A hero greeted by princes
Illustration to the musical mode Kanada ragini
Bikaner, Rajasthan, c.1680. By Ruknuddin
Gouache with gold on paper; 16.2 x 13 cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1990.6; purchased with the help of the Friends of the Ashmolean) The musical mode Kanada (or Karnata) is named after the Karnataka region of South India, where it may have originated as a hunting melody. This ragini is visualised as a princely warrior, blue-skinned like the god Krishna, who has shown his valour by slaying an elephant. He holds a sword and a severed tusk and he wears a sliver of ivory in his right ear. Since elephants were far too highly valued in India to be hunted in this way, the subject may allude to the story of Krishna's defeat of Kuvalayapida, the demonic elephant of the wicked King Kamsa. Greeting the victorious hero with raised hands are a Rajput prince and his younger companion. An attendant waves a fly-whisk, an emblem of royalty.
This picture is an example of the refined style developed in the late seventeenth century by immigrant Muslim artist families at the Rajput court of Bikaner, in the deserts of western Rajasthan. This early Bikaner style combined Mughal technique with influences from the Deccan. The Maharajas of Bikaner spent long periods campaigning with the imperial armies in the
Deccan or serving there as military governors. The dispersed ragamala series to which this page belonged was made for Maharaja Anup Singh (b.1638, r.1669-98) by his leading artist, Ruknuddin. The conventional iconographic grouping of the four standing figures is treated by Ruknuddin with Mughal finesse of line and Deccani subtlety of colouring. As well as being a successful general, Anup Singh was a Sanskrit scholar and notable patron of the arts. He had a particular love of music, preserving important musical treatises in his library and employing at Bikaner talented performers who had been banished (like the imperial painters) from the court of the pious Aurangzeb. In this painting the leading prince who greets the elephant-slayer resembles portraits of Anup Singh. Such identification with his patron may perhaps have been intended by Ruknuddin. Anup Singh's military career in the south mainly took place in eastern Karnataka, the region which lends its name to this Ragini. It was there, as governor at Adoni. that he eventually died.
Lovers at daybreak
Illustration to the musical mode Raga Vibhasa Northern Deccan or southern Rajasthan,
c.1675, Gouache with silver and gold on paper;
19.7x15cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1991.154)
Vibhasa ('brightness' or 'radiance') is a musical air played at dawn. Its pictorial image is a noble couple who have passed a night of love together. At daybreak the lady remains languorously asleep on the intricately patterned coverlet. Her lover rises and puts on one slipper, while brandishing a luxuriant floral bow and arrow, like that of the love-god Kama. In some versions, he is shown aiming an arrow at a cock crowing, as if to prevent the day from coming. But here the peacock on the roof remains unscathed. An atmosphere of muted splendour is created by the artist's confident use of decorative detail and the combination of warm colours with more modulated tones. While the iconography and motifs such as the gold sun with human face adhere to the Rajasthani pictorial tradition, the palette suggests Deccani influence. Rajput nobles serving with the Mughal forces in the
Deccan patronised local artists or occasionally brought them back to Rajasthan. It is uncertain where this particular ragamala was painted. It has a Rajasthani provenance, attested by old inventory marks from the Mewar royal collection. Twenty-one of its pages are known to survive, of which two are in the Ashmolean.
Maharana Raj Singh I of Mewar riding
Udaipur (Mewar), Rajasthan, c.1670
Gouache with gold on paper; 29.2 x 23 ern
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1991.153)
The Maharanas of Mewar, whose ancestors tenaciously resisted successive Muslim invaders, are considered the premier Rajput chiefs. They capitulated to the Mughals only in 1615, forty years after their fellows, and on terms allowing them a greater degree of independence. For much of the seventeenth century Mewar artists continued to produce robustly expressive manuscript illustrations deriving from the indigenous Early Rajput style. Mughal conventions of portraiture only became established at Udaipur towards the end of the century.
In this early example of Mewar portraiture, Maharana Raj Singh (r.1652-80) rides a rearing, dappled blue horse, starkly silhouetted against a sheer red ground. He wears a flowered gold robe of Mughal type, and he had in fact attended the imperial court as a prince. But his portrait typically reveals an ideal of Rajpul martial heroism more than a closely observed individual. His mustache is flowing, his eye staring and slightly bloodshot. He raises a hand in a gesture of command. Above a thickly brushed white horizon a gold sun blazes, symbolising the legendary descent of the Mewar chiefs from the Sun-god; the gold and black royal parasol held by an attendant is also a solar symbol. The
Maharana's heroic aspect is appropriate, for he was the last Mewar ruler to be a successful warrior. A very similar portrait of Raj Singh, with an olive-green back-ground is dated 1670 (present location unknown).
Maharana Amar Singh worshipping at Eklingji
Udaipur, Rajasthan, c.1700-05
Gouache with gold and silver on paper; 48 x 55 cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1989.40; Purchased with the help of the Friends of the Ashmolean) Maharana Amar Singh II of Mewar (r.1698-1710), the grandson of Raj Singh I (21), is seen at worship at the temple of Eklingji, attended by priests, musicians, and the royal entourage. A manifestation of Shiva, Eklingji is worshipped in the form of a lingam (phallic icon) with four human faces. He is the ancient tutelary deity of the Mewar rulers. Royal processions from Udaipur, the
capital from the late sixteenth century, to the temple of Eklingji, in a hilly defile to the north, were a regular state function. Amar Singh sits before the deity, which is adorned with jewels, garlands and canopies and cobras in gold and silver. A Brahmin priest and assistant officiate. In the courtyard, attendants carry regalia and musicians of the court and temple play horns, cymbals and drums. Other members of the royal escort stand outside in the temple enclosure. Beyond the outer wall, mahouts and grooms wait with the elephants and horses. The temple architecture is depicted schematically, but with enough detail in the superstructure to be recognisable. The agile temple monkeys and their young are seen on the roofs and in the wooded background. Brush drawing on a plain ground predominates and colours and gold are only sparingly used, yet this is a completed work. It is an exceptionally large and elaborate example of the finely stippled semi-grisaille style often employed by the leading artist of Arnar Singh's reign. This anonymous master did much to consolidate
Mughal conventions of portraiture at Udaipur, though these were thoroughly assimilated to the bolder Rajput vision. Here, the delicate execution of individual figures and animals is combined with a deliberately simplified setting.
Muhammad Shah riding
Mughal, c.1720-25
Gouache with gold and silver on paper; 39 x 26.8 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Ouseley Add. 173, f.27)
In the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719-48) the Mughal empire crumbled but art continued to flourish. Known as Rangila ('Pleasure-loving'), the insouciant Emperor devoted himself to the enjoyment of poetry, music, fine wine and food and beautiful women. If news arrived of some military setback he would console himself by contemplating his magnificent gardens. This went on for twenty years. But in 1739 Nadir Shah of Persia sacked Delhi and took away a huge treasure, including the Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan. If Muhammad Shah's empire was more show than
substance, so also is this portrait, in which he strikes a martial attitude borrowed from equestrian portraits of the genuinely bellicose Aurangzeb, some sixty years earlier. He appears helmeted, chainmailed and armed with lance, bow and quivers in readiness for battle. He displays not just one but a double radiant nimbus. His rearing charger also is splendidly arrnoured. hennaed and tasselled. The background is the traditional pale green of earlier Mughal portraiture, and the foreground receding to a near horizon is strewn conventionally with flowers and grass tufts. Above, a portentous gold-red light fringes the puffy snailshell clouds. High among the clouds, the Emperor's name is inscribed in tiny letters. The illusion of imperial glory is evoked with the technical mastery of the Mughal studio in better days.
Shah Jahan enthroned
Mughal, c.1638
Gouache with gold on paper; 24.2 x 14.3 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.a.1, f.9r)
Under the Emperor Jahangir Mughal portraiture reached its zenith, not only in the dispassionate recording of human individuality (9) but as a means of imperial self-aggrandisement. Under Shah Jahan (1627-58) this propagandist strain became dominant. Here he is symbolically shown as World Ruler (as his name signiAes). Seated on an ornate throne, probably at Agra Fort, he holds a jewelled lance and an orb representing heaven and earth. Such ceremonial enthronements were part of
the elaborate court ritual. In October 1637 the tenth anniversary of Shah Jahan's accession was celebrated: In commemoration of the occasion, the King of the seven climes proceeded with God-given fortune to the Forty- Pillared Hall of Public Audience and ascended the Jewelled Throne. According to the yearly custom, gold and pearls were lavishly distributed from his munificent hands, and fell upon his obedient subjects like auspicious rays from the all-powerful sun.'
Immersed in sumptuously coloured and patterned surfaces, the Emperor assumes iconic status. His face in profile is rendered with great finesse in the stippling of flesh and treatment of the slightly greying hair and beard. His radiant solar nimbus stands out from the golden throne-back through the artist's textured striation and stippling of the gold surfaces. The jeweled throne, with pearl-fringed canopy, displays European baroque features such as its foliated scrolling wings. The throne cushions, carpet and the Emperor's surcoat, robe and sash are an opulent mass of floral ornament. The natural flowers set against the green background are arranged with similar formality in this apotheosis of imperial grandeur.
Shah Jahan receives 'Ali Mardan Khan
Mughal, c.1640. Attributed to Payag
Gouache with gold on paper; 34.5 x 23.8 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Ouseley Add. 173, no. 13)
In November 1638 Shah Jahan received with honour at Lahore the Persian general 'Ali Mardan Khan, who had helpfully surrendered to him the strategic frontier city of Qandahar. 'Ali Mardan Khan was rewarded with the governorship of Kashmir. He later rendered outstanding service as a designer of gardens, canals and other public works. In this durbar scene the Persian nobleman appears among the throng of courtiers on the left, wearing a splendid flowered robe and saluting the Emperor with hand raised to his forehead. In keeping with the protocol of the time (so different from the informality of
early Mughal court scenes, 2), the figures appear frozen in a tableau, depending hierarchically from the majestic figure of the ruler. Each is an acutely observed portrait. Attributable to the gifted and versatile artist Payag, this composition closely resembles the durbar scenes of the Padshahnama, the illustrated history of Shah Jahan's reign now in the Royal Library at Windsor, and was probably intended for that manuscript.
