Dr M Abdul Qader :
Kasas and ‘Ambia’ are Arabic words being pluals of ‘kissah’ (story) and ‘Nabi’ (Prophet) so that ‘Kasasul Ambia’ means ‘the stories of the Prophets’. There are several punthis of this name based on Arabic or Urdu originals. Out of 1,24,000 or 2,24,000 Prophets they deal with principal ones beginning with the First Man Hazrat Adam (As) and ending with Hazrat Muhammad (Sm). The seal of prophet including Shish, Idris, Nuh, Saleh, Zakaria, Bud, Lut, Yahya, Yunus, Yakub, Yusuf, Talut, Daud, Sulaiman, Musa, Isa and a few others. Late Kazi Imdadul Huque wrote his ‘Nabi Kahini’ and Fazlur Rahim Chaudhury ‘Israil Bangshiya Nabigan’ in prose on the basis of these punthis.
In the history of punthi literature Kasasul Ambia occupies a very important place. But the scholars who have prepared catalogues of punthis seem to possess very superficial and shallow knowledge of the same. They are not sure even about the authorship of one or two books of this name that came within their knowledge. Late Professor Md. Abdul Hai seems to have seen only one book and according to him it was a joint venture of Munshi Reazuddin, Aminuddin and Ashraf Ali. Late Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad seems to have come to know of two such books. In the voluminous punthi parichiti compiled by him and edited by his worthy nephew Dr. Ahmad Sharif published by the Dhaka University the names of the poets have been arranged in this way:
210 Amiruddin Kasasul Ambia (angshik) 211 Rezaullah Kasasul Ambia 212 Ashraf 290 Tajuddin Kasasul Ambia.
This arrangement has been preserved also in a separate book written by Dr. Ahmad Sharif himself under the same name. It would appear even to a casual observer that these four poets wrote three separate books. Amiruddin worte an incomplete work. Rezaullah and Ashraf jointly a book and Tajuddin another. By a personal discussion with Dr. Ahmad Sharif I have come to learn that he meant two books only one by the first three and another by Tajuddin. Had not the name of Amiruddin been kept outside the bracket no such misconception would have ever arisen.
It may be pointed out that none knew the correct name of the third poet of the first epic. It was neither simply Ashraf nor Ashraf Ali but Muhammad Ashraf as asserted by the poet himself:
“Birochila odhin napak Kobikar
Mohammad Ashraf nam janib Tahar.”
The brief reference noted above as well as the facts that one omitted the prefix altogether while another substituted a wrong suffix for the correct prefix and that the names of the poets were not chronologically written, as shown below, lead to the obvious conclusion that none of the compilers went through the books. This is further confirmed by the fact that they had no knowledge of the respective parts played by each of the poets in the composition of this gigantic volume. From the serial number in the list, it would appear that Amiruddin was the first to begin the work. But a thorough study of the book will reveal that it was Rezaullah who was first entrusted with this laborious task by a publisher named Kazi Safiuddin of Bandipara. There is a clear reference to this in page 61.
“Kohe hino Rezaullah odhin nachar.
Guna khata maf mor koro Korotar.”
But unfortunately, the gifted poet breathed his last when he versified the book upto page 68 the Deluge at the time of Prophet Noah (Nuh). The work was then continued by Munshi Amiruddin, son of Muhammad Dukhi Sarkar of Karheya. This is referred to in page 76.
“Odhin Ameer bole Rasuler podotole
Doya koro meher koriya.”
In page 69 however, there is a reference to Safiuddin. Did the publisher himself take up the infiniwork on the sad demise of Munshi Rezaullah? Not unlikely. But finding the task beyond his capacity after ‘attempting a page he sought for a new hand. This is how Amiruddin, famous by his own name, came to be employed to complete the unfinished work. He composed 304 pages from the end of the first volume i.e. first 69 pages to the end of the sixth volume i.e. upto page 409 or about two-thirds of the work when he was replaced by Muhammad Ashraful is not clear, why. Did he also meet premature death like his predecessors, did he abandon the work due to old age or did some misunderstanding arise between the two? Neither is improbable. Muhammad Ashraf carried on the work from the beginning of the 7th volime i.e. page 410 to a successful end at page 561 on Wednesday, the 8th of Magh, 1287 B.s. (1880 A. D.). His father Said was a resident of Faridpur How could he then be picked up for the work? It is evident from the book that he lost his parents and settled at Karheya where he seems to have become acquainted with Amiruddin or Safiuddin. There is no doubt that he was worthy of the task entrusted to him. The number of the writers of Kasasul Ambia thus rises to four instead of three.
