chapter-iii introduction of islam and...
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CHAPTER-III
INTRODUCTION OF ISLAM AND PEOPLE'S PERCEPTION OF NEW FAITH
INTRODUCTION
The historical position of the New Faith, i.e. Islam in eastern India,
particularly in Mithilā, on the socio-religious and cultural side has yet to be
established. Our knowledge about the same in early medieval period remains
inadequate, uneven and at best fragmentary. There is not much of reliable
contemporary evidence in recorded form, and the incidental items that one
can glean from the Persian chronicles are too scanty and insufficient to be
helpful for reconstructing the picture of the past. The Persian chronicles were
mainly concerned with matters of war and politics, interminable struggles,
conquests and expanding power of the world of Islam, and not with the
peaceful penetration in India.1 Similar is the case with the indigenous sources
including digest writers of Mithilā that talked about the prevalence of bitter
feelings between the Hindus and Muslims.2
With the advent of Islam, the two major social elements were the
subject people, who, on the whole, viewed the world, including human life, as
an illusion, and the foreign ruling classes, who believed in an equalitarian
society, and to whom such socially autonomous groups and forms as caste
system and untouchability were an anathema.
However, spread of Islam and its reaction on the people of Mithilā has
to be undertaken to throw some light on communal relations in medieval
Mithilā.
1 Askari, S.H., Islam and Muslims in Medieval Bihar, KPJRS, Patna 1998, p.89. 2 Sastri, H.P. (ed.), Kīrttilatā (English version), pp.17-18.
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MITHILĀ SOCIETY ON THE EVE OF MUSLIM INVASION
When the Islamic monotheistic urge based on democratic foundations
threatened to overrun the contrasting social set up of Hindus, the protagonists
of orthodox Hinduism sought to pre-empt the move by tailor made fresh
commentaries on Smṛti. The activities of Maithilī Smṛti writers centered round
the feudal lords of Mithilā who kept themselves engaged in religious
discussion. Even though the political disintegration was taking place, they
clung to the idea of Varṇāśramadharma. They wrote everything for the
Brāhmaṇas only. The Śūdras were treated as non-entities. Such was the
conservative outlook of Maithila Brāhmaṇas that they felt the need of
composing separate works on the obligatory functions of the major castes. To
some extent, they cautioned the society against Prakāśa-taskaras (persons
like traders and manufactures, physicians and druggists, false arbitrators and
witnesses, māntrikas and Tāntrikas etc., who moved freely in the society in
the guise of honest citizens).3 Rudradhara in his Śrādhaviveka takes note of
vitiated Brāhmaṇas (Niṣiddha Brāhmaṇas) as black marketers, profiteers,
rebels, vicious etc., and prescribes that they should be socially punished and
debarred from participating in Śrāddha ceremony.4 Jyotiriśvara mentions a
large number of people belonging to the manda jāti or low castes such as telī
(oil pressers), tāti (weavers), goāra (cowherds), dhānuk (agricultural
labourers), camāra (cobblers), śuṇdi (dealers in wine) hādi and so on.5 Their
social status did not improve in the Turko-Afghan times. They lived in
seclusion and spoke languages different from the common people. The well-
known six languages, namely, Sanskrit, Avahaṭṭha, Paiśāci, Saurasenī and
Māgadhī were not spoken by the Abhīras, Cāṇdālas, Savaras and Utakalas.6
Thus, these despised classes were separated from the general mass of 3 Chaudhary, R.K., Mithilā in the Age of Vidyāpati, Varanasi, 1976, p.317. 4 Ibid. 5 Varṇa Ratnākara (ed. Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Babua Mishra), Delhi 1998, Text, p.1. 6 Ibid., p.44.
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people. Dharmaswāmin, the Tibetan traveler, narrates an incident in his life
when he failed to get help from an untouchable.7
Besides the crisis existing in this context, there was also another kind
of crisis due to the activities of a multitude of religious sects, each claiming to
be most genuine and authentic. Vidyāpati observed this situation quite closely
and described it in his book Puruṣa Parīkṣā. Grierson translated this book into
English and it (The Test of a Man) was published by The Royal Asiatic
Society, London, 1937.8 The relevant portion of this book is cited here from
The Test of a Man.
There be several kinds of heretics… such as Buddhists, materialists
(Cārvāka, etc.) and the like, and many sectarian teachers – Logicians,
Philosophers, Ritualists (Mīmāṁsikās, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, Prabhākara,
et. al.), and others – who preach varying creeds with mutually
opposing dogmas, and who are skilful each in finding arguments on
his side… there be many eloquent teachers, each affirming the truth of
his own creed, and owing to the opposition of their dogmas there
ariseth confusion as to righteousness (dharma). …Heretics are ever
intent upon refuting the arguments of other teachers, while each
insisteth of the truth of his own belief. Enemies are they of the Vedas,
while men versed in the Vedas are enemies of their beliefs. Thus as
they mutually argue, in the uproar of the words of war (vagyuddha
kolahale), the intellects even of the clear headed go astray. ...among
7 Roerich, G. (ed.), Biography of Dharmaswamin, KPJRI, Patna, 1959, pp.85-86. When
Dharmaswamin was about to be drowned in a river near Nālandā, he shouted for help. An untouchable shouted back his inability because he belonged to a low caste. The experience led to the pilgrim to remark "it was improper for a man of low caste to touch with his hands a person of high caste. If a person of low caste were to look at a person of high caste eating, then the food had to be thrown away. …If a person of low caste approached the place where one was taking food, that person had to say 'dūram gaccha', i.e. go away."
8 The Test of A Man, Being the Puruṣa Parīkṣā of Vidyāpati Thākkura, Eng. trs. by George A Grierson, London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1935.
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sectarian teachers (tīrṭhikas) also there are many diversities of belief.
Some prefer to worship Śiva, others Viṣṇu…9
Vidyāpati, as his above mentioned description indicates, found the
religious space of his society quite agitated by the pressure of a number of
religious ideas and forces, all competing with one another and simultaneously
creating a crisis for common men for whom it was practically impossible to
decide which one was most desirable of all.10 Thus the socio-religious life of
the people in the fifteenth century was afflicted with crisis at two levels. At one
level, there was crisis of social stratification of castes and sub-caste, and at
the other, the authenticity and genuineness of Vedic tradition was at stake
due to the challenges of a number of sects and religions all of which were
integral parts of Indian tradition.
ADVENT OF ISLAM AND INITIAL REACTION
The Muslim immigrants who settled down and became the part of the
population of Mithilā had certain distinctive features. Their cardinal doctrine
was the unity of God. They believed in congregational worship and prayers.
Their social outlook was democratic and equalitarian which was in contrast to
the tendencies of the social system prevalent in India. They had different
ideals and conceptions of social life. They could be distinguished by their
names, religious rites and ceremonies, festivals, diet, dress, marriages, and
their law of inheritance and divorce. Thus, they formed an entirely distinct
entity and firmly-welded community distinct from the general populace.
Hence, the establishment of a new alien power with so characteristic a
way of life was bound to affect the conditions of Indian life. The new people
were not welcomed with any warm feeling or allowed to settle down without
opposition and resistance. Both, the Hindus and the Muslims differed from
9 Ibid., pp.126-27. 10 Ibid., p.127.
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each other in their theological conception, mode of worship, social rules and
regulations. The Hindu attitude towards the Muslims was one of sullen
bitterness.
Alberuni, who may be regarded as the first Indologist of the 11th century
has written that the Hindus entirely differed from the Muslims in every respect.
After referring to the linguistic differences, he has raised the questions of
religious divergences, and differences in rules of etiquettes, manners and
customs. The blind bigotry of the Hindus towards the Muslims was so strong
that they thought that all foreigners were mlechchas and impure, and
marriage with them or any other relationships were forbidden. Alberuni has
equally blamed the fanaticism of the Muslims behind such separatism among
the two communities.11
Similar observation can be gleaned from Vidyāpati's Kīrttilatā. He has
narrated the life and conduct is given the transliterated Hindi version of the
relevant portion of this description from V.S. Agrawal's edition of Kīrttilatā.12
Kahīn par tarah-tarah ke guptacar the kahīn phariyādī… aur kahīn
gulām… kahīn turk log hinduoṅ ko genda kī tarah mārakar dūr bhagā
rahe the… turk bāzaār meṃ ghūmkar… herā namak [salt] kara wasūl
karatā hai… hindu aur turk hile-mile basate haiṅ… eka kā dharma
anya ke upahāsa kā kāraṇ ban jātā hai… kahīn turk balapūrvaka raste
jāte hūe… ko begār men pakaṛh letā hai. brāhmaṇ ke larke ko ghar se
pakaṛh le ātā hai… 'hindu kahakar' dutakāratā aur nikāl detā hai…
turkoṅ ko chalate hue dekhkar aisā pratīta hotā hai mānoṅ ve hindūoṅ
ke samūha ko nigal jānā chahtā hai.
[…there were spies of different kinds…; at one place there was
complainant, at another, there was slave… at one place, Turks were
beating Hindus and throwing them away as a ball. Turks collect hera 11 Alberuni's India, ed. Sachau, Vol.I, pp.17-22. 12 Agrawal, V.S. (ed.), Mahākavi Vidyāpatikṛta Kīrttilatā, Jhansi, 1962, pp.93-119.
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tax from the market… Hindu and Turks reside side by side. The religion
of one becomes the object of ridicule for the other… At one place,
Turks force those going on road to work as their begārs (drudgery).
The son of a Brāhmaṇ is forcibly brought out from his house… (Turks)
insult one calling him Hindu and then forcibly turn him out… the way
Turks move indicates that they want to terminate the existence of
Hindus.
It is clear from the above mentioned excerpts that the fanaticism of the
Muslims and religious superstitions of the Hindu Brāhmaṇas were the
obstacles behind the making of harmonious relations between them in the
early period of Muslim rule in Mithilā. A question comes to mind as to whether
similar tendency prevailed in the subsequent periods or there occurred
changes in people’s behaviour and attitudes towards each other? Before
arriving at any definite conclusion in solving this question, it becomes
necessary to analyze the spread of Islam in India or the way many people
came to be identified as Muslims.
However, it is to be noted that the advent of Islam in India, particularly
in Mithilā should be analyzed not only with reference to the activities of the
political and military personnels, but in a much wider context of social, cultural
and economic ties, assimilating the people of not only Mithilā but also
elsewhere. The traditional approach related to the expansion of Islam,
involving a major issue of conversion need to be reviewed with new tools and
newly emerging research trends.
VARIOUS MODES OF CONVERSION
The sources speak of the growth of Muslim population in medieval
Mithilā by the fourteenth century. It is argued that in Islam every Muslim has a
missionary zeal to propagate his faith13 and in many parts of the world, Islam
13 Arnold, T.W., The Preaching of Islam, 2nd edition, Lahore, 1956, pp.254-62.
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brought about social transformation in many countries where it spread. But,
Ira M. Lapidus would have us believe that in India, by contrast, there was only
partial change as a result of conversion. The degree of change varied from
region to region, social group, and even individual to individual.14
Some scholars have put forward some generalized opinions regarding
people’s conversions to Islam in South Asia without analyzing the true nature
of conversion of a group or an individual.15 Their generalizations are summed
up as theories. One of these theories asserts that Islam was disseminated by
force. They coined a saying that the Muslim invaders had a sword in one
hand and the Qurān in the other.16 The second theory is that the motivating
force behind the conversion to Islam was 'Political Patronage' or 'materialist
gain' extended by the medieval state to the converts.17 Third theory for which
Richard M. Easton uses the term Immigration theory18 is not really a theory of
conversion since it views Islamization in terms of the diffusion not of belief of
people. In this view, the bulk of India's Muslims are descended from other
Muslims who had either migrated overland from the Iranian plateau or sailed
across the Arabian Sea.
To counter these theories, a theory of 'Holyman Islam' was
propounded. According to this theory, the Sufis through their tarīqā (way of
life) influenced the people to adopt Islam. Sufis took a liberal view of
fundamental Islamic precepts and by compromising with the local customs
and traditions, became a major force in attracting people to Islam. Moreover,
they emphasized equality and brotherhood in Islamic philosophy as seen in
14 Lapidus, Ira M. History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge, 1988, pp.245-48. 15 Peter Hardy has surveyed and reproduced exhaustively the causes of conversion as
described by various European scholars in "Modern European and Muslim Explanations of conversion to Islam in South Asia : A Preliminary Survey of the Literature" in Conversion to Islam, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (New York : Holmes & Meier, 1979), p.78.
16 Titus, M., Indian Islam, New Delhi, reprint, 1979, p.31. 17 Sharma, S.R., The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, Bombay, 1962, pp.165, 170-74. 18 Eaton, Richard M., The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontiers 1240-1760 (New Delhi :
Oxford University Press, 1994), p.113.
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the Khanqāh which motivated the Śūdras to accept Islam as their religion.19
But studies on this issue have questioned the personal role of Sufis in the
process of conversion to Islam.20
In other cases, as Inayat and Sunita Zaidi argue that propagation of
Islam took place among nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes which were
brought under the influence of religious personnel. In this process, the Sufis
and the state helped each other. The state's interest lay in bringing these
groups under its sway to promote its economic interests and political
influence.21 The state extended economic help to religious person by
assigning revenue-free lands for establishing khanqāhs and their
maintenance. These khanqāhs were visited by the tribals out of reverence for
the religious heads and became the centre of their cultural activities. They
hold that in this process, two developments took place simultaneously, first,
the tribals came into the fold of Islam; and, second, they gradually became
sedentary and raiyati cultivators. Hence, the state's basic interest did not lie in
disseminating Islam or the philosophy of a particular silsilāh or sect but in
bringing the tribals or recalcitrants into the fold of the state. This is the reason
why the state never favoured nor opposed any silsilāh or religious sects
unless it posed a threat to it. This was clearly visible in Mithilā too.
As early as 1941, many social scientists wrote of what they called the
'Hindu method of tribal absorption', citing instances of the Juāng from central
Orissa and the Orāon and Mundā from the latter-day Jharkhand. A tribal 19 Trimingham, J.S., The Sufi Orders in Islam, Oxford University Press, 1971, p.22. Also see
introduction Elliot and Dowson's, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol. II (revised edition), 1952, p.59; Here, Muhammad Habib holds that many city workers whose social position was precarious in the caste ridden Hindu society were attracted to the philosophy of Islam which provided them equal and respectful status in society. The acceptance of Islam by persons was a mundane affair rather than out of religious consideration.
20 Rizvi, S.A.A., Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the 16th and 17th Centuries, Agra University, 1965, p.18. Also see, S.A.A. Rizvi's History of Sufism in India, Delhi, 1978, Vol.1, p.398.
21 Zaidi, S. Inayat and Sunita Zaidi, "Conversion to Islam and Formation of Castes in Medieval Rajasthan", in Quiser, A.J. and S.P. Verma, ed. Art and Culture, Vol.1 Felicitation Vol. in honour of Prof. Nurul Hasan, Publication Scheme, Jaipur, 1993, pp.27-28.
