Invitation to World Religions

132  CHAPTER 4  Hinduism

suffered mental breakdown. For these reasons, along with disapproval of rituals that violated social conventions, Tantra for the most part remained hidden during its later development. Hindus and Muslims During the Mughal Dynasty One of the first sustained encounters between Hindus and Muslims in India was initiated by the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni (Afghanistan) early in the eleventh century ce. Mahmud repeatedly raided the subcontinent, annexed states headed by Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain kings, and made the kings his vassals. His most famous incursion involved the looting and destruction of the great temple of Shiva in Som- nath (1025). According to Muslim sources, more than 50,000 defenders of the temple were killed, and its immense wealth was taken back to Ghazni. These Muslim accounts also speak of the forced conversions of Hindus to Islam. Contem- porary Hindu nationalists often point to this early encounter with Islam as the be- ginning of centuries of oppression and persecution under Muslim rule. The Mughal Dynasty was established in India in 1526, by which time Islam al- ready had a strong foothold there, particularly in the northern regions. The Mughals were Muslim rulers of Turkic-Mongol origin. The Mughal Dynasty endured until 1857, although it reached its apex of power in the eighteenth century, declining there- after with the rise of British influence. Under the Mughals, a complex relationship existed between Hinduism and Islam. Some Mughal emperors were hostile to reli- gions other than their own and to Hinduism and Jainism in particular. Others, such as Akbar (1542–1605), were open to them. Akbar encouraged dialogue with represen- tatives of different religions at a weekly salon. He even invented his own religion, the “Divine Faith” (in Arabic, Din-I-Ilahi ), which incorporated elements of various reli- gious traditions including Hinduism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. Akbar was a clever political strategist who understood non-Muslims as subjects rather than infidels, counted Hindu kings among his closest advisors, and married the daughters of Hindu kings to cement political alliances with them. Good relationships between Mughal emperors and high-ranking Hindus helped to produce a vibrant pluralistic culture. Under the Mughals, the conversions of Hindus to Islam do not appear to have been forced. Instead, Hindus converted for a variety of reasons, the most common one being improved economic and social standing and sincere belief in the teach- ings of Islam. There were also conversions of Muslims to Hinduism, especially when Muslims married into Hindu families.

Some of the greatest Hindu thinkers, poets, and philosophers lived during the time of the Mughals. The influential poet–saint Tulsidas (1532–1623), a member of Akbar’s court and a devotee of Rama, wrote the Ramcharitmanas , an epic retelling in Hindi of the original Sanskrit Ramayana . The Muslim weaver-mystic Kabir (c. 1440–1518) was inspired by a Hindu teacher and composed poetry that seamlessly combined Hindu and Islamic philosophical ideas, while at the same time critiquing the social policies of Hindu and Muslim rulers. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS