Narcotics and Drugs: Pleasure, Intoxication or Simply Therapeutic - North India, Sixteenth - Seventeenth Centuries
Narcotics and Drugs: Pleasure, Intoxication or Simply Therapeutic - North India, Sixteenth - Seventeenth Centuries
Narcotics and Drugs: Pleasure, Intoxication or Simply Therapeutic - North India, Sixteenth - Seventeenth Centuries
Meena Bhargava*
Narcotics,1 in this article, has been used as synonymous with drugs and
drug-like products including mild stimulants and intoxicants like opium,
tobacco, alcohol and alcoholic preparations. All three commodities, of
great commercial significance, were also major items that were chewed
and consumed to generate euphoria, stimulation and intoxication. Seen
as symbols of power and authority, they were considered to be facilitators
of social bonding and social interaction. Consumed by a wide variety of
people, it was around narcotics that hierarchies of class and gender were
built. Although used as a therapy in some instances, narcotics came to be
linked to health hazard, disease and death. With such a diverse trajectory,
narcotics become an integral and an interesting medium to discover and
study the lives of many in pre-colonial India.
1
The term narcotic, derived from benumbing or from numbness or torpor, is in medical
terms applied to substances that are either anodyne in their action (that is, relieve pain) or
soporific (induce sleep). Soporifics also generally act as anodynes and various anodynes
are anti-spasmodic. See, Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vol. V: 318.
The fact that opium, tobacco, alcohol and its varied preparations were
mood-modulating drugsan outcome of several assumptions regarding
the relationship between drugs and human societyis always fraught. It
is alleged that drugs are a natural part of human life and since his
evolution man has used various natural chemical substances for mood-
altering properties or for maintaining the health of his mind. Drugs and
narcotics have tended to create a niche for themselves in almost every
human culture and society. Each one of them has therefore adapted their
chosen drugs to their cultural practices and is confident of the choice of
its drugs as normal and natural even if those of the other societies consider
them as depraved and unnatural. Their use has often been related to a
religious practice, social ritual, spirit medicine or physical medicine.
Whatever the form of narcoticopium, cannabis, cocaine, tobacco,
alcoholman has regularly consumed them to either doctor his body
or mind. The pleasures derived from these narcotics are well known, but
equally established are the dangers and damages that are caused by their
inappropriate or excessive use, for instance, illness, physical or mental
damage, addiction or even death.2 Most societies have their own drug
cultures and invoke taboos and social norms of consumption to prevent
or minimise these risks. Nonetheless, the introduction of a drug in any
society and the process of adaptation to it may often be harmful and
devastating leading to drug epidemics or drug plagues, a phenomenon
that Carl Trocki argues may occur when a society is suddenly over-
whelmed by a wave of use and abuse of a newly introduced addictive drug.3
This argument can be applied to study the use of narcotics in the
Mughal Empire during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries.
Seen as an object of desire, intoxication, aphrodisiac and therapy,
narcotics also represented power and authority and were a way of social
interaction and social initiation. But it was around narcotics that the
hierarchies of class and gender also developed. Intoxicants on several
occasions also abetted crime, rebellion, political trickery and conspiracy.
Interesting details on these issues are provided in the Persian-language
court chronicles and the accounts of the foreign travellers that form the
2
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: xi; Richards, Opium and
the British Indian Empire: 375.
3
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: xixii.
major historical source and corroborative evidence for this article. The
information in the court chronicles faces a major limitation in the
sense that they were written at the behest of the emperor and under his
patronage and supervision except perhaps texts like Muntakhab ut-
Tawarikh of Badauni; therefore the narrative that they projected was in
accordance with the desires of the king and the way he wished to chart
his legacy. The accounts of the travellers, although exhaustive in their
details on the production, consumption and commercial exchange of the
narcotics, are marked for their rhetoric, satire and moral overtones and
are often judgemental on the other. Both these sources, however, are
invaluable for constructing social and cultural information and
understanding historical and commercial patterns of the sixteenth and
the seventeenth centuries.
4
Tiele (ed.), The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten, vol. II: 11213; Crooke
(ed.), Hobson-Jobson: 64041; Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India,
vol. VI, Part I: 24.
5
Pires, The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires: 513; D Orta, Colloquies on the Simples and
Drugs of India: 330; Barbosa, A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar: 57.
6
Bose (ed.), Credit, Markets and the Agrarian Economy; Habib, The Agrarian System;
Richards, The Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium; Prakash and Lombard
(eds), Commerce and Culture in the Bay of Bengal.
7
Hunter, A History of British India, vol. I: 17273.
8
Watt, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vol. VI, Part I: 34; Habib, The
Agrarian System: 49, 50n.
9
Abul Fazl, Ain XI, Land and its Classification and the Proportionate Dues of
Sovereignty, in Ain-i Akbari, vol. II: 71.
10
Dey, The Indigenous Drugs of India: 217.
11
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: 8.
12
Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World: 44.
13
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: 58.
14
Phipps, A Practical Treatise on the China and Eastern Trade.
15
Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China: 105.
16
Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy; Richards, Opium and the
British Indian Empire; also, The Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium;
Prakash, Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia; Farooqui, Smuggling as Subversion;
also his, Opium City.
17
See Note by Lt. Col. C. Eckford Luard and Father H. Hosten (translators and editors),
Manrique, Travels, vol. I: 55n.
18
Bernier, Travels: 252.
19
Ibid.: 253.
