Alberuni's India

An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India: Volume I

Edward C. Sachau

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136383649
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This is Volume IX of eleven in a collection of India: History, Economy and Society. Originally published in 1910, this is the first part of an account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of Alberuni's India about A.D. 1030.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE HINDUS IN GENERAL, AS AN INTRODUCTION TO OUR ACCOUNT OF THEM.

Page 9.

BEFORE entering on our exposition, we must form an adequate idea of that which renders it so particularly difficult to penetrate to the essential nature of any Indian subject. The knowledge of these difficulties will either facilitate the progress of our work, or serve as an apology for any shortcomings of ours. For the reader must always bear in mind that the Hindus entirely differ from us in every respect, many a subject appearing intricate and obscure which would be perfectly clear if there were more connection between us. The barriers which separate Muslims and Hindus rest on different causes.

Desription of the barriers which separate the Hindus from the Muslims and make it so particularly difficult for a Muslim to study any Indian subject.

First, they differ from us in everything which other nations have in common. And here we first mention the language, although the difference of language also exists between other nations. If you want to conquer this difficulty (i.e. to learn Sanskrit), you will not find it easy, because the language is of an enormous range, both in words and inflections, something like the Arabic, calling one and the same thing by various names, both original and derived, and using one and the same word for a variety of subjects, which, in order to be properly understood, must be distinguished from each other by various qualifying epithets. For nobody could distinguish between the various meanings of a word unless he understands the context in which it occurs, and its relation both to the following and the preceding parts of the sentence. The Hindus, like other people, boast of this enormous range of their language, whilst in reality it is a defect.

First reason: Difference of the language and its particular nature.

Further, the language is divided into a neglected vernacular one, only in use among the common people, and a classical one, only in use among the upper and educated classes, which is much cultivated, and subject to the rules of grammatical inflection and etymology, and to all the niceties of grammar and rhetoric.

Besides, some of the sounds (consonants) of which the language is composed are neither identical with the sounds of Arabic and Persian, nor resemble them in any way. Our tongue and uvula could scarcely manage to correctly pronounce them, nor our ears in hearing to distinguish them from similar sounds, nor could we transliterate them with our characters. It is very difficult, therefore, to express an Indian word in our writing, for in order to fix the pronunciation we must change our orthographical points and signs, and must pronounce the case-endings either according to the common Arabic rules or according to special rules adapted for the purpose.

Add to this that the Indian scribes are careless, and do not take pains to produce correct and well-collated copies. In consequence, the highest results of the author’s mental development are lost by their negligence, and his book becomes already in the first or second copy so full of faults, that the text appears as something entirely new, which neither a scholar nor one familiar with the subject, whether Hindu or Muslim, could any longer understand. It will sufficiently illustrate the matter if we tell the reader that we have sometimes written down a word from the mouth of Hindus, taking the greatest pains to fix its pronunciation, and that afterwards when we repeated it to them, they had great difficulty in recognising it.

As in other foreign tongues, so also in Sanskrit, two or three consonants may follow each other without an intervening vowel—consonants which in our Persian grammatical system are considered as having a hidden vowel. Since most Sanskrit words and names begin with such consonants without vowels, we find it very difficult to pronounce them.

Besides, the scientific books of the Hindus are composed in various favourite metres, by which they intend, considering that the books soon become corrupted by additions and omissions, to preserve them exactly as they are, in order to facilitate their being learned by heart, because they consider as canonical only that which is known by heart, not that which exists in writing. Now it is well known that in all metrical compositions there is much misty and constrained phraseology merely intended to fill up the metre and serving as a kind of patchwork, and this necessitates a certain amount of verbosity. This is also one of the reasons why a word has sometimes one meaning and sometimes another.

Page 10.

From all this it will appear that the metrical form of literary composition is one of the causes which make the study of Sanskrit literature so particularly difficult.

Second reason:Their religious prejudices.

