ABSTRACT:
Chandayan was composed in late fourteenth century by Daud. The text was unique among its contemporaries from the perspective of language, script, and content. It was the first text of Awadhi (Hindwi). The present paper is an attempt to study the reasons behind the composition of such a syncretic text. Who were the people for whom it was composed? Why did it was patronized by the wazir of Delhi Sultan, Khan- i Jahan second? After a brief discussion on the above mentioned questions, the paper will be focused on the Persian adaptation of the story of Chandayan during the seventeenth century. Hamid Kalanauri adapted this story into Persian during the reign of Emperor Jahangir and named it Ismatnama. The study would attempt to bring to light the picture that contemporary sources paint. How did the story got circulated and transmitted to various circles? It would try to seek answers to the following questions. Why did Hamid Kalanauri choose this story? What was the medium of transmission? What was the reason behind its Persian adaptation and how did the story was reimagined for a new audience? The adaptation dismantled the barrier of language and open the text to a wider world. The study would be based on primary evidence, substantiated by secondary literature where required. The texts used for the study are Persian court chronicles, tazkira literature and vernacular sources.
Cite this article:
Savita. The Persian Adaptation of Chandayan: Understanding Intercultural Communication in Medieval India.
Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 2023;14(3):129-4. doi: 10.52711/2321-5828.2023.00026
Cite(Electronic):
Savita. The Persian Adaptation of Chandayan: Understanding Intercultural Communication in Medieval India.
Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 2023;14(3):129-4. doi: 10.52711/2321-5828.2023.00026 Available on: https://www.rjhssonline.com/AbstractView.aspx?PID=2023-14-3-3
REFERENCES:
1. These texts were written in Awadhi but the term Hindwi has been used here, keeping in view the classification of Amir Khusrau. In Nuh Sipihr, Amir Khusrau (1318) lists twelve Indian languages explicitly described as languages or dialects of different regions, viz. ‘Sindhi, Lahauri, Kashmiri, Gibar (?), Dhaur Samundari (Kannada), Tilangi (Telugu), Gujar (Gujarati), Mabari (Tamil), Gauri and Bengal (Bengali), Awad (Awadhi), and (the language of) ‘Delhi and surrounding areas’ (Dehli wa piramanash andar hama had). Amir Khusrau further mentions that ‘all these are Hindwi (in hama Hindwi-st) which from old times are in popular use for all purposes. Amir Khusrau, The Nuh-i Siphar of Amir Khusrau ed. Mohammad Wahid Mirza, Oxford University Press, Calcutta, 1947, pp.179-180; Irfan Habib, ‘Hindi/Hindwi in Medieval Times: Aspects of Evolution and Recognition of a Language’, ed. Ishrat Alam and Syed Ejaz Hussain, The Varied Facets of History: Essays in Honour of Aniruddha Ray, Primus Books, Delhi, 2011.
2. Baras sate se hoye ekyasi, Tihi yah kabi sarseu bhasi. Daud, Chandayan, Devnagari edition, Mataprasad Gupta, Pramanik Prakashan, Agra, 1967, p.15.
3. Badayuni wrote that ‘In the year 772 A.H. (1370 A.D.) Khan-i Jahan the wazir [of Sultan Firoz Tughluq] died and his title was passed on to his son named Jauna Shih. The book Chandayan, a masnawi and greatly exhilarating love story of the lover and beloved, Lorik and Chanda, was composed by Maulana Daud in their names.’ Khan-i Jahan occupied a high position during the reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Afif gives the date of his death as ‘770 A.H. (1368-69 A.D.), after eighteen years of the accession of Firuz Shah.’ The two dates are close to each other and if the date of death of Khan-i Jahan was also the date of composition of the Chandayan then it is most likely to be, based on Afif, 1368-69 AD. The discrepancy of ten years is difficult to reconcile and the date given by the author takes precedence over the other dates., Badayuni, Muntkhab ut Tawarikh, p. 250, R.C. Jauhri, Medieval India in Transition: Tarikh i FirozShahi: A First Hand Account, Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi, 2001.p. 233.
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6. The Biographical dictionaries like Akhbar ul Akhyar and Mirat ul Asrar identified him as the nephew of Shaikh Nasiruddin Chiragh i Dehli.
7. R.C. Jauhri, Medieval India in Transition: Tarikh i FirozShahi: A First Hand Account, Sundeep Prakashan, New Delhi, 2001, p.233.
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9. Mian Muhammad Saeed, The Sharqi Sultanate of Jaunpur: A Political and Cultural History, University of Karachi, Karachi, 1972, p.4.
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11. Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Muntkhab ut Tawarikh, Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1867, p. 180.
12. Ibid, p. 180.
13. Firishta, Tarikh i Firishta, ed. Nasiri Muhammad Raza, vol.I, Anjuman i Assar i Mafakhir Farhangi, Tehran, 1978, pp. 509-510.
14. This Shaikh Taqiuddin was the grandson of Daud, the author of the Chandayan.
15. Abdul Qadir Badayuni, Muntkhab ut Tawarikh, Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1867, p.250.
16. Nabi Hadi, Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 1995, p. 220.
17. Hamid Kalanauri, Ismatnama ya Dastan Lorik wa Maina, ed. Sayyid Amir Hasan Abidi, Markaz Tahqiqat Zaban wa Adabiyat Farsi, New Delhi, 1985, p. 39.
18. Ibid, p. 12.
19. Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings: From the Chester Beatty Library, Vol.1st, Scorpion Cavendish Ltd., London, 1995, p.189.
20. Ibid, p.189.
21. Jeremiah P. Losty, ‘Imperial Library of Great Mughals,’ p.51; Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings: From the Chester Beatty Library, I, p.194.
22. G.M. Wickens, ‘Anwari Sohayli’, Encyclopedia Iranica (www. Iranicaonline.org, accessed, 24 December, 2017), p.1.
23. Ibid
24. Corinne Lefevre, ‘Recovering A Missing Voice from Mughal India: The Imperial Discourse of Jahangir (1605-1627) in His Memoirs’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of Orient, Vol. 50, No. 4, 2007, pp.462-63.
25. Ruknuddin Quddusi, Lataif-i Quddusi, text, Mujtaba’i Press, Delhi, 1894, pp. 99-100.
26. Ibid.
27. Abdul Quddus Gangohi, Maktubat i Quddusiya, Ahmadi Press, Delhi, 1870, Letter no.103, p. 173; Daud, Chandayan ed. Mataprasad Gupta, p. 50.
28. Hamid Kalanauri, Ismatnama ya Dastan Lorik wa Maina, ed. Sayyid Amir Hasan Abidi, Markaz Tahqiqat Zabanwa Adabiyat Farsi, New Delhi, 1985 p. 39.
29. Ibid, pp.13-15.
30. Ibid, p. 38.
31. Ibid, p. 15.
32. F. Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian -English Dictionary, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, New Delhi, 1973 p. 852.
33. Daud, Chandayan, tr. Mataprasad Gupta, Pramanik Prakashan, Agra, 1967, p. 380.
34. Ibid, p. 384.
35. Ibid, pp. 384-85.
36. Hamid Kalanauri, Ismatnama ya Dastan Lorik wa Maina, ed. Sayyid Amir Hasan Abidi, Markaz Tahqiqat Zabanwa Adabiyat Farsi, New Delhi, 1985, p.25.
37. Ibid, p. 27.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid,
40. Ibid, p. 16.
41. Ibid, p. 22.
42. Ibid, p. 18.
43. Ibid, p. 19
44. Ibid, p. 39.