CHAPTER 16 THE HYBRID DAKKHANI CULTURE UNDER THE DECCAN SULTANATES AND VIJAYANAGAR RAJAS : INDIA, HINDUTVA AND HISTORY
CHAPTER 16: THE HYBRID DAKKHANI CULTURE UNDER THE DECCAN SULTANATES AND VIJAYANAGAR RAJAS
United at last, the sweethearts of the Pem Nem (described below) are married and are shown here playing the game of finding the coin in the water which is often performed as part of the ritual celebrations in Hindu weddings. Bijapur. From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.
The formation of the Deccan Sultanates
We left the story in the last chapter with Malik Hasan
Bahri in de facto control of the Bahmani Sultanate as regent to the 12-year-old
crown prince Muhammad. Malik Hasan Bahri’s own son, Malik Ahmad, was governor
of Daulatabad (544).
Bahri kept the young Bahmani Sultan prisoner, and for
a while himself ran affairs in his name in Bidar. But in a few years, the young
Sultan Mahmud managed to overcome Malik Hasan, and had him executed.
The Dakkhanis and African officers, who had always
supported Malik Hasan plotted to dethrone Sultan Mahmud. The plot was discovered,
and the Dakkhanis were subjected to a widespread massacre led by the Afaqis.
However, the Bahmani Sultanate was not able to
recover. Malik Ahmad, son of the executed Hasan Bahri, declared himself the new
Nizam-ul-Mulk. He gathered the support of a number of nobles, found allies in
neighbouring kingdoms, and in 1490 was able to defeat the Bahmani armies.
The Bahmani Sultan still held the greater prestige, so
though Malik Ahmad was in full control, he continued to run affairs in the name
of the Sultan. He built a new capital in Ahmadnagar, thus laying the foundation
of the sultanate of that name.
Later that same year, 1490, Yusuf Adil Khan declared
independence as Sultan of Bijapur, thus founding the Adil Shahi Sultanate. Fathullah
Imad-ul-Mulk did the same, founding the Imad Shahi Sultanate in Berar.
In Bidar, which was still part of the Bahmani
Sultanate, one Qasim Barid had been appointed prime minister by Sultan Mahmud
before the take-over by Malik Ahmad. Qasim Barid remained in control of Bidar
after Malik Ahmad’s defeat of the Bahmani armies. He was succeeded by Amir Ali
Barid. In effect, Bidar had become a separate Sultanate.
The governor of Golconda, Qutb-ul-Mulk, seceded from
Bidar around 1512, establishing the Qutub Shahi Sultanate there.
By the time of the last Bahmani Sultan, Kalimulah,
Babur had taken Delhi. Kalimulah appealed to the Mughal to aid him in regaining
Bidar, but was ignored. Sultan Kalimulah died around 1527, ending the nominal
rule of the Bahmanis in Bidar and Ahmadnagar (545).
In this way, five new Sultanates emerged from the
Bahmani kingdom – Bijapur, Berar, Bidar, Golconda and Ahmadnagar. The
Ahmadnagar Sultanate is also called the Nizam Shahi Sultanate, as it was
founded by the Nizams of the Bahmanis.
Competition Continues in the Deccan Theatre
Saluva Narasimha of the House of Vijayanagar died a
year after the collapse of the Bahmani Sultanate in 1491 (546). He had left his
young sons as successors, appointing his general, Narasa Nayaka as regent. The
elder son, Timmabhupa, was murdered and the younger one, Immadi Narasimha was
crowned.
But Narasa Nayaka decided to take the throne for
himself. He might even have been involved in the killing of Timmabhupa, as he
extended protection to the assassins of the unfortunate prince.
Assuming the royal titles, Narasa Nayaka marched his
men to Vijayanagar. Immadi Narasimha was placed under house arrest, and Narasa
Nayaka ruled in his name.
Narasima Nayaka was a Tulu. This was the effective
commencement of the rule of the Tulus on the Vijayanagar throne, though it
would be some years before they would formally declare themselves rajas.
In 1492-3 while Qasim Barid was still the Nizam of the
Bahmani Sultan, he proposed an alliance with Narasa Nayaka against Yusuf Adil
Shah of Bijapur (547). Narasa Nayaka agreed and was promised the forts of
Raichur and Mudgal in the famous Raichur Doab area in return.
