Lehal Library

Birth of Sikhism 21 only built up Hindu resistance, and the conversions that were made by force were followed by reconversions back to Hinduism. The battles of Islam were not won by Muslim iconoclasts but by peaceful missionaries. Hinduism's Compromise with Islam: The Bhak.ti Movement The Hindu renaissance, starred by the Alvars and the Adyars of south India, suddenly found itself confronted with Islam. The Muslim scimitar could be matched with the Hindu sword, but someone had to produce an answer to the argument of Islam. This was supplied by a phi1osopber whose main concern was not Islam but the refutation of heresies of the Jains and Buddhists, but who in so doing started a movement of renaissance and reformation which had a decisive bearing on Hinduism's attitude towards the new faith. This was Shankara (c. AD 800), a Brahmin of Malabar. Shankara exorted return to the Vedas for inspiration. His Hinduism was an uncompromising monotheism and a rejection of idol worship, for his God was one, indefinable and allpervasive. 0 Lord, pardon my three sins. I have in contemplation clothed in form Thee who an formless. l have in praise described Thee who art ineffable, And in visiting temples I ha\Te ignored TI1ine Omnipresence. Shankarn was essentiaJJy a metaphysician, and, although he provided protagonists of Hinduism with debating points, he did little to forward the mass movement started by the Afrars and the Adyars. This was done by Ramanuja (AD 1016-1137), who disagreed with Shankara's purely logical approach to religious problems and advocated the path of bhakti (devotion) recommended many centuries before by the Bhagavad Gita and revived by the Alvars and the Adyars as the best way to salvation. Ramanuja travelled extensively throughout northern India as far as Kashmir and left a large number of disciples at every place to propagate his teaching.