Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T11:15:21.146Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Ardhakathanaka by Banarasi Das: a Socio-cultural Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

Eugenia Vanina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Any researcher into the pre-modern history of India inevitably faces the problem of source material, and the creative genius of medieval Indians furnishes us with a wide range of sources; innumerable files of original documents, multi-volumed chronicles, bulky treatises, etc. A great number of travelogues enables us to view medieval India through the eyes of visitors from all parts of the globe. The source to be analysed in this article will hardly stand comparison with the above-mentioned materials. It is a biography of an insignificant man, a family history of modest middle-class people unconnected with court intrigues and political battles. And the title of the book is anything but serious. Ardhakathanaka means “Half a Tale”. The author, a Jain merchant named Banarasi Das, completed it in 1641, being fifty-five at that time; the ideal life span of the great Jain sages was believed to be one hundred and ten years. Thus Banarasi, who harboured no ambitions to equal the great sages, titled his autobiography “Haifa Tale”, displaying a somewhat bitter humour (he died shortly after completing the book).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 1995 , pp. 211 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lath, Makund (ed., trans.), Half a Tale. Ardhakathanaka (Jaipur, 1981), p. 96 (English), p. 275 (Hindi).Google Scholar This article is based on the Hindi text as produced by Dr Lath. The quotations are translated by the present author and this translation in some cases differs from Lath's. Lath's English rendering is also referred to for the readers' convenience. The source is hereafter abbreviated to AK.

2 Gupta, Mataprasad (ed.), The Ardha-Katha (Allahabad, 1943)Google Scholar.

3 Premi, N. R. (ed.), The Ardhakathanaka (Bombay, 1957)Google Scholar; by the same author, Premi, N. R. (ed.), Jain Sahitya aur Itihas (Bombay, 1956)Google Scholar.

4 Jain, Ravindra K., Kavivar Banarasi. Jivani aur Kritittva (Varanasi, 1966)Google Scholar.

5 Unfortunately, this book is inaccessible to the present author.

6 Indica, VII (1970), pt. 1–2Google Scholar.

7 The Cambridge Economic History of India (Cambridge, 1982), i, pp. 264, 341–3, 351Google Scholar.

8 Published in Chandra, S. (ed.), Essays in Medieval Indian Economic History. Indian History Congress, Golden Jubilee Series (Delhi, 1987), pp. 222–8Google Scholar.

9 AK, p. 224 (Hindi), Lath's English translation omits this date.

10 AK, pp. 38–40 (English), pp. 242–3 (Hindi). See also Lath's preface and commentaries.

11 See, for instance, Singh, M. P., Merchants and Local Administration and Civil Rights in Gujarat-Aligarh University. A Miscellany (Aligarh, 1964), p. 223Google Scholar; The English Factories in India. A Calendar of Documents in the India Office (Oxford, 1907), pp. 11, 148, 158Google Scholar.

12 Thakur, Vidyapati, Kirtilata (Jhansi, 1962), pp. 58–67Google Scholar.

13 AK, p. 5 (English), p. 226 (Hindi).

14 AK, p. 226 (Hindi). The list of castes was omitted in Lath's translation and reproduced in Sharma's article, Indica, VII, pt. I, pp. 22–6.

15 Vanina, E., “Urban industries of medieval India: some aspects of development”, Studies in History, V (1989), pp. 275–6Google Scholar.

16 AK, p. 2 (English), p. 224 (Hindi).

17 Mazumdar, B. P., Socio-Economic History of Northern India (1030—1194 A.D.) (Calcutta, 1960), p. 109Google Scholar.

18 Discussed at length in R. C. Sharma's paper.

19 AK, p. 54 (English), p. 252 (Hindi).

20 Ray, I., Of Trade and Traders in XVIIth Century India (Calcutta, 1979), p. 6Google Scholar; Chicherov, A., India. Economic Development in the XVIth-XVIIIth Centuries. Outline History of Crafts and Trade (Moscow, 1971), pp. 159–230Google Scholar.

21 For instance, Travels in India by Tavernier, Jean Baptiste, Baron of Aubonne (Delhi, 1977), i, p. 24; ii, p. 144Google Scholar.

22 The Cambridge Economic History of India, i, p. 343.

23 AK, p. 14 (English), pp. 227, 231 (Hindi).

24 Tavernier, ii, p. 144.

25 AK, pp. 47, 48, 63 (English), pp. 247, 248, 256 (Hindi).

26 AK, p. 60 (English), p. 255 (Hindi).

27 Khan, M. Afzal, “The Chalebi merchants of Surat”, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (1979), pp. 412–414Google Scholar; The English Factories in India, pp. v, 290Google Scholar.

28 AK, pp. 18, 82 (English), pp. 232, 267 (Hindi).

29 AK, p. 7 (English), p. 227 (Hindi).

30 AK, pp. 38–40 (English), pp. 242–3 (Hindi).

31 Khan, Ali Muhammad, Mirat-i Ahmadi (Baroda, 1928), pp. i, 181–182Google Scholar.

32 Nizami, Kh. A., Akbar and Religion (Delhi, 1989), pp. 373–378Google Scholar.

33 Allami, Abu-l Fazl, trans, by Blochmann, H. and Jarrett, H. S., Ain-i Akbari (Delhi, 1978), iii, pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

34 Bhanuchandragainicharitam (Bombay, 1931), pp. 4–7Google Scholar; Mehta, Shirin, “Akbar as reflected in the contemporary Jain literature in Gujarat”, Social Scientist, XX (Sept.-Oct. 1992), nos. 9–10, 54–61Google Scholar.