Ironically, the liquor popularly consumed in India was arrack, for its
sale was strictly forbidden and none but the Christians dared to drink
it openly.20 Arrack was harsh and burning spirituous liquor distilled
from molasses mixed with lemon juice, water and nutmeg and also from
sugar and spicy rind of a tree called jagra.21 Arrack in fact was spirit
made out of tari or toddy; sometimes it was also mixed with ganja and
the infusion was so intoxicating that those who took it, particularly in
excess, became like lunatics and out of their senses, though it gave them
strength and vigour if taken in moderation and only as a refreshment.22
Tari was the juice derived from the tarkul tree. When the stalk of a new
leaf came out of a branch, its end was cut off and a vessel hung to it to
receive the outflowing juice. The vessel was filled twice or thrice in a
day. This juice was called tari. When fresh, it was sweet and if it was
distilled at night it was as pleasing to the taste as white wine but if it was
allowed to stand for sometime it turned sub-acid and inebriating,23 and
you feel it ferment in the stomach;24 if left in the sun for the whole day
its taste was altered to such an extent that it became heady, ill-relished
and unwholesome,25 but if taken early, it could produce advantages of
piercing medicinal drink that could cure maladies like the stone.26 In
terms of revenue, tari yielded a considerable amount during the Mughal
period.27 In Kashmir, the liquor that they prepared was called sir, which
was much stronger than bozah, prepared from bread and rice. The people
here mostly drank sir with their food, the oldest was considered to be the
best and when the ingredients were mixed, it was preserved in the jars
for two or three years, after which the scum was taken off and the liquor
was called achi which could be kept for as long as 10 years. It was harsh
and bitter in taste and since bhang was mixed with it, a mouthful was
20
Ibid.
21
Jagra is a coarse sugar made from the sap (not the rind) of various palms. It is
pleasant in taste and generally wholesome if taken moderately but most hurtful to body
and health. Ibid.: 441; Foster (ed.), Edward Terry, 161619, in Early Travels in India: 300.
22
Carre, The Travels of Abbé Carre, vol. I: 227.
23
Abul Fazl, Regarding Fruits, in Ain-i Akbari, vol. I: 75.
24
Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. I: 242.
25
Foster, Edward Terry, 161619, in Early Travels in India: 298.
26
Ibid.
27
Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. I: 128.
Narcotics as Aphrodisiacs
For European travellers, the consumption of opium as aphrodisiac in
pre-colonial India became a subject of satire, of occident versus the
orient, of cultural difference and cultural superiority. Expounding the
aphrodisiac powers of opium, Garcia DOrta and John Linschoten, for
instance, emphasised the differences in oriental and occidental lives,
passions, sense of pleasure and behaviour, in the sense that the Europeans
like the Indians were not irrational and disorderly when under the
intoxicating influence of opium. DOrta observed that the oriental used
opium to assist them in the gratification of lust and lewdness by
increasing their sexual power; some even took large quantities of opium
(though DOrta believed that even those accustomed to opium could not
take more than four or five pesos in weight) despite it being injurious,
producing drowsy and confused state and inflicting heavy addiction.
Citing the example of Gujarat, Bengal and Malabar Coast, he suggested
that both the rich and the poor consumed several doses of opium to
provoke lewdness though some also resorted to it as medical therapy.29
Invoking a sense of difference and yet similarities in oriental lives
but also pointing towards class hierarchy, DOrta narrated the case of a
native noble from Khurasan whom he knew and who everyday ate three
tolas (around 36 grams) of opium though he was a talented man, a great
scribe and a notary but he was always dozing or sleeping; yet if you put
him to business he would speak like a man of sound discretion. Being
rather judgemental, he added that it was impossible for any opium-eater
addicted to the drug to pass a whole day without it and if by some chance
they were unable to procure it, they were like moribund persons until
they obtained it.30 Linschoten too, commenting on the Indian habit of
28
Dwazda Sala Jahangiri, Wakiat-i Jahangiri, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol.
VI: 37071.
29
D Orta, Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India: 330.
30
Manrique, Travels, vol. I: 58.
using amfion, said that those who ate opium could not do without its
daily consumption otherwise he dieth and consumeth himselfe because
when they used opium they ate it daily at least 20 or 30 grains in weight
or more but if for foure or five dayes hee chanceth to leave it, he dieth
without faile; likewise he that hath never eaten it, and will venture at the
first to eate as much as those that dayley use it, it will surely kill him; for
I certainly believe it is a kind of poyson.31 Stressing on its aphrodisiac
appeal, he observed that the Indians used it most for lecherie; not simply
to provoke sleep but when they sleepe (they dreame) they see many
pleasant places and are in the company of goodly women. Warning
against the overuse of opium, Linschoten said that those who used opium
daily became still and sleepe and slow, both in words and workes so
that men know not how to deale with them.32
Many of Akbars nobles like Qazi Yaqub of Manikpur, who had been
Qazi-ul-Quzzat (the Chief Qazi) for several years, took aphrodisiac
electuaries like mercury in large quantities and preferred them over
other intoxicating and stimulating drugs.33 The Mughal emperors were
not far behind in this venture. Shahjahan, even at the age of 65, wanted
to enjoy himself like a youth and with this intent took different stimula-
ting drugs. These addictions had affected his health adversely and on
one occasion in 1657 CE, he was virtually on the verge of death, afflicted
by retention of urine. Ultimately he succumbed to no other cause but
the excessive use of aphrodisiacs, if the Italian traveller, Manucci, is to
be believed.34
Opium was just one of the aphrodisiacs; the other two that were also
in wide use were post and bhang. These drugs in phlegmatic persons
produced deep sleep, laughter and cheerfulness driving away all pangs
of depression. Articulating the sense of cultural difference, Manrique
alluded to the opium-eaters as barbarian and people ignorant of true
and sacred religion, who thought only of pleasures of the flesh, believing
that the highest pitch of human beautitude lies in them. Describing the
people and the life in Bengal during the seventeenth century, he observes
that the men were not generally speaking naturally much addicted to
31
Tiele (ed.), The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten, vol. II: 113.
