The Hindu history of the Arabs

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The Hindu history of the Arabs

By Sudhakar Raje

 

SHRI M.S.N. Menon's Desert in the Life of the Arab (Organiser, May 8,

2005) shows how effectively Muslim Arabs have erased their pre-

Islamic past from the world's memory. His claim that "the Arab had no

past to think of, or to be proud about" is astounding, and it is

necessary to put the record straight, because Arabia has had an

astonishingly long and rich Hindu history.

 

How far back into the dim past it stretches can be seen from the

strange belief that when Hajrat Adam came down from the Garden of

Eden (that is, heavens), he first descended into India, from where he

journeyed to Arabia. Having provided this amazing tit-bit Bharatiya

Sanskriti Kosh (Marathi, 1982) uses it as the basis to

observe, "Therefore the Arabs consider India their fatherland, Pitru

Bhumi." (Unfortunately, more than a thousand years of Islamic

aggressions on India have belied this pious statement. Rather, they

stand testimony to the fact that Muslims have always looked upon

India not as a land to be revered, but as a land to be ravished.)

 

Such fantasies apart, evidence exists to show that there was a strong

Hindu presence in pre-Islamic Arabia, which, in turn, was reflected

in an equally strong presence of Hinduism itself. This evidence is

available in an anthology of ancient Arabic poetry titled Se'-arul

Oqul. Page 197 of this anthology contains a poem praising the Vedas

composed by a poet named Labi bin Akhtab bin Turfa, who lived 2300

years before Mohammed, that is, about 4000 years ago.

 

Much later, yet five centuries before Mohammed, there was a poet

named Jarkham bin Tai, who wrote a beautiful poem on Lord Krishna.

Then there was another pre-Islamic Arab poet by name Noman bin Adi,

who has written a poem in praise of the great ancient Hindu king

Vikramaditya. An article in the commemoration issue of a journal of

Ujjain published on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of the

Vikram Era contains a description of Vikramaditya's rule over Arabia.

Seven such poems of pre-Islamic times are still extant, says

Bharatiya Sanskriti Kosh.

 

Coming down to Mohammed's own time, a poem by Umar bin Hashsham

eulogises Lord Shiva, specifically mentioning him by the

name `Mahadeva'. This poem appears on page 265 of the Se'-arul Oqul

anthology. Hashsham was also known as Abul Haqam, which was his

family name. He was Mohammed's uncle, but there were sharp religious

differences between the two. Because of this hostility Mohammed's

followers changed his name from Abul Haqam, which means `father of

knowledge' to Abul Jahal, which means `father of fools'. Hashsham

refused to become a Muslim, and was finally killed in a battle with

Muslims.

 

This Literary evidence is strengthened by social evidence in the form

of a prosperous trading community called Sabaeans that lived in the

South of Arabia. These Sabaeans practised "an ancient natural

religion", in which "the sun, the moon and the planets" figured

prominently. They "believed in the migration of the soul and in great

world periods....." (Encyclopedia Americana.) Rebirth and Yugas are

both prominent Hindu tenets.

 

Then there was another pre-Islamic Arab poet by name Noman bin Adi,

who has written a poem in praise of the great ancient Hindu king

Vikramaditya. An article in the commemoration issue of a journal of

Ujjain published on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of the

Vikram Era contains a description of Vikramaditya's rule over Arabia.

 

Even the First Encyclopedia of Islam attests to the high standard the

Sabaean civilisation had achieved. It says archaeology has

uncovered "sculptures and remains of colonnades, palaces, temples,

city walls, public works, specially water works etc., which confirm

the brilliant picture of Sabaean culture". (Vol. VII.)

 

Whether dating from Sabaean times (800 b.c. onwards) or even earlier,

there are pink or saffron-coloured stone structures and remains of

deserted cities of pre-Islamic times scattered in the desert wastes

of Arabia. In his book With Lawrence of Arabia Lowell Thomas gives a

graphic account of one such city called Petra, where "several hundred

thousand people must once have lived...". He describes a magnificent

temple near the city, which looked like "a delicate and limpid rose",

and "was carved from the cliff almost 2000 years ago".

 

And this leads one to the question of questions: was Kaba, the

present holy of Islamic holies, a former Shiva temple? In his well-

researched book Hindu Temples: What Happened to Them Sita Ram Goel

has dealt with this subject in some detail. He begins by saying that

initially he had rejected the claim, but some facts that he came to

know later had compelled him to revise his opinions, and, although

still unsure about the Shiva temple, he "cannot resist the conclusion

that it was a hallowed place of Hindu pilgrimage".

 

The tradition of Kaba being a Shiva temple was very much alive in the

times of Guru Nanak, and is preserved in the Makke-Madine di Goshati

(ed. Dr. Kulwant Singh, Patiala, 1988). During his travels in the

Middle East Guru Nanak visited Mecca, where he had religious

discussions with Islamic theologians, and he reportedly told

them, "Mecca is an ancient place of pilgrimage, and there is a Linga

of Lord Mahadeva here".

 

Famous Chinese traveller Huen Tsang has also written that during the

glorious reign of King Harsha India's influence, culture and religion

had extended upto Mecca, where Shiva's black Linga was revered by the

Arabs. The late Dr S.B. Varnekar, a reputed Sanskritist, had written

to this writer that he had heard the term `Meccashwar', though not

seen it used.

 

There is a clear presence of Sanskrit words in the Arabic language,

albeit in Arabicised form. More than a score such words can be

identified without much trouble. In fact, Dr N.R. Waradpande, a

scholar of Sanskrit, wrote to this writer: "If I get a dictionary of

Arabic with pronunciation of Arabic words in Romen or Nagari script,

I will be able to find more Sanskrit words in Arabic than in

English."

 

`Hind' was a popular name among pre-Islamic Arabs. Many years ago

Arabic Scholar Dr Jeelany had written in this journal that many Arab

women had this name. One of Mohammed's wives, as well as one of his

aunts, were named Hind. The original name of Laila of the well-known

Laila-Majnu love story was also Hind.

 

Finally, the Hindu history of Arabia far pre-dates the comparatively

recent times when most of the Arab peninsula became Saudi Arabia,

while a small stretch of the southern coastal region became a group

of small states known as United Arab Emerates (UAE). This needs to be

stated because Bahrain in the UAE was clearly an outpost of the Vedic

civilisation. Scholars surmise that Bahrain was called Dilmun in

ancient times. In his book In search of the Cradle of Civilisation

David Frawley speculates that Dilmun was probably "a colony of the

Indus-Saraswati civilisation".

 

All this should suffice to show that Shri Menon's critique of the

Arabs is not valid for Arabs per se, but only for Muslim Arabs. The

Arabs certainly had a past, and it was glorious enough to be proud of—

had not Islam taught them to hate anything pre-Islamic as anti-

Islamic and to wipe it off their collective consciousness.

 

And even this hatred for the infidel took time to take root. Actually

the early Arab Muslims were eager learners, and they did not hide

their admiration of the Hindus, from whom they sought to learn as

many things as the Hindus could teach them. This admiration is amply

evident in the accounts of contemporary travellers, chroniclers and

historians, such as Sulaiman the Merchant, Abu Zaid Saifi, Abu Dulf

bin Muhalhil, Burzurg bin Shahriyar, Masudi, Istakhari, Ibn-i-Hauqal

Muqaddasi, al-Biruni, and Ibn-i-Battuta. Their records reveal the

admiration the Arabs had for Indian/Hindu arts and sciences, and

their influence on Arab civilisation—even after the advent of Islam.

Equipped by their Hindu mentors, they became a conduit for the

transmission of Hindu knowledge to the West. How well they learnt

from the Hindus what they taught to the West is demonstrated by a

tiny but tell-tale detail—the Hindu numerals they taught the

Westerners became known in the West as Arabic numerals.

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