North Indian Popular Religion: 11-Worshipping dead saints, Hindu and Muslim

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This article is an extract from THE POPULAR RELIGION AND FOLK-LORE OF NORTHERN INDIA BY W. CROOKE, B.A. BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO. 2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W. 1896 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this colonial article.

North Indian Popular Religion: 11-Worshippingdeadsaints, Hindu and Muslim

THE WORSHIP OF THE SAINTED DEAD

Ἄιψσα δ’ ἴκοντο κατ’ ἀσφοδελὸν λειμῶνα

Ἔνθα τε ναίουσι ψυχαὶ, ἔιδωλα καμόντων.

Odyssey, xxiv. 12, 14.

Ancestor-worship: its Origin

The worship of ancestors is one of the main branches of the religion of the Indian races. “Its principles are not difficult to understand, for they plainly keep up the arrangements of the living world. The dead ancestor, now passed into a deity, simply goes on protecting his own family, and receiving suit and service from them as of old; the dead chief still watches over his own tribe, still holds his authority by helping friends and harming enemies; still rewards the right and sharply punishes the wrong.”1 It is in fact the earliest attempt of the savage to realize the problems of human existence, as the theology of the Vedas or Olympus is the explanation which the youth of the world offers of physical phenomena.

The latter is primitive physics, the former primitive biology, and it marks a stage in the growth of anthropomorphism when the worship of unseen spirits in general passes to that of unseen spirits in particular.

Among the Aryans and Drâvidians

It is admitted on all sides that this form of worship was general among the Aryan nations;2 but it is a mistake to [176]suppose, as is too often done, that the worship was peculiar to them. That such was not the case can be proved by numerous examples drawn from the practices of aboriginal tribes in India, who have lived hitherto in such complete isolation, that the worship can hardly be due to imitation of the customs of their more civilized neighbours.

Thus, on the tenth day after a death in the family, the Ghasiyas of Mirzapur, about the most degraded of the Drâvidian tribes, feed the brotherhood, and at the door of the cook-house spread flour or ashes a cubit square on the ground. They light a lamp there and cover both the square and the light with a basket. Then the son of the dead man goes a little distance in the direction in which the corpse had been carried out, and calls out his name loudly two or three times.

He invites him to come and sit on the shrine which his descendants have prepared for him, and to consume the offerings which they are ready to present. It is said that if the deceased died in any ordinary way and not by the attack of a Bhût, he often calls from the burying ground and says, “I am coming!” After calling his father’s spirit two or three times, the son returns to the house and examines the flour or ashes, and if the deceased did not die by the attack of a Bhût, the mark of his spirit is found on the flour or ashes in the shape of the footprint of a rat or a weasel.

When this is observed, the son takes a white fowl and sacrifices it with a knife near the cook-house, calling to the spirit of his father—“Come and accept the offering which is ready for you!” Some of them strangle the fowl with their hands, and before killing it sprinkle a little grain before it, saying—“If you are really the spirit of my father, you will accept the grain!” Then he goes on to his father’s spirit—“Accept the offering, sit in the corner and bless your offspring!” If the fowl eats the grain, there is great rejoicing, as it implies that the spirit has quietly taken up its residence in the house.

If the fowl does not eat, it is supposed that some sorcerer or enemy has detained the spirit with the ultimate object of releasing it some time or other on its own family, with whom it is presumably displeased [177]because they have taken no care to propitiate it. If the soul does not answer from the burial ground, or if there is no mark on the square of ashes, it is assumed that he has fallen into the hands of some Bhût or Pret, who has shut him up in the hollow stalk of a bamboo, or buried him in the earth; in any case there is a risk that he may return, and the rite is still performed as a precautionary measure.

Among the Kharwârs the holiest part of the house is the south room, where it is supposed that the Devatâ pitri or sainted dead reside. They worship the spirits of the dead in the month of Sâwan (August) near the house-fire. The house-master offers up one or two black fowls and some cakes and makes a burnt offering with butter and molasses.

Then he calls out—“Whatever ghosts of the holy dead or evil spirits may be in my family, accept this offering and keep the field and house free from trouble!” Many of the Kharwârs are now coming more completely under Brâhmanical influence, and these worship the Pitri at weddings in the courtyard. The house-master offers some balls of rice boiled in milk, and a Brâhman standing by mutters some texts. They are now so advanced as to do the annual service for the repose of the sainted spirits at the Pitripaksha or fortnight of the dead in the month of Kuâr (August).

The other Drâvidian tribes follow similar customs. Thus, the Korwas worship their dead relations in February with an offering of goats, which is done by the eldest son of the dead man in the family cook-house. Their ancestors are said not to appear in the flesh after death, but to show themselves in dreams if they are dissatisfied with the arrangements made for their comfort. On the day on which they are expected to appear the householder makes an offering of cakes to them in the family kitchen. The Patâris think that the dead occasionally attend when worship is being done to them. At other times they remain in the sky or wander about the mountains.

Sometimes they call in the night to their descendants and say—“Worship us! Give us food and drink!” If they are not [178]propitiated they give trouble and cause sickness. The Kisâns and Bhuiyârs of Chota Nâgpur adore their ancestors, “but they have no notion that the latter are now spirits, or that there are spirits and ghosts, or a future state, or anything.” The Bhuiyas revere their ancestors under the name of Bîr or Vîra, “hero,” a term which is elsewhere applied to ghosts of a specially malignant character. The Khariyas put the ashes of their dead into an earthen pot and throw it into a river.

They afterwards set up in the vicinity slabs of stone as a resting-place for them, and to these they make daily oblations. The only worship performed by the Korwas of Chota Nâgpur is to their dead relatives, and the same is the case with other allied races, such as the Bhîls and Santâls.3

Spirits Mortal

Most of these Drâvidian tribes believe that like themselves the spirits of the dead are mortal. What becomes of them after a couple of generations no one can say. But when this period has elapsed they are supposed to be finally disposed of some way or other, and being no longer objects of fear to the survivors, their worship is neglected, and attention is paid only to the more recent dead, whose powers of mischief still continue.

The Gonds go further and propitiate for only one year the spirits of their departed friends, and this is done even if they have been persons of no note during their lifetime; but with worthies of the tribe the case is different, and if one of them, for example, has founded a village or been its headman or priest, then he is treated as a god for years, and a small shrine of earth is erected to his memory, at which sacrifices are annually offered.4 It is said that the Juângs, who until quite recently used to dress in garments of leaves, are the only one of these tribes who do not practise this form of [179]worship.5 But these races are particularly reticent about their beliefs and usages, and it is more than probable that further inquiry will show that they are not peculiar in this respect.

Ancestors Re-born in Children

Among many races, again, there is a common belief that the father or grandfather is re-born in one of his descendants. The modern reader is familiar with examples of such beliefs in Mr. Du Maurier’s “Peter Ibbetson,” and Mr. Rider Haggard’s “She.” Manu expresses this belief when he writes—“The husband after conception by his wife, becomes an embryo and is born again of her; for that is the wifehood of a wife, that he is born again by her.” The feeling that children are really the ancestors re-born is obviously based on the principle of hereditary resemblance.

Hence the general feeling in favour of calling a child by the name of the grandfather or grandmother, which is about as far as the rustic goes in recognizing the ascending line. The Konkan Kunbis, and even Brâhmans, believe that the dead ancestors sometimes appear in children. Among Gujarât Musalmâns the nurse, if a child is peevish, says, “Its kind has come upon its head.”

The same idea is found among the Khândhs. Among the Laplanders of Europe an ancestral spirit tells the mother that he has come into the child, and directs her to call it after his name.6 Another variant of the same belief is that common among some of the Drâvidian races that the ancestor is revived in a calf, which is in consequence well fed and treated with particular respect.

The Srâddha

The ordinary worship of ancestors among Brâhmanized Hindu races has been so often described in well-known books as to need little further illustration.7 The [180]spirits of departed ancestors attend upon the Brâhmans invited to the ceremony of the Srâddha, “hovering round them like pure spirits, and sitting by them when they are seated.” “An offering to the gods is to be made at the beginning and end of the Srâddha; it must not begin and end with an offering to ancestors, for he who begins and ends it with an offering to the Pitri quickly perishes with his progeny.”

The belief is common to many races that the spirits of the dead assemble to partake of the food provided by the piety of their relations on earth. Alcinous addressing the Phæacians tells them—“For ever heretofore the gods appear manifest among us, whensoever we offer glorious hecatombs, and they feast at our side sitting by the same board.” And the old Prussians used to prepare a meal, to which, standing at the door, they invited the soul of the deceased. “When the meal was over the priest took a broom and swept the souls out of the house, saying—‘Dear souls! ye have eaten and drunk. Go forth! go forth!’”8

The place where the oblation is to be made is to be sequestered, facing the south, the land of departed spirits, and smeared with cow-dung. The use of this substance is easily to be accounted for, without following the remarkable explanation of a modern writer, who connects it with the dropping of the Aurora.9 “The divine manes are always pleased with an oblation in empty glades, naturally clean, on the banks of rivers, and in solitary spots.”

The ceremony is to be performed by the eldest son, which furnishes the Hindu with the well-known argument for marriage and the procreation of male issue. We have seen that the Drâvidians also regard the rite as merely domestic and to be performed by the house-master.

The orthodox Hindu, besides the usual Srâddha, in connection with his daily worship, offers the Tarpana or water oblation to the sainted dead. The object of the annual Srâddha is, as is well known, to accelerate the [181]progress (gati) of the soul through the various stages of bliss, known as Sâlokya, Sâmîpya and Sârûpya, and by its performance at Gaya the wearied soul passes into Vaikuntha, or the paradise of Vishnu.

Hindus do not allow their sons to bathe during the fortnight sacred to the manes, as they believe that the dirt produced by bathing, shaving, and washing the apparel will reach and annoy the sainted dead. The story goes that Râja Karana made a vow that he would not touch food until he had given a maund and a quarter (about one hundred pounds) of gold daily to Brâhmans. When he died he went to heaven, and was there given a palace of gold to dwell in, and gold for his food and drink, as this was all he had given away in charity during his mortal life. So in his distress he asked to be allowed to return to earth for fifteen days.

His prayer was granted, and warned by sad experience he occupied himself during his time of grace in giving nothing but food in charity, being so busy that he neglected to bathe, shave, or wash his clothes, and thus he became an example to succeeding generations.10

Degradation of Ancestor-worship

The worship which has been thus described easily passes into other and grosser forms. Thus, in the family of the Gâikwârs of Baroda, when they worship Mahâdeva they think of the greatest of this line of princes. The temple contains a rudely-executed portrait of Khândê Râo, the shrine to the left the bed, garments, and phial of Ganges water, which commemorate his mother, Chimnâbâî. Govind Râo has an image dressed up, and Fateh Sinh a stone face.11

In Central India Râjputs wear the figure of a distinguished ancestor or relation engraved in gold or silver. This image, usually that of a warrior on horseback, is sometimes worshipped, but its chief utility is as a charm to keep off ghosts and evil spirits.12 [182]

The aboriginal Bhuiyas of Chota Nâgpur, “after disposing of their dead, perform a ceremony which is supposed to bring back to the house the spirit of the deceased, henceforth an object of household worship. A vessel filled with rice and flour is placed for the time on the tomb, and when brought back the mark of a fowl’s foot is found at the bottom of the vessel, and this indicates that the spirit of the deceased has returned.”13 This is, as we have seen, common to many of the Drâvidian tribes, and we shall meet instances of similar practices when we consider the malignant variety of ghosts.

A curious example of the popular form of ancestor-worship is given by General Sleeman:—“Râma Chandra, the Pandit, said that villages which had been held by old Gond proprietors were more liable than others to visitation from local ghosts, that it was easy to say what village was or was not haunted, but often exceedingly difficult to say to whom the ghost belonged. This once discovered, the nearest surviving relation was, of course, expected to take steps to put him to rest.

But,” said he, “it is wrong to suppose that the ghost of an old proprietor must be always doing mischief. He is often the best friend of the cultivators, and of the present proprietor too, if he treats him with proper respect; for he will not allow the people of any other village to encroach upon the boundaries with impunity, and they will be saved all expense and annoyance of a reference to the judicial tribunals for the settlement of boundary disputes. It will not cost much to conciliate these spirits, and the money is generally well laid out.”

He instances a case of a family of village proprietors, “who had for several generations insisted at every new settlement upon having the name of the spirit of the old proprietor inserted in the lease instead of their own, and thereby secured his good graces on all occasions.” “A cultivator who trespassed on land believed to be in charge of such a spirit had his son bitten by a snake, and his two oxen were seized with the murrain.

In terror he went off to the village temple, confessed his sin, and vowed to restore not [183]only the half-acre of land, but to build a very handsome temple on the spot as a perpetual sign of his repentance. The boy and the bullocks all then recovered, the shrine was built, and is, I believe, still to be seen as a boundary mark.”14

Worship of Worthies

From this family worship of deceased relations, the transition to the special worship of persons of high local reputation in life, or who have died in some remarkable way, is easy. The intermediate links are the Sâdhu and the Satî, and the worship finally culminates in a creed like that of the Jainas, who worship a pantheon of deified saints, that of the Lingâyat worship of Siva incarnated as Chambasâpa, or the godlike weaver Kabîr of the Kabîrpanthis. The lowest phase of all is the worship by the Halbas of Central India of a pantheon of glorified distillers.15

The Sâdhu

The Sâdhu is a saint who is regarded as “the great power of God,” the name meaning “he that is eminent in virtue.” He is a visible manifestation of the divine energy acquired by his piety and self-devotion. We shall meet later on instances of deified holy men of this class. Meanwhile, it may be noted, we see around us the constant development of the cultus in all its successive stages.

Thus, in Berâr at Askot the saint is still alive; at Wadnera he died nearly a century ago, and his descendants live on the offerings made by the pious; at Jalgânw a crazy vagabond was canonized on grounds which strict people consider quite insufficient. There is, of course, among the disciples and descendants of these local saints a constant competition going on for the honour of canonization, which once secured, the shrine may become a very valuable source of income and reputation.

But the indiscriminate and ill-regulated deification of mortals [184]is one of the main causes of the weakness of modern Hinduism, because, by a process of abscission, the formation of multitudinous sects, which take their titles and special forms of belief from the saint whose disciples they profess to be, is promoted and encouraged. Thus, as has been well remarked, Hinduism lies in urgent need of a Pope or acknowledged orthodox head, “to control its wonderful elasticity and receptivity, to keep up the standard of deities and saints, and generally to prevent superstitions running wild into a tangled jungle of polytheism.”16

It would be out of place to give here any of the details of the numerous sects which have been founded in this way to commemorate the life and teaching of some eminent saint. The remarkable point about this movement is that the leaders of these sects are not always or even constantly drawn from the priestly classes.

Thus the Charandâsis, who are Krishna worshippers, take their name from Charan Dâs, a Dhûsar, who are usually classed as Banyas, but claim to be Brâhmans; Jhambajî, the founder of the Bishnois, was a Râjput; Kabîr, whoever he may have been, was brought up by a family of Muhammadan weavers at Benares; Nâmdeo was a cotton carder; Râê Dâs is said to have been a Chamâr; Dâdu was a cotton cleaner; many of them are half Muhammadans, as the Chhaju-panthis and Shamsis. It is difficult to estimate highly enough the result of this feeling of toleration and catholicism on the progress of modern Hinduism.

Miracle-working Tombs

These saints have wrested from the reluctant gods by sheer piety and relentless austerities, a portion of the divine thaumaturgic power, which exudes after their death from the places where their bodies are laid. This is the case with the shrines of both Hindu and Musalmân saints. Many instances of this will be found in succeeding pages.

Thus at Chunâr there is a famous shrine in honour of Shâh Qâsim [185]Sulaimâni,17 a local saint whose opinions were so displeasing to Akbar that he imprisoned him here till his death in 1614 A.D. His cap and turban are still shown at his tomb, and these, when gently rubbed by one of his disciples, pour out a divine influence through the assembled multitude of votaries, many of whom are Hindus. This holy influence extends even to the animal kingdom. Thus the tomb of the saint Nirgan Shâh at Sarauli in the Bareilly District abounds in scorpions, which bite no one through the virtue of the saint.

Hindu saints of the same class are so directly imbued with the divine afflatus that they need not the purifying influence of fire, and are buried, not cremated. Their Samâdhi or final resting-place is usually represented by a pile of earth, or a tomb or tumulus of a conical or circular form. Others, again, like some of the Gusâîns, are after death enclosed in a box of stone and consigned to the waters of the Ganges. These shrines are generally occupied by a disciple or actual descendant of the saint, and there vows and prayers are made and offerings presented.

The Satî

The next link between ancestor-worship and that of special deceased worthies is seen in the Satî, or “faithful wife,” who, before the practice was prohibited by our Government, was bound to bear her deceased lord company to the world of spirits for his consolation and service.

The rite seems to have at one time prevailed throughout the Aryan world.18 It undoubtedly prevailed in Slavonic lands,19 and there are even traces of it in Greece. Evadne is said to have burnt herself with the body of her husband, Capaneus, and Oenone, according to one account, leaped into the pyre on which the body of Paris was being cremated. There are indications that [186]the rite prevailed among the Drâvidian races, and it has been suggested that the Hindus may have adopted it from them.

Even to the present day among some of the Bhîl tribes the wife of the dead man is carried along with him on the bier to the burning ground, where she is laid down. There she breaks her marriage necklace, and her ornaments are consumed with the corpse of her husband, obviously a survival of the time when she was actually burnt with him.20

It is unnecessary here to enter into the controversy whether or not the rite was based on a misinterpretation or perversion of one of the sacred texts. That in old times the Satî was treated with exceptional honour is certain. In some places she went to the burning ground richly dressed, scattering money and flowers, and calling out the names of the deities, with music sounding and drums beating.

In some places she used to mark with her hands the gateways and walls of the chief temple, and she sometimes marked in the same way a stone for her descendants to worship, a practice to which reference will be made later on. On such stones it was the custom to carve a representation of her, and in many places a Chhatri, or ornamental cenotaph pavilion, was erected in her honour. The small shrines in honour of the village Satî are found often in considerable numbers on the banks of tanks all over Upper India.

They are visited by women at marriages and other festivals, and are periodically repaired and kept in order. According to Mr. Ibbetson,21 in the Delhi territory, these shrines take the place of those dedicated to the Pitri, or sainted dead. They often contain a representation in stone of the lord and his faithful spouse, and one of his arms rests affectionately on her neck. Sometimes, if he died in battle, he is mounted on his war steed and she walks beside him; but her worshippers are not always careful in identifying her shrine, and I have seen at least one undoubted Revenue Survey pillar doing duty as a monument to some unnamed local divinity of this class.

SATÎ SHRINES.

Among the warrior tribes of Râjputâna, the Satî shrine [187]usually takes the form of a monument, on which is carved the warrior on his charger, with his wife standing beside him, and the images of the sun and the moon on either side, emblematical of never-dying fame. Such places are the scene of many a ghostly legend. As Col.

Tod writes in his sentimental way22—“Among the altars on which have burnt the beautiful and brave, the harpy or Dâkinî takes up her abode, and stalks forth to devour the heart of her victims.” The Râjput never enters these places of silence, but to perform stated rites or anniversary offerings of flowers and water to the manes of his ancestors. There is a peculiarly beautiful Satî necropolis at Udaypur, and the Satî Burj, or tower at Mathura, erected in honour of the queen of Râja Bihâr Mal of Jaypur in 1570 A.D., is one of the chief ornaments of the city.23

The Satî and the Pitri

The connection between the special worship of the Satî and that of the Pitri or sainted dead will have been remarked. In many places the Satî represents the company of the venerated ancestors and is regarded as the guardian mother of the village, and in many of the rustic shrines of this class the same connection with the Pitri is shown in another interesting way. The snake is, as we shall see, regarded as a type of the household deity, which is often one of the deified ancestors, and so, in the Satî shrine we often see a snake delineated in the act of rising out of the masonry, as if it were the guardian mother snake arising to receive the devotion of her descendants.

The Satî having thus secured the honour of deification by her sacrifice, is able to protect her worshippers and gratify their desires. Some are even the subject of special honour, such as Sakhû Bâî, who is worshipped at Akola.24 Even the Drâvidian Kaurs of Sarguja worship a deified Satî, another [188]link connecting the cultus with the aboriginal races. She has a sacred grove, and every year a fowl is sacrificed to her, and every third year a goat. Col. Dalton25 observes that the Hindus who accompanied him were intensely amused at the idea of offering fowls to a Satî, who is accustomed to the simpler bloodless tribute of milk, cakes, fruit and flowers.

This is the form of the offering at Jilmili, the Satî shrines belonging to the local Râja. The curses of a dying Satî were greatly feared. Numerous instances of families ruined in this way are told both in Râjputâna and in Nepâl, the last places where the rite is occasionally performed.26

The arrangements for the cremation varied in different places. In Western India she sat in a specially built grass hut, and keeping her husband’s head in her lap, supported it with her right hand, while she kindled the hut with a torch held in her left hand. Nowadays in Nepâl the husband and the Satî are made to lie side by side on the pyre. The woman’s right hand is put under the husband’s neck, and round her face are placed all kinds of inflammable substances.

Three long poles of undried wood are laid over the bodies—one over the legs, the second over the chest, and the third over the neck. Three men on either side press down the poles till the woman is burnt to death. There have been cases in which the wretched victim tried to escape, and was dragged back by force to her death.

A curious modification of the practice of Satî, which so far has been traced only in Râjputâna, is what is known as Mâ Satî, or mother Satî, where the mother immolates herself with her dead child. Colonel Powlett27 remarks that in inquiring about it one is often told that it is really Mahâ Satî, or “the great Satî.” He adds that there can be no doubt that mother Satî really prevails, but was confined to the sandy and desert tract, where domestic affection is said [189]to be stronger than elsewhere. “In one large remote village I found five monuments to Mother Satîs, one a Chhatri or pavilion of some pretensions. A Râjput lady from Jaysalmer was on a visit to her father’s family with her youngest son.

The boy was thrown when exercising his pony, dragged in the stirrup and killed. His mother became Satî with her son’s body, and probably her example, for she was a person of some rank, led to the subsequent practice of Mâ Satî in the same district.”

Modern Saints

We have already noticed some instances of the canonization in modern times of saints and holy men. Of worthies of this kind, who have received divine honours, the number is legion. This deification of human beings is found in the very early Brâhmanical literature. One of the most noteworthy ideas to be found in the Brâhmanas is that the gods were merely mortal till they conquered Death by their sacrifices.

Death, alarmed, protested to the gods, and it was then arranged that no one should become immortal by the force of his piety without first offering his body to Death. Manu declares that “from his birth alone a Brâhman is regarded as a divinity, even by the gods.”28 Modern practice supports this by calling him Mahâ-râja or “Great king,” and he rises to heaven as a deity, like many of the famous kings of old.29 In the same way the Etruscans had certain rites through which the souls of men could become gods and were called Dii Animales, because they had once been human souls. Quite in consonance with Indian practice they first became Penates and Lares before they rose to the rank of the superior deities.30

Deification in Modern Times

A few examples of modern deification may be given to illustrate this phase of the popular faith. Thus, one Gauhar [190]Shâh was quite recently canonized at Meerut because he delivered a prophecy that a windmill belonging to a certain Mr. Smith would soon cease to work. The fulfilment of his prediction was considered ample evidence of his sanctity, and the question was put beyond the possibility of doubt when, just before his death, the holy man directed his disciples to remove him from an inn, which immediately fell down.

Another saint of the same place is said to have given five years of his life to the notorious Begam Samru, who died in 1836, in all the odour of sanctity.

