements of Hindu dramatic conventions) are so fanciful that it may be doubted if the author ever ventured to go beyond the limits of the Doab and Oudh. Another book of fiction is the story of Baz Bahadur and Rupamati of Malwa which was composed by Ahmad-al-Umrei, and is now available in Crump’s rendering published under the title ‘Lady of the Lotus.’ It is an interesting though a sad poem and gives valuable side-lights on social life in Malwa. ### [c4.s2.t3.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.7) ¹ Compare Grierson, \*Padumavat Int.\*, 2. Two of the poems of Malik Muhammad Jaisi are now available—the \*Padumavat\* and the \*Akhrawat\*. The \*Padumavat\* was edited in part by Grierson and Dvivedi in 1869 and was stopped on the death of the Hindu scholar. The \*Akhrawat\* was published by the Nagari pracharini Sabha of Benares in 1904. ### [c4.s2.t3.8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.8.1) 2. \*Poetry and Songs.\*—Besides Amir Khusrau and Amir Hasan there were numerous other Persian poets whose works have disappeared, as was mentioned earlier. The poems of Badr-i-chach are available, and slight references to other poets are made by Bada'uni in his history. But the value of these poems is meagre for our immediate purpose. They are composed in a foreign language and their style is highly conventional. The Persian poets on the whole are very different from the poets of the land, who sang in their own language. To name only two of them, Mukand Ram and Chandi Das of Bengal are famous, and no student of social history can fail to turn to them without pleasure and profit.¹ The more important poetic activity was, however, shown in composing devotional religious songs (the Bhakti songs) which are an extremely valuable source for the study of social conditions. Their tone, in general, is gloomy, and their criticism of social life somewhat unbalanced; but they disclose a wealth of information and reveal the deep emotions which moved the people of that age. There are rich collections of these songs from all parts of Hindustan. ### [c4.s2.t3.8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.8.2) To enumerate but a few representative names: Lalla in Kashmir, Nanak in the Punjab, Kabir in the Upper Gangetic plains, Vidyapati Thakur in Bihar and Orissa, and Chaitanya in Bengal, are the great prophets of the popular religion of Hindustan during our time.² The songs of numerous others are given in the sixth volume of Macauliffe's work, while some new poems are being slowly brought to light by the Visva-Bharati and other Indian periodicals. I have deliberately excluded from the present study a more detailed examination of the writings of Muslim Sufis in Hindustan. The Sufis in general are so conventional in their treatment, that they show a more or less complete detachment from the life of common people and their spiritual wants. They fight shy of recognizing the social changes which a closer association and mutual interaction of Hindus and Muslims were bringing about in Muslim society. As a matter of fact, the Sufis lived in more intimate touch with the social currents of life than any other class among the Muslims, but they found themselves between two stools, facing danger from opposite directions. They were dissatisfied with the whole of orthodox Muslim life, but they did not dare to question the power of the theologians who led the people, covering themselves with the rigid interpretation of the Muslim dogma. ### [c4.s2.t3.8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.8.3) They similarly disapproved of the life and manners of the Muslim aristocracy, but they were too much afraid of the power of the ruling classes to offend them by strong opposition or even by honest criticism. They had very little to give to the common people which was not inconsistent with the accepted version of the orthodox Islam, and thus exposed them to the charge of heresy or heterodoxy. So the Sufi works have little use for our present purposes. I have, however, used the Zakhirat-ul-muluk of Hamadani (died 1384 A.D.) and the Saha, if of Shaikh Sadr-ud-din (died 1536 A.D.) to represent the Sufi viewpoint. An orthodox Muslim is, however, somewhat different. Even if he is not interested in the life of 'the infidels', he is interested in keeping the Muslims pure from their taint; he is not a little interested in securing the reward of the next world by converting an infidel to Islam. It is somewhat difficult to draw a line between a Sufi and an orthodox Muslim in practical religion except in extreme cases when a Sufi superimposes some mystic and occult doctrine on Islam and stretches the sense and meaning of both Qur'an and the Tradition to meet his ends, and the orthodox refuses to go beyond the literal interpretation of the Muslim dogma. Composed on the orthodox lines are two books, the \*Matla-ul-Anwar\* of Amir Khusrau and the \*Tuhfa-i-Nasa'ih\* of Yusuf Gada. The book of Khusrau, which I have already mentioned, is a bitter exposition of the heterodox manners of his age. ### [c4.s2.t3.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.8.4) He deals with all classes of Muslims and with every phase of moral life. The \*Tuhfa-i-Nasa'ih\* is expository rather than critical. In this didactic poem, addressed to his son in the form of advice, the author gives a general survey of Muslim life in India from an orthodox standpoint. Its particular interest lies in showing how far Hindu beliefs and practices and other common superstitions were being incorporated into the scheme of orthodox Muslim life in Hindustan.¹ ### [c4.s2.t3.