87
group at the edge of Brahminical society would gradually absorb Hindu
elements in its ritual, deities, and concepts, while maintaining large parts of its
older cultural beliefs and practices; and, enjoying a virtual monopoly of a
particular craft manufacture, it would enter into economic relationship with the
wider society.22 Over time, its members might find a place in the caste
hierarchy, usually at a low level; but Surajit Sinha showed that a ruling group
within a tribal society would be assimilated with the Rajputs.23
We may speak similarly of a Muslim method of tribal absorption – a
general model of gradual change of religious identities, ranging from being
nominal to being thorough. In many case, affiliating with some elements of
Islamic tradition was a simple matter, with only minimal shift in religious
practice or in the group's social locus: a seamless re-arranging of indigenous
and Islamic beliefs and practices. Where the social framework of the caste
order was already in place, such a group would continue to live, and function,
much as it had previously. These features have been rightly observed by
Susan Bayly24 among Muslims of Tamil region.
Richard Eaton has examined the spread of Islam in Bengal
meticulously, especially in its eastern parts, since before 1204, the time when
the Sultanate regime was first established there. For an overwhelming
majority of the people who became Muslims, the process he describes was
one not of 'conversion' in a particular moment but of constituting a community,
initially for an economic activity, that of clearing densely forested land, under
the leadership of a man of religion, a maulvi and the like. Apart from
contemporary observers' records, he draws on evidence of epigraphy, 22 For a comprehensive, nuanced reconsideration of the theme, see Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri,
"Society and Culture of the Tribal World in Colonial Eastern India: Reconsidering the Notion of "Hinduization" of Tribes" in Hetukar Jha, ed., Perspectives on Indian Society and History. (New Delhi: Manohar, 2002).
23 Surajit Sinha, "State Formation and Rajput Myth in Tribal Central India", Man in India, 42 (1962): 35-80.
24 Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
88
numismatics, architecture, and artwork to produce his analysis. It enables him
to demonstrate:
i. That by far the largest increases in the Muslim population in rural
eastern Bengal came in the wake of the Mughal conquest of the
region, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries;
ii. That this was not a consequence of pressure from the state; the
Mughal administration took pains to ensure that its officials would
not engage in proselytizing.25 Rather, it was part of the process of
clearing, for paddy cultivation, lands which had until then been
thickly forested; this major economic shift followed from Mughal
search for revenue from these hitherto forested territories. The
spread of Islam followed principally from the ability of pioneering
Muslim religious men to draw forest and hill people, and others of
diverse religious backgrounds, into labouring groups, which they
formed for clearing the forestlands. The communities so forming
took on the religious practices of the men who had drawn them
together – there was no particular moment of 'conversion' in the
whole process; and
iii. That in a vast region, where there were few previously established
rights over land, the Muslim religious men's initial claims took varied
routes in different regions: they might install themselves, and their
followers, in virgin land, clearing it for paddy, and then seek
recognition from Mughal authority as collectors of revenue for the
government26; they might buy 'permanent land tenure rights' from
'non-cultivating intermediaries, or zamindars', high caste Hindus,
who had acquired the rights from Mughal authorities, but who would
25 Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1240-1760, New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 1994, pp.75-79. 26 Ibid, p.224.
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not do the work themselves owing to 'social taboos'27; or they might
get a land-grant from the government for bringing land into
cultivation and 'to promote Islamic piety in the countryside'28.
Men entering these relationships and communities carried with them
their prior ideas concerning the supernatural. From such beginnings, the
passage to a relatively sharp and self-conscious identification with Islam took
more than two centuries. Eaton sees them as journeying through three
distinct phases in relation to beliefs, symbols, and practices:
i. inclusion: Islamic elements were mixed into the prior stock of
beliefs and practices concerning the supernatural, as often happens
in folk practice29;
ii. identification: particular Islamic figures came to be identified with
specific indigenous ones, as being the 'same', or as being linked
with each other in specified relationships, say one being the avatār
of the other30; and
iii. displacement: a process beginning in early nineteenth century, in a
colonial milieu, once the political reasons for mutual
accommodation, coming from the Mughals and their successor
states, had worn off. Religious identities and practices began to
move from being relatively fuzzy to being more sharply defined.31
There have been long-term pressures, as we shall see in the cases
both of the Meo and of eastern Bengal below, to remove the pre-
Islamic beliefs and practices, in the cause of securing what some
believed to be purer Islamic beliefs and practices. 27 Ibid., p.220f. 28 Ibid., p.246. 29 Ibid., pp.269-75. 30 Ibid., pp. 275-81, and also see Asim Roy, The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal,
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. 31 Eaton, The Rise of Islam, pp.281-90.
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Eaton writes that, "…from the culture of institutional Sufism came the
asymmetric categories of pīr and murīd, or sheikh and disciple, which
rendered Sufism a suitable model for channeling authority, distributing
patronage, and maintaining discipline – the very requirements appropriate to
the business of organizing and mobilizing labour in regions along the cutting
edge of state power. It is little wonder that Sufis appeared along East Bengal's
forested frontier.”32
The forested delta had earlier been populated only thinly. Pivotal to the
spread of Islam in this setting were the Muslim religious men, and their ability
to relate to others in an open-ended manner; this was in sharp contrast with
the attitude of long-settled Brahmins in western Bengal who considered lands
further east, inhabited largely by 'tribal' peoples, as being ritually polluted, not
really suited for Brāhmaṇas to live in.33 As later generations remembered it,
the challenge was 'the forest, a wild and dangerous domain that [the Sufis]
were believed to have subdued;… the supernatural world … with which they
were believed to wield continuing influence'.34 The forest was the same. The
Brāhmaṇas ignored it; the Sufis embraced it, aided no doubt by their own long
held belief in their superior hold over supernatural forces.
In this region the Muslim religious men entered vigorously. The
difference arose not only in the Brāhmaṇas preoccupation with purity and
pollution, which lay at the core of the social order over which they presided; it
arose also in differences of social organization. In reclaiming forestland for
paddy, the Muslim religious men drew to themselves individuals and small
groups – not whole jātis proud of their collective identities from the past. The
land rights that these men would acquire arose from their participation in work
which had been organized by the men of religion. People entering the
32 Ibid, p.257. 33 Ibid., p.7. 34 Ibid., p.218.
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communities being formed had not had much of a caste order; they had no
stake in the ideology underlying the caste order, which has been part of a
wider Hindu ethos. In the society that emerged in eastern Bengal,
consequently, Muslims enjoyed an overwhelming preponderance.
Similarly in Punjab, Eaton has uncovered the evidence. Between the
seventh and the eleventh centuries, Jāt pastoralists moved up 'from Sind into
the Multan area'. By the thirteenth century, they were settling between the
Sutlej and the Ravi; by c. 1600, they had spread greatly, becoming 'the
dominant agrarian caste'.35 Many, meanwhile, were accepting Islam too.
Eaton tracks the process by analyzing a set of fourteen genealogical charts of
prominent Siyal families available in mid-nineteenth century publication.
Distributing the names in the charts between 'Punjabi secular names' and
'Muslim names', he finds that the latter begin to appear in early 1400s,
become a majority by mid-1600s, and a hundred percent by 1815, indexing a
slow, barely conscious, process of entering Islam.36
One might take to Islam in anticipation of economic opportunity, or of
political favours, or of escaping disfavour; or it could be a consequence of
proximity to rulers.37 Analyzing an early nineteenth century report about a
village in Kaira District, Gujarat, A.M. Shah has written about a Muslim
Rathod Rajput group whose members accepted Islam, in the fifteenth or
sixteenth centuries, owing to 'the policy of the Sultans of Gujrat of creating
such social groups in the region as would provide abiding support to their
35 Richard M. Eaton. Essays on Islam and Indian History, New Delhi : Oxford University Press,
2000, p.212f. 36 Ibid., p.221f. 37 In the late 1980s, Dagar Brothers conducted an evening course of Dhrupad music at a home
where senior brother stressed the affinity between the Dhrupad style of singing and Vedic chanting. He added that his ancestors had been Brāhmiṇs; but because they performed at the Mughal court, their caste-mates broke off relations with them; and therefore, his ancestors had taken to Islam.
