Bajirao
Mastani is a recently released historical romance movie set in the 18th
century. The film is based on the novel,
“Raau” written by Nagnath Inamdar. It
tells the story of the relationship between Peshwa Bajirao Ballad, the prime
minister of the Maratha emperor, Shahu, and Mastani, the illegitimate
half-Muslim daughter of Bundelkhand’s king Chatrasaal. Like most viewers, I too was swept away by
Sanjay Lila Bhansali’s epic production – the stunning visuals, the delightful
music, the seemingly authentic period costumes and armor, Ranveer Singh’s
haughty, confident and love-torn Peshwa Bajirao, Deepika Padukone’s strong, yet
soft Mastani, and Tanvi Azmi’s decidedly unmatronly and villainous
Radhabai. As the movie unfolded, I kept
thinking about a contemporaneous episode in Odisha’s history, which has been
beautifully fictionalized in Surendra Mohanty’s novels – “Nilashaila” and “Niladri
Bijaya”. The two main characters in
these novels are Ramachandra Dev, the Gajapati King of Odisha, and Razia Begum,
his half-Muslim consort. Here is a brief
account of Ramachandra and Razia’s star-crossed life. Enjoy!
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The year is
1732. In Pune, the young Peshwa Bajirao
Ballad is busy leading military expeditions to expand the reach of the Maratha
Chhatrapati kingdom. In Delhi, the
Badshah (emperor) Muhammad Shah is desperately trying to hold on to the rapidly
declining fortunes of the Mughal Empire.
In Murshidabad, the Mughal subedar (regional ruler) Shuja Khan is
struggling to maintain his tenuous hold over a chaotic Bengal-Bihar-Odisha
province which is under constant attack from the Marathas. In Cuttack, the Naib-Nazim (local ruler) and Shuja
Khan’s illegitimate son, Taqi Khan, is engaged in quelling active resistance
from the many feudal kingdoms in Odisha by randomly attacking civilians and
destroying Hindu temples to terrorize the population. And in Khurdha, Ramachandra Dev has just been
installed as the Gajapati King of Odisha after the assassination of his older
brother Gopinath Dev.
Ramachandra
Dev has barely managed to take control of the reins of the kingdom when Taqi
Khan decides to attack the Puri Jagannath Temple. This is a break from the 150-year old “live
and let live” tradition of Odisha’s Muslim rulers, who were content with collecting
a religious tax (jiziya) on the pilgrims to the Jagannath Temple in Puri. Taqi Khan’s goal is to conquer Puri and sack
the Jagannath temple, loot its famed treasure, and thus persuade the Mughal
Emperor in Delhi to make him the subedar of Murshidabad. Ramachandra Dev leads his forces in battle
against Taqi Khan, but is betrayed by his own prime minister, Bakshi Benu
Bhramarabara, and is captured on the battlefield.
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While Ramachandra
Dev is contemplating his fate in prison, Taqi Khan is having second thoughts
about the wisdom of destroying the Puri Temple.
He offers Ramachandra Dev the veritable devil’s alternative – “pledge allegiance to me, convert to Islam, and
marry my sister Razia. In return, I will
spare your life, withdraw my forces from Puri, and re-install you as the
Gajapati King of Odisha”. Ramachandra
Dev realizes that this is his only chance to protect the Jagannath Temple from
the clutches of the Muslim rulers. He
accepts Taqi Khan’s offer, becomes Hafiz Qadar Beg, and gets married to Razia –
while remaining in Cuttack under house-arrest.
As the newly-wed couple get to know each other, Ramachandra Dev finds
out that Razia, who is also an illegitimate child of Shuja Khan, was born to
Kanchanbai, a famous Hindu courtesan in Murshidabad. Kanchanbai was a secret devotee of Jagannath
and had instilled in Razia some of that mystical attraction.
