Lecture on Rajasthani Sovereign and their Engagement with Philosophy
Aligarh : Dr. Rosina Pastore, FWO Junior Research Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University, Belgium, delivered a special lecture, under the auspices of the CAS, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University, on the theme “Rajasthani Sovereign and their engagement with the philosophy during the Mughal Period: The case of Jasvant Singh I Rathod”.
Dr Pastore described the contributions of Raja Jasvant Singh (1626-1678), focusing mainly on his philosophical and literary contributions. She enumerated the philosophical and literary works of the Raja who was an administrator as well as a scholar with special emphasis on his two major works Ananadvilasa (The Enjoyment of Bliss) and Anubhava Prakasha, both composed in Braj Bhasha.
She pointed out “Both Jasvant Singh and the Mughal Shahzada Dara Shukoh shared similar intellectual interests such as Vedantic philosophy. This is known to us, for example, in the form of a text titled as Majmaul Bahrain, a text comparing Sufi and Hindu philosophical and religious ideas, authored by Dara Shukoh as a short treatise in Persian, c. 1655”.
She added that, besides, the house of Jodhpur had a special relationship with the Mughal court and the imperial family as the mother of the emperor Shah Jahan, Princess Jagat Gosain (d.1619), was a daughter of Raja Udai Singh of Marwar.
Dr. Pastore also highlighted the impact of Jasvant Singh’s writings on contemporary rulers of Rajasthan, like Ram Singh I Kachwaha, and Sawai Raja Jai Singh, as the latter also commissioned copies of Jasvant’s philosophical works in the 18th c.
Prof. Gulfishan Khan, Chairperson and Coordinator, Department of History welcomed and introduced the esteemed speakers to the audience.
She highlighted that the members of the Department of History have explored multiple aspects of Rajasthan’s history and its rich cultural heritage.
In the Presidential remark, Prof. Arif Nazir, Dean, Faculty of Arts tried to connect the contributions made by Jasvant in Hindi and emphasized to relook at him with different perspectives.