The alliance had some initial success. Vijayanagar
briefly re-occupied the Raichur Doab. But it was lost again after Yusuf Adil
Khan assassinated Narasa Nayaka by luring him to his camp for peace talks. This
was a rouse that Shivaji, whose family served in Ahmadnagar and Bijapur, later
applied himself.
While Vijayanagar was preoccupied with its succession
battles, Tamil country had become increasingly independent under its ruling
governors. There were mostly descendants of Chola, Chera and Pandya rulers.
Srirangapatnam, the island city of the River Kaveri
located in the Karnataka region, was ruled by a Yadava (also known as “Heuna”
or “Seuna”) chief called Nanjaraja. Like Srirangam, the island city in Trichy
of Tamil country, Srirangapatnam, also had a Ranganatha temple.
In the late 1490s, Narasa Nayaka marched into Tamil
country and brought under his suzerainty, Konetiraja of Trichy and Tanjore. It
is claimed that the Vaishnavas of Srirangam had been unhappy with Konetiraja.
Narasa Nayaka also re-established the overlordship of
Vijayanagar over the Chola, Chera and Pandya chiefs south of the River Kaveri, and
all the way to Kanyakumari. He briefly obtained the submission of the Yadava
chief at Srirangapatnam. But the Yadavas eventually took back the island town.
In 1496, the Kalinga (Odisha) raja, Purushottam Gajapati’s
son and successor, Prataprudra, attacked Vijayanagar. Fighting ended with both
sides staying within their borders. Again, it may be noted that all this
fighting was among Hindu rajas, even with Muslim Sultans all around.
When Narasa Nayaka died, his son Vira Narasimha took
office as regent. All this time Immadi Narasimha had continued as nominal king
under permanent house arrent of the Tulu regents. He was assassinated in 1505
and Vira Narasimha declared himself king.
Thus, the third Vijayanagar dynasty, the Tulu Dynasty,
was formally installed, though they had been in effective power since the time
of Narasa Nayaka.
The betrayals and killings that brought Vira Narasimha
to the throne, made him widely unpopular, and he faced rebellion everywhere. He
was aided by the Aravidu clan, which, in a familiar pattern of betrayal by
allies, eventually ousted the Tulus, as we will see.
The Aravidus helped Vira Narasimha fight Yusuf Adil
Khan, who attacked the Vijayanagar holding of Kurnool in Andhra country. Vira
Narasimha rewarded the Aravidus with the fief of Kurnool and neighbouring Adoni
(also in Andhra country).
In a bid to improve his men’s military skills and to import good horses, Vira Narasimha tried to collaborate with the Portuguese who were starting to establish themselves on the west coast of the Deccan Peninsula. In the pages to come, we will follow the story of Vijayanagar and the Portuguese, which shows a very different attitude to “foreigners” to that of the Hindutva-minded.
Communal-Mindedness of Colonial Tamil
Historians
A curious discovery for me while researching this
history was that Tamil historians of the early 20th century would constantly
refer to Muslim rulers as outsiders and inimical to the Hindu faith, while
taking the opposite attitude to Christians and Europeans.
They criticise the Vijayanagar rajas for employing
Muslims in their forces, but have a completely accepting and unquestioning
attitude toward European mercenaries in those same armies.
They raise no questions about how the Pandyas and
Vijayanagar rajas allowed the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English to settle on
Indian territory, even though they well knew when they were writing in the
early 20th century, that this eventually led to the colonisation of
India.
The most striking aspect in the work of these
forebears of Hindutva politics is their ringing endorsement of Christian
missionaries who openly proselytised and engaged in projects of conversion (550).
No Muslim ruler in the Deccan ever went on a mission
of conversion, whereas this was openly a part of the Portuguese policy in India.
This makes the resentment and horror of Muslims expressed by these scholars all
the more egregious, as it reveals it for what it is – not so much “Hindu” pride
or Indian nationalism, as Islamophobia, plain and simple.
These histories, many of which are over a 100-years-old,
are themselves a part of history now and should be studied as such. They are
testament to the presence of an old and intensely anti-Muslim strain of
thinking among some scholarly sections of Tamil society. This finally unlocked
for me the puzzle of why Hindutva found any takers there, when it was such an
obviously and pre-dominantly Hindu place, more so than even North India.
