Islamization of the Kamarupa Text 'Amritkunda'

Abstract

It is an acknowledged fact that, Sufism prescribes not only ascetic rituals but also provides a model of social practice. On Sufism various researches have been done so far in various parts of India and elsewhere, those researches particularly articulated that, Sufism was Indian in origin; side by side it also argued that, from the first appearance of the term in European languages 'Sufism' was characterized as essentially different from the dry Semitic religion of Islam. For example we can mention the work of William James in 1902, who observed that, 'Sufism must have been inoculated into Islam by Hindu influences'. Though some opines that, in India as in Islam, music, poetry and the dance are spiritual exercises. Whatever may be the debate, which is also not the part of this article but this present article will examine an another issue, that, how a yogic text known as Amritkunda, which was authored by a Kamarupa scholar Bhojar Brahman, influenced the Islamic world with the translations and how the translators made deliberate Islamization of the Yogic text.