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WOOD: There are moments in history
when civilisations aspire to greatness.
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India had done so in ancient times,
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and at the end of the Middle Ages
it did so again.
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And it was the coming of Islam
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that inspired
the next great phase of Indian history.
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Today the subcontinent is home
to half of all the world's Muslims.
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The ebb and flow of its history
has been shaped
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by the encounter of the two
civilisations of India and Islam.
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And in all of history,
there is no more dramatic tale.
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The next chapter in the story of India.
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- Untranslated subtitle -
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- Untranslated subtitle -
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- Untranslated subtitle -
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Muslim traders
had settled in South India
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within memory of the Prophet's lifetime,
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but the coming of Islam
only began to work profound change
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in the history
of the subcontinent in the Middle Ages,
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with invasions
and settlements here in the north.
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That story begins in the city of Multan,
in what's now Pakistan,
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exactly 1,000 years ago.
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Here in Multan, a series of events began
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which would shift forever the balance
of history in the subcontinent,
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and the key figure
was Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni.
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Few characters in history
have aroused more violent disagreement.
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To some, he was a great prince,
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a builder of empires
and a champion with a faith.
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To others, an oppressor,
a fanatic and an iconoclast.
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The head
of a great Muslim empire in Afghanistan,
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Mahmud occupied
the then Hindu city of Multan
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and used it as a base
for a series of raids into India.
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So your family were connected
with Mahmud of Ghazni's family?
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With Mahmud, yes.
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And you've been here
in this quarter of the city
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-for 900, nearly 1 ,000 years?
-Nearly 1 ,000 years old.
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Living here all the time.
When our ancestor came, you see,
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and when he camped here, you see,
at the site where he is buried...
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The Gardezi's ancestor came
with Mahmud's son in the 1 1 th century.
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...through these doors
where he came riding on a lion...
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-Oh, yeah. There you go.
-...with a live snake as a whip
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in his hand and a pair
of pigeons flocking over his head.
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But their ancestor
wasn't a warrior but a holy man.
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One among many who came
in the Middle Ages into India.
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So this is
from the 1 2th century, then, is it?
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This is his tomb.
He was a Sufi, an Islamic mystic,
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and the Sufi saints, who are still loved
across Pakistan and North India,
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will be very important in this story,
for it was the Sufi saints
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who first brought Islam
and the people of India together.
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Amongst the saints of Multan,
I think Shah Yousaf, our ancestor,
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is the first of the Muslim saints
to arrive in Multan.
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I would call him
the founder of Muslim Multan.
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So the age of Mahmud
was a time of violence
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but also the beginning
of a meeting of minds,
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for, like the Hindu holy men, the Sufis
taught that people should strive
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to be with God without any attachment.
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And there lay the common ground between
Islam and the religions of India.
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Ah, the old Gardezi library!
I remember this place.
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This was founded
by my great-great-great-grandfather.
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And even the dreaded Mahmud
himself is remembered here
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as a prince of high culture.
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I'm an old-manuscript type,
musty old books.
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-Some of them are 400, 500 years old.
-Fantastic.
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He was the patron of the famous epic,
Ferdowsi's Book of Kings.
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The one I'm interest in is the Ferdowsi.
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This is the Ferdowsi.
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Ferdowsi, as you know,
was commissioned by Mahmud of Ghazni
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to write the history of Persia and
this part of the world in poetry form,
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and Mahmud promised
that he would give him
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one gold coin per couplet...
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-For a couplet.
-For a couplet.
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-He wrote 40,000 couplets.
-40,000 couplets?
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So Mahmud, I think,
had a second thought,
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and he said, ''A gold coin is too much.
I think I'll give you
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''a silver coin per couplet.''
And he refused to accept,
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and he went back home,
and he wrote a satire against Mahmud,
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which became so popular,
in which he criticises Mahmud's ancestry
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and everything,
especially his mother's side,
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even his mother's ancestry,
and he says at one point...
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''Oh, King Mahmud. Oh, conqueror
of the countries, of nations.
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''If you are not scared of anyone,
at least be scared of God.''
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-Wow!
-And that become so popular
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that every child in Ghazni was reciting
those couplets of the satire
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more than that of the Shahnama,
of the original text.
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-So Mahmud deeply regretted that.
-So Mahmud, he regretted that
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and he decided
to honour his word and give a gold coin.
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Mahmud led
a dozen great expeditions into India.
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The most famous left Multan
in November, 1 025.
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It took them a month
to get down from Multan to the sea.
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To survive through this kind of terrain,
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they took 20,000 camels
to carry the water.
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In these earlier attacks on India,
the goal wasn't conquest but plunder.
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Their target in 1 025,
the famous Hindu temple town of Somnath,
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which was said to be incredibly rich
in gold and silver.
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Though as can still happen,
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the invasion was given
a different public justification
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as a war against the infidel.
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There are many stories about
why Mahmud attacked Somnath.
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Long, long ago, in Arabia,
there was a goddess called Manat.
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When Islam came, the shrines
of the goddesses were destroyed,
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but according to one version
of the story,
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the stone image of Manat
was taken away from Arabia
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and brought here to India,
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and Somnath
became her temple, Somanatha,
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and it was to fulfil
the work of the Prophet
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that Mahmud led
his expedition to the sea.
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That story no doubt
made Mahmud look good
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with the Caliph in Baghdad
as a defender of the faith,
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but it was fantasy.
He'd come to loot the wealth of India,
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and these tales became
part of the mythology
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of the people
in the border land of Rajasthan.
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To them, Mahmud is still a bogeyman,
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and they still sing of
their heroic battles in the Middle Ages
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against the Afghans and the Turks.
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Ah, nothing like
that old sound of grumpy camels
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clearing their throats
and farting all night, is there?
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Well, there isn't.
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Mahmud's attack on Somnath
led him 750 miles south from Multan
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across the great desert of Thar
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into Gujarat
and down to the Arabian Sea.
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There on the seashore
lay the rich pilgrim shrine of Somnath
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inside a fortified town.
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The Shiva temple here was destroyed
and rebuilt several times
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before it was restored
in the 1 950s after independence.
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Mahmud reached here in January, 1 026,
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sacked the city, destroyed the idol
and plundered the temple's gold.
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In today's India, the tale
is still remembered with bitterness.
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Mahmud's expedition
to Somnath was written up
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by his Persian and Turkic court poets
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as an emblematic clash
between Islam and Hindu idolatry.
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The great historian Al Biruni,
who was no fan of Mahmud,
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went with him to India,
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says that the 1 2 great plundering
expeditions engendered a hatred
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among Hindus for the Turks,
by which he means the Muslims,
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but, as always in history,
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and especially in the history of India,
there's another story,
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and what appears to begin here
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as a clash of civilisations
will become over time
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one of the most remarkable
cultural crossovers
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in the history of civilisation,
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what a great Indian Muslim prince
will later call
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the meeting of two oceans.
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And it's Al Biruni,
a Muslim scholar who learnt Sanskrit,
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who gives us the first signpost.
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''You must bear in mind, ''he says,
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''that the Hindus entirely differ
from us in almost everything.
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''And the barriers
separating us are many,
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''language, manners,
customs, rules of purity.
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''And India is such a diverse land,
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''from Kashmir in the north,
to the southern cultures,
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''Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.
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''In religion,
the Indians totally differ from us
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''as we believe in nothing
in which they believe and vice versa.
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''India's hard to understand,
though I have a great liking for it,
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''and our apparent differences
would be perfectly transparent
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''if there were more contact between us. ''
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But in 1 1 92 there came a new phase,
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military conquest by Afghans and Turks
who became sultans of Delhi.
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+
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Here they built a giant minaret,
which doubled as a tower of victory.
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+
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240 feet high, it's one of the wonders
of the world, the Qutab Minar.
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-It's called the might of Islam.
-WOOD: The might of Islam.
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So this is a statement of conquest?
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This is foreign conquerors
coming in and creating their base here.
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This base was very important
for taking the conquest
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into other parts of India,
so you can very well imagine
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the Qutab complex was the place
which established Muslim rule in India.
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+
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This was built
around the end of the 1 2th century.
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There was a time when this Lal Kot area
was taken over by the Afghans.
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The first Indo-Islamic mosque
in India is this particular mosque.
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-This is the place?
-This is the place, the first mosque.
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WOOD: And all around us,
the remains of Hindu columns.
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BALASUBRAMANIAM: The inscription on
the eastern gate says that 2 7 temples
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were actually dismantled to construct
this Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque.
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It was as much
a political as a religious statement.
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Since its first spread
in the 7th century,
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the Islamic world
had encountered many other religions
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but nowhere as big and diverse as India.
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The fact was,
as the Delhi Sultans soon realised,
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they couldn't possibly convert India,
co-existence had to follow.
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The different dynasties of the Sultans
of Delhi ruled here for 300 years,
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and you can still pick up their traces
today in the back streets of Old Delhi.
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-WOOD: So where are we heading?
-We are going to Mubarakul village,
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where a Syed king, who ruled
sometime in 1 4 30, is buried,
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what was then just an obscure village,
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built this rather elaborate tomb
that we're about to see, and that's it.
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Mubarak Shah's Tomb?
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We're looking for the tomb
of one of the Delhi Sultans,
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which over the centuries has become
a shrine for the local community.
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-That thing there?
-Yeah. Yes.
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I don't believe this.
Look at this. This is just amazing.
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Why has it been caged in, though?
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Because there's a very real fear
history might reach out and bite you.
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And in a bizarre twist,
the Sultan has become a local holy man.
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Our friend here tells us
that soon after a marriage,
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the newlyweds would come here and pray.
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-Is not a holy man but a Sultan.
-That's fantastic.
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But he has become holy
through the years. Don't ask me how.
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In an age when all Hindus in
the north were forced to pay a head tax
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to the Sultans to practise their faith,
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here's a clue as to how
things can change on the ground.
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You won't die of hunger
if you live in this vicinity
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because he will make sure
that you have livelihood.
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You won't die of hunger? Yeah, yeah.
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So he still sort of protects
the people who live around him?
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Yes, a fantastic idea, isn't it?
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But the biggest meeting of minds
was brought about by the Sufi saints.
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And these are really, really basic,
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the idea being
that the people who came to these...
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For through the Sufis,
the devotees of both faiths
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found their common ground.
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Now you can see the pots in the trees
really well from here, can't you?
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So these are all successful wishes?
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These are wishes
that have come true, yes.
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And not just in folk beliefs
but in an idea deeply rooted
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in Islam's mystical traditions,
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the unity of all being
and of all religions.
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The person who lies buried here
is Abu Bakar Sheik Haidery Tusi.
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He belonged to
the Haidereya Qalanderya Silsala.
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This is a Sufi order
that came from Iran or Iraq?
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MAN: Iran.
WOOD: Yes. Iran?
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00:16:20,357 --> 00:16:22,825
This is not just a conquest, is it?
This is an intermingling?
231
00:16:22,917 --> 00:16:26,512
No, and a lot of people now
increasingly see that, in India,
232
00:16:26,597 --> 00:16:29,669
at least in North India,
Islam didn't spread through the sword,
233
00:16:29,757 --> 00:16:33,466
it was through men like the person
who's buried here, these Sufis,
234
00:16:33,557 --> 00:16:37,835
and they sort of went on
like a continuous stream,
235
00:16:37,917 --> 00:16:40,385
as it were, for 300 or 400 years.
236
00:16:43,317 --> 00:16:47,708
And perhaps real change in history
has to happen at the grass roots.
237
00:16:48,237 --> 00:16:51,946
The poet Amir Khusro grew up
here in the Delhi Sultanate.
238
00:16:52,037 --> 00:16:55,188
He's still a household name
in old Muslim families.
239
00:16:55,277 --> 00:16:58,633
He's typical of the age,
a Muslim whose parents were Turkic,
240
00:16:58,717 --> 00:17:01,834
who spoke Persian.
And this is his voice.
241
00:17:02,957 --> 00:17:07,906
''India is our beloved motherland,
a paradise on Earth.
242
00:17:07,997 --> 00:17:11,433
''Intelligence is
the natural gift of its people.
243
00:17:11,517 --> 00:17:15,556
''There can be no better guide to life
than the wisdom of India. ''
244
00:17:18,237 --> 00:17:22,116
This cult is frowned on by
the really orthodox kind of Islamic...
245
00:17:22,197 --> 00:17:25,633
Yes.
Wahhabi Islam would find this sacrilege,
246
00:17:25,717 --> 00:17:28,629
almost all of it, or consider it
completely un-Islamic actually.
247
00:17:30,397 --> 00:17:32,353
So in the Middle Ages, in the north,
248
00:17:32,437 --> 00:17:35,509
despite war and violence,
forced conversion,
249
00:17:35,597 --> 00:17:39,067
discrimination against Hindus,
the foundations were laid
250
00:17:39,157 --> 00:17:43,196
for the amazing events
which would follow in the 1 6th century.
251
00:18:21,117 --> 00:18:23,631
This is one of the most
wonderful viewpoints in history.
252
00:18:23,717 --> 00:18:25,753
This is the end of the Khyber Pass,
253
00:18:25,837 --> 00:18:28,988
the border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
254
00:18:29,077 --> 00:18:32,547
This is the route taken by many
of the great invaders in history
255
00:18:32,637 --> 00:18:34,355
who came into the Indian subcontinent.
256
00:18:34,437 --> 00:18:37,713
Alexander the Great,
Genghis Khan and Tamburlaine.
257
00:18:42,477 --> 00:18:45,787
In late 1 525, new invaders came down
258
00:18:45,877 --> 00:18:48,914
this corridor of history
from Afghanistan.
259
00:18:48,997 --> 00:18:53,627
Originally from Central Asia,
the Moghuls had made Kabul their base
260
00:18:53,717 --> 00:18:57,073
from which to mount
an invasion of the plains of India.
261
00:18:57,157 --> 00:19:00,433
After four failures,
this was the final throw
262
00:19:00,517 --> 00:19:03,748
on which their leader Babur
had staked everything.
263
00:19:04,877 --> 00:19:06,947
It's April 1 526,
264
00:19:07,877 --> 00:19:10,835
the heat already clamping
on the Delhi plain,
265
00:19:11,517 --> 00:19:14,475
temperature pushing up
towards 40 degrees.
266
00:19:14,557 --> 00:19:17,230
The Moghul army, 1 2,000 men.
267
00:19:18,757 --> 00:19:23,194
Their leader,
a grizzled veteran at 4 3 years old,
268
00:19:23,277 --> 00:19:25,472
inured to war since he was 1 0,
269
00:19:25,557 --> 00:19:28,788
descendent of Genghis Khan
and Tamburlaine.
270
00:19:34,357 --> 00:19:36,507
And ahead of him, at Panipat,
271
00:19:38,277 --> 00:19:42,793
the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim,
with an army of 1 00,000 men
272
00:19:42,877 --> 00:19:45,027
and 1 ,000 war elephants.
273
00:19:50,877 --> 00:19:54,426
Babur's place of destiny,
Panipat,just north of Delhi,
274
00:19:54,517 --> 00:19:57,350
was the scene of several great battles
in Indian history,
275
00:19:57,437 --> 00:20:01,828
going back to the legendary wars
of the ancient epic of the Mahabharata,
276
00:20:06,037 --> 00:20:10,474
but now it was Muslim ruler
against Muslim invader.
277
00:20:13,037 --> 00:20:15,267
Both sides had taken their positions
a week before.
278
00:20:15,357 --> 00:20:17,154
Both sides were preparing.
279
00:20:17,237 --> 00:20:20,309
We know about Babur's preparation
more than Ibrahim's
280
00:20:20,397 --> 00:20:25,471
because Babur has left a record behind.
He was outnumbered by 1 to 5.
281
00:20:27,157 --> 00:20:29,876
He's commandeered,
he says, about 700 carts
282
00:20:29,957 --> 00:20:32,915
and tied them together
with fibre cables.
283
00:20:32,997 --> 00:20:35,875
What's he trying to do there,
to protect himself?
284
00:20:35,957 --> 00:20:38,790
He's tied cannons in these carts, yes.
285
00:20:38,877 --> 00:20:42,950
There are about several hundred
cannons tied like this right in front.
286
00:20:43,037 --> 00:20:46,473
He shoots the enemy with these cannons,
287
00:20:46,557 --> 00:20:48,912
which is
for the first time happening in India.
288
00:20:48,997 --> 00:20:51,511
It's in the battle of Panipat
that it's happening in India.
289
00:20:51,597 --> 00:20:54,316
-The use of artillery?
-The use of artillery on that scale.
290
00:21:09,957 --> 00:21:14,985
MUKHIA: Behind that, his cavalry,
and behind that, his infantry.
291
00:21:15,517 --> 00:21:17,269
-And how does he win?
-Well...
292
00:21:17,357 --> 00:21:19,154
Is it the artillery
that makes the difference?
293
00:21:19,237 --> 00:21:23,594
Partly, very largely, it does makes
a difference because, you know,
294
00:21:23,677 --> 00:21:27,511
what do the elephants
and the horses do against artillery?
295
00:21:42,477 --> 00:21:46,516
WOOD: So, like his contemporaries,
Cortés and Pizarro in the New World,
296
00:21:46,597 --> 00:21:52,149
in one battle, the Moghul conquistador
Babur had gained the heartland of India.
297
00:21:53,877 --> 00:21:55,788
In thanksgiving,
he built a little mosque
298
00:21:55,877 --> 00:21:59,870
overlooking the battlefield,
the first Moghul mosque in India,
299
00:22:00,437 --> 00:22:03,668
so this place
marks the start of a new age
300
00:22:04,157 --> 00:22:08,992
and of a new style that we now think of
as quintessentially Indian.
301
00:22:19,797 --> 00:22:23,233
This is a palace
built by Babur for his queen.
302
00:22:23,317 --> 00:22:28,516
He's saying it's a mosque built by Babur
for his army to say their prayers.
303
00:22:28,597 --> 00:22:31,714
They're giving me two different stories.
304
00:22:31,797 --> 00:22:38,145
In India, Babur is known as a warrior,
as a conqueror, a great soldier.
305
00:22:39,957 --> 00:22:44,269
In his home, back home in Tashkand area,
306
00:22:45,117 --> 00:22:48,951
probably nobody even knows
that he came to India and conquered,
307
00:22:49,037 --> 00:22:52,825
but they remember him as
a great poet, a very, very great poet.
308
00:22:52,917 --> 00:22:59,231
He's a man of many, many parts and
above all, a very honest sincere man,
309
00:22:59,317 --> 00:23:01,228
a very charming, loveable man.
310
00:23:01,317 --> 00:23:03,035
He was also a very devout Muslim,
311
00:23:03,117 --> 00:23:08,145
not a very, what shall I say,
dogmatic Muslim, but a devout Muslim,
312
00:23:08,237 --> 00:23:10,831
who said his prayers very regularly,
five times a day.
313
00:23:10,917 --> 00:23:15,468
After saying his prayers, he went
and had a cup of wine, of course, but...
314
00:23:15,557 --> 00:23:19,709
-So it's a very human figure, you know.
-Hmm.
315
00:23:19,797 --> 00:23:23,836
-It's a figure of a live man.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
316
00:23:23,917 --> 00:23:27,068
-A regular guy, you said to me earlier.
-A regular guy.
317
00:23:31,437 --> 00:23:33,997
And after the battle,
what Babur does next
318
00:23:34,077 --> 00:23:36,591
is another clue to what will follow.
319
00:23:37,757 --> 00:23:40,794
He enters Delhi,
but doesn't plunder the city.
320
00:23:41,557 --> 00:23:45,470
Instead, he comes here
to the old Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin,
321
00:23:45,557 --> 00:23:49,072
still a favourite among Delhites
of all communities,
322
00:23:49,157 --> 00:23:51,193
Hindu as well as Muslim.
323
00:23:55,077 --> 00:23:57,466
And here he offers a humble prayer
324
00:23:57,557 --> 00:24:01,630
before going back to camp to have
a cup of wine and write poetry.
325
00:24:03,517 --> 00:24:04,870
Thank you very much.
326
00:24:04,957 --> 00:24:07,915
And that will set the tone
of the next amazing phase
327
00:24:07,997 --> 00:24:09,874
of the story of India.
328
00:24:09,957 --> 00:24:13,632
Devotion to the Sufis
will mark all of Babur's descendants.
329
00:24:13,997 --> 00:24:16,116
Just as respect for all religions marked
his ancestors back to Tamburlaine.
330
00:24:16,216 --> 00:24:19,025
+
331
00:24:23,997 --> 00:24:25,715
WOOD: Beautiful place.
332
00:24:25,797 --> 00:24:29,267
Under the Moghuls,
the story of Islam and India
333
00:24:29,357 --> 00:24:33,236
will move on to a different place,
which still has lessons
334
00:24:33,317 --> 00:24:34,875
for the world today.
335
00:24:34,957 --> 00:24:37,755
Oh, that's very, very kind.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
336
00:24:37,837 --> 00:24:40,670
This is the most important
shrines of the saints in Delhi.
337
00:24:40,757 --> 00:24:43,032
Yes, this great Sufi saint.
338
00:24:43,117 --> 00:24:45,028
WOOD: Great Sufi saint. Yeah, yeah.
339
00:24:45,117 --> 00:24:48,393
The tale of the Moghuls
is a family story.
340
00:24:49,197 --> 00:24:52,906
One of the most remarkable
and gifted dynasties in history,
341
00:24:54,237 --> 00:24:58,594
they ruled India for 330 years
before they were deposed by the British,
342
00:24:59,437 --> 00:25:04,875
but immediately after Babur's death,
his son Humayun was driven into exile,
343
00:25:04,957 --> 00:25:07,869
where his wife gave birth
to a son who would become
344
00:25:07,957 --> 00:25:11,267
one of the greatest
of all Indian rulers, Akbar.
345
00:25:34,637 --> 00:25:38,232
The tale of Akbar,
takes us first to Rajasthan,
346
00:25:39,317 --> 00:25:40,867
where the local Hindu Rajas had
always resisted the Muslim conquerors.
347
00:25:40,967 --> 00:25:43,595
+
348
00:25:54,317 --> 00:25:57,389
In the 1 6th century,
the majority of Indian people
349
00:25:57,477 --> 00:26:02,153
in the north were still Hindus,
who followed the old religions of India,
350
00:26:02,237 --> 00:26:04,910
of Shiva, Vishnu and the Goddess.
351
00:26:06,277 --> 00:26:09,553
They had often endured
intolerance and forced conversion
352
00:26:09,637 --> 00:26:11,628
under the medieval sultans.
353
00:26:11,717 --> 00:26:12,752
MAN: Kushbu.
354
00:26:12,837 --> 00:26:16,273
Kushbu, I'm Michael. My name is Michael.
355
00:26:16,357 --> 00:26:18,109
-And this is your brother?
-Mohit.
356
00:26:18,197 --> 00:26:19,915
-Mohit.
-Mohit.
357
00:26:20,917 --> 00:26:23,590
Thank you.
This is best place in Jodhpur.
358
00:26:26,357 --> 00:26:31,147
Akbar would change the relations
between Hindu and Muslim in India.
359
00:26:31,237 --> 00:26:33,353
When he was born,
in the house of relatives
360
00:26:33,437 --> 00:26:35,348
of the royal family of Jodhpur,
361
00:26:35,437 --> 00:26:39,396
there were omens which foretold
his future greatness,
362
00:26:39,477 --> 00:26:43,470
just as there were for other giants
of history, like Alexander.
363
00:26:45,877 --> 00:26:50,473
So, back in 1 542,
when the astrologers did his horoscope,
364
00:26:51,317 --> 00:26:54,309
what did they see
in Akbar's line of life?
365
00:26:58,117 --> 00:27:02,508
I asked the present Maharaja's
astrologer to redraw his chart.
366
00:27:02,637 --> 00:27:05,788
Mr Sharma, it's lovely to see you again.
Hello, Abhisekh.
367
00:27:05,877 --> 00:27:07,390
-That's great.
-It's a great pleasure.
368
00:27:07,477 --> 00:27:10,992
So? How did we do? What...
369
00:27:11,077 --> 00:27:15,434
First of all, the date,
the 25th of October, 1 542.
370
00:27:15,517 --> 00:27:17,428
-Sunday morning.
-SHARMA: This was Sunday morning,
371
00:27:17,517 --> 00:27:20,350
Saturday night and the Sunday morning.
2:00 am is the...
372
00:27:20,437 --> 00:27:21,836
-WOOD: 2:00 am?
-Yeah.
373
00:27:21,917 --> 00:27:26,433
At the time of his birth,
Sagittarius was in the Fifth House.
374
00:27:26,917 --> 00:27:28,350
That's astrologically.
375
00:27:28,437 --> 00:27:30,234
WOOD: So this is
the Emperor Akbar's chart here?
376
00:27:30,317 --> 00:27:31,352
-Yes.
-Fantastic.
377
00:27:31,437 --> 00:27:33,234
And this becomes computer-made chart.
378
00:27:33,317 --> 00:27:35,148
He born in the Leo Ascendant.
379
00:27:35,237 --> 00:27:39,071
-In a Leo Ascendant?
-These people are
380
00:27:39,717 --> 00:27:42,754
very confident
about what they are doing,
381
00:27:42,837 --> 00:27:47,592
and they are very keen,
and they are focused about their goals.
382
00:27:47,677 --> 00:27:52,193
The aspect of sun and Saturn,
it is the kingdom,
383
00:27:53,037 --> 00:27:57,553
Yog as we describe in the astrology,
which is the Maharaj Yog.
384
00:27:57,637 --> 00:28:00,754
See, he was born
when Scorpio was in the Fourth House,
385
00:28:00,837 --> 00:28:02,509
and that was the reason
that he was bound
386
00:28:02,597 --> 00:28:04,872
to have lead a good
and comfortable life,
387
00:28:04,957 --> 00:28:07,630
though born at a different strata,
388
00:28:07,717 --> 00:28:12,507
but the horoscope also indicates that
he was not to get ancestral property,
389
00:28:12,597 --> 00:28:16,067
and this holds good
because he later acquired kingdom.
390
00:28:17,557 --> 00:28:19,229
After the sixth day of his birth,
391
00:28:19,317 --> 00:28:22,832
the astrologer
must have calculated his birth chart
392
00:28:22,917 --> 00:28:27,786
because we believe that on sixth day
the Goddess of Fortune comes,
393
00:28:27,877 --> 00:28:30,311
and he writes the fortune of a child.
394
00:28:30,397 --> 00:28:32,592
-They saw the future fortune...
-Yeah.
395
00:28:32,677 --> 00:28:35,066
Because the sun and Saturn.
396
00:28:35,157 --> 00:28:39,275
The Saturn is the main planet
who gives the kingdom.
397
00:28:39,357 --> 00:28:41,552
If the Saturn is on the highest state,
398
00:28:41,637 --> 00:28:47,189
it must have given the kingdom. It will
give at that time they have thought.
399
00:28:47,277 --> 00:28:50,587
WOOD: And they were right!
I suppose, yes.
400
00:28:56,677 --> 00:29:00,670
Akbar became king
in 1 556, when his father died
401
00:29:00,757 --> 00:29:03,794
after falling down
his library steps in Delhi.
402
00:29:05,077 --> 00:29:08,114
At that moment, much of North India
was controlled by their enemies,
403
00:29:08,197 --> 00:29:10,791
and the Moghuls
might just have been an unlamented blip
404
00:29:10,877 --> 00:29:12,947
in the story of India.
405
00:29:13,037 --> 00:29:15,346
It's an unlikely place, isn't it?
406
00:29:15,437 --> 00:29:19,828
But there was a beautiful
Moghul garden here in 1 556.
407
00:29:22,197 --> 00:29:25,269
Akbar was proclaimed king
here at Kalanaur
408
00:29:25,357 --> 00:29:27,712
by generals loyal to his father.
409
00:29:28,277 --> 00:29:31,986
Thank you. So where is Takht-i-Akbari?
410
00:29:32,077 --> 00:29:33,396
-Just...
-Here?
411
00:29:33,477 --> 00:29:35,513
-This is it?
-That's it.
412
00:29:41,157 --> 00:29:43,387
Well, how about that?
413
00:29:52,637 --> 00:29:53,752
Isn't that extraordinary?
414
00:29:53,837 --> 00:29:56,112
It doesn't look as if there's
any of the garden left, does it?
415
00:29:56,197 --> 00:29:58,791
It's a beautiful spot.
Akbar came back several times
416
00:29:58,877 --> 00:30:03,109
in his later life.
Gorgeous, isn't it, this evening?
417
00:30:03,197 --> 00:30:07,110
So this is the place
where he was formally proclaimed king
418
00:30:07,197 --> 00:30:09,506
in February, 1 556.
419
00:30:09,597 --> 00:30:13,431
That was the throne platform there.
He would have sat on that.
420
00:30:15,677 --> 00:30:19,386
You have to remember
he's only a 1 3-year-old boy.
421
00:30:23,797 --> 00:30:27,506
He'd been brought up in exile
among tough warriors in Afghanistan.
422
00:30:27,597 --> 00:30:30,111
You can imagine the sort, I'm sure.
423
00:30:31,997 --> 00:30:36,912
He played truant from school,
preferred outdoor sports and games
424
00:30:36,997 --> 00:30:39,636
and remained illiterate all his life.
425
00:30:39,797 --> 00:30:41,116
What is your name?
426
00:30:41,197 --> 00:30:42,676
-Manpreet.
-Manpreet. Yeah?
427
00:30:42,757 --> 00:30:44,509
And how old are you?
428
00:30:47,597 --> 00:30:48,916
-MAN: Twelve.
-Twelve?
429
00:30:48,997 --> 00:30:50,146
-Twelve.
-Twelve.
430
00:30:50,237 --> 00:30:54,469
So you are nearly the same age as Akbar.
He was 1 3, and you are 1 2.
431
00:30:54,557 --> 00:30:55,910
It's an incredible thought, isn't it,
432
00:30:55,997 --> 00:30:58,989
that he was only this age
when he became king?
433
00:31:00,357 --> 00:31:02,075
Maybe because the intellectuals
434
00:31:02,157 --> 00:31:04,068
and the scholars and the mullahs
had never got
435
00:31:04,157 --> 00:31:06,625
their intellectual straightjacket
on him,
436
00:31:06,717 --> 00:31:09,754
he retained a wonderful capacity
437
00:31:09,837 --> 00:31:14,228
to make unexpected,
unconventional connections.
438
00:31:14,317 --> 00:31:17,354
As we would put it,
to think outside the box.
439
00:31:22,717 --> 00:31:26,421
At this point, the Moghul Kingdom
440
00:31:26,521 --> 00:31:29,711
had shrunk to a few small pockets
around Kandahar, Lahore and Delhi,
441
00:31:29,797 --> 00:31:34,427
but young Akbar acts fast, defeats
his enemies and wins the kingdom.
442
00:31:35,117 --> 00:31:38,905
And then over the next 1 0 years,
he expands it across to Bengal
443
00:31:38,997 --> 00:31:43,195
and down to the Deccan to become
one of the world's great powers.
444
00:31:46,157 --> 00:31:50,389
And soon the illiterate, young tough guy
was showing unexpected skills
445
00:31:50,477 --> 00:31:51,830
in rulership
446
00:31:51,917 --> 00:31:55,796
and an unsuspected interest
in India's different philosophies.
447
00:31:57,517 --> 00:32:00,475
Akbar is not very religious.
448
00:32:01,957 --> 00:32:06,792
He has attachments to Sufis,
superstitious attachments, let us say,
449
00:32:06,877 --> 00:32:09,152
to the Ajmer Shrine and so on.
450
00:32:11,197 --> 00:32:14,906
India was what he experienced.
He liked its language.
451
00:32:14,997 --> 00:32:17,306
He liked mixing with the people.
452
00:32:18,317 --> 00:32:21,992
As you know, he was a bit
of a loafer in the beginning,
453
00:32:22,077 --> 00:32:24,193
so he loafed with people,
454
00:32:24,797 --> 00:32:29,507
and often went to gatherings
even when he had become a king,
455
00:32:29,597 --> 00:32:32,157
without courtiers, incognito.
456
00:32:33,997 --> 00:32:37,148
He was a different type
of sovereign altogether.