As in many of Shah Jahan's portraits (13), there is a well-developed imperial symbolism. Flanked by attendants with yak-tail fans, the Emperor is shown with a gold nimbus on the throne balcony in his hall of audience. The princes Dara Shikoh and Murad Bakhsh and the minister Asaf Khan stand to the left. Painted angels (inspired by European art, like the royal nimbus) gaze down from the walls. In the panel below the throne are depicted the scales of justice, the lion eating with the cow, and Sufi shaikhs holding a globe and sword. The Emperor is thus personified as perfect bestower of justice and peace, and master of both spiritual and temporal worlds. Around' Ali Mardan Khan are grouped Mughal courtiers and his own Persian entourage, who bring jewelled gifts and a string of horses for the Emperor. A closely related painting, formerly in a Benares private collection (fig. 6), shows the Persian nobleman being respectfully escorted by ministers to the hall of audience beforehand, with the royal musicians playing in the background.
The minister Sa'dullah Khan presiding at an assembly
Muqhal. c.1655
Gouache with gold on paper; 40.5 x 28.8 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.b.3, no.21)
Sa'dullah Khan, the able and learned prime minister of Shah Jahan, presides over a durbar assembly on an open terrace. Enthroned under smaller and greater canopies, he gives orders or judgements to the officers ranked before him. A state elephant and caparisoned horses await the minister and grandees in front of the partition railing. To the fore of the crush of attendant figures on the left are two Europeans in ruffs and black hats.
Shah Jahan prized his loyal minister and deeply mourned his death in 1656, two years before his own
dethronement by his son Aurangzeb. This painting of Sadullah Khan shows him as the authoritative executive of the Emperor's will, with the entourage and panoply appropriate to his office. The Mughal state machine is seen in smooth and ruthless action. The over-arching canopy strikes a grandiloquent note with its gold brocade interior with flowering scrollwork, the latter amplified above in the less disciplined, more ominous rhythms of the tightly bunched cloud curlicues.
A prince with a narcissus
Mughal, c.1640-50
Gouache with gold on paper; 17.2 x 11.5 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.a.1, f.45v)
In the more introspective mode of Mughal painting (2), princes are shown withdrawn from the tumult of the hunting, war and court ceremonial, absorbed instead in solitary contemplation with a book, flower or wine-cup in secluded gardens, in the society of a favourite concubine, or else in solemn spiritual discussion with grey- beard shaikhs.
In this painting a young prince of refined sensibility sits on a high-backed chair among flowering shrubs and slender trees. Wine-flasks and cups and a vase of flowers stand within reach. He is lost in reverie as he smells a narcissus; in Persian poetry narcissi are associated both with the spring and with the languorous eyes of the beloved. The subject, setting, and palette recall the Persianate aestheticism found in earlier Deccani painting and in the work of the artists Farrukh Beg and Muhammad 'Ali. A contrasting note of agitation is struck by the Mughal hunting carpet with a leopard pursuing blackbuck, which seems to wheel about the flower-vase.
Sultan 'Abdullah Qutubshah of Golconda Golconda, Deccan, c.1640
Gouache with gold and silver on paper;
12.5 x 9.8 cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1960.203)
As Mughal domination of the Deccan increased during the seventeenth century, imperial conventions of portraiture (13) became influential in the now tributary Sultanates of Golconda and Bijapur. The local artists tended to reinterpret these models with a subtle richness of colour and a poetic, often languorous, quality that is typically Deccani. The youthful Sultan 'Abdullah Qutubshah (r. 1626-72) had been compelled to accept Mughal sovereignty in 1636. In a painting of slightly later date, he is shown seated formally on a low throne set on a terrace with an attenuated garden beyond. He displays a radiant nimbus of Mughal type, while his hand rests martially on his sword-hilt. In reality' Abdullah was indolent and ineffectual: 'all his time was given to ingenious forms of sensuality' (Sir Jadunath Sarkar). His administration was run by his mother. The Sultan's character is conveyed less by the sword and nimbus than by the refined modeling of his dreamy, thick-lipped countenance, combined with the decorative splendor of his flowered gold robe.
Prince Ram Singh of Amber at worship Amber, Rajasthan, c.1660
Gouache with gold and silver on paper; detail
17 x 12 cm. approx
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1994.46)
The Rajput prince Ram Singh of Amber (b.1635) performs his devotions in a garden setting. Bare-chested and with hair tied back, he recites invocations or mantras with the aid of prayer-beads held under the end of his muslin shawl. Ablution vessels are placed before him, with a conch-shell on a stand and brass stamps and sandal-paste for imprinting sectarian marks. The small raised platform on which he sits is set at an unusually oblique angle to the background, with its blossoming trees and massed clouds. The clouds were partly repainted when the picture (which had been trimmed)
was enlarged by a less skilful artist, before being mounted in its album page (fig. 7). While the sensitive portraiture, with fine stippled shading of the face and torso, indicates that the artist had received Mughal training, the freer interpretation of the setting suggests this may be an early work of the local Amber (later, Jaipur) school. am Singh is reputed to have been a devout Hindu and less happy than his predecessors in his required attendance at the Mughal court under Aurangzeb. He earned the lasting displeasure of the Emperor, who suspected him of complicity in the escape of the Maratha leader Shivaji from Agra. When Ram Singh became ruler of Amber in 1667, Aurangzeb sent him off to govern the remote and unhealthy border region of Assam in the north-east. But he survived this. Further postings followed on the north-western Khyber frontier, where Ram Singh died in 1688.
The dying 'Inayat Khan
Mughal school, 1618
Gouache on paper; 12.4 x 15.4 cm
Bodleian Library (MS Ouseley Add. 171, f.4v.)
This chill and moving study of a dying courtier is one of the most famous of all Mughal portraits. Wasted by his opium addiction and alcoholism, "lnayat Khan was brought before Jahangir to obtain leave to journey to Agra, on the day before his death. The Emperor was both appalled and fascinated by his condition. He described the occasion in his memoirs: On this day news came of the death of 'Inayat Khan. He was one of my intimate attendants. As he was addicted to opium, and when
he had the chance, to drinking as well, by degrees he became maddened with wine. As he was weakly built, he took more than he could digest, and was attacked by the disease of diarrhoea, and in this weak state he two or three times fainted. By my order Hakim Rukna applied remedies, but whatever methods were resorted to gave no profit .They put him into a palanquin and brought him. He appeared so low and weak that I was astonished. 'He was skin drawn over bones'. Or rather his bones, too, had dissolved. Though painters have striven much in drawing an emaciated face, yet I have never seen anything like this, nor even approaching it. Good God, can a son of man come to such a shape and fashion? As it was a very extraordinary case I directed painters to take his portrait.
The artist too was clearly moved by the scene of human extremity. This painting and the preparatory brush-drawing in Boston (fig. 4), even starker in its rendering of the debilitated physique, have been attrib used by Prof. S. C. Welch to the master Govardhan. Both pictures in different ways convey the same intense pathos. Here the subdued white, grey and tan tones of the interior complement the deadened colours of the cushions, garments and coverlet. The background composition, with a palely insubstantial carpet and bottles in niches and a thin decorative arabesque panel acting as counter-balance, resembles a washed-out Mondrian in its rectangular formality. Shading round the looming silhouettes of the cushions and the wall and niche surrounds give them a shimmering, phantasmagoric quality. The dominant image remains the emaciated pallour of 'Inayat Khan's face, torso and hands. His wintry blue eye (reflecting the eau-de-nil cushion) stares in profile, like a courtier still at attention before the Emperor, yet also with the poignant fixity of ultimate resignation.
A girl snake-charmer
From the Laud Ragamala: an illustration to the
musical mode Asavari ragini
Sub-imperial Mughal style, c.1615. Attributed to
Fazl
Gouache with gold on paper; 15.1 x 10.6 cm
Bodleian Library (Laud MS Or. 149, f.19r.) From the sixteenth century, ragamala ('Garland of ragas') became one of the most popular pictorial subjects in Northern India and the Deccan, uniting the main court arts of music, poetry and painting. The essential quality of each of the ragas (musical modes) and their associated raginis (or 'wives') was evoked in Sanskrit or Hindi verses and depicted in paintings, according to established conventions. A full ragamala comprised thirty-six or more pictures. This is one of eighteen surviving pages from an early seventeenth century series, which belong to a historic album presented to the Bodleian by Archbishop Laud in 1640. Asavari is a plaintive mode, said to originate in a snake-charmers' melody and usually performed in the early morning hours. The ragini is depicted as a dark-skinned tribal girl wearing a skirt of leaves. She dwells alone in mountain forests, where her presence charms the snakes down from the sandal-trees. Garlanded with snakes, she sits on a rock from which a stream gushes.
In the absence of her lover, she communes with the entranced cobra held in her hand. The colours are mostly subdued, and birds, rocks and vegetation are reduced to simplified, rhythmical forms. This style is typical of those lesser Mughal artists of the early seventeenth century who fell short of imperial standards but found commissions with Hindu and Muslim courtiers. The Laud Ragamala pages have recently been attributed to Fazl, who is known to have worked for the leading sub-imperial patron, 'Abdul-Rahirn Khan-i-Khanan. commander-in-chief of the Mughal armies.
