Ernst IslamizationYoga
Ernst IslamizationYoga
Ernst IslamizationYoga
Ernst Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jul., 2003), pp. 199226 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25188362 Accessed: 30/01/2010 23:49
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CARL Orientalist
From certain Eastern defined term dry that to the beginning religious doctrines Sufism in European Semitic religion of Orientalist phenomena as as a essentially mysticism languages, of belief evidence. times, some Horten, doubt of this these Islam.~
W.
views
studies of of
of yoga
the Muslim origins.
in terms alike,
their
essentially
today. that
As
outrageous of circle
of Max "No
study
sought that
explain
longer that
remain of
teaching 820".3
is identical
Samkara James
around in his
pertinent published
example as The
in an observation of Religious
of William
1902 Gifford
Lectures,
Experience: world the Sufi sect and various dervish bodies are the possessors of the
In the Mohammedan
in Persia from the earliest times, and as their pantheism tradition. The Sufis have existed mystical is so at variance with it has been suggested the hot and rigid monotheism of the Arab mind, that inoculated into Islam by Hindu Sufism must have been influences.4 remark by the illustrates, world how this was shared at the
James's time
innocently in Europe
enough,
widely
opinion
academic
and America.
It is easier
to see from
the perspective
1 This article is part of a forthcoming study, The Pool ofNectar: Muslim Interpreters of Yoga. It is based on part of to my translation of the Arabic text. An earlier version of this article was presented the monographic introduction at the Tantra-Muslim Esotericism-Kabbalah New York University, April 5-6, 1998. Conference, " See my Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston, 1997), Chapter 1, for a discussion of the early Orientalist linkage are made by Victor Palleja de Bustinza, of Sufism with India. Similar observations 'Le Soufisme: les debuts de son etude en Occident', Michel Chodkiewicz attention. (Winter, in Horizons Maghrebins 30: La Walaya, Etude sur le Soufisme de Vecole d'lbn'Arabi, Hommage a 1995), pp. 97-107. Thanks to Zamyat Kirby for drawing the latter reference to my
zur Kunde des Buddhismus, Indische Stromungen in der islamischen Mystik, Materialien 12-13 M[ax] Horten, (2 vols., Heidelberg, 1927-28), vol. II, p. iii. 4 William 1958), Lectures James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York, XVI-XVII, pp. 308-309. JRAS, Series j, 13, 2 (2003), pp. 199-226 DOI: 10.1017/S1356186303003079 ? The Royal Asiatic Society 2003 Printed in theUnited Kingdom
200
Carl
W.
Ernst
of
the
later
twentieth as
that
this opinion
was
conditioned nature of
racial
as well specialists to be
about studies
the explanation
cited us to and in
quaint
or
tradition of India.
without no reason
to the Eduard
the
Indian
Vedanta
question led
is no
reference
India
or Hindu
scholars
to seek
an external of
explanation? cultural diffusion from a single source (like Pan-Babylonianism) had a certain
Theories
inevitably
contained on Moreno zeal".7 In a the
theories
mysticism,
approaches
Indomaniac
maintained
The
surprising Yoga,
be
if we
did
not
find claiming
in Moslem
countries
something
analogous
traditions severally,
the authenticity of primordial tradition. a whole these methods gamut ranging from present and sound. Modern Europe is almost alone
to orgies
of rhythm
in having body
renounced,
of bourgeois
in the pursuits
of the spirit.
of the participation and Gallican purism, respectability In India as in Islam, music, and the dance are spiritual poetry,
exercises.8
He
went
on
to observe, it has
"This been
does
Sufism".9 comparative
Thus study
possible
is at the and
source to
of Moslem entertain a
Eliade but
historically
phenomenological
the
genetic
Asian of their
religions difference
was from
the
habit
of
viewing
non This
cultures
primarily
terms
European
Christianity.
5 Edward C. Sachau, trans., Alberuni's India (London, 1888; reprint ed., Delhi, 1964), vol. I, p. xxxiii; cf. vol. I, the Hindu p. xliii, where Sachau speaks of "the essential identity of the systems of the Greek Neo-Pythagoreans, and the Sufis of the Muslim world." Vedanta philosophers, Essai sur les origines du lexique technique de la mystique musulmane (new ed., Paris, 1968), Louis Massignon, pp. 63-98, where the case of India is discussed on pp. 81-98. 7 e mistica Martino Mario Moreno, 'Mistica musulmana indiana', Annali Lateranensi X (1949), pp. 103-219, esp. p. 198, and p. 210, where the case against influence is summarized. 8 in Islam', in Forms and Techniques ofAltruistic and Emile Dermenghem, 'Yoga and Sufism: Ecstasy Techniques Spiritual Growth, ed. Pitirim A. Sorokin (Boston, 1954), pp. 109?116, quoting p. 109. 9 Ibid. 10 du nom lamention L. Gardet, id., 'Un Probleme de mystique 'Dhikr', EI2, vol. II, pp. 223-227; comparee: Revue Thomiste LII (1952), pp. 642-679, LIII (1953), pp. 197-216; G.-C. divin (dhikr) dans lamystique musulmane', ? Anawati and Louis Gardet, Mystique musulmane, Aspects et tendances Experiences et techniques, Etudes Musulmanes, 8 (4th ed., Paris, 1986), esp. pp. 90?94, 244?245; Mircea Eliade, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, trans. Willard R. Series LVI (2nd ed., 1969), pp. 216?219, 408. In the end, though, Eliade could not resist the Trask, Bollingen exerted after the twelfth century" (p. 217). Likewise, temptation of influences, which he states "were definitely to asserting "Indo-Iranian of Konya, influence among the Mawlawiyya Gardet succumbed ('Whirling Dervishes') influence" for which he cites Simnani ("Dhikr", p. 224a). and Indian through Turko-Mongol
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
201
was
particularly of
in
the
intellectual freely
climate applied in
of
colonialism. of religion, religion exempted form arguably could testimony is entirely the relation of be to
the
superior.11
other
religions a
composed inferior of
In Zaehner's progress
derivative".12
research
Christianity
of condescension This practices that were the Indian is not of
into which
still lingers.