Mvi. Muhammad Abdul Hai did not mention the name of Tajuddin as an author of Kasasul Ambia. This clearly indicates that he was not aware of the existence of a separate book by him. Munshi Abdul Karim and Dr. Ahmad Sharif can claim the credit. But as they have mentioned the name of Tajuddin alone, it shows that they had no knowledge that he too had a colleague though as a punthiwriter. Muhammad Khater was not unknown to them.
They have given a lorig list of books written by him ; but the name of Kasasul Ambia is not there. This unmistakably proves that they did not even see the book, not to speak of going through it. Yet it is an undeniable fact at only a mere fragment of 54 pages of this huge volume of 533 pages 4 double demy pages constituting of a format was composed by Munshi Tajuddin. The remaining 470 pages were the achievement of Munshi Muhammad Khater, a unique genius of the age. This is proved from the fact that reference to Tajuddin’s name begins at page 2 and ends at page 54:
“Hino Tajuddin ei odhiner nam
Dhakar jilate barhi Gorhparha Mokam”-page 2
“Kohe hino Tajuddin bhabia Goffar
Salai Gorhparha biche bosot jahar” -page 54
Incidentally, I am highly interested in ascertaining the exact location of Gorhparha. I have interviewed a number of bookbinders of Manikganj Sub-Division and learnt from them that there is a village of this name 2 miles northwest of the town near Balla. Is it this Gorhparha which was the birth-place of poet Tajuddin? In Rajmala there is mention of a Salai Goal parha as the seat of one of the Bara Bangla or Bara Bhuiyans of Bengal. Babu Kali Prasanna Sen, editor of Rajmala, regards it as Goalparha in Assam which was conquered by the great Isa Khan of Khizrpur. But as this was outside Bengal and there was a separate seat of Bara Bhuiyans in Assam and it was never prefixed with Salai and the real seat of the Bara Bhuiyans of Bengal was Bhati or lower Bengal rather mid-Bhati, his argument is not tenable. Are these places Salai Goalparha of Rajmala and Salai Garhparha of Kasasul Ambia identical? Has Salai Goalparha gradually been abbreviated into Goalparha and finally into Gorhparha and who were the Bhuiyans there and also at Astagram at about 1578 A.D. I shall be highly grateful if any scholar can furnish me details of this as that will throw fresh light on the history of the Bara Bhuiyans at the time of Akbar which I have reconstrued from original sources, so far known, by cancelling most of the previous ones including the recent one given in the History of Sundarbans.
It is surprising that the name of Muhammad Khater who composed nine-tenths of the epic singlehanded, should not have been known to anyone of the compilers of punthi literature. It is still more surprising as his name appears on the title page of the punthi along with Tajuddin. This shows that far from reading the book they did not even come across it! Curiously enough, his name appears merely as Khater Muhammad or Muhammad Khater. If this was his real name the mischief of reversing it must have been due to subsequent writers on the subject.
The finishing touch to the book was given on Friday the 20th Magh, 1273 B. S. and it was given the name of Char Iyari Kasasul Ambia 20 years after the first. It ran 18 editions in 60 years and the cause of this popularity may be partially ascribed to some new features viz. pogeny of Prophet Muhammad (p 525- 29), four Imams (p 530-33) and birth of the Prophet (pp 534-36). It is curious that though called ‘Char Iyari’ only two pages (523 and 525) should have been allotted to the four principal companions of the Prophet. As a colleague UE of Tajuddin Khater Muhammad’s name (in reverse order) first appears in a book published by the Pakistan Publications Dhaka under the title of ‘Bangia Punth Sahitya’ next in an article written by Mvi. Ali Ahmad (Mah-e nao, March 1960) and lastly in another article by late lamented Dr Md Shahidullah (Mahe-nao, July, 1960). In his article Ali Ahmad Sahib has given information of another Kasasul Ambia. It was written by Munshi Azizur Rahman of Bhaman Parha under pargana Balia in the district of Hugly before the book of Khater Muhammad. Dr Md Shahidullah regards it as “the first Kasasul Ambia of the British regime”. If so it is older than the other two; but it is not available and they do not seem to have seen the same. I am not sure, if there is any copy in the Imperial Library, Calcutta. Will any scholar of West Bengal be pleased to look into the matter and oblige me with the information?
