Indo-Muslim Culture in Hyderabad: Old City Neighborhoods in the 19th Century
Hyderabad city’s culture was Indo-Muslim or Mughlai, terms that need definition here. I use Indo-Muslim in preference to Islamic, Indo-Persian, Persianate, or Islamicate. I prefer Indo-Muslim to the other four commonly-used alternatives because, first, Muslim rather than Islamic emphasizes a civilizational and not a religious culture (Islamicate has the same meaning but probably not to the general reader). Certainly Hyderabad was not an Islamic state: the Nizams never tried to impose Islamic law or to convert people.Second, IndoMuslim puts the emphasis on the Indian location, although undeniably the Bahmani sultanate in the Deccan from the mid-fourteenth century, its five successor Deccani sultanates (Bijapuri, Golconda, Bidar, Berar, and Ahmednagar) from the early sixteenth century, and the Nizams, starting as Mughal governors after the conquests of Bijapuri and Golconda by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1686 and 1687, modeled their court culture on that of Persia. I use the term Mughlai because, in Hyderabad, it designates the administration developed from the time of the first Nizam, Mughal governor of the Deccan in the early eighteenth century, and distinguishes it from the modernizing or Diwani administration initiated by the Diwan Salar Jung (1853-83) and based in the new city of Hyderabad north of the Musi River. 1 Only in the 1880s did the state’s official language switch from Persian to Urdu (not to English, as in British India from the 1830s). I argue here that not only the court and administrative culture but the urban culture as well was Indo-Muslim or Mughlai, at the neighborhood and even the household level. All who lived in the city, especially in the neighborhoods of the old walled city, participated in that dominant public culture, regardless of their religious affiliations and private religious observances. I do not take these Indo-Muslim practices as evidence of a “cultural synthesis” 2 or “syncretism” or “hybridity.”3 Rather, they are evidence of a successful plural society with an elite or ruling culture that powerfully shaped the lives of people throughout the city.One can go further and suggest that IndoMuslim cultural practices in Hyderabad offer instances of translation, as proposed by work on linguistic but also, arguably, on societal changes. Anthropologists have seen “translation” as part of their disciplinary enterprise as they try to explain contemporary cultures to each other;4 here I am discussing translations across time. I would argue that many contemporary citizens of India have lost the ability to read the cultural worlds of the past, the Indo-Muslim cultural worlds that were powerful in South Asia in previous centuries. Work by Gayatri Spivak, Tony Stewart, and Finbarr Flood effectively challenges current notions of bounded and incompatible “Hindu” and “Muslim” worlds in South Asia. 5 The Hyderabad Kayasths, for example, members of a high Hindu “writing” or administrative caste originally from northern and western India, continued their allegiance to Indo-Muslim culture well into the twentieth century, though Kayasths in North India under British imperial rule were changing their allegiance to British Indian English-based administration and culture. Personal names like Jahangir Pershad and Fateh Chand continued to be given to Hindus in Hyderabad, although even there, British administrative and social practices made significant inroads from the mid-nineteenth century onwards as the power of the British Resident and connections with British India increased. But these changes had relatively little effect upon the Kayasths and others working in the Mughlai administration and living in the old walled city, people whose lives give us a glimpse of a world now lost. Drawing on materials about the Kayasth caste and subcastes,6 I examine here three contrasting neighborhoods in the old city of Hyderabad, highlighting their differences but also the distinctly IndoMuslim cultural practices that their residents shared. People of diverse backgrounds and classes—Hindus and Muslims, speakers of Telugu, Marathi, Kannada, Hindi, and Urdu—participated in the public culture of their place and time, in everyday ways as well as on special occasions. The Kayasth caste has often been characterized as “halfMuslim,” meaning that its members became prominent as administrators for Muslim rulers in India and as scholars and poets in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. I show elsewhere7 that Kayasths were not unusual in this regard, that other Hindus in Hyderabad also patronized not only temples but ashurkhanahs and dargāhs. The three areas of heavy Kayasth settlement in the old walled city of Hyderabad, Shahalibanda, Chowk Maidan Khan, and Husaini Alam, also represent important stages of Hyderabad’s political history. All three locality names commemorate Muslim figures or landmarks, accurately reflecting the history of the city and its ruling class. The Qutb Shahis, Shia Muslims who ruled first from Golconda Fort north of the Musi river, founded Hyderabad city in 1591, and their successors, the Mughals and the Nizams, continued and further developed the Indo-Muslim culture of the city. Although the Nizams were Sunni Muslims, they continued the Shia Muslim annual commemoration of Muharram institutionalized in the old city by the earlier Qutb Shahi rulers; this was marked by ten days of ‘alams, or sacred relics, being taken out in processions as crowds mourned the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Husain at Qarbala in 680 ce. Despite their sharing in citywide observances such as Muharram and certain Hindu jatras or temple festivals, the three neighborhoods, Shahalibanda, Chowk Maidan Khan, and Husaini Alam, were not only geographically distinct but were characterized by different styles of life. These lifestyles—of the military men, the nobility, and the Mughlai civil servants—all coexisted in the early nineteenth century, although the first was declining. The first and second Nizams (Nizam ul Mulk, 1724-48, and Nizam Ali Khan, 1762-1803) engaged in continual battles with the Marathas, Tipu Sultan, and others, and military men and their establishments dominated the Shahalibanda locality. As the military regime gave way by the mid- nineteenth century to an increasingly hereditary class of nobles settled in Hyderabad city and a growing Mughlai bureaucracy,8 the men working for the nobles and in the various offices settled with their families near their patrons and employers. Chowk Maidan Khan was an extension of the residential area of the old Qutb Shahi nobility, with the palaces of the Diwan (Prime Minister) Shia Muslim family of Salar Jung and the Maratha Raja Rao Rumbha; the former was descended from a Diwan with the earlier Adil Shahi Deccani sultanate and the latter led a cavalry unit against the Marathas (whom his grandfather had initially served) and was a favorite of the second Nizam. 9 The Mathur Kayasth Malwala noble family that headed the Daftar-i-Mal, the revenue collection office for the eastern half of the state, built its palace on Chowk Maidan Khan, and the Malwala family’s Mathur Kayasth relatives and others settled nearby. In Husaini Alam, near the Nizam’s Chow Mahalla palace and his Sarf-i Khas (private estate) offices,10 Saksena Kayasths and others working in the Mughlai administration settled. The residential patterns of the Kayasths in the old city changed little from the early nineteenth century to the last decades of the twentieth century, save for the disappearance of many Shahalibanda military families.
Shahalibanda: Military Men
The first locality, Shahalibanda, was the site of most military establishments, including those of the leading military noble family, the Sunni Muslim Paigahs, and its Gaur Kayasth serrishtahdars or managers of military and household units. The earliest Kayasths here were themselves military men, including many Saksenas and some Srivastavas. Presumably named for a now-forgotten Muslim saint Shah Ali,11 this large area sprawled across the southern end of the city, bounded on the east and south by the city wall. 12 Residences were interspersed with centers of craft and production activity.Shahalibanda included the large establishments of Raja Rae Rayan (the Maharashtrian Brahman family that headed the Daftar-i Diwani, the revenue office for the western half of the state) and Raja Chandu Lal (the Punjabi Khatri family that usually furnished the Peshkar, or deputy to the Diwan) on the north, while the even larger establishment of the Paigah nobles bordered it on the west. This southern section of the old city had been the military quarters in the eighteenth century, and the quarters moved further south in the nineteenth century, outside the city walls, as the city grew. In the time of the Qutb Shahis, the Royal Dairy had been located in Shahalibanda, and the area continued to be the site of production and service enterprises. In the nineteenth century, slaughter houses, tanneries, sewage deposit pits, salt-making pits, and even the old Hyderabad Mint were located there. Beyond the settled area lay Muslim tombs, Hindu temples, and an old church used by European military adventurers in the Nizam’s service. Also beyond the walls were the nobles’ pleasure gardens and Paigah and Sarf-i Khas lands that were used for growing vegetables and grazing horses. Residents of Shahalibanda came from many cultural backgrounds and economic levels. Imposing residences of Hindu and Muslim nobles and military commanders stood amidst small communities of tanners, salt-makers, grain-carriers, goat-sellers, water-carriers, and torch-bearers.Other streets were settled by Telugu and Maharashtrian Brahman priests and Navayat Muslims from Madras. 13 Popular Islam was represented by groups of talisman-makers and faqirs and by many local shrines or ashurkhanahs, where ‘alams (religious relics) were kept for commemoration of the Shia Muslim ten-day mourning period, Muharram.Nagulachinta, the locality of Hindu dancing girls and prostitutes, was in Shahalibanda; legend locates the village of Chichlam here, home of Bhagmati, the legendary Hindu courtesan for whose love a Qutb Shahi prince, later Sultan Quli Qutb Shah, crossed the river and founded the city of Hyderabad in 1591. 14 The rival locality of Mahbub ki Mehndi, famous for Muslim courtesans and musicians, developed later and was near Husaini Alam.Socially and occupationally, the neighborhood was extremely diverse. Military establishments and their style of life characterized Shahalibanda.Of the three largest nobles in or bordering the neighborhood, the Paigah and Peshkar families were closely associated with the military forces, and the Rae Rayan family’s origin went back to Daulatabad in the time of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. 15 Other large establishments were those of Arab and Afghan military chiefs like Ghalib Jung and Subhan Khan. 16 The residences of the military serrishtahdars, recordkeepers, paymasters, and managers of units of troops, were prominent ones too. Maharashtrian and Telugu Brahmans and Kayasths were in charge of most of the troops and households of the big establishments; that is, most of the serrishtahdars were Hindus.
The leading figures in Shahalibanda in the early nineteenth century were military commanders and their Hindu serrishtahdars. According to both written and oral sources, although these men came from different backgrounds, they shared certain characteristics.Emphasis was placed on personal ability combined with aggressive use of power and wealth. In contrast (as we shall see below), descriptions of dominant figures in Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam emphasized personal ability combined with loyalty to the Nizam, participation in the court culture, and a “respectable” style of life. Of the stories told about the colorful and legendary nineteenth century military men of Shahalibanda, a surprising number centered on the Hindu serrishtahdars. 17 Serrishtahdars able to control the unruly Hyderabad troops were often recognized as leaders of those troops, as much so as the jamadars, or military commanders, and many military units were named after their serrishtahdars. “Buchar Mal’s serrishtah” and ‘Maya Ram’s serrishtah’ were named for two legendary Saksena Kayasths, though they were commanded by Muslims, the first by Sulaiman Jah and the second by Nadi ‘Ali Beg Khan and Jafar Yar Jung. 18 Often, too, serrishtahdars were named after their troops. The Maharashtrian Brahman serrishtahdars of the Arab and Abyssinian troops were known respectively as ‘Urub’ Esvant Rao and ‘Siddi’ Madhu Rao. 19 Gaur, Saksena, and Srivastava Kayasthas lived in the Shahalibanda neighborhood, most of them employed by various military figures. The Gaur Kayasths served the Paigah family and the Arab family of Ghalib Jung. Most Saksenas served the Paigah and Peshkar families. Most Srivastavas were with the Nizam’s personal military forces. The Gaur households and some Saksena households were grouped together, but Kayasth households were scattered throughout the locality.No family served as patron or head of its subcaste, or of all the Kayasths there, or of the neighborhood as a whole. 20 Even if there had been one dominant Kayasth family, Shahalibanda was a large area and included prominent Maharashtrian, Telugu, and Muslim families too. Another reason for the “dispersion of power” was that many of the Shahalibanda Kayasths were suratvals, of illegitimate or intercaste parentage. 21 Nearly all the Srivastavas and many Saksenas fell into this category. 22 Further implications of this fact will be discussed below. Despite their distinctively military affiliations, Kayasths in Shahalibanda shared many characteristics with those in Husaini Alam and Chowk Maidan Khan. Muharram was enthusiastically celebrated, though there was no special procession associated with the locality. People attended the major processions elsewhere. Kayasths kept ‘alams in their homes or built ‘ashurkhanahs to house an ‘alam for the neighborhood. 23 Some Shahalibanda Kayasth families fasted like Shia Muslims. Many wore green clothes and armbands and dressed their children in costumes. 24 As in the other two neighborhoods, Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam, a good Persian education was a cultural and often an occupational requisite.Shahalibanda produced several major Kayasth poets,25 and there were musicians of note among these Kayasth families too. 26 Hindu festivals were privately sponsored in Shahalibanda, such as the Ramlila celebration of the Fateh Chand Saksena family. 27 Several families built small temples adjoining their homes. 28 The most striking fact about the Shalalibanda Kayasths was the large number of families that died out during the nineteenth century. The reasons advanced to account for this phenomenon were equally striking.Over half the families in each subcaste—Gaur, Saksena, and Srivastava—left no direct, legitimate, Hindu descendants. Many Kayasths have been remembered only because localities were named for them: Ghan Raj Bazaar, Lal Pershad’s Bazaar, Rup Lal’s Bazaar, and Makhan Lal’s Lane. 29 Others left only colorful legends behind them, such as the Gaur family of the ‘Five Brothers’ (Panch Bhai Gaur) and the Saksena serrishtahdars Raja Buchar Mal Shamsher Jung and Raja Maya Ram. 30 The major reason advanced to account for the extinction of so many Kayasth families in Shahalibanda was that of heavy Muslim influence.Some Kayasth men converted to Islam. 31 In other cases, a Hindu line of descent ended, but the family continued through the children of a Muslim wife or concubine. 32 A few Kayasths in Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam left only Muslim descendants,33 but the great majority of such cases among the Hyderabad Kayasths occurred in Shahalibanda.Some of these men allegedly converted for love of a Muslim woman.Others had been famous for their great proficiency in Arabic and Persian. In some cases, those who adopted Islam were suratvals, looked down upon by other Kayasths; Islam may have offered them more opportunities. A second reason for the apparent end of many Shahalibanda Kayasth families is related to the large proportion of suratval Kayasths there. In some families, the legitimate line died out, but a suratval branch of the family continued. 34 In other cases even these nominal caste members were lost through intermarriage with suratvals of other castes.Shahalibanda must have been a more hospitable neighborhood for suratvals than Chowk Maiden Khan or Husaini Alam, for the suratvals there lived among the other Kayasths and not at a distance as was more common elsewhere. In fact, save for Shahalibanda, suratval Kayasths often lived quite far from other Kayasths. Most lived in Dabirpura and across the Musi river in Dhulpet. A final reason for the lapse of Shahalibanda Kayasth families can be seen in the fluctuating fortunes of the military men upon whom most Kayasths depended for their livelihoods. Few military units were tied directly to the Nizam’s administration. At the height of their power and wealth, military commanders and serrishtahdars lived very well, but their jobs proved less secure than those of civil administrative employees. After the mid-nineteenth century, the military establishments declined in importance and were subjected to administrative reforms and increased control. 35 Though a few military serrishtahdars were prominent later in the nineteenth century, and some new Kayasth arrivals established themselves as serrishtahdars at that time,36 their wealth and power had been lessened considerably.
Chowk Maiden Khan: Nobles As Neighborhood Patrons
Chowk Maidan Khan, just south of the residences of the old Qutb Shahi nobles (and then the residences of the earliest Hyderabad nobles), shared many of the characteristics of the adjacent older area. It was almost entirely residential. Residential establishments were quite large, usually housing one noble family and numerous dependent relatives.Each noble’s establishment was surrounded by high walls with an ornate gateway including a naubatkhanah from which drummers announced visitors. The palaces were divided into private apartments for the household and public reception rooms.Other buildings adjoined the residential establishments: in the case of the Malwala palace, these included a distillery, provisions storerooms, the wedding hall, and a stable. The locality was named for the broad main street, or chowk, which ran directly east from the Char Minar monument, and the chowk was named for a monkey, Maidan Khan, remembered as having helped teach in a local akhara or wrestling school. 37 The neighborhood consisted of large houses along the main street and smaller houses on several narrow lanes which ran back from the street on both sides. The Malwala palace dominated the street and the other Mathur households clustered around it.Other Kayasths were nearby, some Bhatnagars living just next to the Mathurs and a Nigam family and two Srivastava noble families living a slight distance away. A few Muslim and other Hindu (Brahmo-Khatri, Agarwal, Marwari, and Telugu Brahman) families were scattered around the edges of the neighborhood.Some small shops and karkhanah (production or service unit, usually part of the Nizam’s household administration) buildings bordered the main street near the Char Minar. At its eastern edge, the city wall separated Chowk Maidan Khan from a less prosperous and more heterogeneous neighborhood beyond. Most activities in the neighborhood took place behind the walls. Relatively few families in Chowk Maidan Khan actually lived on the level of the nobility, yet the style of life characteristic of the Hyderabad nobility set the standard for the locality. Wealthy families had diwankhanahs (reception halls) where they sponsored literary and social entertainments.Eight of the thirty Mathur Kayasth households had diwankhanahs, and the families occasionally hosted literary and other entertainments. 38 Nearby, the Srivastava noble familiy of Raja Chain Rae also had a diwankhanah. 39 Entertainments given by the Malwala family frequently featured dancing girls, musicians, and jesters,40 in addition to the family’s famous homemade wine. Malwala weddings were particularly festive and lengthy occasions, in which the Mathur women were major participants. Many members of the Hyderabad nobility attended weddings here. 41 On the annual Dasserah festival, when Hindus traditionally worshipped the tools used in hereditary occupations, all the Mathur Kayasth men gathered in the Malwala palace reception hall in full court dress to present nazrs or offerings to the head of the Malwala family, as in a durbar held by the Nizam. Following this presentation, they jointly offered homage to the tools of the Kayasth profession, a pen and inkpot.Other Kayasth households would observe this in private domestic ceremonies, but in Chowk Maidan Khan it marked the economic dependence of Mathur Kayasths on the Malwala family, the noble family that had brought the others to Hyderabad for marriages. 42 The Malwala family, the wealthiest family in Chowk Maiden Khan, was the major patron of neighborhood institutions and events. As throughout the city, such institutions and events usually were IndoMuslim. The wealthy families jointly supported the neighborhood mosques (the Kotla Ali Jah mosque, the Maidan Khan mosque, and the two Lodhi Khan mosques) and the ashurkhanahs where ‘alams were kept for Muharram. The Malwala family furnished floor matting and lamp oil for the mosques and donated money in Ramzan, the Islamic month of fasting. Three local Muslim families paid the mosque attendants and financed repairs to the buildings. 43 Another Mathur family’s house adjoined a small dargāh (tomb of a Muslim saint) and the family assumed responsibility for the annual ‘urs (death commemoration ceremony). 44 On Islamic holidays, large households had certain obligations to the public. The Malwala family gave out alms and illuminated its palace on the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and for Abdul Qadir Jilani’s fatihah ceremony. 45 The grandest public occasion for Chowk Maidan Khan fell during Muharram. Then the local Shia religious relic, the Bikʾalam,46 was taken out in procession on an elephant. The Bikʾalam, or bibi ka ‘alam, was an inscribed metal standard placed in a shrine by a Qutb Shahi queen, Hayat Bakshi Begum, and annually taken out for Muharram, accompanied by Shia Muslims and other mourners. The procession passed through the city streets, pausing in the gateways of noble residences for the customary cash offerings. The Malwala palace was the traditional halting place for this ‘alam along Chowk Maidan Khan, and the head of the family would present the family offering with great ceremony. 47 Other Mathur families presented offerings less formally along the route.Some Mathur households kept replicas of the shrine of Hasan and Husain. These were called taziyahs and were taken out in Muharram processions also. During Muharram, the Malwala family displayed its taziyah, set up an abdarkhanah (shelter) to serve sherbet to the public, and distributed alms. 48 Thus, in neighborhood activities, the Malwala family assumed the role expected of a wealthy noble family of Hyderabad, and other Kayasth families in Chowk Maiden Khan followed its lead.
Husaini Alam: Mughlai Bureaucrats
The third neighborhood, Husaini Alam, contrasted with Chowk Maidan Khan. It was more crowded, and its population was more heterogeneous. The locality was an old one, named after an ‘alam enshrined there in Qutb Shahi days. The housing was generally substantial but of varied quality, with a slightly irregular layout of streets and buildings. Located behind the Nizam’s Chow Mohalla palace and the Sarf-i Khas offices, Husaini Alam was close to most residents’ places of employment, and since the main bazaar in the old city was nearby, it reflected some of the bustling activity of the bazaar. The Kayasths living in Husaini Alam were Saksenas, Bhatnagars, and Srivastavas. These Kayasths and some Maharashtrian Brahman families clustered at the center of the locality. Close neighbors were Bohra Muslims, the Paigah military nobles to the south, and other Sunni Muslims. 49 The Kayasth and Maharashtrian residents held administrative positions, typically middle- to lower-levels posts in the Sarf-i Khas. A few prominent Husaini Alam families—the Saksena family of Raja Girdhari Pershad Mahbub Nawazwant, popularly known as Bansi Raja, and the Bhatnagar families of Raja Bhavani Pershad and Raja Majlis Rae—had diwankhanahs and followed a style of life approximating that of wealthier nobles. Most public activities in Husaini Alam, as in Chowk Maidan Khan, were Indo-Muslim. Prominent families assumed roles as patrons much as the Malwalas did in their locality. Bansi Raja, as head of the leading Saksena family, arranged illuminations for the annual ‘urs or commemoration of a local Muslim saint whose tomb adjoined the old Qutb Shahi pigeon house. In the month of Ramzan, Bansi Raja served a light breakfast before sunrise to neighbors who were fasting. 50 Muharram in Husaini Alam was marked by enthusiastic popular participation. The procession associated with Husaini Alam was the Langar procession on the fifth of the month. 51 On that occasion, all the troops in Hyderabad marched through the city streets. The riotous and disorderly procession commenced at the Husaini Alam mosque and featured the military commanders mounted on elephants, followed by the Arab, Rohilla, Sikh, and other troops, including the camel corps and the cavalry. Bansi Raja, head of the Saksena family but in his capacity as serrishtahdar of the Regular and Irregular Forces,52 rode the lead elephant in the Langar procession. 53 Many other families in the neighborhood celebrated by contributing taziyahs to the Langar procession and illuminating their houses. 54 Adults wore green clothing and special armbands55 made for Muharram; children dressed up as faqirs. Kayasth families distributed alms to the public. 56 Social life was more diversified in Husaini Alam than in Chowk Maidan Khan. There were equal numbers of families in the three Kayasth subcastes there, and within each subcaste no one family consistently presided over joint functions. Weddings were performed in many different homes. The Hindu festival of Dasserah was observed privately in each household. Bansi Raja did receive guests in his diwankhanah on Dasserah,57 but this was not a demonstration of subcaste unity like the Malwala durbar.Two Husaini Alam Kayasth Saksena families began sponsoring Hindu religious festivals in the mid-nineteenth century, and these drew other Hindus in the neighborhood. The Wala Jahi family celebrated the birthday of Ram, and a family recently arrived from Aurangabad (capital of the first Nizam) continued its customary celebration of the birthday of Krishna. 58 Hindus in Husaini Alam participated in these local, privately-sponsored Hindu events in addition to the more widely-observed IndoMuslim events. Entertainments in Husaini Alam drew upon the cultural attainments of local families. Poets or musicians entertaining at social gatherings often came from Kayasth families.Some Srivastava and Saksena families produced several generations of Hindustani classical musicians. 59 Mahbub ki Mehndi, the locality of Muslim dancing girls and musicians, lay just to the north of Husaini Alam. The Kayasth tradition of scholarship was strong here, particularly among the Saksena residents. A good education was an occupational necessity. Families with low incomes sent their sons to the moulvi’s classes in the local Ghausia mosque. 60 In some families, an older relative taught the boys. 61 Those Kayasths who could afford it engaged moulvis as private tutors. Leading families obtained the best tutors in the city, poets who emphasized literary rather than professional skills. 62 In fact, Husaini Alam and the first Kayasth neighborhood, Shahalibanda, produced most of the famous Hindu poets of Hyderabad.
Temples and Literature: Aspects of Indo-Muslim Culture
Many of the cultural activities in which the Hyderabad Kayasths and others participated have been discussed above in the context of the three neighborhoods. But other activities—Kayasth patronage and use of temples and Kayasth literary contributions—can better be discussed as part of the broader state and urban culture. Again, Kayasths are prominent in both arenas but other Hindus also participated in temple-building and patronage that was supported by the state and in Persian and Urdu literary activities that marked the prevailing IndoMuslim culture.Some of these literary activities were oriented more specifically to Sufi Islam, the strand of Islam whose beliefs and practices have been characterized as closer to Hinduism, to bhakti or devotional Hinduism. 64 The sources of temple support and the uses to which the temples and their lands were put provide valuable insights into relationships centered on the Hyderabadi court and the Mughlai administration. Kayasth families had built or taken responsibility for at least thirteen different temples in the city by the late nineteenth century. 65 Wealthier families from all six of the Kayasth castes settled in the old city managed these temples. Geographically, the temples were located all over the city and outside the walls.Temple management demonstrated Kayasth patronage and support of Hindu religious institutions, and, beyond that, political relationships of the time. Examples chosen from the material concerning only four Kayasth temples show the multiple purposes that the temples fulfilled. The oldest Kayasth temple in Hyderabad, Ram Bagh, was built by a Bhatnagar family in 1802 west of the city and south of the Musi river. The idol, a gift of the Raja of Gadwal (one of the samasthans or longstanding Hindu chiefdoms in Hyderabad State), was installed with great ceremony. The Nizam Sikander Jah attended that ceremony and granted a large jagir for the temple’s support. 66 The political relationships involved here were clearer than religious ones. In a second instance, the Keshavgiri temple was granted in 1859 to the Saksena Kayasth Bansi Raja of Husaini Alam on condition that the surrounding area, south of the old city walls beyond Shahalibanda, be improved and settled. The Keshavgiri temple had been patronized and endowed by several famous Hindu dancing girls at the beginning of the nineteenth century,67 its temple lands granted by both Hindu and Muslim nobles.Other lands had been granted by the government as grazing land for cavalry units. 68 Bansi Raja stationed his Irregular Arab troops on the temple grounds. He also held entertainments in the gardens of the temple, invited the Nizam to set up his hunting camp there, and sent his family there for refuge from plague epidemics in the city. 69 This large temple complex clearly served many purposes. In contrast, the Chitragupta temple in Shahalibanda, honoring Chitragupta, patron deity of the Kayasths, appeared to have been little used. It had been built by one of the early Srivastava noble families in 1811, and it too held a jagir from the Nizam, the third Nizam Sikander Jah (1803-29). 70 This was the only temple to which no non-religious uses were ascribed by Kayasth informants.Since the extinction of the patron family, and perhaps even in its day, there was little interest in the temple evidenced by Kayasths. 