The wonder that was india

47.Babur visiting Gorakhtari from the Babu-Nama (p.256)

48.The heroine being served by a maid from Lor Chand (p.302)

49. Captivity of Himu painted by Shankar Akbar-Nama (p.105)

50The news of the birth of Akbar communicated to Humayun, Akbar Nama (p.103)

51 Workmen building Agra fort, Akbar-Nama (p. 290)

52. Village life from Anwar Suhayli by Kashifi (p. 207)

Hindus were forbidden any contact, either matrimonial or social, with them.41 Al-Biruni asserts that, since the whole Hindu system had no parallel in Islam, contact and understanding between Hindus and Muslims was very limited. He contends, however, that Muslim and Hindu class divisions had a common ancestor in the ancient Aryan class distinctions.

Al-Biruni claimed that the Hindus considered sodomy, which was prevalent among the Turks, as revolting as eating beef. They permitted prostitution, but this was due to the laxity of their rulers. Prostitution had also existed in Muslim society. Both the Buwayhid Prince 'Azu'd-Dawla (949-83)42 of Iran and Nuru'd-Din Mubarak GhaznavT justified it as a means of protecting the honour of Muslim women.43

We might say that, at least until the eighteenth century, no non-Indian anywhere in the world understood so much about the religion and customs of the Hindus as this learned Central Asian scholar, whose knowledge was, for its time, universal and whose thought is characterized by tolerance, benevolence, and sound common sense.

Amir Khusraw was deeply impressed by India, but his studies of Hinduism were not based on Sanskrit sources. He was impressed by the depth of learning among Indians and their ability to speak any language. He also greatly admired the brahmans, who could teach all subjects without having to study overseas and who had devised the numerical system, written Kalila wa Dimna on the art of government, and invented chess. In considering that Hindus were metaphysically confused, Amir Khusraw was a Muslim chauvinist. He admitted, however, that they believed in the unity and eternity of God and were superior to materialists, star worshippers, and Christians. Although the Hindus worshipped stones, animals, plants, and the sun, they believed that these things were God's creations and they only imitated their ancestors.44

As mentioned earlier, Nakhshabi, who had translated two Sanskrit works, had a better understanding of Sanskrit. Mir Gisu Daraz also studied Sanskrit, thereby intending to defeat the brahmans' arguments and convert them to Islam.45 Following his conquest of Nagarkot in 1362 Firuz Shah Tughluq acquired some 1,300 books from the Jwalamukhi temple. He commissioned Sanskrit scholars to translate some of them into Persian. On the basis of the translations of works on physics and astronomy, 'Izzu'd-Din Khalid Khani compiled the Dala'il-i Firuz Shahi, a work that is not now available. One of the surviving Persian translations from Sanskrit is the Brhatsamhita, by the celebrated Indian astronomer Varahamihira. It had been translated earlier by al-Biruni, but the

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new translator, 'Abdu'l 'Aziz Shams Baha-i Nuri, does not seem to have had access to this work. Sultan Zaynu'l-'Abidin of Kashmir, Sultan Sikandar Lodi, and several other Muslim rulers also ordered the translation of various Sanskrit works into Persian in order both to satisfy their own intellectual curiosity and to increase Muslim understanding of Hinduism.

Akbar's translation bureau (the Maktab Khana) also helped considerably to change the Muslim perception of Hinduism. Its most remarkable productions were the translations of the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Yoga Vashishta. Abu'l-Fazl wrote the preface to the Mahabharata. Discussing Akbar's motives for ordering the translations, he claimed that the Emperor sought to heal the religious differences amongst his subjects. Akbar did not discriminate between Hindu and Muslim, friend and foe. He felt that reliably translated texts from both religions would form a basis for a united search for truth. He had also discovered that often the common people among the Hindus were forced to rely on distorted interpretations of texts, while the theologians kept the standard works to themselves. Akbar therefore concluded that the translation of these texts into simple language would enable the people to understand the true spirit of their religion.

Abu'1-Fazl continually censured the ignorance and shortsightedness of his contemporaries. He was convinced that the Hindus followed their faith uncritically and were prey to superstition. Their fantastic beliefs shocked the Muslims, who had no means of learning the more profound Hindu doctrines. For their part, most Muslims had never studied their own great books, such as those by Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (702-765) and Ibn al-'Arabi.46

In the third volume of the A'in-i Akbari, Abu'l-Fazl gave a detailed description of Hinduism, although he was aware that his work was not the equal of al-Birum's Tahqiq in depth of analysis. He urged his Muslim readers to study his account of Hindu learning with open minds. He suggested that 'putting aside the estrangements of ignorance' they compare it with the religious teachings of the sufis and philosophers. The Ain-i Akbari includes some discussion on contemporary Hindu and Jain philosophy. Abu'1-Fazl was amazed at the flexibility of yogic postures and interestedly described the Hindu knowledge of sakuna (augury).

Yet more Sanskrit works were translated into Persian during Jahangir's reign. Dara Shukoh undertook to translate the Up-anishads in order to discover any Wahdat al-Wujud doctrines hidden in them, and not as a linguistic exercise. He accused the Hindu pandits (teachers) of hiding the Upanishadic truth from both Muslims and Hindus in order to keep their teachings on the

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Wahdat al-Wujud doctrine secret. Dara Shukoh believed that his translation would help mystics of both faiths, although he stressed the primacy of the Qur'an, and the translation in fact proved to be of universal interest. Although he died before it was circulated, many copies are still extant throughout India; during Nawwab Shuja'u'd-Dawla's reign in Avadh (1754-75) the French Resident sent a copy to a Parisian scholar of ancient religions, Anquetil Duperron, who translated it into Latin and French. The French edition was never published, but the Latin version, published in 1801-2, was of particular interest to the German philosopher Schopenhauer, who found its study 'the solace of my life' and 'the solace of my death'.47

The Muslim intellectuals believed that some prophets had been sent to India, but a fierce controversy raged as to their identification. Later, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Mujaddid (Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, 1564—1624) also considered that prophets had come to India, although the Indians generally had ignored their teachings. According to him, the Hindu works on divine being had been plagiarized from the works of ancient prophets. He asserted that the terms 'prophet' and 'apostle' occurred only in Arabic and Persian and had no Indian equivalents. Consequently, the Indians had no perception concerning prophets.48 The Mujaddid did not believe that Rama and Krishna were prophets and could not tolerate the suggestion that they were divine names. Mirza Mazhar Jan-i Janan (d. 1781), however, a distinguished sufi scholar of the Mujaddis's sufic order, accepted both Rama and Krishna as prophets.49 He also glossed over Hindu idol-worship, although he considered any Hindus who persisted in their faith in Rama and Krishna after the advent of Islam to be infidels who had departed from the right path.

THE HINDU IMPACT ON SUFISM

According to al-Biruni, the sufi theories of the soul were similar to those in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. Like the Yoga Sutra, sufi works also stated that 'the bodies are the snares of the souls for the purpose of acquiring recompense'. Al-Biruni also identifies the sufi doctrine of divine love as self-annihilation with parallel passages from the Bhagavad Gita.50 Hujwiri comments that before he settled in Lahore some sufis believed in theories that he calls brahmanical. Ac.cord-ing to Hujwiri they wrongly believed that 'annihilation (fand') signifies loss of essence and destruction of the personality, and that

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subsistence (baqa) indicates the subsistence of God in man'. Condemning the views as misguided, Hujwiri says that 'real annihilation from anything involves consciousness of its imperfection and the absence of desire for it', and subsistence means 'subsistence of the remembrance of God'.51 Sufi views on this question always remained divided, and arguments over annihilation and subsistence were endemic.

By the thirteenth century the Indian sufis were confronted with the kanphata (split-eared) yogis or the Nath followers of Gorakh-nath. Shaykh Nizamu'd-Din Awliya' 's description of his conversation with yogis shows that he was impresssed with their theory of the division of the human body into the regions of Siva and Sakti. The area from the head to the navel, associated with Siva, was spiritual; the area below the navel, associated with Sakti, was profane.52 Shaykh Nizamu'd-Din Awliya' was also impressed with the yogic theory that a child's moral character was determined by the day of the month on which he was conceived.53 Some sufis also learned from the yogis medicines to grow long hair.54 The Hatha yogic treatise Amrita-Kunda, which had been translated into Arabic and Persian in the thirteenth century, had a lasting effect on sufism.

Shaykh Nasiru'd-Din Chiragh-i Dihli observed that controlled breathing is the essence of sufism. Controlled breathing is initially a deliberate action but later becomes automatic. He urged practising articulated breathing like the perfect yogis, known as siddhas. Yogic postures and breath control became an integral part of Chishtiyya sufic practice, and controlled breathing was incorporated finally as a vital aspect in all the sufi orders except the Indian Naqshban-diyyas.