32
Ibid.: 114.
33
Al-Badaoni, Muntakhab ut-Tawarikh, vol. III: 126.
34
Manucci, Storia Do Mogor, vol. I: 192, 240.
sexual intercourse but the women surpass them in this, and in order to
secure their services, employ various charms and drinks which they give
to the men. Such drugs and drinks if consumed excessively, in particular,
caused the death of men or at any rate make them mad or ill for life.35
Post also known as koknar36 was an infusion of opium and if it was taken
regularly for over a week, the person suffered from consistent cravings
for it, making him foolishly mad. The consumption of post increased
sexual power enormously but it also adversely affected the body, deprived
the person of physical strength and rendered him impotent after two or
three years, with little energy for any kind of activity.37
Goolees or ghola, yet another intoxicant, was made into small pellets
from bhang and opium, comprising strong drugs and spices. It had the
same effect as wine and to make merrie ... but more especialle to provoke
them to lust.38 Like opium, bhang also produced unconsciousness and
sapped intellectual abilities.
Wine, too, as Abul Fazl tells us in the context of Sultan Baz Bahadur
of Malwa, had left several persons wine-stained and disgraced,
immersed in bestial pleasures, and displaying a cause of increased
folly. Commenting on the social habits and patterns of the time, Abul
Fazl had observed that wine had been prescribed in small quantities
and at fixed times to suit the physical and constitutional capacity and the
temperament of a person and yet many indulged in wine without
distinguishing night from day or day from night.39
35
Manrique, Travels, vol. I: 60, 66.
36
Post or posto or poust is a Persian word that primarily means an outer covering, crust
or skin but was used to describe the extract or decoction made from the poppy seed. It was
a beverage made from the husks of white poppy and by crushing poppy heads and allowing
them to soak overnight in water. It was then strained and squeezed to get the drink that
was quite inebriating. Bernier, Travels: 10608.
37
Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia: 92; Manrique, Travels, vol. I: 59.
38
Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy, vol. II: 21718.
39
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. II: 211.
and lethal, producing adverse health conditions, and yet at times it was
considered to save lives, which made it a popular item of consumption
for its therapeutic values. Opium, in its primary effects medicinally,
is a stimulant and its secondary action narcotic, anodyne and anti-
spasmodic. The narcotic effects are mainly attributable to morphine,
which constitute 912 per cent of raw opium but Indian opium usually
has low percentage of morphine with narcotine being frequently present
in a larger amount.40 The narcotic opium was eaten in most parts of India
in the form of small pills, or a liquid was prepared by maceration in
water or opium infused in water or post and then drunk.41 Commenting
on the use of opium by the common people in the sixteenth century, who
perhaps perceived it as suitable and favourable to health, Abul Fazl
observed that the people of Mahoa gave their children opium to eat till
they were three years old. While speaking about the practice of doping
small children by the high and low, Abul Fazl suggested as if it was a
peculiar custom confined to Malwa but it was a much more widespread
practice.42
Bhang or the dried leaves and small stalks of hemp (Cannabis indica)
caused intoxication either by smoking or when eaten mixed into a
sweetmeat called majun. In Arabic, majun literally means kneaded
but the medical books call it an electuary, that is, a compound of
medicines kneaded with syrup into a soft mass, although it was sold in
the bazaars as an intoxicating confection of hemp leaves. The main
ingredients for making majun were ganja (hemp) leaves, milk, ghee,
poppy seeds, flowers of the thorn-apple (dhatura), the powder of nux
vomica and sugar.43 In some places like Bengal, although true hemp was
found in many places, little was used by the people except the seed oil as
medicine and an intoxicating ingredient which was often mixed with the
tobacco of hookah.44 On the occasion of Hindals marriage Humayun
had recommended the therapeutic value of majun to the young members
of the royal family. When they had expressed their desire to bathe in
40
Mokyr (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, vol. IV: 141; Watt,
Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vol. VI, Part I: 89.
41
Richards, Opium and the British Indian Empire: 37576.
42
Habib, The Agrarian System: 107.
43
Crooke (ed.), Hobson-Jobson: 539.
44
Hamilton, A Geographical, Statistical and Historical Description of Hindostan,
vol. I: 34.
cool tank water, Humayun had advised them that if they ate a pellet of
anise and a bit of comfit (majun), they could keep themselves warm and
skip the harmful effects of cool tank water. Anise was considered a remedy
for cold; and majun although an intoxicant was also taken as a preventive
against chill.45 It was around the consumption of narcotics and their
medicinal properties that authority and power were exerted even as it
revealed the pattern of life in the imperial household.
Providing details on the habits of addiction and intoxication of the
Mughal emperors and the court nobility, the Persian-language texts and
the travel accounts give several references to the many who had
succumbed to the effects of excessive use of narcotics. Narcotics
have been cited as a major source of declining health and mortality in
the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. It was Baburs obsessive
alcoholism and drug addiction that have been identified as the main cause
of his several illnesses and his alarming bed-ridden condition thrice,
before the middle of December in 1525 CE. Being a majuni, Babur
reveals in his memoirs that no other drug suited his body except majun.