Shaikh Bûrhan

Shaikh Bûrhan, a saint of Amber, was offered a drink of milk by Mokul, one of the Shaikhâwat chiefs, and immediately performed the miracle of drawing a copious stream of milk from the udder of an exhausted female buffalo. “This was sufficient to convince the old chief that he could work other miracles, and he prayed that through his means he might no longer be childless. In due time he had an heir, who, according to the injunction of Bûrhan, was styled, after his own tribe, Shaikh, whence the title of the clan.

He directed that the child should wear the cross strings (baddiya) worn by Muhammadan children, which, when laid aside, were to be deposited at the saint’s shrine, and further that he should assume the blue tunic and cap, abstain from hog’s flesh, and eat no meat in which the blood remained. He also ordained that at the birth of every Shaikhâwat a goat should be sacrificed, the Islâmite creed or Kalima recited, and the child sprinkled with the blood.” These customs are still observed, and the Shaikh’s shrine is still a sanctuary, while his descendants enjoy lands specially assigned to them.31

Salîm Chishti

The power of conferring male offspring has made the reputation of many saints of this class, like the famous [191]Salîm Chishti of Fatehpur Sîkri, whose prayers were efficacious in procuring an heir for the Emperor Akbar. Up to the present day childless women visit his shrine and hang rags on the delicate marble traceries of his tomb to mark their vows.

Deification of Noted Persons

Besides this sainthood which is based on sanctity of life and approved thaumaturgic powers, the right of deification is conferred on persons who have been eminent or notorious in their lives, or who have died in some extraordinary or notorious way. All or nearly all the deified saints of Northern India may be grouped under one or other of these categories.

Harshu Pânrê

We have already given an instance of the second class in Hardaul Lâla, the cholera godling. Another example of the same kind is that of Harshu Pânrê or Harshu Bâba, the local god of Chayanpur, near Sahsarâm in Bengal, whose worship is now rapidly spreading over Northern India, and promises to become as widely diffused as that of Hardaul himself. He was, according to the current account, a Kanaujiya Brâhman, the family priest of Râja Sâlivâhana of Chayanpur.

The Râja had two queens, one of whom was jealous of the priest’s influence. About this time the priest built a fine house close to the palace, and one night the Râja and the Rânî saw a light from its upper story gleaming aloft in the sky. The Rânî hinted to the Râja that the priest had designs of ousting his master from the kingdom; so the Râja had his house demolished and resumed the lands which had been conferred upon him. The enraged Brâhman did dharnâ, in other words fasted till he died at the palace gate.

This tragical event occurred in 1427 A.D., and when they took his body for cremation at Benares, they found Harshu standing in his wooden sandals on the steps of the burning Ghât. He then informed them [192]that he had become a Brahm, or malignant Brâhman ghost. The Râja’s daughter had been kind to the Brâhman in his misfortunes and he blessed her, so that her family exists in prosperity to this day. But the rest of his house was destroyed, and now only the gateway at which the Brâhman died remains to commemorate the tragedy.32

Harshu is now worshipped as a Brahm with the fire sacrifice and offerings of Brâhmanical cords and sweetmeats. If any one obtains his desires through his intercession, he makes an offering of a golden sacred cord and a silken waist-string, and feeds Brâhmans in his honour. Harshu’s speciality is exorcising evil spirits which attack people and cause disease. Such spirits are usually of low caste and cannot withstand the influence of this deified Brâhman.

Ratan Pânrê

Another worthy, whose legend much resembles that of Harshu, is Ratan Pânrê, who is venerated by the Kalhans Râjputs of Oudh. The last of the race, Râja Achal Nârâyan Sinh, ravished the daughter of Ratan Pânrê. He pleaded in vain to the wicked Râja for reparation, and at last he and his wife starved themselves to death at the gate of the fort. He too, like Harshu, spared a princess of the Râja’s house, but he cursed the rest of his family with ruin. After he died his ghost went to the river Sarjû and claimed her assistance in revenging himself on the Râja. She at last consented to help him, provided he could get the Râja into his power by inducing him to accept some present from him.

So he went to the Râja’s family priest and induced him to take from him a sacred cord with which he was to invest the Râja. When Achal Nârâyan Sinh heard to whom he was indebted for the gift he flung it away in terror. But soon after an angry wave rushed from the Sarjû, and on its crest sat the wraith of Ratan Pânrê. It swept away his palace and left not a soul of his household alive.33 [193]

Mahenî

There is a similar case among the Hayobans Râjputs of Ghâzipur. In 1528 A.D. their Râja Bhopat Deva, or perhaps one of his sons, seduced Mahenî, a Brâhman girl, a relation of their family priest. She burned herself to death, and in dying, imprecated the most fearful curses on the Hayobans sept. In consequence of a succession of disasters which followed, the tribe completely abandoned their family settlement at Baliya, where the woman’s tomb is worshipped to this day.

Even now none of the sept dares to enter the precincts of their former home. In the same way, in the case of Harshu Pânrê no pilgrim will eat or drink near his tomb, as the place is accursed through the murder of a Brâhman.34

There are numerous other cases of this deification of suicide Brâhmans in Northern India. The forms in which they sought vengeance by their death on their persecutors are diversified in the extreme.

There is a case of a Brâhman in the Partâbgarh District who, when turned out of his land, to avenge himself, gathered a heap of cow-dung in the centre of one of the fields and lay down on it till he was devoured by worms. This happened sixty years ago, but his fields still stand a waste of jungle grass in the midst of rich cultivation, and neither Hindu nor Muhammadan dares to plough them.35

At the last census of the North-Western Provinces over four hundred thousand people recorded themselves as worshippers of various forms of the Brahm or malignant Brâhman ghost. Most of these are Râjputs, who were probably the most violent oppressors of Brâhmans in the olden days.

Nâhar Khân

Another instance of the same type may be given from Râjputâna. Jaswant Sinh of Mârwâr had an intrigue with [194]the daughter of one of his chief officers. “But the avenging ghost of the Brâhman interposed between him and his wishes; a dreadful struggle ensued, in which Jaswant lost his senses, and no effort could banish the impression from his mind.

The ghost persecuted his fancy, and he was generally believed to be possessed of a wicked spirit, which when exorcised was made to say he would depart only on the sacrifice of a chief equal in dignity to Jaswant. Nâhar Khân, ‘the tiger lord,’ chief of the Kumpâwat clan, who led the van in all his battles, immediately offered his head in expiation for his prince; and he had no sooner expressed his loyal determination, than the holy man who exorcised the spirit, caused it to descend into a vessel of water, and having waved it round his head, they presented it to Nâhar Khân, who drank it off, and Jaswant’s senses were instantly restored.

This miraculous transfer of the ghost is implicitly believed by every chief of Râjasthân, by whom Nâhar Khân is called ‘the faithful of the faithful,’ and worshipped as a local god.”36

Gangânâth and Bholanâth

Two other godlings of the Hills owe their promotion to the tragic circumstances of their deaths. Gangânâth was a Râja’s son, who quarrelled with his father and became a religious mendicant. He subsequently fell into an intrigue with the wife of an astrologer, who murdered him and his paramour. They both became malignant ghosts, to whom numerous temples were erected. When anyone is injured by the wicked or powerful, he has recourse to Gangânâth, who punishes the evil-doer. Of the same type is Bholanâth, whose brother, Gyân Chand, was one of the Almora princes.

He had him assassinated with his pregnant mistress, both of whom became malignant ghosts, and are especially obnoxious to gardeners, one of whom murdered them. This caste now specially worships them, and a small iron trident is sometimes placed in the corner of a cottage and resorted [195]to in their names when any sudden or unexpected calamity attacks the occupants.37

Bhairwanand

Similar is the case of Bhairwanand, the tribal deity of the Râikwâr Râjputs of Oudh. He was pushed into a well in order to fulfil a prophecy, and has since been deified.38

So with the queen of Ganor, who killed herself by means of a poisoned robe when she was obliged to surrender her honour to her Mughal conqueror. He died in extreme torture, and was buried on the road to Bhopâl. A visit to his grave is believed to cure tertian ague.39

Vyâsa

Next come those mortals who have been deified on account of the glory of their lives. Vyâsa, the compiler of the Vedas, has been canonized, and there is a temple in his honour both at Benares and Râmnagar. In the latter place he has been promoted to the dignity of an incarnation of Siva, whereas in Benares he has a temple of his own. His worship extends as far as Kulu, where he has an image near a stream. Pilgrims offer flowers in his name and set up a stone on end in commemoration of their visit.40

Vâlmîki

Vâlmîki, the author of the Râmâyana, is worshipped in the same way. He has shrines at Bâlu in the Karnâl District and at Baleni of Meerut. Baliya, the headquarters of the district of that name, is said to be called after him. The Aheriyas and Baheliyas, both hunting tribes of the North-Western Provinces, claim descent from him, and he has now, [196]by an extraordinary feat in hagiolatry, become identified with Lâl Beg, the low caste godling of the sweepers.41

Various Saints

Many other worthies of the olden time are worshipped in the same way. From the Himâlaya to Bombay, Dattâtreya, a saint in whom a part of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva was incarnate, is worshipped by Vaishnavas as a partial manifestation of the deity, and by Saivas as a distinguished authority on the Yoga philosophy.

He has temples both in Garhwâl and in the Konkan, like Parâsara Rishi, the reputed author of the Vishnu Purâna, who wished to make a sacrifice to destroy the Râkshasas, but was dissuaded by the saints, and then scattered the fire over the slope of the Himâlaya, where it blazes forth at the phases of the moon.42 In like fashion the records of the last census have shown worshippers of the poets Kâlidâsa and Tulasi Dâs, as in Bombay their great writers Dnyânadeva and Tûkarâm are deified by the Marâthas.

Nearly seven thousand people in the North-Western Provinces adore Vasishtha, the famous Rishi, and many others Nârada Muni, who is a well-known personage and generally acts as a sort of Deus ex machinâ in the folk-tales. On the whole in the North-Western Provinces over a quarter million people recorded themselves as votaries of these deified saints, devotees and teachers.

The same form of worship largely prevails in the Panjâb. Among other worthies we find Syâmji, a Chauhân Râja who is said to have given his head to Krishna and Arjuna on condition that he should be allowed to witness the fight between the Kauravas and Pândavas; Dhanwantari, the physician of the gods; Drona Achârya, the teacher of military science to the heroes of the great war.

The Kumhârs or potters worship Prajapati, the active creator of the universe; and the Kâyasth scribes adore Chitragupta, who keeps the register [197]of the deeds of men, which will be opened at the last day. This is quite irrespective of a horde of tutelary saints, who are adored by various tribes of handicraftsmen.

Deified Robbers

Even the thieving and nomadic tribes have as their godlings deified bandits. Such is Gandak, the patron of the Magahiya Doms, and Salhes, who is worshipped by the Doms and Dusâdhs of Behâr. He was a great hero and the first watchman. He fought a famous battle with Chûhar Mâî of Mohâma, and is the subject of a popular epic in Tirhût.

With his worship is associated that of his brother Motirâm, another worthy of the same kind.43 At Sherpur near Patna is the shrine of Goraiya or Gauraiya, a Dusâdh bandit chief, to which members of all castes resort, the higher castes making offerings of meal, the outcastes sacrificing a hog or several young pigs and pouring out libations of spirits on the ground. But even here the primitive local cultus is in a state of transition, as in the case of Salhes, who, according to some, was the porter of Bhîm Sen.44 Doubtless he and his comrades will some day blossom forth as manifestations of one or other of the higher gods.

Another bandit godling is Mitthu Bhûkhiya, a freebooter, worshipped by the Banjâras or wandering carriers. He has a special hut, in which no one may drink or sleep, and which is marked with a white flag.

The tribe always worship him before committing a crime. They assemble together and an image of the famous tribal Satî is produced. Butter is put into a saucer, and in this a light is placed, very broad at the bottom and tapering upwards.

