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December 8, 2002
REVIEWS: Anarkali: fact or fiction?
THE mention of Anarkali usually evokes distinct images: the lively and sprawling Anarkali Bazaar in Lahore named after the famous courtesan of Mughal emperor Akbar’s court; and the epic movie, Mughal-i-Azam, that focuses on one of the most legendary love stories of all times, involving Akbar’s son Prince Saleem, who romanced the beautiful Anarkali, thus inviting his father’s wrath and her being condemned to be buried alive.
But this handsome, hardbound, well-researched and documented volume is about neither of these topics. The book focuses on the person Anarkali, but from a new dimension. Did she really exist? The author Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry, who has for several years worked in the offices of the Civil Secretariat which is presently home to the Punjab Archives located inside the tomb of Anarkali, explores this issue. Chaudhry has also written Lahore: glimpses of a glorious heritage and Lahore fort: a witness to history. As the Director Archives, Punjab, and Executive Director, Punjab Council of the Arts he was well qualified to study this issue closely.
Chaudhry has based his conclusions “on the fact that neither Tuzk-i-Jahangiri, nor Akbar Nama make any mention of the courtesan/maid servant Anarkali”. He has also “checked the travel accounts by William Finch, Edward Terry and other relevant circumstantial evidence”. According to him, William Finch, the English traveller, alleged in his writings that Prince Saleem had an affair with his father’s wife called Anarkali, whereas there is no such historic evidence.
The date of death of the occupant of the tomb, as given on the sarcophagus, is 1599. According to Chaudhry, this totally belies the common version of the death of Anarkali and the myth surrounding it (that Akbar ordered her to be buried alive standing, by having a wall built around her), as Akbar had moved from Lahore to Agra a year earlier. “Therefore,” argues the author, “if the harem was not in Lahore, how could the maid-servant be in Lahore?”
The author declares that the controversy is the creation of fiction writers: the juicy love story has fascinated generations in the Indian subcontinent. Syed Noor Ahmed Chishti’s Tehqiqat-i-Chishti being one such book, he contends, in which “the fiction of the maidservant in the harem of Akbar” appears. And finally, K. Asif immortalized the love-legend of Saleem and Anarkali by making the famous film Mughal-i-Azam in the early sixties.
Had such an incident taken place, Akbar would not have crowned Saleem as his successor, argues the author. “Anarkali was (actually) the name of the garden which came to be so known due to pomegranate plants which had been laid, with fountains and walkways around the tomb by Jahangir,” he elaborates.
The book describes Mughal architecture in general and the tomb in particular. The changes that took place in the tomb since it was built in 1615 have been traced. There is an account of the nature and scope of the archival records kept there. One also learns of the facts and fiction related to the ‘alleged’ occupant and the features of the tomb itself, which include inscriptions on the sarcophagus. If only the inscriptions had also mentioned the name of the person buried there, the controversy would not have arisen in the first place.
The author’s description of the architectural features of the building and the documentation of the changes that have taken place over time, have been done painstakingly. It appears that the monument has been used for keeping old records for more than a hundred years. As an Archival Museum, its oldest English documents date back to the year 1804. The ‘Delhi papers’, mainly concerned with the kings of Delhi and their relations with the British, form an interesting section of records.
Of valuable interest are the ‘Mutiny records’ and the ‘Persian records’. The latter are important as source material for the history of the Punjab. Unfortunately, since Persian ceased to be the official language in India in 1835 and in the Punjab in 1850, being replaced with English by the British, the documents are not widely consulted by today’s research scholars.
After going through the book, which vehemently rejects the popular belief about the existence of Anarkali, I was left grieving for the wretched woman, whoever she may have been, who was buried there. If, as the author contends, the tomb was built by Prince Saleem, nay Emperor Jahangir, for his beloved wife, Sahib Jamal, then the identity of this wife remains distorted and shrouded in mystery. If, as the legend goes, the remains belong to his beloved mistress Anarkali, the author’s attempt to refute it only deepens the controversy rather than resolving the mystery. Anarkali remains a loser. Better editing could have done away with a lot of repetitious material and would have made the book concise.
Anarkali: archives and tomb of Sahib Jamal — a study in perspective
By Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry
Sang-e-Meel Publications, 20 Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Lahore
Tel: 042-7220100
Email:
smp@sang-e-meel.com
ISBN: 969-35-1384-3. 80pp. Rs600
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