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AllopanishadAllah-Upanishad or Allopanishad is a Sanskrit apocryphal text with many Arabic words generally argued and believed to be written in India in 16th century during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar.[1][2] It describes Akbar as a messenger or prophet of God.[3] The word Allah is used in Sanskrit to denote the Shakti or devi or female aspect of the god.[citation needed] It is mainly used in the tantric scriptures of devi worship.[citation needed] Hum is a bija mantra and is attached to the word Allah and forms Allahumma.[citation needed] The Allopanishad is not part of the Upanishad canon, traditionally containing 108 Upanishads, and does not appear in any Vedas. In an issue of The Theosophist, R. Ananthakrishna Sastri wrote that the work was written by converted Muslims for monetary rewards during the time of Muslim rule in India. He further remarked that the work was not in the style of ordinary Upanishads and its words appear to sound more like Arabic.[4] Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya and B. K. Sarkar categorize Allopanishad as an Islamic Work and write that it was written by a converted Muslim courtier of Akbar, as an apocryphal chapter of the Atharvaveda. Swami Vivekananda said, "I have been told that Allopanishad was written during the reign of Akbar, to bring the Hindus and Mahommedans together, and sometimes they got hold of some word, as Allah, or Illa in the Samhitas, and made an Upanishad on it. So in this Allopanishad, Mahomet is the Rajasulla, whatever that may mean."[5] Text
Views on authorship and authenticityIn an issue of The Theosophist, R. Ananthakrishna Sastri wrote that the work was written by converted Muslims for monetary rewards during the time of Muslim rule in India. He further remarked that the work was not in the style of ordinary Upanishads and its words appear to sound more like Arabic.[4] Bhattacharya and Sarkar categorize Allopanishad as an Islamic Work and write that it was written by a converted Muslim courtier of Akbar who had, as an apocryphal chapter of the Atharvaveda. Charles Eliot suggested that the work may have been written in connection with the Din-i-Ilahi movement, and wrote that the work can hardly be described as other than a forgery.[3] Author S. N. Sadasivan says, "When emperor Akbar was toying the idea with new religion Din-i Ilahi, converted Muslims had written for him a new upanishad called "Allopanishad" (upanishad of Allah) which strangely was not acceptable for him".[6] Swami Vivekananda wrote that Allopanishad was evidently of a much later date and that he was told that it was written in the reign of Akbar to bring Hindus and Muslims together.[5] Sadasivan writes that it was written by converted Muslims for Akbar when he was experimenting with a new religion.[7] Debendranath Tagore wrote in his autobiography that Allopanishad was composed in the days of Akbar with the objective of converting Hindus into Muslims.[8] Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote that the Allopanishad was the shameless production of some converted Muslim sycophant of Muslim rulers of India.[9] Abraham Eraly states that the book was symbolic of the various cross-cultural pollination between Hindu and Muslim cultures during the time of the Mughals and was meant to bring the two communities together.[10] See alsoReferences
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