baba peer ratan nath ji or haji ratan

Abstract This article deals with the complex personality and legacy of a mysterious

saint known both as a Sufı (H: ajji Ratan) and a Nath Yogı (Ratannath) and links his

multiple identity as well as the religious movement originated from him, to the

specific cultural context of the former North-West Indian provinces. The first part is

devoted to Ratan in the Nath Yogı tradition, the second to his many facets in the

Muslim tradition, in connection with his dargah in the Panjabi town of Bhatinda. The

third and main part explores a particular movement, the Har Sri Nath tradition.

Presently centered around a ‘‘dargah mandir’’ in Delhi, this movement, with its two

branches issued from Ratan and from his ‘‘son’’ Kayanath, was rooted in what is now

Pakistan. The influence of location and history has led to many peculiarities which

lead us to stress the blurred boundaries between Islam and Hinduism and the essential

part played by charismatic figures in the construction of religious identities.

Keywords Nath yogins � Ratan � Religious identities

Introduction

The Indian saint Baba Ratan figures both in S.A.A. Rizvi’s authoritative book on the

‘‘History of Sufism in India’’ (1978) and in G.W. Briggs’s ‘‘Gorakhnath and the

Kanphata Yogıs’’ (first published in 1938), concerning the Nath Yogı sect, a Hindu

Saiva ascetic tradition. The same character, Baba Ratan, seems thus to appear under

V. Bouillier (&)Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Centre d’Etudes de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud),Paris, Francee-mail: [email protected]

D.-S. KhanInstitute of Rajasthan Studies, Jaipur, Indiae-mail: [email protected]

123

J Indian Philos (2009) 37:559–595

DOI 10.1007/s10781-009-9076-x

H: ajji Ratan or Baba Ratan’s Multiple Identities

Veronique Bouillier Æ Dominique-Sila Khan

Published online: 7 November 2009

� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

two distinct identities, as H: ajji Ratan or Ratannath, and the many stories told about

him let us wonder about the link between these two aspects.

Having first met Ratan as a Nath Yogı, as the illustrious founder of the important

Nath monastery of Caughera in Southern Nepal, we found nevertheless there some

intriguing mentions of his heroic deeds ‘‘in Muslim countries’’, where ‘‘all the

Hindu devotees worship him as Ratannath and the Muslims as H: ajji Ratan’’.1 The

complexity of the personage has been wonderfully studied by J. Horovitz, who in a

seminal lecture delivered in October 1911 at the Punjab Historical Society,2 gave

detailed information about the many legends he collected, thus providing a frame

for the fragments we gathered in Nepal. He also emphasized the many occurrences

of H: ajji Ratan in Muslim religious literature as well as his link with the Panjabi

town of Bhatinda.

Given this complex background and the apparently multiple religious affiliation

of Baba Ratan, the discovery in Delhi of a sacred complex entitled ‘‘DargahMandir Pır Baba Ratannath’’, with its juxtaposition of what are generally con-

sidered Muslim and Hindu names, seems to summarize in a single appellation the

whole question. This place in Delhi is the main center of an apparently distinct

religious movement, which, for convenience sake, will be here referred to as the

‘‘Har Srı Nath’’ tradition, a movement that has, so far, failed to attract the attention

of scholars.3 This particular religious tradition revolves around a guru—disciple

lineage, which claims to have originated with Baba Ratan himself.

Our purpose is then to explore the various aspects of the present Ratan’s tradi-

tion. Enquiring in Bhatinda, then in different locations of the Har Srı Nath move-

ment, we were impressed by the importance of geographical context, by the local

rootedness and the socio-historical background of the cult in north-west India,

which was eventually disrupted by Partition.

Horovits’s theory is to see Baba Ratan as a bridge between Islam and Hinduism

or alternatively as an agent of conversion: ‘‘We see that the saint of Bhatinda has

become in the popular imagination the evangelist of his new creed [Islam] and that

his is the office of initiating the newly converted into its symbols’’ (id.: 102).

However Horovitz remainded quite puzzled by the discrepancies between the two

sets of legends, examining separately the Muslim H: ajji Ratan of Bhatinda, and Pır

Ratan Nath, ‘‘the Jogı Saint of Peshawar’’: [they] ‘‘seem absolutely different [. . .]yet even here some slight traces are visible that may suggest a once existing con-

nection [. . .] a few elements remain that point to a more original form of these

legends, of which our saint of Bhatinda might have once been the hero’’ (id.: 104).

Horovitz’s bewilderment reflects the spirit of his time. During the colonial period

Islam and Hinduism were conceived as homogenized blocs and, at times, the British

census officers found it difficult to record religious statistics. As Ibbetson wrote

in 1881: ‘‘On the border lands where the great faiths meet [. . .] the various

1 Commentary on a wall painting depicting Ratan’s deeds in the monastery. On Caughera and the Nath

Yogıs, see Bouillier (1997).2 Horovitz (1914).3 Except Yoginder Sikand whom we thank heartily; he was the first to identify the place and shared

generously with us his information. See also his pages about Bhatinda in Sikand (2003, pp. 196–214).

560 V. Bouillier, D.-S. Khan

123

observances and beliefs which distinguished the followers of the several faiths in

their purity are so strangely blended and intermingled, that it is often impossible to

say that one prevails rather than other, or to decide in what category the people shall

be classed.’’4

Recent research has not only questioned the monolithic nature of the ‘‘great faiths’’

to which Ibbetson was alluding but also taken interest in overlapping or shared

identities.5 Various scholars have shown how our present vision of ‘‘Hinduism’’ and

‘‘Islam’’ is the result of a long and complex historical process. They have also

suggested that, in this process, the part played by charismatic individuals was

essential and that religious affiliation was second to personal allegiance. As Gilmartin

and Lawrence said, ‘‘Individual religious differences between Muslims and Hindus

(as between other generic religious categories, like Saiva and Vaisnava, Sunni and

Sh‘ia) were framed by their operation within a pervasive structure of personalized

religious authority [. . .] This is not to say that marks of generic Hindu or Muslim

identity were insignificant. But since religious virtue and spiritual power were

embodied preeminently in holy individuals, religious identity was defined primarily

in relation to individual teachers, masters, or Sufi exemplars’’ (2000, p. 18).

The exploration of the many sides of the mysterious Baba Ratan finds its

importance in this context. Instead of trying to decide if Baba Ratan was primarily

(or originally) Hindu or Muslim we should try to understand how such a complex

character may have emerged.

Ratan and the Nath Yogı Tradition

Known under the name of Ratannath or Ratnanath (the jewel master), Ratan, the

revered founder of the Caughera Nath Yogı monastery in Nepal could be viewed as

one of the leaders of the sect. However, the personage revealed in the many legends

related to him and told in Caughera presents some intriguing details and raises many

questions.

The Nath Yogı sect, whose origin can be attributed to Gorakhnath and dated from

the XII–XIIIth century, is also known as the sect of the nine Naths and 64 Siddhas.

It includes among these tutelary figures some well-known saints and heroes, whose

deeds are celebrated in many heroic ballads, but, even if the lists vary according to

places or times, they never include Ratan.6 His fame seems thus quite local although

he was supposed to have been chosen by Gorakhnath himself, and to have received

from him a very precious gift, a patradevata or divine-pot.

The legendary life of Ratannath as told in Caughera (cf. Bouillier 2007, pp. 55–

88) can be divided in two parts. The first part deals with the conversion of a hunting

prince into a meditating Yogı, thanks to Gorakhnath’s intervention, and with the

4 Denzil Ibbetson, quoted by Oberoi (1994, p. 9).5 See for instance Gilmartin and Lawrence 2000; Gottschalk 2001; Khan 1997, 2004. Many sacred

figures of North India are endowed with a dual or even more complex identity. Among them Satya Pır, the

Bengali saint also worshipped as Satya Narayan: a (see Stewart 2000, pp. 21–54).6 Crooke ([1896] 1975, vol. III, p. 59) has a Ratan among Gorakhnath’s disciples.

H: ajji Ratan or Baba Ratan’s Multiple Identities 561

123

foundation of the Caughera monastery in order to protect and worship the

patradevata. The second part switches abruptly to the many travels Ratannath

undertakes in the northwest Indian provinces, in territories under the authority of a

Muslim emperor (the badsah). The many miracles he performs there attract rec-

ognition and devotion from the Muslim local population, including the badsahhimself. Place names are mentioned, Jalalabad, Kabul, Peshawar, and, most sur-

prisingly, the support given by Ratan to Mahmud Ghori. The blessing Ratan gave to

the conqueror permitted him to be victorious over the Rajput king Prithvi Raj

Chauhan in the battle of Tabarhind or Bhatinda, the place where Ratan is also

supposed to be buried.

From the accounts given in the Caughera Nath monastery, we get the strong

impression of a heroic saint whose fame originated in a very different context and

who has been adopted and adapted to the Nepalese Nath background: the result of

the influence of itinerant Yogıs as cultural translators?

Ratan is briefly mentioned in the reports written by the English administrators.

This notation from H.A. Rose7 gives a first apercu of the strength of Ratan’s local

rootedness: ‘‘The chief saint of the Jogıs in the north-west is Pır Ratn Nath of

Peshawar, in which district as well as throughout Kabul and Khorasan, a kabit is

said to be current which describes his power.’’ He adds in a footnote ‘‘Even the

fanatical Muhammadans of these parts reverence Pır Ratn Nath’’.

However Ratan appears also in another Nath Yogı context, in the set of legends

related to the hero Goga. From Rajasthan to Panjab and Uttar Pradesh, the fame of

this renouncer-king is sung in many ballads. Interestingly the end of his tumultuous

life is related to Ratan, but to a Ratan who is then purely Muslim. Initiated by

Gorakhnath, Goga fights many battles, but, cursed by his mother, asks his guru for

help. He wants to disappear into the Earth. Gorakhnath sends him to Ratan. Or,

according to another version quoted by Richard Temple,8 Goga looks for death, and

begs the Earth to swallow him up. But Mother Earth replies: ‘‘Ay, my son, I tell thee

how is it that you does not know? Musalmans are buried below; Hindus go to the

pyre [. . .]. Go to Ratan H: ajji and learn the Musalman’s creed. When thou hast done

this, I will take thee to myself’’.

Rose (1919, vol. I, p. 181) presents, in what he calls ‘‘The Gurgaon Version’’, a

synthesis of the two aspects, Nath and Muslim, of Ratan, when he says: ‘‘Earth bade

him [Goga] learn yog from Ratn Nath, Jogı at Bhat:ind:a, or else accept the kalima’’,

adding in a foot note ‘‘Baba Ratn Hajı Sahib of Bhat:ind:a more correctly called Hajı

Abdul Raza Ratn Tabrindı or Tabarhindı’’.

Curiously, the Archaelogical Survey of India gives credence to the legendary story

of Goga and its relationship with Bhatinda but without mentioning Ratan. At the

entrance to the huge remains of the Bhatinda fort, a board reads: ‘‘It was here that

Gogga, the famous Chauhan fell after being driven back from his defences of the Sutlej

against the invading Muslim army’’. Could this reflect an identification of the two

famous Rajput heroes, of the legendary Goga with the historical Prithvi Raj Chauhan?

7 Rose et al. (1919, vol. II, p. 407).8 Temple (1885, vol. I, p. 208). On Goga see also Bouillier (2004).


123

Ratan H: ajji and Bhatinda: Exploration in the Muslim Tradition

Ratan is Far from Unknown in the Muslim Literary Tradition

J. Horovitz, summarizing first the many legends he had personally collected in

Bhatinda or read in the Census reports of British administrators like Ibbetson (1883)

and Maclagan (1891), wonders at the different identities and periods with which

Ratan is connected. In these narratives, Baba Ratan was supposed to be a companion

of the Prophet Muhammad as well as a Saiva Nath Yogı known as Ratannath, a

disciple of Gorakhnath and the guru of the epic hero Goga Chauhan. Connected

with Shihabuddin Ghori as well as Mahmud of Ghazni, he was also believed to have

settled in Mecca, Peshawar, Bhatinda and Nepal, during the seventh, the eleventh or

the thirteenth centuries. According to some legendary accounts he was born during

the Prophet Muhammad’s time and died at the beginning of the fourteenth century

C.E.

In addition to these legendary accounts, Horovitz summarizes the many

mentions he found in the Muslim records and most specially in the ‘‘Is: aba, by

Ibn H: ajar of Askalon, one of the great theological authors of the ninth century

H.’’ In this text Ibn H: ajar gives biographies and critical judgements on all those

persons who were supposed to give testimonies on the Prophet. ‘‘Not a small

number of articles is devoted to ‘Companions of the Prophet’ who claimed to

have outlived him by several centuries, and to this class of Companions Baba

Ratan also belongs’’ (p. 105). ‘‘In his article on Baba Ratan, Ibn H: ajar quotes the

accounts of various travellers whom the fame of the saint has induced to

undertake the pilgrimage to Bhatinda’’ (p. 106), and from these testimonies,

Horovitz concludes: ‘‘We cannot doubt that there lived at Tabarhind, towards the

end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century of the Hijrah, a man

called Ratan, who claimed to have intercourse with the Prophet at Medina and to

have been granted through the power of his blessing a lease of life exceeding six

hundred years; further that these claims had attracted a good deal of attention

even outside India’’ (p. 110).

