One day he was passing through Labor city when he saw a number of little children playing in the street. He descended from his elephant, sat himself down on the ground in their midst, and distributed sweets, flowers, clothes, gold and silver coin. After embracing and kissing them, he said tearfully:
'Better were it for me to die or to be a little one like you, not to be as I am to-day, with my conscience entangled in the affairs of this weary world.' At these words he took his departure with a salutation, the tears streaming from his eyes. From these and other like acts the people judged that this king feared God, and desired to live without causing harm to his vassals.1
-Nicola Manucci, Storia do Mogor (1653-1708)
Abstract
Often
overshadowed by his overachieving ancestors and ‘dominated’ by his wife,
Jahangir is projected as an undeserving, notoroius Mughal. This essay tries
to reassess the Jahangirnama or his
memoirs to capture what has been ignored. It
begins with a general presentation of Jahangirnama and its importance as
a source to reconstruct hisotry.
Further, the style of writing and the colloquial nature of Jahangir’s memoirs
are assessed critically. Followed by an important thesis of the political culture under Jahangir’s regnal
years, how he inherited the adminstrative policies from his illustrious
father’s court and put to great use. This essay also highlights Jahangir’s
inclination towards the aesthetics, literature and natural sciences.
Finally,
there has been made an attempt to reassess Jahangir as a political sovereign as opposed to the popular,
conventional european historiography about
his notorious identity.
Jahangirnama:
as a source to reconstruct history
Also
referred to as Jahangirnama, Tuzk-e-Jahangiri is written in Persian, and follows the tradition of his
great-grandfather, Babur (1487–1530), who had
written the Baburnama; though Jahangir went a step further and besides
the history of his reign, he includes
details like his reflections on art, politics, and also information about his family.
His
memoirs begin as soon as Jahangir ascends the throne in October 16052,
until his ailing years nearing death.
Then, he entrusted the task to Mutamad Khan, the author of the IqbalNama, who continued the
memoirs to the beginning of nineteenth
year. From where, it was taken up by Muhammed Hadi, who continued it to Jahangir’s death.
Tuzk-l-Jahangiri
is the most important source for the study of the reign of Jahangir. It not only gives an account of the
various riots and rebellions, wars, and
conquests and official regulations but also contains a candid account of
emperor's daily life. The Memories also
provide a detailed account of the social, cultural and spiritual life of the people. One of the
outstanding qualities of his memoirs is that
they are marked by frankness.
Jahangirnama
attracted many western scholars to study about the Mughal history and the subcontinent in 17th century - James
Anderson, Francis Gladwin are the first
ones to translate the original works of Jahangir. However, the full
translation was done by Alexander Rogers
and Henry Beveridge. Jahangir's memoirs were
very frank, colloquial and candid. Devoid of certain 'officialness' as a
court historian would have written
it.
Translating
his work in English results in swayed meaning and out of context analysis. His experiences of the subcontinent
were unique and colorful and often
lacked the exact translation. However; he never mentioned things which no language could gauge.
Jahangir
spoke Persian, some Hindi/Hindustani, knew some Turkish and Arabic, however, did not know Sanskrit. His style of
writing can be titled as a hasty, since
at places he wrote hurriedly without the dots that are necessary for
reading Persian sources.
Jahangir
wrote prose with poetic quotations with Persian literary style and these were proverbial in nature. And he mostly
quoted the works of Firdawsi, Sa’di, Hafiz and Baba Feghani, these were some
notable contemporary poets.
Example
of the aforementioned proverbial style is evident in the following
excerpt. Here, Jahangir describes about
Akbar’s Sulh-i-kul policy of religious tolerance.
The
professors of various faiths had room in the broad expanse of his incomparable sway. This was different from
the practice in other realms, for in
Persia l there is room for Shias only, and in Turkey, India, and Turan
there is room for Sunnis only.
