DAASTANGOI- THE ART OF TELLING A STORY

Dastangoi is a 9th century oral story telling art form, where a person narrates a story to an audience.This art is said to have originated in Arabia, from where it travelled Eastwards to Persia and then to India. The literal translation of the word "dastan" is story and "goi" is the act/art of telling the story.

The main person in this is the narrator of the story who uses his voice, pronunciation, facial expressions, pauses in between the narration, and flailing of his arms to narrate a story. 

The Narrator

On the 6th of April, I attended one such programme. The venue was the historical site of the Library of Dara Shikoh, and the dastango was Ankit Chadha. He is a young History Graduate who says that this unique form does not need   sound, lighting equipment, props, costumes or even a troupe to get a show running. All it needs are Dastangos and their stories. The dastangos in olden times used to tell interesting stories about things that they had heard of or text that they had read to the Kings as well as to the common man. 

Dara Shikoh was the eldest son of  Shah Jehan and his Begum Mumtaz Mahal.  He was born near Ajmer, when his father was not yet the Badshah but was still Prince Khurram.  Badshah Jehangir died when Dara was about 12 years old. Dara was married to Nadira his cousin and unlike most others of those days, he had only one wife.

Dara's Palace -1639 AD

Dara was a great favourite of his father and was anointed as the wali ahad or heir apparent to the throne. Dara had three other brothers, Shah Shuja, Muhiuddin and Murad, and two sisters Jehan Ara and Roshan Ara.

  The Mughals were followers of the  Chishti sect of Ajmer, but Dara was very influenced by the Qadiri sect and followed Mia Mir.  Dara was a thinker, philosopher, composer of poetry and patron of many other forms of Art.  He questioned religious thought and wanted to study the Upanishads, which were written in Sanskrit and were not available to anyone other than a Brahmin. Once, the main Priest of Varanasi approached Shah Jehan to get exemption from paying the Jiziya tax. Dara seized this opportunity and asked his father to exempt the priests of Varanasi from payment of Jiziya, in return for which he asked the priest to open the wisdom of the Upanishads to Dara. It took the priests and Dara six months of continuous sittings in 1657 to translate the Upanishads into Persian which was then the Court language. This translation was called "Sirr- e- Akbar" or the Greatest Mystery. Dara was not a protagonist of fundamental Islam but believed in the co existence of heterodox traditions. 

The Mughal construction

 When Shah Jehan decided to move his capital to the north of Agra,  Dara selected a place North of the proposed city of Shahjehanabad, and constructed his Library in 1637. Each book was brought from Agra carefully and placed in this Library. After the death of Dara Shikoh this building was given to Ali Mardan Khan, the Governor of Punjab. Subsequently it changed hands many times. David Ochterlony the First Resident of Delhi, built a palatial house on the first floor of this Library in 1803. The facade of this building was totally changed and in place of niches and arches, large pillars were built and it became a British palace. Later on it housed the Government College, The District School, Municipal Board School, and now it houses the Department of Archeology. This Library is located right next to St James Church also called Skinner's Church, it is very close to the ISBT, the original Kashmiri Gate, and Old Delhi Railway Station. It is located on Lothian Road. I am sure I have totally confused you about its location. Never mind, when you are coming from Kashmiri Gate and are going towards the Red Fort, this Library will come on your left hand side. Today it houses the Ambedkar University. 

The British facade made by Ochterlony 1st British resident

Coming back to the story of Dara Shikoh, in the battle for power, Muhiuddin the youngest son of Shah Jehan got Shah Shuja his other brother on his side by promising to get his son married to Shah Shuja's daughter. When Shah Jehan heard of this arrangement he declared that while he was alive he would take all the decisions pertaining to all his family members.

As the sun sets....

When it was rumoured that Shah Jehan had died, each of his son declared himself the Badshah.  Shah Shuja who was the Subhedar of Bengal, Muhiuddon who was in the Deccan, Murad who was in  Gujarat marched towards Agra. To quell the rebellion of Shah Shuja, Shah Jehan had earlier despatched Dara's elder son to Bengal.  Dara was therefore left alone to fend for himself and so fled from place to place with Nadira and his younger son. In the end of his escapade, he reached  Sindh, where he sought the help of Malik Jiwan whom he had saved many times from the wrath of the Badshah. Nadira did not trust Malik, but Dara did not listen to Nadira, and was actually betrayed by Malik Jiwan. Dara was captured by Muhiuddin who had by now taken the name of Aurangzeb, got rid of his brothers Murad and Shah Shuja, imprisoned his father Shah Jehan and sister Jehanara and became the Badshah of Hindustan. Aurangzeb arranged for Dara to be paraded around the City, seated on a very filthy elephant. Dara was smeared in mud, his clothes were in tatters and he was bound in chains. The public who had once loved this peace loving Prince were very disheartened to see this sight.  Dara Shikoh requested Aurangzeb to allow him to meet his father which permission was not granted to him.  Dara actually posed a threat to Aurangzeb as he was popular with the common people. So  a convocation of nobles and clergy was called by Aurangzeb who declared Dara a threat to the public peace and an apostate from Islam. In the History written in Aurangzeb's time, it was written that if Dara had become Badshah, he would have declared Islam as "kufr." He was assassinated by four of Aurangzeb's henchmen in front of his terrified son on the night of 30 August 1659.

Plaque about Dara's Library

Rebellion, bloodshed, treachery, back stabbing, life on the run, what kind of a life did a Mughal Prince live? Killing your own brothers, not knowing whom to trust, plotting and planning! Surely the life of a prince was a life of fear. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this story telling session which was held   in front of the original Library of Dara Shikoh. There are huge trees in the area and although it is in the very busy area of Kashmiri Gate, the place was calm, peaceful, quiet. White sheets were spread in front of the palace where the audience was to sit. There were cane chairs called moodha kept there. 

MOODHAS

There was a tree with head phones hung from different branches. One could hear the poetry of Dara, as well as excerpts from his teachings. This tree was called the Speaking Tree. 

SPEAKING TREE

We went around the building and saw the original Mughal structure which was the Library of Dara Shikoh. After Dara's death most of the books were lost. Later on after 1857, War of Independence whatever books were left were further destroyed. Time has gone by, Dara was ruthlessly murdered, the books were all lost, but the building so lovingly made in 1637 to house books of learning still survives and continues as an Institution of learning. That perhaps remains Dara Shikoh's legacy to posterity.

Dastan goi