However, following again Ibn H: ajar, Horovitz mentions the many critical and

polemical discussions related to Ratan’s wondrous deeds and even to his mere

existence: ‘‘In the seventh, eighth and ninth Islamic centuries his claims were hotly

discussed, some of the most distinguished authorities on H: adıth dismissing them.

One of them, Dhahabı (673–748 H.) wrote a monograph, Kasr Wathan Ratan (The

breaking of the Idol Ratan), the title of which is sufficiently suggestive of its aims’’

(p. 110).

Of the same opinion is Al-Hasan al-Saghanı (577–650 H.). We have here perhaps

the oldest mention of ‘‘Ratan Al-Hindı’’, considered as an author of a fake com-

pilation of the Prophet’s sayings.9 But we can remark that this very critical note

dates from the time of the supposed death of Ratan: he was already well known in

the middle of the thirteenth century C.E.

9 See Ishaq (1955, pp. 224–227). See also the note by Shafı‘ (1995, tome VIII, pp. 473–474), where the

principal known data regarding Ratan, following mainly Horovitz, are aptly summarized.


123

These many discrepancies in the records and opinions concerning Ratan also find

expression in the A’ın-i-Akbarı , where Abul’ I-Fazl ‘Allamı names him among the

Saints of India: ‘‘In the time of Ignorance he was born at Tabrindah and went to

Hijaz and saw the Prophet, and after many wanderings returned to India. Many

accepted the accounts he related, while others rejected them as the garrulity of

senile age. He died at Tabarindah, in A.H. 700 (A.D. 1300-1)’’.10

Before trying to find the last signs of Ratan’s presence in Bhatinda, let us quote

the strange remarks found in the Dabistan11 (84), a strong indication of the blurring

of Ratan’s religious affiliation and of the Yogıs’s position regarding Islam: ‘‘The

belief of that class is that Muhammad, on whom be peace, was also a pupil and

disciple of Gorakh Nath. Out of fear of the Musalmans however they dare not

declare it, but say only that Baba Rın [i.e. Ratan] H: ajji, that is Gorakh Nath, was the

foster father of the Prophet [. . .] and took the mode of Yog from the Prophet’’.

Ratan’s Tomb in Bhatinda

As Horovitz already mentioned, one looks in vain in Bhatinda for any original

written document regarding Ratan’s life, but the place and its caretaker bear testi-

mony to the still living tradition of the saint and tell us some important facts

regarding the religious context of the devotion towards Ratan and its close con-

nection with the local religious landscape.

The Buildings

It is in the southern part of this small Panjabi town that a white washed archway

leads to the ‘‘Dargah Baba H: ajjı Ratan’’. Within the compound one can see

different buildings among which the most conspicuous is Baba Ratan’s tomb. It is a

medium-size square building crowned by a hemispherical dome surrounded with

four green turrets that look like a small replica of the tomb. The eastern wall bears

four Persian inscriptions, now barely decipherable.

Subash Parihar, who made an archeological and historical survey of the dar-gah,12 has copied and translated these inscriptions. They deal with the various

repairs and white-washing of the building. The earliest is dated 1603 and the latest

1719. They are written in Persian Nasta‘liq. The second (dated 1023 A.H./1614

A.D.) and the third (dated 1052 A.H./1643) are the most interesting for us, as they

specify that the white-washing and repairs were done under the supervision of Bidey

Chand, son of Girdhar La‘l Oppal, in one case, and Jogı Das,13 in the other. Jogı

Das was a shiqqdar (‘‘revenue collector of a territorial division’’) during the

10 Jarrett (reprint 1978, p. 401).11 English edition by Shea and Troyer ([1843] 1993, vol. II, p. 129).12 Parihar (2001).13 We will see that this name associating Jogı/Yogı with the Das ending evoques the ‘‘Har Srı Nath’’

tradition, but the connection cannot be established.


123

ministership of Rai Todar Mal.14 Even if both acted within the limits of their official

activities, their names indicate that Hindus had some interest in the place.

According to S. Parihar, ‘‘the western wall of the interior originally had a

mih: rab, the contours of which were bordered with the text from verse 17 of chapter

3 of the Qur’an. This inscription was further framed with the Throne Verse’’15

(2001; p. 108). Its calligraphic style fits the date given for the construction of the

tomb, and hence the death of Baba H: ajjı Ratan, that is to say the beginning of the

thirteenth century. ‘‘If our conclusion is true, adds Parihar, the tomb of H: ajı Ratan

ranks as the earliest surviving Sultanate monument [. . .] It also has the earliest

surviving hemi-spherical dome in the Indian sub-continent’’ (2001; pp. 109–110).16

The interior of the building is rather austere. Baba Ratan’s rectangular tomb is

covered with a green cloth and surrounded by a modern iron railing. Outside the

entrance door is a small niche for oil lamps and for storing packets of salt and

brooms. These are the usual offerings made to H: ajjı Ratan by people who seek his

help, often for the cure of skin deseases.

The dargah enclosure contains a few other tombs. Among them is a very curious

one in which Ratan’s legend materializes: shaped like a sitting camel, it is supposed

to contain the remains of the camel given to Baba Ratan by the Prophet Moham-

med! At the south-west corner of the enclosure a small mosque connects Ratan with

another personage, Sultan Raziyya, the daughter of Sultan Shams al-Din Iltumish

(1210–1236), who reigned over Delhi from 1236 to 1240.17 The mosque, a small

rectangular structure with the main archway painted in green and a crenellated

dome, in the shape and colour of the dome of Baba Ratan’s tomb is said to have

been built by her, a fact which, according to Subhash Parihar, is highly

dubious.18 One legend has it that when Raziyya was either imprisoned in Bhatinda

or staying there as the governor’s wife, she used to leave the fort every day and go

to Baba Ratan’s grave. This of course would imply that the saint was

already dead at that time. Later on she had a mosque to be built on the spot.

14 ‘‘Rai Todar Mal of the inscription could have been none other than the renowned mans:abdar (rank-

holder) of Shah Jahan [. . .] In the year 1052 [. . .] he was working as the dıwan, amın and faujdar of

Sirhind’’, Parihar op. cit. p. 113.15 Parihar adds: ‘‘The present author himself saw the inscription in early 1980s’’ (op. cit. p. 108, n.12).

We were thus quite astonished at seeing the walls newly painted and absolutely devoid of any inscription.16 The earliest date found on a Muslim tomb in South Asia is A.H. 554 (A.D.1159–1160) but the dome is

pyramidal.17 According to Kumar (2008), ‘‘in the history of the Delhi Sultanate, the accession of a woman to the

throne was unprecedented [. . .] Her gender notwithstanding, Sultan Raziyya displayed striking political

initiative’’. The Bhatinda episode takes place after her deposition in 1240 in favour of her brother. She

was imprisoned in the fort of Bhatinda under the authority of the local governor Ikhtiyaruddin

Mohammad Altuniya. According to some local versions, she escaped by jumping with her horse from a

balcony and mustered an army to fight back her enemies. It seems that she married Altuniya and that both

of them fought together against Raziyya’s brother. But they were killed in the battle on the 13th october

1240.18 ‘‘The structure does not appeared that old. Such abbreviated forms of mosque, comprising just a nave

and two aisles, came into vogue not before the Lodhi periode (1451–1526). And if the cusped arch of the

central opening is original, the mosque was not built before the reign of Shah Jahan (1627–1658) when

this type of arch came into vogue’’ (Parihar op. cit. p. 116).


123

The Caretakers

The dargah was said to have been under the custody of Madarı faqırs. According to a

local tradition, this practice goes back to the very founding of the dargah, to a certain

Shah Chand who was said to be Baba Ratan’s nephew19 and a Madarı faqır from

Makanpur.20 His tomb can be seen near the dargah entrance: known as Pır Shah

Chand’s tomb, it is a rectangular structure with a small dome. Other tombs are

engraved with the name of some other Madarıs. In the small cemetery close to Pır

Chand’s tomb, an engraved marble slab commemorates the death of Pır Ali

Mohammad Shah Madarı in 1373 A.H., who was the last Madarı pır. Interestingly,

the Madarıs, regarded as heterodox by most Sunni theologians, look very much like

Saiva ascetics, and especially the Nath Yogıs. The colourful description found in the

Dabistan is still accurate: ‘‘They carry iron chains on their heads and necks, and

have black flags and black turbans; they know neither prayers nor fasts; they are

always sitting at a fire; they drink a great deal of bhang; and the most perfect among

them go about without any dress, in severe cold in Kabul and Kashmir and such

places’’.21 We know that Baba Ratan’s dargah was owned by the Madarıs till

Partition.

The Partition had a profound impact on the situation of the dargah. Before

Partition, the dargah owned a vast amount of landed property which has been

subsequently taken over and reserved for public buildings or public space such as

the vegetable and grain market. A part was even given to a nearby Sikh gurudwara.

And between 1947 and 1960, it is this gururdwara which has been in charge of the

dargah administration.

According to the present custodian, before Partition the proportions of Hindus,

Muslims and Sikhs were approximately the same (35%), but many Muslims con-

verted apparently to Sikhism although they still continue to visit the dargah. He

estimates that the people who come to the dargah are 25% Sikh. As far as the

Muslims are concerned, half of them, that is to say about 500 families, are from

Bhatinda, while the other half come from outside.

In 1960, the dargah administration was taken back from the Sikhs and returned

to the Muslims and to the Bhatinda department of the Punjab Waqf Board, which

has its headquarters in a small modern building, inside the dargah compound. Its

duty is to appoint the caretaker (mujavar) of the dargah and to verify the accounts.

19 It is also mentioned by Rose (op. cit. vol. 1, p. 551) in his pages about the Madarı order: ‘‘The most

interesting feature is their connection with the shrine of Haji Ratan near Bhatinda which is held by Madari

mujawars descended from a Madari with the Hindu name of Shah Chand who came from Makanpur in

Oudh’’. According to Horovitz, Shah Chand ascended the gaddi in the fifteenth century (op. cit. p. 81),

but ‘‘the architectural style of the tomb places its construction in late Mughal periode, i.e. eighteenth

century’’ (Parihar op. cit. p. 118).20 The famous shrine at Makanpur is the headquarter of the Sufi Madarı brotherhood and the place where

its founder Shah Madar is supposed to have been buried.21 Op. cit. p. 223. For a recent study that reevaluates their position within the Muslim community, see

Falasch (2004, pp. 254–272).


123

The actual caretaker (who refers, somehow abusively, to himself as gaddı nishin) is

Maulvi Sirajal-Din Qureishi.22 His office is in the dargah compound, but he resides

outside with his family. Appointed in 1989, he was formerly an imam. He is not

affiliated to any silsila, although he claims to be Sufi at heart.

The caretaker’s duty is particularly important during the annual festival, which

attests to the wide popularity of the dargah and its encompassing nature, since

many Sikh and Hindu devotees visit the place and worship the saint, each on his

own way. The urs, the celebration held for the death anniversary of H: ajjı Ratan,

starts on the 7th and finishes on the 10th Dhu’l-Hijjah. At the dargah the present

‘‘gaddı nishin’’ distributes holy water and performs the ghusal ceremony (a kind of

ablution during which he anoints the grave with rose-water). Qawwals are invited,

mostly from the nearby town of Malerkotla23 and a la _ngar is organised. The food is

strictly vegetarian, no non-vegetarian food being allowed in the precincts of the

dargah.24 This is more than a simple token of respect for Brahmanical sensibilities.

People remember also that the former gaddı nishin used to keep many cows in the

dargah and to give offerings of milk and ghee.

The Hindus also come in large numbers for the Goga festival or Goga navamı, on

the ninth day of Bhadra month. They offer sweets and worship the tomb with both

hands folded in the traditional namaste gesture. We mentioned earlier the con-

nection between Ratan and Goga, whose tomb in Rajasthan (at Gogamedhi) is still

attended to by Muslim and Hindu caretakers.

The Sikh Surrounding

Nowadays the relationship between the dargah and the very close gurudwara is

quite interesting and apparently devoid of any tension or bad memories.

Both buildings nearly overlap and the small Sultan Raziyya mosque appears built

against the now huge complex of the gurudwara, which comprises a large tank and

galleries. The construction of the present gurudwara dates back to 1960, when the

Sikhs, after having abandoned the dargah, were allotted 3/4 of its former property.

The present wealth of the institution is conspicuous, judging from the recent con-

struction of a new vast marble hall devoted to kirtan and planned for the com-

memoration of Guru Nanak’s birth 400 years ago.

The gurudwara is also related to Baba Ratan, hence its name ‘‘Dasme PadshahShri Guru Gobind Singh Haji Ratan Gurudwara’’. At the entrance, a board,

written in Punjabi, narrates the following story:

22 According to the definition that has been given during a recent law suit in Ajmer (judicial document

AIR 1987 Supreme Court 2213. Civil Appeal No. 8794 of 1980 and 292 of 1982) the title of gaddı-nishinor sajjada-nishin is given only to the hereditary head of a Muslim shrine who is supposed to be the

descendant of the saint to whom it is dedicated. The caretaker proper (mujavar) is appointed either by the

gaddı-nishin or by the Waqf Board. Qureishis claim to be the descendants of Prophet Muhammad’s tribe

(Quraish) but nowadays most Qasais (Muslim butchers) use it as a caste and family name in order to

enhance their status.23 For this small town of Punjab, the only majoritarian Muslim town and the only one devoid of any

communalist tension even during Partition, see Bigelow (2004).24 As it is also the case in Ajmer.


