Translating Wisdom: Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Religion | AsiAn studies NAIR TRANSLATING WISDOM During the height of Muslim power in Mughal South Asia, Hindu and Muslim schol- ars worked collaboratively to translate a large body of Hindu Sanskrit texts into the Persian language. Translating Wisdom reconstructs the intellectual processes that underlay these translations. Using as a case study the 1597 Persian rendition of the Yoga-Vāsis.t.ha—an influential and popular Sanskrit philosophical tale—Shan- kar Nair illustrates how these early modern scholars drew upon their respective tra- ditions to forge a common vocabulary through which to understand one another. These scholars thus achieved, Nair argues, a nuanced cultural exchange significant not only to South Asia’s past but also its present. “An erudite and valuable contribution. Nair’s deep linguistic and philosophical exper- tise illuminates the writings of three important if overlooked seventeenth-century thinkers.” Supriya Gandhi, author of The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India “Nair exhibits a breathtaking command of languages, textual traditions, and intellec- tual cultures in this pioneering study of the crisscrossing of Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic cultural jet streams in sixteenth-century India.” Jonardon Ganeri, author of The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450–1700 “Shankar Nair examines a pivotal work of Mughal translation and shows how it chan- nels huge vortexes of Islamic and Hindu intellectual culture. A masterwork.” John Stratton Hawley, author of A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement in Early Modern South Asia in Early Modern Interactions Intellectual Hindu-Muslim “A welcome addition to the history of Hindu and Islamic interactions in early modern India, highlighting the subtleties of translation and the painstaking creation of a vo- cabulary important for both religions.” Francis X. Clooney, Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University Shankar Nair is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the Uni- versity of Virginia. University of California Press | www.UCPress.edU A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program for TRANSLATING WISDOM monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Cover illustration: A Group of Ascetics © The Trustees of the British Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia Museum. All rights reserved. SHANKAR NAIR Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Philip E. Lilienthal Imprint in Asian Studies, established by a major gift from Sally Lilienthal. Translating Wisdom Translating Wisdom Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia Shankar Nair UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © 2020 by Shankar Nair This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses. Suggested citation: Nair, S. Translating Wisdom: Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.87 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nair, Shankar, 1983- author. Title: Translating wisdom : Hindu-Muslim intellectual interactions in early modern South Asia / Shankar Nair. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019036757 (print) | LCCN 2019036758 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520345683 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520975750 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Yogavāsistha—Translating—History. | Hinduism—Sacred books—Translating—History. | Islam—Relations—Hinduism. | Hinduism—Relations—Islam. | Mogul Empire—Intellectual life. Classification: LCC BL1111.5 .N35 2020 (print) | LCC BL1111.5 (ebook) | DDC 294.5/1570954—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036757 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019036758 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In grateful memory of Anne E. Monius Contents Acknowledgments xi Note on Translation and Transliteration xiii Introduction 1 Religious Interactions in Early Modern South Asia 3 Terms of the Inquiry 12 Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian Intellectual Cultures in Early Modern South Asia 18 Chapter Outline 26 Chapter 1: The Laghu-Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha and Its Persian Translation 30 Introducing the Sanskrit Treatise 31 The Mughal “Translation Movement” and the Laghu-Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha 42 The Jūg Bāsisht Translation Team 47 A “Taste” of the Persian Text 49 Chapter 2: Madhusūdana Sarasvatī and the Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha 56 Madhusūdana Sarasvatī: Life and Times 58 Fearing the “Muslim Threat”? 