people-from-agra

"Ah, what wondrous joys the rainy season presents, Waving green grasses, gardens scattering scents; Dulcet sounding drizzle, rain drops agleam, Everything attractive, winsome every scene, Ah! the rainy season gladdening in extreme. The clouds drunk with joy are flirting with the breeze, And with thunder blasts fill the land and lea; "Water, water, everywhere," the land looks a lake, Gardens stand drenched, verdure water-bathed, Ah, the rainy season, how it exhilarates! Undulating grasses, drunken clouds on high, The sky specked with cloudlets, mosses red and white; Everything is getting drenched, from the moon to the minnows lithe, Who but you, O God, can such colors provide! Ah, the rainy season, bursting with delight!"

"Men of means and money have joined the beggar's fold Their veins, like the lines on paper, on their body show, Great and small are helpless, so are young and old, A thousand beggars pounce together like a swarm of flies, When a crumb, or a grain of wheat somewhere they descry. Every head lies benumbed, Horse and camel are sans strength, Hunger cries on every tongue, Thanks to the civil strife, soldiers sit content, No fear of drunken brawls, nor of the vagrant young. Unscrupulous are they all, the town's rich elite, Every one doth understand how they speak and treat, Moreover, these haughty rich are not easy to reach, In their awful presence who can dare to speak? Their conduct hurts the heart, biting is their speech."

"Why ask about our whereabouts, O denizens of the East, Knowing we are poor, why taunt us and tease? Delhi which was once considered the world's crown and pride, Where only the chosen few once did reside, Which has been razed and ruined by the cruel skies, We belong to the same city, now a wasted pile!"

"ہنستا ہی میں پھروں جو میرااختیار ہو پر کیا کروں میں گریۂ بے اختیار ہو"

"When living became an uphill task, In soldier's camp we sought resort In narrow straits found them caught, They lived on bread, stale and scorched, No drop of drink, nor spoon of broth. My friends, I found, were nearing death, Deprived of good were all I met, Each and all were poverty pressed, If one had a thread, he had no rope, If one had a carpet, none to roll. Life was a struggle against heavy odds, The grocers fret, the vendors bawl, They used their swords and shields as cots. The kings and councilors, were bankrupts all."

"Exasperated by this outbreak of lawlessness, the implacable Sultan proceeded towards Katehar with the main body of his army, and in his usual relentless manner gave orders for the des- truction of the rebels. Terrible carnage followed and "the blood of the rioters ran in streams; heaps of the slain were to be seen near every village and jungle, and the stench of the dead reached as far as the Ganges.” The whole district was ravaged, and the royal army seized a vast amount of booty. ; Woodcutters were sent into the jungles to cut roads, and road- making proved more efficacious in establishing order than punitive expeditions. Having suppressed the outlaws, the Sultan led an expedition into the mountains of Jud and chastised the hill tribes."

"The religions of the two (Muslims and Hindus) are so fundamentally different that coalescence is only possible when some parts of their orthodox religions are forgotten and their place is taken by liberal tolerance."

"In his History of Mediaeval India (1925) written for Indian college students, Professor Ishwari Prasad devotes himself mainly to political history, sees the political issues of the medieval period indeed in terms of Hindu-Muslim relations and betrays pride in the resilience of Hindu culture under Muslim political domination ; but the latter had merits over that of the British as the Muslims made their per- manent home in India and did not drain the wealth of the country abroad."

"'There was persecution, partly religious and partly political, and a stubborn resistance was offered by the Hindus' The state imposed great disabilities upon the non-Muslims' Instances are not rare in which the non-Muslims were treated with great severity' The practice of their religious rites even with the slightest publicity was not allowed, and cases are on record of men who lost their lives for doing so.'"

"The foregoing study of the architecture and site of the Baburi Masjid has shown, unequivocally and without any doubt, that it stands on the site of a Hindu temple which originally existed in the Ramkot on the bank of the river Sarayu, and Hindu temple material has also been used in its construction."

"An example, as to how the tradition lives in India through the ages, may be cited. Alexander Cunningham found during his stay in the Gwalior Fort ... an epigraph recording the construction of a Sun Temple at Gwalior... The Sun Temple mentioned in the inscription had supposedly been destroyed. But there existed on the eastern bank of the Suraj-Kund a small temple... The inscription mentioned purnima of the month of Karttika as the date of its consecration and, surprisingly, even after one and a half millenniums, the tradition was still alive and till late a fair was annually held here on the Karttika-Purnima and devotees used to worship in the temple with the water of the Suraj-Kund and this author was able to identify it mainly on the basis of this living tradition."

"It is quite probable (…) that a mosque was first raised during the Sultanate period (...) on the site of the most important temple associated with the life of Rāma, and Mir Baqi just restored that mosque during his occupation of Ayodhyā."

"The foregoing study of the architecture and site of the Baburi Masjid has shown, unequivocally and without any doubt, that it stands on the site of a Hindu temple which originally existed in the Ramkot on the bank of the river Sarayu, and Hindu temple material has also been used in its construction, and we are of the firm opinion that the mosque was never built anew on virgin land. Syed Shihabbuddin and his associates have already agreed, in principle, ‘to demolish the mosque with their own hands’ if it is proved that it stands on a Hindu temple site and is built with Hindu temple materials. It is."

"But the unique and the most important feature of its construction is the use of... nook-shafts (corner pillars)... They bear stylized designs of kirttimukha and lahara-vallari and are obviously Hindu in their origin... Technically called a 'clerestory', this feature has been used on a large scale in the mosques of Ahmedabad in imitation of the preceding temples of the region... More than the (supposedly) corbelled ceilings and corbelled pendentives, these 11 nook-shafts testify, without any doubt, that material from some despoiled Hindu temple was used in the construction or the final restoration of this mosque."

"I have been to the site and have had occasion to study the mosque, privately, and I have absolutely no doubt that the mosque stands on the site of a Hindu temple on the north-western corner of the temple-fortress Ramkot."

"کم مشمر گریہ ام زانکہ بہ علمِ ازل بودہ درین جوئے آب گردشِ ہفت آسیا"

"Ghalib, we are from the sacred land of Turan, Undoubtedly we are of glorious lineage, We are of Turkish descent And the chiefs of the tribe were our forefathers, We are Arabs, belonging to the tribe of Turks And in perfection we are ten times better than the moon."

"Just like a child's play this world appears to me Every single night and day, this spectacle I see."

"تیرے کرشموں سے پُر قلبِ خلا و ملا گفتگو ہر ایک سے، امر میں سب سے جدا"

"If what the eye sees does not rankle in the heart Sweet is the flow of life in travel spent."

"translation:"

"The object of my worship lies beyond perception's reach; For men who see, the Ka'aba is a compass, nothing more.""

"The prison of life and the bondage of grief are one and the same Before the onset of death, why should man expect to be free of grief?"

"The happiness of the world is nothing for me for my heart is left with no feeling besides blood."

"It is not praised if you are the only one to understand what you speak interesting is the situation when you speak and the others understand."

"Against whose artful writing does the painting utter a plaintive cry? The form of every picture wears a paper-attire. Ask not about the diligence of my hard-heartedness in solitude, To turn the Evening into Morning is to dig the Canal of Milk! Cognizance may spread its net of hearing to any extent, The Phoenix is the object of our Universe of Speech. O Ghalib! Whereas even in captivity I have my feet on fire, The ring of my chain is a hair that hath seen fire! Did none other than Qais come to face the task (Love)? The desert was perhaps as narrow as the eyes of the envious! Perturbation set the black mole of the heart right; Thus it came to light that smoke was the wealth of the scar. In the dream, Fancy had its dealing with thee; When the eye opened, there was neither loss nor gain! Still I am learning lessons in the school of the grief of the heart, But it is only this: that went and was. The shroud covered the scar of the defects of Nudity, I was, otherwise, in every attire a disgrace to Existence! Asad ! Farhad, the mountain-digger, could not die without an adze; He was only intoxicated with (the wine of) customs and conventions."

"Do not discount my tears; eternal wisdom has decreed That in this flowing stream the seven millstones all revolve."

"Discoursing all the time with all, yet acting far beyond all."

"“He was accordingly born during the Tretã Yuga on the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra (March-April) in the city of Ayodhya, of Kausalya, wife of Rãjã Daśaratha. At the first dawn of intelligence, he acquired much learning and withdrawing from all worldly pursuits, set out journeying through wilds and gave a fresh beauty to his life by visiting holy shrines. He became lord of the earth and slew Rãvana. He ruled for eleven thousand years and introduced just laws of administration.” (Rãma-Incarnation, Vol- III, p. 291)"

"At the distance of one kos from the city, the Gogra, after its junction with the Sai, flows below the fort. Near the city stand two considerable tombs of six and seven yards in length respectively. The vulgar believe them to be the resting-places of Seth and the prophet Job, and extraordinary tales are related of them. Some say that at Rattanpur is the tomb of Kabir the assertor of the unity of God. The portals of spiritual discernment were partly opened to him and he discarded the effete doctrines of his own time. Numerous verses in the Hindi language are still extant of him containing important theological truths.” (Ain-i-Akbari, Vol. II. pp. 171-172)"

"“Ayodhyã, commonly called Awadh. The distance of forty kos to the east, and twenty to the north is regarded as sacred ground. On the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra a great religious festival is held.” (Sacred Places of Pilgrimage.)"

"A man should marry four wives: A Persian to have someone to talk to; a Khurasani woman for his housework; a Hindu for nursing his children; a woman from Mawaraun nahr, or Transoxiana, to have someone to whip as a warning to the other three."

"“Awadh is one of the largest cities of India. It is situated in longitude 118°, 6’, and latitude 27°, 22’. In ancient times its populous site covered an extent of 148 kos in length and 36 in breadth, and it is esteemed one of the holiest places of antiquity. Around the environs of the city, they sift the earth and gold is obtained. It was the residence of Rãmachandra who in the Treta age combined in his own person both the spiritual supremacy and the kingly office."

