[Advaita-l] dakSiNAmUrti stOtra from sUta saMhita

[Shrisha Rao]

El jun 15, 2012, a las 10:29 p.m., V Subrahmanian escribió:

> I think you are concluding hastily.  I am not canvassing for this
> 'upanishad'.  I only informed the list about it.  You need not go on with
> your tirade.
> 
> I have read the printed portions and noticed the 'akabar' part also.

F. Otto Schrader already noted in respect of the अल्लोपनिषद् in 1908 in vol. 1 (pp. 136--137) of the Adyar Library catalogue (see http://www.virasadhana.com/Catalogues/Catalogue%20of%20manuscripts%20in%20Adyar%20Library%20Vol%201.pdf for the same):

Begin quote:

This curious work, as is well known, has been composed to serve Akbar's idea of a world religion.  In the South of India it is not recognized,* in spite of (or, perhaps, because of?)# the widely spread opinion that Mahomedans are skilled in the Atharvaveda, but in the North it is not only reckoned to the Atharvaveda, but actually recited by the Brahmins at the Vasantotsava or any occasion when selected texts of the four Vedas have to be read in the house of a Dvija.  Of course, it is not admitted that Allah is the Mahomedan god, but the word is believed to be a synonym of Varuna.

(*) Some years ago, a palm-leaf MS. of it as in the Adyar Library, but it was rejected by the then librarian.
(#) The Atharvaveda, excepting the Upanisads, is nearly unknown in Southern India.

End quote.

I find it strange that Schrader would conjure up a theory proclaiming a "widely spread opinion that Mahomedans are skilled in the Atharvaveda."  It is quite a ridiculous theory for various obvious reasons, and is not supported by any evidence save this very assertion of Schrader.  The other footnoted claim that the Atharvaveda is "nearly unknown in Southern India" is perhaps more true though gratuitous and unnecessary to state as a cause of the lack of acceptance of the अल्लोपनिषद् in the South -- why not grant that people there (like the unnamed former librarian of the Adyar Library) do not accept the text because they consider it spurious, a view held by Schrader himself?

There are various more recent writings on this subject also, most notably a paper titled "On the Authenticity of the Allopanishad (The Upanishad of Allah)," in the Journal of the Oriental Institute, March 1977.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

> subrahmanian.v