23 Al-Badaoni and Literary Historiography

Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick and Mr. Pratim Das

About the chapter

In this module we will learn about Al Badaoni, a genius literary figure and historian in medieval India. Badaoni has contributed a lot in Indian history and his works are sources of history of medieval India. He, through his works, especially through his Twarikh, offers a historiography of writing literary history. His work is indigenous Indian source of writing history and literary history especially. In this regard his work is not considered as the work of Indian poetics or aesthetics or theory of literature as such but his contribution is rare in pre-modern India, and that is offering a model for literary history India. Here in this module we briefly discuss about Al Badaoni and his work, especially Twarikh.

Introduction

Akbar’s reign is an important time in the history of India. This period is very significant for the growth and development of Indo-Persian literature. Three important chronicles were written in this period – Abul Fazl’s Akbarnamah, Abdul Qadir Badauni’s Muntakhab–ut–Tawarikhand and the Tabaqat-i Akbari of Nizam-ud-din Ahmad. Among these texts, Badauni’s work is most complex one. His chronicle has a special contribution and it is considered as advancement in terms of writing historical accounts, which is more superior to previous chronicles.

Al Badaoni is remembered in the history for his contribution in the concept and practice of Indian Literary history. He is one among those few intellectuals in medieval India who wrote the history of Indian literature in Persian. His practice of writing history offers a methodology and discursive framework for writing history of literature. Persian intellectuals had written history of literature from the 14th century to the end of 18th century in India. Most celebrated text among that history of literature is Badaoni’s Tawarikh, a history of Persian poetry written in 16th century, Ganesh Devy commented. Devy also informed that Badaoni wrote this history of literature as a part of general history of the reign of Akbar.

Ganesh Devy very critically analyses and describes the merit of Badaoni’s Tawarikh as a book of literary history. Devy mentions that Badaoni was very much clear about the aim of history in this book, his methodology in criticism of poets and poetry was consistent, and throughout the massive work, his standard of criticism was uniform. Devy, while presenting Badaoni’s credit as a literary historian, he took excerpts from three parts of Badoni’s work in above said book, those are introduction, conclusion which talks about historiography and the detail analysis on the contribution of the poet Faizi, which shows methodology of writing history of literature and also offers a methodology of criticism on poetry.

Al Badaoni and his Work

Al Badauni was an eminent writer and historian of the Mughal era in India. However, Al-Badauni was not his real name. His real name was Mulla Abdul Qadir ibn Mulukshah. The 16th century was a period when different religious rituals were happening across the India, including the Bhakti, the Mahdawi, the Shattari, the Raushaniya movements. At that time, the Sunni Muslims of Delhi dominated the Mughal court. Badauni was born in 1540 in a bigoted Sunni family. He was born at Todah (Modern UP). He had deep knowledge in Arabic and Persian. Besides this, he was equally proficient in Sanskrit and he has special attraction to classical Indian music. This man of versatile talent was also known as a translator. Third Mughal Emperor Akbar appointed him to translate Ramayana and Mahabharata from Sanskrit to Persian. It took him four years to complete the translation of Ramayana into Persian verse. However, he could not complete the translation of the Mahabharata and left it in halfway.

However, translation of the Ramayana and Mahabharata is not included among the greatest literary works of Badauni’s life. His most original contribution is perhaps the most important work during his lifetime, Muntakhab Ut Tawarikh4 or Selection of Chronicles. The whole book is divided into three parts. Badauni’s Muntakhab Ut Tawarikh5 encapsulates a vast history ranging from Turk-Afghan era to Mughal Emperor Akbar’s rule. The first volume is about the time and reign of Babur and Humayun. In the second volume, he wrote the time of Akbar’s rule, which ends with the accession of Jahangir. The third volume is biographical notes of some Muslim religious figures, scholar and poets etc. Initially the book was divided into two parts only. In original manuscript the second and third volume were in together. Later, the editor and translator of Asiatic Society separated the third volume. Written in the lifetime of Akbar, this book was the only book that was criticized the various policies of Akbar’s reign rather than blind flattery. Especially, He repeatedly criticized Akbar’s religious policies. Unlike, Abul Fazal he had a very different perspective on Akbar’s reign. His main objective was to write a historical account which is not being influenced by anyone.

