Samadhi of Raskhan

प्रेम-प्रेम सब कोउ कहत, प्रेम न जानत कोय।
जो जन जानै प्रेम तो, मरै जगत क्‍यौं रोय।।

‘Everybody says: "Love! Love!" but nobody knows Love’, 
If a person knows Love, why would the world weep?’

While growing up, I was really fond of a specific part of school curriculum, the one that focussed on importance of literature. English and Hindi literature have been a huge part of my school life as I doted over the literary pieces in both these languages. But today, when I am writing this article in English, it really pains me to say that somewhere on the path of this life, the bias of world towards English took over my love for Hindi literature and it was left behind. However, there is a comfort in knowing that some literary works that I read a long time ago had made a lasting impact on me and I can’t ever forget them even if I tried, the lines written above is among one of them. These lines are a part of the poem known as Prem Vatika which was written by a sixteenth century poet who has been greatly acknowledged for his creations and is known by the name of Raskhan.

Although these lines have been at the back of my mind, I don’t remember the whole composition of which they are a part of and over time I had also forgotten about importance of Raskhan’s literary works, until two years ago. Back in 2019, when the world was still sane enough and traveling was a part of our lives, I got a chance to visit the samadhi of Raskhan. Presently the samadhi is located in between the settlement of Gokul and Mahavan and is accessible via old Gokul-Mahavan Road. Starting from Delhi we arrived Gokul in three and a half hours and drove down the Gokul Barrage Road. Taking the old Gokul-Mahavan Road which passes through the outer fringes of the settlement, I was introduced to the countryside of Braj which mainly constitutes agricultural lands and riverine landscape. In between all the agricultural lands, there exists a green area near Raman Reti with large shaded trees. This green area is the home to the samadhi of Raskhan and is situated to the northern side of Yamuna River.

After entering the complex, one forgets the outer world due to the dense vegetation that blankets this place. In complete contrast to its surroundings, the complex has an undulating topography, a reminder how the original landscape of the region must have been before the land was dug up flat for agricultural purposes. After walking for a couple of minutes on the designated pathway, one arrives in a clearing where the samadhi is seen on an elevated land.

The samadhi has a square plan and is symmetrical on all sides. The whole structure is raised on a plinth and is accessible from the southern side via steps. All sides of the plinth has rectangular panels in red sandstone and a plinth protection. In the middle of the structure there is grave stone which is worshipped by the local community.

It is a trabeated structure where the roof is supported by sandstone columns; one located at each corner with two columns in middle of all sides. Above the capital of these columns, there are carved decorative sandstone brackets on all four sides which help in supporting the roof and projected chhajja. Presence of an octagonal parapet suggests that there was a shallow dome on top which might have deteriorated in the course of time and is now covered with flat concrete roof supported on two iron girders. Like the plinth, all sides of the octagonal parapet has decorative rectangular panels. In terms of construction, the raised plinth is constructed in lakhori brick in lime mortar with red sandstone cladding.

In addition to the samadhi, there are various other gravestones in the complex, some of which are in fair condition while others have completely deteriorated. Also, to the north-eastern side of this complex, there is another structure similar to Raskhan’s samadhi and is known as tomb of Taj Bibi. Other important sites in the vicinity are Raman Reti, Sri Udasin Karshni Ashram, and Brahmanda Ghat.

After visiting the site, I got a glimpse of the importance of Raskhan in the literary world by the samadhi that has been built in his memory, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know about him beside the few lines that I remembered or the memorial that I have visited, so I researched about him. There are only few reliable sources available today that tells about his life and his works, a gist of which can be read below.

Early life of Raskhan is shrouded in mystery as scholars disagree on the year and place of his birth. The widely accepted notion about his birth year is the one proposed by Mishra Bandhu which says that Raskhan was born in 1558 A.D. and died in 1628 A.D. On the subject of the place of his birth, most of the scholars agree that he was born in the village of Pihani in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh.

Regarding his name, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, a Hindi novelist and respected literary historian had mentioned that the real name of Raskhan was Sayyid Ibrahim and Khan was his title. He also mentions that Raskhan had spent his childhood and youth in luxury as he was the son of a jagirdar who lived near Delhi. However, it is safe to say that there is no authentic information about Raskhan’s real name, year and place of birth, family, and lineage.

Sometime in his youth, Raskhan encountered the path of Krishna Bhakti and embarked on it without having a second thought. There are various stories of this encounter as well; one mentions that Raskhan was once travelling to Vrindavan with his Sufi teacher where he fell unconscious and dreamed about Krishna. He took it as a sign and lived in Vrindavan till his last breath. One of the other stories mentions that he fell in love with a proud woman and once while reading Bhagwat Purana he was greatly impressed by the unselfish love of gopis for Krishna. This left a huge impact on him which enabled him to leave the woman and travel to Vrindavan.

Howsoever he might have encountered the path of Krishna Bhakti and ended up in Vrindavan, it became his life. To learn more about Krishna and his teachings, Raskhan became a disciple of Goswami Vithalnathji. Raskhan spent the rest of his life in Braj, mostly in Vrindavan, Gokul, and Mahavan. He devoted his entire life to Krishna Bhakti and attained an honourable place among the devotees of Krishna, despite belonging to a different religion. All of his verses have been written in Brajbhasha which helped them to reach a wider audience. Some of his most famous works are Prem Vatika, Sujana Raskhan, Danalila, and the Astayama.

It would also be worthwhile to mention that like Raskhan, Krishna Bhakti attracted a number of Muslim devotees who also expressed their love and devotion in Brajbhasa and it became a part of Indian Sufism. The love between Krishna and gopis is symbolized as being similar to the devotion of a Sufi to God. In this form of Krishna Bhakti, poets like Raskhan were able to achieve two things; first was bringing together the members of two faiths by writing on a subject that appealed to both. Secondly, since the verses were written in local languages it helped in the dissemination of ideas to a wider population.

Today, when the citizens of this world are fighting wars based on religion and caste, it is necessary to remember authors and poets like Raskhan whose works has united two different faiths to an eternity.

Sources:

1. Bureau, FPJ. 2015. Raskhan: The poet devotee of Lord Krishna. May 17.
2. Sikand, Yoginder. 2002. “Ras Khan: A Medieval Krishnaite Sufi.” Outlook: The Fully Loaded Magazine, April 16.

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