Come January, Sangh Parivar-related organisations are set to celebrate the literary and spiritual contributions of Abhinavagupta, a prolific Shaivite philosopher from Kashmir who is believed to have passed away on January 4, 1016.
RSS general secretary Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi said in a just-released statement: “It would be a true homage to Acharya Abhinavgupta to enlighten the whole world, especially the youth of Kashmir, with the life and deeds of the legend who interpreted the ancient spiritual and cultural heritage of Kashmir in a new unifying philosophy with the challenges of times, in this era of ideological fanaticism.”
“In January, exactly 1000 years after the date he merged himself in Shiva after retiring to a cave near Srinagar, we will have events dedicated to his memory in Delhi and Mumbai and will also have a seminar in Srinagar later in the year,” Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre general secretary Ashutosh Bhatnagar told The Hindu . “We will have four-five international seminars through 2016, 50-60 national seminars and 250-300 workshops on Acharya Abhinavgupta. His memory is still cherished in Kashmir and no section of society will have any problem with him.”
The study centre has the Sangh’s point man to Jammu and Kashmir Arun Kumar as its mentor. The RSS had in 2014 celebrated the memory of medieval warrior Hemu, the “last Hindu” to rule Delhi before Akbar’s army defeated his forces at Panipat in 1556, soon after he had declared himself king. The Narendra Modi government on its part has also lined up a number of icons to celebrate.
Scholars and historians have frowned upon such attempts as a bid to “appropriate” historical figures.
While praising Abhinavgupta’s scholarship, historian D.N. Jha strikes a note of caution: “He was a very learned man and wrote treatises on many subjects. But it isn’t surprising that the Sangh Parivar is trying to appropriate him as they try to appropriate everything in the Indian tradition. They are trying to do the same with Bhagat Singh and B.R. Ambedkar, with whom they have nothing to do.”
Sanskrit scholar and JNU academic Heeraman Tiwari said anyone connected with a secular study of ancient India should read Abhinavgupta, whose Tantralok , a work on Shaivism, is a “classic”.
