The Philosophy of Mulla Sadra and Its Influence in India [subcontinent]

[Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy In Subcontinent]

When Mulla Sadra and the earlier generation of Iranian scholars were debating fundamental issues of philosophy in the manner we have outlined, India had already experienced under Akbar (d. 1605) an official shift towards the patronage of the rational sciences at the expense of Muslim theology. It was prescribed that only such sciences as arithmetic, agriculture, household management, rules of governance, medicine, etc., should comprise the educational curriculum.17

There was a stress on reason ('aql) which was to be given precedence over traditionalism (taqlid ).18 This open stress on rationalism was in some respects remarkable for the time. The chief proponent of the rational attitude during this period was Abul Fazl.19 Among the two important functions which Abul Fazl assigns to a just ruler (kar giya ) one-is that such a sovereign 'shall not seek popular acclaim through opposing reason ('aql )'.20 The large number of Persian Shi'i emigrants to Akbar's India included physicians like Hakim Abul Fath Gilani along with his two brothers, Hakim Humam and Hakim Lutfullah Hakim Ali, and a technologist like Shah Fathullah Shirazi, and the turn towards rationalism could probably have also owed a little to their arrival. We have the (admittedly late) testimony of Azad Bilgrami that it was Fathullah Shirazi who introduced the works of Iranian rationalist thinkers like Muhaqqiq Dawwani,21 Mir Sadruddin, Mir Ghiyasuddin Mansur and Mirza Jan in India. He would not only himself teach these works but under his influence they were introduced in the curriculum of the seminaries of higher education.22 Most of these Shi'i migrants, it appears, were the followers of the Akhbari fiqh which was the most popular among the Shi'as in North India during the Mughal period.23 This school rejected the legitimacy of independent legal reasoning and held that in the absence of the twelfth Imam, who was in occultation, state-related functions could not be carried out in his name by the clergy.24

Conducive ground for the penetration of Iranian philosophical ideas might also have been prepared by the visit of Mulla Sadra's teacher, Mir Findiriski to India during the reign of Shahjahan.25 Findiriski (d. 1640-41), during his stay, is said to have been attracted to Indian Yogic practices and to have writtenMuntakhab Jog , an anthology ofYoga Vashishtha . He also wroteUsui al-fusul , a treatise on Hinduism which unfortunately does not survive. He was the most notable intellectual link between the tradition of Islamic philosophy of Iran and the movement for the translation of Sanskrit texts into Persian in India.26

The legacy of thema'qulat (reason) favoured during the reign of Akbar was carried forward by such noted scholars as Abdus Salam Lahori, Abdus Salam Dewi, Shaikh Daniyal Chaurasi and ultimately Mulla Qutbuddin Sihalawi, the father of Mulla Nizamuddin, the first rector of the Farangi Mahal seminary.27 Another rationalist scholar in the Mughal court was Mulla Shafi'ai Yazdi Danishmand Khan, the employer of the famous Francois Bernier.

The hikmat traditions as they developed in Iran appear to have secured easy acceptance in the Mughal Empire during the reign of Shahjahan. An example can be given of Mulla Mahmud Faruqi of Jaunpur, a peripatetic

scholar who had been a student of Mir Damad at Shiraz. He was not only invited to the Mughal court but counted Prince Shah Shuja and Shaista Khan amongst his pupils.28 A contemporary of Mulla Sadra, he joined the Mughal court in 1640. Very soon, we find him taking part in a debate with Mulla Abdul Hakim Siyalkoti, a scholar who had written a number of glosses and commentaries on the works of Mulla Sharif Juzjani, Sa'duddin Taftazani and Mulla Jalaluddin Dawwani.29

The author ofDabistan-i Mazahib (c. 1653), during the same reign, records the names of two scholars who had obtained training in the philosophical traditions of Iran. Hakim Dastur of Isfahan received training under 'Mir Baqir Damad, Shaikh Bahauddin Muhammad Mir Abul Qasim Findiriski and other such scholars of Shiraz'.30 Another was Hakim Kamran who, he says, was addressed by Mir Findiriski as 'brother'.31 Settled in the regions of Lahore and Agra respectively these scholars might have also come into contact with Sadra' s views which were creating a stir during the same period in Shiraz. Of the famous Sarmad, who probably arrived in India from Iran in early 1640s, it is distinctly stated by the same author, apparently on the basis of what Sarmad told him himself, that he had studied 'under the sages of Iran, such as Mulla Sadra and Mir Abu'l Qasim Findiriski and others'.32 How much his turn to mysticism was influenced by their teaching should be an interesting theme to pursue.

Evidence for the transmission of Mulla Sadra's ideas and his 'Transcendental Wisdom' and rationalism to India comes from what we learn about commentaries written on him in India. Mulla Nizamuddin Sihalwi (fl. 1700) of the Farangi Mahal tradition is credited with the formulation of the curriculum for instruction known asDars-i Nizami .33 It was designed to direct the Student to the most difficult and comprehensive books on a subject, so that the pupil was forced to think. This curriculum has been criticized for placing too much emphasis on the rational sciences. According to Robinson, it 'stipulates no specific bias and insists on no particular books'.34

Mulla Nizamuddin wrote a commentary on Mulla Sadra'sSharh-i Hidatayat al-Hikma (a book which expounds his transcendental philosophy) and introduced this work in his syllabus, the darsi nizdmi.35 This commentary is now popularly known as Sadra. Within a few years of the compilation of Nizamuddin's work, Mulla Hasan Farangi Mahali (d. 1794-95), a famous logician of the same school of thought, wrote his own commentary on Mulla Sadra's Hikmat, which was also taught in various Indian seminaries of the eighteenth century. Similarly, 'Alim Sandilvi Farangi Mahali, the founder of the Khairabad School, compiled his own commentary of Mulla Sadra's Hikmat.36

Mulla Sadra appears to have been noticed by Shah Abdul Aziz Dihlavi as well. A commentary written by the Shah,Sharh-i Mulla Sadra , is preserved in the Maulana Azad Library, Aligarh.37 The Sadra was also introduced in the curriculum of theShi'a madrasas ofAwadh and till as late as the 1960s formed part of the curriculum atSultdn-ul Madaris a well-known Shi'i seminary at Lucknow. It is, however, quite interesting to note that with the growing influence of theUsuli fiqh after Dildar Ali Nasirabadi Ghufranma'ab' (1753-1820), the influence of Sadra in theShi'i seminaries in North India declined. According to the Usulis thinkers like Mulla Sadra, who followed a mystical philosophy, were heretics.38 Presently, Mulla Sadra and his works are hardly known or remembered in either the Shi'i or the Sunni institutions of North India.

It thus appears that within a few decades of the death of Mulla Sadra (d. 1640), he began to receive notice from the scholarly circles in India and interest in his philosophy continued to be displayed at least up till the second half of the twentieth century. This shows that despite the conventional Shia-Sunni divide, India and Iran yet belonged to a largely common intellectual region. It is difficult, however, to get an answer to the question as to how far Sadra's larger vision was integrated or adopted in Indo-Muslim thought - whether it was just noticed and docketed to be taught, or also endorsed fully in spirit.