Don't act smart with Shankaracharya, you will get roasted...

This is a very interesting story from ShankarDigvijaya where Mandan Mishra tries to insult Shankaracharya but gets insulted in return.

60 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BEARERS & WOMEN OF QURAN

A THREAD 🧵

1. The first matter that it befits her to employ is taqwa (fear) of Allah secretly and openly, by exercising caution (wara') with regards to the sources of his food, drink, dress and earnings.

2. She is perceptive about her time and the corruptions of its people, that she may beware of them regarding her religion.

3. She concentrates on her own situation, having the aspiration to reform whatever is corrupt in her affairs, guarding her tongue and choosing her words.

4. If she speaks,, she speaks with knowledge when she sees speech to be correct.

5. If she remains silent, she remains silent with knowledge when she sees silence to be correct.

6. She rarely delves into that which does not conern her.

7. She fears from her tongue things more severe than she fears from her enemy.

8. She imprisons her tongue the way she imprisons her enemy, so that she may be safe from its evil and bad consequences.

Muslim thought in India can be thought of as having two lineages

1. Islamic puritanism

Lineage : Sirhindi -> Shāh Walīullāh ->Syed Ahmad Barelvi, Deobandi movement, Maulana Azad -> Jamaat e Islami

2. Muslim nationalism

Syed Ahmed Khan ->Jinnah, Iqbal - > Ayub Khan/Musharraf

The former originated largely as a religious movement.

It has its origins in Sirhindi, who voiced the view in 16th cen, that Akbar's policy was "Indianizing" Islam too much

Too much of Din-e-ilahi crap.

Let's keep Islam pure

That lineage continues in the thinking of 18th cen theologian Shah Waliullah , the Delhi based Islamic scholar who lived b/w 1703 and 1762

Waliullah like Sirhindi emphasized segregation/purity
and loyalty to the Ummah (the global Islamic whole)

Not to South Asian muslims per se

Waliullah once said

"Muslims, no matter where they live, they should be completely separated from the natives of that country in their culture, traditions and mannerisms. And wherever they are, they must be immersed in their Arabic splendor and Arabic trends”

This line of thinking continues in two 19th cen movements-

That of Syed Barelvi - who fought valiantly against Sikh rule in Punjab at Balakot

And that of the Deobandis in late 19th cen

STORY OF PURANAS AND SUB PURANA (उप पुराण).

We have already gone through the series on importance & characteristics of all the eighteen Purans. We also know that originally there were hundred crore shlokas but were divided by Vyas in each Kalp and was compiled as eighteen Purans

for the common people to understand it properly and now their total is about four lakhs.

In Brahm Puran, Brahma preached this to Marichi. So this Puran of ten thousand shlokas is called Brahm Puran.

In Padma Puran, the base of the story is the appearance of Brahma on a lotus(Padm) from Vishnu' s navel.This has fifty five thousand shlokas.

Vishnu Puran is primarily based in Varah kalp. This book is on Vishnu and this book has twenty three thousand shlokas.

Vaayu Puran is written in Shwet Kalp and has twenty four thousand shlokas. Here Vayudev preaches about Dharma.

In Bhagwat Puran, which is written with the base of Gayatri mantra describes Dharma extensively. It has 18000 shlokas. It also mentions the story of Vritrasur.

In Narad Puran, which has twenty five thousand shlokas, is a sermon on Dharma by Narad based in Brihad Kalp.

Markandeya Puran has nine thousand shlokas and here it is through the birds that Dharma is described.

'Tera mera rishta kya, hindu, hindu,hindutva' is a clear take on 'tera mera rishta kya,la ilaha illallah'. As much as Hindutva hates the monotheistic religions especially Islam, there's a strange wistfulness and subliminal need at display now, to BE that they hate. 1

Charlie Hebdo doesn’t come up as a cautionary tale now but rather 'why cant we be like that'?
Growing up, Hanuman was an adorable deity for us, who swallowed the sun, or who couldn’t figure out what was Sanjeevani booti so he picked up a whole mountain and came back with it. 2

Or he was loyal, admirable and when he cleaved his chest, you saw both Ram and Sita. Now we have a lot of “Angry Hanuman” stickers. Why is a cute childlike God angry? We don’t know. It's a convenient blank space where to paint all the angst of Hindu Khatre mein hain narrative. 3

The other strange thing that has started happening is pictures of Ram appearing sans Sita. “Jai Siya Ram” has become “Jai Shri Ram”. Some people disingenuously explain it as being the same thing - because Shri is a name of Lakshmi. Not really. Siya is an apbhransh of Sita. 4

Shri is a prefix of respect in this case. Hinduism is being militarised. A woman/Sita has no place in it. Even the militaristic Goddess that is Durga has no place in this conception of neo-Hindu divinity, as evidenced by Dilip Mandal wondering where Durga came from. 5

Here is a special thread introducing our series on “The Making of the Islamic World.” It offers 10 episodes about the transformation of Islamicate societies between the 7th and 17th centuries. You can find the series page here: https://t.co/7mL9eWmMmz

This is Chris Gratien posting. I created this series during Fall 2020 for my students as asynchronous material supported by readings and discussion. This is going to be a long thread, but it will be a great shortcut for those looking to make similar use of these materials.

There are two items worth pointing out: 1. This is an overview of the political, social, and cultural history of Islamicate societies. It does not deal with the origins of Islam or many theological questions. It does discuss Islam’s spread and the transformation of Islamic law.

2. This is the first part of a two-part sequence that takes the history of the Islamic world into the present. It emphasizes developments and themes that have particular relevance for later periods.

This is really a multivocal narrative of Islamic history. We feature over 20 scholars from almost as many institutions. Many of those who worked on it, myself included, study the early modern and modern era but have teaching obligations that take us further back in history.