Tughlaq: A Wonderful King
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq is the central character in the play. He dominates the play from the beginning to the end. He is the most wonderful king that ever ruled India. He is a visionary, an idealist, a great scholar, as well as a crafty politician that can hold his own against heavy odds. His lofty ideals and dreams however are frustrated within twenty years and we witness the drama of the disintegration of a noble idealist and a shrewd politician within the short span of twenty years. Because of his noble ideals and visions which few could understand he has been called ‘mad Tughlaq’. Girish Karnad in his play has shown him to be a man of opposites, the ideal and the real, the divine aspiration and the deft intrigue. He is what he is in spite of his knowledge and an intense desire for divine grace. As Prof. M.K. Naik points out,
“Karnad projects the curious contradictions in the complex personality of the Sultan. who was at once a dreamer and a man of action, benevolent and cruel, devout and callous.”
Tughlaq: A Scholar
Tughlaq is well-versed in Greek, Persian and Arabic literature. He looks at the Pleiades and thinks of the Ibn-ul-Mottaz who thought it was an ostrich egg. He is reminded of Dur-rumma who thought it was a swallow. He wants to go back to their great poetic works. He has read the Greeks. He recalls Socrates (Sukrat) who took poison so that he could give the world the drink of gods; Plato (Aflatoon) who condemned the poets and wanted them to be turned out of the Republic and wrote incomparably beautiful poetry himself. He is so much influenced by the excellence and the power of uplifting in the poetry of Sheikh Sadi of Persia that he himself wants to make for himself an image of Sadi’s poems. He wants his life to be a poem, a garden of roses where even thorns may prick and quicken the sense. He had planted a rose garden in imitation of the rose garden of his poetry. He read even Rumi and was transported by him. He is also an expert in the game of chess and tries to solve the problems which could not be solved by the greatest-of the chess men like Al-Adil and Sarakhi. His learning of the Quran (Koran) is better than that of any Sheikh or Sayyid. He has made the prayers compulsory five times a day and has not levied any jiziya tax on the Hindus or Kafir as they were called. He knows that people of a number of religions are his subjects, and they must all be treated impartially.
Intelligent and Wise
The learning and intelligence of Tughlaq are acknowledged by everyone, even by common men. Aziz a dhobi tells Tughlaq himself that he had never underestimated his prowess of imagination and the whole world knows about His Majesty’s wisdom. A young man in the crowd standing before the chief court of Justice in Delhi challenges the other men against Tughlaq’s being anti-Islam. He says that Tughlaq knew Islam well. He is well versed in the Quran and has made prayer compulsory five times a day and also the reading of the Quran obligatory. He knows the tenets of the Quran and so he finds no distinction between man and man and treats Hindus and Muslims alike: His step-mother tells Barani that Tughlaq is a very intelligent boy.
Praise for his Scholarship
Barani who is one of his advisers has all praises for his learning and intellect and tells Muhammad:
“You are a learned man. Your Majesty, you are known the world over for your knowledge of philosophy. History is not made only by common men. That is where you belong. Your Majesty, in the company of learned men.”
Even his critics and opponents recognise his scholarship. Sheikh Imam-ud-din who had raised the standard of revolt against the Sultan and stirred the people of Kanpur to rebel, admits that the Sultan is a ‘scholar of eminence’. He acknowledges that God has given the Sultan, ‘power of learning, intelligence, talent’, and that he is a learned man. Shihab-ud-din also never doubted the learning, scholarship and wisdom of the Sultan.
Tughlaq: A Great Visionary
Tughlaq’s scholarship makes him a Visionary. After reading the scholars of the world, he feels the thrill of finding a new world, a world which he had not found in the Arabs or even the Koran. He says to Imam-ud-din:
“They have torn me into shreds. And to be whole now, I shall have to kill the part of me which sang to them. And my kingdom too is what I am torn into pieces of visions whose validity, I can’t deny. You are asking me to make myself complete by killing the Greek in me and you propose to unify my people by denying the visions which led Zarathustra or the Buddha.”
He longs to climb up to the tallest tree in the world. He wants to spread his branches up to the stars. Like Nehru, who was also a visionary, he has hopes of building a new future for India and is ready to explain what the people don’t understand. But how can he
“explain tomorrow to those who haven’t even opened their eyes to the light of today.”
His Idealism
Tughlaq has his own ideas which he wants to translate into action. He knows about the ignorance of his people and the darkness they live in; he is fully aware of the injustice, hatred and violence spread by the former kings of India. He is conscious of their poverty and misery and the diseases the people suffer from. He is aware of their corruption, the false religion, and also of the disunity in the state. He is idealistic to his step- mother and stands for justice, equality, honesty and courage. To Barani he says that he believes in love, in peace, in God. What has happened to these ideals? He wishes every act in his kingdom to become a prayer, every prayer to become a further step in knowledge and every step to lead the people nearer to God. He wants every man to have prayers five times a day and to read the Koran and to act upon it.
His Sense of Justice: His Impartiality
He longs for justice to work in his kingdom without any consideration of might or weakness, religion or creed. He wishes every moment to be born bright and light up his path towards greater justice, equality, progress and peace-and not just peace but a more purposeful life. His ideas of justice and equality are ahead of his times. At the time when India is sharply divided between the Muslims and the infidels, his Kazi announces a judgement against the confiscation of land by the state officers. It goes in favour of a Hindu. It is disliked by the Muslims and suspected by the Hindus. He wants his people to be treated equally. He stands for them and is worried about them. He loves them and wants them to confide him their worries. He wishes to share their joys and to laugh and cry and pray with them. He works hard for the people.
Not a Tyrant
Tughlaq is a true democrat and not a tyrant. When he orders the shifting of his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, he goes to his people and tells them:
“I beg you to realise that this is no mad whim of a tyrant. My ministers and I took this decision after careful thought and discussion.”
He rationalises this before them and says:
“My empire is large now and embraces the South and I need a capital which is at its heart. Delhi is too near the border and as you well know its peace is never free from the fear of invaders. But for me the most important factor is that Daulatabad is a city of the Hindus and as the capital will symbolize the bond between Muslims and Hindus which I wish to develop and strengthen in my kingdom.”
He allows the people to criticise him openly and not to be afraid of him. The people have been told that they have a right to criticise the Sultan and to voice their grievances openly. He goes to the people and talks to them. Like Pandit Nehru he wants to be with them and listen to their misery and sorrow, their pain and sufferings.
Shattering of His Ideals
But all his idealism is shattered. Justice and equality is denied by his state officers to the people. Aziz sits as a civil officer, does not allow a poor Hindu woman to go and see her dying child. He wants money for the help sought. Thieving and looting and killing are rampant in his state. Aziz and Aazam and Karim are busy looting the people. Aziz kills Abbasid. His step-mother says:
“It is only seven years ago that you came to the throne. How glorious you were then, how idealistic, how full of hopes. Look at your kingdom now. It has become a kitchen of death!”
Barani also is sad at the shattering of the Sultan’s ideals. In his words:
“Your Majesty, there was a time when you believed in love, in peace, in God. What has happened to those ideals?” Corpses are seen in the road. The bodies of those executed by the Sultan are guarded against thieves. Tughlaq’s ideal of making his people prosperous and happy is also gone to bits. There is starvation and hunger throughout the country. People eat burnt strips of skin of all kinds of animals. They crowd round a butcher’s shop to catch the blood pouring from the slaughtered beasts and drink it. They are dying without food. They are facing drought and famine stalking the land and die unnoticed, unheard of and unsung. There are riots for food.”
Hatred and Revolt of the People
Tughlaq wanted to be an ideal king very much different from those who had ruled Delhi before him. He wanted to be a king, worthy to wear the royal robes, to be loved by the people of his state, to gain their confidence to beget trust. In his Sultanate he expected to have love and peace but he got hatred, contempt and revolt. His own mother does not talk to him, his step-mother suspects him, even Barani doubts him. He is disliked by the Muslims and Hindus alike. The state is in a mess. There is an “uprising in the Deccan”. In Malabar, Ehsanshah has declared himself independent. Bahal-ul-ud-din Geshtasp is collecting an army against him. The drought in Doab is spreading from town to town. Only one industry flourishes in his kingdom only one-and that is of making counterfeit copper coins. There is none to be trusted in the whole kingdom. The country has become a honeycomb of diseases.
A Crafty Intriguer
But Tughlaq is also a crafty politician, who stoops to trickery, cunning, firmness and wickedness. He commits one murder after another. He is charged with patricide and fratricide. He orders his step-mother to be dragged and stoned to death, and commits matricide. To do away with the opposition, he lays a trap for Sheikh Imam-ud-din for becoming his envoy for peace and gets him murdered. Again when Shihab-ud-din and the Amirs of the State plan to murder him at the prayer time, he keeps his balance, catches them in his net. His soldiers kill the Amirs and he himself stabs his most trusted lieutenant, Shihab-ud-din.
His Perfect System of Espionage
He has a powerful system of espionage. His spies worked everywhere. Barani complained to him of being spied upon. It was only through his spies that he could know about the murder of Najjb and also about the disguise and masquerade of Aziz as Ghiyas-ud-din Abbasid. For Tughlaq, statecraft is like a game of chess. He is seen absorbed in chess when it is reported that Ain-ul-Mulk, the companion of his childhood, is marching against him. He forgives Ain-ul-Mulk when he detects a flaw in famous problem in chess solved by him. When the dhobi outwits him he bursts into guffaws and shouts “Checkmate! Checkmate!” He rewards him also.
His Impulsive Nature
Tughlaq is impulsive. He always thinks that he is right and all his actions are right too. Nobody can foretell his moods and actions and his own fate. His step-mother does not know that she will be killed. Sheikh Imam-ud-din does not find out the snake behind the flower, nor do the Amirs suspect that they will be butchered. Even Barani, his confidant, cannot help making a mistake and the wicked Aziz will be suitably punished. He never thought that the most treacherous Aziz will be rewarded by him.
His Frustration
Tughlaq’s ideals were frustrated within the short span of twenty years. As the play ends, he orders that all should return to Delhi and thus he compounds the misery of his people. He thus realised his mistake and consequently was considered ‘mad’ by the people. ‘Mad Tughlaq’ has become a commonplace and this regards the greatness within him. He ordered that copper coins would be the currency of his kingdom and would have the same value as silver dinar. There was nothing wrong in it, for in China they already had paper currency. But he gave this order without making proper arrangement for the minting of the new currency. So, heaps of counterfeit copper coins reached him and had to be dumped in the rose garden which was the result of much effort and labour. In this way he brought ruin and disaster on his sultanate and made himself a laughing stock of all concerned. His spiritual anguish is well brought out by the following,
“God, God in Heaven, please help me. Please don’t let go off my hand. My skin drips with blood and I don’t know how much of it is mine and how much of others. I started in Your path, Lord. Why am I wandering naked in this desert now? I started in search of You. Why am I become a pig rolling in this gory mud? Raise me. Clean me. Cover me with Your Infinite Mercy. I can only clutch to the hem of Your cloak with my bloody fingers and plead. I can only beg, have pity on me. I have no one but You now. Only You. Only You… You… you…”
Conclusion
The play ends as he sleeps on his throne, tired and exhausted, then wakes and looks around dazed, frightened, as if he cannot comprehend where he is.
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