''Chahar Gulshan'' ("Four Gardens") is an 18th-century
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...
book about the history of India. It was written by Rai Chatar Man Kayath of the
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
in 1759 CE. It is also known as ''Akhbar-un Nawadir'' or ''Akhbaru-l-Nawadir'' ("Accounts of Rare Things").
Date and authorship
The book was written by Rai Chatar Man Kayath, also known as Rai Chaturman Saksena Kayasth. The author was a
Kayastha
Kayastha (also referred to as Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the C ...
of the Saksinah (Saxena) clan. The preface states that the book was completed in 1173
A.H. (1759 CE), and was commissioned by
Wazir
Wazir often refers to:
* Vizier or wazir, a high-ranking political advisor or minister
Wazir may also refer to:
Places
* Wazirabad, a City in Punjab, Pakistan
* Waziristan, a region in tribal belt of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
* Wazir Akbar K ...
Gazi-ud-din Khan.
''Chahar Gulshan'' was completed only a week before the author's death. His grandson Rai Chandrabhan Raizadah re-arranged the content and added a second preface to the book in 1789.
Raizada's copy is the earliest surviving manuscript (
Bodleian 264), likely copied from the original.
Content
The title of the book ("four gardens") refers to its four sections.
# ''Ahwal-i Padshahan-i Hindostan''
#* Description of the kings of
Hindustan
''Hindūstān'' ( , from '' Hindū'' and ''-stān''), also sometimes spelt as Hindōstān ( ''Indo-land''), along with its shortened form ''Hind'' (), is the Persian-language name for the Indian subcontinent that later became commonly used by ...
(northern India) from the legendary
Yudhishthira
''Yudhishthira'' (Sanskrit: युधिष्ठिर, IAST: ''Yudhiṣṭhira'') is the eldest among the five Pandava brothers. He is mentioned in the ancient epic Mahabharata. He was sired by King Pandu of the Kuru Dynasty and his first w ...
to
Shah Jahan II
#* Information on provinces (
subahs) of the Mughal Empire, except those in
Deccan.
# ''Ayan-i subahjat-i junubistan''
#* Information on the provinces of the Deccan region
#* Information on the
Deccan Sultans
# ''Musafat-o manazil''
#* Road maps with distances and list of ''
sarai''s (roadside inns)
#* Topgraphy (Rivers, embankments, bridges and
canals)
# ''Silasil fuqra‘-wa darveshan-i Hunud''
#* Description of
dervishes and saints
#* Largely based on ''Akhabar al-Akhiyar'', but also contains some unique information on local saints
The book contains important statistical data, including total cultivated area, number of villages and
mahal-wise revenue.
However, these statistics are from a period earlier than the book's completion date, likely 1720 CE. By the time the book had been completed (1759 CE), the Mughal emperor was a figurehead.
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Ahmad Shāh Durrānī ( ps, احمد شاه دراني; prs, احمد شاه درانی), also known as Ahmad Shāh Abdālī (), was the founder of the Durrani Empire and is regarded as the founder of the modern Afghanistan. In July 1747, Ahm ...
had captured
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
. The
Marathas had gained control of western Deccan and had crossed
Narmada. Nizam-ul-Mulk
Asaf Jah I, the Mughal viceroy of Deccan, had set up a practically independent state. The book itself states that statistics of Bijapur and Hyderabad are incomplete, as Asaf Jah I had carried away all the records.
Section 1: Hindustan
The first ''gulshan'' contains information on the following provinces:
Section 2: Deccan
The second ''gulshan'' contains information on the 6 provinces of Deccan:
This section also contains additional sub-sections on:
*
Sultans of Deccan
* Forts of the Deccan provinces
* Saints of the Deccan provinces
* Hindu shrines, springs and rivers in Deccan
Section 3: Road book
The third ''gulshan'' describes the 24 important roads connecting the main cities of the Mughal Empire:
Section 4
The fourth ''gulshan'' describes "Hindu
faqirs" (including the
Sikh Guru
The Sikh gurus ( Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ) are the spiritual masters of Sikhism, who established this religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469. The year 1469 marks the birth of Guru Nanak, the found ...
s) and Muslim saints.
Writing style
The ''Chahar Gulshan'' is a condensed book of history. Unlike the contemporary Persian-language works that featured flowerly language, it contains short and simple sentences.
Jadunath Sarkar
Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty.
Academic career
Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...
remarked that the book appears to be a "set of notes" rather than a finished treatise.
Translations and ''editio princeps''
A partial English translation of the book was published in
Jadunath Sarkar
Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty.
Academic career
Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...
's ''India of Aurangzib'' (1901).
However, his translation has several statistical errors, because he misinterpreted the ''raqam'' notation used in the original work.
In addition, Sarkar omitted several parts. For example:
* the "vague and rhetorical" details of fairs and amusements
* "dry and short" chronicles of kings
* chronicles that "disturbed the holy repose" of the saints (including the entire Section 4)
Muhammad Riazuddin Khan translated the work into
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
(1990,
Tonk). This work contained an ''
editio princeps In classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand.
For ...
'' of the original manuscript, which was not annotated and edited.
In 2011, the
National Mission for Manuscripts
The National Mission for Manuscripts (NAMAMI) is an autonomous organisation under Ministry of Culture, Government of India, established to survey, locate and conserve Indian manuscripts, with an aim to create national resource base for manuscri ...
published a version annotated and edited by Chander Shekhar. This version was based on five manuscripts:
#
National Museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
(1794)
#
Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library
Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library, in Patna, Bihar, is one of the national libraries of India. It was opened to the public on the 29th of October in 1891 by HMJ Sir Khan Bahadur Khuda Bakhsh. Its collection started with 4,000 of Bakhsh's own manus ...
,
Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
(1803)
#
Salar Jung Museum
The Salar Jung Museum is an art museum located at Dar-ul-Shifa, on the southern bank of the Musi River, India, Musi River in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is one of the List of museums in India, notable National Museums of India. ...
,
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
(1811)
#
Maulana Azad Library
The Maulana Azad Library is the central library of Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. It is the largest university library in Asia. The seven-storey building is surrounded by of lawns and gardens. It has about 1,500,000 books. It ce ...
,
Aligarh (not dated)
#
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Arabic Persian Research,
Tonk (not dated)
References
External links
*
Chahar Gulshan' at
Digital Library of India
Digital Library of India, initially hosted by Indian Institute of Science, CDAC, Noida, IIIT-Hyderabad during 2000s working in partnership with the Million Book Project, provides free access to many books in English and Indian languages. The s ...
*
India of Aurangzib' by Jadunath Sarkar; includes a partial translation of ''Chahar Gulshan''
{{Authority control
1759 non-fiction books
1789 non-fiction books
18th-century history books
18th-century Indian books
18th-century manuscripts
Books about the Mughal Empire
18th-century Persian books
Indian chronicles