Abraham Eraly - The Age of Wrath - A History of the Delhi Sultanate

In medieval times there was some mutual influence in the sartorial styles of the Hindu and Muslim upper classes, especially in North India. Rajput chieftains, for instance, took to wearing a tight-fitting cloak under the influence of Muslim nobility, and their women adopted Muslim style tight-fitting trousers and a cloak over it. Muslims in turn adopted the Rajput headgear, took to wearing luxurious garments, and began to adorn themselves with elaborate jewellery. ‘Muslims clothe themselves in costly garments … and display various kinds of luxuries,’ notes Razzak.

These ostentations in dress and ornaments by Muslims were disapproved by Firuz Tughluq; he considered them uncanonical, and sought to enforce orthodox Muslim dress regulations. ‘Under divine guidance I ordered that … [only] such garments should be worn as are approved by the Law of the Prophet,’ states Firuz in his autobiography.

THE MEDIEVAL INDIAN society was characterised by several bizarre practices. The most conspicuous of these was the practice of ritual suicide, of which there were different forms. Though suicide in any form was considered a great sin by Muslims, the sultans generally tolerated its practice by Hindus, for they, as zimmis, were, according Muslim political tradition, free to follow their social and religious customs without any hindrance.

One form of Hindu ritual suicide was for people in woe or debility, because of illness or old age, to end their life in fire or water, to escape from the miseries of life and to attain salvation. This was noted by Abu Zaid, a tenth century Iraqi chronicler, in his account of early medieval India: ‘When a person … becomes old, and his senses are enfeebled, he begs someone of his family to throw him into a fire, or to drown him in water; so firmly are the Indians persuaded that they shall return to [life on] the earth.’

Jauhar, [9] See Part VII, Chapter 3 mass ritual suicide, was another practice of Hindus, but this was confined to the ruling class and the military aristocracy. Yet another form of ritual suicide, again practiced mainly, though not exclusively, by the Hindu aristocracy, was sati, the self-immolation by the widow or widows of a dead king or chieftain on his funeral pyre. ‘When the king dies four or five hundred women burn themselves with him,’ claims Barbosa. The number of royal women committing sati given by Barbosa is evidently a gross exaggeration, but it was not uncommon in medieval India for several queens to commit sati on the death of their lord.

There is a detailed description of a sati rite in Vijayanagar in the report of Nuniz. ‘They place the dead man on a bed with a canopy of branches and covered with flowers,’ he writes. ‘Then they put the woman on the back of a worthless horse, and she [follows the funeral procession] … with many jewels on her, and covered with roses. She carries a mirror in one hand and in the other a bunch of flowers, and [is accompanied by] many kinds of music … A man goes with her playing on a small drum, and he sings songs to her telling her that she is going to join her husband, and she answers, also in singing, that so she will do. As soon as she arrives at the place where they are always burned, she waits with the musicians till her husband is burned … in a very large pit that has been made ready for it, covered with firewood. Before they light the pyre his mother, or one of his nearest relatives, takes a vessel of water on the head and a firebrand in the hand, and goes three times round the pit, and at each round makes a hole in the pot; and when these three rounds are done breaks the pot; which is small, and throws the torch into the pit.

‘Then they apply the fire. And when the body is burned, the wife comes with all the feasters and washes her feet. Then a Brahmin performs over her certain ceremonies according to their law; and when he has finished doing this, she draws off with her own hand all the jewels that she wears, and divides them among her female relatives, and if she has sons she commends them to her most honoured relatives. When they have taken off all she has on, even her good clothes, they put on her some common yellow cloths, and her relatives take her by hand, and she takes a branch in the other hand, and goes singing and running to the pit where the fire is, and then mounts some steps which are made high up by the pit. Before they do this, they go three times round the fire, and then she mounts the steps and holds in front of her a mat that prevents her from seeing the fire. They throw into the fire a cloth containing rice, and another in which they carry betel leaves, and her comb and mirror with which she had adorned herself, saying that all these were needed to adorn herself by her husband’s side.

‘Finally she takes leave of all, and puts a pot of oil on her head, and casts herself into the fire with such courage that it is a thing of wonder. As soon as she throws herself in, her relatives, who are ready with firewood, … quickly cover her with it, and after this is done they all raise loud lamentations.’ Adds Barbosa: At the pyre the woman removes all her clothes ‘except a small piece of cloth with which she is clothed from the waist down. All this she does … with such a cheerful countenance that she seems not about to die … Then they place in her hands a pitcher full of oil, and she puts it on her head, and with it she … turns around thrice on the scaffold and … worships the rising sun. Then she casts the pitcher of oil into the fire and throws herself after it with as much goodwill as if she were throwing herself on a … [bed of] cotton … Then the kinsfolk all … cast into the fire many pitchers of oil and butter which they hold ready for this purpose, and much wood … [so that the pyre] therewith bursts into such a flame that no more can she be seen. [10] See The First Spring Part VI, Chapter 3 for Battuta’s description of sati.

The high period of Indian civilisation, in material prosperity as well as cultural efflorescence, was the thousand year period from the middle of the first millennium BCE to the middle of the first millennium CE. During that age India was one of the most urbanised, prosperous and civilised countries of the world. The scene changed altogether thereafter, as India slid into the Dark Ages, around the same time as Europe did. India’s commercial economy and urban culture then collapsed. Towns turned derelict. And India slid into a state of dreary rusticity. India then, like Europe, curled up in a several centuries long slumber. But while Europe woke up from the slumber in the fourteenth century, during Renaissance, and made rapid economic, social and cultural progress, India remained in a comatose state well into the twentieth century.

Though there was some urban revival during the Sultanate period, India’s socio-economic and cultural progress remained sluggish. The preponderant majority of Indians during the Sultanate period lived in villages, as they had done in the preceding several centuries, and would continue to do in the succeeding several centuries. And the life of the villager remained very much the same all through these centuries. The urban affluence that had characterised classical India was mostly missing in medieval India.

But despite its civilizational collapse, India remained a singularly enticing land in the eyes of foreigners virtually all through its history, well into modern times. This was largely because of India’s fabulous natural resources. ‘The whole of this country is very fertile, and the resources of Iran, Turan, and other lands are not equal to those of even one province of Hindustan,’ states Mukhtasiru-t Tawarikh . ‘In this country there are also mines of diamonds, ruby, gold, silver, copper, lead and iron. The soil is generally good, and is so productive that in a year it yields two crops, and in some places more. All kinds of grain, the sustenance of human life, are brought forth in such quantities that it is beyond the power of pen to enumerate … Men of refined and delicate taste find great relish in eating the fruits of Hindustan. A separate book would have to be written if a full detail were to be given of all the different kinds of fruits which are produced in spring and autumn, describing all their sweetness, fragrance and flavour.’