TRIAL OF DARA SHIKOH

Dara’s trial by the Qazis was a mockery of justice; an absolute sham! But I was not surprised. The Qazis all knew that the patronage of the emperor was important for their power. Four mullahs, all dressed in black robes, with a few nobles and family members in attendance assembled in the Diwani-i-Khas, or hall of private audience, at Dilli, to debate the matter and pronounce their judgment. To further humiliate him, they made Dara stand before them stripped to the waist like a common slave.

After they were assembled Aurangzeb entered the hall and first summoned the jackal Malik Jiwan (who had betrayed Dara) and ceremoniously raised him to the rank of one thousand and given the grand title of Bakhtiar Khan. Bakhtiar meant fortunate but Malik Jiwan had little idea of what misfortune lay ahead of him. There is a Hindustani proverb which says… “Khuda ki lathi mien awaz nahin.” (The stave of God strikes without making a sound.) After the ceremony the malik was curtly dismissed with a few presents. We later learned that he had been waylaid and killed while returning to Dadhar. It was rumoured that the assassination had been carried out on the command of the emperor who despised treachery even though he unashamedly used treachery to serve his ambitions.

The trial began. We all knew that the mullahs could be relied upon to give a verdict they thought would ensure the emperor’s patronage. They were in any case hostile to Dara who had frequently reviled the narrow minded orthodoxy of priests. The first Qazi asked Dara to hand him the jade thumb ring that was still on his left hand. He turned it over and examined it slowly and asked, “This green stone is inscribed with the words ‘Allah’ on one side and ‘Prabhu’ on the other. Does this mean that you consider this Hindu god to be equal to our Muslim Allah?”

Dara raised his head and answered, ”Honorable clerics, the creator is known by many names. He is  called God, Allah, Prabhu, Jehova, Ahura Mazda and many more names by devout people in many different lands. ”

“So you are saying that the Allah worshipped by Muslims is no different than the Hindu Prabhu!”

 “Yes, I believe that Allah is the god of all people of the world who simply call them by different names. There is only one great cosmic creator even if people have different places of worship and revere God in many different ways.’’[1]

A second Qazi asked, “Will you deny that it was under your personal orders that a group of Brahmin scholars translated Hindu holy books like the Upanishads and the Bhagavat Gita into Persian?”

Dara replied, “No, your honour. How can I deny what is so widely known. I did indeed commission these translations.”

The Qazi continued, ”Is it true that you had yourself said that these Hindu works are God’s most perfect revelation and that there are references to them even in our holy Quran?”

“Yes, your honour. I do believe that these sacred texts show that underneath the idolatrous outward forms of Hindu worship lies a monotheistic core that is older than those of Judaism, Christianity or Islam.”

The Qazi angrily retorted, “So you are equating Hindu doctrines with the holy words of Islam?”

“Only in essence, your honour. I have already said that the outward forms are very different. My studies have led me to most sincerely believe that the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are none other than the ‘Sirr i-Akbar’  or the great secret - which our holy Prophet suggested was none other than the ‘Kitab-al-Muknum’ or the hidden book mentioned in the fifty-sixth chapter of the holy Quran itself.”

The Qazi continued, ””Is it true that you have written with your hand a book called Majma-ul-Bahrain - ‘The Mingling of the Oceans' that dares to suggest that there is a common thread between the messages of our holy Quran and the Brahma Shastras of these idolatrous Hindus?’”

Dara replied, ”Yes there are many great pearls of wisdom in the scriptures of every religion and I believe that mankind is richer when these are displayed before them. You will surely recall that it is written in our own Quran that the merciful Allah had sent one hundred and twenty four thousand messengers to show all the people of the world the way of righteousness. I believe that the merciful Allah’s messengers carrying his messengers had been sent not only to Muslims but to all the people of the world in every age. I believe that people have a pious duty to try to seek out these messages that have become obscured by the confusion of languages and ignorant interpretations of narrow minded priests of every faith.”

A third Qazi now asked, “Is it correct that the Sikh faith has its roots both in Islam and Hinduism?”

Dara replied, “It would appear so, your honour, as the Sikhs have deep respect for both religions.”

”Yet is it not these very same Sikhs who are now such troublesome rebels to our governors in Punjab? Does this not prove that by allowing the pure stream of Islamic law to become contaminated by heretic pagan ideas we are inviting trouble and confusion?”

Dara slowly replied, “Your honour I know that some Sikhs are fighting a violent political war over land and taxes with the officers of our empire but I do not believe that there is anything of a religious nature in this purely political dispute.”

The Qazi resumed, “Is it correct that a Guru Nanak, founder of this faith has equated the Hindu god Ram with Rahim?

Dara answered, ”I am not very conversant with the writings of the Sikh faith but I have heard it said that both Ram and Rahim convey the idea of mercy.”

The Qazi quickly continued, “Has this Nanak not also said, “The Qazis sit in the courts to minister justice with a rosary in one hand and the name of God on their lips but commit injustice if the other hand does not receive a tribute of gold, and that if someone challenges them they seek refuge in the pages of their scriptures?”

Dara quietly said, “What you quote is possible but I cannot be certain. It is well known that the hypocrisy of many clerics of every religion does not always go hand in hand with the pure spirituality of the faiths that they profess.”

One of the Qazis now angrily added, “But you have yourself condemned and mocked the Mullahs and clerics of your own religion… not once but on many occasions.”

Dara paused and then slowly replied, “Honoured clerics, may I respectfully ask where in our holy Quran does it say that the Mullah’s and Qazis’ are to be honoured? Verily their names are not even mentioned in the holy book.[2] You are aware that the holy prophet had never wanted Islam to have any order of priests but wanted any good person who was knowledgeable about the Quran, to lead the prayers of every congregation. You will recall that our own sacred book itself very clearly says… “many are the clerics and monks who defraud men of their possessions and debar them from the path of God.” Is it heretical to quote from the holy Quran itself that clearly states... “all prophets and saints had suffered torment because of narrow minded priests.” Yes, learned clerics, I have indeed spoken out strongly against the priests, but I have not spoken against the priests of Islam but of all religions who claim that they are the only representatives of almighty God. Where in our scriptures is there any authority that gives Mullahs, Maulvis and Imams the right to represent Allah.”

Some of the nobles in the gallery who had been listening began to shout in anger, while others looked at each other and then joined the discussions that quickly became loud and confused as they jostled with clever words to show themselves to be enemies of Dara until the shrill voice of princess Roshanara silenced them all from behind the red sand stone screen screaming... “Enough of this nonsense! Why do we have to listen to all this heresy? You have all heard this blasphemer condemn himself time after time. Why do you waste so much time on this empty nonsense? Do your duty as is enjoined upon you in our holy books. Punish the heretic as a warning to all.”

The Qazis resumed asking their questions until the chief Qazi finally said, “Enough has been heard and it is now almost time for the evening namaz. We will now retire and consider what the accused has said and judge whether the words and writings of the accused are blasphemous and whether or not he is an apostate who has abandoned the straight path of our religion to become a heretic. The four imams of the four schools of Islamic law - may Allah have mercy upon them - agree that the apostate who falls from Islam must be killed, and his head may be cut off and his blood may be spilled without reservation.” [3]

Dara was led away and a few hours later Aurangzeb, who had kept studiously aloof from the deliberations, studied the judgment when it was presented to him. There was not the faintest flicker of expression on his face as he casually signed the order for execution, betraying no emotion. But we did not have to wait very long as he hurriedly put the orders for execution through, gauging the resentful mood of the citizens of Dilli.

---

[1] the Quran’s Sura 35:24 says… “To every race, great teachers have been sent. God has not left any community without a prophet, warner and true guide.” The Quran’s Sura 23:24 further says… “To people after people have we sent Apostle after Apostle: mostly, though the people have rejected or even killed them.”

[2]

Quran, Sura 3.78 says: “There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is no part of the Book; and they say, "That is from God," but it is not from God: It is they who tell a lie against God, and (well) they know it!”  

[3] The account has been described in Mohammad Kaim’s ‘Alamgir-nama’ as well as by Khafi Khan and Jadunath Sarkar

REQUIEM TO DARA SHIKOH

Oh Dara!

If memorie remain a lustrous sea shell

washed upon the shore of times inner eye
then pressed to ear discover
not one ocean but two

singing together a melancholy refrain

of wave on wave of sorrow

Oh Dara! Oh Dara!

All prayers are but a veil upon death’s dark door.
But how mourn the loss of a living bridge
between two oceans of faith and wisdom  

Oh you noble gentle invader
You were
You are
A broken bridge

between us and a golden dream

Oh unkempt forces of dark resentments

Oh crimson line on golden throat

Oh unkept tryst with unmet aspiration

  
A golden bird sings your requiem

No more poems for you Oh Dara
The heart can cup but so much sorrow  

Oh Dara! Oh Dara!

Amit Dahiya Badshah

SAMUGARH – TURNING POINT OF FUNDAMENTALISM

It was on an exceptionally hot day on May 29 1658 that India’s history changed forever. Two great Mughal armies led by Shah Jahan’s eldest son Dara Shikoh and his third son Aurangzeb clashed on a dusty plain about twenty kilometers south east of Agra. It was not only a battle for the Mughal throne but a battle for the very soul of India pitting Dara an eclectic scholar who respected all religions against Aurangzeb who was an orthodox Sunni Muslim. Dara had first translated of the Bhagavat Gita and the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Persian to make them known to the public for the first time. But he had been a pampered prince facing a smaller battle hardened army that Aurangzeb had marched up from the Deccan.

My forthcoming novel `Ocean of Cobras’ graphically describes the epic battle through the words of a narrator who writes… Aurangzeb moved as fast as his army could to quietly slip behind Dara’s lines before they were aware of his movements. They reached a secret ford across the Chambal at Ater by nonstop double marches over two days. Then there was consternation when Dara realized that Aurangzeb’s armies had come very close to Agra so he was forced to abandon much of his heavy canon and rush eastwards to intercept them.

The two armies met on a flat dusty plain east of a village called Samugarh on an unbelievably hot day at the end of May and the sun was like a furnace in the cloudless sky. There was not enough water to drink so many soldiers and horses simply collapsed with heat and sun stroke. The crash of the opposing mass of horse and men with the thunder guns and the screams of the wounded soldiers and the whinnying of the terrified horses would haunt the sleep of the survivors for the rest of their lives. I began to see that the battle was no longer just a contest between Dara and his rebel brothers but was beginning to be a religious war with the Hindus valiantly supporting Dara and many Muslim mansabdars supporting Aurangzeb.