457
00:32:42,357 --> 00:32:43,995
In January 1 575,
458
00:32:44,077 --> 00:32:47,831
Akbar came
with his closest Hindu advisor,
459
00:32:47,917 --> 00:32:51,626
here to the junction of the Ganges
and the Jamuna Rivers
460
00:32:51,717 --> 00:32:54,515
at the time
of the great bathing festival.
461
00:32:57,797 --> 00:33:01,472
What Akbar saw here
was one of those great Hindu melas,
462
00:33:03,237 --> 00:33:05,876
where millions of people
come down to the junction of the rivers
463
00:33:05,957 --> 00:33:08,107
to take a holy bath.
464
00:33:13,037 --> 00:33:18,157
Akbar's advisor tells the story
of a strange thing happens at that time.
465
00:33:18,237 --> 00:33:22,833
He says, when the planet Jupiter
enters the constellation of Aquarius,
466
00:33:22,917 --> 00:33:28,037
and then a small mound, island, rises
in the middle of the River Ganges,
467
00:33:28,117 --> 00:33:31,109
and all the people
go out to it to do worship.
468
00:33:35,797 --> 00:33:38,834
Akbar was so touched by his experience
469
00:33:38,917 --> 00:33:42,353
that he named
the Hindu sacred place of Prayag,
470
00:33:42,437 --> 00:33:46,715
Ilahabad, or today,
Allahabad, the City of God.
471
00:33:50,917 --> 00:33:55,229
So, here, having already lifted
the hated tax on Hindus,
472
00:33:55,317 --> 00:33:58,866
Akbar begins to embrace
all India's religions.
473
00:34:12,357 --> 00:34:15,394
The Sikhs were one
of the radical religious groups
474
00:34:15,477 --> 00:34:18,992
who'd sprung up out of the interaction
of Hinduism and Islam
475
00:34:19,077 --> 00:34:20,829
in the 1 6th century.
476
00:34:23,677 --> 00:34:28,546
Their first guru,
Nanak, who died in 1 539, asserted,
477
00:34:28,637 --> 00:34:31,105
''There is no Hindu or Muslim, ''
478
00:34:31,197 --> 00:34:35,190
and laid stress on the worship
of one god and works of charity.
479
00:34:42,317 --> 00:34:45,434
His legacy today is a world faith,
480
00:34:45,517 --> 00:34:48,364
singled out by the turban that all men
must wear to enter their holy shrines.
481
00:34:48,464 --> 00:34:50,193
+
482
00:34:54,557 --> 00:34:57,674
And it was Akbar
who gifted them land here in Amritsar
483
00:34:57,757 --> 00:34:59,827
to built the Golden Temple,
484
00:35:01,557 --> 00:35:04,355
the most famous landmark
of Sikhism today.
485
00:35:05,557 --> 00:35:07,120
It would be under the later Moghuls
that the Sikhs became a military sect,
486
00:35:07,155 --> 00:35:09,994
+
487
00:35:10,077 --> 00:35:13,353
bearing the symbol
still carried by all Sikh men today,
488
00:35:13,437 --> 00:35:15,951
what they call the five K's.
489
00:35:16,037 --> 00:35:18,835
The first K is the Kesh,
which is unshorn hair.
490
00:35:18,917 --> 00:35:20,430
-You don't cut your hair?
-No.
491
00:35:20,517 --> 00:35:24,954
Hence, therefore the appearance,
the beard. You don't cut your hair.
492
00:35:26,037 --> 00:35:28,710
And second one is Kanga,
which is a wooden comb.
493
00:35:28,797 --> 00:35:30,867
-Comb?
-Wooden comb, yes.
494
00:35:30,957 --> 00:35:35,826
-And you keep that with you?
-We keep that in the hair here.
495
00:35:35,917 --> 00:35:41,913
And third one is bracelet,
it is called Kara, starts with K.
496
00:35:42,917 --> 00:35:44,509
Fourth K is your Kaccha,
497
00:35:44,597 --> 00:35:47,748
-which is baggy shorts.
-Briefs.
498
00:35:47,837 --> 00:35:51,193
Baggy briefs
which you wear as undergarment.
499
00:35:51,277 --> 00:35:54,553
-Right. And the fifth one, finally?
-Is Kirpan.
500
00:35:54,637 --> 00:35:59,665
Kirpan is actually...
Now if I can take you through this.
501
00:35:59,757 --> 00:36:02,191
This is not a sword,
and it's not a knife, either...
502
00:36:02,277 --> 00:36:04,029
-May I look?
-Yes, sure.
503
00:36:04,837 --> 00:36:07,635
It is called Kirpan.
It is to defend your respect,
504
00:36:07,717 --> 00:36:10,072
to stand against the tyranny of the time
505
00:36:10,157 --> 00:36:12,591
so that we could defend the faith.
506
00:36:15,557 --> 00:36:17,832
''Now it has become
clear to me, ''said Akbar,
507
00:36:17,917 --> 00:36:22,354
''that it cannot be wisdom to assert
the truth of one faith over another.
508
00:36:26,077 --> 00:36:28,875
''In our troubled world,
so full of contradictions,
509
00:36:28,957 --> 00:36:33,553
''the wise person makes justice
his guide and learns from all.
510
00:36:33,677 --> 00:36:38,193
''Perhaps in this way the door may be
opened again whose key has been lost. ''
511
00:36:41,917 --> 00:36:44,226
The new age demanded a new capital.
512
00:36:44,317 --> 00:36:48,356
Fatehpur Sikri was built in the 1 570s
in the plain near Agra.
513
00:36:52,637 --> 00:36:56,266
Above the entrance is a quotation
from the Christian saviour
514
00:36:56,357 --> 00:36:59,394
and Muslim prophet,Jesus.
515
00:37:02,837 --> 00:37:06,955
This is the great gate
of Akbar's city at Fatehpur Sikri.
516
00:37:11,477 --> 00:37:13,752
The inscription reads this:
517
00:37:13,837 --> 00:37:17,796
''Jesus, peace be upon him, said this,
518
00:37:17,877 --> 00:37:22,075
'''The world is a bridge,
cross it but build no house upon it
519
00:37:22,157 --> 00:37:26,116
'''for the world endures but a moment,
and the rest is unknown.'''
520
00:37:33,397 --> 00:37:36,833
The new city was built
around the tiny shrine of a Sufi saint
521
00:37:36,917 --> 00:37:40,432
whose blessing Akbar had sought
to get a son and heir,
522
00:37:44,077 --> 00:37:46,910
and the lavish celebrations
when his son was born
523
00:37:46,997 --> 00:37:50,672
are still remembered
by the ancient guardian of the shrine.
524
00:37:54,527 --> 00:37:58,792
- Untranslated subtitle -
525
00:37:59,097 --> 00:38:02,646
- Untranslated subtitle -
526
00:38:06,357 --> 00:38:08,313
While the new city was being built
527
00:38:08,397 --> 00:38:11,867
and Akbar was beginning
his philosophical enquiries,
528
00:38:11,957 --> 00:38:15,836
he also oversaw a great reform
of Moghul government.
529
00:38:23,437 --> 00:38:28,147
HABIB: The administrative structure of
Moghul Empire is practically complete.
530
00:38:30,557 --> 00:38:33,867
Provinces are established in 1 580.
531
00:38:33,957 --> 00:38:37,267
The centralised administration
is then already established.
532
00:38:37,357 --> 00:38:40,906
In 1 574, he establishes
his military service.
533
00:38:40,997 --> 00:38:43,352
Bureaucracy and army are combined.
534
00:38:44,317 --> 00:38:47,150
HABIB: He has a new land revenue system.
535
00:38:48,477 --> 00:38:51,833
Conquests are going on, but now
Akbar is not personally involved.
536
00:38:51,917 --> 00:38:53,908
WOOD: Okay.
537
00:38:55,157 --> 00:38:58,752
So actually this philosophy is,
538
00:38:58,837 --> 00:39:01,749
the philosophy of politically
leisure hours, let us say.
539
00:39:03,357 --> 00:39:05,109
-Partly leisure hours.
-Personal search.
540
00:39:05,197 --> 00:39:09,110
But, you see, he's seeking
for a justification of sovereignty.
541
00:39:10,237 --> 00:39:12,592
WOOD: And how to justify sovereignty,
542
00:39:12,677 --> 00:39:17,910
to create an allegiance in a nation of
such diversity? That was the question.