During his journey to Gwalior in 1528 CE, he took opium to beat the
cold and keep him warm on the moonshine night (Erskine notes that
the Indians and the Persians consider moonshine as cold) and also as a
cure for ear-ache. But not able to tolerate opium, he developed opium
sickness, vomited a great deal and decided to eat majun to gain his
composure and tranquility. On an earlier occasion in 15191520 CE when
he suffered from consistent fever for 10 or 12 days, Mulla Khwaja gave
him narcissus mixed with wine but it had no impact and he had to ulti-
mately take majun. Babur also makes an amazing and rather envir-
onmentally disastrous confession! He threw some majun in water for
the fish which a few of them consumed.46 He gives us no rationale for
doing so: whether it was a step towards repentance or a superstitious
belief to cure or some sort of a panacea for the fish! Yet more significantly,
he gives no evidence of what happened to the fishdid they survive
and/or did the water turn into poison?
Hindals acute intoxication and excessive addiction are mentioned
in almost all texts. His worst lapses into sloth came from 1537 CE after
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. I: 399, 40506; Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. II: 608; Gulbadan
46
Begam, Humayun-Nama: 5.
which the decline in his health was rapid. Akbars opium-eating habit
was a matter of great concern when he was seriously ill in 1582 CE
and was bleeding internally. Both the Indian and Greek doctors were
summoned to prescribe treatment, although Akbar remained indifferent
to taking medicines; perhaps he considered opium and wine a more
reliable and an affirmative cure for his illness. Moreover, there was a
difference of opinion between the Indian and the Persian doctors on the
line of treatment for dysentery, from which the emperor was suffering.
The Indian doctors then did not prescribe laxatives as a remedy whereas
the Persian doctors argued incessantly in favour of aperients without
which they felt dysentery could not be cured. Ultimately it was the Greek
doctors who provided the cure, much to the surprise of those around him
since the emperor was an opium-eater and opium-eaters would rather
succumb than recover from such illnesses.47 In fact, opium-chewing and
drinking were a part of his daily routine. Alluding to Akbars drinking
propensities and intoxication Bartoli observes that he often fell asleep at
the religious discussions in the Ibadatkhana because of his
overindulgence in arrack and opium. There was perhaps only one
occasion during Akbars lifetime when he did not take opium, that is,
when he heard the news of Abul Fazls murder; he was so distressed and
disconsolate that he neither shaved nor took opium but spent his time
weeping and lamenting.48
Abul Fazl makes no reference to Akbars alcoholism or whether
drinking was a part of his diurnal activity but Badauni, yet another con-
temporary chronicler of Akbars period, tells us that the emperor per-
mitted wine-drinking and wine-bibbing but only for medicinal reasons
and for healing and strengthening the body and/or if prescribed by
the physicians rather than for a social gathering which was prone to
strife, disturbance and confusion. The emperor, in fact, laid down severe
punishments for excessive drinking, carousals, rows and disorderly
conduct. To maintain proper surveillance, he ordered the establishment
of a wine shop near the palace and placed it under the supervision of a
porters wife, who by birth belonged to the wine-selling class. A woman
placed in a supervisory position invokes the concept of masculinity and
femininity and cultural discrimination, that is, while a woman could serve
47
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. III: 579, 58384.
48
Wikaya-i Asad Beg, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 155.
and sell alcohol, she could not be found drinking it since that activity
belonged exclusively to the domain of men. The emperor also announced
a fixed tariff on wine, so that persons who wished to purchase wine as a
remedy for their ailments could do so by getting their names as well as
names of their forefathers registered with the clerk of the shop. This,
however, did not prevent deceit for there were many who gave fictitious
names to obtain wine. Although there is no way of substantiating
Badaunis narrative since Abul Fazl and other chroniclers are silent on
the issue, it clearly indicates that the emperors farman could be violated
and his authority quietly subverted on the issue of alcoholism. It is also
evident that Badauni disapproved of the alcoholic practices for religious
reasons especially since alcohol is considered impure in Islam. That
Badauni was upset by the situation he was put in or was a witness to
such anti-Islamic customs is apparent from his observation: In point of
fact, it was a shop opened for the benefit of drunkards and many believed
that swine-flesh formed a component part of wine but God knows.49
Describing the severities of intoxication and addiction to narcotics,
the sixteenth and the seventeenth century texts give innumerable examples
of nobles and royal princes succumbing to excessive drinking and/or
consumption of opium, with many of them dying of the disorder called
delirium tremens.50 The representation of power and authority can be
noticed in this context when Akbar tried to restrain and exhort his opium-
stricken alcoholic sons and nobles to abandon narcotics to protect them
from its injurious effects, withdraw them from the impurity of this
venomous and treacherous poison and compelled them to abstain from
the ruinous course of inebriety which could lead to complete debility.51
But his authority stood wasted and squandered when Sultan Murad
and Sultan Daniyal continued to indulge in excessive drinking and
remained inebriated. Murad consequently suffered from fits, became
completely insensible and succumbed to it. Daniyal unheeding the counsel
of his father plotted with his personal servants and organised hunting
expeditions to strategise the wine sessions. The foolish sensualists
49
Al-Badaoni, Muntakhab ut-Tawarikh, vol. II: 31011; also see, Chatterjee, The
Lives of Alcohol in Pre-colonial India.
50
Chatterjee, The Lives of Alcohol in Pre-colonial India: 201.
