The Bujh Niranjan - Indo-Ismaili mystical poem

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TH



THE BOJH NlR NJ N

N ISM ILI MYSTIC L POEM



THE BDJH

NlR NJ N

N ISM ILl MYSTIC L POEM

Ali S Asani

with a foreword y

Annemarie Schimmel

Publication of

Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies

1991



Copyright © 1991 Ali Sultaan Ali Asani

ISBN 0 93288508x

Library

of

Congress Catalog

ard Number

91 076914

Printed

by the Office

of

the University Publisher

Harvard University

Cover design by:

Nita

Padamsee



o y patron and

y

family

and in memoriam

l s ~ Lichtenstadter 1901-1991)



Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Author s Note

CONTENTS

Note on Transliteration Scheme

INTRODUCTION

Notes

PART ONE

xi

xiii

xv

xvii

xix

3

12

1 TH

AUTHORSHIP

OF TH

BOJH NIRANJAN 19

Background 19

The Ismaili Origin of the

Bujb Niraiijan

Reconsidered 24

Internal Evidence of Authorship

24

The Multan Manuscript and

Bijapur Fragments 29

The Alleged Rivalry between the

QadirI Order and the Ismailis 31

The Sufi Origin of the Bujb Niraiijan 34

Notes 42

2 SCRIPTS 47

The Perso-Arabic Script

48

The Khojki Script 51

Origin and Background 51

Khojki in Modern Times: Uniformity

and Demise 55

Inadequacies of the Khojki Script

The Vowel System

58

The Consonant System 60

Orthography 62

M

Table 2 1 Showing Correspondence of

Initial Vowels

68

Table

2 2

Showing Correspondence of

N oninitial Vowels 69

vii



Table 2.3 Showing Correspondence of

Consonants

70

3. VERSIONS AND TEXTS 73

Description

of

Texts 76

The Sufi Version 76

Siglum: P 76

The

Ismaili Version 79

The

Khojki Manuscripts 80

Siglum:

K=

1

81

Siglum: K=3 83

~ u ~

K=4

~

Siglum: K 5 86

Printed Editions 87

The

Multan

Manuscript 92

The Major Types of Corruption in

the Ismaili Texts 9

Misreading of the Perso-Arabic Script 94

Misreading of Sufi Technical Terms

of

Arabic

or

Persian Origin 94

Influence of the

Gujarati

Language

95

Substitution of Words by Synonyms 96

Influence

of the

Khojki Script

96

Substitution

between

Pairs

of

Letters 96

Inversion of Order of Words 96

Changes in the Internal V owelling

of Words 97

Changes Resulting from Attempts to

Give Lines a New Interpretation 97

Notes 98

4. PROSODY 101

Syllable Length 102

Meter

and Verse Forms in the B ajb Nirafijan 104

Caupar 105

Dohrah

doba) 108

Soratha

111

Tek

refrain) 111

Notes 113

PART

TW

5. OBSERVATIONS ON

THE

CRITICAL EDITION

117

The Text of the Bujb Nirafijan 120

viii



Appendix A Verses Occurring only in

the Ismaili Version

Appendix

B

Verses Occurring Only in

the Sufi Version

Glossary

Bibliography

x

195

197

201

217



Foreword

Despite the voluminous

learned

bibliographical work

on

Ismaili literature by Ismail Poonawala, precious little

is

known

among Islamologists about the development of Ismaili poetry

in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent. The texts of the so-called

ginans, the sacred songs of the Ismailis of the subcontinent,

have

been

used in the community for a long time, and depend

ing upon the language of the participants in the devotional

services, they

are

preserved in Sindhi, Panjabi, Gujarati, and

mixed linguistic forms. As they were mostly written down in

the so-called Khojki script, these texts were not accessible to

non-Ismailis. Nowadays, after

thousands

of Ismailis have

settled in East

Africa

and

the western hemisphere, the largely

obsolete script makes t difficult for the younger generations of

the

community to

read or

understand the

original

or at

least

the traditional

texts.

Furthermore,

the printing process, by

which most of the texts are now published (mainly in Gujarati

script and Latin transliteration), has led to attempts at stand

ardizing the language and, sometimes, the symbolism to make

the sacred songs easier to ·understand.

The ginans are generally accepted as works of the great

Ismaili

daCfs

the preachers who, in the later Middle Ages,

spread the Ismaili teachings in

western

India, the Indus Valley

and Gujarat. After

the fall of the Ismaili

state of

Alamut

Iran)

in 1256, Ismailism continued often as

part of

the Sufi

tradition and was thus able to perpetuate the esoteric teaching

of the community without being attacked by the Sunni majority

of

the eastern Islamic lands.

It

is

therefore natural

that

exchanges between Sufi and Ismaili ideas, concepts, and sym

bols should have taken place, both groups learning, as it were,

from each other. Some

central concepts

of

both

Ismaili

and

Sufi teaching, such as the deep veneration of the imam on the

one

hand, and of

the

mystical leader,

plr or

shaykb,

on

the

other hand, facilitated such spiritual osmosis, which much of

the

Indo-Muslim literature in regional languages reveals

on

closer inspection.

x



A particularly important document in the girian tradition is

the ajb

i r a i i j ~ a lengthy

poem about

the mystical path,

whose oldest form is found in a manuscript in the Perso-Arabic

script. Dr. Ali

S

Asani has devoted intense research to recon

stituting the text by tracing its language, images, and religious

teachings through different variants in order to come as close

to the original form. Dr. Asani s familiarity with the mystical

tradition in

both

its IsmaiIi and Sufi form as well as with the

different linguistic strata

that

appear

in

this work

make

his

study indispensable for students of history

of

religion as well

as

specialists in pre-modern Indian languages.

This work will help to familiarize

readers

- Ismailis

and

non-Ismailis alike - with the deep religious feelings expressed

in the ginans, and with the fascinating interaction of the Sufi

and the Ismaili tradition. t will introduce

them

toa spiritual

world

that

deserves to be studied

in

detail. The

reader

will

gain new insights into a hitherto barely known aspect of Islamic

religious life.

Cambridge MA

Harvard University

Dr. Drs. h.c. Annemarie Schimmel

Professor of Indo-Muslim Culture

xii



Preface

This study, a revised version of

my

Ph.D. dissertation

submitted to Harvard University, pertains to a little-explored

area of Indo-Muslim literature. While there are some critical

editions of works in Arabic and·Persian originating from the

high Sufi tradition of the subcontinent, studies of vernacular

literature originating from the low Sufi tradition have been

relatively scarce. And yet vernacular Sufi literature, y blend

ing Sufi terminology

and

concepts with. indigenous literary

forms and imagery, was the most important agency through

which Islamic precepts were diffused into the subcontinent's

Muslim and non-Muslim population. This study focuses

on

a

hitherto unexamined poem from the vernacular Sufi tradition:

the Bujh Niraiijan. The poem,

an

anonymous, seventeenth

century Hindustani composition from the QadirI Sufi order,

is

of

significance.to the history of Indo-Muslim literature on two

counts. First, while longer Sufi poems in Hindi:Hindustani:

Urdu from this period are romantic, mystical poems of an alle

gorical nature, the Bujh Niranjan

is

a theoretical and didactic

composition, a form rarely seen. Second, the Bujb Niranjan

is

the first known example oian Indian Sufi text from thevernac

ular tradition adopted into the ginan ·literature of the Ismaili

community

of

Indo-Pakistan. The work

is

in two parts. Part 1

discusses the origin and background

of

the

poem

the peculiar

ities and problems of the scripts in which

the

various texts of

the

poem

are

preserved

(especially

the Perso Arabic and

Khojki scripts) the extant versions and texts of the poem, and

the poem's prosodial aspects.

Part

2 presents a critical edition

of

the

poem

based

on

texts

in

the Perso-Arabic Kbojki, and

Gujaratiscripts.

The

edited text, ·which is in transliteration,

is

accompanied

by a

prose

translation.

In

sum, this study,

through this

important

example in the vernacular, not only

enhances

our

understanding

of

Sufi poetry

but

also offers

methodology that may be employed to approach other similar

works in the tradition.

xiii



Acknowledgments

First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude to

His Highness the Aga Khan for the most generous grants from

his personal scholarship fund, which have supported my pro

gram of studies at Harvard and funded the necessary research

for the dissertation on which this book is based. Without His

Highness s strong commitment and interest, the dissertation

would not have been possible.

y

parents, brothers, and sister

have also

been

constant and unfailing sources

of

encourage

ment and support. In

particular

I have been profoundly

touched by the self-sacrifice my parents have shown.

Among

the

faculty at Harvard I

am

most indebted to

Professor Annemarie Schimmel. She is not only an outstand

ing scholar but also an exemplary teacher, and were it not for

her

constant guidance, inspiration, and counsel at every stage,

this work would have

been

infinitely difficult

to

complete.

Professor William Graham, a wonderfully supportive teacher,

colleague, and friend, has been instrumental in facilitating the

publication of this study. I

am

also grateful to Professors

Wheeler Thackston, Diana Eck, and Brian Silver (now with the

Voice of America, Urdu service), each of whom gave freely of

their time and offered suggestions and valuable assistance.

Professors Peter Gaeffke

of

the University of Pennsylvania

and Christopher

Shackle

of

the University

of London

went

through the initial draft

of

the text and the translation of the

Bujh Niraiijan and gave much-appreciated advice on several

problems related to the text and to methodology.

lowe

a substantial debt to many people in the subconti

nent for the hospitality and cooperation extended to me during

my dissertation research trip in 1981. In Pakistan, I would like

to thank the president, members, and staff of the then Ismailia

Association for Pakistan, in particular Mr. Hoosein Khanmo

hamed

Mr. Hashim Moledina, Mr.

Mohamed

Bacchal, and

Mr. Nurdin Bakhsh. I acknowledge the valuable assistance

given by Mr. Mumtaz Ali Tajddin Sadik Ali, who also supplied

me with. copies of some of the manuscripts used in this study.

y relatives in Karachi, especially the late Mrs. Shahanshah

x



Jindani, her husband Abdulmalik, arid Mr. Sadrudin G. Bande

ali, were most kind during my stay in that country. In India, I

thank

the

president

and members

of the staff of

the

then

Ismailia Association for

India

for

their

warm

welcome

and·

kindness. Mr. Chottu Lakhani of Bombay,

in

particular,

assisted me beyond the call of duty and adopted me into his

charming family.,

I

am

conscious of my debt to many friends and colleagues

for their support, but I can mention only a few names. Pro '

fessor SadruP. Kabani and Dr. Susan Plourde, Professor

Janet

Levine of Baruch, Professor Wayne

Eastman of

Rutgers, Dr.

Ludwig Weber, Dr. Brian Fallon, Mr. Mahmud Sayani, and the

Damji family of Boston have all helped in one form or another.

I am also indebted

to

several of my friends

on

the

staff

of

Harvard College Library, in particular Ms. Carol Alexander,

Ms. Thelma Suarez, Ms. Barbara Dames, Ms. Stase Cibas, and

Ms. Pam Rowe for their sympathy, warmth,

and

friendship,

which sustained me during the various ups and downs of this

work. Special thanks to

Mr.Michael Currier

for helping in

ways he knows best.

I

acknowledge

with much

appreciation

the

efforts

and

support

of

Ms. Carol Cross of Harvard's Department of Near

Eastern

Languages and Civilizations in the preparation

of

the

camera-ready copy

of

a difficult and demanding text.

Last but riot least, I wish to express many, many thanks to

my dear friend Dr.

Joel

Brenner, who carefully read the first

draft

of the

original dissertation, helped me with eccentricities

of

the English language, and suggested several improvements.

xv



Author's Note

In 1984 when the Ph.D. dissertation on which this book is

based was submitted to Harvard University, several members

of the Ismaili community expressed concern about the implica

tions of

my

scholarship.

For

the first time, a text from the com

munity's religious literature, the ginans, had been critically

edited using manuscript sources.

By

suggesting that the Bujh

Niraftjan

may

not

have

been

composed

by an Ismaili pIr

(preacher-saint), specifically PIr Sadr ad-DIn, as

is

commonly

believed

in

the community, I had challenged

not

only the

Ismaili

origin of the work but also, it seemed to some, its

legitimacy as a part of the

ginan l i t e r t u r e ~

The corpus

of

devotional poems (ginans) that constitute this literature dom

inates and permeates every aspect of the community's religious

life. Indeed, as I have discussed elsewhere,1 in many respects

the ginans playa scriptural role for the Ismailis of the Indian

subcontinent. They are the focus

of

intense veneration within

the community.

For those

who

revere

them, they are

the

embodiment of the faith: the substantiation of the truth

of

the

faith as

preached

by

the

pIrs, the

preacher-saints

who are

believed to have composed

them . From

the point

of

view

of

the faithful, the legitimacy

of

the ginans as hymns appropriate

for the religious edification of the Ismailis is based on one

single factor, namely, their authorship

by

the Ismaili pIrs. Not

surprisingly, everyone of these poems end's with a verse or

verses identifying the

composer.

These authorship verses

impress on the individual ginans the seal of authority and cre

dence.

Clearly, my investigations into the authorship of a

l The

Ismaili Ginans as Devotional Literature, Devotional Literature

in South Asia: Current Research 1985-8, ed. R.

S.

McGregor (CambrIdge:

Cambridge University Press, forthcoming

1992 ,101-112.

2Interestingly enough, several compositions attributed to individuals

who technically did not have the official status of pIr, namely the so-called

unauthorized pm, are commonly accepted as· part of the ginan literature.

Examples of

unauthorized

pirs include Imam Shah (d. 1513) and Nar

Mul.tammad Shah (d.

c.

1534), the pivotal figures of a sixteenth-century

schismatic group, the Imam-ShaMs, and the sayyids who disseminated

religious

teaching within

Ismaili communities in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries.

xvii



ginan as

important

as

the

Bujb Nirafijan and my conclusions

concerning its Sufi origin seemed irreverent.

The attribution

of the

ginans to

the Ismaili

pITS

raises

vexed questions concerning authenticity that may never

be

sat

isfactorily

answered.

Historians of

religion are only

too

familiar with similar concerns

that surround sacred

litera

tures in other religious traditions, especially those literatures

that are popular in nature and predominantly oral in their

mode of transmission. Thus, for example, questions of authen

ticity and authorship are significant concerns for students of

two major Indian devotional literatures with strong literary and

thematic parallels

to

the

ginans - the songs

of the

poet-saints

(the

sants

and

bhaktas) of medieval

India and

the hymn-like

poems

attributed

to the Sikh gurus. In

both

cases, as with the

ginans, authorship

and

authority

are

closely intertwined.3

And

in both

cases, we will

probably never be able to

determine

authorship with certainty for we simply do not have sufficiently

convincing

corroborative evidence.

In fact linguistic

and

philological analysis of these texts sometimes suggests the

contrary.

From a scholarly point

of

view

perhaps

the more fruitful

q u ~ s t o n s

we

need

to ask regarding

these

literatures should

focus on their contextual or functional relationship with their

respective communities.

Ultimately, texts are sacred only

when a religious community is able to discover religious mean

ing

and truth

within them. Authorship

by an important

reli

gious personality becomes, then, an important means of legiti

matizing or validating the use of such texts. Viewed from this

perspective, the Bujh Niraftjan belongs to the ginan literature,

its Sufi origin notwithstanding, because Ismaili audiences were

able to

interpret

its mysticism

and

esotericism within a mean

ingful Ismaili context and chose to adopt i as their own.

A

text

becomes what its audience wants it to become.

3Por an illuminating

and

detailed discussion of the issue see J ahn

Stratton Hawley, Author and Authority in Bhakti Poetry, Journal

of

Asian

Studies 47

no

2 (May 1988), 269-290.

4William A.

Graham's

Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of

Scripture

in

the History of Religion (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1987) contains much discussion on the relational,

contextual, or functional qualities of sacred texts.

xviii



Note on the Transliteration

Scheme

1

For

the

complete

transliteration scheme employed in

this

study

the reader

is

referred to

the

tables at

the end

of

Chapter

2.

2

The

short a vowel implicit

at the

end

of

words is

not

indicated

in

the transliteration unless it is articulated.

3 The

Arabic

harnza, especially

when

it is word-final,

is

ignored.

4.

The

Perso-Arabic letter :

b

transliterated

either

as w

orv.

5. The Perso-Arabic

letter

t, is

transliterated

as kh to

distinguish i t

from

kh,

the

aspirated form

in

lndic

languages for

the letter

k

6 No

distinction is

made between

the letters

~ and lSf

from

the

DevanagarI alphabet:

both are

transcribed as sh.

7.

The

nasalized lndic sounds anusvara and

anunasik are

both transliterated by

ii

8 Diacritics have

been omitted

from foreign words that

have common usage

in

EI .glish such as Ismaili, Shii, shaikh,

and

so on.

xix



he ujh Nirailjan



INTRODUCTION

When that powerful love surges from the heart,

Mother, father, all [other] love

is

forgotten.

[Even] t4e woma.n of that house is forgotten;

What [place then] remains for both mother-in-law

and sister-in-law?

This simple

but eloquent

quatrain, describing the trans

forming effects

of

divine love on the personality of the mystic

lover, belongs to the Bujh Niraftjan,

an

important poem from

the ginan literature of the Ismaili community of Indo-Pakistan.

According to community tradition, the

approximately 800

ginans, or religious poems, which constitute this literature,

were composed

y

IsmailidaCfs (missionaries)

between

the

thirteenth

and early twentieth centuries. The principal pur

pos

of these poems was to provide religious instruction to new

conVerts from the Hindu: tradItion to Islam in its specifically

Ismaili form.

The strong mystical and spiritual temperament of the work

has

made

the Bujb Niraftjan a very popular ginan within the

community. Selections from it are recited almost daily before

the early morning zikr or meditation service held in the

jama'1it kbanah (house of congregation). Since the

zikr

among

the Ismailis

is

a silent one (Zikr-i

khafr),

the recitation of verses

from a mystical oriented ginan like the Bujh Niraftjan assists

considerably in establishing the appropriate mood before fur

ther

meditation commences.

The

impact that many of the

verses of the Bujb Niraftjan have had on members of the

Ismaili community has been so great that the poem has

been

termed one of the great classical ginans.,,2 In the Gujarati

preface to

a recent

edition, the

work is

called

an

incom-

parable treasure (ajoQ kbazano) and the au thor of the same

preface expresses the hope

that

in the not too distant future

the world

will

be able to see the splendour (prakash) of this

treasure

which has

remained

hidden for eight hundred years

[sic]. 3

Composed in medieval Hindustani,4 the Bujb Niraftjan is

only one among a myriad

of

works

of

Indo-Muslim literature

3



that utilize the vernacular languages of the subcontinent. Stud

ies of the Islamic tradition indicate that this literature in the

vernacular,

rather than

the

literature

in the c1assial Islamic

languages, Arabic and Persian, was responsible for the spread

of Islamic precepts in the area; Discussing the significant role

of the Indian vernacular languages, Annemarie Schimmel

writes that the masses understood.

neither

Arabic, the lan

guage of the QurJan and of the lawyers divine, nor Persian, the

language of poetry

and

historiography. S Consequently, litera

ture in the vernaculars was instrumental in carrying the mes

sage of Islam, especially mystical Islam, to the masses.

6

The

role of the Sufis;

or

Islamic mystics, in the

development

of

these vernacular literatures in the subcontinent has

been

uni

versally acknowledged}

For

example, Richard Eaton, in his

study of the ChishtiSufi order in Bijapur, points out

thatfolk

literature composed in Dakhniby members

of

this order,

by

blending the simplest tenets of Islam and the terminology of

the Sufi tradition with the imagery of existing indigenous

literary forms,

played

a profound role in

the

gradual accul

turation of-the region's lower classes to the Islamic tradition.

8

On

the other hand, Asim Roy

talks

of the masses of Muslim

believers in Bengal who would have

been

debarred from the

Islamic tradition by a linguistic and culturalbarrier,,9 had it

not

been

for the

cultural mediators of

the

sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries who began the great task of making reli

gious traditions available to Muslim folk in familiar and intel

ligible terms in the Bengali language.

IO

Indeed, the

Ismaili ginan literature

to which the Bujh

Niraiijan belongsforms

an

interesting example of a genre of

Indo-Muslim vernacular literature

used

to propagate the

Ismaili

form of Islam

in the Punjab, Sind, and

Gujarat.1

1

Composed in several Indian dialects, such as Sindhi, Punjabi,

Gujarati, Milltani, and Kacchi, and employing folk meters and

indigenous musical modes, the ginans may be categorized into

the five major thematic types: (1)

conversion portraying

Islam,

specifically the Ismailiinterpretation of it, as the completion of

the Vaishnavite Hindu tradition; (2)

didactic

imparting ethical

and moral instruction for the conduct of worldly and religious

life; (3)

mystical

including guides for spiritual progress and lit

erary expressions· inspired· by mystical experiences; (4)

liturgi-

cal recited at the performance of certain religious rituals or on

4



specific religIous festivals; (5) cosmological and

eschatological

concerning theories of the origin and end of creation.

in

spite

of

its seminal role in

the

history

of

the Islamic

tradition in the subcontinent, literature in the vernaculars has

been the target of much disdain. The ,orthodox and elite estab

lishments of the Muslim community were opposed to reducing

the sublime religious truth, enshrined in Arabic and Persian, to

a 'profane' and 'vulgar' local language. 12 So strong was this

disdain that up to A.D. 1600 the

few

Muslim writers who dared

to write in an Indic language found it necessary to apologize to

their readers and urge them to look beyond the medium to the

meaning, beyond the external to .the internal.

13

In Bengal, a

fatva (legal decision) was issued by Muslim .divines castigating

Bengali as the language of the Hiridus, supporting the pre

vailing prejudice against

Bengali

translations of the Qur:>an

and b a d ~ and forbidding the discussion of any Islamic matter

in this language.1

4

Scholars

of he Islamic tradition in the area

may explain the existence of this contemptuous hostility toward

the

vernacular

literature

by pointing to the dichotomy and

tension within Indian Islam either between the ashraf (the

ruling classes of foreign origin) and the ajlaf (the native

indigenous converts),15 or between two antagonistic facets, the

prophetic-separatistic and the mystico-syncretistic, 16 or

between two distinct elements in the tradition: one ultimate

and formal, derived from Islamic texts; the other proximate

and local, validated by custom. 17 What,ever viewpoint we

may choose to adopt, this prejudice against literature in the

vernacular

is

a salient feature of Indian Islam. It was only with

the decline and break-up of the Mughal empire in the late

seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries that the literary

tyranny 18 of the classical Islamic languages was overthrown

and vernacular literature began to receive an apprehensive and

hesitant acceptance from the Muslim establishment.

The surprising result of this prejudice is the sad neglect of

this important literature by most Islamicists.The neglect, how-

ever, extends beyond vernacular literature for Imtiaz Ahmad

points out that it encompasses also the diversity of beliefs,

rituals, and practices that are the special characteristic of Islam

in a particular region.1

9

By focusing their studies only on the

universal and hence normative aspects of Ishimic civilization,

many Islamicists have failed to consider and analyze the

5



response of the Islamic religious tradition to different cultural

situations and contexts and the adaptations and adjustments

that it had to make in the course of its journey from its West

Asian heartland to distant parts of the world.,,20 t is this

normative approach to the study of Islam in the subcontinent

which led Aziz Ahmad to remark that the Ismaili ginan litera

ture lacks the Islamic personality.,,21

Thus while there

is

some scholarship on Arabic and Per

sian works originating from the high Islamic tradition in the

subcontinent, studies of the vernacular literature have been

relatively scarce. Only in the last four

or

five decades have

attempts been made to study this literature.

22

However, much

work still needs to b e undertaken before we are in a position

not only to appreciate fully the wealth and diversity

of

this

literature, but also to develop interpretations of these works,

both individually and collectively. The first essential step in

this direction is the preparation of critical editions of as many

works within this literary tradition as possible. h i ~ is by no

means

an

easy task for there are several obstacles that have to

be overcome.

First,

there is

the problem of

manuscripts.

Due

to

the

harsh climatic conditions in the subcontinent, few surviving

manuscripts preserve the texts of these works in their original

form. Whatever survives by way of later corrupted. texts is in a

dismal state. The low level of scholarly interest in this field has

meant that

many manuscripts preserving this literature have

yet to

be

identified and collected, let alone be cataloged. This

negligence has had obvious consequences for our knowledge of

the history of such literature in several Indian vernaculars. A

typical case that may be cited here concerns the work

of

one of

the pioneers of Islamic mystical poetry in the Sindhi language,

Qa I

Qadan

(1463-1551). Until a few years ago, only seven

baits (verses) of his poetry were known to scholars

of

Sindhi

literature.

Then

in 1975,

Raja Ram

ShashtrI, a scholar from

Haryana, discovered a late seventeenth-

or

early eighteenth

century manuscript containing, among other medieval compo

sitions, 112 b its by this poet. The discovery of this manuscript

in a tiny village in Haryana was of

great

significance for it

contributed

an

entirely

new perspective on

the

history of

Sindhi literature.

23

Another problem concerns the form of the language used



in much of this literature. Many of the vernaculars occur in

their archaic,

medieval

forms,

and

very often a poet may

choose to use a dialectical form of a word that either

is

not

documented in modern lexica or

is

no longer in common use.

At times scholars have to resort to guessing at the meaning and

derivation of words. Not surprisingly, this may result in con

flicting

translations.

As an example of this

difference

in

opinion, we may cite

the

meaning of the word salara in the

recently discovered manuscript of Qa?I Qadan's poetry. While

Hiro Thakur interprets the word to mean

a

frog,"24 Motilal

Jotwani,

another

Sindhi scholar, expressed the view that the

word may mean ''weeds ''25

The

problem of language

is compounded

by

problems

associated with the scripts in which this literature is recorded.

Since this literature was composed by Muslims, manuscripts

often use the Perso-Arabic script. Unfortunately this script

is

used in a form not adequately developed to express all the

peculiarities

of

the Indian languages. Reconstructing a medi

eval Indian text from manuscripts in Perso-Arabic characters

is

a difficult task for not only are dots and diacritics omitted but

no distinction

is

made between related letters (e.g., band p d

and Q t and t or aspirated and unaspirated sounds. Legibility

of the script may also become an issue if a particularly ambigu

ous

style of the Perso-Arabic script has been used such as

shikasta.

S.

M. Pandey has discussed the problems encoun

tered

in the editing of Perso-Arabic manuscripts of Maulana

Daad's

Candayan, one of the earliest texts of Sufi literature

;in

Hindi,26 and the problems raised

by

the Perso-Arabic manu

script

of

the Bujb

Niraftjan will be discussed later in this

study.27 A problem of a different nature arises if the texts are

written in local and regional scripts such as the LaI .Qa scripts of

Sind. Many of these scripts

are

not well suited for literary

purposes and are so riddled with ambiguities that they are "sel

dom legible to anyone except the original writer and not always

to him.,,28

A fourth category of problems concerns the role of

the

scribe in the transmission process. The several different kinds

of errors may creep into a text during its transcription are well

known.

29

In addition, texts of the vernacular literature dealing

with Isla.mic themes

and

concepts will often contain related

Perso-Arabic vocabulary. The scribe's ignorance of this vocab-

7



ulary and the subject matter in'generalmay often have serious

consequences on the readings of the text.

30

f the scribe was

not familiar with, the vernacular language of the text then

we

can expect manyerrors regarding :grammar, orthography; pros-

ody, and'so on.3

1

AsimRoy points out that a scribe may also

interpolate a few verses into the text under

an

indomitable

impulse to seek poetic glory. 32 f few other manuscripts are

available, such 'interpolations may be difficult to detect.

Finally, since the authorship of many works in the vernacular

tradition

is

uncertain, scribes may also claim authorship either

for themselves or attribute it to their favorite poet.

Furthermore, as has been shown in the case of Sind, the

Punjab, and Bijapur,33 the Vernacular literature was intimately

connected with the local oral and folk music traditions. This

relationship has been influential in determining the nature of

much vernacular literature, especially poetry, and is a factor

that the student must always bear in mind. Unfortunately not

much'research has been conducted' on the various aspects of

this relationship; and

as

Bryant, in

his

study of the Hindi poetry

of Surdas, suggests,

It

is a realm where the, student of litera-

ture and the musicologists must eventually join o r c e s ~ 3 4

In spite of all the problems associated with its study,35 the

vernacular literature has played too important a role in the

subcontinent's cultural and religious history to

be neglected.

6

This study examines a few significant aspects of

a

poem from

the vast tradition

of

Islamic vernacular literature, the Blljb

Niraftjan;

Part

1 discusses the origin and

background

of the

Bojb Nirafljan, scripts used in available texts of the work and

the problems associated with them, a description of the ver-

sions and texts, and an analysis of the poem's prosodial system.

Admittedly, there are other aspects to the Blljb Nirafljan, such

as

the role of music, that

also

require our attention, but these

not only are beyond the,competence

of

this writer but also

would uIlduly lengthen this study. Part 2 presents a critically

edited text

and

translation of the poem.

The discussion in Part 1 reveals that, thoughBlljhNirafljan

presently is part

of he grnan

literature of the Ismailicommun-

ity of the subcontinent, it originally belonged to themedieval

vernacular Sufi literature of the region. The poem illustrates

well several of the structural and thematic features of this

genre of mystical literature. , These characteristics may be

8



summarized s follows:

1. The use of indigenous literary forms: The move away from

the use

of

the classical languages, Arabic and· Persian, also

meant

the

abandonment of

Arabic and Persian verse forms

and meters. The

Bl1jh

Niraiijan; for example, utilizes the

Indian verse forms

of

the caupaJ and

the

dohrah.

Other

indigenous

forms used in Sufi

vernacular

poetry include

the sIlJarfr

or

Cautisa, the barahmasa, the kafr, the wai, the

carkha-nama

or kapaitI the

cakkr-nama

and the lori

nama.

37

2.

The

use

of

indigenous

names to refer

to God:

The

Bl1jh

Niraftjan, as

the title

itself indicates, uses an indigenous

Indian name, Niraiijan, to

refer

to God instead of the tra

ditional Allah. Other indigenous names used in the work

include hari,

syam

bidaha, ram,

and

gusaIii. This practice

of using such indigenous names

is

widespread in Sufi ver

nacular literature and dates backseveral centuries. s

early as

the fourteenth

century, the orthodox Suhrawardr

saint

of

Ucch, Makhdllm-i Jahaniyan Jahangasht (d. 1385),

prohibited the use

of

Indian names

of

God in popular wor

ship.38

3. Strong emphasis on the importance of love

on

the mystical

. path: Most

of this

literature sees love as the essence of

divine

nature

and hence advocates love,

rather

than

barren

intellectualism

and

scholarship, as an effective means for

approaching God.

This anti-intellectual bias

often

takes

the form

of

attacks on the mulla (theological scholar) who

symbolizes dry, fossilized learning. The Bujh Niraiijan's

stance on this issue

is well

illustrated in the

following

quatrain:

Alas for those who have not attained his [the lover's]

state,

And

call themselves mullas and scholars

The

learning through which [true] knowledge [of God]

is

not

acquired,

Such learning should be tossed to the dust 39

4. The use of the woman as symbol for

the

human soul:

While

the woman

is usually a negative symbol in

Arabic

and

Persian poetry, in the v ~ r n c u l r literature the Indian

symbol

of

the virahinI or woman longing for her husband

is



adopted into an Islamic setting and appears as the woman

soul who longs to be reunited with the Divine Beloved.

40

The

Bujh Nirafijan adds a new dimension to the symbol

of

the virahinI (or birahI) by introducing

the

symbol

of the

v ~ l I The term v ~ l I

is

an adaptation of

the

Arabic noun

v ~ l

(union)

used

in Sufi terminology to

refer

to the final

state of

union between

the soul and God. The addition of

an suffix to the word produces the term v ~ l I which in

contrast

to virahinI

or

birahI,

represents

the woman-soul

already united with the Divine Beloved.

41

5

Highly

exalted status

of

the spiritual preceptor: The

spiritual

guide or

preceptor

plays

an important

role in

classical Sufi theory, for without his guidance the novice

would stray from

the

mystic path.

Vernacular

Sufi litera

ture, while acknowledging this role

of the

shaikh, pIr,

or

guru,

often

also accords an almost divine

nature

of

the

mystic guide.

The

Bujh Niraiijan describes

the

guide as

the m ~ r ilahI, that is,

the

locus of the divine manifesta

tion.42 This tendency in the literature

is

a consequence

of

the

important role that

the veneration

of

saints plays in

folk Islam in the subcontinent.

6 The strong influence of the wabdat al-wujud theories:

Wa1;tdat al-wujud, Unity

of

Being, theories propounded

by the Sufi Ibn cArabI

(d.

1240)

were

popular

in

many

parts

of

the Islamic world,

but

they were especially influ

ential in

the

subcontinent.. Almost all Sufi poetry in the

vernaculars is

saturated

with the

idea

of

Unity

of

Being.43

Under

the influence

of

these theories, vernacular poetry

often contains paradoxical statements about the unity and

multiplicity

of

the Divine Essence.

The

following

quatrain

from

the

Bujh Nirafijan is a good illustration:

He Himself

is

the mulla and He Himself is the q ~ I ;

He Himself is God

(bidaha)

and the

person

performing the ritual prayer (namazI);

See the

entire

world as the play of the Beloved;

The

beloved Himself is

at

play.44

The Bojh Niraiijan

is

of significance in

the

history

of

the

vernacular Sufi

literature on

two counts. First,

most

of

the

other longer poetic compositions in Hiridi-Hindustani-Urdu

from the medieval period are mystical and

allegorical

inter-

10



pretations of Indian romantic epics. This genre of vernacular

literature,

developed

under the influence

of

the

Persian

m a ~ n a v tradition,

included

works such as

Maulana Daud s

Candayan (composed 1379), Kutuban s Mrigavau (composed

1503),

Malik Mul)ammad

aisI s Padmavat

(composed

in

1540), Manjhan s MadhumaltI (composed in 1545), Usman s

CitravalI

(composed in 1613), Shaikh NabI s Jnanadlp

(composed in 1617), I:Iusain cAlI s PuhupawatI (composed in

1725), Qasim Shah s Hafts

Jawahar

(composed in 1736), and

Nur Mul)ammad s IndrawatI and Anurag BansurI (composed

between

1744

and

1774).

The

Bujh Niraftjan,

on the

other

hand, provides us with a rare example of a theoretical and

didactic composition from the North Indian vernacular Sufi

tradition.

45

Second, as has already been alluded to above, the

poem is the first known example of an Indian Sufi text from the

vernacular tradition adopted into the Ismaili ginan literature.

Specifically, there is substantial evidence indicating that the

work originated from the QadirI Sufi order.

t

is to a consid-

eration

of

this evidence that we now turn.



NOTES

IFor

sources on the ginan literature see

Ali

S.

Asani,

The

Ismaili

Ginans as Devotional Literature, Devotional Literature in South Asia: u -

rent Research, 1985-88, ed. S. McGregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, forthcoming); Ali S. Asani, The Ginan Literature of the Ismailis of

Indo-Pakistan: Its origins, characteristics, and themes, Devotion Divine, ed.

D. Eck and F. Mallison (Groningen and Paris: Egbert

Forsten

and Ecole

Fran<;aise d'Extreme Orient, 1991), 1-18; Ali

S.

Asani,

The

IsmaCUi

Ginan

Literature: Its Structure and Love Symbolism (A.B. honors thesis, Harvard

College, 1977); V. N. Hooda, Some Specimens of Satpanth Literature,

Collectanea, vol. 1 (Leiden:

E.

J. Brill, 1948), 55-137;

Wladimir

Ivanow,

Satpanth, Collectanea,

vol. 1 1-54;

Wladimir

Ivanow,

The

Isma ilI

Literature, A Bibliographic Survey, 2d ed. (Tehran: Ismaili Society, 1963),

7 4 ~ 8 ; Azim Nanji,

The

Nizari Isma,lT

Tradition

in

the

Indo-Pakistan

Subcontinent (Delmar, 'NY: Caravan Books, 1978), 7-24, 120-130; Ismail

Poonawala, Bibliography

of

Isma ili Literature (Malibu, CA: Undena, 1977),

298-311.

2R. D. Shariff, Buj Niranjan, Roshni (Ismailia Association for the

United States of America) 3 (December 1980):

25.

3Kasamali M. Jafar, Preface, Buj Niraiijan (Karachi: Ismailia Associ

ation for Pakistan, 1976), n.p. (my translation from the Gujarati). '

4The

term Hindustani

is used in this study to refer to the medieval

lingua franca

of

North India, written by Muslims in the Perso-Arabic char

acters.

In the

modern period, the language of the

Bujh

Niranjan would be

classified as Hindi.

The

terms

Hindustani and Hindi are therefore used

interchangeably in this study.

5Annemarie Schimmel, The

Influence

of Sufism on

Indo-Muslim

Poetry, in

Anagogic Qualities

of Literature, ed. Joseph P.

Strelka,

196

(University Park PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971), 196.

6Annemarie Schimmel, As

through

a Veil: Mystical Poetry

n

Islam

(New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 136.

7For a discussion

of

the role of the Sufis in the development of Islamic

vernacular literatures see Ali

S.

Asani, Sufi Poetry in the Folk Tradition of

Indo-Pakistan, Religion

and

Literature 20.1 (1988): 81-94.

8Richard Eaton, Sufis

of

Bijapur 1300-1700 (Princeton: Princeton Uni

versity Press, 1978), 174.

9

Asim

Roy,

The

Islamic Syncretistic Tradition in

Bengal

(Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1983), 7.

10Ibid., 72.

llCommenting on the mode of conversion employed by the Ismaili P-rrs

to

whom

the tradition attributes the

authorship

of

the

ginans, Wladimir

Ivanow says that one of their bold tactics was in separating the meaning and

spirit of Islam from its hard Ai-abic shell They [the PIrs] explained the

high ideals

of

Islam in the familiar terms of the ancestral religion and culture

of the new converts, Hinduism, striving to make them good mumins, sincere

adepts of the spirit of Islam

rather

than muslims, i.e., those who formally

profess Islam, often without paying attention to its spirit and implications.

Satpanth.·' Collectanea,

1

21.

12R,)y, The Islamic Syncretistic Tradition, 58.

12



13r

ica1

of such apologies is

the

one found at the beginning of Shams

aVUshshaq ~ l f a n j r s

Shahadat al-J:laqlqat, a Hindi poetic treatise on Sufism

composed in the late fifteenth century. In his apology, the author states that

the work has

been

written in Hindi because many people do not understand

either Arabic or Persian. According to him, a person ought not to go by the

external ~ a h i r ) but should ponder the internal (ba in). Whatever the

medium communication or language employed, a person ought to ponder the

meaning.

As

quoted in MaulawI cAbd al-l:faqq, UrdU ki Ibtidacr Nashwo

Numa men Siifiya'-i Gram ka Kam (Aligarh:

Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i

Urdu

Hind, 1968), 41-42.

14Ibid.,67. Asim Roy also notes a similar attitude among the medieval

Hindu elite toward the use

of Bengali for religious purposes. See ibid., 79-80.

Professor Schimmel points

out

that, as late as 1963, a child listening

to

his

father's Bengali poetry in praise of the Prophet ,

made

the remark, "Daddy,

does

God

understand Bengali?" (Personal communication.)

15Cf.

Imtiaz

Ahmad, The ashraf-ajlaf

Dichotomy

in Muslim Social

Structure in India," Indian Economic

and

Social History Review 3 (1966): 68-

78. Eaton discusses

the

animosity between the Foreigner and Deccani

classes in South India in Sufis of Bijapur, 42-43; 90-91.

16Annemarie Schimmel, "Reflections on Popular Muslim Poetry," Con-

tributions to Asian Studies, 17 (1982): 18. '

17Imtiaz

Ahmad,

The Islamic Tradition in India, Islam

and

the

Modem Age, 12(1) (1981):

53.

'

, . 18Eaton, Sufis

of

Bijapur, 139.

19

Ahmad, The Islamic Tradition in India," 44.

2OIbid. For a

brief

discussion

on the

subject,

see Dale

F. Eickelman,

The Study of Islam in Local Contexts," Contributions

to

Asian Studies,

17

(19821 1-6.

1Aziz Ahmad,

An

Intellectual

History

of Islam in India (Edinburgh:

Edinburgh University Press, 1969), 126.

22Some

of the more important

studies include

Lakshmi Dhar,

Padumavati (London: Luzac

Co., 1949) (this is a critical

edition and

linguistic study of

the

important epic by Mul;tammad JaisI); Eaton, Sufis of

Bijapur, esp. chap. 6, "Sufis as Literati," 135-174;

Enamul

Haque, Muslim

Bengali

Literature

(Karachi: Pakistan Publications, 1957); Lajwanti

Rama

krishna, Panjabi Sufi Poets (London: Oxford University Press, 1938); Roy,

The

Islamic

Syncretistic Tradition in Bengal, esp.

pt.

1; Schimmel, s

through

a Veil: Mystical

Poetry in

Islam, esp. chap. 4, The Voice

of

Love:

Mystical Poetry in the Vernaculars"; Annemarie Schimmel, Pain

and

Grace:

A Study of Two Mystical Writers of Eighteenth Century Muslim

India

(Leiden:

E.

J. Brill, 1976); Annemarie Schimmel, Sindhi Literature, vol. 8, pt.

2,

of

History of Indian Literature, ed.

Jan Gonda

(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,

1974).

23Hiro

J. Thakur,

ed.,

Q3.?i

Qadan

jo

kalam (Delhi: Puja Publications,

1978) is a critical edition, with

commentary

in Sindhi, of the poet's work

based on the Haryana manuscript. A transliteration and English translation

of

the newly-discovered verses appear in Motilal Jotwani, "Sindhi Sufi Poet

m Qadan: His Poetry in Transliteration and Translation," Punjab Univer-

sity

Journal of Medieval Indian Literature 5 (1981): 41-70. .

24See commentary for verses 17

and 18

in Thakur, ed., Q3.?i

Qadan

jo

kalam,

9.

13



25Dr.

J

otwani expessed this view at a

seminoron

the poetry of Qli+i

Qadan held at Harvard University

in

spring

1980.

However, in a later article,

Dr. Jotwani translates the word as frog. See Jotwani, Sindhi Sufi Poet

Qm

Qadan, 52.

26S. M. Pandey, Some Problems in Studying Candayan, Orientalia

Lovaniensia

Analecta

8 (1980): 127-140.

27See 48-5l.

28George Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India, vol. 8, pt. 1, p. 247

(Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1903-28).

Since some of the texts of the Biijh

N rr3iijan

used in this study are in Khojki,

a LaI;u;la script employed by the Ismailis of the subcontinent, the problems

associated with this script will be discussed in Chapter 2.

29S

ee

S.

M.

Katre, Introducton to Indian Textual Criticism, 2d ed.,

chap. 5, Causes of Corruption in a Transmitted Text (Poona: Deccan Col

lege of Postgraduate Studies and Research Institute, 1954), 54-62.

30Por the fate of Arabic and Persian terminology of the Biijh N rraiijan

in

Khoti

and Gujarati texts, see

94-95.

. .

3 Dr. Jotwani states that, because

the

scribe who prepared the Haryana

manuscript of ~ Oadan's poetry was a non-Sindhi, ~ m a n y mistakes show

ing themselves in bad grammar and prosody crept in. Sindhi Sufi Poet

Om

Oadan 42.

32Roy, Islamic Syncretistic Tradition, 9.

33Por Sind, see Schimmel, Sindhi Literature, 5-10, and Motilal Jotwani,

Shah Abdul

LatIf:

His

Life and Work (Delhi: Delhi University Press, 1975),

75-92. Por Punjab, Ramakrishna, Panjabi SufiPoets, xxii-xxx. Por Bijapur,

see Eaton, Sufis ofBijapur, 157-164.

34Kenneth Bryant, Poems to .the Child-God (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1978), 133 .

.35Kenneth Bryant makes the following comment on the study of Hindi

literature: exasperation remains an inseparable companion on a scholarly

foray into the chaos of medieval Hindi literature. Ibid, vii The comment is

equally applicable to study of medieval Indian vernacular literatures in gen

eral.

36We have already indicated the importance of this literature in the

spread of Islam in the subcontinent. The importance of vernacular literature

in the Hindu bhakti movement is too well· known to warrant documentation

here.

37In the si1;tarfi each verse begins with a letter of the Perso-Arabic

alphabet; in the

eautisa

each verse begins with a letter from the Indian alpha

bet; the barahmasa are twelve-month poems in which the poet expresses his

feelings toward a beloved in each month; the kafi and wai are Sindhi verse

forms in which one basic verse announces the rhyme and tune and is then

repeated after each verse; earkha-nama or kapaiti is a form of folk poetry

sung

by

women to accompany their work at the spinning wheel; the

kki-

nama is a form of folk poetry sung

by

women to accompany their work at the

grindstone; the lori-nama is a lullaby.