Secondly, they totally differ from us in religion, as we believe in nothing in which they believe, and vice versâ. On the whole, there is very little disputing about theological topics among themselves; at the utmost, they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious controversy. On the contrary, all their fanaticism is directed against those who do not belong to them—against all foreigners. They call them mleccha, i.e. impure, and forbid having any connection with them, be it by intermarriage or any other kind of relationship, or by sitting, eating, and drinking with them, because thereby, they think, they would be polluted. They consider as impure anything which touches the fire and the water of a foreigner; and no household can exist without these two elements. Besides, they never desire that a thing which once has been polluted should be purified and thus recovered, as, under ordinary circumstances, if anybody or anything has become unclean, he or it would strive to regain the state of purity. They are not allowed to receive anybody who does not belong to them, even if he wished it, or was inclined to their religion. This, too, renders any connection with them quite impossible, and constitutes the widest gulf between us and them.

Third reason:The radical difference of their maners and customs.

In the third place, in all manners and usages they differ froin us to such a degree as to frighten their children with us, with our dress, and our ways and customs, and as to declare us to be devil’s breed, and our doings as the very opposite of all that is good and proper. By the by, we must confess, in order to be just, that a similar depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and the Hindus, but is common to all nations towards each other. I recollect a Hindu who wreaked his vengeance on us for the following reason :—

Some Hindu king had perished at the hand of an enemy of his who had marched against him from our country. After his death there was born a child to him, which succeeded him, by the name of Sagara. On coming of age, the young man asked his mother about his father, and then she told him what had happened. Now he was inflamed with hatred, marched out of his country into the country of the enemy, and plentifully satiated his thirst of vengeance upon them. After having become tired of slaughtering, he compelled the survivors to dress in our dress, which was meant as an ignominious punishment for them. When I heard of it, I felt thankful that he was gracious enough not to compel us to Indianise ourselves and to adopt Hindu dress and manners.

Another circumstance which increased the already existing antagonism between Hindus and foreigners is that the so-called Shamaniyya (Buddhists), though they cordially hate the Branmans, still are nearer akin to them than to others. In former times, Khurâsân, Persis, had been ‘Irâk, Mosul, the country up to the frontier of Syria, was Buddhistic, but then Zarathustra went forth from Âdharbaijân and preached Magism in Balkh (Baktra). His doctrine came into favour with King Gushtasp, and his son Isfendiyâd spread the new faith both in east and west, both by force and by treaties. He founded fire-temples through his whole empire, from the frontiers of China to those of the Greek empire. The succeeding kings made their religion (i.e. Zoroastrianism) the obligatory state-religion for Persis and ‘Irâḳ. In consequence, the Buddhists were banished from those countries, and had to emigrate to the countries east of Balkh. There are some Magians up to the present time in India, where they are called Maga. From that time dates their aversion towards the countries of Khurâsân. But then came Islam; the Persian empire perished, and the repugnance of the Hindus against foreigners increased more and more when the Muslims began to make their inroads into their country; for Muḥammad Ibn Elḳâsim Ibn Elmunabbih entered Sindh from the side of Sijistân(Sakastene)andconquered the cities of Bahmanwâ and Mûlasthâna, the former of which he called Al-manṣûra, the latter Al-ma’mûra. He entered India proper, and penetrated even as far as Kanauj, marched through the country of Gandhâra, and on his way back, through the confines of Kashmîr, some times fighting sword in hand, sometimes gaining his ends by treaties, leaving to the people their ancient belief, except in the case of those who wanted to become Muslims. All these events planted a deeply rooted hatred in their hearts.

Fourth reason:A version of the Buddhists towards the countries of the west,whence they had been expelled. First innroads of the Muslims into India.

Page 11.

Now in the following times no Muslim conqueior passed beyond the frontier of Kâbul and the river Sindh until the days of the Turks, when they seized the power in Ghazna under the Sâmânî dynasty, and the supreme power fell to the lot of Nâṣir-addaula Sabuktagîn. This prince chose the holy war as his calling, and therefore called himself Al-ghâzî (i.e. warring on the road of Allah). In the interest of his successors he constructed, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yamîn-addaula Maḥmûd marched into India during a period of thirty years and more. God be merciful to both father and son ! Maḥmûd utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which theHindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmîr, Benares, and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources.

Muḥammadan conquest of the country by Maḥmûd.

In the fifth place, there are other causes, the mentioning of which sounds like a satire—peculiarities of their national character, deeply rooted in them, but manifest to everybody. We can only say, folly is an illness for which there is no medicine, and the Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs. They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited, and stolid. They are by nature niggardly in communicating that which they know, and they take the greatest possible care to withhold it from men of another caste among their own people, still much more, of course, from any foreigner. According to their belief, there is no other country on earth but theirs, no other race of man but theirs, and no created beings besides them have any knowledge or science whatsoever. Their haughtiness is such that, if you tell them of any science or scholar in Khurâsân and Persis, they will think you to be both an ignoramus and a liar. If they travelled and mixed with other nations, they would soon change their mind, for their ancestors were not as narrow-minded as the present generation is.One of their scholars, Varâhamihira, in a passage where he calls on the people to honour the Brahmans, says : “The Greeks, thoughimpure, must he honoured, since they were trained insciences, and therein excelled others. What, then, arewe to say of a Brahman, if he combines with his purity the height of science ? ” In former times, the Hindus used to acknowledge that the progress of science due to the Greeks is much more important than that which is due to themselves. But from this passage of Varâhamihira alone you see what a self-lauding man he is, whilst he gives himself airs as doing justice to others. At first I stood to their astronomers in the relation of a pupil to his master, being a stranger among them and not acquainted with their peculiar national and traditional methods of science. On having made some progress, I began to show them the elements on which this science rests, to point out to them some rules of logical deduction and the scientific methods of all mathematics, and then they flocked together round me from all parts, wondering, and most eager to learn from me, asking me at the same time from what Hindu master I had learnt those things, whilst in reality I showed them what they were worth, and thought myself a great deal superior to them, disdaining to be put on a level with them. They almost thought me to be a sorcerer, and when speaking of me to their leading men in their native tongue, they spoke of me as the sea or as the water which is so acid that vinegar in comparison is sweet.

Fifth reason:The selfconceit of the Hindus, and their depreciation of anything foreign.

Page 12.

Now such is the state of things in India. I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time, and although I do not spare either trouble or money in collecting Sanskrit books from places where I supposed they were likely to be found, and in procuring for myself, even from very remote places, Hindu scholars who understand them and are able to teach me. What scholar, however, has the same favourable opportunities of studying this subject as I have ? That would be only the case with one to whom the grace of God accords, what it did not accord to me, a perfectly free disposal of his own doings and goings; for it has never fallen to my lot in my own doings and goings to be perfectly independent, nor to be invested with sufficient power to dispose and to order as I thought best. However, I thank God for that which He has bestowed upon me, and which must be considered as sufficient for the purpose.

Personal relations of the author.

The heathen Greeks, before the rise of Christianity, held much the same opinions as the Hindus; their educated classes thought much the same as those of the Hindus; their common people held the same idolatrous views as those of the Hindus. Therefore I like to confront the theories of the one nation with those of the Other simply on account of their close relationship, not in order to correct them. For that which is not the truth (i.e. the true belief or monotheism) does not admit of any correction, and all heathenism, whether Greek or Indian, is in its pith and marrow one and the same belief, because it is only a deviation from the truth. The Greeks, however, had philosophers who, living in their country, discovered and worked out for them the elements of science, not of popular superstition, for it is the object of the upper classes to be guided by the results of science, whilst the common crowd will always be inclined to plunge into wrong-headed wrangling, as long as they are not kept down by fear of punishment. Think of Socrates when he opposed the crowd of his nation as to their idolatry and did not want to call the stars gods! At once eleven of the twelve judges of the Athenians agreed on a sentence of death, and Socrates died faithful to the truth.

The author declares his intention of comparing Greek theories,because of their being near akin and of their strictly scientific character as contrasted with those of the Hindus.

The Hindus had no men of this stamp both capable and willing to bring sciences to a classical perfection. Therefore you mostly find that even the so-called scientific theorems of the Hindus are in a state of utter confusion, devoid of any logical order, and in the last instance always mixed up with the silly notions of the crowd, e.g. immense numbers, enormous spaces of time, and all kinds of religious dogmas, which the vulgar belief does not admit of being called into question.Therefore it is a prevailing practice among the Hindus jurare inverba magistri; and I can only compare their mathematical and astronomical literature, as far as I know it, to a mixture of pearl shells and sour dates, or of pearls and dung, or of costly crystals and common pebbles. Both kinds of things are equal in their eyes, since they cannot raise themselves to the methods of a strictly scientific deduction.

