Religion in India: A Historical Introduction

1,000 love ballads, which have now been collected. His favorite subject was the relationship between Kr.s.n.a and Ra ̄dha ̄ and ...

Kabı ̄r (1440–1512) was apparently born of a low-caste Muslim weaver who, nonetheless, had contact with both Muslim and Hindu sa ...

Vedas, Puranas – why read them? It’s like loading an ass with sandalwood! Unless you catch on and learn how Ram’s name goes, how ...

Surdas says, it’s only now the mind can see – now that so countless many days are lost and gone – For who has ever recognized th ...

and to convey the need for internal victory over the passions. His poetry celebrated the Tamil language and landscape in ways th ...

Accommodation and appropriation Perhaps the most visible result of the Islamic presence in India was the way in which mutual bor ...

instruments appeared – the sita ̄r, the tambu ̄ra ̄ and the tabla ̄, for example. Music was patronized in the courts and by the ...

These accommodations were particularly striking in the case of Su ̄fı ̄s who borrowed freely from their Hindu counterparts. Nowh ...

Jayapida(753–82) to Unmattavant (937–39) and again by Suhadeva (1301–20), kings are described as “oppressive” and “avaricious” b ...

by his prime minister, Subhabhata, a brahman who later became a Muslim. Moreover Sultan Sikander offered patronage to Turks and ...

Sikhism The story of Sikhism starts, for all intents and purposes, with Guru ̄ Na ̄nak. There were a number of influences that i ...

Na ̄nak once wrote: The guru is the ladder, the dinghy, the raft by means of which one reaches god; The guru is the lake, the oc ...

Mughals as well as against Afghans and Mara ̄tha ̄s, who coveted the fertile area of the five rivers. Controlling the Panja ̄b b ...

California. During this same period, Sikhs had also migrated to the Malay Straits to work in security positions. Meanwhile back ...

Sikhs continue to play a significant role in Indian life, not least as progressive farmers in the fertile Panja ̄b valleys where ...

Singh, Khuswant. A History of the Sikhs. Two volumes. London/Princeton 1963, 1966. Reprint. Delhi and Oxford: Oxford University ...

Timeline of Chapters 6 and 7 Cultural/political events Religious events 7th–10th century: pockets of Muslim settlements in South ...

8 Streams from the “West” and their Aftermath Religious minorities Jewish communities “Cochin Jews” Bene Israel Syrian Christian ...

In this chapter, we explore something of the “European” impact on India and the subcontinent’s response to it. In the classical ...

political rights were affirmed in a copperplate inscription struck around the late eighth century by a local Hindu monarch. In t ...