51
Takmila-i Akbarnama of Inayatu-lla, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 1078,
112, 114.
carried wine in gun barrels (the rust of the iron caused by gunpowder
dissolved into the double-distilled spirit which made it poisonous) and
entrails of cows to fulfil the princes demand for wine. Excessive
drinking had disastrous impact on his health: he was afflicted with
physical weakness; his body constitution failed; he got severe body aches
and his brain became entirely upset; his veins and membranes were
benumbed; his trembling limbs had lost their functions and he had
completely lost his appetite, and no other word but wine passed from
his lips. Confined to bed in this state for almost 40 days he died longing
for wine in March 1605 CE.52 Both Murad and Daniyal died of delirium
tremens. Similar was the fate of Rustum (son of Sultan Murad) who had
died in 1598 CE. Acute addiction and intoxication had inflicted him with
epilepsy; he could not digest his food; his abdominal pains were severe;
he was constantly febrile and his strength and senses completely
diminished.53 Mirza Hakim (half-brother of Akbar), the governor of
Kabul, succumbed to his several diseases contracted through wine-
bibbing in 1585 CE.54 Kaikubad, son of Mirza Hakim, had also acquired
the pernicious habit of indulging in intoxicating drugs. To seclude him
from corrupt society and guard him more stringently, Akbar had sent
him into confinement in the fort of Ranthambor in the custody of Raja
Jagannath.55
There are also several instances of Akbars distinguished nobles and
close aides who had developed medical disorders due to excessive
drinking and had succumbed to them. Yusuf Muhammad Khan (eldest
son of Atgah Khan, husband of Akbars favourite foster-mother), a
mansabdar of 5,000, had triumphed on many occasions against the
rebellions and conspiracies of Zaman Shah but he could not restrain
himself from heavy addiction to wine despite developing innumerable
health complications and died. Similarly Mirza Jani Beg, the governor
of Thatta and a mansabdar of 3,500, was held in high esteem by Akbar
52
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. III: 1254. It may be observed that although Abul Fazl
had died in 160102, the Akbar Nama was continued after his death by Inayatullah and
was brought to a close with Akbars own death later in 1605.
53
Ibid.: 1125.
54
Tabakat-i Akbari of Nizamu-d din Ahmad Bakshi, cf. Elliot, The History of India,
vol. V: 449.
55
Takmila-i Akbarnama of Inayatu-lla, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 111.
for his pleasing and courteous manners, his religious views and political
wisdom but he had no control over his passion and fondness for wine
since his youth. Although he did not indulge in excesses, his habitual
drinking undermined his health inflicting him with delirium (sarsam)
of which he died ultimately.56 Shaikh Ismail and Shaikh Jamal (his
sister was in the harem of Akbar), both mansabdars in the service of
Akbar, were obsessive drinkers, suffered from grievous ailments and
died. There were some exceptions in the sense that many of the nobles
were addicted to wine but in moderation and generally used it for
medicinal purposes.57
Challenged in his power and legitimacy to assert authority and perhaps
anxious at the loss of control because of the unrestrained inebriation
of his two sons and his mansabdars, Akbar yet again attempted to con-
stitute his authority when he tried to discipline Jahangirs alcoholic ways.
Jahangir, it may be noted, was known for his cups of wine and drunken
state from the age of 15. Before that he had tasted it occasionally, at the
initiative of his mother and wet-nurses who had given him wine as a
remedy for a few infantile ailments or at the behest of his father, who
made him drink a tola of arrack mixed with rosewater as a cure for
cough. Jahangir recounts in his autobiography that he was first introduced
to wine as a stress-buster at his fathers military camp pitched near
Attock, situated on Nil-ab (river Indus) to fight against the Yusufzai
Afghans. He reports that when he was weary and tired and had suffered
many mishaps during a hunting expedition, he was advised by one of the
gunmen, Ustad Shah Quli, that if he had a cup of wine it would relieve
him of the fatigue. Reflecting on his subsequent life and how wine shaped
it, Jahangir wrote that he drank a piyala (cup) and a half small bottle of
yellow wine which he found sweet in taste, pleasant and its quality
agreeable and since then he took to drinking wine that increased from
day to day until the wine made from grapes ceased to intoxicate him. He
then got addicted to arrack and in the course of nine years his potions
increased to 20 piyalas of double distilled spirits, of which he drank 14
during the day and the remainder at nightits weight was equal to six
Hindustani sers equivalent to one and a half maund of Iran.58
56
Abul Fazl, Ain-i Akbari, vol. I: 340, 391.
57
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. III: 70607.
58
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 30708; Dwazda Sala Jahangiri, Wakiat-i Jahangiri,
cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 34142.
59
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 30809.
60
Narrative by William Hawkins in Purchass Pilgrims, 1626. Printed by William
Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, Fourth Edition (First Edition, 1614), London; also, Roe,
The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe: 86.
61
See Chatterjee, The Lives of Alcohol in Pre-colonial India.
62
Dwazda Sala Jahangiri, Wakiat-i Jahangiri, cf. Elliot, The History of India,
vol. VI: 357, 38081.
63
Ikbal Nama-i Jahangiri of Mutamad Khan, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 435.
64
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. II: 66, 110. Also see Divyabhanusinh, The End of a Trail: 42.
65
Ikbal Nama-i Jahangiri of Mutamad Khan, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. VI: 429.
66
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 141.
67
Ibid., vol. II: 43.
68
Ibid., vol. I: 134.
69
Ibid., vol. II: 218.
70
Ibid., vol. I: 377.
his farzand: son), who after his serious illness had abandoned wine, not
keen to defile the fringe of his life with wine.71
71
Ibid., vol. II: 165.
72
Malfuzat-i Timuri or Tuzak-i Timuri, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. III: 444.
