Zain-ul-Abidin

History glossary

Also called: Budshah · Topic: Turkic Invasions and the Delhi Sultanate · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Zain-ul-Abidin (ruled c. 1420–1470) was a Sultan of Kashmir from the Shah Mir dynasty. His people called him Budshah ("the great king"). He is remembered for treating all religions fairly and for supporting learning and crafts. He matters for UPSC because he shows that a Muslim ruler of the Sultanate age could follow a tolerant, mixed-culture policy about a century before Akbar.

Explanation

Background: Kashmir before Budshah

  • Kashmir was one of the regional sultanates that grew up outside Delhi's control. Delhi's power had already broken into pieces. Governors and local rulers set up their own kingdoms.
  • The Shah Mir dynasty ruled Kashmir from the 14th century.
  • Budshah's father, Sultan Sikandar, was known as "Butshikan" (idol-breaker). Under him, temples were destroyed and Hindus were put under pressure. Many Kashmiri Pandits (Kashmiri Brahmins) fled the valley.
  • So Budshah took over a divided valley. Many of its learned Hindus had left.

Religious policy: undoing his father's harsh rule

  • Return of Hindus: he invited the Hindus who had fled to come back. He let those who had been forced to convert go back to their old faith.
  • Jizya abolished: jizya (a tax that non-Muslims paid in a Muslim state) was removed.
  • Temples: he allowed temples to be repaired and rebuilt.
  • Customs respected: according to the later chronicles, he banned cow slaughter to respect Hindu feeling.
  • Hindus in government: Hindus were again given posts in his administration.
  • Why this mattered:
  • The state became stable again, because the two main communities were no longer at odds.
  • Kashmir's Sanskrit learning came back, because its scholars returned.

Learning and translation

  • He set up a translation department. Sanskrit works were translated into Persian, and Persian works into Sanskrit.
  • Texts translated into Persian include the Mahabharata and Kalhana's Rajatarangini (the Sanskrit history of the kings of Kashmir).
  • He supported the poet-historian Jonaraja, who carried on the Rajatarangini from where Kalhana stopped. After Jonaraja, his pupil Srivara continued the story. Srivara's account covers Budshah's own reign.
  • He knew several languages, including Persian, Kashmiri and Sanskrit, and he gave money to Persian and Sanskrit scholars alike.

Economy, crafts and public works

  • Crafts: he brought in skilled workers and skills from Central Asia (the Samarkand–Bukhara region). This helped crafts such as shawl weaving, papier-mâché, carpet weaving, wood carving and bookbinding grow in Kashmir. Several of these are still Kashmir's best-known crafts.
  • Contrast with Delhi: after Timur sacked Delhi in 1398, he took Delhi's craftsmen to Samarkand as slaves [1]. In Kashmir, Budshah did the opposite. He brought Central Asian skills into his kingdom by choice.
  • Public works: he built canals for irrigation. He built the Zaina Kadal bridge in Srinagar and Zaina Lank, a man-made island in Wular Lake.
  • Result: Kashmir had a long period of peace, trade and growing culture. That is why later memory calls him "the great king".

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: 15th century, c. 1420–1470. This is the time after Timur's sack of Delhi (1398), when Delhi was weak and regional states were strong [1].
  • Dynasty: Shah Mir dynasty of Kashmir.
  • Region: the Kashmir valley, centred on Srinagar, with works at Wular Lake.
  • Key people:
  • Sultan Sikandar "Butshikan": his father, whose harsh policy he reversed.
  • Jonaraja: court historian who continued the Rajatarangini.

  • Srivara: Jonaraja's pupil, who wrote about Budshah's reign.

  • How we know:

  • Our main sources are the Sanskrit chronicles written after Kalhana's Rajatarangini: Jonaraja's continuation and Srivara's account. Both were written by scholars at his court.
  • Later Persian histories of Kashmir also praise him.
  • Some later praise may be exaggerated, because court writers tended to praise their patron.

  • His surviving public works, such as Zaina Kadal and Zaina Lank, still carry his name.

  • Note: our NCERT study notes do not cover him. He is a "beyond NCERT" figure from the regional-states part of the Sultanate period.

Don't confuse with

  • Sikandar Butshikan: Budshah's father. He was known for destroying temples and putting pressure on Hindus. Budshah reversed these policies, so father and son stand for opposite approaches.
  • Akbar: the Mughal emperor who also abolished jizya and had the Mahabharata translated into Persian (as the Razmnama). Akbar did this in the 16th century. Budshah did similar things in 15th-century Kashmir, about a century earlier.
  • Kalhana: wrote the original Rajatarangini in the 12th century. Jonaraja, under Budshah, only continued it. Budshah also had Kalhana's work translated into Persian.
  • Firoz Shah Tughlaq: a Delhi sultan who extended jizya to Brahmins. Budshah's policy ran the other way: he abolished jizya.

Prelims Hooks

  • Zain-ul-Abidin (Budshah): Sultan of Kashmir, Shah Mir dynasty, c. 1420–1470.
  • He abolished jizya, let Kashmiri Hindus who had fled under Sikandar Butshikan come back, and allowed temples to be repaired.
  • He had the Mahabharata and Kalhana's Rajatarangini translated into Persian.
  • Jonaraja (continued the Rajatarangini) and Srivara were scholars at his court.
  • Order in time: Kalhana's Rajatarangini (12th c.) → Timur's sack of Delhi (1398) [1] → Zain-ul-Abidin (1420–1470) → Akbar's Razmnama (16th c.).
  • Trap: "the first ruler to have the Mahabharata translated into Persian was Akbar." This is wrong. It had already been done under Zain-ul-Abidin in Kashmir.

Mains Points

  • Tolerance in the Sultanate age was a ruler's choice, not something fixed by religion. Sikandar Butshikan and his son Budshah ruled the same state and came from the same faith, yet they followed opposite policies. This helps answer questions on whether medieval rule was simply "Hindu versus Muslim".
  • Regional states carried culture when Delhi was weak. After 1398, Delhi took more than a century to recover [1]. In those years, regional courts such as Kashmir under Budshah supported mixed Sanskrit–Persian learning and new crafts. Some of these crafts, such as shawls and papier-mâché, still shape Kashmir's economy today.
  • An early version of Akbar's policy. Budshah abolished jizya, translated Sanskrit works into Persian and gave Hindus posts in government. Akbar later did the same three things under sulh-i-kul ("peace with all", his policy of equal respect for all religions). This shows continuity between Sultanate and Mughal times. One caution: most of what we know about Budshah comes from chronicles written by scholars at his court, who were likely to praise him.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Sack of Delhi (1398)britannica.com · tier 3