Page 13.

In most parts of my work I simply relate without criticising, unless there be a special reason for doing so. I mention the necessary Sanskrit names and technical terms once where the context of our explanation de mands it. If the word is an original one, the meaning of which can be rendered in Arabic, I only use the corresponding Arabic word; if, however, the Sanskrit word be more practical, we keep this, trying to transliterate it as accurately as possible. If the word is a secondary or derived one, but in general use, we also keep it, though there be a corresponding term in Arabic, but before using it we explain its signification. In this way we have tried to facilitate the understanding of the terminology.

The author’s method.

Lastly, we observe that we cannot always in our discussions strictly adhere to the geometrical method, only referring to that which precedes and never to that which follows, as we must sometimes introduce in a chapter an unknown factor, the explanation of which can only be given in a later part of the book, God helping us !

CHAPTER II.

ON THE BELIEF OF THE HINDUS IN GOD.

THE belief of educated and uneducated people differs in every nation; for the former strive to conceiv...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TITLEPAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• CONTENTS
• CONTENTS1
• CHAPTER I ON THE HINDUS IN GENERAL, AS AN INTRODUCTION TO OUR ACCOUNT OF THEM.
• CHAPTER II ON THE BELIEF OF THE HINDUS IN GOD.
• CHAPTER III ON THE HINDU BELIEF AS TO CREATED THINGS, BOTH “INTELLIGIB1LIA” AND “SENSIBILIA.”
• CHAPTER IV FROM WHAT CAUSE ACTION ORIGINATES, AND HOW THE SOUL IS CONNECTED WITH MATTER.
• CHAPTER V ON THE STATE OF TUE SOULS, AND THEIR MIGRATIONS THROUGH THE WORLD IN THE METEMPSYCHOSIS.
• CHAPTER VI ON THE DIFFERENT WORLDS, AND ON THE PLACES OF RETRIBUTION IN PARADISE AND HELL.
• CHAPTER VII ON THE NATURE OF LIBERATION PROM THE WORLD, AND ON THE PATH LEADING THERETO.
• CHAPTER VIII ON THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF CREATED BEINGS, AND ON THEIR NAMES.
• CHAPTER IX ON THE CASTES, CALLED “ COLOURS ” (VAKṆA), AND ON THE CLASSES BELOW THEM.
• CHAPTER X ON THE SOURCE OF THEIR RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL LAW, ON PROPHETS, AND ON THE QUESTION WHETHER SINGLE LAWS CAN BE ABROGATED OR NOT.
• CHAPTER XI ABOUT THE BEGINNING OF IDOL-WORSHIP, AND A DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL IDOLS.
• CHAPTER XII ON THE VEDA, THE PURÂṆAS, AND OTHER KINDS OF THEIR NATIONAL LITERATURE.
• CHAPTER XIII THEIR GRAMMATICAL AND METRICAL LITERATURE.
• CHAPTER XIV HINDU LITERATURE IN THE OTHER SCIENCES—ASTRONOMY, ASTROLOGY, ETC.
• CHAPTER XV NOTES ON HINDU METROLOGY, INTENDED TO FACILITATE THE UNDERSTANDING OP ALL KINDS OF MEASUREMENTS WHICH OCCUR IN THIS BOOK.
• CHAPTER XVI NOTES ON THE WRITING OF THE HINDUS, ON THEIR ARITHMETIC AND RELATED SUBJECTS, AND ON CERTAIN STRANGE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THEIRS.
• CHAPTER XVII ON HINDU SCIENCES WHICH PREY ON THE IGNORANCE OF PEOPLE.
• CHAPTER XVIII VARIOUS NOTES ON THEIR COUNTRY, THEIR RIVERS, AND THEIR OCEAN—ITINERARIES OF THE DISTANCES BETWEEN THEIE SEVERAL KINGDOMS, AND BETWEEN THE BOUNDARIES OF THEIR COUNTRY.
• CHAPTER XIX ON THE NAMES OF THE PLANETS, THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC, THE LUNAR STATIONS, AND RELATED SUBJECTS.
• CHAPTER XX ON THE BRAHMÂṆḌA.
• CHAPTER XXI DESCRIPTION OF EARTH AND HEAVEN ACCORDING TO THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS OP THE HINDUS, BASED UPON THEIR TRADITIONAL LITERATURE.
• CHAPTER XXII TRADITIONS RELATING TO THE POLE.
• CHAPTER XXIII ON MOUNT MERU ACCORDING TO THE BELIEF OF THE AUTHORS OF THE PURÂṆAS AND OF OTHERS.
• CHAPTER XXIV TRADITIONS OF THE PURÂṆAS REGARDING EACH OF THE SEVEN DVÎPAS.
• CHAPTER XXV ON THE RIVERS OF INDIA, THEIR SOURCES AND COURSES.
• CHAPTER XXVI ON THE SHAPE OP HEAVEN AND EARTH ACCORDING TO THE HINDU ASTRONOMERS.
• CHAPTER XXVII ON THE FIRST TWO MOTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE (THAT FROM EAST TO WEST ACCORDING TO ANCIENT ASTRONOMERS, AND THE PRECESSION OP THE EQUINOXES) BOTH ACCORDING TO THE HINDU ASTRONOMERS AND THE AUTHORS OP THE PURÂṆAS.
• CHAPTER XXVIII ON THE DEFINITION OP THE TEN DIRECTIONS.
• CHAPTER XXIX DEFINITION OP THE INHABITABLE EARTH ACCORDING TO THE HINDUS.
• CHAPTER XXX ON LANKA, OR THE CUPOLA OF THE EARTH.
• CHAPTER XXXI ON THAT DIFFERENCE OP VARIOUS PLACES WHICH WE CALL THE DIFFERENCE OP LONGITUDE.
• CHAPTER XXXII ON THE NOTIONS OP DURATION AND TIME IN GENERAL, AND ON THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND ITS DESTRUCTION.
• CHAPTER XXXIII ON THE VARIOUS KINDS OP THE DAY OR NYCHTHEMERON, AND ON DAY AND NIGHT IN PARTICULAR.
• CHAPTER XXXIV ON THE DIVISION OP THE NYCHTHEMERON INTO MINOR PARTICLES OF TIME.
• CHAPTER XXXV ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OP MONTHS AND YEARS.
• CHAPTER XXXVI ON THE POUR MEASURES OF TIME CALLED MÂNA.
• CHAPTER XXXVII ON THE PARTS OF THE MONTH AND THE YEAR.
• CHAPTER XXXVIII ON THE VARIOUS MEASURES OP TIME COMPOSED OF DAYS, THE LIFE OP BRAHMAN INCLUDED.
• CHAPTER XXXIX ON MEASURES OF TIME WHICH ARE LARGER THAN THE LIFE OF BRAHMAN.
• CHAPTER XL ON THE SAMDHI, THE INTERVAL BETWEEN TWO PERIODS OF TIME, FORMING THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN THEM.
• CHAPTER XLI DEFINITION OF THE TERMS “ KALPA ” ANO “ CATURYUGA,” AND AN EXPLICATION OF THE ONE BY THE OTHER.
• CHAPTER XLII ON THE DIVISION OF THE CATUBYUGA INTO YUGAS, AND THE DIFFERENT OPINIONS REGARDING THE LATTER.
• CHAPTER XLIII A DESCRIPTION OF THE FOUR YUGAS, AND OF ALL THAT IS EXPECTED TO TAKE PLACE AT THE END OF THE FOURTH YUGA.
• CHAPTER XLIV ON THE MANVANTARAS.
• CHAPTER XLV ON THE CONSTELLATION OF THE GREAT BEAR.
• CHAPTER XLVI ON NÂRÂYAṆA, HIS APPEARANCE AT DIFFERENT TIMES, AND HIS NAMES.
• CHAPTER XLVII ON VÂSUDEVA AND THE WARS OF THE BHÂRATA.
• CHAPTER XLVIIIAN EXPLANATION OF THE MEASURE OF AN AKSHAUHINÍ.