Literature during Mughal Period

Literature during Mughal Period

The Mughal period marks a new era in the literary history of India. Babur was a refined scholar and well-versed in Arabic, Persian and Turki. He composed poems and valued the work of men of letters. His personal achievement was Tuzuk-i-Baburi, his memoirs, which was written in Turki but later on translated into several languages. Humayun was also a learned scholar. There lived many poets and philosophers under his patronage. Jauhar completed his work Tazkirai-ul-Waqiat under his patronage. Akbar also patronized both Persian and Hindi literature and was equally interested in both. His reign was the golden age of Indo-Moslem art and literature. The most well-known works of his reign are Tarikh-i-Alfi, Ain-i-Akbari, Akbarnama. Abul Fazl, Faizi, Mulla Daud, Badauni and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana were the most renowned scholars of his times. Many Sanskrit works were translated into Persian. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Atharava Veda were translated into Persian.

Jahangir was also very much interested in literature. He knew Persian as well as Turki. His autobiography is considered second to the memoirs of Babur, his ancestor. Shahjahan also followed in the footsteps of his forefathers. He encouraged men of learning, and his son Dara Shikoh proved to be an authority in Vedanta. Aurangzeb, though an orthodox Sunni, was a great scholar. He encouraged the education of Muhammadans but destroyed the schools and temples of the Hindus. During his period, Hindu Literature began to decline and the period of great poets and writers came to an end. Dr. R.C. Majumdar remarks, “The Timuride rulers of India were patrons of literature and gave a considerable impetus to its development in different branches. Many scholars flourished and write interesting and important works under the patronage of Akbar.”

Hindi Literature also flourished during Mughal period. The early Mughal emperors provided liberal patronage to Hindi and as a result of this during the regime of Akbar, Hindi reached the zenith of its development. Tulsi Das and Sur Das were the most renowned Hindi poets of Mughal period and their most famous works were Ramcharitmanas and Sursagar respectively. Meera Bai and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana were also well-known Hindi poets of the period of Akbar. Jahangir and Shahjahan also patronized Hindi poets like Buta, Raja Suraj Singh, Raja Bishan Das and Rai Manohar Lal, Sundar Kavi Rai, Senapati, Kavindra Acharya. Deshav Das, a famous poet, who lived in Orchha, wrote Rasik Priya, Kavi Priya and Alankar Manjari during the regime of Shahjahan. But Hindu literature failed to achieve further progress during the regime of Aurangzeb as he was a fanatic ruler and patronized Persian.

Akbar also gave shelter to Sanskrit literature and got some of the Sanskrit books translated into Persian. The Jain scholar Padma Sundar and Jain Acharya Siddha handra Upadhyaya were renowned scholars of Sanskrit. Rasa Gangadhar and Ganga Lahari were written during Mughal period. A Persian-Sanskrit dictionary known as Farasi Prakash, was prepared during the Mughal period. Thus, Sanskrit literature also flourished to some extent during the reign of early Mughal emperors.

A mixture of Persian and Braj Bhasa, earlier known as Jaban-i-Hindvi and later called Urdu, also flourished during the Mughal period. Historians are divided about its origin but undoubtedly Amir Khusrau was the first great scholar of Urdu. Later on it was adopted by Sufi saint who preached their teachings through this language because it was quite intelligible to the masses. Soon it became the most popular language of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and the poets and authors began to use it frequently. Muhammad Shah, the later Mughal emperor, encouraged the study of Urdu very much.

Besides Persian, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu literature, various regional languages, viz. Bengali, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi also rose to prominence. The saints of Bhakti cult helped a lot on the progress and development of regional languages. Efforts of the provincial rulers and general masses also contributed to the rise of regional languages.

Milan Tomic

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