Indo-Persian culture
Indo-Persian culture refers to a cultural synthesis present on the Indian subcontinent.[1] It is characterised by the absorption or integration of Persian aspects into the various cultures of modern-day republics of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The earliest introduction of Persian influence and culture to the subcontinent was by various Muslim Turko-Persian rulers, such as the 11th-century Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi, rapidly pushed for the heavy Persianization of conquered territories in northwestern Indian subcontinent, where Islamic influence was also firmly established. This socio-cultural synthesis arose steadily through the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th to 16th centuries, and the Mughal Empire from then onwards until the 19th century.[2] Various Muslim dynasties of Turkic, local Indian and Afghan origin patronized the Persian language and contributed to the development of a Persian culture in India.[3] The Delhi Sultanate developed their own cultural and political identity which built upon Persian and Indic languages, literature and arts, which formed the basis of an Indo-Muslim civilization.[4]
Persian was the official language of most Muslim dynasties in the Indian subcontinent, such as the Delhi Sultanate, the Bengal Sultanate, the Bahmani Sultanate, the Gujarat Sultanate, the Malwa Sultanate, the Sur Empire, the Mughal Empire and their successor states, and the Sikh Empire. It was also the dominant cultured language of poetry and literature. Many of the Sultans and nobility in the Sultanate period were Persianised Turks from Central Asia who spoke Turkic languages as their mother tongues. The Mughals were also culturally Persianised Central Asians (of Turko-Mongol origin on their paternal side), but spoke Chagatai Turkic as their first language at the beginning, before eventually adopting Persian. Persian became the preferred language of the Muslim elite of northern India. Muzaffar Alam, a noted scholar of Mughal and Indo-Persian history, suggests that Persian became the official lingua franca of the Mughal Empire under Akbar for various political and social factors due to its non-sectarian and fluid nature.[5] The influence of these languages led to a vernacular called Hindustani that is the direct ancestor language of today's Urdu–Hindi varieties.
The Persianisation of the Indian subcontinent resulted in its incorporation into the cosmopolitan Persianate world of Ajam, known today academically as Greater Iran, which historically gave many inhabitants a secular, Persian identity.[6]
History
With the presence of
Delhi sultanate and the Mughal era
Indo-Persian culture flourished during the period of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526). The invasion of Babur in 1526, the end of the Delhi Sultanate and the establishment of what would become the Mughal Empire would usher the golden age of Indo-Persian culture with particular reference to the art and architecture of the Mughal era.
During the Mughal era, Persian persisted as the language of the Mughals up to and including the year 1707 which marked the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb, generally considered the last of the "Great Mughals". Thereafter, with the decline of the Mughal empire, the 1739 invasion of Delhi by Nader Shah and the gradual growth initially of the Hindu Marathas[7] and later the European power within the Indian subcontinent, Persian or Persian culture commenced a period of decline although it nevertheless enjoyed patronage and may even have flourished within the many regional empires or kingdoms of the Indian subcontinent including that of the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh (r. 1799–1837).
Persian as a language of governance and education was abolished in 1839 by the British East India Company and the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, even if his rule was purely symbolic or ceremonial, was dethroned in 1857 by the British.
