Prophet Mohammed: Is He Really Predicted in the Bhavishya Purana? The Bhavishya Purana has a reference regarding someone named Mahamada, which some people are very eager to make the claim that it means Prophet Mohammed, thus saying that the Prophet is predicted in the Vedic literature. But before we come to that conclusion, with additional research, let us take a closer look to see what the full reference to Mahamada really says. It is explained in the Bhavishya Purana (Parva 3, Khand 3, Adhya 3, verses 5-6) that An illiterate mleccha [foreigner] teacher will appear, Mahamada is his name, and he will give religion to his fifth-class companions. This does not describe much in regard to his life, but it does mention someone by the name of Mahamada, and what he was expected to do, which was to give his own form of religion to the lower classes of his region. Some people suggest this person to be Prophet Mohammed, and are, thus, most willing to accept that Prophet Mohammed was predicted in the Bhavishya Purana. Some Muslims then suggest that if he was predicted in this way by a Vedic text, then Hindus should all accept Mohammed and become Muslims. However, on the other hand, it would seem odd that Muslims would accept a Vedic text to try to convince Hindus to become Muslims. But if we look at the full translation of this story, they may not want to jump to the conclusion that this story represents Prophet Mohammed. So here is the Roman transliteration of the Sanskrit in the Bhavishya Purana, however accurate it may be (Prati Sarga: Part III, 3.3.5-27). mahamadh ithi khayat, shishya-sakha-samniviyath 5 ....... mahadev marusthal nivasinam. mahadevthe snanya-pya punch-gavua samnivithya tripurarsur-nashav bahu-maya pravathiney 7 malech-dharma shav shudhaya sat-chit-anandaya swarupye, thva ma hei kinkare vidhii sharanaghatham 8 suta uvacha: ithi shurthiya sthav deva shabadh-mah nupaya tam, gath-vaya bhojraj-ney mahakhaleshwar-sthale 9 malech-shu dhushita bhumi-vahika nam-vishritha arya dharma hi nav-vathra vahike desh-darunya 10 vamu-vatra maha-mayi yo-sav dagdho myaa pura tripuro bali-daithyane proshith punaragath 11 ayoni sa varo math prasava daithyo-vrudhan mahamadh ithi khayath , paishacha-kruthi thathpar 12 nagathvaya thvya bhup paisachae desh-vartake math prasadhayane bhupal tav shudhii prajayathe 13 thi shruthva nupshav svadesha-napu maragmath mahamadh toi sdhav sindhu-thir mupaye-yav 14 uchav bhupati premane mahamadh-virshad tva deva maharaja das-tva magath 15 mamo-chit sabhu jiya-dhatha tatpashya bho nup ithi shruthya ththa hata para vismaya-magath16 malechdhano mathi-shasi-tatsaya bhupasaya darutho17 tucha tva kalidas-sthu rusha praah mahamadham maya-thei nirmithi dhutharya nush-mohan-hethvei 18 hanishyami-duravara vahik purusha-dhamum ityak va sa jidh shrimanava-raja-tathpar 19 japthya dush-sah-trayach tah-sahansh juhav sa bhasm mutva sa mayavi malech-dev-tva-magath 20 maybhithashtu tachya-shyaa desh vahii-kamayuuah guhitva svaguro-bhasm madaheen tva-magatham 21 swapiit tav bhu-ghyot-thro-shrumadh-tathpara madaheen puro jath thosha trith sayam smurthaum 22 rathri sa dev-roop-shav bahu-maya-virshad paisacha deha-marathaya bhojraj hi so trivith 23 arya-dharmo hei to raja-sarvoutham smurth ishapraya karinayami paishacha dharma darunbhu 24 linga-chedri shikhaheen shamshu dhaari sa dhushak yukhalapi sarva bhakshi bhavishyat jano maum 25 vina kaul cha pashav-thosha bhakshava matha maum muslanav sanskar kushariv bhavishyat 26 tasman-musal-vanto hi jathiyo dharma dhushika ithi pishacha-dharma mya kruth 27 To set the scene, in this section of the Bhavishya Purana, Shri Suta Gosvami first explained that previously, in the dynasty of King Shalivahana, there were ten kings who went to the heavenly planets after ruling for over 500 years. [This gives these kings roughly 50 years of rule for each one.] Then gradually the morality declined on the planet. At that time, Bhojaraja was the tenth of the kings on the earth [who would have ruled about 450 years after King Shalivahana]. When he saw that the moral law of conduct was declining, he went to conquer all the directions of his country with ten-thousand soldiers commanded by Kalidasa. He crossed the river Sindhu [modern Indus River] going northward and conquered over the gandharas [the area of Afghanistan], mlecchas [present-day region