.

38S

c

himmel, Reflections on Popular Muslim Poetry, 18.

39Poem

29,

quatrain

3.

40Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press, 1975),434.

41Por use of the woman-soul symbol in the

ginan

literature see Ali S.

Asani, Bridal Symbolism

in

the Ismaili Ginan Liteniture, Typologies

of

14



Mysticism: Historical and Cultural Background, ed. R Herrera and R Link

a l i n ~ e r

(Catholic University Press of America, forthcoming).

2Poem

9,

quatrain 4.

43S

chimmel,

S

through a Veil: Mystical Poetry

in

Islam,

151.

44Poem 30, quatrain 3.

45S

ome

of the Dakhni compositions of Burhan ad-DIn Janam (d. 1597)

and Mul).ammad Ma1;unud Bal).rf (d. 1717-18)

are

examples of didactic Sufi

poetry from the South Indian tradition. Cf.

Muhammad

Hafiz Syed, Qadr

Mal).mud

Bal .rI:

A Mystic Poet of the 12th Century (A.H.) and His Poetical

Works,

Allahabad

University Studies 6 (1929): 445-478; Muhammad Hafiz

Syed,

Suk

Sahela of Shah Burhanuddin J anam, Allahabad University Stud

ies

6,

pt. 1 (1930): 487-509;

Muhammad

Hafiz Syed, ManfaCatu l

Iman

of

Shah Burhanuddin Janam, Allahabad University Studies 8, pt. 1 (1931): 471-

98.

15



P RT ONE



CHAPTER

1

TH

AUTHORSHIP OF

TH

BQJH NIRANJAN

Background

Sometime

in

the

early 1970s, Zawahir Noorally, then a

research assoCiate with the Ismailia Association for Pakistan,

unearthed at the India Office Library in London a hitherto

unexamined manuscript

of

the Bujh Nirafljan.

1

Consisting of

some 600 verses

arranged

in

4

parts, the Bujh Nirafljan (the

title means knowledge of the Attributeless One ) is a didactic

religious poem in medieval Hindustani that seeks to guide

Muslim novices through the stages and states of

spiritual devel

opment.

It is

an

important

poem, particularly within the cor

pus of

the

Ismaili

ginan literature, and its discovery

in

an

. eighteenth-century

manuscript

written in the

Perso-Arabic

script

is of great

s i g n i f i c n c e ~

The

version

of

the

poem

used

among

the

Ismailis has for a long time

been

rife with textual

obscurities, particularly when it comes to Sufi technical terms.

These

obscurities have

been major

obstacles to a

complete

understanding of the text. With the discovery of the

India

Office manuscript, which is far older than any other version of

the poem, these problems in the traditional Ismaili texts can

be

solved.

2

The

chief significance

of

the manuscript - which

is

disturb

ing to many - is

greater than

this, however.

The

ginan litera

ture had been

traditionally considered, without exception, to

be the

exclusive

tradition of the

Ismaili community

of

Indo

Pakistan. Now, for the first time a ginan manuscript had

been

discovered which, as we shall see below, seems to have orig

inated

in non-Ismaili

circles.

The

India Office

manuscript

immediately appears strange to anyone acquainted with ginan

texts

because

it begins with

the

invocation

ya

g u ~ a l a ~

the epithet associated with the Sufi master cAbd aI-Qadir al

OIl anI (1077/8-1166), thus implying that the scribe, if not the

author himself, was affiliated to the QadirI Sufi order. This, in

itself, might not appear wholly extraordinary if the manuscript

did not also possess

three other

unusual characteristics. First,

it is the Only known ginan manuscript from the eighteenth and

nineteenth

centuries

that is not

written in the Khojki script.3

9



Instead, it was written in the Perso-Arabic script by an anony

mous scribe and dated 4 Jumada al-awwal

[sic]

1136 A.H. (30

January 1724). Second, Ismaili tradition ascribed the author

ship of the work to the fifteenth-century Ismaili dacr (preacher

saint) PIr

Sadrad-Dln

largely on the basis

of

a verse in the

poem in which his name appears.4 But this verse reads differ

ently in the India Office manuscript. Instead of the name of

the Ismaili

dace

the verse in the manuscript refers to nabI,

an

epithet that

in this context could refer only to the Prophet

Mul;mmmad. Third, not only do the India Office manuscript

and the traditional Ismaili version differ

in

the sequence in

which some of the poems were arranged, but the manuscript

includes

an

entire poem that does not occur in the Ismaili ver

sion. This poem is the twelfth in the manuscript and is entitled

in Persian, On the law [sharrcat]

of

Muhammad the chosen

one

[ a l - m ~ l a f a ]

may the peace and blessings of God be upon

him.

t

advocat.es a strict observance

of

the ritualistic or

exoteric aspects of Islam. The absence of this poem from the

Ismaili version is not difficult to explain, for its precepts run

counter

to

the esoteric interpretation of

Islam favored in

Ismaili circles.

Clearly, the manuscript raises questions about the tradi

tionally accepted view

that

the Bujb Niraiijan has an Ismaili

origin. The issue

is

a sensitive one, and it

is therefore

not

surprising that when the Ismailia Association of Pakistan pub

lished a revised edition of the Bujh Niraiijan in February 1976

based in

part on

the India Office manuscript, it avoided the

question of origin altogether. Emphasis was placed rather on

clarifying obscurities and eliminating distortions within the

traditional Ismaili version

of

the poem. Since the text of the

Bujb Niraiijan itself contains many abstruse concepts and terms

that need elucidation, the

1976

edition was also supplied with a

Gujarati

commentary

so

that

the community could better

understand the work and know how to live a spirituallife. S

The

issue

of

origin was apparently thought unnecessary,

or

inappropriate, to raise.

Normally the appearance of a new edition of a gin n is not

an

unusual event in the Ismaili community. Few community

members take

notice

of

such things. It

is

rare, however, for

editors of gin n texts to consult manuscript sources, especially

newly discovered ones. The publication of the 1976 edition,

20



based

in part

on

the India

Office manuscript, did not,

there

fore, go unremarked. The following year, 1977, an

interna

tional workshop of Ismailia Associations was held in Karachi.

At

that

workshop a consensus was reached that the 1976 edi

tion, because of numerous errors, was inadequate. A hew edi

tion was planned that eventually

emerged

in 1981. Ironically,

however, the

preface to this edition not only avoids addressing

the question of

authorship,

but it makes no mention at all

about the existence of the India Office manuscript. According

to

this preface, the 1981 edition seeks to undo

the

damage

done to the text by transmission through individuals who were

not fully literate and by scribes ''who did not have a command

of the different

languages

used

in

this

w o r k ~ 6

Similarly, a

1980 article on the Bujh Niraftjan

in the

Ismaili community

magazine, Roshni, also failed to tackle the issue of origin, for

the

aim of

the

author was to discuss the philosophy

and

the

essence of

the

work.

7

Though the official publications of the community did not

confront

the problem of

authorship, a few preachers (wacitIn)

in

the community

began

to express doubts, in private, that

the

Bujh Niraiijan was composed by FIr Sadr ad-DIn. Some felt

that,

if the

PIr

were indeed not

the author, then

the Blljh

Niraftjan was no longer a valid part

of

the ginan literature,

and

they consequently felt it necessary to stop quoting from the

work dudng their sermons.

8

Finally, in 1982, the issue

of

the

origin

of

the Bujh Niraftjan was raised by Mumtaz Ali Tajddin

Sadik Ali

in

the

privately-published

monograph

entitled

Authenticity of the

Buj

Nirinjan or Cognition of the

Omniscient.

The work discusses

the poem's

authenticity,

evolution and real

authorship

by

Pir

Sadaruddin 9 and

attempts to explain the existence

of

a version

of

the text among

the QadirI Sufis.

Sadik Ali represents the perspective of a pious and enthu

siastic

Sindhi

Ismaili

on the

sensitive

issue of

authorship.

Although this thesis argues that his work is erroneous in each

of its major

arguments,10

that work is

interesting

not only

because t

reflects the views of a large segment

of

the Ismaili

community,

but

also

because

it clearly lays out each of

the

significant arguments that can

be

marshalled in support of that

view.

It

is therefore a

convenient

point of departure for

the

discussion that follows.

21



According to Sadik Ali, after the Bl jb Niraftjan was writ

ten

by Prr Sadr ad-DIn, he introduced it to the Ismaili com

munity in Punjab.

From there

it

spread

only

to the

region

of

Sind.

Then,

as a result

of

proselytizing by

the

QadirI

Sufi

order in Punjab

and

Sind, some

of

the Ismailis in

that

region

broke with Ismailism

and

joined

the

Sunni fold, taking with

them

those Ismaili gin ns

that

were compatible with their new

religious affiliation. Among these works was the Biijb Niraft

jan.

12

In

Sadik

Ali's view,

among

some

QadirI

circles the

name of PIr Sadr

ad-DIn

was

eventually

dropped

from the

relevant verse of the Biijb Nirafljan, and the poem began to

be counted as the work of the Qadiri order. 13 This accounts,

he argues, for the existence of a manuscript of the Bl jb Niraft

jan in the Perso-Arabic script, a script traditionally foreign to

the

Nizari

Ismaili

community

of the

subcontinent. It

also

accounts for the mysterious absence of

the name

of Prr

Sadr

ad-DIn in the India Office manuscript.

To support his argument, Sadik Ali refers to two fragments

of

a Bujb Nirafljan manuscript said to

be

in

the

possession

of

one Shaikh NaimuddIn of the QadirI order in Bijapur.

4

Sadik

Ali himself has not

seen

the manuscript; he was

sent

only a

photocopy of

the

two pages

that

survive. By coincidence, the

first fragment contains the controversial verse

on

the basis

of

which Ismaili circles determine the authorship

of

the work. In

this manuscript, the verse contains the name of Shaikh Sadr

Shah. According to Sadik Ali, this name, is another form of

Prr Sadr

ad-DIn.

(This is plausible,

if not

necessarily

the

case.)

The

name, he says, was retained in the Bijapur fragment

because the scribe of the fragment belonged to a QadirI circle

that

considered

PIr

Sadr

ad-DIn

to be an

orthodox

Sufi

shaikh. IS

By

further

coincidence

the

second Bijapur fragment hap

pens to be a colophon. Whether it is a colophon of the same

manuscript

from which

the

first fragment survives

is

another

question, however

-

and one on

which no critic

can

yet pass

judgment since the original is

not

available for inspection.

6

Sadik Ali assumes

that

the two . ragments are

part of

the same

manuscript. While this opinion may be premature, let us

assume for

the present that

it is correct

in

order

to

follow his

argument: the colophon states that the manuscript form which

the Bijapur scribe worked dates from 1707-8, or about sixteen

22



years before

-the

date of the India Office manuscript. .To fur

ther support his view, Sadik Ali then refers to an old Khojki

manuscript of the Bujh Nirafijan in Multan. The lineal ascend

ant

of

this manuscript, which also mentions Prr Sadr ad-DIn,

apparently dates from 1688. In both cases Sadik Ali implicitly

assumes

that

no alterations were made between the older

manuscripts that we do not possess and the recent ones that we

do have. e argues that, since both the Bijapur fragments and

the Multan manuscript boast an ancestry that

is

older than the

India Office manuscript, and, since they both contain the name

of Prr Sadr ad-DIn, then we can undoubtedly hold thatthe Buj

Nirinjan was definitely composed and authored by Pir Sada

ruddin. 17

The next portion

of

this chapter reexamines in detail each

of

the

three bases set up by Sadik Ali to support his thesis:

evidence

internal to the poem

bearing

on the question of

authorship; the weight and reliability that should be accorded

to the Bijapur fragments and the Multan manuscripts; and

finally

the

historical contention

that

as early as the twelfth

century there was a rivalry between the QadirI order and the

Ismailis of the. subcontinent, and that the QadirIs were actively

engaged in a campaign of proselytizing Ismailis. (Unless the

last be true, Sadik Ali cannot account for the existence of the

gin n

in

two manuscripts written in the Perso-Arabic script -

the India

Office manuscript and the Bija-pur fragments.) In

each case we shall see that Sadik Ali's arguments are faulty:

first, because there

is

much textual evidence against authorship

either by Prr Sadr ad-DIn himself or by any other Ismaili dacr

of the

subcontinent; second, because

there

are serious diffi

culties with relying

on

either Bijapur fragments or the Multan

manuscript - difficulties

that

have only been hinted at above;

and third, because the contention of the QadirI-Ismaili rivalry

in the twelfth century is at

best a conjecture supported

by

little

historical evidence.

After traditional explanations have been cleared

away

the

third and final portion of the chapter offers a new and more

likely account of the origin of this marvelous contribution to

the devotional literature: namely, we have strong reason to

believe that the Bujh Niraiijan was indeed originally composed

in QadirI Sufi circles.

23



The Ismaili Origin of the Bujh Nirafijan Reconsidered

Internal Evidence of Authorship

The issue

of

authorship may be considered

on

two levels:

within the textual context of the Bujh Niraftjan and within the

context of the gin n literature as a whole. Claims to

an

author

ship by PIr

Sadr

ad-DIn are based on the verse in poem 33 in

the Ismaili versions, which translates,

Know the path of Pir SadardIn which

is

eternally accepted,

Of

all the Prophets, the crown

is

the bridegroom Prophet

[Mubanimad]

However in the India Office manuscript, in which this

poem

33

occurs as poem 13 the same verse reads,

Know the

path of the

Prophet (nabI) which

is eternally

accepted

On

the head of the Prophets, the crown

is

the bridegroom

Prophet [Mubammad]

Metrically, this verse

is

composed on the dohrah (doha)18

meter, which requires

the

first line to have a total

of

twenty

four matras (metrical instants). A caesura divides the line into

two

parts

of thirteen and eleven matras. As all

the

other

dohrahs in

the Bujh

Nirafijan

adhere

to this prosodial rule,

there is no

reason

to expect

that

this

dohrah

would be an

exception. But when this line is

scanned

in a

reading

that

includes the

name

PIT

Sadr

ad-DIn or a variant of the name

such as Shaikh Sadr Shah, then the number of matras in

the

line totals thirty

or

thirty-one. Furthermore,

the

first division

of the line

(earan),

which contains the name of the PIr, has a

total of twenty or

twenty one

matras instead of t ~ e usual

thirteen. On the

other

hand, with the· term nabI, as occurs in

the text of the India Office manuscript, the count of twenty

four matras is maintained. From the point of view of prosody,

the

term

nabI

is

a far more likely reading

than Prr

SadardIn. .

The

contents of the other verses in

poem 13

also confirm

that

the

term

nabl

is more appropriate in this verse.

The

line

that immediately follows and structurally completes the dohrah

makes it clear that the

person mentioned

can have only been

the Prophet Mubammad. He alone, considered the last of the

Prophets (khatim ul.,arilbiya u r ~ a n Sura 33:40), is the crown

of all the, Prophets. Similarly, the term dulah nabl (bridegroom

Prophet) is a distinctive epithet of the Prophet Mu4ammad in

24



popular

Islaniic literature.

19

If further evidence were needed,

verses preceding

the dohrah

also mention the merits of follow

ing the

path

of the Prophet -

rah

nabl and

mag ~ d

kera.

And the

first line

of

the

third

quatrain

of the same

poem

goes

on to mention sunnat, a term

associated

with the custom or

habit of

the

Prophet.

It

should therefore

be

evident that, in the

context of this poem, the ,name

Prr

Sadr ad-DIn

is

simply out of

place. '

Considering

the

work as a whole, it

is

again clear

that the

term PIr Sadr

ad-DIn

is incongruous. One of the central con

cepts of the Biijh Niraiijan

is

the

importance

of following the

path under the

guidance

of

an appropriate religious

and

spir

itual guide. This

theme is

stressed throughout.

If in the

above

v e r s e ~ the path preached

by PIr Sadr ad-DIn were intended, it

is

strange

that

even in

the

Ismaili version the

name

of this PIr

is

not

mentioned

in any other

part

of the work in connection with

some

aspect of the

spiritual path. By contrast, references to

the Prophet

Mul)ammad

and his importance on the spiritual

path

are

abundant.

He

intercedes for

and

guides

the

commun

ity

(ummat)

(poem

6,

quatrain 3).

He a p p e a ~ s

as

part

of the

spiritual progression so

important

in Sufi thought: knowledge

(macrua) of God

is

possible only through the mediation first of

the

shaikh

or guru and then of the Prophet.

20

According to

the famous l a d l ~ qudsl in which

God is

reported as saying,

ana abmad bila mIm

(I

am

Al)mad [Mul)ammad] without

the

letter m that

is

a1}.ad one ) to which

there

is an allusion in

the

Biijb Nirafijan,

true

unity

(taw1;1Id)

cannot

be

realized with

out the mediation of the Prophet (poem

6,

quatrain

4 and,

dohrah).

The

light

of the Prophet

(nur-i mu1.tammadI) is also

mentioned in its

relation

to the shaikh or

guru

for the guru as

the representative of the Prophet

is also

the

essence of

Muhammadan light

(poem

10, quatrain 1; poem 9, quatrain 1).

Acceptance of the teachings and commands of the

Prophet

and

adherence to the

path

laid

out by

him are,

according

to the

Biijh

Niraftjan,

essential prerequisites

for

progress

on the

spiritual path (poem

12;

poem

13,

quatrain

4

and dohrah;

poem

14). Thus the general tenor of the work as a whole leads

to the conclusion that

in

the controversial verse only a term

referring to

the Prophet

could have been employed.

It has

been

indicated above that one of the

differences

between the India Office manuscript and the traditional Ismaili

25



version

lies

in the sequence and placement of

individual

poems. Not surprisingly, one of the significant features

of

this

disparity

is

in regard to the placement of the poem to which

the

authorship

verse belongs. In the India Office manu-

script,

this verse occurs in poem 13,

in the middle of

a

sequence

of three

poems concerned with the theme

of

the

shanca (divine law) and the necessity for strict adherence to it.

In the Ismaili version, however, this entire poem

13 occurs at

the end of

the Bojh Niraiijan (i.e., as poem 33), so that its

dohrah becomes the final verse of the work.

Such a placement

is

plainly suspicious.

n

examination of

the

arrangement

of

poems in

the

Bojh Niraiijan as a whole

reveals that the authorship verse and its associated poem do

not belong to the end of the work. Poem 13 (as it occurs in the

India Office manuscript) concerns itself with the basic duties of

a seeker who, at the beginning of a spiritual journey, must ful-

fill the obligations of the first stage on the path, the shan<at.

The poem thus belongs in sequence with

poems 12

and 14

which deal with the same theme. It should also be noticed that

the first quatrain of poem

14

beginning with' the line ''whoever

has accepted this path, takes up the exhortation to accept the

path of

the

Prophet

as found in the last verses

of poem

13.

This continuity is lost in the Ismaili version, where poem

13

occurs at the end of the work.

Poem 13 is not the only poem in the Ismaili version that

seems obviously misplaced. Four others (numbers 17 18 19

and

20

in the India Office manuscript) are concerned with the

second stage

of

tarIqat and the agonies

of

divine love, yet in

the Ismaili version they are grouped at the end of the work in a

fashion

that

defies understanding. I t

is

peculiar, to say the

least, that a didactic work on the stages

of

the mystical

path

should be so haphazard as to first deal with the preliminary

stage of the sharJCat, then to move on to the third stage of

lJaqrqat, and then focus attention again to the lower stages of

sharJCat and larIqat.

21

To anyone with even a rudimentary

acquaintance with Sufi theories

of

spiritual progress, such an

ordering

of

the poems

is

clearly wrong.

On

the other hand, the

sequence

of

poems in the India Office manuscript conforms

closely to hierarchy.of stages traditionally outlined in Sufism,

leading us to the conclusion that this manuscript preserves the

sequence in which the work was originally composed.

22

26



No reaso·nable explanation can account for the misplace

ment

of

these four poems. But one has only to examine the

structure of most ginans to discover the likely reason for the

misplacement of

poem

13

in the Ismaili version. Traditionally,

in a ginan the name

of

the composer occurs

in

the last verse.

This convention is

similar

to

the takhallus

in Arabic and

Persian poetry or the bhaQita or signature line in Hindi poetry.

By

replacing the name of the Prophet with the name of the PIr

in

poem 13

and moving the

poem

to the end of the work, the

inference

is

created that the PIr was the author.

In spite of this alteration and rearrangement, however, the

verse in its Ismaili version still does not conform to standard

ginanic usage. For in such usage, authorship

is

nearly always

indicated

in

the final verse by means of one of several fixed

expressions explicitly stating that a certain PIr was responsible

for the work's composition.

These

expressions commonly

include kahave (said), boliya (recited), farmave

or

bhat;lave

(instructed),

or other

similar verbs. Not surprisingly, the last

verse

of the

Ismaili version of

the

Bujh Niraftjan, though it

includes PIr Sadr ad-DIn's name, uses none of these standard

expressions.

In

fact, the verse

is

not even an explicit statement

of authorship by PIr Sadr ad-DIn. This anomaly

is

yet another

indication of the non-Ismaili origin of the Bujh Niranjan.

What other internal evidence

bears

on

the

question of

authorship? Sadik Ali argues that the dialect used in the Bujh

Niraiijan is quite identical to the dialects llsed in other gin ns

and that

the

terminology used in the work

is

seen

in other

ginans of Pir Sadardin. Readers are therefore asked to con

clude that in

the

light of the

language

and

terminology

allegedly belonging to Ismailism,

the

Bujh Niraftjan was

written by PIr Sadr ad-DIn.

23

The argument

based on dialect

is

faulty. While it is true

that the

ginan

literature

favors

the

use of Indian vernaculars

such as Kachchi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Hindi, and Punjabi over

classical Islamic languages such as

Arabic and

Persian, the

Ismaili daCJs were

not

the only members of the Muslim com

munity

of

medieval India to employ these vernaculars in their

compositions. At least from the early fourteenth century, Sufis

belonging to many different orders also turned to the Indian

vernaculars in order to be more effective in· spreading their

27



message.

24

In

the

process, respectable Sufi literary traditions

developed in several Indian languages such as Bengali, Hindi,

Dakhni, Sindhi,

and

Punjabi.

Hence

the use of a Hindi dialect

in

the

Bfijb Niraftjan does

not

help us decide

whether the

work

s

Sufi or Ismaili in origin.

SadikAli s

argument

based on terminology is equally

unconvincing. Certain terms, he says,

are

peculiar

to

the

ginans, especially those ginans composed by PIr

Sadr

ad-DIn.

The

specific terms he

refers to

are pritam, piyu, niraftjan,

jagpati, lalan, sajan, shah, guru, darsan, and naklaftk. 25 There

is,

however, nothing

specifically

Ismaili

about these terms:

they are all commonly

used

in several

North

Indian vernacu

lars.

The

only term in Sadik

Ali s

list that

could

belong

exclusively to the terminology of the Indian Ismaili tradition s

naklaiik, or more correctly, nakalaftki.

In

the gin n

literature

this term refers to

the

tenth

avatar

of the

Hindu

god Vishnu,

who according to ginanic precepts is identical to the Imam.26

But comparing the various manuscripts,

one

finds

that

nakalaftld occurs

in

the

Ismaili

version

of

the

Bfijh

Niraiijan

only because of

a fortuitous

corruption of the

phrase

nib

kalaftk k r making [you] without blemish).

Indeed, on the basis of its terminology, especially the

technical Sufi terms of Arabic and Persian origin, a strong case

can be made against an Ismaili origin for the BujhNiraiijan.

27

No

other

composition attributed to PIr Sadr ad-DIn or to any

other

author of an Ismaili ginan employs the type of Arabic

and Persian

terms

found

in

this work.

Use of

such

terms

is

uncharacteristic for

the

very

reason

that the ginan literature is

in the vernacular: it is a literature that avoids a vocabulary

that would be foreign to a rural, uneducated, Indian popula-

tion.

The

Bfijh Niraftjan is in this

respect,

as

in

others, the

exception.

Not

surprisingly in Ismailimanuscripts

of the

work,

these Arabic and Persian terms have been particularly vulner

able

to distortion and corruption, in some cases beyond recog

nition.

28

Indeed, such terms were

so

alien to

the

Ismaili

community

of the

subcontinent that the original terms became

apparent, and the Ismaili version could be corrected, only in

1976, after the discovery of

the

India Office manuscript.

Sadik Ali implicitly acknowledges that the high level of

Arabic and Persian is unusual for a ginan. He suggests, how-

28



ever, that PIr Sadr ad-DIn employed this terminology because

Sufism was prevalent in the Punjab, the region in which he

believes

the

Bujh Niraftjan was first composed. Moreover,

according to him,

the

Sufi environment also inspired the PIr

to bring forth a work to justify Ismailism among Sufi

circles."Z9 He also suggests that the Ismaili version contains

Shiite Ismaili teachings.3

0

But

there

is little in the

Bujh

Niraftjan that would characterize it as a· specifically Ismaili

work, let

alone justify Ismailism against Sufi "attacks."

The

concept of the Imam, which

is

so central to Ismaili thought,

is

not mentioned even once in the work. In addition, none of the

theological concepts and terms that characterize the Nizari

Ismaili tradition as it developed in the Indian subcontinent are

found in the Bujh Nirafljan For example, the equation of the

Shii Imam to the tenth avatar of Vishnu, a theme which perme

ates and influences, in one

way

or another, significant portions

of the ginan literature (and indeed many works attributed to

PIr Sadr

ad-DIn),

is conspicuously

absent from the

Bujh

Niraiijan.

31

To recapitulate, the internal evidence from the Bujh

Niraiijan - alone and when placed in the broader context of the

ginan literature - indicate that the authorship of the work

by

PIr Sadr ad-DIn is most improbable.

The Multan Manuscript and Bijapur Fragments

The second major foundation for Sadik Ali's thesis that the

Bujh Niraiijan has an Ismaili origin

is

built on two manuscripts:

a manuscript

of an

Ismaili version written in'the Khojki script

and found in Multan and two fragments in the Perso-Arabic

script, originating from the QadirI Sufi order in Bijapur. Sadik

Ali contends that

both

manuscripts contain texts of the Bujb

Nirafljan transmitted from a period earlier than the transcrip

tion date of the India Office manuscript, and that both manu

scripts also contain the name of PIr Sadr ad-DIn or a variant of

it, Shaikh Sadr Shah. He consequently asserts that this is con

clusive proof that PIr Sadr ad-DIn composed the original work.

f only textual analysis were such a simple process In fact

it is not, and

neither of

these manuscripts can

support

the

weight of Sadik Ali's arguments.

To begin with, there are serious doubts about the textual

authenticity

of

the Multan manuscript. According to its colo-

9



phon, the original version of the manuscript was copied some

time before 1688. In itself, of course, this does not prove that

the text

of

the Bojh Nirafijan found in the Multan manuscript

also dates from

the period before

1688; it could have

been

incorporated into the manuscript at a much later stage in the

transmission. Alterations (as well

as

mistakes) by scribes from

one manuscript to another were quite common. Mter all, that

is how texts change over time. In this case, if we compare the

text of the Multan manuscript with other Ismaili texts, we find

that the Multan text probably does not date earlier

than

the

twentieth century. From the three other Khojki manuscripts of

the Bujh Niraiijan

that

are presently known,

it

is

evident that

the Ismaili version had a lacuna in the text for poem

5

(num

ber

2 in the

ndia

Office manuscript). When in the early

twentieth century printed editions

of

the text were produced,

this lacuna was filled in with metrically defective verses written

in a heavily Gujaratized Hindustani. These verses were later

dropped from the · 976 and

98

editions of the Bujh Nirafijan

printed by the

Ismailia Associatons for Pakistan

and

India,

respectively. But the Multan text,

as

transcribed

by

Sadik Ali,

contains these very twentieth-century verses. Hence the likeli

hood that this text could

date

to 1688

or

even

earlier

is in

serious doubt. t is much more likely that the Multan text is a

product

of

our own century. .

s for the Bijapur fragments, for the sake of argument let

us assume, as does Sadik Ali,

that

they

are

part ·of a single

manuscript. One

of

the fragments contains PIr Sadr ad-DIn's

name in the authorship verse. But contrary to what Sadik

Ali asserts, this verse does not settle the matter. One would

like to know, for example, whether the authorship verse and

its associated poem were placed according to the sequence in

the India Office manuscript (i.e., poem 13) or accordng to the

Ismaili sequence (Le.,

at

the end) or possibly in yet another

sequence. Also, if we compare the Bijapur text of the poem

associated with the authorship verse with other versions,

we

find that, although the text

of

the Bijapur manuscript is on the

whole similar to

that

of the India Office manuscript,32 there

are differences which may be significant. Sadik Ali uses one of

these differences - the name

of

Shaikh Sadr Shah appears in

the Bijapur manuscript instead of nahl as found in the India

Office manuscript - to support his argument.

30



But

where

does this text come from and how old

is

it?

Sadik Ali points to the colophon, which references an earlier

version from 1707-8, and insists that the Bijapur manuscript

therefore

has

better

authority

than

the India

Office manu

script, which

itself

dates from 1724. But once again, he is

merely assuming that the text underwent no alterations since

the

early

eighteenth

century.

nd

once again, internal evi

dence indicates that this assumption is probably false.

For

example, the second line of the second quatrain in the Bijapur

text contains the word sab.l which

is

metrically superfluous and

which does not occur in the India Office manuscript. Indeed,

this word occurs only in the texts

of the

Ismaili version that

were printed at the

turn of

the twentieth century. Also the

word sabh occurs in the second line of the dohrah only in the

Bijapur manuscript and the Ismaili texts.

This similarity between the Bijapur and Ismaili versions

raises the possibility of a relationship between the two versions.

Whether

a relationship does, in fact, exist might perhaps be

clarified only

if

other

portions

of

the

Bijapur text if it

is

a

single text) were available for analysis. Obviously, until the

question

of

the relationship is resolved, it is unwarranted to

regard

the

Bijapur manuscript as

an

independent QadirI ver

sion

of

the Bujh Nirafijan that corroborates the authorship

by

PIr

Sadr

ad-DIn.

The

possibility that

the

Bijapur text

or

its

ancestor may have been influenced by the Ismaili version or its

ancestor cannot be ruled out.

The solution

of

the problems surrounding both the Multan

manuscript and the Bijapur fragments

is

made all the more dif

ficult by

the

fact that both manuscripts appear to

be i n c ~

cessible for further study and research.

The

Alleged Rivalry between the QadirI Order and

the

Ismailis

The

most obvious explanation for the existence of the Bujh

Niraiijan in the Perso-Arabic script among the QadirIs

is

that it

originated there. This explanation

is

also consistent with the

great

weight of the evidence. In order to avoid it, however,

Sadik Ali postulates that, though it was written by PIr Sadr ad

DIn, the Bujh Nirafijan was introduced into QadirI circles by

Ismailis who, through the proselytizing activities of the Qadirrs,

had been converted to Sunni Islam.

33

Relying exclusively on

31



Ansar Zahid Khan's account of the QadirI Sufi order in the

book History and Culture

of

Sind, Sadik Ali reaches the con

clusion that the QadirIS had a

hostile operation against the

Ismailis in Sind.

But, as we shall see in a moment, Khan's account on the

activities of the early QadirIs and their alleged mission to

stem the tide of Ismailism rampant in Sind during the 12th and

13th centuries,,34 is based on historical conjecture. All the

major studies on the history of Sufism are in agreement that

the major Sufi orders in the subcontinent in the twelfth and

thirteenth centuries were the ChishtIs and the SuhrawardIs.

No source mentions any concerted effort

by

the QadirI order

during this period to counteract Ismaili activities.3

5

All studies

indicate that the Qadirls, as Khan himself admits,36 did not

begin

to playa

prominent role in the subcontinent until the

fifteenth century. Admittedly there has been remarkedly little

scholarship on the history of the early QadirIs in the subcon

tinent,

but none

of the historical chronicles covering

the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries makes any mention of an

organized

QadirI

mission against

the

Ismailis of Sind and

Punjab. Indeed, Khan himself does not cite any source or evi

dence to support his bold assertion that for the Sumrah period

(Le., 1058-1348) there are accounts of QadirI Sufis who gen

erally concentrated around the Thatta region, to counteraCt the

Ismailis.,,37 .

For the fifteenth century Khan conjectures that, since the

mission of some of the important QadirIs, such as Shaikh

Yasuf ad-DIn and Shaikh Mul)ammad G a u ~ coincides with the

activities

of

the Ismaili daCJs they were responsible for weak

ening the hold that the Ismailis apparently held over Sind.

38

An examination of Khan's sources on the activities

of

these

Sufis, however, reveals that they contain no references whatso

ever to their alleged anti-Ismaili mission. Nor are there any

references to confrontations with Ismaili daCfs.

For

the

account

on

Shaikh Yasuf ad-DIn, for example, he relies on the

Bombay Gazetteer.

39

In its turn, the account of the Shaikh in

the Bombay Gazetteer

is

based on a Meman treatise Nuzhat

al-Akhbar, which focuses

on

the legendary role the shaikh

played in the establishment of

the Meman community of the

subcontinent. According to this treatise, Shaikh Yasuf ad-DIn

came to Sind in the early fifteenth century40 as a result of a

32



miraculous dream in which he was ordered to set sail for that

region. There he proceeded to convert the Hindus in the area

of Thatta, but because of strong opposition from Hindu priests

he returned to Iraq after receiving his followers' assurance

that they would continue to support his descendants as their

religious heads. 41 There is nothing in this account to support

the conclusion that the shaikh was on an anti-Ismaili mission.

The case with the other source is also identical: the account of

Shaikh Mul)ammad a u ~ (arrived in Sind in 1482) in the

KhazInat u l - ~ f i y a to which Khan refers, also makes no refer

ence to any conversions the shaikh may have made of Ismailis

to SunnI Islam.

42

While the legendary and hagiographic literature of the

Ismaili community does reflect some tension in the thirteenth

and fourteenth centuries between the Ismaili dacrs and the

most powerful Sufi order of the region, the SuhrawardIs, there

is no mention of any problems with the QadirIs.43 Indeed, it

would be surprising to find any evidence of tension and rivalry

between the QadirIs and the Ismailis because in the medieval

period the QadirIs of this area appeared to have been tolerant.

Writing about QadirI attitudes in the late fifteenth century, a

period soon after the order's establishment in the area, Khan

himself points out that the QadirIs did not appear to be

inclined to any confrontation with either any rival silsilah or

ever with any political authority.,,44 In the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries, as well, the order was in a very liberal

phase especially in the Punjab, and it extended tolerance even

to the Hindus and their culture. The QadirI order has in fact

been called the most tolerant Sufi order in India in the mid

seventeenth century.45 f this had not been the case, then

certainly the liberal Prince Dara Shikoh would not have been

attracted to the circle of the famous QadirI Sufi of Lahore,

Mian

MIr

(d. 1635).

Admittedly, the paucity of historical evidence does not

necessarily indicate that tensions between the Ismaili and local

QadirIs were nonexistent. But that

is

a far

cry

from saying

as

Khan does, that

the few Qadiris whose accounts are available generally

concentrated around Thatta region to counteract Ismailis.

The Qadiris are generally credited to have continued their

efforts against the Ismailis even after the termination of

33

i

\



the Sumtah rule

to

ensure

against

the

revival of Ismaili

bujjats The

Qadiris

also worked steadfastly to

counteract their [Ismailis ] efforts in the region

of

Sind.

46

We simply have

no

historical evidence to

support

such state

ments. Consequently, Sadik Ali s hypothesis -

that the

Bujb

Niraiijan came to be known as a QadirI work because of a con

version of Ismailis by the QadirIs - is also without support. In

fact,

both

textual and literary evidence point overwhelmingly to

a non-Ismaili origin for the work.

The Sufi Origin of the Bujb Niraiijan

f

the

Bujb Niraiijan was

written

neither by Prr

Sadr

ad

DIn nor by any other Ismaili daCJ who did write it? Unfortu

nately, we cannot answer this question with certainty on the

basis of existing evidence. We can, however, say with convic

tion that the work has a North Indian origin, and we can also

pointto

a considerable textual evidence indicating

that

it was

written

either by the QadirI

ShauarI

saint

I I a ~ r a t

Shaikh clsa

lundallah (962-1031 A.H./AD. 1555-1621), or by someone in

his circle. As to geography, the use of the aupar and

dohrab

verse forms in the Btljb Niraiijan firmly place

the

work within

the

Sufi

tradition of North

India, for during this

period

these

were the verse forms most commonly used in the region for

long poetic compositions in Hindustani and dialects. The Sufis

of the Deccan,

on

the other hand,

appear

to have preferred the

Persian m ~ n a w form for

their

longer compositions.

47

The

frequent occurrence of postpositions from Braj, the Hindi

dialect most commonly used

in

medieval poetry, also points to

a North Indian origin

The textual evidence is more complex. Shaikh clsa

lundallah belonged to a family of Sindhi saints and scholars

who fled from their homeland

in

the wake of the turmoil

caused by the Mughal Humayun s army around 1540.

48

Even

tually

he

settled in Burhanpur, a town of great strategic

importance

in

the

medieval period, and

which,

under

the

Emperor

Aurangzeb, became the Mughal headquarters for the

Deccan.

The Shaikh was popularly known by the title MasIb

al-Auliya (the Messiah of

the

Saints),

a title undoubtedly

connected

with his

proper name

elsa. Significantly,

the India

Office manuscript

introduces

poem 9, which deals with

the

spiritual importance of

the

shaikh or guru, with the

Persian

34



caption, dar mad1)-i masIb

az-zatnan

nur-i subbanI,

~ t

shah

(In praise

of the Messiah of the Age, the light of

the

Divine,

l:I3+rat Shah).

In

the same poem, quatrain

1,

line 3,

masIba

is

used

again as an epithet for the shaikh or the guru. Clearly

there

is a possibility

that

this could

be

a reference to Shaikh

elsa Jundallah, MasIl) al-Auliya.

The MasIb al-Auliya was a prolific

writer

of

prose and

poetry on

mystical subjects, particularly

dn the

divine

names

(asma:> al-busna).He also wrote mystical commentaries oli

badI§ such

as

man

carafa nafsahu faqad

carafa rabbahu (he

who knows himself, knows God). Significantly, the wabdat al

wujud (unity of Being) type

of

mysticism

that

permeates

the

Bujh Niraftjan was prevalent in the works produced by him and

his disciples. For example,

Baba

Fatl) Mul)ammad Mul)addis

(d. 1080

A.H./

A.D. 1669-70),

the

shaikh's son

and

foremost

disciple,

wrote

a m ~ n a w

in

Persian on the theme

of wabdat

al-wujud

and

the various stages by which the Divine

Emanation

descends

into

the

world and

becomes manifest in

all crea

tion.49

What

is

more significant

is

the shaikh himself

is

said to

be

the

author o

a short Persian

treatise, Risala-i daqIqa,50

describing the different stages

in

the

descent

of the Divine

Essence.

51

This

is

the same

subject

treated in

the first five

poems of the Blljh Niraftjan. Remarkably, both works, though

in

different languages, introduce the relevant terminology and

concepts

in

n almost similar sequence

and

stylistic presenta

tion. Several lines

of

the Bujh Niraiijan

appear

in fact to have

been influenced by this Persian treatise.

For

example, in the

discussion on the world

of

spirits (caIam-i arwa.b.),

the

Persian

text says, The

angel

who is in the first rank in

the

caIam-i

arwal1 is calledrubu:>l qudus

and

finally he

is Gabriel

[jibI1l-i

amIn]. 52

The

second

quatrain of poem

4

of the

Blljh Niraii

jan, which discusses the affairs

of

the caIam-i arwab., begins:

First there is the vision

of

the rohu:>l qudus,

Which finally becomes the epithet

of

Gabriel.

Discussing the stage of divinity (uluhIyat), the Persian text

reads, This consists

of

the manifestation

of

the whole pleroma

of

divine attributes

jaIJllC-i

~ i f a t - i ilahI ijmahin) [The term]

rabb

(Lord) is used when these divine attributes find specifi

cation

( t a f ~ I l ) / 5 3 The

corresponding ~ i n d u s t n i lines in t h ~

35



Bujb Niraiijan

(poem

2, quatrain 4) read:

When

there

is

the

pleroma [jam

C

]

of all the [divine] names

It

is said ulnhIyat [divinity] is from that,

And [attributerrabb [Lord] [arises] when

there

is speci

fication

[taf I1]

Only

the

perceptive

one

will understand.

The

last line

of the quatrain

-

bujhe bujbanharjo kOI -

strongly

echoes the Arabic expression used several times in

the

treatise,

fahima

man

fahima

( He

who understands, understands ).

Another striking parallel occurs in

other

verses. The

Persian treatise describes

the

world

of

symbols (caIam-i

~

as consisting

of subtle

form compounds

~ u w a r . . : i

murakkabat-i

lapfa)

that

are

beyond analysis

and

differentiation (qabil-i tajzI

o tabcq; nIstand). Consequently, this world of symbols is itself

beyond analysis. 54 The third

quatrain

of poem 4 of

the

Bujb

Niraiijan, after describing the caIam-i as

one

whose forms

are pure and

perfect,

says

in

Hindustani:

van juz aur b a ~

mu1;tal.

The

author

intends by this

line

that division and

analysis

of them

(i.e.,

the

forms) is impossible.55

The

use

of

the word juz (part, portion;

component part)

in

conjunCtion

with b a ~ (some,

some

few; diverse; miscellaneous) is signifi

cant.

When

we

turn to the

Persian

treatise

we find

the

word

tajzI,

the

verbal

noun

from

the

same

root

as

juz

being used

in

conjunction with

t a b ~ t ~ e

verbal noun from the same

root

as

b a ~ in an

identical context.

The

combination

of

the words

juz

and b a ~

in

this context

in

the Bojh Nirafijan may

be

a coinci

dence,

but

a

more

likely

explanation

is

that the composer

of

the

Bojb Nirafijan

had

this Persian treatise in mind.

After

a description

of the

calam-i

mi ,al,

the

author of the

Persian

treatise

proceeds to

summarize

the

different

states of

descent

that

he

has discussed till

that

point:

First the

emanation [fai+] of

the

Absolute Bountiful One

[ f a i y a ~ i mullaq] reaches

the

world of spirits

[Calam-i

arwatt]; from

there

to

the

world

of

symbols

[ c a I a m i ~ ]

and

from these to the sensible

or

perceptible world [caIam

•

l . ; ,

] 56

l ~ ~

Significantly, at exactly a similar point in the Bojh Nirafijan we

have an

almost identical

summary. The

quatrains

of

poem

4

discussing the world of symbols (calam-i

~ are

followed by

this summary in the first quatrain

of poem

5:

36



First from the Bountiful One

f a i y ~ ]

comes the emanation

[ f ~ ]

Then

it appears in the [world

of]

spirits

[arwab];

From there it comes to [the world of] symbols [ ~ a l ]

After passing which it reaches [the world of] perception

[shahadat] .

This quatrain is obviously a rendering of the Persian original

into Hindustani verse. Such remarkable affinities and similari

ties between the first poems of the Bojh Niranjan and the cor

responding sections of the Risala-i daqIqa confirm our conten

tion that the composer

of

the Bojh Niranjan probably belonged

to the circle of Sufis who were influenced by the thought and

writings

of

the

MasIb

al-Auliya.

Persian and Arabic were of course the most common lit

erary languages

in

the circle of the MasrQ al-Auliya, but

<Hindustani was also used. Quoting from an account written by

Shaikh Burhan

ad-DIn

Raz-iIlahI, another

disciple of

the

Shaikh, Rashid BurhanpOrI writes that the MasIl} al-Auliya was

once asked the question, What

is

the world? In reply, the

shaikh recited a doha in Hindustani:

je

harr ku bisarawe sahr; duniya naiivan usI ka kahI.

57

The

fact

that the

shaikh chose to answer in Hindustani indi

cates that the language was in common use in that Sufi circle.

It

is

not improbable that the MasIl} al-Auliya or his followers

may have written poems of a popular nature in Hindustani

Hindi, especially if we keep in mind that the Qadirr Sufi poets

of Sind and Punjab were instrumental in developing the use of

the vernaculars Sindhi and Punjabi for mystical poetry. Any

Hindustani-Hindi poems that may have

been

composed

by

the

shaikh or his followers were not

recorded

in the standard

biographies because, composed as they were in an Indian lan

guage, they

were not important

enough in

the

eyes of

the

biographer.