35 AK, p. 2 (English), p. 224 (Hindi).

36 AK, p. 75 (English), p. 263 (Hindi).

37 AK, p. 65 (English), pp. 257–8 (Hindi).

38 Rahim Rattuwati (Varanasi, 1950)Google Scholar. See also Naik, C. R., Abdur-Rahim Khan-i Khanan and his Literary Circle (Ahmadabad, 1966), pp. 230–232Google Scholar.

39 AK, p. 49 (English), p. 249 (Hindi).

40 AK, pp. 8, 37 (English), pp. 228, 242 (Hindi).

41 AK, pp. 7, 63 (English), pp. 227, 256 (Hindi).

42 AK, pp. ii, 21 (English), pp. 230, 234. (Hindi).

43 AK, p. 16 (English), p. 231 (Hindi).

44 AK, p. 8 (English), p. 228 (Hindi).

45 AK, pp. 14, 30, 41 (English), pp. 231, 238, 245 (Hindi).

46 AK, pp. 11–12 (English), p. 230 (Hindi).

47 AK, p. 13 (English), p. 230 (Hindi).

48 AK, p. 56 (English), p. 253 (Hindi).

49 AK, pp. 35–6, 40 (English), pp. 240, 244 (Hindi).

50 Sharma, K., Bhakti and Bhakti Movement. A New Perspective (Delhi, 1987), pp. 1–2Google Scholar; Schomer, K. and McLeod, W. H. (eds), The Sants. Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (Delhi, 1987)Google Scholar.

51 This sect was also known as Terapantha. See Jain, Muni U. K., Jaina Sects and Schools (Delhi, 1975), pp. 137–138Google Scholar.

52 Premi, N. R., Jain Sahitya aur Itihas, pp. 398, 483, 493, 508Google Scholar.

53 AK, Appendix I, pp. 214–22.

54 Dvivedi, Hazari Prasad (ed.), Kabir (Bombay, 1960), p. 262Google Scholar.

55 See, for example: Callewaert, W. (ed. and trans.), The Hindi Biography of Dadu Dayal (Delhi, 1988), p. 37 (English), p. 92 (Hindi)Google Scholar; Malukdasji ki Bani (Allahabad, 1946), pp. 13–20Google Scholar.

56 Quoted by Hillerbrand, H. J., The Reformation. A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers and Participants (New York, 1964), p. 293Google Scholar.

57 See, for example, Ozment, S. E., Mysticism and Dissent. Religious Ideology and Social Protest in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven and London, 1973), pp. 35, 50, 56, 85ffGoogle Scholar.

58 Dvivedi, Hazari Prasad, Kabir, pp. 262, 272Google Scholar.

59 Tanner, N. P. (ed.), Heresy Trials in the Diocese of Norwich, 1428–1431 (London, 1977), p. 142Google Scholar.

60 English translation in Webster, D. and Green, L. (eds), Documents in Renaissance and Reformation History (Stanmore, 1969), p. 176Google Scholar.

61 Bardai, Chand, Prithviraj-Raso (Udaipur, 1955), pp. 1, 23, 144, 223–225ffGoogle Scholar. See also Pandit, R. S. (trans.), Kalhana's Rajatarangini (Delhi, 1968)Google Scholar; Ambastha, B. P., Non-Persian Sources of Medieval Indian History (Delhi, 1984)Google Scholar.

62 See, for example, Brahmanadas, Charan, Bhagatmal (Jodhpur, 1959)Google Scholar; Sarkar, J., Chaitanya's Life and Teachings (Calcutta, 1988)Google Scholar; Abbott, Justin A., Eknath. A Translation from the Bhaktalilamrita (Poona, 1927)Google Scholar.

63 Prithviraj Raso, pp. I, 26–7; Allami, Abu-l Fazl, trans, by Beveridge, H., Akbar Nama (Delhi, 1979), i, pp. 39–49, 384–385ffGoogle Scholar.

64 Bhagavadgita, iii, 35, trans, by Radhakrishnan, S. (London, 1948), pp. 146–147Google Scholar.

65 See, for example, Habib, M. and Khan, A. U. Salim (ed. and trans.), The Political Theory of the Delhi Sultanate (Allahabad, n.d.), pp. 19, 49, 97–98Google Scholar.

66 Grierson, G. A. (trans.), The Test of Man. Being the Purusha-Pariksha of Vidyapati Thakkura (London, 1935), pp. 112–115Google Scholar.

67 AK, p. 33 (English), p. 239 (Hindi).

68 Allami, Abu-l Fazl, trans, by Blochmann, H. and Jarrett, H. S., Ain-i Akbari (Delhi, 1978), iii, pp. 4–5Google Scholar.

69 Nizami, Kh. A., Akbar and Religion (Delhi, 1989), p. 81Google Scholar.

70 Abidi, S. A., “Talib-i Amuli. His life and poetry”, Islamic Culture, XXXXI, pt. 2 (1967), p. 129Google Scholar.

71 See, for example, Ballala's, Bhojaprabandha. The Narrative of Bhoja (New Haven, 1950), pp. 32, 51Google Scholar.

72 Callewaert, W., pp. 33, 63–75 (English), pp. 91, 105–15 (Hindi)Google Scholar.

73 Compare, for instance, Ain-l Akbari, i, pp. 59, 162–70; iii, pp. 478–524Google Scholar.

74 Nikasī ghauṅghī sāgar mathā (Churned an ocean, obtained a snail). AK, p. 52 (English), p. 251 (Hindi).

75 AK, pp. 3–4 (English), p. 225 (Hindi). Lath translated “wind of time wafted him away unawares”. But the word kāl means not only “time” but “death”. The latter seems more correct in this case, since Ghanmal was only three years of age.