It was with great difficulty that I was able to reach the side of Dara’s magnificent elephant but was unable to get his attention as my voice was drowned by the deafening sounds of gunfire, clashing swords and the screams of the wounded.  Dara was oblivious to all except the prospect of his immanent victory. His elephant was to soon become a signal of his doom. One of the enemy rockets exploded near it and our commander Khalilullah Khan rushed up and insisted that he must dismount and finish the battle on a horse. I heard him urgently shout… ”Praise be to Allah this victory is your own! But my God! Why you are still mounted on a lofty elephant? Have you not been sufficiently exposed to danger? If one of the numberless musket balls or arrows touch your royal person who can imagine the dreadful situation to which we will all be reduced? In God’s name descend quickly, mount this horse and pursue the miserable fugitives with all vigour.” As Dara descended, a huge shout was sent up by Khalilullah Khan’s squadron that Dara Shikoh had been killed. When the bewildered soldiers saw through the thick swirling clouds of dust and smoke that the howdah of Dara’s elephant was empty they feared the worst and quickly fled towards Agra.

The noise of battle quite quickly subsided and the dust and smoke began to slowly clear to reveal some fifteen thousand corpses lying on the dusty battlefield in hundreds of piles coated in vivid crimson blood. The Rajput corpses in their yellow jamas looked like untidy fields of saffron. For every dead body there were another three who had been wounded and were lying on the ground crying out piteously. But the intense heat quickly parched their throats so the devastating silence that followed the thunder of battle was almost uncanny. A sharp summer wind suddenly blew from the south and all the fallen bodies were quickly shrouded by a huge cloak of choking yellow dust. A few swirls of spiraling dust curling above the scene looked like ghosts rising up from the devastated plain until they too subsided and absolute silence pervaded the scene.

Dara rode in silence to his mansion from where he collected his family and valuables and left for Dilli shortly before dawn. Dara retreated to Lahore and then down the Indus and a year later was able to muster a big army to fight a fierce three day battle against Aurangzeb at Deorai near Ajmer. He then fled towards Kandahar to be betrayed once again and brought to Delhi where the imperial Qazis sentenced him to death for the crime of heresy. He had written a book called the `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the many similarities between the Quran and the Brahma Shastras of the Hindus. 

Aurangzeb’s greatest weakness was his inflexible religious bigotry that made him lose the support his Shia subjects as well as his many Hindu and Rajputs followers. His intolerance became more acute after twenty years of rule as he became frustrated by endless rebellions. Though he did no more than Jehangir or Shah Jahan by permitting Hindu worship at old temples and forbidding the construction of new ones his reputation as a destroyer of temples became widespread. He was very unforgiving and by persecuting his Rajput followers cut off his own arms and weakened his military power. The Maratha leader Shivaji initially had no anti Muslim sentiment and had been quite willing to become a Mughal Amir. Aurangzeb’s obstinate pride however alienated him and gave him a new weapon to turn a purely political war against the Mughals into a religious war. The rebellion of the Marathas not only encouraged the Sikhs to revolt but spawned many other Hindu rebels. Aurangzeb died a feeble, broken and a deeply disappointed old man and is buried in a plain grave near Aurangabad. His bigotry was to make the Indian sub-continent the hotbed of Islamic extremism for the next four centuries. If Dara had won at Samugarh it is possible that his rule might have promoted harmony between India’s turbulent peoples and a united Mughal empire might have prevented India becoming so easily colonized by European powers. Samugarh was the turning point.

ANCIENT PEOPLE COULD NOT MEASURE TIME

The dates of ancient events and legendary personages greatly agitate people concerned with religion and history. All such dates are however very dubious because till fairly recently people had no way to accurately measure the passage of the years. Thus the dates of the Mahabharat, Ramayana, Iliad, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and others were all very unreliable.

Calculating the passage of time had always been very difficult as one orbit of the earth around the sun takes precisely 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds while one orbit of the moon needs exactly 27 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 28 seconds. People in every land had been very conscious of the moon and had marked their changing seasons according to moon cycles. People had roughly noted the orbit of the sun to make a year but found it absolutely impossible to divide this by the lunar months because they had no means to divide or multiply until the discovery of the `Zero’, a concept that is attributed to an Indian mathematician named Aryabhatta dated to about 500 AD. In 628 AD another Indian mathematician named Brahmagupta is believed to have developed the symbol for Zero that had been first recorded as a dot under other numbers. This concept of Zero only reached Europe in the 11^th century through the Muslim scholar Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avisenna. He is reported to have learned his mathematics from an Indian grocer in Baghdad.

Till the Zero people could only count with the fingers of their hands and all ancient cultures like those of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome as well as ancient India had therefore been unable to of conceive of time beyond ten thousand years. There was also a slow shifting of the historic dates with leap years or extra months every four years in many ancient cultures. The methods of measuring time kept changing over the ages.

The seven day week was probably first defined in the old Babylonian calendar where the roughly 28 day lunar month was divided into four. It later became part of the Jewish, Julian, Gregorian and Islamic calendars but had been completely alien to ancient India. With the advent of the Zero, Indian legends suddenly become astonishingly old as more and more zeros were added during each retelling of legendary stories. The dates of the Yugas, Mahabharata, Ramayana and other legends therefore have very little historic basis. Even the religious sanctity attached to the days of the seven day week is alien to ancient Indian texts. If there were no week days there could not have been any auspicious or inauspicious week days in ancient times. Thus the sacredness of fasting on Tuesdays or of not buying metals on a Saturday cannot have any scriptural sanctity.

