Satyendra Nath Ghoshal
One
of the most glorious periods of Bengali literature was the seventeenth
century, though unfortunately, it has escaped the attention of many
careless historians; at any rate, little justice seems to have been done
to this golden age. I have called it a golden age not so much because
of the excellence of literary qualities in the works of this period
which also are assuredly worthy of recognition, but for two other strong
rounds. The first, is that not a single writer of Bengali literature
from the earliest period down to the end of the late medieval period,
save and except the poets of the seventeenth century, of whom I am about
to speak, has ever cared or dared to let us have a glimpse of the
contemporary historical background for reasons left to our guess. Secondly,
the works of all the poets of the old and medieval periods, except
those of the century under reference, are invariably connected with
unnecessary divine or religious sentiments.In fact, poetry divorced from
one religious aspect or another was, to all intents and purposes,
unknown. All early poets, who were orthodox Hindus, wrote in strict
unison with this tradition, and the practice went on in a highly mono-
tonous line without curb or respite. It may be noted here
that even when a love story like one based on the well-known episode of
Vidya and Sundar was composed in the later years, the same had to be
fitted into a religious frame-work where the motif was artificially made
to be the eulogy of some god or goddess.
It redounds to the
credit of the Muslim poets of Bengali literature that this annoying
monotony of handling good plots was broken. It was they who went off the
beaten track and not only confined their attention to the motif of the
story,but narrated their own environments, including the historical
back-ground, so boldly and frankly, that the past history of certain
reigns or rulers is possible to he reconstructed on the basis of such narratives. Not
that they have not erred, particularly when they themselves refer to
traditions or hearsays, but in so far as contemporary pictures are
concerned they are seldom found guilty of exaggeration or distortions.
The
romantic Bengali literature, free from the fetters of religion and
religious sentiments, began in the hands of the Muslim poets, and its
developing period may be roughly taken to be some fifty years between
1622 and 1672. From a detailed study of this brief period
in the history of secular romance in Bengali literature it is not only
possible to corroborate some of the facts about Arakan but also throw a new light on the reigns of some of the kings of this country in this period.
Of
the principal Bengali poets who happen to be the torch-bearers in the
literary field of this period. I have selected in this short paper only
two, Daulat Kazi and Alaol, both Sufi Muslims. Sheer
chance seems to have carried both these Bengali poets to Arakan where in
the kings’ courts they composed their poems in the seventeenth century
and have left clear records of the reigning monarchs and their deeds.
The earlier of the two poets named above is Daulat Kazi who has to his credit only one book known as Sati Mayna-O-Lora Candrani 1
and that too was left incomplete by the poet as he was cut off by the
cruel hands of death in the midst of his work.This great work of Daulat
begins with a graphic picture of the capital of Arakan, of the king and
his chief minister, and of the people of the country in general. I would
like to mention here a grave omission of history in that of this chief
minister whose name is Ashraf Khan and in whose able hands, according to
Daulat, the reins of monarchy were entrusted for the major period of
the king’s reign, history betrays no knowledge.
The
capital of Arakan in this time has been referred to as Rosanga by both
the poets. This Rosanga may he an attempt at sanskritization of the word
Mrohaung 2 by which name the capital was known for about four hundred years since the time of king Narameikhla (1433 A.D.).3
Daulat K.azi wrote his poem in the court of the Arakan king
Thiri-thu-dhamma (1632-1638), referred to by the poet as Sri Sudharma
which also seems to be a result of sanskritization.
