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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) Son nom de Kabîr n’est qu’un titre signifiant le plus grand. On le nomme aussi Jnânî ou le sage. Ce sont deux différents takhallus plutôt que des noms propres. — Joseph-Héliodore-Sagesse-Vertu Garcin de Tassy, HISTOIRE DE LA LITTÉRATURE HINDOUI ET HINDOUSTANI, Volume I, pages 274-81, Volume II, pages 1-8 More recently, Charlotte Vaudeville’s A WEAVER NAMED KABIR: SELECTED V ERSES W ITH A D ETAILED B IOGRAPHICAL AND H ISTORICAL INTRODUCTION has explored the life of Kabîr as a medieval counterpart of Gandhi, prefiguring Tyagaraja and Tagore. Born a lower-caste Muslim weaver, Kabir opposed superstition, empty ritualism and bigotry. His writings include scathing attacks against Brahmanical pride, caste prejudice and untouchability, as well as against the dogmatism and bigotry he perceived within Islam. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The People of Walden HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN WALDEN: Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and PEOPLE OF praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of WALDEN men asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning-red, if they ever got up early enough. “They pretend,” as I hear, “that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas;” but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? KABÎR HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1440 Kabîr was born in Varanasi, Jaunpur, India. He would be influenced by a Hindu ascetic, Ramananda, and by the ideas of the Sufis, and while working in Benares as a weaver would write devotional poetry in the Hindi language. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT The People of Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1499 Kabîr’s disciple Nanak (April 15, 1469-September 22, 1539) established what is now known as Sikhism. Some of Kabîr’s vernacular poetry would be incorporated into the sacred book known as the ADI GRANTH. Although people from all social classes would embrace this new faith, it would prove especially popular with the farmers and townsmen who were being excluded from power by both Brahmans and Muslims. Like Rajputs, Sikhs could not eat beef or pork but could eat lamb and fowl, and believed in the almost sacred power of steel. One unusual Sikh device was a sharpened steel washer measuring about 7 inches in diameter, known as a chakra, or “circle.” Aristocratic Sikhs often would carry two or three around with them, hidden between HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN the layers of their turbans, and tended to amuse themselves by twirling them around their forefingers and then flicking them toward targets (more important personal weapons for these types included the conventional swords, bucklers, lances, and daggers). HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1518 Kabîr died in Maghar, India. He had come to term his approach to religious eclecticism, the combination of elements of the Hindu and Moslem religious life, a “simple union” or sahaja-yoga. Into his belief system he had incorporated the Hindu attitudes toward the transmigration of souls and in regard to the law of karma, while repudiating Hinduism’s idolatry, its asceticism, and its reliance upon a system of caste distinctions. Meanwhile he had incorporated from Islam the concepts of but one God and of the equality of all humans before this one God. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. The People of Walden “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1570 After Kabîr’s death a cult or discipline called Kabirpanth had sprung up to honor and remember him. At this point a disciple bound a collection of his vernacular verses and observations into something called “Account Book” or BIJAK. WALDEN: Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and PEOPLE OF praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of WALDEN men asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning-red, if they ever got up early enough. “They pretend,” as I hear, “that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas;” but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? KABÎR LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The People of Walden HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1839 Professor Joseph-Héliodore-Sagesse-Vertu Garcin de Tassy’s major work TARIKH-E-ADABIYAT-E-HINDIVI WA HINDUSTANI. The initial volume of his HISTOIRE DE LA LITTÉRATURE HINDOUI ET HINDOUSTANI was published at Paris under the auspices of the Oriental Translation Committee of Great Britain and Ireland and dedicated A SA MAJESTÉ LA REINE DE LA GRANDE-BRETAGNE. From this Henry Thoreau would on September 11, 1849 extract snippets pertaining to Kabîr and to Mîr Camar uddîn Mast: M. GARCIN DE TASSY, I On prétend que les vers de Kabîr ont quatre sens différents: l’illusion (mâyâ), l’esprit (âtmâ), l’intellect (man), et la doctrine exotérique des Védas. WALDEN: Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and PEOPLE OF praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of WALDEN men asleep, which they express by snoring. Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning-red, if they ever got up early enough. “They pretend,” as I hear, “that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas;” but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally? KABÎR The source which reported this “pretending” (exegeting?) was cited in a footnote of the HISTOIRE DE LA LITTÉRATURE HINDOUI ET HINDOUSTANI as Horace Hayman Wilson’s ASIATIC RESEARCHES, Volume XVI, page 62. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN Thoreau also would render Mîr Camar uddîn Mast’s Etant assis, parcourir la région du monde spirituel: j’ai eu cet avantage dans les livres. Être enviré par une seule coupe de vin: j’ai éprouvé ce plaisir lorsque j’ai bu la liqueur des doctrines ésotériques. as: WALDEN: My residence was more favorable, not only to thought, PEOPLE OF but to serious reading, than a university; and though I was WALDEN beyond the range of the ordinary circulating library, I had more than ever come within the influence of those books which circulate round the world, whose sentences were first written on bark, and are now merely copied from time to time on to linen paper. Says the poet Mîr Camar Uddîn Mast, “Being seated to run through the region of the spiritual world; I have had this advantage in books. To be intoxicated by a single glass of wine; I have experienced this pleasure when I have drunk the liquor of the esoteric doctrines.” I kept Homer’s Iliad on my table through the summer, though I looked at his page only now and then. Incessant labor with my hands, at first, for I had my house to finish and my beans to hoe at the same time, made more study impossible. Yet I sustained myself by the prospect of such reading in future. I read one or two shallow books of travel in the intervals of my work, till that employment made me ashamed of myself, and I asked where it was then that I lived. MÎR CAMAR UDDÎN MAST JOHN CHARLES FRÉMONT HOMER HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KABÎR (THE GREAT) PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN The full selection on Mîr Camar uddîn Mast from which Thoreau was here extracting, on pages 331-2 of Volume I of this HISTOIRE DE LA LITTÉRATURE HINDOUI ET HINDOUSTANI,1 reads as follows: Mîr Camar uddîn Mast1, de Delhi, descendait par sa mère du saïyid Jalâl Bukhârî Mîr.
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  • Diana L. Eck Curriculum Vitae Current Position: Harvard University, Professo

    Diana L. Eck Curriculum Vitae Current Position: Harvard University, Professo

    Diana L. Eck Curriculum Vitae ___________________________________________________ Current Position: Harvard University, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Frederic Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society (June 2004) Harvard College Professor (2012) Department of South Asian Studies and Committee on the Study of Religion Faculty of Arts and Sciences Harvard University Member, Faculty of Divinity (1984- ) Harvard Divinity School Chair, Department of South Asian Studies (2010-11) Chair, Committee on the Study of Religion (1990-98; 2007-2010) Director, The Pluralism Project: World Religions in America (1990- ) Director of Undergraduate Studies, The Comparative Study of Religion (1976-86) Master of Lowell House, Harvard University (1998- ) Office Address: Committee on the Study of Religion The Barker Center Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (617-495-5781; fax: 617-493-1602; email: [email protected]) Lowell House A22 (617-495-2283; fax: 617-495-2523) The Pluralism Project 2 Arrow Street Cambridge, MA 02139 (617-496-2481; fax: 617-496-2428) Home Address: 50 Holyoke Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (617-661-6450; fax 617-493-1602) Education: Ph.D. Harvard University (The Comparative Study of Religion), 1976. M.A. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, (South Asian Studies, Modern Indian History), 1968. B.A. Smith College (Religion), 1967. [Post-graduate Diploma, Banaras Hindu University (1965-66; 1973-74). Ancient Indian History and Culture] Professional Experience: 1984- : Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies, Harvard University 1981-84: Associate Professor of Indian Religion, Harvard University 1977-81: Assistant Professor of Indian Religion, Harvard University 1976-77: Lecturer on Hindu Religion, Harvard University 1975-76: Instructor in Hindu Religion, Harvard University 2 Personal: Born July 5, 1945 in Tacoma, Washington.