An ascetic by a lotus pool
Illustration to the musical mode Devagandhara ragini
Bundi. Rajasthan, c.1650
Gouache with gold on paper; 21.9 x 12.4 ern
Ashmolean Museum (Mrs M. Barrett Loan)
The musical mode Devagandhara, performed in the morning after sunrise, is conceived as a solitary lady whom the pain of separation from her lover has transformed into an emaciated ascetic. Here only the yogi's jewelled ornaments reveal a vestige of his femininity, though the domed pavilion standing for his hermitage is more like a palace bed-chamber. Its projecting finial in the form of a makara (aquatic monster) holding a bright orange-red pennant syrnbolises the love-god Kama. Signs of natural fecundity abound, with banana and mango trees, harmonious pairs of cranes and ducks, and flowering lotuses. The yogi sits apparently withdrawn, telling his prayer-beads inside a gomukhi bag while toying with a stray strand of hair. This ragini exhibits a commonly found tension between the erotic and ascetic moods, between sensual enjoyment and holy renunciation.
Al Bundi and its near neighbour Kotah in the south-east Rajasthan numerous series of ragamala pictures were produced, both in wall-paintings and on paper. They derive iconographically from a dispersed ragamala, painted in 1591 at Chunar near Benares by artists trained at the Mughal court, which must have been in Bundi possession at this date or not long after. Indigenous Bundi painters interpreted the same subjects in their own robust style, often, as here, recrealing the given theme with a strong flavour of the appropriate rasa or mood.
A dervish receiving a visitor
Bijapur, Deccan, c.1610-20
Gouache with gold and silver on paper;
25.8 x 19.5 ern
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.b.2, f.4v.)
In this masterpiece of Bijapur painting, now damaged by flaking, a venerable Sufi is seated on a prayer platform of his shrine retreat. With his hunched frame and overgrown beard and nails, he is clearly a recluse of some sanctity. The shrine has a low dome with pennants flying from a bamboo flagstaff, a group of Shi'ite religious standards, and between them, a luxuriant banyan with a large white parrot and a waterskin on a tripod below. On the left, bullocks are watered from a trough and a monkey could originally be seen on a perch: such obliterated details are fortunately preserved in an eightteenth century copy by the Oudh painter Mihr Chand A dervish visitor in a shawl of penitential white is being introduced by a younger companion holding a fly whisk and drum. The visitor's eyes are closed, in humility or perhaps because of blindness. Like most of the figures present, he bears ritual marks on his fore-arms. He too is a person of consequence, for a seated fakir in the foreground gestures towards him, while cosseting a fat-tailed sheep; glowingly stippled in gold and black. The other fakir beside him (his face now lost) also gazed at the visitor.
We do not know who the dervish and his visitor are. It has been remarked that the latter bears a resemblance to Sultan Ibrahim Adilshah of Bijapur, a great connoisseur of music, art, and poetry, for whom this picture was very probably made. Could the Sultan have chosen to be depicted as a dervish humbling himself before a revered shaikh? Because of his unorthodox leanings towards Hindu culture, Ibrahim is known to have been rebuffed by several eminent Bijapur Sufis of the time. One of these, Shah Abu'l Hasan Qadiri, succeeded in diverting him from his devotion to a Hindu yogi who was said to have revived the Sultan's dead daughter by singing a raga to her. However this may be,
it remains a painting of great refinement, combining brilliantly detailed observation with a pervasive mood of serenity.
Husn e Dil or 'Beauty and Heart' is a Persian prose romance dating from the 1430s. It is an allegory, imbued with Sufi mysticism, in which the human faculties or parts of the body are personified in a tale of princely lovers, symbolizing the quest for union with the divine. Heart (Oil), a prince of the West and governor of the city of Body, conceives an ardent desire to discover the miraculous Water of Life. His emissary, Vision, travels the world in search of it. He eventually arrives in the Eastern kingdom of Love, whose daughter Beauty (Husn) dwells in a garden where the Water of Life flows.
It so happens that this princess possesses a finely carved image whose subject is a mystery to her. Vision immediately recognizes it as a portrait of his master: ... addressing Beauty, he said, 'This is the likeness of a Prince in the West, whose name is Heart, and whose beauty and accomplishments are universally spoken of. Vision having given this description of Heart, Beauty fell violently in love
with him, though she had never seen his person."
Beauty then sends her servant with her ruby seal to bring Heart to her. After many further adventures, the lovers are at length united. In this Akbar period illustration, the portrait of Prince Heart is shown not as a sculpture, as the text describes, but - more in keeping with Mughal tradition as a miniature painting. The elegantly attenuated architecture is a fairy tale version of Akbar's palace city of
Fatehpur Sikri, built in the 1570s. Behind Beauty's gold hexagonal throne are wall-paintings of winged fairies among floral arabesques. Yet the Water of Life is seen flowing in a typical Mughal sandstone watercourse and fountain, and the melon-seller and others outside the gate would have been familiar street figures of Fatehpur or Lahore.
5 St Matthew the Evangelist
Mughal, 1588. By Kesu Das. from an engraving by Philip Galle after Maerten van Heemskerck
Gouache on paper; 18.6 x 11.2 cm Bodleian Library (M5 Douce Or.a.L f.41v.)
Akbar became fascinated by the European pictures,many of them engravings of Christian subjects, which reached his court through traders and Jesuit mission- aries in Goa. His interest was fired as much by their manner as their content. Western naturalistic techniques had a sensational impact on sensibilities attuned to Persian art. Akbar soon encouraged his own artists to imitate and adapt these foreign models. Kesu Das was a prolific copyist of European subjects. He is not accorded first rank status in Abu'l Fazi's account of Akbar's studio - he lacked the flair of a
Basawan (6) - but he is the leading painter of the second rank. His qualities are best seen in St Matthew, remarkable for its accomplished technique and expressive reworking of a religious theme quite alien to a Hindu artist.
The source engraving, after Maerten van Heemskerck, depicts St Matthew writing his Gospel. The attendant angel holds the volume across a knee resting on the Evangelist's thigh. Kesu shows a broad
fidelity to the complex drapery folds in the engraving, with a confident mastery of highlight and shadow; he revels especially in the saint's vivid lapis-blue robe. But the strong characterisation of the original faces is softened, in accordance with Mughal taste. The angel's severe profile becomes a gentler, generalised feminine type seen in three-quarter view, with wing-feathers also more pacifically down-turned. The interaction of the two figures is more restrained and serene. The strong colouring of the costumes is complemented by a setting in muted blue-green tones. The background is extended to conform to the vertical page format. The conventional shore scene in the print is replaced by an Indian lotus lake and forest with a European townscape beyond. The saint's pavilion, with a bookishly opulent interior, is also a hybrid of Mughal
and European forms. The foreground contains flower beds, a cat (common in European subjects by Mughal painters) and exotic ornate vessels; the ewer on the right bears the artist's name and date.
6 The vain dervish rebuked
An illustration to the Baharistan of Jami
Mughal, 1595. By Basawan
Gouache on paper; 19.7 x 12.5 cm
Bodleian Library (MS Elliott 254, f.9r)
On seeing a dervish artfully darning and redarning his ascetic's robe, the learned and saintly Abul Abbas Qassab declared, 'That garment is an idol to you.' This anecdote against vanity comes from a fifteenth-century Persian classic, the Baharistan ('Garden of Spring') of Jami. The illustration, from a splendid manuscript prepared for Akbar at Lahore in 1595, is by Basawan. one of the greatest Mughal painters. Basawan refined his skills through a close study of European methods of modelling and recession, seen here in the interior detailing of the chamber, gateway and windows. But as a true master he used his technique to original expressive effect. He interprets Jarni's story with a subtly worked contrast of the two main figures. The vain dervish, with his dark dress, greyish skin and fingers crooked over his distended, empty robe, appears as though shadowed by worldly attachment. Abu 'l Abbas Qassab, the true Sufi, with his pale, translucent skin and radiant blue robe, speaks with the authority of spiritual illumination. He accompanies the rebuke with a gesture of the left hand, while holding his prayer beads in his right. The setting reveals many delightfully observed details: the gnarled and twisted tree with agile, climbing squirrels; the blithe goats with a suckling kid, beside the flowing well-spring; and, turning its back to the false dervish, the proudly strutting peacock on the palace eaves. Above, a man carrying a net seems to point towards the birds flying and nesting; this may be another comment on human vanity.
7 While lovers meet, the friend is beaten
An illustration to the Baharistan of Jami
Mughal, 1595. By Miskin
Gouache on paper; 24 x 13.5 cm
Bodleian Library (MS Elliott 254, f.42v.)
In this tale from the Baharistan, the illicit lovers Ashtar and Jayida, who were of different tribes, contrive to meet by night outside her camp. Ashtar's loyal friend, disguised in Jayidas clothes, takes her place in her husband's tent. When the husband comes to offer milk to his supposed wife, the friend acts coquettishly and spills it. The husband then beats him furiously until the mother and sister of Jayida intervene, as shown here. However, the friend's imposture remains undetected and he has
the consolation of spending the rest of the night with Jayida's sister. The moral, says Jarni. is that in the hour of need a true friend is indispensable. The nocturnal landscape is treated by Miskin with a deep and subtle palette, influenced by European chiaroscuro effects. The complex composition retains the high viewpoint of Persian painting, disclosing a succession of skilfully integrated and sensitively observed scenes, especially of animal life, at which Miskin excelled. The adulterous drama is an interlude in a natural idyll, both serene and mysterious. The furtive looking couple at their tryst are flanked by somnolent riding-camels and, further off, by restlessly plunging horses. Among the bulbous tents with their billowing drapes are various dozing sheep and goats and a tenderly observed cow and calf with a herdsman, based on a European model. All except the dog ignore the commotion outside the irate husband's tent. The tent itself is alive with brocaded scenes of birds and a leopard chasing deer, while Miskin's artful rock formations (recalling both Flemish and Persian example) sprout concealed grotesque faces.
engraving of the Crucifixion by Albrecht Durer of 1511
Brush drawing with light tinting on paper; 10 x 4.6 cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1978.2597; Gift of Gerald Reitlingcr)
This small but powerful brush-drawing of the figure of 5t John from a Durer engraving (fig. 2) is the earliest known work by Abu 'I Hasan (fig. 3), one of the most gifted artists working for Prince Salim, later the emperor Jahangir (1605-27). Eighteen years later Jahangir was to write of him, 'At the present time he has no rival or equal. .. From the earliest days I have always looked after him, till his art has arrived at this rank. Truly he has become Nadir-i Zaman ('The Wonder of the Age').'
The drawing of St John was executed in 1600, when Abu'l Hasan was only twelve. Together with his father, the Persian artist Aqa Riza. he was already in the service of Prince Salim, then in revolt against his father Akbar and residing at Allahabad. His version of Durer's saint may have originated as a copyist's exercise, but the result is more a reinterpretation. He had clearly already mastered the techniques adapted by earlier Mughal painters from European prints. Despite occasional tentativeness in his brush-drawing, he confidently suggests volume through outline and shaded modelling, skilfully translating the great German engraver's linear hatching into the painterly medium of wash. The Evangelist's draped figure consequently has a delicate quality which brings into stronger relief his youthful, anguished face among serpentine curls. This look of disquiet is different in kind from the expression of conventional grief seen in Durer's figure, with its up-turned gaze and more acute tilt of the head. By uniting these qualities of naturalism and psychological insight, Abu'l Hasan became within a few years the foremost portraitist at the Mughal court.
1. Ma'di Karab
The illustration to the Hamzanama Mughal, early 1560s
Gouache on prepared cloth, with text panels on paper; 67 x 49.5 cm
Ashmolean Museum (EA 1978.2596; Gift of Gerald Reitlinger)
The Hamzanama was one of the first Mughal illustrated manuscripts and by far the most ambitious. It originally comprised 1400 large paintings on cotton cloth, of which just over a tenth survive. Its subject is a rambling story-cycle of fantastic adventures attributed to Amir Harnza. uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. Harnza's many triumphs over dragons, demons, and sorcerers greatly appealed to the young Emperor Akbar. This project kept his newly recruited studio busy for fifteen years. In this early page from the series Hamza confronts a giant infidel warrior in battle. The youthful Amir topples his opponent with heroic ease: 'Umar-i Ma'di Karab pressed his horse into the middle of the battlefield and charged towards Amir [Hamza]. The Arab Amir waited until he drew near, then took one foot from his stirrup and kicked that champion's horse in the side. Horse and rider turned a somersault, and cheers and cries from both sides reached to the sky.' Tumbling headlong, his lance broken and his arrows spilling, 'Umar-i Ma'di Karab clearly never stood a chance. The onlookers may well 'bite the finger of amazement'. But even in defeat, he remains a sympathetically noble figure, for after this he is converted to Islam and becomes one of Harnza's close companions.
The earliest Hamzanama pages were painted under the direction of the Persian master Mir Sayyid 'Ali and tend to be more restrained than the dynamic, often violent, later compositions. Here the ranks of horsemen and the high rocky skyline with a stylized tree are treated in a Persian manner, while the spirited musicians in the background are more distinctively Indian.
2 Court scene with Chaghatai dancers
Mughal, c.1565
Gouache with gold on paper; 23.1 x 15.5 cm
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.b.1, f.12b)
A ruler, probably the young Akbar, receives two noblemen who are introduced by an elderly courtier, beneath a richly ornate canopy. Attendants stand on either side, while in the foreground a spirited group of dancers and musicians provide the Emperor's entertainment. The dancing-girls with castanets and their tambourine players wear the plumed head-dresses of the Chaghatai Turks of Central Asia, whence Akbar's grandfather, Babur, had come forty years earlier to conquer northern India.
The lively informality of this court scene is typical of early Mughal painting under Akbar. A composition deriving from Persian painting, with figures disposed of broadly in a circle, is reworked with brio. Some signs of European influence appear in the varied postures of the figures and the modeling of robes and dresses. The tiled courtyard with its characteristic interlocking stars and hexagons makes a boldly vibrant background for the central trio of dancers.
Such scenes provided models for the next generation of Mughal artists when depicting the life of Akbar and his Timurid ancestors in the great history manuscripts, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum Akbarnama of c.1590. There the raw and rnouvernente qualities of the earlier work were overlaid by greater compositional elaboration and a more homogeneous refinement of technique.
3. A prince and maid with wine-cup
Mughal, c.1575-80
Gouache with gold on paper; 13.7 x 8.8 em
Bodleian Library (MS Douce Or.b.I, f.6v.)
On a garden terrace, tiled with hexagon and star forms, a prince accepts a wine-cup from a maid or concubine. Absorbed in reverie, his head inclined as he smells a flower sprig, he extends a hand which appears to touch hers. His splendid brocade robe bears swirling floral arabesques; her six-pointed dress is of a sheer yellow. The pavilion behind, with its thin sandstone pillars, arabesque carpet, wine-flasks in niches, half-furled curtain and half-open door to an inner chamber, suggests a mood of amorous expectancy; as does the luxuriant garden behind the high red railings, with its slender cypresses paired with sinuous flowering trees and shrubs. While the prince resembles Akbar in early man-hood, both figures are more likely idealised types. Such conventional scenes of the dignified private enjoyment of worldly pleasures are common in the Indo-Persian tradition (16L though less so in Akbar's reign than robuster scenes of public action in durbar halt hunting- field or battleground.
Although few acquisitions have been made in the twentieth century, the Bodleian now has one of the most important Mughal collections in the world. Since the 1950s an Indian painting collection has also been established in the Ashmolean Museum's Department of Eastern Art (before 1963, the Museum of Eastern Art in the old Indian Institute). Although much smaller than the Bodleian collection, it is to some extent complementary in its representation of the Rajput schools, which in most cases have only become widely known within the last forty years. From this long history of sporadic collecting Oxford is able to show a rich variety of the main types of Indian painting from the eleventh to the late nineteenth century: from Pala Buddhist paintings on palm-leaf to the Kalighat bazaar pictures of 1880s Calcutta or an oil-painting on a classical literary theme by the acadernicist Ravi Varma. But the main strength of the collections, and of the Bodleian's especially, lies in imperial or provincial Mughal painting, with a strong historical emphasis on the eighteenth-century schools. A series of posts of this size can offer only a small sample of such diverse collections.
यद्यपि बीसवीं शताब्दी में कुछ अधिग्रहण किए गए हैं, बोडलियन के पास अब दुनिया में सबसे महत्वपूर्ण मुगल संग्रह है। अश्मोलियन संग्रहालय (1963 से पहले,पुराने भारतीय संस्थान में पूर्व कला संग्रहालय)के पूर्व कला विभाग में 1950 के दशक में एक भारतीय चित्रकला संग्रह स्थापित किया गया था।हालांकि बोडलियन संग्रह की तुलना में अश्मोलियन संग्रहालय बहुत छोटा है, यह राजपूत कला के अपने नमूने, (पिछले चालीस वर्षों) के लिये व्यापक रूप से जाना जाता है।छिटपुट संग्रह के इस लंबे इतिहास से, ऑक्सफ़ोर्ड ग्यारहवीं से उन्नीसवीं सदी के अंत तक भारतीय चित्रकला के मुख्य प्रकारों की एक समृद्ध विविधता दिखाने में सक्षम है:पाल-बौद्ध चित्रों से ताड़-पत्ते पर कालीघाट के बाजारों की 1880 के दशक की कलकत्ता या एकादशीवादी रवि वर्मा द्वारा एक शास्त्रीय साहित्यिक विषय पर तेल-चित्रकला।लेकिन संग्रह की मुख्य ताकत, और बोडलियन की विशेष रूप से, अठारहवीं शताब्दी की शाही या प्रांतीय मुगल चित्रकला में निहित है। इस आकार के ब्लॉग पोस्ट की एक श्रृंखला इस तरह के विविध संग्रह का केवल एक छोटा सा नमूना पेश कर सकती है।
The present selection is restricted to the Mughal, Deccani and Rajput schools up to c.1800, with some bias towards the first, and most inspired, a century of Mughal painting (c.1560-1660), from the reign of Akbar to the fall of Shah Jahan. Akbar (1556-1605), greatest of the Mughal emperors, was a ruler of boundless energy who personally encouraged the development of the Mughal style, from a brilliant synthesis of Persian technique, Indian vitality and European naturalism. The earlier work of his reign shows a transformation of the delicate Persian idiom by the vigor of the mainly Indian artists recruited to the imperial studio. Later productions show greater refinement and individualism, as seen in the very different reworkings of European subjects by Kesu Das and Abul Hasan and in the pages contributed by Basawan and Miskin to the Baharistan manuscript of 1595. Under Jahangir (1605-27), a gifted connoisseur, this refining process continued. The art of portraiture, introduced to India by the Mughals, reached its highest development, represented here by the famous painting which the Emperor commissioned of a dying courtier. Shah Jahan (1627-58) was above all a lover of jewels and marble monumental architecture, as famously embodied in the Taj Mahal. The painting of his reign is technically excellent but frigid in tone. Pomp and protocol prevail over intimacy. New creative impulses were lacking in Mughal art after this point, and under the puritanical Aurangzeb, the imperial studio became largely dispersed. During the seventeenth century painting also flourished, under increasing Mughal influence, in the still independent Deccani Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda.
