Past and Present: Surveying Medieval India Amidst the Present Perceptions of the Past in Popular Medium

The Story of Jaisi: Origin and Development of the Tale of Padmini

In the Delhi-centric texts of the fourteenth century, Alauddin Khalji defeated the Rana of Chittor in 1303. ⁴ It did not talk about Padmini. Ramya Sreenivasan in her meticulous research work Many Lives of a Rajput Queen has traced the origin and growth of the story of Padmini. The earliest account of Padmini was found in the work of Malik Muhammad Jaisi’s Padmavat, written in Awadhi in around 1540. Jayasi was a Sufi poet of Jayas in Awadh, and Padmavat belongs to the genre of premakhyan literature discussing Sufi’s mystical quest for God. ⁵ In Jayasi’s story, Alauddin came to know about the beauty of Padmini through a brahman priest oust from the court of Ratan Sen for misconduct, attacked Chittor and captured Ratan Sen who was taken to Delhi. He was, however, freed due to the brave efforts of his chiefs. In the meanwhile, in Chittor, during Ratan Sen’s imprisonment in Delhi, Devapala, a neighbouring Rajput king, propositions Padmini, which leads to a battle between Ratan Sen (when he returns from Delhi) and Devapala. Ratan Sen is killed in this battle and both Nagmati and Padmini commit sati. ⁶ Though Alauddin wins Chittor, he only finds the ashes of the woman he so ardently sought. In the texts of this genre, Sufi traditions are transmitted. According to the explanatory gloss of the manuscripts of Padmavat, Padmini represents the wisdom that Ratan Sen seeks. Chittor is the body, Alauddin Khilji represents worldly illusion, or maya. ⁷ Jaisi’s patron was a Rajput chieftain of Amethi, who influenced his choice of the battle of Chittor. The poetic accounts of Padmini did not reach Mewar until almost 1590 and became part of many literary traditions.

Padmini’s narratives in early modern Rajasthan between seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries were shaped by the politics and conduct of their Rajput and Jain patrons. ⁸ The period also saw the blend of history and folk narratives in Rajasthani poetic and chronicle literature. ⁹ Padmini has been seen from various perspective like relations of king and chiefs, emerging gender relations, contemporary Mewar–Delhi relations and imprint of Sisodiya ideology in it, for instance, Mewar locating threat to Rajput order in the figure of the Emperor of Delhi. ¹⁰ Nainsi, the Diwan of the Jodhpur state, who chronicled the histories of Rajput clans, mentioned that he has heard that Ratan Sen was killed in the matter of Padmini when Alauddin had attacked Chittor. ¹¹ Thus, from a poetic Sufic ideal, Padmini was transformed into a queen of Mewar whom the lustful Alauddin had sought.

In the early nineteenth century, James Tod, the Scottish annalist of Rajputana, wrote his Annals, diluting many of the other strands located in the sources and presenting the colonial view. In his telling of Padmini’s narrative, he emphasises on the ‘treachery’ of the Muslim sultan and the deceitful tactics he adopts which led to the defeat of the Rajputs. He also emphasises on Jauhar performed by a queen in order to save the honour, though in many regional texts, the aspect of Jauhar was mentioned in a terse manner. ¹² In Bengal, in the nineteenth century, Padmini acquired the persona of a heroic queen committing Jauhar in order to save her honour against the lusty Muslim invaders. Concealed in it was the patriotic resistance to colonial dominance. It underwent many mutations from North India to Rajasthan to Bengal from the sixteenth to twentieth century.

However, the essential point here is that there were multiple narratives of Padmini written with different ideologies. How Padmini is perceived as a character has many variations if one looks at the narratives synchronically and has gone through several mutations, if seen diachronically.

The Idea of Other

Apart from Jaisi’s account wrapped in modern ideas being presented, the film also explicitly underlines the idea of otherness. Therefore, an essential aspect of this discussion is the image of the ‘other’. How were the other perceived? It is challenging because for one set of historians, the dormant narrative was that of Hindu and Muslim as two monolithic communities with constant struggle with one another. The idea puts under trial the nationalists’ confrontation of the colonial construction of historiography and phrasing of Indian history as well. The repudiation of colonial notion of history is half-baked and inherent within it is the promotion of singularity and ‘othering’ of the communities. Second, even though periodisation on the basis of religion has been challenged long back, the view that early history in India could be created on the basis of Sanskrit sources and the medieval could be created on the basis of Persian texts was a common notion even in the intellectual circle until lately, as if societies are based on dominance of a single language or single literary traditions. Focusing on ancient and medieval societies, how far the struggles among groups were religious and to what extent religion played an important role and if religion was the primary factor, all of this requires a nuanced understanding of historical process taking place in those societies. A substantial attempt in this regard is made by B. D. Chattopadhyay in his work Representing the Other where he questioned both the assumptions. While presenting this alternative reading of medieval societies, he used the Sanskrit texts and epigraphs and concluded that the concept of identity of the Turks was based not so much on religious but on ethnic lines in early medieval Indian texts and epigraphs. They were addressed with variants such as Arabs, Tajiks, Turuskas/Turks, mlechchas (barbarians), even Yavanas and Sakas. ¹³ Moreover, there are various kinds of representation of the Turuskas, and he had many identities. ¹⁴ What is more pertinent in our understanding of medieval past is the multiplicity of foes and not the singularity. ¹⁵ There were various ruling houses fighting with one another and Turuska being the ruler of the kingdom in the North was one adversary among many. It points to the Turk becoming an essential part of the political geography perceived in the texts.

Though Delhi-centric texts of the fourteenth century saw it as a battle for Islam, the texts in medieval period also reveal that people of different religious traditions were enrolled under various political rivals fighting with one another. Isami and Khusrau writes about Hammir who was from Ranthambhor and how in his struggle against Alauddin, Mongol officials like Mohammad Shah were fighting from the side of him. ¹⁶ Some Mongols also went to the service of Rai Karan Vagela of Gujarat and received importance posts. ¹⁷ Similarly, Hammira Mahakavya, written perhaps in the fifteenth century during the rule of Hammira, the last Chauhan ruler of Ranthambhore, talks of conflict with mlechchas. When Alauddin moved against him, he enlists the support from Anga, Telanga, Magadha, Mahisura and other regions. ¹⁸ Neither side was homogenous.

This intermingling of diverse groups as part of the army at the lower level is clearer. It has been informed by Barani that after killing his uncle in Kara, while Alauddin was returning back to Delhi, he distributed gold among the spectators. Soon news spread along with the information that he was recruiting countless men in his army. As a result, soldiers and other people started to head towards his army from everywhere and by the time he reached Badaun, 55,000 cavalrymen and 60,000 infantry were already recruited in his army. ¹⁹ Despite the exaggerated numbers, there is no denying the fact that in the late thirteenth century, there were the availability of free-roaming men in the Indo-Gangetic plain who were willing to get recruited to the state army irrespective of religious considerations. Malik Chajju was joined by Paiks and Rawats when he moved against Jalaluddin Khalji. ²⁰ Both Barani and Isami referred to the fact that the army was drawn from all parts of the country while discussing the phases of Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq. ²¹

Conversely, with the cavalry-sation of army and later the use of gunpowder, the states were constantly looking for an opportunity to recruit men who would enhance the efficiency of the army. An example of it could be seen in the fourteenth-century Vijayanagar state in Deccan where Devraya II recruited large numbers of Muslims well-versed in the martial skills in order to create balance with their political rivals, the Bahmanis who were regarded as Ashvapati. ²²

Norman P. Ziegler, while studying the Rajput identifications, obligations and nature of their loyalties, focused on three main elements on which it was based—at the local level, kinship; at the level of kingdom, patron–client relationship, and ties of alliance through marriage leading to creation of saga. All three aspects were linked with the idea of territoriality. The Rajputs were able to transfer some of the local sentiments surrounding them to the Mughals with whom they had marital ties and relationship of bond and service. Patron–client relationship which developed between the Mughals and the Rajputs in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century was the most enduring aspect of the Mughal state. ²³ For Norman Ziegler, Mughal policy of support for local rulers granting them watan jagirs, alliance through marriage and granting land in lieu of military service all found expression in the Rajput local ideology and turned them towards the Mughals. ²⁴ It points to the collaborative tendency of the warrior groups to meet their objective.