The wick, standing erect, is lit, an appeal is made to the Satî for an omen, and those worshipping mention in a low tone to the godling where they are going, and what they propose to do. The wick is then carefully watched, and should it drop at all, the omen [198]is propitious. All then salute the flag and start on their marauding expedition.45

Vindhya-bâsinî Devî, the personification of the Vindhyan range, is, as we have seen, the goddess of the Thags, and the Dhânuks, a thieving tribe in Behâr, worship one of their chiefs who was killed in a skirmish with the Muhammadans six hundred years ago, and whose ghost has since been troublesome. He is worshipped in a shrine of brick, and one of the members of the tribe acts as his priest.46

Râja Lâkhan

We have already spoken of Gansâm, one of the tribal deities of the Kols. Another famous Kol deity in Mirzapur is Râja Lâkhan. One story of him is that he came from Lucknow, a legend based, of course, on the similarity of the name. But there can be no reasonable doubt that he was really Lakhana Deva, the son of the famous Râja Jaychand of Kanauj, who is known in the popular ballads as the Kanaujiya Râê.

There is an inscribed pillar erected by him near Bhuili in the Mirzapur District, and he was perhaps locally connected with that part of the country in some way.47 Some say that he was taken to Delhi, where he became a Musalmân, and the popularity of his name in the local legends points to the theory that he was possibly one of the leaders of the Hindus against the Muhammadan invaders. All this being granted, it is remarkable that he, a Râjput, and almost as much a stranger to those primitive jungle dwellers as his Muhammadan rival, should have found a place in the Drâvidian pantheon.

Râja Chandol

Another deity of the same race is Râja Chandol, who is said to have been a jungle Râja of the Bhuiyâr tribe. He was attacked by his neighbour the Râja of Nagar, who [199]overcame him and cut off his head. Meanwhile the conqueror forgot his patron deity, and his temple was overturned and the image buried in the earth. One day a goldsmith who was passing by the place heard a voice from beneath the ground saying that if he dug there he would find the idol. He did so, and, digging up the image, which was of gold, cut it up and sold it. But his whole household came to ruin, and then the Râja of Nagar restored the temple, and the Kols remembered Râja Chandol and have venerated him ever since.

Belâ

The goddess Belâ was the sister of Lakhana Deva, whose story has been already told. Once, the story goes, Siva went to pay a visit to Hastinapura, and the bell of his bull Nandi disturbed the brothers Arjuna and Bhîma, who, thinking the god a wandering beggar, drove him out of the palace.

Then he cursed the Râjput race that among them should be born two fatal women, who should work the ruin of their power. So first was born Draupadî, who caused the war of the Mahâbhârata, and after her Belâ, to whom was due the unhappy warfare which paved the way to the Musalmân invasion. Belâ now has a famous temple at Belaun on the banks of the Ganges in Bulandshahr.

We shall come elsewhere on instances of the belief that human beings were sacrificed under the foundations of important buildings.

Nathu Kahâr, the godling of the Oudh boatmen, is said to have been buried alive under the foundations of the fort of Akbarpur in the Faizâbâd District, where a fair is held in his honour.48 At the last census one hundred and twenty-four thousand persons recorded themselves as his votaries.

Jokhaiya

Jokhaiya, who had by the same enumeration eighty-seven thousand worshippers, was a Bhangi or sweeper, who is said [200]to have been killed in the war between Prithivî Râja of Delhi and Jaychand of Kanauj. He has a noted shrine at Paindhat in the Mainpuri District, where a sweeper for a small fee will kill a pig and let its blood drop on his shrine.

Ramâsa Pîr

So, the godling invoked by the Pindhâri women when their husbands went on marauding expeditions, was Ramâsa Pîr. He was a well-known warrior killed in a battle at Ranuja, near Pushkar. Saturday is his day for prayer, on which occasions small images of horses in clay or stone are offered at his shrine.

The figure of a man on horseback, stamped in gold or silver, representing the godling, was found on the necks of many of the Pindhâris killed in the great campaign of 1817–18. It was worn by them as an amulet. He is now known as Deva Dharma Râja, which is one of the titles of Yama, the god of death, and Yudhisthira, his putative son.

Râê Sinh

Another local godling of the same class is Râê Sinh, whose legend is thus told by General Sleeman: “At Sanoda there is a very beautiful little fortress or castle, now occupied, but still entire. It was built by an officer of Râja Chhattar Sâl of Bundelkhand about 1725 A.D. His son, by name Râê Sinh, was, soon after the castle had been completed, killed in an attack upon a town near Chhatarkot, and having in the estimation of the people become a god, he had a temple and a tank raised to him.

I asked the people how he became a god, and was told that some one who had been long suffering from quartan ague went to the tomb one night and promised Râê Sinh, whose ashes lay under it, that if he could contrive to cure his ague for him, he would during the rest of his life make offerings at his shrine.

After this he never had an attack and was very punctual in his offerings. Others followed his example and with like success, till Râê Sinh was recognized universally among them as a god, and had a [201]temple raised to his name.” “This is the way,” remarks General Sleeman, “gods were made all over the world and are now made in India.”49

The Pîrs and Sayyids

We now come to a more miscellaneous class—the Pîrs and Sayyids. Some of these we have encountered already. We have also seen instances of some holy men who, like Paul and Silas at Lystra, have been raised to the rank of deities. These saints are usually of Muhammadan origin, but most of them are worshipped indiscriminately both by Musalmâns and low class Hindus.

The word Pîr properly means “an elder,” but according to Sûfi belief is the equivalent of Murshid, or “religious leader.” Sayyid, an Arabic word meaning “lord” or “prince,” is probably in many cases a corruption of Shahîd, “a martyr of the faith,” because many of these worthies owe their reputation to having lost their lives in the early struggles between Islâm and Hinduism.

Mr. Ibbetson notes that he has seen a shrine of some Sayyids in the Jâlandhar District, who were said to have been Sikhs, who died in the front of the battle. It took the form of a Muhammadan tomb, lying east and west, surmounted by two small domes of Hindu shape with their openings to the south. Under each, in the face of the tomb, was a niche to receive a lamp.50

This and many other instances of the same kind illustrate in an admirable way the extreme receptivity of the popular belief. We have here a body of saints, many of whom were deadly enemies of the Hindu faith, who are now worshipped by Hindus.

This is well put by Sir A. Lyall—“The ’Urs, or annual ceremony of these saints, like the martyr’s day of St. Edmund or St. Thomas of Canterbury, has degenerated into much that is mere carnal traffic and pagan idolatry, a scandal to the rigid Islâmite. Yet, if he uplifts his voice against such soul-destroying abuses, he may be hooted by [202]loose-living Musalmâns as a Wahhâbi who denies the power of intercession, while the shopkeepers are no better than Ephesian goldsmiths in crying down an inconvenient religious reformer.”51 And the same writer illustrates the fusion of the two creeds in their lower forms by the fact that the holy Hindu now in the flesh at Askot has only recently taken over the business, as it were, from a Muhammadan Faqîr, whose disciple he was during his life, and now that the Faqîr is dead, Narsinh Bâwa presides over the annual veneration of his slippers.

Similarly at the Muharram celebration and at pilgrimages to tombs, like those of Ghâzi Miyân, a large number of the votaries are Hindus. In many towns the maintenance of these Muhammadan festivals mainly depends on the assistance of the Hindus, and it is only recently that the unfortunate concurrence of these exhibitions with special Hindu holidays has, it may be hoped only temporarily, interrupted the tolerant and kindly intercourse between the followers of the rival creeds.

In many of these shrines the actual or pretended relics of the deceased worthy are exhibited. Under the shadow of the Fort of Chunâr is the shrine of Shâh Qâsim Sulaimâni, of whom mention has been already made. The guardian of the shrine shows to pilgrims the turban of the saint, who was deified about three hundred years ago, and the conical cap of his supposed preceptor, the eminent Pîr Jahâniya Jahângasht; but, as in many such cases, the chronology is hopeless.

The Panj Pîr

The most eminent of the Pîrs are, of course, the Panj Pîr, or five original saints of Islâm. They were—the Prophet Muhammad, ’Ali, his cousin-german and adopted son, Fâtima, the daughter of the Prophet and wife of ’Ali, and their sons, Hasan and Husain, whose tragical fate is commemorated with such ardent sympathy at the annual celebration of the Muharram.52 But by modern Indian [203]Muhammadans the name is usually applied to five leading saints—Bahâ-ud-dîn Zikariya of Multân, Shâh Ruqa-i-Âlam Hazrat of Lucknow, Shâh Shams Tabrîz of Multân, Shaikh Jalâl Makhdûm Jahâniyân Jahângasht of Uchcha in Multân, and Bâba Shaikh Farîd-ud-dîn Shakkarganj of Pâk Patan.

Another enumeration gives the Châr Pîr or four great saints as ’Ali and his successors in saintship—Khwâja Hasan Basri, Khwâja Habîb ’Ajmi, ’Abdul Wâhid. Another list of Pîrs of Upper India gives their names as Ghâzi Miyân, Pîr Hathîlê, sister’s son of Ghâzi Miyân, Pîr Jalîl of Lucknow, and Pîr Muhammad of Jaunpur. It is, in fact, impossible to find a generally recognized catalogue of these worthies, and modern Islâm is no less subject to periodical change than other religions organized on a less rigid system.53

Caste Saints

The worship of the original saints of Islâm has, however, undergone a grievous degradation. We are familiar in Western hagiology with the specialization of saints for certain purposes. St. Agatha is invoked to cure sore breasts, St. Anthony against inflammation, St. Blaise against bones sticking in the throat, St. Martin for the itch, St. Valentine against epilepsy, and so on. So St. Agatha presides over nurses, St. Catherine and St. Gregory over learned men, St. Cecilia over musicians, St. Valentine over lovers, St. Nicholas over thieves, while St. Thomas à Becket looks after blind men, eunuchs, and sinners.54 So almost all the artizan classes have each their special patron saint.

The dyers venerate Pîr ’Ali Rangrez, the Lohârs or blacksmiths, Hazrat Dâûd, or the Lord David, because the Qurân says—“We taught him the art of making coats of mail that they might defend you from your suffering in warring with your enemies.” The Mehtars or sweepers have Lâl Pîr or Lâl [204]Beg, of whom something more will be said later on. In the Panjâb Sadhua Bhagat is the saint of butchers, because once when he was about to kill a goat, the animal threatened that he would revenge himself in another life, and so he joined the sect of Sâdhs, who refrain from destroying animal life.

The barbers revere Sain Bhagat or Husain Bhagat. He is said to have been a resident of Pratâppura in the Jâlandhar District, and his descendants were for some time family Gurus or preceptors of the Râja of Bandhogarh. One day he was so engaged in his devotions that he forgot to shave the Râja’s head, but when he came in fear and trembling to apologize, he found the Râja shaved and in his right mind. Then it was found that the deity himself had come and officiated for him. So, Nâmdeo, the Chhîpi or cotton-printer, became a follower of Râmanand, and is regarded as the tribal saint.

Domestic Worship of the Pîr

Muhammadan domestic worship is largely concerned with the propitiation of the household Pîr. In almost every house is a dreaded spot where, as the Russian peasant keeps his holy image, is the abode or corner of the Pîr, and the owner erects a little shelf, lights a lamp every Thursday night, and hangs up garlands of flowers. Shaikh Saddu, of whom we shall see more later on, is the women’s favourite Pîr, especially with those who wish to gain an undue ascendency over their husbands.

When a woman wishes to have a private entertainment of her own, she pretends to be “shadow smitten,” that is that the shadow of some Pîr, usually Shaikh Saddu, has fallen upon her, and her husband is bound to give an entertainment, known as a Baithak or “session,” for the purpose of exorcising him, to which no male is allowed admittance.

At these rites of the Bona Dea, it is believed that the Pîr enters the woman’s head and that she becomes possessed, and in that state of frenzy can answer any question put to her. All her female neighbours, accordingly, assemble to have their fortunes told by the Pîr, [205]and when they are satisfied they exorcise him with music and singing.

The Pachpiriyas

But it is in the eastern districts of the North-Western Provinces and Behâr that the worship has reached its most degraded form. No less than one million seven hundred thousand persons at the last census, almost entirely in the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions, recorded themselves as Pachpiriyas or worshippers of the Pânch Pîr. It is impossible to get any consistent account of these worthies, and the whole cultus has become imbedded in a mass of the wildest legend and mythology.55 According to the census lists these five saints are, in the order of their popularity—Ghâzi Miyân, Buahna Pîr, Palihâr, Aminâ Satî and Hathîlê or Hathîla.

