Name- Akriti Anshu Kujur

College-Miranda House
Roll No.- 22047716019

Title- Padmavat: A Tale of Conquest and Confluence

Padmavat was composed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, a practitioner of both Chishti and Mahdavi
orders. He composed Padmavat in Rae Bareli( in modern Uttar Pradesh) in 1540, under the
patronage of Raja of Amethi. This area was a centre of Chishti Sufis. In the invocation to the
Padmāvat, Jayasi also connects himself with the discipline lineage of Sayyid Ashraf Jahangir
Simnani, and with Shaykh Burhan al- Din of Kalpi.1 Shaikh Burhān al-dīn Anṣārī instructed hi in
mystical affairs and in the writing of Hindi poetry

Vernacular tales called Premakhyans like Mawlana Da’ud’s Candāyan, Narayandas’s Chitai-carita
and Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s Padmavat were composed in these courts. They were written in
local dialects of Hindavi. These works were meant to be read and circulated widely. Candayan and
Padmāvat followed the pattern of canonical Sufi doctrines. The appearance of hath yoga and Nath
ascetics show their widespread recognition and prevalence.

Premakhyan
Love, beauty, passion and internalised meditation are important tropes of a Premakhyan.
Premakhyan was based on the canonical traditions of Sanskrit mahakvya (courtly epics) and
Persian masnavi (romances). These love poems were recited and performed in courts, Sufi shrines
and other public spaces to invoke a feeling of spiritual euphoria.

The poets of the genre created a sophisticated Indian Islamic literary tradition, a genre containing a
set of desī or indigenous literary and religious terms, and a narrative universe to express the
distinctive Sufi agenda within the local landscape in which the Chishtis and Shattaris worked hard
to establish themselves. 2

The Masnavi, ‘the primary subject of which… (valour) not heroism and valour but love,' had
become a major genre of courtly poetry in the Persianate world by the mid-eleventh century.3
Prologue( praise to God the Creator, his Prophet Muhammad and the first four caliphs) and an
elaborate convention catalogue of the heroin’s beauty used as a metaphor of divine beauty and
soul’s ultimate union with the Divine are key features of the Masnavi tradition. Exaggerated
descriptions of heroism, martial excellence and valour are key traits of the Kavya tradition. While
the use of poetic and literary convections and the use of aesthetics of rasa are featured adopted
from the mahakvya tradition.

Richard Eaton and André Wink have identified the cultural history of this time period hinged on the
‘Islamic expansion of their moving frontiers.’ This expansion cannot be plainly understood as
colonisation. The subcontinent had rich and deep-rooted culture of its own. The new rulers had to
negotiate a space for themselves within the local terrain. The dualistic rhetoric of conquest

1
Orsini, Francesca & Sheikh, Samira. “After Timur Left: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth Century
North India”. Pg -250
2
Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545”, pg-12
3
Orsini, Francesca & Sheikh, Samira. “After Timur Left: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth Century
North India”. pg-260
concealed a much subtler process of cultural and linguistic assimilation and internalisation, as well
as intermarriage and conversion to Islam on the part of local populations.4

According to Ramya Sreenivasan, from the evidences of such literary narratives, it is apparent that
one of the strategies that such rural gentry and local warlords in the hinterland adopted to assert
their elite status was patronage of poets and performers. She recognised these court-men as
‘aspiring elites’. These lords did not have enough land or wealth to engage in major building
activities. Patronage of poets and scholars was their only way to leave behind their mark. Duad Ali
has proposed that courtly practices have helped to create normative selfhood for its aspiring rulers
and aristocrat in the early medieval period. These aspiring elites were trying to create a socio-
political niche for themselves.Thus, the new, vernacular Masnavi or Kavya of this period celebrated
the great warriors rather than the distinguished lineage from an ancient and exalted lineage.5

The texts were meant to be a ‘mystical’ experience, engaging the writers’ and reader’s mind, body
and soul and anchoring them to the metaphors of the stories.6 It highlightens the Sufi themes of
Ishq(love), Junun(frenzy) and husn(beauty).