73
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. I: 16.
of Pich and Nijr-au and a type of beer called bir buza made from rice,
millet or barley, largely consumed by the people of Bajaur, Sawad, Kunar
and its vicinity. He observes that the kafir wine was mostly poor, thin
and usually diluted with water but if kept for two or three years it became
clear and sometimes strong. He also found some sort of beer surprisingly
exhilarating but bitter and distasteful. This compelled him to abandon
the idea of drinking beer while in Bajaur; instead he ate majun.74 This
entire description reveals Baburs anxiety to know the ways of the people
of Kabul but then his ultimate decision to eat majun reflects the cultural
difference between him and the common men of Kabul. Eating majun
was an addiction with Babur and being intoxicated gave him such intense
pleasure that he took it whether the occasion was the beginning of an
expedition or a halt or a celebration of a victory or a wine party or any
other pretext. If he found a place charming or blooming with flowers or
if the weather was good, he sat down and ate confection (majun) like
he did during his expedition to Sawad against the Yusufzai Afghans in
January 1519 CE. It was around majun that he shed royal restrictions,
came close to his nobles and junior officials but not without making his
power and legitimacy conspicuous. Describing his march to Sawad, Babur
wrote that when Shah Mansur Yusufzai brought a few well-flavoured
and intoxicating confections (kamali), he ate only one portion and gave
the rest to the others; nonetheless, it produced such remarkable
intoxication that at the evening namaz when the Begs gathered for counsel,
he was not able to go out.75 There does not appear to be an element of
regret in this statement but conveys his assertion and enforcement of
authority even as he revelled in the company of his nobles. He reportedly
ate majun even while riding around the fields to see the harvest (khizan)
or if the crops were good, and he felt happy while his companions who
were fond of wine organised drinking bouts; they then sat under trees
and began to drink and kept up the party till bed time prayers.76
Many a drinking party is recorded in Baburs memoirs with as much
gusto as his battles and negotiations. While this may reflect his intensity
for all forms of narcotics, it was also probably a strategy to garner support
and curb dissent against a practice that was prohibited by Islamic law.
74
Ibid.: 21213, 423.
75
Ibid.: 37273, 410, 416.
76
Tuzak-i Babari or Wakiat-i Babari, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. IV: 22526.
77
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. I: 393, 406, 416; Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. II: 683.
78
Tuzak-i Babari or Wakiat-i Babari, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. IV: 224.
79
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. I: 38788.
80
Khan, Tabaqat-i Baburi: 10; Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. II: 44748, 450, 461, 467, 509.
81
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. I: 38586.
soldier who had not committed the sin (irtqab) of wine and was in
obedience (taib), to taste wine. Reprimanding him affectionately for not
drinking, Babur invoked the example of Qutluq Khwaja Kukuldash who
had long ceased to be a soldier, became a dervish, was old with a white
beard but consumed wine at all parties. Using coercion but apparently
to convince Darwish-i Muhammad, Babur said, Qutluq Khwajas
beard shames you! He a dervish and an old man always drinks wine, you
a soldier, a young man, your beard black, never drink! What does it
mean? Soon, however, Babur changed his stance in a bid to recover his
status, claiming that it was just a joke, that it was not his custom to force
wine on a non-drinker and that he should not feel compelled to drink.
But unlike the emperor, the nobles like Khwaja Muhammad Ali left no
choice for Darwish-i Muhammad and pressed and pressed him till he
drank.82 It could be that the nobles carried out the compulsion to drink
wine to please Babur and win his patronage; it was probably a way of
registering unstinted support to the emperor and enforcing obedience,
even if it was with regard to alcohol.
Alcohol then became an important factor in shaping the attitudes
and behaviour of the court nobility. This prompted the emperor to seek
unusual indulgence at wine and majun parties and at convivial assemblies
and yet appear introspective and religious and spiritual and make
intermittent announcements of renunciation. Babur proclaimed, as I
intend when forty years old to abstain from wine and as I am now some-
what less than one year of being forty, I drink wine most copiously.
However, when 40 arrived, there appeared no signs of the implementa-
tion of this sage resolution; regular wine and majun parties continued
unabated till 1527 CE, when he was again struck with a sudden fit of
penitence and rigorous reform.83 And this time he chose his politically
crucial battle against Rana Sanga to make a public promulgation that he
had decided to cease the sin and abandon wine, although it is apparent
from his description that for him wine was the sin and not majun because
even as he gave up drinking wine he did not forsake confection. Many of
his courtiers also declared their abstinence at the same assembly, since
virtue was to follow the religion of the king. Subsequently a universal
decree was issued throughout the Mughal Empire that no one shall partake
82
Ibid.: 406.
83
Tuzak-i Babari or Wakiat-i Babari, cf. Elliot, The History of India, vol. IV: 226.
of strong drink or engage in its manufacture nor sell it nor buy it nor
convey it or fetch it. The farman warned, Beware of touching it. These
instructions were given quoting Surah II from Quran.84 Religious ardour
and spirituality seemed to have overcome the emperor. But the regret of
renunciation was equally enormous. It appears that Babur longed and
craved for a wine party infinitely and sometimes the craving was so
much that it brought tears to his eyes. He continued to eat majun with
greater intensity and indulged in opium more excessively since they were
outside the fold of sin to gratify his heart and seek cheer and comfort
in his laborious days.85
Babur may have put the fear of God and banned wine-drinking and
wine-bibbing in the later years of his life but these injunctions hardly
inhibited or aroused any apprehensions in the minds of his progeny.
Wine a reason for dissipation of authority continued to provide both
intoxication and joy and also facilitated conspiracies. For example, when
Mirza Kamran heard of the death of Babur he left Kandahar in charge
of Mirza Askari to see how he could advance his political interests. At
that time Mir Yunus Ali was the governor of Lahore. Mirza Kamran
along with Karacha Beg planned a wine-strategy to acquire Lahore.
