著者

榊 和良

出版者

西南アジア研究会

雑誌

西南アジア研究 = Bulletin of the Society for Western and Southern Asiatic Studies, Kyoto University (ISSN:09103708)

巻号頁・発行日

no.84, pp.1-23, 2016

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The widespread transmission of the Arabic and Persian translations of the Amrtakunda testifies much interest in yogic literature among Sufis. Judging from the descriptions of Islamic writings in and outside India, various yogic practices were practiced by Sufis. The number of religio-philosophical textual studies on the interaction between Sufis and Yogis has been limited thus far. Sir John George Woodroffe introduced tantric scriptures with the help of Bengali pundits; he also witnessed the parallel idea of cakras in the centers of meditation described in the Sufi manual written by Dara Shukoh. According to this manual, they are called spherical heart, cedar heart and lotus heart. Cakra literally means a circle symbolized by a lotus flower and is used to denote a circle of deities or powers of such deities in yogico-tantric traditions. In the context of yogic discipline, cakras are the psychic centres of a body. The numbers and locations of cakras vary in traditions and texts. The most well-known idea of cakras is that of the six cakras which Woodroffe introduced to the pre-modern Western world, and was already known to the Islamic world through the Arabic and Persian translations of the Amrtakunda and related works. Despite of no reference to the three loci of Sufic meditation; however, among the Persian translations of yogico-tantric Sanskrit literatures, these terms denote three granthis which are synonymous with cakras. A Sufi Sharif before Dara Shukoh's time, translated the Gorakṣaśataka and related works, creating these terms that have evolved in certain Sufi circles. We will confine ourselves to investigating the transmission of the concept of cakras and the origin of three centers of meditation in the available Persian translations of Sanskrit yogic literatures. We will also show how Islamic intellectuals understand the idea of cakras and interpreted it in their own context.