In Benares, according to Mr. Greeven, there are no less than five enumerations of the sacred quintette. One gives—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr and Palihâr; a second—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr and Buahna; a third—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Buahna, Bhairon and Bandê; a fourth—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Palihâr, Kâlikâ and Shahzâ; a fifth—Ghâzi Miyân, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr, Buahna and Bahlâno. Among these we have the names of well-known Hindu gods, like Bhairon and Kâlikâ, a form of Kâlî.

Among the actual companions of Ghâzi Miyân are, it is believed, Hathîlê Pîr, who is said to have been his sister’s son, Miyân Rajjab or Rajjab Sâlâr, and Sikandar Diwâna, the Buahna Pîr, who are all buried at Bahrâich, and Sâhu Sâlâr, father of the martyr prince, whose tomb is near Bârabanki.

In Behâr, again, the five saints are Ghâzi Miyân, Hathîla, Parihâr, Sahjâ Mâî and ’Ajab Sâlâr, and with them are associated Aminâ Satî, Langra Târ, who is represented by a piece of crooked wire, and Sobarna Tîr, the bank of the Sobarna river. Here we reach an atmosphere of the crudest fetishism. A little further west Sânwar or Kunwar Dhîr, of [206]whom nothing certain is known, is joined with them, and has numerous worshippers in the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions.

The Pânch Pîr and the Pândavas

It has often been remarked that the five Pândavas have strangely passed out of the national worship. At the last census in the North-Western Provinces only four thousand people gave them as their personal deities, and in the Panjâb only one hundred acknowledged them. Now in the west the title of Pânch Pîr is sometimes given to five Râjput heroes, Râmdeo, Pâbu, Harbu, Mallinâth and Gûga,56 and it is at least a plausible theory that the five Pîrs may have originally been the five Pându brothers, whose worship has, in course of time, become degraded, been annexed by the lower Musalmâns, and again taken over by their menial Hindu brethren.

As a matter of fact, the system of worship does not materially differ from the cultus of the degraded indigenous godlings, such as Kârê Gôrê Deo, Bûrhê Bâba, Jokhaiya, and their kindred. The priests of the faith are drawn from the Dafâli or Musalmân drummer caste, who go about from house to house reciting the tale of Ghâzi Miyân and his martyrdom, with a number of wild legends which have in course of time been adopted in connection with him. An iron bar wrapped in red cloth and adorned with flowers represents Ghâzi Miyân, which is taken from door to door, drums are beaten and petty offerings of grain collected from the villagers. Low caste Hindus, like Pâsis and Chamârs, worship them in the form of five wooden pegs fixed in the courtyard of the house.

The Barwârs, a degraded criminal tribe in Oudh, build in their houses an altar in the shape of a tomb, at which yearly in August the head of the family sacrifices in the name of the Pîrs a fowl and offers some thin cakes, which he makes over to a Muhammadan beggar who goes about from house to house beating a drum. [207]

Ghâzi Miyân

The whole worship centres round Ghâzi Miyân. His real name was Sayyid Sâlâr Masaud, and he was nephew of Sultân Mahmûd of Ghazni. He was born in 1015 A.D., was leader of one of the early invasions of Oudh, and is claimed as one of the first martyrs of Islâm in India. He was killed in battle with the Hindus of Bahrâich in 1034 A.D. Close to the battle-field was a tank with an image of the sun on its banks, a shrine sacred in the eyes of all Hindus.

Masaud, whenever he passed it, was wont to say that he wished to have this spot for a dwelling-place, and would, if it so pleased God, through the power of the spiritual sun, destroy the worship of the material. He was, it is said, buried by some of his followers in the place which he had chosen for his resting-place, and tradition avers that his head rests on the image of the sun, the worship of which he had given his life to destroy.

There is some reason to believe that this cultus of Masaud may have merely succeeded to some local worship, such as that of the sun, and in this connection it is significant that the great rite in honour of the martyr is called the Byâh or marriage of the saint, and this would associate it with other emblematical marriages of the earth and sun or sky which were intended to promote fertility.57 Masaud, again, is the type of youth and valour in military Islâm, and to the Hindu mind assumes the form of one of those godlike youths, such as Krishna or Dûlha Deo, snatched away by an untimely and tragical fate in the prime of boyish beauty. So, though he was a fanatical devotee of Islâm, his tomb is visited as much by Hindus as by Muhammadans.

Besides his regular shrine at Bahrâich, he has cenotaphs at various places, as at Gorakhpur and Bhadohi in the Mirzapur District, where annual fairs are held in his honour. The worship of Masaud, which is now discouraged by Muhammadan purists, embodied, even in early times, so much idolatry and fetishism as to be obnoxious to the puritanic party; it fell under the [208]censure of the authorities, and Sikandar Lodi interdicted the procession of his spear.58 Nowadays at his festivals a long spear or pole is paraded about, crowned at the top with bushy hair, representing the head of the martyr, which, it is said, kept rolling on the ground long after it was severed from the trunk.59

Sakhi Sarwar

Sakhi Sarwar, or “generous leader,” the title of a saint whose real name was Sayyid Ahmad, is hardly popular beyond the Panjâb, where his followers are known as Sultânis, and are more than four hundred thousand in number.60 No one knows exactly when he lived; some place him in the twelfth and others in the thirteenth century; but there are other traditions which would bring him down to the sixteenth. Whatever be the exact time of his birth and death, he was one of the class of Muhammadan saints, like Bahâ-ud-dîn and Shams Tabrîz, who settled and practised austerities in the country about Multân. Other names for him are Lâkhdâta or “the giver of lâkhs,” Lâlanwâla, “he of the rubies,” and Rohiânwâla, or “he of the Hills.” His life, as we have it, is but a mass of legends.

He once cured a camel of a broken leg by riveting it together. Miraculously, as so many of these saints do, he gave two sons to one Gannu of Multân and married his daughter. The hill that overlooks his tomb at Nigâha in the Dera Ghâzi Khân District, at the edge of the Sulaimân mountains, is said to have been infested by a fearful giant. This monster used at night to stand on the hill-top and with a torch lure unwary travellers to their destruction. Against him Sakhi Sarwar and his four companions waged war, but [209]all except the saint were killed; and such was the fall of the monster that the hill trembled to its base. Within an enclosure are seen the tombs of the saint, his lady, Bîbî Râê, and a Jinn who fell before the onset of the hero.

To the east is the apartment containing the stool and spinning-wheel of Mâî ’Aeshan, Sakhi Sarwar’s mother. It is a curious instance of the combination of the two rival faiths, so constantly observable in this phase of the popular worship, that close to the shrine of Sakhi Sarwar is a temple of Vishnu, a shrine of Bâba Nânak, the founder of Sikhism, and an image of Bhairon, who appears in the legends as the servant or messenger of the saint. The tomb presents a curious mixture of Musalmân and Hindu architecture. It was recently destroyed by fire, and two rubies presented by Nâdir Shâh, and some valuable jewels, the gift of Sultân Zamân Shâh, were destroyed or lost.

The Sultâni sect, in large numbers, under the guidance of conductors known as Bharai, make pilgrimages to the tomb. Near it are two dead trees, said to have sprung from the pegs which were used to tether Kakkî, the saint’s mare. The walls are hung with small pillows of various degrees of ornamentation. Persons who suffer from ophthalmia vow gold or silver eyes for their recovery. They vow to shave the hair of an expected child at the temple, and its weight in gold or silver is presented to the saint. Some childless parents vow to him their first child, and on its birth take it to the temple with a cord round its neck.

There are numbers of sacred pigeons attached to the shrine, which are supported by an allowance realized from certain dedicated villages. The marks of ’Ali’s fingers and the print of his foot are still shown to the devout in consideration of a fee to the guardians, and a visit is considered peculiarly efficacious for the cure of demoniacal possession, exhibiting itself in the form of epilepsy or hysteria.

Besides the shrine at Nigâha, there are numerous other shrines of the saint, of which the most celebrated are those connected with the annual fair at Dhonkal in Gujrânwâla, the Jhanda fair at Peshâwar, and the Kadmon fair at [210]Anârkali, near Lahore. At Dhonkal there is a magic well which was produced by the saint, the water of which is much in request. At Anârkali a class of musicians, called Dholis, take young children, who are presented at the tomb, and dance about with them.

In the neighbourhood of Delhi he is not held in so much respect, but shrines in his honour are common, vows and pilgrimages to him are frequent, and Brâhmans tie threads on the wrists of their clients on a fixed day in his name. Under the name of Lâkhdâta he has become the patron deity of athletes, and especially of wrestlers.

In the central districts of the Panjâb, his shrine, an unpretending little edifice, is to be seen outside nearly every hamlet. “The shrine is a hollow plastered brick cube, eight or ten feet in each direction, covered with a dome some ten or twelve feet high and with low minarets or pillars at the four corners, and a doorway in front, opening out generally on a plastered brick platform. Facing the doorway inside are two or three niches for lamps, but otherwise the shrine is perfectly empty.

The saint is especially worshipped on Thursdays, when the shrine is swept, and at night lamps are lit inside it. The guardians of the shrine are Musalmâns of the Bharai clan, who go round on Thursdays beating drums and collecting offerings. These offerings, which are generally in small change or small handfuls of grain or cotton, are mainly presented by women. Another method of pleasing the saint is by vowing a Rôt; the Rôt is made by placing dough to the extent vowed on a hot piece of earth, where a fire has been burning, and distributing it when it is baked. He is also worshipped by sleeping on the ground instead of on a bed.

Wrestling matches are also held in his honour, and the offerings made to the performers go towards keeping up the shrine at Nigâha. A true worshipper of Sultân will not sell milk on Thursday; he will consume it himself or give it away.”

Sarwar is essentially a saint of the Jâts, and he is also revered by Gûjars and Jhînwars, and women even of the Khatri and Brâhman castes adore him. He has, according to [211]the last returns, over four hundred thousand worshippers in the Panjâb, and eight thousand in the North-Western Provinces.

Gûga Pîr

Another noted local saint is Gûga Pîr, also known as Zâhir Pîr, “the saint apparent,” or Zâhir Dîwân, “the minister apparent,” or in the Panjâb as Bâgarwâla, as his grave is near Dadrewa in Bikâner, and he is said to have reigned over the Bâgar or great prairies of Northern Râjputâna. Nothing is known for certain about him, and the tales told of him are merely a mass of wild legends.

According to some he flourished somewhere about the middle of the twelfth century, when Indian hagiolatry was at its zenith. Others say that he was a Chauhân Râjput, a contemporary of Prithivî Râja of Delhi, while by another story he died with his forty-five sons and sixty nephews opposing Mahmûd of Ghazni. He is said to have been a Hindu with the title of Gûga Bîr, or “the hero”; and one account represents him to have become a convert to Islâm. “He is said to have killed his two nephews and to have been condemned by their mother to follow them below.

He attempted to do so, but the earth objected that he being a Hindu, she was quite unable to receive him till he should be properly burnt. As he was anxious to revisit his wife nightly, this did not suit him, and so he became a Musalmân, and her scruples being thus removed, the earth swallowed him and his horse alive.”61 In another and more degraded form of the legend current in Muzaffarnagar, he is said to have jumped into a pile of cow-dung, where he disappeared, a series of stories which remind us of the Curtius myth.62

Another elaborate legend represents Gûga to be the son of the Rânî Bâchhal, and fixes his birthplace at Sirsâwa in the Sahâranpur District. About the time of the invasion of Mahmûd of Ghazni, she married Vatsa, the Râja of Bâgardesa, or the Râjputâna desert. By the influence of that ubiquitous [212]saint, Gorakhnâth, she conceived in spite of the intrigues of her sister, and her child was called Gûga, because the saint gave to his mother, as a preservative, a piece of gum resin known as Gûgal.