The sufi theory of Wahdat al-Wujud and sufi analogies for it were remarkably similar to those of the yogis. Shaykh Hamidud-Din Nagauri's Hindi verses reflect this yogic influence.55 The Nath doctrines had a far-reaching influence on the Chishtiyya Shaykh 'Abdu'l Quddus Gangohi (d. 1537). His Hindi nom de plume was Alakh (Imperceptible). His Rushd-nama contains Hindi verses composed by himself and his spiritual guides and is designed to support the truth of the Wahdat al-Wujud doctrine. The Imperceptible Lord (Alakh Niranjana), he says, is unseeable, but those who are able to perceive Him are lost to themselves. In another verse the Shaykh identifies Niranjana (the Imperceptible) with God (Khuda).56 References to the yogi saint Gorakhnath in the Rushd-ndma equate him with Ultimate Reality or Absolute Truth. Some references to these names imply 'perfect man' or 'perfect Siddha'.57 The union of Sakti, the sun, and Siva, the moon, is according to the Shaykh symbolized by prayers performed hanging

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upside down with the legs suspended from a roof or the branch of a tree. Here we find very clear evidence of the practices of Hindu tantricism influencing sufi beliefs.

The cross-fertilization of sufi beliefs with those expressed by the Kashmiri Saivite woman yogi Lalla or Lal Ded (Lalla Yogesvari) is reflected in the Rishi movement of Shaykh Nuru'd-Din Rishi (d. 1439) of Kashmir. The Shaykh's teachings are embodied in his Kashmiri verses, some of which are almost identical with those composed by Lalla. Through them the Shaykh emerges as an ardent devotee of God trying to reach the Unknowable in the heart by lighting the lamp of love. Nuru'd-Din and his disciples preferred to call themselves Rishis, using the well-known term for the Hindu sages, not sufis. Their main theme was universal love. They served the people without considering caste and class distinctions, planted trees to shade travellers, and tried to turn Kashmir into a haven for the neglected sections of society. Shaykh Nuru'd-Din believed that, although eating meat was permitted by the shari'a, it entailed cruelty to animals, and he became a vegetarian.58

The Nath ideas found great popularity in fifteenth-century Bengal. The Amritakunda, a text on Hatha yoga, was first translated into Arabic in Bengal in the early thirteenth century. In 1498-9 Shaykh Zahid wrote a book in Bengali entitled the Adya-Parichaya, based on the Amritakunda. Sayyid Murtaza (d. 1662) later wrote the Yoga-Qalandar, identifying the Qalandariyya discipline of Abu 'All Qalandar with yoga practices. Sayyid Sultan (d. 1668) of Chitta-gong also composed a number of Bengali works on Muslim themes of absorption into God, with Hindu and yogic overtones. The Haqa'iq-i Hindi by 'Abdu'l-Wahid (d. 1608) of Bilgram (near Lucknow) was intended to crush orthodox opposition to the use of Vaishnavite themes in the Hindi poetry recited by the Chishtiyya sufis to arouse ecstasy. To Gisu Daraz, Hindi poetry was more subtle and elegant and transported the sufis to higher planes of mystical ecstasy than Persian verses did.59

The sixteenth century saw a tremendous increase in the volume of Hindi poetry. Naturally its recitation at sufi gatherings required some defence. Mir 'Abdu'l Wahid sought to justify this practice by giving Islamic equivalents for features of the Krishna legend such as Krishna, Radha, Gopi, Braj, Gokul, Jamuna, Ganga, Mathura, and the flute in his Haqa'iq-i Hindi. He pleads that this identification renders unobjectionable the transport of sufis into ecstasy on hearing Hindu Vaishnavite poetry.

The translation of Sanskrit works into Persian at Akbar's court had made Muslims aware of the Vedanta School of Hindu philosophy. Jahangir identified the highest form of sufism with the

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Vedanta. According to him the following lines by Baba Fighani (d. 1516 or 1519) embodied the essence of both the Vedanta and sufism:

There is one lamp in this house, by whose rays,

Wherever I look there is an assembly.60

THE MAHDAWI MOVEMENT

In Islam messianic movements emerged shortly after the Prophet Muhammad's death. The idea was borrowed from the Zoroastrian and Christian faiths. The Muslim messiah is known as the Mahdi. Mahdi means 'guided one' or the 'directed one' - he who is fit to direct others. Except for the collection of ahadis compiled by Bukhari and Muslim all the important works of Sunni ahadis refer to prophecies concerning the Mahdi and state that all the Prophet's leading companions are in one way or the other associated with these stories. There are serious discrepancies among the traditions concerning the Madhi; the signs preceding his appearance and the descriptions of his features also differ. Ibn Khaldun says:

It has been well known (and generally accepted), by all Muslims in every epoch, that at the end of time a man from the family (of the Prophet) will without fail make his appearance, one who will strengthen the religion and make justice triumph. The Muslims will follow him, and he will gain domination over the Muslim realm. He will be called the Mahdi. Following him, the Antichrist will appear, together with all the subsequent signs of the Hour (the Day of Judgement), as established in (the sound tradition of) the Sahih. After (the Mahdi), Isa (Jesus) will descend and kill the Antichrist. Or Jesus will descend together with the Mahdi, and help him kill (the Antichrist), and have him as the leader in his prayers.

The Isna' 'Ashari Shi'i traditions, however, differ markedly from those of the Sunnl sect. According to them the twelfth Imam, Muhammad son of Imam Hasan 'Askari, who disappeared from human sight after his occultation in 873, is still alive and will reappear before Judgement Day. This belief in the Mahdi is an indispensable part of the Isna' 'Ashari Shi'i faith, but the Sunnis attach much less importance to the Mahdi traditions.

According to some Sunni authorities, even the first four successors to the Prophet were known as mahdiyin ('guided ones'). From that time- to the end of the nineteenth century a large number of

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Sunni adventurers declared themselves the Mahdi. The end of some of them was tragic; during Firuz Shah's reign, one Rukn declared himself the Mahdi, with the result that he was beheaded.62

Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur left an indelible mark on the Mahdawi movement in India. He was born in September 1443, during Sultan Mahmud Shah Sharqi's reign. The Mahdawi sources, compiled within one hundred years of Sayyid Muhammad's lifetime, recount miracles at his birth reminiscent of those at the Prophet Muhammad's nativity. According to the Mahdawi traditions, he started his education when he was four years, four months, and four days old. He proved a prodigy by completing it when he was only twelve years old. The legends say that, accompanied by Sultan Husayn Sharqi, Sayyid Muhammad marched against Ray Dalpat of Gaur and defeated him. The histories of the period do not mention such a battle, which seems to be a later myth created to make the Sayyid a leader in both war and peace, as was the Prophet. In c. 1489 the Sayyid, accompanied by 360 companions, travelled to Mecca. Although his followers had always believed him to be the promised MahdI, it was only after reaching Mecca in 1495-6 that he formally proclaimed his mission. After staying a few months in Mecca he returned to India, where he visited Ahmadabad. A considerable number of the local residents became the Sayyid's disciples. Even Sultan Mahmud I Begra wished to visit him, but the Sultan's nobles, concerned with maintaining peace in Gujarat, prevented him. In Gujarat the Sayyid twice publicly declared himself the promised Mahdi, thus arousing deep hostility among the orthodox 'ulama'. The Sayyid was not intimidated; he wrote letters to the neighbouring rulers, inviting them to recognize him as the MahdI, but the 'ulama' proved too powerful for him, and he was banished from Gujarat. He moved to Thatta and from thence to Farah in Afghanistan, where he died in 1505. His disciples belonged to all classes: soldiers, commanders, 'ulama', sufis, artisans, and ordinary men. They believed that the Mahdi had appeared and died and that no other MahdI would arise. This united them into a group separate from the other Sunnis, who did not believe that Sayyid Muhammad was the Mahdi. Some important Sunni 'ulama' recognized him as a scholar and an infallible guide but they glossed over his claims to be the Mahdi. They admitted to being deeply impressed by both the Sayyid and his followers, but that was as far as they would go.

Sayyid Muhammad was succeeded by his son, Sayyid Mahmud, who died in 1512. Mahmud's successor, Khwandamir, was also his brother-in-law. He fought many pitched battles against the Gujarat

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troops and was killed in August 1524. Khwandamir was a scholar. Seven treatises that he wrote in Hindi and Persian, giving an authentic picture of the Sayyid's teachings, have survived.