71 But the nearby Kali temple, by all accounts the temple of most religious significance to Kayasths in the past (and present), once had the troops of its Saksena serrishtahdar family garrisoned on the temple grounds. Guns and gunpowder had been stored in the basement of the temple. 72 Another Hindu official, the Brahmo Khatri Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur, vakil or agent of several samasthans to the Nizam, built the Kishen Bagh temple in 1822 on grounds that included an old Qutb Shahi mosque. The Nizam granted a jagir for the temple and later granted an additional jagir for naubat or drum expenses, a rare distinction. The Kishen Bagh temple was dedicated to Lord Krishna and set in a garden west of the old city wall on the way to Ram Bagh, and next to it was the dargāh or tomb of Hazrat Syed Shah Najamullah (or Nadimullah) Husaini, a Muslim saint who had lived in the old mosque. Raja Raghu Ram had faith in him and constructed buildings for his urs or annual death commemoration, which the Raja’s family still celebrated in 1943. These sacred spaces reportedly attracted both Hindus and Muslims. 73 The roles that temples played depended upon the families that owned or managed them and the men’s positions in the political economy of the state. The temples clearly served other than narrowly Hindu religious purposes. 74 The historical material concerning these Kayasth temples reflected relationships among individuals according to their positions in the Mughlai administration and at the court. The same point must be made about the Muslim institutions and events in the neighborhoods, that the Kayasth role with respect to them was essentially secular,75 part of the dominant Indo-Muslim culture, rather than religious. This point is strengthened by the fact that Hindus still participate in Muharram in Hyderabad and that Shiites view the ceremonies as symbols of communal harmony and take the (now Andhra Pradesh) government’s protection of them for granted. 76 In their intellectual interests as well as in their occupations, the Kayasths pledged allegiance to the dominant political and cultural force in India’s recent past, the Mughal empire. Most literary activity in Hyderabad used Persian until the late nineteenth century, when Urdu became a more popular medium of expression. Kayasths produced poetry which mixed poetical forms and intellectual content associated with both the ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ literary heritages. These literary contributions, it should be emphasized, do not evidence conversion to Islam or a Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis: they simply reflect the fact of Kayasth participation in the literary culture of the time
As the Indo-British imperial culture became dominant in the surrounding territories under the East India Company and then the British Crown, the Indo-Muslim culture prevailing longer in Hyderabad gives us glimpses of its powerful role in the everyday lives of India’s people in the past. We see here creative and adaptive acts of cultural, not religious, translation in a specific early modern (and non-colonial) historical context. Gayatri Spivak wrote of the difficulties of translating a Bengali language once prevalent in her region, a language replete with Arabic and Persian words and resonances. Arabic and Persian were the languages of the courts and of law in the late Mughal empire and the corresponding Nawabate in Bengal, and traces of them lingered in the Bangla of a text Spivak was translating into English. 82 Even more clearly, the Hyderabad material shows the importance of changing linguistic and historical contexts, offering instances of Tony Stewart’s translation theory at the levels of “dynamic equivalence” and “shared metaphoric worlds.” Stewart focuses on language and the translation of ideas in texts, and he ends by proposing that speakers of Bengali, both Hindu and Muslim, were Bengali first and sectarian second in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Rather than reflecting weak religious identities, theological ignorance, or religious capitulation (Stewart’s phrases), people of different faiths reaching for equivalent terms and practices across what are now perceived as strong religious boundaries reflected the dynamic interaction of actors and ideas in a world they shared.83 I make a similar argument here for the (former) Hyderabadi identity: Hindus in Hyderabad city neighborhoods and households were simply performing ritual actions and proclaiming political allegiances in the context and idiom of the Indo-Muslim court and administration of their time.
Shahalibanda: Military Men
The first locality, Shahalibanda, was the site of most military establishments, including those of the leading military noble family, the Sunni Muslim Paigahs, and its Gaur Kayasth serrishtahdars or managers of military and household units. The earliest Kayasths here were themselves military men, including many Saksenas and some Srivastavas. Presumably named for a now-forgotten Muslim saint Shah Ali,11 this large area sprawled across the southern end of the city, bounded on the east and south by the city wall. 12 Residences were interspersed with centers of craft and production activity.Shahalibanda included the large establishments of Raja Rae Rayan (the Maharashtrian Brahman family that headed the Daftar-i Diwani, the revenue office for the western half of the state) and Raja Chandu Lal (the Punjabi Khatri family that usually furnished the Peshkar, or deputy to the Diwan) on the north, while the even larger establishment of the Paigah nobles bordered it on the west. This southern section of the old city had been the military quarters in the eighteenth century, and the quarters moved further south in the nineteenth century, outside the city walls, as the city grew. In the time of the Qutb Shahis, the Royal Dairy had been located in Shahalibanda, and the area continued to be the site of production and service enterprises. In the nineteenth century, slaughter houses, tanneries, sewage deposit pits, salt-making pits, and even the old Hyderabad Mint were located there. Beyond the settled area lay Muslim tombs, Hindu temples, and an old church used by European military adventurers in the Nizam’s service. Also beyond the walls were the nobles’ pleasure gardens and Paigah and Sarf-i Khas lands that were used for growing vegetables and grazing horses. Residents of Shahalibanda came from many cultural backgrounds and economic levels. Imposing residences of Hindu and Muslim nobles and military commanders stood amidst small communities of tanners, salt-makers, grain-carriers, goat-sellers, water-carriers, and torch-bearers.Other streets were settled by Telugu and Maharashtrian Brahman priests and Navayat Muslims from Madras. 13 Popular Islam was represented by groups of talisman-makers and faqirs and by many local shrines or ashurkhanahs, where ‘alams (religious relics) were kept for commemoration of the Shia Muslim ten-day mourning period, Muharram.Nagulachinta, the locality of Hindu dancing girls and prostitutes, was in Shahalibanda; legend locates the village of Chichlam here, home of Bhagmati, the legendary Hindu courtesan for whose love a Qutb Shahi prince, later Sultan Quli Qutb Shah, crossed the river and founded the city of Hyderabad in 1591. 14 The rival locality of Mahbub ki Mehndi, famous for Muslim courtesans and musicians, developed later and was near Husaini Alam.Socially and occupationally, the neighborhood was extremely diverse. Military establishments and their style of life characterized Shahalibanda.Of the three largest nobles in or bordering the neighborhood, the Paigah and Peshkar families were closely associated with the military forces, and the Rae Rayan family’s origin went back to Daulatabad in the time of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. 15 Other large establishments were those of Arab and Afghan military chiefs like Ghalib Jung and Subhan Khan. 16 The residences of the military serrishtahdars, recordkeepers, paymasters, and managers of units of troops, were prominent ones too. Maharashtrian and Telugu Brahmans and Kayasths were in charge of most of the troops and households of the big establishments; that is, most of the serrishtahdars were Hindus.