The Hindu chiefs of the Rajput kingdoms, who served for long periods at the Mughal court or in the imperial armies, also patronized artists trained in the Mughal style. But usually, the refined foreign idiom soon became assimilated to the bolder conventions of indigenous Rajput painting. Among the most conservative patrons in this respect were the Maharanas of Mewar, the premier Rajput chiefs, who had been the last to capitulate to the Mughal power. After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 the Mughal empire gradually broke up. His successors were ineffectual puppets or hedonists. The most enduring of them was Muhammad Shah (1719-48), known as Rangila, 'the Pleasure-loving'. Deficient as a statesman and general, he was a devoted patron of poetry, music and painting. In 1739 he endured the humiliating invasion and sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah of Persia. At the same time, the provinces of Oudh (Aadh), Bengal and Hyderabad became virtually independent kingdoms, whose rulers gave lavish patronage to artists of all kinds, many of them migrants from Delhi. The sybaritic Nawabi culture of Lucknow and Faizabad, in particular, gave rise to a prolific, if often vapid, an offshoot of late Mughal painting. Illustrations to literary romances retained their popularity, as well as conventional scenes of nobles and ladies consorting on terraces, watching dancing-girls or visiting holy men in forest groves. Some later examples of these genres were transformed by playful experiments with European effects such as perspective. Other Mughal-trained artists found their way north and westwards to the as yet isolated and traditionalist Rajput courts. In the Punjab Hills a very influential family of artists, of whom Nainsukh is the most famous, worked at Guier and other courts from around the mid-eighteenth century. They achieved a brilliant transformation of the local pictorial traditions, combining Hindu poetical and devotional feeling with Mughal observation and finesse (34-35). By the late eighteenth century the Mughal empire was moribund, and in eastern India and elsewhere artists began to turn for patronage to the officers of the British East India Company. The Europeanised style which resulted gave rise to much mediocre mass-production, but also to some exceptionally fine work. The masterly study of a sarus crane, painted by Shaikh Zain ud-Din for Lady Impey (38), follows a European convention of natural history illustration, while still recalling the Mughal tradition of bird painting going back to the time of Jahangir.
Gabriella Burnel was commissioned to set to music and perform the verses of the Song. The commission was funded by friends and students of the School of Practical Philosophy in Australia. The film is a video-recording of the final audio session in the London studios, generously provided by Gabriella.
Gabriella Burnel is a Sanskrit scholar and an accomplished musician and musical theatre performer. After studying Sanskrit at Oxford, she completed a Masters in Drama at Goldsmith University in 2010. She has since written musicals for off-West End theatres in London and performed with the band Gabriella and The Planets. She has also launched “Bespoke Song for You”, a web-based service which offers a personalized song-writing service. It was through her website that The Song of Madālasā was commissioned.
Gabriella is well-known as a composer and performer of poems and hymns drawn from the Sanskrit tradition. Early in 2016, she set to music a hymn in praise of Adi Śaṅkara which she also performed at a Teacher’s Day event in the London School of Economic Science.
मनोबुद्ध्यहङ्कार चित्तानि नाहं, न च श्रोत्रजिह्वे न च घ्राणनेत्रे । न च व्योम भूमिर्न तेजो न वायुः, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥१॥
Mano-Buddhy-Ahangkaara Cittaani Naaham
Na Ca Shrotra-Jihve Na Ca Ghraanna-Netre |
Na Ca Vyoma Bhuumir-Na Tejo Na Vaayuh
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||1||
Meaning:
Neither am I the Mind, nor the Intelligence or Ego,Neither am I the organs of Hearing (Ears), nor that of Tasting (Tongue), Smelling (Nose) or Seeing (Eyes),Neither am I the Sky, nor the Earth, Neither the Fire nor the Air,I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. Hindi : मैं न तो मन हूं, न बुद्धि, न अहंकार, न ही चित्त हूं, मैं न तो कान हूं, न जीभ, न नासिका, न ही नेत्र हूं मैं न तो आकाश हूं, न धरती, न अग्नि, न ही वायु हूं, मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: மனோ புத்தி அஹங்கார சித்தா நினாஹம், நச ஸ்ரோத்ர ஜிஹ்வே நச க்ஹ்ரா ந நேத்ரே | நச வ்யோம பூமிர் ந தேஜோ ந வாயு, சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் || Telugu: మనో బుధ్యహంకార చిత్తాని నాహం న చ శ్రోత్ర జిహ్వే న చ ఘ్రాణనేత్రే | న చ వ్యోమ భూమి ర్న తేజో న వాయుః చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ಮನೋಬುದ್ಧ್ಯಹಂಕಾರ ಚಿತ್ತಾನಿನಾಹಂ, ನ ಚ ಶ್ರೋತ್ರಜಿಹ್ವೇ ನ ಚ ಘ್ರಾಣನೇತ್ರೇ | ನ ಚ ವ್ಯೋಮ ಭೂಮಿರ್ನತೇಜೋ ನ ವಾಯಃ, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: മനോ ബുധ്യഹംകാര ചിത്താനി നാഹം, ന ച ശ്രോത്ര ജിഹ്വാ ന ച ഘ്രാണനേത്രേ | ന ച വ്യോമ ഭൂമിർ-ന തേജോ ന വായുഃ, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
2.न च प्राणसंज्ञो न वै पञ्चवायुः, न वा सप्तधातुः न वा पञ्चकोशः । न वाक्पाणिपादं न चोपस्थपायु, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥२॥
Na Ca Praanna-Samjnyo Na Vai Pan.ca-Vaayuh
Na Vaa Sapta-Dhaatuh Na Vaa Pan.ca-Koshah |
Na Vaak-Paanni-Paadam Na Copastha-Paayu
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||2||
Meaning:
Neither am I the Vital Breath, nor the Five Vital Airs,Neither am I the Seven Ingredients (of the Body), nor the Five Sheaths (of the Body),Neither am I the organ of Speech, nor the organs for Holding ( Hand ), Movement ( Feet ) or Excretion,I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. मैं न प्राण हूं, न ही पंच वायु हूं, मैं न सात धातु हूं,और न ही पांच कोश हूं , मैं न वाणी हूं, न हाथ हूं, न पैर, न ही उत्सर्जन की इन्द्रियां हूं,मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: நச பிராண சம்ஜ்னோ ந வை பஞ்ச வாயு, ந வா சப்த தாதூர் ந வா பஞ்ச கோஷ | ந வாக் பாணி பாத்ஹவ் ந சோபஸ்த பாயு, சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் || Telugu: న చ ప్రాణ సంజ్ఞో న వైపంచ వాయుః న వా సప్తధాతుర్ న వా పంచ కోశాః | నవాక్పాణి పాదౌ న చోపస్థ పాయూ చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ನ ಚ ಪ್ರಾಣಸಂಜ್ಞೋ ನ ವೈ ಪಂಚವಾಯುಃ, ನ ವಾ ಸಪ್ತಧಾತುಃ ನ ವಾ ಪಂಚಕೋಶಃ | ನ ವಾಕ್ಪಾಣಿಪಾದೌ ನ ಚೋಪಸ್ಥಪಾಯು, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: ന ച പ്രാണ സംജ്ഞോ ന വൈപഞ്ചവായുഃ, ന വാ സപ്തധാതു ന വാ പഞ്ചകോശാഃ | നവാക്പാണി പാദം ന ചോപസ്ഥ പായൂ, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
3.न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभमोहौ, मदो नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः । न धर्मो न चार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥३॥
Na Me Dvessa-Raagau Na Me Lobha-Mohau
Mado Naiva Me Naiva Maatsarya-Bhaavah |
Na Dharmo Na Ca-Artho Na Kaamo Na Mokssah
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||3||
Meaning:
Neither do I have Hatred, nor Attachment, Neither Greed nor Infatuation,Neither do I have Pride, nor Feelings of Envy and Jealousy,I am Not within the bounds of Dharma (Righteousness), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Liberation) (the four Purusarthas of life),
I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva, The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. न मुझे घृणा है, न लगाव है, न मुझे लोभ है, और न मोह,न मुझे अभिमान है, न ईर्ष्या,मैं धर्म, धन, काम एवं मोक्ष से परे हूं,मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: ந மே த்வேஷ ராகௌ ந மே லோப மோஹொவ், மதோ நைவ மே நைவ மாத்சர்ய பாவ | ந தர்மோ ந சார்தோ ந காமோ ந மொக்ஷஹ, சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் || Telugu: న మే ద్వేషరాగౌ న మే లోభమోహౌ మదో నైవ మే నైవ మాత్సర్యభావః | న ధర్మో న చార్ధో న కామో న మోక్షః చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ನ ಮೇ ದ್ವೇಷರಾಗೌ ನ ಮೇ ಲೋಭಮೋಹೌ, ಮದೋ ನೈವ ಮೇ ನೈವ ಮಾತ್ಸರ್ಯಭಾವಃ | ನ ಧರ್ಮೋ ನ ಚಾರ್ಥೋ ನ ಕಾಮೋ ನ ಮೋಕ್ಷಃ, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: ന മേ ദ്വേഷരാഗൗ ന മേ ലോഭമോഹോ, മദോ നൈവ മേ നൈവ മാത്സര്യഭാവഃ | ന ധർമോ ന ചാർധോ ന കാമോ ന മോക്ഷഃ, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
