Culture of Encounters

Sanskrit at the Mughal Court

Audrey Truschke

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9780231540971
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

Culture of Encounters documents the fascinating exchange between the Persian-speaking Islamic elite of the Mughal Empire and traditional Sanskrit scholars, which engendered a dynamic idea of Mughal rule essential to the empire's survival. This history begins with the invitation of Brahman and Jain intellectuals to King Akbar's court in the 1560s, then details the numerous Mughal-backed texts they and their Mughal interlocutors produced under emperors Akbar, Jahangir (1605–1627), and Shah Jahan (1628–1658). Many works, including Sanskrit epics and historical texts, were translated into Persian, elevating the political position of Brahmans and Jains and cultivating a voracious appetite for Indian writings throughout the Mughal world.

The first book to read these Sanskrit and Persian works in tandem, Culture of Encounters recasts the Mughal Empire as a polyglot polity that collaborated with its Indian subjects to envision its sovereignty. The work also reframes the development of Brahman and Jain communities under Mughal rule, which coalesced around carefully selected, politically salient memories of imperial interaction. Along with its groundbreaking findings, Culture of Encounters certifies the critical role of the sociology of empire in building the Mughal polity, which came to irrevocably shape the literary and ruling cultures of early modern India.

[1] BRAHMAN AND JAIN SANSKRIT INTELLECTUALS AT THE MUGHAL COURT

JAIN AND Brahman Sanskrit intellectuals visited the courts of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan in considerable numbers. A select few entered the royal court at the direct invitation of the crown, whereas others gained entrée through regional or subimperial patrons. Many championed political causes on behalf of their religious communities or local rulers. Above all, Sanskrit literati sought access to famed Mughal patronage, which drew individuals working in various languages from across much of Asia. Sanskrit authors crafted many works under imperial sponsorship and participated in numerous aspects of court life. They acted as intellectual informants, astrologers, religious guides, translators, and political negotiators for the Mughals.

This chapter provides the first scholarly attempt to comprehensively and chronologically reconstruct these social ties. Jain and Brahman Sanskrit intellectuals were first admitted to the Mughal court in the 1560s, and both groups flourished until Akbar’s death in 1605. Jains’ fortunes declined steeply under Jahangir, whereas Brahmans maintained a courtly presence through Shah Jahan’s rule. In all, Sanskrit-knowing Jains populated the Mughal court for roughly fifty years (1560s–1610s; the 1580s–1610s witnessed a continuous Jain imperial presence), and their Brahman peers were members of imperial circles for a hundred-year period (1560–1660). These imperially situated networks provide context for the texts that I explore in the remainder of this book. Moreover, these cross-cultural links constitute an often overlooked part of social and intellectual dynamics in early modern India.

Connections between the royal court and Sanskrit intellectuals took forms that ranged from direct patronage to looser affiliations. In some cases, the Mughals extended support to writers to produce specific works. However, other sorts of links were far more common than direct literary sponsorship. Some Sanskrit intellectuals engaged with the Mughals on behalf of local communities or subsidiary rulers. In such cases, an individual worked primarily outside the central royal court but nonetheless engaged the Mughals in specific instances. Moreover, the Mughals supported Sanskrit intellectuals for an array of reasons other than generating literature. While in this regard the definition of a given individual as a Sanskrit literatus can become slippery, it is crucial to include those who did not author texts but were viewed by the Mughals as within the Sanskrit learned tradition.¹ This wider lens allows access to the polyglot nature of Mughal court life, including social practices that crisscrossed Sanskrit, Persian, and vernacular traditions.

Sanskrit intellectuals who attended the Mughal court formed a diverse lot. Both Jains and Brahmans enjoyed the Mughal imperial largesse, and many geographical and cultural differences fell along religious lines. The Jains came overwhelmingly from western India and were usually affiliated, often as ascetics, with one of two Shvetambara sects: the Tapa and Kharatara Gacchas.² Jains sought Mughal favor mainly of their own volition in order to pursue political concessions for their communities, which were largely under direct imperial administration after the Mughal takeover of Gujarat in 1572–1573. Brahmans at court hailed from a broader geographical area, stretching from Gujarat to Bengal and as far south as the Deccan, but they generally came from areas within the Mughal polity or threatened by imperial expansion. Brahmans also nurtured royal affiliations for more varied reasons than their Jain counterparts. Sometimes the Rajput elite who fostered Sanskrit (and Hindi) textual production in their own courts provided a gateway for Brahmans to access Mughal support. Both Jain and Brahman intellectuals freely entered and exited the Mughal court, and they often simultaneously preserved ties with subimperial and Rajput rulers.