543
00:39:19,277 --> 00:39:21,666
Akbar's big idea was very simple.
544
00:39:22,397 --> 00:39:27,073
No one religion can claim absolute
knowledge, absolute authority.
545
00:39:28,677 --> 00:39:33,387
He'd already had discussions
with Muslim wise men, Sunni and Shia,
546
00:39:34,357 --> 00:39:38,873
but he'd been shocked by how quickly
they'd come to blows with each other.
547
00:39:41,277 --> 00:39:46,476
Now he summoned leaders
of all the religions of the world,
548
00:39:46,557 --> 00:39:51,392
Christians, Muslims,
Hindus, Jews, Parsees, Jains
549
00:39:52,357 --> 00:39:55,554
to find
the common ground of all religion.
550
00:39:57,277 --> 00:40:00,428
And in those weekly seminars
here at Fatehpur,
551
00:40:00,517 --> 00:40:02,792
perhaps for the first time
in human history,
552
00:40:02,877 --> 00:40:06,916
the absolute claims of religion itself
were put under scrutiny.
553
00:40:26,917 --> 00:40:29,112
HABIB: Every religion is wrong,
554
00:40:29,197 --> 00:40:31,631
but all differences
have to be tolerated.
555
00:40:32,597 --> 00:40:34,633
He says, in India,
there are so many religions,
556
00:40:34,717 --> 00:40:37,675
and therefore the sovereign
should not identify with one.
557
00:40:37,757 --> 00:40:42,911
He's the... Just as God can't
identify himself with one religion,
558
00:40:42,997 --> 00:40:46,034
so the sovereign can't identify,
as sovereign.
559
00:40:48,677 --> 00:40:51,191
WOOD: From Moghul India
to Christian Europe,
560
00:40:51,277 --> 00:40:53,188
it was a Renaissance world,
561
00:40:53,277 --> 00:40:57,429
and Akbar even received a letter
from his contemporary, Elizabeth I.
562
00:40:58,517 --> 00:41:00,314
In her letter to the Emperor Akbar,
563
00:41:00,397 --> 00:41:03,309
Queen Elizabeth of England
says something very interesting.
564
00:41:03,917 --> 00:41:08,195
She says that the singular report
of Your Majesty's humanity
565
00:41:08,277 --> 00:41:12,190
has reached even these
most distant shores of the world.
566
00:41:12,277 --> 00:41:16,065
Humanity. Not power, glory, riches.
567
00:41:17,117 --> 00:41:20,393
But it's right to talk
about Akbar's humanity still.
568
00:41:20,477 --> 00:41:22,672
It's what makes him one
of the most engaging figures
569
00:41:22,757 --> 00:41:24,236
in the history of the world.
570
00:41:24,317 --> 00:41:28,469
But it's not the whole story.
The other side is his rationality.
571
00:41:29,397 --> 00:41:34,107
Don't think for a moment that his dream
of one religion was some New Age whim.
572
00:41:34,197 --> 00:41:38,031
It was conceived as rationally
as all his other great policies.
573
00:41:38,117 --> 00:41:40,224
His drastic overhaul of the land revenue
and taxation system of his great empire,
574
00:41:40,259 --> 00:41:43,191
+
575
00:41:43,277 --> 00:41:47,475
his overhaul
of the Moghul civil service,
576
00:41:47,557 --> 00:41:51,436
his effort to make his Hindu subjects
more equal under the law.
577
00:41:51,517 --> 00:41:55,715
These were all big ideas,
the sort of big ideas that would become
578
00:41:55,797 --> 00:41:59,949
part of the mainstream in Europe
in the 1 8th century Enlightenment,
579
00:42:00,037 --> 00:42:03,427
but in 1 6th century Europe,
no Renaissance prince,
580
00:42:03,517 --> 00:42:10,195
not even the brilliant Elizabeth Tudor,
tried so consistently as Akbar
581
00:42:10,277 --> 00:42:12,996
to bring in the Age of Reason.
582
00:42:15,797 --> 00:42:17,833
After a reign of nearly 50 years,
583
00:42:17,917 --> 00:42:22,274
Akbar died in 1 605,
two years after Elizabeth I.
584
00:42:23,037 --> 00:42:26,074
He would be succeeded
by his son,Jahangir,
585
00:42:26,157 --> 00:42:30,275
and his grandson Jahan,
both men of high sensibility
586
00:42:30,357 --> 00:42:33,827
but with inner demons
drawn to dissipation.
587
00:42:39,517 --> 00:42:44,272
Akbar had laid the foundations,
administrative, fiscal and moral,
588
00:42:44,357 --> 00:42:46,917
for Moghul India's future greatness.
589
00:42:51,357 --> 00:42:55,669
At his death, India had
the largest GDP in the world.
590
00:42:55,757 --> 00:43:00,751
Before it lay the possibility
of an Indo-Islamic enlightenment.
591
00:43:06,877 --> 00:43:10,665
So what went wrong?
Why did it fail after Akbar's death?
592
00:43:10,757 --> 00:43:13,351
Why did the Age of Reason not come?
593
00:43:13,437 --> 00:43:15,667
Well, it wouldn't be
the first time in history,
594
00:43:15,757 --> 00:43:19,067
and it certainly wouldn't be the last,
that an empire lost its way
595
00:43:19,157 --> 00:43:22,627
because of
over-consumption, extravagance,
596
00:43:22,717 --> 00:43:25,914
bad leadership and unwise foreign wars.
597
00:43:27,957 --> 00:43:31,666
Through the 1 7th century
the Moghuls pursued their futile dream
598
00:43:31,757 --> 00:43:35,147
of regaining their ancestral homeland
in Central Asia.
599
00:43:36,597 --> 00:43:39,873
And at home, they engaged
in vast building projects.
600
00:43:39,957 --> 00:43:42,596
The most famous was the Taj Mahal.
601
00:43:48,357 --> 00:43:50,917
Now you might have thought that
the best-known building in the world
602
00:43:50,997 --> 00:43:53,192
had no more secrets.
603
00:43:53,837 --> 00:43:57,830
The Taj is told in all the tourist
guides as a monument to love.
604
00:43:58,357 --> 00:44:03,306
The tomb of Shah Jahan's favourite wife,
Mumtaz, and later of Jahan himself,
605
00:44:04,077 --> 00:44:07,114
a teardrop on the face of time.
606
00:44:09,117 --> 00:44:11,073
But new discoveries suggest
607
00:44:11,157 --> 00:44:15,833
the design may go back
to the Moghuls' beloved Sufi saints,
608
00:44:15,917 --> 00:44:20,547
that the key to the Taj may be
a mystic map of a Sufi's dream.
609
00:44:22,277 --> 00:44:28,034
It's a map of the Day of Judgement.
The cosmos is seen as a rectangle.
610
00:44:28,117 --> 00:44:34,955
On one side, the fields of paradise,
on the other side, the path, a serat,
611
00:44:35,037 --> 00:44:37,870
the way, the bridge
over which the righteous must pass
612
00:44:37,957 --> 00:44:40,266
and be judged on Judgement Day.
613
00:44:46,477 --> 00:44:50,026
In the middle, a pool,
and the congregation grounds
614
00:44:50,117 --> 00:44:52,950
for the faithful
on that day of judgement.
615
00:44:54,557 --> 00:44:57,993
And in the centre,
the throne of God himself.
616
00:45:01,277 --> 00:45:04,553
When you walk through the Taj,
you come finally to the great platform
617
00:45:04,637 --> 00:45:06,753
on which the tomb chamber stands,
618
00:45:06,837 --> 00:45:11,035
underneath which
Shah Jahan and Mumtaz are buried.
619
00:45:13,957 --> 00:45:17,552
But that's not the last point
in the journey.
620
00:45:17,637 --> 00:45:21,915
To see the full plan unfold,
we've got to cross the river
621
00:45:21,997 --> 00:45:24,431
and see what's on the other side.
622
00:45:28,917 --> 00:45:31,795
Now you begin to see
what the architect of the Taj is doing.
623
00:45:31,877 --> 00:45:36,746
He's including the sacred river Jamuna,
the Hindu sacred river,
624
00:45:36,837 --> 00:45:40,830
in the architecture
of his own sacred space.
