PURPOSE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT

The purpose of the project has been to investigate Hindu reception of divinatory (astrological) systems of knowledge influenced by Islamic culture in northwest India during the period of the Delhi Sultanate (13th to 16th century) as well as the attitudes to Islam displayed by the most prominent mediators of such knowledge systems: the Jains, an indigenous religious minority who, by dominating the area of finance in the region, came into close contact with the Muslim ruling class. A specific major goal has been to produce an annotated translation of Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna, an encyclopaedic work on Sanskritized Perso-Arabic astrology.

These goals and purposes have essentially been preserved, if somewhat extended over the course of the project. The Jain transmission of Perso-Arabic traditions of learning has been identified as one of several survival strategies to be understood in the light of general Jain-Muslim relations in the Delhi Sultanate, and the focus with regard to source materials for these relations has shifted to Kakkasūri’s Nābhinandanajinoddhāraprabandha, which has proved the most informative resource for the period in question. Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna has remained the main source for the reception of astral knowledge traditions; but with the acquisition of further manuscripts of this text, as well as of many of the earlier works cited in it, the further production of a critical text edition to serve as a basis for the translation has proved desirable.

IMPLEMENTATION

The project being fundamental and purely historical in nature, the research work has comprised historical-critical and philological approaches to medieval and early modern textual sources. The concrete work has been carried out in alternating phases of collection of materials; reading and, where relevant, editing; interpretation, comparison, and translation.

MAJOR RESULTS

The identification of three clearly distinct research results appears somewhat artificial, as the project has revealed a complex historical reality comprising intertwined phenomena and processes which cannot be fully understood in isolation from each other. However, a more nuanced understanding of Muslim, Jain and Hindu interrelations in the period 1200–1500 CE, including transmissions of knowledge as well as multidirectional political and financial patronage, may be recognized as one such result. Sources indicate the predominance of a relatively peaceful Jain-Muslim co-existence during the Delhi Sultanate, the existence of dialogue in spite of fundamentally conflicting ideologies, and the strengthening of Jain identity and solidarity, and of Jain relations to this new ruling class, by the creation of new literary genres.

A second, concrete main result is the completion of the first scholarly translation of any work on Sanskritized Perso-Arabic astrology (Tājika): Balabhadra’s Hāyanaratna (1649), resting in its turn on some forty earlier works composed between the 13th and 17th centuries. The critical edition of the Sanskrit text with English parallel translation, notes, and an introduction locating the work within its religious and intellectual historical context, shortly to be published by Brill, will provide a solid foundation for future research in this area.

Substantially increased comprehension of the historical transmission of astral knowledge traditions may be identified as a third specific result and has been documented in a number of research papers, in addition to the monograph just mentioned. One previously unexpected aspect of these discoveries concerns the important role played by non-Brahman castes in the transmission process – in particular, the Prāgvāṭa kinship group, commonly known today as Porwad (with variants), in the Saurāṣṭra area. Of particular importance is one of the earliest known Tājika authors, Samarasiṃha (latter half of the 13th century). In addition to Samarasiṃha’s preserved work on genethlialogy (Karmaprakāśa, also known as Manuṣyajātaka, Gaṇakabhūṣaṇa, or Tājikatantrasāra), previously documented and briefly discussed by David Pingree, the existence has been demonstrated of three earlier works by the same author. These works, unknown to previous research, appear today to be preserved only in fragments, the collecting and editing of which – from what appears to be the very earliest Sanskrit texts on Tājika astrology – seems a vital research task.

NEW RESEARCH TOPICS

With regard to overall Jain-Muslim relations, the project has come in part to address the construction of a Jain self-image in literature as one aspect of the Jain survival strategy; this is a topic that deserves to be developed further. As regards the transmission of knowledge traditions, two issues have come into particular focus in addition to the reconstruction of the earliest works by Samarasiṃha. The first concerns the extent to which Perso-Arabic influence on non-Muslim knowledge traditions in India continued after its heyday (ca. 1200–1500 CE) and survives today. The second concerns alterations in the conceptualization of free will and predetermination with the transmission of astral knowledge systems across religious and cultural milieux. Comparative studies of the reception of horoscopic astrology, from the India of Late Antiquity in the east to medieval and Renaissance Europe in the west, seem desirable, and a proposal for a subsequent project of this nature has been formulated.

INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS

In addition to participation in international conferences and workshops (cf. ‘Dissemination and collaborations’ below), the project has involved several research stays abroad. During June and July, 2015, and again during April and May, 2017, Martin Gansten spent time investigating and photographing a considerable number of manuscripts of Tājika works, including the Hāyanaratna, at the Wellcome Library (London) and the Bodleian Library (Oxford), respectively. In November, 2015, Olle Qvarnström and Martin Gansten went to India to visit further manuscript libraries – first in Ahmedabad and Koba (Gujarat), then in Mysore (Karnataka) – and to network with Indian scholars; particular mention may be made of Mana Shah at the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, and of M. A. Alwar at the Maharaja Sanskrit College, Mysore. During September–October, 2017, Olle Qvarnström carried out research at the University of California, Berkeley.

New international contacts have been established, and existing networks reinforced, over the course of the project. Contacts particularly worth mentioning include Christopher Minkowski (University of Oxford), Krishnamurthi Ramasubramanian (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Clemency Montelle (University of Canterbury, New Zealand), Toke Lindegaard Knudsen (University of Copenhagen), Steven Vose (Florida International University), Peter Flügel (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), John Cort (Denison University), Christine Chojnacki (L’Université de Lyon), Phyllis Granoff (Yale University), and Padmanabh S. Jaini (University of California, Berkeley).

DISSEMINATION AND COLLABORATIONS

Materials related to the research project have been continually presented at seminars at Lund University, both within CTR and in interdepartmental contexts. Olle Qvarnström has discussed preliminary research results in the context of the Jaina Studies Workshop at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, in March of 2015, 2016, and 2017; at the conference The Constitution of a Literary Legacy and the Tradition of Patronage in Jainism at Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 in September, 2016, and with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, during his research stay there. Similarly, Martin Gansten has participated in the conferences Astrology As Art, arranged by the Sophia Centre (University of Wales Trinity Saint David) in June, 2015, and Horoscopy across Civilizations at the Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) in June, 2016. However, the most important instances of dissemination as well as collaboration have taken place through informal international networks of scholarly colleagues (cf. ‘International dimensions’ above).