As
in the wide expanse of the Divine compassion there is room for all classes and the followers of all creeds, so, on the
principle that the Shadow 2 must have the
same properties as the Light, in his dominions, which on all sides were
limited only by the salt sea, there was
room for the professors of opposite religions, and for beliefs good and bad, and the road to
altercation was closed. Sunnis and Shias met
in one mosque, and Franks and Jews in one, church, and observed their
own forms of worship.3
Corinne
Lefevre in her article Recovering a missing voice in Mughal India4, mentions about Jahangir's sensitivity to his
Indian environment is also apparent in his familiarity with Hindustani poetry
and its imagery. Jahangir gives a detailed
historic and geographical description of the region toured by him during
his expeditions. For instance, he gives very
specific description of his capital city
Agra5 in the following excerpt
Agra
is one of the grand old cities of Hindustan. It had formerly an old fort on the
bank of the Jumna, but this my father
threw down before my birth, and he founded a fort of cut red stone, the like of
which those who have travelled over the
world cannot point out. It was completed in the space of fifteen or sixteen years. It had four gates and two
sally-ports, and its cost was 35 lakhs of rupees, equal to 115,000 toman of current Persian coinage and to
10,500,000 khani according to the Turan reckoning. The habitable part of the city extends on both
sides of the river. On its west side, which has the greater population, its circumference is seven kos
and its breadth is one kos. The circumference of the inhabited part on the other side of the water, the side
towards the east, is 2 ½ kos, its length being one kos and its breadth half a kos. But in the number of its
buildings it is equal to several cities of 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Mawara'a-n-nahr (Transoxiana) put together.
Many persons have erected buildings of three or four storeys in it. The mass of people is so
great, that moving about in the lanes and bazars is difficult. It is on the boundary of the second climate. On its
east is the province of Qanauj; on the west, Nagor ; on the north, Sambhal ; and on the south,
Chanderi.
As
Corinne Lefevre mentions in her article the other passages contain bits of ethnological, zoological, or botanical
investigation and successfully display his
"scientific" curiosity and the importance he attached to
experimentation in accumulating
knowledge through natural sciences.
While
concluding the general presentation of the text it is worth noting that Jahangir did not quiver an iota on mentioning
about his drug addiction, he remains mum
about his relations with Nur Jahan.
Political
Culture under Jahangir
Jahangir
ruled when empire was flourishing at its apex if power and prosperity. He
mentioned of Akbar’s influential administrative and military expansionist
policies and continued with their implementation throughout with certain minor
changes.
Jahangirnama
reflects the royal ideology of Jahangir’s views on various political, religious
and social issues. Within the memoir, he noted many of his local level legislative policies in his large
empire consisting of most of modern-day
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Following is an excerpt from
Tuzk-i-Jahangiri, wherein Jahangir
mentions of various regulations6 for administration and role of respective Jagirdars
I
also gave twelve orders to be observed as rules of conduct (dasturu-l-'amal)
in all my dominions —
(1)
Forbidding the levy of cesses under the names of tamgha and mir bahrl (river tolls), and other burdens which the
jagirdars of every province and district
had imposed for their own profit
(2)
On roads where thefts and robberies took place, which roads might be at a little distance from habitations, the
jagirdars of the neighbourhood should
build sarais (public rest-houses), mosques, and dig wells, which
might stimulate population, and people
might settle down in those sarais. If these
should be near a khalisa estate (under direct State management),
the administrator (mutasaddi) of that
place should execute the work. (3) The
bales of merchants should not be opened on the roads without informing them and obtaining their
leave.
Here
he decrees on how to manage and regulate the jagirdars. Jahangir made various attempts to halt corruption within
the jagirdars. He prohibited each of them
from using the money for personal profit by ordering that part of the
land income to go to hospitals and
infirmaries and for each town to be equipped with religious buildings according to the religion of that
area. The excerpt stated above includes a
few regulations out of a list of many, jotted by Jahangir in his memoir.
Titles
to nobles in the court
Various
courtly titles were bestowed upon the nobles of Mughal court; Jahangir bestowed ‘Khan’ for their meritorious
performance. Apart, from that titles were
bestowed specifically associated with a particular occasion, for e.g.:
Shamsi Toshakchi was entitled
Khoshkabhar Khan post delivering good news. Similarly his sec is known as lord reliable or Mu'tamad
Khan.
Mehrunisa
or Jahangir's wife was known as Nurjahan or Light of the World associated with Jahangir’s title as Nuruddin.
The courtly title includes Mir, Mirza,
Shaikh.
The
Rajput nobles of the court were entitled as raja, rao, rai, meaning sovereign.
A peculiar thing about the Persian
historiography is that, post the ruler dies; he is referred with his Persian title. For e.g. -
Jahangir is referred as Jannat-makani meaning,
whose abode is paradise, while Jahangir in his memoir refer to his father or Akbar as Arsh-Ashyani.7
Provincial
Administration and Ranking System
The
administration under Jahangir was if not completely but mostly inherited
from Akbar. For e.g.: The ranking
system, which was chalked out during Akbar’s reign got fully established under
Jahangir. Ranks consisted of dual headings as, Zat and Suwar, meaning personal and horseman rank
respectively.
These
ranks translated into which officer would share higher of king’s
allegiance and these ranks also
determined their places in the court room and amount of salary from the treasury.
