Premodern states often revolved around the persona of the ruler, who used to define his authority in a complex manner by employing divine and temporal logics. A show of brutality and display of benevolence was a common feature of those times. Court historians have recorded these events over-enthusiastically since this was expected from them. Such displays and descriptions were meant for the people who hang around the king—the courtiers, the nobles and the army generals. For the masses, however, they had created a replica of the royal court in royal tombs, which not only gave a glimpse of the real court but also presented the benevolent side of the ruler.
Lofty buildings and their impressive designs can be found in the Indian subcontinent from the beginning of Muslim political dominance of the region. Most of the royal tombs contained ribat, madrassa or at least a place for the recitation of Quran. A number of officials from hashiya, those who did ‘menial’ jobs to the arbab, imam and reciters of Quran were attached to these tombs. They were made lively by supporting them with a waqf—a legal device, by which the corpus property is tied to the name of God, thus barring its transfer by sale, inheritance or mortgage, and the usufruct of it goes for the purpose enumerated by the Waqif, the creator of the waqf. Thus the tomb and its activities get an institutional character. It seems, apart from the religious buildings, only the royal tombs survived the ravages of time just because of their institutionalization as a waqf. (it is, however, a different matter that the waqf attached to these monuments were seized or the monument was deliberately deinstitutionalized at different points in time.). Ainuddin Mahru[i] and Shamsh Siraj Afif mention creation of waqf for the maintenance of tomb of erstwhile rulers.[ii] Ibn-i Batuta discusses functioning of the tomb in details since he was appointed mutuwalli of such a tomb patronized by Muhammad bin Tughlaq, interestingly, not of his father and predecessor, which one would think could have been an obvious choice, but of his old master Sultan Qutub uddin Khilji (d. 1320), whose murder was avenged by the Ghazi Malik (later Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq) by killing Khusro Khan the Naib of the Sultanate and inaugurated the Tughlaq dynasty.
The Moroccan traveller says that Muhammad Tughlaq venerated Qutubuddin Khalji, because he had been one of the confidants of the late Sultan. Ibn-i-Batuta, who was serving as the Chief Qazi of Delhi was made mutuwalli (custodian/ manager) of the tomb. He informs us that Qutubuddin’s shoes and other possessions which were required by the dead sultan in his lifetime were kept near the tomb, thus horses and elephants had also to be kept in the tomb. A number of hashiya officers like silahdar (arms-bearer), nezadaar (spearmen), chhatradaar (canopy-bearer), tashtdaar (person responsible for washing hand and feet of the Sultan), hajib (chamberlain), naqeeb and chobdaar (mace-bearer) along with saqqas (water-career), tanbolis (betel-man) and daudis (runners), apart from a band of two hundred and fifty khatmi (reciter of Quran), one imam, many qaris, mu‘azzins and mukabbir (one who recite takbir during the namaz) were appointed in the service of the tomb. The tomb also housed eighty students and their teachers. The Mutuwalli of the tomb was also responsible for feeding at least eighty sufis’ daily. In total there was a band of four hundred and sixty staff on the payroll of the tomb. Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq had ordered distribution of food made of twelve mans of meat and twelve mans of flour, which was not sufficient for the people dependent on the tomb, therefore, the mutuwalli had to increase the quantity to thirty-five mans. All these expenses were met from the waqf comprising twenty villages, which was purchased by the Mutuwalli on orders of the Sultan.[iii]
Ibn-i-Batuta, the Qazi of Delhi and a man who was responsible for feeding people from the tomb waqf shot to fame at a time when people were facing scarcity of food in the capital. His fame reached Daulatabad, where the sultan had taken almost a permanent residence, that people like him are boon for the city of Delhi at a time when it was facing severe drought and scarcity. Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq praised him a lot and rewarded him with some money for construction of his house. Further, the Sultan allotted one lakh man of food-grain over and above of the waqf income for the continuing the distribution of food to the people. Ibn-i-Batuta was further made in charge of a khanqah too so that he can feed a greater number of people. However, this inchargeship was a kind of reward for him from the sultan. Batuta himself admits that the responsibility of purchasing the twenty villages for creating the waqf was intentionally meant to reward him with the brokerage in the deal. Likewise, the management of the khanqah was also a way of rewarding him for his good work in the tomb management. The khanqahs of those times were perhaps more than a centre of learning, since Shamsh Siraj Afif says that ‘in Delhi alone, 120 khanqahs were established for ‘people of God’, where three days one could stay as royal guest in each of the khanqah, so in total one can stay for all 360 days of the year if he wishes so, and all these were funded by waqf.’[iv]
Looking at the number and variety of staff along with those who got their rozinas from the tomb, one can safely say that the tomb must have been a site of different rituals which were identical to that of those performed at the royal court apart from the regular recital of Quran and dissemination of knowledge. The core of the rituals involved officers like the Chhatradar (canopy bearer), Hajib, Naqeeb and Chobdar (mace-bearer) who were also the core of the officers at a royal court—maintainer of the court culture. It seems, in those rituals the reigning Sultan too had some important role to play. Batuta says that the Sultan, whenever visited the tomb, he used to put the shoes of the late Sultan over his head to pay his respect to the Sultan. Special meals were cooked on the death anniversary of the late sultan for the free langar. The practice of cooking special meals on the days of Eid-i-Milad (birthday of the Prophet Muhammad), Shab-i-Barat and on the days of mourning of Muharram was further added by the mutuwalli to benefit the common masses.