The central theme of the Sufi order was complete ‘surrender’ or ‘submission’ Allah. The saints
practised asceticism, fasting and beseeched the Lord’s name in their prayers to transcend the
material word and become closer to God. Attendant on the ritual performance of the Chishti samā‘
or audition was opening up the self to the music and poetry that celebrated the erotics of the
relationship to an impossibly distant beloved.7

According to Carl Earnst, in Sufism the practices and principles of Islam paired with the devotion
and love for the God Sufis invoke are both two parts of a whole. In Sufism, one can attempt to
“approach the divine, internal reality” only if the Islamic laws, practices and commandments that
comprise “the external religious structure” are followed meticulously.

The central theme of the Sufi order was complete ‘surrender’ or ‘submission’ Allah. The saints
practised asceticism, fasting and beseeched the Lord’s name in their prayers to transcend the
material word and become closer to God. Attendant on the ritual performance of the Chishti samā‘
or audition was opening up the self to the music and poetry that celebrated the erotics of the
relationship to an impossibly distant beloved.8

Love might triumph, and it does in the Candāyan, Chitāī-carita, and Padmāvat. But it is a love that
might just have to transcend death, as in the Candāyan and Padmāvat—a trope ideal for Sufi
appropriations.9

4
Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545” pg- 143
5
Orsini, Francesca & Sheikh, Samira. “After Timur Left: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth Century
North India”, pg- 245
6
Rehman, Abeer. “The Padmavat and Nal-Daman Transcending Hindu-Muslim Categories and
Challenging Contemporary Understanding of Religious Boundaries”. Pg- 2
7
Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545” pg- 5
8
Ibid, pg- 5
9
Orsini, Francesca & Sheikh, Samira. “After Timur Left: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth
Century North India”. Pg -270
According to Aditya Behl, the composers of premākhyān lived in the mental maps of their
imaginary homelands in Central Asia, Arabia and Persia. They created a fantasy landscape. He
identified Hindavī romance poems operated in a certain ‘contact zone,' a place where many maps
overlap.

The basic plot revolves around a warrior who is consumed by the desire of lover in a faraway land.
He embarks on a toilsome journey to win his beloved. The journey requires renunciation and/or
initiation into an ascetic discipline by a mystical master. Simultaneously, the hero is required to
negotiate or even wage a war against his over-lord or a more powerful ruler than him.

The beauty of the female protagonist acts as an incentive for the hero to walk on the road of
hardship and penance. The hardship is an allegory for haqiqat(a Sufi concept denoting divine
essence of God and his attribute of love itself). The love towards the creation of god acted almost
as a predecessor for the love of god, for only through acknowledgement of beauty of the created
could there be a veneration of the beauty of the creator.10

Aditya Behl points out that political and religious discontinuities were negotiated through
exchanging women, tokens of symbolic honour, between opposing sides.

Padmavat- Sources

Jayasi’s poem is set in his native Indian terrain, imbibed with native symbols and references.
According to Rehman, the Padmavat is essentially a Rajput epic with a twist. The conquest of
Chittor fort by ‘Alā’ al-dīn in 1303 was popular tale among the rajput. They found place in
Rajasthani court poetry, the vartas and rasaus. Amīr Khusraw's Dihlavī ‘d Khazā’in al-futūḥ could
be a possible source for Jayasi’s work. Excluding Padmini’s story, the siege of Chittor and the
jauhar of the queens is mentioned. Narayandas’ Chitai-Varta (1520) and Cand Bardai’s Prthiviraja
̣
Rasau mentions Alā’ al-dīn’s passion for padminī as queen. These theme must have influenced
Jayasi.

Summary of Padmavat

Hereon we are going through the basic plot of the poem.

The female heroine of poem, Padmavati is the daughter of King Gandharsen of Singhal. He lives in
solitude with her parrot Hiraman, who is a master of the vedas. The king disaproves of the bird’s
proximity with his daughter and orders his murder. Hiraman flies away but get captured and get
sold hand to hand until he reaches Chittor.