Mir Yunus Ali was fed copiously with wine rendering him completely
numb and senseless so that he could be put in confinement and Kamran
could occupy Lahore. 86 Fixing class hierarchies and asserting his
sovereign rights as the emperor, Humayun, an avid tiryaqi (opium-eater),
evolved a pattern in how he would consume opium. He made pellets
(habb) of opium for seven days, wrapped them in paper, gave them to
his bodyguards (who would in return feed him) and instructed them
that this is all the opium we shall eat; he often ate the pellets with
rosewater. It appears from Abul Fazls account that Humayun had
drastically cut the intake close to his death and was left with just enough
pellets that lasted till his death.87 Akbar too, like his father, was an
obsessive opium-eater. That he constituted his authority around narcotics
is apparent from the weighing ceremonyperformed twice a year
according to lunar and solar calendaras thanksgiving for the divine
84
Babur, Babur-Nama, vol. II: 55255.
85
Ibid.: 648, 650, 660, 670.
86
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. I: 290.
87
Ibid.: 654.
88
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. III: 579.
89
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 8, 20, 168, 237, 379.
90
Ibid.: 30810; Dwazda Sala Jahangiri, Wakiat-i Jahangiri, cf. Elliot, The History
of India, vol. VI: 34243.
that the waqianavis was in love with the khwasan and the khwasan was
attached to the khidmatgar.91 It could be that while stupefaction and
intoxication was permissible in the court, any kind of same-sex sexual
overtones, which were against the moralist and patriarchal societal norms,
were not tolerated. However, though Jahangir tried to get rid of his
addictive habits or bring them under control, it did not prevent him
from forbidding all sorts of intoxicating drinks, sharab or rice-spirit
(dilbaharaexhilarating drink), in his empire. He banned both the selling
and making of it. He also, perhaps emulating Shah Abbas of Persia,
prohibited the smoking of tobacco, because of its adverse effects on the
physical and mental health of the consumer. These farmans may have
been inspired by his occasional guilt and spiritual and religious impulses.
For instance, a year before his accession, Jahangir decided that he would
not drink wine on the eve of Friday since those hours were associated
with piety, purity, the learned, dervishes and recluses.92 Fixing categories
and separating the royal from the commoner, Jahangir may have
disallowed the use of alcohol in public but he had different rules of
intoxication for his son Khurram. Notwithstanding the damaging impact
of opium and wine on his body and health, Jahangir did not want Khurram
to be deprived of the pleasures of intoxication. Khurram apparently had
not tasted wine till the age of 24. Urging him to indulge in it, Jahangir
advised that kings and kings sons have drunk wine..., gave him
the permission to drink on all festive occasions but in moderation for
wise men do not consider it right to drink to such an extent as to destroy
the understanding, and it is necessary that from drinking only profit should
be derived. Despite such persuasions, it was with great difficulty that
Khurram agreed to drink.93
The consumption patterns of alcohol and opium indicate that authority
could be constituted and also dissipated around them. Aurangzeb had
attempted to curb the widely prevalent social habit of addiction and
intoxication by stipulating that Quran prohibited Muslims from drinking
any intoxicating spirits, for him it was reprehensible to be absorbed in
worldly affairs and disregard religious matters.... His sons and grandsons,
however, were persistent in not only disobeying the Quranic injunctions94
91
Abul Fazl, Akbar Nama, vol. III: 1242.
92
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 8, 20,168.
93
Ibid.: 30607.
94
Rukaat-i Alamgiri: 15, 86, 12223.
but also subtly eroded the power and legitimacy of the emperors
command. Whatever the apprehensions and religious limitations of
Aurangzeb, intoxication for pleasure and entertainment continued
unabated.
Apart from reflecting on the formulation of power and authority
around narcotics, the travel accounts are particularly significant in
pointing towards hierarchies and class differences over its consumption.
Bernier has suggested that opium was commonly taken by Indian soldiers
on the eve of the battle to give them more courage. Noticing this habit
largely amongst the Rajputs, he was astonished to see them swallow
large quantities of opium, sometimes double the dose of their normal
intake on the day of the battle so that the drug so animates or rather
inebriates them that they rush into the thickest of the combat insensible
of danger. He further added that it is an interesting sight to see them on
the eve of a battle, with the fumes of opium in their heads, embrace and
bid adieu to another, as if certain of death. It was around opium that
Bernier constructed the heroism of the Rajputs and believed that it was
for this reason that the Mughal emperors recruited the Rajputs as their
omrahs and appointed them to important commands in their armies.95
Opium also served to build and consolidate relationships in the courts of
the Rajput rajas, who customarily offered opium to their visitors as a
sign of peace and friendship and also presented it at ceremonial visits
and religious entertainments. To meet their increased requirement of
opium, the Rajputs as great consumers, accustomed to the use of opium
from an early age, began the cultivation of opium in Rajputana by the
end of the eighteenth century.96
Invoking hierarchies and class differences around the consumption
of opium, it was observed that in contrast to the royal use of opium by
the Rajput rajas, the labourer and the working class of Surat used it as a
stimulant and the errand boys before setting out on long journeys took a
portion of opium, which they think fortifies them, and by this means
will keep on running and dozing as it were at the same time with their
eyes open and without feeling the fatigue of the way. As they ran with
dizzy heads, they did not as a rule answer any one who ask where they
95
Bernier, Travels: 3940.