Cynthia Talbot, while working on Kakatiyas of Warangal, underlines that Andhra inscriptions never placed Islam in the foreground as the Muslim’s alien character. The warriors of Turkic origin who invaded and settled in the Indian peninsula was certainly a separate ethnic group. This is not to say that the inhabitants of India were unaware of the particulars of Islamic beliefs and practice, but for political elites who financed the composition of the inscriptions, religious difference was of no great import. Far more important was the military skills of the Turks and the administrative heritage of the Islamic civilisation that they introduced in the peninsula. ²⁵

The terms demonising the other is not solely used for adherents of a particular religious traditions. Chalukyas considered Cholas as Rakshas, Cholas applied the same for Sinhalese and the king of Chandellas ‘defeated the Gurjar king as Krsna in former times defeated Kansa. ²⁶ R. H. Davis has discussed the idea of appropriation of images and loot as political acts. He informed that the event of the invasion of Pandhyas to Sinhala in the ninth century was described by the Buddhist monk and chronicler Dhammakitti who wrote Culavamsa. He (Dhammakirti), while referring to Pandhyan king Srimara Srivallabha (r. 815–862), writes, ‘… he seized, denuding Lanka island of its wealth and spitting out the once splendid city as if demons(yakshas) has devoured it’. ²⁷ In the later part of the ninth century when the Sinhalese army entered Madurai and plundered the city, the imagery created by the writer was that of ‘gods sacking the city of the demons’. ²⁸ The identification of the plundering groups with demons is highly contextualised in this case depending upon who is plundering.

Even the term mlechcha is not exclusive for people of a particular religious tradition. Romila Thapar while working on the barbarians in early India talks of how certain indigenous groups were called with this name and their area of inhabitation—which included regions in diverse direction such as Punjab, Central India, eastern India, peninsular India—was known as mlechcha desa based on ritual purity, language and appearance and eating habits. ²⁹ In Assam, the Salastambhas who belonged to the ruling dynasty were regarded as mlechchas, a term used for them in the inscription. ³⁰ However, the boundaries were not rigid and from time to time, both foreigners and indigenous mlechcha were included in the varna category, particularly if they were the dominant groups and part of the ruling authority. An indicative of this factor is the presence of the category of vratya and ksetra brahman. ³¹

An interesting aspect of the Delhi Sultanate is the Sanskrit inscriptions of the thirteenth to fourteenth century installed around constructed water bodies. Palam baoli inscription (1276) talks about Thakkura Uddhara whose father was from Uchch. He was a householder, the performer of sacrifice, a devotee of Shiva and one who established several free inns (dharmashalas). ³² The specificity of the term Thakkura is hard to find. B. N. S. Yadav regarded it as a new term in usage from the ninth century ad onwards which by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries signified chief, warrior and lord in general. It was mainly applied to the class of ruling-landed aristocracy. It became an honorific title of aristocracy indicating dignity and authority, which was used not only by Kshatriyas but also by the Brahmanas and kayasthas belonging to this class. ³³ Based on the information provided by Pushpa Prasad, while she collected and compiled the Sanskrit inscriptions issued between 1191 and 1526, similar information about the identity of the category of Thakkura could be ascertained. ³⁴ Undoubtedly, Thakkura Uddhara was a landowning aristocrat or a wealthy merchant or both. The Naraina inscription (1327) informs the construction of a well by one Sridhara who belonged to the merchant family of status in Naraina in Indrapastha. ³⁵ Sarban Baoli inscription (1328) again recorded the construction of well in Sarban, now an area of Raisina Road, by two merchants. ³⁶ Even the less comprehensible Delhi Museum Stone Inscription (1291) found in Sonepat recording the construction of well in a village called Prastha is supposed to have been built by a local mercantile community. ³⁷ It is evident that the baolis/wells were constructed by the aristocratic landowning groups and mercantile communities of the time. The inscriptions implanted provided a very small but vital window to the worldview and contemporary stance of these groups from the second half of the thirteenth-century Delhi which was a vital part of the domain of Turushka. The construction of baolis by the wealthy mercantile groups in the city signifies the trade network of the community of merchants facilitated by the imperial authority of Delhi and the growing urbanisation of the region. The variety and segregation of markets by Alauddin Khalji in the fourteenth century indicates that trade and mercantile activity were substantial by this period.

