Historical Note: Reactions of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and Laureate Mirza Ghalib to the Celestial Events during 1857-1858

Abstract

The revolt against the British broke out at Meerut on 10 th May 1857 that soon turned into a Great Uprising and shook the foundations of the colonial power in India. A conjunction of Mars and Saturn took place in July 1857. A solar eclipse occurred on 18 th September 1857, two days before the capture of Delhi by the British. There followed a lunar eclipse, on 28 th February 1858. Then a comet brightened up in the evening skies only days before the British Crown was about to take India in its fold on 1 st November 1858. How Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), central to the upheaval, and the laureate Mirzā Ghālib (1797-1859), a remote observer, reacted in such a scenario is central to our theme. Z. afar was a superstitious man and had a spiritual incline. What is unique is that he had never mixed up the outcome of the war with the celestial events and left it to Almighty. That he was unaware of these events is difficult to believe. Ghālib was a skeptic and came to believe the celestial events as signals of divine wrath. In the process we discover an unexplored side of Mirzā Ghālib and his grasp of astronomy.

Solar eclipses in India’s cultural and political history

“…The eclipse preceded Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's capture from Humayun's Tomb by Captain William Hodson by three days. Under the circumstances, the September 1857 CE eclipse may be called a War Eclipse (Kapoor 2018).…”