His cousins attacked him and tried to rob him of his kingdom, but Gûga defeated them and cut off their heads, which he presented to his mother. She, in her anger, ordered him to go to the place where he had sent her nephews; so he requested the earth to receive him into her bosom, which she refused to do until he became a convert to Islâm. He then went to Mecca, and became a disciple of one Ratan Hâji, and on his return the earth opened and received him, with his famous black mare Javâdiyâ.63

The mare has, of course, a story of her own. Gûga had no children, and lamenting this to his guardian deity, he received from him two barley-corns, one of which he gave to his wife and the other to his famous mare, which gave birth to his charger, hence called Javâdiyâ or “barley-born.” We find this wonderful mare through the whole range of folk-lore, but the best parallel to her is the famous mare of Gwri of the golden hair, and Setanta in the Celtic tale.64

From Scotland, too, we get a parallel to the magic birth: “Here are three grains for thee that thou shalt give thy wife this very night, and three others to the dog, and these three to the mare; and these three thou shalt plant behind thy house; and in their own time thy wife will have three sons, the mare three foals, and the dog three puppies, and there will grow three trees behind thy house; and the trees will be a sign, when one of thy sons dies one of the trees will wither.”65 It is needless to say that this is a stock incident in folk-lore.

Gûga and Snake-worship

But it is in his function as one of the Snake kings that Gûga is specially worshipped. When he is duly propitiated [213]he can save from snake-bite, and cause those who neglect him to be bitten. His shrine is often found in association with that of Nara Sinha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, and of Gorakhnâth, the famous ascetic, whose disciple he is said to have been.

He is adored by Hindus and Muhammadans alike, and by all castes, by Râjputs and Jâts, as well as by Chamârs and Chûhras. Even the Brâhman looks on him with respect. “Which is greater,” says the proverb, “Râma or Gûga?” and the reply is, “Be who may the greater, shall I get myself bitten by a snake?” in other words, “Though Râma may be the greater, between ourselves, I dare not say so for fear of offending Gûga.”

He is represented on horseback, with his mother trying to detain him as he descends to the infernal regions. He holds as a mark of dignity a long staff in his hands, and over him two snakes meet, one being coiled round his staff. Both the Hindu and Muhammadan Faqîrs take the offerings devoted to him, and carry his Chharî or standard, covered with peacocks’ feathers, from house to house in the month of August.

As is the case with godlings of this class all over India, it is significant of the association of his worship with some early non-Aryan beliefs that the village scavenger is considered to be entitled to a share of the offerings presented at his shrine.

According to the last census Gûga had thirty-five thousand worshippers in the Panjâb and one hundred and twenty-three thousand in the North-Western Provinces.

Worship of Tejajî

Another godling of the same kind is Tejajî, the Jât snake godling of Mârwâr. He is said to have lived about 900 years ago. One day he noticed that a Brâhman’s cow was in the habit of going to a certain place in the jungle, where milk fell from her udder into the hole of a snake. Teja agreed to supply the snake daily with milk, and thus save the Brâhman from loss.

Once when he was preparing to visit his father-in-law, he forgot the compact, and the snake [214]appearing, declared that it was necessary that he should bite Teja. He stipulated for permission first to visit his father-in-law, to which the snake agreed. Teja proceeded on his journey, and on the way rescued the village cattle from a gang of robbers, but was desperately wounded in the encounter. Mindful of his promise, he with difficulty presented himself to the snake, who, however, could find no spot to bite, as Teja had been so grievously wounded by the robbers.

Teja therefore put out his tongue, which the snake bit, and so he died. He is now a protector against snake-bite, and is represented as a man on horseback, while a snake is biting his tongue.66 Tejajî and Gûga, as snake godlings, thus rank with Bhajang, the snake godling of Kâthiawâr, who is a brother of Sesha Nâga, and with Mânasâ, the goddess of Bengal, who is the sister of Vâsuki, the wife of Jaratkâru, and mother of Astikâ, whose intervention saved the snake race from destruction by Janamejâya.67

Worship of Bâba Farîd Shakkarganj

Bâba Farîd Shakkarganj, or “fountain of sweets,” so called because he was able miraculously to transmute dust or salt into sugar, was born in 1173 A.D., and died in 1265. His tomb is at Pâkpatan, and he enjoys high consideration in Northern India. He was a disciple of Qutb-ud-dîn Bakhtyâr Kâki, who again sat at the feet of Muîn-ud-dîn Chishti of Ajmer, also a great name to swear by. Farîd’s most distinguished disciple was Nizâm-ud-dîn Auliya, who has a lovely tomb at Ghayâspur, near Delhi.

Farîd was very closely associated with Bâba Nânak, and much of the doctrine of early Sikhism seems to have been based on his teaching. He is said to have possessed the Dast-i-ghaib, or “hidden hand,” a sort of magic bag which gave him anything he wished, which is like the wishing hat and inexhaustible [215]pot or purse, which is a stock element in Indian and European folk-lore.68

The Emperor, it is said, tried to humble him when he came to Delhi, but he answered in the famous proverb—Delhî dûr ast—“Delhi is far away,” the Oriental equivalent to Rob Roy’s “It is a far cry to Lochow.”

The Musalmân Thags looked on him as the founder of their system, and used to make pilgrimages to his tomb. He is believed to have been connected with the Assassins or disciples of the Old Man of the Mountain.69 Every devotee who contrives to get through the door of his mausoleum at the prescribed time of his feast is assured of a free entrance into Paradise hereafter.

The crowd is therefore immense, and the pressure so great that two or three layers of men, pushed closely over each other, generally attempt the passage at the same time, and serious accidents, notwithstanding every precaution taken by the police, are not uncommon.70

He comes in direct succession to some of the worthies to whom reference has been already made. To Khwâja Muîn-ud-dîn Chishti succeeded Khwâja Qutb-ud-dîn Bakhtyâr Kâki, and Bâba Farîd followed him. They were the founders of the Chishtiya order of Faqîrs.

Besides his shrine at Pâkpatan he has another famous Dargâh at Shaikhsir in Bikâner, which is called after him, and the Jâts used to esteem him highly until, as Col. Tod71 says, “The Bona Dea assumed the shape of a Jâtnî, to whom in the name of Kiranî Mâtâ, ‘Our Mother of the ray,’ all bend the head.” Another legend fixes his tomb at Girâr, in the Wârdha District of the Central Provinces.

The zeolitic concretions of the Girâr hill are accounted for as the petrified cocoanuts and other articles of merchandise belonging to two travelling dealers who mocked the saint, on which he turned their whole stock-in-trade into stones as a punishment. They implored his pardon, and he created a [216]fresh supply for them from dry leaves, on which they were so struck by his power that they attached themselves to his service till they died.72

In the Western districts of the North-Western Provinces the first-fruits of the sugar-cane crop are dedicated to him.

He was a thrifty saint, and for the last thirty years of his life he supported himself by holding to his stomach wooden cakes and fruits whenever he felt hungry. In this he resembled Qutb-ud-Dîn Ushi, who was able by a miracle to produce cakes for the support of his family and himself.73

Minor Saints

Of the minor saints the number is legion, and only a few instances can be given. At Makanpur in the Cawnpur District is the tomb of Zinda Shâh Madâr, who gives his name to the class of Musalmân Faqîrs, known as Madâri. He is said to have been a native of Halab or Aleppo, and to have come to this place in 1415 A.D., when he expelled a famous demon named Makan Deo, after whom the place was named.

Low class Hindus and Musalmâns worship him because he is supposed to save them from snakes and scorpions, and the Kahâr bearers, as they go through jungle at night, call out Dam Madâr! The saint is said to have had the power of restraining his breath, whence his name. In the holy of holies of his shrine no woman is allowed to enter, no lights are lighted, no hymns are chanted and no food is cooked.

’Abdul Qâdir Jilâni, who is said to take his name from Jil, a village near Bâghdâd, is another noted saint. He is also known as Pîr-i-Dastgîr, Pîr-i-’Azam, Ghaus-ul-’Azam, and was born in 1078 A.D., and died at Bâghdâd. Some say that he is identical with Mîrân Sâhib, who is worshipped all over Northern India. He is said to have been a magician, and to have subdued to his service a Jinn named Zain Khân, [217]whom he treated with great cruelty.

One day the Jinn surprised his master in a state of uncleanness and slew him, but even then he was unable to escape from the influence of this arch-magician, who rules him in the world of spirits. Mîrân Sâhib is said to be buried at Ajmer, but he has Dargâhs at Amroha, in the Morâdâbâd District, at Benares and at Bûndi.

By another account the tomb at Amroha is that of Shaikh Saddu or Sadr-ud-dîn, who was once a crier of the mosque, and near his are pointed out the tombs of his mother Ghâziyâ or Asê and of Zain Khân, the Jinn. The saint of Jalesar, Hazrat Pîr Zari, is also known as Mîrân Sâhib, and he is by some identified with the Amroha worthy.

In Karnâl he is said to have led the Sayyid army against the Râja of Tharwa, and had his head carried off by a cannon ball during the battle. He did not mind this, and went on fighting. Then a woman in one of the Râja’s villages said—“Who is fighting without his head?” upon which the body said—“Haq! Haq!” “The Lord! the Lord!” and fell down dead, calling out—“What? Are not these villages upside down yet?” upon which every village in the Râja’s territory was turned upside down and everyone killed except a Brâhman girl, the paramour of the Râja. Their ruins remain to authenticate the story.

Now the saint and his sister’s son, Sayyid Kabîr, are jointly worshipped. We shall meet this headless hero again in the case of the Dûnd, and it will be remembered that a similar legend is told of Ghâzi Miyân.

Villages Overturned

Of these villages which were overturned by a curse we have many examples all over the country. The ruins at Bakhira Dih in Basti are said to have been a great city which was overthrown because a Râja seduced a Brâhman girl. At Batesar in Agra is the Aundha Khera, which records a similar catastrophe. So Bângarmau in Unâo is called the Lauta Shahr or “overthrown city,” because Mîrân Sâhib destroyed it to punish the curiosity of the Râja [218]who wanted to know why the robes of the saint which a washerman was washing gave forth a divine perfume. So the town of Kâko was overwhelmed by the saint Bîbî Kamâlo because the Buddhist Râja gave her a dish cooked of the flesh of rats, which came to life when she touched them.

At Besnagar in Bhopâl the king and his subjects clung to a heavenly chariot and were carried to the skies and their city was overthrown, and the saint Qutb Shâh overturned the city of Sunit because the Râja used to kill a child daily to cure an ulcer with which he was afflicted.74

Abû ’Ali Qalandar is hardly known beyond the Panjâb. He came from Persia and died at Pânipat in 1324 A.D. He is usually known as Bû ’Ali Qalandar, and it is said that he used to ride about on a wall.

He prayed so constantly that it was laborious to get water for his ablutions each time; so he stood in the Jumnâ, which then ran past the town. After standing there seven years the fishes had gnawed his legs and he was so stiff that he could hardly move, so he asked the Jumnâ to step back seven paces. She, in her hurry to oblige the saint, went back seven Kos or ten miles, and there she is now.75

Many other saints are said to have had similar power over rivers. So recently as 1865 A.D., a miraculous bridge of sand was built over the Jumnâ at Karnâl by the prayer of a Faqîr, of such rare virtue that lepers passing over and bathing at both ends were cured; but the people say that the bridge had got lost when they came there.76 It was only the prayers of the saint Farîd-ud-din Shakkarganj which stopped the westward movement of the Satlaj, and the intercession of a holy Rishi changed the course of the river at Bâgheswar.77

Bû ’Ali gave the Pânipat people a charm which dispelled all the flies from the town, but they grumbled and said that they rather liked flies; so he brought them back a thousandfold. He was buried first at Karnâl, but the Pânipat people [219]claimed his body, and opened his grave, whereupon he sat up and looked at them till they became ashamed. They then took away some bricks for the foundation of a shrine; but when they got to Pânipat and opened the box, they found his body in it; so he is now buried in both places, and there is a shrine erected over the place where he used to ride on the wall.