Indeed

Rashid Burhanpl1rI, whose book is the

leading

study

on the

Sufis

of

Burhanpl1r, believes

that

the

MasIb al-Auliya was responsible for many more works than the

thirteen

titles mentiqned in Mubammad Gau§I's biographical

account

of

medieval Indian sufis, the Gulzar-i abrar.

5

The process by which the Ismailis first came into contact

with the Bojh Niraiijan would form a fascinating study of sec

tarian interaction in Indo-Muslim society. That

is

a study that

37



is unfortunately not possible without much more textual and

historical information than we now have, but there are a few

things we can say on this point. There is some evidence to sug

gest that the work first entered the Ismaili milieu in the Pun

jab. In the course of an interview with Mukhi Mehar Hussain,

a seventy-eight-year-old Ismaili elder from Karachi, Sadik Ali

was informed that the B:ujh

Niraiijan was introduced among

the

Arora tribe

of

Punjab

either by

Pir Sadaruddin

or

his

descendant. Since these gupti [concealed] Ismailis used to

keep their books secret, the Bujh Niraftjan could not become

popular in other parts of India till the 19th century.,,59 The

elder also mentions that for some inexQlicable reason some

Sufi orders were familiar with the poem.

6O

Sadik Ali presents other evidence to indicate that, though

the Bujh Nirafljan had been accepted into the corpus of the

ginan literature in the Punjab, this was not the case in areas

outside this region,.p'articularly Gujarat, Kutch, and Kathiawar.

He mentions, for example, that an early nineteenth-century

man.uscript originating from Surat in Gujarat and claiming to

contain all the compositions of the ginan

literature, does not

include the Bujh Niranjan among its

contents.

61

On

the other

hand,

the

Bujh Niraftjan is included in a contemporaneous

ginan manuscript from Lahore in the Punjab.

62

Furthermore,

elderly Ismailis of Junagadh in Kathiawar maintain that they

had never heard of the work until the early decades

of

the

twentieth century, when they saw a printed text that came from

Bombay.63

The

Punjab is, in fact, a likely point of contact

between the Ismailis and Sufis, for the region, especially in the

area around Ucch and Multan, in addition to having been a

center of

Ismaili missionary activity (as evidenced by the

shrines of important Ismaili daCJs in the area),64 was also the

headquarters of the SuhrawardI and QadirI orders and hence a

major center of Sufi activity.

Considered within the context of Islamic intellectual and

religious history,

it

is not at all surprising

that

a Sufi

poem

should

be

accepted

by

and be of relevance to an Ismaili audi

ence. s Marshall Hodgson points out, Sufism and Ismailism,

because of their emphasis on the esoteric and inward aspects

of

the faith, represent similar tendencies within the Islamic

tradition.

65

The influence of Ismailism on the development of

Sufi orders has also been suggested,66 and there seem to be

38



strong intelleCtual and social links between the two movements

that

only recently have

begun

to be

elaborated.

67

Ivanow

points out the similarity between Sufi and Ismaili schemes of

stages

in

spiritual and ethical development,

and he

also

suggests

that

Ismaili theories may have influenced Mabmod

ShabistarI's Gulshan-i raz, a popular Sufi treatise of the early

fourteenth century in which the concept of the Imam takes the

form of the qulb, the person around whom the universe

revolves.

68

Furthermore, Marshall Hodgson remarks that the

position of the Imam in the cosmology of Nizari Ismailism is

similar to that of the Sufi insan-i kamil or Perfect Man.

69

In

the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, after

the collapse of the Ismaili state in Alamut, the relationship

between the

two movements in 'the

Iranian

context becomes

more difficult to define, because in order to protect itself from

persecution, Nizari Ismailism took on the guise of Sufi tarIqah

whose pIr was the Imam.70 Ismaili writers in the post-Alamut

period resorted to expressing Ismaili ideas

by concealing them

within

the

framework

of

symbolic Sufi expessions. The result

ing Sufico-Ismaili style, as Ivanow terms it, makes it difficult

to

determine

the

nature

of a substantial portion of literature

from the period: Is it sufic with a strong Ismaili colouring, or

an

Ismaili work, too enthusiastically camouflaged as sufic? 71

We

are

dealing

here

with obscurities

that are

definitional as

well as historical.

t is

important to emphasize this close yet ambiguous rela

tionship between Sufism and Ismailism in the Iranian context,

for in

the

subcontinent some of the same ambiguity was also

retained.7

2

The Nizari

Ismaili

daCJs

of

the subcontinent

appear to have continued the tradition of using a Sufic guise

in order not to draw attention to their activities and thus fore

stall persecution.7

3

It

is well known that, to this day, the

famous Ismaili

daCfs

PIr Shams (Shams Tabrez), Prr Sadr ad

DIn (I:IajI

Sadr

Shah), and Prr I:IasanKabIr ad-DIn (I:Iasan

Darya)

are

still revered as Sufic pIrs of a Sunni persuasion.74

The use

of

Sufi terminology within the Ismaili community -

jamacat khanah,

mund,

murshId, ism-i a ~ a m

Zikr

- as well as

the strong similarities between the poetic forms and symbolism

, of the mystical compositions in the Ismaili ginan literature and

Sufi poetry written in Punjabi and Sindhi,75 also assisted the

community in

the

subcontinent to represent itself as one

9



among many mystically inclined groups, both Sufi and Hindu.

The stress on esotericism within the Ismaili tradition in the

Indian Subcontinent not only gave the movement a Sufic flavor

but

also engendered within the community a proclivity toward

all kinds of mystical

literature,

particularly mystical poetry.

Not surprisingly, for several centuries, mystical'poetry in the

North Indian vernacular from the bhakti and sant has enjoyed

great

popularity within the community.

The

occurrence

of

mystical

poetry

from diverse sources in

numerous

Khojki

manuscripts 76 bears eloquent testimony to the strength

of

this

inclination.

Even

today

in

their

sermons, Ismaili

Waci?;In

preachers) are not

averse to quoting extensively from Sufi

works such as

the

M3$,nawI

of Maulana

Jalal ad-DIn RomI,

though such quotations usually have to

be

translated into the

language of their audience.

77

The close

relationship

between the Ismaili and the Sufi

movements and the Ismaili inclination toward mystical poetry

may thus be two factors

that

would explain the adoption of the

Bojh Niranjan, a Sufi work, by the Ismaili community. Esoteric

poetry, by its very nature, lends itself to multiple meanings and

levels of interpretation that are not necessarily consistent.

Thus, even though there are no specifically Ismaili elements in

the

Bfijh NirafJ.jan, it would not be difficult to advance in

Ismaili interpretation for many of its verses.

For

example,

since the

Imam

in Ismailism performs some

of

the same func

tions as a Sufi pIr

or

shaikh,

verses

in

the

Blljh NirafJ.jan

describing the

importance of

the shaikh or

guru,

as

he

is

called in this text) can

be

easily interpreted as referring to the

importance of the Imam as a spiritual guide.

In

addition, there is much in the Bojh Niranjan that would

be

familiar

to a person raised within

the

medieval Nizari

Ismaili tradition of the subcontinent. Both the Bujh Niranjan

and the Ismaili ginan literature share the tendency to utilize

words

of Indian

origin, alongside those

of

Arabic origin, for

important religious concepts.

For

example,

God

is

referred to

as niranjan, hari, or ram, the spiritual guide as guru, and the

experience of spiritual vision as darshan. Also, the ecstatic

poems of the Bojh Niraiijan that deal with the agonies of the

lover separated from the Divine Beloved would be particularly

'attractive to Ismailis 78 of the subcontinent, since love-in

separation (viraha) is a central theme of many ginans.79

4



Moreover, when one sees that the verse forms of the Bujh

Niraftjan - the dohrah and the Caupar are also common in the

gin n

literature, it becomes clear that the thematic and struc

tural compatibility of the Bojh Nirafijan with this literature was

also a critical factor allowing its incorporation into the Ismaili

community.

Given the lack of documents and textual evidence, one can

only conjecture at the process

by

which the Bujh Niraiijan was

adopted. Whether the initial copy already contained the cor

ruptions of this Sufi text and whether it was in

the

Perso

Arabic script

or an

Indian script (most likely DevanagarJ) are

questions

impossible to answer. As already noted, Khojki

manuscripts often included portions of mystical literature from

diverse non-Ismaili sources. We may postulate that the tran

scribed text of the Bujh Nirafijan was thus included in a Khojki

manuscript, and at a later point in time, its compatibility with·

the other ginans inspired the necessary adjustments to give it

a ginanic identity. The major adjustment consisted of the

insertion

of

the name

of

PIr Sadr

a d ~ D l n

the most popular of

the

Nizari Ismaili daCfs into an appropriate point in the text.

n

the process, as we have noted, the sequence of poems had

also to be adjusted so that the authorship verse would occur

at the end of the work. A refrain, which

is

found in ginans with

verse forms similar to those

of the Bujh Niranjan, was also

inserted in each poem between the caupaI sequence and the

dohrah.

80

The last of these adjustments, the closing of the

lacuna in

poem

15, took place in the early twentieth century

when the text of the Ismaili version was being prepared for

printing.

t

probably was in this fashion that the Bojh Niraiijan,

a Sufi poem, entered the corpus of the ginan

literature

and

became a great classic.

41



NOTES

1The text of

the

Bujh

NiraJijan is

part

of a manuscript

that

contains

other

works in Persian.

The

entire manuscript has

been

catalogued as no.

2799 in

Herman

Ethe, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts n the LIbrary of the

India Office, vol. 1 (Oxford: India Office, 1903) 1511. In the Catalogue of

Hindustani Manuscripts n the Library of India Office (Oxford: Oxford Uni

versity Press, 1926), Blumhardt catalogues the Bujh NiraJijan as no. P. 908 (p.

2). Currently the India Office Library designates the Bujh Niraiijan as

Urdu

Ms.

B4.

2Z

awa

hir Noorally writes, Whenever in

our

traditional editions· the

meaning of a word was not clear, we have adopted [the reading] from the

London manuscript so that our community can clearly understand the mean

ing.

Introduction, Buj

Niranjan

(Karachi:

Ismailia Association

for

Pakistan, 1976) (no pagination; my translation from Gujarati).

3For a discussion of the KhojkI script, see Chapter 2.

4For

P-ll

Sadr ad-DIn, see Nanji,

The Nizan IsmaCUi

Tradition, 72-76,

and Ivanow, Satpanth, Collectanea, vol. 1,16-17.

5Noorally, Introduction, n.p.

6Abdulmahamad

Juma

Maskatwaia, Preface, Buj Niranjan (Bombay:

Ismailia Association for India, 1981)

(no

pagination; my translation from

Gujarati).

7R. D. Shariff, Buj Niranjan, Roshni 3 (1980):

24.

8This interesting development was mentioned to me during a research

trip to the subcontinent in 1981 to 1982. The preacher who was my

informant desires to remain anonymous.

9Mumtaz Ali Tajddin Sadik Ali, Authenticity of the <J3uj N'llanjan or

~ o n

of

the

Omniscient (Karachi, 1982),

2.

lOrhe

scholarly quality

of

Sadik Ali's work

is

perhaps sufficiently indi-

cated by the following passage, ibid.,

4:

However,

the

Sufic environment of Punjab in particular had suggested

Pir to bring forth a work on Sufic strain to justify Ismailism among Sufi

circles.

It

was

therefore,

Buj Nirinjan first introduced in Punjab and

thence it influenced Sindi Khojas in due course. However

the other

parts of India remained unknown about this work till long .

llSadik

Ali presents some interesting evidence, discussed below, indi

cating that, until possibly the early twentieth century, the Ismailis

of

Kutch,

Kathiawar, and Gujarat were unaware of the existence

of

the Bujh Nirafijan.

See Authenticity of the Buj N Irinjan, 5-7.

12Ibid.,4.

l3lbid.,5.

14Ibid., 17.

15Ibid.,

13.

16S

a

dik Ali reproduces both fragments of the Bijapur manuscript in

Appendix IV of this work.

17S

a

dik Ali, Authenticity of the Buj Nirinjan, 16.

18The dohrah, more commonly called the doha, is one of the verse

forms employed in the Bujh N rraiijan, the other being the Caupai. Since the

India Office manuscript uses the term dohrah instead of dolla, we shall follow

'the same u:;age here. For the prosodial rules governing this verse form,see

Chapter 4.

42



19Cf. NabI Bakhsh Baloch, MaulUd

(Hyderabad,

Sind: Sindhi AdabI

Board, 1961),6 (no. 3),334; A. Schimmel, "Reflections on Popular Muslim

Poet1 Contributions to Asian Studies 17 (1982); 21.

According to most later

schools

of

Sufism, a

ufi

cannot

proceed

directly on

the Path of

God.

First he

has

to

experience annihilation in the

spiritual guide, who functions as the representative of the prophet, then the

fana

frr

rasU1 'annihilation in the Prophet, ' before he can hope to reach, if he

ever does,

fana

i t Allah." A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam

C h a ~ e l Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975),216.

1

The

correct sequence is

s h a r i ~ a t ,

ariqat, and I;taqlqat Sometimes a

fourth stage, ma"rifat, is also added. See Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions

of

~ 9 8 9 9 .

2It is evident from poem 11, quatrain 2 that the composer of the Bujh

Niraiijan also

had the

traditional

sequence

in mind. This sequence

is

also

accepted in other Ismaili works on mysticism.

23S

a

dik Ali, Authenticity of the "Buj Nirinjan," 16.

24Cf. Asani, "Sufi Poetry in the Folk Tradition of Indo-Pakistan," 81-94,

and Schimmel, As through a Veil: Mystical Poetry in Islam, 135-169. The

role of SufIs in the literary history of Hindustani, the lingua franca of the sub

continent's northern provinces, and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan,

is

described

in MaulvLcAbd

al-Haqq,

UrdU

lei

Ibtida"i Nashwo

Numa

men

Siifiya-i

irim

ka Kam (Aligarh: Anjuman-i Taraqqi-i Urdu Hind, 1968).

25S

a

dik Ali, Authenticity of

the

"Buj Nirinjan,"

16.

26V. N.

Hooda,

Some Specimens of Satpanth Literature," Collectanea,

vol. 1 p. 58, n.4; Nanji,

Nizari

Isma9li Tradition, 112; Gazetteer of

the

Bombay Presidency, vol. 9, pt. 2 (Bombay: Govt. Central Press, 1899), 40.

For

the

whole development see G. Khakee,

The Dasa Avatira

of the Sat

panthi Ismailis and Imam

Shahis

of Indo-Pakistan,

Ph.D.

dissertation,

Harvard University, 1972.

271 refer especially to those technical terms employed in the SufI tradi

tion, under

the

influence of Ibn cArabi"'s mystical philosophy of w ~ d a t al-

wujud ( Unity

of Being ), to denote various metaphysical

and

spiritual

realms stages

and

states.

28For a list of the corrupted forms

of

SufI terminology found in Ismaili

texts

of

the Biijh N"uaiijan, see 94-95 below.

29S

a

dik

Ali, Authenticity of

the

"Buj Nirinjan," 4.

3OIbid., 17.

31This concept is elaborated in the ginan Das Avatar,

the

central work

in the Nizarl Ismaili tradition in the subcontinent. This work laid down the

defInitive

formulation

of

the doctrine

of

the

tradition. See Nanji, Nizari

IsmaCW

Tradition,

111,

and

Khakee,

The

Dasa

Avatara

of

the Satpanthi

Is'1lailis

and Imam

Shahis

of

Indo-Pakistan."

The

Das Avatar was so central

to the

tradition

that around the turn of

the century it was considered neces

sary

to

read it to

an

Ismaili as he lay on his

death

bed. Gazetteer of the

B o m b ~ Presidency, vol.

9

pt.

2

46.

3 Faulty orthography and the vagaries

of

transmission have led

to

the

following disparities between the texts

of

the India OffIce manuscript and the

Bijapur fragment: the word rakhe in quatrain l line 2 has been misspelled

in the Bijapur fragment as lakhe; in

quatrain 3, line

4

the word

sew has

been

misspelled as sera/sira; in

quatrain

4 line 3, in place of the word

mag

the

Bijapur text uses marag, a word that is metrically inappropriate in this line.

43



33S

a

ikAli Authenticity of the Buj Nirinjan, 14; .

34Ansar

Zahid Khan, History and Culture of Sind (Karachi: Royal

Book Co., 1980), 284.

35S

ee

Shaikh

Muhammad

Ikram, Riid-i

a ~ a r

(Lahore:

Perozsons,

1955);·Bruce Lawrence, Notes from a Distant Flue: Sufi

Literature

in Pre-

Mughal

India (Teheran: Imperial Academy

of

Philosophy, 1978); Khaliq A.

Nizami, Some Aspects of Religion

and

Politics in India during the ThirteeIith

Century (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1961); S. A. A. Rizvi, A History

of

Sufism

in

India, vol. 1

(New

Delhi,.

Munshiram Manoharlal,

1978); A.

Schimmel, Islam in the Indian Subcontinent, 2 Abt. 4 Bd., 3 Abschnitt of

Handbuch

der

Orientalistik, ed. J. Gonda (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1980); and

Encyclopedia of Islam, new ed.,

s.v.

}S:adiriyya, by D.

S.

Margoliouth.

36Khan, History and Culture of Sind, 284.

37Ibid.

38Ibid.

39Khan refers the reader to Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. 1

p. 93, for

an

account

of

this saint. Ibid., 284, nn.53-54. This is

an

incorrect

citation.

The

correct reference is to vol. 9, pt. 2 pp. 50-51.

4O-rhe compiler of the Gazetteer notes that this account is unreliable as

to its dates.

41Gazetteer of

the

Bombay Presidency, vol. 9 pt. 2 p. 51.

42Gulam

Sarwar Lahort, Khazinat

ul-A$fiya, vol. 1 (Kanpur: Naval

Kishor 1914) 115-117.

43Ismaili hagiographic accounts of the activities of the thirteenth cen

tury

(?)

da'i

PIr

Shams

describe two confrontations

between him and the

famous Suhrawardi saint, Baba ud-DIn Zakariyya (D. ca. 1267). On looking

out

the

window,

Baba

ud-DIn was so astonished to see

~ 1 1

Shams sailing

in

a

paper

boat that

he

caused

the

boat to sink. The PIr

kept the

boat afloat

through his meditation but cursed Baba ud-Din so that horns grew out of his

head and trapped him

in the

window. Though

the

~ 1 1 subsequently withdrew

his curse,

he

decreed that the marks

of

the horns would never disappear even

from Baba ud-OIn's progeny. Similarly

in

an account, which has many Indian

parallels,

Baba

ud-DIn sent

the ~ 1 1

a bowl full

of

milk, which was to signify

that there was

no

room

for him. By

putting

flowers in

the

milk,

the

PIr

hinted that his presence in the city would be as unburdensome as the flowers

were to

the milk. See Nanji,

NizarI Isma9li Tradition,

53-54.

During

a

research trip to Punjab in January 1982, I found that the Ismailis

of

the

area

still consider the SuhrawardI saint Rukn-i cAIam (1249(-7)-1334) to have been

an enemy

of

the faith. ,

44Khan, History and Culture of Sind, 285.

45Aziz Ahmad, Islamic Culture in

the

Indian Environment (London:

Oxford University Press, 1964), 138.

46Khan, History and Culture

of

Sind, 284.

471 am

indebted to

Prof.

Peter Gaeffke

of the University of Pennsyl

vania for this observaton. The

lna§D.awI

is a form

of

verse

in

rhyming coup

lets that could be extended indeftnitely.

t

is governed by only

one

important

formal

requirement

- persistent uniformity of rhythmical pattern - thus mak

ing it eminently suited for epic narrative poetry.

48Por an account

of

the life

and

activities

of

the Shaikh, see

MU1;tammad

Rashid BurhanpiirI, Burhanpiir ke SindhI Auliya

(Hyderabad,

Sind: Sin4hi

Adabi Board,

1957),31-103;

and

ICjaiul

I-:Iaqq

QuddusI, TaZkira-i ~ i i f i y a - i

Sind (Karachi: Urdu Academy, Sind, 1959) 156-163.



9ne a § ~ a w i entitled Bayan-i tana7zul-i1;taqq ja1la wa cali be caqIda-i

is reproduced in Burhanpiiri, Blirhinpiir

ke

Sindhi Auliya, 143-150.

0The work,

called Risila-i

daqIqa, is reproduced in BurhanpiirI,

Burhinpiir ke

Sindhi Auliya, 74-80.

51The treatise attempts to explain some of

the metaphysical ter

minology associated with the wa.b.dat al-wujud school of SufIsm. According

to BurhanpiirI, it is a description of [divine] s p e c i f i c a t i o ~ [tacaiyunat] and

Muhammadan Reality.

52Ibid., 77.

53Ibid., 76.

54Ibid., 77. '

55 Alternatively,

the composer could mean that division and analysis of it

(i.e., the world of symbols) is impossible.

56 Ibid.

57Ibid., 46-47. The dOM translates as

That

which makes one forget·

God

is what should be called the world. This is a frequent expression in

Persian, e.g., in Riimi's ~ ~ Cst duniya

az khuda

ga£il budan.

58Ibid., 72. In support of this claim, BurhanpiirI states that

he

himself

has in his collection manuscripts of two works attributed to MasiJ;l al-Auliya

that are

not mentioned in the GuIzar-i abrar.

59S

a

dik

Ali Authenticity of the Buj Nirinjan, 6.

6OIbid.

61Ibid.

62Ibid.,7. '

63Ibid., 6. Presumably the printed text was one edited by LaljI Devraj.

64The

mausoleum of PIr Shams is in

Multan, that

of P-lf Sadr

ad-Din

about fifteen miles south of Ucch and

that

of PIr l:iasan Kablr ad-DIn a

mile's distance from Ucch.

65Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam vol. 2 (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1974), 393-394.

66Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 231.

67The early Sht, Imams, cAlI ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) and JaCfar ~ - S a d i q

(d. 765)

are

considered to have played an important tole in the development

of

the

Sufi

tradition. See Paul

Nwyia,

x t g ~ s e

Coranique

et

langage

mystique (Beirut: Dar el-Mashreq, 1970), esp.chap. 2 sect. 3, GaCfar Sadiq

et les debuts du vocabulaire

de

l'experience, 156-188. Nwyia discusses the

role of

J

aCfar a ~ - S a d i q

who as one of

the

greatest teachers of early Sufism

was responsible for laying the foundation for

the

ecstatic love mysticism that

characterizes later SufIsm. L. Massignon, in

Essai sur

les origines des lexique

technique

de la

mystique musulmane (Paris:P. Geuthner, 1928), 201-206,

discusses the importance for the history of Sufism of a

tafsIr

attributed to

Jacrar a ~ - S a d i q .

68W. Ivanow, Ismaili

Literature:

A Bibliographic

Survey

(Teheran:

Ismaili

Society, 1963), 130; W. Iva now,

Sufism and

Ismailism:

Chiragh

Nama Rewe Iranienne d'Anthropologie 3 (1959): 13-17;

69Marshall Hodgson, The Isma,1I State, Cambridge History of Iran,

vol. 5.-fuCambridge: Cambridge Vniversity Press, 1968), 463-466.

Ibid., 482.

71Ivanow, Ismaili Literature, 11.

Henry

Corbin, in Histoire de

la

philosophie IsIamique (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), 149,states la coalescence de

l'Ismaelisme et du

soufisme,

posterieurmerit aAlamut, nous refere au

probleme

encore

obscures des origines.

45



72Aziin

~ n j i

writes,

The

NizarI

daCWa

when

it

entered the Subcon

tinent, already carried within its repertoire a strain of mysticism rooted in

Ismailism but tinged with the sufic terminology of the time. Nizarl Isma9li

Tradition, 126. According

to

Ivanow,

The

early Ismaili missionaries and

saints appeared to the world at large, to the uninitiated, as Sufic pirs. The

Sect of Imam Shah in Gujrat, Journal

of

the

Bombay Branch

of

the Royal

Asiatic Society

12

(1936):

35.

.

73Ivanow, Satpanth, Collectanea,

vol. 1

p. 10.

74Ibid. According to local tradition,

P-rr

l:Iasan KabIr ad-DIn

is

said to

have belonged to the SuhrawardI order. See Nanji, NlZiri Isma9li Tradition,

78.

See also John Subhan, Sufism, Its Saints and

Shrines

(Lucknow: Luck

now Publishing House, 1960), app. A, 359, where the Pir is listed among the

Suhrawarw saints.

75For a brief discussion on the similarities between the love symbolism

of the

ginan

literature and the Sufi poetry in Sindhi, see Asani, The Ismacm

Ginan Literature, 48-53.

76Among the contents

of

the approximately

100

Khojki manuscripts in

the collection

of

the Ismailia Association for Pakistan, we fmd the following

(the number in parentheses refers to the manuscript): selections from the

Ma;inawrof RUmI, Persian verse with Sindhi translation (K.M.S. 1); 115

verses of the Bhakti poetess

Mira

BaI (K.M.S. 5); verses

of

the sixteenth

century Gujarati poet Narsi Mehta (K.M.S. 9); verses of the famous poet

Kablr (K.M.S. 18, 34); Micaraj

Nama

of the Prophet in Hindi (K.M.S. 27);

verses of the Sindhi mystic Shah cAbd al-LatIf (K.M.S. 28);

gazals

of Amir

Khusrau and SacadI (K.M.S. 34); verses

of

the Kanphata Yogi, Gorakhnath

(K.M.S. 51); verses from various Sindhi poets including SacCal Shah

cAbd

al

L a ~ I f

SahibdIno (K.M.S. 51, 99); collection of kirtans (K.M.S. 79). See also

Zawahir Noorally, Catalogue of Khojki Manuscripts

n

the Collection

of

the

Ismailia Association for Pakistan (drart copy, Karachi, 1971). .

77Because of

the popUlarity of the

a ~ n a w i

within

the

Ismaili

community (Aga Khan III frequently urged his Ismaili followers to read the

work), an Ismaili

w ~

Nurmuhammad Rahemtullah, translated the work

into Gujarati. See Nurmuhammad Rahemtullah,

~ n a w i

Maulana Riimi

(Mombasa: n.p., 1978).

The

Husaini

Gita, a training manual for Ismaili

wa'lpn, compiled by Chief Missionary Husaini Pirmub.ammad Asani in the

early decades of this century, quotes liberally from the poetry of the great

Sufi poets. A manuscript

of

this work

is

located at the Institute of Ismaili

Studies in London. For the role

of

RiimfS poetry among the Ismailis of Iran,

see Rafique Keshavjee, The Quest for Gnosis and the Call of History: Mod

ernization among the Ismailis

of

Iran, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard Univer

sity, 1981 2:32, 3:40.

78The frequent recitation

of

these portions

of

the Biijh Niraiijan attests

to their immense popularity.

79S

ee Asani, The Isma9li Ginan Literature, 26-37.

BOFor

the refrain in the Ismaili version of the Biijh

Nrraiijan,

see 111-

113

below.

46



CHAPTER2

SCRIPTS

The texts of the Bujh Niraftjan employ three scripts: the

Perso-Arabic, the Khojki, and the Gujarati. Of the three, the

Perso-Arabic and the Khojki present a complex set of prob

lems during the perusal of texts. For a variety of reasons that

will be discussed below, these two scripts fail to record fully

and precisely the complete range of vowels and consonants of

an Indian language. Consequently, readers often have to rely

on personal judgment in determining the correct reading of a

particular word. For instance, the Perso-Arabic script, though

it possesses the technical means to record short vowels, nor

mally requires readers to supply these vowels s they read the

text. Thus, the word :': ': may be read as pata, pita, puta,

pati, patu, piti, pitu, puti, or putu. This hypothetical example

illustrates well the nature of the problems that

may

arise while

ascertaining the reading of texts written in the two scripts.

However, as Tables 2.1, 2.2, and 2;3 illustrate, the modern

configurations of the Perso-Arabic script (its Urdu and Sindhi

versions) as well as Khojki have been so refined and stand

ardized that, on the whole, they are better able to record a text

such as the Bujb Niraftjan, perhaps not so adequately as the

traditional Devanagari-based scripts. But this

was

not the case

with the medieval prototypes of the two scripts which were

characterized by imperfection of form and inconsistency

of

usage. Consequently, script-related problems can become par

ticularly serious during the reconstruction of a medieval text

such as the Bujh Niraftjan, which often makes use of little

known and archaic grammatical forms and vocabulary.

Only the Devanagari-based Gujarati script records all the

vowels and consonants that are essential for ensuring an accu

rate and objective reading of a text. Unfortunately, the texts of

the Bujh Nirafijan in the Gujarati script are unreliable editions

printed in this century On the other hand, the manuscript

sources of the Bujh Niraftjan, which are particularly significant

in the preparation of a critical edition, utilize the Perso-Arabic

and Kho}ki scripts. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to

47



examine in detail the major issues, and problems associated

with both these scripts.

The Perso-Arabic Script

The India Office manuscript was written at a time when

the

Perso-Arabic script had yet to develop standardized ways

to depict sounds characteristic of Indian languages. It was also

a time when Muslim literati had begun to compose actively in

the

Indian

vernaculars.

As early as at least the fifteenth

century, Muslim poets were composing lengthy mystical verse

romances in AvadhI or Eastern i n d i ~ apparently influenced

and inspired by the well-established romantic

m ~ n a w

tradi

tion in Persian.

2

Slightly later, a tradition of patronizing poets

of Hindi was initiated at the Mughal court by the Emperor

Akbar (1556-1605) with the practice of having a Hindi poet

laureate along with a Persian one.3 In the sixteenth and

seventeenth c e n t u r i ~ s Sufi poets began to produce the first

significant works iIi other North Indian regional languages such

as Sindhi and PunjabL4 In southern India, too, we find from

the 'sixteenth century

onward'that

the courts of the Deccan

kingdoms and the Sufis began to propagate and confer respect

ability on the South Indian vernacular, Dakhni.5 By

the

eighteenth century, Mughal patronage

of

Hindi poets had

grown

so

strong that even

some

of

the

weaker Mughal

emperors who succeeded Aurangzeb (1658-1707) were signifi

cant patrons of

Hindi

literature.

6

At the same

time, a

respectable literary tradition in Urdu was just beginning. In

fact, with the decline

of

Mughal rule the tendency to use the

vernaculars received such momentum that there was a great

outburst of literary activity in Bengali, Deccani, Hindi, Sindhi,

Pushto, Kashmiri and other regionallanguages. 7

s a result of this increasingly important trend, the devel

opment of standardized forms for adapting the Perso-Arabic

script to Indian languages must have been a pressing issue.

Khan Mrr HadI, secretary of the

Dar

al-Insha, had a long con

versation with the Emperor Aurangzeb on the orthography of

Hindi letters in the Perso-Arabic script, especially the suita

bility of using the letter

a

(h) for a final a vowel.

8

Mirza

Khan

Ibn

Fakhr ad-DIn Mul)ammad, the author

of

a Persian

grammar on the Hindi dialect Braj, regarded the accurate

representation of Indian sounds to be so important that he

deemed it necessary to include in his work a version of the

48



Perso-Arabic script system that incorporated additional char

acters for sounds peculiar to Braj. Moreover, every time he

uses a Braj word, he supplies a complete spelling by designat

ing each letter with the special name he invented for it.9

The scribe of the India Office manuscript, too, shows some

awareness

of the need

to represent Hindustani sounds accu

rately. The scheme he chooses is insufficiently systematic and

comprehensive, however, to encompass all such sounds, mak

ing it difficult for the modern reader to determine the correct

reading. Only in the case of the retroflexive sounds does he

attempt to use 'special characters. For the postalveolar retro

flexives t and Qhe uses the characters

~ , ,

and ~ , respec

tively, while for the retroflexive flap

f

he uses

) .

Unfor

tunately,

the

scribe

is

not careful

in

employing these characters

when they

are

required. Frequenqy a t will simply be tran

scribed as

t

and a

Q as

a

d. As

for

) ,

the character for the r

sound, he rarely uses it.

10

.He frequently represents the r

sound by either

)

, the character for the regular r sound (e.g.,

sughar, poem

10,

quatrain 3; parhe, poem

13,

quatrain 4) or by

,)

, the character

for

the

d sound (e.g., chore,

poem

12,

quatrain 4).

The

inconsistency in the use of these characters

resul ts in a word like praghat being spelled in two different

ways: sometimes with the character

~ (0

and sometimes

with ~ (t).

In addition to the retroflexive consonants, Hindustani has

two other types

of

sounds for which special provision must be

made for the Perso-Atabic script. First, there are the aspirated

sounds that the

modem

script system indicates

by

using a spe

cial form

of

the

letter ~

(h) - the so-called do eashme he.

Our

manuscript uses only one form

of

the letter a (h) for

both

the consonantal h as well as the aspiration

h

Again for

nasalized sounds, our manuscript uses the character 0' for

both the regular and nasalized

Ii

sound. Consequently, in both

cases only a prior familiarity with the relevant words ensures a

correct reading

of

the aspirated and nasalized sounds.

Another ambiguity arising from the script system results

from a peculiarity

that

this manuscript shares with many Per

sian manuscripts. Although the script possesses special charac

ters for each

pair

of certain letters, the scribe will often not

distinguish in writing a b

(be,y)

from a p

( p e , ~ ) ,

a k (kaf,J)

from a g (gaf, J'),

or

a C (c,

~

) from a

j'GIm,

t:: .

S. M.

49



Pandey, in

his study

of the

Perso-Arabic

manuscript

of

Maulana Dalld's seminal Hindi epic, Candayan (composed in

1379), has discussed the chaotic reading caused by this peculi

arity in the various critical editions

of

that work. 1 I In the case

of Blljh Niraiijan, this lack of differentiation

is

also of some

consequence for, during the conversion

of

the text from the

Perso-Arabic script, the scribe has on several occasions mis

read the original. Thus in

poem

9 quatrain 4 and

poem

11

quatrain 3, of the Khojki and Gujarati texts, we find that the

word

gur

(guru) has

been

misread as kar (do). In

poem

33,

quatrain 3, and poem 12 quatrain 3 of the Ismaili version, the

word mag (path) has

been

distorted to mukh (face). Similarly,

Khojki and Gujarati texts often read blljhe (know) for pfiChe

( ask) and vice versa.

Not only consonants are confusingly rendered. Many

vowels fare no better.

For

example, the scribe uses the letter

9, to indicate both the long i vowel (ya-i macrtlf) as well as

the e vowel (ya-i majhiil). However, unlike the modern Urdu

script,

he does not

assign distinctive values

to

the

two final

forms of this letter, 90 and ' ~ . That is to say, whereas the

modern script system uses the form c$' for the I vowel and the

form ' ~ for the e vowel, the manuscript employs

~

for both

the

I

and the e vowels. Similarly, the form ' ~ could represent

either one of these vowel sounds.

The sound value for the letter a when it

ocCUrs

at the

end of words is also uncertain.

As

mentioned above, this letter

has traditionally

been

used to indicate the short a vowel

at

.the

end of

words, especially when this vowel needs to

be

articu

lated, as in the word ~ ~ (piya). On the other hand, when

meter requires a word like r ( to be scanned as a long syl

lable,

then

the final

e,

can take

on

two alternate values. It

may retain its consonantal value h, which would result in the

word being transcribed as yah, or, as

is

sometimes the case in

modern Urdu, the letter may stand for the long a vowel sound

associated

with

the

letter

alif.

In

the

latter

case,

the

word

would then be transcribed as ya. There

is

another eccentricity

in

this manuscript regarding the value

of

this letter: the letter

l ) is occasionally used fo represent a shot e vowel at the end

of a word, e;g., jine, poem 2 dohrah; tine, poem 3 dohrah; hoe,

poem

4 dohrah; deve, poem 8 dohrah.

A final peculiarity of the vowel system concerns the long I

50



vowel when it occurs in the middle of a word. In standard

usage, this vowel

is

indicated by the medial form of the letter

6 , i.e., a tooth with two dots underneath

( ;'tJ).

Our scribe,

ho'wever, by often omitting this

tooth

in

the

middle of a

word, indicates

that

there is no letter in

that

position; yet he

still places the two dots under the word. While it appears that

he may use this device to represent a short vowel, he

is

not

consistent in this usage. At any rate, the failure to include this

tooth may have been a common practice among scribes of

the period, for this omission had ha9 significant consequences

during

the

transmission

and

conversion

of

the text from the

Perso-Arabic script. Particularly affected by this unusual prac

tice

is

the word

(r.rl.

(bhIii). In the case

of

this word, the

other quirks of the script system -

the

lack

of distinction

between

a b and a p as well as between nasalized and non

nasalized sounds - have interacted with the above orthographic

peculiarity, resulting in Khojki and Gujarati texts consistently

misreading this word as

pban or pbun.

The

Khojki Script

12

Origin and Background

Khojki (Khojakr)

is the

name of

the

script used by the

Nizari

Ismailis

of the

Indian subcontinent to

record

their

religious literature. Originating in Sind and most commonly

used to transcribe the Sindhi language, the script was in active

use in the community from at least the sixteenth century, if not

earlier, until about the 1960s. The name Khojki

is

most likely

derived from the word Khoja. a popularization of the Persian

title Khwaja, meaning

lord or

master.,,13 According to

Ismaili traditon, the fifteenth-century dacr (preacher-saint) PIr

Sadr ad-DIn, who bestowed the title on new Indian converts to

Ismailism, was also responsible for inventing

the

Khojki

script.

14

Excavations at Bhambore, the eighth-century Muslim set

tlement in lower Sind, however, have uncovered a proto-

N agarr script with

characters

remarkably similar to those

found in

the modern

Khojki

script.

15

This

script is the

prototype of the Khojki. It has

been

identified as LohaI,lakI or

LarI, the script

of

the

Hindu Lohana

community, one

of

the

communities among whom PIr Sadr ad-DIn was not active.16

Thus, while

the

Ismaili tradition that he invented Khojki

is

51



clearly inaccurate - in any case, scripts evolve slowly because

they are necessarily cultural and not individual products - the

PIr may indeed have played a role in its elaboration, as we

shall see below.

That

is speCUlative, however. What

is not

speculative

is

that Khojki is a refined and polished form

of

LohaIJ.akI.

17

.

Khojki was one of the many scripts prevalent in Sind over

a period of several centuries.

18

As early

as

the ninth and tenth

centuries, various Arab geographers and travelers referred to

the fact that the inhabitants of Sind had many scripts for writ

ing their language.

19

This use

of

several different scripts for

writing Sindhi prevailed well into the nineteenth century. In a

paper

on Sindhi alphabets presented at the July 1857 meeting

of the Royal Asiatic Society (Bombay branch), Trumpp, the

German orientalist and author of a distinguished Sindhi gram

mar, noted the use of

various alphabets, Muslims preferring

Arabic characters loaded with a confusing heap of dots while

Hindus employed a medley of alphabets known by the name of

Banyaii.20 The intrepid traveler Richard Burton remarks that

the characters in which the Sindhi tongue is written are very

numerous, and among the various alphabets in use he also

enumerates that used by the Khwajah tribe.,,21 George

Stack, in his Grammar of the Sindhi Language, published in

1849, tabulates thirteen script systems, including Khojki, which

were used for writing Sindhi, different localities and different

groups or people favoring distinct styles.

22

Khojki and most

of

the

scripts

used

for writing Sindhi

belong to the group

of

Indian scripts that have

been

classified

by Grierson

under

the heading LaIJ.Oa

or

clipped alpha

bets.

23

These were employed especially by the Hindus or Sind

and Punjab for purposes of commerce. In fact, in Sind,

LaIJ.Oa

was called Baniyaii or

Wru;tiko

indicating its use primarily

as

a

mercantile and commercial script.

24

Their mercantile origin

may explain why the entire group of

LaIJ.Oa

scripts was not well

suited for literary purposes. Mercantile scripts

had

limited

purposes

and tended

to

be

crude by

literary

standards.

According to Grierson, the vowel system

of

the LaIJ.Oa alpha

bets is poorly developed; the consonants are far from clear,

and the script often varies from place to place.

25

Indeed, these

commercial scripts lack signs for medial vowels, and in most of

them a single letter could often represent a number of differ- '

52



ent sounds. Burton comments that these alphabets are so use

less

that a

trader

is

scarcely able to read his own accounts,

unless assisted by a tenacious memory.,,26 Grierson similarly

remarks that

It

[LalJ.Qa]

is seldom legible to anyone except the

original writer, and not always to him. 27 In this regard, he

also quotes a Sindhi proverb:

W a ~ k a akhar

a

1;>uta suka

parhana-khan Chuta ; which means

that the

Wal).iko letters

are vowelless; [as soon

as·

the ink is]

dry

they are released from

reading [i.e., are illegible ].,,28

Among this hodgepodge of commercial scripts - scribbling,

we could truly say in many cases - Khojki

was

one of the few

that developed into a vehicle of literary expression. Although

for some scripts such as KhudawadI in Sind, DogrI in Jammu

and ChamIalI in Chamba, this evolution took place

as

a result

of

official governmental initiative and encouragement in the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, for Khojki the

advance came about much earlier owing to (as we shall pres

ently see)

the

script's affiliation with a minority religious

community.

Expression in written literature, as in music, requires

an

instrument, and instruments require technical development. In

Khojki, the technical development that made a new range of

expression possible was the system

of

medial vowel marks

called

lakana.

In the region of

Sind, Khojki was

the

only

La.o.<;la script to have sustained and perhaps even developed the

use

of

this medial vowel system.

29

It was this distinguishing

characteristic

of

Khojki that made

the

script suitable for its

extensive use in recording a considerable corpus of Ismaili reli

gious literature.

30

Incidentally, it is· possible that PIr Sadr ad

DIn, whom the tradition credits with the invention of the script,

may have

been

responsible rather for introducing the lakana

and possibly other refinements to Khojki.3

1

Nonetheless,

as

will

be

seen below, the Khojki

s r i p ~

.er

evolved into an entirely satisfactory script system in splte of

these refinements. The queston therefore immediately arises:

why was it adopted for recording religious literature when

more

developed

scripts such as Devanagari and the Perso

Arabic alphabets were available? he answer lies perhaps in

the strong tendency among religious groups in medieval India,

both

Hindu

and Muslim, to make religious literature more

accessible to the masses. Their move away from the use of

53



classical languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian; the

corresponding blooming·of the regional languages as vehicles

of religious literature; the use of symbols and imagery taken

from daily village life - all these are only some examples. of this

trend. Certainly in its form, style, and imagery, the Ismaili

religious literature (the

~ n

literature) of the subcontinent

exhibits the same concern.

32

Consequently, in the Ismaili case,

the adoption of the Khojki script, a local script, was probably

part of the attempt to make religious literature more accessible

by recording it in a script with which the local population had

the greatest familiarity. That the adoption of a local script

for preserving religious literature may have

been

customary

with various groups in medieval India is further evident from

the Sikh adoption of GurmukhI as

an

official script for its

religious literature. Like Khojki, GurmukhI is a

La1,lc,la

script

of the Punjab that was improved and polished by the borrowing

of vowel signs and refining of existing LaI .c,la characters.

33

As

a vehicle of Sikh religious literature, GurmukhI contributed to

the consolidation of the Sikh religion, becoming particularly

important in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the

Sikhs exercised political hegemony over Punjab and Kashmir.

S. S.

andhi points

out

that the adoption

of

the GurmukhI

script was of great significance, for only by adopting a script

that was their own and that was suited to their language could

the Sikhs develop their culture.3

4

The popularization of the

GurmukhI script was also well calculated to make its readers

part

with the Hindu composition written in Sanskrit. 35 Simi

larly, the Khojki script may have contributed to developing a

sense of self-identity among new converts to Ismailism from

the Hindu tradition.

One final parallel between Khojki and GurmukhI deserves

notice.