Contd on page 9
Kasas and ‘Ambia’ are Arabic words being pluals of ‘kissah’ (story) and ‘Nabi’ (Prophet) so that ‘Kasasul Ambia’ means ‘the stories of the Prophets’. There are several punthis of this name based on Arabic or Urdu originals. Out of 1,24,000 or 2,24,000 Prophets they deal with principal ones beginning with the First Man Hazrat Adam (As) and ending with Hazrat Muhammad (Sm). The seal of prophet including Shish, Idris, Nuh, Saleh, Zakaria, Bud, Lut, Yahya, Yunus, Yakub, Yusuf, Talut, Daud, Sulaiman, Musa, Isa and a few others. Late Kazi Imdadul Huque wrote his ‘Nabi Kahini’ and Fazlur Rahim Chaudhury ‘Israil Bangshiya Nabigan’ in prose on the basis of these punthis.
In the history of punthi literature Kasasul Ambia occupies a very important place. But the scholars who have prepared catalogues of punthis seem to possess very superficial and shallow knowledge of the same. They are not sure even about the authorship of one or two books of this name that came within their knowledge. Late Professor Md. Abdul Hai seems to have seen only one book and according to him it was a joint venture of Munshi Reazuddin, Aminuddin and Ashraf Ali. Late Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad seems to have come to know of two such books. In the voluminous punthi parichiti compiled by him and edited by his worthy nephew Dr. Ahmad Sharif published by the Dhaka University the names of the poets have been arranged in this way:
210 Amiruddin Kasasul Ambia (angshik) 211 Rezaullah Kasasul Ambia 212 Ashraf 290 Tajuddin Kasasul Ambia.
This arrangement has been preserved also in a separate book written by Dr. Ahmad Sharif himself under the same name. It would appear even to a casual observer that these four poets wrote three separate books. Amiruddin worte an incomplete work. Rezaullah and Ashraf jointly a book and Tajuddin another. By a personal discussion with Dr. Ahmad Sharif I have come to learn that he meant two books only one by the first three and another by Tajuddin. Had not the name of Amiruddin been kept outside the bracket no such misconception would have ever arisen.
It may be pointed out that none knew the correct name of the third poet of the first epic. It was neither simply Ashraf nor Ashraf Ali but Muhammad Ashraf as asserted by the poet himself:
“Birochila odhin napak Kobikar
Mohammad Ashraf nam janib Tahar.”
The brief reference noted above as well as the facts that one omitted the prefix altogether while another substituted a wrong suffix for the correct prefix and that the names of the poets were not chronologically written, as shown below, lead to the obvious conclusion that none of the compilers went through the books. This is further confirmed by the fact that they had no knowledge of the respective parts played by each of the poets in the composition of this gigantic volume. From the serial number in the list, it would appear that Amiruddin was the first to begin the work. But a thorough study of the book will reveal that it was Rezaullah who was first entrusted with this laborious task by a publisher named Kazi Safiuddin of Bandipara. There is a clear reference to this in page 61.
“Kohe hino Rezaullah odhin nachar.
Guna khata maf mor koro Korotar.”
But unfortunately, the gifted poet breathed his last when he versified the book upto page 68 the Deluge at the time of Prophet Noah (Nuh). The work was then continued by Munshi Amiruddin, son of Muhammad Dukhi Sarkar of Karheya. This is referred to in page 76.
“Odhin Ameer bole Rasuler podotole
Doya koro meher koriya.”
In page 69 however, there is a reference to Safiuddin. Did the publisher himself take up the infiniwork on the sad demise of Munshi Rezaullah? Not unlikely. But finding the task beyond his capacity after ‘attempting a page he sought for a new hand. This is how Amiruddin, famous by his own name, came to be employed to complete the unfinished work. He composed 304 pages from the end of the first volume i.e. first 69 pages to the end of the sixth volume i.e. upto page 409 or about two-thirds of the work when he was replaced by Muhammad Ashraful is not clear, why. Did he also meet premature death like his predecessors, did he abandon the work due to old age or did some misunderstanding arise between the two? Neither is improbable. Muhammad Ashraf carried on the work from the beginning of the 7th volime i.e. page 410 to a successful end at page 561 on Wednesday, the 8th of Magh, 1287 B.s. (1880 A. D.). His father Said was a resident of Faridpur How could he then be picked up for the work? It is evident from the book that he lost his parents and settled at Karheya where he seems to have become acquainted with Amiruddin or Safiuddin. There is no doubt that he was worthy of the task entrusted to him. The number of the writers of Kasasul Ambia thus rises to four instead of three.