625
00:45:40,917 --> 00:45:43,670
Legend says
that Jahan planned a black Taj
626
00:45:43,757 --> 00:45:46,066
as a mirror image on the other side,
627
00:45:46,157 --> 00:45:49,911
but archaeologists have found
something more haunting still.
628
00:45:51,237 --> 00:45:54,547
Across the river was
a walled paradise garden.
629
00:45:56,957 --> 00:46:03,192
In it were night scented trees
and flowers, red cedars and magnolias.
630
00:46:03,277 --> 00:46:08,226
There were fruits and nuts,
jujubes, mangoes, sugar palms,
631
00:46:08,317 --> 00:46:12,105
chiraunjis, whose sweet kernel
tastes like pistachio.
632
00:46:12,477 --> 00:46:17,631
Here the great Moghul could sit
in his pavilion in the moonlight
633
00:46:17,717 --> 00:46:19,753
and look at his creation.
634
00:46:29,117 --> 00:46:32,871
So the Taj is a product
of the Hindu-Muslim synthesis
635
00:46:32,957 --> 00:46:36,427
that took place over much of India
in the 1 7th century,
636
00:46:37,477 --> 00:46:41,152
but the world's richest economy
had begun to decline.
637
00:46:41,237 --> 00:46:44,786
British visitors give graphic accounts
of the shocking poverty
638
00:46:44,877 --> 00:46:48,028
of the rural workforce
in Jahangir's day,
639
00:46:48,117 --> 00:46:50,233
even though
the cities were still wealthy,
640
00:46:50,317 --> 00:46:53,150
Agra here,
three times the size of London.
641
00:46:53,997 --> 00:46:59,151
But more than 20% of the national income
was spent on the court elite,
642
00:46:59,237 --> 00:47:02,832
on an upper class who lived
at a higher level of consumption
643
00:47:02,917 --> 00:47:05,147
than any European aristocracy.
644
00:47:21,197 --> 00:47:24,826
You can still glimpse
the incredible richness of Moghul art
645
00:47:24,917 --> 00:47:27,556
in the jewellers workshops in Jaipur.
646
00:47:28,677 --> 00:47:33,114
The Kasliwal family were jewellers
to the Moghul court in the 1 7th century.
647
00:47:34,917 --> 00:47:39,354
Jewellery was always considered
to be a symbol of power.
648
00:47:40,077 --> 00:47:41,635
And what stone is this?
649
00:47:41,717 --> 00:47:43,469
-A ruby.
-Ruby.
650
00:47:43,557 --> 00:47:48,870
And also with the Moghuls what
was quite treasured were the spinels,
651
00:47:48,957 --> 00:47:52,586
-you know, which are quite rare stones.
-What is a spinel?
652
00:47:52,677 --> 00:47:57,068
Spinels. For a long time,
spinels were confused to be rubies.
653
00:47:57,157 --> 00:48:00,069
So when we see those pictures
of the Moghul emperors
654
00:48:00,157 --> 00:48:06,266
often with what look like rubies,
it's probably these. God, how amazing.
655
00:48:07,197 --> 00:48:11,031
These exquisite Moghul arts
went from the scale of the Taj
656
00:48:11,117 --> 00:48:13,233
to the smallest turban pin.
657
00:48:13,957 --> 00:48:18,428
If you see, that's the base of the box,
and then you open it inside.
658
00:48:19,157 --> 00:48:23,389
-See, there are various...
-Oh, yeah. Gosh, now look.
659
00:48:23,477 --> 00:48:27,311
So you can see through it.
It's so... It's just like a filigree.
660
00:48:27,397 --> 00:48:31,072
KASLIWAL: It's all cut work.
It's almost like lacework in gold,
661
00:48:33,437 --> 00:48:35,667
so it's perfect from each angle.
662
00:48:35,757 --> 00:48:38,271
It was your ancestors
that actually made these things.
663
00:48:38,357 --> 00:48:42,714
KASLIWAL: I like this one here,
like an opium box.
664
00:48:42,797 --> 00:48:45,630
All these are rubies
which have been calibrated
665
00:48:45,717 --> 00:48:47,787
to fit into this shape.
666
00:48:47,877 --> 00:48:51,711
So the great Moghul would have kept
his opium in something like this
667
00:48:51,797 --> 00:48:54,470
and, what, laced his wine with it or...
668
00:48:54,557 --> 00:48:57,071
Did they smoke it
or put it in their wine?
669
00:48:57,157 --> 00:49:00,433
No, opium was... You know,
we used to have opium ceremonies
670
00:49:00,517 --> 00:49:04,874
where you would offer opium
to your guests.
671
00:49:09,917 --> 00:49:12,909
The Moghuls
had come to India as conquerors,
672
00:49:12,997 --> 00:49:15,386
but bearing the tolerant views
of their ancestors,
673
00:49:15,477 --> 00:49:18,753
they ruled North India
for more than 300 years.
674
00:49:20,117 --> 00:49:24,156
At their best, creating an extraordinary
Hindu-Muslim synthesis,
675
00:49:25,037 --> 00:49:27,597
almost healing the wound of history.
676
00:49:28,677 --> 00:49:31,032
And now, with hindsight,
after the British
677
00:49:31,117 --> 00:49:34,427
and the partition of India in 1 94 7,
678
00:49:34,517 --> 00:49:39,068
their wonderful buildings
and creations have become memory rooms
679
00:49:39,157 --> 00:49:41,113
for the story of India
680
00:49:41,757 --> 00:49:45,113
and also, perhaps,
symbols of what might have been.
681
00:50:01,317 --> 00:50:04,593
But go to great cities
like Lahore in Pakistan today,
682
00:50:04,677 --> 00:50:09,193
the most romantic of Moghul cities,
and you still feel the living presence
683
00:50:09,277 --> 00:50:11,029
of that lost world,
684
00:50:12,717 --> 00:50:15,675
its poignant beauty and its refinement.
685
00:50:53,397 --> 00:50:55,433
But in the mid 1 650s,
686
00:50:55,517 --> 00:50:59,590
behind the extravagance of the court,
discord was looming.
687
00:50:59,677 --> 00:51:03,636
The ailing Jahan,
now incompetent, was imprisoned,
688
00:51:03,717 --> 00:51:06,789
and his sons prepared
to fight for the kingdom.
689
00:51:15,917 --> 00:51:18,272
Very good.
Very, very good. Thank you. Beautiful.
690
00:51:21,237 --> 00:51:24,593
The civil war was
as much about faith as about empire.
691
00:51:24,677 --> 00:51:29,228
The younger son, Aurangzeb,
wanted to return to orthodox Islam.
692
00:51:29,317 --> 00:51:32,707
The elder, Dara,
following in Akbar's footsteps
693
00:51:32,797 --> 00:51:35,231
had translated Hindu sacred texts.
694
00:51:36,437 --> 00:51:38,473
It's gorgeous, isn't it?
When was this written?
695
00:51:38,557 --> 00:51:42,186
This was written in 1 655.
696
00:51:42,277 --> 00:51:47,749
He explains in the introduction
that, having become a Sufi,
697
00:51:47,837 --> 00:51:52,592
he wanted to find out about
the wisdom of the Indian religions,
698
00:51:52,677 --> 00:51:56,226
and he also mentions that he's written
this work for his family only,
699
00:51:56,317 --> 00:51:58,433
not for the general public.
700
00:52:00,037 --> 00:52:02,597
Dara even tells how the Hindu God Rama
701
00:52:02,677 --> 00:52:05,475
had met him in a dream and embraced him.
702
00:52:09,397 --> 00:52:11,706
Dara's project was bold in his own time,
703
00:52:11,797 --> 00:52:15,870
but now, in the age of wars on terror,
almost inconceivable.
704
00:52:16,557 --> 00:52:19,629
He took his lead from the Sufi idea
of the unity of being
705
00:52:19,717 --> 00:52:24,108
and the Koran's revelation that
God had sent messengers to Earth
706
00:52:24,197 --> 00:52:28,952
before the Prophet Mohammed,
and he argued for the unity of religion.
707
00:52:31,397 --> 00:52:35,754
Islam and Hinduism were twins,
he said, hairs of the same head.
