The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c11.138

v1.c11.138

The similitude of the two systems is so far very close; and arguing on it, it would not be unreasonable to infer a relationship between them. But on the one hand, the Bhakti system dates, as stated above, from the time of the *Bhagvadgītā*, or many many centuries before the advent of Muhammad, from which epoch it has gradually and steadily developed itself, and there is nothing to prove conclusively that the characteristics of Vaiṣṇavism as popularised by Caitanya, were not drawn from the Hindu Śāstras. In the *Caitanya Caritāmṛta* and other leading works of the sect, all the leading doctrines and rules of ceremonial observances are supported by quotations from the Purāṇas and other works, which existed from some time before the advent of the Muhammadans into India, and it would follow, therefore, that the rules and doctrines are of Indian origin. On the other hand, the history of Sufism is involved in obscurity; nothing is known of the first promulgators of the system and of its subsquent progress till the time of Sheikh Mohiuddīn'Ali, who in the middle of the eleventh century published his *Fatūhāt i Makki* and *Fasūs ul Hūkam*, which have ever since been reckoned as the text-books of the sect. *Allāh o bas*, “God and nothing else” is a favourite dogma of the Sufis, and they ascribe it to Abu Said Abul Khair who lived about nine hundred years ago. Some of them maintain that Muhammad was the first promulgator of their religion, and was himself a Sufi of the highest order. That the Prophet of Mecca was a theopathist of the highest order, and that he was greatly aided in the dissemination of his religion by a body of ardent enthusiasts, there can be no doubt, and that he inculcated many pantheistic dogmas, admits of proof; but whether they owe their paternity to him or to a foreign source, and how far they assimilate to the doctrine of the modern Sufis, are problems which still await further research for their solution.