The debate on Padmavati, an icon of Rajasthan has reached ridiculous levels, merely on two grounds - freedom of expression and the lack of proof of her existence. One would imagine that the existence of documentary proof has been the norm, not the exception, in the past in India. We all know that it has not, and definitely not when it pertains to Indian women.
I throw open a challenge to all Indians who read this post - what documentary proof can you produce for the name and birth of your mother? And of both your maternal as well as paternal grandmother? And what about a generation before that, two generations back? And three and four and five more generations back? And going back to say 500 - 700 years ago? Stymied I am sure. So did they not exist and are they only a figment of imagination? And what about their marriages? Where did this take place? Or did it even take place? And since documentary proof cannot come by, do all of us have the freedom of expression to say that the marriage(s) did not take place. Who among us -whether movie makers, story writers, intellectual liberals, or even judges, will allow the common man to say that we come from a line of illegitimacy? None I think.
A wonderful article on this has appeared on a blog - here is the link: https://advayah.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/padmavati-or-no-padmavati-at-least-faith-should-be-honoured/
The text of the post is quoted below:
The debate on Rani Padmini (Padmavati) has been
skewed beyond proportion by several intellectuals including historians, and by
discourses in media with an overemphasis on written record(s) to establish
whether such an individual existed or not. Everyone seems to be quoting Malik
Mohd. Jayasi, the poet who wrote the famous work Padmavat as if this was the
only reliable source to determine the validity of the existence of Rani
Padmini. India in the past relied more on oral transmission of knowledge and
seldom tried to document what was happening in the society in general. Our
historical records are full of male characters, of their achievements, valour
etc. but hardly of female characters. Vedic literature also seems to suffer
with this drawback.
I would like to argue that Indian society has
survived on faith in each other and in the social set up, and as a result has
never felt the need for documentation, as was prevalent in the Chinese society.
Even records important to one’s life were hardly kept. A Hindu marriage was
never recorded in a formal manner; there was never a signing of a document
after the marriage. The recording of marriage has been of recent origin
although even now most Hindu marriages are not recorded. It is at the same time
known that even in absence of any documentation, Hindu marriages are more
stable and last longer. The question is – would a marriage of the past be
questioned just because there is no document to establish the marriage? To be
specific, how many of us can validate the marriage of our great great grand
parents, which will take us to the middle of the nineteenth century? If the answer
is no, do you declare us illegitimate children? One can challenge several
inheritances to property. Would any law in the country dare to declare such
marriages invalid? Could the intellectuals and artists of the country afford
not to accept the validity of such a marriage? If one were to obtain a post
facto marriage certificate from a magistrate, one has to produce just one
reliable witness who had attended the marriage. The system has been working and
would continue to work in perceivable future.
When the controversy about turmeric (haldi) related
patent arose, the US Patent Office asked for documentary evidence to establish
that turmeric was used as a wound healing agent for ordinary and surgical
wounds. I was deeply involved in the issue and it was surprising to find that
no document in Indian languages talked of the wound healing property of
turmeric in the manner in which it was described in the said patent. However,
we knew that turmeric has been used for years (not recorded) for curing wounds
but we needed evidence to protect our traditional knowledge in a foreign land.
We could in our perhaps limited search, luckily find a Persian document which
had a mention of this property of turmeric based on the uses in India. If the
same case was in front of Indian courts, would the courts have asked for
documentary evidence? May be in the present legal system, we would need to
generate evidence for every action of ours if we need it to be validated. It is
going to some time, may be years, before our society is ready for such an
overhauling.
Coming back to the Padmavati issue, we should
attach a definite value to what the society of that region has grown with, all
these years. What is being said by various players in favour of the existence
of Padmini needs to be believed and honoured even in absence of any recorded
history at that time. Going only by Jayasi’s work or Khusro’s record will
be like relying on translations of Ved, Upnishads and other scriptures by
foreign scholars. Jayasi’s work can also be an example artistic flight losing
sight of reality existing almost 300 years back. Let us find some time to
understand why hundreds or thousands of people continue to swear that Padmini
was a real- life character who had tremendous influence on the Rajput society and
culture so much so that she is worshiped even today. To argue it differently,
does anyone have any proof that she did not exist? Let us not engage in
the realism or non-realism of the past when history and social practices were
not recorded; that is a wasteful exercise in the Indian context. Faith and
beliefs are not always evidence based; leave them as such if not detrimental to
the society.
(R Saha, Former Adviser, Department of Science and Technology, GOI.
Presently, Senior Adviser, CII)
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