Malik Muhammad Jaisi, the creator of the 16th-century epic poem Padmavat, is pitted against Guru Gorakhnath, the medieval Yogi who began the Nath monastic movement and is referenced by Kabir and Guru Nanak.

The “contest” is being played out in Jais or Jayas, about 100km east of Lucknow, on the sidelines of the keenly-watched Amethi election amphitheatre. Jais is located 30km west of Amethi.

The unusual “protagonists” have been unleashed on this political minefield by the new-age gladiators out to hold the legacy flag high of either of the two.

It was Jaisi’s Padmavat, written around AD 1540, that gave the world the legend surrounding the siege of Chittor by Sultan Alauddin Khilji who had heard of the beauty of Queen Padmavati or Padmini, the wife of Maharana Rawal Ratan Singh, the ruler of the Medapata (Mewar) kingdom in present-day Rajasthan, and wanted her for himself.

Jaisi also wrote a long poem on Krishna titled Kanhavat. In his poem Akhiri Kalaam, Jaisi spoke about the beauty of Jais, where he lived as a mendicant.

Though there is no confirmation about Jaisi’s birthplace, what is beyond doubt is that he belonged to the Awadh region, a reason behind his writings in Awadhi.

He was the first to mention Padmavati in his poem while narrating the conquest of Chittorgarh. Many scholars believe that Jaisi was the oldest vernacular poet of Hindustan. Influenced by Kabir, he was well-versed in Hindu lore and yoga philosophy.

Jaisi is known to have studied Sanskrit prosody and rhetoric from Hindu pandits at Jais and was patronised by Emperor Sher Shah Suri.

It is said that the King of Amethi was childless and was granted a son after Jaisi prayed for him. The poet died in Jais and his tomb is worshipped by many.

According to a translation of Padmavat by G.A. Grierson and Mahamahopadhyaya Sudhakar Dvivedi, Jaisi wrote about himself: “The city Jayas is a holy spot: there came the poet and told his lay. There humbly waited he upon Hindu scholars, and prayed them to correct and mend the broken (metre) and arrangement (of his song).”

Politics, however, doesn’t care about the beauty of harmony, the history of literature or the spiritual elegance of a place.

The railway ministry in March 2024 renamed Jayas station as Guru Gorakhnath Dham on the demand of Amethi MP Smriti Irani. Some people believe that Jais is the birthplace of Gorakhnath.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is the mahant (a religious superior) of the Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur and the head of the sect. The name of Akbarganj station was also changed to Maa Ahorva Bhawani Dham and there is a proposal to rename Fursatganj Airport as Guru Gorakhnath or Rana Beni Madhav Singh Airport after the king of Shankarpur principality in adjoining Rae Bareli.

Madhav Singh had fought against the British when they tried to dethrone his friend Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh, in 1856. He stood by Begum Hazrat Mahal in Lucknow during the rebellion of 1857 and eventually went to Nepal. Singh died during a battle with Jung Bahadur Rana, the then Prime Minister of Nepal, who had sided with the British.

A few days ago during the BJP’s election campaign, Smriti Irani told a gathering that she has the approval of Rs 21 crore to develop five acres of land near Ramlila Ground in Jais as a memorial to Guru Gorakhnath.

“But the local MP has no plan to renovate the dilapidated structures where Jaisi lived and created his best poems. Rajiv Gandhi, as the Prime Minister of India, laid the foundation stone of a memorial for Jaisi in 1988. Some constructions were done but couldn’t be completed after his death. A research centre was also built here but that remained a mere building without books or chairs,” said Jameel Ahmad, a footwear vendor in the town.

The foundation stone laid in 1988 by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for the memorial

“Jaisi or Jais belongs to both Hindus and Muslims. It is also popular here that Guru Gorakhnath had more Muslim friends and followers than Hindus. But some
people don’t understand this,” he added.

Rajiv was the Amethi MP from 1981 to 1991.

“The BJP politicians may have pitted Gorakhnath against Jaisi but nobody is interested in repairing the dilapidated roads and solving the drinking water problem. While Gauriganj, the main area of Amethi, gets 20 hours of power, Jais gets only 15 hours of electricity,” said garments seller Rameshwar Kushwaha.

Amethi votes on May 20