65 On the Soul (jīva) in the Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha 76 Chapter 3: Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī and an Islamic Framework for Religious Diversity 85 A Sufi Philosopher of Seventeenth-Century South Asia 87 ix x Contents An Islamic Non-Dualism: Muḥibb Allāh’s Taswiyah bayna al-ifādah wa’l-qabūl 96 The Question of Religious Diversity 104 The Arabo-Persian Jet Stream and the Question of Interaction 116 Chapter 4: Mīr Findiriskī and the Jūg Bāsisht 119 A Peripatetic Philosopher between the Safavids and the Mughals 120 Between Philosophy and Poetry 124 A Muslim Commentary on a Hindu Text 128 The Framework in Concrete Application 134 Chapter 5: A Confluence of Traditions: The Jūg Bāsisht Revisited 142 The Arabo-Persian Jet Stream in the Jūg Bāsisht 143 The Sanskrit Jet Stream in the Jūg Bāsisht 152 Conclusion 168 From History to Theory? Possibilities for the Academic Study of Religion 175 Notes 187 Bibliography 227 Index 251 Acknowledgments In many ways, this is a book about collaborations—about scholars and individuals of diverse training, backgrounds, and talents coming together, whether directly or indirectly, deliberately or by chance, to accomplish some venture in learning. Though all deficiencies in this book are decidedly my own, it has been my varied and often unexpected encounters with friends, colleagues, teachers, and mentors that have made this work possible. To Professors Parimal Patil, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Anne Monius, and James Morris, I owe an especial debt of gratitude. For their guidance and training, for teaching me how to read and to think (while enduring my innumerable shortcomings), I can only express a heartfelt “thank you.” In addition, there have been many other teachers and conversation partners along the way, each of whom has contributed to my thinking and learning in far- reaching and multifaceted ways. I must thank Frank Clooney, Muzaffar Alam, Carl Ernst, William Chittick, Larry McCrea, Wolfhart Heinrichs, Jack Hawley, Supriya Gandhi, Ali Asani, William Granara, Sunil Sharma, Dan Sheffield, Michael Puett, Dalia Yasharpour, Luis Girόn-Negrόn, Anand Venkatkrishnan, and Madhura Godbole for furnishing various treasures, unlocking several doors, and providing crucial keys and supports that can continue to bear fruit over the course of a career. In addition to numerous critical conversations over the years, John Nemec, Michael Allen, and Sonam Kachru also provided speedy and incisive feedback that greatly improved the chapters to come. John, in particular, has self- lessly supported my work in more ways than I could count—one could not ask for a more generous colleague! Indeed, the hallways of the University of Virginia have afforded an uncommon wealth of counsel and hospitality: my gratitude to Chuck Mathewes, Jahan Ramazani, Willis Jenkins, Ahmed al-Rahim, Jane Mikkelson, xi xii Acknowledgments Greg Goering, Liz Alexander, Kurtis Schaeffer, Jessica Andruss, Janet Spittler, Karl Shuve, Jenny Geddes, Peter and Vanessa Ochs, Erik Braun, Cindy Hoehler- Fatton, Oludamini Ogunnaike, Martien Halvorson-Taylor, Larry Bouchard, Mehr Farooqi, Rich Cohen, Tessa Farmer, Samhita Sunya, Farzaneh Milani, Geeta Patel, Griff Chaussée, Dan Ehnbom, Rich Barnett, and Fahad Bishara for being ever- willing to answer a question or provide a sounding board. Debjani Ganguly also provided crucial research support through the Mellon Humanities Fellowship at the Institute of the Humanities & Global Culture. My thanks additionally to the anonymous reviewers of the book manuscript, as well as to Eric Schmidt and Austin Lim at UC Press for expertly shepherding it through. To Michael and Elizabeth, Alma Giese, Joseph, Caner, Roy, Faris, Amina, Lynna, Ryan, Poojan, Susan, Murad, Alyssa, Mohammed, Wajida, Fatos, Evan, Rizwan, Latifeh, Aaron, Yousef, and Maria, thank you for the camaraderie, the warmth, the sense of perspective, and, most importantly, the humanity. And a particular note of thanks to Nicholas Boylston and Nariman Aavani, who provided not only their friendship, but also crucial access to otherwise unreachable manuscripts in Iran. I am grateful to a number of institutions in India for providing access to their archives and copies of several manuscripts vital for this project, including the Iran