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The Urdu-Language Khushtar Ramayan : Verbal- and Visual-Narrative Repertoires and ‘Sense of Place’

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00856401.2014.929221

1479-0270

Robert S. Phillips,

Anthropological Studies and Insights

AbstractThis essay explores the rich verbal- and visual-narrative repertoires constitutive of a ‘sense of place’ within the Urdu-language Khushtar Ramayan, highlighting some of the significant ways in which they converge with and diverge from other prominent textual and visual representations of the Ramayan during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The material history of Khushtar's work as a book is also traced in order to illuminate a number of important linkages and shifts from a ‘local’ courtly economy and ‘sense of place’ to an emergent, proto-national, print-commercial one.Keywords: UrduRamayanRamLucknowHinduismtranslationlocalisationmaterial culturebook history Notes1 Wajid Ali Shah's own interest in and response to this work is unknown.2 Hundreds of such texts were published in Urdu, though their subsequent preservation and cataloguing has been erratic at best. For a limited bibliographic work, see Ajay Malviya, Urdu Men Hindu Dharm (Lucknow: Nusrat Publishers, 2000).3 Qasbas were townships that were frequently centres of Indo-Persianate cultural activity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As described by C.A. Bayly: ‘In these small towns of Awadh and the Doab, a distinct corporate tradition arose out of [Indo-Islamic] religion and pride of ancestry. But even for the Hindus of the service towns, this tradition was formally Persian and Islamic. Consciousness of high lineage broadened out into reverence for home-place (vatan) while spiritual and marriage links between leading families created an urban, literate culture’: C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 352. See also Mushirul Hasan, From Pluralism to Separatism: Qasbas in Colonial India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 1–51, for a fuller description of qasba inhabitants and environment.4 Further discussion is found in Robert Phillips, ‘Garden of Endless Blossoms: Urdu Ramayans of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’, unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010, pp. 256–65.5 The Ramcharitmanas would come to stand for the Hindu ‘holy book’ in partial response to an increasingly inescapable colonial, missionary and Orientalist religious ontology, which, in a sense, required the positing of some such universal and foundational religious text. For more on the apotheosis of Tulsidas’ work, see Philip Lutgendorf, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991).6 See Christopher King, One Language, Two Scripts (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 177; and Phillips, ‘Garden of Endless Blossoms’, pp. 197–9, 256–66, for further discussion of the ‘Sanskritisation of Urdu’.7 At least two surviving manuscript copies of Khushtar's Ramayan are documented. One is held at the Rampur Raza Library, Rampur, and the other in the Salar Jung Library, Hyderabad. The Rampur manuscript was copied in 1866 at Jhansi by Radha Kishan Sahay. Bibliographic reference to the Salar Jang manuscript is found in Maulvi Abdul Haq (ed.), Qamus Al-kutub Urdu, Vol. 1, Mazhabiyat (Karachi: Anjuman Taraqqi-e Urdu, 1961), p. 1151. Abdul Haq gives its date as 1268 AH, which is the same year as the Persian chronogram in Khushtar's work. Without further examination, it remains unclear if this is possibly one of the very earliest manuscripts, or if Abdul Haq has erroneously given the date of the work's chronogram, rather than the date of completion of this particular manuscript. It does appear that Abdul Haq generally compiled his bibliographic data from catalogues and hand-lists, and did not physically inspect those works that were not a part of his own (large) personal collection.8 Anthony Pym, The Moving Text: Localisation, Translation, and Distribution (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004), p. 1.9 Ibid., p. 22.10 Ibid., p. 5.11 Ibid., pp. 74–9.12 Bisheshwar Parshad ‘Munawwar’, Lamaat-e Ufuq (Delhi: Adarsh Kitab Ghar, 1964), p. 93.13 The Story of Ram and Sita by ‘Ghaflat’ is closely