Perhaps an important facet of history underlined by these inscriptions is the commonplace acceptance of the rule of Sultans of Delhi by the trading communities in and around Delhi. For the mercantile and business community, forming alliance and negotiation with the political authority and vice versa was a common feature in different phases of history. The efforts of the Sultans would not have less contributed to it. Minhaj us Siraj informs us that Iltutmish was benefactory towards men of various capacity which included men of religion, landowners and farmers, traders, strangers and travellers from great cities and the likes. ³⁸ Barani informs that Balban made the highways-free and hassle-free for merchants from the nuisance of Mewatis. ³⁹ This act must have won the accolades of the merchants. In connection with the menace of Mewatis, Barani writes that they often came to the Hauz i Sultani after ‘asr prayers and harassed water carriers and maids who came to fetch water, stripped them naked and took their clothes away. By suppressing them, the Sultan freed the people from the harassment of the Mewatis. At another place, Barani writes that the Sultan’s concern for justice was known to all, and nobody dared to oppress slaves, maids, horsemen or soldiers and do injustice to them. ⁴⁰ The Palam baoli inscription reflects some of Barani’s information on Balban. One of the lines in the inscription talks of the fearless manner in which the courtesans now move during the reign of Balban ‘filling the air with the tinkle of their bracelets’. ⁴¹

The Palam baoli inscription underlines another aspect, though with exaggeration. One of the lines enumerates that the kingdom of Balban was filled with inner content and the domain was glittering with the precious stones fallen ‘from the crowns of the bent heads of the rulers who came from every direction for his service’. ⁴² A similar information is provided by Barani in context of discussing the court magnificence and revelry. Barani informs that when Balban would hold the court, the ambiance was so grand and high pitched that the ambassadors from far-off lands and Rais and Muqaddams present to kiss the royal threshold, in most cases, lost their consciousness. ⁴³ It points to the existence of the state of Delhi Sultans as a negotiating structure rather than only the representative of Islamic triumph where governors and local potentates were constantly appearing to join hands with the ruling class.

An important aspect was the manner in which transaction of the land among the landed elites were taking shape. The Jaunpur Brick Inscription (1217) and the Mahoba Copper Plate Inscription underlines the fact that sale and mortgage of land was taking place among the Rauta and Ranas without the active interference of any imperial authority. The Mahoba Copper Plate inscription (1227) is particularly important because it described Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish encamping at Badaun while the transaction of land was taking place in Karsak (a village in Shahjahanpur). ⁴⁴ It indicates that the control of the Sultan over Hindustan (northern India) was piecemeal rather than sudden and absolute and in the control of areas away from the core region of Delhi, the state acted in a negotiating manner rather than the whitewash approach suggested in many Delhi-centric texts, particularly in their dealing with Ranas and Rawats.

B. D. Chattopadhyaya in one of his articles ‘Anachronism of the Political Imagination’ informs that from the Gupta period onwards as more regional kingdoms emerged based on monarchical ideology, it underlines centrality of varnashrama dharma in monarchical discourse. In this state society based on varnashrama dharma, Yavanas as social groups would always remain outsiders and perceived as others. ⁴⁵ However, the otherness and aloofness in the political culture is not so visible and stable in the history of Medieval India. Scholars have proved that while with the passage of time, Delhi Sultanate became more stable and seeped in Indian milieu, a different kind of political culture was emerging simultaneously. The emergence of Muslim kingdoms in different parts of Asia, North Africa and Andalusia based on Islamicate culture was an essential aspect of medieval time period which influenced society and politics far and wide. The Indic kingdom closely connected with these states through overland and Indian Ocean trade networks had a bearing on it. Apart from drawing legitimacy from the religious texts, states also sought the legitimacy in the political arena through pursuing the Islamicate manners, courtly rituals and etiquettes. More importantly, legitimacy drawn from political texts and tracing one’s connectivity from a powerful predecessor state kingdom could be seen as becoming a focal point of drawing legitimacy for a newly born nascent state. Phillip Wagoner discusses how Islamicate culture seeped into the courtly circles of Vijayanagar kingdom, and the kings would emulate the Muslim style of dressing and titles in their royal representations. ⁴⁶ He also argued that the ruler of Delhi was treated as one of the dharmic king of the three ancient kingdoms along with the rulers of Vijayanagar and the Gajapatis of Orissa. For Wagoner, this reflects the political world of the sixteenth century in which the pursuance of dharma was not dependent on the variable of religion. ⁴⁷ The inclusion of Delhi Sultan and exclusion of Bahmani ruler, the immediate rivals of Vijayanagar, reflects the context in which the ideologies were formed, and otherness was chalked out. A very interesting aspect of how the state was formed and legitimacy was claimed in the sixteenth-century Far South is put forth by Velcheru Narayan Rao, David Shulman and Sanjay Subramanyam. While discussing the formation of Nayak state of Madurai, they underline the role of money and ‘vertical linkages’, and installation of deities as the basis on which legitimacy was drawn by Vishwanath, the noble of Krishnadeva Raya. The Nayak claimed the region on the basis of loyalty to the overlord. Apparently, it was not claimed on the basis of immediate need of the brahmanas as advisors or ministers or recipients of gifts. Nor on the basis of genealogy, or Kshatriya status. He did not attempt to claim any such normative identity. He acquired the state not by fabricating himself according to puranic-type standard but by virtue of his father’s money and ‘universalistic value of personal loyalty that cuts through previous ties’. ⁴⁸ The changing forms of political ethos according to time and space points to the fact that the process of state formation and its essential constituents and tropes has its own dynamism. The elements of legitimisation were not fixed, static or stable, but highly contextualised and akin to those who are involved in the process of identification. As a corollary, the idea of ‘other’ could not remain the same and unchanging. A signifier of the ever-evolving concept of monarchical state and the idea of ‘other’ is the Palam baoli inscription itself which regarded Balban as an upholder of dharma.

