‘It must be emphasized that the transfer of power from Hindu to Muslim rulers was a purely local affair, which had nothing to do with the great conquest of twelfth century. It was more over a secular phenomenon. The absence of Saracenic domes and cloisters on the mosques of Kashmir is therefore not surprising’ says T.N Khazanchi in Kashmir Today magazine (August 6, 1998, commemorating 42 years of its existence). This powerful assertion by the respected author filled me with joy and curiosity, the fact that it came from a non –Muslim filled me with joy and the process and underling circumstances, which made Islam’s entry into Kashmir so easy, disconcerted my soul and filled me with curiosity. This, led me to study our very own striking ‘Trika philosophy’ of Kashmiri shivistic thought. The league of thinkers and writers of Kashmir in 1oth and 11th century propounded Trika philosophy. The prominent among them were Somdeva, Abinavgupta, Uthpalacharya, and Kshemraja. Trika also referred to as Rahasya Sampradaya to distinguish it from the general type of shaivism known as shaiva sasana, which prevails outside Kashmir. The differences are so fundamental that in his famous book Sara Darshana, Sangraha Madhavcharya deals it with as a separate subject not under shaiva Darshana. He deals with it separately under Pratyabigna Darshan. While going through the underlying bed rock of kashmiri Trika philosophy revelations that I came through shook the ground beneath me as it occurred to me somewhat immensely close to the religion of Islam. This perhaps must have been the reason as to why Islam’s entry was smooth in valley, politically a few bigots must have existed and annoyed the peace but intellectually Islam, as a faith was not completely unusual to the valley of Kashmir as many of its basic aspects already existed in valley. Here I should take this opportunity to thank and salute the striking minds of medieval Kashmiri thinkers for propounding Trika philosophy. The magnitude of my gratitude further increased for them when I heard that much talked about and researched ‘ god particle’ had came up in the annals of kashmiri philosophy at the time when Europe was shrouded under hulking clouds of feudal mind set and despotic dumb theocracy. I always have been the strong votary of Kashmiri cultural resurgence based on the important successive eras of naga, Indo-European, Hun, indo-Bactrian, Kushan, and later Islamic Turkish and Durani periods. All of them hold equal importance in the long spread history of Kashmir and it is the blend of above said cultures that is today referred to as Kashmiri culture. Nevertheless Trika strictly entails the fact that universe is a reality, while as Vedanta says universe is virtual.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 12:43:02 +0000
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