4.न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दुःखं, न मन्त्रो न तीर्थं न वेदा न यज्ञाः । अहं भोजनं नैव भोज्यं न भोक्ता, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥४॥
Na Punnyam Na Paapam Na Saukhyam Na Duhkham
Na Mantro Na Tiirtham Na Vedaa Na Yajnyaah |
Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam Na Bhoktaa
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||4||
Meaning:
Neither am I bound by Merits nor Sins, neither by Worldly Joys nor by Sorrows,Neither am I bound by Sacred Hymns nor by Sacred Places, neither by Sacred Scriptures nor by Sacrifies, I am Neither Enjoyment (Experience), nor an object to be Enjoyed (Experienced), nor the Enjoyer (Experiencer),
I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. मैं पुण्य, पाप, सुख और दुख से विलग हूं, मैं न मंत्र हूं, न तीर्थ, न ज्ञान, न ही यज्ञ, न मैं भोजन(भोगने की वस्तु) हूं, न ही भोग का अनुभव, और न ही भोक्ता हूं, मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: ந புண்யம் ந பாபம் ந சௌக்யம் ந துக்கம், ந மந்த்ரோ ந தீர்த்தம் ந வேதோ ந யஜ்னஹா | அஹம் போஜனம் நைவ போஜ்யம் ந போக்தா, சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் || Telugu: న పుణ్యం న పాపం న సౌఖ్యం న దుఃఖం న మంత్రో న తీర్ధం న వేదా న యజ్ఞ | అహం భోజనం నైవ భోజ్యం న భోక్తా చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ನ ಪುಣ್ಯಂ ನ ಪಾಪಂ ನ ಸೌಖ್ಯಂ ನ ದುಖಂ, ನ ಮನ್ತ್ರೊ ನ ತೀರ್ಥೋ ನ ವೇದಾ ನ ಯಜ್ಞ | ಅಹಂ ಭೋಜನಂ ನೈವ ಭೋಜ್ಯಂ ನ ಭೋಕ್ತಾ, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: ന പുണ്യം ന പാപം ന സൗഖ്യം ന ദുഃഖം, ന മന്ത്രോ ന തീർദ്ധം ന വേദാ ന യജ്ഞഃ | അഹം ഭോജനം നൈവ ഭോജ്യം ന ഭോക്താ, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
5.न मृत्युर्न शङ्का न मे जातिभेदः, पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्मः । न बन्धुर्न मित्रं गुरुर्नैव शिष्यं, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥५॥
Na Mrtyur-Na Shangkaa Na Me Jaati-Bhedah
Pitaa Naiva Me Naiva Maataa Na Janmah |
Na Bandhurna Mitram Gurur-Na-Iva Shissyam
Cid-Aananda-Ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||5||
Meaning:
Neither am I bound by Death and its Fear, nor by the rules of Caste and its Distinctions,Neither do I have Father and Mother, nor do I have Birth,Neither do I have Relations nor Friends, neither Spiritual Teacher nor Disciple,I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. न मुझे मृत्यु का डर है, न जाति का भेदभाव, मेरा न कोई पिता है, न माता, न ही मैं कभी जन्मा था, मेरा न कोई भाई है, न मित्र, न गुरू, न शिष्य,मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: ந மே மிருத்யு சங்க ந மே ஜாதி பேத, பிதா நைவ மே நைவ மாதா ந ஜன்ம | ந பந்துர் ந மித்ரம் குரூர் நைவ ஷிஷ்யாஹ், சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் || Telugu: న మే మృత్యు శంకా న మే జాతి భేదః పితా నైవ మే నైవ మాతా న జన్మ | న బంధు ర్న మిత్రం గురుర్నైవ శిష్యః చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ನ ಮೇ ಮೃತ್ಯುಶಂಕಾ ನ ಮೇ ಜಾತಿಭೇದಃ, ಪಿತಾ ನೈವ ಮೇ ನೈವ ಮಾತಾ ನ ಜನ್ಮಃ | ನ ಬಂಧುರ್ನಮಿತ್ರಂ ಗುರುರ್ನೈವ ಶಿಷ್ಯಃ, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: ന മൃത്യുർ-ന ശങ്കാ ന മേ ജാതി ഭേദഃ, പിതാ നൈവ മേ നൈവ മാതാ ന ജന്മഃ | ന ബംധുർ-ന മിത്രം ഗുരുർനൈവ ശിഷ്യം, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
6. अहं निर्विकल्पो निराकाररूपो, विभुत्वाच्च सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम् । न चासङ्गतं नैव मुक्तिर्न मेयः, चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम् ॥६॥
Aham Nirvikalpo Niraakaara-Ruupo
Vibhu-Tvaacca Sarvatra Sarve[a-I]ndriyaannaam |
Na Caa-Sanggatam Naiva Muktirna Meyah
Cid-aananda-ruupah Shivo[a-A]ham Shivo[a-A]ham ||6||
Meaning:
I am Without any Variation, and Without any Form,I am Present Everywhere as the underlying Substratum of everything, and behind all Sense Organs,Neither do I get Attached to anything, nor get Freed from anything,I am the Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness. मैं निर्विकल्प हूं, निराकार हूं, मैं चैतन्य के रूप में सब जगह व्याप्त हूं, सभी इन्द्रियों में हूं,न मुझे किसी चीज में आसक्ति है, न ही मैं उससे मुक्त हूं, मैं तो शुद्ध चेतना हूं, अनादि, अनंत शिव हूं। Tamil: அஹம் நிர்விகல்போ நிராகர ரூபஹா, விபுர் வ்யாப்ய சர்வத்ர சர்வ இந்த்ரியாணாம் | ந ச சங்கதம் நைவ முக்திர் ந மேய, சித்தானந்தா ரூப ஷிவோஹம் ஷிவோஹம் ||
Telugu: అహం నిర్వికల్పో నిరాకార రూపో విభూత్వాచ్చ సర్వత్ర సర్వేంద్రియాణామ్ | న చా సంగతం నైవ ముక్తిర్నమేయః చిదానంద రూపః శివోహం శివోహం || Kannada: ಅಹಂ ನಿರ್ವಿಕಲ್ಪೋ ನಿರಾಕಾರ ರೂಪೋ, ವಿಭುತ್ವಾಚ ಸರ್ವತ್ರ ಸರ್ವೇನ್ದ್ರಿಯಾಣಾಮ್ | ನ ಚಾ ಸಂಗತ ನೈವ ಮುಕ್ತಿರ್ನ ಮೇಯಃ, ಚಿದಾನಂದರೂಪಃ ಶಿವೋಹಂ ಶಿವೋಹಂ || Malayalam: അഹം നിര്വികല്പോ നിരാകാര രൂപോ, വിഭൂത്വാച്ച സർവ്വത്ര സർവ്വേന്ദ്രിയാണാം | ന ചാ സങ്കതം നൈവ മുക്തിർന മേയഃ, ചിദാനന്ദ രൂപഃ ശിവോഹം ശിവോഹം ||
The Atmashatkam (, ātmaṣaṭkam), also known as Nirvanashatkam ( Nirvāṇaṣaṭkam), is a composition consisting of 6 fold śloka (and hence the name Ṣaṭ-ka to mean six-fold) written by the Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara summarizing the basic teachings of Advaita Vedanta, or the Hindu teachings of non-dualism. It was written around 788-820 BCE.
हिंदू दार्शनिक आदि शंकराचार्य द्वारा लिखे गए मूलभूत सारांश अद्वैत वेदांत की शिक्षा, या गैर-द्वैतवाद की हिंदू शिक्षाएं। आत्मषट्कम्, जिसे निर्वाणषट्कम् भी कहा जाता है, एक संरचना है जिसमें 6 श्लोक है| यह लगभग 788-820 ईसा पूर्व लिखा गया था।
It is said that when Ādi Śaṅkara was a young boy of eight and wandering near River Narmada, seeking to find his guru, he encountered the seer Govinda Bhagavatpada who asked him, "Who are you?". The boy answered with these stanzas, which are known as "Nirvāṇa Ṣaṭkam" or Ātma Ṣaṭkam". Swami Govindapada accepted Ādi Śaṅkara as his disciple. The verses are said to be valued to progress in contemplation practices that lead to Self-Realization.
"Nirvāṇa" is complete equanimity, peace, tranquility, freedom and joy. "Ātma" is the True Self. अद्वैत वेदान्त, वेदान्त की एक शाखा। अहं ब्रह्मास्मि अद्वैत वेदांत यह भारत में प्रतिपादित दर्शन की कई विचारधाराओँ में से एक है, जिसके आदि शंकराचार्य पुरस्कर्ता थे।भारत में परब्रह्म के स्वरूप के बारे में कई विचारधाराएं हैँ। जिसमें द्वैत, अद्वैत या केवलाद्वैत, विशिष्टाद्वैत, शुद्धाद्वैत, द्वैताद्वैत जैसी कई सैद्धांतिक विचारधाराएं हैं। जिस आचार्य ने जिस रूप में ब्रह्म को जाना उसका वर्णन किया। इतनी विचारधाराएं होने पर भी सभी यह मानते है कि भगवान ही इस सृष्टि का नियंता है। अद्वैत विचारधारा के संस्थापक शंकराचार्य हैं, जिसे शांकराद्वैत या केवलाद्वैत भी कहा जाता है। शंकराचार्य मानते हैँ कि संसार में ब्रह्म ही सत्य है। बाकी सब मिथ्या है (ब्रह्म सत्य, जगत मिथ्या)। जीव केवल अज्ञान के कारण ही ब्रह्म को नहीं जान पाता जबकि ब्रह्म तो उसके ही अंदर विराजमान है। उन्होंने अपने ब्रह्मसूत्र में "अहं ब्रह्मास्मि" ऐसा कहकर अद्वैत सिद्धांत बताया है। वल्लभाचार्य अपने शुद्धाद्वैत दर्शन में ब्रह्म, जीव और जगत, तीनों को सत्य मानते हैं, जिसे वेदों, उपनिषदों, ब्रह्मसूत्र, गीता तथा श्रीमद्भागवत द्वारा उन्होंने सिद्ध किया है। अद्वैत सिद्धांत चराचर सृष्टि में भी व्याप्त है। जब पैर में काँटा चुभता है तब आखोँ से पानी आता है और हाथ काँटा निकालनेके लिए जाता है। ये अद्वैत का एक उत्तम उदाहरण है। शंकराचार्य का ‘एकोब्रह्म, द्वितीयो नास्ति’ मत था। सृष्टि से पहले परमब्रह्म विद्यमान थे। ब्रह्म सत और सृष्टि जगत असत् है। शंकराचार्य के मत से ब्रह्म निर्गुण, निष्क्रिय, सत-असत, कार्य-कारण से अलग इंद्रियातीत है। ब्रह्म आंखों से नहीं देखा जा सकता, मन से नहीं जाना जा सकता, वह ज्ञाता नहीं है और न ज्ञेय ही है, ज्ञान और क्रिया के भी अतीत है। माया के कारण जीव ‘अहं ब्रह्म’ का ज्ञान नहीं कर पाता। आत्मा विशुद्ध ज्ञान स्वरूप निष्क्रिय और अनंत है, जीव को यह ज्ञान नहीं रहता।
This Question is from those so-called secular who remained silent when atheists have been killed and raped in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, France, Britain and in all Muslim countries. यहप्रश्नउनतथाकथितधर्मनिरपेक्षोंसेहैजोभारतकेबांग्लादेश, पाकिस्तान, अफगानिस्तान, फ्रांस, ब्रिटेनऔरसभीमुस्लिमदेशोंमेंनास्तिकोंकीहत्याऔरबलात्कारकेदौरानचुपरहे।
डॉ अम्बेडकर का पालन करने का नाटक करने वाले लोगों से प्रश्न:
क्या आप यूनिफॉर्म सिविल कोड, इस्लाम के आलोचना का समर्थन करते हैं जैसा कि इन सभी चीजों का समर्थन डॉ अंबेडकर द्वारा किया गया है ???
