Society, Culture & Economy (13th - 14th Centuries)

Answer : The Islami mysticism known as Tasawwuf or Sufism, was as old as Islam itself, and it was, no doubt ‘born in the bosom of Islam’. It assumed the form of a regular movement in Persia in the ninth century as a reaction against the rigid formalism of Islam. It received a theosophical basis during the age the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad and the sufi saints drew freely from the mystic concepts of other peoples and religions, including Chvistianity,

Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The Arab philosopher Al Ghazali (c.1057-1112 A.D.) provided a metaphysical basis to mysticism as a part and parcel of the Islamic theology.

The Sufis were the peaceful emissaries of Islam. They dedicated their lives to the service of mankind and the spread of the Islami faith. The propagation of Islam was regarded by them as the greatest and the most meritorious service to the people. The sufis migrated to the far-off countries and lived in the midst of the non-muslims, called Kafirs; where they carried on the work of proselylisation through peaceful means. Sufis came to India after the Arab conquest of Sind.

Sufism was based on the monistic philosophy which is the first fundamental principle of Islam. Nevertheless, the sufis, like the Indian mystics or exponents of the bhakti cult, adopted their own line of thought and philosophic speculations in visualising the Absolute Reality and the relationship between Him and His creation. The monistic philosophy was based on the theory of ‘wahadat ul wajud’ or the unity of Being. This was in conformity with the Vedanta philosophy of absolute monotheism. The sufis practised austerities and laid stress on complete surrender to the will of God, renounced the materialistic pursuits of the world.

The Sufis were divided into a number of sects, called silsilas or orders. These are broadly divided into two - Ba-Shara, that is those which followed the Islamic law (Shara) and Be-Shara, that is, those which were not bound by it. Of the ‘Ba-Shara’ movements, only two acquired significant influence during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Chisti and Suharwadi.Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti established Chisti Silsilah. The most well-known saints of the Sunarwardi Silsilahwere Shaikh Jhihabuddin Suharwardi and Hamid-ud-Din Nagori. The Sufi movement effected the Hindu religion to some extent. It enhanced the religious tolerance. It gane rise to the Sufi literature also.

Answer : Nirguna bhakti is the devotion towards a formless, all-encompassing God. The word ‘nirgun’ means ‘devoid of qualities,’ referring to the lack of physical attributes in God. It is one of the two forms of devotion prevalent in Hinduism, the other one being Sagun Bhakti which sees God in a physical form. A prominent preacher of Nirgun Bhakti was Saint Kabir, one of the pioneers of the Bhakti movement. The origin of this dogrine has been traced to both the Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions of ancient India and to variolis scriptures such as the Gita. But it was for the first time in South India between the seventh and tenth century that bhakti grew from a mere religious doctrine into a popular movement based on religious equality and broad-based social participation. The establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in early thirteenth century witnessed great outburst of inany diverse and widespread socio-religious movements in various parts of the country drawing upon the concepts of bhakti.

There arose during the Sultanate period (13th-15th century) many popular socio-religious movements in North and East India, and Maharashtra. Emphasis on bhakti and religious equality were two common features of these movements: As has been pointed oat, these two were also the features of the South Indian bhaliti movements. There are undoubtedly striking similarities between the older bhakti tradition of South India and various bhakti-movements that flcprished in the Sultanate and Mughal periods. If we exclude the popular monotheistic movements of Kabir, Nanak and other ‘low” caste saints, the two sets of movements can be shown to have possessed many more common features. The bhakti movements of medieval India differed in many significant respects not only from the older South Indian bhakti tradition hut also among themselves. Each one of them had its own regional identity ahd socio-historical drfd cultural contexts. Thus, the non-confirmist movements based on popular monotheistic bhakti cdntained features that were essentially different from various Vaishnava bhakti movements, Kabir’s notion of bhakti was not the same as that of the medieval vaishnavm saints such as Chaitanya or Mirabai. Among all the bhakti movements of the period between the 14th and 17th century, the popular monotheistic movements of Kabir, Nanak, Raidas and other “lower” caste saints stand out fundamentally different.

