THIS book by the author, whose family hails from Iran for generations, show that he must be well versed in Persian language and why not since he was brought up in Iran. He says that with the advent of Mughals, Persian became the court language. Emperor Aurangzeb chose Persian as the weapon for spreading his religion. As a result, Persian language spread far and wide and reached Punjab. It was but natural for Guru Gobind Singh to learn the language and he became a scholar in Persian language which he used to spread his beliefs. His composition Zafarnamah was a great literary experiment.
During Mughal rule, the Indian soil became red with blood when Guru Teg Bahadur had to sacrifice his life and so did his mother and son. When Islam over-ran the Iran of Parsis, no force could withstand the onslaught and the Parsis fled from the land of their birth. It was only the Sikhs of India who stood ready to confront any attack from Islam. Seeing the plight of the nation, Guru Gobind Singh, who founded the Khalsa panth, wrote a great poem addressed to Aurangzeb in Persian language. On reading the poem one gets to know of Guru Gobind Singh'sviews on two subjects?on the nation'splight and the fanatical views of Aurangzeb.
Since the principal theme of Zafarnamah is politics, the political scene, its fall into deep morass, dirt and filth have been so exposed that it appears like an absolutely real drama being enacted in front of your eyes. Zafarnamah means the ?letter of victory?. On one page the author writes:
?Oh Aurangzeb,
your oath,
your duplicity
are unbelievable,
undoubtedly deplorable
just as your promise on God (Khuda) was no less false.
All was deception in God'sname.
God is great but the only great God for you is Khuda.?
He continues:
?No faith,
not even a wee bit;
no belief,
not even an iota
is possible when one sees
that dramatic deception
by your clan of soldiers
where both the soldiers and their leader
are submerged in the mire of falsehood!?
Since it is not possible to translate the verse and to maintain the flavour of the original, all that the reviewer can suggest to the readers is to go through the book and savour for oneself the picture of the country and its people during Aurangzeb'srule.
(Hardeep Publication, 303/4, Guru Nanak Enclave, Race Course, Dehradun, Uttarakhand.)
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