Tughlaq (play)

Last updated

Tughlaq is a 1964 Indian Kannada language play written by Girish Karnad. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The thirteen-scene play is set during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq. It was first staged in Urdu in 1966, as a student production at National School of Drama. Most famously, it was staged at Purana Qila, Delhi in 1972. [6] In 1970, it was enacted in English in Mumbai. [7] Tughlaq, a 13-scene play by Girish Karnad, focuses on the 14th century Turko-Indian ruler. It is both a historical play as well as a commentary on the contemporary politics of the 1960s. The Times of India comments: "In the play, the protagonist, Tughlaq, is portrayed as having great ideas and a grand vision, but his reign was an abject failure. He started his rule with great ideals of a unified India, but his degenerated into anarchy and his kingdom." [8]

Contents

Plot

As the play opens, the reader is introduced to the court of Mohammad Bin Tughlaq, a Muslim Sultan (Emperor). Tughlaq declares that he is shifting his capital from Delhi to Daultabad (also known as Deogiri). Daultabad is in south India and at a long distance from Delhi. He has two purposes behind this decision. First, it will help him to rule over southern part of India effectively and increase fraternity and unity among Hindus and Muslims as Daultabad is a Hindu-majority city. Second, it will help him saving his capital against the attacks of Mongols from the north.

A man named, Aziz appears in the court. Aziz has changed his identity from a Muslim to a Hindu with a definite purpose. Tughlaq is well known for Secularism. Despite being a Muslim Sultan, Tughlaq shows a great heart towards Hindus. He desires to be seen as an idealist who wants a unity between Hindus and Muslims. In order to win hearts of Hindus, he favors Hindus more in his decisions and policies. So Aziz takes the name as Vishnu Prasad, a Hindu Brahmin. He has filed a case against sultan Tughlaq for acquiring his land unfairly. He is given a handsome amount on the name of land acquisition. Later in his court, he invites public to get settled in Daultabad. He doesn’t force the public but leaves it up to them whether to move or to remain there. Aziz, with his friend Aazam, plans to cheat people and get money on the way to Daultabad.

The scene shifts, as now Tughlaq is playing chess in his private chamber. His stepmother appears. She is quite concerned about his eccentric approach in his administration. It is also revealed that Tughlaq had murdered his father and his brother in the past to get to the throne. She scolds him for his negligence towards the uprising led by Ain-ul-Mulk, an old friend of Tughlaq. Ain-ul-Mulk has now turned into an enemy. He is marching with his thirty thousand soldiers to attack the state. On the other hand, Tughlaq has only six thousand soldiers. If the battle takes place, his defeat is quite certain. His stepmother asks Ziauddin Barani, a historian of that time, to keep Tughlaq away from the company of foolish advisors and councilors.   

Sheikh-Imam-Uddin, another character, appears on the stage. He doesn’t like the Sultan at all. In fact, he incites the people against Tughlaq for his eccentric decisions. Tughlaq himself is well aware of the fact that Sheikh has ill desires against him. Tughlaq calls him and asks him to visit Ain-ul-Mulk with a proposal for peace. Sheikh is asked to be dressed as a royal person and is sent on an elephant. Tughlaq has done this with an intention. Later news comes that Sheikh-Imam-Uddin is murdered. He was mistaken for Tughlaq by the enemies for his royal dress and riding on elephant. Ratan Singh reveals that it was Tughlaq’s plot. This incident comes as a first instance of the dark side of his character.  

Ratan Singh, Amirs and Sayyids are planning to murder the Sultan as there is no other way left for them to stop his foolish acts. They argue about Daultabad city and its Hindu majority population. They persuade Sihabuddin to join them. But he hasn't made up his mind yet. They plan to murder him during the prayer. Later their plan is revealed, they all are caught and beget death sentence. Tughlaq orders for their dead bodies to be hanged in public. He takes another ridiculous decision to have currency minted on copper and brass metal. Adding more to his foolishness, he declares that the all coins will have an equal value, no matter whether the coin is made of gold, silver, copper or brass. He also announces a ban on prayers.  Even people now start terming him as a foolish Sultan. Now Tughlaq wants to shift there as soon as possible. On the way, many people die of hunger, disease, etc. Aziz appears with his friend Aazam and tells him how to deceive others and extract money.

Now the scene shifts to Daultabad. It is reported that Najib, a confidante and an advisor of Tughlaq, is murdered. His stepmother comes and scolds him that the economy of the state is collapsing as the people have minted so much fake currency on copper and brass. They have exchanged it for gold and silver coins. So his foolish decision is to be held accountable for this crisis. But Tughlaq is frustrated by Najib's murder. So many people, whomever he suspects, are executed. Finally it is revealed that Najib was poisoned by Tughlaq’s stepmother. When Tughlaq discovers this, he orders her arrest. She is stoned to death. All such decisions are presented as the severe frustrations of his mind.

It is announced to the public that when Ghiyasuddin-Abbasid arrives, the ban on the prayers will be lifted. But the people are no way interested in it as they are dying of hunger. The life of common man is devastated. But Tughlaq is preparing for Ghiyasuddin-Abbasid’s welcome.  Aziz appears and murders Ghiyas-uddin-Abbasid. Now Aziz disguises himself as Ghiyas-uddin-Abbasid with a motive to fudge the Sultan. Aziz manages to deceive Tughlaq with his new identity. Later Aazam is murdered and somehow, his true identity is revealed to Tughlaq. Now Aziz tells him everything whatever he had done in past to cheat him. The revelation of these facts really impresses Tughlaq. He appoints him on a powerful position in his court. Having taken this decision, Tughlaq goes to sleep. When he wakes up, he realizes himself as he has gone mad. The play ends here.

Characters


Allegory of the Nehruvian era

Goodreads comments: "Tughlaq written by Girish Karnad in 1964, is his best loved play, about an idealist 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq, and allegory on the Nehruvian era which started with ambitious idealism and ended up in disillusionment." [9] [ unreliable source ]

Historical play

Prof. Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri then of the Gauhati University at Guwahati, has said of the play: "Tughlaq is based on the life and story of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq -- the most controversial ruler of the Delhi sultanate. Tughlaq is defined as a historical play because the chief protagonist is a character taken from history and the play documents a series of past events that took place during the reign of Mohammad-bin-Tughlaq. Tughlaq can also be considered as a political play as it represents the reign of a king and his various moves to unify the Hindus and Muslims, and establish a just kingdom in Delhi." [10]

Symbolism

Writing in 2012, the research scholar M. Jagadeswari, argues: "Girish Karnad is the foremost playwright of modern India. Tughlaq, his second play, is a historical play replete with symbolism.... In the play, the symbols have a myriad of origin as well as forms. He used symbols to represent universal thoughts and emotions. His use of various symbols in the play such as Chess, Aziz and Aazam, Prayer, Python, Daulatabad, Rose and birds like Vulture add greater emotional and associative significance." [11]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent</span> Era in South Asia characterized by Muslim rule

Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent is conventionally said to start in 712, after the conquest of Sindh and Multan by the Umayyad caliphate. It began in the Indian subcontinent in the course of a gradual conquest. The perfunctory rule by the Ghaznavids in Punjab was folllowed by Ghurids, and Sultan Muhammad of Ghor (r.1173–1206) is generally credited with laying the foundation of Muslim rule in Northern India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delhi Sultanate</span> 1206–1526 empire in the Indian subcontinent

The Delhi Sultanate, or the Sultanate of Delhi, was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent during the period of Medieval India, for 320 years (1206–1526). Following the invasion of South Asia by the Ghurid dynasty, five unrelated heterogeneous dynasties ruled over the Delhi Sultanate sequentially: the Mamluk dynasty (1206–1290), the Khalji dynasty (1290–1320), the Tughlaq dynasty (1320–1414), the Sayyid dynasty (1414–1451), and the Lodi dynasty (1451–1526). It covered large swaths of territory in modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh as well as some parts of southern Nepal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firuz Shah Tughlaq</span> Ruler of the Tughlaq dynasty (1309–1388)

Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq was a Muslim ruler from the Tughlaq dynasty, who reigned over the Sultanate of Delhi from 1351 to 1388. He succeeded his cousin Muhammad bin Tughlaq following the latter's death at Thatta in Sindh, where Muhammad bin Tughlaq had gone in pursuit of Taghi the rebellious Muslim governor of Gujarat. For the first time in the history of Delhi Sultanate, a situation was confronted wherein nobody was ready to accept the reins of power. With much difficulty, the camp followers convinced Firoz to accept the responsibility. In fact, Khwaja Jahan, the Wazir of Muhammad bin Tughlaq had placed a small boy on throne claiming him to the son of Muhammad bin Tughlaq, who meekly surrendered afterwards. Due to widespread unrest, his realm was much smaller than Muhammad's. Tughlaq was forced by rebellions to concede virtual independence to Bengal and other provinces. He established Sharia across his realm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sayyid dynasty</span> Rulers of the Delhi Sultanate (1414–1451)

