Madhava, Vidyaranya, Sringeri, and Kulke

Samar Abbas abbas at IOPB.RES.IN
Tue May 16 05:13:08 UTC 2000


vsundaresan at HOTMAIL.COM writes:
> If however, as others have argued, the medieval Indian did not see the
> invading forces from outside as "Muslim", in the 19th century sense of
> the term, one should wonder in what way Vidyaranya supposedly created a
> defence against Islam.

Being `kindred outsiders', the ruling caste welcomed the Muslim invaders
as it enabled them to perpetrate their rule over the Sudra masses :

http://ambedkar.org/brahmanism/Brahmins_were_benefited_by_Muslim_Conquest.htm

As stated by the author, Dr. Jamanadas,
 "The Muslim Rule was also a Brahmanic rule s far as the masses were
  concerned."

> From the point of view of the Dravidian, all are `outsiders', whether
Aryan, Brahman, Turk or Saka. And the outsiders appear to have helped one
another, fearful of an indigenous uprising.

The medieval Sanskrit term Turuska is a hangover from the days of Kushan
and Tokharian invasions. The Aryans confounded the later Muslim Turks
with the previous Buddhist Turks. The preceding Buddhist and Zoroastrian
`Turuskas' (ie. Rajputs) actively participated in the army of the Islamic
Turkic sultanate, forming more than half of Aurangzeb's army. The army was
thus a `Turuska' army for the medieval writers.

Samar





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