Bibliofile - Outlook's new series which talks about everything related to books, authors and publishers. This week, author and historian Rana Safvi speaks to us about her new book City of my Heart
Follow this story and more: https://www.outlookindia.com/
#OutlookBibliofile #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
Follow this story and more: https://www.outlookindia.com/
#OutlookBibliofile #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 So if you see here in the palace, you can see only these white plaster.
00:04 This was actually all the inlay work, precious and semi-precious stones.
00:08 This entire palace was done up with glass and mirrors.
00:15 So this would have created such a beautiful effect.
00:17 But after 1857, the fall of the Mughal Empire, the whole fort was vandalized.
00:23 All the precious stones were taken away.
00:25 The inlay work was all gouged out.
00:27 So we have hardly anything left.
00:37 Hello and welcome to Outlook's Bibliophile, the place to come to for authors, for books,
00:42 for publishers, anything to do with the publishing industry.
00:44 Today we are going to be discussing this fascinating book, City of My Heart.
00:50 This is an account of the life that went on inside the Red Fort.
00:55 And what better place to discuss this than at the Red Fort itself.
00:58 We have with us the author of the book, historian, scholar, author, but above all that, a passionate
01:05 storyteller, Rana Safi.
01:08 Thank you ma'am for coming to join us in Bibliophile.
01:10 It's a pleasure to have you here.
01:12 From what I gather, this is a four translations of three books and a couple of short stories.
01:19 All of them written in the 1800s and describing the life within the fort.
01:25 Is that right?
01:26 One is written in 1885 but the others are written in the early part of the 20th century,
01:33 in 1920, 1934.
01:36 And they describe life in the fort as well as in the city of Shahjahanabad.
01:40 And the fourth book, which is the short stories, describes what happened to the survivors of
01:46 the Mughal Empire.
01:47 Because after the fall of Delhi, when the British took control of the fort, they chased
01:52 and killed almost all the royals.
01:54 Some managed to escape.
01:55 So, the story is of the survivors.
01:58 And we read in the book that the fort that we see today, it's only 20% of what the original
02:03 fort was.
02:04 Isn't that right?
02:05 Yes, because this was a densely populated fort.
02:08 There were about 2,000 to 3,000 people living inside.
02:11 There were workshops, there were nobles with their armies and their retinues, as well as
02:16 the entire haramshara of the palace.
02:19 But after the British took over, they systematically took down all the buildings which they felt
02:26 interfered with direct supervision of the fort so that no other rebellion can take place.
02:33 Also they took down all the buildings which were associated with the mutiny as they called
02:38 it.
02:39 So, this was a sort of a revenge or sort of a…
02:42 Yes, a reprisal against the Mughal Empire.
02:44 And the whole thing probably would have got destroyed if Lord Canning had not heard of
02:48 it and interfered.
02:49 So, Lord Canning saved whatever was left of the Diwane Khas, the Diwane Aam, some of the
02:54 palaces in the women's section, the Rana, and a few of the other like the gates.
03:00 And the gates of course they would keep because that was defensive for them and the Nawabat
03:04 Khan.
03:05 I see.
03:06 So, maybe we can now take a go inside and take a look at the places that Rana is describing.
03:10 Shall we?
03:11 Yes.
03:12 One of the most fascinating things in the book I found was that it was actually not
03:20 a red fort at all.
03:21 It was mostly white inside.
03:23 Is that right?
03:24 I mean it's actually the plaster which has gone off which we see now.
03:28 The original name was Qalai Mubarak or Qalai Shah Jahani.
03:31 Later on towards the 18th century it starts getting called Qalai Mawla or the Exalted
03:36 Fort.
03:37 Qalai Mubarak means blessed fort or auspicious fort and then by the time the later Mughals
03:44 come that is the end, towards the end of the Mughal dynasty where Bahadur Shah is ruling,
03:49 it starts getting called Lal Haveli because by then the plaster was fallen off and none
03:53 of the late like Bahadur Shah, Akbar Shah, none of them have the money to really plaster
03:58 it and put it back again.
03:59 Now there was a thick lime plaster on the walls, red on the red sandstone and on that
04:06 were paintings, floral, gilding, a lot of golden work was done and I normally tell everybody
04:12 that if you want to see what the Lal Qila would have looked like originally, you should
04:16 visit the Jain Mandirs because the Jain Mandirs are beautifully, yes and they are beautifully
04:21 painted from inside.