J

u: : as the Ismaili tradition associates a charismatic

religious personality - PIr Sadr ad-DIn - with the Khojki script,

so also the Sikh tradition associates the second Guru, uru

Aiigad (1538-52), with the GurmukhI script. According to the

Sikh tradition,

uru

Aiigad was responsible for improving the

GurmukhI script when he found that the Sikh hymns written in

the original La1,lc,la form were liable to be misread. This is the

reason why the alphabet is called GurmukhI, for it carne forth

from the mouth of the Guru. 36

54



Khojki in

Modem

Times: Uniformity and Demise

We possess remarkably little textual and historical evi

dence regarding the process

by whiCh

the Khojki script devel

oped and evolved from a rudimentary commercial script of the

eighth century to a

more

complex and plastic medium of

expression. Not only is the study of the script still in its infancy,

but many Khojki manuscripts, our most important source of

information

about

the script, have yet to be collected and

catalogued. Although at present there are three institutional

collections

of manuscripts - two major ones, in Karachi at the

Ismailia ssociation for

Pakistan

and in

London

at

the

Institute of Ismaili Studies, and a third much smaller one in the

Harvard College Library - these collections are far from being

comprehensive. There

are

many unexamined manuscripts,

probably in very poor condition, in the possession of individual

families. The absence of a comprehensive, centralized collec

tion of Khojki manuscripts is a formidable hurdle for any

attempt to trace the

evolution

of

the

script. An equally

formidable obstacle

is

presented by the apparent lack of any

p r e e i ~ h t e e n t h c e n t u r y

manuscripts in

the

existing collec

tions.37 Finally, piety itself has been no less of a problem:

Ivanow remarks that in the early twentieth century, after the

printing of certain ginanic texts, '·'the manuscripts from which

the edition was prepared were buried in the ground "38

Nevertheless, a cursory examination of existing Khojki manu

scripts reveals that even as late as the eighteenth and nine

teenth centuries, the script was still undergoing various stages

of

refinement. This refinement was connected with the devel

opment and use of characters for sounds that were not satis

factorily represented in the script system. The identification of

the precise stages of this refinement-would make a fascinating

study but one that is beyond the scope of this work.

It is only when we come to the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries

that

we

are

on more solid ground.

The

advent

of

the printing press in the subcontinent during this

period had a major impact on the script. Toward the end of

the nineteenth century various lithographs were published in

the Khojki script under the auspices of individual members of

the Ismaili community.3

9

With the development of the print

ing type, the lithographs were gradually replaced by the printed

form. Initially Khojki material was printed

by

private printing

55



presses such

s

the Gulam-i I:Iusain Chapakhanu in Bombay.40

At

this early stage

the printed

material appears

to have con

sisted of

almost verbatim

copies

of

ginans from

the

Khojki

manuscripts, with very little editing.

In the first decade

of

the twentieth century, however, most

likely as a result

of

the recent schisms within the Indian Ismaili

community,41

the

publication of religious literature was cen

tralized by being brought

under

the control of the community.

Private attempts

at

publishing religious literature became less

common. Under the auspices

of

the official community press,

the Khojki

Sindhi

Printing

Press

in Bombay, LaljI Devraj,

began producing a large number of texts, mostly ginan texts, in

the

Khojki script.

s

is discussed in

the

next

chapter,

LaljI

Devraj also played an important role in editing Khojki material

before it was

put

into print.

42

The

establishment

of

the Khojki

Sindhi Printing Press, by making religious literature in Khojki

available in greater quantities, was a big

boost

in

promoting

the use

of

Khojki. Books in the Khojki script

made

their way

even to

East and

South Africa, where substantial numbers

of

Ismaili communities

had migrated

for economic reasons.

In

the 1920s and 1930s, although the printing was still done by the

Khoja Sindhi Printing Press (later known as the Ismaili Print

ing Press),

the

publication

of

Khojki material was

taken

over

by the

Recreation

Club Institute, which

later

evolved into the

community institution responsible for research and publication

of

religious materia1.

4

Ironically,

the introduction of

printing may have also

sounded the deathknell for the script.

t

soon

became

appar

ent

that there

were considerable expenses involved in manu

facturing printing types especially for Khojki. Moreover,

the

script itself, as will be

seen

below, still had some fundamental

imperfections. A

more

significant factor was the lack of uni

formity in the script in different

geographical

areas.

For

example,

the character

-v,

represented the letter

dy in Sind

and z

or

j

in Gujarat.

Or

in one region the vowel

0

would

be

represented

by

the character ..,.

while in

another

area the

character

served the

same

purpose. In short, regional

variations were a serious problem in an era when literature was

widely dissernJ.nated and. priIiting was becoming standardized.

Hence,

as early as 1910 to 1911,

the

Gujarati

script began to

appear

as

an

alternative,

and

by

the

1930s it was quite com-

6



monly used in printing Ismaili religious books. In fact it

appears that most of the material theretofore available only in

the Khojki script was transcribed and printed in Gujarati.

44

In

t ~

following decades the printing of books in Khojki

and instruction in

the

Khojki script gradually ceased in all

areas where the Ismaili communi )' lived except in the region

of

Sind, the home of the script.

45

There

the script survived

probably for two reasons. First, the partition of India in

1947

and

later

events increased the Gujarati- and Urdu-speaking

population of Ismailis in this region. Since these languages do

not share common

scripts,

there

was still a need to have a

single script in which different languages could be written.

Second, the Sindhi Ismailis appear to have been reluctant to

abandon a script so closely associated with their language.

Even in Sind, however,

the

Khojki script did not survive

beyond the early years of the 1970s, when t gave way to the

Perso-Arabic script system in which both Urdu and Sindhi are

written. For all practical purposes, Khojki no longer survives

today as a "living" script among the Ismailis of the subcon

tinent.

Much more was involved

in

the use of the Khojki script

than access to religious literature During its lifetime the

script, by providing an exclusive means of written expression

commonly shared by Ismailis living in three regions (Sind,

Punjab, and Gujarat), was influential in the development of

cohesion and self-identity within a widely scattered and lin

guistically diverse religious community. No doubt the script

facilitated the flow and the transmission of religious literature

from one

area

to another.

46

Use of the script may also have

served to confine religious literature within the COmnlunity -

this precaution being necessary to avoid persecution from out

siders not

in

agreement

with the community'S doctrines and

practices. 47 In this respect, Khojki may have served the same

purpose as the secret languages, such as the balabailan lan

guage, utilized

by

Muslim mystics to hide their more esoteric

thoughts from the common people.

48

Even though it was adopted and used by Ismailis outside

the

region

of Sind, the Khojki script never lost its early

association with Sind and its language. Even today, Ismailis

from areas outside of Sind tend to call the script SindhI, con

fusing it with that language. This confusion is prevalent even

7



in the area of religious education: to this day, in the regions of

Gujarat

and

Kathiawar, classes providing instruction to chil

dren are

called

SindhI, presumably a reminder of the

time

when

a child

attending

religious classes

learned the

Khojki

script.

Inadequacies of

the

Khojki Script

As

a system- of literary expression,

the

Khojki script had

serious limitations in

three

different

areas.

First, its vowel

system, in spite

of a slight refinement, was crude. Second, as to

consonants, there were certain sounds, mostly of Arabic origin,

for which

the

script

had

no

characters

at

all (deficiency); the

same sound could

be represented

by different characters

(redundancy); and several sounds could

be

represented by the

same

character

(ambiguity).

And

third, there was inconsist

ency in orthography and the use of orthographic signs. For the

most part, these inadequacies can be explained by the script's

mercantile origin -and regional usage. Merchants originally

developed the script for a narrow range of precise but technical

purposes,

and

when

the

script

was

adapted

for

recording

Ismaili religious literature, its limitations created difficulties of

expession

and

comprehension, only some of which were gradu

ally remedied in

subsequent centuries.

What follows is an investigation of these limited but seri

ous difficulties as presented by the five Khojki texts of the BUJb

Niraftjan whiCh forms the subject

of

this study. Wherever

appropriate, reference will also be

made

to G. Khakee, The

Dasa

Avatara

of the Satpanthis and Imamshahls of

Indo-

Pakistan,

the

only major study so far that has involved textual

criticism of a Khojki manuscript.

49

The

Vowel System

1. The

script does distinguish between a long vowel and

a short vowel,

whether

these occur independently or with a

consonant.

50

6.i'

- the character for an independent u vowel -

could

be read either

as

an

indepenc;lent long U vowel or an

independent short vowel. Thus the word <f,

'1

can be

tran

scribed either as US

or

us. The letter ~ used in Allana's table

of the Khojki script for

an

independent long

U

vowel appears to

be a theoretical form as it is not used in any

of

the texts

of

the

Bajh

Nirafijan.

5

Furthermore,

it occurs neither in the manu

script

Kx

used by

Khakee nor in the

Khojki

primers of

1932

58



and 1947. Siffiilarly, the subscript

sign

.., - which

is

combined

with a

consonant

to indicate that the

consonant is to

be read

with

a u

vowel;. does not indicate the length

of

the

vowel.

Thus

~

could

be read

as

kt1

or

ku. Consequently, the script

relies

on the

reader's familiarity

with

a word in

order

to ensure

that the

vowel is

read

according

to

its

correct

length.

The

length

of the

vowel

becomes

especially crucial in poetry texts

(such as

the

Bujh Nirafljan) since it determines

the

length

of

the

syllable

and

affects the meter. Given the ambiguity about

the length

of

the

u vowel

in the

Khojki script,

the

vowel has

been

transcribed

here as

u,

indicating

that t

may

be read

as

long

or

short.

2.

The

script also exhibits confusion

about

the

character

used

to represent an

independent

0 vowel, which is normally

represented in

modern

Khojki by

the character 6.

In the

manuscript

Kx

of

the

Dasa

Avatara,

the character 6

repre

sents both the 0

and

the u vowels,

and

only a knowledge

of

the

language helps

to determine the appropriate

reading.

52

The

same confusion

is

apparent

in manuscript

K-4

of

the Bujh

Nirafljan.

In

this study, for

the

sake

of

consistency,

the

char

acter 6, when

it occurs in manuscript K-4, has always

been

transcribed

as o. Manuscripts K-3 aijd K-5

prefer

to employ

another m e ~ h o d

to

represent an

independent 0 vowel by using

-; , or ~ . This is obviously an adaptation from

the

Devanagari-based

scripts'. Occasionally K-5 even uses

( , ,

the letter for the independent

u vowel in words

where one

would expect

an

0

vowel. George Stack uses yet another char

acter

-

6.1 -

for

the independent

.0 vowel,

but

this character

does

not appear to in

any

of our

texts.

53

In view of this con

fusion

it

is safe

to conjecture

thSit, at an earlier stage in its

history, Khojki may have lacked a distinctive sign for the inde

pendent 0

vowel.

3.

The script

has

a single

character, o.Jl,

to indicate

both the independent short r and long I

vowel (as

in

islam,

laiye,

kOI).54

Hence

the transcription

i

is used in this work for

an independent i vowel. Allana uses the character ..( for

an

independent short i vowel,

but

that character

is

not to be found

in the Khojki texts consulted.

55

Similarly, Stack uses the char

acter

<

for

an

independent

short

i vowe1.

56

Though

this

character

does

indeed

occur

occasionally

where one

would

expect a short

i

vowel, it is

more

commonly used to represent

59



the e vowel and has been so transcribed in this study. Again, as

will be seen in the section on orthography, there is an ambi

guity in the transcription of the symbol

/

which is combined

with a consonant to give a short

i

vowel.

4. The script does not have any special symbols to repre

sent the diphthongs.

57

The diphthong ai is usually changed to

e, while the diphthong au is changed to

o.

Stack uses the let

ters ..,-.(' and ~ J for the diphthong.

58

Allana remarks that

the letters .-M and -.1 were introduced later for the diph

thongs ai and au respectively.59 All of the characters men

tioned by Allana and Stack are not employed consistently to

represent the diphthongs, however. For example, the letter

-.5 used by Stack to indicate au does not occur in any of the

Khojki texts or primers. Among the texts of the Bujh Nirafijan,

only K-4 (c. 1901) uses the letters

--,--(

and

--..1'.

The rest

of the texts, including the later K-2 (1914), usually change the

diphthongs to the e or 0 vowel. Manuscript K-3

uses

-4\ for

the diphthong au, but this use

is borrowed from the Devana

gari script system.

The Consonant System

1

Deficiency. In an attempt to represent the sounds of

the different languages and dialects for which it came to be

employed, the Khojki script eventually developed over forty

letters.

60

Some of these letters were especially incorporated

into the script to

represent

sounds that were not found in

Indian languages and that were peculiar to Arabic, the lan

guage

from

which

most

Islamic religious terminology is

derived.

61

To this end, a Khojki letter representing the sound

closest to the Arabic sound in question was appropriately mod

ified. Thus, to indicate the Arabic shIn (sh), which in the

Arabic script is represented by three dots over the letter for sIn

(s), three dots were placed

over

, the

Khodki

letter for

s,

to produce the letter

~

for the sound sh.

6

Similarly, to

represent the Arabic cain n the Khojki script, three dots were

placed over the Khojki letter for 'a

(--,)

or over the letter for

the vowel e ...f), giving Khojki two letters for this sound -

, , ~ and . 63 The Arabic gain was formed by placing

three dots over the letter for the sound g -

:;)\... The four

Arabic letters

ial,

ze,

~ o : J e

and

~ a d w e r e

all pronounced

as

z

and represented

by

the letter i . This letter was formed by

the familiar pattern of placing three dots over another conso-

60



nant, in this case the letter

31

or j. Indeed, in many Indian

languages it is very common to p r o n ~ u n e

j

or

jb

as z and vice

versa.

tl4

Occasionally

the letter ~

was used to represent

the Arabic

qaf,

but

this letter

appears

to have

been

a fairly .

recent development.

65

A study of

the

Khojki manuscripts reveals another kind of

deficiency in the script's consonant system. In its primitive

form, the script probably did not have a separate character for

the consonant y. Manuscript

Kx

of the Dasa Avatara, dating

from 1737, Joes not have a special

letter

for this sound.

66

In

Khojki texts

the

consonant y

is

quite consistently dropped or

replaced by the vowels a

or

e

or

both.67 A word such as bbaya

would be

written as bhaea, maya ·as

maea, and piya

as pia.

Later Khojki texts use the letter 6t1 for the consonant y.

This

letter

is

an

adaptation from the letter

~ ' O t

for the vowel

i.

2. Redundancy. While Khojki originally did not have let

ters

for certain Arabic sounds, it had developed special letters

for the implosive sounds that are found only in the Sindhi lan

guage. This development was not unusual since Sindhi was the

language for which Khojki was originally used. But with

the

spread

of the script to non-Sindhi-speaking areas,

the

letters

for this implosive sounds were given al ternate sound values.

The peculiar result was that a few sounds were represented by

two letters. T h u s ~

,

the

Khojki letter

for the Sindhi

implosive

Q (

y , became commonly used to represent the

sound b (,--:-,,). Consequently, the Khojki letter which

originally represented

the

b sound was

then

used along with

.:>{ to

represent

the sound bh (

) . L i k e w i s e , t....

, the

letter

for the Sindhi implosive g (

~

, is used for the sound d

so

that the

aspirated db is represented by two Khojki letters -

~ '

(used earlier to represent d) and

~ . Again,

Vr , the

Khojki letter for the Sindhi implosive dy ( cr , was sometimes

used in Gujarati-speaking areas for the sound z or

J68

:;).t ,

the

Khojki

letter

for Sindhi ng

~

), was used to represent g

or even

the

conjunct gr.69 The factors influencing the direc

tion of this particular shift in

the

value of the letters

in

non

Sindhi

areas

certainly warrant further research.

In

light of the

dual sound

values (Sindhi

and

non-Sindhi) for

the

above let

ters, it is quite clear that the

area

of origin

of

a Khojki text may

be

of

considerable significance in determiIling its correct read-

61



ing and transcription.

3. Ambiguity. There is some confusion in the script about

the letter used to represent the sounds d, r and Q.. Khakee

notes that in manuscript

Kx

the same letter,

'e

is

used for

all three sounds'?O Manuscript K-3 of the Bujb Niraiijan also

uses ~ ~ ' for all three sounds. Stack remarks that, while most

Indian languages have the same

letter to

represent and

r

Sindhi has a different one for each.71 However, though his

table does show a separate character for and r the character

for

r

and is the same,?2 Allana uses the letter

~

to

indicate the sound r but in modern Khojki this letter is used

exclusively for the sound

Q.

Attempts seem to have been made

at a much later stage in the history of the script to clear the

confusion by creating separate and distinctive letters for these

sounds. The Khojki primers of 1932 and 1947 use ~ for Q,

c:>O to represent r and ~ to represent Q.. Nonetheless, in

most Khojki texts the

transcription of

the

letter

C 'I is

uncertain.

Orthography

Since the Khojki script

is

chiefly phonetic and since it was

used over a wide area of diverse dialectical pronunciation with-

out being standardized, it is common to find in Khojki texts

inconsistencies in the orthography of many words. One exam-

ple

of

such an inconsistency is found in words

in

which the

sounds

band

d occur. In the spoken language these two

sounds are often aspirated and pronounced as bb and db. It

was, then, the aspirated sound that was often represented when

the word was written. Thus the Arabic word duca (prayer) was

sometimes written as dna and sometimes as dhna, the latter

spelling representing the pronunciation of the word. Similarly

bat was sometimes written correctly and sometimes as bbat.

73

Another inconsistency in the orthography lies in the length

of the vowel. It is true that, in the case of a

few

vowels, Khojki

did not have a method for distinguishing between long and

short vowels. But there were vowels for which this distinction

could be made, and yet one finds in Khojki texts that very little

attention has been paid to ensuring the correct length

of

the

vowel. At one point in the text a word would be spelled with a

long vowel, while

at

another a short vowel would

be

found

instead. 'The word milana, for example, would be written as

62



m lana

or

as i:nilina... 74

One final problem is ambiguity in the use of orthographic

symbols. The script uses the symbol /,,, with a consonant that

is

to

be

read with a short

i

vowel. The same symbol could also

indicate a vowel-less consonant.

T h u s ~

't1 could be tran

scribed either as pirem or prem. In her study of manuscript Kx

of the Dasa Avatara, Khakee remarks that in that manuscript

the

symbol r s used also to give a short a

or

short e

sound.

75

Another

orthographic

sign whose value, especially in

manuscripts,

is

uncertain

is

the superscript dot. In most Khojki

texts it is usually placed above a long vowel and is used to

indicate nasalization.

In

this respect it is identical to the

Devanagari

anusvaJ .

In some manuscripts, however, the same

mark is sometimes placed above consonants apparently to indi

cate a consonant without the usual implicit short a vowel. This

practice is not consistently followed.

6



NOTES

1For factors contributing to the unreliability of these texts, see 87-90

below.

2The first in the series of these romances was Candayan composed in

the late fourteenth century

by

Maulana

DaUd. Cf. S. M.

Pandey, Maulana

DaUd and His Contributions to Hindi SUfi Literature, Annali Instituto

Orientale Napoli

38

(1978): 75-90.

3Cf. S. A. Halim, Development of Hindi Literature during Akbar's

Reign Medieval India Quarterly 1-2 1957): 88-99.

4Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 384, 389.

5Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur,

135-174.

6S. M.

Ila:am, Muslim Civilization in India (New York: Columbia Uni

v e r s i ~

Press, 1964), 243.

Ibid.,

245.

8M. Ziauddin,

Mirza

Khan's Gram,mar of the Braj Bhakha (Calcutta:

Visva Bharati, 1935), 3 n.l.

9Ibid., 9-11.

1D-rhe scribe uses the character ':'; for the sound f. only two or three

times in the entire manuscript. See poem 18, quatrain

3.

11S.

M. Pandey, Some Problems in Studying Candayan, Orientalia

Lovaniensia Analecta 8 (1980): 127-140. M. Hafiz Syed, Divan of QazI

Mal,unud Bal}.rI of Gogi, Allahabad University Studies 8 (1937): 209, also

discusses similar peculiarities in the manuscript he used. . .

12Much

of

the material in this section appears in

my

article, The

Khojki Script: A Legacy of Ismaili Islam in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent,

Journal

of

the American Oriental Society, 107, no. 1 (1987): 439-449.

13Though the term Khoja now most commonly refers to the Nizari

Ismaili followers of the Aga Khan, there are also SunnI and Ithna cAsharI

Khojas who, for various reasons, have seceded from the larger group and no

longer follow Ismaili doctrine..

The

title Khwaja appears to have been

introduced to replace the original term thakur or thillar (also meaning

lord, master ) used by the Lohana Hindu caste, some members of which

were converted to Ismailism. The Gazetteer

of

the Bombay Presidency, vol.

9,

pt.

2,

p. 39) remarks that in northeastern Kathiawar, Khojas were still

addressed

by

the Lohana title thillar and wore their waistcloths in the

Lohana fashion.. I t must also be noted that, among the Ismailis of Indo

Pakistan, there are Ismailis who do not differ from the Ismaili Khojas either

culturally or in terms of religious doctrine, but nonetheless are not Khojas,

i.e., Momnas, Kunbis, or ShamsIs. See Shorter Encyclopedia

of

Islam,

s.v.

Khodia. .

VlA. a n j ~ The Niziri Isma9tI Tradition in th Indo-Pakistan Subcon

tinent (Delmar,

NY:

Caravan Books, 1978),9, 74.

15F. A. Khan, Banbhore (Karachi: Department of Archaeology and

Museums, 1976), 16, esp. figs. 2 and 3.

16G. Allana, Sindhi Siiratkhati (Hyderabad, Pakistan: SindhI Zaban

Publications, 1969),

20.

17Ibid., 24.

18Though the earliest extant Khojki manuscript dates to A.D. 1736,

there is considerable evidence that the tradition of writing in the Khojki

script goes back earlier. See Nanji, The NizarI Isma iti Tradition, 9-11,

64



Zawahir Nooraliy, Catalogue

of

Khojki Manuscripts in the Collection

of

the

Ismailia Association for Pakistan (in manuscript form, Karachi, 1971), and

the introduction of

my

study, The Harvard Collection

of

Ismaili Literature in

Indic Languages (Boston: G.

K

Hall, forthcoming 1992).

19

Allana, Sindhi Siiratkhati, 16-19. .

20 Abstract of the Society's Proceedings,"

Journal

of the Bombay

Branch

of

the Royal Asiatic Society 5 (1857):

685.

.

21Richard Burton, Sindh and the Races

That

Inhabit the Valley of the

Indus, reprint ed. (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1973), 152-153.

22George Stack, A Grammar of the Sindhi Language (Bombay, 1849) 3-

8.

23George Grierson, Linguistic Survey

of

India, vol.

8,

pt. 1 (Calcutta:

Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1903-28),

247.

24Ibid.,

14.

For the relationship of the

L a ~ c t a

group of scripts to other

mercantile scripts prevalent in the subcontinent see Asani,

The

Khojki

Script

440.

25George Grierson,

On

the Modem Indo-Aryan Vernaculars (London:

Quaritch, 1931-33),

11.

26Burton, Sindh, 153.

27Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India,

vol. 8,

pt. 1,

p.

247.

28Ibid., 14.

In

the same note he relates a story according to which a

merchant wrote to his son to send the small account book with the cover"

(nanc,thi wahi put.he siidhi ). The son read this as

nanc,thi

wahii purt siidhi:

"send the youngest daughter-in-law with [her] son"

29S

tac

k, A Grammar of the Sindhi Language, 2 n. Stack remarks that,

while he had been informed that the medial vowel marks were also used with

other

Sindhi scripts, he

had

not been able to locate any corroborative

examples.

3 t : r r h ~

literature recorded in Khojki manuscripts consists not only of the

Ismaili

ginan literature

and far mans (commands, guidances given by the

Imam) but also religious stories, popular Hindu bhajans or devotional songs,

as well as

gazals

and kafis. Some manuscripts may also contain remedies for

various illnesses, amulets and the like. For detaHed description of the

contents

of

Khojki manuscripts, see Ali

S.

Asani,

The

Harvard Collection

of

Ismaili Literature

n

Indic Languages, esp. indices; and Noorally, Catalogue

of

Khojki Manuscripts.

3IAllana, Sindhi Siiratkhati, 24.

see also Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch,

SindhIJ;>olijimukhta$ar t rikh (Hyderabad: Sind University, 1962), 114-115.

32S

ee

Asani, "The Ginan Literature of the Ismailis of Indo-Pakistan."

33Grierson, Linguistic Survey of India,

vol. 8,

pt. 1,

p. 247.

34S.

S.

Gandhi, History

of

the Sikh Gurus (New Delhi: Gur Das Kapur,

1978) 174-175. '

35Ibid., quoting Gokal Chand Narang.

36Grierson, Linguistic Survey

of

India,

vol.

9,

pt.

1, p.

624. Cf. W. Owen

Cole and Piara Singh

S a m b h ~

The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Prac

tices (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978),

19.

37The earliest extant Khojki manuscript dates to 1736. See Nanji, The

Nizari Isma;tr Tradition,

10;

and N oorally, Catalogue of Khojki ManusaiptS.

38Ivanow

j

"Satpanth," Collectanea, vol. I,

p 40.

~ w o

examples of Khojki lithographs from

this.

pe·riod are (1) Vasile

molajo S J;l rasalo emam jaafar sadhik ane sat maheje rozeje waft

p a c t ~ j o

65



molajo moejejo published in

1895

by Kasam bhar KarlIn Bhagat through the

Datt

Prasadh Press, Bombay, and (2) Sindh Hedharabad

Tatha

Jimnagar ja

faramin, published in 1900 by M.[Muhammad?] Sale Kasam through the J.

D. Press, Bombay.

40The Gulam-i l:lusain Press was operated by AlaclIn

6 u l a m ~ u s a i n

and

his ~ o n

Busain. Some of the Khojki publications of the press include GinanJi

copdi eogadie

viri

(1891), Rasalo

imam jafar

sadhakjo (1902), and Ginan

Granth

(1907). . .

41The schisms were caused by attempts by some Khojas to remove the

Aga Khan from his position as Imam of the community, and they resulted in

court cases such as

the Aga

Khan

Case

of 1866 and the

Hap

Bibi Case of

1905.

The

g ~

Khan

Case was

heard before

Justice

Arnold

of the High

Court of Bombay 12 November 1866. A study of the case is presented in A

A. Fyzee,

Cases

in

Muhammadan Law of India

and

Pakistan

(Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1965),504-549.

42See pp. 87-89 below.

43It was under the auspices of the Recreation Club and its successor,

the

Ismaili Society,

that

W. Ivanow, the celebrated scholar

of

Ismailism,

published some of his research.

440

n

the basis of scanty information it appears that Lalji Devraj may·

have played

an important

role in facilitating

the

switch from Khojki to

Gujarati.

This, however, has

to be

adequately researched before strong

conclusions can

be

reached.

45Interview with Hashim Moledina, an experienced teacher of Khojki,

Karachi, January 1982.

46A resent research trip to the subcontinent revealed a tradition among

the

Nizari Ismailis that holds that a group of professional scribes, Akhunds,

used

to

travel from

one

village to another for the purpose of transcribing

fresh copies of deteriorating manuscripts· (cop4as) or making available

texts of ginans not available previously in the area. Some tenuous evidence of

this practice is provided by manuscripts in

the same hand and

found in

diverse places, but further research needs to

be

carried out to determine the

authenticity

of

this traditon. Interview with Abdul Hussain Alibhai

N a n j ~

Hyderabad,Pakistan, January

1982.

47Nanji, Nizari Isma'lli Tradition, 9.

48S

ee

Ignaz G o l d z ~ e r "Linguistisches aus der Literatur der muham

madanischen Mystik," Zeitschrift

der

Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesell

schaft

26

(1872): 765, and Alessandro Bausani,

About

a Curious Mystical

Langt age,"

East

and

west 4 (1958).

49Gulshan Khakee,

The Dasa

Avatira of the Satpanthi Ismailis and

Imam Shahis of Indo-Pakistan."

50Ibid., 479,

603

n.2;

51AlIana, Sindhi Siiratkhati, 26.

52Khakee,

The Dasa

Avatira," 479 603

n.2.

53S

tac

k, A

Grammar

of the Sindhi Language, 4.

54Khakee,

The

Dasa Avatara,"

479 603

n.1.

55

AlIana, SindhI Siiratkhati, 26.

56S

tac

k A Grammar of the Sindhi Language, 3.

57Khakee, "The Dasa Avatara," 479.

58S

tac

k A Grammar of the Sindhi Language, 4.

59AlIana, Sindhi Siiratkhati, 26 n.

66



6OIbid., 24: points

out that

this was the reason

that

Khojki was some

times called caliha

akhari

(forty letters). Nanji, Nizari Isma'lli Tradition, 8,

documents, forty-two letters in the script. •

61Khojki was used for writing not only theological terms and phrases

from

the

Arabic language

but

also for writing Persian.

In

fact, an

entire

Persian text, the Pandiyat-i

JawanmardI,

was

written

in the script. Cf.

PaIidhiat Jawamardhi (Bombay:

Khoja

Printing

Press,

1904). Ivanow

remarks

that

since this work expressed the ideas of the Imam it was consid

ered to be sacred. Hence it was ,accorded an honor otherwise known only

in the case

of

the Q u r ~ a n its translation was accompanied by a parallel

transcription of the original Persian text in the Khojki script. Pandiyat-i

Javanmardi, Persian text ed. and trans. W. Ivanow (Bombay: Ismaili Society,

1953)

3.

62The Arabic

a d

was usually pronounced as

s.

63It is unlikely, however, that these modified characters were ever pro-

nounced as the Arabic cain. .

64Cf. story in Baloch,

Sindhi

I?oli, 33, frpm a l - J a h i ~ about a SindhI

woman who pronounced the Arabic jamal as zarilal

65This letter

is

not found frequently in Khojki manuscripts. It is quite

common, however,

in

manuscript

KH

131 in

the

collection

of

the Ismailia

Association for Pakistan.

66Khakee,

The

Dasa Avatara, 604 n.13.

67Ibid., 482.

68In works published by LaJji Devraj,

the letter

oM

is always used to

represent z

or j but

never dy.

69Ibid., 604 n.5.

The

Khojki manuscripts

of the

Biijh Niraiijan very

rarely

use conjunct consonants. The introduction

of

conjunct consonants

probably took place at a late stage in the history

of

the script. The few con

junct consonants used in later, Khojki are derived from the DevanagarI script

(i.e., )( for tr, ... for ksh, and 1 for dhr.

70Ibid.,479.

71Stack, A Grammar of the Sindhi Language, 7,n.

72According to Stack's table (ibid., 6), the

l e t t e r ~

represents both r

n d ~

.

73Khakee,

The

Dasa Avatara, 483, also remarks

on

the frequent tend

ency in manuscript Kx to change b to bh and d

to db The

change does

not

take

~ l a c e

in all cases

but no

logical pattern

is

dis'cernible.

4It should

be

noted that, even in the later versions of the Bujh N rrafijan

written

in

the Gujarati script, vowel lengths are not accurately represented.

75Khakee,

The Dasa

Avatara, 604 n.3.

67



Table

2.1

Correspondence of Initial Vowels

in

the Roman, Urdu,

Sindhi, GUjarati, and Khojki Characters

Roman

Urdu

.Sindhi

Gujarati

Khojkia

a

-...., ---,

a

~

~ -- 'll

\

Ef

~ a

(0 ,0) (-<, '1?)

....-

I

c..s\

<5

tS

~ co:) c-< ,< ?'')

I

.,

J

u l

i

3

f t d )

J

. -J

U

~ ,

-,I

<3L

5 (4 )

(r.,.J,)

~ \

}

,

0

~ l

O - . 1 r , ~ ~ n

c:..s\

cs

'<' . ~ 1 ( < r)

~

5l

~ I

i

~

t ~ ~ ~

-,I

~ I

~

~ S , . ~ ~ ; ; ~ ]

u

-:w

a.

[]

Documented variant (occurs in the Khojki texts used

in this study or in Manuscript Kx of the Dasa Avatara

used

by

Gulshan Khakee).

(?) Undocumented variant listed

by

Allana or Stack.

)

Alternate sound employed.

68



Table 2.2

Correspondence

of

Noninitial Vowefs in the R o m ~ Urdu,

Sindhi, Gujarati, and Khojki Characters

Roman Urdu

Sind hi

Gujarati

Khojkia

bad

~

->

b{€,

~ £ [W€.-1

bad

~

-=>4

btlE,

crtle..

din

: . r ~

0 :;)

{f ot

at

dIn

e:,r.. )

;

do•

£10{

tA51

"

..

b { ~

,Vl

ut

~

~

but

-: .Jy. ~ y

b { ~

~ \ ' l

HL

"

o

yAJ

\ t L [ ~ 6 J

ui

"

e

cd--

d ·

Cft cwJ

..

hai

"

"

~

( ~ ~ - - N J

C; .

~

~

/

, ;

.

a{l

( ~ , O \ - \ 4 ' J

au

y y

a.

[]

Documented variant occurs

ip

the Khojki texts used

in this study or in Manuscript

Kx

of the Dasa Avatara

used

by

Gulshan Khakee). I

?) ,Undocumented variant listed by Allana

or.

Stack.

) Alternate sound employed.

69



Table

2.3

Correspondence

of

Consonants in the Roman, Urdu,

Sindhi, Gujarati, and Khojki Characters

Roman

Urdu

Sindhi Gujarati

Khojkia

b

y

Y

(,t

~

( '1.,4t J

b

c.....,

~

bh

~ .

@l

::>{,

~ ~ J

t

<..::..>

~

' t

th

6

&t

( C'V\,]

t

cb

2

c:

2 ( ' ~ )

th

b

<5

10

l

1:?

6

(:ij.)

('\'()

P

Yo

t

'i. ( f?)

ph

...% ;

c......P

~

~

31

»r :n ?J?)

dy

" [

V ,

C3?

jh

K

k.

-,.,

ny

t

j{

~ . . ~ ? l

C

~

:rl

7

1

)

Ch

..'

f9

2t ( ( ' n

a.

[ ]

Documented variant (occurs in the Khojki texts used

in this study or in Manuscript Kx of the Dasa Avatara

used by Gulshan,Khakee).

(?)

Undocumented variant listed by Allana or Stack,

( )

Alternate sound employed.

70



Roman

Urdu

Sindhi

IGuiarati Kh

oj ki

1

G

~

~ )

( ~ )

kh

t

t

l ~ )

~ C ~ )

d

::> , )

C

E ~

dh

,0)

:)

€t

~ t ( ~ ? )

4

;::,

'E

c;l

.b

.s

~

\ t

Ca

~ , 2 - r ? )

~

c;lh

b

6 (d,?)

Jb ::>

-?

a,

z

.

~

(-:d)

-i1,th)

r

.J

,)

~

x-

L

,-

f

\It,

~ 0 6 C ~ J

J

i

rh

~

I

b

Z

)

. /

:r.1

31CV,J

s

0

~

I

~

'\. '1

sh

. ,

, ~

&

<Y

tL

Cj

<S

l ~ )

( ' ' ~ )

~

ci'

s

~ )

(:/;1

1h)

.b

.k

( ~ , a )

(V\, -z:.)

~

1;,

.la

C . ~ )

<:ffi Vr

c

t

t

~ )

~ ~ ~ )

g

~

t.

(; l,)

C?L)

f

J

c...JI

~

;f

q

6

j

~ )

i

< t ~

<.J

/

k

c::.J

%

tu , J

kh

f

~

1Tl

'1

~ ~ ~

g

d

;::/

cJ

;:)L

~ \ (:>,l ~ 1 ]

71



Roman Urdu

Sindhi

Gujarati

Khojki

ng

c f

.:>A,

gh

f

~

ft

~ t ~ ?

ng

t3

:

t ~ t ~

d

C-t

2-\(. 2-{ 1

m

/

.a.t

~

n

(.=J

C:J

o-t

rt d-t

~

t,Sl

( ~ : )

U

worv

~

c:t

ct ,.otl

h

0

~ C ~ l

Y

~

<...S

~

Gq

.-t

(:-r,

t

ksh

~

¥ ~ n

gn

~

~

tr

>l

>l 6c

~ t :

n

dhr

~

~

72



CHAPTER]

VERSIONS AND TEXTS

The

existing manuscripts and

pfinted

texts of the Biijh

Niraiijan suggest that we have two m ~ o r versions of the work:

a Sufi version and

an

Ismaili versibn. The Sufi version is

represented by the single manuscrip,t, dated

1724

and desig

nated

as

P

908

in Blumhardt's Catalogue

of

Hindustani Manu

script in the Library of the India O ~ c e It is written in the

Perso Arabic script. As already discussed,

there

is a fair

amount of evidence to indicate that the version of the poem

represented by this manuscript pr9bably originated in the

circle

of

the sixteenth- or s e v e n t e e n t ~ - c e n t u r y QadirI-Shagarr

saint

of

Burhanpiir, l:Ia?rat Shaikh elsa Jundallah, MasIb al-

auliya (A.H. 962-1031/A.D. 15$5-162]}

Compared to the other existing texts of the Biijh Niraiijan,

the text of this version

is

relatively ftee from corruption. Its

readings are generally reliable; already in 1976 this version was

used to clear up some of the distortidns that are characteristic

of the more corrupt Ismaili version.

2

Since the manuscript is

also the oldest source of the Biijh N;iraftjan, it has

been

the

main text on which our critical edition

lis

based.

Its overall reliability not withstanding, the text of this

version does contain several corruptidns. Some of the

Caupars

(quatrains), which constitute the majdr verse form within each

poem, are incomplete; only two lines

l Out of the standard four

have been preserved in the following quatrains: quatrain 1,

poem 1; quatrains 3 and 4, poem

8;

quatrain 4, poem 21; and

quatrain 2,

poem

24.

In addition,

s o m ~

quatrains, even though

complete, contain lines that have be¢n so garbled in the pro

cess

of

transmission that their meaqing is obscure. Again,

while each of the thirty-four poems of the Biijh Niraiijan nor

mally ends with one couplet or dohrap (doha), in this version

two

of

the poems have

an

additional :dohrah. s these extra

dohrahs do not occur in the Ismaili t e x ~ s it is possible that they

did not form part of the original text. iSimilarly, at the end of

this version there are four lines in the caupar meter and two

73



dohrahs,

none of

which occur in the Ismaili version.3 These,

too,

are

unlikely

to

have been contained in the original, for not

only are they unconnected to each

other

thematically,

but

a few

of

them

are also metrically defective.

Their

occurrence

at the

end of

the text makes it very likely they were appended to the

poem

by the scribe.

The

Ismaili

version is represented by a

small

group

of

manuscripts (in Khojki script) as well as

printed editions

(in

Khojki and

Gujarati scripts),

originating

within the Ismaili

community of

the

subcontinent. Though

by

virtue of their

common origin these manuscripts and printed editions may

be

said to form

an

Ismaili version

of

the Bujh Niraiijan,

the

texts

in

this collection

are

far from

~ i n g

completely identical.

The

process of

transmission and

several

attempts at

editing have

resulted in varying degrees

of

differences

between

these texts.

For

the

most

part

the disparities among

them

consist

of

varia

tions

n

individual words; occasionally entire lines may differ.

Nevertheless

these texts share certain significant

char

acteristics

that make

it

appropriate

to

designate

them

collec

tively as

the

Ismaili version. First, all these texts include a

reference

to the Ismaili dacr PIr Sadr ad-DIn, thus implying

an

Ismaili origin for

the

work. Second, they also contain a refrain

that

is

found

in

ginans with a similar stI1lcture. This refrain has

been

added between

the. caupaI

and dohrah

sequence

of

each

poem

so that

the work

structurally

resembles other

ginans.

4

Third, since within the Ismaili community the Bujb Nirafljan is

sung,

the

second

and

fourth

wans

(divisions)

of

each

dohrah

in the

Ismaili version end with

the

re syllable,

the

function

of

which will

be

elucidated in

the

section

on

prosody.5 Fourth,

in

contrast

to the

thirty-four poems found in

the

Sufi version,

the

Ismaili texts of

the Bujb

Niraiijan

contain

only thirty-three.

The

Ismaili texts

omit poem

12

of the

Sufi version, evidently

because

its

exoteric message

was

incompatible

with Ismaili

views. The

sequence of

PQems

in

all

the

Ismaili texts is also

identical. As

already noted

this

sequence sometimes

varies

significantly

from that of the

Sufi version.

Textual

evidence

suggests

that it

is

the

Sufi version, as

represented

in

the India

Office manuscript, which preserves the original sequence.

Even the

corruptions

in the

various Ismaili texts have com

mon characteristics. Significantly, one category of these cor

ruptions, as we shall see shortly, could have been caused only

7



by

the misreading

of

the

P e r s o A r a b i ~

script. This would indi

cate that either the exemplar

of

the ilsmaili version was itself

transcribed from a text in the P e r s o ~ a b i c script or that it

was

copied from a text that had already been transcribed from such

a source. Some

of

the

other

types bf textual corruption are

attributable

t

a variety of factors, in'cluding the nature of the

Khojki script, unfamiliarity with Sufi technical terms of Arabic

and Persian origin, and the influence of Gujarati, the language

commonly spoken

by

a large segment of the community.

All Ismaili texts contain several vetses that are not found in

the Sufi version.

Many

of

these

v e ~ s e s

are metrically defec

tive, and their language bears a

s t r o ~ g

Gujarati flavor. They

are clearly

later

additions to the original text.

On

the other

hand, a

few

verses found in the Sufi version do not occur in the

traditional Ismaili texts.

7

Finally, it

s ~ o u l d

also

be

noted that

the sequence of individual lines in a

~ a u p a

may vary between

the Ismaili and Sufi versions.

Of

cout:se, after the discovery of

the Sufi version, many but not all

of ~ e

corruptions indicated

above were removed from the recen:t Ismaili editions

of

the

work (Le., the

1976

and

1981

editions).1

There is

one additional manuscript

of

the Bujh Nirafijan

whose relationship to the two major

v ~ r s i o n s

delineated above

is

as yet unclear. This manuscript, wri tten in the Perso-Arabic

script, apparently survives only in

two:

fragments said to be in

the possession of Shaikh Naimuddin ofIBijapur.· Sadik Ali, who

was the first to point

out

this manuscript?s existence, repro

duces both surviving fragments in his trtonograph, The Authen

ticity of the Buj Nirinjan. 8 As

we

have ialready seen, the first of

these fragments preserves poem

13

(npmber

33

in the Ismaili

version).

t

contains the name Shaikh

I

Sadr Shah, which Sadik

Ali assumes

is

a variant

of

PIT

Sadr aq-DIn. The second frag

ment

preserves a colophon

that

presumably belongs to the

same manuscript

as

the

first fragmJnt. According to this

colophon, the lineal ascendant

of

thi$ manuscript was tran

scribed in

1707

or

1708

into the Pers6-Arabic script from an

original that was in the "Hindi" script.

I

While Sadik Ali c o n s i ~ e r s these two

I

ragments to be part

of

an independent version

of

the Bojh NuafIjan that corroborates

Prr

Sadr ad-Dln's authorship, we beli¢ve, for reasons already

discussed, that there is a possibility of la relationship between

this manuscript and the Ismaili version. Whether a relation-

I

75

\

I



ship

does in

fact exist

or

whether this manuscript does indeed

represent a

third version

can perhaps be

determined

only

if

other portions

of

the original manuscript were available for

inspection

and

analysis. Until that time, it would

be prudent

to

postpone a classification of this version.

The

Sufi Version

Siglum: P

Description

of

Texts

Location of the manuscript: India Office Library, London.

The

text

of

the Bujh

Nirafljan is

part

of a

manuscript

con-

taining several

other

works in Persian.

The

entire manuscript

has

been

catalogued as

Number

2799 in Herman

Ethe,

Cata

logue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library

of

the

India

Office

Oxford: India Office, 1903). Blumhardt, in the Catalogue of

Hindustani Manuscripts in

the

Library of the

India

Office

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926), catalogues

the

Bujh

Nirafijan as P 908. Currently, the

India

Office Library desig-

nates the poem

as

Urdu manuscript

B 4.

The manuscript

belongs

to

a collection

of

716 manuscripts

and

64 albums

of

paintings purchased by the India Office from Richard Johnson,

who was

in

India between 1770 and 1790 as an administrator

n

the employ of the

East India

Company.9

Folios: Total

number

of folios in manuscript: 265; folio

size: 8 1/2 inches by 45/8 inches.

Date

and place of origin:

The

colophon

at

the

end of

the

text

of

the Bujb Nirafijan

on

folio

4

reads,

This HindawI [Hindi] manuscript was

written

on the 4th

Jumad al-awwal

in the

fifth year

of the reign

of

the

Emperor Mul)ammad Shah

[Le.,

30 January

1724].

Overlook [lit., cover] with the eye of generosity every place

where

an error

has been made. Written

on

Tuesday at

noon.

The

scribe

omits any

mention of the

place where

the

copying

was undertaken.

In the introduction to the

1976

edition

of the Bujb

Nirafijan,

Zawahir

Noorally states

that

the scribe mentions in

this colophon

that

he has copied

the

text from a manuscript

in

Hindi (presumably, she means the

Devanagarl

script) for

Richard Johnson, the then resident of Hyderabad, Deccan.

10

Actually, as is evident from

the translation

above,

the

scribe

76



does not indIcate the source from ~ h i h he copied this text.