based on the Persian Masihi Ramayan by Shaikh Sadullah ‘Masih’. In both cases, the narrative is placed within the Sufi/romance framing trope of ashiq and mashuq (lover and beloved). See Phillips, ‘Garden of Endless Blossoms’, pp. 78–92; and Abu Sadat Jalili, Sadullah Masih aur Farsi Ramayan-e Masihi (Patna: Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, 2001) for more on these respective versions.14 Ram's story had been repeatedly rendered in Persian over a period of some three hundred years, beginning from at least the time of the Mughal emperor, Akbar, though the great majority of these Persian works appeared during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. It seems that nothing approximating a comprehensive enumeration and analysis of such works has yet been undertaken. S.A.H. Abidi, ‘The Story of Ramayana in Indo-Persian Literature’, in Indo-Iranica, Vol. 1 (1974), pp. 17–29, provides brief details on 22 such works. For a general idea, one may also consult Herman Ethe, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the India Office Library (London: India Office Library & Records, [1903] rpr. 1980), pp. 1096–9, 1589–90.15 ‘[W]oh pushtara daftar hai ambar hai / mahinon men sair us ki dushwar hai / tamasha hai us bustan ka muhal / kih darkar hai usko fursat-e kamal / hazaron men hoga koi nek-nam / padha hoga jis ne yeh qissa tamam / … / siva is ke qimat se kamyab hai / sitaron men manind-e mahtab hai’: Tota Ram ‘Shayan’, Mahabharat (Lucknow: Nawal Kishor Press, 4th ed., 1886), p. 5. For a brief account in English of Shayan's career and works, see Ulrike Stark, An Empire of Books (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2007), pp. 308–9.16 These particular para-texts remain stable or fixed over time because they are regarded as a part of the work itself, though outside of the Ramayan narrative proper. There are other para-textual elements, however, that are frequently ‘unstable’. These unstable elements include material such as title pages, illustrations, publisher's notes and publisher's lists of titles for sale, all of which are features of the material text-object in the domain of print-commercial publication and consumption.17 The Shia marsiya was one of the predominant literary-devotional forms in nineteenth-century Lucknow. One facet of the marsiya's literarisation involved the rhetorical comparison or synkrisis of the partisans of Husain with the great heroes of the Persian epics. Khushtar not only directly invokes this heroic Persianate tradition through his use of synkrisis, he also adopts the heroic register of the nineteenth-century Lakhnavi marsiya, with, for instance, strategic use of specific heroic epithets for Wajid Ali Shah and Ram-Vishnu (sher-e nar/zaigham-e nar/sher/ghazanfar) common to the marsiya. Likewise, he has included descriptive passages in praise of the ruler's sword (pp. 14–5) and horse (p. 15), which were also formal components frequently found in the marsiya. It appears from the madh-e shah onward that Khushtar has appropriated for his work the marsiya's rhetoric and semantics of grandeur, heroism and righteousness, while forgoing its pathos (bain, soz o gudaz, mubki.) Yet, it is important to note that Khushtar nowhere directly invokes the marsiya protagonists, nor does he allude to any explicitly Islamic figures (with the brief exception of Khizr and the Water of Life), whose stories and references formed a conventional part of the Perso-Urdu literary tradition. Likewise, his prefatory framework eschews the conventional nat (praise of the Prophet) and manqabat (praise of the Panjtan) sections. For further discussion of this aspect of the text, including consideration of Khushtar's hamd (praise of the Divine) and his use of the asma-e husna, or Divine Names, see Phillips, ‘Garden of Endless Blossoms’, pp. 97–106.18 Vyasa, as compiler of the Mahabharata, re-told Ram's story in the Ramopakhyana episode. Shukracharya related the Bhagavatam containing Ram's story to his disciple, Parikshita. Khushtar himself references Balmik (Valmiki) later, at the beginning of the narrative proper.19 Munshi Jagannath Lal ‘Khushtar’, Ramayan-e Khushtar (Lucknow: Naval Kishor Press, 2nd ed. 1863), p. 11.20 Again Sarasuti affirms and authorises: ‘Although each story [of theirs] (i.e. Byas, etc.) is