The old Babylonian calendar used to also have a 60 hour day because the number 60 had been considered to be a sacred number that could be divided by 2, 3 and 5 (the largest number of prime numbers). Ancient Sanskrit texts in India used to also follow this system and measure the day in 60 ghatas (hours) of 24 minutes each. These used to be measured by water clocks where a small earthen pot (ghara) with a small hole that was designed to take exactly 24 minutes to fill up and sink after which a bell (ghanti) would then be struck to announce the `ghanta’ or hour. The apparatus was called a `ghari’. Today, except for Indian astrologers, nobody remembers this old Indian system but it was very precisely detailed in the Persian traveler al - Baruni’s chronicle that is dated to 1020 AD at about the time when Mahmud Ghazni was looting Indian temples.

Indian astrology however went beyond the 12 planets of the zodiac and measured the year with 27 (sometimes 28) Nakshatras of 13.5 days each. They were linked not only to constellations but to many other stars that each had beneficial of malefic influences. This astrological system is not mentioned in the Rig-Veda or early Vedas but only in the Artha-veda that seems to have included a large number of pre Vedic traditions. All these created a very complicated system of astrology. Though this system has mesmerized the gullible in India over the years it is clear that none of it had any intrinsic scriptural sanctity. All people are entitled to their beliefs but they should know that many popular beliefs cannot stand the scrutiny of empirical science or unbiased historical research

COW SLAUGHTER IS MAINLY BULL

The image of `Gaomata’_  the white `Mother Cow’ with soulful eyes _  is beloved to many Hindus. The RSS, BJP and other opponents of cow slaughter would however be shocked to know that cows account for only 12% of all the bovines in India. They are not also the main producers of milk because female buffaloes account for 66% of India’s milch cattle and produce over 75% of the milk.

The 19^th Livestock Census of India, 2012 also shows that India’s cows and other female bovines are in no great danger. The census shows that their numbers increased by 7.16% to 216 million since the previous census of 2007. It is the males of the species that are threatened as their numbers declined by 18.6% to 84 million in the same period. As male bovines today account for just 30% of the cattle population it clearly shows that it is the bulls and not cows that are being butchered.

Cattle are a huge economic asset to almost every rural family and the meat industry including bovines, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry put money into the pockets of nearly every rural household and they will suffer great economic loss if the India’s legislators ban or restrict the slaughter and sale of meat products. Beef, that costs a third of mutton, is also the poor man’s protein consumed by some 200 million Dalits and other tribal communities. There will be a strong political backlash if religious sentiments take precedence over economic realities. Anyone familiar with rural India knows that while there are many Muslims in the meat business the majority are Hindu.

The census shows that two-thirds of India’s cattle are female. This is because the value of male bovines that used to be valuable as draft animals or for meat is declining. Few people are aware that it is male animals (or birds) that are mostly used for meat as the females are more valuable as breeders and for milk or eggs. If males are not used for ploughing or transport they are only useful for their meat or hides. This gender imbalance is increasing rapidly and a recent report from the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bhopal shows that the share of draught animals for farm power on Indian farms declined from 44% in 1971-72 to a shocking 4% in 2012-13 as tractors and electric and diesel pumps had replaced them. Bullock carts are now rare in many areas.

Not surprisingly millions of males have been culled. The census data also shows that male buffaloes declined 17.8% to 16 million while females increased 7.99% to 92 million. There are therefore nearly 6 female buffaloes to every male. It is only in the states where beef is being eaten that this gender imbalance is less pronounced. If hasty legislation cuts into meat consumption it will seriously injure rural incomes regardless of religion.

Paradoxically, the keepers of India’s cattle themselves perpetuate the worst crimes against cattle. In rural areas the females are valuable but the males are worthless and need food and fodder that costs over Rs. 100 a day. They are therefore killed for meat where it is allowed but in many states are callously driven away to be devoured by dogs or wild animals. Several million pregnant female bovines are brought into Indian cities for fresh milk. Half the calves they deliver are males that are an economic liability so they are callously killed as soon as the milking steadies. They are not humanely slaughtered by a stun gun or by beheading but are usually tied in the sun to slowly die of thirst and hunger. The state wise data shows that cattle slaughter is widespread and that economic compulsions outweigh religious sentiment in almost every urban and rural area.

India also has a serious problem with roughly 80 million old and unproductive cattle that are callously driven away until they die of hunger or illness. They do not harmlessly forage on barren land but, driven by hunger, raid productive farms and face the wrath of farmers who mercilessly beat and even kill them. They are a huge economic liability that takes food and economic opportunities away from millions of needy people. India’s 299 million cattle also need roughly 30 million hectares for their grazing as well as an equal amount of additional land for their fodder requirements. This is a huge chunk out of India’s 190 million hectares of cropped land. If states legislate against beef consumption if will add many more unproductive cattle demanding land that is not available.

There is no Hindu scripture opposed to the eating of meat or even beef. In fact Indra, the tawny bearded supreme Vedic god, was specifically offered the best sides of beef. The Vedas, Mahabharat, Ramayana, Shastras and other ancient texts all endorse eating meat and beef was even specified as the daan, or offering, reserved for Brahmins.   