He states only that he copied this hindawI manuscript, intend

ing by this adjective either "Indian" dr "belonging to the Indian

vernacular, Hindi." Moreover, the s6ribe makes no mention of

Richard Johnson; nor could he havb done so for civil service

records indicate that Richard J ohnsbn arrived in India only in

1770.1

1

Though on the first folio, IRichard Johnson

is

men

tioned as being the owner of the manuscript, the date in the

colophon indicates that the text of Bojh Niraftjan was already

transcribed before Richard Johnson could have acquired it.

Since no other date is mentioned

e l ~ e w h e r e

in the manuscript,

it is not certain whether the other contents were also written in

1724 or at a much later date, perhJps under Johnson's guid-

ance. I

Condition of the manuscript: Fragile but well preserved.

Script: The manuscript is written in the Perso-Arabic

I

script by many hands in many

stYjles.

The scribe uses

the

nastaClIq style to write the Bujb Niraiijan, occasionally chang

ing to the shikastah style, especiallyi at the end of words. The

peculiarities of the script have already been discussed.

12

I

Contents of the manuscript: Contains scattered pieces and

fragments in prose and verse, in both Hindustani and Persian.

In addition to the Bujb Niraftjan, a few of the more important

portions area short treatise, in p'ersian, on measures and

weights; riddles

in

Persian; a P e r s i ~ n translation of the Koka

I

Shastra, the standard Indian book on sexual intercourse; and a

large tract on magic, art, exorcism, ahd other mysterious craft.

Text of the "Bujh Niraftjan":

~ h e

Bujb Niraftjan is found

on folios 1

through 14

with

13

to

14

lines on

each

folio.

Though it employs Indian metrical f6rms, the text has been laid

out

in the

manner

of a Persian masnawI.

The

four lines of

I

each of the four caupars have

been

written as if they were the

four misraCs (hemistiches) of two IPersian baits (distiches).

And the dobrab which concludes

each

poem is indented

slightly from each margin. This arrJngement may explain why

Ethe erroneously described the Bujb Niraftjan to be a theo-

sop hical masnavI."

13 I •

While the text itself is written in black ink, the various

headings are highlighted in red. 'The headings indicate the

verse forms. Each set of four c a h p ~ s is marked with the

77



designation

+ ~

(eaupai), a variant of the more common

eaupaI. Similarly, each dohrah

is

indicated as

~ , , ~ ( d o h r a h ) ,

an

alternate form

of

doha.

In

poems with two dohrahs, the

plural form

U ~ . . I 4 ' . )

(doharbay)

is

used. Headings are also

. used to introduce some of the poems. These headings, which

are in Persian, 'appear to have been an afterthought because

they have been squeezed into available space at the head of

the poems.

Peculiar red marks occur at the end of some of the lines of

the caupars. These marks, resembling three commas in a tri

angular pattern

( I . t , ) ,

may be termed as "line-fillers."

They have been used at the end of some of the shorter lines in

order to produce

an

even margin. Such marks occur in the

caupals on the following folios (the number in parentheses

indicates the number of the poem): 1 (3, 4), 5 (12), 6 (16), 12

(31), and

13

(34). The dohrah for poem

18

on folio 7 also con

tains these marks

There are indications that the text was reviewed for errors

and omissions. On folio 10 the scribe had initially failed to

observe the normal practice of indicating, at the bottom of the

page, the first two words of the next page.

t

was during the

review process that this omission was noticed and the words in

question - in this case,

nor tajallI -

were inserted. Since these

words are written in red ink, one may surmise that during this

process the scribe was also involved in inserting the headings in

the text. Again, on folio 8 the scribe continued the second line

of

the

dohrab for poem 21 in the margin of the same folio

instead

of

the next folio. Traditionally, he

is

required to use

some kind of a sign to alert the reader to the fact that-the line

completing the dohrah is an adscript or marginal gloss on the

same folio. Having neglected to insert such a sign at the time

of the original writing, the scribe inserted it in red ink during

the review process.

The text begins with the basmalah, the phrase traditionally

used to begin Islamic texts. Above the basmalah

is

the invoca

tion ya

g a u ~ a l - a ~ a m the epithet

associated with the Sufi

master cAbd aI-Qadir al-Gllan (1077/8 - 1166). The invoca

tion is written in a rather peculiarmanIier: on the line

immediately above the basmalah only the words ya

g ~ al

are

found; above this phrase

is

the word

~ a m

with a madda over

the ain instead of a preceding alif. This peculiar orthography

78



defies any logical explanation. qe layout is also peculiar.

Probably

the

scribe was attemptipg to create a symmetry

between the phrases written arounq the basmalah - on either

side of the

basmalah

are also foun9 two halves of the prayer

rabb

yassir wa

tarnrnirn

bPI-khair

~ r d ,

facilitate [this work]

and make it end well). At the end o this prayer, as well as the

end

of the basmalah, is found a mysterious abbreviation. This

abbreviation, which consists

of

the Iletter

m.Im

combined with

an alif

with

the letter t o ~ e above the stem of the

alif, is

•

probably a sign marking

the

c o m p ~ e t i o n of a phrase or sen-

tence. A final feature

of

interest

regarding

the

beginning

of

the text is that the composer does dot apologize for the use of

an

Indian vernacular. This is a stro:ng indication that the text

was composed after 1600, since most pre-1600 Indian Sufis felt

it necessary to include an apology atl the b e g i ~ n g of their text

if

they

had abandoned the

use of '

he

refined classical lan

guages,

Arabic and Persian, in f ~ v o r

of

the

more

crude

Indian vernaculars.

14

:

The

text

of

the

Blljh

Niraiijdn ends with

a

colophon

already described. We only

note

h;ere

t h t ~

while the rest of

the colophon is written in black, t h ~ l s t phrase ( Written on

Tuesday at noon ) is

in

red. This would indicate that the

phrase

was

written after

the e n t i n ~ text had

been

reviewed.

Below the

colophon is

t ~ e f o l l o w i ~ g b a d ~

iIi Arabic with its

Persian translation;

When you are ,perplexed by matters,

Seek help from the people

of

t

he graves.

The Ismaili Version . ,

This version is represented by

~

collection

of

four manu-

scripts

and several printed editions.

The

general

charac-

teristics of these texts have

been

ddscribed above.

The

intent

here is to focus

on

their physical

and

bibliographic descrip-

•

hons. ,

The

Ismaili texts

of

the

Bojh Niraiijan used in this study

may be divided into two groups: thd manuscripts in the Khojki

script and the printed editions in b o ~ h the Khojki and Oujarati

scripts. In this work, each text

is

i d ~ n t i f i e d by the siglum K

or

G, indicating

the

script

in

which theltext is written, and also

by

a numeral (1, 2 3 etc.).

The

traditional rule in critical editions

regarding the use of

an

ascendirtg o r ~ e r of numerals to indicate

79



increasing degrees of impurity has not

been

observed in this

study because some of these texts became available long after

the process of preparing the critical edition was well

under

way. Here, these numerals simply indicate the order in which

the texts were acquired.

One Ismaili text does not fall into the above categories -

the text of the Multan manuscript, included

by

Sadik Ali in his

book. Since the original text in the Khojki script could not be

reproduced, Sadik Ali transcribed the text into the Gujarati

script, probably with the intention of making the text easier to

print. In spite of his good intentions, Sadik Ali's Gujarati text

cannot, for reasons discussed below, be considered to

be

a

faithful copy of the Khojki original. In any case, in view of its

history, this text, designated as KG, is considered

under

a

separate head.

The Khojki Manuscripts

The four Khojki manuscripts are designated K-l,

K-3 K-4

and

K-5

none of which is older than the mid-nineteenth cent

ury. Although at the present there are a small collections of

Khojki manuscripts in Karachi at the Ismailia Association for

Pakistan, in London at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, and at

Harvard, there has

been

no such

~ h i n

as a complete and cen

tralized collection of Khojki manuscripts. Since the collection

of manuscripts at the Ismailia Association for Pakistan did not

include a single text of the

BUJb

Niranjan and the collection at

the

Institute is still in rudimentary state'

of

cataloging, the

s e ~ r h

for Khojki manuscripts of this work had to be directed

to individuals in the subcontinent who may have

had

such

manuscripts in their private collections. The search revealed

only

one

manuscript,

K-l

in the possession

of

Mohammed

Bacchal of Karachi. Later, two more manuscripts,

K-3

and K-

4 were discovered in a batch of uncatalo ed Khojki manu

scripts at the Institute of Ismaili Studies. The copy of K-5

was provided

even later

by Sadik Ali

of

Karachi, who had

found the original in a godown at the Ismailia Association for

Pakistan's Karachi premises.

Within this group of manus'cripts, three - K-l,

K-3

and

K-4

- are copies of earlier manuscripts that were recopied either

because they were in poor physical condition and their texts

needed to be preserved, or for the purpose of making available

80



a gin n text that was previously inaccessible. K-5, on the other

hand, is very likely a badly t r n s c r i b ~ d copy of the 1914 printed

Khojki edition edited by LaijI DeJraj and designated K-2 in

this study.

I

K-l, K-3, and K-4 have anotherlfeature in common. In all

three manuscripts, poem 15 conta,ins a lacuna, indicating a

common

origin for these texts. ~ o u g h there may be other

Khojki manuscripts

of the Bujh

Niraftjan

that

have not yet

come to light, it would not be too bojld to postulate

on

the basis

of the available manuscripts that this lacuna was present in the

text

of

the Bujh Niraftjan when it

i ~ i t i l l y

entered the

Ismaili

milieu.

In the

printed editions published at the turn of this

century, this lacuna was filled witq eight verses written in a

heavily Gujaratized Hindustani. Two of these

spurious

verses found their way into the teh of K-l, but the style of

script in which these two verses ar6 written makes it evident

that they

were inserted by a different

hand

after

the

com-

pletion of the text.

16

:

I

There

is also textual evidence tb suggest that K-3 and K-4

share a common line of transmissioh that is distinct from that

of K-l. This is indicated not only b ~ the two manuscripts fre

quently sharing common readings tiu t also by the omission of

the same verses from both the text1s. Both manuscripts omit

line 3, quatrain

1,

in

poem

14, as wFll as line

4,

quatrain 3, in

poem 32.

17

On

the

other

hand both manuscripts retain a line

I

of poem 32 - line 3, quatrain 3 - fr9m the original text which

other

Ismaili texts (K-l, K-5, and

e d ~ t i o n s

printed before 1976)

have omitted. Even though the two Planuscripts thus appear to

be related, the readings, idiosyncrflcies, and peculiarities of

each are distinctive enough to provide incontrovertible grounds

that one is not a

mere

copy of the other. For example, K-3

favors

the

use

of

the Khojki character " ~ to represent the

I

Arabic cain. This character is not fpund in K-4. Again, while

K-3 represents the diphthong au witp the character." ," K-4

uses the character "

~ .

Siglum:

K-l

Location of

the

manuscript: In the possession of

I

Mohammed Bacchal of Karachi.

i

Folios: Total number of folios: 85; folio size: 9

1/2

inches

by 5 7/8 inches; number of lines perlfolio: 16 to

17.

The paper

81



is of European, probably British, origin. One of the blank

folios at

the end

of the

manuscript

reveals a

watermark

with

the date

1890.

The

manuscript originally contained 110 folios,

but

folios

1

through

25

are

missing.

Probably

they

were

removed

from the manuscript because according to

the

tafsIlo

(index) they contained the_ text of a ginan allegedly banned by

the Aga Khan III

- Manhar by PIr

Gulam

cAlI (ca.

late

eigh

teenth century?). 18

Date and place of origin: On the last folio is a phrase in

Sindhi

according

to which this

manuscript

-

the

term used is

buk

(book) - was written in

the

year 1925. Though the

hand

in

which this

phrase

is

written

differs

from that

of

the

principal

copyist,

the

presence

of

the 1890 watermark

and the

fair condi

tion

of

the manuscript

strongly suggest that

the manuscript

dates

from

the

early twentieth century.

The

use

of

Sindhi

and

the occurrence of the

Khojki

characters

=>\ , ,

and

Y1 19 indicate

that

the manliscript originated in Sind.

Condition

of

the manuscript: Generally good, with the

exception

of

folios 73 through 99.

Script: Most of the manuscript is written by a single scribe

in a

neat and clear hand. Peculiarities of script include -.., for

the sound th instead of

the

standard til ; -a.r

and

A for

the Arabic

cain; .;\ for the Arabic gain;

-.t

for the Arabic

qa.f; . > (

for

the sound bh; 'V1 for the sound db;

and ' '-).l-,' '

for the sound dy. '

Contents of the

manuscript: A tafsIlo (index) is found

on

folio 106, but

it

is incomplete,

for it

covers material

only

through folio 99. According to the tafsIlo,

the

missing folios 1

through

25

contained the ginan

Manhar by PIr Gulam

CAlI.

The other contents include various ginans (both the shorter

variety

and the

longer variety called

~ a n t h s and

several com

positions in

the

kafI:,

gazal and

rekhtQ20 verse forms. On folio

106 is also found a prayer that is rather unusual for a Khojki

manuscript. The prayer, either for the Prophet Mul)ammad or

the

Imam,

is in Arabic, but

written in

the Khojki script

and

translates:

Peace be on you, 0 Lord of the Age;

Peace be on

you,

0 Companion of

the Qur:>an;

Peace be on

you,

0

KaCba

of

faith;

Peace be on

you, 0

leader of

men and

jinn

82



[Text not clear]

[Text not clear] I

And the mercy and blessings of God.

I

Text of the ''Bnjh Nirafijan": lllis

is

found between the

folios 36 and 57 and is entitled

grafith

bnjnirIfijan pIr sadhar

dhIn jo. Each line in the Caupar e t ~ r begins at the left margin

and

is

numbered.

on

the .right. Each

of

the four

wans

(divi-

I

sions) of the

dohrah

is also written on a separate line, thus

giving the couplet an appearance of Caupar. However, unlike

the

lines

of the

caupar, the carans begin a few spaces away

from the left margin and are markeq

by

the

sign

" in both

left and right margins. Also, while the first

three

carans

of

every dohrah are unnumbered, thb fourth one, .which com

pletes the entire poem, has a n u m b ~ r in the right margin cor

responding to the place of the poem lin the entire sequence. A

space of one line separates the CaupaIs and dohrah verses of

each poem.

The

words

re

tOhI,

anl

abbreviated form of the

refrain found in the Ismaili version, h found in the middle of

this .otherwise empty line..

i

The numerous emendations fou;nd in the text suggest that

not only did the copyist check his work for errors but also that

some later date a pious reader

exa$ned the text, underlining

words he considered to be inauthentic. The text contains two

lacunae. The major one occurs in

th:e

text of poem 15 on folio

45 and has been partially filled

by

a later scribe

with

two of the

eight spurious verses found n the e ~ l y printed texts.

A

minor

one

is

found on folio 56, where two

~ i n e s

are missing from the

text of

poem

32.

·A

curious

r e c t n ~ l r

design with numerals

and letters in the Arabic script markS the end of the text of the

Bujh Nirafijan. The words allah and CalI can be discerned, but

the significance of the numbers is uhclear.

The

entire design

probably represents a

taCW q or

a religio-magical formula.

S i ~ l u m

K-3

Location

of

the

manuscript: Institute

of

Ismaili Studies,

London. The manuscript has not yet ibeen catalogued. It bears

the temporary identification number

:117.

Folios:

Total number of folios

in the manuscript: 487;

folio size:' 8 3/8 inches by 5 1/2 i n ~ h e s ; number of lines per

folio: 14 to 16. The paper

is of

the local Indian (desI) variety.

The

folios are

bound

in

leather

arid have

an

intriguing but

83



obscure design on the cover. In order to prevent the ink from

spreading, the folios have been sanded. Their numbering

is

chaotic.

Date

and place

of

origin: Both details are missing, but

Zawahir Moir, who was cataloguing Khojki manuscripts at the

Institute of Ismaili Studies, believes that the manuscript could

not be older than the early nineteenth century. Most likely it

originated in Gujarat.

21

Condition of the manuscript: Fair.

Script: Compared to the writing style of

K-l

and K-4, the

style used in this manuscript, though clear,

is

not neat. Peculi

arities of the script include . 4 for the diphthong au, -:::,

for the Arabic Cain ::it for the' Arabic gain ~ . . . , and ~

for the vowel

o.

Contents of the manuscript: On folio 2, there

is

a brief but

incomplete tafsIlo (index).

The

manuscript contains ginans,

most of them of the grantb

variety.

Text of the Bnjh Nirafijan : Occurring between folios 173

and 196, the text begins with a heading that identifies the work

and the composer. The text

is

laid out in a manner identical to

that of K-l,

with the exception that the ends of the first and

third earans are marked in the right margin with the sign' ,

while the second and fourth earans are marked with the sign

it .,,22 The text containS a number of orthographic errors that

may be attributed to negligence on the part of the scribe. The

absence of any emendations or corrections suggest that the

copyist did not review his work

onc.e

he had completed it. The

manuscript contains a lacuna in the text of poem

15

on folio

183.

Siglum: K-4

Location of the manuscript: Though the manuscript was

initially examined at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London,

it is now in the possession of Parveen Peerwani, also of

London.

Folios: Total number of folios: 225; folio size: 8 1 4

inches by 5 7 8 inches; number of lines per folio: 15 to

16.

The paper is of local Indian origin (desI variety)

but

is of

superior quality. The numbering

of

the folios has been influ

enced by the system found in modern printed books, as each

half of the folio has been given a separate number.

84



Date and

place

of origin: On page

i 9

(folio 140), the

date samvat 1957

A.D.

1901) is tnentioned.

On

page 106

(folio 53), the

end of

the text of the \Bajh Niraiijan, the copyist

includes a

brief

note,

in

Sindhi, which translates,

I have transcribed this Buj NiJljan from the manuscript

[hath akbare] of

RemtTII [Ratlemtullah?],of Garden

[bhagIcevaro]. May the Lord AIl forgive errors [bhulCuk].

The term GardGn probably refers t6 the suburb of Karachi by

that

name which is a major center

bf

Ismaili population. We

may assume

that

the manuscript originates from that

city.

Condition

of

the

manuscript: Griod.

I

Script: Most

of

the manuscript

S

written by a single scribe

in

a clear hand. Peculiarities

of s ~ r i p t

include:

~

and

---,G for au,

-r('

for ai, and " j for g as well as gr.

Contents

of

the manuscript:.

T h ~ U g h

there is no tafsIlo, the

manuscript contains a mixture of lopg ginans (grafiths) as well

as the more popular shorter ones. It also includes a significant

amount

of

non-ginanic literature

s u ~ h

as

gazals

kafrs

and the

dohas by the medieval mystic poet iKablr. Between pages 30

and 57 (folios 15 through 29) are r ~ s e r v e d the gazals

of

a

poet

named All Mulla. i

I

-

Text of the Bnjh

Niraiijan":'

The

text is found

between

pages 58 and 106 (folios 29 through

~ 3

.. It begins with the title

of the work, which, however, is w r i t t ~ n in three separate words:

Boj nirI

jan.

23

The text is laid out tin the same format as K-3

with two exceptions.

For

poems

1,2,

and

3

as in

K-l

and K-3,

the number

of

each poem is noted I n

the

right margin in the

same

line

as

the

last

caran of

thel

dohrah. For subsequent

poems the copyist adopts a

d i f f e r ~ n t

system: the number is

enclosed

in

a small rectangle underj the last earan fairly close

to the

right margin. Again,

in

thel first

poem,

the

refrain is

produced

in

its entirety. As

in K-l and

K-3, the manuscript

I

contains a lacuna in the text

of

poem 15 on folio 40.

For

some

incomprehensible rJasons,

several

words

and

lines

of

the text have

been

deleted.i

For

example,

on

page 97

(folio 49), the words

of

the refrain

re tii.iihIii

have

been

crossed

out even though they occUr

at an

appropriate place in the text.

These erasures are

random and

may represent the mischief

of

a child. :

s

noted

above, at

the

end of the text there is a brief note

85



in Sindhi indicating the origin of the text. The text also ends

with the Arabic phrase written in Khojki script, that is

commonly employed at the end

of

Arabic and Persian texts

tam ma

tamm3m (complete). This is most unusual for a Khojki

manuscript, and its presence raises the possibility that it was

included in the original transcription

of

the text from a Perso

Arabic manuscript. rSince the phrase is unusual in the Khojki

manuscript tradition, it was omitted from some manuscripts

and retained in others.

Siglum:

K 5

Location

of

the manuscript: The text comes from a manu

script discovered

by

Sadik Ali at the godown

of

the Ismailia

Association premises in Karachi. The present whereabouts of

the manuscript are unclear. It is an uncatalogued manuscript

and has. not been kept with the regular collection of catalogued

Khojki manuscripts. The photocopy

of

the text used in this

study was provided by Sadik Ali. .

Folios: According to a note accompanying the photocopy,

many folios

of

the original manuscript are missing. Only 44

folios survive at present. Folio size:. 20 inches by 7 inches.

Date and

place

of

origin: The accompanying note does

not indicate the date on any of the surviving folios. However,

since the text contains the eight spurious verses found in the

early printed texts, we may presume that the text was written in

the early decades of this century. Sadik Ali mentions that

there is a note in English

on

the first folio stating that the

manuscript

was

presented

to

the

Ismailia Association in

Karachi

by

the Ismaili jamacat of Sialkot (Punjab) in August

1969.

Condition

of

the manuscript: According to Sadik Ali, the

manuscript is in very poor condition.

Script: The copyist does notwrite in a legible hand. Often

the ink is smudged, making it difficult to deciphe.r words. A

distinctive peculiarity of the script

is

the placement of the mark

for the e vowel at the wrong angle (i.e.,

,

instead of """"), an

indication that the scribe may have been left-handed. In other

respects, the Khojki characters conform to t o s ~ established in

printed Khojki works

of

the early twentieth century.

Contents: In addition to the Bl1jh Niraiijan, the surviving

folios contain the graiiths SI barf by Sayyid Mmad Shah and

86



the Brahma Prakash by PIr Shams.

I

Text

of

the ''Bujh Nirafijan": b folio numbers have been

preserved in the photocopy used in ~ i s study. The text

is

laid

out in the same

pattern

as that

of

1).-3.

At

a few points there

are indications

that

the copyist has corrected individual lines

and words. There is strong evidence. suggesting that this text is

a copy of the Khojki edition printed

lin 1914

and designated

K-

2 in this study.

The

reading

of K-5

and K-2

are

remarkably

similar, the only deviations occurring when the scribe of

K-5

is

negligent and either omits a n a s a l i ~ a t o n or lengthens a short

vowel, especially the a vowel. Occasionally,

~ h e r e

K-2

uses the

character .. :(-

" for the Arabic

Cain land ::iL

for the Arabic

gain K-5

apparently omits the dots. But since the photocopy

is

unclear, the original would have to

~

examined to confirm this

observation.

The

text

ends

with

~ Gujarati

phrase, in

the

Khojki script, sampuraJ;l

pat

(all parts; complete).

Printed Editions . I

Concurrent with the beginnings lof increased organization

and centralization of the community's bureaucratic structure in

the late nineteenth and early twentie th centuries were also the

first attempts toward collecting maBuscripts at a community

wide leve1.

24

Around the same time, the advent of the printing

press in the subcontinent made

pdssible the ·publication of

material from these manuscript in a ypeset form especially

developed for the Khojki script. ~ e n though more research

needs to be done on the various aspects of both the collecting

and publishing processes, from the ftequent association

of

his

name with both processes,

one

fig'ure

can be identified

as

having played an instrumental role

1

aijI Devraj. According

to community tradition, not only

w ~

LaljI Devraj responsible

for collecting a huge number of Khqjki manuscripts from dif

ferent areas of Sind, Kathiawar,

andl

Gujatat, but he was also

connected with the establishment of the Khoja Sindhi Press.

25

This press, as the community's first ihstitution responsible for

the

publication

of

official religious material,

was

the

forerunner of the Recreation Club Institute and the present

day Ismailia Associations. As a restilt of

his involvement in

both

the collection

of

Khojki

m a n u s ~ r i p t s

and the publication

of printed ginan texts, LaijI Devraj became a central figure in

the history of ginan literature. Editidns published

by

him have

come to be regarded as authoritative1ginan texts: his So ginan

87



Bhag 1-5 has

been

called the

mother of

all

printed

Ginanic

literature.,,26 Among some Ismaili circles his work "is the one

and only publication which may be safely taken as an authori

tative and bonafide source

of

ginanic literature, and only that

source, in a real sense, can

be

the absolute basis

of

the com

parison

of all

Ginanic

literature.,,27 Notwithstanding LaijI

Devraj's crucial role

in

the shaping

of the modern ginan

lit

erature,

there are

disconcerting aspects

of

his work.

Both

Ivanow and Nanji mention that, for some strange reason, most

of

the manuscripts used to

prepare the

printed editions were

destroyed.

28

.

The magnitude of

this

destruction

is

com

pounded

by

the

fact

that,

at least in the case of the Bujh

Niraiijan,

there are

serious

questions regarding

the

meth

odology he employed to edit

gin n

texts.

n examination of the Bujb Niraiijan texts edited by LaljI

Devraj reveals that he introduced verses into the printed texts

that

are not found in the Khojki manuscripts

of

the poem. In

this study, two editions

of

the Bujh Niraiijan

edited

by LaijI

Devraj have

been

employed: a Khojki edition printed in 1914

and a Gujarati edition

printed

in 1921.

29

These editions

are

designated here as K-2 and

G-l,

respectively.

As

we have seen,

the texts

of

the manuscripts K-l,

K-3

and K-4 suggest that the

version of the Bujh Nirafijan

that

entered

the

Ismaili milieu

had

several verses missing from poem

15.

When we examine

the editions

printed

by LaijI Devraj, we find

that

this lacuna

has

been

filled

in

with spurious verses

that

are thematically,

linguistically, and metrically inappropriate. Even the 1976 and

1981 editions

of

the Bojh Nirafijan published by

the

Ismailia

Associations for Pakistan and India, respectively, recognized

the inappropriateness of these verses,

and

both

editions

dropped them in favor of the reading of the India Office manu

script. Though it may

be

argued that perhaps LaljI Devraj was

not directly responsible for these verses and that he may have

found these verses

in

one of the

many manuscripts he

col

lected, the unreliability

of

his editing

is

beyond doubt when

we

consider the fate

of

a single line in his editions. In the India

Office manuscript, line 1

of

quatrain 3

of

poem

11

reads: sun

gal yuii

guru ten bat, which means "such a discourse has been

heard

from

the

guru." Since this line belongs to a series

of

poems devoted

to explaining the

importance

of the guru

or

shaikh

on

the spiritual path, we can

be

reasonably certain that

88



I

I

the

line in the London

manuscript

faithfullly represents the

original text. Turning to the K h o j ~ i manuscripts, we find the

same line due to textual corruptiort., now reads sunI gaeo lfifi

kartefl

bat.

Because of

faulty

reading

of

the

Perso-Arabic

I

script, the noun gur and ten,' the postposition following it, have

been transformed into karten, a n a ~ a l i z e d form of the

present

participle plural of the verb kama. tb make, to do). The line is

thus made to mean, "they have been heard talking in this man

ner." It is important to note that K ~ 2 , the LaljI Devraj Khojki

edition published in 1914, agrees with this

corrupted

reading.

But in the case of G-l, the u j a r a ~ i edition published seven

years

later

by LaijI

Devraj in

1921;, we find significant addi

tiorial changes. In this text, this line reads sun grehya

yuii

karteft bat Two new changes have ~ e e n incorporated into the

text to change the meaning of the

l i n ~

to, "the sUn [i.e., sunnI]

group talks like this." Sun , the past participle of the Hindu

stani verb sunna (to hear), has conve;niendy been mistaken for

the term SUnnI, a popular way of

r e ~ e r r i n g

to the majority of

Muslims

who

uphold orthopraxy (i.e., ahl al-sunna wa:>l-

jamaCa).

Gal, the past

participle

of

\the verb jana, which was

used

in the original to put the verb lin the passive tense, has

been transformed into

the

Gujarati

npun

grehya (group). The

introduction of this line into the LaljI Devraj

Gujarati

edition

I

was probably the result of the interaction

of

two factors: ambi-

guity

of the corrupted

version of

t h ~

line as it occurs in

the

Khojki manuscripts and the exhortation in the hext line of the

quatrain

to

grasp "the lamp of the 'share [the divine lawf"

Whatever

the reasons may have beeq, the fate of this line in

this edition of

the

Bujb Niraftjan provides us with indisputable

evidence

of

the

nature of

LaijI DevraJ's editing techniques.

30

Since similar examples, though of a

l e ~ s

flagrant nature, are to

be found throughout the text of G-\I, we have

to

exercise

caution while evaluating readings r o ~ works edited by LaljI

Devraj. Clearly, in addition

to

the cQrruptions found

in

the

Khojki

manuscripts,

such

edited

t ~ x t s

are

also

likely to

incorporate readings

conjectured on t,he

basis of the editor's

religious outlook. :

Mter

the

discovery

of

the India Oftice Library manuscript,

it became possible to remove some of

the

distortions and cor

ruptions that characterized the Ismaili: version. This "purifi

cation" was done on a limited basis in \1976 when the Ismailia

89



Association for Pakistan published an edition of the text in the

Gujarati script. The same edition was published in the Urdu

script in 1978. As a result of the deliberations of

an

Inter

national Ismailia Associations workshop held in 1977, addi

tional editing was undertaken and, subsequently, in 1981 the

Ismailia Association for India published another text in the

Gujarati script. For the most part, it is this edition, designated

as G-2 in this study, that the Ismaili community now considers

to be the final form of the Ismaili version. While attempt has

been

made to clear the text of this edition of corruptions,

including the spurious verses found in the earlier LaljI Devraj

editions, there are quite a

few

disparities between the text of

this edition and the more reliable one found in the India Office

manuscript. For example, the word bhifi, which

is

written in

the India Office manuscript in the peculiar orthographic man

ner described above,31

is

still transcribed in this edition

as

phan or phun. Instead of reverting to the medieval Braj forms,

this edition retains postpositions in their

Gujarati

form or

occasionally adopts the more modern forms. Similarly, for

several nouns, this edition prefers the more familiar forms to

the medieval and Braj forms found in the India Office manu

script. Thus, na.m is preferred over naiiv, and tham over thaiiv.

In its arrangement of the sequence of poems this edition fol

lows a sequence that characterizes the traditional Ismaili

version and places poem

13

at the end of the work. Finally,

this edition also retains the refrain that occurs only in the

Ismaili version.

Having outlined the major characteristics of the printed

editions used in this study, it must be pointed out that there are

several other printed editions of the Bojh Nirafijan within the

Ismaili community that have not

been

included. They were

excluded on the grounds that their texts are largely based on

one of the printed editions already incorporated into this study

and their inclusion would be redundant. The details of publi

cation

of

all

printed

editions

of

the Bojh

Niranjan

are

as

follows.

Printed editions included in this study

1. K-2: Published by MukhI LaljlbhaI Devraj Bombay:

Ismaili Printing Press, 1914). Edition includes the text of the

ginan

Brahma Prakash

attributed

to the Ismaili dacr PIr

Shams.

90



· .

2 G-l: Published by MukhI LaljIbhaI Devtaj (Bombay:

Khoja SindhI Chapakhanu, 1921). Most likely the first edition

in the Gujarati script; includes the

text of

the ginan Brahma

Prakash (copies 500).

3 G-2: Published by His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia

Imami Ismaili Association for India (Bombay: Ismaili Printing

Press, March 1981). Text accompanied by a commentary in

Gujarati (copies 5,000).

Other printed editions

1

Published by the

Recreation

Club Institute (Bombay:

Ismaili

Printing

Press,

1942).

Text

in the

Khojki script;

includes the ginan Brahma Prakash. A reprinted edition of

K 2 ~

2 Published by

the

Ismailia Association for India (Bombay:

Ismaili Religious Book

Depot,

1952). Text in the

Gujarati

script; includes the ginan

Brabma

Prakash; text accompanied

by a commentary in Gujarati. Based on G-1.

3 Published by the Central

Board

of Religious

Education

(Saurashtra), Ismailia Association for India (Rajkot:

Rashtra

PrintarI, 1966). Text in Gujarati script; this volume, entitled

Pavitr

Ginanno

safigrah, contains the text

of

other selected

wQrks from the ginan literature; the text

of

the Bojh Nirafijan

accompanied by

an

interlinear commentary in Gujarati. Based

on G-l but

tends t o replace

words like piya and piyo with

maula or alI (copies 2,000).

4 Published by the


Pakistan

Karachi: Mustajab Press,

1976).

Text

in Gujarati

script;

accompanied by a commentary in Gujarati. Represents the

first attempt at using the India Office manuscript to improve

the Ismaili version (copies 2,000).

5 Published by the


Pakistan

(Karachi: AbbasI Litho Art Press, 1978). Text in the Urdu

script. Based on the Gujarati edition listed in item 4

at

this list

(copies 1,000).

6 .Published by the Ismaili Association for Pakistan (Karachi:

AbbasI Litho

Art

p ress, 1980). Text in the

Gujarati

script;

accompanied by a commentary in Gujarati. A product of a col

laborative attempt at editing between the Ismailia Associations

for Pakistan and India, this edition contains the same text as G-

2 (copies 2,000).

91



The Multan Manuscript

Transcribed into the Gujarati script from a Khojki manu-

script, this text forms Appendix of Authenticity of the Bujh

Nirinjan

by

Sadik Ali, who discovered the manuscript in the

possession of one Mubarak Husain of Multan. According to

Sadik Ali,Husain

was

initially reluctant to allow him access to

the

manuscript ·but eventually gave permission to have it

photocopied. Since it had been stored in a salt godown,

how-

ever, the manuscript was in too poor a condition to permit

legible photocopies.

32

Consequently Sadik Ali proceeded to

carefully transcribe the original into the Gujarati script. The

original,

he

says, has 250 pages [folios?]

and

is

bound

in

leather.

33

He does not mention folio size, number of lines per

folio,' styles of handwriting, or any other pertinent information.

He

does, however, reproduce a copy

of

the manuscript's colo-

phon, which is writtep. in Sindhi and translates thus:

This book has been written for my family. May Shah PIr

forgive my errors. Originally in 1744 samvat [A.D.

1688]

. MukhI Bhalil copied t from the book of Karam Husain.

When MukhI Bhalil's book was damaged then in 1860

samvat [AD 1804] wrote it down word by word. buried

that book [MukhI Bhalu's book] in the holy land of Ucch

SharIf.

Jan Mamadh [Mul).ammad] Varlftdh.

34

While the colophon gives some idea of the manuscript's

provenance, it is unlikely that the text of the Biljb Niraiijan

found in the manuscript

dates

from such

an

early period.

While the other Khojki manuscripts have a lacuna in the text of

poem

15,

the text of this manuscript,

as

reproduced

by

Sadik

Ali, contains the spurious verses that have their origin in the

early twentieth century. Since we

are not

in

a

position to

examine the original, we cannot determine whether these

verses were added into the text at a later date. Nevertheless

the occurrence

of

the verses clearly raises the possibility that

the text may be a recent one. This likelihood is reinforced

by

the fact that the transcribed text has many other readings in

common with the LaljI Devraj editions.

Though Sadik Ali, in all good intention, may have

been

careful in transcribing from the original, there are two major

reasons that the text produced by him cannot

be

considered

92



reliable. First, according to the canons of textual criticism,

every copyist· is subject to visual and psychologically induced

errors and 'can never be relied on to reproduce exactly the

exemplar

of

his text, regardless of the care he exercises. It

is

well known that a large percentage of the errors in the

t r n s ~

mission of many texts arise from the tendency of the mind to

read some meaning into its own mistakes or the mistakes in the

exemplar from which the copy is made. .35 Given both the

controversy surrounding the Bujh Nirafijan and Sadik Ali's

familiarity with and preference for the text of the Ismaili

version of the' Bujh Niraftjan, the likelihood of this kind of

error

is

extremely high.

Second, as we have already seen, the Khojki script lacks

distinctive signs to distinguish between a variety of long and

short vowels and is riddled with ambiguities ,about the phonic

value of many of its characters. Unfortunately, Sadik Ali

seems unaware of these

and

other problems of transcription.

Not only does he make no mention of them; he does not even

explain the assumptions on which his transcription is based.

or

example, since Khojki has only one symbol for both the

long and

short

u vowels one would like to know on what basis

Sadik Ali determined whether the u vowel in a word such as

guru is to be transcribed

as

long or short. This

is

only one of

the

many

problems that

confront a

person

transcribing a

Khojki text. Clearly, since we have no indication of the criteria

Sadik Ali used to determine his reading, his. Gujarati tran

scription

of

the Khojki manuscript cannot pe accepted as a

faithful reproduction of the origi1)al. Consequently, we are

unable to determine whether the text of this manuscript is

related to any of the other texts considered above.

The Major Types of Corruption in the Ismaili Texts

n addition to the major differences from the Sufi version -

the omission

or

addition of verses, variations in the sequence

of poems and vesrses, the occurrence of the name of the' PIr

Sadr ad-DIn, the refrain - the Ismaili texts are also charac

terized by a high level of corruption. Much of this corruption

Cannot be attributed solely to the hazardous process of

repeated

transcription. Textual evidence strongly indicates

that the following factors have also made their dubious con

tributions.

93



Misreadings o the Perso-Arabic Script

These occurred when the

exemplar for the Khojki

manu

scripts was first

transcribed

from a text in the Perso-Arabic

script.

We

have already

noted

the

ambiguities

created

in

the

Perso-Arabic script both by

scribal

neglect to

distinguish

between

characters and by the peculiarities -of the

Perso

Arabic writing system. Thus for example the word gur is

liable to be· misread

as

kar, mag as mukh, bl1jhe as

pl1Che

and

bhifl as phan

or phun

Misreadings

of Sufi Technical

Terms

of Arabic or Persian

Origin

The Bl1jh Nirafljan employs many technical Sufi terms that

have been distorted in the traditional Ismaili texts, sometimes

beyond recognition. These distortions

appear

to have

been

caused by

an

inability to comprehend the terms and to a lesser

extent by a misreading

of

the script itself. Given the lack of

evidence, it is difficult to determine whether these distortions

were already present

in

the text when it made its first appear

ance

in

Ismaili circles

or

whether

they arose at a

later

period.

From

the following list

of

technical Sufi terms and their dis

torted forms, it is clear that every important term has been

subject to this process.

Term

la tacaiyun

~ i f a t

va1;ridIyat

asma

ulii.bIyat

t a f ~ l jo)

ummahat

cain

<:iyan

CUm

arvab ko)

rii1}u:ll-qudus

~

f i y ~

arvab

shahadat

Curilj

Distortion in Ismaili Texts

la n yfrn IanUn

la

thIn

u

safaet, safayat

ve hedhIt, vedhIt, vedIt

esam, isam

ahlvat, ahlp vat

tapasT raj, tapasi raja

utam, funat, uttam

en

an

aen

an

pInahan

esam, isam, jism

are

vaiihako, are vaiiko, vaiiko

rfthuku Ius, nlhukun Ius, rl1haku

khush

fej, faez, faej

feyaj, feaz

arva,

a

apna,

avra

sadhat

or jan, fujane, orj, aruj

94



nafsanryat

man lahu:)I-maula

falahu:)l-kull

cabid

~ l b

mushahada

n a f I ~ b a t

kare) tavajjuh

cuJb riya

mutakhalliq

qurb-i navafil

qurb-i

a r a c ~

bIyasmaCu.

faCU J.taqq

mutIaq

danishmand

danish

tamkIn

mutIaq

carif

bi )llah

vabdat r t

joo or, jou

dr,

juu ur

aenal arfan, anel arfan, ayen va

erfat

nafsaii

niyat

mal hal mole, mal hath maule, mal

hal mele

to

fil

hal

kill

to fal hal

k Ul

baftdh, bhadh, or bad

talapi, talapI

mashaedh, mashayadh,mashayakh

nasIat es

bhat

nasIyat es bhat

nasihat lsI bat

karatav vejo, karatave vejo, karata

vayejo

m u ~

aju ajuf alI

mill Iabhko, matalabh ko, matalab

kojo

karo binva faI, karu bhan vafal,

karm

bin van fal,karoii banav fal

karU

bhafarae,

karU

bha firae,

karU

bhaf

rae, karm fuaye, kaI1l firIaj,

karoii

fIrmdh

b h i ~ m a j i bhisama

fel hakam

Wak

hakim malayak

dhanat samadh, dhanr samadh

d h ~ d h n t

tamakhI, tamikh, tamakhu, tam-

ghaii

m a t a 1 a b ~ matalabha

arafbhala

hafaj, hafiz

virehe

dhilkI surat,

vehedhat

kI

surat, vahedhkI surat, vahedhka

surat

nuziil Curilj jill

arjft jalaraj

maratib maratabha

q a b ~ bast kabhaj vast

Influence of the Gujarati Language

Since a large number of Ismailis of the subcontinent

live

in

Gujarati-speaking areas,

t

was inevitable that Gujarati words,

especially conjunctions and pronouns, should creep into the

95



Ismaili version

of

the Blljb Nirafljan. Examples include ane

and ne (and) instead

of

aur; sarve aU) instead of sabh; aman

(ours) instead of haman;

hUii

(I) instead

of

hauii; je c o r r e l a ~

tive ''which'') instead of jo;

jem

(correlative like ) instead

of

jyilii;

thI (postposition from ) instead

of

ten. Moreover, the

sounds

j and

z are constantly confused under the Gujarati

influence.

Substitution of Words by Synonyms

The text

of the

India Office manuscript preserves many

words in their medieval forms. In the Ismaili version, however,

many of these

words have been replaced by

their

modern

forms

or

with other forms that were more familiar t6 an Ismaili

audience. Examples include prem (love) instead of pem; nain

(eye) instead of loyan; pritam (beloved) instead of pitam; Dam

name) instead ·of nanv;

tham

place)

instead of thanv;

manorath (desire) instead of manore; 101 (blood) instead of

lohu. In addition, the occasional use of alternate forms of verb

stems should also

be

noted (e.g., gamana instead of gaiivana,

and jivana. instead of jilana).

Influence

of the KhojIci

Script

As

a script system, Khojki has many imperfections

and

peculiarities.

The

Ismaili texts contain a category of cor-

ruptions that are the direct consequence of these peculiarities.

Some of these corruptions are as follows: consonants

band

d

almost always occur in Khojki texts in their aspirated forms, bh

and db; the consonant y is often replaced by the vowels a or e;

the initial i vowel is changed to e; and the diphthongs

ai

and

au

become the vowels e and o.

Substitution between Pairs of Letters

Under

this category we note the substitution between let-

ters of similar sounds: b and

v;

g and gh; sand sb;

rand

d; n

and n j and z; final j and final t

Inversion of the

Order

of Words

This occurs

in

Ismaili texts in the case of a few words that

are normally employed as pairs: bura

bhala

(bad and good);

sughar sujan (graceful and intelligent); dozakb bihisht (hell

and heaven);

narak

sarag

hell and

heaven);

mItha karva

sweet and bitter); jalal jamal Divine Glory and Divine

Beauty);.dbyan gyan (meditation and knowledge).

96



Changes n

t1ie Internal

yoweling of Words

Partially a

result

of the inability of the Khojki script to

distinguish in some cases between

short and

long vowels, these

changes are· also caused by a negligent attitude in Ismaili texts

toward correct orthography. Consequently, short vowels often

become long ones and vice versa. Vowels may also

be

changed

under the influence of the local pronunciation. The omission

or addition of nasalization to vowel sounds also occurs in a

random

manner.

Changes

Resulting from

Attempts to Give Lines

aNew

Inter

pretation

One

of

the means used to give

the

Blljh Niraftjan an

Ismaili identity was the inclusion of the

name of

the Ismaili

daCJ

PIr

Sadr

ad-DIn in the text. Another was the introduction

of a

refrain

typical

of

other ginans using a similar poetic

structure. In addition to these

major

changes, we

often

find

that, during the process

of

editing, certain words and lines were

changed

in order to increase the Ismaili flavor of the work.

In poem

11,

quatrain

1

line

3

the

words

shah

masIba

have

been changed in Ismaili texts to samI [SWamI] shah, a term that

occurs in

many

ginans and

that an

Ismaili audience will imme

diately identify as a reference to the Imam. In some of

the

later Ismaili editions,

the

term

harT

becomes a reference to

the

first Imam cAlI ibn Abr ralib. Similarly the term piya may

be changed to· maula, an epithet used by the Ismailis to refer to

the Imam. Another interesting example

of

this process can be

seen in poem

7,

quatrain

3. This

quatrain

describes the effect

that a glance from the shaikh can have on the disciple: it puri

fies his body

and

soul. Line 3

of

this

quatrain

then goes

on to

say, nih kalaftk kar

bat

dIkhave (making [you] without blemish,

he [the shaikh or guru] shows the path). In the Ismaili version,

this line

has

been changed to read, nakalaftk hoi

bat

dikhave

being nakalaiik,

he

shows,

the

path).

Nakalaiik

is the term

used in the ginan tradition to refer to the Imam as the tenth

avatar

of

the Hindu

deity

Vishnu.36 Its

meaning

(spotless,

innocent)

is identical to the epithet m a ~ l m used to describe

the Imam in ShiCism.

37

With this fortuitous alteration in the

original text, an Ismaili audience immediately identifies the

message of this line with

that

found in· many ginans: adopting

the

form of

the nakalaiiki avatar, the Imam has come into the

world to guide

the

believers.

9



NOTES

Ijames P.

Blumhardt, Catalogue

of Hindustani

Manuscripts in the

Libra. }'

of

the

India Office (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1926),

2.

21'he fIrst Ismaili edition

to be

revised on the basis

of

the India Office

manuscript

is Buj N'uanjan (Karachi: Ismailia Association

for

Pakistan,

1977).

Yrhese additional CaupaIs and dohrahs are transcribed in Appendix II.

4rrhe refrain consists

of

the phrase re

tJ1iibiii mara

saCha

sanhiyiii piyijji

tJ1fihifi (You

are

my true Lord, You are the Beloved).

The

wording of the

refrain as well as the voweling of the individual words may vary slight from

ginan to ginan and from one text to another. Por more about this refrain, see

pp. 111-113 below.

5S

ee

pp. 110-111 below.

t

should

be

noted

here

that at

the

present

there are several different melodies in which the BujhN'lI'afijan is recited.

The

most

common

melody is one

that

is also used for

another

structurally

similar ginan dealing with mystical themes, Satvet;li moti

6Por a list of verses found only in the Ismaili version, see Appendix A

7Por a list of verses found only in the Sufi version, see Appendix B

8Both fragments are reproduced in Appendix 1

of

the monograph.

91n

addition to being an able administrator, Richard Johnson belonged

to the small circle of British intellectuals of the eighteenth century who were

interested in exploring and appreciating various aspects of the culture of

India. Within this circle, as his collection reveals, Richard Johnson ranked as

an outstanding

collector

and

connoisseur.

Though interested in

a

broad

range

of subjects, including

Indian

music

and ragamala

paintings, he was

especially fond of Indian literature.

At

his request Nawab Mahabbat Allah

Khan Shahbaz Jang composed

an

Urdu m ~ w i

on

the Punjabi-Sindhi epic

romance,

Sassui-Punhun. t

may

well have

been

for his

deep interest

in

literature

that

in 1780

the

Mughal

Emperor

Shah cAlani (ruled 1759-1806)

granted him a mansab of 6,000 with the title Mumtaz ad-daulah mufakbkbar

aI-mulk bahadur

b usam

jang(the eminent

of

the state, exalted of the king

dom, the

sharp

sword in war). See

Richard

Johnson (1753-1807): Nabob,

Collector

and

Scholar (London: India Office Library, India Office Records,

1973).

his is a catalogue published for an exhibition

of

oriental miniatures

and

m n u s c r i p t ~ from the collection of

Richard Johnson

mounted for the

sesquicentenary of the Royal Asiatic Society. ,

lONoorally, Introduction, Buj N"lI'anjan, n.p.

11According

to an

entry covering the career

of

Richard Johnson found

on

p. 987 of Bengal Civilians (lOR: 0/6/25), a nineteenth-century India

OffIce compilation, Richard Johnson arrived in India on 4 June 1770. I am

grateful to Mr.

Martin

Moir

formerly

of

the

India

OffIce Library for pro

viding

me

with this information.

1.2See Chapter

2,

pp. 49-51 above.

13Ethe, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts, 1511.

141

am indebted to Professor Schimmel for this interesting observation.

15

1 am

grateful

to Zawahir

Moir

formerly of the Institute of Ismaili

Studies for bringing these manuscripts to

my

attention.

16It

is significant

that even the reviser who inserted these

two

spurious verses into K-1 was doubtful

about the

authenticity of the

other

verses and hence thOUght it best to omit them. '

17Poem 14 in the Ismaili version corres'ponds to poem

16

in the SufI

, version and poem 32 corresponds to poem 20 in the Sufi version.

18Interview with Nurdin Bakhsh, Karachi, Pakistan, January 1982.

98



190n

the relationship of these KhojkI characters to the Sindhi language

see p ~ 61-62 above. .

Normally rekhta is the name given to verses employing two languages

(Le., Persian and Hindi). However, in this manuscript, the term has been

applied to a composition that is exclusively in Hindi.

The

composition

appears to be part of a bhajan (devotional song)

in

praise of the Hindu deity

Krishna.

21Z

aw

ahir

Moir, personal communication.

220n

the significance of the signs , and 11 in poetry texts written in

Devanagarr script, see

p.

109 below. See also

S.

H. Kellogg, A Grammar of

the Hindi Language, 3d ed. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner Co.,

1928

551.

23Since

the

Khojki script uses a colon-like sign : to separate

individual words, it

is

clear that the scribe did write the title

in

three words.

24A

Nanji mentions that he was given information to the effect that

Aga. Khan II (d. 1886) had assigned the task of collecting manuscripts to

some of his followers in order that the ginans should be preserved properly.

Nanji The

N'tzari

Isma;ttTradition,

10.

25His Highness the Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismailia Association for

Canada, Observations and Comments on Our Modern Ginanic Literature,

paper presented at the Ismailia Associations International Review meeting

held in Nairobi, Kenya,

1980,

pp. 19-21.

26Ibid.,7.

27Ibid.,

22.

In the same paper, Laljr Devraj's ginan publications are

called the real successor

of

our primordial ginanic literature which was

handed down to us through the generations directly froin our Pirs it is

impossible

to

determine the authenticity or originality of anyginanic litera

ture without having consulted this publication (16-17).

28Ivanow, Satpanth, Collectanea, vol.

1,

p. 20; Nanji,

The

Nizari

Ismi;tt

Tradition,

10,

154

n.36.

.

29Both these editions were later reprinted with slight modifications.

3O-ro

be fair, it must be acknowledged that the goals that Lalji Devraj

pursued in the preparation of his editions are very different from those of

modern textual criticism.'

31S

ee

pp. 50-51 above.

32S

a

dik Ali, Authenticity of the Buj Nirinjan,

14.

33Ibid.,

13.

34Ibid., App.

1.

.

35S. M. Katre, Introduction to Indian Textual Criticism, 2d ed. (Poona:

Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, 1954),22.

36V. N. Hooda, Some Specimens of Satpanth Literature, Collectanea,

vol. I, p.

58 n.4; Nanji,

The

NizirI

IsmaCUi

Tradition,

112;

Gazetteer

of

the

o m b ~

Presidency, vol.

9,

pt.

2, p.

40.

3 a n j ~ The N'tzari Isma;tt Tradition, 178 n.55.

99



CHAPTER 4

PROSODY

The

verses

of

the

Bujh Niraiijan

are

composed

on

the rules

governing prosody in medieval Hindi. The prosody

of

Hindi

and its

dialects

has been the

subject of

extensive study and

commentary for several centuries because, until the late nine

teenth

century,

poetry had

been

the predominant

form

of

lit

erature

in that language. s

Kellogg aptly remarks,

"In no

modern language probabq has prosody

been so

elaborately

developed

as in

Hindi." Indeed,

prosody played such

a

central role in

medieval

Hindustani and

its dialects

that

even

the author

of

a

seventeenth-century

Persian grammar

of the

Hindi dialect,

Braj

Bhasha,

considered

it necessary to intro

duce his readers to

the

intricacies

of the

prosody

system)

However, when

the modern student

of

Hindi poetry is

faced with

the

task

of analyzing the

functional aspects

of

prosody in a work of poetry, the traditional methodology avail

able

to

him

is

quite

unsatisfactory.

To

quote Kenneth Bryant,

who has worked extensively

on the

poetry

of

Surdas,

The problem

is

that

we simply have no ready vocabulary,

no descriptive short-cuts, for analysis

of

this sort; with the

tools currently available, a prosodic analysiS

of

any sophis

tication must be a slow, blow-by-blow affair In short,

what

is

needed is

nothing less

than

a major reappraisal

of

medieval North Indian metrics.

4

In

the

case

of

the

Bnjh Nirafljan, the problem is com

pounded

by

the

fact

that

here, as

in

most Indian poetry,

meter

and

music are closely allied.

The

cyclic succession cakravar

tan) of

musical

beats

tals) is a

prominent

and

natural feature

of medieval

Hindi poetry.S Yet we have

almost no

studies

available that examine

"the

relationship

between chanda and

tala,

between

meter as dictated by the syllable of the

poem

and

rhythm interpreted

by

the

individual style

of

performance.,,6

In

light

of

this situation,

the

following discussion

of

prosody

necessarily confines

itself

for

the most

part

to the

technical

aspects of

prosody,

reflecting

the concerns

of

traditional

prosodists

and

taxonomists.

Before

we proceed with the technical

component of

this

discussion, it would be expedient to

remark

on

the importance

1 1



and relevance of prosody for this particular study. Since the

Bujb Niraiijan

is

a work of poetry in a language with a highly

developed prosodial system, it is reasonable to assume that, in

spite

of

its being a work of

a

popular nature, its author must

have paid some attention to the rules of prosody. That this was

indeed

the

case

is amply

demonstrated

by

the

fact

that the

majority of verses in the text of the India Office manuscript -

the least corrupt version of the work that has come down to us

- observe faithfully the prosodial requirements for their

respective meters.

7

On

the

other

hand, we also have to acknowledge

that

the

central purpose for the composition of the Bujh Niraiijan was a

religious one. The poem is meant for

the

spiritual edification

of its readers and not as

an

exposition of poetic genius. It

is

unlikely that the composer could have been fastidious in his

application of all the necessary rules. This 'alternate factor

explains why

the

text of the,

India

Office manuscript occa

sionally

neglects the

rules concerning meter

and rhyme.

Nevertheless, in this study, which deals with texts from diverse

backgrounds

with varying degrees of corruption, conformity

with the requirements of prosody forms the single most impor

tant criterion for determining the authenticity of a particular

reading. (Occurrence in another independent text and compat

ibility with

the

textual context are other significant criteria.)

Consequently a thorough acquaintance with the basic rules of

prosody governing a

poetic

composition

such

as the Bujh

Niraiijan

is

an

essential

prerequisite

in

the

preparation

of

a

critical edition.

Syllable Length

Hindi prosody is quantitative, the unit of metrical quantity

being the m tr

(instant).8 Much of Hindi verse belongs to the

class called

jati

chand, which is scanned by the number of

m tr s (instants) in a line.

9

A short syllable

is

reckoned as one

matra, while a long syllable counts two. The basic rules deter

mining

the

length

of

a syllable

are

simple enough: a

short

syllable, laghu (indicated

here

by the superscript

sign )

consists

of one

of

the short vowels a,

i,or

u with or without a preceding

consonant. A long syllable,

guru

(indicated here

by

the super

script sign -) consists of one of the long vowels

a

I

or u with or

without a preceding consonant.

The

vowels e and 0 are nor

mally long but may be

read

as short. The diphthongs au and

i

102



are

traditionally considered long.

In

addition, a

short

vowel

followed by strong nasalization (anusvar), by

certain

conjunct

consonants

or

by

an aspiration

(visarg) may

be

counted,

if

necessary, as a long syllable. The rules

of Hindi

prosody

permit a great many

exceptions

to the basic rules, however.

For example, great liberty is allowed with respect to orthog

raphy, so

that

long vowels may be shortened and vice versa.

The extent of prosodial license allowed in

Hindi

may

best be

summed up in the following words: and if poets

read

even a

long syllable as a short one [then] understand that also to be a

short one. lO

In addition to these general remarks

on

vowel and syllable

length,

the

following observations are especially relevant in the

case of the Bojh Niraftjan.

Theoretically,

every word is

assumed to end with a short vowel. This vowel, if it is a u or i

vowel, is usually pronounced. A short a vowel, on the

other

hand, mayor may not

be

articulated. Hence the word

mat

con

tains two short syllable -

the

consonant m with a short a vowel

and

the

consonant

t

with

an

implicit,

unpronounced short

a

vowel. In

the

Bojh Niraftjan, the vowels

and

e as well as

the

diphthongs

au

and ai may be reckoned as long or short accord

ing to the exigencies

of

meter.

Words

of

Arabic and Persian·origin, which occur liberally

in the Bojh Niraftjan, occasionally have to succumb to the rules

of prosodial license. Sometimes a vowel may have to be shor

tened, as in the case with the i vowel in gairiyat

11

and with the

second i vowel

in

vabidiyat.

12

Or

a vowel may have to

be

leng

thened,

as

frequently

occurs with the final short a vowel of a

word

at

the end of a verse. This is similar to the alif-i ishba

c

in

Sindhi poetry. For example, in

the

fourth

quatrain of poem

5

the words tamaroa, kama

and

cama, at the end of the lines of

this quatrain, require

the

last vowel to be lengthened in order

to

maintain the

required metrical count. A few nouns may also

have a

nasalized

long a vowel suffixed to them, usually when

meter requires a long syllable at the end of a.word. Thus, kitab

become kitabaft

13

kalma becomes kalmaft,14

and damama

becomes damaman.

15

A short a vowel following the letter

cain

may also be lengthened if the cain and the immediately pre-

ceding

short

vowel are dropped. Thus word mucallim is read

simply as ma.1im.

16

For purposes of rhyme, one kind of vowel

may be substituted by another (e.g;, the

long

ovowel in

103



macaliim

is

replaced

by

a short a vowel).

17

Sometimes

both

the consonants

hand Q

may be ignored

for purposes

of

scansion. This may be the case with either a

word final h,

as

in ilah

18

and allah

19

or when the consonant Q

occurs in the middle

of

a word,

as

in ab.ka.m.

20

s in Persian

prosody, a word final n may be dropped from scansion byvir

tue of nasalization (e.g.,

CUfafi .21

A double consonant in a word normally has the effect of

lengthening a preceding short vowel. In a verse where this rule

is

not compatible with the metrical count, the doubled conso

nant

is

reduced

to a single consonant. Thus, in

poem

21,

quatrain

1,

the word takabbur, which should be scanned as

..

-

..

..

three shorts, one long), is scanned instead as ..

.. .. ..

(four

shorts).22 Similarly, in poem 28, quatrain

4,

laiZat

is

read

as

laiat, and in poem

15,

quatrain 4,

kull is

read as kul

In the prosodic analysis of the Bujh Niraiijan the following

rule has also

been

observed: a short vowel preceding a vowel

less consonant may

be

scanned

as

long.

23

For

example, if the

word apane were read as apne with the consonant p losing the

short a vowel, as often occurs in pronunciation, the preceding

short a vowel would be scanned as a long syllable. Under the

same rule, while darasan

is

scanned

as ..,..,..,..,

(four shorts), the

alternative pronunciation darsan

is

scanned as -

.. ..

(one long

and two shorts). Words whose scansion has been affected by

this rule are marked in the critical edition

by

an asterisk.

Meter and Verse Forms n the Bujh Niraiijan

s mentioned above, most Hindi verse falls into the cate

gory of jati Chand - i.e., the meter of the line is measured

by

the

number of

matras

(metrical instants) in the line.

The

Bujh

Niraiijan uses

three

meters from this category - the caupaI,

dohrah (doha), and soratha.

24

Most of the thirty-four poems of the Bujh Niraiijan consist

of four quatrains written in the CaupaI meter. The term CaupaI

is

used to refer not only to the meter but also to the individual

quatrains. (Originally the term caupaI

was

used for a quatrain,

but in the course of time it was also used to refer to an ardha1I

or half-caupaI, which developed when the first two and the

last two lines of a caupaI were separated.

25

In' each poem of

,the Bujh Nirafijan, the sequence of four quatrains is brought to

a close

by

a two-line stanza which, with the exception of poem

104



11, is a

doha or dohrah

and follows the

meter

of the same

name. In poem 11 the two-line stanza is a soratha, which tech

nically

is

·an "inverted doha." Occasionally, as in poems 3 and

10 the sequence of quatrains

is

clossed

by two

dohrahs.

The combination

of

the caupaI, dohrah, and soratha in a

single composition is a well-established

tradition

in Hindi

poetry. The combination of these particular meters in a single

poetic composition was probably first popularized

by

the medi

eval mystic poet KabIr, in whose work this combination is

called a

RamainI.26 Sequences of

two to

eight

or

more

caupars were normally

followed

by a single,

dohrah

or

soratha.

27

Following Kabrr, this combination became a stand

ard form that was imitated

by

both Hindi and non-Hindi poets,

particularly in long epic poems where some device is needed to

relieve monotony. All the Hindi poets of Avadh, who spe

cialized in long romantic Sufi epics, employed this or a similar

combination. Thus Mul)ammad J aisi, the most famous

poet

from this tradition, uses in the Padmavat a dohrah after seven

ardhalrs (half-caupaIs).28 Later poets such as Tuls and

SUr

also

favored

this combination. A large

portion

of

TulsI'S

Ramayan

is similarly written with eight ardhalrs alternating

with a

dohrah

though sometimes in his work two

or three

dohrahs occur t'ogether, and occasionally

the

dohrah is

replaced by a soratha.

29

TuisI

is

usually considered to have

brought this combination

of

poetic form to its perfection.

30

In

the oral tradition, variation of melody follows variation

of

meter. Accordingly, the alternating dohrah and soratha not

only assist

in

joining the various sequences

of

caupaIs,

but

during recitation they also mark a change in the melody.

For

example, during the recitation of the Bujh

Niraftjan

among the

Ismailis, there is a dramatic difference between the melody of

the Caupars and that

of

the dohrahs. This difference in melody

serves to accentuate sharply the differences in meter

as

well as

to invigorate the recitation. Frequently, the dohrah

or

soratha

may also

be

employed

by

the poet to summarize the message

of the preceding

Caupars.

Caupar

The caupar

meter

consists

of

four lines

of

sixteen matras

each.

The

sixteen matras

of

each line are arranged into four

"feet," each containing a fixed number of matras. Scholars of

105



Hindi prosody disagree as to the number of matras in each of

the four feet. Kellogg and Greeves hold

that

the four feet

should contain

six,

four, four, and two matras, respectively)1

Mahesh holds that, since the caupar meter, like most meters

used in medieval Hindi, had to be amenable to musical beats

tIDS),

a line of verse in this meter cannot possibly contain the

irregular divison suggested

by

Kellogg and Greaves. The num

ber of

matras in each foot must fall into regular division in

order to comply with the rhythmical cycle

of

beats tal

cakra).32 Consequently, he holds that each of the four feet

should contain four matras each to make a

pattern

of four,

four, four, four.

33

t

has also

been

suggested

that

the line

should be divisible into eight feet instead of four

by

using

two-

matra

units or a combination of two- and three-matra units,

but

this scheme is

not

supported by any tradition in Hindi

prosody and may be dismissed.

34

Whatever the number of

m ~ [ t r a s per foot

, m ~ y b e ,

the combination of long syllables and

short

syllables in each foot is left to the discretion

of

the

composer. The last foot, howeyer,

is

commonly a spondee (i.e.,

two

long syllables).

In the case of the Bujb Niraftjan, the majority of the lines

written in the CaupaI meter can be divided into feet according

to both the six, four, four, two or the four, four, four, four

patterns. t appears, however, for the Bujh Niranjan the six,

four, four, two pattern

is

predominant for, while there are ten

to fifteen lines that cannot be divided this

way

and that must

use the four, four, four, four pattern, there are approximatly

seventy-five lines, which can be divided into feet only on the

six, four, four,

two

pattern.

Metrical parallelism

is

another significant feature

that

characterizes the

CaupaIS

of the Bujb Niraiijan. Within the feet

of the four lines of the Caupar, it

is

common to find that pat

terns in the arrangments of matras

repeat

themselves.

For

example, in the first two lines of the first CaupaI, the second,

third,

and fourth feet of both

these

lines have

the

same

arrangement of

IDatrRs:

a

f

a r

f

k

hon

p he ii

ji s

n

hoi e o

su n sii

h

ii

,Such parallelism is not part of the structural description of the

caupaI. It does not occur in all quatrains and, when it does

106



occur, it is usually confined within one or two feet and may not

run through all the four lines. Thus in quatrain 4 of poem 4,

metrical parallelism is found in. the first foot of line 1, 3, 4;

second foot of lines

2, 3,

and 4 and third foot of lines

1, 2,

and 3

as follows:

-1 '

jo to kilft

is

jag meft sajhe

svarag bak\sabh vake

b j ~ e

jo dekhe \ sibh' va \ teft sO}he

to

tUft b U ~ h

ti'irarijan

bU}he

It is rare in the Bujb Nirafljan to find a caupM or quatrain in

which there

is

a complete parallel in the metrical pattern of all

four lines, though one such quatrain does occur in poem 8,

where each line of quatrain 4 follows the metrical pattern

' '

I ' ' ' ' I ' ' I

In

spite of the irregularity of the parallelism, however, it is

plainly a significant feature of this form of poetry, creating, as

it does, metrical echoes and a subtle richness that are part of

its beauty to the ear.

Nevertheless, while metrical parallelism

is

the rule in the

Arabo-Persian prosody system, it has been largely ignored by

traditional scholars of Hindi prosody (especially jati Chand).

Indeed, the first to comment on the phenomenon at all was

probably Kenneth Bryant in 1978. He

observed it while study

ing the poetry of the famous poet Sl1rdas. In Bryant's view,

metrical parallelism has received little or no critical attention

because

feet

are

not

standard

units

of

analysis in

Hindi

poetics. 35 The neglect of this feature, which by acting

as

a

link between lines written in a specific meter,

is

of consid

erable s t r u c t ~ r l significance, is all the more surprising when it

is

very likely that metrical parallelism played a major role in

all North Indian bbakti verse. 36 Bryant is surely correct in

denying the foot a place in traditional Hindi poetic analysis.

And it may also be observed that a scholarly tradition that

approaches poetry more with the eye than the ear

is

likely to

give short shrift to this kind of metrical subtlety. It is obvious

that metrical parallelism and its functions in Hindi poetry is an

area

that needs much further research. At the present, how

ever, it suffices to be aware that the phenomenon

is

fairly wide

spread among the verses written in the caupaI meter in

the

Bajh Niraftjan.

107



Poetry inoHindi

is

invariably rhymed with the rhyme occur

ring in the last two syllables of each line. In the caupaI meter,

the same rhyme occurs at the end of each line of the quatrain

so that the rhyme scheme a, a, a is followed. Among the

caupro:

verses of the Bujh Niraftjan the rhyme

is

formed

by

the

repetition of the same long vowel, consonant, and long vowel

at the end of each of the lines of a quatrain. Hence the usual

pattern followed is vcv. Alternative patterns such

as

cVcVcv

wcV

or

cVdJcV

may also be found occasionally.37 But, since it

is

preferable that a line in the

caupro:

meter end in two long

syllables, these alternative patterns may be considered to be

exceptions.

s to the rhyme

oscheme

very rarely

is

the scheme a

not observed. The scheme

a b

b may occur in some quat

rains in which, though the usual pattern

VCV is

followed at the

end of each the lines, the first two lines may have the identical

vowels and consonant in this pattern while the third and fourth

lines may conclude with a different set of vowels and consonant

in the same pattern.

To

maintain

the

rhyme scheme, the

pronunciation

of

words may

often

be modified to fit the

required pattern.

Hence in poem 7 quatrain

4

line

1

the pronunciation of the

word gusaIfi has been changed to gusaiyefi in order that it end

in the same vowel and consonant combination as the words

laiyefi, urajhaiyefi, and paiyefi.

It

should be onoted that, in

addition

°to

the vowel changes, nasalization, anusvar) has also

been

inserted into the word for the sake of rhyme. t

is

also

very common to find - not only in the Bujh Nirafijan but in

Hindi poetry in general - that rules of grammar and syntax may

also be disregarded in order to preserve rhyme.3

8

Dohrah doha)

A much admired meter in Hindi poetry, the dohrah con

sists of two lines, each containing twenty-four

rnatras.

Each of

the

two lines is subdivided into two carans divisions)

of

thirteen

and eleven matras. This results in a total

of

four

carans

in a

dohrah:

the first

and third

carans consist

of

thirteen

matras

while

the

second and fourth have eleven

matras. The thirteen m ~ i t r s of the first and third

e r ns

are

further divided into feet

on

the pattern six four, three. In

addition, the last foot of these carans must lliu be a trochee

108



(Le., a long syllable followed by a short syllable). It must be

either a tribach (three short syllables) or an iambus (short syl

lable followed by a long syllable).39 The eleven

matras

of the

second and fourth earans are usually divided into feet

on

the

pattern

six, four, one, although the arrangement according to

the patternfour, four,

three

may also be found.

40

The last

syllable of the second and fourth carans and consequently of

each of the

two lines of the

dohrah

has to be short. In a

o h r ~ as in a

Caupar,

-the rhyme occurs at the end

of

a line, the

usual pattern for the rhyme being a long vowel, consonant, and

short vowel

vcV). Sometimes the long vowel in the rhyme pat

tern may be followed by a nasalization so that the basic pattern

is modified to

ViicV

An

important feature in the dohrah is the pause (viram),

which may be of two types. The first type, the harmonic pause

or caesura, occurs at the end of the first and third wans which

consist

of

thirteen matras. This pause, which is unmarked in

the text, must not occur in the middle of a word. The second

kind of pause

is a sentential one and occurs at the end

of

a line.

At

the end

of

the first line of a dohrah, the sentential pause

is

considered to

be

only a half-pause while

at the end of the

second line a full-pause marks the termination of the dohrah.

When writing poetry in the Devanagari script, it

is

common to

indicate the half-pause with the sign I at the end of the first

line and the full pause with the sign

11. 41

Among the dif

ferent texts.

of

the Blljh Nirafijan, these signs are used only in

the texts written in the Khojki script. There, however, their use

is quite different from the traditionally accepted usage. The

sign I is used in Khojki texts to mark the harmonic pause or

caesura. Traditionally, the harmonic pause remains unmarked

in Indian poetic texts. The sign

II

is employed in the Khojki

script

to

mark

both

the

half

and the full sentential pauses,

which occur at the

end

of the first and second lines, respec

tively. The peculiar use of these signs in the Khojki script may

be explained by the format in which a dohrah verse

is

written

in a

KhojIci

text. Instead

of

being written as a two-line stanza

with four carans, the dohrah is laid out as a four-line stanza,

similar to a CaupaI. Each of the carans occupies a separate

line. As a result of this arrangement, in Khojki texts the IDatra

pattern for a

dohrah

- i.e., thirteen eleven (line 1); thirteen,

eleven (line 2) - occurs vertically instead

of

horizontally -

109



thirteen line 1), eleven line 2),

thirteen

line 3), eleven line

4).

A distinctive feature of the

dohrahs

in the Ismaili texts of

the Bujh

Niraiijan

is

the

syllable

re

found

at

the end of

the

second and fourth wans both

of

which contain eleven matras.

The presence of this syllable

1J1ay best be

explained by a brief

c o n s i d ~ r a t i o n

o ~ the

cyclic.

u c ~ e s ~ i o n ?f

musical

beats

t:lls)

accordmg to WhICh

the

BUJh

NrranJan

S

meant to be sung.

42

In prosody

a cycle of syllables may

be

said

to commence

and

terminate at the beginning and the end of a unit, either a line

or a subdivision

of

a line (caran). For a caupaI this would· be

after sixteen

m:ltras

at the

end of the

line,

whereas

for

a

dohrah

the cycle

would

break at the

end

of the first caran

after thirteen m:ltras.

When

a

line

is

red

ed

according to

musical rhythm determined by means of tals, the cycle covers a

shorter period

and

is evenly divided. Thus if a line of Caupar

is

recited

on

a

t l

cycle of four matras, then four tal cycles will be

needed

to

complete the recitation of the entire line of sixteen

matr:ls. f the same tal cycle of four m:ltras is applied to a

dohrah,

then

it is

apparent

that the

first

and

third

wans

which

contain thirteen m:ltr:ls each, lack

three

m:ltras

to

complete

the tal cycle, while the second and the fourth WaDS of eleven

nllltras

each

lack five matras.

The gap in

the number of matras can be

filled

up

in· sev-

eral ways. The voice may

be

silent for the

required

number of

beats

or

the last syllable lengthened, or the

gap

may be filled in

with meaningless syllables such as hejI, jI, re, re bhar.

In

the

case

of

the Bujh Niraiijan, as illustrated in

the

figure below, the

last syllables

of

the first and third carans

of the

dohrah are

usually

lengthened,

while in the second and fourth

wans the

syllable

re has been added to

the line so

that

the tal cycle may

be

completed.

The re syllable is thus an

indication

that the

dohrahs of the Bujh Niraiijan had to be satisfactorily adapted

to fit a

certain

t l

cycle as they were

being

recited.

123456789

10

1112

13

14

15

16

na tin naflv na thafiv hai .

na bin nafiv na thafiv re .

jo

so nafiv bakhaniyeii .

sabh va ke hai nafiv re .

110



Soratha

The soratha

is

simply an inverted dohrah. The first and

third carans of the dohrah are transposed to become the

second and fourth carans, while the second and fourth· carans

of the dohrah become the first and third

wa s

of the soratha.

Consequently, in the soratha the first caran consists of eleven

matras, while

the

second,wan has thirteen matras. The same

rules

regarding

feet in the

dohrah

are

applicable

to the

soratha. The rhyme, however, by maintaining its place

at

the

end of the shorter eleven matra-carans, occurs in the middle of

the verse instead of the end. In the BUJb Niraiijan, the soratha

occurs only once at the end of poem 11. s pointed out above,

it is common in a poetic composition utilizing both:the CaupaI

and dohrah forms to sometimes substitute the latter form with

a soratha. In regard to the recitation of a soratha in a cycle of

musical beats, it would be expected that, due to the inversion

of carans, the Ismaili versions would place the e syllable at the

end of the first and third

wans

since in a soratha these carans

are ,shorter ones. Instead, the Ismaili texts show that the re

syllable maintains its usual position at the end of the second

and fourth carans. Recordings of recitations of the Bujh

Niraiijan show clearly that the singers try to compensate for the

lack of syllables in the first and third carans.

by

sometimes

elongating the syllables at the end of the

wans

and sometimes

by adding the expression re bhaI to the line.

43

Tek (refrain)

In most forms of Hindi poetry, the first line or sometimes

the entire first verse of a poem is repeated after every stanza as

a refrain. In order to facilitate this arrangement, the first line

of many forms of verse is comparatively short. It is often not

even a full line,

and

there

are

few

specifications about its

prosody.44 In a composition in which the poetic forms of the

CaupaI

and dohrah are used together, such a refrain is probably

superfluous since the dohrah at the end of the sequence of

caupaIs does act in the manner of a refrain - if not a thematic

one then

at

least a structural one. Consequently, in the India

Office manuscript of the Bujh Niraiijan, one finds no indication

of a refrain.

The case is quite different in the Ismaili versions where a

refrain

is

clearly marked

in

the transition

between

the

111



sequence of Caupars and the dohrah . The refrain is in the form

of the phrase,

Re

tilfih mara

saCha

s i i h r y ~ .PIyiljI tiliihIii ( 0

You are my true Lord, You alone are the Beloved ). In most

texts

of

the Bujb Nirafljan, the refrain

is

not written out in its

entirety; only the words re tuiihI are indicated. t is clear .that

the scribe assumes that the reader is familiar with the words of

this refrain.

An

examination of the gin n literature

shows

that

this assumption

is

not unwarranted for, in addition to the Bujb

Niraftjan, this refrain or some variation of

it

is

found in several

of the longer

ginan

compositiQns such

as

a t v e ~ vel, SatveQl

matI, SatveQInanI, Vel s u r b h ~ Candrabbat;l, Manahar, Vel

candrabhaJ;111I,

and MansamjaI;1I.45 A characteristic that all

these ginans share

is

that, like the Bujb Niiafljan, they are

structurally composed of several parts or poems, in some cases

over two hundred. Each part or poem consists of a certain

number of verses written in one meter, which are then followed

by a dohrah that closes the part or the poem. The refrain

Re

t11fihI is always placed at the point

of

transition from one

metrical form to the dohrah. .

While the addition

of

the refrain heightens the charm in

the recitation of the more ecstatic poems of the Bujb Nirafijan,

the refrain seems out of place when recited during the more

didactic poems in the work. Moreover, the use of the genitive

possessive mara in this refrain is quite peculiar because this is

not the form in which this adjective appears elsewhere in the

Bujh Nirafijan. The usual form of this adjective in the Bujb

Nirafijan

is

either

meta

or mero. The form mara

is

a Gujarati

form and also confirms that the r:efrain was not

part

of the

original text. This conclusion

is

strengthened

by

the fact that

no other Sufi poem written in Hindi and using the caupaI-

dohrah form includes a refrain in its text. Thus when the

BUJb

Niraftjan was adopted into the ginan literature, the refrain

Re

t11iihI

was placed between

the

caupals and dobrah

of

each

poem

for this was the position where it occurred in

other

ginans, with an identical or similar poetic structure. Indeed,

one may consider the addition

of

this refrain to the text of the

Bujb Niraftjan to be a crucial step in the Ismailization of the

text. With the incorporation of the refrain, the Bujb Niraftjan

shared an element with other structurally similarginans and

was no longer the odd man out.

112



NOTES

1M. S.

Mahesh,

The

Historical Development

of Mediaeval Hindi

Prosody (Bhagalpur: Bhagalpur University Publication, 1964), 16-18. Also G.

Grierson, Modem Vernacular Literature of Hindustan (Calcutta: Asiatic

Society, 1889),

xxi

58-66.

IS H. Kellogg, A

Grammar

of the Hindi Language, 3d ed. (London:

Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1938),546.

3Mirza Khan

Ibn

Fakhrud-DIn Mul,tammad,

Tu1;tfat

ul-Hind, partially

ed. and trans. M. Ziauddin, A Grammar of the Braj Bhakha by Mirza Khan

(1676 AD.) (Calcutta: Visva-Gharati Bookshop, 1935), 16-20.

4K. Bryant, Poems to the Child-God (Berkeley: University of California

Press 1978), 132-133.

5Mahesh,

The

Historical Development, 23.

6Bryant, Poems to

the Child-God

7The Ismaili version of the Biijh Niraiijan exhibits very little regard for

the rules of prosody. It shares this characteristic with the ginan literature in

general because in

ginan

texts

meter

suffers from great inexactitude owing

to negligence

in

transmission and linguistic

acculturation

(Nanji, NizarI

Ismll'lli Tradition, 20). In the majority of verses in the Ismaili version of the

Bujh Niraiijan, deviation from the prosodial requirements is caused by

imprecise vowel lengths. Occasionally, lapses

are

caused by the insertion of

superfluous

words into a verse. Some of

the

spurious verses incorporated

into this version in the early twentieth century are also metrically defective.

8The ensuing discussion on Hindi prosody is based on the following

works: E. Greaves, A Grammar of Modem Hindi (Benares: Lazarus, 1896),

chap. 15;

S.

H. Kellogg, A Grammar of the indi Language, 3d ed. (London:

Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1938), chap. 13; M.

S.

Mahesh, The Historical

Development of Mediaeval indi Prosody; H.

C.

Scholberg, Concise Gram

mar of the indi Language, 3d ed. (Oxford University Press, 1955), chap. 18.

9Kellogg, A Grammar

of

the Hindi Language, 553 .

10

Greaves, A Grammar of

Modem

Hindi, 216.

llSee poem 26, quatrain 4.

12See poem 2, quatrain 2

.

13S

ee

poem 13, quatrain 4.

14see poem 12, quatrain 3.

15S

ee

poem 21, quatrain 4.

16S

ee

poem 4 quatrain 1

17See ibid.

18S

ee

poem 1 dohrah.

19S

ee

poem 5, quatrain 2.

20S

ee

poem 8, quatrain 3.

21See poem 9 quatrain 3.

22In

poem

25,

quatrain

3,

the

same

word

occui's,

but there

the

short

vowel before the doubled consonant is scanned as a long syllable.

qhough often utilized in the Arabo-Persian prosody system, this rule

is

not

mentioned in any of the works consulted on Hindi prosody. It is appro

priate to utilize it for the Biijh N'traiijan since in pronunciation syllables are

contracted and many words lose short vowels. The application of this rule in

no way affects the count

of

the total number of matras in 'a line; it only deter

mines

whether a word or part of a word is to be resolved as two short syl-

113



lables or one long syllable.

241n the India Office manuscript the meter of each set of verses is indi

cated above the first line of the verse. The word used to indicate the Caupii

meter is written

as 1ft.

Since no

hamza

is indicated, this should

be

transcribed as Caupai (ai being a diphthong). In this study the words Caupai,

Caupai, and Caupai

are

used interchangeably.

To

indicate a dohi the India

Office manuscript uses the term dobrah (

~ .

» However,

if

as is the case

with a few words in modern Urdu, the fmal h

is

pronounced as an

i1if

then

the word may be transcribed as dobra.

25Mahesh, The Historical Development,

130.

26Ibid., 112-114.

27Ibid.,

131.

28Ibid., 133.

29Greaves, A Grammar

of

Modern Hindi, 220.

3OMahesh, The Historical Development, 117.

31Kellogg, A Grammar

of the

Hindi

Language,

578; Greaves, A

Grammar

of Modern

Hindi,

223.

32Mahesh,

The

Historical Development, 129.

33Ibid.,

127.

34scholberg, Concise Grammar of the Hindi Language, 149.

35Bryant,

Poems

of the Child-God, 127.

36Ibid.

37Por pattern cvcvc see poem,

6

quatrain 3; for wcV poem 7, quatrain

4;

and for cVcVcV see poem 17 quatrain 1.

38Kel1ogg,

A

Grammar of the Hindi Language, 551.

39Ibid., 575.

4OGreaves, A

Grammar

of Modern Hindi, 222.

41Kel1ogg, A Grammar of the Hindi Language, 551.

42The discussion on the relationship between meter and t i l which fol

lows is

based

on

an

analysis

presented

by Mahesh,

The

Historical Devel-

o p m n ~

18-23. . .

43Even though the expression re bhaI is not written in the Ismaili text of

the Biijh N traiijan, it is very common during the recitation of the work for

singers to insert this expression also at

the

end of every line of the Caupai.

The addition of this expression appears to make it easier for the singer to

repeat the recitation

of

the line.

44Bryant,

Poems

to the Child-God, 39.

45The variations in this refrain usually include either the omission of the

possessive adjective mira

and/or

the substitution

of

the word piyii by mauli

or

mauli ali.

114



P RT

TWO



CHAPTERS

OBSERVATIONS ON THE TEXT OF Burn NIR NJ N

1 The rendition of the Bujh Nirafijan that follows is based

-on a critical edition originally

prepared

for the author's doc

toral dissertation at

Harvard. Due to constraints

of

space,

simply the text portion of that edition has been reproduced

here.

It

is in

Roman

transliteration with

an

English prose

translation.

With

the

exception of

the

first

poem the

full

critical apparatus noting the variant readings within the manu

script

and printed

corpus has

been

omitted. Also excluded

from the present text is the metrical scansion of each line, i.e.,

its division into shor.t (laghu) and long

(guru)

metrical instants

(matra). Readers interested in a detailed textual criticism of

the Bujh Nirafijan 'along these lines should refer to the original

dissertation where the entire text with the complete parapher

nalia

of

textual criticism

is

available.

2)

The numeral at

the

head of

each page indicates the

position of the poem in

the

sequence of thirty-four

poems

found in

the

India Office manuscript. The text found in this

manuscript

appears

to

be

the most

reliable.·

The numeral

within

brackets

r f ~ r s to the poem s position in the Ismaili

version when· t differs from that of the India Office manu

script. Each of the four quatrains or caupars of each poem is

numbered. Thus 21(15):2 designates

poem

21

of

the India

Office

manuscript

(poem 15 in the Ismaili version), second

caupar.

3) Changes introduced into the text as a result of critical

editing and therefore absent from any of the recensions are set

off within brackets - [

].

4)

The

implicit word-final short a vowel, which is unarticu

lated

in most words, has been omitted in the transcription.

The vowel, however, has been supplied for words where it is

pronounced (for example, piya).

5)

An asterisk marks

words whose scansion may

be

affected by the omission

of an

interconsonantal short vowel

(for example, darsan instead of darasan).

6)

In

the Ismaili versions of the Bujh Nirafljan, the transi-

117



tion in each poem from the caupaJ meter and verse to the

dohrah meter

and verse is marked by the refrain Re tuiibr

mara

saCha saiihiyaft pIytijI tiifLh ii

0

You are my true Lord,

You alone are the Beloved). In these texts, the refrain

is

not

written

out

in its entirety; the words re tunhI are used as an

abbreviation for the phrase.

7) The second and fourth carans of the dohrahs in the

Ismaili texts end with a re syllable. Apparently, during recita-

tion, this syllable helps the singer to maintain the

t l

or musical

beat. Only exceptionally is this re omitted in Ismaili texts.

118



he ext



he

Text

of

the Bujh Niraftjan

1

ati acaraj kahuft

ek

pahelI

jis teft hoe jo sune suhelI

2

piy[ti] chanaft kyuft paraghat aya

kon

kon

piya bhekh phiraya

la

taCaiyun zat kaha[ya]

jakI bat kahI nahift ja[ya]

3

maha

agam samuftdar kahave

ja ko par na kabahuft pave

QubakI lele janam gaiivave

va kI thah

na

kabahuii pave

4

QubakI lele got.ah khave

pIr paigarhbar to nahift pave

jo so budI QubakI khave

mar mar

jiye to manak pave

dohrah

naft ilah niraftjan kahiye; naft kahiye kachu bat

guftge

supana

paiya; samar samar pachatat

1

There appears to be some confusion in the sequence of verses of this

poem as it s found in the various texts. Consequently, the sequence followed

here s one that has been rearranged to suit best the rhyme scheme as well as

120



1

A most amazing wonder I relate, a riddle,

By

means

of

which what has

been

heard becomes easy

[ rrussmg ]

[ missing]

2

Why did the hidden Beloved become manifest?2

What

different forms did the Beloved assume?

[He] is said to be an essence [pure] without specification,

Of which nothing may be said.

3

n

unfathomable ocean, so vast;

Whose shores can never be found;

You

may waste a lifetime diving,

Even so, its bottom can never be reached.

4

[So deep] that plunging and diving time after time,

Even

pIrS

and prophets cannot reach [the bottom].

Whatever being [?] takes a dive,

It acquires the jewel only if it lives after dying.3

dohrah

Do not

even

refer

to the

Divine as niraftjan;

do not

say

anything [about it]

Like a mute dreamer who,

remembering

his dream con-

stantly, regrets [he cannot tell].

2An allusion to the b a ~

qudsi

(divine saying), attributing to God the

words, 1 was a hidden treasure and I wanted to be known, so I created the

world.

3

n

allusion to the ; l a ~ (prophetic saying) Die before you die.

121



14

1

ati acaraj kahun ek pahelI

jis ten hoe jo sune suhelI

[

[

line 1 ati:

K-1 K-2

K-3 K-4 K-5 atI.

line 2

line 3

line 4

acaraj: Ismaili texts read acarat. (Cf. D. Varma,

a

Langue Braj,

p. 58, on tendency of

the

word-final

t or th

to be

changed to j .)

kahun: K-l, K-2

K-3 K-4

K-5 kahun, KG, G-1, G-2 kahun.

pahelI:

K-2 K-4

K-5 KG paell.

fu: P jiu, KG, G-l, G-2 jls.

ten: Ismaili texts read thI.

hoe: Ismaili texts, except for G-2, hove. G-2 hov.

jo

sune: Ismaili texts vat.

suhelI: Ismaili texts, except for G-1, read sohell. G-1 shell.

Missing

in

both P and Ismaili texts.

Missing in both P and Ismaili texts.

4This first poem

is

the only one included

herewith

the complete critical

apparatus

noting variant readings.

Readers

interested in the critical

apparatus for subsequent poems should refer to the original dissertation,

The Bujh Niraiijan: A Critical Edition

of

a Mystical Poem in Medieval

Hindustani with its Khojki and Gujarati Recensions (Harvard University,

1984). The manuscripts and texts represented in this critical edition are

described in detail in Chapter

3.

