Medieval History

[Bodhi]

HH: thanks for the elucidation. I agree that scholars were not altogether blind but the painful question was whether the Hindu scholar ever came up to the mark in making the intellectual investment needed to comprehensively take on the islamic demon? Whether he ever considered the subject of enough priority vis-a-vis the others? In all fairness, the Islamic invasions came like sudden waves of shock leaving the Hindu kiMkartavyavimUDha, but the more urgent question is, did he ever recover from it? And my point was not about brAhmaNa-s alone, who of course carry the bigger burden of this guilt, but the overall intellectual poverty shown by the whole hindu society in general, all across the educated sections. As I had posted in an earlier e-mail on the group -- what had prevented the vaishya-s and sArthavAha-s who were always visiting and in touch with the markets of bukhArA and baghdAd? Did they register any assessment of Islam before it was knocking at their door like ghosts? What about the learned kAyastha? Of course very early he had adopted to reality and learnt persian, some times also arabic and turkic. Why did he never produce anything about Islam at all, while creating manuals of how to become good accountants and munshis? And again like you said, the important question is whether this is history or the blindness is still going on??? I beleive it goes on and the Hindu did not wake up except for the brief periods when he just turned to the other side and went to sleep again. Worse yet -- the voices that trouble its half-dead-like sleep: he hates them!! Be it V S Naipaul's or K Elst's.