The sentiment against beef is essentially political as it was associated with Muslims. Cow protection became a religious statement when the first movement to protect the cow was started by the Sikh Kuka (Namdhari) sect in 1870. In 1882, Dayanand Saraswati founded the Gorakshini Sabha that challenged beef eating provoking a series of communal riots in the 1880’s and 1890’s. These led to further communal clashes where many were killed in Azamgarh in 1893, Ayodhya in 1912 and Shahabad in 1917. Beef eating thus moved from being a matter of diet to a defining icon of Hindu versus Muslim identity. Hindu chauvinism could however make the ban on beef into an symbol of Brahmin tyranny over Dalits.

Though most Hindus may abhor eating beef, cattle breeders have long subordinated their religious sentiments to their economic compulsions. There is a strong religious sentiment but politicians as well as officials, and intellectuals need to consider this complex subject before rushing into legislation.

THE MYSTERIOUS TEMPLE OF MASRUR

Every summer many thousand people drive on holidays to Kulu, Manali or Daharamshala but very few know that a small detour from their usual destinations will take them to one of the most amazing temples of India. It is also perhaps the oldest Hindu temple in north India. India’s earliest temples were cut inside caves of hewed out of living rock until the south Indian technology of building with prefabricated pillars, beams and panels became popular after the 9^th century.

The Kailash temple at Ellora is the biggest and most famous temple of this type that was cut from top down out of a huge single rock face. Masrur is the only such temple in north India and is roughly dated to the 8^th century. It is also built in the classic old style with fifteen shikaras and a big water tank in front of it. The shikaras like the peaks of the mythical Mount Meru look remarkably similar to the famous Hindu temples of Ankor Vat in Cambodia.

You will need about four hours to reach Masrur from Mandi so it is recommended that you break your journey to spend the night at Kangra or Dharamshala and then do an easy day trip to Masrur and back. After driving on the national highway towards Mandi on the road to Kulu there is a excellent road to Pathankot that runs just south of Dharamshala. You can also go via Jullundur, Hoshiarpur and Una to connect to this road. You then drive west for just over an hour. It is 32 Kms west of Kulu on the Nagotra - Surian link road. It is a very picturesque drive through rocky Shivalik hills and small patches of cultivation with the majestic Dhauladar mountain range to the north. The drive is through some very rugged country with deep ravines and thorny trees that look as if dinosaurs are lurking in the shadows but visitors will be struck speechless when they see the magnificent edifice.

As there is no inscription or mention in any ancient text, nobody knows who built this great structure or when. It is also a mystery as to why this gigantic symbol of devotion was built in such a remote and unfertile area. There is no record of what king was the patron to build such a large temple that must have needed millions of man hours of devoted labour to say nothing of huge funds that could not have been squeezed out of farmers in such a rugged area.

The elaborate carvings despite huge damage from the 1905 earthquake show that it was originally a Shiva temple that had been completely abandoned because wandering priests quite recently made it into a Ram Lakshman temple with three black stones representing Ram, Lakshman and Sita inside the inner sanctum. The drive is a little off the beaten track but it is a most picturesque and rewarding experience with lovely spots for a picnic on the way.

HOW AN ANCIENT JEWISH LAW CORRUPTED ISLAM

On October 9, 2012 2012 Malala Yusufzai, a 14 year old school girl was shot by the Pakistan Taliban for promoting education for girls. On September 16 six persons were killed and a police station at Masuri near Ghaziabad torched because some pages of the Quran were allegedly desecrated. On September 9, The US ambassador to Libya was incinerated in a rocket attack by Muslim extremists enraged by reports about an amateur film allegedly insulting The Prophet produced by a Coptic Christian of Israeli nationality.

Few people know that such terrible crimes against humanity are not allowed in the Quran or Hadis (that was composed some two hundred years later). These, the most sacred sources of Islamic law, say very little about blasphemy, heresy or sacrilege that seems to so easily inflame Muslim anger today. Few therefore dare to question the scriptural authority that the Muslim clerics must have to so readily pronounce their death sentences. Surprisingly such actions are completely against the words of The Prophet who had very clearly said… “anyone who sets another… even an ant… on fire commits the greatest sin and is destined to the fires of Hell”. The Quran also expressly forbids an attack on anyone who has offered no offence… to kill women and children… to torture or take hostages and to commit suicide.

The Quran did not actually contain any comprehensive legal code and most of the legal injunctions were basically to regularize pre-Islamic tribal customs. The early sharia (Islamic law) was customary (urf) and only about 80 Quranic verses have any legal content concerning customary rules, crimes, polygamy, divorce and rights of inheritance, giving women a formal legal status, etc. After the death of Muhammad in 632 CE, Islamic polity changed fundamentally. The civil and religious order expanded beyond the borders of the Arabia to create a huge Arab-Islamic imperial caliphate. A highly complex, imperial Muslim society developed that was an amalgam of many cultures and customs, with new legal authorities like the qazi or judge who was a representative of a local governor. They soon became involved with complex legal matters and to even oversee the functions of the police, taxes and the status of non-Muslim subjects.

As Islam became an urban movement it became difficult for the caliphs to administer their complex, multi-cultural realms without mosques, centers of learning,  bureaucracies and other institutions essential for the governance of the empire. Islamic law had to evolve continuously with the changing social and economic pressures during the period of the Ummayids, Abbasids, the Caliphs of Cordoba, the Seljuks, Turks and finally during the years of decline after the rise of European nations.

The main source of Islamic authority was clearly the Quran and Hadis but it seems clear that many new laws were derived from the Jewish Torah (Tawraat) that was later included into the 104 holy books of Islam. One of its five books is the book of Leviticus that covers Jewish law. This book, belonging to a very ancient era when the small bands of Jews were severely oppressed lists all `The Lord’s’ laws with very harsh rules and prohibitions concerning circumcision, food, suppression of women and lists draconian punishments with death by stoning, burning, strangulation and beheading for a long list of offences including adultery, worshiping other gods, blasphemy, witchcraft, homosexuality, bestiality, etc. Death even for breaking the Sabbath, prophesying falsely, having a stubborn or rebellious son, and many other sins. By contrast to Yahweh, the angry god of the Jews, the Allah of Muhammad was a merciful god and Muhammad usually advocated atonement for sins. Some scholars believe that many Jews who had converted to the triumphant Islam and were probably responsible for fusing Jewish laws into the evolving Islamic tradition after the 10^th century.

This may explain why the laws of The Prophet and the laws of the later Islamic clerics are so very different. Muhammad had, for instance, prescribed one hundred lashes for a woman who committed adultery which was much milder than stoning her to death as was the later practice. Similarly the Jewish laws regarding blasphemy, heresy and apostasy, not found in the Quran, are now readily pronounced even by small town clerics. These bigoted mullas do not also seem to understand that these ancient Jewish laws can so easily be used by the enemies of Islam to cause death and disturbance among Muslims with just a few deliberate cartoons, clumsy videos or by mocking some holy text. Paradoxically, Abd Al Wahhab, the founder of the ultra orthodox Wahhabia movement, had personally led the desecration of The Prophet’s tomb in Madina as they did not believe in reverence for tombs.

No religion should ever be insulted but to moderate the impact of extremists and the injustices that misguided Muslims can inflict on innocent bystanders it is now necessary to educate the Muslim masses, who are taught to memorize the Quran in Arabic, a language they do not understand, making them vulnerable to bigots who give their own distorted interpretations. For the peace of the world every nation with a Muslim population should get their leading Islamic scholars to use the huge power of TV and other modern media to tell them to listen to the words of their holy prophet and not to the draconian injunctions of a very repressive Jewish law.

 

OCEAN OF COBRAS

Synopsis of my forthcoming novel

The chronicle of a slave to

The Mughal prince Dara Shikoh

The story about a beautifully tragic life as related in a long lost manuscript written by Mubarak Ali, a faithful palace eunuch who was Prince Dara Shukoh’s constant companion and witness to all the battles, intrigues, scholarship, trial, death and events of his tumultuous life. The book is packed with military action, the magnificence and intrigues of the Mughal court and a battle for the very soul of India with Dara’s religious tolerance pitted against the puritanical Islamic intolerance of Aurangzeb.

Mubarak Ali’s adventures are pure fiction set in the actual history of the Mughal empire between 1620 and 1660 where emperor Shahjahan’s eldest and favorite son Dara battles against his brothers Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad for the Mughal throne after Shahjahan becomes seriously ill. Over five battles, the conflict eventually narrows to one between the liberal Dara and the orthodox Aurangzeb. Betrayal gives Aurangzeb a very narrow victory.

Dara was a liberal thinking scholar (also of Sanskrit) who first had the Upanishads and Bhagavat Gita translated from Sanskrit to Persian to become widely known for the first time. He also wrote his own book `Mingling of the Oceans’ showing the commonality between the Quran and the Hindu Shastras. If Dara had won the Mughal throne India might have enjoyed a long period of Hindu – Muslim amity instead of centuries of communal strife.

Mubarak, the fictitious narrator of this epic story, is a faintly foreign eunuch of the emperor’s Zenana. Aged six years younger than Dara he is intimate with all the members of the imperial family from their childhood to their adult years. Over the years he develops from a nine year old boy into a capable soldier and reveals intimate insights into the lives of the powerful men and women of the court. In the cloistered zenana he also develops a secret and strictly forbidden intimate relationship with a royal princess.

His adventures describe the exciting royal hunts, the passing of Mumtaz Mahal, the building of the magnificent Taj and the new city of Delhi. He shares his experiences while among tribals in the jungles, worship in Hindu and Muslim holy places, Dara’s grand marriage to Nadira Bano and the trade at the sea port of Surat with its many taverns and brothels. He shares Dara’s spiritual quest for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood exploring the many religious ideas of a time when Hindu’s were just beginning to assert their position in a Mughal world. The reader will follow Mubarak on a colorful tour of Hindustan from the limpid lakes of Kashmir to the craggy terrain of the Deccan and Kandahar, the lush pastures of the Punjab, the forested hills of the Himalayas to the sandy wastes of Sind and Baluchistan.

Mubarak describes many scenes of battle where the Mughal strategies and command structures are described for the first time. He rides with Dara at the battle of Samugarh and follows him on the long retreat to Lahore and then down the Indus. He then assassinates an enemy commander and helps rally Dara’s forces for his final battle at Deorai near Ajmer. He then travels with Dara’s family and retainers through the cruel deserts of Sind and Baluchastan until Dara is again betrayed and taken to Delhi as a prisoner. He is with Dara when he is paraded through Delhi and taken before the imperial Qazis where he is tried for heresy and condemned to death.       

