Jain Perceptions Of Islam In Early Modern Period

Author(s): Paul Dundas
Publisher: Paul Dundas

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PAUL DUNDAS
the former have increased and the latter have declined. That is the fault of the times at this particular moment."
There is a certain grim irony in the fact that Todar Mal, the denouncer of both Hinduism and Islam as false religions, seems to have been executed as a sectarian leader in the aftermath of what would today be described as a "communal disturbance", 38
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank John Cort and Steve Heim for discussing some aspects of this paper with me.
NOTES
1 See Barbara D. Metcalf, "Presidential Address: Too Little and Too Much: Reflections on Muslims in the History of India", Journal of Asian Studies, pp. 958 and 961-962. Cf. Muzaffar Alam, "Competition and Co-existence: Indo-Islamic Interactions in Medieval North India", in J.C. Heesterman et al., India and Indonesia: General Perspectives, Leiden/New York/Kobenhavn/Köln: E. J. Brill 1989, pp. 37-59 for the tensions at work in Hindu-Moslem interaction, and also Peter Manuel, "Music, the Media, and Communal Relations in North India, Past and Present", in David Ludden (ed.), Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community and the Politics of Democracy in India, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1996, pp. 120-121 for Hindu-Moslem cultural synthesis, with particular reference to music.
2 See Cynthia Talbot, "Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India", Comparative Studies in Society and History 37. 1995, pp. 692-721.
I use "early modern" approximately in the sense found in European historiography. Alternative expressions such as "late medieval" and "pre-British" are not much more helpful when referring to the late sixteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries, the period covered in this article.
*For an extreme example of this, described in terms of a "Moslem epic of conquest and a Hindu epic of psychological rejection", see Ahmad Aziz, "Epic and CounterEpic in Medieval India, Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 1963, p. 470. Sheldon Pollock, "Ramayana and Political Imagination in India", Journal of Asian Studies 52 1993, pp. 261-297.
Ibid. p. 282
Ibid. Cf. Hans Bakker, "Ayodhya: A Hindu Jerusalem. An Investigation of "Holy War" as a Religious Idea in the Light of Communal Unrest in India", Numen 38 1991, p. 102.
Hirasabhagya 13.30 autocomm. I have used the reprint of the edition of Shivadatta and Kashinath Sharma, Kalandri: Śri Kalandri Jain Sve. Mu Sangh vs. 2041.
"
Ed. Hargovinddas and Becardas, Yasovijaya Granthamala vol. 14, Benares: Shah Harakhchand Bhurabhai n.d.
See Phyllis Granoff, "Tales of Broken Limbs and Bleeding Wounds: Responses to Muslim Iconoclasm in Medieval India", East and West 41 1991, pp. 189-203. For some general remarks about Jain attitudes to Moslems (as opposed to Islam), see Paul Dundas, The Jains, London and New York: Routledge 1992, pp. 124-127,
JAIN PERCEPTIONS OF ISLAM IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
See Surendra Gopal, "The Jain Community and Akbar" in N. N. Bhattacharyya, Jainism and Prakrit in Ancient and Medieval India: Essays for Prof. Jagdish Chandra Juin, New Delhi: Manohar 1994, pp. 421-430.
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I intend to publish a study of the Hirasaubhagya as a mahakavya elsewhere. See Dundas, The Jains, pp: 3-4.
The Jagadgurukavya uses the term "Hindi" in what is, broadly speaking, a political sense. See vv. 88, which refers to daughters being given in marriage to Akbar by Hindu kings, 89 and 90, which contrast Hindus and mlecchas, and 92. Hirasaubhagya 14.273 also contrasts Hindu and mercha
Pollock op. cit., p. 287 notes how Moghal artists attempted "to neutralize by appropriation the meaning system of the Ramayana" by portraying Akbar as Rama. CE. Hirasaubhagya 1.129-137 for a description of the Moslem governor of Gujarat as a second Rama protecting the earth from the Kali Yuga and attendant demons, and also 11.153 where Akhar is compared to Rama and 11.155 where Akbar is described as receiving a blessing from Hiravijaya as Rama did from Hanuman. Note that Devavimala, in commenting on HS 11.53, refers to the Vaisnava tradition of Narayana and Laksmi incarnating themselves as Rama and Sita respectively as "Sivasamaya".
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15 See Alam op. cit., pp. 44-49 and Yohanan Friedmann, "Medieval Muslim Views of Indian Religions". Journal of the American Oriental Society 95 1975, pp. 214-217. See Günter Grönbold, "Heterodoxe Lehren und Ihre Widerlegung in KalacakraTantra", Indo-Iranian Journal 35 1992, pp. 277-278 and John Newman, "Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra", in Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (ed.), Buddhism in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995, pp. 284-289. A full treatment of this subject will appear in Professor Newman's paper "Islam in the Kalacakra Tantra", forthcoming in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. ICE. Wendy Doniger, "Pluralism and Intolerance in Hinduism", in Werner G. Jeanrond and Jennifer L. Rike (ed.). Radical Pluralism and Truth: David Tracy and the Hermeneutics of Religion, New York: Crossroad 1991, pp. 227-228.
For Abu'l Fazl, see S. A. A. Rizvi, Religious and Intellectual History of the Muslims in Akbar's Reign: with Special Reference to Abul Fazl (1556-1605), Delhi: Munshiram Manohartal 1975, especially pp. 128 and 137-138. For the gosthi and Jain views about the etiquette and intellectual technique to be used by monks when debating with brahmans, see the remarkable Traividyagosthi, Mumbai: Sa Devkaran Mulji 1909, written while only a teenager by Munisundara Sari (c. 1379-1446), the fifty-first chief ascetic of the Tapa Gaccha.
HS 13.130 autocomm:...sarvesam sastrand Kuränädiyavanāgāmānām upanisadi rahasye adhitam, and cf. HS 13.120: samasti sekho balphaijunama turuşkasastrambudhiparadrivä, with autocomm.
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paigambarair naḥ samayesu süre puratanair vyahram äste nikyipyate nyasa iva kyamayam Yamatithir yo yavanasya veyaḥ khundahvayairi paramesvarasyasthani sthitasyadhipater ivoryaḥ utthaya prthvyal parivartakale ganta samagro 'pi janak parastat adarikayam iva punyapápe sankramya sanuddhanijopalabelhau vidhäsyate sadhu sa tatra tasya nydyam mirasya svaparanurodhum vimriya visranayita phalam sa sreyomhasas tasya tato mripam masaragodhamayavādidhanyabijasya sasyotkaram arvateva nave mbudheh kalam ivankalavätena bhisting gamit unena blokyanti blogidbhutabhogabhai gitarungitah ke 'pi tatah sukhani syenaih lakunta iva pidyamanāḥ kumbhaḥ kalalair iva pacyamanaḥ tadgoptrbhir doyakim enasanye präpsyanti duḥkhany pri tena nit Kuranavakyam kim idam yathartham mahatmandu vakyam ivästi süre iva prasine gagamasya taminn mabhyudeti vyabhicaribhavak