Biographies of Famous Jokers by Nawabzada Taj-ood-Deen Khan Lakhnavi "Chota Lund Gora Londa" Mulla Do-Pyaza or Mulla Do-Piaza ________________________________ # S.R.Bakshi et al. "Mulla Do-pyaza was a very sharp and outspoken man of whims, who could recite the whole Koran by heart. At the age of 15 he left his native country Persia, reached India in the entourage of Humayun and started teaching the Koran to disciples at Delhi. His humorous ways, caustic speech and deep learning soon made him famous, being adept in reading aright the character of a man from his looks. Faizi introduced him to the emperor who highly enjoyed the intellectual tug of war between the Mulla and Birbal, both possessing surpassing wit and a caustic tongue. The Mulla accompanied Akbar to the Deccan and died at Handya on the Narmada in 1600. How he had earned the nickname the "Mulla of the two onions" is narrated by Pairamall in the July (1910) number of the Modern Review, where the Mulla's picture is given which certainly bespeaks the whimsical character of the original." - "Early Aryans to Swaraj". Ed. by S.R.Bakshi, S.Gajrani, Hari Singh. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons: Vol. 5 (Medieval India), p.261. Sheikh Chillie or Sheikh Chilli _______________________________ # India Today 2009 He was said to be the spiritual teacher of Dara Shikoh. "Everybody in North India and Pakistan enjoys humorous stories attributed to Sheikh Chilli. He is venerated as the saint of laughter and wit but is also loved by children for his stupidity. His tomb on the G.T. Road in Haryana is different in architecture and considered next only to the Taj Mahal. Many believe that Sheikh Chilli (Sheikh Chehli) was Sufi saint Abdur Rahim alias Abdul Razzak. He was also considered guru of Dara Shikoh. The shrine, a protected one, is located 163 km north-west of Delhi (between Ambala and Karnal) is replete with its Persian influence. However, nobody is sure about the origin of Sheikh Chilli." - "Strange tales behind mazars". Farzand Ahmed. India Today, Lucknow, December 14, 2009 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/74949/India/Strange+tales+behind+mazars.html # Wikipedia Chilli Originally, the Hindustani word "Chilli" meant blockhead. But with the arrival of Portuguese pirates on the Concan, the word "Chilli" then also became the name of a spice. On account of the resemblance of its shape to a small penis, the name "Sheikh Chilli" came to have the double meaning of "Sheikh Chilli-Penis". That the spice chilli was brought from the Americas and Brazil by the Portuguese is stated by Collingham: "An alternate sequence for chili peppers' spread has the Portuguese getting the pepper from Spain, and thence to India, as described by Lizzie Collingham in her book Curry. Collingham states in her book that the chili pepper figures heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, which was the site of a Portuguese colony (e.g. vindaloo, an Indian interpretation of a Portuguese dish). Collingham also describes the journey of chili peppers from India, through Central Asia and Turkey, to Hungary, where it became the national spice in the form of paprika." - wikipedia, chilli. # Toheed Ahmad, "Tracking down Shaikh Chilli" "Sometimes the line between a fictional character and a real person can be a blurred one In my 11 years spent on the trail of Shaikh Chilli, I have come across two personalities who carry this name. One is said to have been a Sufi saint who lived in the age of Emperor Akbar. The other is the legendary character known for his stupidity and foolishness. Succeeding generations of South Asians have been brought up remembering the delightful fool best known for his khayali pulao a fantastic daydreamer who could think up the wildest plans. Nothing much is known of the Sufi saint of the same name expect for a couple of pointers to a gravesite in places around Delhi. Was there a real person in history called Shaikh Chilli? Is our most famous fool just a fictional character? Let me begin with the Shaikh Chilli entry in Volume 12 of the monumental Urdu Lughat produced by the Urdu Dictionary Board, Karachi: A saint who was so called because of his love for performing chillas and lies buried in a mausoleum at Thanesser in Karnal District of India. Then comes a couplet by Mir, written in 1810: Aik chappar hay shehar dilli ka Jaisay rauza ho Shaikh Chillia ka (This shack in the city of Delhi resembles the mausoleum of Shaikh Chilli). The second meaning given is: A traditional fool to whose stupidity many tales have been invented. Three illustrative quotes from Urdu literature follow; one of the two prose quotes is from an 1884 book called Tazkyira-i-Ghausia: The world is like the pitcher of Shaikh Chilli once the load is thrown off your head, nothing remains. A figurative meaning follows: Stupid, joker, daydreamer. This is illustrated by a couplet from Nazir Akbarabadi (composed in 1830): Jo hum ko janey boorha so wo hai Shaikh Chilli Hum chaire dalayein ab bhi khooban ko kar kay khulli (Whoever thinks that I am gone old is a Shaikh Chilli; I am still not afraid of teasing pretty faces). Then comes Shaikh Chillis Plan which is described as being a metaphor for khayali pulao (a daydream), building castles in the air or an imaginary plane. One of the two quotes given here is from the 1877 novel Taubat-un-Nasooh of Deputy Nazeer Ahmad: Kaleem Shaikh reached