Allah Upanishad, or Allopanishad, is a book of brahmanical origin written during Muslim rule in India during 16th to 17th century in the time of Mughal Emperor
Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
's reign.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati's book ''
Satyarth Prakash
''Satyarth Prakash'' ( hi, सत्यार्थ प्रकाश, ' – "The Light of Meaning of the Truth" or ''The Light of Truth'') is an 1875 book written originally in Hindi by Dayanand Saraswati (Swami Dayanand), an influential religi ...
'' (The Light of Truth) argues that the Allopanishad is not part of the
Upanishad
The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
canon and it does not even appear in the Atharvaveda. The famous
Muktikā
Muktikā (Sanskrit: मुक्तिका) refers to the Telugu-language anthology of a canon of 108 Upaniṣhads. The date of composition of each is unknown, with the oldest probably from about 800 BCE. The Principal Upanishads were compose ...
canon, which was given by Rama to Hanuman as the list of authentic 108 Upanishads does not contain Allopanishad. Most scholars view that the book has been written during the Mughal era (possibly during Akbar's reign). Allopanishad describes
Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
as a messenger or prophet of God.
Full text
1) "I take refuge in our Allah
a, to perish, and alla, eternalwho protects Mitra
unand Varuna
he god of water"
2) "There is but one God
llelle the king, Varuna, again takes refuge (in him)."
3) "Everything is God; sun and stars."
4) "Everything is God; Varuna, the sun, the illuminator."
5) "The Great Breath, the Lord, is the Sacrificer. The Lord is the Sacrificer."
6) "Allah is the first and best, the highest; Omnipresent; Highest of all Gods."
7) "He is only One; ever remaining."
8) "By sacrifice is Allah to be propitiated."
9) "Allah is sun, moon and all stars."
10) "Allah is (the God) of Rishis and all other deities, and of Indra, the first Maya
rimordial matterand the ether."
11) "Allah is in the earth and in heaven and in multifarious forms."
12) "Everything is Allah. Everything is Allah and everything is He."
13) "Om is Allah. Everything is He. By nature eternal. Atharvan
he Rishibows down to such."
14) "Give us water, cattle, siddhis, and things that live in water, and Phut
mantra"
15) "The slayer of enemies. Hum, Hrim. Nothing but Allah; nothing but Allah. Thus ends the Allopanishad."
Views on authorship and authenticity
In an issue of ''The Theosophist'', R. Ananthakrishna Sastri wrote that the work was written by "Pandits for monetary rewards" during the time of Muslim rule in India. He further remarked that the work was "not in the style of ordinary Upanishads" and its words "appear to sound more like Arabic".
Bhattacharya and Sarkar categorize Allopanishad as an "Islamic Work" and write that it was written by a Hindu courtier of Akbar, as an "apocryphal chapter of the Atharvaveda".
Charles Eliot suggested that the work may have been written in connection with the
Din-i-Ilahi
The Dīn-i-Ilāhī ( fa, , ), known during its time as Tawḥīd-i-Ilāhī ("Divine Monotheism", ) or Divine Faith, was a new syncretic religion or spiritual leadership program propounded by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1582, intending to merg ...
movement, and wrote that the work "can hardly be described as other than a forgery".
Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...
wrote that Allopanishad was evidently of a much later date and that he was told that it was written in the reign of Akbar to bring Hindus and Muslims together.
Sadasivan writes that it was written by Brahmins for Akbar when he was experimenting with a new religion.
Debendranath Tagore
Debendranath Tagore (15 May 1817 – 19 January 1905) was an Indian Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (earlier called Bhramho Sabha) ("Society of Brahma", also translated as ''Society of God''). He joined Brahm ...
wrote in his autobiography that Allopanishad was composed in the days of Akbar with the objective of converting Hindus into Muslims.
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist.Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 2011 ...
wrote that the Allopanishad was "the shameless production of some brahmin sycophant of Muslim rulers of India."
Abraham Eraly
Abraham Eraly (15 August 1934 — 8 April 2015) was an Indian writer of history, a teacher, and the founder of Chennai-based magazine ''Aside''.
Early life
Abraham Eraly was born in the village of Ayyampalli in Ernakulam district, Kerala on 15 ...
states that the book was symbolic of the various cross-cultural pollination between Hindu and Muslim cultures during the time of the Mughals and was meant to bring the two communities together.
Abraham Eraly
Abraham Eraly (15 August 1934 — 8 April 2015) was an Indian writer of history, a teacher, and the founder of Chennai-based magazine ''Aside''.
Early life
Abraham Eraly was born in the village of Ayyampalli in Ernakulam district, Kerala on 15 ...
, The Mughal World: Life in India's Last Golden Age, Penguin Books India 2007
See also
*
Din-i-Ilahi
The Dīn-i-Ilāhī ( fa, , ), known during its time as Tawḥīd-i-Ilāhī ("Divine Monotheism", ) or Divine Faith, was a new syncretic religion or spiritual leadership program propounded by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1582, intending to merg ...
*
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...
References
{{Reflist
Hinduism and Islam
Upanishads