Change and Continuity in Indian Sufism

460 Pages·2.958 MB·English

by  Thomas Dahnhardt

Thomas Dahnhardt (Ph.D.), a scholar D Islamic Heritage in Cross-Cultural Perspectives, no. 3 The common heritage of India is an
a
dedicated to exploring the contact h active concept expressing itself in the
Change and Continuity
n
between Islamic and Hindu spirituality myriad forms of integration of diverse
h
over centuries of their co-existence, is a cultures and traditions. Change and
r in
d
currently a research fellow at the Continuity in Indian Såfãsm explores this
t
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a common heritage through a study of
lecturer of Urdu literature and the the esoteric relationship between
Islamic civilisation on the Indian India's two major religious traditions,
subcontinent at Venice University. Hinduism and Islam as expressed in the
såfã tradition.
Dr. Thomas Dahnhardt focuses on the
evolution of the Indian lineage of the
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Naqshbandiyya, generally known as
h
the Mujaddidiyya, in Indian såfãsm as
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an example of the intense spiritual
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g symbiosis between the Hindu and
e Muslim communities. Based on a field

a study among the Hindu and Muslim
n representatives of the Naqshbandiyya
d
lineage, he presents a social and

C historical study of the Naqshbandiyya
o Mujaddidiyya, surveying the various
n
masters of the tradition and taking up
t
i specifically the establishment of a new
n
khànaqàh of the Mazhariyya branch of
u
i the Mujaddidiyyal in Old Delhi, one of
(Islamic Heritage in Cross-Cultural t
y the most important Naqshbandi centres
Perspectives, no. 3)

