Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Historians of Medieval India

    Uploaded by

    Stanzin Phantok
    184 views291 pages

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    184 views291 pages

    Historians of Medieval India

    Uploaded by

    Stanzin Phantok

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 291
    IHSTORIANS OF MLDILVAL INDIA HISTORIANS OF MEDIEVAL INDIA Edited by MOHIBBUL HASAN Professor of Indian History and Cufture, Jamia Mitha Islamia With a Foreword by MUHAMMAD MUJEEB Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia [ig] meewaxsm PRAKASHAN ME ocGuM BRIDGE MEERUT CONTRIBUTORS Qexamuppin Anwab 1s a Lecturer in History in Patna University Syep HASAN AskaRI 1s the Director of K P Jasawal Research Institute Patna ZH Farvugi is Dean of the Faculty of Humamties and Social Sciences Jamia Milka Islamia, New Delht SuRENDRA Gora 1s 3 Lecturer in History in Patna University B N Goswamt 1s Reader tn Fine Arts in the Punjab University JS Grewacris 1 Lecturer in History in the Punjab University B R Grover 1s Reader in Indian History and Culture in the Jamia Milha Islamia Monipsut Hasan is Professor of Indian History and Culture in the Jamia Malha Islamia ZAHIRUDDIN MALIK 1s Reader in History m Aligarh Mushm University S C Misra is Professor of History sn the University of Baroda MuHanttAD Museen is Vice Chancellor of the Jamia Milha Islamia K A Nrzamiis Professor of History m Alicarh Mushm University Buppwa PRakast 1s Professor of History and Director of the Institute of Indic Studies m Kurukshetra University SAA Rizvt 1s Rewer in History in Jammu and Kashmir University P Saran as Associate Professor of History in Osmania Unversity JAGADISH NaRAYAN SARBAR 15 Professor of Medieval Indian History in Jadavpur University K AK Stara is Head of the Department of History in N A S College, Meerut H K Sterwant was formerly Professor of History in Osmania University Nowan Au\tab Sippiq: is Reider in History in Aligarh Mushm Unnersity Ganva Sixcu is the Director of Punjab Historical Institute in the Punjabi University, Patiala Pusitea Suri is a Lecttiter im Histofy in the Government College for Women Unnwersity of Delhr Rowita Trarar 1s Reader in History in the Unwersity of Dethi Munastap Uwar is 1 Lecturer in History m the Rural Institute Jamia Millia fslamia . VW FORTWORD These problems require thorough study and detailed treat- Thave referred to them merely to suggest that 1f we do mat Jook at only parts of 3t, but get a perspective on the whole, the landscape of our history may have a totatly different appearance. We may find im it features which we see im the Jandscape of our life asit 18 today, and Indian history may, ina real sense, become our history ment Thave often the uncomfortable feeling—I do not know how many share it with me—that our history 1s stil something apart from us, without any contemporary meaning It 1s hustory im the academic sense, hke the history of Greece or Rome or medieval Europe, with which we can identify ourselves imaginatively because it 18 an mmtegral part of human expertence, but it 1s not our history Similarly, medieval Indian statesmen do not seem to have been concerned to solve our problems, their endeavours and achievements are thers, and end with them The Saais and Sufis have been more fortunate but even they are still divided up among those who ‘\enerate them, and become national figures only on certam occa- sions = 1f we trace influence of any kind, spiritual or social, it 1s net to seek an inner harmeny underlying essential differences, but to Tub ont here and there what seem to be dividing Jines Some of us unable to acknowledge any relationship with the events and perso- nalhties of the medreval periad, go to the extreme of dreaming up In a remote past what we find admurable tn the present, nattonalism, democracy, lacal self government, af not the most modern screntific Giscoveries and technological inventions, and almost believe they INTRODUCTION Muslims have always had a great sense of history which could be traced to Prophet Mohammad himself. That is why from the earhest days af Islam works began to be composed on the lives of the Prophet, the Caliphs, Sultans and nobles. ‘These were at first exclusively written in Arabic, the language of the Quran and of the intellectual classes. But from the second half of the tenth century, with the revival of Persian nationalism and the adoption of Persian language and culture by the Turkish dynasties, historical works began to be written in Persian, too. When the Muslims came to India, they brought with them the Persian tradition of history writing, and it was kept up by the emigrants from Persia and Centra) Asta, From the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries, therefore, a huge mass of historical Titerature consisting of general, dynastic, and regional histories, biographies and memoirs, was produced. It is these historical writings in Persian which have served as the main source for the history of medieval India, But unfortu- nately, they have nat been properly assessed and studied with refer- ence to their author’s social, cultural and religious backgrounds, methods, forms of expression