Entry of Birbal in Ekta Kapoor's Jodha Akbar

Hello everyone,

This is the first post in the new Jodha-Akbar section of the Blog. Hence, let me introduce this in brief to all of you. 

This section has been started on the basis of popular demand by many Blog readers for discussing the episodes of Ekta Kapoor's magnum opus, Jodha Akbar, currently being aired on Zee TV at 8.00 P.M. on weekdays. This section has been kept separate to prevent the show-based discussions from being mixed up with the PURELY historical posts on the Blog. 
I am dedicating this first post to Birbal, the latest character set to enter the show along with his wife in the coming week...!!! Yesterday, various media channels announced the same...

TOI           Business Standard       PTI         ABP

I will discuss the historical background and importance of Birbal in the historical section. But, here is a brief introduction to Birbal, as far as the show is concerned.

Introduction to Birbal

As we all know, Birbal was a wise and clever man, who was the brightest among the 9 Gems in Akbar's court and his Favorite! Initially appointed as a good Singer and a Poet, he soon rose to become an indispensable Adviser and a close personal Friend to Akbar. 
Birbal is mostly remembered in Folk Tales, which focus on his wit, subtle sense of humor and wisdom in the Mughal court.

His original name was Mahesh Das. Akbar bestowed upon him the title of Raja "BirBal". Bir means Courageous and Bal means Strength in Hindi. This name is derived from VirVar, as per some texts. I will go into details on this issue in the historical section.

Birbal was one of the few people who joined Akbar's Newly Developed Faith - Din-e-illahi. He was given many honorific titles and the rank of a commander of 2000 by Akbar. This made him unpopular with many of Akbar's courtiers. Many of the folk stories revolve around how Birbal is trapped by Akbar's jealous courtiers and how he outsmarts them through sheer wit and presence of mind alone.

Birbal was also sent on military expeditions, though he had no experience of warfare! He first ventured against Akbar's step-brother, Mirza Hakim of Kabul. He also accompanied Akbar on his Gujarat campaigns. He died during one such military misadventure in/near Swat Valley. His body was never found. Akbar was really grief-struck when Birbal died. It is said he didn't eat or drink for 2 days - such was his grief.

This was the historical background of Birbal in brief...But, what are our expectations from the Show.?. 

As the show revolves around Jodha and Akbar, it is expected that the tracks of Birbal will be woven around this royal couple. There are many folk tales involving Akbar and Birbal. Some of them contain Jodha also, which is inevitable. It would be fun if these folk stories are shown, albeit in a 'royal manner', interwoven with the Jodha Akbar love story. It would be a welcome step towards toning down the CV's obsession with negativity and glorification of vamps all the time. 


Here are a few of those folk-tale anecdotes.

a. The Mango Fruit

One fine summer day, Akbar along with his wife Jodha was enjoying mangoes. Birbal was also present. 

Akbar thought of playing a prank on Jodha. After eating the mangoes, he silently put all his mango seeds also on Jodha's plate, while her attention was somewhere else. Birbal observed this, but remained quiet, as he knew Akbar would speak to him on this matter. He was correct. The next moment, Akbar said to Birbal - " Birbal.! My wife(your sister-in-law) loves mangoes more than me. Just look at her plate, which is full of mango seeds, while mine is empty..!! "

Jodha knew Akbar was playing some prank and hence she remained silent. Birbal, with his trademark innocence, expressed confusion and said, " Shahenshah, my sister-in-law may have eaten mangoes. But she is not ahead of you."
 
Akbar asked, "But, how .?. Her plate is full of seeds."
 
Birbal replied with a grin, "She has eaten only the mangoes, but you have eaten the mangoes ALONG WITH THE SEEDS ..!! Your plate does not contain even a single mango seed."
Akbar understood that Birbal had caught him YET AGAIN...And his face turned a deep shade of red with an embarrassed smile. Jodha, who was a mute spectator till now, burst out in laughter.


b. The Favorite Thing

One day, King Akbar got annoyed with his favorite queen . The queen apologized, did everything to please him, but he bluntly said "I don't want to see your face ever in my life. So just get away from here."

The queen started crying and began to pack her luggage. After doing that, she went to Akbar to apologize for the last time. But Akbar was unmoved.

He said, "You can take your favorite thing from the palace with yourself."
With a heavy heart, the queen prepared to leave. Suddenly she remembered Birbal, she requested him to solve her problem. Birbal suggested her something, hearing which the queen's face started glowing.
She went to the King with a goblet full of some drink in her hands and said, "Before leaving, I just want to serve this drink to you with my own hands."
Akbar gladly agreed. The drink was actually a strong wine, drinking which the King fell in a deep slumber. When he got up, he found himself in his chariot accompanied by the queen.
The King started, "Where am I? Who brought me here?"
"You are on the way to my home town," said the queen lovingly, "I brought you here."
"But why?" asked Akbar.
"Why?" said the queen, "Didn't you say that I can take my favourite thing with me? I swear upon God, you are the most precious person for me. There is none better than you."
Akbar got flattered by the sweet words of the queen. He forgave her and asked the charioteer to take them back to the palace. After returning, the queen gave many gifts to Birbal.

c. Writing an Epic

Akbar always wanted an epic to be written by which his name could become eternal. When he heard about the Mahabharata, he wished it to be written.