King Ratansen of Chittor is impressed by the bird’s wit and buys him. The parrot sings about the
beauty of Padmavati. He develops an urge to win her. Despite his mother’s and first wife
Nagmati’s dissent he embarks on his quest, dressed as an ascetic. 16,000 vassals and princes
accompany him.

10
Rehman, Abeer. “The Padmavat and Nal-Daman Transcending Hindu-Muslim Categories and
Challenging Contemporary Understanding of Religious Boundaries”. Pg- 7
He crosses the seven oceans and reaches Singhala. There he meditates in a temple. Padmavati is
informed about Ratansen’s presence by Hiraman. After a failed episode of meeting. Ratansen
prepares a pyre that has a potential to burn the world. Shiva intervenes and advices him to capture
the fortress. He is defeated and is almost awarded death, when his true identity is revealed. The
two get married.

The return journey is tumulous as well. The party is faced with storm, killing majority of the
entrouge. The ocean demons test their love as well. On reaching Chittor, a jealous Nagmati had to
be placated.

Brahmin Raghav Chetan had a prominent position in the court due to his magical power. When
challenged, he wins through deceptive methods. Ratansen banishes him. In order to calm the
brahmin, Padmavati calls and offers him a her priceless bangles. Raghav is stunned by her beauty.
He leaves for Alauddin’s court with a thirst for vengeance. He tells the sultan about Padmavati’s
beauty.

Alauddin lays siege and demands Padmavati. The king refuses. In order to resolve the hangman
situation. Ratansen invites Alauddin in the fortress and offers him tribute. Alauddin catches a
glimpse of Padmavati and captures the king and takes him ti Delhi.

Padmavati along with Gora and Badal, the two pillars of the empire, launch a campaign to free the
king and bring him back from Delhi. They are pretty much successful but Gora gets killed.

Meanwhile Devapal, a neighbouring king, offers Padmavati to be his queen. Ratansen on his
return, hears of it. He goes to fight devpal, resulting in the death of the two. Nagmati and
Padmavati commit Jauhar. Alauddin captures an empty fortress.

Jayasi opens his work with the conventional topoi that are found in the Awadhi premakhyans.
These images ascribe traditions such as the Persian masnavi and didactic Jain epics in
Apabhraṃśa.

Identifying the Two Traditions

The link between the story of Padmāvat and this classical Indian epic is emphasised in many
stanzas in which the poet draws images and scenes from this tradition into the thematic paradigm
of his own poem.

Jayasi uses coded tantric, yogic, and bhakti devotional terms to suggest that the imaginary
landscape on which Ratansen advances to attain Padmavati is also an interior landscape
premakhyan tradition represent the divine absolute as heroine of the love story, born in a paradisal
landscape. He compares singhala-dvip to Manasarodaka or Msnasarovara. Jain monks, Nath
pantha yogis, wandering mendicants, tantric worshippers and other holy men visited Singhala to
attain salvation. The classical Sanskrit aesthetics of Rasa is extensively used to depict
Padmavati’s beauty as reflection of divine.

Moralist instruction and the exposition of religious or mystical insights are the main characteristics
of masnavi with a didactic slant. Masnavis like Niẓāmī’s Iskandarnama cover the life of exemplery
kings with martial and spiritual underpinnings like Alexander the Great. The two aspects of
kingship, the absolute worldly power and the spiritual ‘defect,' of which Alexander has become a
literary icon, are central to the thematic structure of Padmavat and are projected on the protagonist
of the Rajput epics and courtly romances.11

Stanza 18 praises Saiyid Ashraf Jahāngīr and Burhān al-dīn. According to ruby, important function
of the praise for the poet’s pīrs is that it introduces the theme of inspired guidance, which is
manifested in Padmāvat in the radiant beauty of Padmāvatī, who eventually becomes Ratansen’s
internalised guru.

First and foremost he talk about all the wonderful creations of God. He identifies Mount Kailasa as
the seat of Gods divine light. Author of translation notes, by 'Light,' the poet refers to Mahadeva,
who dwells in Kailasa. Indian Musalmans frequently consider Adam, the first man, as the same as
Mahadeva. References are made to local produce like khas grass, sugarcane and the karela or
bitter gourd. Behl opines, There is a larger transformation of subjectivity indicated here, in which a
“foreign” religion is reimagined in purely local terms.