The news of
Ramachandra Dev’s conversion devastates his wife, Lalita Mahadei. Enraged, she declares herself a widow, moves
to her father’s palace with her teenage son Bhagirathi Kumar, and starts
plotting the downfall of Ramachandra Dev together with Bakshi Benu Bhramarabara. As it turns out, Bakshi had plotted the
assassination of Gopinath Dev, but the feudal kingdoms refused to accept Bakshi
as the Gajapati – with the majority opting to throw their support for
Ramachandra Dev instead. While
Ramachandra Dev is still contemplating his next move from Taqi Khan’s court in
Cuttack, Bakshi manages to bribe some key priests in the Jagannath Temple to
declare him Regent for Bhagirathi Kumar.
However, the head priest, Laxmi Paramaguru, quickly realizes that
Bakshi’s strategy is to create more chaos and ultimately install himself on the
throne while ignoring the long-term Muslim threat towards the very existence of
the Puri temple. He travels to Cuttack,
and convinces Taqi Khan that Ramachandra Dev should be released to take his
place as the true Gajapati King of Odisha.
Taqi Khan agrees, but forces Razia to stay behind in Cuttack to ensure
that Ramachandra Dev’s loyalty to him is never in question.
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Ramachandra
Dev returns to Puri, and with the support of several key priests, manages to
return to his duties as the principal care taker of the Puri temple. Being a Muslim, he is not allowed to enter
the temple. An image of Jagannath known
as Patitapavan is set up at the main entrance to the Temple so that the King
can worship Jagannath without entering the Temple. Angered by these developments, Bakshi and
Lalita Mahadei continue their efforts to undermine Ramachandra Dev’s
authority. They even hatch a plan to
loot the cavalcade bringing the annual tax revenues from south Odisha to
Cuttack so that Taqi Khan will assign the blame on Ramachandra Dev. However, Ramachandra Dev comes to know of this
plot, loots the money himself to fund his secret rebellion-in-planning,
succeeds in trapping and killing Bakshi, and is able to convince Taqi Khan that
he is establishing control over Odisha on behalf of the Muslim rulers.
Taqi Khan’s
good wishes are only short lived, as he decides to install one of his Hindu
courtiers Amichand in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the Puri temple,
hoping to get ready access to its famed treasures. Ramachandra Dev begins to see the writing on
the wall about his fate, and secretly engineers the removal of the deities from
the Temple to one of the many uninhabited islands within Chilika Lake. As Taqi Khan’s soldiers and spies spread out
over the land to locate the deities, Lalita Mahadei proposes to Taqi Khan that
if her son, Bhagirathi Kumar, replaces Ramachandra Dev as the Gajapati, she
will ensure that new deities are installed in the Temple and Amichand is
accepted by the priests to supervise the Temple’s affairs.
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Ramachandra
Dev is made aware of these machinations through secret meetings with Razia and
her messengers. He learns that Taqi Khan
has taken a sizable army and travelled to Murshidabad to meet with the dying
Shuja Khan. Ramachandra Dev decides to
seize this opportunity to bring the deities back from hiding before Lalita
Mahadei is able to get new deities installed, and renounces his claim to the
Gajapati throne in favor of Bhagirathi Kumar.
This reinforces his support among the feudal kings, who are unwilling to
be parties to a father-son fight to the end.
Accompanied by Razia, Ramachandra Dev brings back the deities to Puri in
the nick of time, but not without a few battles with Taqi Khan’s depleted army
who are unable to stop the march of the deities towards Puri.
At the end,
Ramachandra Dev and Razia are prevented from entering the Temple as they are
perceived to be Muslims. Razia is unable
to fulfil her dream of seeing Jagannath in the Sanctum Sanctorum and disappointed,
kills herself. Lalita Mahadei also commits
suicide, and Bhagirathi Kumar is quickly displaced as the Gajapati King as the
Muslims and the Marathas continue to fight over Odisha for the next several
decades.
© © © ©
Ramachandra
Dev ruled Odisha for less than a decade, but the association with Razia and the
dual Hindu-Muslim identity makes his story unique, not the least because of its
poignant ending and the striking similarities with the life and times of
Bajirao-Mastani.