123

Guru Govind Singh came to the village of Bhatinda from Phagu. He called

H: ajji Ratan, talked to him and released him from the cycle of rebirths. The

gurudwara has been built at the place where Ratan obtained moks:a from

Guru Gobind Singh. When they learned that he had met H: ajji Ratan, the Sikh

assembly of Bhatinda went to see Gobind Singh. They had his darsan, fol-

lowed by a kirtan session and Guru Gobind freed the Sants from their trou-

bles. At that time, the place where Guru Gobind was staying was a jungle, and

Bhatinda sa _nghat: suggested to him that he should shift to the fort. There the

Guru asked them if they had any problem. They answered that they were

indeed suffering a lot. There was a raks:as destroying their houses, devouring

human beings and disturbing them. So they begged to be delivered from this

evil creature. Guru Gobind called the raks:as and asked him why he was

behaving like this. The raks:as answered that he was extremely hungry and

that if his hunger was satisfied, he would leave the place. Thanks to his inner

sight, the Guru saw a huge buffalo in a village called Nathbageru, 10 km from

there. He had this buffalo brought to him and said: in this buffalo, there is life

[that is to say an evil spırit]. The buffalo was killed and fed to the raks:as who,

once satiated, agreed to leave. One of Guru Gobind’s main disciples, Bhanda

Singh, went with the raks:as and fought with him. Then again the sa _nghat: said:

‘there is a drought, we have nothing left to eat. Please take this drought farther

south’. Till today the Sants meet in the qila mubharat.

This astonishing story is of course met with some scepticism by the people of the

dargah. Everybody agrees as to the visit paid by Gobind Singh, the 10th Guru of the

Sikhs, but according to the Maulvi, at that time the dargah was already there.

Gobind Singh was fed and taken care of. Then he declared that a gurudwara should

also be constructed on the spot in order to give shelter to the pilgrims. Pır Chand

Shah, who was at that time the sajjada-nishin, gave him ten bighas of land. Sub-

sequently the name of H: ajji Ratan was added to that of Gobind Singh on the

gurudwara gate.

Recently a wall has been erected between the dargah and the gurudwara so that

their entrances are now quite distinct. However, this has not affected the relationship

between the neighbouring shrines and many Muslim and Sikh devotees continue to

visit both places. Remarkably, the same type of offering is made in both srhrines. In

the gurudwara devotees leave their packets of salt and brooms on a platform built

around the tree where Guru Gobind is supposed to have tied his horse.

The Nath Village

According to the present dargah caretaker, the Partition induced another change: it

put an end to the dargah relationship with people he called Naths and who used to

come for Baba Ratan’s urs and to participate in the wrestling tornaments (kustı ).

He took us to a nearby village, some 20 km from Bhatinda, which bears the tell-tale

name of Nathana, ‘‘of the Nath’’, in Panjabi. In the middle of the village stands the

temple of Kalunath or Kalunath Mandir, which had formerly close relationships

with Ratan’s dargah.


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At present the sectarian affiliation of the shrine is rather confused and reflects the

chequered religious history of Panjab. The shrine is believed to have been founded

by Kalunath and to belong to the Nath tradition, but it is now called ‘darbar’ (the

term darbar referring not only to a Muslim shrine but also to a Sikh gurudwara)

and is mainly visited by the Sikhs. Although the shrine is managed by an inde-

pendant Sikh trust committee comprising 25 members, the caretaker is neither a

Sikh nor a Nath. He claims the title of sevadar or sevak (‘‘servant, devotee’’) and

denies any sectarian affiliation. Bearing a name ending in Das, like his guru,25 he

portrays himself merely as a devotee of Kalunath.

Kalunath, the founder of the shrine, probably lived in the sixteenth century and

was said to have been an intimate friend of Shah Chand of Bhatinda. At the entrance

of the temple a board in Panjabi can be summarized as follows:

He was born in VS 1607 [1550 AD] in a small village of Malwa District. His

father Jaimal and his mother Mohinı were Jat: by caste (Dhalival branch).

When he was sixteen Kalunath made a pilgrimage to Haridvar where he was

initiated into the Nath sampraday. Subsequently he settled in a place which

was later to be called Nathana [. . .] In 1640 VS [1583] Akbar went to see him

and granted him some 36 pin: d: a (a measure) of land. Later on in 1688 VS

[1631] Kalunath helped Guru Hargobind to feed his army during the battle of

Gurusar.26 He died in Baravarar where the family of his disciple Raja Ram,

the ancestor of the Jat: clan Romana to which the majority of the present

devotees belong, built a fort. As the event took place on the new moon of cait,on this day many devotees flock to the temple to worship his memory.

Kalunath’s samadhi occupies the center of the sacred complex. His body has

been buried under the cave, where he had spent 12 years in meditation. This

underground chamber is ventilated by two narrow channels and is now converted

into a small chapel enshrining the paduka (wooden sandals), the cimt:a (fire-tongs)

and the meditation staff supposedly owned by Kalunath. On the top of it, at the

ground level is a square chamber, which receives daily offerings. It is enclosed in a

small building the interior of which is decorated with naive paintings and small

statues of Kalunath and his parents.

An interesting painting in the samadhi and a similar one in the sevadar’s room

represents ‘‘the five pırs’’ or ‘‘the four pırs with Guru Sahib’’: in front of Guru

Hargobind seated under a tree, one can see Kalunath clad in a red la _mgot:ı (loin-

cloth), H: ajji Ratan with a green dress, Kalyan Das wearing a brown la _mgot:ı, and

25 But the name he gives for his guru, Kaurdas, is contested by the Sikh devotees, in favour of a name

with Singh, ‘‘Sava Sardar Kaur Singh Romana’’, a truly Sikh name.26 A victory of Guru Hargovind against the Mughal forces under the command of Qammar Beg and Lalla

Beg. The battle was fought near Bhatinda in the Lakhi Jungle.


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Sakhi Sultan27 with a white dress and a black turban. Kalyan Das28 is also called

Kalyan Pır and the group together constitutes one of the many lists of the ‘‘Panc

Pırs’’. The cult of this group of five deities or five saints is widespread all over North

India. It has probably a Shia Muslim origin if one considers the particular reverence

in which Mohammed, his daughter Fatimah, his cousin and son-in-law Ali and their

sons Hasan and Husain are held. Later on, ‘‘the expansion of the cult saw the

progressive incorporation of local figures. In the Panjab, where the Indian version of

the cult seems to have originated, the list of the Panchon Pirs consisted of prominent

Sufi (mainly Chisti) saints living in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; as the

cult spread to the south and east, there was a tendency for some saints to be replaced

with historical or quasi-historical martial heroes [. . .] Further expansion resulted

[. . .] in the inclusion of purely local Hindu or ‘‘tribal’’ deities and deified dead’’

(D.M. Coccari29). The shrines of these Panc Pırs ‘‘can be regarded as Hindu or

Muslim places of worship but in all cases, devotees of both communities gather at

the same place without wondering about its ‘religious identity’’’ (Khan 1997, p. 90).

The list of Nathana Pırs has the interesting peculiarity of including Guru Hargobind

Singh. Encompassing Sikh, Hindu and Muslim saints, it is particularly well suited to

a shrine visited by devotees of the three faiths.

Even exploring the explicitly Muslim site of Ratan’s tomb, his dargah, one is

struck by the pluralistic identity of his devotees. Ratan’s story tells us of a time

where strong cleavage between communities did not exist. And even after the

trauma caused in this Panjabi surrounding by Partition, traces of this closeness are

left. They tell us of the importance of location, of the rootedness in place, in this

north-western India where borders were easily crossed.

We shall now pursue our exploration of Ratan’s identity and the tranmission of

his legends in a complex tradition where signs become blurred, where what matters

is this ‘‘local belonging.’’

The Har Srı Nath Tradition

At first one could take for granted the link between the Baba Ratan’s Har Srı Nath

movement and the Nath sampraday. But even though the Har Srı Nath devotees

claim to belong to this sampraday, the situation appears more complex. Let us first

make a short visit to the Delhi main center and examine the many different refer-

ences it evokes.

27 According to Crooke (1894, pp. 132–133), ‘‘Sakhi Sarwar or ‘generous leader’, the title of a saint

whose real name was Sayyad Ahmad, is held in great reverence in the Panjab. His father is said to have

been a native of Baghdad and he flourished about the middle of the twelfth century [. . .] As a curious

illustration of the catholicity of the worship of these saints, we find a shrine of Baba Nanak [. . .] and a

temple to Vishnu close to the tomb of Sakhi Sarwar’’.28 We found no reference to him except eventually in W. Crooke who mentions among the various saints

of Panjab, a Kalyan Bharti, Hindu ascetic ‘‘buried alive at his own request about four hundred years ago

[. . .] The virtue of his shrine is such that if any one take a false oath within its precincts he will die at

once’’(op. cit. p. 139).29 Coccari (1989). See also Crooke, op. cit. pp. 129–130).


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An Unusual Shrine

In a quiet Delhi lane, ironically situated in the vicinity of the RSS30 headquarters, the

facade of an ordinary building is adorned with the astonishing signboard we already

mentioned, ‘‘Dargah Mandir Pır Baba Ratannath’’, which immediately empha-

sizes the singularity of the place. At the left side of the entrance is a small room

where the visitor can leave his shoes in exchange for a small token and, on the right

side, a fountain, where he is requested to wash his hands. Crossing the gate, women

cover their head with a scarf or their dupatta and men take a small neckerchief

provided by the caretakers of the shrine. Covering their forehead, they fasten it on the

back of the head, in the Muslim fashion.31 Reading another board fixed at the

entrance, the visitor is warned not to wear any black dress. Taking photos is for-

bidden.

Duly advised and properly dressed, one enters a big courtyard. The main temple

is at the far end, facing the entrance. It is a small sikhara-roofed structure with a

Sivali _nga in its middle, and, behind, the statues of Laks:mınarayan: (Vis:n:u and

Laks:mı) with Hanuman on their right and a smaller Matajı on their left.

Next to the temple, a small room contains two small round tumuli, covered with an

ochre cloth or, on festival days, with sumptuous draperies of dark velvet and brocade

embellished with golden necklaces: they are the samadhis, the cenotaphs, of the

previous heads of the places, the mahants or pırs. As it happens, this place is a mat:h, a

monastery, placed under the patronage of Ratannath. Its leadership is transmitted from

guru to disciple and its head or mahant bears the title of pır, a Sufi title also given to

the heads of important Hindu Nath monasteries. But the sectarian affiliation of this

mat:h is far from being clear: for instance the samadhis are not real tombs, as is the

case among the ascetics who are usually buried and not cremated. Here, the two pırshave been cremated and what is buried in their samadhis are their phul, their ashes.

Opening on the right side of the courtyard is an imposing throne room where the

pır sits on his gaddı to give audience to the numerous devotees who, at regular

intervals, throng towards the large hall. On its walls hang several canvasses

depicting gods or saints, Baba Ratan’s miracles and holy places related to his

tradition. Immediately above, on the first floor, is the la _ngar, a term borrowed from

the Sufi tradition referring to the place where common meals are taken by the

members of the community. A kitchen nearby provides regular food to the crowd of

devotees: this is a very important part of the daily routine.

Devotees are indeed numerous and on festival days, the crowd of men and

women is impressive. Most females wear Panjabi dress (shalwar-kamiz), with the

exception of some young girls in pants or jeans; saris are very rarely seen.

As soon as they reach the mat:h, people bow in front of the deities and the

deceased pırs’ samadhis. Many of them take brushes, brooms or wet cloths and start

30 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindu nationalist movement, founded in 1925 by Hedgewar and main

source of all the different militant nationalist organisations constituting what is called now the Sangh

Parivar.31 As well as Sikh or Nanakpanthı (See Falzon 2004). We have observed a similar custom among the

Bishnois of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana and among the Pranamis (on these communities and religious

traditions see Khan 1997, 2002).


123

cleaning the marble floor. This is the usual way of showing humility while per-

forming a service (seva) to the temple and the guru. Later on, the devotees sit down

and sing together devotional hymns, waiting for the first appearance of the guru.

Remaining most of the time secluded in his private apartments behind the throne

room, the pır makes a daily appearance before midday and accepts the tribute paid by

his disciples. His general demeanour as well as his behaviour towards the devotees

are quite remarkable in so far as they depart from the customary guru—disciple

relationship. Throughout the audience the pır remains seated on his chair, motion-

less, both legs firmly placed on the ground. While giving his darsan he does not

make a single gesture, although his eyes keep moving. On top of his ochre colored

robe he wears a black cloak with a red border, holding one of its folds to cover his

mouth. Both hands are hidden under the cloak. On his head he wears a yellow round

cap, barely visible under the cloak. As he has hardly any direct relations with the

surrounding people, his assistant, the priest who makes the daily pujas, acts as an

intermediary between him and the devotees. If a single devotee or a couple come

with an offering of fruits or sweets, they usually whisper a request to the priest who

passes it on to the pır. The latter may answer in a few words, directly or through the

priest. A few male devotees sit closer to the pır and seem to form a kind of privileged

group. Nobody is supposed to be standing whenever the pır is present and seated.