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.9) ¹ Mukand Ram has been put in the later part of the 16th century. Some interesting extracts of his poems are given in J.N. Das Gupta's 'Bengal in the Sixteenth Century'. T. D. Gupta has recently published his 'Aspects of Bengali Society' in J.D.I., Calcutta (1927-29), using mainly literary data from the Bengali language for a study of social history of Bengal which includes the examination of Bengali poetry, ballads, and folk-songs. ### [c4.s2.t3.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.10) ² The songs of Lalla have been rendered into English by R. C. Temple. The text with translation was published by Grierson and Barnett. Nanak's songs and hymns have been incorporated in the Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the Sikhs, and are to be found in an English rendering in the first volume of Macauliffe's 'The Sikh Religion;. The Bijak of Kabir is now available in a careful English translation by Rev Ahmad Shah. The songs of Vidyapati—the Padavali Bangiya (which, as opposed to his Sanskrit book referred to earlier, is composed in his native Maithili)—were translated and published by Coomaraswami and Arun Sen. His peculiarity lies in being a Krishnite and in singing of the loves of Radha and Krishna. Chaitanya was not so fortunate as to have left a collection of songs but the contemporary biography of Das Kaviraj, completed in 1582 after many years of devoted labour, is a document of great historical value. The second part of this biography which deals with six years of Chaitanya's pilgrimages is available in the English translation of J. N. Sircar. The account of his wanderings introduces us to the hopes and fears of the common people and to the gradual assimilation by Muslims of Hindu ideas. ### [c4.s2.t3.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.11) ¹ Yusuf Gada was a pupil of the celebrated Shaikh Nasir-ud-din Chiragh of Delhi and composed the book in 1393 (Ethe, 732). The book contains only 776 verses, but the author claims to have given a complete exposition of the orthodox beliefs and practices to the reader (compare T., 29). ### [c4.s2.t3.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4.s2.t3.12) 3. Practical arts and Compendiums.—There are a few books on practical arts which are quite useful for a study of contemporary social life. For example, the \*Kitab-i-Nimat Khana-i-Nasir Shahi\*, a compendium of culinary art, gives numerous recipes for making scents, cosmetics, ottos, and for preparing a variety of foods and delicacies². Another, named \*Hidayat ur-rami\*, gives a comprehensive guidance to archers and those interested in the use of bow and arrow³. The most important book, however, of this nature is the \*Fiqh-i-Firuz Shahi\*. It is a compendium of civil and ecclesiastical law and has an interesting history. It was originally compiled by one Ya'qub Karrani who died without finishing the book. The posthumous work was brought to the notice of Firuz Shah Tughluq who ordered its revision and enlargement and thus the book took its present shape. It gives legal precepts which were probably meant for the guidance of the Judiciary, but this is by no means certain. It may be safely said, however, that these semi-judicial compilations, even though they may not be compared with modern legal codes, do not on that account lose their historical value. They reflect the social conditions in a more lucid manner than other books and are to be valued accordingly.¹ Another book, not exactly a compilation of ‘ecclesiastical decisions, advices, and admonitions’ (vide Ethe) but rather a kind of political guide to a prince and a code of political ethics, is the Fatawa-i-jahandari of Ziya-ud-din Barani. Together with another earlier compilation of a similar nature the Adab-ul-muluk of Fakhr ud-din Mubarak Shah, it throws some light on the political ideas of the times. But the tone of these compilations is theoretical rather than practical. In any case, their value in elucidating social developments is very little. We are not required to go into a closer examination of their contents for our present purposes.² _First 71 of 102 passages. [Read on](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4)_ ## Linked texts (13) - [Tārīkh-i Firishta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.tarikh-i-firishta) — Muḥammad Qāsim Hindū Shāh Firishta 1606, Persian - [Muntakhab al-tawārīkh](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.general.muntakhab-al-tawarikh) — ʿAbd al-Qādir Badāʾūnī 1590, Persian - [Humāyūnnāma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.mughal.humayun.humayunnama) — Gulbadan Bēgam 1587, Persian - [Tāj al-maʾāthir](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.conquest.taj-al-maathir) — Ḥasan Niẓāmī, Persian - [Padāvalī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vernacular.bengali.padavali) — Bengali - [Granth Sāhib](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vernacular.punjabi.granthsahib) — Gurū Arjun 1579, Hindi - [Bījak](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vernacular.hindi.sant.kabir.bijak) — Kabīr 1550, Hindi - [Nuh sipihr](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.adab.nuh-sipihr) — Amīr Khusraw Dihlavī - [Riyāḍ al-inshāʾ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.admin.riyad-al-insha) — Maḥmūd Gāwān - [Tārīkh-i Fīrūzshāhī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tarikh-i-firuzshahi-afif) — Shams-i Sirāj ʿAfīf - [Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tabaqat-i-nasiri) — Minhāj al-Dīn Jūzjānī - [Puruṣaparīkṣā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.short_stories.purusapariksa) — Vidyāpati Ṭhākura, Sanskrit - [Tārīkh-i Mubārakshāhī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.sultanate.tarikh-i-mubarakshahi) — Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad Sirhindī --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.ashraf-1935.c4) · Pramāṇa