In this context, it is extremely important to discuss the ideological orientation of Badauni. He was extremely learned in theology and had a very conservative approach towards it. He believed that it is his duty to ridicule everybody who is against Islam. Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh bears the testimony of his perspective. Dr. Chandni Sengupta in his article “Badauni as a Source for Interpreting the History of Akbar’s Period: A Critical Review of the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh and Najat-ur-Rashid’’ has pointed out the fact that,

“His disgust with the “heresies” and “innovations” of Akbar’s reign, against which he could openly register only limited protest, compelled him to resort to the writing of these volumes secretly. He has explained his objective in writing the text by declaring that- “I have no other objective in writing this book except to express my grief for the faith and heart-burning for the deceased community of Muslims, which became a non-entity and is still so. And to God I look for refuge from reproach, hatred, jealousy, and persecution.”

And that is why the book was not published in Akbar’s lifetime as; the book is full of negative criticism about Akbar’s religious policy. However, he did not oppose against his political matters. In political matters, he was a supporter of Akbar’s point of view. But when the emperor started experimenting with religion, Badauni could not stop himself.

Among all three volumes, the second volume of the text is the most discussed volume of Badauni’s Chronicle. This volume gives us a description of the first 40 years of Emperor Akbar’s reign. The incidents have usually been described under the head of their occurrence. The interesting thing about this book is the intertwining of biographical notes with the narrative of events. Dr. Chandni Sengupta gave a beautiful example of this in her article,

“In fact, in a number of cases, Badauni interrupts the narration of events to give personal notes on the men involved in it. Thus, while mentioning the capture of Nagarkot, he gives a short account of Birbal’s life who was given charge of the fort. Moreover, his account of Abul Fazl’s life, when he joined the imperial court, is a classic in literary abuse. The events described in the text had necessarily to be selective. Therefore, he recorded only “events of general importance” and omitted the “minor ones.”

Harbans Mukhia in his book Historians and Historiography During the Reign of Akbar said that narration of Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh is quite different from Abul Fazl’s Akbarnama or Nizamuddin Ahmed’s Tabaqat-i-Akbari. The Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh does not follow the conventional mode of straight narration.

In his book Badauni deals with the various aspects of Indian life with the lanes of history. His book contains details of political history, revolt, war, victory, war, as well as details of the administrative organization of the empire of Akbar. For example, the major incident which took place during the reign of Akbar was introducing a new revenue system. Raja Todar Mal, the finance minister of Akbar introduced a new land measurement system which was known as Karori system. As well as in his book the author also gives his own insight about the failure of Karori system. He writes that the officers were highly corrupt and selfish. According to him many cultivators were ruined and the experiment ended in a disaster. He also gives information on his policies, his religious experiments and even the architecture of cities like Fatehpur Skiri.

However, Badauni is criticised, saying that he was biased about establishing the fact that Akbar was a failed king. He strongly criticized the mansabdari system which in his opinion was a complete failure. In mansabdari system, lower class people and Hindus without any distinguished abilities, received mansabs. He also blamed the end of the Dagh system in the army as a cause of rebellion in Bengal and Bihar.

He never hesitates to carry out propaganda in the name of the emperor. Shikha Singh in her article on Abul Fazl and Badauni has stated,

“He wrote that Akbar could not tolerate opposition from any mullah and would banish anyone whom he was dissatisfied with and replace him with more compliant people.”

Badaoni’s Concept on History

According to Badauni studying history enable people to observe a changing process which is yielding certain general lessons. Through the light of historical experiences he was even prepared to rationalize his religion. From Badauni’s point of view history is not less significant or inferior. He even considered it as equivalent to stories and biographies. Muhammad Mujeeb in his assessment of Badauni has emphasized that, “he had no taste for investigation and research and no desire to enrich the existing historical knowledge.”9 However, Mujeeb praises Badauni never used to write to secure his position in Royal court. He gave priority to his own opinion.

According to Khaliq Ahmad Nizami modern day historian disagreed with Badauni’s point of view, but the importance of this next book cannot be denied. While analysing Akbar’s failed attempt of religious synthesis this book will have a major role as it has immense historical value.

Nizami went on a step further and stated that one of the distinguishing factors between Badauni and Abul Fazl’s work is Badauni’s work fills the gap of Abul Fazl’s work. In the same place where the Fazal had failed to provide the right information, Badauni had filled those empty spots. Lack of proper information is quite evident in Fazl’s work, later which has been supplemented by Badauni. Such as, Abul Fazl’s book does not contain any detail description of anti-Islam policies of Akbar. Motiur Rahman Khan in his article Treatment of ‘others’ in Muntakhab-ut-tawarikh said rightly,

“Badauni as a historian was appreciated and it was considered that ‘though Abul Fazal and Badauni may not be complimentary to each other, but without doubt, they supplement each other’s information and its importance was seen in its being ‘the only historical work written during the reign of Akbar but not for Akbar.’’

