Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c19.25

c19.25

Before passing on to the next topic we think it necessary to say here a few words about the probability of some Muslim influence on the Dharma cult. After the Mahomedan invasion of Bengal in the thirteenth century, the Muslims began gradually to settle in the land and to exert political, religious and cultural influence on the people. It seems that the followers of the Dharma cult with their monotheistic belief in the formless God could easily have friendly terms with the Muslims who had the same monotheistic belief in the formless God and who were particularly antagonistic to the politheistic belief of popular Hinduism. There seems to be palpable influence of the Muslims in the description of Dharma of later days.¹ The Muslims of Bengal were in their turn variously influenced by these minor cults of Bengal, and as a matter of fact we find that in the popular Muslim literature of Bengal the Muslims used all the terminology of the Dharma cult and the Nātha cult in their description of God