his friend Mirzas house while thinking up Shaikh Chilli plans along the way. In my search for the Shaikh I have often travelled into the cyberspace. The Internet has often thrown up startling results. Like this 1913 book called Folk Tales of Hindustan by Shaikh Chilli published in Calcutta. I read of this book being available at a second-hand bookseller outside London. I ordered it and received the packet within a month. The book has 11 stories in the English language; its 34 delightful illustrations are attributed to U. Ray & Sons. Its preface says: These stories originally appeared in their present form in The Modern Review with the introduction printed in this book. They are given as narrated by village folk, with slight omissions and alterations to suit the needs of juvenile readers. Their wide appreciation is the reason why they are now presented to the public in the form of a book. That they appeal even to the taste of foreign roods is clear from the following remarks which appeared in The Review of Reviews for October 1907: The Modern Review contains, month by month, stories of a type that recall the delightful romances of the Arabian Nights. In the September Number Shaikh Chilli tells the story of Princes Mahbub which vies with the stories of Princes Sheherzadi. In the introduction, the author who is supposedly the unnamed editor of The Modern Review says: However puerile or absurd a folk tale may at first appear, it is really a fit subject for scientific investigation and capable of yielding scientific results. We in India, however, have left even the collection of folk tales to be done by foreigners for the most part, considering these stories to be unworthy of the attention of so metaphysical a race as ourselves. But we must, if we want to survive, take our place by the side of the progressive races of the world in all departments of scientific study and research. This was just an example of how the Shaikh Chilli industry was developing in modern times in the subcontinent. But my search carried on till one day I rang the doorbell of this house in Nazimabad where a young man opened the door and led me up into the first floor sitting room of Dr Mushfiq Khawaja. All along the walls were bookshelves overflowing with books. On the floor were stacks of more books. I asked the soft-spoken and eager Dr Khawaja as to how many books would he have in collection. He said his house had three floors full of books may be some 40,000. That should put our National Library to shame. He was kind enough the lend me the 1920 edition of Hayat-i-Shaikh Chilli, written by Munshi Sajjad Hussain and published in Lucknow. Dr Khwaja had indeed given me a goldmine. For the present I quote a couple of paragraphs from the authors introduction to the book: When I thought of writing Shaikh Chillis biography I wondered that if we the Asians have been so niggardly with the Shaikh, the Europeans must surely have written about him because the Shaikh was more akin to them; his experiences, innovativeness, flights of fancy, quick wit, sharpness of mind, subtlety of soul and physical endurance were more likely to benefit all of Europe. This thought wrenched me. I couldnt find this out for myself, as I dont known the English language. So I asked an English-knowing friend and was greatly relieved to be told that no European had written about the life of Shaikh chilli. I believe that people have been unjust in neglecting to write about the life of this streetwise and creative personality. However, some fake stories attributing falsehoods to Shaikh Chilli have become famous, although he ranked higher than what these tales depict. Indeed the Shaikhs exploits are worthy of being prescribed for emulation by everybody. According to Munshi Sajjad Hussain, Shaikh Chilli was born in 1555, and was named by his father Shaikh Malhoo after his sons birthplace called Chilla. He lived to the ripe old age of 61. Although the had a normal maktab education, the Shaikhs childhood was marked by questioning and rebellion. He wouldnt easily accept the received wisdom of his elders. Yet a teenager, the way he stumbled into Emperor Akbars court is recounted in some detail. The Shaikh had heard of the emperors generosity towards the wise and the learned. One day he left home and after wondering around for weeks, walked into Akbarabad, the capital of Emperor Akbar. There he ran into Maulana Abdul Qadir Badayoni, who was impressed by the Shaikhs wit and humour. Though opposed to the freethinking emperor, Maulana Abdul Qadir gave him an introductory letter for Mulla Dopiaza. From then on Shaikh Chilli spent several years in attendance at the royal court battling his wit against Birbals and keeping the emperor and his court amused. From here on Shaikh Chills story becomes simple to follow. On a recent rainy day in Lahore, I happened to be at the Lahore Gymkhana and spent the morning in their surprisingly well-stocked reading room. There I picked up Dr Tabassum Kashmirs History of Urdu Literature. Leafing through it, my imagination was caught by its chapter on the Gujri language, a Gujarati variant of Urdu, which predated the Dakhani language. Frankly I had never heard of it. I read on. Lo and behold, there I cam across the missing link. Mian Khoob Muhammad Chishti wrote a masnavi, called Khoob Tarang. Written in the anecdotal style of Rumis masnavi, it was published in 1575, three