The fact that this kind of history-writing emerged
under British colonial rule also shows the extent to which these Tamil scholars,
who thought of themselves as upholders of the flag of Hinduism, came under the
influence, or were expected to know-tow, and did kow-tow, to the
attitudes of their colonial masters.
For the prejudicial attitude towards Muslims also
existed among the English as among all Europeans at the time, not least for the
reason that they had lost to the Arabs, Turks and Mongols in war for centuries
(and continue to do so!).
The historical research of South India by the British Raj using native Tamil scholars had the unhappy effect of bringing together these two strands of prejudicial thinking to create a communal historical narrative that completely overlooks and suppresses the hybridity, syncretism and multiculturism of Vijayanagar, Bahmani and Sultanate times in the Deccan.
Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagar
Coming back to the murderous history of the Vijayanagar
rajas, Fernao Nunes, the Portuguese chronicler, has written that when Vira
Narasimha was on his death bed, he sent for his minister, Saluva Timma, and
ordered him to put out the eyes of his brother-in-law Krishnadeva Raya in order
to secure the throne for Vira Narasimha’s son.
Fernao Nunes wrote that Saluva Timma kept the dying
king pacified by presenting the eyes of a goat (548).
In this way, Krishnadeva Raya was able to take the throne of Vijayanagar after Vira Narasimha. Krishnadeva Raya is considered one of the greatest rulers of the Vijayanagar kingdom.
From the Krishna Temple in Vijayanagar (Hampi) built by Krishnadeva Raya.
In 1509, he killed Yusuf Adil Khan of Bijapur in battle, and acquired the Andhra fort of Koilkonda. In 1510-11, taking advantage of the pre-occupation of Bijapur and the Bahmanis with their own hostilities, Krishnadeva Raya invaded and won the long-desired Raichur Doab.
He then proceeded to Gulbarga, where Amir Barid was regent
to, or rather effectively the imprisoner of the Bahmani Sultan, Mahmud. Krishna
Raya defeated Amir Barid, freed Sultan Mahmood and established him on the Bahmani
throne under his protection.
Note that even so many years after the establishment
of the Vijayanagar kingdom, Krishnadeva Raya pursued a policy of supporting the
Bahmani throne.
Having seated Sultan Mahmud, Krishnadeva Raya took the
title of “Yavana rajya sthapanacharya” or “the one who appointed the Yavana
(Muslim) ruler”. This again gives the lie to the Hindutva reading of
Vijayanagar-Sultanate relations as the fight of Hindus against Muslims (551).
Krishnadeva Raya also invaded the Ganga principality
of Ummattur with its the river island capital of Sivanasamudram. This was
perhaps the last surviving Ganga bastion in Karnataka territory.
The Ganga Raya gave robust battle for over a year. In
the end, he is said to have drowned in the River Kaveri while fighting, but it
is more likely that once defeat looked certain, he gave up his life in ritual
suicide as was the long-standing tradition of the Gangas and other Jain kings.
After annexing Ummattur, Krishnadeva Raya turned his
attention to the Kalinga possessions in Andhra country. After several years of
fighting, the Kalinga Raja Prataprudra sued for peace.
It was agreed that territories north of the Krishna
River would remain with Kalinga, while those south would be Vijayanagar’s. Krishnadeva
Raya married one of Kalinga Prataprudra’s daughters to seal the alliance.
Under Krishnadeva Raya’s reign, close ties were established
between Vijayanagar and the Portuguese. At this time, Goa was in the hands of
Bijapur. Krishnadeva Raya and Portugal made common cause against Bijapur, which
made continual attempts to retake the Raichur Doab from Vijayanagar.
Krishnadeva Raya gave the Portuguese permission to set
up a fort in the coastal town of Bhatkal. They sent him soldiers to remove
Bijapur from the Raichur Doab. The alliance with Vijayanagar greatly aided the
Portuguese in consolidating their hold over Goa, which they eventually
colonised, as we know.
The Emergence of the
Madurai and Tanjore Nayakas
In the 1520s, Krishnadeva
Raya also appointed Nayaka governors in Tamil country. Chola regions, then consisting
of Tanjore and Trichy, were placed under one Vira Narasimha. Pandya regions, centred
around Madurai, were placed under one Nagama Nayaka (552).
