Laughing Matters: An Essay on Kings, Clowns and Nobles
- Laughing Matters: An Essay on Kings, Clowns and Nobles
Every society has produced its own elements of humour, but its style and meaning varies according to time and space. Humour is used to laugh at a situation or to dissent. Humour in the forms of wit, satire and sarcasm could tell us many things; it has some cultural traits because humour mirrors the attitudes of society. Humour plays a role in our mental life and intimate connection between all mental happenings. It needs wounding ironic phrases, metaphors, expression, playful judgments and sense of the nonsense.1
When we think of humour it is hard not to think of a royal court. Throughout the history of courts, wit and satire had been fashioned well. For instance, the concept of Vidusaka (clown) in ancient Indian dramas2 and literary works such as Jatakas,3 Kathasaritsagara,4 Cilapadikkaram,5 and Mattavilasa Prahasana,6 have recognized the relevance of humour. The literary works of medieval Indian courtiers like Amir Khusrau,7 Tenali Raman,8 Badauni etc, derive significance because they carry so much wit within them.
The royal court is like a social space where its members make relationships based on certain norms and mentalites.9 Therefore, humour is best represented among them. For instance, the Mughal court’s very composition and structure is a testimony to that. There, it worked in different ways: firstly to entertain—the Mughal emperor makes fun and in return he is made fun of; secondly, as a derision used by the Turani nobles (Turkish) to satirize the low born non-Turani nobles (Iranians, Indian Muslims and Rajputs) who were becoming beneficiaries of the court. Here, humour has become a way of getting pleasure and of expressing the emotions of fear and anger. In other words, the policy of the Mughal emperor to create a nobility of different ethnicity in order to prevent one group of the nobles, that is, the Turani nobles, from holding important administrative positions was bound to generate tensions which found expression in the humour in the imperial [End Page 105] court. Thus, the feelings of anger, envy, and fear against the non-Turani nobles led to humour on them.
Humour of the Mughal Emperor
The earliest examples of humour come from the Mughal emperors. For instance, Babur and Jahangir had been a witty character when they would get drunk. Babur praised wit and invited buffoons to party; he was self-mocking many times in his memoir and remarked: “everybody regrets drinking and then takes oath, but I have taken the oath and now regret it.”10 Babur was very anxious to see a woman drinking; therefore, once he invited a woman named Huhlul Aniga to a party. But very soon, the party went wrong when she started making disturbances to Babur, so he escaped Aniga by feigning drunkenness.11 Similarly, we also find that on an evening listening to his musician, Jahangir began to drink more than nine cups. Then, queen Nur Jahan refused to give him more. For this reason, he laid a hand on her for scratching and biting her. Likewise, she also did the same prank. The musicians, seeing this, went to the other room and began to cry, tearing garments and beating. So, the fight between Jahangir and Nur Jahan was compromised, both came out and asked, “who had been struggling together.” Noticing this as a plot for laughing, they smiled.12
One day, a Turani noble, Sheikh Hamid started intimidating the emperor Humayun for his “shia affiliation.” He said to Humayun: “My king, I see the whole of your army is ‘heretical’ . . . everywhere, the names I found they are Yar Ali, Kafsh Ali, Haider Ali and I have not found a single man bearing the name of any other companion of the Prophet.” This wit jokes the emperor. Therefore, at this point Humayun decided to outwit Hamid. To silence him, Humayun replied thus “the name of my grandfather himself was Umar Sheikh, I know no more than this.”13 Umar was one of the close companions or followers of prophet Muhammed. He was also the second caliph of the Islamic Caliphate.
Then, evidence suggests that the...