To define culture within a narrow framework is a flawed concept. Culture is an ever-evolving identity unbounded by time and space. Cultural geography intrudes the political boundaries and overlaps it. It can encompass different religions and mix it with certain regional/local traditions. There are instances and times when subculture gets assimilated in the dominant culture. Other times, two or more dominant cultures intermix and reshape itself with a refined and nuanced ideology. In most cases, the practices and traditions are incorporated but reinterpreted. However, the discourse of culture intrinsically linked with a single religion is so strong that one never tries to look beyond it. It is an elitist view/definition of culture, those who dominate one ethnic group or the other. It fails to see that over the years, different cultural groups can intermingle with each other and give shape to new identities, cultures and traditions deriving from the old. To set concrete boundaries and time zone in the evolution and development of cultural trends in the medieval past in Hindustan when movement and interaction of different communities were extremely high is unjustified. Even in case of an interface between two dominant religious traditions with their specific cultural traits, the interaction is not only of conflict, particularly at the level of communities.

Representations of Alauddin Khalji

A noteworthy aspect is the ways in which Alauddin Khalji is perceived in the Delhi-centric texts, though it is not possible to elaborate this aspect in this article. The representations of Alauddin Khalji are not unilinear even in the Delhi-centric sources.

In Barani’s Tarikh i Ferozshahi, the king is depicted as headstrong, brave and having a ruthless personality.

In fact, at one place Barani writes that since people have not respected the goodness of Jalaluddin Khalji, they now had to face a headstrong monarch. However, despite the criticism of Alauddin having a non-Shariah approach to the functioning of the state, Barani informs that Delhi was prosperous during his reign. ⁴⁹

Isami’s Futuh us Salatin creates a character of Alauddin as a pious, God-fearing monarch. He was portrayed as benign and kind who expanded his kingdom with sagacity, generous even to the indigenous enemies, a quintessential Muslim monarch. The accession of Alauddin Khalji was also laced with spiritual blessings with Khwajah Gurg predicting the bad fate of everyone who would confront him. ⁵⁰ Even the high-handedness of Alauddin was blamed on others. In contrast to it, Muhammad Tughlaq was depicted as a tyrant, bloodthirsty monarch, oppressive and therefore dangerous to the din. At the end of the text, Isami even made a comparison of Muhammad Tughluq with Alauddin and while, according to him, the former was a blot on the religion, the later was portrayed as upholder of Shariah and Islam. ⁵¹ At various places, the information, and the idea inherent in it, were contrasting in Barani and Isami’s texts.

