Dreams of Tipu Sultan
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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^
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