04:22 Over here you have some of the original paint where you can see in the wall they have enclosed
04:27 it with glass.
04:28 In fact this was also not, this plaster was done recently by Mr. KK Muhammad in the past
04:34 7-8 years or 10 years because otherwise this was also all red.
04:39 So even this plaster that we see now is not exactly the original?
04:42 No, no.
04:43 It was done later.
04:44 We are at Diwane Aam now and this is just what we see here is just a bare bones of what
04:56 it must have been at that time.
04:57 See this would have been, first of all it was all plastered and gilded, gilding, gold
05:02 painting all over the place.
05:04 All this would have been the carvings that you see would have been brought out in gold.
05:08 Apart from that, if you see it from outside you can still see some of the hooks.
05:13 It would have all been draped with carpets and velvets and brocades.
05:17 If the emperor wished to honour somebody, he would invite him to the throne and that
05:22 'Takhte Nasha Manne Zill-e-Ilahi' and he would go there and then he would, you know,
05:26 with his own hand sometimes he would give them a 'Sar-Pech' which are those ornaments
05:29 you see on the turbans.
05:30 So, it was the Bhukans as did the Delhi Sultanate, they followed the Persian etiquette of course.
05:38 And this was from the Sassanid Empire.
05:41 And the other account that you talk about is the change with the seasons.
05:45 It's I mean that is quite fascinating how, you know, from the summer to the autumn, winter
05:51 the change that happens.
05:53 That's also very fascinating.
05:54 So, every season had its own charm.
05:56 It had its own food.
05:57 It had its own, you know, everything around in the paraphernalia which would be observed.
06:02 You know, like as a child I remember my mother would never wear silks in summers or cottons
06:09 in winters.
06:10 So, she would have her own particular boxes where everything would be packed away.
06:13 The summer clothes are packed away.
06:15 The monsoon clothes would be taken out.
06:16 So, this is somebody they are very ordinary people.
06:19 So, you can imagine what the kings and the queens must be doing in those days.
06:22 Yeah.
06:23 You know, Rana, one thing though it strikes a reader when one goes through the book.
06:27 I mean they seem to be only celebrating and there are only festivities.
06:30 Didn't they ever work?
06:31 By 1803, the British have taken over the administration of Delhi.
06:34 In fact, there is a very famous saying, "Sultanate Shah Alam, Az Dilli Ta Palam."
06:39 That the kingdom of Shah Alam is only restricted from Delhi to Palam.
06:44 And by the time Bahadur Shah comes, it's only restricted to this Red Fort.
06:48 That's it.
06:49 And even in the Red Fort, he could not do anything without the permission of the resident
06:52 and the Khaledab, that is the British commandant who used to live here.
06:56 You know, one thing I wanted to ask you about is the difficulty of translating something
06:59 like this.
07:00 You know, some of it is Persian and then Urdu and then it's all a very idiomatic, you know,
07:06 the language they speak.
07:07 So, what are the problems that you faced while translating it?
07:10 Persian is very limited.
07:12 There were just a few verses in Persian but otherwise the whole thing is Urdu.
07:16 There is a lot of problems.
07:19 See, I understand all the nuances of the language that is being said.
07:22 I know the history that is being talked about.
07:25 But as far as the idioms are concerned, the language of the Delhi, ladies especially,
07:32 was very, very idiomatic.
07:34 It has a special name, "Dilli ki Begmati Dawaan" and the language spoken in Delhi also.
07:39 So translating that into English, however much I may understand it, is difficult because
07:45 as my editor said, that when I could find equivalence to every Urdu saying or muhawara
07:53 but like he said, he said, you know, that this is too English.
07:56 It doesn't go with the rest of the ambience of the book where I'm talking of a particular
08:00 culture and a time frame.
08:03 We are at Rang Mahal, the women's quarters, right?
08:05 If you would like to, you know, describe a life of the women at that time?
08:09 See, within the fort itself, there was the palace area where only the women could come
08:13 in, where the women lived and only the emperor and the eunuchs and the female warriors would
08:18 be guarding them and the emperor could come in.
08:20 Now, a lot of the book is set in that area.
08:23 Just after Diwane Khas, all the way down to what is now called Mumtaz Mahal, which was
08:28 actually the Choti Baithak and Badi Baithak and all these places, it would be very richly
08:36 furnished and of course carpet, bolsters, cushions and brocades and velvets and the
08:43 Mehre Bahisht flew through it.