However, as before, the
direct rulers of these areas remained the Cholas in Tanjore and Trichy, and the
Pandyas in the southern coastal regions bordering Kerala country on the west
and reaching upto Kanyakumari in the south.
War broke out between the
Cholas and Pandyas and the latter are said to have appealed to Krishnadeva Raya
to intervene. The Vijayanagar king responded by merging Chola and Pandya
country into a single principality under a new governor, Vishvanatha Nayaka,
the son of Nagama Nayaka. Vishvanatha Nayaka established his headquarters at
Madurai.
The new governorship included Tanjore, northern
districts of modern-day Madurai and the important eastern coastal district of
Ramnad. The latter was also known as Ramanathapuram and was traditionally
considered the gateway to Tamil country from the seas.
In southern Madurai and Tirunelveli (also known as
“Tinnevelly” or “Nellai”, in the southeast of Tamil country), the ruling Pandya
chiefs remained in place as tributaries of Vijayanagar. They also remained in
place as tributaries of Vijayanagar in Tenakasi, in the south-west of Tamil
country.
The Rise of Rama Raya
Around 1520, when Krishnadeva Raya was fighting in
Odisha, Bijapur managed to take the Raichur Doab. Krishnadeva Raya retaliated
ferociously, and was able to retrieve it. In this battle he was greatly aided
by the use of Portuguese gunmen.
He fought Bijapur again in 1523. On this campaign,
after plundering Bijapur, he marched on Gulbarga which was still under a
nominal Bahmani Sultan. The hapless Sultan and his brothers were again being
held prisoner by their regents. Krishna Raya freed the Bahmanis, installing the
eldest as sultan.
He also adopted the remaining Bahmani sons, taking
them to Vijayanagar. This was the depth of the friendship between the Bahmanis
and Vijayanagar. It was also in keeping with the convention of the time where
the victorious king would take care of the children of the defeated one. This
was also the principle at play for the taking into their kingdoms by victorious
kings of the young in the defeated territories who were orphaned or lost in
war.
Perhaps in an attempt to save his son from the fate of
other heirs apparent in the Deccan, Krishnadeva Raya had him crowned king while
yet six-years-old and took up post as regent. Tragically, his courtiers
poisoned the child. Krishnadeva Raya ruled for another five years. He was
succeeded in 1529 by his half-brother Achyuta Raya.
Krishnadeva Raya had kept his half-brother Achyuta
Raya and other princes of his family confined to Chandragiri so long as he was
alive to avoid any threat from them. The threat posed by family members was the
abiding political concern of the age, rather than any inter-religious conflict.
Intrigue and rival moves on the throne began
immediately upon Krishnadeva Raya’s death. While Achyuta Raya was en route
to Vijayanagar, Krishnadeva Raya’s son-in-law, Rama Raya, proclaimed an infant
son of Krishnadeva Raya’s king (553). Achyuta Raya countered by holding
coronation ceremonies for himself at major temple towns such as Tirupati and
Kalahasti, and continued his march to Vijayanagar.
Rama Raya had served in the Golconda armies as a young
officer before marrying into the Vijayanagar family (554, 549). In 1512 the
Golconda Sultan, Quli Qutab ul Mulk, had seized a Vijayanagari fortress near
his domains, possibly Rajakonda in Andhra country. Rama Raya was placed in
charge of the fort and surrounding districts.
Three years later, later when the region was invaded
by Bijapur, Rama Raya was dismissed by Golconda. Apparently Golconda was
unhappy with how Rama Raya had handled the attack.
Rama Raya then took up service with Krishnadeva Raya under
whom he rose to great heights, eventually marrying one of Krishnadeva Raya’s
daughters. A brother of Rama Raya’s called Tirumala also distinguished himself
in the service of Krishnadeva Raya, and married another of king’s daughters (555).
The historian Richard Eaton rightly says in respect of Rama Raya:
“That the son of a prominent Vijayanagar general could so
readily take up service in the army of the sultan of Golkonda suggests that for
elite soldiers at least, the entire Deccan constituted a seamless arena of
opportunity, and not, as many historians have imagined, a land divided into a
“Muslim” north and “Hindu” south, with the Krishna River running between them
(556).”
The same could be said of Hakka and Bukka who were at
various points in the armies of the rajas of Warangal, Kampili and Tughlaq,
growing their jagirs and troops until they became rajas of a vast kingdom in
their own right.
