June 11th, 2001
The Crown Prince of Nepal has, allegedly, slaughtered his parents and siblings because the path of his desire was being obstructed. It is said that, besides Love, he was also under the influence of alcohol cocaine and marihuana.
When the news of the slaughter broke, Hindu friends and relatives, mostly of the RSS/VHP/ BJP persuasion refused to believe their eyes and ears. According to their notions parricide and fratricide are the exclusive preserve of non-Hindus and in particular of the Muslims. Hindus just do not do such things. How could a scion of the only Hindu Kingdom in the world possibly massacre father mother brothers sisters nieces and nephews and also shoot himself in the head!
Unbelievable!
Alas! the news, bad though it undoubtedly is, appears to be true. The reason or trigger was thwarting of desire. The Royal astrologers, Brahmins and no doubt hereditary like their patrons, the Kings of Nepal, had read the stars to the effect that if Dipendra got married before age 35 ( which would have been six years later) the father, King Birendra would die as the result of the most malefic astrals of the bride’s horoscope combining with everyone else’s to aspect the King’s very being and annihilate it.
That eventuality was averted as the marriage will now never take place A mind diseased by drugs inflamed by desire and driven by the impulse of having one’s own way as an assertion of the ego all combined to cause a far bigger tragedy than just one death. A tragedy unforeseen even by astrologers accredited to the Royal Nepal Court!
Is there a link between royal romance and violence? Are Venus and Mars linked ? How far back in history shall we look?
Indians inhabit a country which used to be proverbial for abundance and plenty in every dimension of being. The wealth the variety and the range of experience of its people was quite unique. This abundance applied also to Love Desire and Sex.
The Kaamasutra, a compendium encyclopedia or guide book to all aspects of Love physical or emotional was incised on palm leaf by Maharishi Vatsyayana in the very early centuries of the Christian era. In the best tradition of Indian scholarship Vatsyayana sets down the contribution and views of each and every one of his predecessors in this area of knowledge all the way back to the Lord Shiva Himself.
The period 950-1857 saw Indian politics dominated by Central Asians and Afghans who had become Muslim. The local Brahmins Rajputs Kayasthas and Marathas interpreted tradition for their new rulers and made them “India literate”*.
[*India is big complex and old enough to merit special study. Those who do not have this input are India illiterate.]
In this, the medieval period, the traditional, normal and healthy attitude to Love continued. There was also addition which should delight those who believe that all is fair in Love and War. The area of Love within the same gender was talked about openly for the first time albeit only for males. The mention of this area had been muted in Vatsyayana and the earlier tradition.
The situation underwent a sea change in 1757 when the British won the Battle of Plassey and became dominant in Indian politics. They came from Europe. Religions are not natural or indigenous to Europe. They are all imported from Asia.
This makes religion alien and therefore difficult to assimilate. Europeans soon forgot that the Christ was the Prince of Peace and of Love. They made Christianity into a battleaxe and club and used it to brutalise first Jerusalem and then the whole world. For this brutish lot The Original Sin from the Old Testament became the dominant part or core of religion. It haunted them. Love and Sex were areas causing acute embarrassment.
The Jews/Users/i860979/OneDrive/Blog/Itihaas/My Documents from Pa’s computer 2005/00 done and the Muslims also believe in the Old Testament story that Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden for indulging in sex but, and perhaps because they are Oriental, they have no fixation on Original Sin. This preoccupation is exclusive to the Christians of Europe.
The European Christian contribution 1757-1947 was to make the people of India, the people of the Kamasutra Konark Khajuraho and ritual daily Lingam-Yoni worship into pathetic sex-starved creatures for the first time in their long and many splendoured history. To add insult to injury the British called this period “Modern”!
The Modern or British period in India yields no love stories. There is lust aplenty and the Maharaja Bhupendra Singh of Patiala, has passed into legend for his abductions rapes and gross sexual misbehaviour.
We have to go back in time to the reign of Alauddin Khilji, Sultan from 1296-1316 to read about love.
In this reign The ruler of Gujarat , Karan Baghela was defeated and his Queen Kamala Devi captured and sent to Delhi where the Sultan, Alauddin married her. She soon asked him to get her daughter Dewal Devi from Gujarat so that they could be reunited. The expedition sent for the purpose secured Dewal Devi from near Ellora and sent her to Delhi. The Crown Prince, Khizr Khan fell deeply into love with her. He refused the hand of his own cousin and sought hers. Deval Devi’s marriage with Prince Khizr Khan took place amidst great rejoicing and celebration and Amir Khusro’s long poem ’Aashiqaa ; Dewal Devi Khizr Khan commemorates the event.
The plunder from the Gujarat expedition was to yield unexpected results. When Cambay (Khambait) was looted Alauddin’s general secured a most attractive young slave called Kaafur (Camphor). The owner, an Arab merchant had paid one thousand gold coin for him in the slave market of Baghdad. For this reason the boy was called Kaafur Hazaar Deenaaree. When he was presented to the Sultan, Alauddin became infatuated with Kaafur.
Kaafur turned out to be versatile and showed great talent as army commander. He conquered huge tracts of territory for his master and brought back wealth beyond counting. Appointed Naib or Deputy to the Sultan Kaafur became all powerful.
When Alauddin lay dying in the winter of 1315/1316 Kaafur arrested Prince Khizr Khan and imprisoned him. After Alauddin died on the evening of 4th January 1316 Kaafur blinded Khizr Khan and his brother Shadi Khan and proclaimed the six years old child Shahabuddin Umar as the new Sultan. This puppet and Kaafur were soon thereafter murdered by the soldiers and Qutbuddin Mubarak Khilji became Sultan on 14th April 1316.
Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah’s great love was for his slave Hasan is as curious bizarre and macabre as any recorded. Hasan had been captured in a raid on Gujarat and castrated so that he could attend on his master in public and private and move around the seraglio without posing a threat or offering temptation to the inmates. When entrusted with military command Hasan turned out to be an intrepid soldier and successful general who extended the Khilji dominions substantially and brought back vast quantities of plunder.
A time came when Hasan became Khusrau Khan. It appears that he was feeling more and more unhappy and wanting out.
In the expedition to Warangal when the army was near the busy and prosperous port of Machhlipatnam, Hasan now Khusro Khan planned to board ship to emigrate from India. Unfortunately for him the plan was discovered and other officials from Delhi made a cordon round him to prevent his escaping on the way back. Once in Delhi they marched him up to the Sultan and told the story of his planned escape.
The Sultan listened to the accusation in silence. He was studying the face of his favourite all the while. The more he looked the greater the infatuation he had for Hasan became. The Sultan refused to believe the accusers and turned against them. There was a tearful reunion and the orgies were resumed.
Ultimately Khusro Khan got utterly bored and jaded. One night he had him assassinated. Hasan held the inebriated Sultan by his side locks (kaakul) while the assassin stabbed him repeatedly until he died. The body was thrown down from the terrace of the palace called ‘Hazaar Sitoun’ [The Hall of a Thousand Pillars] while his head was displayed on a tall bamboo for everyone to know that he was dead. Khusro Khan proclaimed himself Sultan under the name and title Nasiruddin Khusro Shah.
When retribution came in the form of Malik Ghazi and Khusro was asked to explain why he killed his benefactor and patron the defense offered was that he was fed up of being ‘used’ especially as his brother was also made to take part in the orgy.
The use of drugs in orgies occurs because it is impossible to satisfy unbridled lust. Drugs and fantasy feed on each other to create a world of make believe which diseased minds crave to escape into from reality.
The ancients noted that sexual desire cannot be quenched by indulgence just as fire can never be satisfied with timber. Those with money and power feel that drugs will help achieve the impossible. All they obtain is a diseased imagination with bizarre ideas and macabre manifestations.