Thus a first visit to the dargah-mandir arouses many questions: for instance,

what is the meaning of the dual appellation dargah-mandir? This name evokes

different, apparently contradictory religious affiliations. Its origin is far from clear

and the devotees appear reluctant to give any explanation. Obviously, this is a

tradition which they do not want to share with others, a part of the collective

memory in which their identity is embedded.

The Nath Affiliation

The reference to Ratannath is of course the first element to attract attention. One

may think that any shrine dedicated to Ratannath is simply connected with the Nath

Yogı tradition in which Ratan figures. But many details prevent us from coming to

such a simple conclusion.

What is, then, the relationship between the Delhi shrine and the Nath tradition?

At first sight the inscription ‘‘Har Srı Nath’’ is conspicuous everywhere. Written at

the entrance, on the walls, under the images, it appears to be a specific element of

this tradition. However, although it is an obvious allusion to Nathism and to Siva

(Hara), as ‘‘The Nath’’, the Primordial Master, this particular formula or word

combination is never to be seen in any Nath monastery or temple. Among the Naths,

a usual greeting is ‘‘Jay Srı Nath’’. ‘‘Har Srı Nath’’ is therefore something that

singles out Baba Ratan’s Delhi disciples from other ‘‘ordinary’’ Nath followers.

No images or allusions to the Naths or to Gorakhnath are in evidence in the

temples or near the samadhis. But in the hall, among the paintings hung on the walls,

a few illustrate Ratan’s legend as is is known in the Nepalese Nath tradition; it is

nevertheless noteworthy that the three miracles depicted are precisely located and in

relation with Ratan’s adventures in a Muslim country. The first is about the miracle

of the marriage procession: in one of the panels one can see an old lady standing by


123

the riverside, imploring Baba Ratan. Another one shows the saint in front of a boat

full of people. The story is about a wedding procession whose boat capsized.

Everybody was drowned in the shipwreck. For years and years the bridegroom’s

mother remained crying on the shore till Baba Ratan arrived and resuscitated all

those who took part in the procession.32 The second story relates Ratan’s anger when

all the villagers, except one devotee whose name on the caption written on the

painting is Dharm, refused to give him alms. The painting contains a number of small

vignettes: one of them represents Dharm going to his house to fetch his mother,

before Baba Ratan destroys the entire village. Others show how the place has been

ruined. The scene takes place in the vicinity of the Jhelum river and the name of the

village is Sabaj. The destruction of a village or a town is a recurrent motif in Nath

hagiographies. Similar episodes are told about Dharamnath (Briggs op. cit. 1973,

pp. 116–117) and Mastnath.33 Dharm, the pious villager, will later become the first

disciple to sit on Baba Ratan’s gaddı as Dharmdas. The third miracle tells us about a

conflict that opposes people broadly described as ‘‘Hindus’’ and ‘‘Muslims’’. The

king Hassan Khatak [?] and his subjects persecute the Hindus, making them work as

slaves. Tied to a series of grinding mills, they are obliged to toil from morning to

evening. The image shows Ratan among his companions, putting his staff in the

middle of his millstone. All the millstones immediately start to turn by themselves.

Impressed by this miracle, the king recognizes him as a pır, a holy man.

Besides these elements that correspond to what we knew already about Ratan in

the Nath context, let us remark on a surprising difference : the das ending of the

names of the pırs, whereas in the usual Nath tradition all the ascetics’ names end in

nath. Some of our informants have explained this as a token of humility: the

disciples of Ratannath have chosen to end their name in ‘‘das’’, which means

‘‘servant’’ or ‘‘slave’’, to express their full devotion to the lord and their desire not to

place themselves on an equal footing with their guru.34 The same explanation is

given in a booklet published in Kanpur by a Har Srı Nath devotee, Trilok Nath

Kapur. Writing about the worship of Ratannath in the Caughera monastery in Nepal,

he may be one of the rare persons to fully acknowledge a connection between the

Har Srı Nath tradition and the cult of Baba Ratan at Caughera: ‘‘Today the particular

tradition connected with Pır Ratannath continues to be alive. From him originated a

new panth’’.35 The author goes on with the following verses describing Ratannath

and his successors: ‘‘A saffron wrap//a golden silk robe of yellow color//on the

shoulders a black cloak’’, concluding: ‘‘Instead of the word ‘nath’, they prefer

32 The same story was narrated in the Nath Nepalese monastery (see Bouillier 1997, p. 70). The place

was said to be the famous ford on the Indus, Atka (Attock). Curiously the same episode is quoted in an

hymn glorifying ’Abdul’l-Qadir Jılanı, the founder of the Qadiriyya order in eleventh century (cf. Temple

1885; vol. II, pp.153–162).33 White (2001).34 ‘‘Das’’ is a title that is also given to ascetics and householders belonging to different religious

traditions more or less connected with the bhakti movement, for instance the disciples of the low caste

saints Ravidas and Baba Ramdev, the Sadhs of Punjab and Haryana, the Bauls of Bengal etc.35 The Nath Yogis are organised in 12 panths, or 12 branches and often called the Barah Panthıs. These

branches are said to find their origine in the first 12 Gorakhnath’s disciples. Actually the list contains

many more names and the appellation Barah Panthıs is more canonic than descriptive (cf. Briggs 1938,

pp. 62–76; Dvivedi 1981, pp. 7–15; Bouillier 2007, pp. 32–35).


123

‘das’: the word ‘nath’ suggests vanity whereas ‘das’ is a symbol of humility. In

‘das’ one finds the pure power of the spirit’’ (1993, p. 14).

An alternative explanation is that the ‘‘Har Srı Nath’’ parampara consists of

members who are not fully initiated: they do not wear the earrings that characterize

the Nath Yogis36 but only the nad selı, the thread with the small whistle given at the

first stage of initiation; at this stage, the Nath tradition refers to them as aughar:instead of Nath. The reason why they do not receive full initiation is explained

through a particular episode of Baba Ratan’s legend.

This legend as told in the Delhi dargah as in Haridvar Nath monasteries can be

summarized the following37:

Once a great feast, a bhan: d: ara, was organised for the Nath Yogıs. All of them

came and sat in rows. Plates made of leaves (pattal) were distributed and food

served on them. However a problem soon arose since, in front of Baba Ratan,

were not one but two plates. Yogıs are not supposed to begin to start eating

before everybody is duly seated and served.

All the Yogıs were waiting. Who was missing? Nobody came and everybody

was embarassed. Then Ratan created an effigy with the ashes covering his body

and endowed it with life.38 This figure was the exact replica of himself, hence

the new Yogı was called Kayanath (from kaya, body, appearance). However,

in doing so, Baba Ratan had shown off, made a display of his special powers

and was scolded by all the other Yogıs. According to one informant, he per-

formed this feat because, being a Nepalese prince, he was looked upto by the

others. Gorakhnath and the other Yogıs decided to remove his earrings and his

nad-selı (the thread with the whistle). But Ratan opened his mouth and showed

inside himself the kun: d: al of the four yugas (each earring or kun: d: al being

different in each era). He asked for forgiveness and Gorakhnath gave him back

the nad-selı. At his own request, Gorakhnath sent him to Khorasan where

Hindus were oppressed: he was to help them and spread the message of the

Nath sect. Only the pırs of his gaddı would not have a name ending in ‘‘Nath’’

but in ‘‘Das’’. There he developed his tradition and made followers among

Muslims.

Besides its explanatory value for the das ending names of its heads, the legend

insists on Ratan’s connection with north-west India inhabitants, a connection which

will be the leading feature of the Har Srı Nath movement, in both the Ratan’s and

Kayanath’s branches, as we shall see.

36 These earrings, kun: d: al or darsan or mudra, pierce the ear cartilage. They explain the popular name

given to the Yogis: Kanphat:a or ear-splitted.37 There is also a detailed version of the legend in the Siva Goraks:a, edited by Premnath (1982, see

farther on), summarized in White (1996, pp. 287–288).38 Rose (op. cit. vol. II, p. 407) gives a slightly different version: Ratan asked for ‘‘a double share and,

when objection was taken, created a man named Kanian Nath from the sweat and dirt of his own body’’.


123

The Heads of the Tradition or Pırs

The Har Srı Nath movement traces its origin to Ratan, and before him to Mats-

yendranath, Gorakhnath and Adinath or Siva himself. This genealogy places Ratan

in a direct orthodox Nath filiation. However after him, as we have seen, all the

successive gurus or pırs have a name ending in das. The official parampara or

transmission counts 31 pırs after Ratan, whose activities appear to be centered in

Khorasan, in a triangle between Kabul, Jalalabad and Peshawar.39

The names of the pırs40 are mentioned in a small book published in Delhi which

seems curiously the only book attached to the movement and regularly used by the

followers. Given reluctantly by the pujarı for us to photocopy, it includes all the

tenets of the Har Srı Nath tradition. Entitled ‘‘Guru Mahima’’, it is a collection of

poems, published by the ‘‘Dargah Srı Baba Pır Ratan Nath Jı’’.41 It does not have

any date but is probably fairly recent, as the name of the actual mahant Gosaın

Laks:man: Das appears last in the guru—disciple lineage. By simply looking at the

cover, which has a conventional representation of Siva, an innocent visitor would

never suspect what the contents reveal. Each page is surrounded by a garland of the

‘‘Har Srı Nath’’ invocations. To begin with, obeisance is paid to all the Brah-

manical gods, then follows a versified genealogy of the tradition starting with

‘‘Machindranath’’ (Matsyendranath) after which a few episodes of Baba Ratan’s life

are told. The names of his successors are then mentioned and a few words added to

describe their main achievements and their travels. For instance the second guru, the

first to be seated on ‘‘Pır Ratan’s si _mhasan’’ (lit. The lion’s or royal throne) is

presented this way: ‘‘When Srı Ratannath ascended the Sumeru, the incarnation of

dharma quickly sat on the throne. Dharma Das’s evident grandeur had become

visible; in the middle of Khurasan, his deeds were revealed, the incarnation of

dharma, Dharma Das in whom Ga _nga meets the Ocean’’. Unfortunately place

names are not precisely mentioned but it was said by the pujarı that the first six

gurus stayed in Carbagh, the seventh shifted to Jalalabad where the next nine gurus

remained. The seventeenth guru shifted to Peshawar.

The last guru in Peshawar was Manmohan Das, who is said to have remained

44 years on the throne (gaddı ). But at the time of Partition the gaddı—and thus the

whole Har Srı Nath tradition connected with Baba Ratan—had to be shifted from

Peshawar to Haridvar then Delhi. Manmohan Das was succeeded in 1976 by

Paripuran: Das, then in 2002 by Gosaın Laks:man: Das.

The present Delhi shrine was founded in 1964 on a tract of land given by Kabuli

merchants, and later renovated in 1977. Although the Delhi mat:h is the main one,

39 The Khorasan is a former Persian province which covered part of what is now Iran, Central Asia and

Afghanistan. It is always mentioned in the Ratan’s legends, its core being Afghanistan.40 The 16 first names coincide with the list given in the book Pothi Ratan Gyan (printed at the

Chashma-e-Nur Press in 1902) quoted by Singh (1937, p. 18 n. 1) who specifies: ‘‘The house of Baba

Ratan in Peshawar has a genealogical table’’.41 It is surprising to remark that dargah figures here alone, mention of mandir has been dropped.


123

there are a good number of subsidiary centres: 34 shrines, mainly located in Panjab,

Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Anchal42 are under the authority of the same pır.

In Delhi itself, there is another shrine at Jhil, across the river Yamuna. Situated in a

Muslim suburb, this place is very similar to the main centre except for the presence

of two other samadhis, covered with scarlet velvet clothes, in which the ashes of

two dissident mahants are kept. All these places, which are under the care of

pujarıs, are regularly visited by devotees who come to take part in devotional

sessions (satsangs). However, they are of minor importance and remain under the

authority of the main gaddı.The main centres which the pır is supposed to visit are Uttarkashi and Haridvar.

In fact the pır was born in a Brahman family of Haridvar and later on went to Delhi

to study economics and take a BA before being chosen to succeed the mahant. The

Haridvar shrine is quite impressive. It is a huge building located in the Bheemgoda

area. Formerly a simple dharmasala for the Khorasani pilgrims, it was later ex-

panded and renovated by Manmohan Das. The plan is similar to the Delhi Har Srı

Nath complex: a courtyard with at one end a temple enshrining a Sivali _nga and

statues of all the main Brahmanical deities. On the right side of the courtyard is the

throne room with the images of Paripuran: Das and Manmohan Das, on both sides of

Ratannath. On the walls one can see paintings representing the life of Baba Ratan

and the different places of worship. Other buildings are the kitchen, the la _ngar, and

the resting places for the devotees. The walls, doors and floors have been freshly

painted and are perfectly clean. In the courtyard one can also see a tree and a well.

The latter, as in Delhi and other Har Srı Nath shrines, is referred to as Zinda pır (the

‘living pır’). According to local informants, this is one of the names of Jhulelal, a

popular Sindhi deity, worshipped as the lord of the Indus river but also revered as a

Hindu saint and a Muslim pır. In the la _ngar hall one can see a painting of this deity

mounted on a fish.43Another interpretation, given in Haridvar, is that it is linked to

the cult of the five elements: water (the well), earth (the tree), fire (the dhunı, a holy

fireplace in the private quarters of the pır) and air (the open space).

On the roof of the large entrance gate, stands a big flag, which on every Sivaratrı

festival is given by the pır to be hoisted on the top of the building. It is India’s

national flag and the devotees insist on the symbolism of its colours: ochre for

Hinduism, white for peace and green for Islam. They add that they are ‘‘true

secularists’’ and do not subscribe to hindutva.

42 Among them Hardvar, Uttarkashi, Lucknow, Gwalior, Bareilly, Meerut, Sarhampur, Muzafarnagar,

Chandosi, Hapur (in U.P.), Ludhyana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ropar in Panjab, Ambala, Ahmednagar,

Faridabad and Jhil in Haryana.43 Jhulelal is a complex figure endowed with more than one religious identity. He traditionally appears as

a Hindu deity, an incarnation of the Indus—and more recently an avatar of the Vedic god Varun: a;

Jhulelal is also known as Amarlal and Uderolal. As a Nath ascetic he is called Daryanath and as a Muslim

saint he is variously referred to as Khwaja Khizr, Shah Jandho, Darya Shah and Shaikh Tahir (for more

details see Khan 1997, pp. 229–230; Khan 2007). Jhulelal is often represented mounted on a fish, but in

the Sindhi iconography he is also portrayed as a horse rider (see also M.-A. Falzon, op. cit. pp. 58–63).


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3.4 Devotion to the pır and nirgun: bhakti

The link to the pır, as guru, is undoubtly the main structural element of the Har Srı

Nath tradition. The pır who is regarded as an avatar of Ratan, is supposed to

embody the essence of the primordial disciple of Gorakhnath. In the words of one of

the devotees: ‘‘We see all the past gurus in the present one. Only the body changes,

not the atman. The Guru of our times is actually Ratan as were all our previous

gurus. They are all avatars of Baba Ratan. Baba Ratan was the disciple of Gora-

khnath who was himself an avatar of Siva. Thus Ratan is a saint rather than a god’’.

However the full dedication to the guru, as the guide who shows the path to God,

may easily be mistaken for worship. Even if the followers bow in front of the statues

of the deities installed in the shrine, the main reason for their visit is obviously to be

in the pır’s presence and to take part in the satsang (the congregation of the

faithful), which mainly consists in singing devotional compositions together.

Most songs as they are printed in the Guru Mahima and sung every day revolve

around the exaltation of the pırs and of the first among them, Pır Ratan Nath. A

striking feature is that they constantly refer to Ratan as wearing a black cloak: ‘‘kalıkamlı vale nath ratan’’ and the gurus are described as follows: ‘‘gal me selı nadısove, sir te kamlı kalı jı ’’, ‘‘On their neck the nad selı (the Nath sacred thread with

the whistle), on the head, the black cloak’’. We find also the Panjabi word for kamlı,sar: hı and the pır is described as the sar: hı vale. One important sentence, repeated as

a mantra to invoke the guru is: ‘‘sar: hı vale pıra tuhar: ı sada jı jay/Sohn:eambuevale nathji tuhar: ı sada jı jay’’ (‘‘eternal victory to the pır covered with the

black cloak,/eternal victory to the Nath covered with the beautiful ochre cloth’’).

According to some devotees, the pır’s black garment symbolizes sorrow and

suffering, dukh, Baba Ratan and his incarnation the pır taking on himself all the

sufferings of his disciples and devotees. However the pır does not wear it on

auspicious occasions such as Holi or Baisakhi, where he wears a long yellow coat

instead of the black cloak.

The wearing of the cloak reminds us of the ‘‘Islamic connection’’ of Baba

Ratan’s tradition.44 The name given to the pır, ‘‘He of the black cloak’’ (Urdu kalıkamlıvala) refers to the Urdu translation of the Arabic al-muzammil.45 In the 73rd

verse of the Koran Muhammad is called the ‘‘mantled one’’, Al-muzammil (the title

of the surat). However, the black colour is nowhere mentioned. Instead Kalıkamlıvala is an epithet of the Prophet often used in the Urdu poems written in his

praise (nat). A popular qawwali starts as follows: ‘‘Vo dekho a raha haiMuhammad, jinke kandhe pe kamlı hai kalı!’’ (‘‘Look, Muhammad is coming, on

his shoulders is a black mantle’’).

44 Let us remark that in another tradition related to the same region, the legend of Sakhi Sarwar Sultan,

the pilgrims who went in procession to the tomb of the Sufi Saint (at Nigaha in Dera Ghazi Khan district)

‘‘are known by the special name of Kalikamli, because so many of [them] have black blankets to protect

them from cold’’, and H.A Rose, who quotes here an account of Mr Purser from Jullunder District, adds:

‘‘Black is the colour of Shiv’’ (1919, vol. 1, p. 569)! Here also appear the complexities and intricacies of

the religious references!45 Kamlıvala is the Urdu translation of the Arabic al-muzammil.


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The Guru Mahima songs reflect the multiple references to a complex religious

landscape including allusion to Ratan’s specific legendary life and characteristics

(shawl-clad), to the precise geography of north-west provinces and to Hindu deities.

However the general atmosphere of the songs is suffused with what appears to be

nirgurn: i bhakti; they repeatedly mention the supreme guru (referred to as Satguru

in the nirgurn: i bhakti tradition).

We give here the translation of one of these songs, called Pır ratan nath calısa(‘‘the forty [verses] in honor of Pır Ratannath’’) which presents itself as a beautiful

compendium of the main components of this tradition.

Let the enthusiastic devotees come, your red flag is swinging/

O Pır, build a boat for us and fill it,

O the one in whom we have placed all our hopes/

The Pır fulfills the expectations of one and all/

He grants the fruit of everybody’s desires, O shawl-clad Pır (1)

Whoever medidates on you, Nathjı, receives the desired fruit/

Fulfill the expectations of your congregation of devotees (jumla/)/

O Pir, build a boat and fill it entirely (2)

Your holy dome (gummat: dhanı) remains for ever/

At the four corners of the world, a fanfare is playing/

The flag of dharma has swung, o shawl-clad Pır (3)

The cauldrons for the offerings (deg) have been prepared, they have been

filled/

The ladle filled with the sacred food is never depleting, o shawl-clad Pır (4)

Whoever worships in the Gummat:/Receives from the Satguru diamonds and pearls/

With joy I am ready to sacrifice myself, o shawl-clad Pır (5)

The mothers who come to obtain sons/

The Saint who sits on the gaddı give them boons/

Whatever you give, our bags are always full/

You fill the lap (of barren women), o shawl-clad Pır (6)

The old mothers, o Pır, bless you/

May our Baba live one lakh of years/

May you remain on the gaddı from age to age, o shawl-clad Pır (7)

At your door a peepal tree is swinging/

And at the back one banyan tree, o shawl-clad Pır (8)

At your door a fanfare is playing/

The sound of conchs is resounding, o shawl-clad Pır (9)

You are the siddha among siddhas, Babajı Ratan/

Your word is true like gold/

I am ready to sacrifice myself on your words, o shawl-clad Pır(10)

O siddhas, let’s go to Carbagh46/

46 Carbagh is the place near Kabul where Ratan is supposed, in this tradition, to have his samadhi (see

infra).


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Let’s worship the Jam Sahab47 of Baba Ratan Nath/

We receive all that we desire, o shawl-clad Pır (11)

Your quiver48 is inlaid with pearls/

And your bow with diamonds, o shawl-clad Pır (12)

Sivaratrı has come and the mela is taking place/

Nathji is your guru and his disciple Bhartriharı/

I am ready to sacrifice myself for both of them, o shawl-clad Pır (13)

A black shawl is twisted on your neck/

On your forehead a red dot, o shawl-clad Pır (14)

I have searched in the jungle, I have searched for a whole length of time/

I have searched for the one who rides the black mare, o shawl-clad Pır (15)

In this world who can say he has got anybody/

For me you are the only one, o shawl-clad Pır (16)

O Pir, you have brought your circle of devotees (mandli) to Peshawar/

You have solved so many of our difficulties/

You have fulfilled everybody’s desires, o shawl-clad Pır (17)

From far away the community (sa _ngat: ) has come/

From Kabul and from Kandahar, o shawl-clad Pır (18)

Nathji, I am not at all virtuous/

Have pity on me, o shawl-clad Pır (19)

You have given children to mothers/

And you have reunited brothers with sisters, o shawl-clad Pır (20)

Let us rise early the morning and sing the Pır’s praise/

Your radiance blinds us, o shawl-clad Pır (lit. you heat is unbearable) (21)

Oh Pır you made a boat with you shawl49/

You crossed the At:ak, o shawl-clad Pır (22)

Our pure Pır has caused the rain to fall at his will/

In the Khyber pass, o shawl-clad Pır (23)

He has given also milk and sons/

He has granted us bliss and taken away all our sorrows, o shawl-clad Pır (24)

Whoever worships Jam Sahib/

Will cross the ocean of rebirths/

He has helped all of us to cross over, the shawl-clad Pır (25)

He who rides the black mare/

47 Jam Sahib or Sahab, the holy cup, is given here as an equivalent of the amrit patra, the vessel full of

the liquor of immortality worshipped by the Nath Yogıs and given to Ratannath by Gorakhnath in the

Nepalese version of his story (cf. Bouillier 1997, p. 62). In the classical Persian literary tradition, this cup,

jam, is owned by Jamshid, the fourth of the five mythical kings (according to the Ferdowsi’s Shaname)

and this cup, called Jam-e Jam ��Jam(shid)’s cup’’ allowed him to see reflected the entirety of the world,

past, present and future. The cup was also considered in the mystical tradition as a metaphor of the heart

with the idea that the man in order to understand the world has to look inside his own heart (we thank

Denis Matringe for his explanations that we can here only briefly summarize).48 Probably an allusion to the representation of Ratan as a hunter with a bow and a quiver, horse riding in

the Nepalese jungle and chasing a deer which appeared later on as the figure of Gorakhnath (Bouillier

op. cit. pp. 61–63).49 An allusion to Ratan crossing the Indus at Attock ford seated on his chawl when the boatmen refused

to ferry him across, as he was pennyless.


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Whoever meditates on Siva-Sambhu/

Who keeps repeating the name of Har Srı Nath, o shawl-clad Pır (26)

Will be in body and soul united with Har Srı Nath/

Kris:n: a Kanhaiya is your guardian/

From age to age you are sitting on the gaddı, o shawl-clad Pır (27)

Bhairon is all the time with you/

The sacred light (jyoti) is all the time with you/

Who is the strongest of the strong, o shawl-clad Pır (28)

O Pır, your la _ngar goes on uninterrupted,

The store remains open all the time, o shawl-clad Pır (29)

Whoever with hope comes to your door/

Obtains whatever he wishes/

O Pir, fulfill our desires, o shawl-clad Pır (30)

At your door if you take from the holy community (sa _ngat: ) the oil-cakes/

As an offering (prasad) and go home/

You will safely and happily reach, o shawl-clad Pır (31)

To cross the ocean of rebirths you are with us/

The magic of your sacred light is great/

The illustrious Laks:man: Das50 with the shawl (32)

Is sitting, the avatar of Brahma/

Whose greatness one cannot describe/

His play51 is infinite, o shawl-clad Pır (33)

The three worlds sing your praise/

We silently repeat the name of Har Srı Nath/

You destroy our sorrows, o shawl-clad Pır (34)

Matharadas has built a beautiful dome in Jalalabad/

There are two beautiful gardens on the left, o shawl-clad Pır (35)

Pır, your temple/palace (mandir) is resplendant/

It shines like diamonds, o shawl-clad Pır (36)

You don the yellow-ochre robe/

Your neck is adorned with the black mantle/

On your head the pointed cap,52 o shawl-clad Pır (37)

In the middle of the sea a Banjara53/

Sits in a boat he has filled with goods/

There sits the Sah and there sits the Banjara/

He has helped the boat to cross over, the shawl-clad Pır (38)

Whoever sings his name with all his heart/

Will get what he desires/

On your neck a flower garland, o shawl-clad Pır (39)

Whoever sings your greatness with all his heart/

50 The present pır.51 Allusion to the divine lıla (but the term khel is used here).52 Ratan, as represented in the Nath iconography, wears a red pointed cap, given to him by the badsahtogether with the title of pır.53 Member of a nomadic community trading salt and foodgrain.


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Will obtain bliss and fortune/

Let us repeat the name of Har Srı Nath, o shawl- clad Pır (40)

These songs are the common inspiration for the satsang which is held every day in

the throne room. People gather here in the late hours of the morning, eagerly waiting

for the pır’s entrance. They continue to sing in his presence and then proceed to the

la _ngar where food is distributed. The festival days differ only by an increasing

attendance, more singing and the possibility of having a longer darsan of the pır.

On some occasions, like Holi, performances are organised obviously for the plea-

sure of the lay devotees: in this case a few musicians and dancers are invited to

perform episodes from the raslıla (scenes from Kris:n:a’s childhood and youth).

