Kārtik: Kārtik (kārtika, Skt.; kātik, Hind.) is the month sacred to Viu, and corresponds to October–November. It was the traditional time of departure for husbands and lovers going on trading or martial expeditions or on ascetic pilgrimages. The ‘festival of lights’ referred to is the holiday of Dīvālī or Dīpāvalī, which is dedicated to Lakmī, the goddess of wealth. Dīvālī is celebrated with the lighting of many lamps and the giving of presents.
Aghan: the month of Aghan (āgrahāyaa, Skt.) begins the season of winter (hemanta) and corresponds to November–December.
Pūs: the month of Pūs (paua, Skt.) is the equivalent to December-January, and is a very cold time in north India.
Māgh: Māgh (māgha, Skt.) corresponds to January–February, and is the month of winter, the cold season (śiśira, Skt.).
Phāgun: Phāgun (phālguna, Skt.) heralds the beginning of spring and corresponds to February–March. The spring festival of Holī falls during the ten days prior to the day of the full moon in Phāgun. One of the most widely and exuberantly celebrated holidays in India, Holī is characterized by the singing of ribald songs and the throwing of coloured water and powder. A bonfire is always kindled in each village and a doll-like effigy of Prahlāda’s stepmother Holikā is burnt (see note to p. 75 above). Normally strict social distinctions are overturned and everyone joins equally in teasing, chasing, and splashing each other with coloured water.
Caita: Caita (caitra, Skt.) is the first month of spring (basanta) and corresponds to March–April. The land grows green again in this month and it is thought of as the romantic season.
Baisākh: Baisakh (vaiśākha, Skt.) corresponds to April-May, and is a verdant and colourful season in north India, but the heat of summer is beginning to build.
Jeh: Jeh (jyeha, Skt.) May-June is the height of summer (grīma, Skt.), and is the hottest month of the year. Traditionally it is also the favoured month for weddings.
my lord: here the poet uses the word sāī (
Asāh: Asāh (āāha, Skt.) falls in June–July, and is the ‘month of clouds’, as it is the beginning of the monsoon. It is thus considered a month of return and reunion, as husbands who had been travelling would try to return home before the rains began. The image of a woman watching the approaching dark clouds while waiting anxiously for her husband’s return is frequently evoked in Indian literature.
life: another allegorical reference to the divine spirit. The word used by the poet is jīva.
Every concern fled … anxious for you: a reference to tark-e duniyā, the Sufi value of giving up the world for the sake of the beloved.
patchwork cloak: a reference to the dalq-i muraqqa‘ or patched cloak of the Sufis, the rough garment signifying their status as travelling mystics.
Gorakh’s path: here, as elsewhere, a reference to asceticism in general rather than specifically to the path of the Nāth yogis. The usage is characteristic of the poet’s strategy of using vernacular imagery to approximate Persianate Sufi ideas, emptying the desā word of its specificity and employing it to signify a notion in Sufi ideology.
syces: a syce (sais, Hind., originally from Arabic, sā’is,‘groom’, a loanword from Syriac sausī, meaning ‘to coax’) is a common Indian term for a groom or ostler.
like the full moon of Caita … Viśākhā, Anurādhā, Jyehā: a reference to the moon of the spring month of Caita, when everything begins to turn green again. For a description of Caita, see verse 410 above. Viśākhā, Anurādhā, and Jyehā are the names of lunar aster-isms through which the moon travels in this month.
Queen’s palace, where all the women were staying: reference is here made to the ranivāsa or women’s quarters that were a characteristic part of royal palaces in India.
Anurādhā: a constellation considered particularly auspicious. See also note to p. 181 above.
orange: the word used is kusumbhī, bastard saffron or safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, from the flower of which a red or orange dye is made.
unguent: here the poet uses the word uban, a fragrant paste made of gram flour or barley meal that softens and cleans the skin before the application of cosmetics. See also note to p. 27 above.
white kite: the ‘white kite’ or black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus; kapāssi, Hind.) is a dainty grey and white hawk with black patches on its wings. The sight of it is thought to bestow good luck.
Āratī: a common religious ritual of circling a tray of lamps clockwise in front of an object to be worshipped.
The Secret of Love: the following passage plays charmingly on the mystery to which the seeker has to awaken, namely the identity of being between lover and beloved and their coincidence as subject and object of desire within the human being. At all costs, the mystic must not disclose this secret publicly.
Manūr: usain bin Manūr al-Hallāj was a Sufi mystic hanged for blasphemy AD 26 March 922. He publicly proclaimed the words anal-haqq or ‘I am the Truth’, which is one of the names of God. al-Hallāj was ‘… a man who deeply influenced the development of Islamic mysticism and whose name became, in the course of time, a symbol for both suffering love and unitive experience, but also for a lover’s greatest sin: to divulge the secret of his love’ (Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), p. 64).
dhamār: see note to p. 101 above.
nilgai: the nilgai (Bosephalus tragocamelus) is a wild antelope-like creature, 130–40 centimetres tall, with a tawny or grey coat, a dark mane, and short horns among the males of the species. It is found only in the Indian subcontinent, ranging from the Himalayas to the southern elevations of Mysore.
The psychic channels … in his body: the psychic channels of the moon (iā) and the sun (pigalā) are nerve conduits that flow from the nose to the base of the spine. A balance between their masculine (pigalā) and feminine (iā) energies is necessary for good health. See also note to p. 36 above.
bimba fruits: see note to p. 37 above.
five nectars: pañcāmta, a mixture of milk, curds, ghee, honey, and sugar, served to the bridegroom and guests as a special food at the wedding.
betel leaves: betel leaves are chewed after eating as a digestive aid. See note to p. 23 above.
The marriage knot … seven times: this is a reference to the saptapadī (lit. ‘seven steps’), a marriage ritual in which the bride and groom go seven steps around a sacred fire with the ends of their garments tied together. This is a symbol of their future co-operation in married life.
between the lovely lily and the moon: this is a reference to a kind of water-lily or night-lotus which closes during the day and opens at night. It is thus believed to be in love with the moon as it opens only to see its beauty. See also note to p. 127 above.
Canopus: a bright star in the southern constellation of Argo navis, particularly noticeable in the cool autumnal nights of Kuvār.
The Rite of Departure: the following section uses the gavanā or gaunā, the child-bride’s departure to her husband’s house after the consummation of the marriage, to present an allegory of the soul’s departure for the heavenly kingdom of the beloved. The idea is commonly found in Indian Sufi poetry, which often celebrates the death-anniversary of a Shaikh as his nuptials (‘urs) with the divine lover. The mystic is depicted as a woman longing for the husband’s house, to which he has gone after death. It will be noted that here the poet makes the married Madhumālatī subject to her lord’s wish, rather than the divine maiden who was the object of his quest.
You must serve your lords wholeheartedly: this verse and the following verses employ a cunning extended reference to the mastery of God through the mothers’ presentation of advice to the new brides: of serving the husband, and by implication, God. In Sufi terms, God is like the master of the house into which the novice goes like a new bride. The image is carried through several parts: the husband is like the Lord, he must be served like God, he takes the bride/t
he soul to a paradise-like realm where He is the master (the foreign land which is mentioned repeatedly in the text).
She had given up all illusory attachments: here the poet makes clear that the new marital home is an implied reference to heaven, the true home of the soul which has been sent into this world, and now leaves it as the bride of God. All her attachments to her natal home are illusory, and must be abandoned if she is to attain eternal happiness.
Vibhīaa left Lakā … untroubled by what might happen: this is a reference to the incident in the Rāmāyaa concerning Vibhīaa, who was the younger brother of the demon-king Rāvaa. When Rāvaa kidnapped Sītā, Vibhīaa advised Rāvaa to return her and beg forgiveness from Rāma. Rāvaa was furious with Vibhīaa and expelled him from Lakā. Vibhīaa became an ally of Rāma and told him all of Rāvaa’s military secrets. When Rāma won the battle and killed Rāvaa, he crowned Vibhīaa the king of Lakā.
took hold of their ears humbly: holding the ears with both hands is an Indian gesture of humility and remorse.
yojanas: a yojana is a traditional Indian measure of distance, equal to eight miles.
who has died himself before his death: this entire verse plays with the immortality of love despite the perishability of the human body. In this first couplet, dying before death refers to fanā, the annihilation of the carnal soul that is necessary if the seeker is to meet the divine beloved.
one’s body becomes immortal: death itself is celebrated as the fruit of life, for although formless, it allows humans to live on through love.
The elixir of immortality … wherever it is found: the text for this line of the final couplet is not very clear, as the poet uses so hānva or ‘the place’ but does not clarify the poetic reference any further. In context, we have taken it to mean the place where immortality abounds and is therefore, by extension, the sanctuary of love.
1 For excellent balanced introductory expositions of Sufism and the Orders, see Annemarie Schimrnel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), and C. W. Ernst, Sufism (Boston and London: Shambhala Books, 1997).
2 For further details about the silsilah, see below, Section II.
* This come from F. Steingass, Persian Dictionary.
3 See, inter alia, ‘Abbās Khān Sarvānī, Tārīkh-i Śer Śahī, tr. B. P. Ambasthya (Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1974), Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, History of Sher Shāh Sūr (Aligarh: Dwadash Shreni and Company Private Limited, 1971) and Dirk H. A. Kolfi, ‘Naukar’, Rajput, and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market in Hindustan, 1450–1850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
4 Cited and translated by S. H. Askari, ‘Historical Value of Afsana Badshahan or Tarikh Afghani’, Journal of Indian History 43 (1965). 194 (translation slightly emended). The Persian text with a modern Hindi translation is also given in P. L. Gupta, Kutubana Kta Miragāvatī (Benares: Viśvavidyālaya Prakāsán, 1967), 39.
5 Sheldon Pollock, ‘The Cosmopolitan Vernacular,’ Journal of Asian Studies, 57/1 (1998).
6 The standard account of Amīr Khusrau remains Muhammad Wahid Mirza, The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau (1935; repr. Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1974).