The langar and the celebration of the death anniversaries (urs) of the departed soul are the common sufi feature added to the royal tombs. We notice such activities continuing till the times of the Mughals. Gulbadan Begum talks of the establishment of a waqf consisting ‘whole Sikri together with five laks charged on Byana’ for the maintenance and upkeep of her father, Emperor Babur’s tomb at Ram/Aram Bagh and for the support of the sixty reciters of the Quran & ulema attached to it. And Mohammed Ali Apsas (?) was appointed mutuwalli by Emperor Humayun. She also mentions that Humayun’s mother Maham Begum made an allowance—from “her own estate—of food twice daily: in the morning an ox and two sheep and five goats, and zohar five goats till she remained in the prison of this world (i.e. two and a half years)” for those attached to the tomb.[v] Emperor Humayun’s tomb was looked after by his wife Haji Begum, who ‘in order to perform the duties, taken up her abode near the tomb.’[vi] Akbar paid several visits to his father’s tomb and he used to distribute gifts and charities to the custodians of the mausoleum.[vii] This practice of distribution of langar and celebrations of urs was further institutionalized by Emperor Shahjahan who established a waqf of 30 villages[viii] from the environs of Agra yielding a yearly income of 40 lakh dams (equal to 1 lakh rupees) and rents from the sarais and bazaar of Mumtazabad, also yielding 1 lakh rupees yearly for the famous Taj Mahal. The income from the waqf was to be spent on the maintenance of the rauza-i-mannuwara, annual Urs (death anniversary) and for the payment of salaries to the people attached with the rauza (tomb) and a huge amount in charities were distributed during the Urs. Apart from the regular expenses whatever surplus might remain were left in the hands of mutuwalli of the waqf, who was Emperor Shahjahan, himself to decide.[ix] Every Thursday, the poor and indigent were entered into the rauza (Taj Mahal) gallery, where charities were distributed. The sanctum sanctorum (sepulture chamber) was guarded by eunuchs and women like they guarded harem in the royal palace.[x] The sepulture was covered with a sheet made of pearls, whereas the floor of the mausoleum was fully carpeted. The mosque attached to the Taj Mahal had a regular staff where regular prayers were held. On the occasion of the urs of the late Queen, inam and charities were distributed. Even the princes and great nobles were rewarded on that day from the treasury of the Taj Mahal waqf.
The royal tombs of the erstwhile kings and queens functioned not only as the repository of the legacy from which the reigning monarch drew his own legitimacy but it also worked as the vistas for showcasing his own largesse and benevolence. Rituals of the court were copied in these tombs, the guards, the mace-bearers and those who regulated the protocols were appointed who made these tombs a mini-court by performing similar rituals that performed at the royal court. The monarch and his court basically manifested itself in the public space. The magnificent building of the royal tomb proclaimed the authority and benevolence; the rituals attached to it further dramatized the display. Common people, students, sufis and foreigners were invited as an audience to witness the largesse of the monarch by distributing rich food and charities.
REFERENCE
[x] Manucci, Niccolao, Storio do Mogor, or Mogul India, transl. by William Irvine, vol.1, Calcutta, 1965, p. 176.
[i] Ainud Din Mahru, Insha-i-Mahru, ed., Shaikh Abdur Rashid, Lahore, 1965, pp.73-39.
[ii] Afif, Shamsh Siraj, Tarikh-i-Firozshahi, tr. In Urdu by Maulvi Mohammad Fida Ali, Rukn-i-Shoba talif wa Tarjuma Jamia Osmania, Hyderabad, 1938, pp.230-31.
[iii] Ibn-i Batuta, Rehla
[iv] Afif, ShamshSiraj, Tarikh-i-Firozshahi, trans. in Urdu by Maulvi Mohammed Fida Ali, Rukn-i-Shoba Talif wa Tarjuma Jamia Osmaniya, Hyderabad, 1938, p230-31
[v] Gulbadan Begum, Humayunama, tr. Annette S. Beveridge, Royal Asiatic Society, London, 1902, p.110; also see pp. 25-26 (Persian).
[vi] Abul Fazl, Akbarnama -III, tr. H. Beveridge, Royal Asiatic Society, Low Price Publicatoins, 2010, p.551
[vii] Ibid., pp.322, 360 & 547
[viii] The list consists of names of all the villages and income derived from them in dams; I have been able to find six villages with the same names in the Distt. Gazetteer of Agra by H.R. Neville, 1905, in section of ‘native schools.’
[ix] Lahori, Abdul Hamid, Padshahnama, Vol.2, pp.329-330 also p.322; for translation also see, The Illumined Tomb, pp. 75-77 & 65.
0 comments:
Post a Comment