The Sayyid dynasty was the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, with four rulers ruling from 1414 to 1451. The first ruler of the dynasty, Khizr Khan, who was the Timurid vassal of Multan, conquered Delhi in 1414, while the rulers proclaimed themselves the Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate under Mubarak Shah, which succeeded the Tughlaq dynasty and ruled the Sultanate until they were displaced by the Lodi dynasty in 1451.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Girish Karnad</span> Indian playwright, actor, director, and writer

Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamgir II</span> Fifteenth Mughal Emperor

Mirza Aziz-ud-Din Muhammad, better known as Alamgir II, was the fifteenth Mughal Emperor of India, who reigned from 3 June 1754 to 29 November 1759. He was the son of Jahandar Shah.

Mongol ruler Ghazan Khan converted to Islam.

Ziauddin Barani was an Indian Muslim political thinker of the Delhi Sultanate located in present-day Northern India during Muhammad bin Tughlaq and Firuz Shah's reign. He was best known for composing the Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi, a work on medieval India, which covers the period from the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq to the first six years of the reign of Firoz Shah Tughluq; and the Fatwa-i-Jahandari which promoted a hierarchy among Muslim communities in the Indian subcontinent, although according to M. Athar Ali it was not based on race or even like the caste system, but taking as a model of Sassanid Iran, which promoted an idea of aristocracy through birth and which was claimed by Persians to be "fully in accordance with the main thrust of Islamic thought as it had developed by that time", including in the works of his near-contemporary Ibn Khaldun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)</span> Dynasty that ruled northern India (c. 1206–1290)

The Mamluk dynasty was founded in Northern India by Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic Mamluk slave-general of the Ghurid Empire from Central Asia. The Mamluk dynasty ruled from 1206 to 1290; it was the first of five unrelated dynasties to rule as the Delhi Sultanate until 1526. Before the establishment of the Mamluk dynasty, Qutb al-Din Aibak's tenure as a Ghurid dynasty administrator lasted from 1192 to 1206, a period during which he led forays into the Gangetic plain and established control over some of the new areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muhammad bin Tughluq</span> Sultan of Delhi

Muhammad bin Tughluq, also named Juna Khan as Crown Prince, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the young Muhammad was sent by his father to the Deccan Plateau to fight a military campaign against the Kakatiya dynasty. In 1323, the future sultan successfully laid siege upon the Kakatiya capital in Warangal. This victory over King Prataparudra ended the Kakatiya dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tughlaq dynasty</span> Third Muslim dynasty which ruled the Delhi Sultanate from 1320 to 1413

The Tughlaq dynasty was a Turko-Mongol or Turkic Muslim dynasty which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the throne under the title of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq. The dynasty ended in 1413.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khalji dynasty</span> 1290–1320 Turco-Afghan dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate

The Khalji or Khilji dynasty was a Turco-Afghan dynasty which ruled the Delhi sultanate, covering large parts of the Indian subcontinent for nearly three decades between 1290 and 1320. Founded by Jalal ud din Firuz Khalji as the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India, it came to power through a revolution that marked the transfer of power from the monopoly of Turkic nobles to an Indo-Muslim nobility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq</span> Sultan of Delhi

Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq or Ghazi Malik was the Sultan of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. He was the first sultan of the Tughluq dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. During his reign, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq founded the city of Tughluqabad. His reign ending upon his death in 1325 when a pavilion built in his honour collapsed. The 14th century historian Ibn Battuta claimed that the death of the sultan was the result of a conspiracy against him

Tughluqabad Fort is a ruined fort in Delhi, India built by Ghiyasuddin Tughluq, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, of the Delhi Sultanate of India in 1321, as he established the third historic city of Delhi, which was later abandoned in 1327. It lends its name to the nearby Tughluqabad residential-commercial area as well as the Tughluqabad Institutional Area. Ghiyasuddin Tughluq also built the Qutub-Badarpur Road, which connected the new city to the Grand Trunk Road. The road is now known as Mehrauli-Badarpur Road. The entry fee for the Fort is Rs. 20 for Indians. Also, nearby is Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range and Okhla Industrial Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Paigah</span> Noble family in the senior aristocracy of Hyderabad State

