Essay:
Understanding the Mughals and their influence on India…
By Digvijay Singh Kushwaha

The grandeur that India experienced under the Mughals is unparalleled and incomparable to any other Islamic dynasty that has ever ruled any part of the globe from the Gibraltar to Brunei..

Shia faith evolved separately finding an admirable way out within the straitjacket of Islam since there is no place for dualism in that religion. Singing, dancing, wine, painting, sculpture etc were highly evolved art forms in Persia when it fell to the green armies from Arabia.They had to hence ‘modify’ the religion to confirm to their culture. Hence depiction of human ,animal and bird figurines in non religious context in art was never taboo in Persia. They even went to the extent of depicting the ahl e bait (the family of the prophet) and the prophet himself also in pictures !

By the way murals of the ‘last prophet of Islam’ survive to this day even in Arabia although the facial features have been obliterated. So clearly Islam evolved in a particular direction in the centuries following the prophet.

Babar had got the Kuthba recited in his own name. This changed the Mughal dynasty’s status declaring them independent from the Caliphs and no longer Sultans (one who rules in the name of the caliph). The Persian emperors in the same vein cared two hoots about the caliphs as they were Shia.

The cultural synthesis that took place in this country under the dynasty changed India forever.

Mughals hardly remained un Indian since Akbar. e.g the practice of drinking only Ganges water, ‘jharokha darshan’ (the emperor appearing before their public everyday), banning cow slaughter (till date hardly any sufi shrine in the subcontinent has any non veg tabarrukh (Prasad) in deference to the majority community) and entering into one sided marital alliances with Rajputs (Shahjahan had three Hindu ancestors!) and suclike

Indian miniature painting reached its zenith under Jehangir who was a great connoisseur and the emperor most given to matters of venus. He brought painters from Persia who introduced the principles of foreshortening (painting near and far objects in perspective). His painters traveled with him painting and recording the flora and fauna of his majestic and splendorous reign. When Aurangzeb turned a philistine in the latter part of his reign these painters ,gold and silversmiths and all manners of artisans found patronage under provincial rulers of Rajasthan, Punjab and Hyderabad.

Great Hindu epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (Shahnama) were not only translated into Arabic and Persian but were even illustrated.The Koran also got translated into Sanskrit ! Autographed specimens of these Hindu epics gifted by the Mughal emperors to the Jaipur dynasty survive to this day. The adventures of Amir Hamza (an Arabic hero) were also illustrated with the characters wearing Indian clothes, tigers and fire breathing dragons who entered the stories completely transforming that fantastic story forever.

The use of ancient Hindu aphrodisiacs by the emperors, beauty treatments of the Mughal ladies of the harem and the study of pre islamic India’s advancement in astrology and the Mughal interest in it all etc are such a delight to learn and these were subjects which are absolutely un Islamic.

As for religion it has throughout history been used as an instrument to rule as well. As pointed out on numerous occasions, we cannot expect the values of our times (secularism) to prevail in those times. Neither would it be proper to view today’s times from medieval glasses.

The Hindu Muslim dynamics that has prevailed in un divided Punjab and whose bloodiest manifestation was the outburst of pre partition riots is not true of any other Indian province (except Sindh and to an extent Bengal) hence it would be erroneous to measure the rest of the country by the same yardstick.

The Mughals like all Muslim dynasties whether to the east or west of Persia aped them just the same even though they were arch adversaries. Besides what may be termed 'shia iconography' predates Islam and hence hardly muslim in origin.The celebration of Nauroz is most perplexing among Mughals.But that too is a Zorastrian festival celebrating nature and her bounties.As for Shia Mughal alliances two are most well known. Akbar was born to Hamida Bano Begum who was a Shia. Aurangzeb two generations hence offered the hand in marriage of his niece (Dara Shikoh's daughter) to one amongst the shia caretakers of the mausoleum of Imam Ali ,from Karbala ,when they were fleeing Sunni persecution in what is now Iraq and sought refuge in this country. This alliance led to the eventual founding of the Murshidabad dynasty who became nawab nazims of Bengal Bihar and Orrisa but on account of their differing faith they save for this marriage had marital alliances with Lucknow only.

Image:
Shah Jahan receiving artists or scholars. (c.1650)
Watercolour and gilt on paper

An album of Indian paintings, chiefly from the Shahjahan period (1628-1658), expressive of the Mughal lineage of Shahjahan; with 37 calligraphic specimens by Mīr Alī-alkātib, dated 1530 (A.H. 937) on fol. 55a ; and 9 leaves of text, fols. 10-18, containing portions of Jami's Tuhfat al-ahrar. Most of the inset paintings have floral borders, some have inner borders depicting bunches of grapes. Binding: lacquer, with floral portraits on outside and inside of boards.

By permission of The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford