Of folklore, history & identity

IN the opening scene of Francis Coppola's famous biopic Patton, based on the life of General George S Patton, the General is delivering a speech before the tired soldiers of United States Third Army, "I want you to remember that no **#** ever  won a war by dying for his country, you won it by making the other poor *##*** die for his country,” he roars.  

In the Indian context, the notion of veergati establishes the credentials of bravery, not survival tactics. Unless you die for your land, community, or honour, you are not brave enough. This strange construct of valorous identity has given bizarre heroic figures to our history. The notion of veergati is so embedded in our memories, in the construct of our identity; we   carry it even to contemporary times. 

Added to this, a complete lack of academic research around the histories of specific communities and their role in shaping major events of history creates a complex web of misgivings. One is witnessing this around the controversy triggered by the film Padmavati. Facts documented by historians, the construct of the valorous identity of Rani Padmavati in public memory and the creative freedom exercised by the film's director has created a discord that is totally uncalled for. 

The timeline 

The historic siege of Chittor fort by Alauddin Khilji in 1303 AD, after hearing about the beauty of queen Padmavati (also known as Padmini), the wife of Rajput king Rawal Ratan Singh, is a documented fact. More than 30 years before Goswami Tulsidas composed the epic Ramayana, Malik Mohammad Jayasi, a Bhakti period Nirguni poet used the allegory of Padmavati and Khilji to compose one of the finest Sufi epic poetry Padmavat, around 1540 and dedicated it to Sher Shah. Padmavati was the princess of Ceylon. Her beauty was described by a parrot to Ratan Sen (in Padmavat the title is not Singh). Later, Khilji also hears of her beauty and attacks Chittor. When Khilji enters the fort, he finds both queens Padmavati and Nagmati had committed jauhar (self-immolation) after Ratan Sen's veergati. In the final verses of Padmavat the poet explains the allegory; by Chittor he means the body of man, Ratan Sen, the soul, Padmavati wisdom and Khilji delusion. The narrative also incorporates two young warriors Gora and Badal, saviours of Chittor, who later became part of folklore associated with Rajput valour. 

Around 1833, Lieutenant Colonel James Tod, who was also an oriental scholar, wrote Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, where he dwells on Rajput-Mughal alliances of different shades. He also incorporated the narrative of  Padmavati, picked from the bard tradition and got it translated into Hindi and English. It also got translated into Urdu and Bengali later, different variants of the tale came into existence, mostly woven around the valour of the Rajputs, fighting Khilji and jauhar of thousands of Rajput women, along with Padmavati. Around the same time another long poem Chandan and Mrigavati, a tale of sati sacrifice, became very popular. The two tales were picked by the bards and so by a large population in the North, and the two became mythical figures in the course of time among Rajputs and Jains for jauhar and sati. In both traditions, sacrifice constructs the subtext of valour.   

Fading lines and fiction

Time and again, Rajput fringe groups have violently objected to interpretation of historical characters associated with the Mughal period. At the time of the release of the film Jodha Akbar, similar unruly scenes were enacted, dismissing the marriage of a Rajput princess to the Mughal king. Rajput-Muslim marriages are a fact. Most of these were marriages based on political alliance. “Their documentation began only in the Mughal period, but such marriages took place even before the Mughals. Several Rajput princesses were married to the Sultans of Gujarat and Malwa. About 27 Rajput-Muslim marriages are well documented by the Mughals. The first between Jodhabai and Akbar and the last one of Farookh Siyar,” says Tanuja Kothiyal, Assistant Professor, history, Ambedkar University, and author of Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert.      

After the Jodha Akbar film controversy, a number of stories floated about Rajputs, who cleverly gave away  concubines in marriage, and not the daughters borne by their Rajput queens. This was true partially. Initially the Rajputs did give away only the women lower in social hierarchy, to the Turks and generals of Sher Shah. Mughals were very particular about the blood line and only daughters borne by Rajput queens were accepted as the Mughal queens. “The bhats kept a record of the blood lines from both sides of parentage of the elite Rajputs, for the Mughals, similar records were maintained. Syeed Inayat Zaidi has done a detailed study on the subject” adds Kothiyal. From mid- 16th to early 18th century, documented evidences are available of such alliances. 

“Mughal armies were made of Hindu Rajput generals and the courts had Rajput chiefs, they fought with great loyalty for their kings and earned their trust. Many Rajputs converted to Islam. In Akbar's time the Rajputs earned glory for their bravery, for giving precedence to loyalty before their own life,” comments Rajiv Lochan, Professor history, Panjab University.  

But the construct of public memory is based on the fictional narratives available locally in the folklore or in epics like Padmavat that help reconstruct a glorious past, when Rajput kings fought great battles against the Turks, Mughals and the British, and their valorous queens preferred death while protecting their honour instead of getting defiled by the hands of invading Turks or Mughals. “People are simple, they cannot understand allegories, they trust what their text books and Amar Chitra Katha tells them about Rajput glory,” adds Lochan, who laments the laziness of Indian historians, who have little knowledge of local languages and cultures, and are far too tightly wrapped in ideological cocoons to make an effort to decode identities as they existed in historical times. 

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