Fact vs. Fiction - Update 1

First of all, let me clarify one thing. This is not a post to bash the serial Jodha Akbar. I regularly watch it and despite many distortion of historical facts, I enjoy watching this show for the stellar performance by the actors - specially Rajat and Paridhi. 😊

But as I said, there had been too many distortion of facts which is kind of disturbing because there are millions of viewers who would believe that what the serial is portraying is absolute truth. 😕

I know Balaji puts a disclaimer but such kind of disclaimer is given before most of the shows. Majority of the audience won't be able to understand where the Creatives are making up stories and where they are following history.

So this is just a small effort to state the historical facts as much as possible and show the difference between fact and fiction.😳

I am not an expert in History. My knowledge comes from different books which I am reading now to understand the character as well as time of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Ekta maiyaa has basically made me to read the history books again!😉.

So here are some of the events which have been portrayed quiet differently in the serial even though facts tells some other tale.

Fiction -
1. King of Amber and the Rajputs hated the Mughal empire and were averse to form any kind of political relationship with the Mughals.

Fact.

1. The Rajputs might dislike the Mughals but the Rajputana kingdoms were embroiled in rivalry among themselves. King of Amber was a shrewd ruler who knew that helping someone powerful than himself will always be beneficial.
After Humayun's death, Haji Khan besieged Narnaul which was under Mughal commandant Majnun Khan Quashal. At that time, Bharmal , king of Amber, helped Majnun Khan to take the possession of the fort and make an honorable departure to Delhi.
After Akbar defeated Hemu, he invited the kings who had helped the Mughals in the their time of need to Imperial Celebrations and Bharmal, king of of Amber was one of them.

I do not know if this was shown in the serial or not as I have not watched it from the beginning. But the kind of the hatred that the serial have shown on the part of the Amber king's family seemed unlikely, given the consideration that they helped the Mughal dynasty when needed.


(Source: Hindu Officers under Akbar - by C.M. Agarwal)

Fiction

2. Bharmal himself went to meet Akbar alone without informing his family. Chugtai Khan suggested the matrimonial alliance.

Fact :

When Akbar was going to Ajmer, Chaugtai Khan informed him about Sharifuddin's exploits and reminded Akbar that how Bharmal had always helped and paid respect to the Mughal empire.

When the emperor's troop reached Deosa, people fled in anticipation that there will be massacred. It was Jaimal who first met with Akbar. Jaimal was son of Rupsi - brother of Bharmal.
But Akbar asked Rupsi to come and pay homage to the Mughal throne. Rupsi did so and was exalted by royal favor.

Next day, Bharmal and his relatives were introduced to Akbar and they explained their plight.

(Source: Hindu Officers under Akbar - by C.M. Agarwal and http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Ffile%3D00701022%26ct%3D63)


UPDATED - 1

Fiction:

3. To show how the people Amer hated the Mughal emperor, the assassination scene was depicted.


Fact:

No record of assassination attempt can be found but the people of Amer were indeed very terrified of the Mughal emperor. The inhabitants fled when they heard that emperor is camping at Deosa.

According to Abul Fazl - "Apparently these rustics of the valley of desolation have drawn an inference from the oppression they have undergone from Sharifu-d-din ?usain and so have run away."

To relinquish the fear of the inhabitants for the Mughals and to make them feel that the Mughal empire will do justice to them, Akbar was punished a leopard keeper who had caused a terror among the other people.

Abul Fazl wrote-

"One of the dominion-increasing events of this time and which was an instance of the daily increasing distribution of justice by the Shahinshah, and a cause of tranquillising a crowd of the terrified inhabitants of the district, was the punishment of a leopard-keeper (citaban). The brief account of this is that as the Shahinshah made the hunting with the cita one of the veils of his world-adorning beauty and showed a strong passion for it and often indulged in it, one of the citabans waxed proud in his ignorance and forcibly took off a man's pair of shoes and appropriated them. The owner was lamenting, and accidentally his cries came to His Majesty's ears and the truth was discovered. The redresser of injustice as soon as he heard of the tyranny, ordered that the citaban should be seized and brought to him. An order was issued for cutting off his feet, and this was a warning to men of the world, and a lesson in wisdom to the savages* of the fields of heedlessness. It became known in the country and afterwards no one thought of running away or becoming a vagabond. Peace and tranquillity appeared in the country."


Fiction :
4. Akbar and Jodha met before marriage -shagun rasam. Hindu rituals happened in Akbar and jodha's marriage.

But this time, I love Ekta's distortion of facts! 😃 😆Ahhh - the scene when Akbar and Jodha first come face to face. Eagerly waiting for Monday 😳

Fact:

When Akbar was returning from Ajmer, he camped at Sambhar. At that time, Sharifuddin was given strict orders to produce the hostages and after getting back his sons, Bharmal made arrangements of the marriage in a most admirable fashion.

"He brought his fortunate daughter to this station and placed her among the ladies of the harem. For the purpose of holding the marriage-feast the imperial cavalcade halted for a day in Sambhar. "

In all probability, hindu rituals were not performed in Akbar's marriage. Salim's marriage to Rajput princess Man bai is known to be the first marriage where the Muslim as well as Hindu rituals were performed.

