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Gentle passion & violent ardour

In this timely book Purushottam Agrawal, a scholar of medieval Indian literature and Kabir specialist, brings his intimate knowledge of Jayasi’s Padmavati to the aid of those unable to access the original.

Gentle passion & violent ardour

Illustrations courtesy: Aleph



Vijay Tankha

In this timely book Purushottam Agrawal, a scholar of medieval Indian literature and Kabir specialist, brings his intimate knowledge of Jayasi’s Padmavati to the aid of those unable to access the original. It remains inaccessible because of its unfamiliar, colloquial language, which is difficult, if not impossible to translate, as well as its length. Jayasi composed the epic poem in 1,540 at a time when poetry was mainly performed. Narrative poems were like the cinema of those times, entertaining and informative, delighting ordinary folk as well as pundits and their royal patrons. The aim of the work, as the poet informs us, was both to celebrate love and ensure the undying fame of its author. Agrawal holds that as an epic it was surpassed only by Tulsidas’ Ramacharitmanas (1574). Jayasi’s work was perhaps the first of other works which took up the legend of Padmini of Chittor. 

This book is a guided tour through Jayasi’s poem, lucid, easy to read, informative without being pedantic, matter of fact rather than declamatory; his observations always to the point, while his regular quotations from the work, with accompanying translation, open a window to what must be a marvellous text, still awaiting readers.

Agrawal’s major observation is that the work is a product of the poet’s creative imagination, not history (there is no point looking for the ideal land of Simhal from where Ratnasen wins Padmavati), guided by the erudite parrot, Hiraman. Two thirds of the epic poem is located in this mythical land, where the love-struck Ratnasen leads an army of non-violent yogis to woo his beloved. Alauddin Khilji, appearing late in the poem, was an actual historical figure, as was his siege of Chittor two hundred years before the poem was written. 

But this event is merely the peg on which the poem’s narrative is hung: he is a villain but not a monster: for he too, like Ratnasen, is smitten by Padmini’s beauty, but wants to possess her by force rather than win her love by consent. Though Jayasi was a devout Muslim and Sufi poet, he was deeply immersed in Hindu mythology and practices: Ratnasen becomes a yogi to win Padmavati. Agrawal dismisses the claim that the poem is a Sufi text, symbolic of the love between soul and god, an interpretation based on a single verse regarded by most scholars as a later interpolation. Jayasi’s poem, instead, contrasts the ideal world of Simhal with the real world of medieval India, where villainy and treachery (as well as loyalty) are par for the course.

The poem, as the both the author and this commentator see it, is really about love between two individuals, and the way in which the world (usually) conspires to come between them. Tragic love poems have a long history in world literature, but India seems to have produced more than its share, something that our khap-panchayats seem totally unaware of. Perhaps the very lack of freedom of choice in matters of sexuality led to this romanticisation of love beyond or outside the borders of marriage. Ratnasen is already married; the poet is alive to the problems inherent in such situations and some of the finest verses record the grief and jealousy of the first wife, the devoted but argumentative Nagamati, who also commits sati along with Padmavati.

Emphasising human love, the poet “creates the most beautiful tapestry of elements from Persian masnavi, dastan, Hindu epics and folklore.” Agrawal’s account, delicately illustrated by Devdutt Pattanaik, is eminently readable. His deep knowledge of the times and its language enables him to draw our attention to finer points of the poetry and culture of the period, including the culinary knowledge displayed by the poet. I liked the stratagem used by the generals, Gora and Badal, who aid Padmavati’s rescue of Ratnasen from Alauddin: they simply bribe the guards who let 1,600 palanquins full of warriors (and a locksmith) into the prison to free their king. The unbelievable is often believable.

Jayasi, ugly, and deformed in body, poured the essence of all that was perhaps missing in his own life, into this work of youthful tragic love, whose fragrance will still, ‘persist after the flower has perished.’ (Phul mare pe mare na bansu). 

Simplified: Agrawal's work is a comprehensible tour through Jayasi's poem, that remains inaccessible because of its unfamiliar, colloquial language, which is difficult, if not impossible to translate. The book is beautifully illustrated by Devdutt Pattanaik

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