Rama Raya seems to have made friends and connections in the Deccan Sultanates during his Golconda days which served him well in later years, as we will see.
The Vijayanagar rajas and princes, and their ministers
and regents were Dakkhani figures, belonging to the Dakkhani culture that spanned
the entire region at the time, transcending its linguistic, ethnic and
religious lines. This was a culture and a milieu that thrived in the Deccan for
nearly 500 years from Khilji to the establishment of the Madras Presidency
under the English East India Company.
When Achyuta Raya reached Vijayanagar, an agreement
was made for shared power between him and Rama Raya. The infant son of Krishnadeva
Raya, in whose name Rama Raya was exercising authority, died, or, more likely,
was killed.
But Rama Raya managed to imprison Achyuta Raya, and
proclaimed himself king. This was opposed by the nobles, so he had crowned a
young nephew of Achyuta Raya’s called Sadashiva.
Soon after, trouble broke out in the southern regions
of the kingdom. Rama Raya had to leave Vijayanagar to settle matters there.
In his absence, Achuta Raya was freed. Ibrahim Adil Shah
of Bijapur stepped in to mediate between the two rayas. This shows the extent
of the camaraderie and trust between the Vijayanagar rayas and the Deccan sultans,
notwithstanding territorial disputes.
The deeper you go into the history of the time, the
more distorted is the communal interpretation revealed to be of the relations
among the Hindu and Muslim rulers of the Deccan.
When he took the Bijapur throne in 1535, Ibrahim Adil
Shah of Bijapur dismissed many of the Persians who had served the previous
regime and employed Dakkhanis and Brahmins in their place. He also changed the
official language of the court from Persian to Marathi and Kannada (557).
It was at this time that the Bijapur and Ahmadnagar
Sultanates began to recruit large numbers of Maratha soldiers. Shivaji’s
ancestors rose from the Maratha commanders of the Bijapur Sultanate. The title
of “Peshwa” originated in the Ahmadnagar Sultanate, which had a Hindu (Brahmin) Prime Minister (558).
In the matter of the Vijayanagar rajas, Ibrahim Adil
Shah was able to broker an agreement between the two sides, whereby Rama Raya
would be given a significant estate in the south, and Achyuta Raya would be
king. This agreement endured till the death of Achyuta Raya.
Under Achyuta Raya, Tamil
country was once more divided, with Tanjore being given to the charge of one Sevappa
Nayaka. Trichy remained with Madurai under Visvanatha Nayaka (who, as mentioned
above, had been appointed by Krishnadeva Raya), in exchange for Vallam (near and
south of the River Kaveri), which was merged into the Tanjore governorship (559).
Visvanatha Nayaka
appointed one Ariyanatha as his deputy in the southern districts of Madurai.
Ariyanatha brought the ruling “Pancha Pandyas” of Tirunelveli, into allegiance.
He also entered into an alliance with the Pandyas of Tenakasi, and married a
Pandya princess.
It is said that the Portuguese plundered temples in
South India at this time, including the Tirupati temple. However, Hindutva
ideologues may note that Vijayanagar appears not to have retaliated.
Achyuta Raya died leaving his young son Venkata on the
throne, with his maternal uncle Salakaraju Tirumala as regent. Venkata’s
mother, however, suspected Tirumala of plotting to capture the throne for
himself, and appealed to Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur for help. Ibrahim Adil Shah
was clearly much favoured in Achyuta Raya’s family. However, Tirumala persuaded
Ibrahim Adil Shah to support him instead (560).
Rama Raya now made his move. He produced the hapless
Sadashiva, who had been kept imprisoned since
the days of Achyuta Raya, and proclaimed him king once more. Rama Raya now
appealed to Bijapur for help.
Ibrahim Adil Shah invaded Vijayanagar, but was
defeated by Tirumala. Fighting continued between Rama Raya and Tirumala. In the
end, Tirumala was killed by Rama Raya. He installed Sadashiva on the throne,
but was effectively in power himself. From this point on, we have the Aravidu dynasty on
the throne of Vijayanagar.
In the meanwhile, there was trouble in Golconda.
Sultan Quli Qutab ul Mulk, Rama Raya’s one-time employer, had been killed by Jamsheed,
his son. Jamsheed’s brother, Ibrahim, fled to Vijayanagar for asylum.
