A GLIMPSE OF PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

Arabia is an abbreviation. The original word even today
is Arbasthan. It originates in Arvasthan. As observed earlier
Sanskrit "V" changes into "B". Arva in Sanskrit means a horse.
Arvasthan signifies a land of horses, and as we all know Arabia
is famous for its horses.

In the 6th and 7th centuries A.D. a wave of effecting a
complete break with the past spread over West Asia. All links
with the past were broken, images smashed, scriptures des-
troyed, education discontinued and the entire West Asian
region took a plunge in abyssmal ignorance which lasted for
centuries thereafter and perhaps persists to a certain extent
even today because if in the whole world modern scientific and
educational developments find stubborn and entrenched resis-
tance anywhere it is in the West Asian countries. It is said
that the late Saudi Arabia ruler could not permit a radio
broadcasting station opened in his own capital because of
oposition from his Maulavis. He then resorted to a stratagem.
Once while he had his council of Maulavis in attendance he had
a radio set switched on to a program of Koranic recitation
broadcast from a small transmitting station set up earlier
without much ado. The Maulavis were delighted, so goes the
report, to hear the word of Allah coming to them as if from
nowhere. The king told them that what objections could they
have to a mechanism which broadcast the word of Allah. The
Maulavis agreed and the small radio broadcasting project was
at last ratified.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclø-
paedia Islamia the Arabs are ignorant of their own history of
the pre-Muslim era. By a strange euphemism they call it a
period of ignorance and darkness. Probably no other country
in the world has deliberately written off a 2,500 year period of
their own history by systematically stamping out and snapping
all links with the past. They have wiped the memories of pre-
Muslim era off their minds. So while they chose to remain
ignorant of their past ironically enough it is they who dub the
pre-Muslim era as a period of ignorance.

Fortunately we can still trace the history of that pre-
Islamic Arabia. It is a well known adage that there is no such
thing as foolproof destruction of all evidence. The pre-Islamic
history of Arabia is the story of Indian Kshatriyas over that
land, with the people following the Vedic way of life.

In our attempt to reconstruct the story of pre-Islamic
Arabia we begin with the name of the country itself. As
explained earlier the name is fully Sanskrit. Its central
pilgrim centre, Mecca is also a Sanskrit name. Makha in
Sanskrit signifies a sacrificial fire. Since Vedic fire worship
was prevalent all over West Asia in pre-Islamic days Makha
signifies the place which had an important shrine of fire
worship.

Coinciding with the annual pilgrimage of huge bazaar
used to spring up in Makha i.e. Mecca since times immemorial.
The annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca is not at all an
innovation but a continuation of the ancient pilgrimage. This
fact is mentioned in encyclopedias.

VIKRAMADITYA

Evidence is now available that the whole of Arabia was
part of the great Indian King Vikramaditya's vast empire. The
extent of Vikramaditya's empire is one of the main reasons for
his world wide fame. Incidentally this also explains many
intriguing features about Arabia. It could be that
Vikramaditya himself had this peninsula named Arvasthan if
he was the first Indian monarch to capture it and bring it
under his sway.

The second intriguing aspect is the existence of a
Shivalinga or the Mahadeva emblem in the Kaaba shrine in
Mecca. Before going into further details about the ancient
Vedic rituals and names still clinging to Muslim worship at
Mecca we shall see what evidence we have about Arabia
having formed part of Vikramaditya's dominions.

ANTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT ARABIC POETRY: SAYAR-UL-OKUL

In Istanbul in Turkey, there is a famous library called
Makteb-e-Sultania which is reputed to have the largest
collection of ancient West Asian literature. In the Arabic
Section of that library is an anthology of ancient Arabic
poetry. That anthology was compiled from an earlier work in
A.D. 1742 under the orders of the Turkish ruler Sultan Salim.

The 'pages' of that volume are made of HAREER - a kind
of silk used for writing on. Each page has a decorative gilded
border. It may be recalled that gilding pages of sacred books is
an ancient custom associated with old Sanskrit scriptures
found in Java and other places. The anthology itself is known
as SAYAR-UL-OKUL. It is divided into three parts, the first
part contains biographic details and the poetic compositions of
pre-Islamic Arabian poets. The second part embodies accounts
and verses of poets of the period beginning just after Prophet
Mohammad up to the end of Banee- Ummayya dynasty. The
third part deals with later poets up to the end of Khalifa
Harun-al-Rashid's times. Incidentally "Banee" means "Vanee"
and Ummayya as in Krishnayya are Sanskrit names.

Abu Amir Abdul Asamai, a distinguished Arabian bard
who was the Poet Laureate of Harun-al-Rashid's court has
compiled and edited the anthology.

The first modern edition of Sayar-ul-Okul anthology was
printed and published in Berlin in A.D. 1864. A subsequent
edition was published in Beirut in A.D. 1932. This work is
regarded as the most important and authoritative anthology of
ancient Arabic poetry. It throws considerable light on the
social life, customs, manners and entertainment forms in
ancient Arabia. The book also contains an elaborate descrip-
tion of the ancient Mecca shrine, the town and the annual fair
known as OKAJ which used to be held there every year. This
should convince readers that the annual Haj of the Muslims to
the Kaaba is only a continuation of the old fair and not a new
practice.

