Anarkali and Prince Saleem's love story. A fact or a myth?
(rizwan zaidi, Faisalabad)
While the magnificent buildings built of grain are adorned with dazzling elements of marquetry and craftsmanship, they also contain hundreds of stories of various human emotions such as 'hate', 'love', 'envy', 'revenge', 'justice' and 'conspiracy' ? The most famous love story is Anarkali which is immortalized by the spirit of true love. The love story of Anarkali and Prince Saleem has turned into a never-ending debate. Historians and people have very different views. - In the history of Urdu drama, Imtiaz Ali Taj's creation of the drama "Anar Kali" has gained popularity. The play was first published in 1932. Since then, several editions have been published and the play remains popular. In India, a film based on the story of Anarkali, "Mughal Azam" was made which was very much liked by the moviegoers. Anarkali, by its very nature, is a romantic tale whose true source has so far been uncovered by no solid historical facts or documentary evidence. Noor Jahan and Jahangir's pigeons are a matter that never existed but people still call it Kalnqsh Fi Aljar. The whole story of Anar Kali is full of events that never came into being. Imtiaz Ali Taj himself has expressed his concerns about the reality of the play and clarified its mythological status, considering it to be in conflict with historical events. The Anar Kali Fortress incident is said to have taken place in 1599. William Finch, a European traveler who arrived in Lahore in 1618, painstakingly mentions this tragedy in his memoirs. He tried his best to discredit the Mughal emperor Akbar through this fabricated incident. He did not spare any effort in insulting, humiliating, ridiculing, and disrespecting Akbar. Then, in 1618, another European traveler, Edward Terry, came to Lahore. In fact, it was a conspiracy that was constantly being pursued. Four years later, in 1622, Herbert, another tourist from Europe, narrated the story in his own words. Yet no one listened to these baseless allegations. Serious readers of literature in those days never considered such vulgar statements worthy of attention.
For two hundred years the people of the subcontinent remained ignorant of this story, and no independent historian mentions it. Noor u din Jahangir did not mention this anywhere in Tazak Jahangiri. Prominent historians of the time, Daghestani and Khafi Khan, who also observed the minor slips of Akbar and Jahangir, did not mention the story anywhere. This shows that this whole story is just a reflection of imagination.