To
maintain the troops, cavalry and horses, various officers were assigned a
land grant, called Jagir. However, these
fiefs were not hereditary. As on paper, Mughal
System was merit based and individual peaked up to highest ranks on
individual talents. This might have
tricked the Europeans who presumed of land based Mughal hereditary nobility.
The
empire divided into large provinces known as Subas (there were 16
important subas- Agra, Delhi, Ajmer,
Bengal, Orissa, Kabul, Lahore to name a few strategically important centers of
the empire) headed by subedars, these subas
further divided into Sarkars, managed by Fawjdars- keeping peace,
further divided into Pargana, headed by
Amil or agent who was responsible for tax
collection from all the villages under the pargana. It was a highly centralized administration, with ruler as the final apex
in any matter with minor concern was
supposed to pass through him. Jahangirnama mentions of episodes where
Jahangir taking decisions which are very
menial.
He
largely managed the empire from distance from the capital. However,
capital was an ever-changing affair
As
W. M. Thackston mentions the peculiar central Asian traits of being on the move were reflected as they move out for
expeditions with complete panoply of
court or toli.8
Finally,
to address the question of women in the Mughal political culture, there exist a challenge to the conventional
narrative about women of imperial harem and
their ‘secluded’ life- their participation was quite active.
They
accompanied the emperor to hunts and expeditions. They were writing poems and prose, however under a pen name. Most of
them were accomplished calligraphers and
painters. For instance- Nur Jahan, herself was an ace at shooting and calligraphy.
Jahangir-
an Aesthete
Alike
his great grandfather Babur9; Jahangir too was deeply interested in
inquiring flora, fauna and minerals. His
interest in studying the natural sciences was quite evident.
“Pahluwan
Bahau-d-dln, the musketeer, brought a young monkey (langur) with a goat, and represented that on the road one of
his marksmen had seen the female langur
with a young one in its arms on a tree. The cruel man had shot the mother, which on being struck had left the young one
on a branch, and had herself dropped on
the ground and died .............The langur is an animal belonging to the
monkey tribe. But the hair of the monkey
(maimiin) is yellowish and its face is red, while the hair of the langur is white and its face
is black. Its tail, too, is twice as long as
the maimun's. I have written these things on account of their
strangeness.”10
Corinne
Lefevre uses the phrase ‘museological character of his power’ while stating, “Jahangir's naturalism as expressed
in his memoirs is intrinsically linked to his conception of power and reveals
another facet of his grasp on the world he
governed: his ability to describe, measure, and organize his kingdom
endows him with omniscience and
omnipotence”.11
The
ruler who is enlightened and empowered by learning and scientific research becomes able to understand the nature of
things in general and to foresee the
development of affairs and thus remains in control, remarks Ebba Koch in
her article ‘Jahangir as Francis Bacon’s
Ideal of the King as an Observer and Investigator of Nature.’12
The
name Jahangir which literally translates to ‘the world-seizer’ stands true to
its meaning, as evident in his act of
collecting. His collections of minerals included Rubies, emeralds, sapphires and various other
precious stones- for e.g.: The Jamkura
diamond sent by Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur may be cited as an example.
Animal
collections include innumerable elephants and horses, while some exotic specimens- North American Turkey, Sri Lankan
Orangutan, etc.
Art
flourished under Jahangir13. Europeans were delighted with his affection
for the Madonna, while Hindus noticed
symbols from their own traditions. Then there
were images prepared of the oddities that caught the emperor’s eye.
There
is an abundance of Mughal art/paintings during the regnal years of
Jahangir. Multiple art works embellished
his memoirs and brought life to it. Apart from his personal portraits, there are portraits of
various grandees of the realm, of objects
such as a knife made out of meteor.
Some
paintings specifically made for the Jahangirnama- Abu'l Hasan produced the scene of accession when the first volume
of Jahangirnama was copied and bound.
Some illustrations meant for Jahangirnama not included the volume are archived at Raza library, Rampur, UP. These
include Jahangir watching a snake and a
spider fight. Apart from these there were works known as Jahangir’s fantasy
pictures: Jahangir shoots Malik Amber, eliminating poverty, etc.
Jahangir’s
claim that he could instantly recognize any painter’s work is a reflection of the rise of the individual artist. Many
signatures are preserved on works from
this period, with such masters as Bishan Das, Manohar, Abu’l-Hasan,
Govardhan, and Daulat emerging as
recognizable artistic personalities.14
Apart
from the flourishing art, other styles such as folios, iconography,
repainting of miniatures, embellishment
of border of manuscripts etc were also gaining
sufficient momentum during Jahangir’s reign.