क्या आप भारत के संविधान के अनुच्छेद 370 का विरोध करते हैं, जिसने जम्मू-कश्मीर राज्य को विशेष दर्जा दिया। जैसा विरोध डॉ अंबेडकर द्वारा किया गया है ???
तथाकथित दलित नेताओं, आप एएमयू, हलाला, बुर्का इत्यादि का समर्थन करते हैं। डॉ अम्बेडकर ने चीजों का विरोध किया, लेकिन तथाकथित दलित नेता इसका समर्थन करते हैं। महान डॉ अम्बेडकर के समर्थक इसे स्वीकार करते हैं?
The Right wing doesn’t want to hear anything about Savarkar or Golwalkar that might put them in bad light; the Left-wing doesn’t want to hear anything about Nehru or Namboodiripad that might put them in bad light; and the Velcro Historians don’t want to write anything about anyone that might put them in solitary confinement, away from all light.
Ambedkar also criticised Islamic practice in South Asia. While justifying the Partition of India, he condemned child marriage and the mistreatment of women in Muslim society.
No words can adequately express the great and many evils of polygamy and concubinage, and especially as a source of misery to a Muslim woman. Take the caste system. Everybody infers that Islam must be free from slavery and caste. [...] [While slavery existed], much of its support was derived from Islam and Islamic countries. While the prescriptions by the Prophet regarding the just and humane treatment of slaves contained in the Koran are praiseworthy, there is nothing whatever in Islam that lends support to the abolition of this curse. But if slavery has gone, caste among Musalmans [Muslims] has remained.
"Hinduism is said to divide people and in contrast, Islam is said to bind people together. This is only a half-truth. For Islam divides as inexorably as it binds. Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive and very alienating distinction. The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is a brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity, but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity. The second defect of Islam is that it is a system of social self-government and is incompatible with local self-government because the allegiance of a Muslim does not rest on his domicile in the country which is his but on the faith to which he belongs. To the Muslim ibi bene ibi patria [Where it is well with me, there is my country] is unthinkable. Wherever there is the rule of Islam, there is his own country. In other words, Islam can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his motherland and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin."
Those who rightly commend Ambedkar for leaving the fold of Hinduism, never ask why he converted to Buddhism and not Islam. It is because he viewed Islam as no better than Hinduism. And keeping the political and cultural aspects in mind, he had this to say:
"Conversion to Islam or Christianity will denationalize the Depressed Classes. If they go to Islam the number of Muslims will be doubled and the danger of Muslim domination also becomes real." On Muslim politics, Ambedkar is caustic, even scornful.
"There is thus a stagnation not only in the social life but also in the political life of the Muslim community of India. The Muslims have no interest in politics as such. Their predominant interest is religion. This can be easily seen by the terms and conditions that a Muslim constituency makes for its support to a candidate fighting for a seat. The Muslim constituency does not care to examine the programme of the candidate. All that the constituency wants from the candidate is that he should agree to replace the old lamps of the masjid by supplying new ones at his cost, to provide a new carpet for the masjid because the old one is torn, or to repair the masjid because it has become dilapidated. In some places, a Muslim constituency is quite satisfied if the candidate agrees to give a sumptuous feast and in other if he agrees to buy votes for so much a piece. With the Muslims, the election is a mere matter of money and is very seldom a matter of social programme of general improvement. Muslim politics takes no note of purely secular categories of life, namely, the differences between rich and poor, capital and labor, landlord and tenant, priest and layman, reason and superstition. Muslim politics is essentially clerical and recognizes only one difference, namely, that existing between Hindus and Muslims. None of the secular categories of life have any place in the politics of the Muslim community and if they do find a place—and they must because they are irrepressible—they are subordinated to one and the only governing principle of the Muslim political universe, namely, religion."
The psychoanalysis of the Indian Muslim by Ambedkar is unquestionably deeply hurtful to those on the Left who have appropriated him. How they wish he had never written such things. They try their best to dismiss his writings on Islam and Muslims by taking refuge in the time-tested excuse of "context". That's right. Whenever text troubles you, rake up its context. Same left never worry about “context” when they abuse Hinduism.
अम्बेडकरद्वाराभारतीयमुस्लिमकामनोविश्लेषणवामपंथीकेलिएनिर्विवादरूपसेगहराईसेहानिकारकहै।वामपंथीकामनाकररहेथेकिउन्हेंऐसीचीजेंकभीनहींलिखीचाहिएथीं।वामपंथी "संदर्भ" केबहानेकाउपयोगकरकेइस्लामऔरमुस्लिमोंपरअपनेलेखनकोखारिजकरनेकेलिएअपनासर्वश्रेष्ठप्रयासकरें।येसहीहै, जबभीकोईकथनआपकोपरेशानकरताहै, तो "संदर्भ" काबहानाउठाएं।जबवामपंथीहिंदूधर्मकीआलोचनाकरतेहैंतोवे "संदर्भ" केबारेमेंभूलजातेहैं।
Except that in the case of Ambedkar, this excuse falls flat. Ambedkar's views on Islam – in a book with fourteen chapters that deal almost entirely with Muslims, the Muslim psyche, and the Muslim Condition – are stand-alone statements robustly supported with quotes and teachings of scholars, Muslim leaders, and academics. To him these are maxims. He isn’t writing fiction. The context is superfluous; in fact, it is non-existent.
The one thing Ambedkar was not, was an apologist. He spares no one, not even Mahatma Gandhi, who he blasts for giving into the selective bias, of the type one finds ubiquitous today. "He [Gandhi] has never called the Muslims to account even when they have been guilty of gross crimes against Hindus.” Ambedkar then goes on to list a few Hindu leaders who were killed by Muslims, one among them being Rajpal, the publisher of Rangeela Rasool.
Rajpal was brutally stabbed in broad daylight. Again, not many know the assassination of Rajpal by Ilm-ud-din was celebrated by all prominent Muslims leaders of the day.
Ilm-ud-din was defended in the court by none other than Jinnah, and the man who rendered a eulogy at his funeral (that was attended by tens of thousands of mourners) was none other than the famous poet Allama Iqbal, who cried as the assassin's coffin was lowered. राजपालकोदिनकेउजालेमेंक्रूरतासेमारागयाथा।कईलोगोंकोपतानहींहैकिइलम-उद-दीनद्वाराराजपालकीहत्यासभीप्रमुखमुस्लिमनेताओंनेकीथी।इल्म-उद-दीनकोजिन्नाद्वाराअदालतमेंबचावकियागयाथा, औरजिसव्यक्तिनेहत्याकेअंतिमसंस्कारमेंएकस्तुतिकीथी (जिसमेंहजारोंशोकियोंनेभागलियाथा) प्रसिद्धकविअल्लामाइकबालकेअलावाकोईनहींथा।
"Mr. Gandhi has been very punctilious in the matter of condemning any and every act of violence and has forced the Congress, much against its will to condemn it. But Mr Gandhi has never protested against such murders [of Hindus]. Not only have the Musalmans not condemned these outrages, but even Mr Gandhi has never called upon the leading Muslims to condemn them. He has kept silent over them. Such an attitude can be explained only on the ground that Mr Gandhi was anxious to preserve Hindu-Moslem unity and did not mind the murders of a few Hindus if it could be achieved by sacrificing their lives...This attitude to excuse the Muslims any wrong, lest it should injure the cause of unity, is well illustrated by what Mr Gandhi had to say in the matter of the Mopla riots. The blood-curdling atrocities committed by the Moplas in Malabar against the Hindus were indescribable. All over Southern India, a wave of horrified feeling had spread among the Hindus of every shade of opinion, which was intensified when certain Khilafat leaders were so misguided as to pass resolutions of "congratulations to the Moplas on the brave fight they were conducting for the sake of religion". Any person could have said that this was too heavy a price for Hindu-Moslem unity. But Mr Gandhi was so much obsessed by the necessity of establishing Hindu-Moslem unity that he was prepared to make light of the doings of the Moplas and the Khilafats who were congratulating them. He spoke of the Moplas as the "brave God-fearing Moplas who were fighting for what they consider as religion and in a manner which they consider as religious ".
On the allegiance of a Muslim to his motherland [India], Ambedkar writes:
"Among the tenets one that calls for notice is the tenet of Islam which says that in a country which is not under Muslim rule, wherever there is a conflict between Muslim law and the law of the land, the former must prevail over the latter, and a Muslim will be justified in obeying the Muslim law and defying the law of the land.“ The only allegiance a Musalman, whether civilian or soldier, whether living under a Muslim or under a non-Muslim administration, is commanded by the Koran to acknowledge is his allegiance to God, to his Prophet and to those in authority from among the Musalmans…" Ambedkar adds: "This must make anyone wishing for a stable government very apprehensive. But this is nothing to the Muslim tenets which prescribe when a country is a motherland to the Muslim and when it is not…According to Muslim Canon Law, the world is divided into two camps, Dar-ul-lslam (abode of Islam), and Dar-ul-Harb (abode of war). A country is Dar-ul-lslam when it is ruled by Muslims. A country is Dar-ul-Harb when Muslims only reside in it but are not rulers of it. That being the Canon Law of the Muslims, India cannot be the common motherland of the Hindus and the Musalmans. It can be the land of the Musalmans—but it cannot be the land of the 'Hindus and the Musalmans living as equals.' Further, it can be the land of the Musalmans only when it is governed by the Muslims. The moment the land becomes subject to the authority of a non-Muslim power, it ceases to be the land of the Muslims. Instead of being Dar-ul-lslam it becomes Dar-ul-Harb.