Apart from their personal enmity, both of them had a great contribution in the historiography of medieval India. Especially Badauni had a major role in extending the scope and conspectus of history as his book includes religious and social activities of the different people who belong from a different background. The fanatical view of Badauni is evident in Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, but in terms of historical significance of medieval India this book is invaluable.

Twarikh and Al Badaoni

Twarikh was written in the last decade of the sixteenth century. Twarikh of Al Badaoni is an account of history of his time. He has brilliantly depicted the social, historical, cultural and literary reality of his time. The first chapter of his book begins with, “In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate”! Another chapter is dedicated to the poet Faizi, whom he admired most. This chapter of his book shows a method of historicising a poet or literary figure along with offering a discursive framework for analysing literary text. In these chapters he not only historicise the poet or offered merely a discursive language of criticism but these chapters read each and every aspects of poetry, such as, language, prosody, rhyme, philology, enigmas, metaphor, etc. He also was concerned about the prose composition. But not only about the literature, culture, language or history his interest went further towards medicine also. He found the dates of Faizi and his work with very close reading of language used in Faizi’s text as a true historian does.

Chapter six of this book is dedicated to the poets who belonged to the reign of the emperor Akbar12. His work indeed is a composite history of literature of his time. The translator of Twarikh Sir Wolseyley Haig’s note on translation of the book is worth to be noted to get reading on the book. He said,

“As this volume of the historian’s work consists to a great extent of literary criticism, I have been careful to translate both his text and the excerpts of verse quoted by him as literally as possible, in order to convey some idea, however faint, of his standard of literary excellence. In only one or two passages, to which reference is made in notes, have I ventured to modify expressions which in an English dress would have been merely ridiculous; but I am conscious that many of the passages which I have rendered more exactly will appear grotesque. This was unavoidable, and is due partly to the wide divergence between the standards of taste of Persian writers of the sixteenth and English readers of the twentieth centuries, and partly to Badāonī’s own defects.”

This comment by the translator is not only translator’s reading on Badaoni but it is also an analysis on the works of Badaoni in general and on the Twarikh especially. This book also talks about the history of different king of different regions of India and it also offers cultural, geographical description of places along with the description of language and religion.

Conclusion

Based on the reading, it is understood that the history which is written by Badauni has a major importance in the history of India and in Indian literature. However, many people extended their hands in writing history even before Badauni. But with Badauni came a different style of writing history and a different kind of narration which is exactly the opposite of conventional one. Besides, Badauni’s Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh gave the opportunity to see the Mughal Empire in a new light which supplements the historical account of Akbar reign. If someone would like to rediscover the nativeness in Indian thoughts definitely may count Persian merits in India. Al Badaoni is one among those very few intellectuals who could offer method of writing history, especially the history of literature.

This poetics of historiography can be considered as Indian contribution in the history of idea of writing literary history.

Reference

1. A CRITICAL STUDY ON THE HISTORY WRITING DURING THE EARLY MUGHAL PERIOD http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/32269/6/06_chapter%201.pd f
2. Sengupta , Chandni Badauni as a Source for Interpreting the History of Akbar’s Period: A Critical Review of the Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh and Najat-ur-Rashid. http://euroasiapub.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/7ESSMarch-3284-1.pdf
3. .Singh,Shikha ; Abul fazl and Badauni’s text. https://www.academia.edu/18285828/Abul_fazl_and_Badaunis_text
4. Khan, Motiur Rahaman ; Mughal Historian Abdul Qadir Badauni: ‘Ours’ & Others in his opinion http://indianhistory4scholars.blogspot.in/2009/04/mughal-historian-abdul-qadir-badauni.html
5. TARIKH-E-ELAHI http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/T/tarikh_e_elahi.html
6. Relationship of Badauni and Abul Fazl – http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?490849-History-The-Relationship-of-Badauni-and-Abu-l-Fazl
7. Akbar: The Great Moghul – http://online.sfsu.edu/mroozbeh/CLASS/h 115/Akbar%20The%20Great%20Moghul.pdf
8. Harbans Mukhia- Historians and Historiography during the reign of Akbar
9. . Mulla Abdul Qadir Badauni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, translated by W.H. Lowe, Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Dilli, reprint 1978