Court Chronicles and Persian Literature (Ain-i-Akbari, Akbarnama, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri)

At a Glance

• Sultanate Amir Khusrau; Barani, Afif, Isami
• Akbar Abul Fazl: Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari
• Memoirs Babur and Jahangir
• Poets Faizi, Utbi, Naziri
• Language shift Persian for administration
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Medieval History: Medieval Art, Architecture & Literature

Where Does It Fit?

This is the second topic of the category on medieval art, architecture and literature. The previous topic covered architecture, and this one covers written culture. The next and last topic covers foreign travellers’ accounts. Previous topic: Medieval Indian Architecture (Indo-Islamic Styles, Mughal Gardens). The earlier sources are in Literary Sources of Ancient Indian History.

How Did Persian Literature Begin in India?

In short: Persian became the language of rule and of the upper classes, and its writers shaped both poetry and history.

Lahore was the first centre for the cultivation of Persian in India, and some early writers such as Masud Sad Salman expressed love for it. The most notable Persian writer of the Sultanate was Amir Khusrau, born in 1252 at Patiali near Badayun, who took pride in being an Indian and praised India as heaven, with learned Brahmans like Aristotle. His love for India showed the Turkish ruling class no longer behaved as a foreign one. He wrote many poetical works including historical romances, created a new Persian style called sabaq-i-hindi, praised Hindavi and was an accomplished musician who took part in sama gatherings of Nizamuddin Auliya; he died in 1325. A strong school of history writing in Persian developed too, the most famous historians being Ziauddin Barani, Afif and Isami. Through Persian India built close cultural relations with Central Asia and Iran, and Persian became the language of administration, diplomacy and the upper classes, at first in north India and later across the country.

What Are the Main Mughal Chronicles?

Abul Fazl was a great scholar and stylist and the leading historian, setting a prose style emulated for generations. The Akbarnama was illustrated by Akbar’s workshop artists in manuscripts with miniature paintings; the V&A copy has 116. Badayuni, the orthodox critic, offers a contrasting account of the same reign, as in jizyah Hall Ibadat Khana, Fatehpur Sikri, 1575 Fall of Chief sadr…">Akbar’s Religious Policy – the Ibadat Khana Debates.

Who Were the Persian Poets and Translators?

Persian prose and poetry reached a climax under Akbar. Faizi, Abul Fazl’s brother, was the leading poet and helped in Akbar’s translation department, supervising the translation of the Mahabharata. Utbi and Naziri were two other leading poets, born in Persia, among many poets and scholars who migrated from Iran and made the Mughal court one of the cultural centres of the Islamic world. Hindus also contributed to Persian literature. A number of famous dictionaries of Persian were compiled. Akbar set up a large translation department rendering Sanskrit, Arabic and Greek works into Persian, taking up the Singhasan Battisi, the Atharva Veda and the Bible first, then the Mahabharata, the Gita and the Ramayana, and many others including the Panchatantra; the Quran was also translated into Persian, perhaps for the first time. Knowledge of Persian had grown so widespread in north India that Akbar dropped the practice of keeping revenue records in Hindawi alongside Persian, though the Deccani states kept it till the late seventeenth century.

How Did Regional and Other Literature Flourish?

Regional languages gained stability and maturity, with fine lyrical poetry, especially about Radha and Krishna in Bengali, Oriya, Hindi, Rajasthani and Gujarati; the Ramayana and Mahabharata were translated into regional languages. Alaol wrote in Bengali and translated from Persian. In Hindi the Padmavat of Malik Muhammad Jaisi used Alauddin’s attack on Chittor as an allegory for Sufi ideas; Brij Hindi was patronised by the Mughals, and Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan blended Bhakti poetry with Persian ideas. Tulsidas was the most influential Hindi poet. Malayalam emerged as a separate literary language, Marathi reached its apogee with Eknath and Tukaram, and Punjabi gained from the Sikh gurus. Sanskrit works were produced mainly in the south and east and at Banaras. Akbar patronised the musician Tansen of Gwaliyar, and Aurangzeb banished singing from the court but not instruments, with the largest number of Persian books on Indian classical music written in his reign. As an analytical point, the Persian tradition and regional literatures influenced each other, so medieval literary culture was plural rather than divided, an idea explained in Impact of the Bhakti and Sufi Movements on Medieval Indian Society and Religious Syncretism.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Authors and works Very frequent factual questions
• Historical sources Source value of the chronicles
• Synthesis Persian and Hindavi traditions together

What Came Next?

The next topic describes foreign travellers’ accounts of medieval India. Next topic: Ibn Battuta Rihla; Delhi under Muhammad…">Foreign Travellers’ Accounts of Medieval India (Ibn Battuta, Al-Biruni, Marco Polo, Bernier, Tavernier).

Key People and Terms

• Akbarnama Official chronicle of Akbar
• Ain-i-Akbari Administrative and statistical volume
• Sabaq-i-hindi Indian style of Persian poetry
• Faizi Abul Fazl’s brother and poet
• Sama Sufi musical gathering
• Hindavi Early Hindi

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions on this topic ask about the nature of the sources and literary culture. These points add depth.

• Sources Official versus critical writers
• Synthesis Translation and regional literature
• Language Persian as the language of rule