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Śramaṇa, Vol. 59, No. 4 October-December 2008
Revising Buddhism in Mughal India Through the Seventeenth Century Persian Literature Dabistan-I Mazahib Dr. Damodar Singh
Sixth century B. C. witnessed many religious movements in different parts of the world. Herlitus in Ionia Island, Zoroastrian in Persia, and Confucius in China preached new doctrines. In India too there was an upheaval of new ideas leading to rise of new philosophical tenets and religious sects.' An important one among them was Buddhism, which spread fastly, and soon proved to be the most popular religion among its contemporaries, and at one time became the most prominent religion not only in India but in entire Asia.2 Simultaneously, for many centuries the religion also played a pivotal role in the political developments of India. In this backdrop, Gautama Buddha, his teachings and the tenets held by the Buddhists has gained much importance, and, in consequence, they are found in various language and literatures. Giving due importance - historically, as well as religiously to Buddhism, the Persian litterateurs of Mughal India also penned down about it. This paper is an attempt to trace Buddhism through the prism of one of the most important Persian literatures of Mughal period, namely the Dabistan-i Mazahib.* The author of this book is anonymous, variously named or identified as Movad, Muhasin Fani, Mirza Zulfiqar Beg and Kaikhusro Isfander. This Persian literature, completed in or a little after 1656, is devoted to the survey of religions and their sects. It aims at covering six religions and their sects in twelve chapters or Tālim. Information about Buddhism is found in the second Talim. Here it would be worth mentioning that all the thoughts about the various religions, including Buddhism, expressed in the Dabistan-i Mazahib, are based not only on textual readings, but also on personal 'Field work by the Head, Deptt. of History, B. S. College, Danapur, Patna
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