122



1

2

piy[u] chanafi kyilii paraghat aya

kon kon piya bhekh phiraya

la ta'aiyun* iat kaha[ya]

j l l

bat kahi nahifi ja[ya]

line This line alludes to the I t a ~ qudsI attributing to God, the words,

I

was a

hidden

treasure and I wanted to be known, so I

created the world.

n iYY:

P piyfi,

K-l,

K-3, K-4 piil, K-2 plyfifi, K-5

plyU,

KG plyufi,

G-l plyu.

chanafi: Ismaili tests read chana.

kyiifi: K-l, K-3 kiil, K-2 kiyufi, K-4 kiilfi, K-4 kiyfi, KG,

G-l,

G-2

kyufi

paraghat: K-l, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5, KG paragat, G-l, G-2 pragat.

m: K-l aeya, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5 aea.

line 2 kon kon: K-2, K-5, K-G G-l kahone. .

~

P uses

b to

represent a short

a

vowel. K-l, K-3, K-4

pm, K-2, K-5, KG, G-l pIya, G-2 piya.

bhekh: K-l uses

:>4

to represent bh. P phakh/bhakh.

phiraya: K-l pheraya, K-2, K-5, G-2 phiraya, K-3, K-4 phiraea,

KG, G-l phIraya.

line 3 Ia taCaiyun: K-lla U

yfin,

K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5 laU

fin,

KG, G-lla thI

un, G-21a

thffi

un.

zat: Ismaili texts, except for G-2, read jat. G-2 zat.

kaha[ya]: Last syllable changed from ve to ya for rhyme. P,

KG, G-l, G-2 kahave, K-l, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5 kahave

line 4 ja kI:

K-l,

K-2, KG, G-2 jafikI.

bat: K-l, K-2, K-4, K-5 bhat (K-l uses

>\

to represent bh ).

kahI: K-3 kahffi.

nahiii: P uses two dots under the word without the corresponding

tooth

to indicate a short i vowel. Ismaili texts, except

for G-2, read na. G- 2 nahIii.

ja[ya]: Last syllable changed from ve to ya for rhyme. P, KG,

G-2 jave,

K-l,

K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5,

G-l

ave.

123



I

3

Qubaki Ielego ah* khave

pIT

paigathbar to nahiii pave

maha agam samuIidar kahave

ja

ko

par na kabahfui pave

line 1 dubakI: P uses " " to represent "Q." K-2 dfibalI, K-2, K-3, K-4

dfibaki, K-5 dfibhaki.

Iele: K-2 K-5 G-Ile

Ie

ke.

g o . ~ a h : K-I, K-2 K-5, KG, G-I, G-2 gotha, K-3, K-4 gota.

line 2 paigambar: K-I pekambhar (uses

> ,

to represent bh ), K-2,

K-4 paekambhar, K-3 pekabar, K-5 paekabhar, KG,

G-I,

G-2 payagambar.

ill: K-I, K-2 K-3, K-4, K-5, KG toe, G-I toy.

nahiii: P uses two dots under the word without the corresponding

"tooth" to indicate the short i vowel. Ismaili texts, except

G-2, read na.

line

3

maha: K-I, K-3 K-4 maha.

samuiidar: K-I, samfidhar, K-2, K-3

K-5

samfidhr, K-4 samiiIidhr,

G-I samudhr, G-2 samufidhr (K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5 use

1."

for the conjunct

c o n s o n a ~ t

"dhr").

kahave: P kahaya, K-l, K-2 K-3 K-4, K-5 kahave.

line ja ko: K-I, K-2,

K ~ 4

K-5, KG jafiko.

na kabahiiii: K-I, K-2, K-3, K-5 koe na, K-4 kine na, KG, G-I, G ~

koi na.

pave: P paya, K-4 paea.

124



1

4

jo so bud JubakI khave

mar mar jiye to manak pave

c;iubakI lele janam gaiivave

va kI thah na kabahUti pave

line 1 jo so: K-l, K-3,

K-4

jo e, K-2, K-5 jo es, KG,

G-l,

G-2 jo is.

budI: Derivation not clear; possibly from Persian bud.

K-l

samudhar me, K-2,

K-5

samudhr mati, K-3, K-4 samudhr

mae, KG samutidar me,

G-l

samudhr man, G-2 samutidhr

man (K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5 use ".l." to represent "dhr").

QubakI:

P uses 1 to represent c;i, K-l, K-2, K-3, K-4 dubakI,

K-5

dubhakI.

line 2 .This line alludes to alleged b ~ "die before ye die."

mar mar jiye:

K-l

marjeya,

K-2, K-5

mar jIvea, K-3, K-4 Iliar jill,

KG,

G-l

mar jIvya, G-2 mar jIva (note: in the Gujaniti

language, "marjIvo"

is

the term used for a diver).

m K-l,

K-2,

K-5, G-2 hoe so, K-4, K-5 hoe to, KG hove so, G-l

hoy so.

manak: Ismaili texts read m ~ a k

pave: Ismaili texts read lave.

line 3

c;iubakI:

P uses .1 to represent c;i, K-l, K-2, K-3, K-4 dubakI,

K-5

dubhakI.

gaiivave: K-l, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5, G-2 gamave, KG, G-l gumave.

line

4

va ke:

K-l,

K-5 to ya ko, K-2 to yati ko, K:3, K-4, to yake, KG,

G-l, G-2 villo.

thah: K-l, K-2,

K-3, K-4,

K-5, G-l thak, KG, G-2 thag.

na kabahUii: K-l, K-2, K-4,

K-5 kabhuek, KG, G-l kabuek, G-2

kabahu.

125



dohrah

nan ilah niraiijan kahiye; nan kahiye kachu bat

giiiige supana paiya; samar samar pachatat

line 1 naii:

K-1

K-3 na,

K-2 K-4 K-5

G-1, G-2 nirala, KG nIrala.

ilah: i n ~ h not reckoned in meter.

Pit

ilah, K-1 ala,

K-3

K-4

ala. Does not occur

in K-2 K-5

KG, G-1, G-2.

niraiijan:

K-1

K-3 narijan,

K-2 K-4

K-5 nirijan,

KG

niraiijan, G-1

niriiijan.

kahiye:

K-1 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG kahie,

K-2

G-2 kahieii, G-1 kahie.

nan: K-3na,

K-2

K-4,

K-5

G-1, G-2 nirali,

KG

nIrali.

kahiye:

K-1 K-3

K-5 KG, G-1, G-2 kahie, K-2 K-4 kahien.

kach[u]: Vowel

of

second syllable shortened for meter. P kachu,

K-1;

K-2

K-4, K-5 kuch, KG, G-1, G-2 kuch.

bat: K-1,

K-2 K-4

K-5 bhat (K-1 uses

>i'

to represent bh ).

line 2 guiige:

1<.-1 K-2 K-3 K-4

K-5 gilnge, KG, G-1, G-2 guiige.

supana: smaili texts, except G-1, read sapana. G-1 svapna.

paiya:

K-1

K-2, K-3,

K-4 K-5

G-1 paea, KG, G-1 paya.

samar samar: Ismaili texts read samajsamaj. (Cf. D. Varma, La

langue Braj, pp.

55

59 on the tendency of word final r to

be changed to j, e.g., maj jaungI instead of mar jaungI.)

pachatat: K-1, K-2, K-5 pachatae, K-3 pasatae, K-4 pashatae, KG

pasatay, G-1 pastay.

126



2

1

b dly t ko k h bakhanofi

s bh ~ i f a t o f i teii ny r janofi

nyare tefi ny r k r rnanofi

y

g t

sufi k chu v

p h ch noii

2

s bh ~ i f a t o i i sufi jakufi

p ve

so

phun

vabid[i]yat kahalave

rup nup nek d[I]khave

bhafit bhafit ko bhekh phirave

3

in

dOM rnahiii vabdat kahiye

jakufi dOM ~ i f a t o f i sufi lahiye

kya nyare

s bh

tefi sufi sahiye

kya

s bh

sufi so p r gh t lahiye

4

j rn

C

j h ii

as rna r

hO

k h t uluh[i]yat so teii So

r bb

jahafi a f ~ l

jo hO

bujhe bujh n

h r jo kOT

dohr h

jine

n hi

rafig

n rup

kachu; n kOT

n nv

n

th nv

soi

gupt p r gh t

bhaya;

l kh

dh re t b

nafiv

128



2

1

How can you describe [the stage of] al .adlyat?5

Know it to be different from all [divine] attributes;

Consider it to be more different than the different;

In this manner, you may comprehend it a little.

That

which is acquired from [the coming together]

of

all

the attributes,

That again is called

vaLUdlyat

6

Many and incomparable are the forms

He

shows Himself;

Myriad are the forms

He

assumes.

3

In [between] these two [stages] is that of val .dat,7

Which can be attained through both attributes.

Listen to how different

He

is from everything,

And yet how evident

He

becomes from everything.

4

When there is the pleroma of all the [divine] names,

It is said divinity [ula1lIyat] is from that,

And the attribute rabb [Lord] arises when there is specifi-

cation.

Only the perceptive one will understand.

dohrah

The

One

who has neither color nor form, nor name nor

place;

That

Hidden One became manifest, assuming a hundred

thousand names.

5a1}.adIyat

- used

in

SufIsm to refer to the absolute, transcendent divine

essence, free from any qualification.

6yaJ.Udiyat - used in S u f s ~ to refer to the third stage of the descent of

the Divine Essence

in

which it appears as an aspect unifying the difference

of

the attributes

the

Many identical in essence with each other and with

the

One; the second limitation.

7va1;tdat - SufI term for the intermediate stage between abadIyat and

va1;tidiyat; the fIrst limitation of the Divine Essence.

129



3

1

nanv niranjan ke do bhatI

ek

i n

ek bhae ifan

umm h t

sabh kahiyen

i n

ur

bh e sabh nanv ifan

2

jit piyu cain

Ciyan

kahayo

tit n[ a ]nv

~ h i r

cilm dharayo

jo ut th so it ho ayo

v hlp rs bhj g tb n yo

3

m n guman karo mat

k T

jo ut hai so it bhin SOl

hOI

r h

hove bhin SoT

yah likhiya mIte nahin

k T

4

yah* sabh calam-i gaib kahave

pakI jak[i] kahI nahin jave

khalqat* kun it nanv

n

pave

sabh yah ?;ahl1r kahave

dohr h

(1)

n

tine nanv

n

thanv hai;

n

bin nanv

n

thanv

jo

so nafly bakhaniyen; sabh

v

ke hai nanv

(2) ek alakh lakh bhekh dhar; tribJ:mvan raho samay

sabh

men

paraghat hoi raho; ya ten lakho n jay

13



3

1

The

names

of God

[niraftjan] are of two kinds:

One

is that

of

the essence [zat],

and

one derives from

the

attributes [sifat].

Know the names of the essence

to·

be the basic ones,

The remaining being names of the attributes.

2

Where the Beloved was called cain qyan,

8

.

There He

assumed the name [attribute] ~ h i r cilm.9

Whatever was there has come here;

In this manner, the whole universe was created.

3

Entertain not selfish doubts and suspicions, .

That

which is there

is

also here.

That which happens will happen as it should;

No one can erase that which has been written.

4

All this is said to be the calam-i gaib,1

Whose purity cannot be described.

Of the created world not a trace is found here;

Here everything is said to be pure manifestation.

dohrah

(1) Neither does He have any name nor place nor is He

without

name

and place;

With whatever name

He

is described, all names are His.

(2)

The

one invisible

One

assumed a hundred thousand forms

and

was contained in the three worlds.

He became

evident in everything, [yet] He is not to be

seen.

Scain

yan - manifest in the essence.

~ ilm -

external

or

manifest knowledge, a term used to refer to the

first three stages or two limitations, i.e.,

a1;tadiyat

vaJ;uiat vaJ Udiyat

lOcalam-i gaib

-

the hidden

or

unseen w o ~ l d the world of spirits.

131



4

1

sabh khilqat* arva1)* ko calam

jak[i] b t allah run mil m

yahr malim Cain b l m

j ke

sikh hoe s bh cal

m

p h len

I111)u l

* qudus ki roy a

akhir

~ i f a t

jabr[i]l jo hoya

jo un Citvan*

run n hin

roya

so sund r

j g t

hin soya

3

tIjo cal m kahiyen m i ~ a l a ]

jakI mOrat

p k

kamal[a]

vakI juz

ur a ~

niu1 al[a]

is calam kon aiso hal[a]

4

jo to

run

is

j g men

sujhe

svarag

b k

s bh vake bujhe

jo dekhe sabh v ten sujhe

to tun bujh niranjan bujhe

dohr h

piya surang

b hu

rang hai;

ur

rang rang dikhay

jo

l uen

dib disht* hoe; to rang rang

men

samay

132



4

1

All the created spirits belong to a world,

Whose affairs are known [only] to God.

ere the teacher is none

other than

the Beloved,

Whose disciples include entire creation.

2

First

there

is

the vision

of

the

n1Qu

JI

qudus,l1

Which finally

became the epithet of

Gabriel.

Whoever has

not

seen that vision,

That soul,12 though awake, is [in reality]

~ s l e e p .

3

The

third world is that

of

symbols

[ ~ a l ] 13

Whose form is pure and perfect.

Division

and

analysis

of

it

is

impossible;

Such is

the

condition of this world.

4

f in this world you attain knowledge,

Then

you will understand all its [Le., that world s] heavenly

language.

f you perceive whatever you see to come from there,

Then you have understood the Bujh Niraiijan

dohrah

The Beloved is of beautiful

and

variegated color and e

manifests Himself in color after color.

When

the

divine vision takes place, then [all] colors are

contained in [one] color.

r ~ u ~ qudus - the holy spirit; an epithet of the angel Gabriel.

12Literally, suiidari (the beautiful, handsome one; good, pure, virtuous),

used here as an epithet for the wife-soul expectantly waiting to be reunited to

her Lord.

13 fhe

world of imagination, or symbols, of spiritual values or ideas that

are to be realized

in this

world.

133



5

1

pahale

fai:?

f a i y ~ ten ave

pache mukh arvab dikhave

va ten hoe

m i ~ l

men ave

ta ten jave shahadat pave

2

cotha mulk shahadat kahiye

bure bhale sabh j men sahiye

to men guru ke [yamen?] kahiye

allah rasul ut hin bhin lahiye

3

panevan calam tab kahalave

jab manas

kr

murat pave

jo

apas men ulat samave

j m

C

jam[i]C ~ i f t kahave

4

hOI nuzul k[i] b t tamam[a]

bin curoj nahinhove kam[a]

jamit hai sabh k h ~ ~ o Cam[a]

bin lalan dhani kiSI na kam[a]

dohrah

motI jal

ten

hoiya; bhin jal kaho na jay

mugta pisiyen ched piyen; samundar na piyo jay

34



5

1

First from

the

Bountiful

One

[faiyaz] comes

f ~ ; 4

Then it

appears

in

the

[world of] spirits [arval)];

From there it comes to the [world of] symbols [mi§a ];

After

which it

reaches

the [world of] perception

[shahadat].

2

The fourth

realm is

that of

perception

[shahadat];

5

Good

and

bad

are endured

everywhere [?]

[meaning uncertain]

There [knowledge of] God

and Prophet

is also acquired.

3

One may speak of the fifth world,

When

it

reaches the

human

form.

f

it returns

into itself

[through the

medium of

human

nature],

Then he is called

the

comprehensive container

of

attributes. 6

4

The talk of nUZi l 7 is complete;

Without

the Curoj 8 all

is

in vain.

All, elite

and

masses,

are

aware:

Without the Beloved, the woman [soul]

is

of no use.

dohrah

The pearl comes from

water

even so it

is

not called water.

You may drink the pearl by crushing

and

piercing it, but

it

is impossible to drink the ocean.

14faq: - .overflowing, abundance; beneficence, favor, grace; used in

Sufism to refer to divine emanation.

5The visible world or the world of senses.

6An

epithet n Sufism for the Perfect Man

as

microcosm.

7

n

uziil-

descent; used in Sufism to refer to the descent of the Divine

Essence, through various limitations, into the world of creation.

8curuj

-

ascent, ascension; used in Sufism to refer to the ascent of the

soul through various spiritual stages and states until it finally reaches its

home

n

God.

35



6

1

jis ko calam sun mere mna

dhartI* bI

ta

carsh jo kna

l aif jo blljhe ka vah mna

ke pach

ta

men kya kar na

2

gun apane

kOI Cit

na

ave

sabh avagun apas

men

pave

sIs

tale kachll batna ave

is c;lar ten kahu kya man bhave

3

nabI mul ammad kare shafaCat[a]

jakun hai ummat kr riCayat[a]

jo guru mo

pe

kare Cinayat[a]

gunah mere sabh hove ~ a a t [ a ]

4

dehaI pare mat dekhe pIll

jo hai dIn dllnI ko jIll

is jab men hai yun kar pIli

jyun kar dlldh dahl mon ghIll

dohrah

birahI rain jo niramalI; hit cit piya sun lay

piya avan kI bel hai; mat bhor bhae pachatay

36



6

1

Him

whom my Beloved has created along with the uni-

verse,

rom

earth to the highest heaven;

Alas if he only knew the whereabouts of that Beloved.

What does he gain by that [?].

2

N one of his own virtues comes to mind,

He finds in himself only all the vices.

By hesitating

19

he achieves nothing.

On account of this fear, say, what can he enjoy?

3

[When] the Prophet Mu.bammad intercedes,

or

it

is

he who looks after the community [ummat];

And when the Guru graces me with favor,

[Then] all my transgressions become [acts of] obedience

(i.e., devotion).

4

Look not far from this body for the Beloved,

Who is the life

of

religion and the world.

The Beloved is present in this world,

As

ghee

is

present in milk and curds.

dohrah

f the night

of

separation is to be chaste, fix [your] atten

tion and mind on the Beloved;

or

it

is

time for the coming of the Beloved: let there be

no regrets with the coming of dawn.

19Literally

withdrawing the head.

137



7

piya darsan * kahu kaisen paven

taj maya ur guru

pe

javen

vahI

k ren jo

guru faramaven

t

ten

darsan * piya

k

paven

2

k h soya

uth

sundar jag[a]

man

m nore

ten uth

bhag[a]

jo

m the

rujh hoe yaha bhag[a]

apne* guru ke paeft lag[a]

3

ek

Citavan

jo

vak pave

to

t n m n

nirmal * ho jave

nih * kalaiik

k r

b t

dikhave

dukh khove sabh sukh upajave

4

ek

nabI

ur ek

gusaiyen

ek guru

bin cit

n laiyen

ur n son

jo

m n urajhaiyen

jlbit ko

ph l

mol n paiyen

dohr h

ek bm d

* ek jagat pati;

ek

guru s ft

m n

lay

guru sevit abmad* mile; abmad mIm gaftvay .

138



1

Tell

[us]

how one may attain the

vision

of the Beloved?

Abandoning the illusionary

world,

he should

turn

to the

Guru.

He should

do

what the Guru commands,

Thus may he attain

darsan20

of the

Beloved.

2

.Why

have

you

been asleep?

Rise,

0

soul, awaken

Rise and

flee

from

selfish desires

f you have this

good

fortune [written] on your forehead,

Then

prostrate

before

your Guru.

3

f

[you]

obtain

only

one of

his glances,

Then

body

and

soul

will

become

pure.

Making [you] without blemish [Le.,

pure],

he shows the

path:

All afflictions

disappear

and happiness

arises.

4

Except

for

the one Prophet,

one

God,

And one Guru, the mind should not be attached to any

one.

f

you

entangle your mind

with others,

Then

you

will

not

acquire the [real]

rewards and

worth

of

life.

dohrah

Concentrate on

the one Abmad, the one Master

of the

universe

and the one

Guru.

Serving

the Guru, one acquires A1).mad

and

then A1 .mad

loses

the letter

m

21

20darsan/darshan - sight, vision, perception; used here to refer to the

experience of spiritual vision or insight.

21Re(crence to the well-known

I t a ~

qud si (divine saying), in which God

says, I am Mtmad

[ ~ a m m a d ]

without the letter m - i.e., a ;tad (one).

139



8

1

jo

pan<;lit

ur

siddh kahave

c tur sujan sughar hoe ave

j p

t p

k r s bh j n m gaiivave

bin

guru

m r g

pem n pave

jo

cerI guru maya n paveii

dhy n gyan kach[u] k m

n

aveii

<;lhuii<;lhat

d u ~ t j n m gaiivaveii

bin guru

m y n

m r g

pavefi

3

jo

tuii lakh tablb bulave

bin

guru Plf

bed n n

jave

bed n

jay

jo

guru cit ave

dukh khove s bh sukh upajave

4

jo

guru teii

jo bed n

jave

so guru saiica gafij kahave

[

[

dohr h

b r guru mile

bed

kilii; ur d ru deve c r

bin

guru bed n

j ve nahlii; ya

bed n

ke s r

140



8

1

Those

who are known as scholars [pancjits] and ascetics

[siddhs];

They

come forth as

sagacious

intelligent,

and

accom

plished.

However, in muttering prayers they squander their entire

lives,

For without the Guru, the path of love cannot be attained.

2

f this slave girl does not acquire the grace of the Guru,

[Then] meditation and knowledge are entfrely in vain.

She

may squander a

lifetime

in

searching

and

running

around

But without the Guru, she will not find the path.

3

Even if you were to call a hundred thousand doctors,

Without the Guru the pain

and

affliction will not dis

appear.

The pain disappears only when the Guru comes to mind,

[Then] all suffering vanishes and only happiness arises.

4

f

through [the

mediation]

of

the Guru

the pain

dis-

appears,

[Then] that.

Guru is

called a true treasure.

]

]

dohrah

This pain [is curable] if one meets a great Guru who gives

medicine and remedy.

Without the

Guru

this pain will not disappear; such is the

nature of this pain.

141



9

1

jo

bhift is jag mahift aya

bhag sobhag apane

jo

Ie aya

tin guru shah masr1 a paya

mar

pot

vahr p[u]n jaya

shah

cain

jo

darsan

* paiye

vake cara1 J par bal jaiye

jo man meft iccha Ie aiye

so bhift yah maya s[ ti]ft paiye

3

kar

~ a h o r

latkaftda aya

cainu:>l * cirfaft* nam dharaya

jag

par

hai bhift

vaka

saya

jin

jag

koft e

bat

lagaya

4

cain nabr

ka nOr

pachan.oft

m a ~ h a r k h ~ ilahr janoft

jo [guru

kahana ]

mera manbft

jag man ko tab yah pachanoft

dohrah

cain cain jis

ko

kahoft; so cain hai ghat mafth

jo ghat

teft

paraghat

hove; to rom rom sukh pafth

142



9

Whoever

has come into this world, .

Has come

with his fortune,

bad and

good

He

who has found the Guru, Shah, Messiah;

That mother s

son

22

is

born

fortunate.

2

f

you [want to] acquire d

arsan

3of

the

Lord's essence,

[Then] you should sacrifice [yourself] at his feet.

Whatever desires you may have in your heart,

These, too, will be fulfilled through his compassion.

3

When he became manifest and came forth coquettishly,

He

assumed

the name cainu:>l

cirfan.

24

In

this world

he

is

the

shadow

of

He

Who

set

the

world

on

this path [of existence].

4

Recognize him to be the ~ s s e n e of the Prophet s light,

And the special locus of the Divine manifestation.

f you

believe [the message]

the Guru

has

made

me

utter

[?]

Then in this world you will recognize Him.

dohrah

The one

whom

I call the essence

of

the essence;

He

is the

very essence

in the

heart.

When He

becomes manifest in

the

heart,

then

in every

pore [you will] find happiness.

22This expression is employed here

in

the sense of human being.

23darsan/darshan -

see note 18

24cainu' irian - Essence

of

Gnosis.

143



1

5

1

nab

ko naib ho

kar

aya

sabh kahu ke

man

meft

bhaya

ja par nahift vako saya

bhag abhag so bhift Ie aya

2

vak seva

karo

savere

mat pachatao akhar

vere

sabh jag

hai

guru

vake cere

so seve bhed niraftjan mere

3

suftdar sughar sujan piyara

birah

kahi

gulam

tumahara

beg

karo

vako nisatara

vake ghat

meft

karo

ujayara

4

jo

gur teft hauft lalan pauft

is jag moft kahaft kahu samauft

piya

jal

meft

m i ~ a r

hoI jal1ft

birah

teft

v a ~ a l

kahalal1ft

dohrah

(1) jaise bhaftjan

hot

nIr

sUft;

bhariyo

na

buftd samay

p tam

ham i ~ a r

[ho] mile; chalak

na bahar

jay

(2)

sat

dIp nay

khaft<;lh

moft; paraghatiyo

Cain shah

jahaft dekhuft tahan vah[i] hai; vahI vahI hai

ah

2SThis poem has two dohrahs, the ftrst of which does not occur n the

Ismaili version.

144



10

He has come as the deputy of the Prophet,

And endeared himself to all.

On whomever his [ptotective] shadow does not fall,

s his lot, he has truly brought with him bad fortune.

2

Worship early [while you have the opportunity],

So that you do not regret at the last moments.

The entire creation

is

a slave to that Guru;

Whoever serves him discovers the secret of God [nirafijan].

3

o Beloved, beau.tiful, graceful, and intelligent

This love-sick woman26 says,

I

am your slave."

Liberate her soon .

By

bestowing enlightenment in her heart.

4

I f

through the Guru

I.

find the Beloved,

Tell [me] how can I be contained in the world?

[When] I have

been

dissolved like sugar in the water-like

Beloved,

[Then] instead of birahI

27

[lover-in-separation], I am called

a

v ~ a l I 8

[lover-in-union]

dohrah

(1) Just as an additional drop of water cannot be contained in,

a pot filled to the brim;

[So also when like] sugar I am dissolved in the Beloved,

not a splash spills out.

(2)

In

the seven islands and the nine divisions, the essence of

the Lord

is

manifest.

Wherever I look, there he is;

He

Himself,

He

Himself

ah

26birahi - a woman suffering from the pangs of separation (birah) from

a beloved one.

27See note 23.

28From Arabic V3 1 (meeting, union), used here to refer

to

the woman

soul who has been united with her Beloved.

145



1

aisa guru jo kabahon pave

aUf taufrq ilahT ave

Cit

p n

it ut

n

Qolave

tab

j

marag pem ko pave

2

pahale to kiln sharac batave

pache rah

~ a r q a t

lave

tab tujh ijal ijaqTqat ave

rna crifat kerT sudh tab pave

3

sunI gaT yon guru

ten

bat[a]

dTpak

sharaCJ leve hath[a]

tai karahe tab yah*

~ l m a t a ]

pave ape ab-i ijayat[a]

4

yah * l m a t * tarrqat kahiye

bin aguva j h n rah

n

lahiye

aguva hoe to sabh dukh sahiye

nahift to sukh son shara

c

mon rahiye

sor th

m h bikat yah* bat; bin aguva kyonjaiye

aguva hoe sanghat;

m r

nIr tab paiye

46



f

ever one finds such a Guru,

And

there also comes divine grace,

And one's mind does not wander hither and thither,

Then at that point he attains the

path of

love.

2

First

he

shows the

sharC;29

After which he brings you to the road of tarIqat,30

Then the state of 1;taqlqat

31

comes to you,

Only then will you acquire macn£at

32

3

Such a discourse has been heard from the Guru:

Take the lamp

of

the divine law [sharC] in hand,

Then

crossing through this darkness,

Acquire for yourself ab-i

1;tayat. 33

4

This darkness is called tarIqat .

In which, without a guide, the road cannot be found.

Only with a guide can all afflictions be endured;

Otherwise one should stay blissfully within the sh3.rc.

soratha

Of great

danger

is

this path; how can it

be

traversed with

out a guide [aguva]

Only with a guide may the water

of

life

be

found.

29shar shaffa (t) - the whole corpus of rules, given by Allah, to guide

every aspect

of

the life

of

a Muslim, in law, ethics and etiquette; sometimes

called Divine Law (or Canon Law); ftrst stage on the mystical path.

3O ariqat - road,

path

or

way, procedure; mystical order or fraternity;

second stage on the mystical path.

31\laqiqat - reality; the last stage ~ the mystical path lariqa(t), which

is

founded on the sharrat, the Divine Law.

32ma'Tifat - gnosis; according to some Sufis the last stage on the mystical

path in which the seeker attains spiritual knowledge.

a

b-i \layat - the water of life, immortality; associated in Islamic folk

lore with the prophet-saint Khi{:r, who

is

said to have discovered the fountain

of life in darkness and become immortal by drinking of it.

147



12

34

1

rah sharfCat ka suri pyare

jo tun khodr takabur mare

man manore apane j re

to tun jIte kabahun

n

hare

pahalen zat ilahI manon

bur

bhala sabh va ten j non

paChe nabI mu1}.ammad *

m non

car yar ta1}.qIq pachanon

3

kalamaf11aiyib kaho ghanera

ek

b r

kar makke pher

de

zakat

ur

khair h n ~ r

duniya dIn hove sabh

ter

4

alkas * chore sustr *. mare

uth kar ~ tava+?il dhare

panco vaqt* namaz guZare

tab ton dIn damaman mare

dohr h

tIson rakho pane guz[ a ]ro; kalaman kaho rasol

dIyo zakat aur

1} ajj

karo; dargah* p r ho qabol

34This poem does not occur

in

the traditional Ismaili texts.

148



12

1

Listen, dear one, about the path of shaf1Cat:

f you kill khadI [selfhood]3S and pride,

And burn your selfish desires,

Then you will win and never lose.

2

First believe in the divine essence,

.And know that everything, good and bad, comes from

there.

Then believe in the Prophet Mul)ammad,

And recognize the four friends.

6

3

Recite the felicitous kalma

37

many times,

And perform once the circumambulation at Mecca,

Give much

zakat

8

and alms,

[Then] everything, material and spiritual, will be yours.

4

- When you have abandoned sloth and conquered laziness,

And have risen and

performed

the ablution with stead-

fastness, .

And have performed the ritual prayer at the five times,

Then you may beat upon the kettledrum of religion.

dohrah

Keep the thirty [fasts], perform the five [prayers]; recite

the kalma of the Prophet;

Give zakat and perform the bajj; then you will be accepted

at the [divine?] court.

35khiidi - selfhood;

in

traditional Sufism a negative concept; used later

by Muhammad Iqbal in a positive sense in reference to the development of

the individual's essence to its utmost limits.

36 The

four

friends refers to

the

four

successors of

the

Prophet

Mu1.Iammad - the rightly guided ones (i.e.,

AbiiBakr,

cUmar, O§man, and

CAlI .

37kalrpa(h) - word, speech, saying; the profession of faith n Islam.

38Alms tax

that

a Muslim is required to pay;

one

of the pillars of the

faith.

149



13 [33]39

1

jo nafsanIyat Iron nakhe

sabh roze rama+an ke rakhe

m n ten hoe shahadat bakhe

t b

l i t

islam

kI

cakhe

2

c[a]r maihab b r b q kar

j ne

car kitabon kiln pahachane

ur n bl sabh b q k r j ne

t bh

tujh hove durust Iman[e]

3

vajib far?:

jo

sunnat j ne

sabh abkam arkan pachane

raz-i qiyamat ke gawan mane

seva sabh kaho ke thane

4

p rhe

qufl n

kitaban bojhe

t b tujh r h n bl k sojhe

jo

mag abmad

ker

bojhe

r b niranjan pe sojhe

dohr h

bojhe marag

n bl

kera; jo hai sada qabol

sar nabiyon sar taj hai; dolah n bl rasol

39Numerals in brackets.indicate the sequence of the poem in traditional

Ismaili texts.

150



13 [33]

1

f you give up the pleasures of the lower self,

And observe all the fasts during [the month

of]

Rama+an,

And recite the shahada

4

with sincerity,

Then you will taste the delight of Islam.

2

When

you comprehend the four IDrihabs

41

as based on

truth,

And

recognize the four books,42

And know all the prophets to

be

true,

Then

you will have true faith.

3

When you recognize the obligatory duties- to

be

sunnat;43

And

acknowledge all the pillars and commands [of the

faith];

And believe in the (procedures?) of the Day

of

Resurrec

tion;

And perform service to all;

4

And

[when] you have read and understood the

Qur:>an

and

the books,

Then the path of the Prophet will

be

known to you.

When you know the path of Abmad,

Then the path

of

God [niraiijan] will be spontaneously

evident.

dohrah

Know the path of the Prophet which is eternally accepted,

On the head of the Prophets,

.the

bridegroom

Prophet

[Mul)arnrnad] is the crown.

40shahada(h)

;

the profession of faith, declaring

thatthere

is no god but

God, and ~ a m m a d is is prophet; identifies the declarer as a Muslim.

41The

four religions that possess the four divinely revealed scriptures; or

the

four legal schools

of

Sunni Islam (i.e., Hanafi, Shari i, MalikI, and

Hanbali).

42The four books

or

scriptures revealed by God (i.e., the Taurah to

Moses, the Zabiir to David, the Injil to Jesus, and the Qur-an to Mub.am

mad).

sunna

h/t)

- received custom, particularly that associated with the

Prophet

MuI}.ammad.

151



4

[ 2]

1

jin yah* marag kiya qabol[a]

pache kabahon n hoe malol[a]

kahu

t n

kalaman nabl rasol[a]

do jag men bhin hoe maqabol[a]

2

sharrcat ko

jo

rah na mane

andhala hai vah kya pahachane

.

o

On bojh na bojh mane

so kya sar nabl ke jane

3

ya mag ten

jo

munkir* hove

ut

kya pave aithahin khove

pet bhare jyon morakh sove

l aif

jo

kam apane ke khove

4

amr* nabl ka jo nahifi mane

b hr

* hai vah * kya sun jane

age kilfi jo Cit n[a] ane

kya hove pache pachatane

dohrah

jin yah* sabd*

n

maniyo;

On

piche mat daur

it un kiln sobha nahiii; ut nahiii paveii thaur

52



4 [ 2]

e

who has accepted this path,

Will never again be grieved.

Recite the kalma

44

of the Prophet,

Then you will be accepted in both worlds.

2

e

who does not believe

sharJCat45

to be the path,

e

is blind; what can he recognize?

e

who does not comprehend that to be [real] knowledge,

How can he know the value of the Prophet?

3

e who denies this path,

What will he attain there?; he is [already] lost here.

Filling the stomach, he sleeps like a fool.

Alas for him who loses [sight of] his [true] purpose.

4

e who does not obey the command of the Prophet,

e is deaf; what can he learn through hearing?

f one does not pay heed from the outset,

What use is it to regret later?

dohrah

e

who has not believed this word - do not run after him.

ere [in this world] he has no beauty, and

there

[in the

other world] he will get no place.

44kalma(b) - see note 33.

45shaffat - see note 26.

53



15

[13]

1

jab e parde* uth ke javeii

jhuth saiich sabh (murakh?) paven

ut

ten (cahan) phir it aven

mat Gay?) rah nabI ka paveii

2

ut ke gae na it

na

phir aven

na

yah * rah

sharJCat

paven

. nisadin jhuren bahut pachataven

phir yah

[I]

saman

na

phiran paven

3

jo

sangat aise ke jave

sabh savad apna * khoe ave

kate hath bahut pachatave

vaisa l;lal n[a] phiraii pave

4

man

lahuOl maula

kr

gat pave

jo

sangat

~ u f r kr

[pave]

yah mayan sun ap ganvave

falahuol kul ka rutb[a] pave

46

dohrah

lakafI shakal sarIr kar; guru m i ~ r I sang lay

saiigat ke gun karane; m i ~ r I

to1

bikay

46The Ismaili text have the following

~ s

lines 3 and

4

of the fourth

Caupru:

jo

bhajan karat

i

ap gamave; to piya

sii.ii mi ri

diidh

jyii.ii

mil jave.

154



When this veil is lifted,

15

[13]

1

Then, 0 ignorant one, all falsehood and truth can be dis

cerned [?]

[meaning unclear]

Do

not

go

by yourself; follow the path of the Prophet

[?]

Having gone there, one should not return here [?],

For

he will not find the path of the

sh3 fICat [?]

Pining away, day and night, he regrets a lot,

But this opportunity will not come again.

3

f one loses association with such [a state?]

Then

all

of

his pleasures are lost.

Cutting his hands, he regrets a lot,

But such a state he will not regain.

4

-

The

state of

man

lahu:ll maula

47

is

attained, .

When he acquires association with the

Silfr

Through his compassion he loses himself,

And then the station of lahu:ll kull48

is

attained.

dohrah

Making

the

body like a stick, associate with the sugar-like

Guru,

Then

as a result of this association, be weighed and sold as

sugar.

47man

lahu:IJ

mauli - He who has is Lord; fust part of

an

a l 1 e g e d J l . a ~

or saying of the Prophet:

He

who has his Lord, has everything.

481ahu:llIrull - he has everything; second part of the Prophetic saying

quoted in the note above.

155



16 [14]

1

mel;mat kar kar jo kacho lave

1 k

kutumb sOfi adh batave

adh thath allah kahalave

khadim hoe makhdomI pave

lekhe ka dar jakofi ave

sabh tefi pahle bihisht mefi jave

ya tefi maya

mollut ve

tab yah

n m

faqrr kahave

3

jo kor gair sharc ten bhage

adhr

r t

Ie pichalr jage

sava p h r jap tap sOfi lage

paChe kam maya ke lage

4

bhokh mare cabid kahalave

maya kilfi din rat n dhave

din sagra taCat sOfi jave

cabid ka tab rutba pave

dohrah

hari samarat hari paiye;

~ r i

paiyefi sukh hoy

nipat nikat harr

jo

basefi; hari samarat nahifi koy

156



16

[14]

1

. Whatever he brings [earns] through hard work,

He distrjbutes half among kith

and

kin,

[And the remaining] half is said to

be

God's.

[Thus] being [only] a servant, he attains mastership.

2

When he

comes to the door

of

reckoning,

He

will

be

the first to enter paradise.

When [desire for] the material

world

is uprooted from

him,

Then

he is

called a faqIr.49

3

He

who

flees from what is other than the divine law

[sbarC];

Stays awake tbe last half

of

the night;

Worships for 11/4 pahars;50

Then turns to the affairs of the material world;

4

Having

conquered

hunger, he is called a [true] servant

[cabid].

He no

longer spends day and night adoring

the

material

world;

The whole day is spent in obedience

[1a

c

at],51

Then

he

has attained the rank of cabid.

dohrah

Remembering

God

(bari),52 one' finds

God

[bari]; if [you]

find

God

[bari] there is much happiness;

Yet

no

one remembers God [bari] who

is

so very close.

49faqIr - poor; general name for the Sufi; in later times often used in a

pejorative sense.

5

p

h r

a division

of

tim consisting of eight gharis or three hours; an

eighth part of a day; a watch. .

51tacat - obedience; submission to God; devotion.

52hari -

an

Indian epithet

of

God; used specifically

iIi

the Hindu tradi

tion to refer to Vishnu and his incarnations.

157



17

[29]53

1

hit maya kI

cit thin jave

lakh

karoran jo

mil ave

vake

Cit men thor na

pave

so

sundar

zahid kahalave

ya sabh

~ l i b

bihisht

ke hoven

sabh

dozakh ke cjar

ten

roven

yah

sabh

sundar

marakh

hoven

lahe

karan

mal jo

khoven

3

khadim aur

faqIr dIvane

zahid cabid khare sIyane

nisadin dozakh bihisht

bakhane

shah

apne

kiln Cit n[a]

ane

4

jin

shah

dozakh

bihisht

upal

sat

dIp nay khancjh

banal

yah sabh rap anOp dikhaI

a1 .mad*

ke sabh sang lagaI

dohrah

kya lave

man aur

san; k[a]ha

cjolave

Cit

ek pal Cit

us piyu knn;

jo

Citvan to yah nit

5Jrhe verses of this poem do not appear in an identical order in all the

texts.

158



17 [29]

1

[Once] desire for the material world disappears from the

heart

[Then] even if a hundred thousand crores were acquired

[Still] it would have no place in his heart.

Such a person

is

called a zahid.

54

2

All these are seekers of heaven;

They all cry from fear of hell.

All these souls are fools:

For the sake of the reward they lose the capital.

3

The servant and mad faqIr

The

ascetic worshiper and the truly wise one

Day and night they talk about heaven and hell

Not thinking about their Lord.

4

The Lord who created heaven and hell

And made the seven islands

55

and nine divisions;56

He has manifested Himself in all these diverse forms .

And put them all in the company of AOmad

dohrah

Why do you

attach

your

heart

to

others

why do you

agitate your mind?

f

for an instant the heart

is

with that Beloved then wher

ever [falls] your glance there

He is

always [present].

54zahid - one who shuns the world and exercises himself

in

the acts of

devotion; a monk recluse hermit.

55

According to some schools of Indian philosophy the world is divided

into seven island-continents: J ambu Plaksha Shalmali Kusha Kraunca

Shaka and Pushkara.

56The nine divisions

of the

earth that according to Indian thought

constitute

the

Jambii-dvip the central portion of the world or the known

world.

159



18 [3 ]

1

jo guru rah tarrqat lave

maya puftjr mOllutave

ghar dvare koft ag lagave

hoe majnuft * lail1 koft dhave

pem

piyare ka

jab

hove

aur hosh sabh dil teft khove

nisadin jage kabah[ u]ft

na

sove

zar zar do naina rove

3

hirday* maflhift ag

s lage

age hoe so age age

pache paftv na·kabahuftlage

in lokan teft mrig jyoft bhage

4

cahe jyafi pafikhI

ur

jaufi

lalan kera darsan * pauft

sajan

par

hauft bal bal jauft

Ie sajan koft kaftth lagauft

dohrah

pafikh1 ho[i]

jo

ur

sakoft; dhauft piya ke

or

yah * j V kO ne kaj hai; varoftiakh karor

16



18

[30]

1

When the Guru brings one to the path of tarIqat,57

Then value for the material world

is

uprooted.

He

sets fire to house and home,

And becoming to Majnlln, he worships

Laili.

58

2

When the love for the Beloved

is

kindled,

Then all awareness disappears from the heart.

Day and night he is awake, never sleeping;

Bitterly do the two eyes weep.

3

In the heart, there is a fire-like [emotion];

As it increases, so also he proceeds further [along the

path].

N ever does he step back.

Like a deer he flees from people.

4

He

wishes: if only like a bird I could fly,

And attain darsan

59

of the Beloved

I would sacrifice myself, again and again, for the Beloved;

Taking hold of Him, I would embrace Him.

dohrah

Oh that

I could

be

a bird and fly I would rush to the

Beloved.

This life has only one purpose; may I sacrifice it a hundred

thousand times. .

57tanqat - see note 27.

58Majniin Laili the pair of celebrated lovers

in

Islamic folklore.

59darsan darshan - see note 18.

161



19[31]

1

c.lholan moknn lal kanI

birah k[i] mar[i] phiIiin dlvanI

10k kuturhb ten bhaI

beganI

sajan merI sar na janI

, 2

bin shah dhani ka bal

na

koI

piya karan sagra din

rol

mal bap na bojhe koI

jin

laI bojhe

bhin sol

jaknn karak kaleje

have

so kyon nInd karl

sukh save

sabh

hit it

apne thin

dhove

nisadin

loho

naino

rove

4

rat dinan mujh

nInd naave

nisadin

nainon

panI

jave

mOl ab

sajan

tere have

tujh ten merI mihr na ave

dohrah

dekho

sakhI suheliyo;

dhani ko bal behal

piyu patiyan

jab

it paren marIn sarhbhal sarhbhal

162



19 [31]

1

The Beloved has struck me with an arrow;

Mflicted by birah,6O I roam about intoxicated.

I have become estranged from family a nd people,

[But] the Beloved knows not my worth.

2

Without the Lord, desolate is the state of [this] woman

[soul];

For

the Beloved, she cries the entire day.

Father, mother, no one understands;

Only one who has been struck [similarly] can understand.

3

He who has an affliction in the heart,

How can he sleep in peace?

All desires are washed away from the mind,

nd

day and night the eyes shed [tears of] blood.

4

Night

and

day I get no sleep,

nd night and day tears flow from the eyes.

I am dying now, 0 Beloved, because

of

your coquetry,

[And yet] you show no kindness to me.

dohrah

Look, 0 sisters and friends; look at

the

wretched state of

this woman

When my mind is occupied with the Beloved Lord, then

look after this stricken one

6O} irah separation, parting, absence (particularly of lovers).

163



2

[32]

1

sajan

p r

hauil hail baliharT

jin lalan moil nipat bisarT

nisadin loyan lage tarT

kabah[u il to ave hamarT barT

2

jab darasan hauil dekhoil

ter

sabh dukh bisare Cit teil mer

sokh opaje mujh ghan ghanera

lalan karo hamare hail phera

3

abke* jo hauil lalan pauil

hairde aildar sej bichaoil

apane rothe lal manailil

Ie sajan kilil kailth lagaoil

4

nisadin haire 1alab tumaharr

kas[

u il

kahuil yah dukh hai bharl

darasan dikhao syam piyarl .

birah[l] bhog tiharl mary61

dohrah

darasan dlyo syam jiu; sudh budh gal haray

pItam pas bulaiho; kai sudh leho ay

61The Ismaili version have the following additional verses: dil ke aiidar

daiiii utari; sajan

tum par

jaiiii balahari.