Mvi. Muhammad Abdul Hai did not mention the name of Tajuddin as an author of Kasasul Ambia. This clearly indicates that he was not aware of the existence of a separate book by him. Munshi Abdul Karim and Dr. Ahmad Sharif can claim the credit. But as they have mentioned the name of Tajuddin alone, it shows that they had no knowledge that he too had a colleague though as a punthiwriter. Muhammad Khater was not unknown to them.
They have given a lorig list of books written by him ; but the name of Kasasul Ambia is not there. This unmistakably proves that they did not even see the book, not to speak of going through it. Yet it is an undeniable fact at only a mere fragment of 54 pages of this huge volume of 533 pages 4 double demy pages constituting of a format was composed by Munshi Tajuddin. The remaining 470 pages were the achievement of Munshi Muhammad Khater, a unique genius of the age. This is proved from the fact that reference to Tajuddin’s name begins at page 2 and ends at page 54:
“Hino Tajuddin ei odhiner nam
Dhakar jilate barhi Gorhparha Mokam”-page 2
“Kohe hino Tajuddin bhabia Goffar
Salai Gorhparha biche bosot jahar” -page 54
Incidentally, I am highly interested in ascertaining the exact location of Gorhparha. I have interviewed a number of bookbinders of Manikganj Sub-Division and learnt from them that there is a village of this name 2 miles northwest of the town near Balla. Is it this Gorhparha which was the birth-place of poet Tajuddin? In Rajmala there is mention of a Salai Goal parha as the seat of one of the Bara Bangla or Bara Bhuiyans of Bengal. Babu Kali Prasanna Sen, editor of Rajmala, regards it as Goalparha in Assam which was conquered by the great Isa Khan of Khizrpur. But as this was outside Bengal and there was a separate seat of Bara Bhuiyans in Assam and it was never prefixed with Salai and the real seat of the Bara Bhuiyans of Bengal was Bhati or lower Bengal rather mid-Bhati, his argument is not tenable. Are these places Salai Goalparha of Rajmala and Salai Garhparha of Kasasul Ambia identical? Has Salai Goalparha gradually been abbreviated into Goalparha and finally into Gorhparha and who were the Bhuiyans there and also at Astagram at about 1578 A.D. I shall be highly grateful if any scholar can furnish me details of this as that will throw fresh light on the history of the Bara Bhuiyans at the time of Akbar which I have reconstrued from original sources, so far known, by cancelling most of the previous ones including the recent one given in the History of Sundarbans.
It is surprising that the name of Muhammad Khater who composed nine-tenths of the epic singlehanded, should not have been known to anyone of the compilers of punthi literature. It is still more surprising as his name appears on the title page of the punthi along with Tajuddin. This shows that far from reading the book they did not even come across it! Curiously enough, his name appears merely as Khater Muhammad or Muhammad Khater. If this was his real name the mischief of reversing it must have been due to subsequent writers on the subject.
The finishing touch to the book was given on Friday the 20th Magh, 1273 B. S. and it was given the name of Char Iyari Kasasul Ambia 20 years after the first. It ran 18 editions in 60 years and the cause of this popularity may be partially ascribed to some new features viz. pogeny of Prophet Muhammad (p 525- 29), four Imams (p 530-33) and birth of the Prophet (pp 534-36). It is curious that though called ‘Char Iyari’ only two pages (523 and 525) should have been allotted to the four principal companions of the Prophet. As a colleague UE of Tajuddin Khater Muhammad’s name (in reverse order) first appears in a book published by the Pakistan Publications Dhaka under the title of ‘Bangia Punth Sahitya’ next in an article written by Mvi. Ali Ahmad (Mah-e nao, March 1960) and lastly in another article by late lamented Dr Md Shahidullah (Mahe-nao, July, 1960). In his article Ali Ahmad Sahib has given information of another Kasasul Ambia. It was written by Munshi Azizur Rahman of Bhaman Parha under pargana Balia in the district of Hugly before the book of Khater Muhammad. Dr Md Shahidullah regards it as “the first Kasasul Ambia of the British regime”. If so it is older than the other two; but it is not available and they do not seem to have seen the same. I am not sure, if there is any copy in the Imperial Library, Calcutta. Will any scholar of West Bengal be pleased to look into the matter and oblige me with the information?
Contd on page 9
