My dear Prem,
I have read your post with great interest.
The following is in terms of this serial, not of the history of the personal, real life interactions of Jalal, Mahaam Anga and Bairam Khan as far as one can decipher it from available records, which, it seems to me, is not much.
I am sure Bairam Khan did more in concrete terms to rebuild the Mughal empire for Jalal than anyone else. But he was also a stern taskmaster, and while Jalal recalls his precepts with gratitude later in life, at that time, as a young boy, he might have resented such constant hectoring and orders. Worse, by the time we get to the beginning of our tale, Bairam Khan is already beginning to have delusions of grandeur. He is seen publicly overruling Jalal, and is still treating him like an ignorant child, which no young man, conscious of his own powers and with a growing will to rule on his own, will tolerate. This part seems to be historically correct as well.
Still. Jalal shows extreme indulgence and respect towards his Khan Baba; the instance when he ceded the horse he likes because it was one Bairam Khan liked is a case in point. I thought then that it was an ill-advised concession; the Shahenshah is the Shahehshah and his will has to to prevail. A few more instances like that one and the whole Mughal entourage would have started treating Jalal the way the French court treated Louis XIII, as a nonentity as compared to the all powerful Cardinal Richelieu. Hardly a good development!
Bairam Khan does do a lot to protect Jalal's life in his early days, but it is Mahaam Anga who actually runs from place to place with the kid Jalal. in Rajasthan and later in Madhya Pradesh, often just ahead of the pursuers. Plus, it is she, not Bairam Khan, who saves Jalal's life when he is under cannon fire from his treacherous uncle Kamran Mirza. This is probably why he accorded her a level of respect he never gave to his other wet nurses like Jijianga.
NB: As for his brothers in law, Sharifuddin came into picture only much later, when he married Bakshi Banu, and Jalal was by then no kid, but his own man. And I do not know how much older than Jalal Abul Mali was. Not that he was, as a grown man, any the less under threat from this pair.
To revert, Mahaam Anga never calls Jalal by anything other than his title in public, and she never tries to belittle him as a silly boy. Instead, she coddles him and provides the mothering he has missed for years on end, and while she does remind him at times that she nursed him, it is very rarely, and is never a demeaning outburst like the one Bairam Khan unleashes at the end of l'affaire Takhatmal.
What Bairam Khan did to that king, whom Jalal had specifically pardoned, was nothing less that treason, and would have been seen as such in any absolute monarchy. That, and the venom Bairam Khan spewed against both Jalal and the Emperor Humayun, were insupportable, and no amount of gratitude to his mentor - and Jalal is never lacking in that - would have made an emperor tolerate this kind of thing.
And yet, when Bairam Khan rebels against him, Jalal is torn between his loyalty and affection for him and the demands of kingship. If Mahaam Anga had publicly rebelled against Jalal , he would have reacted similarly. And Jalal's gut-wrenching grief at his Khan Baba's death is proof positive of what he still feels for his mentor.
One has to remember one very important point in all this. As I wrote in one of my very early posts, Jodha Akbar 15-19: Palace Power Plays, at
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/jodha-akbar/3665391/jodha-akbar-this-week-15-19-palace-power-plays,
Jalal has a rare quality, that of gratitude towards anyone and everyone who has ever done something for him. The following is an extract from that post.
Jalal-Bairam Khan: If I was to pick the best scene of the week, it would ...be the one in which Jalal, confronted by Raja Takhtmal and learning that his father owed his life to the Raja, thinks deeply, absorbs his Khan Baba's vituperative asides, and falls back on his own ingrained sense of justice when he declares at last:
Inhe riha kar do (Note the change, due to the gratitude he feels for the Raja, to a respectful mode- he does not say
Isko, and he adds
Yeh jiyenge) .
He nails down this display of independence when, reacting to Bairam Khan's (extremely ill-advised) attempt to browbeat him, he says bluntly Nahin, Khan Baba! This act of self-assertion amounts to a crossing of the Rubicon, and it is all the more remarkable for the contrast to his behavior so far.
Jalal attaches so much importance to the three crucial relationships in his life (Mahaam Anga's face was a study as Jalal enumerates them, putting her last; the relief that floods her eyes and her whole being at finally making the cut was a sight to see!) that he cuts his Khan Baba a lot of slack, far too much for Bairam Khan's own good.
Thus, he tolerates Bairam Khan's overt impertinence when he turns and leaves the Emperor's presence abruptly, wihout so much as by your leave or a salutation, as Mahaam Anga is quick to point out. Instead, he goes so far as to regret even the mild protest he had made to his mentor - Main unki badaulat hi to hoon.
