REVIEW IN OUTLOOK MAGAZINE

The latest issue of Outlook Magazine dated October 5 has a good though rather convoluted review about Ocean of Cobras.

There was a full page excerpt from the book concerning Dara's trial was also published in Outlook in the issue of  September 22.

The first edition of the novel has sold out in less than three months and the next edition is now being printed.

A good start but a long road ahead.

A TOMB FOR DARA SHIKOH

356 years ago, at the end of August 1659, Aurangzeb’s eldest brother Dara was tried in the `Diwan I Khas’ of the Red Fort by the qazis and executed for the crime of blasphemy. He was declared to be a heretic and beheaded and stripped of all his rights as a Muslim. His headless body was then unceremoniously buried in the huge vault below Humayun’s tomb without a shroud or any funeral rituals or prayers. Dara had been Emperor Shah Jahan’s eldest and favorite son who had not only been a scholar of Arabic and Persian but also of Sanskrit. 

In my new novel Ocean of Cabras the narrator recounts… “awe gripped the imperial court when prince Dara had confounded both the mullahs and Brahmins by propounding the astonishing idea that a great shining golden river of common faith ran through both Islam and the faiths of the Hindus. The Maulvis had earlier been aghast when he had started to add Sanskrit to the Persian, Turki and Arabic languages that he had earlier mastered but were alarmed when he had started listening to groups of learned Brahmin scholars that he had summoned. They were not too disturbed when he released the first Persian translations  Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita that earlier had only been in the secret libraries of a few Brahmin priests but they were appalled when he had the audacity to declare that this heretic philosophy was none other than the `Sirr i-Akbar - the great secret, which he suggested, was none other than the `Kitab-al-Muknum’ or the hidden book mentioned in the fifty-sixth chapter of the holy Quran itself.

Dara had believed that Allah, known by many different names to the different people of the world, loved all his creations and had sent his messages and messengers to all the people of the world in their times of trouble to lead them to Jannat (heaven). He believed that it was the bigoted priests of every faith, who could not see beyond what had been taught to them, who refused to accept that Allah was a loving and merciful god for all of mankind. He believed that the priests of all religions were the real creators of Shaitan (devil) and of Jehannum (Hell) and it was they who used the power of fear and hatred to persecute those who differed with their narrow beliefs. Dara had believed that loving surrender to Allah and to all his creations was the path to heavenly bliss for all humanity. How was anyone to know that this simple and lofty idea, that could do injury to no one, was to anger many Muslims especially his puritanical younger brother who was already burning with envy at Dara’s popularity?”

Many years later while Aurangzeb was in the Deccan fighting the Marathas during the last 29 years of his life their eldest sister Jahanara is believed to have built a cenotaph to honour Dara on the platform of the great monument. She may have also built two other cenotaphs near it for their youngest brother Murad who Aurangzeb had also executed at Gwalior. Another cenotaph might have been for Dara’s valiant son Sikander Shikoh who had been slowly poisioned with poshta at Gwalior.

Ocean of Cobras explores the lives of many fascinating Mughals in the cusp between the golden age of Shah Jahan and the gloomy 49 years under Aurangzeb that really marked the end of a great empire.

SAMUGARH – TURNING POINT OF FUNDAMENTALISM

It was on an exceptionally hot day on May 29 1658 that India’s history changed forever. Two great Mughal armies led by Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh and his third son Aurangzeb clashed on a dusty plain about twenty kilometers south east of Agra. It was not only a battle for the Mughal throne but a battle for the very soul of India pitting Dara an eclectic scholar who respected all religions against Aurangzeb who was an orthodox Sunni Muslim. Dara had first translated of the Bhagavat Gita and the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Persian to make them known to the public for the first time. But he had been a pampered prince facing a smaller battle hardened army that Aurangzeb had marched up from the Deccan.

My forthcoming novel `Ocean of Cobras’ graphically describes the epic battle through the words of a narrator who writes… Aurangzeb moved as fast as his army could to quietly slip behind Dara’s lines before they were aware of his movements. They reached a secret ford across the Chambal at Ater by nonstop double marches over two days. Then there was consternation when Dara realized that Aurangzeb’s armies had come very close to Agra so he was forced to abandon much of his heavy canon and rush eastwards to intercept them.

The two armies met on a flat dusty plain east of a village called Samugarh on an unbelievably hot day at the end of May and the sun was like a furnace in the cloudless sky. There was not enough water to drink so many soldiers and horses simply collapsed with heat and sun stroke. The crash of the opposing mass of horse and men with the thunder guns and the screams of the wounded soldiers and the whinnying of the terrified horses would haunt the sleep of the survivors for the rest of their lives. I began to see that the battle was no longer just a contest between Dara and his rebel brothers but was beginning to be a religious war with the Hindus valiantly supporting Dara and many Muslim mansabdars supporting Aurangzeb.

It was with great difficulty that I was able to reach the side of Dara’s magnificent elephant but was unable to get his attention as my voice was drowned by the deafening sounds of gunfire, clashing swords and the screams of the wounded.  Dara was oblivious to all except the prospect of his immanent victory. His elephant was to soon become a signal of his doom. One of the enemy rockets exploded near it and our commander Khalilullah Khan rushed up and insisted that he must dismount and finish the battle on a horse. I heard him urgently shout… ”Praise be to Allah this victory is your own! But my God! Why you are still mounted on a lofty elephant? Have you not been sufficiently exposed to danger? If one of the numberless musket balls or arrows touch your royal person who can imagine the dreadful situation to which we will all be reduced? In God’s name descend quickly, mount this horse and pursue the miserable fugitives with all vigour.” As Dara descended, a huge shout was sent up by Khalilullah Khan’s squadron that Dara Shikoh had been killed. When the bewildered soldiers saw through the thick swirling clouds of dust and smoke that the howdah of Dara’s elephant was empty they feared the worst and quickly fled towards Agra.

The noise of battle quite quickly subsided and the dust and smoke began to slowly clear to reveal some fifteen thousand corpses lying on the dusty battlefield in hundreds of piles coated in vivid crimson blood. The Rajput corpses in their yellow jamas looked like untidy fields of saffron. For every dead body there were another three who had been wounded and were lying on the ground crying out piteously. But the intense heat quickly parched their throats so the devastating silence that followed the thunder of battle was almost uncanny. A sharp summer wind suddenly blew from the south and all the fallen bodies were quickly shrouded by a huge cloak of choking yellow dust. A few swirls of spiraling dust curling above the scene looked like ghosts rising up from the devastated plain until they too subsided and absolute silence pervaded the scene.

Dara rode in silence to his mansion from where he collected his family and valuables and left for Dilli shortly before dawn. Dara retreated to Lahore and then down the Indus and a year later was able to muster a big army to fight a fierce three day battle against Aurangzeb at Deorai near Ajmer. He then fled towards Kandahar to be betrayed once again and brought to Delhi where the imperial Qazis sentenced him to death for the crime of heresy. He had written a book called the `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the many similarities between the Quran and the Brahma Shastras of the Hindus. 

Aurangzeb’s greatest weakness was his inflexible religious bigotry that made him lose the support his Shia subjects as well as his many Hindu and Rajputs followers. His intolerance became more acute after twenty years of rule as he became frustrated by endless rebellions. Though he did no more than Jehangir or Shah Jahan by permitting Hindu worship at old temples and forbidding the construction of new ones his reputation as a destroyer of temples became widespread. He was very unforgiving and by persecuting his Rajput followers cut off his own arms and weakened his military power. The Maratha leader Shivaji initially had no anti Muslim sentiment and had been quite willing to become a Mughal Amir. Aurangzeb’s obstinate pride however alienated him and gave him a new weapon to turn a purely political war against the Mughals into a religious war. The rebellion of the Marathas not only encouraged the Sikhs to revolt but spawned many other Hindu rebels. Aurangzeb died a feeble, broken and a deeply disappointed old man and is buried in a plain grave near Aurangabad. His bigotry was to make the Indian sub-continent the hotbed of Islamic extremism for the next four centuries. If Dara had won at Samugarh it is possible that his rule might have promoted harmony between India’s turbulent peoples and a united Mughal empire might have prevented India becoming so easily colonized by European powers. Samugarh was the turning point.