It was 1534. Rama Raya and Ibrahim Qutb Shah (not to
be confused with Ibrahim Adil Shahs I and II of Bijapur) must have become
acquainted when the raja served as a commander in Golconda.
Ibrahim stayed in Vijayanagar for seven years. While
there, he married a Hindu Vijayanagari aristocrat called Bhagirathi (561). Rama
Raya supported his claim to Golconda, and Ibrahim eventually won that Sultanate
for himself.
Like his namesake in Bijapur before him, Ibrahim Qutab
Shah also emerges as a culturally hybrid creature of the Deccan. He became a
great patron of Telugu, which was the lingua franca of his people,
Golconda being situated in Andhra country (specifically in today’s Telangana).
He invited many Hindu scholars and poets to his court.
He is called “Ibrahim Chakravarti” in Telugu works, and was known to have
admired the Telugu version of the Mahabharata (562). He commissioned a
brilliant Hindu poet of the time, Addanki Gangadharakavi, to write ‘Tapati and
Samvarana’ a romance in the Telugu language based on one of the stories in the
Mahabharata.
This encouraged other noblemen and writers to
patronise the Telugu language. Many Telugu works were commissioned and composed
in this time. In the syncretic milieu of the time, often the patron would be a
Muslim worthy, while the writer would be a scholarly Brahmin (563).
Incidentally, Telugu was also at the time the principal
language in the Vijayanagar court.
Sultan Ibrahim of Golconda and his successors retained
the Telugu Nayakars as their governors and chiefs in various Golconda
principalities. They employed Niyogi Brahmins almost exclusively in their
bureaucracy.
By the end of the 17th century, edicts in
Golconda were inscribed in Telugu, and Persian was used only for a short
summary.
Golconda was not the only Sultanate with which
Vijayanagar had warm relations. Ties between Vijayanagar and Bijapur were so
affectionate, that when Rama Raya lost a son in 1558, the then sultan of
Bijapur, Ali Adil Shah I, came to Vijayanagar to offer his condolences in
person, and stayed for several days.
Touched by the gesture, Rama Raya’s queen called Ali
Adil Shah her own son, “farzand”. This was a common phrase used by the queens
of the Deccan Sultanates for showing fondness to a young prince or when taking one
into their care.
Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah Bijapuri II, who was born in 1580, the year of the passing of Ibrahim of Golconda, was every inch a product of the religious, ethnic and social diversity of the Deccan in his time. He was a great patron of the arts, and an accomplished musician, poet and calligraphist. He commissioned paintings that are among the finest examples of Dakkhani miniature art.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, Dakkhani miniature art combines the visual idiom of South Indian scroll and other painting with that of Turko-Persian miniature art and calligraphy. The paintings are immediately recognisable by their exceptionally rich and detailed embellishments, and the landscape and foliage of the Deccan, which typically forms the setting in which their subjects are depicted (10).
As I said in the opening chapter, Dakkhani miniature art has an exuberance, whimsy and expressive creativity that surpasses the whole repertoire of the later Mughal, Rajput and Pahari miniature art. The earliest ragamala paintings, where the raga is depicted in visual form linking it to the seasons, and a nayik or nayika (hero or heroine) figure, may have come from here.
In paintings of himself, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah is often depicted with a veena. He is said to have sung dhrupad. He wrote a marvellous book of songs and couplets called the Kitab-e-Nauras, in which “nauras” means the “Nava Rasas”, i.e., the nine moods into which the ancient Indian arts were traditionally categorised, and which have been described in previous chapters (564).
So fascinated was Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah by the idea
of the Navarasas, that he even gave the name of “Nauraspur” to a township that
he had built outside Bijapur.
In a pointed departure from the courtly use of
Persian, he wrote the Kitab-e-Nauras in Dakkhani, the language that evolved
from the Hindavi of the North, and was in vogue among his Dakkhani subjects.
Each song in the Kitab-e-Nauras, is assigned a raga.
Sultan Ibrahim began the Kitab-e-Nauras by signalling
the composite religious consciousness typical of the hybrid creature that he
was, with an homage in verse to the Hindu deities of Ganesha and Saraswati, as
well as the Prophet Muhammed and the Chistia sufi patron of the Deccan
Sultanates, Gisu Daraz. In some paintings of himself he is shown with a bindi
on his forehead, and alta on his fingers.
