Dreams of Tipu Sultan

10

In a few places the language is defective and ungrammatical, but what is even more astonishing takes.

that

is

The

contains spelling mis-

it

which is not list an idea of the mis-

following

exhaustive will give spellings

:

^jA:

for

^

yj\

j^^Ju for j^jj^

(Dreams

(Dreams

i

and 30)

153,9,1

oj:>^Jp for

oj:)Vj

(Dream

8)

for

\j>c»p

(Dream

9)

^^\j>>P

(Dream

16)

(Dream ^

iq) ^^

\j>z^

^J\jyc^ for

iand27)

^J[y^ji> for ^x^U^^ ,

.

r

-iix^t^^j for

JlJ2ii for S470

CONTENTS Page

Acknowledgements

.

..

5

..

17

Translator's Introduction

A

7

Note on Tipu Sultan's Calendar

..33

Tipu Sultan's Preface

Marhatta Army 35

Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream

I:

Three

II:

The

III:

Seating a

IV:

Dream Dream Dream Dream

IX:

XI:

The Pitchers of Milk 41 The Sea Cocoanuts 43 The Beryl Mine 45 The Line of Entrenchments 47 Hadrat The Sacred Relics from Bandah-Nawaz 49 The White Elephant from China 52 The Top of the Hill 57 The Bear 59

XII:

A

Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream

XIII:

A woman

XIV:

Destroying the

XV:

The The The The The The The The

V: VI: VII: VIII:

Officers of the

Crescent

..38

.

King on the Throne of Delhi 39 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

X:

XVIII:

XIX:

XX: XXI: XXII:

.

.

.

•

•

.

.

.

•

•

.

•

•

Message from the Prophet through Hadrat Ali .

XVI: XVII:

.

in

Knife

Man's Dress

.

Flowers Strange

.

.

.

.

.

Emeralds

.

.

.

.

67

.

.

69

.

.

72

.

72

.

.

Nizam's Representative Extraordinary Idols

570

.

66

.

Collapse of the Gate

Thief

63 65

.

Cow

61

.

Enemy .

.

.

• •

.

.

74 77 78

Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dream Dseam Dream Sayyid

The Mango Grove The French Troops XXV: The Nizam's Minister XXVI: The Expulsion of the English XXVII: The Hajj XXVIII: The Fresh Dates

XXIII:

.

80

XXIV:

.

81

.

83

.

84

.

85

.

87

XXIX:

A

Battle with the English

.

88

XXX:

In the Assembly of Saints

.

89

XXXI: XXXII:

The Gift of the Turbans The Bridge of Elephants.

.

90

XXXIII: Almonds and

Stones

XXXIV:

Shaikh Sa'adi of Shiraz

XXXV:

Maulana Jami The Plantain Fruits

XXXVI:

XXXVII; The Armies of the Muhammad Aslam's Dream

.

91

•

92

.

.

Unbelievers

Index

94 96

.

96

.

98

•

99

•

103

ILLUSTRATIONS Tipu Sultan A Portrait ... ... page from Tipu Sultan's Book of Dreams :

A

Facing page i Facing page 33

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The express

who

editor

helped

India

of

deep

his

him

in

Library

Office

a photostatic

script

in

their

Bibliotheque

to

obtain

of

the

A

those

who

tion,

annotation,

special

assisted

mention of

a

the

microfilm

original

rotograph

manuthe

was procured from

the

through

Paris,

the

Curiel, Director of Archae-

From among

Government of Pakistan,

ology,

To

of

Nationale^

kindness of Dr. R.

to

particularly thank-

is

possession,

copy of this manuscript

wishes

those friends

all

to

preparation.

he

copy

book

little

its

him

ful for permitting

and

this

gratitude

him

in

etc, he

the

task

is

happy

of translato

make

Mr, ^akariyya Mail of the Mr, Syed Abdur

Pakistan Historical Society and

Rahman, a of

research scholar in

History,

lecturer

in the

University

Jamia

of

College,

the

Department

Karachi,

now

a

^•'

Digitized by the Internet Archive In

2008

with funding from

Microsoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/dreamsoftipusultOOtipprich

INTRODUCTION In the India Office Library there

a

is

very valuable and interesting manuscript

Tipu Sultan's dreams in his It was discovered by

containing

own hand

writing.^

memobed-chamber when

among

Colonel Kirkpatrick^

randa in the Sultan's

palace was subjected

the

the

May

Habibullah,

fall

Tipu Sultan was time 1

Library

of

Ethe,

the

Catalogue

1822

in

of

India Office, Vol.