Thakkura Pheru was a Jain belonging to the Srimali clan, a prominent trading group skilled in commerce and banking and handling currency. The mint of Gujarat was often handled by Srimali Jain merchants. ⁵² Thakkura Pheru was employed in the treasury of Alauddin Khalji and an assay master of Delhi mint in the reign of Qutubuddin Khalji. ⁵³ He belonged to the family of merchant-banker. He composed a large number of books during the Khalji period in Apabhramsa language. Pheru is known to have composed seven works: Kharataragaccha-yugapradhana-catuhpadika (ad 1291) which contains a eulogy of the pontiffs of the Kharatara sect (monastic order in Svetambara sect to which Pheru belonged), Jyotisasara on astronomy and astrology (1315), Vastusara on architecture and iconography (1315), Ratnapariksa on gemmology (1315), Dhatutpatti (n.d.) on metals and perfumery articles, Ganitasarakaumudi (before 1318) on mathematics and Dravyapariksa (1318) on assay and exchange of coins. ⁵⁴ In his text Dravyapariksha, he refers to Alauddin as ‘Asvapati Mahanarendra Patisahi Alavadi’ (Cavalryman Great King Padshah Alauddin). ⁵⁵ In another work Ratnapariksha, he wrote on the basis of practical knowledge for he himself had seen experts examining precious stones and witnessed the vast collection of gems in Alauddin’s treasury which led S. R. Sharma to believe that he was probably a high official in the treasury and probably an expert gemmologist, otherwise he would not have an access to Alauddin’s treasury. While discussing about his experience of gems, Pheru addressed the period as ‘the victorious reign of Alauddin Khalji’ (allavadina kalikala chakkavattissa kosamajjhattham). ⁵⁶ The powerful presence of Thakkura Uddharava and Thakkura Pheru on the political horizon of Delhi and the works of Thakkura Pheru and the important Tarikh and Malfuzat written during this period are a reflection of the fourteenth-century Delhi and the multiple levels on which the society was evolving. It has to be located in the intellectual and the socio-cultural traditions of the time and the discourse and interaction undergoing within a social set-up.

Thakkura Pheru was also mentioned in the context of Jain pilgrimage in another contemporary text which describes the lives and activities of the spiritual leaders (heads/teachers/dadas) of Kharatara sect. The chronicle narrates that in 1318, Sultan Qutubuddin Mubarak gave permission to Thakkura Acala to organise a pilgrimage of the Jain community. Among other Jains of Delhi, Pheru participated in it. Another pilgrimage was organised during the period of Tughluqs in 1323 by a wealthy merchant of Delhi named Rayapati in which Pheru again participated. ⁵⁷ The importance of Jains in Delhi Sultanate could be ascertained from the fact that Alp Khan, who was given the governorship of Gujarat after the second campaign in 1304–1305 ad gave permission to Samra Shah, a rich Patan merchant to carry out repairs of some of the temples of religious complex in Shatrunjaya which were destroyed by Khalji troops in 1312–1313 campaigns. As a conciliatory gesture, Alp Khan also gave him a casket of jewels to facilitate with the cost. ⁵⁸ Gujarat was also the centre of Srimali merchants to which Thakkura Pheru belonged.

Prabandhchintamani, an early fourteenth-century Jaina text written by Merutunga in 1304 points to the fact that in order to be an ideal king, one does not necessary need to have to be a Jaina. ⁵⁹ Many virtues and prerequisites were enunciated to be an ideal monarch through the episodes in kings’ lives, the utmost importance in all the stories being the courage and wisdom of the monarch dealing with the state problems and enemies directly, without submission. He reached the highest pedestal through ability and not birth, most of them having low origin and even appointed minister on that basis. ⁶⁰ Though ethics and non-violence were also necessary kingly qualities in the evolution of monarch, these virtues were more limited to the didactic learning than in practical parlance. Therefore, Jain chronicles and prescriptive texts underline these virtues and, at the same time, Jain biographies, hagiographies and transaction records provide the complex functioning of business of trading communities, the competition and the survival within it, in which Jains were involved in activities not approved in the normative texts. ⁶¹ Many Jain texts were compiled in the period of strong monarchs as patrons who believed in conquest, warfare and expansion. Thakkura Pheru calling the reign of Alauddin as victorious seems to be an admiration for the courage and wisdom of the monarch which were one of the main prerequisites in Prabandhchintamani, particularly while dealing with mythical kings. The association with the rulers who believed in courage and determination, if not non-violence, is an indicator of the need of maintaining a balance between precept and practice. The interaction of the Sultans of Delhi with the Jains, once more, points to the fact that the state of Delhi Sultanate was a negotiatory body.

