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Akbar's leaf and other tales
RESEARCHING THE past can be an exciting trip down memory lane. This is exactly what Royina Grewal is doing in Delhi. With five books already to her credit, she is now trying to peep into the social and cultural milieu of old cities - like Delhi and Agra. For this purpose she motors down from her farm 90 kilometres from the Capital to make contact with those who have first-hand knowledge of happenings in the pre-partition days and consult old books lying neglected on the dusty shelves of libraries.
Tall, fair and pretty, she doesn't give the impression that she's now a grandmother. Daughter of an Army officer and wife of an ex-banker, she had ample opportunities to visit towns and cities across the country and came to the conclusion that past cultural, literary, religious and social mores needed to be recorded to preserve them for posterity. What better place could she find for her research than Delhi!
The nuances of the tawaifs and their colourful mujras, which attracted people before cabarets and belly-dancing came into vogue, the dance of the dervishes and meditations of the sufis, qawwalis and urs at the shrines of Muslim pirs - these and more are the focus of her research.
She wants to bring alive the "tehzeeb" (etiquette) of bygone days for the benefit of the younger generation. Near her farm are 21 shrines, and it is from there that she got the inspiration to pursue her work. To enliven the narrative, forgotten aspects of Mughal history are being woven into her work right from the time of Akbar. There are stories associated with the Great Mughal which are found in anecdotes, gossip and tradition.
Among these is the story of how the emperor, while on a hunting trip, got separated from the royal party and landed up in the middle of a jungle, hungry and thirsty. He met an old villager there, grazing his goats and asked for water. The goatherd gave him a lota full of it. After the emperor had quenched his thirst, he asked the villager for a dry leaf. Using the juice of the paan he was chewing as "ink" and a twig as a pen, he wrote the number 40 on it. More he couldn't have written, as Akbar was illiterate. He gave the leaf to the old man and asked him to preserve it carefully and present it at the court of the emperor whenever he happened to come to town.
"And who is the emperor?" asked the goatherd. "The man standing in front of you," said Akbar. Soon after, the royal party arrived on the scene and the old man was left holding the leaf. After some months he made his way to the capital and sought an audience with the emperor. "What does he want?" Akbar enquired.
"Your Majesty, he wants to speak only to you." The emperor ordered that he be presented before him.
On entering the palace, the old man exclaimed: "Bakri char gaya chalees gaon". The emperor immediately recognised who he was. On asking how the goat had nibbled away 40 villages, the goatherd remarked: "I had kept the leaf Your Majesty gave me in my turban. One day while I was asleep the goat got to the leaf and ate it."
Akbar than had a regular farman issued so that the old man could take immediate possession of 40 villages and become a big zamindar after that. How far these villages were from Delhi is not known, but they must have been close enough for access to it. But did Akbar eat paan?
Where did Shah Jahan stay when he was building the Red Fort? Why did he move his capital from Agra to Delhi and yet built the Taj Mahal in the old capital? Who were the poets who graced the royal court then? Why did Mir Taqi Mir and Ghalib leave Agra and come to Delhi? With whom did Mir have an affair when he went back to Agra for some time after the sack of Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739? Was she his cousin? Did the family really ostracise him for incest after that? Royina is seeking answers to these questions and also to those on the life and times of Nazir Akbarabadi (1750-1840).
Mian Nazir was born in Delhi but his family settled down near the Taj. So when he grew up he didn't have much recollection of Delhi. When Shah Alam sent word to him that he should grace his court in the Red Fort, Nazir reluctantly agreed. After travelling on a horse carriage from Tajganj to Sikandra, on the road to the Capital, he asked his escort what Delhi was like. They told him it was a grand city with many palatial buildings.
"Tell me," enquired Nazir, "is there a Taj Mahal there?" They said the imposing new Moghul capital did not, alas, have a Taj Mahal. "Then please take me back to Tajganj," replied Nazir, and the escort had to return to Delhi without him.
The same poet was to write verses on everyday life - about the courtesans, the vendors, the swimmers, the sweetmeat sellers and also about the festivals, both Muslim and Hindu. His Admi Nama rivals Alexander Pope's essay on man and his Roti Nama was adopted by the leftists, particularly the theatre group IPTA, as their motto.
Royina Grewal is busy writing all about it in her study in New Delhi's Shantiniketan, and woe to the man who disturbs her at her labours. She sometimes does visit Khushwant Singh and the archives but otherwise, it's work, work and more work, except for a little diversion by way of biryani and kababs from Al Kausar of the Dehalvis. You might feel like pinching her, but are scared she might ooze out into -- so engrossed is she in her magmam opus!
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