( Source - http://persian.packhum.org/persian/main?url=pf%3Fauth%3D7%26work%3D001)

P.S.: I will continue. But in the meantime if anyone wants to add any more information to show difference then they can add. Kindly add the source from where they got the information.
I will be happy if this topic is made sticky, if the readers and the mods find this topic useful😉

Me? First? Err... okay, let's get this done and over with.

I think Ekta did mention it that Jodha-Akbar, is gonna be a fiction-fantasy drama based of real life characters.. whatever that's supposed too mean. It's like this live-action fan fiction on Jodha and Akbar, 😆 So cool!
And honestly speaking Ekta Mata would never -not in a billion-zillion-gazillion years- go researching on Historical characters. And speaking of the controversies, I do remember studying about Jodha-Akbar, I think, in the seventh grade, I even do remember making this tile "model" for an assignment, now if ICSE can go ahead and teach about this couple or just even mention it, I seriously have no clue what the cults have against it. Seriously, it's just some fictional drama. It's not like the writers are going around claiming that "their story" is all apt and accurate.

And from what I remember reading about Jodha Akbar, there apparently no mention of any JodhaBai in Akbars biographies, I think Akbar-e- nama or something it's called, but something about a Rajput princess is mentioned. Some say that Jodha could be Marian-uz-zamani while some say that it's a myth that Jahangir was JodhaBai's son. To be frank it's this whole huge mess which just refuses to make any sense at all.

It's just that the romantic with us - within each and everyone of us- has just romanticized this whole fact/rumor/controversy into this ideal medieval mughal fantasy romance, despite ignoring facts like, Raquaiya Sultan Beghum was Akbar's first and prime consort, and was much closer to his sons, she was the first one he turned upto despite her not being able to produce any heir. We don't know any facts for sure, and nor does anyone, it's just history that has witnessed these turn of events and maybe thats how it will remain... but we're just stuck to these romanticized versions, it could be that the Jodha-Akbar alliance started off and remained to be an alliance,there are so many possibilities out there, just so many.

And it is not "Facts vs Fiction", it's just "Facts and Fiction", cause at the end of the day, it's just the both that matter, they're in this together. Without the fact there is no fiction and without the fiction, there is no possibility of it being a fact. Or what so ever.

Coming to the show, I am yet to watch it... let's just hope I don't keep on procrastinating it and it doesn't end up to be the second version of my SaraswatiChandra debacle where I just procrastinated and procrastinated till I just lost interest.

Peace.

Love You for. this... I always think why indian history is doing so zyadti to great Akbar to bind his own era in the love fiction of Jodah... I am seriously thinking of writing FF on Akbar reign ... so much happened in Akbar era... so much... most of them saved through Mughal scriptures.

@AraBearxx


I understand your point but may be I have not put forward my ideas clearly.

I have nothing to say about Jodha and Akbar's relationship. The serial is based on the premise of Jodha and Akbar's "love story" and even if its completely fictional, I have nothing to say.


But my point is that there are several others incidents for which we have records and yet Ekta is making up stories for adding spice.

I have already mentioned two, three incidents in the post and I am sure there will be many.

That's why, for me - it's facts vs. fiction.

Balaji could have weaved the "love-story" without distorting the related incidents, but then they would have do some serious research and do some hard work to strike the balance. They chose not to do so.

The power of mass media is immense. What Ekta is showing is bound to be considered true by many.

I just got an example in this forum -

In another thread, I just mentioned that hindu marriage ritual was not performed in Akbar's marriage but it was done in Salim's marriage with Rajput princess. I gave the source of the book but then I got a reply that in the film Jodha-Akbar too, the hindu marriage ritual was shown and one book is not a proof enough😉

Originally posted by: smile.sara

Love You for. this... I always think why indian history is doing so zyadti to great Akbar to bind his own era in the love fiction of Jodah... I am seriously thinking of writing FF on Akbar reign ... so much happened in Akbar era... so much... most of them saved through Mughal scriptures.

thank you sara. 😊

Am looking forward to your FF.

Akbar was indeed a complex character. For me, he was 21st century liberated soul, born in 16th century.

His thirst to learn new things, his inclination towards different religions, his weakness for alcohol and women, his pursuit to find that ideal path/ way of one's life, his ambition to establish Mughal empire over Hindoostan and yet his dissatisfaction with what life gave to him - he cannot be understood so easily. In fact, even his harshest critics like Badauni had presented a contradictory figure who seemed to always in search of something.

Apart from Princess of Amber and his Rajput wives, the Hindu courtiers and his friend Birbal had a great influence on the life of Akbar. But it seems, all the changes in Akbar's life will be attributed to Jodha in this serial. 😕

Never mind - will enjoy seeing RT and PS together. 😃

Originally posted by: doyelpakhi

@AraBearxx


I understand your point but may be I have not put forward my ideas clearly.