Nationale of Paris has a copy

made

for

the

Munshi of

the

was

I,

of

discovered. Manuscripts

Persian

document

this

BibHotheque

Pets.,

937.

have

I

Royale,

^Kirkpatrick, W., Tippoo Sultaun,

secured photostatic

was

as

was

he

reporting

he did.

was

on the

it

Nationale,

copies

of the its

copy

Nationale. is

London,

languages

oriental

India,

the

which

original manuscript in the I ndia Office as well as of in the Bibliotheque

in

The Bibliotheque

No, 3001.

then called. See the Catalogue of the Bibliotheque

SuppL

in

said to be present at the

manuscript

the

Herman

a thorough

to

of Seringapatam,

search after 1799.

other

and

the editor 181

1.

experience

entrusted with

of

the

documents seized

of task

Letters

Select

Because of

his

of

knowledge of

different

courts

of examining

in

and

from the palace, which

8

According

knew of

Kirkpatrick,

to

the

existence

of such

HabibuUah a manu-

but Tipu Sultan had so successfully

script

concealed

it

that

confidant

this

had never before seen

it.

of his

Tipu Sultan was

have always manifested peculiar anxiety to hide it from the view of any who

said

to

happened

approach while he was either reading or writing in it J Later, on April 180O5

23, as

to

this

little

"register",

termed, was presented in

has been

it

or

diary,

name of the Marquis Hugh Inglis, Chairman of

the

Directors of the East India

Company, by

the

Major

(as

Wellesley

to

Court of

he then was) Alexander Beat-

Thus belonging to the Library of the East India Company, London, it is

son.^

now

in

Library. IBeatson, with

possession

Tippoo Sultauny

Memoranda ^At

one

of

London,

in English

time

1800,

by Beatson

aid-de-camp

to

author of one of the

first

cited above.

Office

have

register and p.

of

War

also

the

Conduct

196.

See

in the manuscript

itself.

Marquis Wellesley and

Surveyor-General to the army in the

Tipu Sultan,

India

the

Entries in this A View of the Origin

field;

Beatson

is

the

books published by a British writer on

9 been made in what Ethe has called "a The dreams and other fearful Shakista".

on the first thirty- two pages of the register and again on eleven pages towards the end of it. In between notes are recorded

a large number of pages are

The

of

size

the register

is

left

7|

blank.

inches

by

5I inches. In this diary, apart from a few other

Tipu Sultan has put down some of dreams. Obviously it cannot be con-

notes, his

sidered a complete register of his dreams. It is

more

likely that

such dreams in

The

recording.

dreams

as

it

he wrote out only he thought worth

first

of

recorded

the

dated 1785, the last 1798, covering a period of thirteen years. Of some is

dreams he has given his own interpretations. Leaving aside other memoranda, the dreams recorded are thirtyseven in number.^ They are all in Persian.

of

these

I

Six of these dreams (Nos. 12, 13, 14, 17, 24

been translated by appendix to

GIX-CXII

his

and 28) have

Beatson and given in the form of an

book

cited

above,

appendix

—XXXV,

pp.

10

In a few places the language

and ungrammatical, but what astonishing takes.

is

The

that

defective

even more

contains spelling mis-

it

following

list

which

not

is

an idea of the

exhaustive will give spellings

is

is

mis-

:

S

^\:^^

for

^

yj\

^y{x* for j^^j^

(Dreams

(Dreams

i

153,9,1

oj')^]^ for

oj'>Vj

(Dream

8)

for

Sjpz^

(Dream

9)

\j>z^

^J\jy^^

for

and 30) iand27)

^J\J>^ (Dream 16)

^AAy^'j^ tor ^4Mr

(Dream "^

iq) ^^

(Dream

16)

for

c«jl-^k

(Dream

21)

JL^L^I for

j^^d^l

(Dream

30)

vl^^

^^J[

for jOMz^l (In the last note)

(Sj^^ for

^yP^^ (In the last note)

And last but not least oU^9 for

oTy (which occurs twice in

Dream No.