i of the tradition in the Indian
n
Second impression, 2007, xv, 447 p.;
subcontinent. The work goes in detail
Appendices; Glossary; Bibliography;
into the emergence, doctrines and
Indices; 23 cm.
methodology of the Hindu offshoot of
the Mujaddidiyya Mazhariyya along
with creation of regional sub-Hindu
branches.
The book would be useful to scholars of
ISBN 81-246-0170-4 (Hardbound) ISBN 812460170-4
inter-religious studies, Såfãsm and
Indian religious traditions as well as
general readers interested in the
Rs. 820
process of integration of traditions and
‘Sri Kunj’, F-52 Bali Nagar, Ramesh Nagar Metro Stn., NEW DELHI - 15
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Ph.: (+91-11) 2545 3975, 2546 6019; Fax: (+91-11) 2546 5926 Thomas Dahnhardt communities.
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Half Title Page i
Change and Continuity
in
Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
ii Change and Continuity in Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
Islamic Heritage in Cross-Cultural Perspectives, no. 3
Change and Continuity
in
Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
A Naqshbandi-Mujaddidª Branch in the Hindu
Environment
Thomas Dahnhardt
D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd.
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iv Change and Continuity in Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
Cataloging in Publication Data (cid:222) DK
Dahnhardt, Thomas, 1964 (cid:221)
Change and continuity in Indian s(cid:229)fªsm.
(Islamic heritage in cross-cultural
perspectives, no. 3).
Includes bibliographical references (p. )
1. Sufism (cid:222) India. 2. Naqshbandªyah
(cid:222) India. 3. Islam (cid:222) Relations (cid:222) Hinduism.
4. Hinduism (cid:222) Relations (cid:222) Islam. I. Title.
II. Islamic heritage in cross-cultural
perspectives, no. 3.
ISBN 81-246-0170-4
First published in India in 2002
© Author
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
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mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
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the publisher.
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D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd.
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Islamic Heritage in Cross-Cultural Perspectives v
Islamic Heritage in Cross-Cultural Perspectives
1. Gandhi’s Responses to Islam; by Sheila McDonough (ISBN
81-246-0035-X)
2. Faw(cid:224)’id al-Fu’(cid:224)d (cid:222) Spiritual and Literary Discourses of
Shaikh Ni(cid:253)(cid:224)muddªn Awliy(cid:224); Originally Compiled by Amªr
(cid:255)asan ‘Al(cid:224)’ Sijzª Dehlawª; English Translation with
Introduction and Historical Annotation by Ziya-ul-Hasan
Faruqi (ISBN 81-246-0042-2)
vi Change and Continuity in Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
Foreword vii
Foreword
I the 1970s, as a young Indologist, I dedicated myself to the
N
comparative study of some aspects of Hindu bhakti and Sufªsm.
For five years I spent the months of the monsoon along the banks
of the Yamun(cid:224), going to visit (cid:224)(cid:247)ramas of the sant tradition,
especially in Braj, and kh(cid:224)naq(cid:224)hs of Ci(cid:247)tª and Naqshbandª
derivation. I had the privilege of knowing and be close to the pªr
of the Naqshbandªyya, Shah Abul Hasan Zaid Faruqi, a fine
intellectual with also a surprising wealth of knowledge in yogic
and Ved(cid:224)ntic Hindu spirituality. During my stays in Delhi, I
used to visit the old sufª at dawn, and I still treasure a few
notebooks in which I wrote down the profound and wise teachings
he offered me during our conversations. He often told me that
some Hindu yogins, hailing from Uttar Pradesh and Bengal (?),
used to come in pilgrimage to the tomb of his predecessor Ma(cid:255)har
J(cid:224)n-ª-J(cid:224)n(cid:224)n, situated right in the courtyard of the kh(cid:224)naq(cid:224)h
where he lived, honouring it with the chanting of hymns and
sprinkling it with petals and water. Despite the profound tie
which united me to Shah Abul Hasan and which lasted till his
death, I never had the chance of meeting a Hindu devotee of the
great Ma(cid:255)har within the kh(cid:224)naq(cid:224)h. The pªr himself, who
remembered with prodigious memory the Mazhariyya
interpretation of ła(cid:239)kara’s Ved(cid:224)ntic doctrine, exhibited a curious
amnesia regarding the precise whereabouts of the Bengali and
U.P. yogins. None the less, destiny would subsequently bring me
in contact with this peculiar sant parampar(cid:224) quite a number of
times. Around the end of the 1980s, my dearest Indian friend,
Hazari Mull Banthia, an old Jain gentleman from Kanpur,
confided to me quite casually of the existence in his town of a
Hindu samprad(cid:224)ya following a sufª spiritual method. Few years
later, I was drawn to a study of some stanzas in the Mah(cid:224)bh(cid:224)rata,
viii Change and Continuity in Indian S(cid:229)fªsm
a research which led me to embark on an archaeological
campaign of excavation in the Farrukhabad District. I thus
discovered that I was treading along the pilgrimage paths leading
to the funeral monuments of Maulana Fadl Ahmad Khan and
Sri Ramchandrji Fatehgarhi. But I had the most welcome
surprise when Dr. Thomas Dahnhardt (cid:222) now my colleague but
in those days one among my most brilliant students (cid:222) came to
visit me informing me that during one of his sojourns in India
he had met with Shah Abul Hasan Sahab. With him he had
discussed at length about those yogins who followed the
Naqshbandª method. Having gone to Kanpur, he was then able
to identify their milieu and to become quite close with them. In
fact, the young researcher had come to see me precisely to propose
this topic as the subject of his research. It looked as if an invisible
hand had been guiding his steps: indeed he was in no way aware
of the antecedents, since on the matter I had been as discreet as
Shah Abul Hasan. The research of Dr. Dahnhardt continued in
India as well as in Europe, especially in Venice, London, and
Oxford, through meetings with the living protagonists and via
the analysis of the fundamental texts of both traditions, i.e., the
sufª and the yogic. In this way, an important spiritual patrimony
of India has been salvaged, which illustrates the intimate identity
of vision on ultimate truths between a (cid:255)indu environment and
a Muslim one. And this ultimately proves how love and knowledge
lead to union, whereas, on the contrary, separation leads humans
to reciprocal hate and ignorance. In the (cid:224)(cid:247)ramas of Purª, Kanpur,
and Mathur(cid:224) as well as in the kh(cid:224)naq(cid:224)hs of Delhi, Sirhind, and
Quetta that synthesis which in vain Mogul emperors sought has
truly been achieved.
This book and his author have the merit of unearthing for
the benefit of scholars an important component of Indian culture,
which uptil now has remained practically unknown. This book
and his author have also the merit of opening up a spiritual
treasure which chronicles, politics, and ideology utterly ignore.
Venice, 20 March 2002 Gian Giuseppe Filippi
Preface ix
Preface
T present study consists of an attempt to delineate the meeting
HE
of two different esoteric currents in a cross-cultural encounter
between Islam and Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent from
the second half of the last century down to the present. Against
the background of the millenary co-habitation of these two major
world-religions in that part of the world, it describes the
particular outer and inner circumstances that made such an
encounter possible, trying, moreover, to focus on the spiritual
history of the traditions involved. Based largely on the data
collected during an eight-month field research conducted in 1995-
6 among the Muslim and Hindu representatives of the Indian
lineage of the Naqshbandiyya generally known as the
Mujaddidiyya, the book seeks to highlight through a concrete
example the possibility of an intense spiritual symbiosis between
India’s two main communities that contrasts sharply with the
widespread idea of prevalent social and religious tension.
After ascertaining the social and historical background of
the cultural components involved, viz. a lineage of the
Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya on one side and the contemporary
heritage of the sant-tradition on the other, and furnishing a
biology of single members of this peculiar initiatory chain, the
research concentrates on the theoretical elaborations which, from
a doctrinal point of view, stand at the base of the synthesis
operated by the figures directly taking part in this process.
Special attention is given to the possible parallels traceable in
the symbols and metaphors traditionally employed by the
respective perspectives of Sufism and Yoga in formulating their
cosmogonical and metaphysical theories. This predominantly
gnostic point of view is then integrated by a description of the