I have nothing to say about Jodha and Akbar's relationship. The serial is based on the premise of Jodha and Akbar's "love story" and even if its completely fictional, I have nothing to say.


But my point is that there are several others incidents for which we have records and yet Ekta is making up stories for adding spice.

I have already mentioned two, three incidents in the post and I am sure there will be many.

That's why, for me - it's facts vs. fiction.

Balaji could have weaved the "love-story" without distorting the related incidents, but then they would have do some serious research and do some hard work to strike the balance. They chose not to do so.

The power of mass media is immense. What Ekta is showing is bound to be considered true by many.

I just got an example in this forum -

In another thread, I just mentioned that hindu marriage ritual was not performed in Akbar's marriage but it was done in Salim's marriage with Rajput princess. I gave the source of the book but then I got a reply that in the film Jodha-Akbar too, the hindu marriage ritual was shown and one book is not a proof enough😉

Can I be honest? Well, I'll just go ahead. So yeah, I did type that "mahabharata" up there after reading your post, and when I did read it the second time I did realise that I kinda strayed from the point but the answer to your questions.. well, I did mention them.

Both you and me know that we chose to follow Ekta's show and as I mentioned it earlier - there's only gonna be one instance where Ekta's gonna be accurate, and that's when hell freezes over, so yeah that means never? And for all you know in Ekta's defence, she is running a drama which is "loosely" based on J-A, and she did mention that it is fiction, a fantasy. She's running a tv show and not some Fox History or History Channel documentary on the couple and she needs the spice and twists.

Ekta needs her twists and the majority of the viewers care a damn about the historical reference, they want their daily dose of drama. That's it.

Out of the thousand viewers out there or maybe million we're barely 200 of us in majority who care about all the references, seriously.. consider the movie for example, how many of us did actually go and check the accuracy, maybe it was historically accurate or not, it was just 3 hours of entertainment, that's what J-A, not all of us have the time to go read reference books, and bother to compare the accuracy, what so ever. And nor does Ekta and her team have the time or funds(?) to actually go and research and read when she has 2-3 hours of footage to deliver every week. That's the bottom line.

I'm sincerely sorry if I sound harsh or contract any statement, but I do believe that when we deal with something in history and try to portray it as a fiction in our own POV's then, that's when we have the freedom to show it as and how they want.

For example: Jang Ok Jung: Live in love, the plot deals with Queen In-Hyun, Consort Jang Hye Bin and the King. Historically Jang Hye Bin, was the main reason for the court desputes in that era, she was this evil bitchy concubine that all of us love to hate, and Queen In-Hyun is this typical goody two shoes who the king married, soon after his first wife dies. Now historically, Jang Hye Bin is one of the highest ranking concubines in Korean History, I guess. She was lifted higher in ranks, as her plots suceeded, Queen In-Hyun was exiled and then reinforced as the queen, which lead to Jang Hye Bin being dethroned, after Queen In-Hyuns reinforcement the queen dies soon after, and then visits the king in his dreams in a bloody hangkok, and upon him asking about her mysterious death she points to Jang Hye Bins chamber and upon going there the king finds Hye Bin and her allies with some vodoo doll of the dead queen or partying, one of the two and he orders her execution via poisoning.

Now that's history for you, the historical background and throught the times all the dramas and social media and pawned Hye Bin to be the evil one. now Jung Ok Jung is a fictional drama based on a chick lit fantasy based on history, where Jang Ok Jung, known as Hye Bin is portrayed to be a fashion designer in that Era and our main protagonist. She and the king are shown to have a past and the king to be in love with her and in short it totally defies history and the historical accuracy. Now you don't see those fanatics or the comminuty there parading and protesti against the show. They're merely accepting and appreciating the point of view. Now connect that with J-A, all Ekta is doing is altering incidents here and there, to fit her version of it. It is HER version of it. She can do whatever she wants with it. And we as the viewers can either accept it or leave. It's not like shes forcing us to watch it.

This one was too long and vague, but it does say something :3

I always go n read and even buy books to know about character when I see some historical character on TV.

^ okay people, here's the deal. Comment, quote or whatever. If my reply is needed then I will surely reply tomorrow. I got a paper to prepare for tomorrow and a whole bloody pile of books to mug, you understand me, don't you? If you don't, atleast try to. LOL.

@ AraBearxx

It was long but it was not vague 😊

I understood your point even in your first post. When I watch the serial I enjoy RT's performance and the drama 😛

I am making this post only because I feel it's a kind of responsibility to spread awareness about the true facts of history as I know them.

Even if only 2 person will read this post, they will have some idea about the facts and they can research more.

Since you seem to have pretty good idea about Akbar's life, I hope to get some contributions from you too. 😉

I feel sad that a BIG production house like Balaji, who could have invested in making a good historical serial, did not even try to do some basic research

Originally posted by: AraBearxx

^ okay people, here's the deal. Comment, quote or whatever. If my reply is needed then I will surely reply tomorrow. I got a paper to prepare for tomorrow and a whole bloody pile of books to mug, you understand me, don't you? If you don't, atleast try to. LOL.

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