and concept of history. This has resulted in an incomplete and distorted picture of the past. INTRODUCTION vw Histonans of the Provincial Dynasties Mughal Historians Mastorsans sn non-Persian languages Modern Histonans of Medieval India Although the present volume, as 18 evident from the titles, covers a sufficiently wide field and long perzod, still important gaps have remamned However, by bringing out the trends and methods of some leading medieval and modern historians of medieval Indi, and by pointing out the sigmficance of the saurces in Indrin langu- ages, this work will, 1t 1s hoped, enable the student to hase a better insight into an understanding of medieval India and to avoid the Pitfalls mto which his predecessors had fallen while writing about it Tt has been pornted out at the outset that the Muslims have always been conscious of the past The same, however, cannot be said of the Hindus The only part of India where a tradition of historical writing 1s known to hase existed in the pre Sultanate Perrod is Kashmir = Thrs was because of the persistence of Buddhism in the Vafley with ats greater historical sense than Brahmanism, and also because of the influence of the Greek, Chinese and Islamic cultures This explains why Kalhana’s Rasatarangins ‘1s unique as the only attempt af true history rn the whole of surviving Sanskrit Titerature * [te 1s true that Kafhana suffers from many hmitatons He bases hiss account on traditions and fegends, and tries to explain esents by supernatural causes tke Karma, fate, witchcraft But he also makes use of written records and imseriphons, and en his Fast two books gives other causal explananons Kalhana had an analytical mind, and showed evidence of bistorscal understanding But his successors, Jonaraja, Shrivara, Prayyabhatta and Shuka, who tried to emulate him, did not reveal the same grasp of historical processes The period of the Sultanate of Delht and the focal dynasties ts extremely nich in historical writings But to use these properly it 15 necessary to have a clear understanding of the mentality of the men who wrote them. The first question that arises as why did they wote at ali? The answer ts that they wrote for different reasons, for fame, for reward, for pleasing thar patrons, for the edification of there contemporaries and the future generations, for preserving the memory of the achievements of Muslim rulers aod for justifying the wass of God to man The medieval historsans took their craft seriously and held a very high view of histarmy = Barans, for mstarce, consid-red history nA bh vi INTRODUCTION and the Im-ul Hadts as twins, and believed that a lustorian should be devoted to truth and should eschew exaggerations and verbose language But unfortunately, because most of the medieval historians were connected with the court, they were not only not able to write what they felt to be true, they mdulged in panegyrics of their patrons Besides, many of them, hke Minhaj-us-Siray, Hasan Nizam, Amur Khusrau and Barant were of aristocratic origin which Ted them to weave their story round kings and nobles and ignore the life and conditions of the common people Furthermore, since they were orthodox Muslims and lived sn an age when men’s minds were dominated by religion, they adopted an idiom and technique which would make ther narrative intelligible and appealing to their readers This explains why they tried to depict the medieval tulers as champions of Islam and to prove this they indulged m gross exaggerations and rhetoric Their statements should not, therefore, be tiken too literally tas necessary to go beneath the surface of their verbose and hyperbolic Iinguage to get at the truth They furnish, as Peter Hardy observes, the raw material of history, but it has to be processed and refined before being turned into the finished product The medieval historians constantly refer to God as the final cause of all happenings But this was inevitable in a socrety donn- nated by the Asharite theology However, this does not mean that material factors were entirely ignored © Many instances can be cited ta show that medieval writers do try te explain events m= terms of human factors—court mtrigues, administrative measures, foreign policies or ambitions of kings and nobles After all, despite their religious pretensions, they were worldly men writing about worldly things for worldly men to promote worldly aims What the medieval historians lack most 1s an understanding of the social and economic forces that brig about vital changes in societies and fall of kingdoms However, 1t would not be correct to svy that they ‘treat histery as a sequence of events, often isolated and without obvious relationships’ The historical writings of the Period reveal that the medieval histormans—and thts mneludes the Mughal fustorians also—were conscious of change and of relation ships between ideas, events and institutions of one reign with those of another The very fact that many of them were not content to write merely the history of a single reign, but wrote accounts of dynasties, shows that they were aware of the socal, political and religious developments and relationships between events i INTRODUCTION

    You might also like