Malâmat Shâh

Malâmat Shâh is treated with much respect in Bârabanki. The disciple in charge of his tomb calls the jackals with a peculiar cry at dusk. They devour what is left of the offerings, but will only touch such things as are given with a sincere mind and not to be seen of men. A religious tiger is also said to come over from Bahrâich and pay an annual visit to the shrine.78

Miyân Ahmad

At Qasûr is the tomb of the saint Miyân Ahmad Khân Darvesh, on which the attendants place a number of small pebbles. These are called “Ahmad Khân’s lions,” and are sold to people who tie them round the necks of children troubled in their sleep.79

Shaikh Saddû

Shaikh Saddû has been mentioned in another connection. His visitations cause melancholy and hypochondria. He is exorcised by the distribution of sweets to the poor and the sacrifice of a black goat. He once found a magic lamp, like that of Alâuddin, the powers of which he abused, and was torn to pieces by the Jinn.80

The list of these worthies is immense. We can only mention in passing Shâh Abdul Ghafûr, commonly known as Bâba Kapûr, a disciple of Shâh Madâr, whose shrine is [220]in Gwâlyâr; Mîr Abdul ’Ala, the Nakhshbandi who is buried at Agra; Sultân Bayazîd, who kindled a lamp which lighted the world for one hundred and twenty miles, and thus drove the Jinn from Chatgânw in Bengal, where he is worshipped; Shaikh Kabîr, known as Bâla Pîr, the son of Shâh Qâsim Sulaimâni of Chunâr, whose shrine is at Kanauj; Shaikh Muhammad Ghaus of Gwâliyâr; and Sidi Maula, who possessed the power of transmuting metals into gold. Lastly comes Shâh Daula, whose shrine is at Gujarât in the Panjâb.

His priest is able to confer offspring on childless people on condition that they dedicate the first child to the saint, and this child is then born with the head of a rat. Some wretched imbeciles with rat-like features are found at his tomb.81

These wonder-working shrines belong to Hindu as well as Musalmân saints. In the Etah District is the tomb of Kalyân Bhârati, a Hindu ascetic. He was buried alive at his own request about four hundred years ago. Before his death he announced that exactly six months after he was dead the arch of his tomb would crack, and so it happened. Now a mound of earth in the centre is supposed to mark the head of the saint.

The virtue of his shrine is such that if any one take a false oath within its precincts he will die at once. The tomb is hence largely used for the settlement of disputes, and many a wearied district officer longs that there were more such places throughout the land.

Shrines Which Cure Disease

Many of these local shrines owe their reputation to notorious cures, which have been performed by the intervention of the local saint. At Chhattarpur is the shrine of Rûkhar Bâba, an ascetic of the Gusâîn class, who has the power of removing fever and ague, and hence among the many tombs of his brethren his is kept clean and white-washed, while the others are neglected.82 A shrine in Berâr [221]is noted for its power in cases of snake-bite and scrofula.

A large two-storied gate of its enclosure owes its erection to the gratitude of a wealthy tailor, who was cured of sore disease of the loins.83 Recently at the shrine of the saint of Fatehpur in the Sahâranpur District, the Faqîr in charge informed me that when the people bring sick children to him, he pulls off a leaf from the tree overhanging the tomb, blows upon it, and says to the disease, “Begone, you rascal!” and the child is cured.

At the tomb of Pîr Jahâniyân in the Muzaffargarh District, people suffering from leprosy and boils get the incumbent to prepare baths of heated sand, in which the diseased part, or the whole body is placed. The efficacy of the remedy is ascribed to the thaumaturgic power of the saint.84 The tomb of Makhdûm Sâhib in the Faizâbâd District is famous for the exorcism of evil spirits, a reputation which it shares with the shrine of Bairâm at Bidauli in Muzaffarnagar, and that of Bîbî Kamâlo at Kâko, half-way between Gaya and Patna.85

So, in Bengal, the chief disease shrines are those of Tarakeswara in Hughli, sacred to Mahâdeva, of Vaidyanâtha in the Santâl Parganas, and Gondalpâra in Hughli, famous in cases of hydrophobia. “The device followed at the last place is for the bitten person, after fasting, to defray the expense of a special service, and to receive a piece of broad cloth impregnated with the snuff of a lamp-wick, and secreted in the heart of a plantain.

As long as this charm is preserved and the patient abstains from eating of this variety of plantain, the effects of the bite are warded off. Another plan is for the patient to take a secret medicine, probably cantharides, pounded with twenty-one pepper-corns, before the twenty-first day. This causes the patient to throw off some mucus, known as ‘the dog’s whelp,’ and this leads to cure.”86

In the Partâbgarh District are to be seen here and there strange-looking brick-built erections called Kûkar Deora or [222]“dogs’ house,” in the shape of cupolas or pyramids. Some of them are supposed to be the treasure houses of the ancient races. If a man walks round one of these seven times and then looks in at the door, he will be cured from the bite of a mad dog.87

Sayyid Yûsuf

Dr. Buchanan gives a case at Patna of a certain Sayyid Yûsuf, who manifested himself to a poor blind weaver and told him that he would recover his sight next day. At the same time the saint ordered his patient to search for his tomb and proclaim its virtues. The weaver, on recovering his sight, did not fail to obey the orders of his benefactor, and he and his descendants have since then lived on the contributions of the faithful, though the tomb is a mere heap of clay and has no endowment.88

The tomb at Faizâbâd known as Fazl-ul-haqq, or “Grace of God,” brings good luck if sweetmeats are offered every Thursday, and another, called ’Ilm Bakhsh, or “Wisdom-giver,” causes boys who are taken there to learn their lessons quickly.89 The same result may be secured by a charm which is found in the Samavidhana Brâhmana—“After a fast of three nights, take a plant of Soma, recite a certain formula and eat of the plant a thousand times, you will be able to repeat anything after hearing it once.”

Wonder-working Tombs

There are other tombs which present special peculiarities. Thus, not long since crowds of people assembled at Khetwadi, in Bombay, to see a shrine erected by some sweepers to Zâhir Pîr, which at intervals seemed to oscillate from its foundations. At Anjar in Sindh are the tombs of a noted outlaw named Jaisar Pîr and his wife Turî Khatrânî, who were originally buried apart, but their tombs are gradually approaching, and it is believed that at their meeting [223]the world will be destroyed. So there is a wall at Gurdâspur which a Faqîr saw being built, and asked the master-mason if he considered it to be firm.

The mason said that he believed it to be substantial, whereupon the holy man touched it and made it shake, and it has gone on shaking ever since. At Faizâbâd is the tomb of a saint, and some time ago the metal top of one of the pinnacles took to shaking, and the weaver population were so impressed that they levied a tax on the community for its repair.

At Jhanjhâna is the tomb of Sayyid Mahmûd, who was buried next to one of his disciples. But the latter is too modest to place himself on an equality with his master, so his tomb, however much it is repaired, always sinks to a lower level than that of his preceptor. At Bârabanki is the tomb of the saint Shaikh Ahmad Abdul-haq, who thought he could acquire some useful information by keeping company with the dead. So he got himself buried alive, and after six months his grave opened of its own accord and he was taken out half dead.

The Nine-yard Tombs

There is another class of tombs which are known as the Naugaza or Naugaja, that is to say tombs nine yards long. In these rest the giants of the older world. There is one of these tombs at Nâgaur in Râjputâna, and several others have been discovered in the course of the Archæological Survey.90 Five of them at Vijhi measure respectively 29, 31, 30 and 38 feet. Mr. W. Simpson calls these tombs Buddhistic, but this is very doubtful.91 The belief largely prevails among Muhammadans that there were giants in the early times.

Adam himself is said to have been sixty yards in height, and there was a monster called ’Uj in the days of Adam, and the flood of Noah reached only to his waist. There is a tomb of Noah at Faizâbâd which is said to have been built by Alexander the Great, and not far off are those [224]of Seth and Job. The latter, curiously enough, are gradually growing in size. They are now 17 and 12 feet long respectively, but when Abul Fazl wrote they were only 10–1/2 and 9 feet long.92

Shrines with Images or Relics

The reputation, again, of many shrines rests on the assumed discovery, generally by means of a dream, that an ancient image or the bones of a martyr were buried on the spot, and in their honour a shrine was established. Thus, the great temple at Bandakpur in the Damoh District owes its origin to the fact that a Pandit in 1781 A.D. dreamed a dream, that in a certain spot lay buried in the earth an image of Jagîswar Mahâdeva, and that if he built a suitable temple over the place indicated, the image would make its appearance.

On the strength of this dream the Pandit built a temple, and it is asserted that in due course of time the image developed itself without the aid of man.93 So, the Bhairava temple on the Langûr peak owes its establishment to a cowherd having found on the spot a yellow-coloured stick, which on his attempting to cut it with an axe, poured out drops of blood. Frightened at the sight, the cowherd fled, only to be visited at night by the god in his terrible form, who commanded him to set up his shrine here. A similar legend is attached to the Nârâyana image in Nepâl.94 The celebrated shrine of Hanumân at Beguthiya was discovered by a wandering ascetic,95 and a Gûjar cowboy is said not very long ago to have found in one of the Sahâranpur jungles the image of the goddess Sâkambarî Devî, which now attracts large numbers of worshippers.

The Mahârâja of Balrâmpur some time ago noticed a rude shrine of Bijleswarî Devî, the goddess of lightning, and remarked that he would build a handsome temple in honour of her, were it not for the sacred banyan tree which shaded it and prevented [225]the erection of the spire to the proper height. That very night the tree was uprooted by a hurricane, and a handsome temple was erected, this manifestation of her power having made the goddess more popular than ever.96

Mistakes are, however, sometimes made. This was the case some time ago at Ajudhya, where certain images were discovered and worshipped, until a learned Pandit ascertained that they were actually the deities of the aboriginal Bhars, who used to sacrifice Brâhmans to them. They were really Jaina images, but it is needless to say that their worship was immediately abandoned.97

As is only natural, shrines which have been discovered in this way at the outset rest under a certain degree of suspicion, and have to make their reputation by works of healing and similar miracles. If they fail to do so they sink into disrepute. Such was the case with a very promising shrine, supposed to be that of the saint Ashraf ’Ali, whose bones were found accidentally not long ago at Ahraura in the Mirzapur District. It enjoyed considerable reputation for a time, but failing to maintain its character, was finally discredited and abandoned.

Continuous respect is naturally accorded to ancient saints and local godlings, who have long since established their claim to recognition by a series of exhibitions of their thaumaturgic virtues. But the competition is so keen and the pecuniary value of a successful institution of this kind so considerable, that the claims of any interloper must be well tested and approved before it establishes its position and succeeds in attracting pilgrims.

The Curing of Barrenness

Barrenness is in popular belief mainly due to the agency of evil spirits. Sterile women were in Rome beaten with rods by the naked youths who ran through the city at the Lupercalia. The barren, as Shakespeare says, “Touched by this holy chase, shake off their sterile curse.” In [226]Bombay it is believed that the cause of not getting children is that the man or his wife must have killed a serpent in their former birth, whose spirit haunts them and makes the woman barren.

To get rid of the spirit which causes sterility, the serpent’s image is burnt and its funeral rites are performed.98 The desire for male offspring is so intense that some of these shrines do a thriving trade in providing nostrums for this purpose.

One extraordinary method of procuring children, which long troubled our magistrates in Upper India, was for the would-be mother to burn down the hut of some neighbour. The Panjâbi woman, who under the reign of British law is prevented from burning the house of her neighbour, now takes a little grass from seven thatches and burns it.99

In another form of the charm the Khândh priest takes the woman to the confluence of two streams, sprinkles water over her to purify her from the dangerous influence of the spirit and makes an offering to the god of births.

Some special influence has been in many lands considered to attach to a person who has been publicly executed, and to the appliances used by the hangman.

Recently at an execution in Bombay, the hangman was observed to carefully secure the rope, and particularly that part of it which had encircled the neck of the culprit. He stated that he could sell every quarter inch of it, as it averted evil spirits and ghosts, and even prevented death from hanging. This idea accounts for the respect paid throughout Europe to the mandrake, which is supposed to be generated from the droppings of the brain of a thief on the gallows.