"It must not be supposed that this view is only of academic interest. For it is capable of becoming an active force capable of influencing the conduct of the Muslims…It might also be mentioned that Hijrat [emigration] is not the only way of escape to Muslims who find themselves in a Dar-ul-Harb. There is another injunction of Muslim Canon Law called Jihad (crusade) by which it becomes "incumbent on a Muslim ruler to extend the rule of Islam until the whole world shall have been brought under its sway. The world, is divided into two camps, Dar-ul-lslam (abode of Islam), Dar-ul-Harb (abode of war), all countries come under one category or the other. Technically, it is the duty of the Muslim ruler, who is capable of doing so, to transform Dar-ul-Harb into Dar-ul-lslam." And just as there are instances of the Muslims in India resorting to Hijrat, there are instances showing that they have not hesitated to proclaim Jihad.”
On a Muslim respecting authority of an elected government, Ambedkar writes:
"Willingness to render obedience to the authority of the government is as essential for the stability of government as the unity of political parties on the fundamentals of the state. It is impossible for any sane person to question the importance of obedience in the maintenance of the state. To believe in civil disobedience is to believe in anarchy…How far will Muslims obey the authority of a government manned and controlled by the Hindus? The answer to this question need not call for much inquiry."
Ambedkar isn’t done yet. On the lack of reforms in the Muslim community, he writes:
"Their energies are directed to maintaining a constant struggle against the Hindus for seats and posts in which there is no time, no thought and no room for questions relating to social reform. And if there is any, it is all overweighed and suppressed by the desire, generated by the pressure of communal tension, to close the ranks and offer a united front to the menace of the Hindus and Hinduism by maintaining their socio-religious unity at any cost. The same is the explanation of the political stagnation in the Muslim community of India.
"Muslim politicians do not recognize secular categories of life as the basis of their politics because to them it means the weakening of the community in its fight against the Hindus. The poor Muslims will not join the poor Hindus to get justice from the rich. Muslim tenants will not join Hindu tenants to prevent the tyranny of the landlord. Muslim labourers will not join Hindu labourers in the fight of labour against capital. Why? The answer is simple. The poor Muslim sees that if he joins in the fight of the poor against the rich, he may be fighting against a rich Muslim. The Muslim tenant feels that if he joins in the campaign against the landlord, he may have to fight against a Muslim landlord. A Muslim labourer feels that if he joins in the onslaught of labour against capital, he will be injuring a Muslim mill-owner. He is conscious that any injury to a rich Muslim, to a Muslim landlord or to a Muslim mill-owner, is a disservice to the Muslim community, for it is thereby weakened in its struggle against the Hindu community."
"How Muslim politics has become perverted is shown by the attitude of the Muslim leaders to the political reforms in the Indian States. The Muslims and their leaders carried on a great agitation for the introduction of representative government in the Hindu State of Kashmir. The same Muslims and their leaders are deadly opposed to the introduction of representative governments in other Muslim States. The reason for this strange attitude is quite simple. In all matters, the determining question with the Muslims is how it will affect the Muslims vis-a-vis the Hindus. If representative government can help the Muslims, they will demand it, and fight for it. In the State of Kashmir the ruler is a Hindu, but the majority of the subjects are Muslims. The Muslims fought for representative government in Kashmir, because representative government in Kashmir meant the transfer of power from a Hindu king to the Muslim masses. In other Muslim States, the ruler is a Muslim but the majority of his subjects are Hindus. In such States representative government means the transfer of power from a Muslim ruler to the Hindu masses, and that is why the Muslims support the introduction of representative government in one case and oppose it in the other. ………The dominating consideration with the Muslims is not democracy. The dominating consideration is how democracy with majority rule will affect the Muslims in their struggle against the Hindus. Will it strengthen them or will it weaken them? If democracy weakens them, they will not have democracy. They will prefer the rotten state to continue in the Muslim States rather than weaken the Muslim ruler in his hold upon his Hindu subjects. The political and social stagnation in the Muslim community can be explained by one and only one reason. The Muslims think that the Hindus and Muslims must perpetually struggle; the Hindus to establish their dominance over the Muslims and the Muslims to establish their historical position as the ruling community—that in this struggle the strong will win, and to ensure strength they must suppress or put in cold storage everything which causes dissension in their ranks. If the Muslims in other countries have undertaken the task of reforming their society and the Muslims of India have refused to do so, it is because the former are free from communal and political clashes with rival communities, while the latter are not."
भारतीयराज्योंमेंराजनीतिकसुधारोंकेदौरानमुस्लिमराजनीतिकैसेविकृतहोगईहै, इसेमुस्लिमनेताओंकेदृष्टिकोणसेसमझाजासकताहै।मुसलमानोंऔरउनकेनेताओंने "कश्मीरमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकार" केपक्षमेंएकमहानआंदोलनकिया।वहीमुस्लिमऔरउनकेनेताघातकरूपसे "अन्यमुस्लिमराज्योंमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकारों" कीशुरूआतकाविरोधकररहेहैं।इसअजीबरवैयेकाकारणकाफीसरलहै।सभीमामलोंमें, मुस्लिमोंकेसाथनिर्धारितप्रश्नयहहैकिहिंदुओंकेमुकाबलेप्रतिनिधिसरकारकिसतरहमुस्लिमोंकोप्रभावितकरेगी।यदिप्रतिनिधिसरकारमुस्लिमोंकीमददकरसकतीहै, तोवेइसकीमांगकरेंगे, औरइसकेलिएलड़ेंगे।कश्मीरराज्यमेंशासकएकहिंदूहै, लेकिनअधिकांशलोगमुसलमानहैं।मुस्लिमकश्मीरमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकारकेलिएलड़े, क्योंकिकश्मीरमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकारकामतलबहिंदूराजासेमुस्लिमजनतातकसत्ताकाहस्तांतरणथा।अन्यमुस्लिमराज्योंमें, शासकएकमुस्लिमहैलेकिनउनकीअधिकांशआबादीहिंदूहैं।ऐसेराज्योंमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकारकामतलबहैकिएकमुस्लिमशासकसेहिंदूजनतातकसत्ताकाहस्तांतरण, औरयहीकारणहैकिमुसलमानकश्मीरकेमामलेमेंप्रतिनिधिसरकारकासमर्थनकरतेहैंऔरअन्यमामलोंमेंइसकाविरोधकरतेहैं।मुसलमानोंकामुख्यविचारलोकतंत्रनहींहै।……………..मुख्यविचारयहहैकिबहुमतवालेलोकतंत्रमेंहिंदुओंकेखिलाफअपनेसंघर्षमेंमुसलमानोंकोकैसेप्रभावितकरेगा ? क्यायहउन्हेंमजबूतकरेगायाउन्हेंकमजोरकरदेगा? यदिलोकतंत्रउन्हेंकमजोरकरताहै, तोवेलोकतंत्रनहींचाहतेहैं।हिंदूआबादीपरएकमुस्लिमशासककेकब्जेकोकमजोरकरनेकेबजायवेसड़ेहुएमुस्लिमराज्यमेंरहनापसंदकरेंगे।मुस्लिमसमुदायमेंराजनीतिकऔरसामाजिकठहरावकेवलएककारणसेसमझायाजासकताहै।मुस्लिमसोचतेहैंकिहिंदुओंऔरमुसलमानोंकोहमेशासंघर्षकरनाचाहिए; मुसलमानोंऔरमुस्लिमोंपरसत्तारूढ़समुदायकेरूपमेंअपनीऐतिहासिकस्थितिस्थापितकरनेकेलिएहिंदुओंकोअपनाप्रभुत्वस्थापितकरनेकेलिए।इससंघर्षमेंमजबूतजीतजाएगा, औरताकतसुनिश्चितकरनेकेलिएउन्हेंबाकीसबकुछ (सामाजिकसुधारसहित) कोदबानाहोगाजोउनकेसमुदायमेंविघटनकाकारणबनताहै। We have tried our best to check facts. However, We are humans. Human nature is to make a mistake. So please verify facts, if you feel we are wrong. We are sorry for that. In case you find any mistake in our video, then inform us. We will try to rectify it. English To Hindi translations is not in literal sense. In case of translation errors/vagueness/any other problem; English Version should be accepted as final. Please do not use social media for news. Before believing any news on social media, confirm it from any reliable source.हमने तथ्यों की जांच करने की पूरी कोशिश की है, लेकिन हम इंसान हैं| मानव प्रकृति गलती करना है|अगर आपको लगता है कि हम गलत हैं, इसके लिए हमें खेद है। यदि आप हमारे वीडियो में कोई गलती पाते हैं, तो हमें सूचित करें। हम इसे सुधारने का प्रयास करेंगे|अंग्रेजी से हिंदी अनुवाद शाब्दिक अर्थों में नहीं हैं|अनुवाद त्रुटियों / अस्पष्टता / किसी अन्य समस्या के मामले में; अंग्रेजी संस्करण को अंतिम के रूप में स्वीकार किया जाना चाहिए। कृपया समाचार के लिए सोशल मीडिया का उपयोग न करें। सोशल मीडिया के किसी भी खबर पर विश्वास करने से पहले, किसी विश्वसनीय स्रोत से इसकी पुष्टि करें|