The leading figures in Shahalibanda in the early nineteenth century were military commanders and their Hindu serrishtahdars. According to both written and oral sources, although these men came from different backgrounds, they shared certain characteristics.Emphasis was placed on personal ability combined with aggressive use of power and wealth. In contrast (as we shall see below), descriptions of dominant figures in Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam emphasized personal ability combined with loyalty to the Nizam, participation in the court culture, and a “respectable” style of life. Of the stories told about the colorful and legendary nineteenth century military men of Shahalibanda, a surprising number centered on the Hindu serrishtahdars. 17 Serrishtahdars able to control the unruly Hyderabad troops were often recognized as leaders of those troops, as much so as the jamadars, or military commanders, and many military units were named after their serrishtahdars. “Buchar Mal’s serrishtah” and ‘Maya Ram’s serrishtah’ were named for two legendary Saksena Kayasths, though they were commanded by Muslims, the first by Sulaiman Jah and the second by Nadi ‘Ali Beg Khan and Jafar Yar Jung. 18 Often, too, serrishtahdars were named after their troops. The Maharashtrian Brahman serrishtahdars of the Arab and Abyssinian troops were known respectively as ‘Urub’ Esvant Rao and ‘Siddi’ Madhu Rao. 19 Gaur, Saksena, and Srivastava Kayasthas lived in the Shahalibanda neighborhood, most of them employed by various military figures. The Gaur Kayasths served the Paigah family and the Arab family of Ghalib Jung. Most Saksenas served the Paigah and Peshkar families. Most Srivastavas were with the Nizam’s personal military forces. The Gaur households and some Saksena households were grouped together, but Kayasth households were scattered throughout the locality.No family served as patron or head of its subcaste, or of all the Kayasths there, or of the neighborhood as a whole. 20 Even if there had been one dominant Kayasth family, Shahalibanda was a large area and included prominent Maharashtrian, Telugu, and Muslim families too. Another reason for the “dispersion of power” was that many of the Shahalibanda Kayasths were suratvals, of illegitimate or intercaste parentage. 21 Nearly all the Srivastavas and many Saksenas fell into this category. 22 Further implications of this fact will be discussed below. Despite their distinctively military affiliations, Kayasths in Shahalibanda shared many characteristics with those in Husaini Alam and Chowk Maidan Khan. Muharram was enthusiastically celebrated, though there was no special procession associated with the locality. People attended the major processions elsewhere. Kayasths kept ‘alams in their homes or built ‘ashurkhanahs to house an ‘alam for the neighborhood. 23 Some Shahalibanda Kayasth families fasted like Shia Muslims. Many wore green clothes and armbands and dressed their children in costumes. 24 As in the other two neighborhoods, Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam, a good Persian education was a cultural and often an occupational requisite.Shahalibanda produced several major Kayasth poets,25 and there were musicians of note among these Kayasth families too. 26 Hindu festivals were privately sponsored in Shahalibanda, such as the Ramlila celebration of the Fateh Chand Saksena family. 27 Several families built small temples adjoining their homes. 28 The most striking fact about the Shalalibanda Kayasths was the large number of families that died out during the nineteenth century. The reasons advanced to account for this phenomenon were equally striking.Over half the families in each subcaste—Gaur, Saksena, and Srivastava—left no direct, legitimate, Hindu descendants. Many Kayasths have been remembered only because localities were named for them: Ghan Raj Bazaar, Lal Pershad’s Bazaar, Rup Lal’s Bazaar, and Makhan Lal’s Lane. 29 Others left only colorful legends behind them, such as the Gaur family of the ‘Five Brothers’ (Panch Bhai Gaur) and the Saksena serrishtahdars Raja Buchar Mal Shamsher Jung and Raja Maya Ram. 30 The major reason advanced to account for the extinction of so many Kayasth families in Shahalibanda was that of heavy Muslim influence.Some Kayasth men converted to Islam. 31 In other cases, a Hindu line of descent ended, but the family continued through the children of a Muslim wife or concubine. 32 A few Kayasths in Chowk Maidan Khan and Husaini Alam left only Muslim descendants,33 but the great majority of such cases among the Hyderabad Kayasths occurred in Shahalibanda.Some of these men allegedly converted for love of a Muslim woman.Others had been famous for their great proficiency in Arabic and Persian. In some cases, those who adopted Islam were suratvals, looked down upon by other Kayasths; Islam may have offered them more opportunities. A second reason for the apparent end of many Shahalibanda Kayasth families is related to the large proportion of suratval Kayasths there. In some families, the legitimate line died out, but a suratval branch of the family continued. 34 In other cases even these nominal caste members were lost through intermarriage with suratvals of other castes.Shahalibanda must have been a more hospitable neighborhood for suratvals than Chowk Maiden Khan or Husaini Alam, for the suratvals there lived among the other Kayasths and not at a distance as was more common elsewhere. In fact, save for Shahalibanda, suratval Kayasths often lived quite far from other Kayasths. Most lived in Dabirpura and across the Musi river in Dhulpet. A final reason for the lapse of Shahalibanda Kayasth families can be seen in the fluctuating fortunes of the military men upon whom most Kayasths depended for their livelihoods. Few military units were tied directly to the Nizam’s administration. At the height of their power and wealth, military commanders and serrishtahdars lived very well, but their jobs proved less secure than those of civil administrative employees. After the mid-nineteenth century, the military establishments declined in importance and were subjected to administrative reforms and increased control. 35 Though a few military serrishtahdars were prominent later in the nineteenth century, and some new Kayasth arrivals established themselves as serrishtahdars at that time,36 their wealth and power had been lessened considerably.
Chowk Maiden Khan: Nobles As Neighborhood Patrons
Chowk Maidan Khan, just south of the residences of the old Qutb Shahi nobles (and then the residences of the earliest Hyderabad nobles), shared many of the characteristics of the adjacent older area. It was almost entirely residential. Residential establishments were quite large, usually housing one noble family and numerous dependent relatives.Each noble’s establishment was surrounded by high walls with an ornate gateway including a naubatkhanah from which drummers announced visitors. The palaces were divided into private apartments for the household and public reception rooms.Other buildings adjoined the residential establishments: in the case of the Malwala palace, these included a distillery, provisions storerooms, the wedding hall, and a stable. The locality was named for the broad main street, or chowk, which ran directly east from the Char Minar monument, and the chowk was named for a monkey, Maidan Khan, remembered as having helped teach in a local akhara or wrestling school. 37 The neighborhood consisted of large houses along the main street and smaller houses on several narrow lanes which ran back from the street on both sides. The Malwala palace dominated the street and the other Mathur households clustered around it.Other Kayasths were nearby, some Bhatnagars living just next to the Mathurs and a Nigam family and two Srivastava noble families living a slight distance away. A few Muslim and other Hindu (Brahmo-Khatri, Agarwal, Marwari, and Telugu Brahman) families were scattered around the edges of the neighborhood.Some small shops and karkhanah (production or service unit, usually part of the Nizam’s household administration) buildings bordered the main street near the Char Minar. At its eastern edge, the city wall separated Chowk Maidan Khan from a less prosperous and more heterogeneous neighborhood beyond. Most activities in the neighborhood took place behind the walls. Relatively few families in Chowk Maidan Khan actually lived on the level of the nobility, yet the style of life characteristic of the Hyderabad nobility set the standard for the locality. Wealthy families had diwankhanahs (reception halls) where they sponsored literary and social entertainments.Eight of the thirty Mathur Kayasth households had diwankhanahs, and the families occasionally hosted literary and other entertainments. 38 Nearby, the Srivastava noble familiy of Raja Chain Rae also had a diwankhanah. 39 Entertainments given by the Malwala family frequently featured dancing girls, musicians, and jesters,40 in addition to the family’s famous homemade wine. Malwala weddings were particularly festive and lengthy occasions, in which the Mathur women were major participants. Many members of the Hyderabad nobility attended weddings here. 41 On the annual Dasserah festival, when Hindus traditionally worshipped the tools used in hereditary occupations, all the Mathur Kayasth men gathered in the Malwala palace reception hall in full court dress to present nazrs or offerings to the head of the Malwala family, as in a durbar held by the Nizam. Following this presentation, they jointly offered homage to the tools of the Kayasth profession, a pen and inkpot.Other Kayasth households would observe this in private domestic ceremonies, but in Chowk Maidan Khan it marked the economic dependence of Mathur Kayasths on the Malwala family, the noble family that had brought the others to Hyderabad for marriages. 42 The Malwala family, the wealthiest family in Chowk Maiden Khan, was the major patron of neighborhood institutions and events. As throughout the city, such institutions and events usually were IndoMuslim. The wealthy families jointly supported the neighborhood mosques (the Kotla Ali Jah mosque, the Maidan Khan mosque, and the two Lodhi Khan mosques) and the ashurkhanahs where ‘alams were kept for Muharram. The Malwala family furnished floor matting and lamp oil for the mosques and donated money in Ramzan, the Islamic month of fasting. Three local Muslim families paid the mosque attendants and financed repairs to the buildings. 43 Another Mathur family’s house adjoined a small dargāh (tomb of a Muslim saint) and the family assumed responsibility for the annual ‘urs (death commemoration ceremony). 44 On Islamic holidays, large households had certain obligations to the public. The Malwala family gave out alms and illuminated its palace on the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday and for Abdul Qadir Jilani’s fatihah ceremony. 45 The grandest public occasion for Chowk Maidan Khan fell during Muharram. Then the local Shia religious relic, the Bikʾalam,46 was taken out in procession on an elephant. The Bikʾalam, or bibi ka ‘alam, was an inscribed metal standard placed in a shrine by a Qutb Shahi queen, Hayat Bakshi Begum, and annually taken out for Muharram, accompanied by Shia Muslims and other mourners. The procession passed through the city streets, pausing in the gateways of noble residences for the customary cash offerings. The Malwala palace was the traditional halting place for this ‘alam along Chowk Maidan Khan, and the head of the family would present the family offering with great ceremony. 47 Other Mathur families presented offerings less formally along the route.Some Mathur households kept replicas of the shrine of Hasan and Husain. These were called taziyahs and were taken out in Muharram processions also. During Muharram, the Malwala family displayed its taziyah, set up an abdarkhanah (shelter) to serve sherbet to the public, and distributed alms. 48 Thus, in neighborhood activities, the Malwala family assumed the role expected of a wealthy noble family of Hyderabad, and other Kayasth families in Chowk Maiden Khan followed its lead.
Husaini Alam: Mughlai Bureaucrats
The third neighborhood, Husaini Alam, contrasted with Chowk Maidan Khan. It was more crowded, and its population was more heterogeneous. The locality was an old one, named after an ‘alam enshrined there in Qutb Shahi days. The housing was generally substantial but of varied quality, with a slightly irregular layout of streets and buildings. Located behind the Nizam’s Chow Mohalla palace and the Sarf-i Khas offices, Husaini Alam was close to most residents’ places of employment, and since the main bazaar in the old city was nearby, it reflected some of the bustling activity of the bazaar. The Kayasths living in Husaini Alam were Saksenas, Bhatnagars, and Srivastavas. These Kayasths and some Maharashtrian Brahman families clustered at the center of the locality. Close neighbors were Bohra Muslims, the Paigah military nobles to the south, and other Sunni Muslims. 49 The Kayasth and Maharashtrian residents held administrative positions, typically middle- to lower-levels posts in the Sarf-i Khas. A few prominent Husaini Alam families—the Saksena family of Raja Girdhari Pershad Mahbub Nawazwant, popularly known as Bansi Raja, and the Bhatnagar families of Raja Bhavani Pershad and Raja Majlis Rae—had diwankhanahs and followed a style of life approximating that of wealthier nobles. Most public activities in Husaini Alam, as in Chowk Maidan Khan, were Indo-Muslim. Prominent families assumed roles as patrons much as the Malwalas did in their locality. Bansi Raja, as head of the leading Saksena family, arranged illuminations for the annual ‘urs or commemoration of a local Muslim saint whose tomb adjoined the old Qutb Shahi pigeon house. In the month of Ramzan, Bansi Raja served a light breakfast before sunrise to neighbors who were fasting. 50 Muharram in Husaini Alam was marked by enthusiastic popular participation. The procession associated with Husaini Alam was the Langar procession on the fifth of the month. 51 On that occasion, all the troops in Hyderabad marched through the city streets. The riotous and disorderly procession commenced at the Husaini Alam mosque and featured the military commanders mounted on elephants, followed by the Arab, Rohilla, Sikh, and other troops, including the camel corps and the cavalry. Bansi Raja, head of the Saksena family but in his capacity as serrishtahdar of the Regular and Irregular Forces,52 rode the lead elephant in the Langar procession. 53 Many other families in the neighborhood celebrated by contributing taziyahs to the Langar procession and illuminating their houses. 54 Adults wore green clothing and special armbands55 made for Muharram; children dressed up as faqirs. Kayasth families distributed alms to the public. 56 Social life was more diversified in Husaini Alam than in Chowk Maidan Khan. There were equal numbers of families in the three Kayasth subcastes there, and within each subcaste no one family consistently presided over joint functions. Weddings were performed in many different homes. The Hindu festival of Dasserah was observed privately in each household. Bansi Raja did receive guests in his diwankhanah on Dasserah,57 but this was not a demonstration of subcaste unity like the Malwala durbar.Two Husaini Alam Kayasth Saksena families began sponsoring Hindu religious festivals in the mid-nineteenth century, and these drew other Hindus in the neighborhood. The Wala Jahi family celebrated the birthday of Ram, and a family recently arrived from Aurangabad (capital of the first Nizam) continued its customary celebration of the birthday of Krishna. 58 Hindus in Husaini Alam participated in these local, privately-sponsored Hindu events in addition to the more widely-observed IndoMuslim events. Entertainments in Husaini Alam drew upon the cultural attainments of local families. Poets or musicians entertaining at social gatherings often came from Kayasth families.Some Srivastava and Saksena families produced several generations of Hindustani classical musicians. 59 Mahbub ki Mehndi, the locality of Muslim dancing girls and musicians, lay just to the north of Husaini Alam. The Kayasth tradition of scholarship was strong here, particularly among the Saksena residents. A good education was an occupational necessity. Families with low incomes sent their sons to the moulvi’s classes in the local Ghausia mosque. 60 In some families, an older relative taught the boys. 61 Those Kayasths who could afford it engaged moulvis as private tutors. Leading families obtained the best tutors in the city, poets who emphasized literary rather than professional skills. 62 In fact, Husaini Alam and the first Kayasth neighborhood, Shahalibanda, produced most of the famous Hindu poets of Hyderabad.