legacy
particularly
unaware any
widely origins
thesis
Sufism the
almost piece
historical to who
to note Kremer,
single
exception civilisation,
in a wide-ranging in a fourteenth-century
Islamic
attention
to a short
passage
Persian
encyclopedia
(the Nafa'is
al-funun
of Amuli)
Indian Asian text. Sufi
techniques
which leapt he
constrained so much the Vedanta that author along control items The
which the
internal
resemblance out,
teachings
school".14
Kremer occurred
to point section
control had
occult the
separately and
literature, Sufi
between who be
practice
recognised
by Muslim of categorisation
different
categories
again on von
Orientalist prejudices
assumed extrinsic to
of modern
important
was
Kremer
11 Eric Sharp ('Comparative to evolutionistic schemes that 12 R. C. Zaehner, Mysticism, 1961), p. 160. For a critique
Religion', Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. Ill, pp. 578?580) links the term "influence" rank religions, and he optimistically considers the term to be now "seldom used". Sacred and Profane: An Inquiry into some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience (London, of Zaehner's arguments for Indian "influence" on Sufism, see my Islam and Yoga,
Chapter One. 13 A survey of contacts between Sufis and yogis is provided in Chapter Two of The Pool ofNectar. See also my article 'Chishti Meditation in the Later Mughal Period', in The Heritage of Sufism, vol. Ill, Late Classical Techniques Persianate Sufism (1501-1750): The Safavid andMughal Period (Oxford, 1999), pp. 344-357. 14 Alfred von Kremer, Culturgeschichtliche Streifziige auf dem Gebiete des Islams (Leipzig, 1873); English trans., S. Khuda Bakhsh, Contributions to theHistory of Islamic Civilization (1904; reprint ed., Lahore, 1976), p. 119. The section on breath occurs in Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud Amuli, Nafa'is al-funun fi 'ara'is aUuyun, ed. Mirza Abu al-Hasan Shacrani (Tehran, 1379/1960), vol. II, pp. 360-365. The separate description on Sufism (vol. II, pp. 2-42) leans heavily on its Islamic credentials, beginning (vol. II, p. 4) with emphasis on the condition of "not deviating from the rule of Islam and the path of the shari^at." On Amuli, see C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, vol. II, part 3 (London, 1977), pp. 355-357.
202 Carl
W.
Ernst
noticed be
distinctively
yogic
text
being
circulated Seed
Islamicate
circles.
can
now
identified Again,
automatic scholarship.
origin noticed
of
Sufism a report
was in
axiomatic a
late Arabic
stating
that
one
of
the
early
the Naqshbandi
Sufism.
Indian
origin
prosaic
formative of
of to the
necessarily One
Indian
rest of
the
Islamic that
simply same
places and
is roughly for
1,000
miles
argument authentic,
influence
to demonstrate
is original in a having
and which
apparent Sufis as
late nineteenth-century
and
(and bungled) the meditative techniques of the church fathers as outlined in the Philokalia: "It was from them [the Greek Orthodox saints] that the monks of India and borrowed
Bokhara it in doing From of historical of the took over the 'heart method' of interior prayer, only they quite spoiled and garbled so".17 point rigour Sufism. that in with the a of view that Even too more of the often study of religion, it is disappointing speculations positivism as the enough about and to the see lack
Indian
origins
problematic replaced
century. of the
concluded
indictment is constrained
the Oriental: to the needs he no of the age and to recognize, indeed the
to learn
to adapt himself
the Europeans, whose superiority powerful to take the right and proper induced course, by take with superstitious, a different the mystic visions and
he has been
Here those on
I would who
point
of
view,
engaged
religious and
questions studied
discussion. countries,
was
a text it in fact
yogic
practice
that was
transmitted
in Muslim
was
understood? The remarks that follow are based on the study of the highly complex history of a text known by the Sanskrit title Amrtakunda or The Pool of Nectar, which survives inArabic,
Persian, recently indicates Turkish, come that to the and Urdu light of a translations Judaeo-Arabic of this text in multiple version engaged recensions produced it in (see Chart in Yemen. of This 1). Evidence textual has history involving
readers
a process
Islamisation,
16 'Zur Frage nach der Herkunft und den Anfangen des Sufitums', Der Cf. Moreno, p. 143, citing R. Hartmann, Islam (1915), pp. 31-70. 17 The Way of a Pilgrim, and The Pilgrim Continues his Way, trans. R. M. French (San Francisco, 1991), p. 71. von Kremer, p. 123.
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
203
Islamic What
themes, was
vocabulary, window
the
terminology of
concepts religions,
of and
remained readers in
that
to many found
was
Islamicate
practice about
great
its Muslim
Chart Manuscript I. Arabic The edition of Yusuf Husain: and fuller A. Symbols
recension: existing B-J (9MSS). K-Y b, the later, revised recension: (15 MSS). based on a, containing ZJ-Z2, Fragments: only the beginning Family Family Soul" Other Total: II. Persian Per3 passage. known manuscripts not used in this study: MSS of AA-UU.
a, the earlier
of the "Hymn
of the
(Per1 and Per2 are based on is the source of the Arabic text) Per1, the translation of Muhammad of Muhammad
Ghawth: ibn
Per1A-PerIW
plus
two
editions). Per2, the translation recension). Per3, The Kamarupa (2 complete MSS Total: 29 copies. III. Turkish
5Abd al-Razzaq:
(3MSS,
incorporating
Tur1, based on family Tur2, based on family Total: 8 copies. IV. Urdu: Only one copy
a: TurxA-TurJD b, translated
version). (4MSS).
(Urd),
based
on Per1.
The
The text Amrtakunda of which Seed the of Nectar or The is now
textual
Pool
transmission
was of Nectar the name was in an of into the
ofNectar Pool
also
ostensibly in Bengal,
introduction,
1210
al-hayat,
or The
I have discussed this text in 'A Persian Text on Yoga: Pietro della Valle and The Kamarupa Seed Syllables', paper for Asian Studies conference, (Honolulu, April 1996). Textual references are to the MS in presented at Association the Vatican library, described by Ettore Rosse, Elenco dei manoscritti persiani della biblioteca Vaticana, Studi e Testi, 136 (Vatican City, 1948), pp. 47?49.
aided date,
disputation. with
text was to
in Arabic
an unknown
author,
who too
converted complex
reasons
to discuss
I suggest
that
this
account
is fictitious.
The
earliest phase of the text (perhaps going back to the early thirteenth century) is probably represented by The Kamarupa Seed Syllables. This eclectic Persian text contained breath
control with practices Kaula relating and to magic and divination, of hatha yoga rites of the yogini to the temple tradition cult of associated the Nath tantrism, the
teachings
according
yogis
goddess text was
in Iran, probably
the Persian from translation ultimately a partial
in the fifteenth
text, the incorporating "Hymn of
rewrote
from
a Persian Shihab of
Illuminationist of
Maqtul.21 Hawd in
was
copies None
Istanbul. the
text was of
so unusual
assigned attribution
al-'Arabi; authority,
is clearly in Ottoman
a certain
canonical
particularly
technical terminology
the Qur'an that was of and Sufism.
of Hellenistic
The to a no
philosophy,
worked
translator
in away recension an
understandable version of
philosophically exists, the text. from al-Biruni philosophical were not the and
of Arabic. later
longer of
increasing other
Islamisation
from
translations Although on
spiritual
practices into
ioio)
questions widely
altogether, translated
Indological during
Sanskrit
Persian
period
text was first edited from 5MSS by Yusuf Husain, 'Haud al-hayat, la version arabe de l'Amratkund', Journal this edition contains numerous errors and omissions. My CCXIII (1928), pp. 291-344. Unfortunately I plan to publish my of 25 MSS. translation is based on a superior text established by comparison forthcoming diplomatic edition of the Arabic text separately. 21 elements in the Amrtakunda translation Typically, the only scholar to notice these Gnostic and Illuminationist was Henry Corbin, in 'Pour une morphologie de la spiritualite shi'ite', Eranos-Jahrbuch i960, XXIX (Zurich, 1961), esp. pp. 102-107, repeated with some variations in his En Islam iranien, Aspects spirituels et philosophiques, vol. II, Sohrawardi et les Platoniciens de Perse (Paris, 1971), pp. 328?334. etude critique (2 vols., Damascus, Osman Yahia, Histoire et classification de I'ceuvre dTbnArabi, 1964), vol. I, pp. 287-288, no. 230. ~3 des Yoga-sutra des Patanjali', Oriens IX (1956), pp. 165-200; Hellmut Ritter, ed., 'Al-Biruni's Ubersetzung to Patanjali s Texts in al-Biruni's India with Special Reference Bruce B. Lawrence, 'The Use of Hindu Religious The Asiatique
20
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
205
were
likewise
chosen
for
political text
or of The
philosophical Pool
interest
and
had was
little known
to
of whom noticed
the breathing
chants
of
yogis,
meditative
practices.25
Chishti master,
yoga of the Naths
was
The
familiar with
to a disciple.26
the
Pool
Shaykh Muhammad
translated The Pool
Ghawth Gwaliyari
from the oldest Arabic
(see Chart on
is an expert
Arabic
of
yoga,
to offer
yoga practice.
construed is a concrete religious prepared Muhammad, The mantras, with other of this
in relation example A
Islamic
and what
relation a to
of how quick
glance
at the
text opens
readership; with
and phrases
from
religious Sanskrit
translator
to describe
practices
Indie are
that
generalities
significance of
provide strands
exchange. eclectically be
the
cannot case
identified limited
text
providing
in any
a very
in The Scholar and the Saint: Studies inCommemoration ofAbu'I Rayhan al-Biruni andfatal al-Din al-Rumi, Yoga-Sutras', ed. Peter J. Chelkowski (New York, 1975), pp. 29-48, esp. p. 33. Both al-Biruni s translation of Patafijali and his description of India exist in unique manuscripts, indicating a limited circulation. See the analysis and description of Arabic and Persian translations from Indian languages in The Pool ofNectar. 25 (d. 1356), Khayr al-Majalis, comp. Hamid Qalandar, ed. K. A. E.g., Nasir al-Din Mahmud "Chiragh-i Dihli" Nizami S. Lopez, Jr., (Aligarh, 1956), p. 60; my translation is found in Religions of India in Practice, ed. Donald 1 (Princeton, inReligions, Princeton Readings 1995), p. 517. 6 For bibliographic 'Sufis and Natha Yogis inMediaeval Northern references see S. A. A. Rizvi, India (XII to XVI Centuries)', al-Din's Eata'if-i Quddusi (Delhi, 1894), p. 41; id., A History of Sufism in p. 132, quoting Rukn of yoga is India, vol. I; Early Sufism and its (Delhi, 1978), p. 335. Gangohi's knowledge History in India to 1600 A.D. in ''Abd Al-Quddus (1456-1537 A.D): The Personality and Attitudes of fully discussed by Simon Digby Gangohi aMedieval Indian Sufi', Medieval India, A Miscellany III (1975), pp. 1-66. 27 See my 'Sufism and Yoga according toMuhammad Ghawth', Sufi XXIX (Spring, 1996), pp. 9?13.
NT)
4. Treatises of the Brethren of Purity, Arabic Pythagorean encyclopedia N. \ Syllables"), (Basra, 10th cent.) \ l I. Risala fi haqiqat al-^ishq \ ("Treatise on the Reality of Love"),\ I Persian Neoplatonic allegory (executed in Aleppo, 1191)1 \\
("The Kamarupa
Seed
6. Amrtakunda ("The Pool of Nectar"), y Sanskrit or Hindi hatha yoga treatise! / 8. Per5: Persian Kamrubijaksa philosophical >v translation of/ * (no. 5), cited in / of Amuli (1357). / encyclopedia
by Shihabal-DinSuhrawardi
9. Hawd ma'al-hayat ("The Pool of the Water of Life"), first recension of translation of the Amrtakunda \ (no. 6) and \ (no. 5) into Persian and then Arabic, by Kamrubijaksa \ " Qadi Rukn al-Din Samarqandi aided by Bhrgu the yogi (Bengal, ca.1212); a fictional version of no. 8*
.,10. Second Arabic recension, by anonymous later translator aided by Ambhuanath the yogi; not extant. A revision of the Persian Kamrubijaksa (no. 6) with additions from several Near (no. 8) plus the Amrtakunda *T Eastern texts (nos. 2, 4, 7)* 12. Fourth Arabic recension (family b) 13. Per: Persian translation of no. 10 by Muhammad ibn vAbd al-Razzaq, preserved 3 recensions (India, undated)
in
14. Per1: Bahr al-hayat ("The Ocean of Life"), Persian trans, of v no. 10 by Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari (India, d. 1563) 15. Tur1: Turkish translation of no. 11 by unknown author (printed 1912) 16. Tur2: Turkish translation of no. 12 by ^Abd Allah Salahi Efendi (d. 1768) 17. Urd: Dakhani Urdu translation of no. 14, ("The Sea of Life") by Hayat samandar Hajji vAbd al-Karim, in 1835. *Not extant
the
of The
Pool of
are unanimous despite anonymous the circumstances who convert The the fact Arabic
scripture
concealed the
highly a
in which are
by yogis with
their
teachings
translation and
a narrative
Gnosticism significance of
complex
mentioning inserted
Indian derive
clearly the
sources.
redactions contain
subsequent which
translations
Persian,
Turkish,
further
interpretive
differences,
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
207
of
Sufism.
All
these for
yogic
teachings
ofNectar the
to describe In late
Hinduism
beyond
boundaries
interpretations
respect,
a recent
single
in the
of Barahima
evokes of
the Barahima its Judaeo-Christian overuse only what seems sophisticated an unselfconscious prognostications, the
a sect heritage, of
terms
over-familiarisation On a less
to have level,
version Kamarupa
of The Seed
Persian
Syllables
demonstrates Among
in an
Islamicate only
the breath
learns
should
"the qadi [Islamic judge] or the amir [Arabic term for ruler]" for judgement
when magicians, (47b), or the breath and else from practices in an empty such the right nostril be is favourable. either (49b), or who and Casual references or mention a Hindu one action that may temple in a Muslim occasionally a certain summoned
or litigation
Muslim graveyard to recite
performed
is told after
a Qur'anic prayer. We
to perform successfully
evening goddess
of aMuslim
a yogini
and participated
frame, Praise the through and secrecy
adoration
brought courtyard
so many of
thousands
existence, of spiritual
court with
of plants
chose created
humanity, of
it in the 95:4), on of
of forms,
humanity
stations"
(Qur.
(Qur.
countless
and holy
the children at
the blessings a
of God of
be upon of
Likewise allusions
saying
and
furnish
religious
practices
fundamentally
ambiguous,
"If one
to whom
this door
is opened
its Indie
its esoteric
allure.
text
28 Norman quoting
Calder,
'The Barahima:
Literary Construct
and Historical
Reality',
BSOAS
p. 46.
208 Carl
W.
Ernst
Arabic
the
subjugation
of demons,
summoning
India
yoginis.
repeatedly of
(afsun),
We
also
recognizably
magical nefariously
(51a), a comb
right
paw
of
dog
iron,
in rituals
performed
at a cremation
(48b~49a).
Chart
Planets, Cakras, Mantras, Dhikrs,
3
and Yoginis in The Pool of Nectar
VII_ Name Planet Sanicar* /Zuhal MangaVMirrikh Brhaspat?/Mushtari Sun Bhanu*/Shams Swfer/Zahra Budh* /cUtarid CdttJra/Qamar
Dhikr ya rabb
Name Yogini Zuhal Kali Mirrikh Mushtari Shams Tira Kalkala Badamta
eyebrows brain
ya muhyi
spelling of Indie names and terms in Arabic script offered formidable difficulties result frequently they are corrupted or omitted from manuscripts. Indie terms are italicwhile
Common Hindi planet names marked with an asterisk (*) have been restored from the Persian translation, and mantras marked with a plus sign (+) are reconstructed according to Sanskrit parallels. the planets in ch. VII are given both Indian and Arab names (the former sometimes garbled), in ch. IX Although two planets (Venus and the moon) are given Indian names while the other five planets have just Arabic names; presumably this is due to the inconsistency of copyists. The names of the yogini goddesses in Chapter IX are mostly bold. unrecognizable, except for Kali and Saraswati.
Chart
Indian Names
(terms in brackets
Sanskrit_I
Arabic_ brahman_alim yogi_murtad "scholar"_ of person (Int.2): "ascetic, discipline"_ & Musa and (Int.3): Abraham Moses_ (II.5): God_ (IV, title): "exercise, discipline" (V.4): deathless prophet_ (V.4): Jonah_ (Int.2):
Matsyendra
Chaurangi (yogi)_Ilyas
[yantra]_shakl, [mantra]_al-ism homa: oblation, counted sacrifice_du'a prayer_azima
(V.4):Elijah_
(V.4): "recollection, pi. ashkal al-azam (VII.1-15): (VII.2): chant"_ "diagram"_ "the Greatest Name" of God_
japa:
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
209
5 of The Pool
(text references
marked
b are
Qur'anic The
of my Int. spirit "is from the command Lord" (17:85) "a single soul" (4:1, etc.) 1.3 "lotus tree of the boundary" (53 114) III. "farthest mosque" (17 :i) III.i "companions "companions of the right hand" (56 127, etc.) of the left hand" (56 141)
III. 3 III. 3
(28 130) III.4 valley" "right-hand God "does what he wants" IV. (Qur. 3 140) he wishes" "orders what God (Qur. 5 :i) of Sayings "He who "Hearts Merciful Islamic law the Prophet Muhammad knows himself knows his are between one" and two fingers (hadith) lord"
8(6) IV.8(fc)
of the
theology obligatory (mafruda) IV. 3 Greatest Name of God names of God VII. 1 10 prayer (du'a) IX. 10 IX. invocation (cazima)
IV.4(6),
VII.2
Pious
phrases and the Prophet praise of God God's mercy upon him Int.4 of the servants of God The weakest the creator the creator God, who (may his majesty (there is no god
Int. most
11
12
blessings blessings by
is great and mighty II.5, of God on saints and prophets of God on Sufis III.4(b) of God VI. 1
God knows best the command refuge with God from the accursed or power from God VII.6 knowledge taking Islamic throne canopy cosmological 1.2 1.2 jinn terms Satan
IV.7, VII.6-8,
IX. 1, IX.9, X.4 I.3, IV.8, VI.3, VI.5, VII.11, spirit hidden world Int.3, II.5, IV.5, V.4, VII.3, VII.6, VII.14 water of life Int. 14, II.7, V.4, VI. 5
are to chapter and section of the text. References *References last recension of the Arabic text.
followed
from the
210Carl W Ernst
Chart 5 continued terms (diddan) (ban) 1.2, (hot, 11.2, 1.3 cold, wet, VI. 1 IV1, Int. VIII. 1 X.4 dry) VI. VI.2-3, X.2 1, VI.3 and conceptsf III-4, V.2, X.2
qualities four humours elements soul moderation rational omne Sufi universal
(al-amr al-awsat)
(al-nafs al-natiqa) intellect (laql al-kult) 1.2, 1.3 triste VI.4 animalis post coitum
terms Int. 5
of reality (ma'rifat al-haqiqa) (murid) Int.6, III.4 disciple annihilated (mumahhaq) Int. 8 gnosis state (hal) II.5, IV8(b) spiritual constellations of the heart III. unveiling discipline striving station (mukashafa) (riyada) 111.4 111.4 1
(mujahada) III.4 IV.8 (maqam) III.4, little speech, little little food, or experience or chant practice (dhawq) (dhikr) (ishtighal)
fit
fragmentary the central section of Suhrawardi's Persian allegory, On the Arabic Epistles of the Brethren of Purity (1.2, VI.2).
version
that excerpts from two philosophical of the Gnostic Hymn of the Soul
texts are contained in the Arabic Pool ofNectar, a and an Arabic translation of (Int.7-8, 13-14, X.n), theReality of Love (Int.9-12). There are also quotations from
Islamic The Pool of Nectar to contains Islamic earlier of numerous religious extant
in formulas
the and
text references 5). There to which is quoted, that are the and locate the text in
reference from
standard
quotations adds
recension
the Prophet of
practice, text
particularly
phrases to
and
standard places
are
dozen deliberate
terms the
Islamisation, the
in which of
translator Indian
to use
foreignness When
the
chapters
III,
and X)
no
whatever.
Islamicate of
philosophical version of
result
the Arabic
additions one.
to the The
The text
earlier
version is clearly
of
the Arabic by
represents
in this process,
which
accelerated
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
211
truncates,
or omitted
recensions, Indo-Persian
clearly familiar
Persian
translations,
with
the Hindi
3). The
with
later recension
Abraham and Moses
the
alakh
identification
of Brahma
(IV.4), the three yogis identified with esoteric of urethral suction (VI.5), and most of the description
of inserted family at the b also beginning as an level. appendix The add further of the extraneous preface, and X.
manuscripts verse,
textual
to Sufi
added visual
Islamisation fourteen
proceeded
diagrams
of which
cakras.
process cabalistic
increasingly occultism. of
insertion
Islamic
into
the
oiThe were
Pool given
ofNectar Islamic
was
another 4). of
in which term
is translated identical
Brahma equated of
as Abraham last
are
identification
in the
attaining have
you
station,
this condition
closely while it
three
in the
it; 3) and the tree, how is Shaykh who reached Sanskrit japa Gorakh, is Jonah, the water forms or who
it to reach fish
its heights.
embryo
is Shaykh Minanath [Matsyendranath], is Ilyas, and they are the ones who have technical terms is translated and Brahman, above, text. several The very the key the of are given as du'a term term these attempt in their or yogi for
Chaurangi,
Several or
translations: becomes or
"sacrifice"
"prayer", (in
its north
Indian
"person
the priestly
caste, have an
is translated evaporated
Indian
name or
an of
abandoned
in these
instances.
recensions,
text, we
treatise a section
(al-jujiyya)
29 The identification of Allah with alakh is also found in an eighteenth-century Dakani Urdu text by a Sufi writer see his Man samj'havan, ed. Sayyida JaTar, Silsila-i Matbucat-i named Shah Turab Chishti; Abu al-Kalam Azad, Oriental Research Institute, 5 (Hyderabad, 1964), p. 1: alak nam allah naranjan hari he.
of Muhammad
the passage on him
branch of the Shattariyya Sufi order; for this he clearly draws both on Ghawth and on the Arabic text of The Pool ofNectar.30 When
in question, to cross his have his his he eyes states, over If he influence will it is no be his "If one nose, the him, answered, possible standard wishes and level disease and to to witness the hidden world, Allah, then hidden men in a it in his heart the word
imagine
tongue. no
reaches on
unveiled, At
prayer
famous
deeds of
of piety". a practice
longer from
Indian
"influence"
portrait
is indistinguishable
technique.
Philosophical
It is evident that the Arabic with in the version version the treatise. (Int.9-12) of
formations
The Pool of Nectar school, persuasive extract from was of composed the in this by an
Iranian
philosopher
familiar
because evidence
vocabulary Arabic
Suhrawardi's
Persian
On
frame "the briefly,
the Reality
story.31 cognising "the We
of hove, which
also find and distinguishing rational meant the main of though preface external which same as
is integrated with
term soul from for rational soul"
the fragmentary
the managing prominent role distinct of
"Hymn
states" of the
of the Pearl"
psychology,
a distinctive
Avicennan-Illuminationist
managing is clearly of
location
significance
assimilating Avicennan Specifically, five internal motor texts interpreting of the body in
the
categories actually
psychology, the senses, sensory Arabic. yogic and logies tradition. In addition Arabic version text
assimilation
seven familiar
animal
Aristotelian for
narrative discovering
a means is no be
through with
mind. that
But might
there
indication in other
familiarity materials
found
Sanskrit
to
these
explicit calls
references on a more
to
the
school
of
philosophy, vocabulary,
the
as a whole
diffuse
philosophical
(hot,
(diddan)
(III.4,
intellect (laql al-kull) (1.2, 1.3), and the creator (al-bari) (1.2, 1.3).
al-Hasani
narratives
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
213
in explicit as The
scientific to
curriculum
have from of
in The
cosmos The
in Greek to this
gave
doctrine the
encyclopedia, chapter
strong Pool
From
prominent
of Nectar
list of microcosmic-macrocosmic
correspondences:
1. 2.
nostrils, senses
eyes,
ears,
and mouth
seven
planets stars
3. head 4. body
6. 7. nerves veins
16. weeping
17. laughing
18. heart 19. brain
lightning
throne canopy 20. soul universal intellect
21.
intellect
creator
items:
animals
This
list may
be
compared
with
a similar
series
of microcosmic-macrocosmic
equivalences
in bold,
32
On
History
see George Boas, in the West, the history of this motif (5 vols., New York, 1973-74), of Ideas, ed. Philip P.Wiener
Dictionary
of the
214Carl W Ernst
with reference to the numbers in the list just
given):
body
(jasad)
bones
earth
mountains brain mines
(variant of no. 4)
(variant (variant of no. no. 24) 5)
belly ocean
intestines veins rivers streams
(partial; no. 6)
(partial; (partial; no. no. 7) 7)
front back
east west
right
left
south
north
breathing
speech cries
herbs
thunder thunderbolts
laughing
weeping misery and sorrow
lightning
rain dark (variant of night
spring
youth summer fall old winter age
maturity
(partial;
(partial;
list of human of
continues
with
an additional of particular
twelve
equivalences to
between The is
movements,
astrology. of Nectar
Pool sun
and moon As on
opposed six of
the
right
above,
of Purity, list of
terms
the Brethren
of Purity.
standard
Islamicate
cosmology.
Manuscripts
recension
of Purity,
of Muhammad four
indicating a
Ghawth equivalences manuscripts
in the domestication
another of
list of
the Brethren
the Arabic
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
215
his
by
the
Islamicate
an the
in Indian
frequently to be wholly
appears
sources. between
texts
expect worlds,
specific specific
the body
concluding
translator
of The
Pool
to make where
teachings of
is not
the Brethren
description
the womb, in the writings
in The Pool ofNectar (V. .2) regarding the prediction of the sex of the embryo in
according of to which the Brethren direction of Purity.35 Chart Sample Variations in Arabic Transcription 6 of Mantras in The Pool ofNectar it is facing, appears to draw directly on a passage
The
in Arabic in chapter transliterated of mantras, IX, "On the Knowledge script, occur following are assimilated to the the Subjugation of Spirits," where who they invoke seven chief yogini goddesses seven occur in all MSS. Some Indie terms can be distinguished, variations planets. Notable including to divinities, standard seed syllables bodhi svaha, and references (aum, hum), the concluding phrase and spirits (devata, devi, rakshasc, bhut pret)*. demons 1. Saturn
malka svaha
tuni
sandar
sandar
varbha
rabi wakna
mas
dajaraha
rabi
aum
kalfar
yadin
awwam
kalka dalalasakak
wamui adiri
nam sidi
nam
but
Paris marg.: 2. Mars Husain: nari Paris: devi nam hum nam trira
sil wadihawas
devi but
tazkar
mari
bhuskafa
sakfihar
fi deva
devata
nari
humum
trira
devi
tarkar
svaha tarkaz svaha marani bhusankah safkaharni devad devatha ami hum trira
deva but
rhin
kal
kala
dev
cincl munh
nam
ham
but
svaha
bwani
kahir
kahran
hum
rhin
kalka
devi
nam
nam
but
svaha
bawayn brin
aum hum
tashrin badmah
hum
badamiya lujani
devi hans
nam kuni
nam tasrin
but brin
svaha
evi mark
Yogis (Poona,
1954), p. 39.
216Carl W Ernst
Chart 5. Venus Husain: Paris: 6 continued
aum
aum a iyi
sarasati sarasati
devi devi
aum aum
nam
nam nam
but thumm
aum
nam
6. Mercury Husain: hum Paris: devi aum tara aum aum tari hu yum nam devi adam yum nam tara tarn devi but tala nam mara svaha devi but ithna svaha das des marani rakhes bhut pret aum baram nara rabi des des tara fi makash bhut pret tarani adam
tanari
des
des
bhut nam
pret svaha
tawani
adam
yum
adu
adi
Yusuf and MS
Husain,
"Haud al-hayat, la version arabe de TAmratkund," Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ar. 1699. Chart 7 Translation
fournal
Asiatique
213
(1928),
Yogic sun and moon five breaths prognostication sex practices breaths 11.2
Elements
in the Arabic
of The Pool
ofNectar II. 1
1.1-2,
by breath 1-3-4 from divinatory and magical retention of semen II. 5, VI. 5 nectar II.5 khecari mudri, drinking of disease II.6-8 prevention asana postures eighty-four kundalini IV2-9 siddhas I V.2
texts
II.4
(?) V1 three breaths V.2 breath, breath control suction V.3-4 VI.3-4, VI.5 VII. VI1.2-9 yoga kriya tantra) VIII.2-5 IX.1-10 IX. IX. japa IX. 2 10 10 1-9 VII. 13
measuring
elements of Nectar
the a
practices.
or restricted
to yoga, of fasting
but
in other (V.3),
11). But
are
clearly control,
hatha
yoga sun
of breath right
reference concepts
to the
nostrils
of breath however.
underlying
are not
related
to standard
cosmologies,
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
217
texts
such
as the Yoga
employ ofNectar a
the
time
unit breaths
of
to in
of breaths.36 a spatial
In contrast,
measures one.
passages
using breaths
temporal
The
first
gives
associated
it describes and
fingers,
extent and
approaches downward on
associated
recognise
Indian details
texts, the to
translator. the
and
in order twelve
it [breath]
rising
amount fingers.
fingers
in inhalation of eight
it descends fingers. So
of it that with
by
of one's
gradual gentleness
approach.
That
where
twelve
and
(V.3). of breath
this passage of cold wind enters, sex, are of case, the the for to
fingers on foot,
fingers twelve
cold two go
walking When to
fingers or having
two warm
running, spatial
four
the
account
breath
oldest
Persian encyclopedia
translation, of Amuli.
preserved is apparently
of breath as a
in order spatial
are occasional
references but
in the Yoga Upanisads, here.38 techniques as yogic but relying difficult the among of these mentioned asanas
correspond
life preservation
mentioned
Physiological postures number Muhammad postures). yoga Uttana health position; 36 texts, recognisable of 84
in (IV.4-8).
the The
text
include text
the
purification
of the
body traditional
by
Arabic
postures,
describes on an
(although of
of
the Arabic, of
to match
descriptions
recognize text
Kukkutasana, and
postures. the
It is notable with
the yogic or
reinforces
association
Kanphata
in The Yoga Upanisads, trans. T. R. Srinivasa Ayyangar, ed. G. Srinivasa Murti Darsanopanisad VI:3-6, (Adyar, 1952), p. 137; Yogatattvopanisad 40?43, in ibid., p. 308. Kenneth G. Zysk, 'The Science of Respiration and the Doctrine in Ancient of the Bodily Winds India', fournal (1993), PP- 198-213. of theAmerican Oriental Society CXIII In the Trisikhibrahmanopanisad, 53-55 (ibii., p. 100), the vital breath is described as being twelve "digit-lengths" a unit the size of the fingertip. The is ninety-six evidently meaning longer than the body, which "digit-lengths1', is to shorten the air to the length of the body in order to know Brahman. in this case, however, recommendation
appears drinking
"nectar"
saliva
standard eyes of
retention with of
swallowing yogic
credited is a variation
sores
the
return semen
discussion
embryology
equivalent
proverb, feature
ofNectar, as a
generic
powers.
the pejorative
"illusion" as
"prejudice", "estimative
technical sunesis, of
aestimatio, in the
wahm
sense Indie
"magical possibly of
unstated as "the
term,
in The
knowledge
breaths"
in the
introduction magical
the other standard interpretations of of seven the
imagination
of this term.
(riyadat),which
suggestions about the visualization from a the seat
is
Arabic-Persian
translation
standard terms of
yogic
cakras, and
to but are
head. linked
a colour
of being with
letters the
While beyond
some retrieval,
bija-mantras due
Indologists, chants
doubtless
in Arabic placement, of
the
upward spheres, a
ascension
the planetary
Iranian, mantras of
traditions. associated with of and the seven cakras Thus are all boldly Sanskrit One" that one "they better, term; he "O
the names
of God.
the
as "O these
aum
is translated translator
the Arabic
[of God]
in his hum O
translation,
rabb ya hafiz,
techniques for
equivalents of
so ham, which
the
phases
exhalation
inhalation;
Cf. Eliade, Yoga, pp. 247?248, for accounts of the khecari mudra which describe responsible for the retention of semen. 40 Bahr al-hayat, India Office Library MS, pp. 91, 94; Ganj Bakhsh MS, pp. 82, 84.
the swallowing
of nectar
as
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
219
first of
is "an lords
expression
for
the
spiritual
lord
while of
the
second kind.
stands
for
"the
There
examples rather, by
this
Semantically, between
are,
equivalents this
as used
evident in a
great Sufi
equivalents of God.
form
in the
Chapter
with elaborate
in Chapter VII
beings" (Ar.
ruhaniyyat)who
seven are usually assimilated organization likening involving Chapter with the
are evidently
called Mother seven planets,
in yogic
to the
translator
subject,
goddesses
to well-known of
practices title of
planetary IX
phnise name
(taskhir The
in the
incense with
Instructions in crder
practitioner
a brother Lengthy
goddesses,
to obtain beings
numerous be repeated
they
can of
bestow. (see
Sanskrit
mantras
addressed
to these
thousands
times
Chart 6).
The India worship from of the female deities twelfth known :enturies, as but yoginis seems to have in various been at its height until in the ninth to the it continued at least
places
the eighteenth
found at remote
has described
were
temples
of the
deities
honoured.43
yoginis
the key So
in The Pool ofNectar is brief, The Kamarupa Seed Syllables describes them at length as
to knowledge of all things. At the beginning of the section on breath, we are told,
of God one who sixty-four women, "By the command (who is great and majestic), us this science, we shall not of this science. By the God by whose command the day gavespeak for whatever is 18,000 worlds exist, this is an oath, that this is the science of magical imagination, in the earth and heaven is in the grasp of the children of Adam. We tell everything, for everything that goes (16a). on in all the world is all known and made clear by the science of magical imagination"
say those
Furthermore, By
they
say, of God most higf, and the masterful goes on they have We us, between a science of
teaching
taught teach
can know
whatever he
and what
asks. Also
know
science
lengthens
life and
(17a). confer all perse makes ns and cures These the removes
The and
the
yoginis
poison things
sick,
desire, are
to control
"spiritual
beings"
41 Bahr al-hayat, ch. 4, India Office Library MS, pp. 45-46; Ganj Bakhsh MS, p. 55; ch. 7, Ganj Bakhsh MS, P- 93 42 W. W. Karambelkar, 'Matsyendranatha and his Yogini Cult', Indian Historical Quarterly XXXI (1955), P- 367 4 Vidya Dehejia, Yogini Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition (New Delhi, 1986).
injury
by
cut, yoginis
they has
travel and
anywhere they go to
in an instant delightful
Each to
enjoy by the
themselves devs; to be
at feasts, never of
all appear
years
in fact as we
among workers,
the Hindus, so
who
"Just
have of
in them"
given,
ambiguities:
Tara,
Kamak,
(44b, 46b), Chitraki (56a), Ganga Mati (45a), SriManohar (45a), Katiri (30a), Parvati (49b), Suramati (44b), Susandari (44b), Talu (30a). Of course, as Vidya Dehejia has pointed out,
no with two lists of names (39a), you of yoginis but are at other the yogi" are the times (48a). same. they Sometimes regard of them adepts may have sexual relations "She the yoginis and as sister with and mother them (46b). include
is the yogini
Benefits
association
money
sources
its interpretation. categories the yogini with introducer once tradition (51a) that are
is clearly today,
a narrow we could
In terms
reflects is also
practices some
with
tantrism.44
There
connection the
indeed
is usually of Gorakhnath
considered
yogini text.45 up
the Kaulas,
in an
incidental
assumes
rather
than
cakras that
in most on
exercises (17b,
raising
28a).
standard to contain
powers avatar" or of
mantras
appear
temple The
siddhas
magicians
churning of
the ocean
length
While the
nothing
animal
with
today
Seed
Syllables,
of breath meditation
divination
summoning practices.
to obtain
various
yoga
linked
of Nectar this
highly result
In one of one
sense, or two
is not
adventitious Indian
mixture such
unusual cakras
attested diagram
as a combined
visualisation
composite
44 Ibid., pp. 30, 36. 45 Ibid., pp. 74-75 46 See Eliade, Yoga, p. 88, n.
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
221
the (siddhis),
benefits such
of as
the taking
practices on
in The or
Pool
are
another there
body,
time,
non-yogic
visual predate
common There
tantric sexual
sorcery use
practices texts
that (II.4).
early
Indian
in V.3). of five
Arabic postures,
version while do
an otherwise
twenty-one, It is difficult to
of which the
not in lie
bija-mantras may
though
here,
as with
mantras
of Chapter
the problem
in Arabic
of their and set of
selective,
heavily
in context
in interpretation
established
conventions.
Translation What of The of the is the text function domesticates stories the of a translation it in an invoke such
as Hermeneutics as The context interpretive of the Pool of Nectar? the The conversion linked psychic text. account of the to
Islamic
through
two the
frame and of
particular
soul
Sometimes
adequate terms of
of can
Indian only
that many
the
Indian outside
resources in the
text.
tendency common Sanskrit to Arabic intermediate "translations". Sanskrit conflicting In imposed social in the and text
of manuscript most are chanting, terms remains script. which seems of being the
dispenses when
with
are also
particularly of translation,
in the
Iridic
is a certain transmitted of
residue in Arabic
mantras
exhibits
tendencies his
fully
to have
audience's
technical Indian
Arabic
(Chart
that major
Several manuscripts of the Persian transiation contain miniature asanas. One of illustrations of the twenty-one is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, these MSS a third another is in the Salar Jung Library in Hyderabad, is in the private collection of Simon Digby, and the fourth has recently been acquired by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
222Carl W Ernst
translations be repeated, to God that and some the of are terms Given entertained can only the without be hesitation. with It must difficulty extra-Indian
relating however,
recovered exclusively
through
recourse
to modern
Indological
almost
distribution
that any
of manuscripts
of the Arabic terms. the translator important Sanskrit cases,
readers
evidently terms.
felt
that
itwas
pointless
to retain the
the term
Indian
originals the in
certainly powerful
underlying or "names"
Arabic chapter translated once Arabic (murtad) baggage rather might front. used
term VII,
"recollection", consist of
"words" the
is probably
Indie by
original
implication by the
"exercise", of
as found
word
is probably than seem Still, the humans. equivocally it is worth same Arabic has for the
as
ruhaniyya
"spiritual an
earlier
Arabic
authors theos or to
ruhaniyya a model
respect The
age
that
complete
of divinities The
feature of there
societies. Greek
known Amun
familiar one
ones:
was
pantheon of
an issue. As
need
if there
religion
claiming If one of
that excludes of
religion into
and
the other
is right,
translating
the other.
are
about figures
gods.50
It is only
on
religious
between
gods,
Christian
"pagan"
deities
by G. W
Assmann many
maintains
a vehicle
through From
non-Greek
distinctiveness. Hellenistic
Jewish so trifling
or Christian
between
religions
were
as to be meaningless.
48 cAbd al-Rahman Badawi, Aflutin "inda al-Arab [Plotinus Among the Arabs] (2nd ed., Kuwait, 1977), index, p. 248. 49 as a Factor of Cultural in The Translatability of (Un)Translatability', Jan Assmann, 'Translating Gods: Religion Iser (Stanford, 1996), pp. 25-36. Assmann Cultures: Figurations of the Space Between, ed. Sanford Budick and Wolfgang includes in his model an account of "syncretistic translation" that is far from clear. unfortunately 50 Assmann, p. 31.
The
Islamization
of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
223
by of
an unified of cultures
system
of
equivalences,
created
cosmopolitan
consciousness
case
have
parallels
in the
Islamicate age, of
the Hellenistic periods structures, language. language religious religion embodied of the
culture were
the high
the middle imperial dominant the Arabic for the both Islamic origin
creation
minorities identities
expressed peoples
through
through of Persian of
Shu'ubiyya
movement, In
use
historical
purposes. existed
authority
continually
aspects
justification
"Islamicate".
the most
thoroughgoing
philosophy
the universal concept and by of
(including
for mass today
Islam) were
consumption. itwith
special modifications
The standard minimalist legalism, be horrified authoritarianism, doubtless any
of
violent the
iconoclasm. of The
would of hand
contents
out the
consideration Neoplatonism
of of in and
Sanskrit
mantras
Christian
difference.51 religious
text makes
absolute knowledge
authority, Muslims,
sure
that
of
foreign law.
(the yogis)
converted
authorities
Islamic
In a way Buswell in China, India. often their has but "Such were authority
the
fortunes Chinese
of The
Pool
of Nectar apocrypha. of
the were
important often
texts original
E.
called
important
authentic with as a of a
from but
intentionally as well
literary being
to enhance
strengthen
as canonical".52
They
be cloth. for
intelligible by explaining
extent is not even of exact; if it may creating new there was have translator technique some been
familiar
translations restricted
esoteric
teaching the 51
to oral
transmission.
clearly consisted
to establish enough
canonical
authority
of his work,
part
adding
The Persian scholar Mulla Zayn al-Din of Lar, from whom Pietro della Valle obtained amanuscript of The to a sect "which attributed intelligences to the sun, moon and stars, Kamarupa Seed Syllables in 1622, belonged and venerated them as angels of a superior order who would intercede with God and seek his protection" (J. D. 'Pietro della Valle: The Limits of Perception', BSOAS XLIX Gurney, [1986], p. 113). 52 E. Buswell, Jr., 'Introduction: Prolegomenon to the Study of Buddhist Apocryphal Robert in Scriptures', Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu, of UNC-Greensboro for drawing this 1993). Thanks to Charles Orzech reference to my attention.
opened respected
following
in the philosophers
India
its religious
scholars
(hukama),
Amrtakunda,
attention another to
task was
sometimes distance
to draw
adopted between
technique
Buddhism of Buddhas
the translator are Abraham case, the A
and Chinese
of The
thought by declaring that Lao Tzu and Confucius were theophanies and Bodhisattvas.53 This is precisely the hermeneutic of equivalence adopted by
Pool ofNectar, or when the use when he he has the yogi major announce yogis with (Chinese that Brahma Islamic or prophets. Islamicate) and Vishnu In each to render and Moses, permits teachings. strategy can be seen in the remarks of the earlier Persian translator of identifies
of a dominant
discourse
translation
they memorize
It contains
is the science
and discipline
this. On
affirm
things
it is customary. Regarding
they have
is a science
that they
call s[v]aroda
and
sages observe
goes ill, they do of perfection. this subject to the height The of this, and they are not privy to this secret, nor do they of [reading] thought here India, we (Arabic are damir) (fols. 2a-2b). with same frequently character. a
tasks, but
Pool
of Nectar, in The
confronted in the
to be
though
breath
known
Persian and
translator esoteric
the book's
scriptural
its hidden
he writes, is known India, and among the Hindus is counted the theory respect no book is nobler scholar of this than this. man.
book
throughout
Whoever They
this book
and knows
as a great
and practice
like we
(15b). of the information "greatest and he from Brahmin and success informants, summoning in employing
speaks
employing relations
(40b) own
sexual
(43b),
to his
53
Ibid., p. 10.
The
Islamization
ofYoga
in the Amrtakunda
Translations
225
on
several
the
cites been
another a
he
calls
"the
of Kamak He are of
may
translator Indian
language and of
taking
pains, and
scholars, scholarly
(16a)".
Despite
authority, on other
makes the
confesses Hindi of
that
passage India,
scholars
jogis, are
strange
or a selection
available
scripture. scriptural to India from authority in search sages a can be found in the plants sixth-century that can plant inclination was restore really and an
comparable physician
and
Burzoy,
of wonderful that
to life. He
eventually He
Indian with
strongly of
aversion
dogma,
a selection
literature
(Pancatantra,
Hitopadesa)
Ibn al-Muqaffac
literature text
this
its transmission
to the kingdom
of Persia
inspiration
Most High,
"Regarding
by which
his desire
he inspirec Chosroes
for knowledge and
Anushirvan
to
again:
of
devotion
it, he
books
the philosophers
It was benefit charged in other the account times same he the and root of
of India, among rheir kings and scholars, rare and highly prized by them.
all their culture search and and for the head of all and their knowledge, of the guide This sages of to every highly India to the the hereafter the work salvation".57 and literature book
the key
religious passages,
language, became
the frequent
reference literary
a well-known Book
pattern
of Burzoy into
of Kings other
translated geographic
languages.
language of Nectar, to
by India
when
announced
is a respected
its religious
54 In one place (26a) the translator says, "Know that thirty-two verses in the Indian language have been transmitted from the sayings of Kamak. Now Kamak chose a certain kind from those, and added something else to it, and this on the thirty-two verses, poem is called Kamak baray tajanka (?)." Elsewhere he adds, "This is all a commentary someone has written are in the Indian language, in which many practices are mentioned, which and in which are agreed upon sciences which all the practitioners of imagination strange and wonderful (wahm) and magicians and pleased with" (29a). Once (15b) he say>, "Now they put this book into 85 verses, and versified it in the Indian language." 55 Francois de Blois, Burzoy's Voyage to India and theOrigin 56 Ibid., p. 90, col. a, lines 39-41 57 Ibid., p. 91, col. b, lines 61-63. of the Book ofKalilah wa Dimnah, (London, 1990).
(ulama) of
over peculiar
see
versions
in later
them have
experience remains a
to readers
luxury
accessible notable
retrospective in the
Islamising it clearly
tendency
transmission
later versions. of Sufism have never seems on been to have hatha Indian of chunks of this of one supported troubled yoga, practices text texts of has by the
Early
Orientalist
certain
achieved the
primarily
terms, been
names, ascribed
text more
accessible;
it has
Sufi theorists,
element assimilated alleged Ottoman genre notion conclusion of remained
irreducibly foreign
even these occult copied of have could be talismans out the
to the to be
in Hebrew, version
or Chaldean. text
Thus
interesting garbled
goddesses.
would
to foreign Influence
scholars, is in the
the motivation
to re-Indianise
text.
the beholder.