"Ajodhya is one of the largest cities of India... In ancient times its populous site covered an extent of 148 kos in length and 36 in breadth, and it is esteemed one of the holiest places of antiquity. ... It was the residence of Ramachandra who in the Treta age combined in his own person both the spiritual supremacy and the kingly office. ... Ayodhya... is regarded as sacred ground. On the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra a great religious festival is held. ... Rama was accordingly born during the Treta Yuga on the ninth of the light half of the month of Chaitra in the city of Ayodhya."

"[Hindus are] “religious, affable, cheerful, lovers of justice, given to retirement, able in business, admirers of truth, grateful, and of unbounded fidelity.”"

"The religion of thousands consists in clinging to an idea; they are happy in their sloth.... many would observe silence from fear of fanatics."

"The number of Hindu painters was large. Their artistic skill made Abul Fazl exclaim that “their pictures surpass our conception of things.”"

"Akbar had prohibited enslavement and sale of women and children of peasants who had defaulted in payment of revenue. He knew, as Abul Fazl says, that many evil hearted and vicious men either because of ill-founded suspicion or sheer greed, used to proceed to villages and mahals and sack them."

"The third time that the writer accompanied His Majesty to the delightful valley of Kashmir, he met with a few old men of this persuasion, but saw none among the learned."

"For towards the close of my father’s reign,... availing himself of the influence which by some means or other he had acquired, he [Abul Fazzel] so wrought upon the mind of his master [that is, Akbar], as to instil into him the belief that the seal and asylum of prophecy, to whom the devotion of a thousand lives such as mine would be a sacrifice too inadequate to speak of, was no more to be thought of than as an Arab of singular eloquence, and that the sacred inspirations recorded in the Koran were nothing else but fabrications invented by the ever-blessed Mahommed.... Actuated by these reasons it was that I employed the man who killed Abul Fazzel and brought his head to me, and for this it was that I incurred my father’s deep displeasure."

"The Hindus worship only one God. At any religious function, the Hindus utter the dominion of one God and to Him they direct the offerings of every religious ritual or observance whatever be its form. It is only fools who call the Hindus as idolators on the ground that they offer their devotion through some image built of stone or wood."

"The compassionate heart of his majesty finds no pleasure in cruelties or in causing sorrow to others; he is ever sparing of the lives of his subjects, wishing to bestow happiness upon all."

"The inhabitants of this land are religious, affectionate, hospitable, genial and frank. They are fond of scientific pursuits, inclined to austerity of life, seekers after justice, contented, industrious, capable in affairs, loyal, truthful and constant… They one and all believe in the unity of God, and as to the reverence they pay to the images of stone and wood and the like, which simpletons regard as idolatry, it is not so."

"The king, in his wisdom, understood the spirit of the age, and shaped his plans accordingly."

"No dignity is higher in the eyes of God than royalty… Royalty is a light emanating from God, and a ray from the sun, the illuminator of the universe."

"If royalty did not exist, the storm of strife would never subside, nor selfish ambition disappear. Mankind (is) under the burden of lawlessness and lust…"

"If a horse lost condition, the fines came down to the water carriers and sweepers employed in the stable. When an elephant died through neglect, the attendants (some of whom drew less than three rupees a month) had to pay the price of the animal."

"For a long time past scarce any trace of them (Buddhists) has existed in Hindustan."

"Everybody ought to read books on morals, arithmetic, the notation peculiar to arithmetic, agriculture, mensuration, geometry, astronomy, physiognomy (the art of discerning character from the features of the face), household matters, the rules of government, medicine, logic, Tabiyi (natural science), Riyazi (higher mathematics) and Ilahi (metaphysics and theology), and history; all of which may be gradually acquired. In studying Sanskrit, students ought to learn the"

"When Sarmad, a famous Sufi, came to Delhi from Hyderabad towards the end of Shah Jahan’s reign, DSra Shikoh had sought his company and paid him many marks of respect. But when Aurangzeb came to the throne, the things took a different turn. Sarmad cried out ‘whoever gained the knowledge of His secret became able to annihilate distance. The Mulla says that the Prophet ascended to the heavens, Sarmad declares that the heavens came down to the Prophet’. The Mullas now found their opportunity. But Sarmad did not deny the ascension of the Prophet. Aurangzeb sent the chief Qazi to Sarmad to question him about his nudity. Sarmad explained it by declaring that the devil had the upper hand. His answer was so worded as to offend the theo- logian by a pun on his name. But this in itself was not enough. Sarmad was summoned to the royal court and asked to repeat the whole of the Muslim creed . Sarmad went so far as to declare that there is no God. When asked to repeat the rest he said his realization went no further. He could now be easily condemned . When the executioner brought forth his axe for his hateful task, Sarmad welcomed it crying ‘I know You in whatever form You care to come’ and embraced death like a martyr. His contemporaries associated many miracles with his death and his tomb is still venerated as that of a great saint"