In Search of the Divine: Living Histories of Sufism in India by Rana Safvi

Author:Rana Safvi [Safvi, Rana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette India
Published: 2022-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

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Popular Dargahs of North India

I have visited many dargahs in cities and villages across India. Almost every big habitation in India will have one, even if it is just a small shrine under a tree or by a roadside. Everyone needs some extra help in trying times and dargahs offer devotees the solace they need.

I even found quite a big shrine amongst the churches and convents of Goa. It belongs to Hazrat Hamza Shah and has many devotees. This is not truly surprising though, for Sufi saints are considered spiritual authorities and are often referred to as ‘Shah’ (king), their wilayat (spiritual authority) being as important as that of a temporal king. In fact, many times it was believed that medieval rulers depended on them – on their ‘barakah’ or blessings – to be able to perform their duties well. Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, whose blessings were sought by the rulers, is a case in point.

Writing about their power, historian Richard Eaton says, ‘[S]ince such saints possessed a special nearness to God, in reality it was they, and not princes or kings, who had the better claim as God’s representatives on earth.’1

Even if this was not the case, rulers surely drew their authority from these saints, who could make or unmake kings. Apart from this:

From a village perspective, after all, kings or caliphs were as politically abstract as they were geographically distant; and after the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258, caliphs all but ceased to exist even in name. Sufi saints, by contrast, were by definition luminous, vivid, and very much near at hand.2

This sums up the experiences of modern world too, and the reason why many flock to them.

Though, there are no rulers in modern India, the dargahs continue to attract rulers and commoners alike. Even today, the president of India – as head of the state – sends a chaddar to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, and local officials too vie to offer the first chaddar at their local shrines. It is thus important to examine these dargahs and their relevance in the lives of people who visit them.

With so many dargahs it was not possible for me – however much I wanted to – to visit every single one of them. So I am describing just a few – state-wise in this chapter. For some of them, I rely on oral traditions and the experiences of friends. Of those that I did visit, I am describing only a few important ones as it is beyond the scope of the book to describe every one of them.

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