of Turkey], shakas, Kashmiris [Kashmir and present-day Pakistan], naravas, and sathas. Crossing the Sindhu, he conquered the mlecchas in Gandhar and the shaths in Kashmir. King Bhoj grabbed their treasure and then punished them. Then, as verses 7-8 relate, the Aryan King Bhojaraja, who had already left India for the lands across the Sindhu River and to the west, meets Mahamada [some say this is Mohammed], the preceptor of the mleccha-dharma [religion of the mlecchas], who had arrived with his followers. Thereafter, however, the King went to worship the image of Lord Mahadev, the great god Shiva, situated in the marusthal, desert. King Bhoj bathed the image of Shiva with Ganges water and worshiped him in his mind with panchagavya (the five purificatory elements from the cow, consisting of milk, ghee, yogurt, cow dung, and cow urine), along with sandalwood paste, etc., and offered him, the image of Shiva, sincere prayers and devotion. King Bhoj prayed to Lord Mahadev, O Girijanath who stays in the marusthal (land of deserts), I offer my prayers to you. You have forced maya [the illusory energy] to destroy Tripurasur [the demon Tripura]; but the mlecchas are now worshiping you. You are pure and sat-chit-anand swaroop [eternal knowledge and bliss]. I am your sevak [servant]. I have come under your protection. Verses 10-27 relates next that Suta Goswami explained: After hearing the king’s prayers and being pleased with him, Lord Shiva said: Let the King go to Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain) in the land of Vahika, which is now contaminated by mlecchas. O King, the land where you are standing, that is popular by the name of Bahik, has been polluted by the mlecchas. In that terrible country there no longer exists Dharma. There was a mystic demon named Tripura (Tripurasura), whom I have already burnt to ashes once before, he has come again by the order of Bali. He has no origin but he achieved a benediction from me. His name is Mahamada and his deeds are like that of a ghost. Therefore, O king, you should not go to this land of the evil ghost. By my mercy your intelligence will be purified. [This would seem to indicate that this Mahamada was an incarnation of the demon Tripura.] So hearing this, the king came back to his country and Mahamada came with them, but only to the bank of the river Sindhu. He was expert in expanding illusion, so he said to the king very pleasingly, O great king, your god has become my servant. Just see, as he eats my remnants, so I will show you. The king became surprised when he saw this happening before them. Then in anger Kalidasa, the king’s commander, rebuked Mahamada, O rascal, you have created an illusion to bewilder the king, I will kill you, you are the lowest... Then the king left that area. Later, in the form of a ghostly presence, the expert illusionist Mahamada appeared at night in front of King Bhojaraja and said: O King, your religion is of course known as the best religion among all. Still, by the order of the Lord, I am going to establish a terrible and demoniac religion and enforce a strong creed over the meat-eaters [mlecchas]. My followers will be known by their cut [circumcised] genitals, they will have no shikha [tuft of hair on their head, like Brahmanas], but will have a beard, make noise loudly, and eat all kinds of animals except swine without observing any rituals. They will perform purificatory acts with the musala, and thus be called musalman, and not purify their things with kusha grass [one of the Vedic customs]. Thus, I will be the originator of this adharmic [opposed to Vedic or Aryan Dharma] and demoniac religion of the meat-eating nations. After having heard all this, the Bhavishya Purana goes on to relate that King Bhojaraja returned to his land and palace, and that ghost of the man also went back to his own place. It is lastly described how the intelligent king, Bhojaraja, established the language of Sanskrit amongst the three varnas -- the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas -- and for the Shudras he established prakrita-bhasha, the ordinary language spoken by common men. After ruling his kingdom for another 50 years, he went to the heavenly planets. The moral laws established by him were honored even by the demigods. The arya-varta, the pious land is situated between Vindhyachala