The Ocean of Cobras is a tale of love and war, of compassion and cruelty in a period of Mughal grandeur and passionate pride. The story of Dara is a true story that many people in India still remember despite the passage of the centuries. 

105,000 words with three maps.

Rs. 350

THE LAW OF EXPLODING COMPLEXITY

Few people realize that the explosive tendency towards complexity is the first law of the universe. We may know that the universe expanded after the `Big Bang’ at an explosive speed with untold billions of changes and mutations to form all the planets, stars, comets, galaxies and other celestial phenomena that are whirling, swirling and reforming all around us but we may not have observed that complexity also affects every aspect of our world. The exponential expansion of human ideas and the things they make now boggles the mind, confuses the perplexed and leads many to seek escape in meditation or even in fanaticism.

We have witnessed how comprehensively micro chips have revolutionized our world. The explosive speed with which computers, digital cameras and cell phones have evolved have made earlier models, that were treasures just a decade ago, hopelessly bulky, unreliable and obsolete. They have also so completely revolutionized our televisions, music systems, refrigerators and ovens that the old systems are overnight worthless. Modern cars have more chips in them than there are in packets of wafers to control engine management, suspensions, braking, steering, comfort and safety in ways that were unthinkable a decade earlier. The same applies to all manufacturing processes where electronics has sailed past the age of mechanicals at virtually the speed of light rendering old plants and production systems instantly obsolete.

 The advancements in weaponry are even more frightening. When the machine gun was first widely deployed during the First World War it wrought such devastation among the ranks of the opposing armies that it made cavalry instantly obsolete and permanently changed the rules of battle. Air power became a decisive factor during the Second World War while Desert Storm demonstrated how smart weapons launched from ships and planes commanded the battlefield without the enemies even seeing each other. New technologies to communicate with seek and identify enemies and new weapons to incapacitate or kill them quickly made the conventional ordinance of most armies and police forces pitiful. And the tragedy is that these expensive systems now become obsolete almost as soon as they are commercially available. It is little surprise therefore that small bands of terrorists, smugglers, poachers and criminals often have better arms and communications equipment than the army, police or other custodians of law.

In the cultural world we have seen how jazz music that was the funeral dirge of a few poor blacks in the southern states of America a century ago caught on like wildfire to quickly become a huge element in music around the world and was to even influence classical and popular music across languages and cultures. In painting, sculpture and the visual arts, and in the materials they use, we can see similar explosions of complexity.

We can even see the law applying to food that till recent times had widely different traditions in different countries or regions. Now these are not only incorporating numerous new edible products brought by modern refrigeration and improved logistics but also new cooking hardware and an incredibly rapid exchange of recipes accelerated by popular cook books and TV shows. 

The law applies to life forms as well. Those who question Charles Darwin’s theory of Man evolving in gradual steps from single celled Amoeba and mutating into fish, animals and monkeys, etc., have to only observe the miracle of human birth where in the short span of nine months a tiny spark of life in one small cell evolves to take the shape of a tadpole, a fish, a rat and a monkey before emerging as a fully formed baby composed of billions of cells.

In the world of philosophy we can see how the simple original words of the prophets or sages like Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak and others were quickly elaborated into the huge volumes of scriptures written by thousands of pious scholars long after the death of the founders.

These explosions also contain a number of implosions wherever the edges of one system touches another. Larger galaxies swallow up smaller ones. Giant flaming suns collapse into minute dark holes. Electronics overwhelm mechanical, hydraulic and electrical technologies. Loan words leap from language to language until the weaker languages sadly vanish. Cuisines, music, visual arts, literature, cultures and philosophies all fuse and blend. The dividing lines between the traditional and modern become blurred.

The problem is that only open young minds seem able to handle such fast and accelerating change. But while they eagerly reach out for the new they often lose their sensitivity to nature, human relations and old values. For their elders there is a confusing, noisy and frenetic clutter of things that are increasingly difficult to understand. Philosophers may say that change is the nature of the world and their philosophies may help some of us to understand it better but where are the thinkers who can help us achieve peace and calm in an era of such chaotic change?

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CAUCASIAN ROOTS TO INDIAN LEGENDS

Few people realise that the origins of many cherished Indian myths might be found in Central Asia. There are many tantalising similarities in the accounts of the Rigveda, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata with places and people of the Caucasian region.

The first connection is found in the accounts of a tribe who called themselves Arya in the Rigveda and in, the probably earlier, Zend Avesta, which covers a period when they seem to have traveled through Persia from their ancestral homeland… a land in the North where ‘the year is as a day’, perhaps implying an Arctic region. The Meru mountains must have been the Pamirs where there are five mountains soaring to over 22,000 feet. Around it were four seas (perhaps the Caspian, Aral, Black Sea and the Arctic Sea) as well as three deserts (perhaps the Taklimatan, Dasht-e- lut and Kyzyl Kum into which the river Syr disappears).

The Avestsa speaks of the Aryas having to leave their ancestral land of Aryanem Vaego meaning Aryan Bija or Aryan seed (the root of the Vedic word Aryavarta) because the power of evil had made the land too cold. Geological evidence indicates that there was a mini ice age about 1800 BC that may have accounted for their migration to warmer southern areas. 