08:45 It was a cooling stream underneath the marble of the flooring to keep the whole thing clean.
08:50 And then suddenly it would come out, the stream would come out wherever there was an open
08:54 space and there would be fountains and pools.
08:57 So just to make it cool and give the effect of heaven.
09:01 Because it is just here that in the Diwane Khas that you have the verse written, "Garfir
09:04 dos barru e zami ast, thami ast, thami ast, thami ast".
09:07 If there is a heaven on earth, it is here.
09:11 Which is sort of mistakenly said to be of Kashmir, isn't it?
09:15 Yes and it is not written by Hazrat Ameer Khosrow.
09:18 We don't know who the writer is.
09:19 I see.
09:20 But it is not in any of his Diwans, in Hazrat Ameer Khosrow's Diwans.
09:26 So here the women would live and there were so many celebrations all the time.
09:31 There would be some celebration happening and a very interesting celebration that is
09:35 described in the book is the Jashn-e-Tajposhi or the celebration of the coronation of the
09:39 emperor where they would soak urad dal and then they would make vadas out of it.
09:44 So the dal would be soaked by the chief consort.
09:47 In Bahadur Shah's case it was Zeenat Mahal and when it was ground, then the first vada
09:53 would be put into the oil by the Badshah himself.
09:55 Wow.
09:56 So such a very syncretic custom because a lot of, like Bahadur Shah's mother was also
10:01 a Rajput.
10:02 Most of the Mughals had a lot of Rajput blood in them and there were so many people from,
10:08 men from different areas living in the harem and so they assimilated and they adapted and
10:13 they you know all the customs into their own customs and when you see, there's a description
10:20 of Dasara and when the Dasara is being celebrated in the court, there's a formal court being
10:26 held and at that time a neelkanth is let loose.
10:30 A neelkanth is the victory, the bird in Hindu customs.
10:33 So all these things you see a beautiful amalgamation of the customs of India.
10:39 I won't even say Hindu or Muslim because they're all Indian customs that have been, like Eid
10:43 Bakrid, Muharram, all this is being celebrated and observed inside the Red Fort along with
10:49 Holi, Diwali and Raksha Bandhan.
10:51 When they talk of harem, they think it is about women who are sexually available to
10:55 the emperor.
10:56 It's not that.
10:57 These women are there for a lot of the women did perform the administrative tasks.
11:02 So say in a harem only about 5% would be those who had, were in an intimate relation with
11:07 the emperor, the rest would be his relatives, his aunts, mother, the fathers, wives and
11:13 you know like sisters, nieces, etc. etc.
11:16 We are at Diwane Khas where the emperor held a special court and where the peacock throne
11:21 was, correct?
11:22 Yes.
11:23 So this is actually, this building was the only building that's made completely of marble
11:28 and it was heavily decorated with inlay work of precious and semi-precious stone.
11:34 It had a silver ceiling and this is where as you said the peacock throne was kept and
11:40 where the emperor would call his special nobles there for, or give them audience.
11:47 In 1857 when the emperor was captured, the British soldiers drank to the health of the
11:52 queen right here.
11:55 And after that when the Darbar was held in 1911, then the same Jharoka from where the
12:01 emperor would give Jharoka Darshan, the king of England also gave Jharoka to his subjects.
12:07 So things keep changing and that's how it is.
12:11 And in this book you know there is a very beautiful sentence by Bahadur Shah Lafar where
12:16 he says that we also took the crown from somebody and somebody has taken it from us and that
12:21 is the way of the world.
12:23 So that's the way of the world that things come, things go, people come, people go, emperors
12:28 come, kings come, nothing is permanent in this life and that's what we should realize.
12:34 Thank you so much for being with us, it was an absolute pleasure and many many congratulations
12:38 once again on the book.
12:39 I am sure you know it will do extremely well and it's really a fascinating account of the
12:44 life inside the Delhi.
12:46 Thank you very much.
12:47 And as I said in the beginning, Bibliophile is this sort of a new channel that we have
12:52 started in the Outlook website where you know it's all about books.
12:55 We'll be talking to authors, reviewing books, taking excerpts, so anything that you wanted
13:01 to know, anything about books, that's the place to come to.
13:03 Thank you.
13:04 Thank you.
13:04 Thank you.