and Himachala, or the mountains known as Vindhya and Himalaya. The Aryans reside there, but the varna-sankaras reside on the lower part of Vindhya. The musalman people were kept on the other [northwestern] side of the river Sindhu. * * * Thus, from the interpretations of the present editions of the Bhavishya Purana that are available, it seems to say there was someone named Mahamada that King Bhojaraja met in the desert, who was supposedly a reappearance of the Tripura demon, who would start his own religion for those mlecchas who are unable to follow the spiritual codes of the deeper aspects of spiritual culture, or Vedic Dharma, and who would also spread adharma, or that religion that would be opposed to Vedic Dharma. Plus, Mahamada knew and accepted the depth of the Vedic spiritual path and admitted to its superiority. But is Mahamada really Prophet Mohammed? Let me assure everyone that this section is not a commentary on Prophet Mohammed, and is only an explanation of what is said in the Bhavishya Purana. But since some people accept this to be a prediction, we need to take a closer look at it. So, the first few lines of this translation does seem to hold a possibility of referring to the Prophet. But after that, it could be questionable whether a person would really want to accept this story to be about Prophet Mohammed or not. Historically, however, we know that Prophet Mohammed was born between 570-580 CE, became interested in religion at age 40, preached in Mecca for 10 years, and then went to Medina in 621 CE at age 51 when he finally established a following. He started engaging in armed conflict in 624 CE, gained possession of Mecca in 630, and died in 632 CE at age 62. So, he would have had to have met King Bhojaraja only after he had a following, between the years of 621 and 632. That is an extremely narrow eleven-year window of time. However, herein it also says that Mahamada went with King Bhojaraja to the Sindhu River, but there is never any historical record that Prophet Mohammed personally went to that area, which establishes another doubt of whether this could have been the Prophet. Furthermore, even though it is described how King Bhojaraja conquered over the gandharas [the area of Afghanistan], mlecchas [present-day region of Turkey], shakas, Kashmiris [Kashmir and present-day Pakistan], naravas, and sathas, it never mentions that he went into the area of central Saudi Arabia where he would have had to go in order to meet the Prophet at the particular time when the Prophet had a following. Plus, if King Bhojaraja was the tenth king after Shalivahana, who was supposed to have existed about the time of Jesus Christ, according to the evidence provided in the previous section, that would mean that this king lived about 450 to 500 CE. This is too early to allow for a possibility to have met the Prophet. However, there are a few King Bhojaraja’s that are recorded in history. The one in the Bhavishya Purana is noted as intelligent, and who established the language of Sanskrit amongst the three varnas -- the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas -- and for the Shudras he established prakrita-bhasha, the ordinary language spoken by common men. The King Bhojaraja who was known for being a Sanskrit scholar is credited with being the author of two books, the Saraswatikanthabharana, and the Shringaraprakasha. Of these, the first is a compendious volume in five chapters, dealing with the merits and defects of poetry, figures of speech, language, etc. However, this scholar King Bhojaraja is said to have lived from 1018 to 1054 CE. This is way too late to have enabled him to personally have met the Prophet. Therefore, at least with the present information that is available, we are left to conclude that, though King Bhojaraja may have indeed met a person named Mahamada, the meeting between the king and Prophet Mohammed as an accurate historical event is extremely unlikely. Thus, in this description from the Bhavishya Purana, Mahamada is not the Prophet. Beyond this point of view, is this a later interpolation? Who can say? Or is this is a prophecy in an allegorical form? That would be left to one’s own opinions or sentiments. * * *
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 01:12:39 +0000
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