The bhakti movement which influenced large number of people during 14th-17th centuries in North India emerged due to a number of political, socio-economic and; religious factors. It has been pointed out that as the popular bhakti movementcould not take root in Northern India befote the Turkish conquest because the socio-religious milieu.was dominated by the Rajput-Brahman alliance which was hostile to any heterodox movement. The Tutkisli conquests brought the supremacy of this alliance to an end. The advent of Islam with the Turkish conquest also caused a setback to the power and prestige commilhded by the Brahmans:

Thus, the way was paved for the growth of non-conformist movements, with anti-caste and anti-Brahmanical ideology. The Brahmans had always made the people believe that the images and idols in the temples were not just the symbols of God but were gods themselves who possessed divine power and who could be influenced by them (i.e. the Brahmans). The Turks deprived the Brahnlans of their temple wealth and state patronage. Thus the Brahmans suffered toth materially and ideologically.

The non-conformist sect of the nathpanthis was pethaps the first to gain from the declining power of the Rajput-Brahman alliance. This sect seems to have reached its peak in the beginning of the Sultanate period. The loss of power and influence by theBrahmans and the new political situation ultimately created conditions for the rise of the popular monotheistic movements and other bhakti movements in Northern India.

Moreover it has also been argued that the bhakti movements of medieval India represented sentiments of the common people against febdal oppression. According to this viewpoint, elements of revolutionary opposition to feudalism can be found in the poetry of the bhakti saints ranglng from Kabir and Nanak to Chaitanya and Tulsidas.Saints did not advocate for the overthrow of the ruling class.This, however, does not mean that the bhakti saints were indifferent to the living canditions of the people. They used images of daily life and always tried to identify themselves in one way or another with the sufferings of the common people.

The widespread popularity of the monotheistic movement of Kabir, Nanak, etc. can be explained fully only in the context of certain significant socio-economic changes in the period following the Turkish conquest of Northern India. The Turkish ruling class, unlike the Rajputs, lived in towns. The extraction of large agricultural surplus led to enormous concentration of resources in the hands of the ruling class. The demands of this resource-wielding class for manufactured goods, luxuries and other necessaries led to the introduction of many new techniques and crafts on a large scale. This, in turn, led to the expansion of the class of urban artisans in the 10th and 14th centuries.

The growing classes of urban artisans were attracted towards the monotheistic movement because of its egalitarian ideas as they were now not satisfied with the low status accorded to them in traditional Btahmanical hierarchy. It has been pointed out that some groups of traders like the Khatris in the Punjab, who benefited directly from the growth of towns, urban crafts protluction and expansion of markets, were also drawn into the movement for the same reason. The popularity of the monotheistic movement was the result of the support it obtained from one or more of these different classes of the society. The support extended by the Jats of the Punjab to Guru Nanak’s movement ultimately contributed to the development of Sikhism as a mass religion.

Monotheistic Movements of North India: Kabir was the earliest and undoubtedly the most powerful fibre of the monotheistic movements that began in the fifteenth century. He belonged to a family of weavers (Julaha who were indigenous converts to 1slam, spent greater part of his life in Banaras (Kashi). The monotheistic saints who succeeded him either claimed to be his disciples or respectfully mention him. His verses were included in the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth in large numbers than those of other monotheists. All this indicate his pre-eminent position among the monotheists.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) preached his ideas much in the same way as Kabir and Century other monotheists, but due to various developments later his teachings led to the emergence of a new religion, Sikhism. The basic similarity of his teachings with those of Kabir and other saints and the basic ideological agreement between them makes him an integral part of the monotheistic movement. He belonged to a caste of traders called and was born in a village in Punjab now known as Nankana Sahib. In his later life he travelled widely to preach his ideas. The teachings of all the saints who are associated with the monotheistic movement have certain’commqp features.

The monotheits followed a path which was independent of both dominant religions of the time-Hinduism and Islam. They denied their allegiance to either of themland criticised the superstitions and orthodox elements ofboth the religions. They launched a vigorous ideological assault on caste system and idolatry. They rejected the authority of the Brahmans and their religious scriptures. Kabir, in his harsh and abrasive style uses ridicule as a powerful method for debouncing orthodox Brahmanism. The monotheists composed their poems in popular languages. Some of them used a language which was a mixture of different dialects spoken in various parts of North India.

The monotheistic saints preferred this common language to their own native dialects because they considered it fit for the propagation of their non-conformist ideas among the masses in various regions. The use common language is a striking feature of the movement considering that these saints belonged to different parts of North India and spoke different dialects. The monotheists also made use of popular symbols and images to propagate their teachings. Their utterances are expressed in short verses which could be easily remembered. Thus, for instance, Kabir’s poetry is unpolished and has a rustic, colloquial quality but it is essentially poetry of the people.