In Khairul Majalis, Shaikh Nasiruddin Chirag i Delhi is seen remembering the reign of Alauddin Khalji and praising his Market Reform Policy. We also get the information that people of Delhi used to visit the grave of Alauddin Khalji and tie threads on it in order to get their wish fulfilled. ⁶² Ibn i Batutta who came to India in 1333–1334 writes that the people of India were full of his (Alauddin’s) praises. ⁶³ The public memory of Alauddin seems to have accorded a spiritual persona to the monarch and reflects how he was remembered by the ordinary for years after his death.

An interesting portrayal of Alauddin Khalji is in Kanhadade Prabandh (1456). One of the Rajput hero Satal, nephew of Kanhadade, is shown around the enemy camp (camp of Alauddin) at night by his patron goddess. He saw all the indices of Shiva in Alauddin and wondered how he could fight an opponent who has taken on the form of the Rudra, yet he decided to fight for the sake of honour. Later in the story, Alauddin saw Kanhadade as an incarnation of Visnu. ⁶⁴ In Kanhadade Prabandh and Viramde Sonigara ri vat (manuscripts from 1704), the love of the daughter of Alauddin for Vikram, the son of Kanhadade and the rejection of her by Vikram even after his death is told. The daughter ultimately committed sati with the body of Vikram, and the two united afterwards. ⁶⁵ Interestingly, similar kind of stories are found in South Indian texts Prataprudra Caritramu (a sixteenth-century Telugu text focusing on Kakatiyas) and Koil Olugu (Tamil chronicle of Srirangam temple). The Delhi Sultan, in the first case, was Muhammad Tughluq. In the first one, when Prataparudra dev was captured and sent to Delhi, Muhammad Tughluq realised that Prataparudra dev was Shiva himself. In the night, the Sultan’s mother who herself was a devotee of Lord Madhava of Prayag, found that Prataparudra and Muhammad Tughluq were incarnation of Shiva and Vishnu, respectively. ⁶⁶ On realisation, Muhammad Tughluq sent Prataparudra off to Warangal along with brahmans with utmost respect.

In Koil Olugu, the daughter of Delhi Sultan got mesmerised with the image of Alagiyamanavala Perumal and fell in love with him. When the Sultan returned the image to the authorities of temple, the daughter insisted on getting the lover back. She sets out with father’s army in getting the idol back. However, the devotees hid the image. Losing all hope, the Sultani breathed her last, unable to bear the separation. Some 60 years later, after being hidden on the Tiruvengadam mountain, the image finally returned to the temple; the Sultani undergoes a deification and becomes Tulukka-Nacciyar, the ‘Turkic consort’ of the god. ⁶⁷ Philip Wagoner saw these stories as ‘narratives of resistance’ establishing certain accepted beliefs which are reaffirmed and upheld when challenged by an alien cultural formation. ⁶⁸ The protagonists are shown equal or more powerful than the Sultan, divine and ultimately re-affirmed in their position.

According to Ramya Sreenivasan, Kanhadade Prabandh falls in the category of Rajput narratives in which heroism was celebrated as a continuing tradition, an essence transmitted by hereditary lineage. ⁶⁹ The heroic deeds of ancestor Kanhadade provided legitimacy to the chieftain of Jalor Akhirej in whose reign Kanhadade Prabandh was compiled. For Ramya Sreenivasan, the core issue for the narrative was Alauddin’s desire to conquer and establish imperial power while Kanhadade’s resistance and preservation of the Brahmanical moral order and the primary issue was the defence of territory by the ancestor. ⁷⁰ However, despite all these narratives being taken as tales of resistance, one could see the inclusion of the Sultans—Alauddin Khalji and Muhammad Tughluq—in the traditional Indic order; by casting Alauddin as Rudra and Muhammad Tughluq as Vishnu and Alauddin’s daughter as sati and daughter of the Delhi Sultan as Consort of Perumal. These narratives also point at the symbolic elements and common troupes applied in these narratives despite spatial and temporal distinctiveness to depict resistance and appropriation/inclusion at the same time.

The representations of Alauddin are multifarious. Therefore, it became pertinent to look at the historical setting, context and ideology in the shadow of which texts were compiled. The texts could reflect historical events, interplay of history and memory, reconstruction of narratives with certain objectives, hagiographical accounts, tropes employed in particular genre of narratives, or anything else.

