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| Persian Historiography in Jammu under Maharaja Gulab Singh | | | Prof Jigar Mohammed
From ancient period onwards most of the states of the world treated historiography as an important component of cultural developments. It was customary during the medieval period to appoint a court historian by the ruling class to record and glorify its policies. Though historiography emerged in India in the 12th century A.D., with the establishment of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi during early thirteenth century historiography became a dominant source of the intellectual exercise. It is well established that the foundation of the Sanskrit historiography was laid out in Kashmir during the 12th century and Kalhan’s Rajtarangini was the first historical work of the Indian sub-continent. However, historiography was very much popularised by the Persian writers in the north India. With the passage of time vernacular historiography also emerged in some parts of India. But tradition of historiography was absent in Jammu hills during the ancient and medieval period. There is hardly any local literary work, written either ancient or medival period, which can be used for the construction of history of Jammu hill states. It is very surprising that not a single ruler of Jammu appointed a histoian to record the history of his own state during ancient and medieval periods.
Maharaja Gulab Singh (1846-57) was the first ruler who realised the significance of the historiography in terms of intellectual activities. When he founded Jammu and Kashmir state in 1846, he decided to get the historical events of his state recorded by his own historian. Since he started his political career at the Lahore Darbar where the maintenance of the tradition of the historioraphy was treated as a duty of both the ruling class and literary persons, Maharaja Gulab Singh treated historiography as a symbol of royalty and duty of ruling class to get historical events of its state recorded by a court historian. It is important to mention that history writing in the Persian language was most popular in the Punjab and other parts of north India. A large number of historians belonging to the Hindu community wrote in Persian during the Mughal period. More importantly, from Sultan Zainul-Abidin (1420-70) onwards Persian had become the official language of the Kashmir state. Consequently, Persian was treated as most favourite language of the literary persons of Kashmir. Since Maharaja Gulab Singh was the ruler of the Jammu and Kashmir state, he not only declared Persian as the official language of his state, but he also patronised the Persian writers.
Ganeshdas Badehra was one of the well established historians of Punjab. With the formation of the Jammu and Kashmir state, he joined the services of the Maharaja Gulab Singh and settled in Jammu. Before his settlement in Jammu Ganeshdas Badehra wrote two important historical works in Punjab entitled Chiragh-i-Punjab and Sahib-i-Nazim-i-Punjab. However, when he came to Jammu he continued his literary activities and in lieu of the favour exented to him by the Maharaja Gulab Singh he decided to write the history of the Maharaja and his ancestors. Expressing his gratitude to the Maharaja Ganeshdas Badehra writes, “It may be laid down that I, Ganeshdas alias Badehra, had been the Qanungo (a revenue official) at the Chakla of Gujrat (in Punjab). As the men of His Highness, the source of favours, Shri Maharaja Sahib of high excellence, knower of the secrets of the world, empyrean in status, sun like in dignity, Behram like in impetuousity,-Maharaja Gulab Singh brought me to Jammu and exalted me to an office in his imperial government. Oftenly, this humble one made endeavours in inquiring the account of the ancestors of the chiefs of this place.”
Ganeshdas Badehra collected some materials pertaining to the history of Jammu and compiled the collected materials in form of a book. He entitled his book Rajdarshani. Though selected Sanskrit title for his book, he wrote Rajdarshani in the Persian language. The meaning of Rajdarshani is the royal audience. It is the first historical work of Jammu region. Professor S.D.S. Charak is the first modern historian who identified the historical significance of the Rajdarshani and translated it into English. Ganeshdas Badehra followed the methods and approach of the Persian historiography. He has traced the history of Jammu from ancient period to 1847 A.D. His narration of the history of the pre-Maharaja Gulab Singh period is based on the oral traditions of Jammu. He accepts that before him there was no indigenous historical trend in Jammu. Regarding the absence of historiography and prevalence of oral traditions in Jammu Ganeshdas Badehra writes, “…in spite of the best efforts no history of this country (Jammu) could be discovered and the existence of the former rulers could be ascertained. However, I heard most of the accounts from the narrators of the old lore and from the Brahmins conversant with true knowledge of the dynasties and from bards possessed of information of genealogies. Some anecdotes and traditions were narrated to me by grey (haired) heads and knowers of the facts. Some stray facts were gleaned from the histories of India and from manuscripts of ancient Rajawalis. The record of the names,compiled in genealogical tables, of the dynasties of illustrious kings and chiefs of the place were in possession of the wise and eloquent Pandit Ram Krishan, Brahmavart, Gosain Pandit and Raina Nar Singh Das. I gathered some facts from here and some facts from there and pieced them together. Thus I compiled this treatise in the fashion of Rajawali and named it Rajdarshani.”
Ganeshdas Bahehra traces the history of Jammu from Ramayan and Mahabharat period. For him, the rulers of the ancient Jammu were Suranbanshi or Raghubansh and descendant of Lord Rama and Maharaja Gulab Singh belonged to the same. He mentions Agnibar as the first king of Jammu coming from Ayodhya. But Jammu city was founded by Agnibar’s son Jambu Lochan and from that period onwards the city started to be known as Jammu city. He also mentions that some people used to say that it was derived from the Jamun tree, grown in large number in Jammu, and some used to say that it was derived from the Jamwant cave, situated on the bank of the Tawi river. Ganeshdas Badehra gives a brief history of the ruling class of Jammu. He uses many Persian terms such as masnad, shikar, zamindar,Jashn,Thanas, Khilat, Kanizak, Zar Baft, Wazir, Peshkash, Darbar and Vakil etc in narrating the historical events of Jammu. Similarly he also uses some Sanskrit terms. This shows that the terms popular in the 19th century were used by Ganeshdas Badehra.
Ganeshdas Badehra highlights the achievements of the rulers of ancient and medieval Jammu and also of the existing cultural trends. Far him the rulers of Jammu maintained relations with the different parts of India, Tibet and Iran. He mentions that the states such as Bihar, Assam (Kuch-Bihar), Bengal, Manipur, Orissa, Bundelkhand, Awadh, Mithila, Kurukshetra, Sarhind, Ajmer, Gujrat, Telingana and Konkan etc. were well associated with Jammu state. He mentions that during the ancient and medieval periods people from Iran came to Jammu and influenced its local culture. For Ganeshdas Badehra, Lohri festival celebrated in Jammu and Punjab was under the influence of Iranian culture. He also mentions that the synthesis between Iranian and Indian culture led to the beginning of the celebration Sankranti festival in India. According to Ganesh Das, “ …it was…Pasha-Jam and other offspring of Mah-Abad migrated from the regions of Paras (Iran) to the hills of Jammu and Punjab, and engaged in worship and made confirmity and obedience to to stars their vogue and worshipped fire… Hindus also mixed with them and adopted some of their customs, so that even to this day in the hills and the Punjab men and women lit fires on the Salakh-i-Gaus day (Sankranti, i.e. the last day of the constellation of Sagittarius) and hold celebrations. In the common dialect it is known as Lohri, and is called Loi, and it seems to be a ritual of the fire-worshippers of Iran and the Parsis and not of the Hindus. But some say that Hoshang-Jamshed, king of Khorasan, had come to the Punjab and introduced this custom there. God knows the truth. The Books of the Indians do not mention anything about such subjects, and moreover, these customs were not in vogue in Hindustan.” Thus Ganeshdas Badehra finds Jammu region believing in the concept cultural exchange.
Ganeshdas Badehra notices some of the Iranian influences on the political life of Jammu state. For Ganesh Das, Raja Baj Dev fo Jammu developed a good relations with Muhammad Ghori, and the Raja was honoured by him with Khilat and assignment at Sialkot. Ganesh Das has shown the influence of Iranian traditions on the government of Jammu as the result of the association between Muhammad Ghori and the Raja. Describing the Iranian influence on the government of Jammu he writes, “The Ghauri sultans used to address, in the Iranian tradition of calling the vakil (emissary) and mianji, the brothers, nephews and sons of the Raja as Mianji in all their correspondence and Farmans. All the Jamwal people considered this title a term of honour so they declared themselves Mianji. Some of them called their elders Mianji and for youngers used the short form ‘Mian’. Since then the title of Mian had got vogue among the Jamwals and their kith and kin and relatives.”
Ganesh Das has called Jammu as “Dar-ul-Aman” (abode of peace) during the 18th century. He gives all credit to Raja Ranjit Dev (1733-82) of Jammu making his state prosperous and powerful. He has shown that when different parts of the Punjab were facing political instability and economic crisis because of Ahmad Shah Abdali invasion, Jammu provided shelter to the merchants of Punjab and other areas. Raja Ranjit Dev provided security and opportunity to these migrants of the Punjab. He also mentions the arrival of Mughal queen Begam Malika Zamani, the queen of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-48), in Jammu during the reign of Ranjit Dev. The arrival of the Mughal queen has been shown as an honour for Jammu. She laid out a beautiful garden on the bank of the Tawi river. Ganesh Das portrays Raja Ranjit Dev as the provider of respects to the Muslim sufis, Hindu sanyasis and Sikh saints.
Ganesh Das has given interesting account of the emergence of three Dogra brothers, Gulab Singh, Dhian Singh and Suchet Singh, in Lahore Darbar as the participants in the policy making process. The services of these three Dogra brothers were very much appriciated by the Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The latter honoured them with huge jagirs and ranks. Ganesh Das has also given the a brief description of the war of succession in Lahore darbar after the death of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839. For Ganesh Das, Maharaja Gulab Singh tried with his best to serve Lahore Darbar at the time of political crisis, but when he found that the British in the Anglo-Sikh wars had crippled and destroyed the power of the Lahore Darbar he founded the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Ganesh Das depicts women of Jammu very much persecuted through girl infanticide, Sati and other social evils. For him, first time Raja Ranjit Dev of Jammu took measures to discourge these social evils. The Raja was the first ruler of Jammu who brought up a daughter and forbade the killing of the daughter in the royal famil. Similarly, he ordered that after his death his queens had not indulge in Sati. Regarding the views of the king against the Sati system Ganesh Das writes, “In his death bed, before becoming unconcious and in agony he (King) expressed, on the authority of numerous conventions and regulations, his last will to his sons, intimates and all wise chiefs and courtiers all kith and kin and others, that no woman should perform Sati with him. They submitted that this is a question of prestige and honour for the Rajas; how he set out journey to the world of non-existence all alone, and the chastity-loving women are meant for this very day that they accompany the husband and lead him to the heaven hand in hand. He (Raja) replied, “Have you not heard…If women are medium to gain heaven, I refuse to go to heaven through women.”
Thus Maharaja Gulab Singh’s policy of welcoming literary persons from Punjab and other areas led to the introduction of historiography in Jammu region. Ganesh Das Badehra’s work Rajdarshani shows the methods how to construct history of Jammu in the absence of the local historical sources. Ganeshdas Badehra has established that for history writing historians have to follow the concept of pluralism. For him, history of Jammu supports the existence of conepts of inter-regional cooperation and cultural exchange between Jammu and other regions. Patronisation of the Persian authors under Maharaja Gulab Singh also conveys that the Maharaja treated Persian language as a powerful medium of intellectual exercise during the 19th century.
Prof Jigar Mohammad, an authority on J&K History, teaches at University of Jammu |
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