esteemed / Ram's story abides in the heart’ (‘[H]ar ik ka garche fasana-e matin hai / fasana Ram ka par dil-nashin hai’). Ibid., p. 11.21 Ibid., p. 11.22 Ibid., pp. 12–3.23 Synkrisis (Latin: comparatio) as a rhetorical trope refers to (any kind of) comparison, one of the most famous Greek examples of which is Parallel Lives by Plutarch. The trope is frequently encountered, yet under-appreciated, and under-theorised, according to Zeba Crook, who also posits the notion of a particular subset of synkrisis, termed ‘patronal synkrisis’, which differs somewhat in function and intent, as it appears in patron–client relationships as a means of honouring a patron and expressing gratitude. Crook's emphasis here is on the change in state experienced by the client who is a recipient of the patron's benefactions, thus there is a comparison between ‘before’ and ‘after’. While this element is very much present in Khushtar's work, there is also the favourable and extended comparison of Wajid Ali Shah with Ram (as well as other renowned Persian rulers from the Shahnama tradition). Therefore, my reading of ‘patronal synkrisis’ is inclusive of all of these various kinds of comparisons by a client that redound to the patron's honour and glory. There are other kinds of synkrisis at work in Khushtar's text as well, though space does not permit their elaboration here. See Zeba Crook, Reconceptualising Conversion (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2004), pp. 117ff., for further discussion of ‘patronal synkrisis’ as a distinctive category within the literary device of synkrisis.24 In his ‘Introduction’ to the Vinay Patrika of Tulsidas, however, Ramchandra Shukla has cautioned against regarding Tulsidas (and Surdas) as primarily updeshak, or sermonisers. Rather than being concerned with the promulgation of ‘dry-as-dust lessons’ (rukhe updesh), their primary goal and activity was experiencing a state of rapt absorption (mugdh hona), and also enrapturing (mugdh karna) others, with the delightful forms of the Ram and Krishna avatars. Ramchandra Shukla, ‘Parichay’, Vinay Patrika (ed. and commentator [tikakar] Viyogi Hari) (New Delhi: Sasta Sahitya Mandal Prakashan, 2006), p. 6. Shukla's asseveration notwithstanding, there is a prominent and powerful Brahmanical socio-ethical component to Tulsidas’ conceptualisation that is absent from most of the Urdu Ramayans.25 Similar descriptors and epithets for the antagonists are found in the marsiyas of Anis, including, for instance: fauj-e adu, fauj-e sitam, lashkar-e kaffar (‘Jab zulf ko khole hue laila-e shab ayi’); jafa-jo, jafa-kar (‘Jab Hazrat Zainab ke pisar mar gaye donon’); sarkash (‘Phula shafaq se charkh par jab lalah-zar-e subah’), to name a few. Likewise, there is a similarity in descriptors and epithets for the protagonists, drawn from the semantic fields of ‘truth’ / ‘rectitude’ (haqq) and ‘light’ (nur), among others.26 ‘He set himself against the Rightful Lord, / And acted like a god in Lanka’ (‘janab-e haqq se rakhta tha judai / sada lanka men karta tha khudai’), ‘Khushtar’, Ramayan-e Khushtar, p. 34. In Valmiki and Tulsidas, on the other hand, Ravan and the rakshas disrupt the ritual sacrifices of the Brahmans, tormenting them incessantly. This is the apogee of adharm, or disorder, necessitating their destruction by Ram.27 Ibid., p. 112.28 ‘[Q]arib ayi kharoshan jab woh be-hosh / wahin Lachhman ne kate bini o gosh / nasihat se jo the gosh us ke khali / hui us ko munasib goshmali / nakam ayi kuchh us ki mah-jabini / ki khud-bini ne khoyi us ki bini’. The multiple word-play involving bini (nose, honour), khud-bini (self-regard, from bini, sight), gosh (ears), goshmal (punishment) and nasihat (counsel) is a conventional type of poetic device. Ibid., p. 108.29 Ibid., pp. 60–3.30 Ibid., pp. 64–5.31 See Aziz Al-Azmeh, Muslim Kingship (London: I.B. Taurus Publishers, 2001), p. 132, for further discussion of the ‘dramaturgy of kingship’.32 O.P. Scheglova, ‘Lithographic Version of Persian Manuscripts of Indian Manufacture in the Nineteenth Century’, in Manuscripta Orientalia, Vol. 5, no. 1 (March 1999), p. 15.33 See Amir Hasan Noorani, Munshi Naval Kishor aur unke Khattat o Khushnavis (New Delhi: Taraqqi Urdu Bureau, 1994); and Amir Hasan Noorani, Sawanih Munshi Naval Kishor (Patna: Khuda Bakhsh Public Oriental Library, 1995), for more on the calligraphers employed by the press. Very little is known about the artists and their relationship to the Lucknow and Kanpur presses. Surprisingly, there are also as yet no studies of the illustrations, engravings and other visual materials produced by these presses. This is in contradistinction to several important and useful studies on the Battala (Calcutta/Kolkata) market. See, for instance, Ashit Paul, Woodcut Prints of Nineteenth Century Calcutta (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1983); and Anindita Ghosh, Power in Print: Popular Publishing and the Politics of Language and Culture in a Colonial Society, 1778–1905 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006).34 According to Stark, samples of their work were on display at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886. Stark, An Empire of Books, p. 274.35 The Tamannai Press, for instance, appropriated the Qasim Ali images for its Ram Lila as discussed below. It is not yet clear if other local presses did the same.36 Ulrich Marzolph, Narrative Illustration in Persian Lithographed Books (Leiden: Brill, 2001), p. 61.37 John Seyller, Workshop and Patron in Mughal India: The Freer Ramayana and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of Abd al-Rahim (Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1999), p. 206.38 ‘Ramayan nazm-e Khushtar harf ba-harf mutabiq Tulsi-krit’, ‘Khushtar’, Ramayan-e Khushtar (Lucknow: Naval Kishor Press, 1863 & 1924), title pages.39 See Theo Hermans, The Conference of the Tongues (Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2007), p. 23, for further discussion of ‘pragmatic equivalence’ in a different religious tradition and context.40 For more on parayan and exposition in the Vaishnava devotional context, see Lutgendorf, Life of a Text, pp. 53–112.41 Here is the conversation between the two as presented by Khushtar: ‘The Ramayan of Tulsidas, / Which is known throughout the world, / I have, in befitting style, / Transferred (manqul) into Urdu / Although this book (nuskha) is a beautiful rose / It is a thorn in the eyes of my enviers (hasid) / Tulsi, listen to my plea, / For you are “Wise”(danish-amoz) and “Merciful” (khata-posh): / By your favor, O Master of Discernment, / Cleanse this garden of blemish's straw (giyah-e aib) / So that my complainant (muddai) may be ashamed / And the throb of envy linger in his breast. / By your grace (barakat), may [my work] become renowned / And accepted by the wise. / He laughed, like a budding flower, / And asked me to recite [my verses] without delay. / The few sections that were with me at that time / I read to him and he was pleased. / Delighted with each episode (dastan), / He commended “Well done!” again and again. / He then praised me and gave a blessing / “There has been nothing else like it in the world / Every verse of your Ramayan is most noble / Each is well-wrought / My counsel (islah), Jagganath, is this: / You should thrust your hand into the ocean of thought once more / You will find the pearl you seek (durr-e maqsud) [that is, your heart's wish], / Great well-being in this world will be yours. / Write a précis (khulasa) of the Bhagwat, ‘Khushtar’, / In this same meter and idiom (zaban). / … / Take upon yourself this labor, / So that it (the Bhagwat) will be read (parayan) together with your Ramayan. / When these two works have been completed / Your enemies will become doubly envious”’. Jagannath Lal ‘Khushtar’, Bhagwat Manzum (Lucknow: Naval Kishor Press, 1881), p. 5.42 Ibid.43 Christopher Pinney, ‘“A Secret of their Own Country”: Or, How Indian Nationalism Made Itself Irrefutable’, in Sumathi Ramaswamy (ed.), Beyond Appearances? Visual Practices and Ideologies in Modern India (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 124–31.44 Dwarka Parshad ‘Ufuq’, Ramayan Yak Qafiya Manzum (Lucknow: Naval Kishor Press, 1914).45 Kajri Jain, Gods in the Bazaar (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), p. 25.46 ‘Munawwar’, Lamaat-e Ufuq, p. 91; and Virendra Parshad Saksena, ‘Urdu ke Chand Mumtaz Hindu Shuara aur un ki Khidmat’, in Naya Daur (May 1981), p. 37.47 ‘[H]ue sab daulat-e didar se khush / ki bulbul gul ke ho rukhsar se khush’: ‘Khushtar’, Ramayan-e Khushtar, p. 252.