92
political authority'.38 Apropos a late nineteenth century court case concerning
property, the historian Asiya Siddiqi considers a Muslim butcher family,
apparently descendants from Dhangar jāti in Maharashtra, cattle breeders
and shepherds by traditional occupation. Siddiqi surmises that at the time of
the first Sultanate conquests of the Deccan, about the thirteenth century, an
opportunity for supplying meat to the substantial Muslim population would
have arisen. In response, some Dhangar would have converted to Islam 'in
order to meet the canonical requirement for slaughter (zabiha) of animals.’39
In both cases, Rajput and Dhangar, the Hindu and the Muslim families had
maintained close relationships with each other.
E.A. Gait refers to the report of Ghuznavi40 who argued that many
converts came not from the despised low castes, but from the upper orders of
Hindu society. At the turn of the twentieth century, claims were indeed made
that in the Mughal period some members of Bengal's landed elite and even of
the priestly caste had converted to Islam. The rajas of Kharagpur (in Midnapur
District), defeated by one of Akbar's generals, were said to have accepted
Islam as the condition for retaining their family estates; Raja Purdil Singh of
Parsouni in Darbhanga, in northern Bihar, became a Muslim by way of
expiation after having rebelled against the Mughal emperor; the Muslim dīwān
families of pargana Sarail in Tippera, and of Haibatnagar and Jungalbari in
Mymensingh, had formerly been Brāhmaṇas; and the Pathāns of Majhouli in
Darbhanga sprang form the family of the raja of Narhar.41
38 A.K. Shah, Exploring India's Rural Past: A Gujrat Village in the Early Nineteenth Century,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002, p.58. 39 Asiya Siddiqi, "Ayesha's World: A Butcher's Family in Nineteenth Century Bombay",
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 38:1 2001, p.114. 40 Abu A. Ghuznavi, a respectable Muslim gentleman of Mymensing District, Submitted a report
to the collector of his district. Cf. Richard M. Eaton, Rise of Islam and Bengal Frontier, pp.120-122.
41 E.A. Gait, "The Muhammadans of Bengal," in Census of India, 1901, Vol. 6, The Lower Provinces of Bengal and Their Feudatories, pt. 1, "Report" Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1902, 170.
93
Numbering rather more than 300,000, the Meo of Mewat, in the districts
southwest of Delhi, are a mainly rural, land-owning caste, with a self-image of
being Rajputs, of having been warriors in the past; they are also Muslims.
When and how they took to Islam has been a matter of folk memory – which
places the move variously between the eighth and the seventeenth centuries.
In some versions of this memory, the use of force was a sporadic element in
their conversion. After reviewing various reports, Partap Aggarwal concludes,
'The Meos, because of the active interest in Delhi politics, were constantly
under pressure to accept Islam for its value as a useful protective shield'.42
Until the mid-1940s, the Meo carried their Islam lightly, functioning as a
dominant caste, quite like other large land-owning castes, confident of their
place within the caste order. They were firm in marrying within their caste,
following their own rules, ignoring the more common Islamic ideas about kin
preferred for marriages, as well as the possibility of marrying non-Meo
Muslims. Their rituals, say at marriages, had forms that they largely shared
with Rajputs, except that it was the father's sister who would act as the 'priest'
in place of a Brahmin. In effect, they were a cluster of Rajput clans. What
identified them as Muslim was the following: their names, their occasional
recourse to mosques, their practice of circumcision, and their burying, not
cremating, their dead; that was about all.43
The Meo and their neighbours participated in a variety of festivals in a
relaxed manner; Muharram was occasion for a common melā, and there were
various shared sacred personages. Engaged almost exclusively in agriculture,
the Meo had traveled very little outside Mewat and had only limited contact
with the outer world. Since the mid-1940s, however, the Meo have changed
course substantially.44
42 Partap Aggarwal, Caste, Religion and Power, New Delhi, 1971, p.40. 43 Raymond Jamous, "The Meo as a Rajput Caste and a Muslim Community" in C.J. Fuller, ed.,
Caste Today, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p.191f. 44 See for details, Shail Mayaram, Resisting Regimes; Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a
Muslim Identity, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.
94
Among the better-known cases of coercion for enlarging the reach of
Islam is that of Kashmir at the end of the fourteenth century. Against this
position it is argued that large numbers in fact took to Islam in order to escape
the caste hierarchy.45 It may be that the force was directed especially at the
Brāhmaṇas, kingpins of caste order; and once they converted, or emigrated,
however temporarily, the lower castes would accept Islam voluntarily.
Coercion on a small scale is illustrated in a late seventeenth century case
concerning a Chief of Gautam Rajputs from the Azamgarh area in UP: 'one
Bikramajit Singh … had hatched [a conspiracy] to kill his brother'; he 'had to
become Muslim to avoid execution at Aurangzeb's order'.46 Granted the
incidents of coercion, on scales large and small, it remains true that the
largest blocks accepted Islam through absorption, not through coercion.47
Amidst various channels of conversion, one should understand the
difference between a self-conscious conversion to a particular faith and
conversion through a process of acculturation which gradually leads to a
person to imbibe a particular religious way of life. In the self-conscious
conversion, a convert is initiated to some basic precept of Islam. This is, in
fact, an obvious indication of a conscious change of faith. In this case, formal
conversion takes place where recitation of the Kalima takes place.48
Acculturation under the influence of a particular faith is not necessarily
conversion to a faith. In such cases, people were accustomed to many
elements of the Islamic way of life, but still they continued to be Hindu in their
45 See for detail, V. Nagendra Rao and Rekha Chowdhary, "Evolution of Political Islam in
Jammu and Kashmir" in Satish Saberwal and Mushirul Hasan, eds., Assertive Religious Identities: India and Europe, New Delhi, 2006.
46 Muzaffar Alam, "Aspects of Agrarian Uprising in North India in the Early Eighteenth Century" in S. Bhattacharya and Romila Thapar, ed., Situating Indian History: For Sarvepalli Gopal, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1986, p.159.
47 Relatively small numbers of Hindu literati, merchants, and took to Islam. For details see Imtiaz Ahmad, ed., Caste and Social Stratification. He has written of an ex-Kayastha group, known as Sheikh Siddique, in Allahabad and Lucknow. The motivations and the circumstances for change of faith in these stray cases have been diverse.
48 Cf. Zaidi Inayat and Sunita Zaidi, op. cit., p.28.
95
religions faith. Islamization through this process is more visible in the lower
strata of society, particularly many artisan castes. The process of
acculturation has been viewed differently by the social scientists. Eaton
believes that these social groups (artisans) by coming into contact with the
sufi Khanqāhs adopted many characteristics of the Muslim way of life and
gradually identified as Muslims.49 On the other hand, Irfan Habib holds that
these caste groups (mainly artisans) which came into existence with the
introduction of new crafts after the coming of Turks to India. These new
castes identified with their occupations consisted of war captives working in
the royal Karkhānās. Some professional castes acquired the name Julāhās
when they worked in royal karkhānās. They were brought up in an
atmosphere of Islamic faith and culture.50 This was reflected in their food
habits, dress and matrimonial relations. Inayat Zaidi, further, refers to the
case of the Bandā or Chelā (slaves), basically war captives, who constituted a
personal band of the royal military contingents. The captives were brought up
in the royal court in an Islamic way of life with the expectation that they would
acquire a complete personal fealty to the ruler. Thus, he argues that, the
slave factor in the process of dissemination of Islam operated from the very
beginning of the establishment of the Muslim state in India to the end of the
eighteenth century.51
Thus, there was a variety of process and reasons for conversion to
Islam in medieval India. It is clear from the above details that the process of
conversion may be understood better if at least three major components are
taken into consideration: (i) period in which conversion of a person or group
takes place; (ii) ecology, socio-religious and economic significance of the
region where conversion take place, and (iii) the type of social structure
49 Eaton, Richard M., Sufis of Bijapur, Princeton University Press, 1978, p.206. 50 Irfan Habib, "Historical Background to the Monotheistic Movement in the 15th century",
presented at the seminar on ideas of medieval India, University of Delhi, Nov. 1965. 51 Cf. Zaidi, Inayat and Sunita Zaidi, op. cit., p.29.
96
existing at a place where conversion occurs. In sum, the streams of Islam
spread through the subcontinent in general and Mithilā in particular through a
variety of channels. The emphasis, by and large, was on having Islam
accepted, often under the influence of Sufis and their grace, beyond that the
prevailing social arrangements were disturbed only minimally. The streams
spread, finding their own levels and courses locally; there was no centre to
give direction or sharp strategy. With this assumption, this section explores
the coming of the New Faith and its acceptance by the people in Mithilā.
Many cases of conversions are discernible in Bihar as well as in other
parts of subcontinent. Such conversions seem to have taken place among
those who came into contact with Muslims. A common platform where people
met was the army. Habibullah writes that Muslim sway extended from
Varanasi through the strips of Shāhābad, Patna, Monghyr and Bhagalpur
district52 and the presence of Muslims in this tract from early times indicates
that conversions by the Khalji warriors were common in this region. Minhāj
writes that Bakhtiyār converted some tribes in the Himālayan foothills also,
and one Chieftain known after his conversion as Ali the Mech, had exchanged
his native beliefs for the religion of Islam.53
Census of India report, 1901, suggest that almost the whole of the
functional groups such as Julāhā and Dhuniā and the great majority of
Shaikhs, probably nine-tenth in Bengal and half in Bihar, are of Indian origin.
The foreign elements may be looked for chiefly in the ranks of the Saiyyads,
Pathans and Mughals. Even here there are many who are descended from
Hindus, because high caste converts are often allowed to assume high titles.
The report says:
…In Bihar a converted Hindu of the Brāhmaṇa or Kāyastha caste is
usually allowed to call himself a Shaikh and to associate and
52 Habibullah, A.B.M., The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India, Allahabad, 1961, p.147. 53 Tabqāt-i-Nasīsī, trs. H.R. Raverty, London, 1881, Vol.1, p.560.
97
intermarry with genuine Shaikhs. …A Bābhan or Rājput in the same
circumstances, becomes a pathān.54
Moreover, the case of Raja Purdil Singh of Parsouni in Darbhanga, as
we have already referred to, became a Muslim by way of expiation after
having rebelled against the Mughal Emperor, and also, the Pathāns of
Majhouli in Darbhanga sprang from the family of the Raja of Narhar.
These instances, however, could have accounted for only a small
fraction of the total Muslim population and cannot explain the appearance of
the million of Muslim peasant cultivators and artisans recorded in the census
figures. If Islamization had ever been a function of military or political force,
one would expect that those areas exposed most intensively and over the
longest period to rule by the Muslim dynasties i.e. those that were most fully
exposed to the 'sword' – would today contain the greatest number of Muslims.
But, this is not the case as these regions where the most dramatic
Islamization occurred such as eastern India (Bengal and Bihar) or western
Punjab, lay on the fringe of Indo-Muslim rule, where the 'sword' was weakest.
In such regions the first accurate census reports put the Muslim population at
between 70 and 90 percent of the total, whereas in the heartland of Muslim
rule in the upper Gangetic plain (Delhi, Agra), the Muslim population ranged
from only 10 to 15 percent.55
SUFI AND BHAKTI EFFECT: LIBERAL ATTITUDE OF THE PEO PLE
Coming back on the topic of Hindu-Muslim relations in Mithilā after the
advent of Islam, it may be argued that Hindus and Muslim did not consciously
work for a cooperative living and communal harmony. Religious notions were
too deep-rooted to pave the way for unity between the two major
communities. In view of such differences, religious conflict cannot be ruled
54 Census of India Report, 1901, VI, part-1, Bengal, pp.165-181. 55 Cf. Eaton, Richard, M. op. cit., p.115.
98
out. There were fanatics on either side. There were a few saints like Muzaffar
Shams Balkhī and H. Abdul Quddus Gangohī, who, considered the Hindus as
infidels and viewed them as unworthy of trust and confidence. It is significant
to mention here the fate of Shaikh Aaz Kākvi of Gaya and Ahmad Bihāri,
disciples of Hadrat Sharafuddīn Ahmad Maneri. On the one hand, Ahmad
Bihāri was condemned to death by the order of Fīruz Shāh Tughlaq, because,
he was an atheist and talked about secrets of unity of the Deity.56 On the
other hand, though Hadrat Sharafuddīn Ahmad Manerī was annoyed at the
conduct of the above-mentioned Emperor, yet he did not approve of the
beliefs of his disciples. The fifth letter of the Maktubat-i-Sadi records that the
saint commented thus "if the soul, during the continuance of these
experiences, is not helped by a spiritual leader he may, it is feared lose faith
and fall a victim to false notions of unity, incarnation and identification."57
In course of time, and by degrees, due to constant contact,
neighborliness of residences, intrusive, eclectic spirit and synthesizing
influences of Hinduism, the arrogant attitude of superiority and mutual
contempt and antagonism on the part of the members of the opposing
faiths were softened, and common grounds were found in various
spheres, social and domestic life, manners, morals, economic
implications, and in art, architecture, language and literature. Despite
the opposition of orthodox, conservative and reactionary theologians,
on both sides, the major sections of population realized the need and
call of the cultural and religious groups for ensuring peace and
tranquility. Nature favors unity, and the influx of the Sufis and the
Bhaktas helped the gradual dissipation of diversity.
It may be observed that with the advent of the Islam, the rigidity of the
caste system was getting slackened and the relative positions and privileges
56 Elliot & Dowson, History of India as told by its Historians, Vol. III, p.378. 57 Quoted in Historical Miscellany, p.52.
99
of different castes were undergoing transformation. The essentially
proselytizing nature of the faith of Islam58 and the professions of social
equality and fraternity among its followers opened its door wide to the lower
orders of the Hindu society. Its offer has an additional force because it came
from those who ruled over a greater part of India and possessed unlimited
resources. Hinduism was, thus, faced with the ominous prospect of its
number being reduced and gradually being absorbed into the growing field of
Islam.
The Hindu caste system, based as it was on the doctrine of Karma, (i)
led to the creation of a leisured class composed of the learned and strong
with supposed inborn attitudes and inherited privileges; (ii) another class
composed of labourers who were assigned a degraded social status; and
finally (iii) it invested this ingenious arrangement with the most sacred and
positive sanctions. The argument was purely scriptural and it placed the
inequalities of the caste system on a moral order of which God's will was the
guardian and embodiment and the created beings had only to thank
themselves for their plight.59 Hinduism tried to raise a bulwark against the
rising tide of Islam by making certain concessions in reclaiming the higher
classes back to their old privileges. For a time, it had nothing to offer to the
lower classes who began to develop new philosophy for themselves and
gradually developed the theory of the Bhakti.60
The Bhakti Mārg, 'which began as a little trickle in the Vedic times went
out with the advance of history as a mighty flood sweeping over the whole
land',61 even as the jnāna mārg remained confined to the priestly class, and
karma mārg got stultified into compliance with ascribed duty. An important
aspect (associated with the growth of Bhakti cult) that needs to be stressed is 58 Carpentier, J.E., Theism in Medieval India, London, 1920, p.321. 59 Chaudhary, R.K., op. cit., p.23. 60 Mookherji, Radha Kamal, The Indian Scheme of Life, Bombay, 1951, p.16. 61 Chand, Tara, Influence of Islam on Indian Culture, Allahabad, 1954, p.24.
