Persian literature is also our very own: Historian Krishna Kohlar

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Historian Krishna Kohlar Kulkarni on Saturday expressed delight at the release of his six-year-long work of translating Adil Shahi contemporary Arabic, Persian and Dakhani Urdu literature translated into 19 Kannada volumes, the last of which is his own account in the regional language.

“Look, when someone rules for 200 years, there must be some written accounts. When we went out and looked for it, we found this huge cache of literature. However, their state language was Persian. Then there was Arabic and Dakhani Urdu. The latter developed in the Adil Shahi dynasty. It started in the Bahmani dynasty, but during the Adil Shahi dynasty, it flourished.

So we looked at them through a historical lens and translated some 25 books and brought out these 18 volumes,” Kulkarni said. “People will only read literature in their own language. If it is in Persian, they won’t pay it any mind. But whose history is this? Our own,” he added.

“The 19th volume is my own writing. That is not a translation. Seeing all these volumes, some people asked me to please write a summary on the same, which I did,” he said. He said that many of these texts had been translated from Arabic, Persian and Dakhani Urdu to either English or modern Urdu since those were the languages that translators knew. The text was then translated into Kannada.

“As many as 20 people have participated. I have searched and brought these manuscripts and made this possible,” he added. Kulkarni said that he was especially fascinated by a Dakhani Urdu poem, which spoke about medieval Bijapur at length.

“There was a poem on Ibrahim Adil Shah II called ‘Ibrahim Nama’. A poet named Abdullah Dehalvi wrote it (in Dakhani Urdu). In it, he dedicates an entire chapter on Bijapur. Naturally, I felt curious about it since I am from Bijapur,” Kulkarni said, adding that his ancestral village was Kohlar, which is some 40 kilometres from Bijapur city, where is currently based.

The historian credited an old friend and colleague for Persian and Arabic translations. “For Persian and Arabic, I had help from a friend, Maulana Mehboobur Rahman Madani. He was in Saudi for 24 years. He learned there and then he came back and settled in Bijapur since he is from Bijapur. So we took him in this committee and he helped us a lot,” Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni said that Tazkiratul mulk, the contemporary historical account of Adil Shahi rule written by Rafiuddin Shirazi had been translated into English. Another English volume had been named Persian, Arabic and Urdu inscriptions of Karnataka.