Ratansen as a yogi-warrior can be attributed to both mahakavyas(Ram) masnavis (legendary pirs).

Another element in the stories on Sufi saints is the Ratnasen of a religious domain (vilāyat) by the
pīr, which is seen Ratansen’s voyage along with his courtier's dressed as yogis.

The Nath yogis were especially famous with the lower classes of the society. They are Shiv
followers and practise martial arts. The poetry of nath yogi preachers recorded in collections such
as Gorakhbani exerted a strong influence on subsequent poetry.12 Ratansen dawns on the dress of
a nath yogi when he sets out for Siṃha as mentioned in stanza 126.

According to Behl, Ratansen’s spiritual development is represented in terms of nāth yogī practices
and doctrines, but remains inherently that of a Chishti Sufi.

Padmavati is portrayed as the beautiful Padmini woman. She is depicted in a lot of rajput epics.
Padmavati’s beauty is supposed to be an embodiment of god’s divine light. Hence it is viewed as
pure. According to Rehman, Padmavati and Ratansen also shared the relationship of idol and
worshipper with Ratnasena as a devotee of Padmavati’s embodiment of beauty.

Padmavati literally mean ‘she is like a lotus’. As a lotus she turns towards the sun , bees come to
obtain rasa. It is a powerful and multilayered image in which the poet makes concepts from nāth
yogī and Sufi mysticism overlap.13She is recognised as diamond (padarth) containing divine light.
She is a Padmini,highest among the four classes of women ( Sanskrit erotic tradition).

Hiraman, the parrot described the beauty of Padmavati in sarapa manner( head to toe).

11
Bruijn, Thomas de. “Ruby in the Dust: Poetry and History in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi
poet Muhammad Jāyasī”. 124
12
ibid, pg-114
13
Bruijn, Thomas de. “Ruby in the Dust: Poetry and History in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi
poet Muhammad Jāyasī”. pg-247
This desi Islamic traditionn represents Islam in local dress, As-if” imagined through local gods and
goddesses, a thorough integration of a monotheistic faith into a polytheistic cultural landscape. 14

Singhala-dwipa is homologous to a paradise. Ratansen (as an ascetic or yogi) travels all the way
to Singhala to get Padmāvatī. This is an allegory for the attainment of one’s goal to get closer to
the creator. The beauty of Singhala is depicted par excellence. The palace is compared to Lord
Indra’s (Kabilasa) palace. The palace is a metaphor ( majazi) for heaven. The seven stories of the
palace represent the seven floors of heavens. This may also indicate towards the seven chakras of
sufism which needs to be penetrated in order to get closer to god.

It took four days to climb the the fortress. According to Behl, it represents four stages of the Sufi
path, sharia (following the law), tariqah
̣ (the Sufi way), maifah (gnosis), and h ̣aqiqah (realizing the
truth). It could infer four states of existence, nasut (the human world), malakut (the angelic world),
jabarut (the heavenly realm), and lahut (absolute divinity).

Ratansen’s journey is similar to king Udayana journey to marry princess Ratnāvalī of Siṃhal in
Harśa’s (606-648) Ratnavali. This made Udayana a cakravartin. Similar plot is found in Bhāsa’s
play Svapnavasavadatta. A king becoming a yogi to achieve spiritual goals was a common plot in
nāth yogī stories on kings like Bhartṛhari, Gopicand and Vikrama.

While love was seen in a negative light in Nath yogi tradition. Sufi tradition portrayed love in a
positive light. The yearning for one’s love(viraha) is used as an allegory for the yearning for God.
The divine light (nur Mujammadi) is the manifestation of god’s affection for all creation.
Ratansen emabarks on the persuit of inner self through rennunciation and initiation into Nath
ascetic oractices.

The characters of Gora and Badal are compared to hanuman in stanza 612. They rescue ratansen
in the same fashion as hanuman did. Rakshas are mentioned in the oceanic journey was seen in
the Ramayna. Jayasi draws a parallel between rakshas and the dajjal, the ‘deceiver ( mentioned in
the hadis).