Now,
the coronation of Thiri-thu-dhamma was, according to history, deferred
for twelve years, in pursuance of an astrological prediction that the
king would die within a year of his coronation,4 and this is also corroborated by Daulat. In this context the poet writes that “the great king (Sri Sudharma ) knowing that his life would come to an end, transferred the rule of the kingdom to the hands of his minister Ashraf Khan.”5
The king Thiri-thu-dhamma had, according to history, a Pali title of
honour, “Lord of the White Elephant, Lord of the Red Elephant”,as is
proved by numismatic evidence.6 This title of the king has also been referred to by Daulat in the following way:
“The great mad elephant Airavat having seen the glory and fame of Sudharma submitted to his feet in while and red.” 7
A lengthy description of Rosanga, the capital of Arakan, in all its pomp and grandeur, is found in Daulat’s work thus:
“On the eastern side of the river Karnaphuli is the city of Rorsanga.8
King Sudharma, a very image of virtue, and in prowess, like the morning
Sun, is renowned in the world. Hs looks after his subjects as though
they were his sons. .. …Five hundred elephants carry on his command. The
entire kingdom is in peace and no one is envious of another..
…..’Nobody is in distress and all the people are happy through the grace
of the king….The king made Ashraf Khan his chief minister and the
commander of his army …….One day king Sudharma……went on an expedition
(hunting), into the forest with his army. Elephants of diverse colours
were with him. Flags of various colours covered the sky. Thousands and thousands of soldiers and horses, without a limit to their number, also followed (him). The glory of the king’s boat was beyond measure. ……..The boat could cover in one day a journey of ten days. ………The dazzling boat gave out a luster of lightning. Its pillars were of emerald and the roof was of silver. ……..Its
stem with a gold peacock looked wonderful……. The king (thus) reached
the forest……with him was Ashraf Khan and other ministers……. The soldiers
pitched their respective tents and lived happily in these.
Variousmusical instruments were played…….The courtesans sang and dance
sweetly,…..The king with his army stayed there for four months…….Then the chief minister returned to his court with the permission of the king.9 Men
of various nationalities joined him. When Sri (sic) Ashraf Khan sat in
court, the pick of the Mughals and the Pathans, numerous Hindus both
native and foreign, countless Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras
also sat in rows……Sriyukta (Sic) Ahraph Khan was the chief minister and
was like the moon full in its sixteen parts.He daily read books and
heard recitals from books on moral teachings, poetry, sastras, all full
of diverse rasas ( i. e., poetic sentiments)”.10
Part two
The
second great Bengali poet of the court of Arakan after Daulat Kazi was
known as Alaol who wrote six hooks in all, of which, the first is his
masterpiece, Padmavati, which is an adaptation rather than a translation
of the famous work, Padmavat of Malik Muhammad Jayasi.11
Alaol’s
Padmavati was composed in the court of Arakan during the reign of Thado
Mintar (1645-1652), at the request of his chief minister, Magana
Thakur, who is said to be a poet himself; though his identity is still
shrouded in mystery.12
Alaol pictures him as a very important personage in Arakan court also
suggesting that his relation with the royal family was most intimate.
After
the death of the Arakan king, Narapatigyi (1638-1645) in 1645, his son,
Thado Mintar, succeeded to the throne “in his prime of youth”, 13 though it seems that the rule of the kingdom virtually vested in Magana through the queent dowager.14 Magana’s influence continued even for the first ten years of the reign of the Arakan king Sandothudhamma (1652-16SI) till Magana’s probable death in 1658.15
It
should be pointed out in this context that history betrays not a
vestige of knowledge of the existence of Magana and shows a very poor
acquaintance with Thado Mintar and his reign. Alaol, on the other
hand,not only gives a very important place to Magana in the court of
Arakan, but has waxed eloquent over the young king Thado
Mintar and his reign. The Bengali poet has given a very vivid
pen-picture of the king, and has graphically described his capital,
palace and court where wealth and mirth were in plenty. Thus from Alaol
we have:
“.