While Jains and Brahmans both brought Sanskrit literary culture into the Mughal court, they would hardly have viewed their actions as a joint project. On the contrary, Jain texts often sneer at Brahmans and record conflicts between the two groups before an imperial audience. In addition, Jains were often divided along sectarian lines, and sects competed with one another for Mughal attention. Despite not acting cooperatively, multiple Jain and Brahmanical communities nonetheless developed an unprecedented diversity of roles for Sanskrit literati at a predominantly Persianate court. Among the many cross-cultural practices that the Mughal emperors cultivated in conversation with Jain and Brahman intellectuals, I devote special attention to multilingual titling. Throughout their tenure at the Mughal court, Sanskrit intellectuals received official and honorary titles from the Mughal kings. Official titles were exclusively in Sanskrit and denoted ranks within Jain sects. The Mughal kings also decorated both Jains and Brahmans with honorary appellations in Sanskrit, Persian, and Hindi that marked some type of partiality or accomplishment. These two genres of titles provide sharp insight into the agencies exercised by different communities involved in multicultural practices.

Many sources provide information concerning cross-cultural connections, and I rely primarily on Sanskrit and Persian works with more sporadic references to Hindi, Gujarati, and European texts. Nonetheless, several difficulties arise in attempting to reconstruct this complex set of social relations. Above all, Persian chronicles often elide Sanskrit intellectuals’ participation in royal court life. Many deservedly respected Mughal scholars have been misled by relying solely on Persian materials and mirror their sources in failing to mention that Sanskrit intellectuals were part of the Mughal court. For their part, Sanskritists have largely ignored the relevant Sanskrit materials. This oversight is due partly to the faulty (but so far ineradicable) assumption that Sanskrit thinkers were disinclined to write history.³ Sanskrit materials that address Mughal relations furnish a detailed picture of cross-cultural activities and often include names of key figures, locations, dates, and narratives of specific episodes. When read in tandem, Sanskrit works underscore the brutal limits of relying exclusively on selective Persian court histories for reconstructing the Mughal past.

The literary quality of many Sanskrit (and vernacular) texts, however, introduces methodological challenges to relying on these works for recovering historical events. Many narratives follow preset formulas, and the details of some encounters seem implausible. When sources from two or more languages concur about a particular occurrence, I take its veracity as relatively firmly established. But many of the encounters I discuss in this chapter are based on attestations in the Sanskrit tradition alone, not infrequently in a single work. Given the limitations of Mughal court sources, lack of confirmation in the Persian tradition cannot serve as a responsible basis for condemning such ties as dubious reported history rather than reliable fact. Moreover, despite a few moments of obvious exaggeration, Sanskrit literati generally present credible stories of their interactions with Mughal figures.⁴ Thus, while our knowledge of the imperial activities of Sanskrit literati remains tentative in some of its particulars, the overarching arc of this social history can be firmly established. These cross-cultural relations constituted a vibrant dimension of Mughal court culture that revolved around meetings between members of two cosmopolitan traditions in the center of a powerful, expanding empire.

BRAHMANS AND JAINS ENTER MUGHAL CIRCLES

Brahmans and Jains first formed ties with the Mughals in the 1560s. Early Brahman intellectuals often accompanied political embassies to or from the royal court and were associated with music, both legacies that endured through Shah Jahan’s reign. Mahāpātra Kṛṣṇadāsa of Orissa is the first Mughal-sponsored Sanskrit intellectual whom we can reliably date. The Akbarnāmah, one of Akbar’s official histories, describes Mahāpātra as “unrivaled in the arts of music and hindī [Sanskrit or Hindi?] poetry” and records tha...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Note on Transliteration and Other Scholarly Conventions
• Introduction: The Mughal Culture of Power
• 1. Brahman and Jain Sanskrit Intellectuals at the Mughal Court
• 2. Sanskrit Textual Production for the Mughals
• 3. Many Persian Mahābhāratas for Akbar
• 4. Abū al-Faz̤l Redefines Islamicate Knowledge and Akbar’s Sovereignty
• 5. Writing About the Mughal World in Sanskrit
• 6. Incorporating Sanskrit Into the Persianate World
• Conclusion: Power, Literature, and Early Modernity
• Appendix 1: Bilingual Example Sentences in Kṛṣṇadāsa’s Pārasīprakāśa (Light on Persian)
• Appendix 2: Four Sanskrit Verses Transliterated in the Razmnāmah (Book of War)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Series List