Literature, Art and Architecture
Effect of the Impact of the Indian and the Islamic Civilizations
So immense was the assimilative potentiality of the old Indian civilisation that the earlier invaders of this country, the Greeks, the Sakas and the Huns, were absorbed within the fold of her population and completely lost their identity.
But it did not happen so with the Turko-Afghan invaders of India. In the wake of Muslim invasions, definite social and religious ideas, which differed fundamentally from those of Hindustan, entered into this country and a perfect absorption of the invaders by the original inhabitants could not be possible. The political relations between the new-comers and the indigenous people were sometimes characterised by bitter strife. But whenever two types of civilisation come into close contact with each other for centuries, both are bound to be influenced mutually. Thus, through long association, the growth of the numbers of the converted Indo-Muslim community, and the influence of several liberal movements in India, the Hindu and Muslim communities came to imbibe each other’s thoughts and customs; and, beneath the ruffled surface of storm and stress, there flowed a genial current of mutual harmony and toleration in different spheres of life. As a matter of fact, both Hindus and Muslims had mutual admiration for each other’s culture, since the early days of the advent of Islam into India, and one of the sources of Muslim mysticism was Indian. Famous Muslim scholars and saints lived and laboured in India during the Medieval period, and they helped the dissemination of the ideas of Islamic philosophy and mysticism in this land. The wholesome spirit of mutual toleration found expression in the growing veneration of the Hindus for the Muslim saints, particularly of the mystic school, and a corresponding Muhammadan practice of venerating Hindu saints; and it ultimately led to the common worship of Satyapir (the True saint). It was probably due to this feeling of friendliness that conversion of the Muslims into the Hindu fold, and reconversion of the Hindus to their original faith, could be possible during this period and later on. It was out of the desire for mutual understanding that Hindu (Sanskrit) religious literature was studied and translated or summarized in the Muslim courts like those of Zain-ul-‘Abidin in Kashmir and Husain Shah in Bengal. Further, Muslim courts and Muslim preachers and saints were attracted to the study of Hindu philosophy like Yoga and Vedanta and the sciences of medicine and astrology. The Hindu astronomers similarly borrowed from the Muslims technical terms, the Muslim calculations of latitudes and longitudes, some items of the calendar (Zich) and a branch of horoscopy called Tajik, and in medicine the knowledge of metallic acids and some processes in latro-chemistry. The growth of Urdu, of the mingling “out of Persian ,Arabic, and Turkish words and ideas with languages and concepts of Sanskritic origin, is a proof of the linguistic synthesis of the Hindus and the Muslims”. Some Muslims wrote in vernaculars on topics of Hindu life and tradition, as Malik Muhammad Jaysia did on Padmini; and Hindu writers wrote in the Persian language on Muslim literary traditions, as Rai Bhana Mal did in his chronicles. Numerous Muslim poets wrote in Hindi and Hindu poets in Urdu. Amir Khusrav is known to have been the author of some Hindi works. This assimilation between the two cultures led also to the springing up of new styles of art, architecture and music, “in which the basic element remained the old Hindu, but the finish and outward form became Persian and the purpose served was that of Muslim courts”. Some Muslims of aristocratic Hindu origin, or living in a Hindu environment, assimilated the Hindu customs of Sati and Jauhar. Several intermarriages between the ruling members of the two communities helped this rapprochement and some again were the result of it. These inter–communal marriages, though sometimes tainted with compulsion as a condition of conquest, did much “to soften the acrimonious differences” between the two communities and assist the transplanting of the customs of the one to the fold of the other.
The spirit of harmony and co-operation was not absent in the political field also. Besides retaining, out of necessity, the existing machinery of local administration, the Hindu headmen and accountants of the villages,
the Muslim State employed a large number of Hindus, who became prominent in different branches of administration. Thus Medini Rai of Chanderi and his friends held high positions in Malwa; in Bengal, Husain Shah employed Hindu officers, most prominent amongst whom were Purandar Khan, Rup and Sanatan; the Sultans of Golkunda employed some Hindus as ministers; Yusuf ‘Adil Shah of Bijapur entrusted the Hindus with offices of responsibility and the records of his State were ordinarily kept in the Marathi language. Sultan Zain-ul-‘Abidin of Kashmir anticipated Akbar in his pro-Hindu and liberal policy. The Muslim subjects of Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah of Bijapur, described him as “Jagadguru” for his patronage of the Hindus in his State. Examples of Rajput chivalry towards the Muslims are not rare. Thus the Rajput hero, Rana Sanga, was chivalrous enough to respect the independence of his vanquished foe, Mahmud II of Malwa; Qutlugh Khan after being defeated by Sultan Nasir-ud-din took refuge with Rana Ban Pal of Santur; and it is well known how Hamir Deva of Ranthambhor gave shelter to a rebel chief of ‘Ala-ud-din Khalji at the risk of incurring the Sultan’s wrath. Even the Vijayanagar Emperors employed Muslim in their military service from the time of Deva Raya II, and patronised “the cause of Islam in and outside their great capital”. A famous Muslim general, Asad Khan of Bijapur, was once invited to Vijayanagar to witness the Mahanavami festival. Rana Sanga had a contingent of Muslim troops under him in his war with Babur, and Himu, a Hindu Benia, who rose to be the chief minister of ‘Adil Shah Sur, was the commander and leader of the Afghan troops in their last important fight with the Mughuls in A.D. 1556. These official appointments might have been due more to political necessity than to any feeling of goodwill. But there can be no doubt that they facilitated the growth of amity between the Hindus and Muslims. In fact, in different aspects of life- arts and crafts, music and painting, in the styles of building, in dress and costume, in games and sports-this assimilation between the two communities had progressed so much that when Babur came to India he was compelled to notice their peculiar “Hindustani way”. Sir John Marshall has very aptly remarked that ‘ seldom in the history of mankind has the spectacle been witnessed of two civilizations, so vast and so strongly developed, yet so radically dissimilar as the Muhammadan and Hindu, meeting and mingling together. The very contrasts which existed between them, the wide divergences in their culture and their religions, make the history of their impact peculiarly instructive…..”