96
Wright, James Augustus Grant and the Gorakhpur Opium, 17891796: 1.
come from or where they are going but hurry straight on....97 Craftsmen,
too, consumed opium but for a peculiar reason, namely, to steady their
hands and boost their concentration. But while opium could be taken
prior to daring and arduous activities or for therapeutic or medicinal
purpose or simply for inebriation, it was also sometimes taken to
overcome spasms of hunger. Another unusual use of opium was the
feeding of opium to an ass to be eaten by a lion before being hunted by
the Mughal emperor. The opiate ass, intended to produce the soporific
effect, was the last meal of a lion before it was caught in a large net and
then hunted by the emperor.98
In several instances, narcotics became the vehicle of authority. John
Fryer and Peter Mundy recount occasions when post, an infusion of
opium, was given by the Mughal emperors to the royal princes and other
state prisoners confined in the fortress of Gwalior. These were such
prisoners who could not be executed for political and strategic reasons
but the emperor could still assert his power even if it amounted to mis-
use of it, to inflict a silent slow death by doses of post.99 The milk or the
decoction of the milky juice of poppy, that is post, was given to the
prisoners to render them physically weak and brain dead. It was a slow
poison towards starvation, sapping the consumer of the appetite for solid
foods. Bernier observes, it was a drink that emaciates the wretched
victims, who lose their strength and intellect by slow degrees, become
torpid and senseless and at length die. Generally, a large cup of the bev-
erage was given to the prisoner early in the morning and they were not
given anything to eat until the drink was swallowed; the system was to
let the prisoner die of hunger.100 Tavernier traces the system of slow
poisoning by post to the reign of Shah Jahan. All such princes and nobles
deemed to be a political threat were ordered to be imprisoned by Shah
Jahan in the Gwalior fort, given post, left to die a slow death but with
dignity without being deprived of their perquisites. To quote Tavernier,
he allowed them to live and enjoy their revenue. His son Aurangzeb
did just the contrary, that is, when he sent any noble or prince to the
Grose, A Voyage to the East Indies, vol. I: 122; Moreland, Jahangirs India: 62.
97
99
Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia: 92; Mundy, The Travels of Peter
Mundy, vol. II: 247.
100
Bernier, Travels: 10608.
101
Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. I: 57.
102
Bernier, Travels: 107.
103
Crooke (ed.), Hobson-Jobson: 298.
knuckles of his fingers. Myself and one more sat sweating for the space
of three hours in exceeding measure and they had closely fastened all
doors and windows that none of us might run out into the street or any
person come in to behold any of our humors thereby to laugh at us.104
Emphasising on class differences and hierarchies, Abbé Carre puts
the coolies in a separate frame to comment on their intoxication through
tari, arrack and tobacco. He suggests that apart from all else, they virtually
survived on these narcotics and when they drank arrack in excess, they
were uncontrollable and behaved like madmen. His observations were
derived from the examples of eight coolies (six for his palanquins and
two for his luggage) who he had hired during his visit to Chandgala
(probably Chandgad), the headquarters of a subdivision with the same
name in the Belgaum district. He paid them three rupees each without
any obligation to provide them with food, to reach him to Bijapur. While
the coolies carried some rice and dried fish for the journey and the
villagers provided them with fruits, milk and millet on the way, their
greatest support came from tobacco, which they smoked constantly, so
that they devoured more smoke than anything else and besides water,
they drank tari, arrack and kanji (boiled water with little rice).105
All forms of hierarchies, class and cultural differences can be best
illustrated through gender relations. There was wide gender discrimin-
ation and gender inequality on the issue of narcotics. While its consump-
tion is seen as the privilege of men, women are portrayed as objects of
desire, seductive and distracting. It is evident from the convivial assem-
blies organised by Babur that he was addicted to wine and women and
all the fashionable pleasures of courts; whenever he wanted to make
merry, he filled a fountain with wine, sat down with his friends to
drink freely and feast his eyes on the daughters of beauty who danced
before him.106 Women were confined within patriarchal hierarchy, were
expected to be submissive and not aggressive even if their men were
ardent tiryaqi as it is noticed in the case of Humayun. Humayun was
mostly so doped that he had no time for marital obligations. When Bega
Begum (popularly called Haji Begum though Gulbadan Begum called
104
Manrique, Travels, vol. I: 59.
105
Carre, The Travels of Abbé Carre, vol. I: 22627.
106
Dow, The History of Hindostan, vol. II: 136.
her Bega Begum) complained to Humayun that he had not visited her for
a long time, Humayun considered her questioning as not just a violation
of his paramount authority but also his masculine privilege of consuming
opium. He reportedly reprimanded her, I am an opium-eater. If there
should be delay in my comings and goings, do not be angry with me.
Rather write to me a letter and say: whether it pleases you to come or
whether it pleases you not to come....107 If some women dared to cross
the limits of femininity and proscribed patriarchal moral values and
womanly virtues, they were categorised as disgraced. Tavernier writes
that during the Mughal period, considerable revenue was derived from
tari because of its large consumption by public women.108 Some women
are reported to have eaten opium but not for intoxication or pleasure or
entertainment like their male counterparts but to express grief and to
die, thereby sustaining the cultural hegemonic order, with no subversion
of the patriarchal system. Had they behaved otherwise, the texts would
have recorded them differently, perhaps as public women. Jahangirs
first wife (popularly known as Shah Begum), upset by the behaviour of
her son Khusrau and the misconduct of her brother Madho Singh, killed
herself by swallowing tiryaq.109 In yet another instance, a concubine of
Lal Kalawant (a noble) committed suicide by consuming opium when
she heard of the nobles death.110 When Jalaluddin Masuds (a mansabdar
under Jahangir) condition worsened because of excessive addiction to
opium and his death appeared inevitable, his mother consumed opium
and died a few minutes after his death.111 These patterns around women
and consumption of opium indicate that women became the site for
debate and reformulation of tradition. In other words, what was important
was not women but tradition.112
107
Gulbadan Begam, Humayun-Nama: 29.
108
Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. I: 128.
109
The Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, vol. I: 5556.
110
Ibid.: 150.
111
Ibid.: 141.
112
See Mani, Contentious Traditions.
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