100
that there has been a persistent dichotomy in Hindu society. The existence of
two distinct social strata or two levels of consciousness, one higher and the
other lower, one small and the other more populous, the one as 'closed'
custodians of traditional knowledge and philosophy, of social ideas and
institutions, and the other on the lower rung of the social ladder, comprising,
the general mass of people with their folk culture and regional traditions, had
almost permanently bifurcated the Hindu society vertically.62 Brahmanical
social exclusiveness, monopoly of knowledge, refusal to allow the lower caste
even the learning of the Sanskrit language, discrimination in rituals and social
intercourse, etc. had kept Hindu society divided into compartments, and its
castes and jātis almost counterposed to each other. As a result, with the
spread of Bhakti wave of consciousness (between 13th and 15th centuries) a
new caste alignment63 consisted of the more populous lower rung of the
social order was brought about. Many Bhakti saints, viz. Vidyāpati (A.D. 1350-
1450), Kabir (AD 1440-1518), Caitanya (A.D. 1485-1533) and a host of
others, through their bhajans, kīrtans and dohās, attempted to harmonise both
the orthodox and general mass of the people. Their integrative approach
generated an ethos of inter-group cordiality. The love, compassion and
service, preached by the social reformers in medieval India, belonged to all
caste and it was preached that in this ideal scheme of Bhakti, greater was the
opportunity of receiving God's prasada i.e. grace. These reformers had a
more significant social leveling influence, due to the relative absence of caste
rigidity among them.64
Fortunately, with the entry of Islam in India there came a set of pence-
loving tolerant people called sufis or Islamic mystics, believers in esoteric
Islam, and having a way of life of their own characterized by self
abandonment and was against the carnal desires (nafs), devotional love of 62 Chand, Tara, op. cit., Introduction, p.ix. 63 Mookherji, Radhakamal, op. cit., p.41. 64 Ibid, p.55.
101
God, quest for union with one eternal, eagerness for Passing away in union
with (Fana) God to find abiding abode in God (baqa). Sufism, said to be the
universal aspect of Islam has mystical, monistic, speculative, spiritualistic,
humanistic, ritualistic tendencies, but no dogmatic theology. It is a discipline
rather than a doctrinal or dogmatic creed.
In early medieval Bihar, Sufism practically identified with Islam, and
there were no schisms and sects worth mentioning among Muslims. The entry
of Islam in India had been followed by that of Sufism which lay midway
between two dissimilar systems of Aryan Pantheism and Semetic Islam,
tending at times towards, and being associated with, each. The absolute
monotheism of orthodox Islam, emphasizing upon eternal distinction between
transcendental God and man, the Creator being separate from the Creation,
was directly opposed to absolute Monism of Shankracharya’s Vedantic
thought of Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahma), and stressing the identity and
unity of God the phenomenonical world.65 Though the Sufi thinkers traced the
origin of their doctrine to the Qurān, and to the mystic tendencies and to life,
sayings and actions of the Prophet, the Monistic mysticism of the Sufis were
looked upon the orthodox Muslim as a class as heretical innovations,
opposed to the spirit of Islam. But the lives and writings of the Sufis of Bihar
show that whether they belonged to one or other of the chief orders,
Chishtiya, suhrāwardiya, Qādriya, Firdausiya, Shuttāriya, orthodox, Bā-Sharā'
(with law) and Be-Sharā (without law), they followed the Qurān and the
Sunnat (tradition), accepted all the cardinal principles of Islam, denounced all
innovations and devotions in the sphere of dogma and practices and Bidāt
(heresy), insisted upon the strict observance of obligatory duties of their faith,
and discarded all that was obviously antagonistic to the fundamental
teachings of Islam.66
65 Askari, S.H., Islam and Muslims in Medieval Bihar, KPJRI, Patna, 1998, pp.92-93. 66 Ibid., p.93.
102
As spokesmen of Islam which is a proselytizing religion, prompted by a
sincere desire to serve God and His Creatures imbued with proclaiming and
practicing equality of all believers of the faith, the Sufi saints set out to preach
Islam by gentle persuasion and devotion rather than thorough dialectic
disputation and argumentation. It is the Sufis, not the Mullahs who proved to
be best missionaries of Islam. It is a fact that there were a large number of
conversions under the spell of Sufism in Bihar and elsewhere, although it is
very seldom that one comes across some references in the mystic literature
produced in Bihar to the role they strictly played in the process of
Islamization.67
There was no organized church or single authority, no ordained priestly
class in Bihar and elsewhere. All that happened was on individual basis.
Hadrat Sharafuddin and his Balkhī disciples believed that a Kāfir (infidel, non-
believer) unlike Mushrik (polytheist) could be a Muwahhid (Unitarian). Ainul
Quḍḍāt Hamadanī, was quoted to the effect that all religions or most of them,
were in essence the same, wedded to truth which is at the bottom of all
religions, but ignorant followers, being unable to understand the real
significance of the original teaching, turned their meanings. They deemed it,
however, as their duty to show to others what in their view was the straightest,
smoothest and safest path. For this, they left their homes and relatives,
undertook long and arduous journeys, penetrated into inhospitable regions,
worked amongst people alien to them in race, religions, traditions and culture,
and some had to pay with their lives for their labour of love.68
A precursor of the great Sufi saint of Ajmer, the pioneer of the Chishti
order of Sufism in India, was Saiyid Husain Khīngswār, who was killed by the
Hindus and lies buried at Taragarh Hills near Ajmer. Local tradition, supported
by later documentary evidence, says that three of his relatives came to Bihar.
67 Ibid., p.94. 68 Ibid.
103
One of them, Saiyid Hasan, a direct ancestor of Diwan Saiyid Jafar, the saint
of Barh of Shāhjahān’s time, has a tomb ascribed to him at Neora, in Patna
district, while the two others, Saiyid Ahmad and his sister's son, Saiyid
Muhammed, popularly called Māmūn Bhānja (Uncle-Nephew) are said to
have been killed and buried at Jaruha, near Hajipur. Their mausoleum which
had remained intact till the earthquake of 1934, is said to have been built
much later with the help of Raja Shiva Singh, a Brāhmaṇa ruler of Tirhut, and
the patron of Vidyāpati. Mahāraja Mān Singh, one of Akbar's governor of
Bihar, granted in 1558 A.D. 15 bighas of land for the upkeep of the
mausoleum and the facsimile of his bilingual Sanad containing one prose then
used in Bihar, and written in Kaithi Hindi script, was published long ago.69
Traces and evidences are also available of others who also lost their lives for
preaching their faith and who till sometime before received homage even from
the Hindus of the locality. Such was Shaikh Fattu and Shaikh Baṛhan who
came to Bihar during the reign of Firuz Tughlaq and were killed and buried in
a place known as Bargazar in North Bihar. The legend of Salār Masud or
Ghāzi Miyān appears to have some truth behind it, though he had become a
legend in the 14th century as is evident from a question put to Makhdum
Sharafuddin and the reply given by him.70
Mirat-i-Masudī and Miratul-Asrār, 17th century works, refer to the
lightening sporadic raid of Salār Masūd in eastern India and his eventual
death at the hands of Raja Hardua or Sahdeva, on 1033 A.D. He lies buried
at Bahraich. The authority quoted by the writer, Abdur Rehman Chishti,
excites suspicion for no one else ever heard of it and he does not give even a
single extract from it. Muhammad and Firuz Tughlaq of Delhi, and Hājī Ilyas of
Bengal, paid reverential visit to Bahraich tomb and Von Graff the Dutch
traveler saw from his boat in 1661 the celebration of the popular and
69 Ibid, p.95 70 Ibid.
104
picturesque annual festival at Maner. Earlier, Sultan Sikandar Lodi tried in
vain to stop the fair of Ghāzi Miyān, and singing and dancing of Hindus and
Muslims, particularly a set of Qalandar mendicants, round a long bamboo
pole wrapped in coloured rags with horse-hair tied on its top, for the whole
thing smacked of practices contrary to orthodox beliefs.