7 Based on a single manuscript in the Sprenger collection in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek and recently edited by Gopi Chand Narang as Amīr Khusrau kā Hindavī Kalām, m Nuskhah-yi Berlin Zakhīrah-yi Sprenger (Chicago: Amir Khusrau Society of America, 1987).
8 For an analysis and detailed account of the rivalry, see Simon Digby, ‘Tabarrukāt and Succession among the great Chishti Shaikhs’, in R. E. Frykenberg (ed.), Delhi Through the Ages (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986), 77–89.
9 See Section III below.
10 For examples of these, as well as a sound discussion of the meanings and literary place of the bārahmāsā, see Charlotte Vaudeville, Bārahmāsā in Indian Literature: Songs of the Twelve Months in Indo-Aryan Literatures (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986).
11 Translated in J. L. Masson and M. V. Patwardhan, Aesthetic Rapture: The Rasāidhyāya of the Nātya-Sāistra (Poona: Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, 19)70), i. 46. For a succinct and clear account of Bharata’s theory, see David L. Haberman, Acting as a Way of Salvation: A Study of Rāganugā Bhakti Sāhana (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 13–16.
12 S. A. A. Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983), ii. 155 n. 2.
13 For summary accounts of these texts, see R. S. McGregor, HindiLiterature from its Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984), 26–8, 65–73.
14 R. S. McGregor, Hindi Literature from its Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century, 150–4.
15 Peter Gaeffke, ‘Alexander in Avadhī and Dakkinī Mathnawīs’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 109 (1989), 528.
16 See Farīd ud-dīn ‘Attār, The Conference of the Birds, tr. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984), and James Winston Morris, ‘Reading The Conference of the Birds’, in Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom (eds.), Approaches to the Asian Classics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 77–85.
17 We have used the India Office Library manuscript of the Jawahir-i Khamsah, Ethé MS 1875, in preparing this summary account of practice.
18 A detailed account of this practice, as well as an extensive table containing all the stations and all their corresponding elements, is given in Thomas Hughes, ‘Da‘wah’, in Dictionary of Islam (1885; repr. Calcutta: Rupa, 1988), 72–8. For more details about magical practices, see Ja‘far Sharīf, G. A. Herklots, and William Crooke, Islam in India or the Qānūn-i Islām: The Customs of the Musalmāns of India (1921; repr. New Delhi: Oriental Books, 1972), 218–77. For a review of the scholarship on Indo-Muslim esoteric practices, see Marc Gaborieau, ‘L’Ésotérisme musulman dans le sous-continent indo-pakistanais: un point de vue ethnologique’, Bulletin d’Études Orientales, 44 (1992), 191–209.
19 For a detailed study of this text, see Carl Ernst’s translation and introduction to the text, in The Arabic Version of ‘The Pool of the Water of Life’ (Amtakua) (forthcoming), as well as Yusuf Husain, ‘Haud al-Hayat: La Version arabe de l’Amratkund’, Journal Asiatique, 113 (1928), 291–344. For a listing of the numerous manuscript versions of the Persian and Arabic versions of the text, see Richard M. Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 78 n. 23.
20 Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, ii. 151–2.
21 Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, ii. 160.
22 For a concise definition of the Persian manavī, a heroic, historical, didactic, or romantic poem composed in rhyming couplets (aa, bb, cc, etc.), see Jan Rypka et al., History of Iranian Literature (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1969), 98 et passim. For an example of the genre translated into English with a good introductory discussion, see Niāmī, Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance, tr. Julie Scott Meisami (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
23 For more details about Khizr Khān Turk, see Iqtidar Husain Siddiqui, History of Sher Shāu h Sūr, 107.
24 See Charlotte Vaudeville, A Weaver Named Kabir (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993), 115.
25 See, for instance, Niāmī, Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance, tr. J. S. Meisami, 22–3.
26 Richard F. Burton (tr.), A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, Now Entitled the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (Benares = Stoke Newington or London: Kama Shastra Society, 1885–6), iii. 212–348, iv. 1–29.
27 See David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 113.
28 See, for instance, Muhyi’ddín Ibn al-‘Arabí, The Tarjumán al-Ashwáq: A Collection of Mystical Odes, tr. R. A. Nicholson (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1911), 20, 72–3.
29 J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘Introduction’, in his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Orfeo (Londo
n: Unwin Paperbacks, 1975), 6–7.
30 The sophisticated and brilliant magnum opus that best systematizes the dhvani theory is the Dhvanyāloka (‘Light on Dhvani’) of Ānandavardhana along with the commentary of Abhinavagupta, the Locana or ‘Eye’. For these texts, see The Dhvanyāloka of Śrī Ānandavardhanāchārya with the Lochana Sanskrit Commentary of Śri Ābhinavagupta, ed. with a Hindi trans. by Jagannāth Pāhak (Benares: Chowkhamba Vidyabhawan, 1965). Both texts have been translated into English by D. H. H. Ingalls, J. M. Masson, and M. V. Patwardhan as The Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990).
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