Further, C.E. Bosworth writes about the significance of Persian culture that developed a mark within Muslim sultans in this era that: "The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century."[8]
Deccan
The Deccan region's integration into the Indo-Persian culture of the north began in the early 14th century, when the Delhi Sultanate made political movements towards the south, and the Deccan was brought into the Sultanate under the conquests of the
In the middle of the 14th century, the
For the first half century after the establishment of the Bahmanids, the original colonists and their sons had administered the empire quite independent of either the non-Muslim Hindus, or the Muslim foreign immigrants. However, the later Bahmani Sultans began to recruit foreigners from overseas, whether because of depletion among the ranks of the original settlers, or the feelings of dependency upon the Persian courtly model, or both.[13] The Bahmani Sultans actively recruited Persian or Persianised men in their administration, and such foreigners were in fact favoured over Indians who were known as the Dakhani elite, the latter who were the original founders of the Bahmani state and the real architects of the empire.[14][15] Sultan Firuz Shah (1397-1422) sent ships from his ports in Goa and Chaul to the Persian Gulf to bring back talented men of letters, administrators, jurists, soldiers and artisans.[16] This included the high-born Iranian Mahmud Gawan (1411-1481) who rose to become a powerful minister of that state during the reign of another Bahmani Sultan.[17]
This led to factional strife between the
According to Richard Eaton, even the Hindu Vijayanagara empire from the same period was highly Persianised in its culture. The royal quarters of the capital had many Persian architectural elements such as domes and vaulted arches.[36]
The Bahmani Sultanate disintegrated into five
The court language during the Deccan sultanate period was Persian or Arabic, however, Marathi was widely used during the period especially by the Adil Shahis of Bijapur and the Ahmadnagar Sultanate.[38][39] Although the rulers were Muslims, the local feudal landlords and the revenue collectors were Hindus and so was the majority of the population. Political expediency made it important for the sultans to make use of Marathi. Nevertheless, Marathi in official documents from the era is totally Persianised in its vocabulary.[40] The Persian influence continues to this day with many Persian derived words used in every day speech such as bāg (Garden), kārkhānā (factory), shahar (city), bāzār (market), dukān (shop), hushār (clever), kāgad (paper), khurchi (chair), zamīn (land), zāhirāt (advertisement), and hazār (thousand).[41]
Bengal
Bengal was the easternmost frontier of the Persian cultural sphere.
During the
The use of Persian as an official language was prohibited by Act no. XXIX of 1837 passed by the President of the Council of India in Council on 20 November 1837.[44]
During the British colonial era
Given that the Mughals had historically symbolised Indo-Persian culture to one degree or another, the dethroning of Bahadur Shah Zafar and the institution of the direct control of the British Crown in 1858 may be considered as marking the end of the Indo-Persian era, even if, after the Indian Rebellion, Persian would still retain an audience and even produce commendable literature such as the philosophical poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938). The British would absorb elements of the culture's architectural style into the buildings of the Raj, producing Indo-Saracenic architecture. For 20th century Indian Muslims, and Urdu poets in particular, learning the Persian language was viewed as necessary for a full understanding of Urdu and central to the comportment of an educated North Indian Muslim man.[45]
Adab
In Indo-Persian cultures in North India, Adab, which could simply be understood as a form of virtue ethnic, is a code of values determining social behavior that forms the defining characteristic in Indo-Muslim culture.[46][47][48]
Language
Cuisine
The Indo-Persian synthesis led to the development of cuisine that combined indigenous foods and ingredients with the tastes and methods of the Turko-Persians. This was especially under the Mughals, who invited cooks (bawarchis) from various parts of the Islamic world. This resultant cuisine is referred to as Mughlai cuisine, and has left a great impact on the regional eating habits of South Asia. It was further developed in the kitchens of regional Islamic powers, leading to distinctive styles such as the Awadhi and Hyderabadi cuisines.[49]
Due to this synthesis, the Indian subcontinent shares Central and West Asian food, such as naan and kebab, and is home to unique dishes such as biryani.
Architecture
The Indian subcontinent's Islamic period produced architecture that drew stylistically from Persianate culture, using features such as domes, iwans, minars, and baghs. Early Islamic rulers tended to use spolia from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain buildings, resulting in an Indianised style which would be refined by later kingdoms. Hence monuments came to feature uniquely Indian architectural elements, such as corbelled arches and jali. The main buildings produced were mosques, forts, and tombs. These still stand today and are well-represented in the architecture of cities such as Lahore, Delhi, and Hyderabad, to name a few.
Indo-Persian architecture was not exclusive to Islamic power, as the members and rulers of other religions incorporated it in their monuments. Sikh architecture is a notable example of this. The Hindu Vijayanagara Empire used Indo-Persian architecture in courtly monuments.[50]
Music
Prior to Islamic conquest, the Indian subcontinent had a history of musical practice that drew from Sanskritic culture. The subsequent Indo-Persian synthesis resulted in an influx of Iranian musical elements, leading to further developments in the region's musical culture through the patronage of new Persianate rulers. This appears to have been the impetus for divergence in indigenous music, leading to the divergence of
The creation of many of these practices is credited to 13th-century poet, scholar, and musician Amir Khusrau.