Reassessment
of Jahangir as a Political ruler
This
part of the essay tries to reassess Jahangir’s imperial role as a Mughal ruler,
as opposed to the conventional portraiture of his capabilities.
In
an article published in The Guardian by Alex Von Tunzelmann,“Mughal-e Azam:
royally glossing over history's true colours”, the author mentions of Salim
, the character played by veteran actor
Dilip Kumar in a comparative setup, placing
Jahangir, the Mughal sovereign under a darker light.15 The article
stated-
“He's a lot nicer than the real-life Salim, which is fortunate because he is supposed to be the romantic hero, and if he were to keep getting boozed up and beating people to death it might spoil the mood.”
Such
a hasty takeaway from various mainstream historiography of Jahangir’s
reign including the popular culture
references, often paint Jahangir as a careless,
undeserving prodigy of the greatest ruler of the world (Akbar), who
succumbed t his self destructive
alcoholism and opium consumption.
Another
frame of his character which achieved greater acknowledgement was him getting overshadowed by his wife Nur Jahan,
after his marriage in 1611.
The
colonial historiography singlehandedly influenced the western perception about this Mughal sovereign as they project.
For
example, the accounts of the English ambassador Sir Thomas Roe and his rabbi Edward Terry has projected Jahangir in
the darkest possible light as a
politically weakened emperor dominated by his wife Nur Jahan.16
Corinne
Lefevre in her article Recovering a Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr (r. 1605-1627)
in His Memoirs, also touches upon how
Jahangir’s choice of opting out from the commission work producing court
chronicles and maintaining his personal memoirs, led to certain ambiguity in
the historiography. The memoirs are the
only contemporary official accounts available
to this day.
It
is thus important for us as assessors to hold no bias (traditionally derived
from the west) and analyze Jahangir’s
representation of himself as the Mughal sovereign- with aesthetical inclination
towards arts, literature and sciences.
Corinne
Lefevre tries to present how conventional narratives project Jahangir in poor light while mentioning of his slightest
interest in the business of kingship. But
it is quite otherwise, as suggested by one of the episodes in the
Jahangirnama, wherein Jahangir orders to
produce multiple copies of the first volume of
Jahangirnama to be sent across various parts of the empire as a ‘manual
for ruling’.
Further,
while assessing the role of Islam in Jahangir’s political thought, it can be
attempted to comment that the ruler tried to win the ulema and the
orthodox Muslim nobility to establish
himself as a pious monarch.
There
are several references of his ancestors on his memoirs. Most importantly,
he traces back to Chengis Khan’s legacy
and tries to place himself in the prodigal generations.
Similarly,
references of Babur and Humayun are given appropriate space in addition to extensive mention of his father
Ash Ashyani or Akbar. Jahangir continues to uphold Akbar’s religious policy,
administrative practices and policies of
military expansion as well.
Keeping
in plan Akbar’s well thought policy of military expansion Jahangir considered
Deccan conquest as his policy.
These
references made by Jahangir were very crucial for the process of self
strengthening his own legitimization.
Speaking
of justice redress, Jahangir considered his role as a monarch by a total dedication to justice and is very evident
owing to his stress over to administer
justice not only to its human subjects but also to the animal kingdom.
After my accession, the first order that I gave was for the fastening up of the Chain of Justice, so that if those engaged in the administration of justice should delay or practice hypocrisy in the matter of those seeking justice, the oppressed might come to this chain and shake it so that its noise might attract attention.17
Jahangir
attached such importance to the royal dispensation of justice that it was the object of his very first act of
government.
 |
| Jahangir takes an aim at poverty. Mughal, ca. 1620; possibly by Abu'lHasan, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles |
Conclusion
Post
assessing and reassessing the memoirs of alleged ‘notorious’ sovereign, it
can be concluded that Jahangir was if
not a illustrious, but a worthy Mughal ruler. He was ruling the subcontinent during its apex
in terms of growth and prosperity.
One
can question his proficiencies in administrative regulations, but it is
important to note that his allegiance to
the pre existing policies proved to be more apt.
This
essay tried overcoming the perceptions of Jahangir’s character as
fraudulent, drunkard and a drug addict
and it overturned the debacle of his responsibilities towards his subjects.
But
one cannot deny the fact that Jahangir was a pure aesthete- his deep interest
in arts, journaling and natural sciences
make me stand out from the rest.
While
going over the Jahangirnama, a reader will realize what his memoirs
attest; the man (Jahangir) was a little
bit more: an endearing eccentric but every inch an emperor worth remembering.
Bibliography
1.
W M Thackston, The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India, 1999
2.