But the OKAJ fair was far from a carnival. It
provided a forum for the elite and learned to discuss the
social, religious, political, literary and other aspects of the
Vedic culture then pervading Arabia. Sayar-ul-Okul asserts
that the conclusions reached at those discussions were widely

respected througout Arabia. Mecca, therefore, followed the
Varanasi tradition of providing a seat for important discussions
among the learned while the masses congregated there for
spiritual bliss. The principal shrines at both Varanasi in India
and at Mecca in Arvasthan were Shiva temples. Even to this
day the central object of veneration at both Mecca and
Varanasi continues to be the ancient Mahadeva emblems. It is
the Shankara stone which Muslim pilgrims reverently touch
and kiss in the Kaaba.

ENTRY OF NON-MUSLIMS FORBIDDEN

A few miles away from Mecca is a big signboard which
forbids entry to any non-Muslim in the area. This is a
reminder of the days when the Shrine was stormed and
captured solely for the newly established faith of Islam. The
object obviously was to prevent its recaptue.

As the pilgrim proceeds towards Mecca he is asked to
shave his head and beard and to don a special sacred attire.
This consists of two seamless sheets of white cloth. One is to
be worn round the waist and the other over the shoulders.
Both these rites are remnants of the old Vedic practice of
entering Hindu shrines, clean shaven and with holy seamless
spotless white sheets.

The main shrine in Mecca which houses the Shiva emb-
lem is known as the Kaaba. It is clothed in a black shroud.
This custom could also originate from the days when it was
thought necessary to discourage its recapture. According to
encyclopaedias Britannica and Islamia the Kaaba had 360
images. Traditional accounts mention that one of the deities
among the 360 destroyed, when the shrine was stormed, was
that of Saturn, another was of the moon and yet another was
one called Allah. In India the practice of Navagraha puja that
is worship of the nine planets is still in vogue. Two of these
nine are the Saturn and the moon. Besides, the moon is always
associated with Lord Shankara. A Crescent is always painted
across the forehead of the Shiva emblem. Since the presiding
deity at the Kaaba shrine was Lord Shiva i.e. Shankara, the
crescent was also painted on it. It is that crescent which is
now adopted as a religious symbol of Islam. Another Hindu
tradition is that wherever there is a Shiva shrine the sacred
stream of Ganga that is the Ganges must also co-exist. True
to that tradition a sacred fount exists near the Kasba. Its
water is held sacred because it was regarded as but another
Ganga since pre-Islamic times. Muslim pilgrims visiting the
Kaaba shrine go around it seven times. In no other mosque
does this perambulation prevail. Hindus invariably perambu-
late around their shrines. This is yet another proof that the
Kaaba shrine is a pre-Islamic Shiva temple where the Hindu
practice of perambulation is still meticulously observed.

Allah is a Sanskrit word. In Sanskrit Allah, Akka and
Amba are synonyms. They signify a goddess or mother. The
term Allah appears in Sanskrit chants while invoking goddess
Durga i.e. Bhavani. The Islamic word Allah for God is
therefore not an innovation but the ancient Sanskrit appella-
tion retained and continued to be used by Islam.

The seven perambulations too are significant. At Hindu
wedding ceremonies the bride and bridegroom go round the
sacred fire seven times. the practice of seven perambultions
around the Kaaba shrine in Mecca is, therefore, a Hindu Vedic
custom. It is also a proof that Mecca was Makha or the shrine
of the sacred fire around which worshippers made seven
perambulations.

SAYAR-UL-OKUL tells us that a pan-Arabic poetic
symposium used to be held in Mecca at the annual Okaj fair in
pre-Islamic times. All leading poets used to participate in it.
Poems considered best were awarded prizes. The best poems
engraved on gold plate were hung inside the temple. Others
etched on camel or goat skin were hung outside. Thus for
thousands of years the Kaaba was the treasure house of the
best Arabian poetic thought. This tradition was of im-
memorial antiquity. But most of the poems got lost and
destroyed during the storming of the Kaaba by prophet Moham-
med's forces.

SAYAR-UL-OKUL is a poem by UMAR-BINE-HASSNAM
(Poetic Title: ABBUL-HIQAM meaning Father of Knowledge).
He was an uncle of prophet Mohammed. He refused to get
converted to Islam. He died a martyr at the hands of Muslim
fanatics who wanted to wipe out non-Muslims. This poem was
adjudged as the best in the annual fair at Kaaba.

QAFA VINAK ZIQRA MIN ULUMIN TAV
ASERU KALUBAN AYATTUL HAWA VA TAZAKKARU

A man who has spent all his life in sin and immorality and has
wasted away his life in passion and fury,

VA TAZAKEROHA AUDAN ELALVADAE LILVARA
VALUK YANK ZATULLA HE YOM TAB ASERU

If he repents in the end and wants to return to morality, is
there a way for his redemption?

VA AHLOLAHA AZAHU ARMIMAN MAHADEV O
MANAZEL ILAMUDDINE MINJUM VA SAYATTARU

Even if only once he sincerely worships Mahadeva, he can
attain the highest position in the path of righteousness.

VA SAHABI KEYAM FEEM QAMIL HINDE YOMAN
VA YAQULOON LATAHAZAN FAINNAK TAVAJ3ARU

Oh Lord! Take away all my life and in return pray grant me
even a single day's stay in Hind (India) as a man becomes
spiritually free on reaching that holy land.

MAYASSAYARE AKHALAQAN HASNAN KULLAHUM
NAJUMUN AZAAT SUMM GABUL HINDU

By dint of a pilgrimage of Hind a man attains the merit of
noble deeds and gets the privilege of pious touch with ideal
Hindu teachers.