Tag: Akbar

A Brief History of Hindustani Music

April 24, 2026 6 Comments filed under Kabir

As a follow up to some comments on the thread on Afghan musicians, I am sharing this brief history of Hindustani music. 

Hindustani (North Indian) Classical Music is one of the most beautiful products of the Indo-Islamic culture of North India (including today’s Pakistan and Bangladesh). It would not exist in its current form without the Muslim influence, having evolved in the Mughal courts after it left the precincts of the temples, which is where Hindu music was originally based. I do not know much about Carnatic Music or South India in general so I will restrict my observations to the North Indian system only.

It is my aim in this post to briefly outline the history of Hindustani music. If there is interest, I can then go back and fill in the details as and when I get time.

Like all Indian Music, Hindustani Classical originated during the Vedic period. It was at this time that the distinction between “Gandharva” (ritual music) and “gana” (incidental music) became clear. One of the most ancient treatises on the performing arts in India is the “Natya Shastra”, attributed to the sage Bharata Muni and dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts. The subjects covered by the treatise include dramatic composition, structure of a play, and the construction of a stage to host it, genres of acting, body movements, make up and costumes, role and goals of an art director, the musical scales, musical instruments and the integration of music with art performance. The treatise is also notable for its aesthetic “Rasa” theory. It is in this text that the seven basic notes (the saptak) are named: Sadja (Sa), Rsabha (Re), Gandhara (Ga), Madhyama (Ma), Panchama (Pa), Dhaivata (Dha), and Nishad (Ni). These note names are still used today, equivalent to the Western Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti.

With the arrival of the Muslim rulers of North India, music emerged from the temples and became part of the entertainment of the royal courts. While for Hindus, music was preeminently religious in subject matter and spirit, for the Muslims it was a purely secular art. Hazrat Amir Khusrow (1253-1325) was a Sufi musician, poet and scholar. He was a mystic and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi (1238-1325). Born near Etah in modern day Uttar Pradesh, he was the son of Amir Saif ud Din Mahmud, a man of Turkic extraction and his Indian Rajput wife, Bibi Daulatnaz. Khusrow grew up in the house of his maternal grandfather, Rawat Arz (known by his title as Imad-ul-Mulk). He grew up very close to the traditions and culture of Indian society and was not alienated from it in the way that the ruling Turkic classes may have been. Continue reading A Brief History of Hindustani Music

On the Great Mughals: Indian or not?

November 2, 2025 No Comments filed under Razib Khan

The above are portraits of Akbar the Great and his grandson Shah Jahan that date to about 1630. Akbar had died about 25 years before the portrait, but its likeness seems close to how he was described by his relatives; fair-skinned and with a definite East Asian cast to his features. Akbar’s mother was ethnically Persian, while his father was mostly of Turco-Mongol background. Shah Jahan, in contrast, looks typical for a North Indian noble. This is reasonable because three of his grandparents were Hindu Rajputs. Only Akbar himself was not ethnically Indian.

But they say do not judge a book by its cover. A stylized fact of the Mughals at their peak is that from Akbar, to Jehangir, to Shah Jahan and finally Aurangzeb, there was a progressive ratcheting up in the power and influence of Sunni orthodoxy in the inner circle of the court. The 100 years after the reign of Akbar can be seen a series of victories by international Sunni institutions like the Naqsbandi order. This integration into a broader Islamic world can even be seen in Shah Jahan’s choice of Muntaz Mahal, an ethnic Persian of recent immigrant background, as his primary consort.

I think of these things sometimes because periodically there are outbreaks of argument about whether the Mughals were Indian or colonizers on the internet, and the two sides are extremely reductive and stark. This makes sense since it’s all rhetoric. But often they collapse and erase the texture.

One thing that is important to note is that it does seem clear that the Mughal conquest of India saw a deeper integration of India into the Islamic world than the period of the Delhi Sultanate and its successor states. Though many of these states were of Turco-Iranian origin, and cultivated Persian high culture, they were not as coherent or focused in their ideology as the Mughal Empire that succeeded them (during the Bengal Sultanate that Bengali did become a language at court). India had long been seen as a land of opportunity for Muslim adventures, but the Mughals systematized it, encouraging the migration of Iranians, especially Sunnis fleeing a newly Shia state, into its civil administration and Afghans and Turkic Central Asians into its military.

Padmavati quip; Jauhar or Jihad?

March 17, 2018 9 Comments filed under X.T.M

We watched Padmavati last night (I have a longer post on that) but I thought I would share this funny story.

I was reading up on the history of the Chittor Fort (where Padmavati is centred):

Beginning in the 7th century, the fort was controlled by the Mewar Kingdom. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the fort was ruled by Paramara dynasty. In 1303, the Turkic ruler of Delhi, Alauddin Khalji defeated Rana Ratan Singh’s forces at the fort. In 1535 Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat, defeated Bikramjeet Singh and took the fort. In 1567 Akbar defeated Maharana Udai Singh II‘s troops. The fort’s defenders sallied forth to charge the attacking enemy but yet were not able to succeed. Following these defeats, the women are said to have committed jauhar or mass self-immolation. The rulers, soldiers, noblewomen and commoners considered death preferable to the dishonor of surrender.[1]

I made the slightly off-colour joke to my wife that Jauhar seemed to be the best strategy of Chittor.

Her immediate quip back: “in the 13th century Hindu women were commuting Jauhar, in the 20th century Muslim men are committing Jihad so you tell me Zach which culture is more advanced?”