See also
- Persianate society
- Turco-Persian culture
- Turco-Mongol culture
- Greater Iran
- Persian language in the Indian subcontinent
- Indo-Islamic architecture
- Central Asians in ancient Indian literature
- Mughal architecture
- Mughal clothing
- Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments
- Urdu
- Islam in South Asia
References
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- ^ Alam, Muzaffar. "The Pursuit of Persian: Language in Mughal Politics." In Modern Asian Studies, vol. 32, no. 2. (May, 1998), pp. 317–349.
- OCLC 835227498.
- ^ Delhi, the Capital of India By Anon, John Capper, p.28. "This source establishes the Maratha control of Delhi before the British"
- ^ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ghurids Iranica: GHURIDS or Āl-e Šansab; a medieval Islamic dynasty of the eastern Iranian lands.
- ^ Eaton 2008, p. 22-24.
- ^ a b Kousar.J. Azam (2017). Languages and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad. Taylor & Francis. p. 8.
- ISBN 9788171545797.
- ^ a b Ansari, N. H. "Bahmanid Dynasty". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
- ISBN 9781400868155.
- ^ Eaton 2008, p. 67-68.
- ISBN 9788120706170.
- ^ Eaton 2008, p. 51-52.
- ^ Eaton 2008, p. 59-72.
- ^ Sir Wolseley Haig (1907). Historic Landmarks of the Deccan. Pioneer Press. p. 4.
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On the one hand, the court was obliged to patronize the descendants of those north Indian settlers who had migrated to the Deccan in the fourteenth century, and who, rebelling against Delhi, had launched the dynasty.
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considerable resentment among Muslims born in the Deccan, many of whom were descendants of the original Muslim settlers who had migrated from North India in the previous century and who had in fact launched the Bahmani state. These were the "Deccanis", people who were just as proud of their local origins as the Westerners were of their foreign origins.
- ISBN 9780860785071.
- ^ Yazdani, 1947, pp. 10.
- ^ History: Mediaeval period. 1967.
- ^ Pran Nath Chopra; T. K. Ravindran; N. Subrahmanian (1979). History of South India: Medieval period. p. 77.
- ^ The Cambridge Shorter History of India. CUP Archive. p. 290.
- ^ John Bowman (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press.
- ^ Annemarie Schimmel (2022). Islam in the Indian Subcontinent. Brill.
- ^ Manu S. Pillai (2018). Rebel Sultans:The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji. Juggernaut. p. 141.
- ^ Richard Eaton. A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761:Eight Indian Lives · Part 1, Volume 8. Cambridge University Press. p. 76.
- ^ Keelan Overton (2020). Iran and the Deccan:Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400–1700. Indiana University Press. p. 139.
- ISBN 9781474436090.
- ISBN 9781474436090.
- ^ Eaton 2008, p. 99-101.
- ^ a b "'Persianate culture forms intrinsic part of Hyderabad' - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
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- ^ Malik Mohamed, The Foundations of the Composite Culture in India, 2007, p. 249, p. 434
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- ^ Abdul Karim, Influence of Persian on Marathi Language, Indo-Iran society, 1974, pp.163–174
- ^ "Bengal". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- OL 30677644M. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
- OL 30677644M. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
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- ^ "The Indo-Persian Musical Confluence". Stanford Center for South Asia.
Bibliography
- Eaton, Richard (2008), A Social History of the Deccan, 1300-1761, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9781139053907
- Yazdani, Ghulam (1947). Bidar, Its History and Monuments.
Further reading
- Multiple authors (2004). "India". Encyclopædia Iranica. (series of entries that cover Indian history and its relations with Iran)
- Chopra, R.M. Indo-Iranian Cultural Relations Through The Ages. Iran Society, 2005.
- Chopra, R. M.,"The Rise Growth And Decline of Indo-Persian Literature", Iran Culture House, New Delhi, 2012. 2nd revised edition published in 2013.
- ISBN 0-295-98206-3. pp. 15–35.
- Eaton, Richard M., India in the Persianate Age (Allen Lane, 2019)
- Islam, Riazul, "Indo-Persian Relations". Iranian Culture Foundation, Tehran, 1970.
- Kirmani, Waris. Dreams Forgotten: An Anthology of Indo-Persian Poetry. (Aligarh, 1984)
- Nabi Hadi. Dictionary of Indo-Persian Literature. (New Delhi, 1995)
- Fabrizio Speziale, Culture persane et médecine ayurvédique an Asie du Sud, Leiden – Boston, E. J. Brill, Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, 2018. ISBN 978-90-04-35275-9