OCEAN OF COBRAS

Synopsis of my forthcoming novel

The chronicle of a slave to

The Mughal prince Dara Shikoh

The story about a beautifully tragic life as related in a long lost manuscript written by Mubarak Ali, a faithful palace eunuch who was Prince Dara Shukoh’s constant companion and witness to all the battles, intrigues, scholarship, trial, death and events of his tumultuous life. The book is packed with military action, the magnificence and intrigues of the Mughal court and a battle for the very soul of India with Dara’s religious tolerance pitted against the puritanical Islamic intolerance of Aurangzeb.

Mubarak Ali’s adventures are pure fiction set in the actual history of the Mughal empire between 1620 and 1660 where emperor Shahjahan’s eldest and favorite son Dara battles against his brothers Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad for the Mughal throne after Shahjahan becomes seriously ill. Over five battles, the conflict eventually narrows to one between the liberal Dara and the orthodox Aurangzeb. Betrayal gives Aurangzeb a very narrow victory.

Dara was a liberal thinking scholar (also of Sanskrit) who first had the Upanishads and Bhagavat Gita translated from Sanskrit to Persian to become widely known for the first time. He also wrote his own book `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the commonality between the Quran and the Hindu Shastras. If Dara had won the Mughal throne India might have enjoyed a long period of Hindu – Muslim amity instead of centuries of communal strife.

Mubarak, the fictitious narrator of this epic story, is a faintly foreign eunuch of the emperor’s Zenana. Aged six years younger than Dara he is intimate with all the members of the imperial family from their childhood to their adult years. Over the years he develops from a nine year old boy into a capable soldier and reveals intimate insights into the lives of the powerful men and women of the court. In the cloistered zenana he also develops a secret and strictly forbidden intimate relationship with a royal princess.

His adventures describe the exciting royal hunts, the passing of Mumtaz Mahal, the building of the magnificent Taj and the new city of Delhi. He shares his experiences while among tribals in the jungles, worship in Hindu and Muslim holy places, Dara’s grand marriage to Nadira Bano and the trade at the sea port of Surat with its many taverns and brothels. He shares Dara’s spiritual quest for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood exploring the many religious ideas of a time when Hindu’s were just beginning to assert their position in a Mughal world. The reader will follow Mubarak on a colorful tour of Hindustan from the limpid lakes of Kashmir to the craggy terrain of the Deccan and Kandahar, the lush pastures of the Punjab, the forested hills of the Himalayas to the sandy wastes of Sind and Baluchistan.

Mubarak describes many scenes of battle where the Mughal strategies and command structures are described for the first time. He rides with Dara at the battle of Samugarh and follows him on the long retreat to Lahore and then down the Indus. He then assassinates an enemy commander and helps rally Dara’s forces for his final battle at Deorai near Ajmer. He then travels with Dara’s family and retainers through the cruel deserts of Sind and Baluchastan until Dara is again betrayed and taken to Delhi as a prisoner. He is with Dara when he is paraded through Delhi and taken before the imperial Qazis where he is tried for heresy and condemned to death.       

The Ocean of Cobras is a tale of love and war, of compassion and cruelty in a period of Mughal grandeur and passionate pride. The story of Dara is a true story that many people in India still remember despite the passage of the centuries. 

105,000 words with three maps.

Rs. 350