Islam and the Indic Tradition: The Contribution of Mir Fenderiski
By Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
28 March 2022
Little Is Known About the Iranian Scholar Who Was Steeped
In Indic Religious Tradition
Main Points:
1.
An Iranian, Mir
Fenderiski was a poet, Sufi and a philosopher translator of Indic knowledge.
2.
He knew Sanskrit and
wrote a commentary on Yoga Vashishta
3.
Eventually, he
adopted some of the precepts and practices of Hinduism like vegetarianism and
non-violence.
4.
Around the same
time, a similar effort was being undertaken by Dara Shikoh
------
Abul
Qassim Fenderiski/Findiriski (1562-1640)
-----
The Mughals in India and the Safavids in Iran were almost
contemporaries. The Mughals, especially since Akbar had the policy of using
Persian at all levels of bureaucracy. He invited a number of scholars from Iran
for this purpose, gave them tax free lands and established madrasas for this
very purpose. Not just Muslims, but Hindu castes like the Kayasthas made use of
this provision and eventually rose up to high positions within the state
structure. But this is not just the story of creating a standard bureaucratic
language. More fundamentally, the association of India and Iran also saw the
exchange of ideas and personalities, especially those who sought to understand
each other’s religious traditions. This article is about one such personality
who came to India to learn about the Indic traditions and then transmit it to
his Iranian Muslim audience. This man was known as Mir Abul Qassim
Fenderiski/Findiriski (1562-1640) who was a poet, Sufi and a philosopher
translator of Indic knowledge.
Let me add a caveat here. I am not suggesting that the
interaction between the Islamic Khurasan and the Indic tradition started in the
16th – 17th century. Muslims took over those land which were dotted with
Buddhist Viharas. Some Buddhist priest like the Barmakids would eventually
embrace Islam and played an important role in the formation of the Abbasid
Empire. But then that’s another story. Let us concentrate on Mir Fenderiski and
his fascination with Buddhism and Hinduism. This becomes all the more important
to recall because of the current ideological atmosphere where it is being
argued that Islam never ever had a positive appreciation of Indic traditions.
Just like al-Biruni much earlier, Mir Fenderiski would learn
Sanskrit and introduce Hinduism and Buddhism to the Islamic world in the spirit
of inter religious understanding and dialogue. There is very little work on
this scholar of comparative religion, but he engaged with Indian traditions for
35 long years of his life during which he produced commentaries on Indian
religious corpus. Eventually, he would even adopt some of the precepts and
practices of Hinduism like vegetarianism and non-violence. It has been argued
that one of his students was Mulla Sadra, the Iranian philosopher who would
breathe fresh ideas of dialectics into Islamic thought. But then, for reasons
best known to all of us, neither Mulla Sadra nor his mentor would write about
their indebtedness to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy.
Fenderiski used to frequent India at a time when Hindu
religious scriptures like the Upanishads, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita were
being translated into Persian. Nizamuddin Panipati had already translated the
Yoga Vashishta into Persian. Yoga Vashishta is a Hindu mystical text in the
form of a dialogue between Vashishta, a Hindu sage and his student which is
infused with Vedantic and Buddhist thought. Mir Fenderiski edited this text and
wrote a commentary on it, parts of which survive to the present day. The manner
in which he has commented on the text makes it amply clear that he had
extensive knowledge of the Sanskrit language. Through his commentary, he
refined the meaning of greed (lobh) and desire (moh) and told his readers how
they could overcome them and find bliss (sukkh); all of them concerns native to
Buddhism and Hinduism. Through his travels in Gujarat and other places, he
immersed deep into Indic philosophy, eventually adopting the principle of
Ahimsa, primarily a Buddhist principle.
Fenderiski never said that he was not a Muslim but he
refused to do the pilgrimage to Mecca arguing that if he did so, he would have
to sacrifice a sheep which was against his principle of non-violence. He
remained deeply wedded to the idea and practice of yoga, maintaining a wakeful
state (Bodhi) and vegetarianism. Not much is known of the later life of Mir
Fenderiski, but scholars have opined that he went into seclusion, away from the
public view. This is certainly understandable at two levels. It is beyond doubt
that he was much inspired by Indian tradition and hence seclusion in the
penultimate years of life is completely in sync with this tradition. At the
level of politics also, it made sense, as the Islamic orthodoxy would have
eventually condemned some of his ideas and writings and declared him an
apostate.
Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), a close contemporary of Fendiriski,
was attempting at a similar reciprocity between Indic tradition and Islam. It
is supremely important to remember that Dara also took a special interest in
Yoga Vashishta. Alongside, he had translated nearly fifty Upanishads and
written the Majmua al Bahrayn (A Meeting of Two Seas). The exercise was another
heartfelt attempt to bring Islam and Hinduism together, trying to tie the knots
through allegorical and hermeneutical efforts. Dara was wedded to the idea of
monotheism, but he could see its manifestation in Vedantic Hinduism and thought
that it could become a bridge of conversation between Hinduism and Islam.
Dara was killed on the charge of apostasy. And along with
him died a genuine intention of inter religious dialogue and harmony.
-----
A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad Alam is
a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-pluralism/islam-indic-tradition-mir-fenderiski/d/126666
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