In Cornwall a wen or strumous swelling can be cured by touching it with the hand of a man who has been publicly hanged.100 According to the same principle, barren women in India bathe underneath a person who has been hanged, and women of the middle classes try to obtain a piece of the wood of the gallows for the same object. [227]

Another practice depends upon the principle that creeping under a bent tree or through a perforated stone expels the demon. Other instances of this will be given in another place. Hence in Gujarât, when an ascetic of the Dûndiya sect dies, women who seek the blessing of a son try to secure it by creeping under the litter on which his corpse is removed.101

A rite carried out with the same object rests on a sort of symbolic magic indicating fertility. Along the roads may often be seen trees almost destroyed by a noxious creeper known as the Akâsh Bel. Women in hope of offspring often transplant this from one tree to another, and are thus a decided nuisance to a district officer with a taste for arboriculture.

But the most approved plan is to visit a shrine with a reputation for healing this class of malady. There the patient is given a cocoanut, which is a magic substance, a fruit, or even a barley-corn from the holy of holies. Mr. Hartland has recently made an elaborate study of this subject, and he points out the principle on which the eating of such substances produced the desired effect. “Whether from an analogy between the normal act of impregnation and that of eating and drinking, or because savages had learnt that at least one mode of operating effectively on the organism, for purposes alike of injury and healing, was by drugs taken through the mouth, this was the favourite method of supernatural impregnation.”

And again—“Flowers, fruit and other vegetables, eggs, fishes, spiders, worms, and even stones, are all capable of becoming human beings. They only await absorption in the shape of food, or in some other appropriate manner, into the body of a woman, to enable the metamorphosis to be accomplished.”102

The same idea constantly occurs in Indian folk-lore. The barren queen is given the juice of a pomegranate by a Faqîr, or the king plucks one of the seven mangoes which grow on [228]a special tree, or a beggar gives the princess the drug which causes her to give birth to twins.103 Even in the Râmâyana we read that Râja Dasaratha divides the oblation among his wives and they conceive.

Even nowadays in Florence, if a woman wishes to be with child, she goes to a priest and gets from him an enchanted apple, with which she repairs to Saint Anna, who was the Lucina of Roman times, and repeats a prayer or a spell.104

Some holy men, it must be admitted, do not escape the tongue of slander for their doings in this department of their business.

Harmless Saints and Godlings

Most of these saints and godlings whom we have been considering, are comparatively harmless, and even benevolent. Such is nearly always the case with the ghosts of the European dead, who are constantly deified. Perhaps because the Sâhib is such a curiously incomprehensible personage to the rustic, he is believed to retain his powers in the other world. But it is a remarkable and unconscious tribute to the foreign ruler that his ghost should be beneficent.

The gardener in charge of the station cemetery in Mirzapur some time ago informed me that he constantly sees the ghosts of the ladies and gentlemen buried there coming out for a walk in the hot summer nights, and that they never harm him.

But with ordinary graves it is necessary to be cautious. As appears in the cycle of tales which turn on the magic ointment which enables the possessor to see the beings of the other world, spirits hate being watched. The spirit, for instance, often announces its wishes. When the Emperor Tughlaq began to build the tomb of the Saint Bahâwal Haq, a voice was heard from below, saying, “You are treading on my body.”

Another site was chosen at a short [229]distance, and the voice said, “You are treading on my knees.” He went a little further, and the voice said, “You are treading on my toes.” So he had to go to the other end of the fort, and as the voice was not heard there, the tomb was built. If you visit an old tomb, it is well to clap your hands, as the ghost sometimes revisits its resting-place, and if discovered in déshabille, is likely to resent the intrusion in a very disagreeable manner. So it is very dangerous to pollute a tomb or insult its occupant in any way, and instances have occurred of cases of epilepsy and hysteria, which were attributed to the neglect of these precautions.

Thus, there is nothing permanent, no established rule of faith in the popular belief of the rustic. Discredited saints and shrines are always passing into contempt and oblivion; new worthies are being constantly canonized. The worst part of the matter is that there is no official controller of the right to deification, no Advocatus Diaboli to dispute the claims of the candidate to celestial honours.

At the same time the system, though often discredited by fraud, admirably illustrates the elastic character of the popular creed. Hinduism would hardly be so congenial to the minds of the masses, if some rigid supervising agency disputed the right of any tribe to worship its hero, of any village to canonize its local worthy. The steady popularity of the system, for the present at least, shows that it satisfactorily provides for the religious wants of the people. [230]

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1 Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 113.

2 Hearn, “Aryan Household,” 18; Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 270 sq; Whitney, “Oriental and Linguistic Studies,” 1st Ser. 59; Mommsen, “History of Rome,” i. 73.

3 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 132, 133, 139, 160, 229; Campbell, “Notes,” 2 sqq.; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” ii. 117.

4 Hislop, “Papers,” 16 sq.

5 Dalton, loc. cit., 158.

6 Campbell, “Notes,” 5; Tylor, loc. cit., ii. 116.

7 E.g. Monier-Williams, “Brâhmanism and Hinduism,” 278 sqq.

8 See Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 177.

9 Gubernatis, “Zoological Mythology,” i. 279.

10 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 95.

11 “Bombay Gazetteer,” vii. 16 sq.

12 Malcolm, “Central India,” i. 144.

13 Dalton, “Descriptive Ethnology,” 148.

14 “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 269 sqq.

15 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” Introduction, cxxi.

16 “Berar Gazetteer,” 191.

17 For an account of this worthy see “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 163.

18 Spencer, “Principles of Sociology,” i. 187; Lubbock, “Origin of Civilization,” 284; Tylor, “Primitive Culture,” i. 458 sq.

19 Ralston, “Songs of the Russian People,” 327.

20 Hislop, “Papers,” 19; Appendix, iii.

21 “Panjâb Ethnography,” 115.

22 “Annals,” i. 79.

23 Ferguson, “History of Indian Architecture,” 470; “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” iii. 46; Growse, “Mathura,” 138.

24 “Berâr Gazetteer,” 191.

25 “Descriptive Ethnology,” 138.

26 Tod, “Annals,” ii. 544, 546, 676; Wright, “History of Nepâl,” 159, 212.

27 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 199; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iv. 44 sq. In the “Katha Sarit Sâgara” (Tawney, ii. 254), a mother proposes to go into the fire with her dead children.

28 “Institutes,” xi. 84.

29 Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 8.

30 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 202.

31 Tod, “Annals,” ii. 430 sq.

32 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvii. 160 sqq.; Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. 488; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 38.

33 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 540 sq.

34 Oldham, “Memoir of Ghazipur,” i. 55 sq.

35 Baillie, “N.-W.P. Census Report,” 214.

36 Tod, “Annals,” ii. 40.

37 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 817; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 5.

38 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 284.

39 Tod, “Annals,” i. 659 sq.

40 Sherring, “Sacred City,” 118, 174; Moorcroft, “Journey to Ladakh,” i. 190.

41 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 1; “Indian Antiquary,” xi. 290; “Gazetteer, N.-W.P.,” vi. 634; “Dâbistân,” ii. 24 sq.

42 Atkinson, loc cit., ii. 805; “Bombay Gazetteer,” xi. 300, 302.

43 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 28; Grierson, “Behâr Peasant Life,” 407; “Maithili Chrestomathy,” 3 sqq.

44 Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” i. 256.

45 “Berâr Gazetteer,” 199 sq.

46 Buchanan, “Eastern India,” i. 83.

47 Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xi. 129.

48 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 517.

49 “Rambles and Recollections,” i. 116.

50 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 200.

51 “Berâr Gazetteer,” 195.

52 The Persian version of the play has been translated by Sir Lewis Pelly. See Hughes’ “Dictionary of Islâm,” 185 sq.

53 The five Pîrs give their name to the Pîr Panjâl pass in Kashmîr (Jarrett, “Aîn-i-Akbari,” ii. 372, note). For another list of the Pîrs see Temple’s “Legends of the Panjâb,” ii. 372, note.

54 See Brand, “Observations,” 197.

55 For a very complete account of the cultus, see Mr. R. Greeven’s articles in Vol. I. “North Indian Notes and Queries,” afterwards republished as “Heroes Five.”

56 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iv. 64.

57 For instances see Frazer, “Golden Bough,” i. 279.

58 Briggs, “Farishta,” i. 587.

59 For the history of Masaud, see “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 111 sqq.; Sleeman, “Journey through Oudh,” i. 48; Elliot, “Supplementary Glossary,” 51.

60 Maclagan, “Panjâb Census Report,” 132; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 182; “Calcutta Review,” lx. 78 sqq.; Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 115; Oldham, “Contemporary Review,” xlvii. 412; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 181 sq.; Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 66 sqq.

61 Ibbetson, loc. cit. 115 sq.

62 Temple, “Legends of the Panjâb,” i. 121 sqq.; iii. 261 sqq.; Tod, “Annals,” ii. 492.

63 “Indian Antiquary,” xi. 33 sq.; Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvii. 159; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” ii. 1.

64 Rhys, “Lectures,” 502.

65 Campbell, “Popular Tales,” i. 72.

66 “Râjputâna Gazetteer,” ii. 37.

67 “Bombay Gazetteer,” v. 218; Risley, “Tribes and Castes of Bengal,” i. 41.

68 Miss Roalfe Cox, “Cinderella,” 484; Temple, “Wideawake Stories,” 423; Knowles, “Folk-tales of Kashmîr,” 21; Clouston, “Popular Tales,” i. 117; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 14, note, 571.

69 Yule, “Marco Polo,” i. 132 sq.

70 Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 115.

71 “Annals,” ii. 199, note.

72 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 197 sq., 515.

73 For the History of Farîd, see “Indian Antiquary,” xi. 33 sq.; Thomas, “Chronicles of the Pathân Kings,” 205; Ibbetson, “Panjâb Ethnography,” 115; Sleeman, “Rambles and Recollections,” ii. 165; Maclagan, “Panjâb Census Report,” 193.

74 Führer, “Monumental Antiquities,” 69, 270; “North Indian Notes and Queries,” ii. 21, 56, 155, 189.

75 “Karnâl Settlement Report,” 153.

76 “Karnâl Gazetteer,” 103.

77 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 17.

78 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 92.

79 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 81.

80 Mrs. Mîr Hasan ’Ali, “Observations on the Muhammadans of India,” ii. 324.

81 Maclagan, “Panjâb Census Report,” 198.

82 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 18.

83 “Berâr Gazetteer,” 192.

84 O’Brien, “Multâni Glossary,” 146.

85 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 334; Cunningham, “Archæological Reports,” xvi. 5. For the Chanod shrine, “Bombay Gazetteer,” vi. 160.

86 Risley, “Tribes and Castes,” i. 367.

87 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” iii. 144.

88 “Eastern India,” i. 82 sq.

89 “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” iii. 143.

90 “Reports,” i. 98, 130; xiv. 41; xxiii. 63.

91 “Journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal,” xiii. 205; “Panjâb Notes and Queries,” i. 109.

92 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 11 sq.

93 “Central Provinces Gazetteer,” 175.

94 Atkinson, “Himâlayan Gazetteer,” ii. 777; Wright, “History,” 114, 124.

95 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 38.

96 “Oudh Gazetteer,” i. 210 sq.

97 Ibid., i. 8 sq.

98 Campbell, “Notes,” 366.

99 “North Indian Notes and Queries,” i. 50.

100 Hunt, “Popular Romances,” 378.

101 Forbes, “Râs Mâla,” ii. 332, quoted by Campbell, “Notes,” 15.

102 “Legend of Perseus,” i. 72, 207.

103 Lâl Bihâri Dê, “Folk-tales of Bengal,” 1, 117, 187; Tawney, “Katha Sarit Sâgara,” i. 52, 172, 355, 382; ii. 216; Knowles, “Folk-tales of Kashmîr,” 131, 416.

104 Leland, “Etruscan Roman Remains,” 246.