Jahangir, The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by Alexander Rogers. Edited by Henry
Beveridge, 1909
(archives.org)
3.
Corinne Lefèvre (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies), Recovering a Missing Voice from Mughal India:
The Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr
(r.1605-1627) in His Memoirs, 2007
4.
Ebba Koch (University of Vienna), Jahangir as Francis Bacon’s Ideal of the King
as an Observer and Investigator of Nature, 2009
5.
Manu S. Pillai, Jahangir: the endearing eccentric, published in Mint, 2018
(https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/OCjc2i2JdYbM6O2DY5jhkM/Jaha ngir-the-endearing-eccentric.html)
6.
Sardar, Marika. “The Art of the Mughals after 1600.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000
{http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mugh_2/hd_mugh_2.htm (October 2003)}
7.
Alex Von Tunzelmann, Mughal-e-Azam: royally glossing over history's true colours, The Gaurdian,
2013
(https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/feb/14/mughal-e
azam-reel-history)
8.
Dr. Shahina Bano, Historiography of Mughal Period-An Analytical Study, Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary
Research, Vol 2, issue-6, 2016
Illustrations
1.
Jahangir Shooting the Head of Malik Ambar by Abu'l-Hasan, Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper, Dimension-
H x W: 38 x 26 cm (14 15/16 x 10 1/4 in)
Met Museum, New York
(https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mugh_2/hd_mugh_2.htm)
2.
Jahangir takes an aim at poverty. Mughal, ca. 1620; possibly by
Abu'lHasan, India, Mughal Empire, circa
1620-1625; border: Uzbekistan, Bukhara, 16th
century Drawings; watercolors Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on
paper; Image: 9 3/8 x 6 in. (23.81 x
15.24 cm); Sheet: 14 1/2 x 9 11/16 in. (36.83 x
24.61 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
(https://collections.lacma.org/node/240917)
Notes
1
Note by a Venetian traveler Nicola Manucci for Jahangir, W M Thackston, The
Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir,
Emperor of India, 1999, Pg. 28 (xxiv)
2
Jahangir had decreed that his regnal year to begin from the Nawroz of 1606.
Nawroz falls on the vernal equinox every
year. There is a complicated choice made by Jahangir while dating events. He
began his memoirs with Islamic calendar
of lunar months but later switched to Persian solar calendar introduced in the Illahi Era, W M Thackston, The
Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India, 1999, Pg.xiii, Translator’s preface
3Jahangir,
The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by Alexander Rogers.
Edited by Henry Beveridge, 1909, Eulogium of Akbar, Pg. 37
4
Corinne Lefèvre (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies), Recovering a
Missing Voice from Mughal India: The
Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr (r.1605-1627) in His Memoirs, 2007
5
Jahangir, The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by
Alexander Rogers Edited by Henry
Beveridge, 1909, Account of Agra, Pg. 3
6
Jahangir, The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by
Alexander Rogers. Edited by Henry Beveridge, 1909, Regulations, Pg. 7-8
7
In Persian historiography it is common to refer to the dead ruler with
posthumous titles. Thus, Jahangir
extensively referred to his father as “Arsh-Ashyani”, meaning “whose
nest is on the divine throne’, W M Thackston, The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of
Jahangir, Emperor of India, 1999,
8
W M Thackston, The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India, 1999,
Translator’s Preface, Pg. xviii
9
The Poetry and Autobiography of the Babur-nama by Stephen F. Dale, 1996
10
Jahangir, The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by
Alexander Rogers. Edited by Henry Beveridge, 1909, Anecdote of a Monkey, Pg.
445
11
Corinne Lefèvre (Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies), Recovering a
Missing Voice from Mughal India: The
Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr (r.1605-1627) in His Memoirs, 2007
12Ebba
Koch (University of Vienna), Jahangir as Francis Bacon’s Ideal of the King as
an Observer and Investigator of Nature, 2009
Manu
S. Pillai, Jahangir: the endearing eccentric, published in Mint, 2018
14
Sardar, Marika. “The Art of the Mughals after 1600.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of
Art History. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000
15
Alex Von Tunzelmann, Mughal-e-Azam: royally glossing over history's true
colours, The Gaurdian, 2013
16
Sir Thomas Roe had visited Jahangir in dual capacity, as an employee of a
mercantile company and an ambassador for a king, Corinne Lefèvre (Peter Wall
Institute for Advanced Studies), Recovering a
Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of Jahāngīr
(r.1605-1627) in His Memoirs, 2007
17
Jahangir, The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri; or, Memoirs of Jahangir. Translated by
Alexander Rogers. Edited by Henry Beveridge, 1909,Chain of Justice, Pg. 7