708
00:52:36,117 --> 00:52:40,235
He tells us,
''I talked to the Hindu holy men,
709
00:52:40,317 --> 00:52:41,830
''people who had attained
710
00:52:41,917 --> 00:52:44,351
''the highest level
of spiritual enlightenment
711
00:52:44,437 --> 00:52:47,235
''and in our conversations
that were free and open,
712
00:52:47,317 --> 00:52:49,911
''I detected, although there
were verbal differences,
713
00:52:49,997 --> 00:52:53,956
''no essential disagreement
on our understanding of God,
714
00:52:54,037 --> 00:52:56,835
''and so I decided
to write a book about that,
715
00:52:56,917 --> 00:52:59,715
''about the religions
of the two communities,
716
00:52:59,797 --> 00:53:04,188
''and I called it
The Meeting Place of the Two Oceans. ''
717
00:53:06,357 --> 00:53:10,953
It was a project that was heroic,
quixotic even,
718
00:53:11,037 --> 00:53:13,995
and it would cost him
his life and his crown.
719
00:53:17,477 --> 00:53:19,911
The decisive battle
between Dara and Aurangzeb
720
00:53:19,997 --> 00:53:22,875
was fought outside Ajmer in 1 658.
721
00:53:26,437 --> 00:53:28,746
Now the story unfolds
with all the momentum
722
00:53:28,837 --> 00:53:32,273
and awful sense of destiny
of a Shakespearian tragedy.
723
00:53:34,517 --> 00:53:37,190
The battle was fought here
in this wide valley
724
00:53:37,277 --> 00:53:41,111
just outside Ajmer,
on the railway line to Rajasthan.
725
00:53:41,197 --> 00:53:44,906
Dara and his European artillery officers
had chosen a good position
726
00:53:44,997 --> 00:53:49,036
with their wings anchored on the hills
on either side of us,
727
00:53:49,117 --> 00:53:51,073
but there was one weakness
to the position.
728
00:53:51,157 --> 00:53:53,876
A secret path led over the mountains
and round to the back of Dara's army,
729
00:53:53,976 --> 00:53:56,436
+
730
00:53:56,517 --> 00:53:58,906
and he was betrayed to Aurangzeb.
731
00:54:04,477 --> 00:54:08,106
The issue now
was what should be done with Dara.
732
00:54:08,197 --> 00:54:12,190
To gauge the public mood,
Aurangzeb decided to humiliate him,
733
00:54:13,557 --> 00:54:15,309
strip him of all marks of office
734
00:54:15,397 --> 00:54:18,309
and mount him on
a clapped-out old female elephant
735
00:54:18,397 --> 00:54:20,353
driven by a slave in rags,
736
00:54:20,437 --> 00:54:24,953
parade him here
down the great market street of Delhi.
737
00:54:26,677 --> 00:54:30,386
But the onlookers
were all horrified by Dara's fall.
738
00:54:30,477 --> 00:54:32,752
Many of them burst into tears.
739
00:54:33,717 --> 00:54:37,187
With that, Aurangzeb
decided that Dara should die.
740
00:54:50,477 --> 00:54:54,709
The killers came that night
to his prison by Humayun's tomb.
741
00:54:55,397 --> 00:54:59,834
There they found Dara cooking lentils
with his little boy, Prince Salim.
742
00:55:00,597 --> 00:55:03,065
His son clung desperately
to his father's legs
743
00:55:03,157 --> 00:55:04,749
but was dragged away.
744
00:55:04,837 --> 00:55:08,193
Dara was overpowered,
and they cut his head off
745
00:55:08,277 --> 00:55:10,393
and sent it to his brother.
746
00:55:11,437 --> 00:55:14,554
''Ugh,'' said Aurangzeb,
''I wouldn't look the kaffir in the face
747
00:55:14,637 --> 00:55:17,515
''while he was still alive,
and I won't now.''
748
00:55:18,157 --> 00:55:21,229
And he sent his head in a box
to their father, Shah Jahan,
749
00:55:21,317 --> 00:55:23,467
in his prison in the palace in Agra.
750
00:55:23,557 --> 00:55:26,276
Jahan opened it at table
while he was eating,
751
00:55:26,357 --> 00:55:29,827
collapsed, fainting,
broke his front teeth.
752
00:55:31,357 --> 00:55:36,750
As for Dara's little boy, he was given
a draft of opium and then strangled.
753
00:55:37,797 --> 00:55:42,075
The father and the son were buried here,
in the tomb of Humayun.
754
00:55:45,517 --> 00:55:48,714
Dara's death marks
the end of that story.
755
00:55:52,637 --> 00:55:55,834
But for all the ebb and flow
of India's history since then,
756
00:55:55,917 --> 00:56:00,195
the quest for Hindu-Muslim unity
has never been abandoned.
757
00:56:02,517 --> 00:56:06,226
Religions still,
from that time till today...
758
00:56:06,317 --> 00:56:09,673
Religions are the same,
the teachings are the same.
759
00:56:10,117 --> 00:56:13,905
And it is
the misinterpretation which takes
760
00:56:15,757 --> 00:56:19,955
the brotherhood apart.
761
00:56:25,157 --> 00:56:27,990
Whether it is Hindu
or Muslim or Sikh or Christian,
762
00:56:28,077 --> 00:56:32,355
if that person follows
his religion correctly,
763
00:56:32,437 --> 00:56:34,507
so I don't think
there will be any problem
764
00:56:34,597 --> 00:56:39,193
because you will do correct,
each and every thing correct.
765
00:56:45,357 --> 00:56:49,236
We are talking about specially India,
and in India,
766
00:56:49,317 --> 00:56:53,629
it is so diversified
as far as religions are concerned,
767
00:56:53,717 --> 00:56:56,595
I think the most diversified country
in the world.
768
00:56:56,677 --> 00:56:59,237
-I think so.
-As far as religions are concerned,
769
00:56:59,317 --> 00:57:02,468
as far as the cultures are concerned,
as far as the languages are concerned.
770
00:57:08,877 --> 00:57:12,916
Can we judge the past
by the standards of the 2 1 st century?
771
00:57:12,997 --> 00:57:16,069
Should we judge our time by theirs?
772
00:57:16,157 --> 00:57:19,069
The Moghul Empire
began and ended with war.
773
00:57:20,957 --> 00:57:23,517
In a few decades, they created
774
00:57:23,597 --> 00:57:26,669
a civilisational wonderland
here in India,
775
00:57:26,757 --> 00:57:29,829
a kind of Indo-Islamic synthesis.
776
00:57:32,957 --> 00:57:37,314
Their rulers were
not only practical men but visionaries,
777
00:57:37,397 --> 00:57:41,993
Babur's imperial dreams,
Akbar's utopian visions,
778
00:57:42,077 --> 00:57:45,990
but waiting in the wings
with ominous patience
779
00:57:46,077 --> 00:57:50,070
were the British,
who had a very different idea
780
00:57:50,157 --> 00:57:54,116
of what bringing in
the Age of Reason could mean.
781
00:57:56,837 --> 00:57:58,621
Next in the Story of India,
the last invaders, the British.
782
00:57:59,894 --> 00:58:02,309
+
783
00:58:03,637 --> 00:58:05,707
The first war of freedom...
784
00:58:05,797 --> 00:58:07,196
So your family were committed
785
00:58:07,277 --> 00:58:08,710
-to fighting against the British?
-MAN: Yes.
786
00:58:08,797 --> 00:58:10,992
...and the horrors of the great mutiny.
787
00:58:11,077 --> 00:58:14,592
-WOOD: And what happened here?
-The British destroyed it,
788
00:58:15,677 --> 00:58:18,191
with a 1 6 pound gun.
789
00:58:18,317 --> 00:58:21,548
WOOD: The balance sheet
of the British Raj...
790
00:58:21,757 --> 00:58:25,193
It was the Britishers
who gave us a complete map of India.
791
00:58:25,277 --> 00:58:27,711
...and the coming of freedom.
792
00:58:27,797 --> 00:58:32,587
You know, bondage, nobody likes.
Everybody likes to be free.
793
00:58:33,406 --> 00:58:37,388
- Untranslated subtitle -
794
00:58:37,589 --> 00:58:41,589
- Untranslated subtitle -