He expressed his wish to Birbal saying, "I want the Akbari Mahabharata to be written."

"That's a very good thought, Sir. It's not a very difficult job," said Birbal.

"Can you write it, then?" questioned Akbar.

"Of course, Your Majesty," replied Birbal. "I just need some time and money." Akbar chuckled and said, "Take as much time as you want. You can get money from the royal treasury."

"Okay, sir. I will soon start writing the epic," said Birbal. He took some amount from the royal treasury and donated it to  temples and orphanages.

After a few days, Birbal arrived in the court with the manuscript which was nothing but a huge bundle of useless papers. Akbar asked him, "Birbal, have you written the epic?"

"Sir, some part of it is still left," answered Birbal. "That can be completed only if you allow me to ask something from the queen."

"Permission granted," said Akbar. Birbal went to the queen and said, "Your Majesty, His Majesty wants me to write an epic for him which should be like the Mahabharata. But, in the Mahabharata, Draupadi had five husbands. So I want to tell me about the rest of your husbands. I know that King Akbar is your husband. But who are the other four husbands of yours? Do let me know." 

The queen started burning with anger. "Birbal, what kind of insolence is this?" she said, "And what sort of senseless epic is this?"  Saying this, she threw the manuscript into the fire. When Akbar heard this whole incident, he called Birbal and said, "I've realised my mistake and I promise you that I'll never be whimsical again."

d. List of Blinds

Once, Akbar's Queen wanted to give alms to all the blinds in the kingdom. Emperor Akbar wanted to be sure that none of the blinds were deprived of alms, so he directed his men to prepare a list of blind people in his kingdom.

As per order of the Emperor, a comprehensive list of the blind people was made and presented before the king. Emperor Akbar handed over the list to Birbal and asked him to make adequate arrangements for distribution of alms.

Birbal glanced at the list and said, "Your Majesty, I will do the needful. But, do you know that there are more blind people than the ones listed here? In fact, the number of blinds is far greater than the number of sighted people in our kingdom."

Akbar said, "That is a ridiculous thing to say, Birbal! If it is true, prove it to me." Birbal accepted the Emperor's challenge.

The next day, Birbal took a frame of an old cot and carried it with him to the main crossing. He then, sat on the road and started weaving its rope. He had a servant with a paper and a pen, standing next to him. Soon, a courtier came and exclaimed, "Birbal, what are you doing?"

Birbal did not answer him. He just whispered something in the ear of his servant and kept at his work. A little later, some more people gathered on the street. They were extremely surprised to see Raja Birbal weaving a cot and thus, started asking all sorts of 
questions.
"What is wrong with Raja Birbal?"
"Why is he doing this?"
"What could be the reason behind this?"

Each time someone made a comment, the servant quickly jotted down something on the piece of paper. The news that Raja Birbal was weaving a cot on the road spread like wildfire in the city. By evening, Akbar, too, came to know about this. He went to Birbal to see for himself. 

He asked Birbal in a surprised tone, "I don't understand what you are trying to do!"
The servant again wrote down something on the paper. Birbal stood up and greeted the king. He said, "Jahanpanah, I was making the list of blinds!" He then gave the list to the Emperor to see.

Emperor Akbar was astonished to see his name at the end of the list. He asked Birbal, "Birbal, why have you included my name in your list of blinds?"

Birbal politely replied, "Your Majesty, you are also one of them! You were the last person to come and ask me that what I was doing, even though you could clearly see that I was weaving the cot."
Akbar burst out laughing! 

e. The Magical Donkey (Tamil)

Akbar gifts a necklace to the Queen, which gets stolen from her chamber. Watch the video to see how Birbal finds the necklace.

The Magical Donkey (English Version)

These were some incidents from the Akbar Birbal folktales, which included Jodha also. The Queen in these stories refers to the mother of Salim. Some of these can be dramatized to be shown in the serial while maintaining the "Royal persona"..

 I wish the Creatives find a sensible balance in the depiction of Birbal, and explore all his qualities, viz., humor, wit, bravery, etc.. Till now, we have Raja Man Singh, Rahim, Tansen and TodarMal - The 4 Future Gems of Akbar in the Show. The entry of the 5th one, Birbal, evokes a sense of freshness in the minds of the viewers. 

Lets hope the Creatives of Jodha Akbar do complete justice to the character of Birbal along with the leads!

You all are welcome to share some other interesting anecdotes about Akbar-Birbal-Jodha here, and your expectations from the new character.


This article has been posted under the  Jodha-Akbar section of  history_geek's BLOG.