Stanza 529 describes the performance of dancing girl in Ratansen’s court as Khiljis’s army
surrounds the fort. The following events are directly taken from accounts of the siege of
Ranthambhore such as Nayacandra suri’s Hammīra Mahākāvya.

The readiness to sacrifice oneself for love is a prominent element of prem and sat in the first part of
Padmāvat. In the second part, a more martial aspect comes to the fore in the siege of Cittor by
‘Alā’ al-dīn.15 the jauhar (sacrifice)of Padmāvatī and Nāgmatī on Ratansen’s funeral pyre is
representation of permanent union in love. After death the three attain death and divine light in
heaven.

14
Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545” pg-176
15
Bruijn, Thomas de. “Ruby in the Dust: Poetry and History in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi
poet Muhammad Jāyasī”. pg-230
The development of their love until the final union in the Jauhar of Padmavati on the funeral pyre of
Ratansen illustrates the various stages and aspects of love. In stanza 656, it is mentioned that n
Ratansen and Padmāvatī love is momentary manifestation of the divine in this world.

His representation is far from a monologic representation of the Sufi concept of mystical love. It
shows how the spiritual ideal can guide one through the adversities of worldly existence.

Ahmad interprets it as an anti-islamic conclusion. According to Thomas De ……., Jayasi

characterises the sultan not specifically as a Muslim, but from a moralist perspective. Sultan wins
Cittor but looses Padmavati, the objective of his conquest.Jayasi valorises defeat as a spiritual
value. Ratansen, Padmavati and Nagmati’s love becomes eternal. While the sultan embodies a
false love. His win is incomplete. The poem can be read as a critique of excessives of political and
military power.

Sreenivasan point out that Alauddin partial win indicates the Sufi superiority over local elites as
well as the sultans who patronised the Sufi sillies.

Jayasi asserts, Though the Sufi silsilas depended on the ruling class for patronage. The
relationship was mutual since they provided the rulers with spiritual legitimacy.

In the creation of Padmavat, jayasi catered the needs of Indian sufis, their patrons and their
audience. He did not copy a specific model but borrowed elements from different literary traditions.
Padmāvat is located at the crossroads of various Indian and Islamic literary traditions, such as
Indian classical literature, the Indian vernacular traditions of nāth yogī didactic poetry, and various
written and oral literatures that were part of the heritage of Indian Islam, such as Persian mystical
poetry and heroic storytelling traditions.16

Points of Conjucture and Divergence

James Tod , Aziz Ahmad opines that the Padmavati story was added to high-lighten the divide.
Muslim impact and rule in India generated two literary growths: a Muslim epic of conquest, and a
Hindu epic of resistance and of psychological rejection

It is difficult to analyse as to who the ultimate victor according to jayasi. It seems it is a tale
pfmuslim consolidation and conquest. The jauhar of Padmāvati, Nāgmatī and other women depicts
the supremacy of the Sufi values of self-annihilation ( fanā), love, and asceticism.

According to behl, Jayasi wrote a secular tale. Sultan’s lust is depicted as love by force and
Ratansen’s love earned through Sufi practice. Hence one’s sympathydescribes lies with Ratansen.

In tha last stanza, Jayasi exclaims that the emperor demolished the fortress and Chittor became
Islam. According to Behl, it signifies the Sufi martyrdom of a figure such as al-Hallāj, as well as the
identification with the Rajputs who fought bravely and sacrificed everythingg. Shantanu Phukan
opines, these last words imply “the theo- logical concept of the complete surrender of the human
heart and mind to the will of God (islam).
16
Bruijn, Thomas de. “Ruby in the Dust: Poetry and History in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi
poet Muhammad Jāyasī”. pg-101.
To one’s novice eye , Padmavat would appear as a text highlighting the clash between Hindus and
Muslims. The text cannot be merely seen as a political or religious text accentuating the difference
between the two communities.

Contrary to common belief Padmavat bridges the gap between the two faiths.The themes
(metaphysical experiences) addressed in Padmavat are universal, hence they cater both the
communities.

A.Rehman enumerates the way in which Padmavat transcends the political, historical and religious
boundaries of hinduism and islam. Firstly, it was written by muslim writers about the love of two
hindu characters. Secondly, The female protagonist commits sati, a hindu practise of self-
immolation practised by the wife by sitting on her husband’s funeral pyre. In Hinduism this
symbolises as ultimate love and love trasending the boundaries of death. The act of sati is very
similar to the Sufi tenants of suz (burning) and junun (frenzy). The Sufi brimming with love and
fascination for his beloved, is thought to suffer immense pain, agitation, and distress over
separation.17 Though Sati a form of suicide is strictly forbidden in islam, finds mention in this text.
Third, the authors were well acquainted with hindu scriptures and hindu cultural practices.
Shantanu Phukan points out the various indirect refrences made to Ramayana. For example
Padmavati in Sighala under an authoritative father juxtaposed with Sita’s captivity under Ravana.
Fourth, Sufi themes of ishq(love) and husn(beauty) are used to bridge the communal cultural,
religious and political chasm between Hindus and Muslim.

His use of many local symbolic vocabularies has often been read as a mark of his vernacular
populism, or, even worse, his religious tolerance, a sign that he was, in A. G. Shirreff ’s phrase, the
“prophet of unity. Aditya Behl on the other hand identifies it as ‘competitive syncretism’.

Through its inclusive themes premakyans tend to bring the two communities together. But it
simultaneosly highlightens the unharmonius relationahip netween the two. In both Padmavat and
Chitāī-carita hindu rulers are subjugated Muslim Ala al-Din Khalji. The Padmavat is not only a story
of a Muslim ruler besotted by the beauty of a married Indian woman and his attempts to gain her,
but it is also the story of the ensuing battles between two warring factions in India, the Hindu
Rajputs and the Muslim Turks. 18

Peter Gaeffke has pointed out that Jayasi has no direct knowledge of islamic traditions or Masnavi
writing. There are very few direct refrences from Masnavi. Behl argues that the Persian mas̱navī
was the model for a long romantic, heroic or didactic poem in Awadhi and provided a frame for
integrating the many elements from local genres to create a ‘desī [local] Muslim literary tradition.

The use of allegory and indirect references indicate Jayasi’s meticulous effort in crafting a story
that would appeal to the the Hindu and Muslim masses. 19 Texts like premakhyan were an effort to
bridge the gap between the two communities.

Conclusion

17
Rehman, Abeer. “The Padmavat and Nal-Daman Transcending Hindu-Muslim Categories and
Challenging Contemporary Understanding of Religious Boundaries”. pg-3
18
Ibid.pg-5
19
Ibid, pg-4.
The influx of muslim invaders in northern India led to creation of a composite culture. Sheldon
Polluck has recognised this time frame as ‘the vernacular millennium’.

The Indian Islamic literary tradition of the Hindavi Sufi romances is part of this complex process of
intermingling and territorial conquest, which generated new polities, created a set of new literary
and devotional traditions, and transformed the subjectivities of both conquerors and conquered.20
Jayasi’s Padmavat is deeply embedded in the composite field of early modern North Indian culture.

The subcontinent is a melting pot of cultures. These texts help us transcend the categorical
differences between Hinduism and Islam.

Bibliography

1. Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545”. Oxford
University Press, 2012.
2. Bruijn, Thomas de. “Ruby in the Dust: Poetry and History in Padmāvat by the South Asian Sufi
poet Muhammad Jāyasī”. Leiden University Press, 2012.
3. Grierson, G.A. “The Padumawati of Malik Muhammad Jaisi”. Asiatic Society, 1896.
4. Orsini, Francesca & Sheikh, Samira. “After Timur Left: Culture and Circulation in Fifteenth
Century North India”. Oxford University Press.
5. Rehman, Abeer. “The Padmavat and Nal-Daman Transcending Hindu-Muslim Categories and
Challenging Contemporary Understanding of Religious Boundaries”. The Department of
Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga

20
Behl, Aditya. “Love’s Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379-1545” pg-4