years after Akbars conquest of Gujarat. It was an account of a spiritual journey rich in instruction and moral elevation. Here is his tale of Shaikh Chilli: Shaikh Chilli owned four houses built around a single courtyard. One monsoon season, because of heavy rain, the roof of one of the houses began to leak. To inspect the damage, he climbed on to its roof. Once on top, he found that there were just three houses around his courtyard; he couldnt see the house under his feet. The Shaikh was upset and worried that because of his delay in getting it fixed, in protest, the fourth house had moved away. He decided to go out and search for the house and persuade it to come back. He climbed down from the roof, stepped out into the street and seeing some passersby, describes his house to them and asked if they had seen it move around in any of the streets. Amused, they replied that actually they had seen such a house move southwards not far from where they stood. Run along quickly, and may be you can still catch it, they advised the shaken Shaikh. He started to run around in the narrow streets. When he would return to his guides they would egg him on to go looking for his lost house in another direction. Soon exhausted the poor Shaikh Chilli walked into a mosque and slunk into a corner to get his breath back. A group of Sufi saints were also sitting around in the mosque. Having recovered, Shaikh Chilli shared with them his travail of searching of his lost house. Though amused, they could not offer him any advice. They exchanged meaningful glances and continued to sit in silence. Soon the exhausted Shaikh dozed off. Two of the Sufis got up and shaved off his beard, moustache and the eyebrows. Next morning, Shaikh Chilli woke up and walked over to the water pond for his wuzoo. He was stunned to see his reflection. How could this be? Now Shaikh Chilli forgot about his annoyed house and set out in search of himself. He pored over every nook and corner of his town but could not find himself. Hafiz Mahmood Sheerani in his article on the Gujri literature quotes the original of this tale in verse composed by Khoob Mohammad Chishtis as an example of Sufi absorption and effacement. I believe here Sheerani missed the essential link that this tale provides between Shaikh Chilli the Sufi and Shaikh Chilli the delectable fool of Urdu literature. They were one and the same person. So we now finally know who was the real Shaikh Chilli. Let us resuscitate him in the spirit of Munshi Sajjad Hussain. We need him, as noted above, to be able to take our place with the advanced literate societies of the world." - "Tracking down Shaikh Chilli" By Toheed Ahmad, Dawn Magazine, August 21, 2005 http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/archive/050821/dmag18.htm Mulla Nasr-ood-Deen ___________________ Famed throughout the world. "Nasreddin is a fictional legendary satirical Sufi figure who is believed by some[who?] to have existed during the Middle Ages (around 13th century), in Aksehir, and later in Konya, under the Seljuq rule. Nasreddin was a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes." - wikipedia. Many nations of the Near, Middle East and Central Asia claim the Nasreddin as their own (i.e. Turks,[1][5][6][7] Afghans,[5] Iranians,[1][8] and Uzbeks)[9], and his name is spelled differently in various cultures-and often preceded or followed by titles "Hodja", "Mullah", or "Effendi". There was a Khwaja Nasrudden in India: "There are also a couple of mazars of rival Sufis in the spiritual town of Amroha, the administrative headquarters of Jyotiba Phule Nagar district. One is dominated by scorpions while another is the playground of donkeys. But neither do the scorpions harm any devotee nor do the donkeys' desecrate the mazar or its campus. Both the mazars are situated a few furlongs apart and have a strange tale behind them each. One of them is the mazar of revered Sufi-saint Shah Wilyat Amrohi, popularly known as "Dada Shahwilayat", which is guarded by scorpions. According to Z. A. Najmi, a local writer-journalist, who has been researching the history of these mazars, the poisonous scorpions never sting devotees or visitors. The history has it that Shahwilayat migrated from Wasti (Basra in Iraq) in 653 Hijri to India to spread the message of God. He had a desire of finally settling in a place where mango and rohu fish could be found. He finally reached this place where he found mango and rohu in abundance. The place was thus called Aam (mango)-Roha (rohu fish). However, his decision to settle down there was objected to by Khwaja Nasruddin or Hazrat Khwaja Geso Daraaz. He sent a bowl overflowing with water. The message was clear: this place was already spiritually full and there was no scope for another Sufi. Shahwilayat smiled, put a rose in the bowl and sent it back to Khwaja Nasruddin indicating his presence would be as light as the rose. In anger, Khwaja Nasruddin said stay here but your shrine would be dominated by scorpions. Shahwilayat said, "Yes, but they wouldn't hurt my devotees." On the other hand, the Sufi told Khwaja Nasruddin that his shrine would be a playground of donkeys. Khwaja replied, "Yes, but they wouldn't desecrate the shrine." - "Strange tales behind mazars". Farzand Ahmed. India Today, Lucknow, December 14, 2009 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/74949/India/Strange+tales+behind+mazars.html The End