Some Muslims may have been intolerant, but Islam and Sufism were
not so. There was no question of any element of compulsion, pressure or
even of persuasion. Conversion of non-Muslims was no part of their mission
and they spoke seldom about it, and yet Sufi saints were largely responsible
for the peaceful penetration of Islam in India.71 The desire to escape from
social oppressions or to raise themselves to a higher social, moral or cultural
level or conditions had undoubtedly drawn many of the down-trodden Indians
to Islam.
There are instances of various kinds of responses of the Sufis to their
environment. The Sufis in general, and specially the Firdausiya Sufis of Bihar,
were large-hearted latitudinarian in their views and very liberal in their
attitudes, of sympathy and understanding. There are many references to their
written recommendations for help to the poor and deserving people to the
kings and nobles. They would not accept jobs and jagirs from the high and
mighty, but would go out of their way to help the poor, and never ignored
them.72
In Mithilā, many low caste people welcomed Islam. The weavers,
fishermen, tailors, butchers, dyers, vegetable retailers, etc. were regarded as
impure and untouchable by the upper class Hindus. Francis Buchanan who
conducted a survey of Purnea district that covered Tirhut, in 1809-10, wrote
about the conversion of many Hindu castes to Islam. He writes thus:
71 Askari, S.H., op. cit., p.421 72 Ibid., p.114.
105
"The faith (Islam), on the whole, seems to be gaining ground, the
strictness with which the doctrine of caste is here observed
occasioning many converts, and the passage from one religion to the
other according to the existing practice is very trifling, as scarcely any
new dogmas or practices are required, a few external ceremonies is all
that necessary, and the convert continues to dread the same
imaginary beings and to appease their wrath in the same manner as
he did before his conversion."73
He has given the detail of the converted class that included Jolāha
(weavers) or momins (believers), Dhuniā (spinners) Darzis (tailors), Laherī
(makers of bracelet of lac), Rungrez (dyers), Qussāb (butchers), Turah
(fisherman),74 etc. Considering the professions of this segment of the
population of Mithilā accepted Islam because of the greater employment
opportunities the new faith had provided which were hitherto, unavailable to
them.
We have references of the existence of various Sufi saints of different
silsilāhs along with their shrines or dargāhs located within the territory of
Tirhut. Ainā-i-Tirhut75 informs that Mithilā witnessed the presence of forty-two
Sufi saints and the dargāhs/mazārs of twenty-two saints were located in
different places of the south western part of Tirhut. The text also describes in
detail about the legends associated with each and every saints. The details of
the names of Sufi saints and location of their dargāhs are shown in the table:
Sl. No.
Name of Sufi Saints Darg āhs
1. Makhdum Saiyyad Shah Tajuddin Chaktazpur, Pargana : Kusuma
2. Makhdum Shah Baraktullah Makhdumganj, Darbhanga
3. Makhdum Shah Sultan Hussain Darbhanga
4. Makhdum Abdullah Mohalla : Mufti, Darbhanga 73 Buchanan, F., An Account of the District of Purnea in 1809-10, BORS, Patna, 1928, p.188. 74 Ibid., pp.197-201. 75 Lal, Bihari, Fitrat', Ainā-i-Tirhut, Matba Bahar Kashmir, Lucknow, 1883, pp.81-93, 146-47.
106
Sl. No.
Name of Sufi Saints Darg āhs
5. Maulana Makhdum Saiyyad Shah Mohammad Afzal
Dharmapur, Pargana : Saraisa
6. Maulana Qazi Saiyad Mohammad Ashraf
?
7. Maulana Saiyyad Shahabuddin Tajpur, Paragana : Kusuma
8. Maulana Saiyyad Mohammad Safi Tajpur, Paragana : Kusuma
9. Maulana Diwan Shah Ali Mohammad
Tajpur, Paragana : Kusuma
10. Makhdum Hajrat Diwan Shah Jahid (Suhrawardi)
Pargpur, Paragana : Kusuma
11. Maulana Shah Bahauddin Ahmad (Nakshabandia)
Jathiadi, Darbhanga
12. Maulana Shaikh Mohammad Ismail (Nakshabandia)
Jathiadi, Darbhanga
13. Maulana Mohammad Ismail (Nakshabandia)
?
14. Makhdum Shah Sufi Harisimhapur Devaka, Paragana : Gharaur
15. Qazi Alimuddin Saiyyad Alvi Shaikh Ansari
Mathurapur, Paragana : Kusumba
16. Makhdum Shah Daniyal (Shuttari) Mauza : Bela, Pargana : Saraisa
17. Makhdum Shah Abdurrahman Kasba : Muzaffarpur, Mauza : Saraiyaganj
18. Makhdum Abdul Fatah Sarmast Tangaul, Hajipur
19. Khas Dulha Damodarpur, Paragana : Kusumba (Near Rosara)
20. Makhdum Shah Jalaluddin Bokhari Chakdargah, Paragana : Bharwara
21. Bhikha Shah Shilani Darbhanga
22. Haji Harmain Hajipur
23. Dudhila Pir Hajipur
24. Makhdum Shah Nemtullah Jahidi Mahua, Paragana : Paraila
25. Shah Abdus Lalif Ghazi Darbhanga (Belagarh)
26. Makhdum Shah Daud Darbhanga
27. Maulana Khan Mohammad Nakshaband of Lalbagh
?
28. Saiyyad Shah Talib Hussain ?
29. Saiyyad Shah Fazal Hussain Tajpur, Paragana : Kusumba
107
Sl. No.
Name of Sufi Saints Darg āhs
30. Hafiz Saiyyad Hussain Darbhanga
31. Pir Damaria Minapura, Paragana : Jarahawa
32. Qazi Sadullah Khajapur, Paragana : Sadpura
33. Saiyyad Mohammad Gaus Bakhari, Paragana : Saraisa
34. Saiyyad Shah Mohammad Haibat ?
35. Saiyyad Shah Wajid Dharmapur, Paragana : Saraisa
36. Makhdum Shah 'Taj' Tajpur, Paragana : Bhaur, Alipura
37. Makhdum Shah Amaduddin Garaul Basara (Near Muzaffarpur)
38. Saiyyad Abdal Raghva-Chaklanchi, Paragana : Basara (Near Muzaffarpur)
39. Makhudm Shah Faiyad Shuttari Naya Basara, Paragana : Bakhra (Near Rati)
40. Diwan Shah Ali Jandaha, Paragana : Saraisa
41. Shah Ghulam Mustafa Qadiri Wazidpur (on the bank of river Bagmati, near Qila ghat)
42. Makhdum Shah Abdullah Napayakta, Paragana : Amadpur
43. Aqil Shah Darvesh Mohalla : Maulvi Sarafuddin Hussain, Darbhanga.
List of the names of Sufi saints and their dargahs in Mithilā.76
Besides dargahs, there were four important mosques in Tirhut in the
nineteenth century. There was also a famous Idgāh at Kadirabad mohalla of
Darbhanga which has been constructed at the time of Emperor Aurangzeb. In
the fort of Hajipur, one mosque was built up during the reign of Akbar.77
These descriptions of saints, mazārs and mosques not only confirm
their popularity but also it indicates the extent to which socio-religious
contacts had developed. At these centres a united holy mela (fair) of both the
communities are held every year.
During the festival of Muharram the villages, predominated by the
Muslims, in Mithilā like other parts of Bihar and Bengal, the Tāzia processions 76 Ibid., pp.81-114. 77 Ibid., pp.146-147.