. . The king sat on his throne in all his royal splendour while people
from all parts of the world poured down into the capital… The king’s
army and navy were strong and vast, the very sight of which struck
terror into the heart of the enemy. His hunting expeditions were
gigantic in size and character, and there was an unreserved extravagance
of’ pomp and splendour everywhere.”16
It is also interesting to note that Alaol mentions Thado Mintar as the “Lord of the Red and White Elephant” which precisely agrees with this king’s appellation as found in his coins.17
Of the other very interesting points touched by Alaol one is that, with Narapatigyi (Nrpagtha in Alaol) on the throne (in 1638), the direct dynasty of Minbin (1531-1553) became extinct 18 which is historically true
because this Narapatigyi, who was but a paramour of Natshinme, the
chief queen of Thiri-thu dhamma was in no way connected with the royal
family. According to the Bengali poet, Narapatigyi had a son and a
daughter of whom the son, whose name was Thado Mintar, succeeded to the
throne. Now history betrays not the least of knowledge of the existence
of this daughter, and calls Thado Mintar a nephew (brother’s son) of
Narapatigyi.19
Part three
From
the historical point of view not a single literary work of old or
medieval Bengali literature can compare with the work of Alaol in
importance. For instance, the Sayaphul Muluk Badiojjamal 20
another voluminous poetical work based on the famous story of the same
name in the Arabian Nights contains perhaps a unique historical record
in the sense that it contains clear details about Shah Shuja’s 21 last phase of life of which history seems to hold a vague notion only.22
It
is well known that Shah Shuja, defeated and driven by Aurangzeb, came
to Arakan some time after May 12, 1660. According to Alaol, he was
rather warmly received on his arrival by the then reigning monarch
Sandothudhamma (1652-1684), referred to by Alaol as Sri Candra Sudharma. Our
poet who was in Arakan at that time, as clearly stated by himself in
the work under reference, became, by a strange turn of circumstances,
intimate with this fugitive prince of Delhi, but was soon to regret
this. There is clear evidence, particularly in Alaol’s Sayaphul Muluk Badiojjamal,
that Shuja came into the disfavour of this famous monarch of Arakan not
long after his arrival and was mercilessly slaughtered with all his
retinue.23The Arakan
king did not stop there,but severely dealt with Shuja’s friends and
associates too. The unfortunate Bengali poet, on the false and malicious
report of a man, named Mirza, presumably a person of the local secret
service bureau of that time, was also tried for treason and had to serve
a prison sentence.
Unfortunately
Alaol is not very clear as to why the Arakan king, having given a
hospitable berth to Shah Shuja was all on a sudden so annoyed with him
as to destroy him ultimately.The relevant lines, which can be read
between, are as follows:
“….It
was by chance that I had come to the city of Rosanga…. Subsequently the
great king Shuja came there… He had difference with the king of
Rosanga, and Shuja’s downfall came….All the Muslims who stood by his
side gave their lives in the hands of the Lord of Rosanga. There was a
royal officer (presumably of the secret service) whose name was Mirza. He reported to the king that I ( i. e. Alaol ) was also guilty of treason.
I had already difference with this man and seizing this opportunity he
fulfilled his object. The king (of Arakan,), not knowing the conspiracy
of this wicked man (against Alaol), threw me into prison in fury. In the
long last, when the king knew everything, he grabbed this wicked man
and punished him severely…..This villain met his death on the stake spoiling many (innocent) lives….I was put in prison for no fault of mine….” 24
It is evident that the lines quoted above do not clearly indicate any concrete charge against Shuja beyond a probable
charge of treason. Even if the charge brought against Shuja were
treason, neither the poet was, nor his readers are, convinced whether
the charge itself was false and cooked up, or real. It appears to me
that the poet had a lurking suspicion in his mind that Shuja was also a
victim of some intrigue or conspiracy hatched by or at the direction of the said villain Mirza. This
conjecture also explains why the king subsequently sentenced this
fellow to die on the stake, may be, out of repentance for his action
against Shah Shuja. To me this appears to be a very probable explanation
of the king’s hasty action against Shuja and his subsequent acts.
Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why a person responsible for
exposing a major treasonous plot and saving the king,so to say,should in
return be imprisoned,tried and sentenced to a cruel death. Alaol’s
readers may also be inclined to make a further guess that Mir Jumla who
is known to have pursued Shuja as far as Arakan on Aurangzeb’s order
bribed this Mirza so as to accuse Shuja falsely and destroy him.
Alaol
has written the longest eulogy in his Sayaphul Muluk Badiojjmal in
praise of the Arakan king Sandothudhamma who has been described by the
historians also as the greatest king who has ever sat on the throne of
Arakan.25 According to our poet the former king or kings of Arakan pale into insignificance in comparison to this king. In
fact, although the poet praised the former king Thado Mintar when he
wrote his first work during Thado’s reign, he has a somewhat different
tone when he begins to extol Sandothudhamma. Here the poet seems to hint
some act of the former king for which the people had left the country
in panic. A feeling of safety returned with the succession of the new
king Sandothudhamma sanskritized into Candra Sudharma by the Bengali
poet. The exact words of the poet in this context are these:
“..All
those who had gone away to different countries in fear of the former
king and had suffered from sorrow and grief, now returned, hearing the
greatness of the king Candra Sudharma, and forgot the sorrows of this
place which had gone wrong….”26
Now the first pertinent question that assails the minds of Alaol’s readers in the light of the above remarks is:
“What
exactly does the poet mean by the place, evidently Rosanga, the capital
of Arakan, going wrong in Thado’s time and what might be the reason
behind it?”
Unfortunately for us,the history of Arakan is still far less exhaustive than we would like it to be, not only on a point like this, but on numerous other points which we have already pointed out.27
In the coins of Sandothudhamma we find that his Pali title was “the moon-like righteous king”.28 Alaol too clearly refers to this title thus:”The righteousness of the king was bright as the moon”.29 Not only this, even Sandothudhamma’s very name has been sanskritized by Alaol as Candra Sudharma which also means ‘righteous as the moon’. King Sandothudhamma had another appellation too stamped in his coins, “Lord of the Golden Palace”.30 This title also finds an echo in Alaol’s work thus: “.. (the king’s) castle (is) made of gold..”.31 In his Sayaphal Muluk Badiojjamal also the poet speaks of this king as ‘hema nrpa’, i-e- king of gold, and remarks that the ‘earth is made of gold’ in his time.
Among
other important facts about Arakan mentioned by Alaol, one is that the
kingdom of Arakan was entrusted to the joint rule of the son and the
daughter of Thado Mintar after this king’s death, while the widowed queen, loyal to her husband’s memory, was passing her days in various acts of piety.32
Again,
the said daughter and Magana Thakur, as already mentioned, had very
important roles in the administration of the state, and the good name of
the monarch Sandothudhamma,also known to the historians, might have
been predominantly due to his chief minister Magana of whose very
existence history betrays not the least of knowledge or information. Another minister Solomon, of this king, who was a fast friend of Magana also figures very prominently in this context in one of Alaol’s works.33 Thus
the great Bengali poet Alaol is credited to have supplied many missing
links in the reconstruction of Arakan history which, if followed
seriously by historians, will doubtless give a more
complete picture of the reigns of some of the forgotten kings of
Arakan, not only of the seventeenth century, but of the prior centuries
also.
Abbreviations
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>B.S.R.I.B.L Beginning of Secular Romance in Bengali Literature by Satyendranath Ghoshal
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>C. H. I Cambridge History of India,
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>H. B. (J) History of Bengal by Sir Jadunath Sarkar.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>H. Bur (H) History of Burma by G. E.Harvey (1925).
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>I. G. I. Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908)
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>J.A. S. B. Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>J .Bur.R. S. Journal of Burmese Research Society
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>P. (Sh.) Padmavati, ed. by M.Shahidullah (1950).
