Qissa of Dara Shikoh, prince of tides

Cine actor, theatre director and poet Danish Husain plans to introduce a new Dara Shikoh in his directorial venture, ‘Qissa Dara Shikoh Ka’, the story of a Mughal prince who, in popular narratives, is portrayed as someone who would have been a better emperor than Aurangzeb. The play portrays the prince as a man of extraordinary strengths and certain weaknesses. So, while he is as ambitious as the ‘devil’ Aurangzeb, he is equally complex. In telling his story, Danish also presents multiple shades of a historical icon of syncretic India.

Danish is always particular about his protagonists. They are not conventional heroes, but humane characters — those who may speak truth to power (like Sahir Ludhianvi in the acclaimed ‘Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hoon’, which featured both acting and direction by him), possess follies (like Dara Shikoh), are underdogs and often wrestle with their demons.

His choices stem from his desire to tell stories that are more humanistic and go beyond popular narratives.

Dara Shikoh had been on Danish’s mind for some years. In him, he found an excellent scholar and an individual who seriously pursued the study of common practices between Hinduism and Islam. “He made an earnest effort to find the middle ground between Islamic and Hindu practices,” Danish says between rehearsals.

A large part of Dara Shikoh’s research was devoted to studying the mystical and pluralistic characteristics of various religious sects during the Mughal era.

An excellent scholar of Arabic and Persian, Dara appointed a team of Sanskrit scholars and had them translate the ‘Upanishads’ into Persian. French scholar Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron further translated this Persian edition into Latin. Eventually, it reached Europe, where several philosophers, including the German Arthur Schopenhauer, recognised its eminence. In a way, Dara Shikoh contributed to introducing the ‘Upanishads’ to the western world. A library built by him still exists in Delhi and is housed at the Dr BR Ambedkar University.

In the play, we find Dara tracing ideas of monotheism in Hinduism and drawing parallels between the Islamic concept of ‘tawheed’ and the Hindu concept of ‘advaita’, the idea of the unity of God. “He was searching for the mother of all spiritual texts and this search led him to study the ‘Vedas’ and the ‘Upanishads’,” says Danish.

He initially wanted to do a lavish full-length play on Dara last year but could not garner the resources. Then, last July, during a workshop on storytelling for Qissebaazi — a project run by The Hoshruba Repertory, a company Danish founded in 2016 — co-workers Ali Mohammed Yusuf and Sohail Patel expressed their desire to perform Dara’s story. The two went on to script the qissebaazi as well, offering a less black and white profile of Dara Shikoh, while capturing the realities of two ambitious Mughal princes battling for the throne of India.

Dara, the elder son of Emperor Shah Jahan and the potential inheritor of the throne, was considered a heretic by Aurangzeb. To Aurangzeb, Dara was a manipulator who influenced his father against him. Danish’s play puts their rivalry into perspective: when Shah Jahan fell seriously ill, it was Dara who first unofficially put the emperor under house arrest, ensuring his brothers didn’t have access to him.

While directing such performances, Danish is concerned about the authenticity of the language — its purism and refinement. He believes that while several Indian states have a better grip on their vernaculars and are therefore closer to purer forms of the languages, in large parts of North India, there is mostly a mish-mash of regional dialects or languages like Hindi and English (which he insists is more “pidgin”).

As a director, his effort is to present a communicative yet refined form of Hindi and Urdu. Equally challenging is how to present a text that does not appear like propaganda, yet manages to bring the audience closer to the subject.

The show, scheduled to be performed at Rangshila Theatre in Mumbai on August 30, will also include an adaptation of Patras Bukhari’s classic short story ‘Marhoom Ki Yaad Mein’ as ‘Qissa Bicycle Khatar-Patar Ka’, adapted by Devendra Singh Kushwah and Prasshant Sharma.

For Danish, showcasing the richness of the complexity of human existence makes for the best stories, and better theatre.

— The writer is a Delhi-based freelancer