The Influence of Location: A Geographical and Legendary Landscape

In the present Indian dargah-mandir of the Har Srı Nath tradition, altars and icons

betray the strong influence of the Sanatan Dharma, the allegedly ‘‘eternal’’ religion,

a recent version of ‘‘orthodox’’ unified Hinduism created towards the end of the

nineteenth century.54 Baba Ratan’s devotees insist on the ‘‘pure’’ Hindu identity of

their shrines. The presence of a Laks:mınarayan: temple inside Baba Ratan’s shrine,

the popularity of the Ramcaritmanas and of the god Kris:n: a often depicted on the

wall paintings, all point to the strong influence of this movement. Obviously, the

transfer of the centre to India after Partition has furthered the development of a more

Hinduized version of the tradition.55

What do we know about this tradition before its shift to modern India soil?

Family Origin

It appears that, if now the majority of devotees speak Panjabi, celebrate Panjabi

festivals such as Baisakhi and dress (at least women) in the Panjabi style, their roots

are located further west. Most of them originate from Kabul and Peshawar. We have

already mentioned that the Delhi dargah-mandir has been built on a land owned by

Kabuli merchants and thanks to their financial support. But many devotees told us

that their families subsequently settled in Peshawar, which they were forced to

abandon after Partition.

54 The first Sanatan Dharma societies were founded in Calcutta (1873) and Haridvar and Delhi (1895),

for quite some time their headquarters were in Haridvar. For the role of the Ramcaritmanas and the Gita

Press in the Sanatanı movements see Lutgendorf (1991, pp. 365–368; Horstmann 1995, pp. 294–305).

According to these authors and to Catherine Clementin-Ojha (personal communication) it seems that

most Sanatanı reformers were Vaishnavas, hence their preference for the construction of temples dedi-

cated to Laks:mınarayan: . Apart from the famous ‘‘Birla’’ temples of Delhi and Jaipur, we should also

mention the numerous Laks:mınarayan: mandir built in Gujarat and Kutch in order to combat ‘‘heterodox’’

religious movements.55 Here again a parallel with the Sindhis: as Falzon says: ‘‘Having looked at the rich kaleidoscope of

Sindhi religious beliefs and practices, one must note that there is some evidence that Sindhis are

becoming ‘more Hindus’ and less Sufi and Nanakpanth—as one of my informants put it, they are ‘making

an attempt to become more Hindu’’’ (2004, p. 56).


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The presence of many Indian ‘‘Hindu’’56 merchants in the regions that are now

parts of present Afghanistan and Pakistan was well attested during the nineteenth

century. In a report dated 1848–1849 Major Edwards quotes: ‘‘Elphinstone says the

Hindoo are to be found over the whole kingdom of Cabul; in towns they are in

considerable numbers as brokers, merchants, bankers, goldsmiths, sellers of grain’’.57

And mentioning districts south of Peshawar and Lahore, he writes: ‘‘Local chiefs kept

Hindoos about their persons as general agents and secretaries’’ (id. p. 71). The author

specifies that, in Bunnoo for instance, all trading was done by some one hundred

‘‘Hindoo’’ houses and the town counted four temples and two dharamsalas.58

Our informants from the Delhi Har Srı Nath shrine confirmed that their forefa-

thers’ main activities was trade, although they do not classify themselves among the

baniyas. When asked to which caste they belonged, many of them simply answered:

‘‘Peshawari’’, adding that they were ‘‘like the Sindhis’’, who stick to a regional

rather than to a caste identity.59 Eventually some of them admitted that the majority

were Khatris by caste, belonging, more precisely, to the Arora or Kanhar Kapur

subcastes.

Interestingly, the Peshawar connection attracts some devotees from other reli-

gious backgrounds. The Har Srı Nath shrine in Delhi is occasionally visited by Sikhs

from Peshawar whose ancestors claim some connection with Baba Ratan. And

among the divine and saintly figures depicted on the canvasses in the hall, one finds

Guru Nanak and Srı Cand,60 as well as Jhulelal. As mentioned above, the last

figure shares some of the ambiguities of Baba Ratan, which may also justify the

comparison made by some devotees between the ‘‘Peshawari’’ and the Sindhi

communities.

Although most followers live in Delhi, others come from different parts of north

India (mainly from Panjab, Haryana but also Mumbai) while a few have settled in

the Gulf countries, in London or in USA. The Delhi shrine is obviously a place

where all these exiled communities can share common memories and gather around

common symbols of a past cultural identity.

56 We must specify that, as in most colonial discourse ‘‘Hindoos’’ (as it was spelled) was a broad and

vague category including most communities that could not be classified as Sunni Muslim or Christian.57 Edwards (1963, p. 69).58 See also Gilmartin (1988), who specifies that ‘‘Muslims were composing over 80 percent of the

population in the far western Punjab districts bordering on the Jhelum and Indus rivers’’ but that ‘‘Hindus

dominated market towns in the late 19th century’’ (pp. 6–7).59 On the question of the Sindhi identity see Markovits (2000), Falzon 2004, chapter 2, Boivin 2007.60 The Nath Yogıs of Asthal Bohar explained the the relationship that existed between Nanak’s son, Srı

Cand and Gorakhnath in the following way: one day Guru Nanak asked the siddha Mastnath the reason

why he was wandering about naked. This infuriated the Nath, who cursed Nanak: ‘‘Your son will be like

me although you will do everything to stop him’’. Sri Cand who was Nanak’s first son, expressed the wish

to remain naked and be initiated into the Nath sampraday. Nanak could not entirely prevent this. By the

time his father managed to stop him, Cand had already one ear split. . . In this way Nanak’s son remained

‘‘half way’’ between two traditions. Srı Cand is said to have been a renouncer, he never married and used

to go begging. He was for this reason disowned by his father (See Delahoutre 1989, p. 165). Evidently

there is no question in the Sikh tradition of him becoming a Nath, even though mention is made of an

unique earring given by Siva or alternatively of a kind of ‘‘natural’’ earring due to a distorsion of the flesh

(we thank Marie Singeot for this information).


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Depiction of the Har Srı Nath Previous Implantations

The landscapes depicted on the walls of the dargah-mandir represent the sacred

places related to Ratan’s and his successors’ life stories. The monuments repre-

sented and the texts written on the canvasses tell of the previous history of the Har

Srı Nath tradition in present Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some paintings concern Ratan. On one he is shown in Katasraj (on the Salt

Range in present Pakistan) preaching to different ascetics.61 However the most

interesting one depicts his samadhi in Carbagh, a surprising feature as we have seen

the Ratan’s dargah in Bhatinda. That Ratan is buried in Bhatinda is a fact that even

the Yogıs of Nepal or Haridvar admit, but definitely not the Har Srı Nath tradition.

For them Carbagh was in Afghanistan near Kabul.62 In one of the paintings, the

samadhi is featured as a small dome of white marble crowning a rectangular tomb

covered with a green cloth in the usual Islamic style. Another picture shows two

small graves, lying parallel to each other under the same roof. Both paintings are

believed to represent Baba Ratan’s tomb or samadhi. According to the devotees,

when Baba Ratan decided to take his samadhi, he lay down and used his black

cloak as a shroud to cover his body. His disciples immediately started to quarrel: the

Muslims wanted to bury him and the Hindus to burn him. At that time a heavenly

voice was heard: ‘‘Don’t fight but share my remains between you’’. When they

lifted up the black shroud, the body had disappeared and only flowers were left. The

Muslims buried a handful of flowers and built over them a dargah, whereas the

Hindus took the rest and built a mandir.63

Often alluded to in the songs, one painting shows the Jalalabad gummat:, the

dome, a white-domed palatial structure. The caption written on the painting attri-

butes the construction of the building to Srı Mathurdas, who was the sixth guru after

Ratan, according to the genealogy given in the Guru Mahima and the fist one to

shift the gaddı to this presently eastern Afghanistan town.

61 We express our deepest gratitude to Dr. Shabbir Ahmed from International Islamic University of

Islamabad who provided us with much precious data from the inquiries he pursued for us in Peshawar and

Katas Raj. Katas Raj is a group of temples on the Salt Range, presently under renovation thanks to the

Archaeological Survey of Pakistan. Here a holy pond, born from Siva’s tears, is supposed to wash away

any sin. According to information given in Peshawar, Ratan visited the place and produced miracles: he

planted a dried branch of some tree and in a few minutes it became a green tree. Katas Raj is also known

as a Yogı centre where Paras Nath Yogı drew his last breath. Legend says that it has been visited by Guru

Nanak, and Sikh temples are still to be seen.62 We found no mention of Carbagh in Afghanistan but Charbagh is known in Pakistan as a small town

north of Minjora, the headquarter of Swat district.63 This episode deserves to be briefly commented on. Firstly, the fact that Baba Ratan’s Hindu devotees

wanted to burn his remains is rather strange if one bears in mind that Nath Yogıs are interred. Secondly

the quarrel reminds us of a similar story connected with the fifteenth century sant Kabir: in his case also,

even if some of his disciples did not regard him as a Muslim, he should have been buried according to the

custom prevalent among low caste Hindus. Finally, we should mention that similar episodes are told

about Nanak, Jhulelal and some other saints endowed with dual or multiple identities (for a general

discussion of these ‘‘wars of relics’’ and their sources see Khan 2004, p. 51 sq.).


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Concerning Peshawar as the previous seat of the gaddı, we have more details:

besides the two canvasses entitled Baba Sri Ratan Nath jı kı dargah,64 we benefit

from the description given by two visitors, Sir Aurel Stein (at the beginning of the

twentieth century) and Trilok Nath Kapur (in 1942–1943), and from the special visit

made there for our account by Dr. Shabbir Ahmed’s students in 2007.65

Peshawar was a well known and important center for the Nath tradition, the main

shrine being located at Gorkhatri.66

The Ratan dargah is located at a different place,67 in Soneka or Sona Chandi

Bazar. Sir Aurel Stein gives the following description: ‘‘The shrine in Peshawar is a

purely Hindu temple with images of Bhairo, Ganesh and Hanuman and a constant

light (Jot). It also has a large kettle-drum and a black flag and a ringing bell [. . .] It

contains the samadhi of a Gosain who came from Kabul about 80 years ago [. . .]Succession to the gaddi depends on the nomination of the Gosain before his death.

It is said that the Mahant cannot enjoy office for more than 12 years even though he

may succeed as a young man’’.68 Visiting the place in 1942–1943, Trilok Nath

Kapur writes: ‘‘In the Peshavar mat:h (dargah) there are statues of Bhairav,

Mahavır, Sankar, and also Jindapır [. . .] I went for darsan in 1942–1943 and, at this

time, Baba Manmohan Das was on the gaddı. I went from Kanpur to have his

darsan and got his blessing’’.

The dargah, as visited in 2007, was still in use, and adorned with paintings

representing Baba Ratan. Its priest claims to be a Hindu Khatri. He owns a book in

Panjabi entitled Ratan Wali Sahib69 narrating many episodes of Ratan’s life.

According to the priest, who is familiar with the above mentioned stories, Baba

Ratan was a Nepalese prince converted by Gorakhnath. He remembers his famous

miracles: Baba Ratan visiting the Katas Raj pond, restoring to life the members of

64 The first one shows a Siva mandir with statues of Siva, Devı and Gan: es behind a Sivali _nga, and the

second one a place called ‘‘Moti Mandir’’ (the Pearl Temple) with the images of Gorakhnath and

Ratannath conversing at the foot of a platform. Ratan wears the black cloak.65 The political situation made impossible for us any travel to Peshawar, therefore we thank heartily the

Peshawari students of Dr Shabbir Ahmed who made very valuable enquiries for our benefit, and Dr.

Shabbir Ahmed who took the trouble of collecting, writing up and sending us these informations.66 ‘‘Two miles north of Peshawar’’, when Sir Aurel Stein visited the town (quoted in Horovitz op. cit.

p. 103). The Gorkhatri cave is already mentioned in the Babur Namah. Babur supposedly visited the

place in 1519 and Abu’l-Fazl remarks the presence of ‘‘a temple called Gorekehtery, a place of religious

resort particularly for Jowgies’’ (A’in-i-Akbarı, op. cit. vol. II, p. 205). The history of the place seems

particularly complicated: Buddhist center with the ‘‘tower of Buddha’s bowl’’, then Hindu place of

pilgrimage, transformed in a mosque with a caravanserail by Shah’Jahan’s daughter, replaced with a

temple to Gorakhnath built by the Sikhs (?), and ‘‘now used as government offices and police and fire

stations’’ (according to the guide book ‘‘Insight Guides. Pakistan’’, APA, 1990), but recently investi-

gated by the Archaeological Department.67 However, one account affirms their identity: Mahmud Balkhı visited Peshawar in 1625 and gives very

precise and relevant information regarding ‘‘Kor Kattri’’: ‘‘I obtained sight of ascetics living at the

Kattri’s Seat [. . .] Kor Kattri is a place consisting of grand buildings made of stone and brick. In the

middle of that complex, there is a tall building resembling mosques and khanqahs (hospices). At his

gateway is a deep cell, with a small open dome which has a door in it [. . .] Some ‘exercise-worshippers’

sitting in a circle engage themselves in the practices of jog (yoga), which means ‘controlling of breath’.

The above place is called the seat of Baba Ratan’’ (Husain 1992, p. 142).68 Quoted by Horovitz op. cit. p. 104.69 Many Sufi saints are called ‘‘Wali’’ (litt. ‘‘friend of God’’).


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the marriage procession, destroying the entire town but sparing Dharma, touching

the grindstone with his staff, crossing the Indus seated on his black chawl. The priest

of the dargah has a surprising knowledge of the tradition, although he is apparently

cut off from its present centre in India, and can recall the succession of the 31 pırs.

And interestingly he also takes Carbagh as Ratan’s last earthly place; he asserts that

Carbagh was the place where Hindus and Muslims, having quarelled over the

remains of Ratan, constructed two shrines.70 His conclusion was: ‘‘Baba Ratan

preached about humanity. Peace, love and brotherhood. His followers were both

Muslims and Hindus’’.

The geographical background in which Ratan and the Har Srı Nath tradition are

rooted explains many details of the cult. The intimate contact with a Muslim sur-

rounding has influenced the devotees’ communities. As a complex and ambivalent

sacred figure, Baba Ratan stands undoubtedly at the very centre of the cluster of

symbols and values that build up the identity of these groups. In him are reflected

the community’s own multivocal religious and cultural legacy.

We will find the same complexities and the same influence of local rootedness in

another branch of the Har Srı Nath tradition, a branch which claims to descend from

Ratan’s miraculous son. We find here an answer to a question ignored in the Nath

tradition: what happened to Kayanath? If the Nath legendary corpus does not

mention him, after his creation by Ratan, the Har Srı Nath movement has devel-

opped a whole tradition around him.

Kayanath’s Har Srı Nath Tradition and Shrine

The gurudham asram

In the predominantly Panjabi and Sikh environment of Subash Nagar area in Delhi,

there is a modest concrete house adorned with the now familiar inscription ‘‘Har SrıNath’’. Opening onto the street, the main room enshrines a marble seat, a gaddı or

throne surrounded by two statues: one of them represents Kayanath, portrayed as a

young and slim yogı, while the other represents the former guru Premnath, the

founder of the place. Here there is no mention of a temple: it is a ‘‘gurudhamasram’’, a dwelling place of the guru who bears the title of pır as specified by an

inscription outside the shrine: Srı gurudham asram (pıronvala sthan, the pırs’

abode). On the outside wall one can read: ‘‘Yah sthan pahale bhera khusab (jilasargodha pascimı pakistan) men tha’’ (‘‘this place was formerly in Bhera Khusab,

Sarghoda district, West Pakistan’’).

Here again, we face a tradition linked to the north-western frontier and obliged to

transfer its seat after Partition. According to their followers, Ratannath, and

70 We thank again Dr. Shabbir Ahmad’s students for the quotation of the priest’s words: ‘‘Both Hindu

and Muslim were Ratan’s followers. After his death both wanted to get his chawl and they started

brawling, meanwhile they heard that Ratan was advising them not to quarrel and to divide his shawl in

two parts equally. Both sects constructed their temple in front of each other in Charbagh. After the

Taliban government came into existence, these temples were ruined. There were two trees (mulberry) in

Kabul and Jalalabad whose growth Ratannath was credited with. Whenever somebody tried to cut these

trees, they grew again and reached to their previous level within two weeks. However those trees are no

more there as the Taliban burned them.’’


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Kayanath who is closely connected to him, are rooted in the local culture and thus

related to Islam.

It is believed that one Santos:nath left Bhera Khusab after Partition and went to

stay for a while in Haridvar where he took jalsamadhi (death by immersion). His

disciple Premnath bought some land in Delhi and constructed his ashram registered

under his name (Pır Premnath gurudham asram) in 1953. He took samadhi in

1989 and was succeeded by a young disciple called Pran:nath.

Pran:nath’s story is interesting. He was born in 1961 in a family of Kayanath’s

former devotees who had a shop in Bhera Khusab. They left for Ambala (Panjab)

and went often to see their guru Premnath in Delhi. As Pran:nath’s two older brothers

and sister died, the parents promised to give their next child to the guru. Pran:nath

went to live with the guru when he was six and studied in a Sanskrit school. He

succeeded his guru in 1989 and stayed 6 years as a pır. But apparently celibacy was

a problem for him. He married, begot a child and was obliged to leave the precincts

of the ashram. He lives now in the vicinity with his family and has built a pros-

perous temple, with statues of all the main deities and a huge throne. He calls his

temple ‘‘Srı adisakti siddhidatı ma durga mandir’’ (‘‘Temple to the venerated

mother Durga the primordial Sakti who grants accomplishment’’) and the movement

he wants to propagate ‘‘Visva Parivar Sadbhavana Misan’’ (‘‘Goodwill mission

for the universal family’’), while he refers to himself as ‘‘Dharmacarya Pır Pran:nath

Yogı’’. He still wears small, discreet golden Nath earrings but claims to be a

follower of the modern sanatan dharma and holds the general and universalistic

religious discourse common to neo-Hinduism.

After Pran:nath’s withdrawal, his gurubhaı (guru brother) Sobhanath sat on the

gaddı, followed by Yogindranath and, since 2006, Anantnath. Obviously, this tra-

dition differs from Ratan’s movement in at least one detail: instead of the name in

Das we have the ‘‘orthodox’’ ending in Nath, even though we still meet the ‘‘HarSrı Nath’’ formula and the words ‘‘pır’’ and ‘‘dargah’’. Besides, the pırs claim to

belong to one of the twelve recognized panths: the Bhartr:hari Bhairav panth.

The tradition is described in a book written by Pır Premnath, entitled ‘‘SivaGoraks:a’’ and dedicated to satı pır Kayanath. According to Pran:nath, the appel-

lation satı was given to Kayanath because he was a ‘‘true pır’’, born from the ‘‘sat’’,the power of truth emanating from Ratannath.71

Legends about Kayanath and his Successors

Below we summarize or paraphrase the text of the Siva Goraks:a.

The story of Kayanath’s birth (pp. 29–34) follows the general framework previ-

ously described, but the bhan: d: ara, the feast, is more precisely situated in the kingdom

known as Khokhargarh ou Khukharayan: (ancient name of Bhadravatı or Bhera),72 on

71 In Panjabi, the adjectival form satı means also virtuous, constant. In the same text other Naths are also

referred to as satı with this sense.72 The fort of the Khokhars? The Khokhars as well as the Khokharans are well known in Panjab, the

Kokhkharans being concentrated in the area of the Salt Range and particularly Bhera. They refer now to a

Hindu or Sikh or Muslim origin, according to their present condition, but seem to have shared many

composite features till recent times (See Rose et al. 1919, vol. II, p. 539).


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the bank of the river Vitasta (or Jhelum). The bhan: d: ara is organised by Vicarnath

(supposed to be another name for the king Bhartrihari). From the outset Kayanath’s

legendary life is constructed so as to legitimize the claim of his followers.

Vicarnath, as the chief guest of the bhan: d: ara, organises everything and dis-

tributes the pattal (leaf-plates). He discovers two plates in front of Ratan, although

nobody else has come. Vicarnath is angry. Then Ratan makes a ball from the ashes

covering his body and gives it life. The ball expands and splits open. A young boy

emerges. All the Yogıs are upset by this miracle. No Yogı is supposed to show his

powers in front of his guru. It is a sin for which Ratan must be punished. His

earrings are subsequently removed and he is sent away. The ‘‘Kayanath caritra’’

does not dwell on his story and instead reverts to Kayanath. All the main Naths keep

discussing: which name should they give to this replica of Ratan and what is its

status? Eventually, Gorakhnath decides that, as he has been created from Ratan’s

body and looks like him, he must be called Kayanath. Ratan must be considered as

his father and therefore cannot be his guru. His guru will be Vicarnath, who is, in a

way, responsible for his appearance.

Kayanath remains with Vicarnath on the bank of the river Jhelum and receives

the perfect knowledge from his guru. He is ordered to remain on this pavan bhumi,this holy land. As the text explains (p. 34): ‘‘bhera me pıro kı dargah kı stapana’’

(‘‘in Bhera he establishes the dargah of the pırs’’, using once more the Muslim

words). He practises rigorous tapasya and remains for days without eating nor

drinking. The place where he stayed used to be frequently flooded by the Jhelum but

thanks to his tapasya, the monastery he founded existed till 1947 (and was the

original one referred to in the Delhi gurudham).

Kayanath wanted to leave Bhera for the Himalayas but his disciples told him that

his guru had ordered him to stay for ever at the same place. Kayanath agreed, but the

next year during Sivaratrı, he passed away. The Yogıs who were present, said that

they heared a voice shouting Aum Sivaya Namah. Hajirnath, a disciple, hurried to

the spot and was worried not to see his guru. The others came and knew that

Kayanath, this part of Siva who was not born from a mother, had merged with the

Lord. According to the Nath sampraday customs and the guru’s order, they built

him a gaumukhı samadhi, a grave in the form of a cow’s head.73

During his life Kayanath was worshipped both by Hindus and Muslims. Muslims

referred to his place (sthan) as dargah and called him Kayamuddın.74 On the wall

of the dargah, a stone inscription reads (these verses written by one Malangnath75):

73 Siva Goraks:a p. 43. This may be an allusion to the shape of the heap of earth raised over the grave. In

the Muslim tradition it may be simply rectangular or rounded at one end.74 Briggs (op. cit. p. 66) mentions this episode and the Muslim name given to Kayanath: ‘‘Ratannath is

famous for having created a boy out of the dirt of his body. This boy was afterwards known as Kayanath

and as Qaim ud Dın. When Kayanath died, both Musalmans and Hindus claimed his body; but it

disappeared’’. Contrary to Ratan, Kayamuddın (Kayam ud Dın) or Qaim ud Dın did not seem to have

been well known in the Islamic traditions, as far as we know. We did not find any mention of him in the

Encyclopaedia of Islam.75 This is an interesting name for a Nath Yogı, as ‘‘malang’’ generally refers to a wandering Muslim

ascetic regarded as ‘‘heterodox’’ by the great Sunni Sufi tradition. There are Malangs among the Madarıs

and they also besmear their bodies with ashes. For the Madarıs see footnote 21. Baba Ratan himself is

referred to as ‘‘Siv ka malang’’ (Siva’s malang) by Premnath (Siva Goraks:a, p. 30).


123

For the Hindus, a guru, for the Muslims a pır.

Hindus and Muslims who don’t respect him are kaphirs76 and are without pırWe are all the fakirs of Baba Adam. (Siva Goraks:a p. 46)

There is another legend reported by Briggs (1973, p. 66): ‘‘When Kayanath died,

both Musalmans and Hindus claimed his body; but it disappeared, only the clothes

remaining. Hindus built a samadh for him, and Musulmans a tomb’’. It is easy to

notice that here no reference is made to cremation, but otherwise the story is similar

to that of the dispute over Baba Ratan’s body that has been mentioned earlier.

According to Yogı Vilasnath, mahant of the Gorakhnath temple of Haridvar, there

is also a famous saying:

Hindu jalaya musulman dabaya bich me shikha nathjıne(As he explained: Hindus wanted to cremate [him] Muslims to bury, in

between the Naths put their seal).

Kayanath had eight disciples, each one endowed with his specific character

which his name was supposed to express.

Kayanath’s successor on the gaddı was Buddhanath. However, according to the

Siva Goraks:a narrative (pp. 61–62), we have no information between this Kaya-

nath’s first successor and another Buddhanath who flourished at the beginning of

eighteenth century. The list of successive pırs has 23 names from 1700 to 1982,

ending with Pır Premnath. The text does supply information about some of the pırs,mentioning that, thanks to Gorakhnath’s protection, the place remained undamaged

despite political troubles, invasions and wars.

The most interesting story involves Ahmadsah Abdalı and Buddhanath. Let us

see once more what the Siva Goraks:a has to tell us (pp. 64–69):

On his way to Kabul Buddhanath heard that his gaddı was threatened.

Ahmadsah Abdalı had invaded India and was camping with his army on the

bank of the Vitasta in the Bhadravatı kingdom. He was preparing the third

battle of Panipat [which took place in 1760]. A group of Saiads (Sayyids) had

gone along with him. They took over the gurudham and expelled all the

Yogıs. The Yogıs, who were practitioners of Hat:ha Yoga, made a dhunı (holy

fire) outside the samadhi walls and begun to pray to both their param guru

Satı Pır Kayanath and their present guru, the gaddı nishin Buddhanath. While

in Kabul Buddhanath, through his yogic power, saw his disciples’ trouble. The

Sayyids had attacked on a Thursday night (jumerat). On Friday, the guru had

reached the place and was standing at the door. The disciples and the Sayyids

were both deeply moved. Buddhanath kept saying ‘‘ades’’ and thousands of

76 In orthodox Muslim context, the kaphir is the unbeliever, the non-Muslim but many aphorisms play

upon the words kaphir and fakir in order to denounce what they call the true unbeliever, notwithstanding

his religious affiliation: for instance here are the words of Garibdas, a reformist Jat: religious leader (born

in 1860): ‘‘Listen to my dissertation on kafir in the name of Ram and Khuda.\\ Kafir is the one who gives

no charity, one who quarrels with the saints.\\ Kafir is one who disobeys his father. Such a person is

consigned to hell.// He is a kafir who kills his daughter; He who sets a forest on fire.// He who sacrifices

animals. A kafir is a worshipper of idols’’ (alluding here to both Islamic and Hindu practices), quoted in

Nonica Datta (1999, p. 43).


