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Brahmin Jesters and Sufi Wise Fools

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Comic Performance in Pakistan

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comedy ((PSCOM))

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Abstract

This chapter traces two divergent religio-cultural genealogies for the bhānd in the Brahmin jester of Sanskrit drama (vidusaka and viṭa), and the Sufi wise fool of history and popular literature (Ash’ab, Bahlul and Mullah Nasruddin). The author explores these comic convergences during Muslim rule in South Asia (1206–1858) in the pairings of bold jesters and powerful rulers, such as Tenali Rama with Vijayanagar King Krsnadevaraya (1509–29), and Raja Birbal (Mahesh Das ca. 1528–1586) with Emperor Akbar (1556–1605), in both the popular imagination and in historical records. In this first scholarly attempt to understand the relationship between these Hindu and Muslim comic paradigms, the author describes a dynamic fusion of Hindu and Sufi materials, mundane and divine institutions, popular imagination and history, that flow into the work of the bhānd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, USA

    Claire Pamment

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Pamment, C. (2017). Brahmin Jesters and Sufi Wise Fools. In: Comic Performance in Pakistan. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56631-7_3

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