Ibrahim Adil Shah II’s feeling for Hinduism is
eloquently conveyed in the miniature painting “Saraswati Plays on the Vina” by
one of his leading artists, which depicts Goddess Saraswati, the Hindu deity of
learning and music, sitting on a gorgeous golden throne.
Her vahana, the peacock, strikes a pose in the foreground. Above her hangs a painting-within-the-painting that depicts the Sultan on his favourite elephant, Atash Khan. In a calligraphic inscription in the painting, the artist, Farrukh Hussain, takes lines from the verse in the Kitab-e-Nauras where Ibrahim describes himself as the son of Ganesha and Saraswati.
Some of Ibrahim’s state decrees may have been issued with a dedication to “pujjya sri Saraswati”. Ibrahim’s wide understanding of native South Indian languages, texts and arts earned him the popular title of “jagat guru”, meaning Teacher of the World.
Ibrahim Adil Shah II also commissioned a Dakkhani epic
poem called the “Pem Nem” or “Song of Love”. This is written in the genre of sufi literature that depicts the
devotee’s longing for the Divine in the form of a lover searching for his or
her beloved (565).
Often the lover speaks in the female voice, though in the Pem Nem, both the male and the female of the couple that form the story’s protagonists are depicted. This device of using the female voice to express devotion is also deployed in Hindu Bhakti writing as described in previous chapters.
The tradition of the feminine as representing the height of devotion was developed into a popular subject in Bijapuri miniature art where the wandering ascetic is often presented in the form of a female (566).
Among the many fascinating illustrated texts commissioned by the Bijapur sultans, is the marvellously titled “Ajaib al-makhluqat wa gharaib al mawjudat” – “The Wonders of Creation and the Marvels of Existence”. The title is a play on the Hindavi-Dakkhani expression, “ajeeb-o-ghareeb” meaning strange, outlandish or bizarre (567). This expression continues to be used in Hindi and Urdu till today.
Illustration
from a copy of Ajaib al-makhluqat wa gharaib al mawjudat. Golconda or Bijapur.
Rama Raya and the Portuguese
Coming back to the story of Rama Raya, the Portuguese
and Christian missionaries continued to consolidate in Goa, and also all along
the east coast of Tamil country in his reign. The Portuguese are said to have demolished
temples and planned a raid on the one at Kanchipuram.
They grew bold enough to attack the Vijayanagar Fort at Bhatkal. But Rama Raya wanted to make terms with the Portuguese as he was focussed on the trade controlled by them in horses, guns and mercenaries (568).
Apart from a raid at the San Thome church in Chennai
and another in Goa, Rama Raya does not appear to have taken any action against
the Portuguese. In 1547, he made a treaty with the Portuguese Governor of Goa
that gave him a monopoly of the horse trade from there.
It is clear, therefore, that temples did not have the
same all-abiding political consequence then as they have been made into now,
not even to the rajas in whose name and memory the votaries of Hindutva claim
to be fighting.
Rama Raya Emerges as Chief Arbiter in the
Deccan
In 1543, Rama Raya aided the Sultan of Ahmadnagar in
capturing the Fort of Kalyani from the Bidar Sultanate. From 1550 onwards, the
same year that his friend and ally, Ibrahim Qutb Shah, came to the throne of
Golconda, inscriptions in Vijayanagar describe Rama Raya as co-ruler with
Sadashiva.
This practice of an able general acquiring power in a kingdom while taking care to keep in place a scion of the older
ruling dynasty as de jure ruler was a common feature in the history of
the Deccan. Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan did the same in the years to come in
Mysore.
In 1557, when all the Sultanates were getting dragged
into war, Ibrahim Adil Shah I of Bijapur, who had once mediated between the
Vijayanagar aristocrats, now appealed to Rama Raya to do the same for the
Sultans.
A very interesting agreement emerged from this which
looks like an ancestor of the United Nations Charter. It is a shame that all
the focus in history, for lay people atleast, remains on wars, and nothing is
known of the treaties and alliances that kings of the medieval age most
certainly made.
Rama Raya brokered a meeting with all the Sultans at the junction of the Bhima and Krishna rivers. A treaty was agreed that provided that if any one of the parties was unjustly attacked by any other, all the other parties would come to its aid (569).
The peace treaty was tested in three years’ time when
Husain Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar invaded Bijapur. The Sultan Ali Adil Shah of
Bijapur fled to Vijayanagar for asylum.
Rama Raya and Golconda successfully reigned in Ahmadnagar.
Vijayanagar was now bigger than any of the Sultanates individually, so Rama
Raya was able to act as peace maker and refuge in several disputes among the
Sultans.
But alliances were difficult to maintain for long in
the intensely competitive arena of the Deccan. Politics then was no less
rapacious and replete with hard choices then, as it is now.
By 1563, Rama Raya’s peace treaty was in tatters.
Golconda and Ahmadnagar had joined hands against Bijapur. Rama Raya went to the
aid of Bijapur, and also attacked Golconda separately.
Though Rama Raya was victorious, the relationship with
his old friend Sultan Ibrahim Qutb Shah of Golconda broke down. In fact, Rama
Raya found himself in the position of many a mediator – on the wrong side of
all the parties!
The Battle of Talikota
Matters came to a head with the Battle of Talikota in
1565. Except possibly for Berar, all the Sultans had combined against Rama
Raya. He was defeated and beheaded. Two of his Muslim commanders are said to
have walked over to the other side in the midst of battle.
The denouement at Talikota was a great pity. This is
not so much because of the battle itself, for so many had been fought by the
same actors. But the combination of the Sultans against Rama Raya left as
an enduring legacy the notion of a historic divide between the Hindus of the
Deccan on the one hand, and the Muslims of the Deccan on the other.
In fact, there was no such communal divide. Both the
rajas and the sultans had ethnically and communally mixed armies. Rama Raya
recruited many of the Persian soldiers that Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah I had dismissed
to recruit Brahmins, Marathas and Dakkhanis instead in Bijapur.
From the start, Vijayanagar had thousands of Muslim
soldiers, while the Sultanates had thousands of Hindu ones. Alliances between the
Vijayanagari rajas and Deccan Sultans continued for centuries, even after the
Battle of Talikota, as we will see.
For me, writing this in Delhi, having lived all my
life in an inter-communal milieu, the lack of any communal feeling between the
rajas of Vijayanagar and the sultans of the Deccan leaps out from the pages of
their story.
The warmth and affection, the mutual respect, the
friendships formed over studying and working together, the inter-marriages, the
exchange of condolences at times of loss, the celebration of each other’s arts
and traditions, the pride in the new aesthetics and traditions that evolved out
of the exchange between these two – all these things which people like
Nilakanta Sastri and SK Aiyangar so dismissively record or overlook, are one of
the abiding joys of belonging to a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic
setting.
It is for this that secularists like me in India fight
so passionately.
The wars were part of the business of kingship. By now
the reader will have seen how for millennia the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras,
Gangas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas and so many other South Indian royal
houses were constantly at war with each other, while also forming alliances and
marrying into each other’s families.
This is only unimaginable for those who do not have an
understanding of the true warrior ethic – which does not see war in the bitter,
personal terms of Hindutva-thinking, and understands that you can respect your
adversary, even when you fight him to the death.
In the context of this discussion, it is worth
noting the following description of relations between Muslim royalty, Ethiopian
officers, and Hindus and Muslims of all ranks in this extract from the Tarikh-e-Muhammad
Qutb Shah, a chronical of the Golconda Sultanate (570):
“Prince Ibrahim [of Golconda], accompanied by Saiyid
Hayy, Hamid Khan [an Ethiopian]…and Kanaji, a Brahmin….left the camp of [the
Sultan of Bidar] and proceeded to Vijayanagara. On his arrival the Prince was
received according to his rank and treated with the utmost respect and
attention….At some former period Malik Ain al Mulk Gilani, having offended [the
Sultan of Bijapur], left his service and entered that of Rama Raya, with four
thousand cavalry. Ain al Mulk had on many occasions so distinguished himself by
his bravery that the Raja [Rama Raya] used to call him brother.”
When Rama Raya fell, his brother Tirumala decamped to
Penukonda in Andhra country with as much of Vijayanagar’s treasure as he could
carry. Vijayanagar was left to its fate of plunder by the victorious Sultans’
armies. The capital of the Vijayanagar rajas was now shifted to Penukonda.
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