Revelation in Hinduism: A Muslim Reading

Hinduism has been viewed by Semitic religions as a religion devoid of revelation. Early, Medieval and modem Muslim and Christian writings have often portrayed Hinduism as pagan even satanic while Hindus for millennia have claimed to be divinely revealed. Is Hinduism really a revealed religion and if so, what kind of a revelation does it have? In what manner does the divine reveal himself and who are the recipients of this revelation? To what extent is this concept different from ours? Does the process of revelation continue or has it been discontinued? These are some of the more significant questions that this article shall engage with. It clarifies that Hindus have books which they consider revealed and look upon much as Muslims look upon their Qur’an. The most significant of these among a majority of the Hindus are called the Vedas, literally, knowledge. It goes on to introduce the Vedas with respect to their various parts and content, what Hindus largely believe about it and how they ensured its preservation and safe transmission to later generations through various intricate and elaborate memorization techniques. The article highlights the importance of rishl, the recipients of these revelations, their kinds, characteristics and role in the process of revelation. The article contends that there is much in common between Rishland Semitic prophets with respect to their characteristics but that the similarities do not end here. Rather there is much more common ground to be explored with respect to revelation and its contents and its conveyors than meets the eye.

اردو داستان کے مرکزی کردار

The time period form 17th century to 19th century, in Urdu prose, is called the era of 'Dastan'. Though some attempts or endeavor can also be seen in Dastan writing after this time period. Because of a leading kind of its time period, Dastan is of prime importance. In this thesis, under consideration research carried out about a very important part of Dastan. The investigatory and the critical analysis of the main characters of the Dastan not only drag this kind of speech from darkness of past but also helps to highlight the standard of characterization of that era. All those Dastans are included in this thesis which are published, having unity of plot and revolve around central character. Collection of proverbs is included in this selection. All those Dastans are avoided to include in which most of the material was borrowed from other Dastans or which revolves around the same topic. In this thesis, standard of characterization in Dastans, capabilities of characterization and how was it differ from the characterization of modern was discussed. Character of Dastan is also examined according to social and moral standardization of modern era. The thesis has been divided in to four parts. Part one deals with the central theme of 'Dastan'. Part two deals with the main characters of the prominent Dastan published pre Fort William College period. Part three consists of critical analysis of important characters of the stories published under the patronage of Fort William College, while part four comprises critical analysis and evaluation of the central characters of important Dastans published during the same period but not under the patronage of the college. The objective of the thesis is to highlight the fundamental characters of the Dastan, portray their importance and judge the standard of characterization. It is also our objective to enable the modern reader establish, by himself, a link between the ancient and modern literature. Epilogue is captioned "collective evaluation". In epilogue the central characters of the Dastans, included in the thesis, have been discussed briefly.