EARLY INDIAN SUFI WRITING IN URDU
The Sufis had started using the ancestor of Urdu-Hindi in informal conversation and occasional verses, as attested by the malfūzāt and the tazkarās cited earlier in other contexts. Some of them were said to recite verses in Hindi. For instance, Sheikh Rizqullah (897/1491–92—997/1588–89), is said to have recited couplets in Hindi and written a treatise (risālā) in that language ‘and its name in Hindi is Rajan and in Persian Mushtaqi’ (va nām- ē- īshān dar Hindi rājan ast ō dar fārsī mushtāqī’ ) (Dehlavi 1862: 163–64). Sheikh Burhan Kalpi was famous for his Hindi dōhrās (a poetic genre) (Ibid., 267), while Sheikh Abdullah Abdal Dehlavi, who was a majzūb, ‘used to dance in the market-place and recite couplets in simple Hindi relevant to the situation’ (dar bāzār raqs kunan ō dōhrāhē hindi sadā māfiq-ē-hāl guftī ’ (Ibid., 272). For a recent (nineteenth century) example of the way they used the local languages, it is instructive to read the malfūzāt of Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845–1901), who lived in the present Siraiki-
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speaking area. Mohammad Ruknuddin, the compiler of the malfūzāt , gives many instances of his mentor’s own Siraiki verses recited during poetry and musical sessions ( mehfil-ē-samā’a ). Moreover, songs in ‘Hindi’ were also sung. For instance, a certain sufi called Sayyid Turab Ali, during the maghrib prayers, started singing the following ‘thumrī’ : ‘nēki lagat mohẽ apnē sayyã kī ānkh rasīlī lāj bharī rē ’ (beautiful appears to me my lover’s eye filled with nectar and bashfulness) (Ruknuddin 1926–27: 23). As there is mention of similar musical sessions and the singing of ‘Hindi’ songs it is evident that the Sufis patronized, or at least encouraged, singing in the local languages.
Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz is said to have given sermons in Dakhni Urdu since people were less knowledgeable in Persian and Arabic and several works in Hindvi are attributed to him (Shareef 2004: 59). According to Jamil Jalibi, however, Gesu Daraz could not be the author of these works (Jalibi 1975: 159–160). However, whether these particular writings are by Gesu Daraz or not, he did know the languages of India. This is suggested by the conversation of 28 Sha’bān 802/1400, when the Saint make it clear that he conversed with Brahmins and knew the religious books of the Hindus and the Sanskrit language very well (Hussaini 1401: 218–219). He also discussed ‘Hindi’ songs on the first of Ramzān 802/1400, but it is not clear whether this refers to Dakhni or some South Indian Dravidian or other language (Hussaini 1401: 238).
However, even if Indian languages, including the ancestor of Urdu and Hindi, were used by the saints in their conversation, they were not considered appropriate for religious writing. Thus Shah Miran Ji (d. 1496) writes in a didactic poem in Hindvi that this language was like a diamond one discovered in a dung heap. He makes it clear that the poem is intended for those who neither knew Arabic nor Persian. Then, in easy Hindvi verse, which contemporary Urdu readers can understand with some effort, the author explains mysticism in questions and answers
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(Haq 1939: 48–50). His son, Shah Burhanuddin Janum, wrote a Hindvi poem in 1582. He too apologizes for writing in Hindvi but argues that one should look at the meaning, the essence, rather than the outward form (Ibid., 62–63). In short, the Sufis used the local languages for the dissemination of their message just as the medieval friars used the European vernacular languages in Europe. As Kehnel puts it:
One seems to agree that in England as in the rest of late medieval Europe, preachers made regular use of the vernacular when actually delivering their sermons. They did however—at least in writing— develop a specific bilingual jargon, a style generally referred to as Macaronic, which functioned somewhere in between the written Latin text and the spoken vernacular word (Kehnel 2006: 94)
In the case of medieval India, for the Muslim Sufis, a similar process was at work and the couplets in Rekhta—meaning that half a line or a full line is in Persian and the other in Hindvi— attributed to many of them, are a parallel development. Yet another practice which disseminated the local languages in addition to Persian which was normally in use in formal domains—was music or sama’ā, which has been mentioned in other contexts several times already. The sufis held musical evenings (mefil-ē-sama’ā ) in which ‘Hindi’ songs were heard. The conversation of 7 Ramzan 802/1400 of Sheikh Geru Daraz records that a certain Hasan Mehmandi said ‘ sohla mai sohla’ in Hindi in such a musical evening. The meaning given in the book is: ‘o my mother! Happiness and music are His’ (Hussaini 1401: 270). Khawaja Naseeruddin Chiragh Delhvi is reported to have reached ecstasy upon hearing both Hindi and Persian couplets on 10 Muharram 803/1400 (Hussaini 1401: 532). Khwaja Gesu Daraz’s father told him on 21 Safar 803/1401 about a sufi who was older than him—this takes us back to the early fourteenth century— who got in such ecstasy upon singing the Hindi song ohnū sa maddiā khan shrā mākar huā that a needle penetrated his foot
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causing such excessive bleeding that he died (Hussaini 1401: 553).1
The attitudes of these fifteenth and sixteenth century mystics is similar to that of the Mahdavis—pioneers of a new religious sect—who followed the teachings of Syed Muhammad Mehdi of Jaunpur (1443–1505), which were considered heretical at that time. In a poem written between 1712 and 1756 in Hindvi, the Mahdavis say that one should not look down upon Hindi as it is the commonly used language for explanation (Shirani 1940 in 1987: 207). That this language was considered useful for religious preaching is evidenced by Bayazid Ansari’s use of it in his book Khairul Bayān, written by the end of the sixteenth century. As this book and its author have been discussed in detail earlier they need not detain us here. Suffice it to say that the language was used in the extreme North West of the subcontinent by a man who fancied he was giving a new interpretation of Islam. There were also a large number of versified stories on what may be called folk Islam or popular Islam in ‘Hindvi’ in circulation: these were on the Prophet of Islam’s [PBUH] radiance or spiritual
essence (Nūr Nāmās) or his passing away (Wafāt nāmās ); on the battle of Karbala ( Jang Nāmās, Karbālā Nāmās); life after death ( Lahad nāmās) and holy personages (such as Bībī Fatimā). They proliferated in the Deccan during the seventeenth century. Jamil Jalibi tells us that they were read out and people believed that such recitations would make their wishes come true (Jalibi 1975: 493–496). The other favourite theme referred to previously, was the Pa nd Nāmā, a book which explained the rituals and rudimentary principles of Islam. These can be called the Sharia’h guide books and can be seen in the catalogues of the British Library (Blumhardt 1926; and Quraishi and Sims-Williams 1978).
The medieval Sufis, once again like the friars of medieval Europe, were members of a universal, international order which tied them to the Muslim world especially the Persianate one. But