Promotion of Learning in India during Muhammadan Rule (by Muhammadans) c11.19

c11.19

The Sulṭān was fond of hearing disputations on religious subjects, in which many learned men took part. One disputation, however, was marred by a most cruel exhibition of the Sulṭān’s religious zeal, which, fanned by his learned co-religionists, led to the decapitation of the Hindu disputant who maintained the opposite side. This Hindu, named Budhan, professed the doctrine similar to that preached by Kabīr, viz. that all religions, whether Hindu or Muslim, were equally acceptable to God, if followed in sincerity. The monarch ordered the most learned men in his empire to assemble and argue with the Brāhmaṇa. The following learned men were brought to