Ocean of Cobras: The Chronicle of a Slave to the Mughal Prince
Dara Shikoh, a book by Murad Ali Baig.
Writing history from stories is a major intellectual
exercise. But creating a story out of history requires more – an
imagination that reflects what happened, at the same time walking through the
spirit of the time. Murad Ali Baig in his Ocean of Cobras has done
precisely that – to give flesh and blood to the skeletal memory of the
penultimate moment of Mughal rule on the sub-continent – the final years of
Emperor Shah Jahan and the fratricidal struggle for the throne.
The book is a portrait of Dara Shikoh - a neglected ecumenical
figure in histories of the period - favorite son of Shah Jahan and one of three
brothers of Mughal Badshah Aurangzeb. The period acquires life through
the eyes, ears, and soul of Mubarak Ali, a court eunuch and slave who
enjoyed unique access to the extended royal Mughal family. This voice
renders many tales and tales within tales, bringing alive late seventeenth and
early eighteenth century "India" with embroidered detail - the first
family, court politics, battles between the brothers, their lust, loves and
lives, and their hopes, fears, jealousies and hatreds.
The scenes and acts change: forays into tribal life; the ritual of
the royal hunt; the finery of the zenana; seamless seductions; the gossip of
the bazaar; culinary journeys into sumptuous banquets; and encounters with
visitors from afar. Beneath the glitter, the hustle and bustle of bazaars
and the moving cities of royalty, lurks the rivalry between the siblings.
The tensions surface, pull and fall like the tow of currents in shallow waters
- sensuous versus the austere; the laid back versus the disciplined; liberal
versus orthodox Islam; the other-worldly versus the here and now; Dara versus
Aurangzeb.
Immersed in the struggle and shaped by it are the visions,
characters and passions of the two brothers who wrestle for purpose and
pre-eminence. Few may know that Dara commissioned the first translations
of the Upanishads and Bhagvad Gita into Persian. One encounters the first
travellers from the West and their impressions of the country when early modern
Europe was striking root. Others would learn more of the intricate and
fickle Hindu-Muslim alliances that influenced outcomes of the time. The
two faiths and the family of the ageing and marginalised Shah Jahan were bound
and broken by exigencies of temporal power. A persistent question that
lingers in the narrative is what might India have been, had Dara
reigned instead of his brother.
Beyond this larger question is the salience of the social and the
play of chance which rarely find place in conventional accounts: the
chance encounter of Shah Jahan with a mendicant whose prophecy colors the
psyche of a father toward his sons – particularly his suspicion of Aurangzeb
and pampering of Dara, and its larger effect on family relations and court
politics. The restrained yet haunting role of the sisters - Jahanara,
tenderly passionate but enigmatic; the malevolent but clairvoyant
Roshanhara, and the melancholic Gauharara; and the shenanigans of
the elder king with the wives of his generals who later come to haunt
Dara. These and other anecdotes string the high politics of empire into
the human soil of everyday life.
Woven into these tales are excursions into military organization,
strategy and technology of Mughal warfare, how armies moved
and fought more than three hundred years ago. Baig's rendition of
tactics, maneuvers and sieges, logistics, weaponry and marches is
masterful. One moment you are in the midst of a campaign – the twists and
turns in the fog of battle. At another, on the Malwa plateau, or the
climax of the final encounter between the brothers near Ajmer. It is a
ring side view from the howdah of an elephant, of changing fortunes of nobles
and soldiers, personal tugs that underlay combat, and the ideas and
expectations that compel men and women to act and choose as individuals, while
silently a collective destiny forms.
Importantly, the book quietly touches some of the central themes
that persist in the governance of modern India: the intrigues and
complications of dynastic politics; the relationship between state and religion;
the long misunderstood engagement of the Islamic and Hindu way of life; and the
continued distance between the ruler and ruled. The Ocean of Cobras is an
enchanting primer into our late medieval past which has much relevance for
understanding the medieval present.
Kishore Mandhyan
Former Political Advisor - Cabinet of
the United Nation's Secretary General
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