The pride of Iran

"I praise the holy Creator, who converts dust into those who can speak and see; who through a small ant reduces a ferocious lion to helplessness and who gives power to a mosquito over a brave elephant; through Thou this world gets greatness and its lowest depth. I do not know who Thou art; whatever Thou art, Thou art.” Though the cadence of the original Persian stanza of Abuol Qasem Mansur (better known by his pen name, Fer­dowsi) may be infinitely more beautiful, Capt Hormaz­diar Desai’s fine translation encapsulates for us the wide, freewheeling concept of life that informs the master craftsman and his verse.

To celebrate Ferdowsi’s epic creation, the Shahna­meh (SN), the Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) in Bombay and the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) em­barked on a three-day all-India seminar (November 9-11, 2001), where 19 scholars presented papers examining the multifaceted impact of the SN on the hearts and minds of the poet’s contemporaries and the generations that followed.

"In the course of history... some figures have not been confined to their own geographical territory and they have moved beyond their time and undoubtedly Ferdowsi was one of them,” remarked Issa Rezazadeh, the cultural counselor at the IRI embassy in New Delhi, in his inaugural address. He referred to Ferdowsi’s pre­sentation of the idea that "history is nothing more than a transformation of constant and similar values and events.”

We find not only history and mythology on reading the SN, said Rezaza­deh; we are reading "the book of our own life,” of the symbols and values around us. All the characters of the SN symbolize values: Faridoon is the symbol of benevolent wisdom; we need the courage of Rostam in our difficult and hard times; Toos is a personage consumed by jealousy... "Go through the SN. Look among the characters for the values of daily life. It makes the SN fresh,” he advised.

Remarking on the "manifestation of excellence of two important centers of civilization,” IRI consul general in Bombay, Mahdi Honardoost commented on the cross references between the Vedas and the Gathas, the Maha­bha­rata and the SN, noting examples of cultural bonds between India and Iran. "Ferdowsi reminds the readers of the ancient cultural impact of Zoroastrian­ism, of the liaison between Zoroastrianism and Islam,” he noted.

Director of the Culture House of the IRI Ali Fuladi termed the bonding between his institution and the KRCOI that had resulted in the hosting of the seminar at the KRCOI’s J. J. Modi Hall as "not merely friendship but old common cultural heritage.” The Indian intellectuals’ acceptance of Persian, which became an official language of India from about the 11th century AC to the mid 19th century, had led to "the birth of its daughter, Urdu,” said Fuladi. But the prevalence of Persian itself was based on the citadel of the SN which revived the glories of ancient Persia, gave life to the language of the people which had been suppressed and denigrated by its Arab rulers and fanned the flame of "nobility and freedom” among the Iranian people in their search for human values.

Prof Sharif Husain Qasemi, Delhi University’s head of the Persian department, provided the keynote ad­dress. He referred to the admixture of history, mythol­ogy, folklore and tradition that constitutes the SN and advised his listeners to refrain from investigating the authenticity of its content as it reflects the sociocultural traditions of Fer­dowsi’s time: "Ferdowsi developed the existing ancient traditions and narrated them in his own individual style.” Egypt, Turan, China, Kabul had also been in contact with Iran. Ferdowsi devoted much space to the sociopolitical history of India, Qasemi noted. Ferdowsi had gleaned that the Indian subcontinent was vast and prosperous, continued Qasemi. Rulers of Kashmir and Sind had been in constant touch with Iran and Turan. Trade, games, debates at court level, marriages between the royal families, art, artisans, scholars and scholarship created bonds. When Shiavoush, son of Kaikaus, led his army against Turan, there were Indian troops among them; someone from Afrasia had been sent to India; Fram­arsh’s army includ­ed contingents from Kashmir... A number of names and places mentioned by Ferdowsi are yet to be located, (but) Indian incense burned in the fire lit by Gushtasp, son of Lohrasp. Ferdowsi notes that "we” burned the idols and replaced them with fires. Darius III invited Indian engineers to dig canals to carry water and sought the help of Porus against Alexander. Alexander’s invasion did not stop Indo-Iranian rela­tions. India and Iran exchanged epistles in their own languages i.e. people who knew both languages were available on both sides. In one of the verses (of the SN) Noshirwan asks about the religion of India (‘Are they really idol worshippers?’) and Ferdowsi describes the game of chess in the course of his work, Qasemi provided examples.

One of the continuing programs of the KRCOI is the reprinting of selected works which have been out of print thanks to the largesse of Iranian philanthropists Mehraban and the late Fari­doon Zartoshty. On this occasion the new edition of An Introduction to the Shahnameh of Firdousi (from the French by Jules Mohl) as translated by Jamshedji Dorabji Khandalawala was ceremonially released by KRCOI president Sir Jamsetji Jejeebhoy. Constituting an elegant link between the Parsis of Bombay and the IRI authori­ties, KRCOI trustee-secretary Homai Modi had helped Fuladi in his labor of love which embraced not only the organizing of the seminar but the beautiful exhibition of Iranian paintings, lithographs, calligraphy, crafts and breathtaking printed reproductions showcasing Ferdowsi and the SN that had prefaced the seminar. Popular cine star Dilip Kumar who inaugurated the exhibition recalled his roots in the North West Fron­tier Province where the only written language they knew was Persian and reflected on the "enormous intellectual size of Ferdowsi, his perception of history and love for the Persian language... which even in this modern age can bring obsolete cultures to life.”

Calligraphy whose aesthetic appeal provides a dimension beyond the message of the words, shares the honor of an art form with literature and painting, especially miniatures, in Iran and the IRI Culture House had organized calligraphy sessions with Prof Mohammed Salahshoor for those interested.

Speaking on the common features shared by Iranian and Indian mythology according to the SN, Dr Mani Kamerkar, vice president of the Asiatic Society of Bombay, drew parallels between the two cultures. Like all Indo-European myths, the tales of SN and of the Indian epics are set against the struggle of moral ideas against the powers of darkness. Tehmurasp, the son of Hoshung, tamed the devil by binding him to his chariot, very like Durga riding the lion; Hoshung, the first lawgiver, is akin to India’s Manu; Jamshyd, like Manu (and Noah of the Bible) had been warned of a devastating winter (and/or floods) and instructed to help preserve the flora and fauna of the world. "The golden age of Jamshyd is comparable to the golden age of Ram where justice, peace and plenty ruled,” noted Kamerkar adding that the ultimate victory of Jamshyd and Durga against evil forces is celebrated to this day by the festivals of Navroz and Dassera respectively.

According to Kamerkar the age of Zohak historical­ly marks the period of changing weather conditions, the coming of the ice age and the upheaval of settled society. Here the resemblance is in the form of the two serpents that spring on Zohak’s shoulders on the kiss of Ahriman. Indian mythology too associates serpents with evil, noted Ka­merkar.

Ervad (Dr) Rooyintan Peer who has been providing in-depth interpretations of the SN the first Wednesday of every month at the KRCOI since over two years, spoke of the five dynasties that people the SN: the Peshdadian, the Ka-yanian, the Achaemenian, the Parthian (also referred to as the Hakamenian or Askanian) and the Sasanian. Zara-thushtra arrived in the second half of the second dynasty and though no archeological evidence exists of these first two dynasties, their existence is a part of oral tradition, Peer maintained. Peer, a long-standing scholar of Zoroastrianism, noted that the events and individuals portrayed in the SN correspond to details in the Fravardin, Mehr and other Yashts. Ferdowsi emphasizes how the perception of time changes over the ages; at other times, the scant data available leads to the compression of events, creating a feeling of anachronism, commented Peer, adding that the last period of Jamshyd’s life was similar to our present epoch where the individual ego is preeminent!

Speaking on the topic "Ferdowsi and the West” Dr Syed Ainul Hasan, associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, noted how a transla­tor’s striving for beauty often militates against the original author’s intentions. "Distortion of the origi­nal feeling and sensitivity may succeed in making the translation as charming and attractive as the original... but it violates the originality of the ideas and the basic philosophy of life...of the original author...” In this context Hasan cited a work more familiar to English readers — Edward Fitzgerald’s rendition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which, ac­cording to Hasan, fails to convey the basic feelings of Khayyam. Similarly, he said, that the emotional tone and final effect of Mathew Arnold’s Sohrab and Rostam "is quite distant from the impression of Ferdowsi’s SN. He not only lacks the high seriousness of the great epic, but also does not display the basic concept of such a great combat between father and son. Although the entire poem invites readers to get involved (in) the affair... it fails to give any clue as to whom one should lend (one’s) support and whom to consider re­sponsible for the tragic end of Sohrab.” Hasan also noted that unlike Ferdowsi who expresses joy at the very existence of Rostam, Arnold’s technique does not overwhelm the reader, almost creating a sense of indifference. In conveying Rostam’s helplessness Ferdowsi "portrays the very existence of Almighty God whose help is sought even by an unchallenged warrior.... Arnold overlooks this important aspect of Eastern intelligent­sia... The spirit of Persian poetry is tragic because it sees in our moral destiny the presence of evil in every event, even in the noblest of human endeavors... Misery deserved and misery undeserved, each is the will of God, for God is the cause of everything that hap­pens, be it good or bad. This significant belief, which is the spirit of the whole SN could hardly be witnessed in Arnold’s interpretation.”

The "national ego and chauvinism of (the Turanian) Tahmina who wanted the strongest man, Rostam, as her husband but refused to make any sacrifice as his wife, mainly caused the tragedy of Rostam-Sohrab. She hated Iran and never agreed to the idea of going there; but nurtured the dream of conquering Iran with the help of her son, Sohrab. She thus desired ruling over Iran with Rostam as the king and herself, the queen. This Iran-Turan conflict has been completely overlooked by almost all Europeans who have dealt with the SN.”

"It is a transcendent tribute to the overwhelming power of Ferdowsi’s poetry that, in spite of its sub­ject-matter, its standpoint, its definitely anti-Arab and, occasionally, almost anti-Islamic bias, the SN obtained and has maintained such universal currency in the lands of Islam, and even among people like the Tartars and Turkomans whose names he execrated as the traditional enemies of Iran,” noted Prof (Dr) S. Bas­heer-Unnisa Begum, professor of Persian at Osmania University, Hydera­bad. Speaking on "Ferdowsi and the influence of the SN,” Basheer-Unnisa refers to Ferdow­si’s characters as household names not only in Iran and Afghanistan but in large parts of India and Central Asia, adopted by peoples not necessarily of Iranian lineage. "The entire nomenclature of the Parsis of India, both male and female, is, of course, derived practically from the pages of the SN. It is remarkable that these Parsi names do not hark back to the original forms preserved in their religious books. They call their sons Faridoon and not Thraitaona, Jamshyd, not Yima Khshaita, Kaykobad and not Kavi Kawadha, Kay Khusrav and not Kava Husrava, Isfandiyar and not Spento-data, Ardashir and not Artakhshir.”

Stating that "the soul of Iran has been kept alive by the strains of the SN for a thousand years,” Bas­heer-Unnisa adds, "Ferdowsi is the father of most that is good, true and beautiful in the literature of Iran. From his pages soldiers have derived martial spirit and heroic ardors, statesmen have learnt policy, kings, royal dignity, and the whole Iranian nation a pride and patriotism that have kept them together against a thousand calamities for a thousand years.” She also informs us that over the portals of the University of Tehran is Ferdowsi’s Farsi equivalent of "He has power who hath knowledge” while the poet’s other moral pre­cepts bedeck other walls of this great pile of build­ings.

SN scholar Ervad Parvez Bajan described the genus of epic poetry as dating back to the "infancy of a race or people” when oral tradition was alive to glory and shame but before the evolution of civilization brought "reason to bear on tradition and disentangled myth from reality... Almost all epics were recorded in the shape of history or literature when the nation had achieved the art of writing. Only then traditions have their true national ring and flavor, only then can they be put into form and preserved so that they reproduce for all time that peculiar inimitable fragrance, that aroma of the childhood of the world. They should be thus recorded, but such a task requires the rise of a great poet, dexterous and worthy, national enough to weld into an organic whole the tangled mass of tradition. Such versatile genius must be well aware of the exist­ing situation of his own time. But such poets are rare and consequently true epics are also rare.

"SN is history clouded by fable. It does not, like the Iliad, deal with one single great event, but con­sists of a series of narratives beginning with fabulous times and going down to the period when the old civili­zation gave place to Islam...

"It throws light on the courts of the kings, the manner of submitting petitions, the reverence observed by the noblemen for the kings, and even the costumes of royal and princely personages. It tells us likewise how royal orders were drawn and issued and how the guilty received punishment; what rules and regulations about taxation existed, and how land was distributed. We are even given information of how weddings were celebrated, what dowries were presented to the bride and the cos­tumes worn by them, e.g. the detailed account given about the banquet prepared by Kaikhosrau in honor of Rostam. A full account is given of Esfandiar’s funeral procession and the coffin prepared for him by order of Rostam. The battles are described with such minuteness that we know all about the methods of fighting and the weapons used. Finally the religious conceptions, the moral ideals, the deities and spirits worshipped ac­cording to the Zoroastrian creed are made familiar to us through this monumental work.” Thus, said Bajan, Ferdowsi’s work belongs not to the realm of literature alone, but to history and sociology also.

Born in the village Shadab in the Tus district of Khorasan circa 941 AC, Mansur was said to have adopted the pen-name Ferdowsi (meaning heavenly) when Shah Mahmud of Ghazni registered his pleasure at the poet’s instant composi­tion of a verse at the imperial bidding by saying, "You have made my darbar bright as Ferdows,” notes Desai. Thereafter he had to contend with three other court poets in a rhym­ing competition which Ferdowsi won thanks to his knowl­edge of history. The press release provided by the IRI Culture House notes that the oral tradition was rife among the dehqans or small landowning farmer class to which Ferdowsi belonged. There also existed a book called Khudai Nameh, a chronicle of kingly tales updat­ed by Dihkan Daneshwar with the help of priests and courtiers in the reign of Yazdegird III, the last Sasanian king. Only some references to this work now exist among the Arabic translations of old Persian texts. For a couple of centuries after the Arab inva­sion, the Persian language fell into disuse until the Sa­manid kings, being of Iranian origin, sought its conscious revival.

The four main types of poetic composition in Persian are the masnavi (a long, descriptive, narrative or didactic composition in rhymed couplets), the qasida (a panegyric aimed at securing royal favor), the ghazal (ode) and the rubai (quatrain), noted Bajan. According to Desai, Ferdowsi’s sole object in composing the great epic was to earn enough to find his daughter a noble match. It is also recounted that Ferdowsi was keen to restructure the earth dam on the existing canal in his native Tus with a masonry construction to ensure reasonable water supply throughout the year.

Daqiqi, a reputed poet and a zealous Zoroastrian according to Desai, had already begun to translate the Pahlavi Khudai Nameh into Farsi verse but was killed by a slave when he had completed about 1,000 verses. These verses were incorporated into his SN by Ferdowsi who is believed to have been implored to do so by the dead Daqiqi in a dream, related Desai. When Mahmud Ghazni, a tyrant but the most outstanding patron of the arts at that time, started a systematic collection of all relevant data from all possible sources to reconstruct the early history of Iran, he was aided by Adar Burzin, a native of Kerman and a descendant of the Sasanian King Shapur, who had spent the major part of his life col­lecting traditions of the ancient Iranian kings. Mahmud initially passed on the job of versification to his poet laureate Unsuri who, considering himself unequal to the task, bowed out, declared Desai.

Once commissioned, Ferdowsi was promised 1,000 gold pieces per 1,000 couplets. Bestowing his trust upon the king, a Sunni Muslim, Ferdowsi sought payment in a lumpsum only after his 60,000 couplet opus was complete. While he labored, the king’s ears were sys­tematically poisoned by his rivals at court. "The tolerance which Ferdowsi has shown in the introduction to the SN was used by his enemy to impute that Ferdowsi was not only a Shia but also an atheist and a material­ist,” noted Desai. When his 12 years of mental agony and devoted work was rewarded with 60,000 silver coins instead of the promised gold, Ferdowsi distributed them between his loyal friend Ayaz, the owner of a public bath he frequented, and a bartender, requesting Ayaz to tell the Sultan exactly what he had done to the king’s niggardly reward. When the enraged Sultan, his ears still ringing with false stories of Ferdowsi’s infamy, threatened Ferdowsi with trampling by elephants, the poet made a public apology and left Ghazni in the guise of a darvish. But before he left, he etched in a corner of the main Mosque at Ghazni "The fortunate court of Mahmud of Zabulistan is like a sea. What a sea! One cannot perceive the shore! I plunged in it but found no pearls. It is the fault of my stars and not of the sea.” He also left a sealed envelope with Ayaz to be delivered to Mahmud 20 days after his departure. It contained the satire that became world famous, noted Desai. Even in that state of anguish Ferdowsi stuck to the facts with dignity and restraint. Referring to Mahmud’s lowly birth (he was the son of the slave of a slave), Ferdowsi’s satire, though bitter "is utterly devoid of invective and innuendo which mar... most satirical poems of the Arabs and Persians,” commented Edward Browne in his Literary History of Persia. Wrote Ferdowsi, "Do not entertain any hopes (expectations) from one born of an unholy alliance, for howsoever much you wash a Negro, he will not become white. If you plant, even in paradise, a tree, which has bitter roots, and while watering it, you feed it with water from the river of paradise and feed its roots with honey and milk, in the end, it will show the qualities of the seed and would bear only bitter fruits... If you go past one who sells amber, then your clothes would all be scented. But if you go near one who sells coal, you will not be covered by anything except blackness... I have, by my poetry, made the world like a paradise on this earth, for no one else has planted seeds of better poetry. There was no other poet like Ferdowsi at any time in any age. What was bad was that fortune did not favor him.”

Ferdowsi had returned to Tus. He was old, feeble, tired, broken-hearted when some years later he heard a young boy recite a verse from his satire: "If the king had a king as his father/He would have placed, on my head, a crown of gold/If the mother of the king was a lady/I would have been immersed, up to my knees, in silver and gold.” Emotionally disturbed, the 83-year-old poet swooned, never to recover. In the meantime the Sultan, hearing quotes from the SN, repented his parsi­mony and despatched the promised 60,000 gold coins, 12 camels loaded with gifts and a robe of honor for the old poet. In a final irony of fate, even as the caravan of gifts entered the city from one gate, Ferdowsi’s last remains were being taken for burial through another. Fer­dowsi’s daughter is said to have angrily spurned the Sultan’s belated generosity but Ferdowsi’s sister spoke of the poet’s desire to build the dam and the Sultan is said to have ordered it to be built.

The authorship of the gigantic masterpiece, thus composed by a single creative genius unlike the Mahab­harata "which is a mighty mixture of many minds and ages,” has never been questioned, unlike the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, stated Bajan.

As the press release from the IRI Culture House notes, the SN "does not begin ‘in the midst of things’ but with the creation of the world and the appearance of the first shah...” Unlike the Greek and Indian epics it is monotheistic and "its focus on the life of the royal court makes it seem closer to the tales of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table than to Milton’s great poem (Paradise Lost). It contains not one story but many, not a single climactic event, but a multitude of them, not one hero but a long sequence of heroes and heroic princes. Rostam, who is the last and greatest of a family of heroes from the Iranian province of Sistan and who dominates many of its finest stories is no more than an offstage presence in other tales. He also dies when the poem is only two-thirds finished. The events in Gilgamesh, Homer and the Euro­pean epics are tailored to the limits of a single human life, but the events of the SN stretch across many generations and a single hero may live for centuries...

"While there are a number of recurrent themes in the SN, such as the immortality of noble deeds, the malignancy and inevitability of fate, and the persist­ent hostility and envy of Iran’s neighbors, the theme that underlies all of these is that God prefers Iran to other nations and sustains it through the institution of the shah. So long as His chosen shah sits upon the throne, Iran will endure. When Shah Yazdegerd III is slain in 652 AC, the Iran of the SN comes to an end...

"The religion of the SN is Zoroastrianism, but a Zoroastrianism that has been stripped of its fire temples, rituals and prayers. Ferdowsi was a Muslim as were his patron, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (d. 1030), and the members of his court. As a consequence either he or his sources have passed the stories of the SN through a filter, eliminating what would have been most offensive to Muslim sensibilities. What remains is a vague but persistent dualism in which the powers of good, Ahura Mazda, and evil, Ahriman, are in perpetual conflict. Rostam and Kay Kavus pray to the supreme god, Izad or Yazdan, (Creator and Keeper of the World) who Zoroast­rians believe presides over the struggle between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman. Ultimately Yazdan will give victory to good, but in the course of the SN it is Ahriman’s power that increases. The shahs who rule become pro­gres­sively less worthy and ‘hunchbacked fate’ spreads ruin and destruction where he will. The poem also ends with the conquest by the Arabs and Islam, a crushing defeat for Zoroastrian Iran.”

"It was customary for every king to have a person­al illustrated copy of the SN done by the most prestig­ious artists of the time,” notes Rameen Javid Moshref. Shah Tahmasp, the second Safavid king who ruled from 1524-70, owned a copy with 254 miniature illustrations, a masterpiece of world art which has survived to provide an impressive documentation of early Safavid culture, notes Moshref.

Prof Sabar Havewalla of the JNU expanded on the story of the evil Zohak and Kaveh the rebel who incited the fearful people to fight the tyrant.

The son of a wise, just, popular king named Mer­das, the ambitious Zohak killed his father and invaded Iran, imprisoning the pompous and proud Jam­shyd who, bereft of his former wisdom and dignity, had lost his popularity among his people.

Kissed by Ahriman, Zohak sprouted a snake on each shoulder that had to be fed the brains of two Iranian youths of all walks of life, every night. The helpless Iranians nursed their hatred but could not muster the courage to fight until Kaveh, a blacksmith whose 18th son was now commandeered for the snakes’ evening meal, stormed into the palace. Demanding his son’s release, Kaveh called Zohak a "cruel king.” Zohak, who had dreamt that a young man by the name of Faridoon would destroy him, had had innumerable men killed in an effort to counter his faceless enemy. He now nervously acceeded to Kaveh’s demand and asked Kaveh to sign, like his sycophant courtiers, a document declaring him to be just and kind. Kaveh not only shredded the docu­ment, he left the palace urging all people to join the fight for justice. Kaveh led the people under his banner — a leather apron tied to a spearhead — to the young Faridoon, brought up in hiding by a sage in the jungle. The makeshift banner, later adorned with silks and jewels, became the symbol of a resur­rected Iran under Faridoon with Zohak dethroned and tied until death in Mount Demavand.

According to Havewalla, Zohak is referred to as Dahhak in the Avan Yasht, as Azhidahak in the Yasna, the Videvdat, the Behram and Zamyad Yashts. "An invader ruling over a rival country very cleverly fabricating a plan to wipe out a young generation posing a threat to the ruler, is a very common strategy. History is full of such evidences,” noted Havewalla, adding, "Modern Iranian literature is full of reference to Kaveh and his first ‘people’s revolution.’ His Derafshe-e-Kaviyan (flag of protest) is an idiomatic expression in Persian literature symbolizing social revolution in Iran and protest against social injustice.”

According to Prof Maria Bilquis of the Aligarh Muslim University, apart from Iran and Afghanistan there are 25 manuscript copies of the SN in the British Museum Library, 33 (complete and incomplete) in the India Office Library in London, 13 at the Bodleian Library at Oxford and many more scattered all over India. Dr Chander Shekhar, reader of Persian at the University of Delhi, stated that it is difficult to establish when the Persian manuscripts started coming into India or when Indians started creating these manuscripts themselves, many of which are abridged editions. Dr Nazir Ahmed, professor emeritus at the Aligarh Muslim University, described the difficulty of scholars who find that these manuscripts are not prop­erly edited and hence one cannot make out exactly what Ferdowsi wrote. He suggested that all manuscripts should be collected and an annotated edition produced by a body of scholars.

Speaking on the motif of Rostam and Sohrab in Sanskrit literature, Prof S. A. Upadhyaya, direc­tor of post-graduate research at Bombay’s Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, noted that certain ideas recur in the literatures of the world because all great creative artists get their inspira­tion from the universal collective unconsciousness. He referred to the episode of Lord Shiva and Ganesha; to the sons of Ram who challenge his right to rule because they are not aware of him as their father; Tolstoy, in one of his stories, depicts a man whose racial hatred impels him to throw another off the railway platform to die in the cold, only to realize later that the victim had been his son who arrived on an earlier train. Though this motif of conflict between father and son who do not recognize each other is common, Upad­hyaya said, "In Indian culture no one is killed. It is part of the Hindu culture that the drama does not end in tragedy like Rostam and Sohrab.” Emphasizing the message of the ethical virtues of charity, humility, etc — the eternal values, common to all great litera­ture and all religions — Upadhyaya remarked, that if all of us could grasp it, we could reach the utopia of a peaceful world through our common heritage.

Eminent scholar Prof Ahmed Ansa­ri reviewed the Sohrab and Rostam episode in terms of Greek tragedy high­lighting the irony of life. Persian language and literature was a craze in Victorian England with Alfred Tenny-son, Thomas Hardy and Fitzgerald meeting every evening at Thomas Carlyle’s home to read the Persian SN, he noted. According to Ansari, Tennyson began to learn Persian at an advanced age. Like the prolog and epilog of Shakespeare’s plays or the chorus of Greek tragedy, from the beginning Ferdowsi prepares the reader for war and the conflict between Sohrab and Ros­tam, said Ansari. He philosophizes, draws metaphori­cal similes like the whirlwind blowing away newly blossomed fruit, fire indiscriminately burning fresh twigs and old branches, depicts foes and friends alike joining the fateful conspiracy to keep their identities secret. Sohrab’s name disappears from the SN except for three references after his death, but Rostam’s presence remains throughout, even in absentia, observed Ansari.

Archeologist Dr Katy Dalal presented a more humane concept of Alexander the Great whose conquest of Iran led to the end of the Achaemenian era. Son of Philip of Macedonia and his shrewish fourth wife, Alexander was removed from his mother’s custody at the age of five and sent to live with his tutor Deodidas where he learnt the discipline and frugality that contributed to his successful long marches. When Darius was spiked to death by a supposed ally, it was Alexan­der who covered the King’s body with his own cloak and sent it for royal burial, said Dalal. But the sight of numerous Greeks on the way to Per-sepolis, their eyes gouched out, ears and hands cut, sparked an avenging rage that led to the pillage and burning of Persepolis. According to Dalal, Alexander was "quite a mystic” and held philosophical discussions with the sadhus he encountered.

The anti-Arab tenor of the popular SN which over­rides restrictions of race, religion and country led Arabic poets to write an Omarnama to neutralize the SN’s impact, said Basheer-Unnisa. Speaking at the valedictory function guest of honor Nazir Nizamud­din Patel, Maharashtra’s commissioner of cultural affairs, spoke of the live link created by Ferdowsi between the three great languages of Arabic, Avestan and Persian and laughed at the statement attributed to British statesman Thomas Macaulay that the entire literature of Indian and Persian languages could be stored in two cupboards. "Serious work on the SN alone will need 10 cupboards! Ancient and medieval Indian history cannot be written without reference to Persia,” he noted.

Because Iran is a beautiful country ringed by aggressive neighbors it could not retain tranquility and peace, noted Honardoost, chief guest on the occa­sion, adding that the Achaemenian empire was "concep­tualized on a defensive basis.” Referring to the inter­twined "sense and soul of the SN and the Avesta” Honardoost said that the history of ancient Iran could not be written without reference to the thoughts and words of Zarathushtra. "The deeds of SN’s heroes speak of a pure relationship with the divine,” said Honardoost referring to the parallel of Ferdowsi’s own life and his resistance to Mahmud who was a tyrant.

Unlike Egypt, Syria and the other lands of the former Iranian empires conquered by the Arabs which accepted Arabic in preference to their native tongues, Ferdowsi restored the Iranian language to its people, said Havewalla as she thanked the organizers on behalf of the participating scholars. "By honoring Ferdowsi we are saluting a nation that despite its many vicis­situdes maintained its pride.”

Tailpiece

The audience at the Shahnameh seminar was treated to a brief CD demonstration by Benaifer Bhoot of Atash Enterprises. Currently transferring the seventh volume of Dr Bahman Surti’s prose translation of the epic which she has scanned on CD Rom, the seven disk set devotes one CD per volume, illustrated with animation, coins, clothes, monuments and other pictorials courtesy the IRI Culture House. Bhoot hopes to launch the set, priced at Rs 1,750, with a special event at the KRCOI. The Shahnameh project is part of a greater project towards which Bhoot is working — to form a club to rehouse street animals and train them for handicapped people. Ferdowsi would probably approve. Among his treasure trove of mythical characters were a few horses and a very special bird!