Paigah family is a noble family of Hyderabad State, The Three Great Paigah Amirs H.E Sir Asman Jah, H.E Sir Viqar-ul-Umra and H.E Sir Khursheed Jah who were the highest order of nobility under the Nizam of Hyderabad and held the honorary monarchal (standard) behind the Nizam. The family maintained their own court, individual palaces, and a standing army of about fourteen thousand troops, both infantry and cavalry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khizr Khan</span> Khizr Khan

Khizr Khan was the founder of the Sayyid dynasty, the ruling dynasty of the Delhi sultanate, in northern India soon after the invasion of Timur and the fall of the Tughlaq dynasty. Khizr Khan was Governor of Multan under the Tughlaq ruler, Firuz Shah Tughlaq, and was known to be an able administrator. He did not take up any royal title due to fear of Amir Timur and contended himself with the titles of Rayat-i-Ala and Masnad-i-Aali or. During his reign, coins were continued to be struck in the name of previous Tughlaq rulers. After his death on 20 May 1421, he was succeeded by his son Mubarak Khan, who took the title of Muizz-ud-Din Mubarak Shah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malik Ibrahim Bayu</span>

Mallick Ibrahim Bayu was a legendary Sufi saint-warrior who arrived in South Bihar in the 14th century and defeated the tribal Kol chiefdoms who had been oppressing the local Muslims. He also defeated Raja Birthal and became first Muslim conqueror and governor of Bihar. Malik Ibrahim Baya tomb is protected under Archaeological Survey of India and is a tourism spot in Bihar Sharif.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharfuddin Yahya Maneri</span> Sufi mystic of medieval India

Makhdoom Sharfuddin Ahmed bin Yahya Maneri, popularly known as Makhdoom-ul-Mulk Bihari and Makhdoom-e-Jahan (1263–1381), was a 13th-century Sufi mystic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muzaffar Shah I</span> 14th-century Islamic governor of Gujarat

Muzaffar Shah I, born Zafar Khan, was the founder of the Muzaffarid dynasty in Medieval India, reigning over the Gujarat Sultanate from 1391 to 1403 and again from 1404 to 1411.

Gujarat, a region in western India, fell under Delhi Sultanate following repeated expeditions under Alauddin Khalji around the end of the 13th century. He ended the rule of Vaghela dynasty under Karna II and established Muslim rule in Gujarat. Soon the Tughluq dynasty came to power in Delhi whose emperor carried out expeditions to quell rebellion in Gujarat and established their firm control over the region by the end of the century. Following Timur's invasion of Delhi, the Delhi Sultanate weakened considerably so that the last Tughluq governor Zafar Khan declared himself independent in 1407 and formally established the Gujarat Sultanate.

References

  1. ↑ "Tughlaq: A historical play". The Times of India . 11 March 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  2. ↑ Manikutty, S; Singh, Sampat (5 November 2014). "Girish Karnad explores Tughlaq's character". The Economic Times . Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Dharwadker, Aparna (1995). "Historical Fictions and Postcolonial Representation: Reading Girish Karnad's Tughlaq". PMLA. 110 (1): 43–58. doi:10.2307/463194. ISSN   0030-8129. JSTOR   463194. S2CID   163813879.
  4. ↑ Ghosh, Paramita (27 May 2017). "What Girish Karnad's play Tughlaq says about India's politicians". Hindustan Times . Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  5. ↑ Sengupta, Ashis (2003). "Being and Role-playing: Reading Girish Karnad's "Tughlaq"". Indian Literature. 47 (1): 161–173. JSTOR   23341740.
  6. ↑ Ghosh, Paramita (26 May 2017). "What Girish Karnad's play Tughlaq says about India's politicians". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  7. ↑ Karnad, Girish; Anathamurthy, U.R. (2015) [1971]. "Introduction". Tughlaq: A Play in Thirteen Scenes. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. vii–x. ISBN   978-0-19-560226-5.
  8. ↑ "Tughlaq: A historical play - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  9. ↑ "Tughlaq A Play In Thirteen Scenes". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  10. ↑ Vidya-mitra (11 April 2017), Recreating the Past: Girish Karnad's Tughlaq (ENG) , retrieved 10 June 2019
  11. ↑ Jagadeswari, M. (4 April 2012). "A Perspective on Symbols in Girish Karnad's Tughlaq" (PDF). Language in India. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.