This remark, which must have made Mahaam Anga's palm itch to land Jalal one of the ringing slaps she later bestows on her son Adham, is a very revealing one as far as Jalal's character is concerned.
He is grateful for any and all kindnesses done to him. This is remarkable and rare in a king, for kings have a highly developed sense of entitlement, and see the loyalty and devotion of their followers as no more than their due; gratitude is out of the question. Not so with Jalal, and this is an innate quality that has always been there.
He has had very few in his life so far whom he could see as his own, and he does not want to lose any of them. He is like Shanaya in SOTY, he does not like to break a relationship. But this trait, which is endearing in an individual, can, in an emperor, become a major weakness. As it does for Jalal, with both his mentors.
So, even after he overrules Bairam Khan over Takhtmal, Jalal still refuses to think ill of his Khan Baba, till Bairam Khan himself, by his blatant flouting of the Emperor's decision, makes it impossible for Jalal to continue doing so (it is another matter that had Adham Khan not been lurking around when Bairam Khan and his cohorts hang Takhtmal, Jalal might not have crossed his personal Rubicon for a while yet. Why is it that Adham Khan, standing there as large as life, is not spotted?).
By the end of the week, this power play had ended: Bairam Khan had destroyed himself thru sheer stupidity and overweening conceit."
To sum up, I do not think Jalal was less grateful to Bairam Khan than he was to Mahaam Anga.
If the former had been less arrogant and foolish, their equation would have remained balanced. That it tilted away from Bairam Khan was due, firstly to his own folly in thinking that the boy he mentored would always be his obedient pupil, and secondly due the fact that Bairam Khan's areas of operation were precisely those where Jalal, spreading his wings, wanted to assert his own authority. If Bairam Khan had conceded this gracefully, there would have been no clash, and he could have retained his advisory and mentoring role till his death. Mahaam played her cards far more cleverly and deviously that Bairam Khan, that is all.
Lastly, though this is not immediately relevant to your point, we should all be really glad Jalal got out from under Bairam Khan's yoke quite early. Otherwise, he would very likely have ended up as a cross between his esteemed ancestors, Chengiz Khan and Timur. Thank the Lord that did not happen!
Lord, this was exhausting. I cannot do any more today, but I hope you find this of interest. I shall come back to your other posts, hopefully, tomorrow.
Shyamala
Originally posted by: myviewprem
I have read till part4 so here is my observations
There are certain points I shall raise that can be debated - My first observation in serial
Although I missed out on initial parts I have seen some on the youtube. The first impression of Akbar is that he is possessive of Maham anga his dai ma rather she had a strange hold on him than anyone else even more than Bairam Khan and Ruqaiah. I started thinking why? Why role of a father(here forster father Bairam Khan) is not given same respect by Akbar as a mother(dai ma). Is it not Bairam Khan who saved his life many times from enemy, who took him under his care and wings after his father Humayun death and protected him. If there was no Bairam Khan would not Akbar be a sitting duck for Hemu and other rival kings? What is guarantee that his own family his uncles kids who were elder than him may have not conspired and killed him and become emperors? Or his brother in laws Abul Mali and Sharifuddin who were adults and more capable? What is it that stopped anyone from daring to touch Akbar or kill him that includes Maham anga herself was it not Bairam Khan- that foster father whose fear kept all enemies of Akbar away? Indeed it was but then why Akbar never trusted Bairam Khan as much as Maham anga?
This raises a pertinent question even in todays time- Is mother more important than a father in society? Especially in patriachial society like India, Asia, Africa etc does not society treat children based on what their father or father family status is? No matter what a mother is even a royal family, its a father and his status that determines how we are treated atleast till we do not achieve much is it not? Its tough for single mothers, widows, divorcee women to bring up children in this big bad society in 21st modern century. So would a Maham anga have protected Akbar on her own never he would be killed even before he reached 15 or running for life if not for Bairam Khan patronage. So why Akbar treated Maham like God making her sit near him on throne while others stood in pictures(history pic) but it was actually Bairam Khan who deserved maximum honour for saving his life and expanding his kingdom.
Is it because Maham fed him her milk? In that case Akbar had many dai mas he never accorded them same respect as Maham why?
Was it because Maham always reminded him she had fed him, taken arrow for him, saved him on fort at cost of ignoring her adham- was it that constant reminder the emotional blackmail that made him more loyal to her than other dai ma's and bairam khan or his other forster fathers like agatah etc?
According to me more than Maham it was Bairam Khan who took care of him and protected him much more be it war field, be it enemies, be it relatives, won him large parts of Mughal empire etc even Maham dared not try to kill Akbar till BK was alive(in history) so Akbar should have been more grateful to BK not Maham.
Edited by sashashyam - 10 years ago
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
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