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>P.(V. A.) Padmavati, ed. by V. Agrawalla.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>P. (S. G.) Padmavati, ed. by S. N. Ghoshal.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>S.M.B Sayaphul Muluk Badiojjnmal by Alaol.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>S.M.L.C. Sati Mayna 0 Lor Candrani by Daulat Kazi, edited by Satyendranath Ghoshal.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Sh.H.A.(J). Short History of Aurangzeb by Sir Jadunath Sarkar.
<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Sapta Payakar Published by Habibi Press
Reference:
- Edited by the author of this paper and published by Visva Bharati
- Visva Bharati Annals, vol. X, p. 9.
- ‘H.Bur.{H),p.140.
- Ibid. p. 144; G. H. 1., IV, p. 479. The king. of course, died after coronation, though not within the first year, but in the third year of his reign(1638) under suspicious circumstances {H. Bur. (H). p. 139). These kinds of astrological prediction were rather common in the court, of Arakan in those days. King Narameikhia (1404-1434) had a similar warning which he ignored and died true to the prediction {Ibid). It seems highly probable that such predictions were usually stage-managed consequent upon palace intrigues which so often led to regicides..
- S.M. L. C., p. 45 : Also B. S. R. 1. B. L.. p. 13, P. 13-f. n. 4.
- J.A. S.B., XV, 1846, p. 234.
- S. M. L.C., p. 45.
- The relevant line may also be translated as ”There is a city named Rosanga on the eastern side of which is the river Karnaphuli.”
- Evidently the king was still then uncrowned in consequence of the astrological prediction (supra), and Asraph Khan was virtually in charge of conducting the proceedings of the royal court.
- S. M. L. C., pp. 45-48.
- One of the greatest poets of the literature of undivided India, who wrote his masterpiece Padmavat in Abadhi language most possibly in course of 927-947A.H.(i.e.1520-100 A.D.)
- Alaol, in describing him, has such lines as “devagurubhakta etc,” a devotee of the gods and his religious preceptor.
- P. (Sh.), p. 16: P. (S. G.), p. 10.
- P. (S. G.) p. 12.
- R. S.R.I.R.I, pp. 198-99
- P. (sh). pp. 13-18; p. (S.G.), pp. 7-11.
- J. A. S.B., XV, 1846.
- P. (S. G.}, p. •;.
- It is high time that students of history should pursue this discord between history and contemporary literature, and discover the exact truth.
- Its first part was written some time about 1658 and the second part round about 1670: B. S. R. I. B. L., p. 66.
- Brother of Aurangzeb.
- Sh. H. A. (J), P,i. 98-99; I. G. I., II, p. 402.
- Shuja met his fatal end some time before, or in the beginning of 1661 [Sh. H. A. (J). pp. 98- 9]. Alaol clearly states that Shuja, with all his men, was massacred, though history does not seen to be definite as to the exact nature of his end.
- S.M.B., pp. 175-177.
- H. Bur. (H). p. 145.
- S. M. B.. p. 5. Nothing whatsoever is known to the historians up to this day about this mass exodus in Thado Mintar’s time or about its return during the reign of the next monarch.
- Mr.J. Stuart writing in 1923 appealed for ‘more light on Arakanese history’: J. Bur. R. S., XIII, part II, p. 95.
- J. A. S. B.. XV, 1846, p. 235.
- Portion of Sati Mayna, written by Alaol, p. 105. It may be mentioned here that Daulat Kazi’s unfinished work Sati Mayna 0 Lora Candrani was later on finished by Alaol.
- ‘J. A. S. B., XV, 1846, p. 235.
- Sapta Payakar, p, 7.
- S.M.B..p.8.
- Ibid., pp. 8-9.
This
paper was published in Asiatic Society of Bangladesh Publication # 15,
under the name of Abdul Karim Sahitya-Visarad Commemoration Volume, as
the title of “ Missing Links in Arakan History” by Satyendra Nath
Ghoshal, Head of the Department of Bengal, Benares University, Varanasi 5
and Edited by Muhammad Enamul Haq, Professor of Bengali, University of Dacca on 1972.
No comments:
Post a Comment