Chapter IV: The Worship of the Sainted Dead (2)

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 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." [415] 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. [416] But by modern Indian 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. [417]

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. [418] 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 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, 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. [419] 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 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, [420] 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.

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. [421] 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 censure of the authorities, and Sikandar Lodi interdicted the procession of his spear. [422] 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. [423]

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. [424] 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 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 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 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." [425] 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. [426]

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 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. [427]

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. [428]

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." [429] 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 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 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. [430] 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. [431]

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 pot or purse, which is a stock element in Indian and European folk-lore. [432]

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. [433] 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. [434]

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. Tod [435] 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 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. [436]

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. [437]

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, 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 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. [438]

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. [439]

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. [440] 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. [441]

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 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. [442]

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. [443]

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. [444]

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 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. [445]

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. [446] A shrine in Berâr 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. [447] 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. [448] 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. [449]

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." [450]

In the Partâbgarh District are to be seen here and there strange-looking brick-built erections called Kûkar Deora or "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. [451]

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. [452]

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. [453] 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 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. [454] 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. [455] 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 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. [456]

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. [457] 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. [458] The celebrated shrine of Hanumân at Beguthiya was discovered by a wandering ascetic, [459] 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 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. [460]

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. [461]

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 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. [462] 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. [463]

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. [464] 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.

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. [465]

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." [466]

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 a special tree, or a beggar gives the princess the drug which causes her to give birth to twins. [467] 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. [468]