In contrast with these stories we have Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah of Golconda immortalising his love for Bhagyamati or Bhagmati by creating the splendour that was Bhagnagar/Hyderabad. He also wrote poetry in Dakhkhini which he assembled into the very first Deewaan or collection of the language which was to become Urdu in later times. His verse includes :-
Piyaa baaj pyaalaa piyaa jaaey naa
Piyaa baaj ik pal jiyaa jaaey naa
[ I cannot quaff a single measure of wine without the company of my Beloved; I cannot survive even for a moment without my Love ]
Ahmad Faraaz, perhaps the greatest love poet of Urdu lives in Pakistan. He visited Hyderabad in the last decade of the 20th Century and paid tribute to Quli Qutub by writing a lyric in the same zameen or rhyming scheme. He said
“Quli Qutb hoa yaa kay Ahmad Faraaz, Piyaa baaj such hay jiyaa jaaey naa!”
“[The truth is the same for everyone; whether one is Quli Qutb Shah or Ahmad Faraaz it is impossible to survive without Love/ in the absence of the Beloved]
A great love story which ended in violence is that of the divine singer, Rupmati and the Sultan of Mandu, Baz Bahadur. Even today it is said that on a monsoon night heavy with the scent of jasmine and lit with the flash of lightning if the name ‘Rupmati’ is spoken out aloud in the ruins of Mandu the echo is always ‘Baaz Bahadur!’
When Mandu was conquered by the Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar’s general Adham Khan he is said to have summoned Rupmati. The lady inflicted deep cuts on her face and collected the blood in cloths which she sent to Adham Khan.
The verbal message was “Here is what you really sought. The beauty of my face. My face is now changed and what was in it and is now no more there is here in these cloths. Farewell.”
The headstrong Adham Khan soon met his just desserts. He had the prime minister, Shamsuddin Atka Khan assassinated. Akbar had the wrongdoer killed by being precipitated from the top of the fort wall repeatedly until he died.
Right at the end of the 20th Century we saw some improvement in the Love scene in England. A divorced by the Crown Prince of Britain English lady fell in love with an Egyptian playboy. The affair was going great guns and marriage was imminent. The requisite diamonds had been bought.
There is many a slip between the cup and the lip. The lovers, Princess Diana and her fiancee, Dodi al Fayed were travelling in a heavy duty Mercedes when their car suddenly crashed into a pole in the tunnel in their path. The driver, the princess and her lover were all killed. The British have such a bad image with the Arabs and the Egyptians that no one believes the accident story. They point out that Egyptians despised by the British who call them ‘sand niggers’. They say that because the idea that the ex-wife of the heir to the British throne should consort with a ‘sand nigger’ was abhorrent to the whites. They set up matters in such a way as to make sure that there should be an accident with fatal consequences.
Here again we have a conspiracy theory like the one doing the rounds in Kathmandu.
The great Bard created the character of Ophelia whose love for Hamlet caused her to lose her reason and drown herself. The pre-Raphaelites painted a picture of ‘Ophelia drowned’ and the great beauty of her face framed in her tresses alive with the tendrils of aquatic plants is strong enough to haunt those who have seen it.
Perhaps Indians should revisit their great romantic past. The great love of the lady Parvati for the Lord Shiva. When praying fasting meditating in order to focus her mind only on Him to the exclusion of all else Parvati’s very garments tattered and fell off her form. She became Aparna [ A= without + Parna = leaf garments]. When her mother came to see her daughter she was thunderstruck at the ematiation and the rigour which had made the child dark with suffering and exclaimed O,Ma!. This became UMA and Parvati is called both Aparna and Uma to this day.
There is the story of Nala and Damayanti in the epic Niyshadhiya Charitram. When Akbar was building up his great book collection and asked for Indian stories his court poet Faizee obliged by producing NalDaman which is a part of the folklore of India’s Persian and Urdu treasures.
There is such abundance in this area that a mere newspaper article cannot cover even a portion of the huge canvas. We shall return with stories of Razia and her Nubian Master of Horse Yaakut Prithviraj Chauhan and Sanyogita etc.etc. etc.