Any Turkmen traces in India?

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Topic: Any Turkmen traces in India?

Posted By: Shir
Subject: Any Turkmen traces in India?
Date Posted: 22-May-2006 at 02:31

From about 12-13th centuries quite a few Turkmens migrated from Central Asia to India as warriors and establishing various ruling dynasties. Here is an example of a Qutb Shahi dynasty.

"Qutb Shahi dynasty" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Qutb Shahi dynasty (whose members were also called the Qutub Shahis) was the ruling family of the kingdom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golconda - Golconda in southern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India - India . They were http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia - Shia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim - Muslims and belonged to a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmen - Turkmen tribe from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan - Turkmenistan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia - Armenia region.

The dynasty's founder, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Quli_Qutbl_Mulk - Sultan Quli Qutbl Mulk , migrated to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhi - Delhi with some of his relatives and friends in the beginning of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_century - 16th century . Later he migrated south to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan - Deccan and served http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahmani_Sultanate - Bahmani sultan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Shah - Mohammad Shah . He conquered Golconda and became the Governor of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telangana - Telangana region in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1518 - 1518 , after the disintegration of the Bahmani Kingdom into the five http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan_sultanates - Deccan sultanates . Soon after, he declared independence from the Bahmani Sultanate, took title "Qutub Shah," and established Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda.

This dynasty was the first Muslim dynasty to rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_people - Telugus . This effectively divided the Telugu nation into two countries, one Muslim ruled country (Telanagana State) and the other a Hindu ruled country. The dynasty ruled Golconda for 171 years, until the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal - Mughal emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangzeb - Aurangzeb 's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army - armies conquered the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan - Deccan in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1687 - 1687 . Even then, Telangana State continued to be ruled by Muslims until the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad_State - Hyderabad State joined the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Union - Indian Union in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948 - 1948 with the military intervention of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhi - New Delhi .

The Qutub Shahi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruler - rulers were great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build - builders and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patron - patrons of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning - learning . They not only patronized the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Empire - Persian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture - culture but also the regional culture of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deccan - Deccan , symbolized by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telugu_language - Telugu language and the newly developed http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deccani_idiom&action=edit - Deccani idiom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu - Urdu . The main part of Golconda State was Telangana. Although Telugu was not their mother tongue, the Golconda rulers learned Telugu. Golconda and later http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad%2C_India - Hyderabad served as capitals of the sultanate, and both cities were embellished by the Qutb Shahi sultans. The seven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan - sultans in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynasty - dynasty were:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Quli_Qutbl_Mulk - Sultan Quli Qutbl Mulk ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1518 - 1518 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1543 - 1543 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamsheed_Quli_Qutb_Shah - Jamsheed Quli Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1543 - 1543 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1550 - 1550 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhan_Quli_Qutb_Shah - Subhan Quli Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1550 - 1550 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Quli_Qutb_Shah_Wali - Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1550 - 1550 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1580 - 1580 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Quli_Qutb_Shah - Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1580 - 1580 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1612 - 1612 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Muhammad_Qutb_Shah - Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1612 - 1612 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1626 - 1626 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Qutb_Shah - Abdullah Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1626 - 1626 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1672 - 1672 )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abul_Hasan_Qutb_Shah - Abul Hasan Qutb Shah ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1672 - 1672 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1687 - 1687 ) "

I wonder if there are any visible traces of Turkmens in modern day India, whether in names of people or geographical locations. I would appreciate to hear clarifications from Indians or just experts on this issue. Thanks.

Replies:

Posted By: Otto Liman Von Sanders
Date Posted: 23-May-2006 at 17:43

*deleted*

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Posted By: Anujkhamar
Date Posted: 23-May-2006 at 18:02

Otto, i hope you enjoyed your few minutes on this forum

Posted By: Seko
Date Posted: 23-May-2006 at 19:19

Otto is no longer with us, if you know what I mean.

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Posted By: Anujkhamar
Date Posted: 24-May-2006 at 04:19

He shall be missed(!)

and back to the topic, I haven't heard of any Turkmen societies in India (they could still exist, i just haven't ever heard of them). But it wouldn't surprise me to think that there was still Turkmen "blood" "diluted" into the population.

Posted By: Shir
Date Posted: 25-May-2006 at 00:14

Here is another one FYI from an Indian historian.

http://turkmeniya.tripod.com/id11.html -

R.L.Hangloo (India)

In Indo-Central Asian relations the Turkomen have played very important and historical role that constitutes the most significant aspect of cultural heritage of both these countries in Middle Ages. .

Although contacts between India and Central Asia go back to antiquity but it was with the onset of 13th century when Delhi Sultanate was established in India that new processes were set in motion to nourish a vibrant relationship between India and Turkmenistan despite the immensity of distances. There is hardly any area of Indian civilization which did not register the Turkoman influence. In establishing the Sultanates of Delhi, Bengal, Kashmir and Deccan the Turkomen played a significant role in politics, administration, military, judiciary, architecture, art forms, literature, poetry and in'various other institutions like Sufism. Even though the Turkoman established large Sultanates in various regions but they were deeply rooted in to the Turkmenian culture. They always patronised streams of people from their territory to assist them in maiming their affairs. Be it Turkish-Chahalgam in Delhi, Shahmirs in Kashmir, or the Qutb Shah is in Deccan, their contributions in varied fields is very much living even to this day. Similarly the Great Turkomen Bairam Beg Khan who laid the foundation of the mightily Mughal Empire in India and the contribution of his son Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Kanan occupies an impol1ant place in the cultural heritage of both these countries. Hafiz Shirazi once said, �The black eyed beauties of Kashmir and the Turkoman of Samarkand Sing and dance to the strains of Hafiz Shirazi verse�. It bespeaks of the cultural synthesis that took place between the two countries at the popular level as well.

The contacts between Indians and Turkomen in various fields of material culture and art and architecture at popular level facilitated by various Sultans and also been a source of great historical progress in formation of the cultural heritage of Turkmenistcan in medieval times. For example Sultan Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah who was from the Qara Qoyunlu tribe of Turkoman founded the City of Hyderabad in Deccan and was also a great poet and the author of rich collection of nearly 50000 couplets comprising ghazals, rwzm, masnavis, qasidas, ruboies and fytas. He is the founder of urdu language in Deccan which he did by blending Persian and Hindi.

There is plentiful of evidence to illustrate various elements which played an important role in formation of cultural heritage of Turkmenistan and its historical progress in Middle ages. All these details are focused very authentically in this paper by the author.

From presentation at the International Conference
"Cultural Heritage of Turkmenistan".
October, 2000. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan