Allah Upanishad or Allopanishad is a Sanskrit text with many Arabic words written in India in 16th century during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar.[1][2] It describes Akbar as a messenger or prophet of God.[3]

The Allopanishad is not part of the Upanishad canon, traditionally containing 108 Upanishads, and does not appear in any Vedas. In an issue of The Theosophist, R. Ananthakrishna Sastri wrote that the work was written by Pandits for monetary rewards during the time of Muslim rule in India. He further remarked that the work was not in the style of ordinary Upanishads and its words appear to sound more like Arabic.[4] Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya and B. K. Sarkar categorize Allopanishad as an Islamic Work and write that it was written by a Hindu courtier of Akbar, as an apocryphal chapter of the Atharvaveda. Swami Vivekananda said, "I have been told that Allopnishad was written during the reign of Akbar, to bring the Hindus and Mahommedans together, and sometimes they got hold of some word, as Allah, or Illa in the Samhitas, and made an Upanishad on it. So in this Allopanishad, Mahomet is the Rajasulla, whatever that may mean."[5]

Text

  1. I take refuge in our Allah [La, "to perish", and alla, "eternal"] who protects Mitra [sun] and Varuna [the god of water].
  2. There is but one God [Illelle]; the king, Varuna, again takes refuge (in him).
  3. Everything is God; sun and stars.
  4. Everything is God; Varuna, the sun, the illuminator.
  5. The Great Breath, the Lord, is the Sacrificer. The Lord is the Sacrificer.
  6. Allah is the first and best, the highest; Omnipresent; Highest of all Gods.
  7. He is only One; ever remaining.
  8. By sacrifice is Allah to be propitiated.
  9. Allah is sun, moon and all stars.
  10. Allah is (the God) of Rishis and all other deities, and of Indra, the first Maya [primordial matter] and the ether.
  11. Allah is in the earth and in heaven and in multifarious forms.
  12. Everything is Allah. Everything is Allah and everything is He.
  13. Om is Allah. Everything is He. By nature eternal. Atharvan [the Rishi] bows down to such.
  14. Give us water, cattle, siddhis, and things that live in water, and Phut [a mantra].
  15. The slayer of enemies. Hum, Hrim. Nothing but Allah; nothing but Allah. Thus ends the Allopanishad.[6]

Views on authorship and authenticity

In an issue of The Theosophist, R. Ananthakrishna Sastri wrote that the work was written by Pandits for monetary rewards during the time of Muslim rule in India. He further remarked that the work was not in the style of ordinary Upanishads and its words appear to sound more like Arabic.[4] Bhattacharya and Sarkar categorize Allopanishad as an Islamic Work and write that it was written by a Hindu courtier of Akbar, as an apocryphal chapter of the Atharvaveda. Charles Eliot suggested that the work may have been written in connection with the Din-i-Ilahi movement, and wrote that the work can hardly be described as other than a forgery.[3] Author S. N. Sadasivan says, "When emperor Akbar was toying the idea with new religion Din-i Ilahi, the Brahmins had written for him a new upanishad called "Allopanishad" (upanishad of Allah) which strangely was not acceptable for him".[7] Swami Vivekananda wrote that Allopanishad was evidently of a much later date and that he was told that it was written in the reign of Akbar to bring Hindus and Muslims together.[5] Sadasivan writes that it was written by Brahmins for Akbar when he was experimenting with a new religion.[8] Debendranath Tagore wrote in his autobiography that Allopanishad was composed in the days of Akbar with the objective of converting Hindus into Muslims.[9] Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote that the Allopanishad was the shameless production of some brahmin sycophant of Muslim rulers of India.[10] Abraham Eraly states that the book was symbolic of the various cross-cultural pollination between Hindu and Muslim cultures during the time of the Mughals and was meant to bring the two communities together.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Raghavan, V. (1966). New catalogus catalogorum: an alphabetical register of Sanskrit and allied works and authors. Vol. 1. Madras: University of Madras. p. 410. OCLC 1163653281.
  2. ↑ "Allopaniṣad (Work) - Pandit". www.panditproject.org. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
  3. 1 2 Eliot, Sir Charles (2004). Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch, Volume 1. Philadelphia, USA: Psychology Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-7007-0679-2. It declares that the Allah of the prophet Muhammad Akbar (i.e., not the Allah of the Koran) is the God of Gods.
  4. 1 2 Sastri, R Ananthakrishna (1898). "Allopanishad or Mahomed Upanishad". The Theosophist. Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House. XIX: 177. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  5. 1 2 Vivekananda, Swami (1908). Lectures from Columbo to Almora: Issue 16 of Himalayan series. Madras, India: Prabuddha Bharata Press. p. 123. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Allah Upanishad - Eng | PDF | Hindu Texts | Upanishads".
  7. ↑ S. N. Sadasivan (2000). A social history of India. p. 178. ISBN 9788176481700.
  8. ↑ Sadasivan, S. N. (2000). A Social History Of India (Illustrated ed.). New Delhi, India: APH Publishing. p. 178. ISBN 978-81-7648-170-0.
  9. ↑ Tagore, Satyendranath; Devi, Indira (2006). The Autobiography Of Devendranath Tagore (Reprint ed.). Whitefish, Montana, USA: Kessinger Publishing. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4286-1497-0.
  10. ↑ Bijlert, Viktor A. van (1996). "Sanskrit and Hindu National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Bengal". In Houben, Jan E. M. (ed.). Ideology and Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the History of the Sanskrit Language: Volume 13 of Brill's Indological Library (Illustrated ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. p. 358. ISBN 978-90-04-10613-0.
  11. ↑ Abraham Eraly, The Mughal World: Life in India's Last Golden Age, Penguin Books India 2007
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