H-M synthesis in Karnataka: "Jagatguru" Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur

by Guest Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:50 pm

while Ahmadnagar and Golconda both produced extraordinary artwork, it is Bijapur that is rightly admired as the most refined and innovative of the Deccani sultanates. The archetypal Bijapur ruler was Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur, an erudite scholar, lute player, poet, singer, calligrapher, chess master and an aesthete. Under Ibrahim Bijapur underwent a remarkable renaissance. Though his first love was perhaps music (and his most popular composition a book of Urdu songs) Ibrahim oversaw the creation of a remarkable literary revival and attracted to his court the greatest poets and writers of his day, including Zuhuri, the Persian poet laureate.

Ibrahim had changed the name of his capital from Vijayapur, City of Victory to Vidyapur, City of Learning. According to the chronicler Rafiuddin Shirazi, during his reign the libraries of Bijapur swelled with painted manuscripts as Ibrahim had "a great inclination towards the study of literature and he had procured many books connected with every kind of knowledge. Nearly sixty men, calligraphers, gilders, book binders and illuminators were busy doing their work the whole day in the library."

The artists, writers and craftsmen who worked for Ibrahim were drawn from a wide variety of different backgrounds and religions, and crossed the divide, both between Sunni and Shia, and Hindu and Muslim. For Ibrahim did share one very important quality with his Mughal contemporary Akbar: his fondness for, and interest in, Hinduism.Early in his reign Ibrahim gave up wearing jewels and adopted instead the rudraksha rosary of the Hindu sadhu. He visited both Shaivite temples and the monasteries of the Nath yogis, and knew Sanskrit better than Persian. According to Zebrowski, "it is hard to label him either a Muslim or a Hindu; rather he had an aesthete's admiration for the beauty of both cultures."

In his songs Ibrahim uses highly Sanskritized language to shower equal praise upon Sarasvati, Hindu Goddess of learning, the Prophet Muhammed and the Sufi saint Gesudaraz of Gulbarga.In the 56th song, this Muslim Sultan more or less describes himself as a Hindu God: "He is robed in saffron coloured dress, his teeth are black, the nails are red... and he loves all. Ibrahim whose father is God Ganesh, whose mother is Sarasvati, has a rosary of crystal round his neck... and an elephant as his vehicle." Ibrahim's preferred Sanskrit title was Jagatguru, "World Teacher."

Bringing together Hindu and Muslim in an atmosphere of heterodox learning, and uniting Persians, Africans and Europeans in a cosmopolitan artistic meritocracy, Ibrahim presided over a free-thinking court in which art was a defining passion. This open-minded attitude to Hinduism is particularly visible in matters of music, which Ibrahim learned from Hindu musicians who migrated to Bijapur after the fall of Vijayanagara. Ibrahim's Bijapur seems to have played a central role in the development of Indian musical theory, and especially in the classification and delineation of different ragas, or musical modes. There is about the art of Bijapur something so dreamy and refined that it often feels somehow too rarefied to survive the real world. A kingdom so obsessed with the arts could only be hopelessly vulnerable to more worldly and militaristic forces. This is not just a modern perception.Jacques de Coutre (c1575-1627), a Flemish jewel merchant from Bruges who visited Bijapur five times between 1604 and 1619, quotes Ibrahim as saying, "Why would I want to make war on the Great Mughal? I would rather offer him money as a gift, and keep him content, and be his friend, and remain in my house in peace and quiet."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-times/deep-focus/Move-over-Mughals/articleshow/47314391.cms

by Guest Tue Mar 07, 2017 1:57 pm

http://avalokarts.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-badshah-who-was-jagadguru.html

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-essay/sultan-of-the-sublime

H-M synthesis in Karnataka: "Jagatguru" Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur

H-M synthesis in Karnataka: "Jagatguru" Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur

Re: H-M synthesis in Karnataka: "Jagatguru" Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur