Al-Beruni and the Kitab al-Hind

Source: https://pecihitam.org/al-biruni-ilmuwan-muslim-penghitung-pertama-kali-keliling-bumi/

Abu Raihan Muhammad ibn Ahmad commonly known as Al-Beruni was born in in A.D.973 in the territory of Khwarizm, then under the control of the Samanid ruling dynasty of Transoxiana and Persia. Beruni is a Persian word meaning or belonging to outside. As Al-Beruni was born outside the city in a suburban area he was given epithet of Al-Beruni. Al-Beruni was a Muslim of Iranian origin and was a great linguist and a prolific writer. Besides his mother tongue Khwarizmi, he knew Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac and Sanskrit. He had no direct knowledge of Greek but he was well acquainted with the works of Plato and other Greek masters. He is referred to in the works of some near contemporary writers as ‘alustadh’ or ‘the master’. (H.A.R. Gibb; J.H. Kramers 1986, 1236) In words of Abu’l Fazl Baihaqi, a near contemporary: “Bu Rihan was beyond comparison, superior to every man of his time in the art of composition, in scholar like accomplishments, and in the knowledge of geometry and philosophy. He had, however, a most rigid regard for truth.”

The early years of Al-Beruni's life saw many violent political changes in Central Asia and he even lived for some time in Jurjan. Later when he returned to Khwarizm, the stay was no longer with he moving away to Ghazni with the annexation of Khwarizm by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Al-Beruni's position in the court of Sultan Mahmud is not clear.The relation between Mahmud and Al-Biruni has been a focus of much debate. The relationship has been characterised as tumultuous, with Al-Biruni generally feeling neglected and devoid of any state support. His conditions only improved under Mahmud’s successors who were more appreciative of his talents. (Shamsi 1974)  He was some sort of hostage, but an honoured one because of his scholarly attainments.

It is to this period of his stay in Ghazni that the beginnings of his interest in India can be traced. During his stay at Ghazni, he must have had greater opportunities of pursuing his studies on India. The city contained a number of Indian Prisoners of war, skilled artisans and learned men who were brought over in the wake of Sultan Mahmud's invasion of India. Moreover, the Punjab with its large majority of the Hindus had become a part of the Ghaznavid empire. Al-Beruni must have come in contact with many learned scholars.

Many important Indian works on astronomy, mathematics and medicine were translated into Arabic during the early Abbassid period. S.K. Chatterji suggests that Al-Beruni established some sort of academic rapport with the Indians through his west Punjabi dialect which he must have picked up or through Persian which some of Indians who might have learnt.

Al-Beruni mentions the names of 114 of his books in a letter which he wrote to a friend some 13 years before his death. Though chances are very high that he must have written more books in the remaining years of his life but only two of his books, the Athar ul-Baqiya and the Kitab al-Hind are available in printed edition and English transition, due largely to the scholarly devotion of the great German scholar, Edward Carl Sachau (1845-1930).

Kitab al-Hind

Kitab fi Tahqiq ma li'l-Hind is the result of long years of hard work and Al-Biruni’s perseverance, and in many ways mark a departure from the existing historical and narrative traditions prevalent in the country till then. Unlike the prevalent Puranic traditions of recording the genealogies or the west Asian Tarikh tradition of narrating the political history in a chronological manner, the work is of a very critical nature. Al-Beruni's long account is divided into 80 chapters each with a sub-heading indicating the topics which it relates. The first chapter is an introduction where he writes about the difficulties he faced while writing an account of the Indian society and the methodologies adopted by him. Later chapters are concerned with Religion and Philosophy, Astronomy, Geography, Social life, Metrology, Astrology etc. Al-Beruni also often repeats certain information because he considered such repetition to be useful. He also notes about the incompleteness of his information on any topic and he also draws attention on similar ideas and practices prevailing in other nations. His writing indicates a modern scientific methodology and a comparative approach.

Al-Beruni's comments on Indian society are very significant, especially in the caste system. No such detailed and perceptive account of the caste system as it prevailed in early medieval India is available in any other non-Indian source. He explains the origin of the caste system as the work of Kings of ancient period and says that if a new order of things in political or social life is introduced by a strong-minded individual and supported by religious sanction, it gradually turns into the accepted social norm. He speaks of the existence of eight classes of people outside the varna order, segregated in accordance with their occupation and guilds. These were: fuller, shoemaker, juggler, basket and shield maker, the sailor, fisherman, hunter of wild animals and birds, and weaver. These guilds, we are informed do not live with the rest of the community and generally had their living quarters on the periphery or outskirts of towns and villages. (Sachau 1910, 2003, 67) class of people called Hadi, Doma (Domba), Chandala and Badhatau are also mentioned as apart from any guild or caste and generally occupied with dirty work like manual scavenging and cleaning. He mentions about the inter-caste marriages and writes that it was common among the Antayaja(those who were not reckoned among any caste). He also mentions about Polygamy in his book and writes that some Hindus were of the view that the number of wives depends on the caste, that a Brahman could take four wives, a Kshatriya three, a Vaisya two and a Sudra one accordingly.

He also takes notice of ancient Indian traditions and writes about them in his book.Though his work is mainly concerned with the religious and intellectual aspects, he writes about many other things too but his silence on topics of trade, industry, agriculture, art etc is difficult to understand. He also gives information related to education and regional languages of the Indian society. He mentions the use of slate and chalks for writing and the method of preparing of writing material from the bark and leaves of different kind of trees. He writes that Hindu alphabet consisted of 50 letters and had many sounds which were not found in any other language. Moreover, he adds that Hindus wrote from the left to the right like the Greeks. He also gives accounts of principal festivals.

Among the 'Hindus' sciences Al-Beruni devotes special attention to astronomy partly because it was 'the most famous among them' and partly because of his own interest in the subject. He also writes about some other 'Hindus' sciences, such as alchemy, metrology, medicine. He also notes the religious beliefs of peoples of India. According to him, the educated class of Hindus believed in monotheism and the masses on the other hand widely practised idol worship. He also gave an economic reason for the importance of Somnath, prohibition of cow-slaughter, the prevalence of prostitution. Regarding the prostitutes, he observes that kings used them as an attraction for their cities, a bit of pleasure for their subjects, for no other but financial reasons.

He records with a fair degree of accuracy, the date of the conquest of Somnath by Sultan Mahmud, and also noted its exact location and the legend behind the building of the temple. He places the invasion of Somnath in the year 416 H/1026 CE, or 947 saka, which has also been confirmed by other contemporary writers as Ibn-Zafir and ibn al-Athir. (Khan 1976, 95-96) He even shows that political expediency rather than religious sentiments often guided the actions of some of the early Muslim rulers.

Al-Beruni while giving an account of the physical geography of the country seems to have an eye for everything ranging from the shape, size, and make of rock and stones to the anthropological features and costumes of the people. His knowledge of Indian geography can be divided into two categories: 1. Ancient Indian geographical concepts and information; 2. His own concepts and information. Al-Biruni conceived of India as a plain surrounded on three sides – north, east and west by a chain of high and wide mountains, which stretched from China in the east up to the country of the Franks in the West. (Alavi 1975, 232)

The most important contribution of Al-Beruni to physical geography was his concept of seas, and particularly his theory about the sea route between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, south of the mountain of the moon, the traditional source of the Nile in Africa, a concept which was later adopted by European adventurers and travellers who desired to find a route between India and Europe. He also gave an elaborate account of the climate, physical features, rivers, and mountains of India, especially of the northern parts. He also describes for the first time, the network of roads spreading out from Kanauj into all four directions, however, his knowledge of the peninsular India was meagre, for it was mainly based on the information provided by earlier Arab geographers who may or may not have visited the country.

Al-Biruni also mentions the different methods of weighing and measuring practised in India at the time. He has given a detailed account of them and his sources for this particular information included works of Varahamihira, Charak, Sripala, and the Puranas.

With regard to astronomy, al-Biruni mentions Varaha Mihira’s Panchasiddhantika (6th century), Brahmagupta’s Brahma Siddhanta (7th century); Aryabhatta I’s Dasagitika and Aryastasata (5th century); works of Aryabhatta II (10th century) and Munjala (10th century). He also studied Brahmagupta’s Khandakhadyaka, Vatesvara’s Karanasara and Vijayananda’s Karanatilaka. In his works, he dealt with a wide range of astronomical subjects and issues, such as nature of globe and figures of heaven and earth; the revolution of planets, their mean places and conjunctions; the time for different longitudes and latitudes; solar and lunar eclipses; and various instruments of observations.

According to him, Indian astronomers generally divided the zodiac into 27 or sometimes 28 lunar stations or nakshatras, and gave the number of stars in each nakshatra.  He also mentions that Indian astronomers knew about the real cause behind solar and lunar eclipses and that their calculations are scientific. He expresses surprise that they should mix up science with popular religious beliefs.

REFERENCE:

1. Alavi, S.M. Ziauddin. “al-Biruni's contribution to Physical Geography.” Indian Journal of the History of Science 10, no. 2 (1975): 230-234.
2. H.A.R. Gibb; J.H. Kramers. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition. Vol. 1. 12 vols. Leiden: E.J. BRILL, 1986.
3. http://vle.du.ac.in
4. Sachau, C. Edward. ''India by Al-Beruni.'' edited by Ahmad Qeyamuddin.