Answer : The Islami mysticism known as Tasawwuf or Sufism, was as old as Islam itself, and it was, no doubt ‘born in the bosom of Islam’. It assumed the form of a regular movement in Persia in the ninth century as a reaction against the rigid formalism of Islam. It received a theosophical basis during the age the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad and the sufi saints drew freely from the mystic concepts of other peoples and religions, including Chvistianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The Arab philosopher Al Ghazali (c.1057-1112 A.D.) provided a metaphysical basis to mysticism as a part and parcel of the Islamic theology.

The Sufis were the peaceful emissaries of Islam. They dedicated their lives to the service of mankind and the spread of the Islami faith. The propagation of Islam was regarded by them as the greatest and the most meritorious service to the people. The sufis migrated to the far-off countries and lived in the midst of the non-muslims, called Kafirs; where they carried on the work of proselylisation through peaceful means. Sufis came to India after the Arab conquest of Sind.

Sufism was based on the monistic philosophy which is the first fundamental principle of Islam. Nevertheless, the sufis, like the Indian mystics or exponents of the bhakti cult, adopted their own line of thought and philosophic speculations in visualising the Absolute Reality and the relationship between Him and His creation. The monistic philosophy was based on the theory of ‘wahadat ul wajud’ or the unity of Being. This was in conformity with the Vedanta philosophy of absolute monotheism. The sufis practised austerities and laid stress on complete surrender to the will of God, renounced the materialistic pursuits of the world.

The Sufis were divided into a number of sects, called silsilas or orders. These are broadly divided into two - Ba-Shara, that is those which followed the Islamic law (Shara) and Be-Shara, that is, those which were not bound by it. Of the ‘Ba-Shara’ movements, only two acquired significant influence during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Chisti and Suharwadi. Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti established Chisti Silsilah. The most well-known saints of the Sunarwardi Silsilah were Shaikh Jhihabuddin Suharwardi and Hamid-ud-Din Nagori. The Sufi movement effected the Hindu religion to some extent. It enhanced the religious tolerance. It gane rise to the Sufi literature also.

Answer : Sufi and Bhakti movements were monistic movements. The term ‘mystic’ means a person who attains or believes in the possibility of attaining insight into mysteries transcending ordinary human knowledge in a state of spiritual ecstasy. Both the sufi and Bhakti movements stressed mystical union of the individual with God. They laid great emphasis on love as the bond between the God and the individual. Most of them were persons of deep devotion who were disgusted by the vulgar display of wealth and degeneration of morals.

It was these beliefs and the missionary zeal which made them popular among the common men. To make their teachings more accessible to the people, they discarded the use of traditional languages-Sanskrit, Arabic & Persian and favoured local languages, the language ofthe common people like Hindi, Bangali Marathi and Sindhi etc.

During these period, literary works of high quality were produced in many regional languages. The Nath Panthi siddhas had used the “correct languages” (apabhramsha) as also local languages for their works in preference to Sanskrit. Amir Khusro, a disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya, had noted the existence of regional languages. He says that these languages have from ancient times applied in every way to the common purposes of life.

The rise to the maturity of many of these languagesand their use as means for literary works may be considered a striking feature of the medieval India. With the loss of prestige by the brahmans, Sanskrit also lost some of its protege. The use of the common language by the Bhakti saints was, undoubtedly, an important factor in the rise of these languages. In fact, in many parts of the country, the early saints fashioned these languages for literary purposes. In eastern Uttar Pradesh sufi saints, such as Mulla Daud, the author of ‘Chandayan’, Malik Muhammad Jaisi, the author of ‘Padamavati’ wrote in Hindi and put forward sufi concepts in a form which could be easily understood by the common man. They popularised many persian forms, such as the masnavi.

Many urdu works appear in the works of Amir Khusro. He made a liberal use of Hindi words in his works, particularly in his couplets. Amir Khusro called the language used by him, Hindawi or Dehlavi. He composed ghazals in mixed language with alternate hemistiches in persian and Hindi, which went a long way in the development of the Urdu language. The fashion of writing mixed poetry was followed by other scholars too.

The Sufi and Bhakti saints played an important part in the evolution of the Urdu language. The Sufis realised that it was futile to preach Islam through persian, which was not understood by the Indian masses. So, these saints made use of large number of Hindavi words in their conversation with their disciples and common people. In Gujarat the credit of popularsing Hindavi language goes to Shaikh Qutb Alam and Shaikh Ahmad Khattu. The oldest writer in this tradition was the famous Sufi saint Sayyid Muhammad, better known as Gesudaraz. Like Sufi saints Bhakti saints also made use of this language in preference to Sanskrit, because it could easily be followed by the common people.

A feature common to all the Bhakti saints was that they composed their verses in the language best understood by the people whom they taught. This led to an interest not only in Bhakti literature but also in translations of some of the earlier scriptures previously available only in Sanskrit and as such inaccessible to the majority of people. The themes of the new literature were often of common interest to more than one region, and literary innovation travelled quickly and widely throughout India.

Amongst the eastern group of languages. Bengali was used by Chaitanya and by the poet Chandidas, who wrote extensively on the theme of the love of Radha and Krishna. Ballads on events of contemporary interest composed by wandering ministress were equally popular. It was also a Bhakti leader Shankaradeva, who popularized the use of Assamese in the Brahmaputra valley in the 15th century. He used an entirely new medium to spread his ideas. He wrote a number of short one-act plays, of the nature of morality plays, incorporating themes from the Puranas.

The Jagannath temple at Puri has a collection of manuscripts which date from the twelth century and language of these contains elements of what was cater to develop as oriya, the language of the region. Chaitanya spent his last year at Puri and encouraged his followers to use Oriya in preference to Sanskrit. The development of Maithili, spoken in the region of modern Bihar, was also associated with Vaishnava and Bhakti literature.

Marathi reached its apogee at the hands of Eknath and Tukaram. Asserting the importance of Marathi, Eknath exclaims. “If Sanskrit was made by God, was Prakrit born thieves and knaves? God is no partisan of tongues”. This undoubtedly expresses the sentiments of all those writing in local languages. It also shows the confidence and status carried by these languages. Due to the writings of the Sikh Gurus, Panjabi received a new life.

Hindi was languages spoken in the region around Delhi, and modern Uttar Pradesh. It first developed with the historical epics composed by local bards at the courts of the Rajput kings - Prithviraja -raso, Vishaladeva- raso etc. Later it was used by the Bhakti movement. Kabir, Nanak, Surdas and Mirabai, gave it an important status. Amir Khusro also used it in his poetry.

The saints of Sufi and Bhakti movements infused vernacular languages with the ideas of equality, liberty, freedom of choice of worship and the importance of being a human, an individual. This influenced life and thought of the people immensely. In the khanqahs (hospices) of Sufi saints everybody was treated equally without the distinction of the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the illiterate, man and woman, villagers and town fold. In fact all the visitors met and rubbed there shoulder together, leaving all class destinations outside the gate of Khanqah.

The Sufi saints mingled freely with people of the lower classes, including the Hindus. They led on austere, simple life and conversed with people in their dialect. It is well known that the religious ideas and policies of Akbar, reflected in a remarkable manner the fundamental teachings of Sufi and Bhakti saints. The approach of these saints was broadly humanistic. They emphasised the broad human sentiments- the sentiments of love and beauty in all their forms.

Answer : Among the great poets of Persin, the name of Amir Khusro deserves a special mention. Amir Khusro was the greatest poet of his time who lived a long life and occupied the high position of poet-laureate under the Khiljis and the Tughlaqs. He wrote a number of works which are read with great interest even up to this day. He was also a great prose-writer, a musician of merit and a scholar of Hindi. He is still known as 'Tuti-i-Hind' or 'Parrot of India' because of his great musical qualities.

Answer : The principles of Sufism resemble very much with those of the Bhakti cult and it appears as if the Vedantic philosophy had greatly affected it. Like the Vedantic philosophy Sufism laid emphasis on the principle that individual souls are mainfestations of the Supreme Soul in which they are finally immersed. Free way of thinking is a great blessing and is very necessary for the spiritual advancement. The Sufi Saints believed and preached that the diverse creeds were only the mainfestations of the desire to know the truth and laid stress upon the spirit underlying all religious rather than upon the forms in which they are clothed. The sufi doctrine marked a rebellion against the letter of the law and its exponents urged free thought as the primary condition of the spiritual attainment. Sufism played a great part in promoting the feeling of toleration among the Muslims. It greatly encouraged the feeling of Hindu-Muslim unity. It led to the popualrity of the Bhakti movement because many principles of sufism were similar to those of the Bhakti cult. It had a great liberalising effect on the state policy of many Indian rulers. It was under the influence of Sufism that many Indian rulers like Sher Shah Suri and Akbar gave up much of their orthodoxy and began to treat all their subjects alike. The Hindu began to venerate the Muslim saints and the Muslims on their part began to show respect to the Hindu Gods.