Their success was due to the fact that they were the first people to have domesticated horses and make them into fearsome weapons of war. In the beginning, their horses were small, like horses in the wild, with backs too weak to carry a mounted horseman. They had to therefore be yoked in pairs to a light bow fronted two-wheeled chariot with a seated charioteer and a standing warrior with a javelin (later a bow) that was to become the trademark of the Aryan tribes in every region of their conquest.

The speed, range and fearsome power of their chariots overwhelmed the donkey and oxen mounted armies of the great old civilizations of Babylon, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. In 1732 BC, one of their tribes, the Mittani defeated the great armies of Babylon. In 1730 BC, their cousins the Hittites overwhelmed Syria while the Hyskos conquered Egypt. The Kassites occupied Turkey while the Achaens and Dorians entered Greece and Italy. The dates when theyreached Persia and India have not been established but it must have followed the same southern movement.

West Asian accounts speak of these Aryan warriors being dressed in leather from top to toe who knew nothing of fruits and vegetables and believed that every man should ride a horse, hurl a lance (later an arrow) and speak the truth.

The Aryas and several other Indo-European tribes spoke a language that was the ancestor to both Sanskrit and Persian and was to become the root language of Greek, Latin and other languages as the tribes spread to overwhelm other areas and later become assimilated into them. Few Indian’s are aware that ancient Sanskrit was never written in the Devanagri script that only appeared in the late Gupta period (4^th century AD) but in Kharaoshti, which like Persian and was written from right to left.

The origins of the names of Indian castes can also be found in the Zend Avesta. Few Brahmins know that the name of their caste was probably derived from the word ‘Arthvan’, meaning one with `Arth' or essence. They are also unlikely to also know that the word `Kshatriya' was derived from the word ‘Rateshwar’ meaning charioteer while the caste of ‘Vaishya’ is derived from the word `Vastrayosh' meaning husbandman of cattle. They only became traders after the nomadic Aryans settled down. The fourth caste of `Hutoksh', or slaves, was added much later and was the origin of the word `Shudra' as the Aryans could not pronounce S and made it H. Their Hoama was the same as the Indian Soma.

The Puranas declare that there had been an Uttara (northern) Kuru and a Dakshina (southern) Kuru. Most Indians believe that the epic battle of Kurukshetra had been fought near Karnal on India’s northern plains and are unaware that there is no Kuru river there but that a river that is still called the Kuru that flows south of Baku between Azarbaijan and Iran into the Caspian sea. It must have been important for the great Persian King Cyrus (Kurosh) was named after it. If the epic battle of the Mahabharata had been fought here, it would have been fairly close both in space and time to the epic Trojan War.

An absolutely historic event is the treaty of Cappadocea in central Turkey signed between the Mittani king Mattinuza, son of a king Dasratta and king Subiluliuma of the Hittites in 1380 BC witnessed by their gods Varuna, Mittra and Indra. This king Dasratta was incidentally usurped by one of his sons and killed by another.

The names of the Caspian Sea over the centuries contain fascinating traces of the origins of many Jat tribes that now inhabit India. At the time of Herodotus in the 6th century BC, it had been called the Vrathian Sea after the Virks one of the oldest Jat tribes. Later it was called Dadhi Sagar after the Dahae or Dahiyas and still later took the name of another tribe the Gills and was called the sea of Gilan. When the ancestors of the Gujjars were dominant, it was called the Badr-e- Ghazar. Though the Gujjars are today considered a low tribe of nomads, they too had their days of glory and places like Georgia and Gujarat honour a great former name. The present name Caspian is derived from the name of a great sage called Caspili who was probably the Kashyap of the Puranas.

Though the Turks are today mostly a Muslim people they had no religion at this time. The Turks seem to have been descendents of the Tur or Toor clan of the Jats. Toorki was to become Turkey and some Tur tribes in India are Hindu. The Jat tribes variously called Djati, Yu Chi and Goths spread from Central Asia to Italy and Kiev. All the major Jat tribes can be traced to regions around the Caspian Sea.

Perhaps the most interesting connections are found in the epic Ramayana. Ram’s father Dasarath lived in the heavenly city of Ayodhya on the banks of the river Saryu. This might have been a river that is still called the Syr Darya that flows through the Farghana valley in present day Turkemenistan north of the Pamirs with a city called Akshi or Adhijan (possibly the legendary Ayodhya) as the main town of the area. Babur was born there and, like Rama, considered it the most beautiful place on earth.

East of the Syr Darya is the town of Kashgarh that is still called Kashi while Samarkand, that had been called Markanda in Alexander’s accounts as well as in the Puranas, was to the west. An early account by Valmiki has it that Dasrath, meaning a small ruler with just ten chariots, met and fell in love with his second wife Kaikeyi after she tended his wounds after a local battle. Kaikeya means that she was the daughter of the king of Kaikay or the Caucasus like the name Gandhari, of the Mahabharata, had been derived from Gandhara where she had come from.

Why should Indians think that the events of these great epics must have been within the confines of British India? If Gandhari came from Gandhara it does not mean that she was Afghan. The heroes of ancient legend may have originated outside present day India. There were no national boundaries in ancient times and as people migrated in many directions they gave the names of venerated old places to the mountains, rivers and cities where they were living as is evident from the names of the many English towns that are found in Canada and Australia. It is little surprising that many places named in the Ramayana are also found in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. There is thus little sanctity about place names but great romance in the possibilities of history.