Madhumalati: An Indian Sufi Romance

337 Pages·2001·1.19 MB·English

by  Aditya Behl, Simon Weightman

oxford world’s classics
MADHUMA¯ LATI¯
Mi¯r Sayyid Manjhan Ra¯jgi¯ri¯’s father was Sayyid Muham-
mad(cid:2)Al¯ı Manjhan, who was in turn the son of Sayyid Mu˙ha-
˙
mmad Chakkan of Jaunpur. His mother was B¯ıb¯ı Khunja
Daulat, the daughter of the renowned Shaikh Muhammad
Qa¯zin (cid:2)Ala¯, who, although reared in both the Ma¯d˙ar¯ı and
Chisht¯ı Sufi traditions, later proved to be one of the principal
exponents of the Shatta¯r¯ı way in Bihar. He was therefore born
and brought up in the¨ ¨very centre of Shatta¯r¯ı Sufism in Bihar at
what was probably its most active and ¨i¨nfluential period. His
own Shaikh was no less than Shaikh Muhammad G˙haus
Gva¯liya¯r¯ı (d. 1563), one of the major spiritual fi˙gures of his age¨,
and Manjhan himself was an authorized teaching shaikh at
some point in his life. We know that he was a courtier at the
court of Isla¯m Sha¯h Su¯r where he was already a well-established
poet. He says in his poem he began to write Madhuma¯lat¯ı in
1545. Apart from these few slender details nothing else is
known of Manjhan other than his poetry, of which only Mad-
huma¯lat¯ıis extant.
Aditya Behl teaches in the Department of South and South-
east Asian Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.
He translates fiction and poetry from Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi
into English and is the author of a book on Sufi poetry
entitled Shadows of Paradise on Earth: An Indian Islamic
Literary Tradition, 1379–1545, and the editor of The Penguin
New Writing in India (1994).
Simon Weightman is the former Head of the Department of
the Study of Religions at the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London. Working mainly in Persian, Hindi, and San-
skrit, he is the author of Hinduism in the Village Setting (1976);
Teach Yourself Hindi (1989)––with R. Snell; Mysticism and the
Metaphor of Energies (2000); and numerous research papers.
He edited The Traveller’s Literary Companion to the Indian Sub-
continent (1992).
oxford world’s classics
For almost 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought
readers closer to the world’s great literature. Now with over 700
titles––from the 4,000-year-old myths of Mesopotamia to the
twentieth century’s greatest novels––the series makes available
lesser-known as well as celebrated writing.
The pocket-sized hardbacks of the early years contained
introductions by Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene,
and other literary figures which enriched the experience of reading.
Today the series is recognized for its fine scholarship and
reliability in texts that span world literature, drama and poetry,
religion, philosophy and politics. Each edition includes perceptive
commentary and essential background information to meet the
changing needs of readers.
OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
MI¯R SAYYID MANJHAN SHATTA¯ RI¯
RA¯ JGI¯RI¯ ¨ ¨
Madhuma¯lat¯ı
fi
An Indian Su Romance
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
ADITYA BEHL and SIMON WEIGHTMAN
Withshyam manohar pandey
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide in
OxfordNew York
AthensAucklandBangkokBogotáBuenosAiresCalcutta
CapeTownChennaiDaresSalaamDelhiFlorenceHongKongIstanbul
KarachiKualaLumpurMadridMelbourneMexicoCityMumbai
NairobiParisSãoPauloShanghaiSingaporeTaipeiTokyoTorontoWarsaw
with associated companies inBerlinIbadan
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
©Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman 2000
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as an Oxford World’s Classics paperback 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0–19–284037–1
13579108642
Typeset in Times
by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
Cox and Wyman Ltd., Reading
For Mujeeb Husain Rizvi
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi
Note on the Text xlvii
Select Bibliography l
Chronology lvii
MADHUMA¯LATI¯ 1
Appendix: The Symmetry of Madhuma¯lat¯ı 229
by Simon Weightman
Explanatory Notes 243
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The process of collaborative translation, and of bringing to
completion a long project, has necessarily involved many people
since its inception. Since we think of academia as a community
of friends, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the generosity of the
friends and scholars who have encouraged and helped us along
the way. Our first expressions of gratitude must go to two senior
scholars who kindly assisted us at early stages of this project: Dr
Shyam Manohar Pandey of the University of Naples, and Dr
Mujeeb Husain Rizvi of Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. Dr Pan-
dey, the doyen of Hindi scholars of the Sufi romances, gener-
ously collaborated with Simon Weightman to produce the first
rough prose translation of the Madhuma¯lat¯ı; his contributions
as co-author are recognized on the title-page of this volume. Dr
Rizvi enthusiastically shared his knowledge of the Hindav¯ı Sufi
romances with us, helping Aditya Behl to check the printed edi-
tion of the text line by line against a manuscript held in the
Rampur Raza Library. We dedicate this book to him as a mark
of our affection and respect.
A word about the division of intellectual labour is also in
order here. The current blank verse translation was composed
by Aditya Behl from his own initial verse translation, Simon
Weightman’s prose translation, and the manuscript and printed
editions of the text. This was subsequently checked line by line
against Manjhan’s Hindav¯ı verses by Simon Weightman. In add-
ition, Aditya Behl’s assistants Sean Pue, Saba Waheed, and
Shabana Khan helped with the research for the Introduction,
both in Berkeley and in London, and commented on early drafts
of the verse translation. In her capacity as graduate research
assistant, Adrienne Copithorne painstakingly did the research
for some of the factual notes to the text and composed clear and
elegant explanations for the unfamiliar customs and terms that
occur in Manjhan’s poem. Our gratitude to all these assistants is
heartfelt; without their help, the Madhuma¯lat¯ı would have been
a much poorer work in its English incarnation. The financial