8)

11

Court historians

Tipu

only

and

scholarship

have eulogized

Sultan's

character

literary

skill,

not

but

his

and

his

mastery of the Persian language has been taken for granted. reviled

British historians

disregarding the

character,

his

have

views of the court historians, but they have

accepted their contention with regard to his

the other

way

that a great

The

attainments.

scholastic

round.

man

It

is

facts

are

not essential

should also be a master

of some language or other which, in any

Tipu Sultan was not. From the age of fifteen onwards we see him accompanying his father in the various wars which he fought. It is not to be wondered at case,

that he could not receive systematic edu-

cation

of the

received

type

had he

that

lived

he might in

have

more peaceful

times.

Now dreams.

a word about the contents of the

Of

dreams recorded the majority are concerned with his wars against the British and their the

thirty-seven

12 allies.

Such are

dreams

I,

III,

VII,

XIV, XX, XXI, XXIV, XXV, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII and XXXVI. XI,

There are several other dreams which give tidings of general success and victory in war such as dreams II, IV, V, VI, IX, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXII, XXIII, XXVII, XXVIII, and XXXIII. Some of the dreams point to his intense and veneration for the Prophet, love Hadrat Ali and other Muslim saints and sufis. This is manifest from dreams XXXI XXXIV and VIII, X, XII,

XXXV. In

some of

the

dreams

there

is

dream was recorded in the register immediately after Tipu Sultan woke up. Towards the end of dream III, for instance, he says, ^' While this conversation was still in progress, I woke up and wrote down the contents of the dream immediately", and at the end of dream IV, he records, ^^At this juncture I woke up and wrote down the dream." clear indication that the

13

Tipu Sultan has also interpreted some dreams. Such is the case with dreams XXXI. XVII, XXVIII and XIII,

of his

Some

are

of these interpretations

In dream

interesting.

interprets

the

woman

highly

XIII Tipu Sultan in

man's

dress

as

enemy, the Marhattas, against whom he was waging a war at that time. In

his

dream XXVIII the dates

fresh

dominions of

three enemies,

the Marhattas

tish,

so

his

three silver trays

been interpreted

have

he hoped, would

of

as the

the Bri-

and the Nizam, which, fall

into his hands.

Tipu Sultan's diary consists of dreams and certain other memoranda. In this book As has been mentioned

above,

the reader will find the translation

As

to

piece

The to

of

all

by Tipu Sultan. the other memoranda, only one has been selected for translation.

dreams

the

recorded

various items in the

memoranda

relate

some of the events of Tipu Sultan's time

or episodes in his instance,

one

life.

finds

the

In one

place, for

names of persons

14 or

killed

and

wounded

in

a

certain

in another, the time of

Tipu Sultan's

departure from, or arrival

in,

on a particular by Tipu Sultan

A

occasion

A

betrothal

report

also

finds

from

received

a

the

about the discovery of enormous

footprints in a field has

diary

the

the Capital

present given

young couple on the

to a

of their

mention. mofussil

occasion.

battle,

which,

been included in

incidentally,

is

not

in

Tipu Sultan's own hand-writing. Perhaps he asked one of in

the

secretaries to insert

his

There

diary.

is

also

recorded

it

a

dream of one, Sayyid Muhammad Aslam, concerning Tipu Sultan which he thought it fit

to insert along with his

This piece seemed to present

of the

fit

own

into the

book and

has,

dreams.

scheme

therefore,

been translated. The dominant note throughout these dreams is what was uppermost in Tipu Sultan's

from

mind

the

—how

foreign

psycho-analyst

to free

yoke.

may have

country

his

Whatever to

say

the

about

15

them, to a student of history

importance to discover

it is

of greater

how Tipu

Sultan

himself interpreted these dreams and

they influenced his actions.

From

how

a peru-

becomes clear that

sal

of this register

his

hours of sleep were as devoted to the

it

cause of freedom as the hours while he

was awake.

A NOTE ON TIPU SULTAN'S CALENDAR Among

the reforms introduced by

Sultan was the reform of the

calendar.

necessary to have an understanding

It is

of

Tipu

for

it

the

proper appreciation of the

by Tipu Sultan

mentioned

dates

in this

book.

The tribute as

function of the calendar

time

into

certain

is

to

periods

dis-

such

hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc.

The

solar

day

is

determined by the daily

on its axis and the and darkness and the

rotation of the earth

alternation of light

by the revolution of the earth around the sun which completes the circles of the seasons. But it is the revolution of the moon around the earth which yields the month. Thus the solar day, the solar year and solar year

the

lunar

month may

natural divisions

be

of time.

termed

the

The Muslim

18 calendar, however,

is

a lunar calendar in

which twelve lunar months make a year, of the circle of seasons.

irrespective

Muslim

era,

as

is

well known,

The

counted

is

from the year of the hijrat or migration of the Prophet of Islam from Mecca to Medina in 622, A.D. The result of the adoption of the lunar year by the Muslims has been that the Muslim festivals do not fall

all

any particular seasons and run through the seasons of the year, and in about 32-^ in

solar years the

starting

point.

Muslim year returns to Muslim governments,

its

in

following this calendar,

have experienced

administrative

in

difficulty

the

collection

of agricultural taxes since crops are link-

up with Muslim year ed

the is

not.

seasons

whereas

Consequently attempts

have been made in Muslim history

ways

and

difficulty.

the

to devise

overcoming this means for While for religious purposes the

lunar year has been treated as sacrosanct, for

other

have

been

purposes

a

number of

adopted from

time

to

devices time.

19

In

connection

this

A.H.5

366 Tai

Fatimid

of the

efforts

A.H.), of the

(363-381

the

In India the

turned

at-

MaHk

Seljuq

(circa

century

nineteenth

.Government also was described as

CaHph

by the famous

his efforts

Umar Khayyam

poet,

the

about

Al-Aziz,

Abbasid

of the

Shah, assisted in In

may be mentioned

A.H.)

471,

Ottoman what

the

towards

Islah-et-teqwim.

MusUms found

that the

Hindus had from very early times employed cycles made up of a combination of solar and lunar years in which the lunar year was periodically adjusted to the solar year. The Hindu rites and festivals were regulated by the lunar year and

luni-solar

;

in domestic

choosing

the for

life,

important events such as

an

of

auspicious

marriage or undertaking a

were But

regulated this

by

calendar

the itself

lunar

was

occasion

journey calendar.

subject

to

adjustments to the solar calendar by the addition of intercalary months.

The Hindu

calendar also recognized the existence of

20 a sixty-year cycle known as "Brihaspati Chakra". Tipu Sultan was apparently influenced by these factors.

The

reforms introduced by Tipu Sultan

in the prevalent

Muslim

calendar consis-

ted of the following:

He

reckoned the Muslim era not from

the hijrat occurring in 622 but from

He

advent of Islam in 609 A.C.

chose to

era ^'Maulud-i- Muhammad '\

this

call

era reckoned from the birth of

the

the

Muhammad.

Actually, however, his era begins not with

the birth of the Prophet but with the pro-

clamation of prophet-hood by

In

words,

other

years

earlier

Another Sultan

in

his

than

era

the

measure

Muhammad.

begins

hijrat.

adopted

connection

thirteen

with

by

the

Tipu

calendar

was the adoption of the Hindu months however, and the sixty-year cycle. He, names to the various Hindu gave new months. year

Similarly

cycle

was

each year in the 60given

a

distinct

In designating the months and

name.

years,

he

21

made

use of the

abjad

terms of numbers.

in

systems

abtath

every letter of the alphabet

of evaluating

which

and

the

follows

The

abjad system

ancient order

alphabet had been quite

common

of the

through-

out the Muslim world for several centuries.

In addition to

employed

known is

this,

another

as abtath in

however, Tipu Sultan system

of

valuation

which the order of letters

the one that exists in the Arabic script.

He

also

The

called

it

numerical

'^hisab-i-zcir'\

value

of each

letter

according to the traditional Abjad is

system

as follows:

4

8

3

2

I

J

J

e

7

6

5

J

^

C5-

30

20

10

9

t

tr

J

r

70

6o

50

40

\,

22 J

200

C 600

J

U*

100

90

80

400

300



10.

Pus

Yusufi

j^^.

II.

Magh

Yazidi

iS^jk

12.

Phagun

Bayasi

Li-^

24

ABTATH I.

Chait

Ahmadi

2.

Baisakh

Bahari

3-

Jeth

Taqi

4-

Asarh

Thamari

5-

Sawan

Jafari

6.

Bhadon

Haidari

Asuj

Khusrawi

7-

(or

c5^W=-l

C^jV: J'' iSj^'

(Sj^^=-'

;^:v^