As Mahdi, Sayyid Muhammad claimed that Allah had commissioned him to restore Islam to its original purity. He urged his followers to devote themselves whole-heartedly to the remembrance of God (zikr) and not to waste time in earning a living or other worldly pursuits. Unlike earlier Mahdis and subsequent claimants, the Sayyid was not interested in politics. Although he believed that non-Mahdawis were infidels he did not collect poll-tax from them, for he had not been ordered by Allah to do so. However, Mahdawis were not allowed to offer prayers behind a non-Mahdawi. Consequently they never travelled alone, in case they missed congregational prayers. They lived in their own settlements called da'iras which contained small huts for the women and a community hall with mud walls and a thatched roof, called the jamd'at khana, for the men. There the Mahdawis practised only those laws which were sanctioned by the shari'a. They depended generally for their living on unsolicited gifts (futuh). Those who worked at some profession or trade contributed one-tenth of their daily income to the da'ira. Each evening the entire futuh collection, and the wage contributions were distributed equally to the da'ira members. None was allowed more than the others. The distributor was also forbidden to look at the recipients' faces in case this should influence the division. Nothing was kept for the next day; saving was considered contrary to dependence on God. 'Many a one,' says Mulla Bada'uni, 'thought it was his duty to empty his cooking vessel at a nightfall of all the necessities of life, even his salt and flour and water, and let them remain upside down, and they kept nothing in the way of means of existence by them, from their extreme faith in the providence of Almighty God, and the saying "Each day brings a new provision" was the basis of their practice.'63

Da'ira members were not allowed to mix with their non-Mahdawi relations. New entrants could not marry the daughters of senior da'ira members without first serving one year's probation. As a pre-condition to their marriage they had to give an undertaking to leave their wives in the da'ira if they had to leave it. The da'ira members were not all equally dedicated; there were hypocrites and opportunists among them. At the end of each week the Mahdawis assembled to confess their sins publicly. Those who had violated any shan'a laws went to the da'ira leader to receive the punishment prescribed by the shari'a. The Mahdawis carried arms and forcibly stopped non-shari'a practices in their locality.64

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The da'iras in Gujarat, Sind, Rajasthan, and the Deccan rose to great prominence, but the most important Mahdawi leaders in Islam Shah Sur's reign were Shaykh 'Abdu'llah Niyazi and his disciple, Shaykh 'Ala'i. Makhdumu'l Mulk, the leading Sunni divine, convinced Islam Shah that 'Shaykh 'Ala'i was a revolutionary who laid claim to being the Mahdi, and that the Mahdi himself would be king of the whole world: consequently as he presumed to revolt he was deserving of death.' The military commanders were confused; pointing to Shaykh 'Ala'i, one of them remarked: 'This fellow, in this condition and with this miserable appearance, wishes to take away the kingdom from us. Does he imagine that we Afghans are all corpses!' Nevertheless Islam Shah was greatly concerned at the growing conversion of the Afghan commanders to the Mahdawi movement. In religious discussions the 'ulama' failed to subdue Shaykh 'Ala'i. In 1550, however, he was beaten to death at Makhdumu'l-Mulk's orders for holding Mahdawi beliefs.65 This made him a Mahdawi martyr, and the movement was far from crushed. In Gujarat the Mahdawi scholars made life impossible for Shaykh 'All Muttaqi (d. 1567), one of the most famous Indian hadis scholars, and he moved permanently to Mecca. Shaykh 'All Muttaqi's talented disciple Shaykh Muhammad bin Tahir also failed to remove the Mahdawi influence from Gujarat.

After Akbar conquered Ahmadabad, he promised to crush the Mahdawi movement but he took no steps to persecute them. Although Mirza 'Aziz Koka, Akbar's governor in Gujarat, seems to have offered to help Shaykh Tahir, he left to seek further assistance from Akbar. He was assassinated on his way to Agra. In Akbar's reign the Mahdawis, like other religious communities, were also free to convert people to their faith but they were more successful farther south. Aurangzib did not succeed in destroying the Mahdawis, and they are still an important Muslim minority in Hyderabad and Mysore.

THE NEW SUFI ORDERS (THE SHATTARIYYAS)

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in India saw the development of some new sufi orders which quickly became popular. Of these the Shattariyyas were the spiritual successors to Shaykh Bayazid Bistaml. In Central Asia and Iran the order was known as 'Ishqiyya (successors to Shaykh Abu Yazid' Ishqi) and in Turkey as the Bistamiyya, after Abu Yazid Bistami. The order's Indian founder, Shah 'Abdu'llah, earned the name Shattar (Fast Runner)

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when he claimed to make his disciples perfect by the shortest and quickest means.