Touché!

First they came for Babri

February 16, 2018 5 Comments filed under X.T.M

First they came for Babri Masjid, and I did not speak out—

Because they called it Ram Mandir.

Then they came for the Gujarati Muslims, and I did not speak out—

Because 170mn Indian Muslims shivered with fear.

Then they came for Beef and I did not speak out—

Because red meat has side effects.

Then they came for Akbar- and now it’s war!

The Balmikis of Pakistan

September 4, 2014 No Comments filed under Archived Authors
….In Balochistan….an idol revered by Hindus and Muslims….Umerkot, birthplace of Akbar….“confluence” of Hindu god Shiva and an
important part of Mughal history……a stone shiv-ling, believed to be present during a
visit by Humayun, father of Akbar……shrine attracts many Muslims for
“curative purposes or to ask for a child”….
….
Reema Abbasi was born in Pakistan, went to school in England, college in Karachi, is a “spiritual Muslim” and “who has aspects of most religions in her home, such as an idol of Sai Baba, the cross and quranic verses” and who has now compiled a book on Hindu temples in Pakistan.

….
More than the temples, what is of interest is the life and precarious times of the Balmiki community (Dalits) who themselves seem to be highly spiritual (as in they appreciate all religions).
…..
Reema Abbasi, the book’s author, traveled the country to write this
narrative of about 40 old religious sites, including Hindu temples in
the jagged terrain of the western state of Balochistan. She also visited
the Thar desert and the Indus River valley in the state of Sindh, as
well as Karachi, Lahore, Punjab and dangerous stretches of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the border with Afghanistan.

……………
Born a Pakistani in the Netherlands, she went to school in England,
college in Karachi, and then worked as a journalist. A self-described
“spiritual Muslim,” she has aspects of most religions in her home, such
as an idol of Sai Baba, the cross and quranic verses.


….
“In the last 10 years, I have been focusing on socio-political
[reporting] and then the whole hardliner issues here, and sectarianism.
Not in the cities, but in upper north where there are pockets of
extremists and terrorists. Given that climate, the kind of issues that
were arising at the time and what I was writing about – I think that was
the part towards this [book].


….
“[The shrines] were spellbinding. For me some of the structures were
imbued with so much energy. … These places continue to bring so much
together and serve multiple functions in their own capacity — their
shelters, their inscriptions, their half-way houses for travelers, they
provide relief to homeless. So in their very being they are doing so
much. I think that’s the beauty of all ancient faith. Mosques do that,
churches do that. 

That’s where all ancient faiths merge. It is very
important to celebrate that kind of unity in diversity, rather than deny
it,” Abbasi told India Insight in a telephone interview from Karachi.


“This book concentrates on Pakistan’s fraying social order and the
sad prospect of it bringing about its own destruction by documenting
Hindu places of worship, major festivals, prominent orders of
priesthood…,” she writes in the book’s introduction, which is dotted
with Urdu poetry on faith and identity.

Pakistan’s Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis and Shi’ite Muslims make up about less than 5 percent of the nation’s 180 million people. In a recent report, the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom said the government failed to adequately protect minorities.


…
Parts of the book mirror this anxiety, like a visit to the Balmiki
Temple located in a nondescript street in Lahore, the capital of Punjab.


….
Hindus, Christians and Sikhs congregate at the shrine of Balmiki,
deity of the untouchable caste. The devotees come together in the belief
that renders their respective religions “irrelevant to humanity”.
Muslims also join them on important festivals. A cross is also seen
inside the temple.


…
The utopia turns out to be a facade when Abbasi writes that the Hindu
residents are expected to adopt Muslim names or Christianity to “avoid
upheaval”. Followers of Balmiki, the author adds, consume chicken and
fish to avoid being “conspicuous”.


….
In her travels, Abbasi stopped at shrines that faced backlash from
Muslims because of the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India by a
Hindu group.


….
She contrasts stories of desecration of temples, whether due to a
backlash or land disputes or commercial gain, with visits to shrines
that represent a fusion of faiths, untouched by social disturbances.


….
One of the reasons why minorities are worried is because of Pakistani blasphemy laws. The Ahmadis, for example, are not recognized as Muslims in Pakistan. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to look after the minorities, and its human rights panel says conditions are worsening.


….
In far-flung Balochistan rests an idol that is revered by Hindus and Muslims. Umerkot, the birthplace of Emperor Akbar,
becomes the symbol of a “confluence” of Hindu god Shiva and an
important part of Mughal history. In the central chamber of a colorful
temple is pictured a stone shiv-ling, believed to be present during a
visit by Humayun, father of Akbar. The shrine attracts many Muslims for
“curative purposes or to ask for a child”.

And close to Umerkot
is the only Ram temple in Pakistan, situated in a Hindu-majority town.
In a Sunni Muslim town, more than 200 km from Karachi, Dalit Hindus and
Muslims worship a Hindu saint who embraced Islam to embody Hindu-Muslim
brotherhood.


…
Such instances of the fluidity and opaqueness of faith abound in this
book. Particularly striking is the image of Muslim men in skull caps
worshipping Kali inside the Kalka cave in Sindh, which attracts Hindus,
Muslims and Christians from all over the subcontinent.

…..

Link: http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2014/09/01/reema-abbasi-and-a-glimpse-of-pakistans-hindu-past

…..

regards

Brown Pundits