108
were conducted with outward show and grief. It is estimated that of the 1400
tāzia processions of Patna and Bihar Sharif area, 600 were conducted by the
Hindus.78 Buchanan also mentions about the participation of Hindus in
Muharram.79
In the field of Persian and Arabic learning, Darbhanga was considered
a great centre where scholars like Mulla Abul Hasan, Maulavi Fazal Ali
(Author of Fawayed Amiriya), Maulavi Sharfuddin Hussain, Maulavi
Mohammad Salah 'Khamosh', Maulana Mohammad Imām Shah, Moulavi
Maniruddin Hussain (author of Manirul Farayez, Manirul Fatabi and Fabayed
Razia), Mohammad Murshid Hasan 'Kamil', etc. lived.
Despite the prevalence of bitter feelings about the Muslims in early
days, we have evidence to show that Muslims kings have been the patrons of
Hindu writers. Vācaspati Mishra composed the Chatrayogodbhūtadoshaśānti-
vidhih at the command of Sāha Bahādur.80 This Sāha Bahādur must have
been some Muslim ruler. Vidyāpati, whom we have seen a critic of Muslims in
his youth, dedicated a number of poems to Muslim kings. Amongst those
dedicated poems we are certain about two patrons. In one he pays tribute to
Mālik Bahāradīn and another to Sultān Ghiyathuddin.81 Dr. B.B. Majumdar
identifies the latter with the Bengal Sultan Ghiyathuddin Azam Shah.82
Nagendranath Gupta ascribed a few other poems of Vidyāpati as having been
dedicated to Sultans Hussain Shah and Nusrat Shah of Bengal and one Alam
Shah.83 Dr. Majumdar has expressed doubts about the identity of the Sultans
by Nagendranath Gupta. Dr. Majumdar identifies Nasrad Shah with Nusrat
78 Wise, James, The Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal, in JASB, 1894, Vol.63, pt.3, No.1,
pp.6,9. 79 Buchanan, Francis, op. cit., p.189. 80 Intro., p.XVII of Vāchaspati's Vivādaciniāmaṇi. 81 Mitra-Majumdar : Vidyāpati, Poem Nos. 2 and 225. 82 History of Bengal, (ed. J.N. Sarkar), Vol. II, p.117. 83 Gupta, N. op. cit., Poem Nos. 848 to Hussain Shah, 34 to Nusrat Shah, No. 44 to Nasira
Shah and 529 to 'Alam Shah.
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Khan Tughlaq, grandson of Firuz Tughlaq and Nasīra Shah with Sultan
Nasiruddin Mahmud of Bengal (1442-1459 A.D.).84 He also states that the
poem ascribed to Sultan Nasīra Shah in the Ragatarangini (p.97) was written
not by Vidyāpati but by Kaṃsanārāyana, a viruda of King Laksmināth.
Further, the Hindus had no hesitation in giving due respect to a Muslim King
and the Islamic religion. Letter No. 55 of the Likhanāvalī85 tells us that some
Hindus executing a sale deed of slaves, invoked the Great Sultan, who was
adorned with all titles and had received the boons and favours of the ḳḥodā or
the Almighty God (ḳḥodāya-vara-labdha-prasāda sakala-virudāvali-samalaṁ-
kṛta Maha-suratrāṇa Sāhi-praeāre).
The mystic attitude towards the Hindus was one of sympathetic
understanding. They fought against illiteracy and held aloft the Islamic
principles of equality and brotherhood. Conciliation and concord
between the various cultured groups was an urgent social necessity
and the mystics helped in the development of common cultural outlook.
The considerations of religion and caste were transcended by the
trade morality and guild spirit which determined the relation between
Hindu and Muslim working classes. Both Hindu and Muslim traders
were given freedom to carry on their business. According to Professor
Habib the acceptance of Islam by the city workers “was a decision of
the local professional groups, and that in making their decisions they
were naturally more concerned with mundane affairs and their position
in the social order than with abstract theological truths”.86 The Muslim
did not bring with them artisans, accountants and clerks, their buildings
84 Mitra-Majumdar, op. cit., pp.27-33. Prof. N.B. Ray rejects 1442 A.D. as the date of accession
of Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah and assigns his reign-period between 1437/1438-1459 A.D. (The Delhi Sultanate p.211). Prof. Radhakrishna Choudhary identities 'Alam Shah with saint Qutb 'Alam (History of Bihar 1958 p.148).
85 Likhanāvalī of Vidyāpati, ed. Indra Kant Jha, Patna, 1969, Letter No.55. 86 Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Vol.II, Introduction, p59.
110
were erected by Hindu who adopted their ancient rules to newer
conditions.
After the passing of political powers into the hands of the Muslims, the
Rājput feudal lords lost their sway. The lower order did not suffer on accounts
of economic position. The substitution of forced labour by the free labour had
a tremendous effect on the condition of the masses. Hindu money-lenders
advanced money to Muslim aristocracy. Social and economic forces brought
the two communities together. Political disturbances hardly disturbed the rural
pattern and peasant carried on their vocation fearlessly.
The non-Muslim society was composed of a heterogeneous mass of
people of differing degrees of culture and languages. Hence, Hinduism
presented a panorama of beliefs which extended from the profoundest faiths
of philosophy to the grossest form of superstition. The Muslim society, though
not so sharply divided, had higher and lower classes comprising of sharif
(ruling groups upper strata) and ajlap (the lowly and the mean). The contract
between the Hindus and the Muslims inevitably produced their effects and the
Hindu reformers sought to minimize the differences and bring them together.
The Sufis became interested in the principles of Hindu Philosophy and both
the Hindu and Muslim writer contributed equality to the development of Indian
languages. There was fusion in artistic style, painting and music. Bhakti and
Tasawwuf (mysticism) were the direct result of the contracts between the two
communities. The Muslims adopted many Hindu manners and customs. The
fusion, in the realm of art, is evident from the architecture of Jaunpur to which
Vidyāpati is an eye witness. The Jaunpur art is characterized by a happy
synthesis of Hindu and Muslim architectural ideals.87
During our period, social practices of the Muslims were largely
influenced by the Hindus. The Satya Pir was popular with the village folks of
87 Cf. Askari, S.H., Islam and Muslims in Medieval Bihar, 2nd edn., 1998, p.116.
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both the communities. In Bihar the mingling of the two communities seems to
have been more than in any other part. The Muslim thinkers of Bihar
addressed some non-Muslims as Thakkar (Thākura) and justified it on the
ground that the word meant Khudāwand.88 The Muslim saints of Bihar justified
the acceptance of charity given by non-Muslims and some of them even
justified the use of vermillion by Muslim women.89 Difference in the concept of
domestic life prevailed as we see that in both the societies, a distinct
preference to a male over female was given. The relation between the two
communities had been intimate as we shall see in subsequent chapter that in
the language there had been sufficient mixture. The use of large number of
Hindustani words, phrases, idioms and similes in the contemporary literature
shows the extent to which social contacts had developed. Even in the writing
of Jyotiriśvara, there is a scent of Persian influence interspersed here and
there. The Kīrttipatākā and the Likhnāvali also contain some vague
references about such contacts between these two people. Vidyāpati`s patron
Śivashima is said to have granted lands to Muslims saints and Faquirs. North
Bihar was an important centre of the Sufi saints. Vidyāpati, in his poems and
writing, has immortalized various Muslim chief and rulers of the time. In his
Puruṣa Parīkṣā, Vidyāpati has further given examples of the tolerance of
Hindu rulers towards the Muslims and the loyalties’ of Muslims towards their
Hindu masters. We shall see how a large number of Perso-Arabic words were
absorbed into the vernacular language of the land i.e., Maithili. That shows
that there was a regular contact between the two communities, Hindu and
Muslims of Mithilā.
88 Ibid. 89 Ibid.