There are all sorts of evidence in history. The opinion of Barani and Isami having caustic opinion on non-Muslims and also the opinion of Dara Shikoh and Mirza Mazhar adhering conciliation where India was a part of Islamic cosmology. ⁷¹ The ranting of fourteenth-century historian could also be seen as the extent to which the Sultans were ignoring their perception. At the same time, it did reflect the opinion of a particular section of the society. However, what is essential is that despite all the differences how society continued to evolve albeit so many sampradaya, cultural and religious traditions, which makes it essential to look at the dialogue along with dissent, conciliation along with conflict, a reflection of it can be seen in Hindu–Turk Samvad. ⁷² As B. D. Chattopadhaya has written that there must have been the realisation and acceptance of Many as One, One as Many. ⁷³ It was not the synthesis but the integration. Sunil Kumar brought to notice another aspect which is that while mapping the growth of communities, historians tend to take the evolution of ruling class with the growth of Muslim community. ⁷⁴ Richard Eaton, while working on the rise of Islam in Bengal and the process of Islamisation, focused on how the local Muslim community evolved and the cognitive categories drawn from Islam is matched with those drawn from local traditions to make possible the process of identification. ⁷⁵ Romila Thapar asserts that many times the conflict at the top did not necessarily percolate downwards and at times the tension at the ground level had no effect on the working of ruling elites. ⁷⁶ The genre to which Padmavat belong, that is, premakhyans, is one of the constituents on the basis of which the growth and affiliation of communities could be charted and understood. However, even at the political level, negotiation rather than complete subjugation must have been the accepted norm.

Conclusion

While dealing with the issues of nationalist historiography in the Indian context, Carl Ernst in Eternal Garden writes that when a historian claims that his objective is to show ‘what actually happened’, this is usually a sign that some particularly ingenuous judgements are about to be unleashed. ⁷⁷ It is true that creating the past in its entirety is not possible. What one could try is to construct some portions/episodes or perceive an idea of the past on the basis of empirical data and its cautious application. Conflict was an essential part of the historical past, whether sectarian, religious or political. When any new formation tries to create a space amidst already existing one, struggle is bound to take place, particularly in the initial phase. In case of political formation, the conflict becomes bloodier with the involvement of the warrior class. However, even in the political context, the society could not be divided into binary of subjects and rulers because a state and a long-standing kingdom survives on negotiation and dialogue. State is based on hierarchy which works on the basis of network where power is shared by different groups of people at various levels. Therefore, at both political and social levels, conflict along with co-existence, dialogue and dissent are essential constituents of any society. The historical facts point to a more mixed picture of interaction. There was not the absence of discord, it was very much there, but there was a great deal of concord as well. History is layered, complex.

Ignoring dialogue and concentrating only on dissent is a flawed way of reading the past. Appropriation of one set of data/narrative while sidelining all the rest would present a distorted view of the past. It is ironical as well as paradoxical that a premakhayan text which draws on the motifs derived from multiple traditions is read and presented in modern times as one flashing dichotomy and divisiveness. It points to the ways in which texts are perceived by people belonging to different regions, time period or category. Even in the nineteenth century, there had been several narratives of the life of Padmini: a tale of romance, texts of Sufi mystical love, Rajput’s concept of chivalry and honour, reflective of an ideology. However, in the same century, selective appropriation of narratives and its adoption by print culture popularised and made predominant certain tales, while others depicting alternative themes and written in different literary traditions (in this case, Persian and Urdu) receded to the background. In the same way, when electronic media has taken over and somewhat replaced the print culture among common masses in the twenty-first century, the acceptance and deliverance of one narrative would blur the multiplicity and the variations embedded in the historiography of the story. It would also help in creating a common sense that a majoritarian group has always suffered at the hands of minorities, and any injustice against the latter in the present context is a revelation of poetic justice. It also points to the fact that there is a need on the part of modern historians to bridge the gap between history and popular history because once the masses start considering a projected idea as truth, what historians think become redundant at the social level. The common consciousness decides the day and the course of action irrespective of truth or false. As for the films of the likes of Padmavat, medieval India as reflected in them, is not the absolute representation of medieval. Rather, it reflects either modern/present ideas and thoughts imposed on the medieval past or one of the multiple strands of medieval past selected arbitrarily in a particular context while ignoring the rest. How much liberty should be taken while tampering with history in the name of creativity is a vital and reflective question.