Jain Perceptions Of Islam In Early Modern Period

SR No.: 269401
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Paul Dundas
Publisher: Paul Dundas
Total Pages: 7
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 980 KB

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MAIN
PRINS WISAM IN THE FARBY MICHERN HERRN
PAIN ENDAS
39
religion. The general perception of Akbar is that he was a genuine religious pluralist. However, admiration of Akbar's open stance can lead to forgetfulness of the exclusivist tendencies of the many religious authorities he consulted, the Jains being no different in this respect, as can be seen from the portrait of Islam given in the Hirasaubhagwa.
The most significant portions of the Hirasaubhagya (henceforth HS) with regard to the Jain understanding of Islam are to be found in chapters thirteen and fourteen. Hiravijaya, having been summoned by two emissaries to Agra in order to pass the monsoon period there (this is a variation on a standard mahakavya theme), takes part, prior to his appearance in Akbar's court (HS 13.126), in a gosthi or learned assembly in the house, near the palace of the emperor (HS 13.133), of the great scholar Abu'l Fazl, to whom he demonstrates the superiority of Jainism to Islam. Abu'l Fazl is described as one who knows the inner secret (mpanisad) of all the sastras of the Yavanas". glossed by Devavimala as referring to the Qu'ran, and as engaging in the debate because he is plagued with doubt because of his study of religions (HS 13.134).
Devavimala has the sheikh presenting his account of Islam as follows (HS 13.137-43):20
ultimate spiritual release (LIS 13.135 with autocomm.). Hravijaya's reply to the Moslem (HS 13.146-51) relates to the impossibility of a creator god presiding over an assembly and allotting reward or punishment, and instead he invokes karma as the element determining man's destiny "Resorting to what form (ie divine or human does he (God) attend an assembly. like a moral creature who wanders through various forms of existence! For what
lee huired and passion will be assign peuple in this wil l to heaven and hell? Previous arma coming to fruition lima) has the p er lo allot pleasure and pain at the Larm which is the elective cause of the world what is the point of a cated who is like an a re the throat of a she poor When the dom a ceaed for uying this, the Sheikh Abul Farlane uttered this speech is faves
understed by you as hein) in the tee tha Ouranas in the www.s a ker who is crocally
prehensible The lord Huravijaya) spoke to him again in a creator first prim ) brings this world into being and then destroys it as if he were fire, then even lemust experience unequalled vexation for destroying what he has bechi into heine) There is no real e desinyer of that world whese variety is het al by its uw karma. The existence of such being like the sum of a buen w an, apa to my mind is impossible (
ar)" Having them with words of the Jain doctrine (sid e ) enlightened that sape who adumbrated the opposing position (inapaksa), the seri lined the Jain religion in his mind, as a farmer places seeds in the ground
m
"The ancient prophets ( mare) of our religion uve stated in the scriptures Cramer) that whoever belongs to the Yavas race is placed on earth as a deposit like a puest of Yama the pod of death, o suri. All people, having risen up from the earth at the time of destruction (parivarta), will approach the supreme lord ( w ) called Cd (w , who is like a worldly king in the midst of his assembly fast He will convey god and bad onto his own pure mind as if it were a mirror and allo his judgment properly in that assembly, abandoning any consideration of religious affiliatio Caprartha Having considered, he will then bestow reward appropriate to the good and bad behaviour of an individual, just as the earth yields an abundance of crops from the sreds of various grains. Some will be taken to heaven (bis) by him, as ships reach shore with a favorable wind. Then they will enjoy happiness, delighted at the extraordinary variety of pleasures to the experienced there. Others will h aph their sin the taken by him to hell (dorull) and, like some bring attacked by hawks or pots being fired by potters, will experience misery al the hands of the guards there. Osori, is this pruncement of the Qu'ran true, like the precuncements of great souled men? Or does it appear untrue, like a flower growing in the sky?"
While a genuine historical event, namely a debate between a Jain monk and a representative of Islam, would seem to be described here, it must be recognised that the HS, as well as being a Jain version of history in the form of hagiography, also belonged to what was by Devavimala's time the millennium-old genre of mahakavya or court epic. It seems likely that a broader artistic motive may well underpin the above passage, as is made clear by Devavimala at the end of his autocommentary on the debate, when he hints that his model is an episode in another mahakavya, the Naisadhacarita, the massive retelling by Sriharsa (twelfth century) of the epic story of Nala and Damayanti, in which orthodox Hinduism is defended by four Vedic gods (Agni, Varuna, Yama and Indra) against heretical doctrine 24 Devavimala thus might best be regarded as filtering genuine events and encounters through the grid of the themes and conventions of a complex preexistent literary tradition
Nonetheless, descriptions of such a gosthi appear to be unknown in Sanskrit literature. The sixteenth century devotional poet Eknath did write in the Marathi vernacular an imaginary debate between a Turk and a Hindu but, for all the mutual recrimination expressed in this short work, the end conclusion is harmonious. This is hardly the case
The inevitable outcome of the debate is made clear before it is described when Devavimala in his autocommentary characterises Islam und Jainism as being at variance with one another through their involving violence and compassion respectively (himsadaye ... Windhidharme), with the former leading only to hell and the latter leading to heaven and