Myths and Facts of Indian Love stories
Valentine week is the best time to revive some eternal love stories. Right? While most are busy reviving their romances, why don’t we recollect some old tales of couples, who have set the benchmarks for love stories. Have you ever wondered if all these stories have any factual foundation?
There are some classic literary pieces that have become synonymous to romance like Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, some old legends like Laila and Majnu, some new ones are created like The Notebook or Titanic movie.
The world may have gone digital, but the heart still beats and pines for some bits of love. India too has its share of love tales that have permeated in our cultural realms of folklore, literary texts, music, etc.
Sohni-Mahiwal, Heer-Ranjha, Anarkali-Salim, etc., are some of the stories that are a part of every Indian’s life. One common trait in all these stories is that they all have tragic ends. Either both of them die like Sohni-Mahiwal or at least one of them does like Anarkali-Salim.
Love and tragedy seem to be tied to each other in most of the stories, which have become the epitome of love. The Indian folklore music is ripe with songs of pining for the special one or the one-sided love on a spiritual level, like the tales of Meerabai.
Centuries have gone by, but these stories remain fresh in the archives of Indian love. I wonder if these love stories have become eternal only because they have tragic ends and the pairs can never unite in the living world. ‘Happily ever after’, don’t seem to interest anyone beyond the immediate time span.
Many of these love stories have been passed through centuries as oral heritage and grandma tales, before they were put into text format. My interest in these stories roused, when one fine day I found that some of the Indian loves stories with historical characters do not seem to have a factual foundation.
First, fact against the existence of this romance between the heir-apparent and a courtesan of the Mughal empire, is the absence of her name in two of the most valid and recorded biographies.
For someone who supposedly built a tomb made for his tragic-paramour, (the walled-alive-Anarkali), missing her name in Jahangir aka Salim’s autobiography — ‘Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri’, hints at the fictional quality of the love story. Even Akbarnama by Abul Fazl, hailed by historians as the most authentic, fails to give credence to anyone called Anarkali, who stole the heart of the young prince Salim.
Anakali’s tomb in Lahore seems to have gained its name for the pomegranate gardens surrounding it, rather than for its occupant. The tomb may have been of Jahangir’s wife Saheb Jamal, as speculated by the historian Abdullah Chagatai.
While it is ambiguous if Anarkali really existed or any credence to the tragic love story of young Salim before he inherited the throne from Akbar. Whether Akbar truly was the villain of the story is beyond our scope of credibility.
Yet, the story of Anarkali-Salim has been immortalised in the classic Bollywood movie — Mughal-e-Azam(1960), apart from many other versions in different languages. The movie itself is based on an Urdu play scripted by Imtiaz Ali Taj in 1922.
Another love story immortalised by the star couple or the 1980s — Hema Malini and Dharmedra, is of Razia Sultana and Yaqut from the historical pages of the early Delhi Sultanate. The most poignant scene in the movie titled — Razia Sultana, is the tragic end where the pair is pierced with a single spear/arrow as the gallop away on a horse from their enemies, into the twilight of death.
Razia was the much-capable yet much-opposed inherited ruler of the Illtumish dynasty, Yaqut was her Siddi or African descendant guard who was a slave but appointed by his master to spy on the young queen. But, the guard turned against his throne-aspiring master and vowed allegiance to the first female ruler of the Sultanate.
This evoked the ire of not only his master but also the instigated rumours of the queen and subject’s supposed illicit romance. The credence of the love story loses its weight under the proven facts, but both the said characters indeed are killed by the enemies, though in separate incidents and not as eternalised in the movie.
To know more about the historical love story and the facts behind it, follow the link below and enjoy the read. Do not forget to leave your heart to the post and do share your views on this topic with some motivation of a few claps to keep my pen inked with.
As mentioned in my last post with the new year poem, whenever possible, I will share a new story from the rich historical pages of India. If you have missed the poem, here’s an easy way to reach it —
Until the next story, take care, stay healthy and smiling.
Marcus aka Gregory Maidman ILLUMINATION Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles Mahnoor Chaudhry Abu Talha Advocate, Author, Jason Sandifer Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她)
(References for Salim-Anarkali: https://www.news9live.com/knowledge/anarkali-all-you-need-to-know-about-theories-behind-her-existence-and-her-love-story-with-mughal-prince-salim-190448
The movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGL6zt5fs0c)
