In the City of Gold and Silver Read Online Free PDF

innumerable curries and
biryanis
; and best of all, the town’s speciality of seven different
pulaos
26 : garden pulao, light pulao, cuckoo pulao, pearl pulao and jasmine pulao.
    Finally, all kinds of sherbets and sweetmeats, including
mutanjan
, minced meat cooked in sugar, and
lab-e-mashooq
, “the beloved’s lips,” a preparation made from cream, almonds, spices, honey and betel nut to give it its red colouring. For the king and his inner circle, the betel is replaced by powdered rubies, said to calm the nerves.
    Despite the late hour it is a family outing, as no one would dream of missing this splendid celebration for anything in the world. Everybody knows that only Lucknow, the town of nawabs, can pride itself on organising such spectacular festivities. Lucknow, with its ninety-two palaces, innumerable flowering gardens, three hundred temples and mosques, its fifty-two markets overflowing with carpets, embroidered fabric and perfumes, this capital of music, poetry and dance as well as schools of theology, this town known as “the bride of India” that some compare to Paris . . . only Lucknow is capable of offering such sumptuous entertainment.
    Ali Mustapha, the copper engraver, has come with his neighbour, Suba Nanda, the embroiderer. They have known each other for years, their wives are friends and their children have grown up together. Not a single Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, has been celebrated without Ali Mustapha’s family being invited to share the milk and honey cake, not an Eid ul-Fitr meal, the feast concluding the Ramadan fast, has gone by without Suba Nanda’s family being welcomed to partake of it.
    The confrontations between religious communities that sometimes trouble other states are, in fact, unheard of in Lucknow, where the sovereigns have never discriminated between their subjects. Shia Muslims themselves, they have always had a policy of employing Sunni Muslims and Hindus, who make up the majority of the population, often appointing them to the most eminent positions. They also enjoy bringing scholars of different beliefs together to discuss religious issues, following the example set by India’s greatest ruler, the Mughal Emperor Akbar. During the 16th century, the emperor used to invite representatives of different schools of thought to his capital in Delhi to hold a discussion in his presence, with a view to founding a universal religion intended to unite all men. It was
Din-i Ilahi
, a syncretistic ideology that borrowed from Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. This, at a time when the Inquisition was raging in Spain, Portugal and Italy, and when the Wars of Religion were spreading bloodshed in France.
    Wajid Ali Shah perpetuates this tradition of tolerance, but his aesthetic tastes incite him to dedicate himself in particular to the domain of the arts. “All ills come from ignorance,” he often says. “It is through knowledge of one another’s culture that communities learn to appreciate and respect each other.”
    Under his impetus, Lucknow, the centre of the “gold and silver civilisation,” the “Ganga-Yamuna civilisation,” named after the two sacred rivers that flow through the state, has reached the pinnacle of refinement. The marriage between the Ganga and the Yamuna symbolises the fusion of Hindu and Muslim traditions.
    This evening, the sovereign stages a musical drama he himself has written, a variation on the theme of the god Krishna’s youth and his dalliances with the beautiful
gopis.
27  
    A vast stage has been set up in front of the palace of fairies, illuminated by thousands of candles twinkling in crystal candelabras. On one side is the orchestra, on the other, the important guests reclining on thick carpets and velvet cushions. As for the crowd, they will watch the show from the gardens, and if they cannot see everything, they can at least get drunk on the music.
    Krishna, the