Islam in Bengal and Odisha is not the Islam of Gujarat

As per Sanatani lore, Islam came to India, smashing the Somnath temple of Gujarat. They forget to mention that the Jagannath temple of Odisha, attacked over eighteen times, remained resilient and continues to stand tall. Different parts of India responded differently to Islam. At the time of India’s Partition, Bengali-speaking regions had over 50% Muslim population, while Odia-speaking regions had less than 5%.

The arrival of Islam in the mainland had much to do with horses. When the horse traders from Afghanistan and Iran entered India, they realised that many of the kings of India were rather weak and it was easy to take over their kingdoms.

One such case happened in 1202 AD; an Afghan rode into the Bengal city of Nadia, which was the seat of a local Maharaj. Before the Hindu king realised what was happening, the horse riders, instead of selling horses, which was a regular sight in the market, pulled out their swords, entered the king’s palace and occupied it. The horse dealer became the Sultan of Bengal, Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji, who proceeded to plunder the Nalanda University in Bihar. Fearing that the Delhi sultans would block his access to horses from the northwest, he invaded Assam to ensure access to ponies from Tibet. So as early as 800 years ago, horse riders entered Bengal and established the Islamic rule.

Bengal at that time was ruled by the Hindu Sena kings who had replaced the Buddhist Pala kings. Local narratives indicate that many peasant and subaltern communities saw the end of Sena rule as liberating. The Mangal Kavyas were written between the 13th and the 18th century and in one of these, known as Shunya Puran, there is an extraordinary narrative entitled ‘Niranjan-er Rushma’ or ‘the wrath of Lord Niranjan’, which claims that Dharma from Vaikuntha, along with many Hindu deities, arrived on earth in the form of Muslim horsemen to punish exploitative Brahmin landowners and establish order. Even today, terracotta horses are given to Dharma Thakur by subaltern communities.

There is reference to King Shashank bringing Brahminism to Bengal from Kashi and Kannauj in the 6th century. Before that, Buddhists and Jains had entered this land. Most of these mainstream religions impacted only the elites and did not percolate to the lower levels of society, where people continued to follow their tribal practices and folk deities who became peculiar to Bengal, such as Mansa, Chandi, Bon-Bibi and Dakshin-rai.

There is the concept of the Charak Sannyasi in Bengal, where anybody can become Shiva for the month of Chaitra, during which people live a celibate life, do not eat meat, and live like mendicants. It’s a mixture of tantric Buddhism and Shaivism, and they receive alms from people, smear their bodies with ash and on the final day, attach iron hooks to their backs and spin around the Charak pole. During this time, anybody from any caste becomes Shiva, and even the Brahmins touch their feet. Hook swinging is popular; piercing the cheek and the tongue with sharp iron rods is also popular. These are clearly local folk practices; tribal practices seen in many parts of India have nothing to do with Brahmin dharma-shastra.

Muslim contact with Odisha started after Bengal was conquered. The Ganga and Gajapati kings fiercely resisted Muslim invasions. They invented rites like navakalebara, based on various old Tantrik Buddhist and tribal rituals that allowed the temple deity to be ‘reborn’ despite desecration. And so, Jagannath still stands tall, despite several brutal attacks. Odisha fell to Afghan rulers only when it had been weakened by attacks by the Hindu Vijayanagara kings in the 16th century. This was followed by Mughal rule, Maratha rule, and British rule.

Islamic influence was weak. Persian (Mughal) inscriptions appear only in the 17th century in Cuttack, indicating the building of mosques. There is one inscription from the Afghan period, in 1587, about a well dug by a local Afghan warlord.

Even though Odisha is close to Bengal, it is clear that while Bengal had a very strong Muslim rule, the Mahanadi region did not. At first, the kings fiercely resisted Islamic rule, and later, ritual innovations were used to keep Hinduism thriving. By paying a hefty pilgrim tax, the local priests ensured the Mughal governors left them alone. Probably to increase the pilgrim tax revenue, a Mughal highway was built that connected Odisha through Bengal to Vrindavan. It is through this path that the Chaitanya cult spread rapidly towards the Gangetic Plain.

Odisha’s Brahmins, perhaps, were more innovative than Bengal’s Brahmins, and both were clearly more influential than Gujarat’s Brahmins. This may explain the differences in response to Islam in respective geographies.

The writer works with gods and demons who churn nectar from the ocean of Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Christian, even secular mythologies.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.