Temples and Literature: Aspects of Indo-Muslim Culture
Many of the cultural activities in which the Hyderabad Kayasths and others participated have been discussed above in the context of the three neighborhoods. But other activities—Kayasth patronage and use of temples and Kayasth literary contributions—can better be discussed as part of the broader state and urban culture. Again, Kayasths are prominent in both arenas but other Hindus also participated in temple-building and patronage that was supported by the state and in Persian and Urdu literary activities that marked the prevailing IndoMuslim culture.Some of these literary activities were oriented more specifically to Sufi Islam, the strand of Islam whose beliefs and practices have been characterized as closer to Hinduism, to bhakti or devotional Hinduism. 64 The sources of temple support and the uses to which the temples and their lands were put provide valuable insights into relationships centered on the Hyderabadi court and the Mughlai administration. Kayasth families had built or taken responsibility for at least thirteen different temples in the city by the late nineteenth century. 65 Wealthier families from all six of the Kayasth castes settled in the old city managed these temples. Geographically, the temples were located all over the city and outside the walls.Temple management demonstrated Kayasth patronage and support of Hindu religious institutions, and, beyond that, political relationships of the time. Examples chosen from the material concerning only four Kayasth temples show the multiple purposes that the temples fulfilled. The oldest Kayasth temple in Hyderabad, Ram Bagh, was built by a Bhatnagar family in 1802 west of the city and south of the Musi river. The idol, a gift of the Raja of Gadwal (one of the samasthans or longstanding Hindu chiefdoms in Hyderabad State), was installed with great ceremony. The Nizam Sikander Jah attended that ceremony and granted a large jagir for the temple’s support. 66 The political relationships involved here were clearer than religious ones. In a second instance, the Keshavgiri temple was granted in 1859 to the Saksena Kayasth Bansi Raja of Husaini Alam on condition that the surrounding area, south of the old city walls beyond Shahalibanda, be improved and settled. The Keshavgiri temple had been patronized and endowed by several famous Hindu dancing girls at the beginning of the nineteenth century,67 its temple lands granted by both Hindu and Muslim nobles.Other lands had been granted by the government as grazing land for cavalry units. 68 Bansi Raja stationed his Irregular Arab troops on the temple grounds. He also held entertainments in the gardens of the temple, invited the Nizam to set up his hunting camp there, and sent his family there for refuge from plague epidemics in the city. 69 This large temple complex clearly served many purposes. In contrast, the Chitragupta temple in Shahalibanda, honoring Chitragupta, patron deity of the Kayasths, appeared to have been little used. It had been built by one of the early Srivastava noble families in 1811, and it too held a jagir from the Nizam, the third Nizam Sikander Jah (1803-29). 70 This was the only temple to which no non-religious uses were ascribed by Kayasth informants.Since the extinction of the patron family, and perhaps even in its day, there was little interest in the temple evidenced by Kayasths. 71 But the nearby Kali temple, by all accounts the temple of most religious significance to Kayasths in the past (and present), once had the troops of its Saksena serrishtahdar family garrisoned on the temple grounds. Guns and gunpowder had been stored in the basement of the temple. 72 Another Hindu official, the Brahmo Khatri Raja Raghu Ram Bahadur, vakil or agent of several samasthans to the Nizam, built the Kishen Bagh temple in 1822 on grounds that included an old Qutb Shahi mosque. The Nizam granted a jagir for the temple and later granted an additional jagir for naubat or drum expenses, a rare distinction. The Kishen Bagh temple was dedicated to Lord Krishna and set in a garden west of the old city wall on the way to Ram Bagh, and next to it was the dargāh or tomb of Hazrat Syed Shah Najamullah (or Nadimullah) Husaini, a Muslim saint who had lived in the old mosque. Raja Raghu Ram had faith in him and constructed buildings for his urs or annual death commemoration, which the Raja’s family still celebrated in 1943. These sacred spaces reportedly attracted both Hindus and Muslims. 73 The roles that temples played depended upon the families that owned or managed them and the men’s positions in the political economy of the state. The temples clearly served other than narrowly Hindu religious purposes. 74 The historical material concerning these Kayasth temples reflected relationships among individuals according to their positions in the Mughlai administration and at the court. The same point must be made about the Muslim institutions and events in the neighborhoods, that the Kayasth role with respect to them was essentially secular,75 part of the dominant Indo-Muslim culture, rather than religious. This point is strengthened by the fact that Hindus still participate in Muharram in Hyderabad and that Shiites view the ceremonies as symbols of communal harmony and take the (now Andhra Pradesh) government’s protection of them for granted. 76 In their intellectual interests as well as in their occupations, the Kayasths pledged allegiance to the dominant political and cultural force in India’s recent past, the Mughal empire. Most literary activity in Hyderabad used Persian until the late nineteenth century, when Urdu became a more popular medium of expression. Kayasths produced poetry which mixed poetical forms and intellectual content associated with both the ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ literary heritages. These literary contributions, it should be emphasized, do not evidence conversion to Islam or a Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis: they simply reflect the fact of Kayasth participation in the literary culture of the time
As the Indo-British imperial culture became dominant in the surrounding territories under the East India Company and then the British Crown, the Indo-Muslim culture prevailing longer in Hyderabad gives us glimpses of its powerful role in the everyday lives of India’s people in the past. We see here creative and adaptive acts of cultural, not religious, translation in a specific early modern (and non-colonial) historical context. Gayatri Spivak wrote of the difficulties of translating a Bengali language once prevalent in her region, a language replete with Arabic and Persian words and resonances. Arabic and Persian were the languages of the courts and of law in the late Mughal empire and the corresponding Nawabate in Bengal, and traces of them lingered in the Bangla of a text Spivak was translating into English. 82 Even more clearly, the Hyderabad material shows the importance of changing linguistic and historical contexts, offering instances of Tony Stewart’s translation theory at the levels of “dynamic equivalence” and “shared metaphoric worlds.” Stewart focuses on language and the translation of ideas in texts, and he ends by proposing that speakers of Bengali, both Hindu and Muslim, were Bengali first and sectarian second in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Rather than reflecting weak religious identities, theological ignorance, or religious capitulation (Stewart’s phrases), people of different faiths reaching for equivalent terms and practices across what are now perceived as strong religious boundaries reflected the dynamic interaction of actors and ideas in a world they shared.83 I make a similar argument here for the (former) Hyderabadi identity: Hindus in Hyderabad city neighborhoods and households were simply performing ritual actions and proclaiming political allegiances in the context and idiom of the Indo-Muslim court and administration of their time.
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