Political Notes of the Kitab-I Nauras: An Analysis of Aesthetically Embodied Kingship Practices in Ibrahim Adil II's Bijapur

Presenter:

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Abstract

In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, Sultan Ibrahim Adil II (r. 1580-1627 CE) propagated the nauras ethos—a culturally and linguistically polyvalent concept—articulated primarily through its Sanskrit meaning of nine (nau) “juices” or essences (rasas) of an artistic work that evoke various emotions in the audience. An avid music lover, he is renowned for his Dakani treatise on classical music titled Kitab-i nauras (circa 1582). Portrayed by some scholars as religiously unorthodox, Ibrahim Adil and nauras get located chiefly within narratives of Bijapur’s political instability caused by the eccentric, artistically absorbed, Hinduphile sultan’s indulgence in leisure over statecraft. Recent Deccan scholarship has challenged such notions and while scholars have done much to erase perceptions of nauras as a product of Ibrahim Adil’s idiosyncrasy, doubts persist. Dislodging these uncertainties requires a new approach to study Ibrahim Adil and his nauras. Locating the sultan within a culturally intersectional matrix and shifting the focus to the rasas—especially its overlooked corporeal dimensions—and its relationship to Ibrahim Adil’s kingship practices yield fresh insights to tilt the discourse in favour of a reasoned and politically astute sultan who crafted an embodied nauras ethos to govern a heterogenous populace.