123

Nath Yogıs gathered singing Bhairavı song and looking like Siva in the

tan: d: av77 dance. As the noise spread through the jungle the Bhadravatı king

and Ahmadsah wondered what was the cause of this uproar. Hearing about the

attack of the dargah by the Sayyids, Ahmadsah, decided to go there himself.

He was impressed by Buddhanath’s radiance and told him not to worry.

Actually, as Kayanath was called Kayamuddın by the Muslims and his gaddıreferred to as a dargah, the Sayyids claimed that the place belonged to them78

while the Nath Siddhas made an identical claim.

Standing in front of the samadhi Ahmadsah Abdalı recited the following

verses:

Oh Allah, who are the true devotees

Give me, God, the knowledge

To whom must I give the dargah?

Then an idea occured to him: he took the lock from the dargah’s gate and

closed the inner railing around the tomb, saying that the lock would open only

by the hands of the right devotees. Buddhanath went to the side of the gau-mukhı samadhi where the footprints were engraved and remained seated

there in deep meditation. The Sayyids sat on the opposite side. Buddhanath

stayed without eating nor drinking, saying that he would eat only when the

place had been liberated from the Sayyids’ occupation. This event took place

on Friday evening, during the spring of 1761. From the entire Jhelum area

people flocked to see what was happening. On Sunday evening, as the sun was

beginning to sink, the situation was tense. Everybody was waiting. Budd-

hanath looked like Siva himself. Suddenly, in his lap, the lock opened.

Everywhere people started shouting ‘‘Har Har Mahadev’’. Acknowledging

Buddhanath’s victory, Ahmadsah Abdalı went himself to the dargah and

congratulated him. The Sayyids were ordered to leave. Ahmadsah called

Buddhanath a ‘‘True Pır’’ (Satya Pır). It is believed that since that time the title

of pır has been adopted by the Naths, which was not the case earlier.

Ahmadsah donated 12 acres of land and added 2000 rupees for the mainte-

nance of a constantly burning lamp (jot). The custom prevailed till 1947. At

that time also the Yogıs gave Ahmadsah a rot:79prasad.

The story goes that when Ahmadsah received the rot:, he asked Buddhanath for a

boon: he wanted to be victorious in all his Indian battles. Buddhanath remained

silent then said:

77 Bhairavı is a musical mode and tan: d: av the cosmic dance of Siva Nat:araj, bringing destruction and

recreation to the world.78 The part played by the Sayyids can be seen as a clear indication of two contrasting visions of Islam,

the Sayyids being orthodox Sunnis, supposedly descendants of the Prophet, and eager to suppress local

forms of devotion, popular cults of pırs having less rigid forms of identity.79 The rot:, a flattened thick bread, cooked in the ashes of the dhunı, is the common offering to Bhairav

among the Yogıs. After being offered, it is shared and distributed among Yogıs and devotees as prasad,

sanctified food.


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This God who preserved the honour of the dargahYour honour this God will preserve.

This was understood as a prophecy announcing the victory of Ahmadsah Abdalı in

the third battle of Panipat.80

After this dramatic episode, Buddhanath’s life followed a more peaceful course.

He received a huge donation of 84 acres from the raja of Bhadravatı (Bhera), and

died in 1776. The chronology continues with the name and the deeds of his suc-

cessors till 1947 and the departure of Pır Santos:nath to Haridvar, with five disciples.

Santos:nath sat there on the gaddı till 1953 and on the 13th of April, on baisakhiday, in the presence of all the disciples and devotees, he transmitted to Premnath the

responsibility to achieve a new gurudham and to maintain the gaddı. After which

he immediately took his samadhi. Premnath went to Delhi where he could purchase

some land from the governement to build a Gurudham in Hetu Subhash Nagar. In

1954 he was able to organize a funeral ceremony (sa _nkhad: hal) and feast for his

guru, inviting 9,100 sadhus-sants (summarized from Siva Goraks:a, pp. 69, 75).

After Partition, once the new gaddı had been installed in Delhi, the style of the

hagiographical discourse underwent a radical change. The defense of Hindu dharma

became a priority and there was no question of any Muslim devotees coming to the

Delhi Gurudham. Nevertheless it will be interesting to remark that Kayanath and

Buddhanath’s hagiography refers with reverence and pride to the religious traditions

of Kabır, Dadu and Nanak and insists that the two gurus, Kayanath and Buddhanath,

are part of it.

Like his ‘‘father’’ Ratannath, Kayanath is said to have Muslim devotees and a

Muslim name and like him also he is supposed to have blessed a Muslim conqueror

and have been instrumental in his success against Hindu armies.

Even if the present hagiography stresses Kayanath’s and his successors’ Hindu

identity and their affiliation to the Nath Yogı tradition, a number of details remain

disturbing. For instance, the recurrent mention of the two opposites sides of the

grave, one for the feet, the other for the head. Actually, as mentioned earlier in

connection with the ‘‘gaumukhı’’ shape of the tomb, Kayanath’s samadhi seems to

be built in the Muslim style: the body is recumbent instead of being seated in the

padmasan posture familiar to the Nath Yogı tradition.

In the present state of our knowledge, contrary to Ratannath, who is described as

H: ajji Ratan in ‘‘official’’ Muslim hagiographies, Kayamuddın (Kayanath’s Islamic

form) has left no trace in the Sunni Sufi tradition.81 We have the Hindu version of

80 This episode mirrors the famous story about Ratan and Shihab ud Din Ghori. The conqueror, having

heard about the saint’s powers, went to ask him his blessing for the conquest of the Bhatinda fort. Ratan

replied that he will be victorious thanks to the help of two Sayyids from his army, who will loose their life

in the battle. ‘‘Baba was instrumental in bringing about the fall of the fort’’ (Horovitz 1914, pp. 98–99,

Bouillier 1997, pp. 74–75).81 The search for a Muslim version of Kayamuddın’s story may be a difficult one, in so far as he has not

been claimed and appropriated by the Sunni Sufi ‘‘normative’’ tradition. His memory may have been kept

only in a particular regional and oral tradition dealing with such religious communities as Qalandars,

Malangs, Shia or other groups regarded as heterodox by the dominant Sunnis. If the legend reported by

Briggs is grounded in some local tradition one may have to look for the traces of a Muslim funeral

monument that may have been later destroyed or transformed. But, of course, Kayanath’s original

samadhi itself may have been regarded simultaneously as a dargah.


123

his story, as mentioned in Premnath’s book, but this version may simply show the

multiple network of influences which was then prevalent in this part of the Indian

subcontinent.

Be that as it may, it will be interesting to remark here that, even the trauma of

Partition and the shifting of the shrines have not completely erased the traces of a

former composite culture in the Har Srı Nath shrines connected with Kayanath and

Ratannath.

Conclusion

After having explored some of the traditions related to the enigmatic figure of Baba

Ratan, let us summarize our findings.

Previous works have shown the dual identity that characterizes the figure of Baba

Ratan. Horovits has supplied us with a detailed study of the various occurrences of

Baba Ratan in the different Islamic traditions. But the visible discrepancies in the

dating, the localisation or the description of his wondrous deeds do not result in a

coherent image of a charismatic Muslim saint. Besides, in this particular context, the

mention of a possible Hindu background seems to be artificially superimposed on

the predominantly Muslim identity. On the other hand, V. Bouillier has studied the

figure of Ratannath as a saint belonging to the Nath Yogı sect, the founder of a

prestigious monastic institution in Nepal, a thaumaturge whose travels and deeds in

North-West India are praised in order to show his supremacy over the local Mus-

lims. We had thus so far two life stories, two parallel traditions with overlapping

episodes about a character we did not know how to situate.

The new facts presented in this article allow us to look at the situation from a

different angle. Here we have a blurring up of religious identities, less defined

borders, and the strong influence of local roots.

The Delhi based Har Srı Nath movement claims to be a purely Hindu tradition.

Nevertheless, in spite of its professed affiliation to the Nath sampraday, it has many

peculiarities which can be attributed to a Muslim influence. It is endowed with a

‘‘liminal’’ quality in the sense defined by Shail Mayaram when she describes

‘‘groups that draw upon more than one religious culture’’.82

Reflected in the terminology, the ritualistic details and the narratives, the limi-

nality of Baba Ratan’s dargah mandir constitutes for the devotees a meaningful

whole which carries the nostalgic culture of a pluralistic past. From Kabul to

Peshawar and to Delhi these devotees have experienced, since Partition, the his-

torical vicissitudes undergone by the people of North-West India. Having lived as a

prosperous commercial minority under a majority Muslim rule, they have adopted

as a religious emblem a patron saint whose ambivalent features could easily serve as

a charter for a harmonious integration into the composite culture of those times.

82 Mayaram specifies in her article (2004, pp. 18–39): ‘‘The following propositions clarify the concept of

liminality for purposes of political sociology: 1. That there exist groups, sections of groups, or paths

charted by individual identities that relate to one or more religious traditions. 2. That these groups or

persons manifest facets of in-betweenness in their belief and practice (including aspects of their

expressive and symbolic culture)’’, pp. 26–27.


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The other Har Srı Nath tradition built around the figure of Baba Ratan’s ‘‘son’’ or

‘‘copy’’, Kayanath, seems to be a local variant grounded in a territorial relationship

with the Jhelum valley and the ancient Bhera kingdom. Its narratives tell of complex

relationships with the ruling Muslim powers, of alternating conflicts and patronage.

Nevertheless this tradition openly acknowledges its affiliation to the Nath samp-raday by relating itself to one of the 12 known subbranches of the sect.

The same bond of kinship with the Nath sampraday characterizes the third

phenomenon described in this paper: the Dargah of H: ajji Ratan at Bhatinda. We find

here the more often attested practice of ‘‘pluralistic celebration’’.83 Even if the place

is beyond doubt a full-fledged Muslim shrine, Hindus and Sikhs may join and

celebrate Ratan with their own rituals and religious culture. And here also the

history of the shrine is deeply rooted in a locally shared culture.

The study of these three traditions revolving around the same charismatic figure

is of particular importance within the context of the debate on the construction of

religious identities. Beyond ‘‘a fixation with bounded categories’’,84 we may follow

Gilmartin and Lawrence or Gottschalk, among others, and ‘‘recogniz[e] the inter-

communal nature of so much of popular north Indian religiosity’’ (Gottschalk 2001,

p. 136) or ‘‘the constant interplay and overlap between Islamicate and Indic

worldviews’’.85 And, as it was the case with the Sikh tradition studied by Harjun

Oberoi (1994, p. 9) or the literary genre called qis: s:a studied by C. Shackle

(in Gilmartin and Lawrence 2000), the geographical location is equally significant:

‘‘the topographical features of the Panjab provides a backdrop that fosters a strategic

tension, otherwise seen as fluidity of metaphor, that characterizes the literature of

this region at the same time that it influences Indo-Muslim identity’’ (Shackle,

op. cit. p. 55)

Baba Ratan can be seen, like Satya Pır studied by T. Stewart, as ‘‘a figure who

blurs the lines between Hindu and Muslim as religious categories’’ (Gilmartin and

Lawrence 2000, p. 22). Like Satya Pır we can say that ‘‘his historical appeal to both

religious traditions is embodied in his name’’: here ratan, jewel, and pır ‘‘desig-

nating the Muslim spiritual guide who is renowned for his wisdom and his ability to

translate spiritual achievment into a practical power to aid supplicants’’ (ibid.). We

would add that pır is also a title commonly employed by the Naths to designate the

head of their monasteries. But contrary to Satya Pır whose two sets of narratives,

Vais:n:ava and Sufi, present, according to Stewart, ‘‘different orientations to power’’,

the different figures evoked in our data, whether Ratannath or H: ajji Ratan, Kayanath

and Buddhanath, have a similar link to power, a similar capacity of protecting and

being protected by the local figures of political dominance. Thus Baba Ratan’s

blessing to Mohammad Ghori and Buddhanath’s to Ahmadsah Abdalı conform to

the frequent attitude of charismatic and powerful saints towards worldly conquerors

and leaders, irrespective of their creed. In this respect, Sufis and Nath Yogıs share

83 See Assayag (1995), as well as Champion (1997), Khan (2004), Bigelow (2004).84 Gilmartin and Lawrence (2000, p. 4).85 Gilmartin and Lawrence (op. cit. p. 4) adopting ‘‘a new vocabulary’’, ‘‘both Islamicate and Indic

suggest[ing] a repertoire of language and behavior, knowledge and power, that define broad cosmologies

of human existence. Neither denotes simply bounded groups self-defined as Muslim or Hindu’’.


123

the same world. Despite, or in addition to, the personal rivalries between some Sufis

and Nath Yogıs,86 their socio-religious position is similar.87

The fluid religious identity of Baba Ratan is rooted within the Nath Yogı tra-

dition. And the inclusive nature of this tradition, its historical developments, and the

fact that it has multiple connections and ramifications should warn us against any

simplistic classification. Some Medieval texts see even the ‘‘Jogıs’’ as belonging to

a religious category distinct from ‘‘Hindu’’ and ‘‘Muslim’’,88 making the Nath Yogı

sect a successful medium for expressing the close relationship between Hinduism

and Islam.

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