164



20

[32]

I sacrifice myself for the Beloved;

The Beloved'who

haS completely forgotten me.

Day and night my eyes are fixed expectantly:

o

that sometimes it should

be my

turn 62

2

When

I

see [experience] your vision [darsan] ,

[Then] all afflictions are erased from

my mind,

And [within] me much happiness arises. .

o Beloved come around to

my

place

3

f

now I were to find the Beloved,

I

would lay the bedding [for Him] in

my

heart.

I

would appease my annoyed Beloved,

And taking the Beloved

I would embrace Him.

4

Day and night

my

heart desires you;

To

whom should I describe this intense pain?

o Beloved Syam

63

grant [your] vision [darsan]

or

the

suffering in

separation

[birah] [from you] over

whelms me.

dohrah

o

Beloved Syam grant me a glance

of

you [darasan]; for all

my awareness and understanding are at a loss.

Beloved call me to you; or return me [my lost] awareness.

62This line is strongly reminiscent of the yearning that the gopis, the

c o w ~ m i d s

of

Hindu mythology, have for Krishna, each one of them hoping

expectantly that she is her beloved's chosen one.

63S

yam

- black, dark blue; an epithet of the Hindu deity Krishna.

65



21 [15]64

1

nafi mujh

r p

n gun kach[u] salfi

kaisefi kahofi piya mujh ghar alfi

to kofi tohi maya SOfi paofi

karafi b dh l mafigal gaofi

2

~ l b

kamal ilahr ave

mItha karva sam ho jave

bur bhala to cit

n

ave

astut nifida ekIfi pave

3

aisa d rd piya ka hove

Qal qal p n sabh khove

nisadin

jhur

jhur piiijar hove

aise p re to ~ l i b hove

4

nisadin birahi

jyl1fi

vah[a]efi kote

mali]

pot

rfiha sabh chute

[

.

[

dohr h

chut

p re

jafijal tefi; jinhofi lutaya

p

harr

kara.t:J.

maya tajr; karaI . p[o]n

n p p

64KhojkI manuscripts have a lacuna in this poem that later prmted texts

fill in with the following lines:

niiidi

kharab hai so m t a n l ~ i niiidi

kara.r;tese munivar Qarani; nhidi kiesiifi

jise

dharam; upajase

sarVe

sir par

karam; niii i

thie tyiii besavuii nahi;

niii i kin siifi ~ v i nahi.

166



2

[ 5]

1

Lord, neither do I have any beauty nor virtue;

How can I say, Beloved, come to my house.

f

I were to attain You through Your kindness,

Then

I would celebrate by singing wedding songs.

When

desire for divine perfection arises,

[Then for the seeker] the sweet

and

bitter are identical;

The

mind does not distinguish between

bad and

good;

Praise

and

censure are alike.

3

The pain

for the Beloved is such that,

He [ he lover] loses all speech and composure.

Pining, day

and

night, he becomes a [mere] skeleton.

f such becomes [his state] then he is lalib.

6

4

ay and night he spends like a birahI,66

In

this way all mothers' sons are liberated [?].

[ ]

[ ]

dohrah

He who

has

been

robbed

of his self, he is liberated from

the anxieties [of worldly concerns].

For the sake

of

God [hari], he abandons the material

world;

not

for virtue

or

vice.

6 ~ a l i b

- one who seeks, pursues, or inquires; a Sufi.

66birahi - see note 23. .

67



22 [16]

1

pache bal mujahada ave

vahI kare jo nafs *

n

bhave

bur

bhala yaks an ho jave

tab tun bal mushahada pave

2

vaqt * malamat ka tab ave

apane nek aCmal* chupave

bure

aCmal * paraghat dikhalave

to piya klln yah sundar pave

3

nisadin dard * piya ke jagen

sabh larake?) uth?) pIche lageii

tukare mange jis ke ageii

yar bhai sabh sun bhageii

4

piya kara1 . sabh ap gaiivave

sar darhI aur muno muiioave

kar kala mukh jag dikhalave

to lalan kI laiI pave

dohrah

kala mukh jag phire; darhI mufio mufiOay

jag nindya* sabh sar dhare; to piya kllfi m n Hly

168



22 [16]

Then

comes the state of mujahada

67

[In which] he does what the nafs

68

does not like.

[When] good

and

bad are the same,

Then you have attained the state

of

mushahada.

69

2

The

time for reproach [malatnat] comes,

When

he conceals his virtuous actions,

And he openly displays his evil deeds;

Such a soul, then, finds the Beloved.

3

Day and night the pangs for the Beloved are aroused,

All the boys chase [after you] [?],

From

whomever you beg a morsel,

Be they friends or brothers - they all flee from you.

4

On account of the Beloved he loses himself completely,

And he shaves off his head and beard.

Assuming a black face7 he shows himself to the world.

Then he acquires the redness of the Beloved.71

dohrah

Having shaved off his head and beard, he assumes a dis

graceful state and roams the world;

All the abuse

of

the world he bears on his head; then he

has placed the Beloved in his heart.

67

mu

jahada h) -

the state

of

striving, fighting against

the

desires

of

the

lower self or nafs

68

n

afs

- the

lower

soul.

The

Q u r ~ a n

discerns

three types:

nafs al-

ammara Sura 12/59),

the

soul that

incites to evil; nafs al-Iawwama

Sura

75/2), the

blaming soul or conscience; and

nafs

a l - m u ~ a m a : i n n a Sura

. 89/27d

the

soul

at

peace which is called to return to its Lord.

9mushahada h)

- the state

of

direct vision

of

the Divine Reality.

7<Yrhaf

is, a disgraceful state.

71That is,

he becomes

honored, surkh

ru

red faced).

169



23 [17]

log kuturhb sabh mil kar aveft

pand * nasr1)at de samajhaveft

vako

1 301 ur

kach[ u] nahifl paveft

kareft malamat phir phir javefl

2

mat

pit

aur ghar kI narr

(bahan?) bha[i] aur sasu sarI

sabh mil aveft barr barr

un kilft sabahift deveft garI

3

pemIft

ptem

piyala pIta

mat pita kaheft

b i g ~ i y o

puta

log kuturhb kahe lagiyo

bhut

nari kahe kahuft aur bagiita

4

ghat teft

pem

jo upajo bharr

mat

pit

sabh prem nisarI

bhul gae yah ghar kI narI

kahaft rahefl duhuii sasa sarI

dohrah

b or

log n

j ne hrft;

motan hai birah bhog

piya patiyaft

j b

cit pareft; bhal gae sabh log

17



23 [ 7]

All the family

and

folk come together;

Giving him advice and guidance, they reason with him.

But his state does not change in any way;

[So after] reproaching him, they turn away.

2

Mother, father,

and

woman

of

the house;

Sister, brother, mother-in-law, sister-in-law;

All

meet

and come to him many times,

[But finally] they all insult him [in frustration].

3

The lover has drunk froni the goblet of love:

Mother

and

father say, "[Our]

son

is astray "

The

family

and

folk say, He has

been

possessed "

The

wife says,

There

is

[certainly] a slut Some place." .

4

When that

powerful love surges from the heart,

Mother, father, all [other] love is forgotten.

[Even] the

woman of that

house is forgotten;

What

[place then]

remains for

both

mother-in-law and

sister-in-law? .

dohrah

Ignorant people really do not know that my body suffers

from love-in-separation [birah],

When the Beloved Husband comes to mind, then forgotten

are all folk.

7



24

[18]72

1

sabh jag jin sundar hin chora

so kahn ka saga na sora

naflh r hev h hatka hora

kah karat ho aura?) tora

[

[

2

vah bhinl l n apane kera

mat

kOll

bhakho mera tera

3

bh[ u]kh aur dukh sabh va

p r

ave

jit jave tit thor n pave

un pe maherun mihir n ave

sukh thora dukh adhika bhave

4

jo

piya kiln dukh dena b.have

sukh

tere

kach[

u]

kam n ave

jo sukh karat). janam ganvave

bin dukh sukh kabahnn nahin pave

dohrah

ghat ghat tera

Cihn

hai; aur ghat mon

ter

dukh

d[

n lkh tihara ram raha; karo maya hoe sukh

72The sequence of verses in this poem varies among

t ~

texts; in

addition some lines appear to be

misSing

172



24

1

The person who has completely abandoned the world;

e is not kith or kin to anyone.

That [world] no longer remains an obstacle [for him].

[meaning not clear]

2

]

[ ]

He, too, is his Beloved s

[?]

May nobody say mine and thine

[?].

3

Hunger and affliction all come upon him;

Wherever he goes, he finds no place [i.e., peace]

And no kindness comes to him from his wife.

e

prefers suffering to happiness.

f

it pleases the Beloved to give affliction,

[Then all] your [material] happiness

is

of no use -

The [material] happiness for which you squander [your]

life.

Without affliction, [you] will never find [spiritual] happi

ness.

dohrah

In every heart

is

your sign, and in the heart

is

also [yearn

ing] pain for you;

Pain for you rages; be merciful so that it changes into hap

piness.

73



25

[19]

1

guru jo bat l)aqIqI lave

pahalen nafr i ~ b a t batave

kare tavajjuh tohi othave

ape ap niranjan pave

jab taufrq ilahI ave

murashid kera dhyan lagave

la ilah kar ap lutave

illaJllah * kar sajan pave

3

kibr* takabbur manI ganvave

kIn[a] l)asad aur bug?: na lyave

eujab riya ko

mollutave

so shah beg niranjan pave

4

la yaCnJ [kha1ir] sabh khove

manI manore

run

sabh dhove

iikar shugal kI khetI bove

nOr tajallI ko phal hove

dohrah

khetI bOJo

pem

kI; aur panI diyo gyan

nOr

tajallI phal paren; jo lao piya dhyan

174



25 [19]

1

When the

Guru

brings [you] to the path

of

.b.aqlqat,73

First he shows you miff i .bat;74

Then turning his attention to you

he'

raises you;

Spontaneously you will find God [niraiijan].

2

When the divirie grace descends

And

[your] concentration is on the guide [murshid]

Then by saying la ilaha75 you lose your self

And through

illa:>llah

76 you find the Beloved.

3

He who loses pride arrogance and selfishness

And

does not

bear

rancor jealousy and spite;

And uproots self-conceit arid hypocrisy;

Such a person finds the Lord and Master

God

[niraiijan].

4

ll insignificant [?] thoughts are dispelled

And all material desires are washed away

He

sows the field

of iikr

and shugal 78

Then

[only] is the fruit of nor taja1lI

79

produced.

dohrah

Sow the field

of

love and give it the water of knowledge;

The fruit of manifestation [nur tajallI] ripens when you

bring your attention on the Beloved.

73b.aqiqat - see note 28.

74nafi t - negation and affirmation; used

in

relation to the part of the

Islamic profession of faith

i iliha l l a ~ l l i h

which denies the existence of

anything other than God and then affirms the existence of the one God.

751i il h there is no god.

7 i l l a ~ a h - except God.

77iilcr :..recollection; a Sufi ritual consisting

of

the repetition of the

names of God and or other religious formulas.

78

s

hugal -

spiritual occupation.

79niir tajallI - manifestation illumination mystical revelation

of

the

Divine Light.

175



26

[20]

1

jakofi

nor

tajallI

hOI

ta

gat kr kya bojhe

koT

laj sakuc sabh vatefi dhoI

jo nahifi vatefi so bhifi hOI

2

kabahofi pave kabahofi khove

q a b ~

bast* nha bhifi hove .

kabahofi haiise

aur

kabahofi rove

kabahufi lag piya gal sove

3

bal

mushahada

ko jab ave

sabh kahu mefi piya kofi pave

jis dekhe tis piyufi?) phal jave

jyufikar ali

phulan

lipatave

gair gair[i]yat sabh uth jave

bura

bhala sabh vakilfi bhave

rabat

ave sabh·dukh jave

yah

phan

Cishq allah kahave

dohrah

kasufi resUfi kasu?) milUfi; kasofi laUfi

Citt

nain tiharI cah kiln; vahI bairI vahI mit

176



26 [20]

1

He

who has [experienced] n r tajallI,80

How does anyone understand his state?

All shame and modesty are washed away from him,

And those [qualities] that were not

[in him], they, too

are

now present.

2

Sometimes

he finds [the Beloved] and sometimes he loses

Him;

The

[states of] q a b ~ ~ n and bast

82

occur in this way

Sometimes he laughs, and sometimes he cries,

And

sometimes he sleeps in the embrace of the Beloved.

3

When he reaches the state of

u s h h d ~ 83

Then he finds the Beloved in everything.

Whatever he looks at, from there appears the Beloved;

Just as the bumblebee and the flowers are entangled.

4

All

other

and otherness is removed,

And he likes everything,

bad

and good;

Tranquility descends and all affliction disappears.

This, then,

is

called love

of

God.

dohrah

With whom should I get annoyed, whom should I meet [?]

and

whom should I remember?

To the eyes [intoxicated] with desire for you, he who is the

enemy

is

also the friend.

8O

n

iiI tajalli - see note 69. . .

8 q a b ~ - compression; refers to the spiritual state

of

intense despair

commonly known as the dark night

of

the soul.

82bast - expansion; refers

to

the spiritual state of joy and widening

of

the

heart which may often inspire the mystic to write ecstatic poetry.

83

mus

hahada - see note

60 .

177



27 [21]

1

mutakhalliq ko bal jab ave

Cajab Cajaib

balat

pave

kabahon apas men hari pave

kabahon hari mon < Iole < Iolave

2

jako

bal

na

bujho jave

takI bat

kahln ban

ave

qurb-i navafil chin kahalave

chin

men

qurb-i* farai?: pave

3

jo

ton ulat baqq ho

jave

apas

kiin gafil

bhin pave

bl yasmacu *

jab

Cit

men

ave

qurb-i * navafil

tab

kahalave

4

jo apas

kiin

alat jane

facil baq mutlaq*

pahacane

rna

ra:laito

kogyan

bakhane

qurb-i * faral?: to it thane

dohrah

piy[ u]

kon

< Ihon< Ihan

haun

call ; piy[ u]

hai

sabahin

mafth .

khan paraghat khan gupat hai;. yah piya kaisen pafth

178



27

[21]

1

When

he

comes to the state

of

rnutakhalli

q

84

He

attains a strange and wondrous condition

. Sometimes he finds

God

[bari] in himself.

Sometimes in

God

[bari] he swings to and fro.

2

He

whose state cannot

be

understood,

How

is

it possible to·talk about him?

One moment

he is

said to be in the qurb-i navafil,85

And the [next] moment he acquires the qurb-i

a r ~ 8 6

3

When you have returned [once again] to Reality,

Then you

are

heedless even

of

yourself,

When

the words bI

yasrnaCu87

come to mind,

Then

[that state]

is

called qurb-i navafil.

4

He who knows himself to

be

an instrument [of God],

And

recognizes

the

doer to

be

Absolute God, Reality,

And

speaks the knowledge of rna ra

J

aitu

88

Then

that

stage is called qurb-i

f r ~

dohrah

I

went searching for the Beloved [but]

He

is in everything.

How does one find the Beloved, who

is

sometimes evident

and sometimes concealed?

84

mu

takhalliq - state

of

being changed and molded by divine qualities;

an allusion to the alleged \tad1§ Qualify yourself with the qualities of God. .

85qurb-i navifil - proximity to God brought about by supererogative

works, connected with sainthood.

86

qurb-i

f r ~

- proximity to God reached by the punctual fulfillment

of

religious duties, connected with prophethood.

87bi yasma'U - he hears through Me; a phrase from one of the variants

of

the an-navaftl according to which a worshiper, through works

of

devotion, draws closer to God until

He

becomes the eye by which he sees and

the ear by which he hears.

88ma ra'ai u - 1 did not see; the first part of an old Sufi saying describing

the state of the advanced mystic:

I

did not see anything except that God was

before, after,

in

and with it.

179



8

bal baqIqat ko

jab

ave

apas

kon tab

mnl uthave

ape

ap niranjan pave

cain muvabbid[i]yat kahalave

2

jab

taubid

ilahI ave

cain gain

tab uth

kar jave

apas kiln

jab

jalva * pave

mulbid * kafir nam [kahave]

3

suiidar

kera

bal

na

jane

bUrT bhalI sabh jagat bakhane

kahn kilii vah Cit n[a] ane

sabh

jalva* us [kera]

jane

4

ana:>l baq vah

t

hIn

bhakhe

jab laiat a ~ o r kr

cakhe

jo kar ~

maratib

rakhe

laj sukac sabh kul

kr

rakhe

dohrah

jab

dekhe

sabh

ap

kon;

anr

na

pave koy

kah na bhakhe ana:>l baq cain niraiijan hoy

180



28

1

When he comes to the state of baqrqat

Then from

within

himself he removes

the

root [of

selfhood].

Spontaneously he finds God [nirafijan].

[This state] is called the essence of being a true monothe

ist.

2

When [the state of] attestation of divine unity comes,

Then

cain

and

g in

disappear

[Le.,

differentiation].89

When he acquires [divine] manifestation within hiinself,

Then

he is called a heretic and unbeliever

[by

the people].

3

[N 0 one] understands the state. of [such

a]

person,

He

describes the world as [neither] good [nor] bad

[?]

..

He does not think of anything,

[Without] knowing everything to be His manifestation.

He

utters the words

ana >l

b

aqq

90

here [at this stage],

When he has tasted the delights of a ~ u r

f

he keeps the [proper] etiquette of [spiritual] ranks,

Then he preserves the honor and dignity of all the family.

dohrah

When he sees everything in hiinself and does not find any

thing else,

[Then] why should he

not

utter ana >} baqq, [for] he has

become [one with] the essence of God [niraiijan].

89cain gain - as

the

Arabic letters cain e.) and gain i ) , similar but

slightly different.

ana

1 .

I;taqq

- I am the Absolute Reality Truth); usually interpreted as

I

am God ; claim made by the famous Sufi l:Iusain ibn MaIl$Ur al-l:Iallaj

executed in Baghdad, A.D. 922); allusion to his death on the gallows, poem

29, quatrain 1.

181



29

[23]9

1

mil mullan dur kaje aven

likh fatva * muftI*

pe

javen

istifsar* kar shahr milaven

sundar ko pe

d r

ca.rhaven

2

sabh durijan mulla mil aven

kaiikar patthar jo

kaChl

paven

barachI j m dh r

tIr calaven

bairI hoe sabh maran aven

3

l aif jo vako l}al n paven

mullan danishmand * kahaven

jis danish ten bojh n paven

aise danish dhol milaven

4

jo is marag ke

sax

n jape

so kyon

l al ter

pahacane

l al ter tohin pon ?) j ne

kya j ne mullan mullane

dohrah

pemIn

j ne

pem

kil:ii;

ur n

jane koy

mllrakh log n janahin; pem s i kya hoy

91The sequence of lines in the fIrst and second Caupais varies among the

texts.

82



29

[23]

1

The

mullas

92

come together for a wicked purpose,

[In order to have]

afatva

93

written, they go the muftI.94

They assemble

the

town for

the

inquisition,

nd they make the beautiful

one

climb the gallows.

2

All

the

wicked

people and

mull as come together,

With pebbles, stones or whatever they

can

find,

They

fling spears, daggers

and

arrows;

Becoming enemies, they all come to kill him.

3

Alas for those who have not attained this state,

nd call themselves mullas and scholars

·The learning through whiCh [true] knowledge [of God] is

not acquired,

Such learning should be tossed out in

the

dust

4

He

who does not understand

the

essence of this path,

How can he

understand your state?

Only you understand your state fully.

What does the mulla and his wife know?

dohrah

Only the lover knows [about] love; no

one

else understand

it.

Ignorant

people

are absolutely

unaware of the

essence

of

love. -

92mulli - master, lord; title of theological scholars, often used in a

pejorative sense to denote fossilized jurisconsultants who cling to the letter of

the religious law without knowing its spirit.

93fatvi- formal legal opinion, pronounced

by

a lawyer (mufti) trained

in

shaifa law

in

answering a problem posed before him

by

either a

~

or a

private person and usually dealing with personal status

law.

94m

ufti

an expert in shaffa law who gives public decisions (fatvi) in

cases of law and conscience.

183



30

[24]

morakh jIV ke

j ne

nahifi

vako b al pahacane nahifi

d[I]b disht* leofi aye n[a]hifi

aur kahefi to mane n[a]hifi

2

Iftha na p[u]Che

m l

bap[a]

shah ?) blljhe apas leofi ap[a]

[ ]

{

pe

mullafi ape qa?I

ape bid h ap namazI

sabh jag dekhofi piya

kI

bar

Z]I

khele ape ap piya[

Z]I

4

pe

saln bah[

u]

ghan yara

ap nirafijan

p r m p r

sabh

SOfi

ap sabahin

ten

nyara

do jag

mon

piya

[kIyu] p s r

dohrah

kahifi sundar kahifi nainaha; kahifi raja kahifi jog

kahifi mahrI* kahifi piirakh hai; ape karata bhog

184



3

[24]

1

The

ignorant ones

are

those who do not know,

They do not understand his state.

They have not come to [the state of] divine vision,

nd

if [one] explains they do not believe.

2

Here

he

does

notask

mother

or

father [?]

He knows the Lord [shah] from within himself [?]

[ ]

[ ]

3

He Himself is the mulla and

He

Himself is the

q ~ I ; 9

He Himself is bidaha

96

and

the

person performing

the

prayer

[namazI];

See the entire world as the play of the Beloved;

The Beloved Himself is at play.

4

He Himself

is

the

Lord, unfathomable and mysterious,

He is

God

[nirafijan] infinite.

Everything is

from

Him and [yet] He is so different from

all.

How the

Beloved pervades

the

two worlds

dohrah

Sometimes

He is

the beautiful

one and

sometimes the

eyes;

sometimes

He is the King and sometimes

the

yogi,

Sometimes He is woman

and

sometimes man; He Himself

causes the illusions.'

95

qaz a judge administering sharra

law;

see also note 82.

96bidahii - arranger, disposer, maker, creator; an epithet of God.

185



3

[25]

pe m re p jilave

pe dukh ati sukh dikhalave

pon

p p sabh p karave

pe n r k sarag Ie jave

2

pe

hai

jo

koT

j ne

bur bh l

do:>o

n m b kh ne

maya

k re t b

yah budh

ne

p khoe sabh piya

kunj ne

3

maya k ro birahT ke s en

to d r cha:rh

k ho

kit j en

mon

gh t

menl t k nd

aefi

gh t

ten hoe p r gh t dikhalaen

4

ek

alakh lakh

b h n ~

kahaya

s bh sm · t b j lv ·

paya

kahifi jalal

j m l

ho aya

k hin

b d l hadT

kahalaya

dohr h

piya

l t k t

lat

ch t

re;

bikh r

gae sabh

b l

kahifi ?;ahir b ~ i n kahin; kahin jalal j m l

86



31

[25]

e Himself kills and resurrects;

e Himself shows affliction and much happiness;

e causes [one] to do all good and bad actions;

e Himself leads to hell and heaven.

2

e

Himself

is

the one whom only a

few

know;

e

is

described by both good and bad attributes;

This understanding comes only if

e

is

benificent;

After losing one's self, one knows everything to be

[of]

the

Beloved.

3

Be kind, 0 Lord of this birahI 97

Tell

[us]

where else do we

go

if we abandon your door?

Come full of coquetry into my heart,

And from the heart show Yourself manifest.

4

e was called the imperceptible one with a hundred thou

sand forms;

Then all the asma

98

became manifest,

Sometimes e appeared as

jalal

99

and

sometimes

as

jamal,lOO

Sometimes e changed and was called the Guide [hadr].

dohrah

Beloved stop this [unreliable] coquetry for I am in great

perplexity.

Sometimes You are Apparent

[ ~ a h i r ]

sometimes Hidden

[batin], sometimes Majesty [jalal] and

sometimes

Beauty [jamal].

97birahi -

see note

23.

98

asma - plural

of ism, names; used to refer to the ninety-nine names or

epithets of pod (i.e., the

asma

al-I;tusna as mentioned

in

the

Qur: an .

9 9 ~ a l a J - Divine Majesty, the mysterium tremendum.

1 jamaJ. - Divine Beauty, the mysterium fascinans.

187



32

[26]

1

carif kr jab sudh budh pave

phiruii phir kar shara

c

mefl ave

dhyan gyan lokan batalave

guru

saflca ho b t dikhave

b i f ~

maratib kofl jab rakhe

carif kr tab

l tt t

cakhe

aise vaise b t n bhakhe

~ a b i t

qadam shara

c

mefl rakhe

3

jab tamkIn ilahT hove

shan mashaikh

kr

sabh khove

baith nirafljanapana seve

sabh kufl

f a i ~

baqIqI deve

4

apas tefljab

m u ~ l a q

jave

bin apas

kOI

aur

n

pave

ap nirafljan hoke jave

s bbj g

~ h a r apna pave

dohrah

ap gaflvae jo piya mile; carif kahiye tab

thakur apas bojh ke; das dikhave ah

88



32

[26]

1

When he

has acquired the knowledge and understanding

of an

cariflOl

Then

he turns and returns to the divine law

[sharC]

He

instructs the

people

regarding meditation and knowl

edge,

nd

becorriing a true

Guru

he shows [others] the path.

2

When

he maintains the [proper] etiquette of ranks,

Then

he tastes the delights of

an carif.

He

does not talk in a frivolous manner,

nd

maintains a firm o o ~ i n g within the divine law [sharC]

3

When

he

is

firmly grounded in God.

Then he

loses all the glory

of

the shaikhs .

Sitting,

he

worships his Lord [niraftjan],

Bestowing divine grace

on

all.

4

When

from himself he proceeds to

God

[mutlaq],

102

Then except for himself, he does not find anyone.

Having become

God

[nirafijan],

He

finds all creation to

be

his own manifestation.

dohrah

When he

has lost himself,

he

finds the Beloved; then he

is

called a gnostic

[carif]. .

Inwardly knowing himself to be the Lord, he appears [out

wardly] as the slave.

101

c

lirif -

gnostic,

one

endowed with gnosis (macrifah); used in later

Sufism to refer to the advanced mystic.

102muf)aq - absolute, entire, universal; unconditional; unrestricted; an

epithet of God.

189



33 [27]

1

carif bPllah tab kahalave

jap tap kar jab ap ganvave

fanI thIfi baqI ho jave

bojh niranjan das kahave

2

b i f ~

maratib ko tab rakhe

jab laZat cirafan

kI

cakhe

(panI?) jane (ola?) bhakhe

matI ko nanv jo (basan?) rakhe

3

daulat subabanI jab pave

apas ko tab mol ganvave

ape apas kun phir pave

bayazId ho bat dikhave

4

carif bPllah tab ton hove

apas kun

j b

mutlaq * khove

vabdat* k a ~ r a t

it

ten dhove

fanI ten baqI bhin hove

dohrah

vabdat*

k ~ r a t

sabh gae; ghat ghat raho samay

acaraj dekho e sakhI; thakur das kahay

190



33

[27]

He is

called

an carif

bPllah,103

When

after meditation and austerity he has lost himself.

From [the state of] being mortal,

he

becomes baqI,104

And

he is

known as

one

who has followed the

path

of

the

Bl1jh Niraiijan.

2

He observes the [proper] etiquette

of

ranks,

When

he has tasted the delights

of

gnosis

[cirfan]

[meaning not clear]

[meaning not clear]

3

When he

acquires the good fortune of subl).anI

105

Then he

has lost from within the roots [of selfhood]

Spontaneously, within himself, he finds [his real self] again,

And

becoming a Bayazrd

106

he

shows [others] the path.

4

You

become an carif bPllah,

When

within yourself you are lost in

the

Absolute

[mut

laq].

Unity and plurality are washed away from the mind,

And

from [the

state

of] being mortal, you become immor

tal.

dohrah

Unity

and

plurality have all disappeared; He

is

contained

in every heart.

a

friend, consider this marvel: the Lord

is

called a slave

· 1 0 3 c a r i f b i ~ - one endowed with knowledge (macrifa) of God.

l04baqI baqa

- remaining in God after annihilation of the human

personality; the eternal life. .

s

su

bbani - an abbreviated form of the phrase subbani ma ~ shanI

(Praise be to me, how great is my majesty ); the ecstatic ut.terance of the Sufi

BayazId BistamI (d. 874) when he felt completely annihilated in God.

l06S

ee

note

94

.

191



34

[28]

jab tuft cain shIn meft jave

l .al

tajallI barqI ave

apas kilft

t

mul na pave

cain niraftjan ho kar jave

2

gair kahe

p r

gair na jane

das kahae allahpahacane

aisa hai taisa kar jane

jyun. kar hai tyUft hI kar mane

3

dIn d[u]nI aur ~ l a m a t nur[a]

dozakh bihisht l .ur q u ~ u r a ]

sabh asma ko bhayo ~ h u r a ]

ta meft ape ap gafur[a]

4

h[u]a nuzol curuj tamam[a]

jako bujh niraftjan nam[a]

shaharag teft nere hai ram[a]

bujh niraftjan karo kach[u] kam[a]

dohrah

pemIfl ghat hari base; harI mOrat pahacan

jahaft jaisa paraghat bhaya; tahaft taisa kar

j n

192



34

[28]

1

When you come to [the state] of cain

shIn 107

Then the state

of

manifestation [tajallI] flashes.

You do not find within yourself the

root

[of your

former

self],

[For] you have become

the

essence·of

God

[niraiijan].

2

You call Him other but no longer know him as other,

You

are

called a slave but you know God,

You know Him as

He

is, .

You believe in Him as He exists.

3

Religion and

the

world; darkness

and

light;

Hell and heaven; bfirIS

108

and palaces.

All the [divine] names have become manifest;

In them is the Forgiver Himself.

4

[This

work

of] nuzi1l

109

and

curojll0 is

complete,

Whose name

is

the Bujb Niraiijan.

God [ram]· is closer than the jugular vein,ll1

[So] act

upon

[the teachings of] the Bujh Niranjan.

dohrah

God

[bari] dwells

in

the

heart

of every lover; recognize

God's form.

In whatever manner He has

become

manifest, know Him

in that manner.

l07cain shin

- probably an abbreviation

of

the Arabic Cishq (love),

composed of the letters cain

shin

and

qat

l08l;tUri.- virgin

or

virgins of Paradise mentioned in the Qur'lan.

l09

n

uziU

see note 15.

110curuj

-

see note

16.

11

IAn allusion to the Qur'lanic Sura 50/16, according to which God is

nearer to a human being than the jugl,llar vein in the neck.

193



APPENDIX

A

VERSES

OCCURRING ONLY IN THE

ISMAlll VERSION

Since the Ismaili texts of the Bujb Niraiijan used in this study

differ among themselves with regard to the degree of corrup

tion

and

editing, some of these verses may not occur in all the

texts. The texts

in

which

each

verse occurs are, therefore,

n o ~ e

in parentheses. Again in view of the minor variations

n

readings

among the

texts,

the

readings

transcribed

here

are

those of the text G-l. Note: K-2, G-I are texts edited by LaljI

Devraj

at the

beginning our

our

century.

There

is

considerable

textual evidence to indicate that K-5 and

KG

have been copied

from the LaljI Devraj editions.

Poem 5, quatrain 2

hun

tun

nikal kar

jame

kahIye K-I, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5,

KG,

G-I,

G-2)

Poem 8 quatrain 3

bin guru vednafl

ten

nan jave

Poem 8 quatrain 4

je

guru thI jo vednan jave

Po.em 9, dohrah

jis guru kun satgur kahun

Poem

10

quatrain

2

sabh jug

he gunl

vake

cen

sho seve

bhed

niranjan bherI

Poem 10, dohrah

vohI

he

sab ghat maho

Poem

13,

quatrain

1

phIr voh rah khudakI pave

Poem 13,

quatrain

4

jo bhajan

kar

hit ap gamave

195

K-I, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5,

KG,

G-I,G-2)

K-I

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-I,

G-2)

K-I, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5,

KG, G-I, G-2)

.

K-I

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-I,

G-2)

K-I

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG, G-I, G-2)

K-I

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-I,

G-2)

K-l

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-l)

K-l

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG G-l

·G-2)



to piya sun mishrl dudh mil jave

Poem 15, quatrain

3

ninda kharab hay so nahl karaJ)a

nifida karaJ).se munIvrat dharaI).a

ninda kIese

jae dharam

upajase sarve shir par karam

Poem 15, quatrain 4

nifida thae tyan besavufi nahi

nifida kan sufi sUJ).vr nahr

ek ilahr sab mefi dekhe

bhala bura kuchu nahr pekhe

Poem 18, quatrain 2

kaha karat haye

mann

jonafi fera

SUI)I nasihat karde ghaJ)e ghaJ)era

Poem

24, quatrain 2

na

is mai na Is bap

huwa nirafijan apohI ap

Poem

26, quatrain 4

buj nIrafijan ayesa hove

Poem 29,

quatrain

2

ayasa murkh tufi kyun kar hove

Poem 32,

quatrain

3

milufi usrke

nur

sangat

phir dushare ka nav zalufi hath

Poem

33,

quatrain

4

dil ke afidar

d ~ f i

utarr

sajan

tum par

jaufi balrharr

196

K-1, K-2, K-3, K-4, K-5,

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-2,

K-5,

KG, G-1)

K-2,

K-5,

KG, G-1)

K-2, K-5,

KG,

G-l)

K-2, K-5, KG, G-1)

K-2, K-5, KG, G-l)

K-2, K-5, KG, G-l)

K-l, K-2, K-5, KG, G-l,

G-2)

K-l, K-2, K-5, KG, G-l,

G-2)

K-l

K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-l K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG, G-1, G-2)

K-l,

K-2, K-3, K-4, K-S,

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-l K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG, G-l, G-2)

~ l FC-2 K-3 K-4 K-S

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-l K-2 K-3 K-4 K-5

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-2,

K-5,

KG,

G-l,

G-2)

K-2 K-5 KG G-l G-2)

K-2,

K-S,

G-l, G-2)

K-2, K-5,

G-l,

G-2)



APPENDIXB

VERSES OCCURRING ONLY IN THE SUFI VERSION

(INDIA OFFICE MANUSCRIYI)

Note: The Ismaili text G-2, which has been based partially on

the

India

Office manuscript, includes some of these verses.

One of the verses listed below (from poem 20 quatrain 3) also

occurs in two KhojkI manuscripts, K J and K-4,

but

is not

found in any other Ismaili text.

Poem 2, quatrain 1

a1)adIyat ko kaha bakhanon

sabh sifaton ten nyara janon

Poem 2 quatrain 3

kya nyare sabh ten sun sahiye

kya sabh son paraghat lahiye

Poem 3 dohrah

ek alakh lakh bhekh dhar; tribhuvan raho samay

sabh

men

paraghat ho[i] raho; ya ten lakho na jay

Poem 5, quatrain 2

to men guru ke (yamen?) kahiye

Poem 8 quatrain 4

parbat mahin and(I/ e) dev(I/ e)

lakh kos hoe and(I/e) sev(I/ e)

Poem 9 dohrah

Cain Cain

jis [ko] kahon

Poem 10 dohrah (1)

jaise bhanjafl hot nIr son; bhariyo na bond samay

pItam ham misarI [ho] mile; chalak na bahar jay

Poem

10

dohrah (2)

vahI vahI hai ah

Poem

12

quatrain 1

rah sharrcat ka sun pyare

jo ton khodI takabur mare

man manore apne jare

to ton jite kabah[u]n na hare

Poem

12

quatrain 2

pahlen

iat

ilahr manon

bura bhala sabh va ten janon

197



pache

nabT

nlubammad manon

car yar tabqTq pachanoIi

oem

12,·

quatrain 3

kalamaft laiyib kaho ghanera

ek bar kar makke phera

de

zakat

aur

khair ghanera

duniya dIn hove sabh

tera

oem 12,

quatrain 4

alkas chore sustI mare

uth kar

~ t a v 3 . ~

dhare

panco vaqt namaz guzare

tab tOft dIn damaman mare

oem 12,

dohrah

tIsoft rakho paftc guz[a]ro; kalamaft kaho rasol

diyo zakat aur bajj karo; dargah par ho qabol

oem 15,

quatrain 1

ut ten [cahan?] phir it aven [occurs in G-2]

oem 17 quatrain 1

vake

Cit

meft thor

na

pave [occurs in G-2]

oem

18 quatrain 3

pache paftv na kabahofi lage

in lokaft ten mrig jyoft bhage

oem

20 quatrain 3

apane ruthe lal manaoft [occurs in K-3 K-4]

Ie sajan kaft kaftth Iagaoft

oem

21 quatrain 3

bar qal apana sabh khove [occurs in G-2]

nisadin jhur jhur piftjar hove [occurs inG-2]

aise pare to talib hove [occurs in G-2]

oem 21 quatrain 4

nisadin birahijyaft vah[a]eft kate [occurs in G-2]

ma[i] pot Tiiha sabh chute [occurs in G-2]

oem 21 dohrah

chat

pare

jaftjal teft [occurs in G-2]

oem

22 quatrain 3 .

tuka:re maftge jis ke ageft

yar bha[i] sabh to sUft bhageft

oem

23

quatrain 4

bhal gae yah ghar kI

narT

198



kahan rahen duhun saso sarI

Poem

32, quatrain 4

bin apas

kOT

aur na pave

Poem 33, quatrain 3

daulat subal .anr jab pave

apas ko tab mol ganvave

The Inoia Office manuscript has

the

following additional

verses after the dohrah of poem 34. The first four lines are in

the caupar meter; however, lines 1 and 2 do not rhyme with

lines 3 and 4 The next four lines occur under the heading

dohrah

but

the

first two lines

do

not

follow

the metrical

pattern required for dohrahs.

nan tis mal nan jis bap[a]

sol kahiye ape ap[a]

kare

nuZCil

curoj d i ~ v e

apeap apas kon pave

ap dikhave apana ap hln dekhat jay

jahaft dekhe tahan ap

Iron

aur na bIe samay

pemIfi

pem na

paiye bin kirpa kirpal

bat

bakhane kya bhayo nek na hoe jarjal

199



GLOSSARY

Note: The words in this glossary are alphabetized according to

the

Roman

alphabet. Short vowels of a kind precede long

vowels of the same kind - i.e.,

a

, u. The initial Roman

letter

of

the name of the language to which a word belongs

is

placed

in parenthesis after

the

word. Thus A stands for

Arabic; H for Hindustani/Hindi; P for Persian; S for Sanskrit.

Works consulted for some of the definitions include: Marshall

Hodgson, Venture of Islam

2

vols.; Chicago: Chicago Univer

sity Press, 1974); K. S. Khaja Khan, Studies in Tasawwuf

(reprint ed., Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1978);

John T.

Platts, A Dictionary

of Urdu,

Classical Hin dI

and

English

(reprint ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974); Anne

marie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill;

University

of North Carolina Press, 1975); Annemarie

Schimmel, Islam in the

Indian

Subcontinent, Zweite Abt.,

Vierter Band, Dritter Abschnitt, Handbuch der Orientalistik,

ed. J. Gonda (Leiden-Koln: E. J. Brill, 1980).

aguva (H)

al)adIyat (A)

al)kartl (A)

Cain

(A)

Cain Ciyan

(A)

Cain gain

Cain shIn (A)

guide, leader, conductor.

literally, unity; singularity; used in Sufism

to refer to the

absolute,

transcendent

divine essence, free from any qualification.

literally, orders, commands; used here to

refer to the injunctions and ordinances of

Islam.

the

very essence

of

a thing);

the

thing

itself, the letter cain (the fourteenth of the

Arabic and the twenty-fourth of the Urdu

alphabet).

manifest in the essence.

as the Arabic letters cain

f)

and gain f),

similar but slightly different.

probably

an abbreviation of

the Arabic

201



1.sbq

(love), composed of the letters cain,

shIn, and

qaf.

alakh

H)

unseen; invisible; without shape or form;

an epithet of God.

amar

nIr

(S) the water of immortality; see ab-i bayat

ana:)l baqq (A) I am the Absolute Reality (Truth),

usually interpreted as I am God ; claim

made by the famous Sufi I:Iusain ibn

a n ~ i l r

al-Hallaj (executed, 922).

aparam para (S) boundless, infinite; an epithet of God.

arkan (A) pillars; used here to refer to the five pillars

of Islam; i.e., the shahada or profession

of

faith, salat or ritual prayer, zakat or alms,

saUID,roza

or

fasting

and

bajj

or

the

pilgrimage to Mecca.

carsh (A) the highest and ninth sphere where the

throne of God is found; the Divine Throne.

arvab (A) plural of rlli), souls, spirits.

asma (A) plural. of ism, names; used to refer to the

ninety-nine names or epithets of God, i.e.,

the asma al-1}.usna

as

mentioned

in the

Qur:)an.

avagun (S/H)

ab-i bayat (P)

cabid (A)

calam-i gaib

defect, blemish, fault, evil, vice

water of life; associated in Islamic folk-lore

with the prophet-saint Khi+r who is said to

have discovered the

fountain of

life

in

darkness and become immortal by drinking

of it

worshipper, servant (of God).

the hidden or the unseen world; the world

202



A/P)

ealam-i rni§al

A/P)

ealam-i shahadat

A/P)

earif A)

earif bil-Iah A)

bast A)

baqI/baqa A)

bat

H)

batin A)

Bayazld

bhafit H)

bidaha

H)

bihist P)

of spirits.

the

world of imagination, or symbols, of

spiritual

values

or

ideas

that are

to

be

realized in this world.

the visible world or the world

of

senses.

gnostic, one endowed with gnosis [maCrlfa];

used

in later Sufism to refer to the

advanced mystic.

one endowed with knowledge maCflfa) of

God.

expansion; refers to

the

spiritualstate

of

joy and

widening

of

the

heart that

may

often

inspire

the

mystic

to

write ecstatic

poetry.

remaining

in God

after

annihilation;

the

etemallife.

way

road, path, track.

the inner, hidden, or esoteric.

Tayfur ibn elsa Bayazld BistamI d. 874),

an important

personality

in the

early his

tory of Sufism. See subbanI.

way,

manner,

form,

mode;

variety, kind.

bhafit bhafit: various kinds,

various,

diverse,

of

many kinds or sorts

..

arranger, disposer, maker, creator; an epi

thet of God.

the abode of the blessed, paradise; heaven.

2 3



birah (H)

birahi r)

H)

br yasmaCu A)

bajh (H)

car kitab

PIA)

car mazhab

PIA)

car yar (P)

cerI

(H)

Cit t) H)

Citvan (H)

darsanldarshan

HIS)

dhani (H)

<;lholan (H)

dhyan S)

separation, parting, absence (particularly

of

lovers).

a

woman

suffering

the

pangs

of

separation

from a beloved

one;a woman

who is love

sick.

he

hears through Me ; a phrase from one

of

the variants on the

l . a d ~

an-navafil.

perception, comprehension, understand-

ing; intelligence; knowledge.

the

four books or scriptures revealed

by

God,

i.e., the

Taurah

to Moses,

the Zabur

to David,

the

Injil

to

Jesus,

and the Qur >an

to

Mul).ammad.

the four religions that possess

the

four

divinely

revealed

scriptures;

the

four

legal

schools within Islam, i.e., Hanafr, Shaficr,

Malikr

and

Hanbalr.

the four friends;

refers

to the four

suc-

cessors

of

the

Prophet

Mul)ammad, i.e.,

Aba

Bakr, cUmar,

O ~ m a n and CAlI

a slave-girl.

the

reasoning

faculty; the mind; the intel

lect.

sight, look, glance;

appearance,

aspect.

sight, vision, perception; used here to refer

to

the

experience

of

spiritual

vision

or

in

sight.

woman.

a lover, sweetheart; a friend.

meditation, contemplation, especially the

204



dib disht H)

dozakh P)

dalah nabI rasal

H/A)

danI H)

fai? A)

faiya? A)

faqIr A)

fatva A)

fanI/fana A)

gair A)

gairIyat

AlP)

profound and

abstract

consideration that

brings objects fully and

undisturbedly

before the mind.

divine vision; derived from dey drishtI.

hell. .

the bridegroom Prophet;

an

epithet

of

the

Prophet Mul)ammad, especially in Sufi lit-

erature in the Indian vernaculars.

the present

world

the present life; the

good things of this lie, wealth, riches; a

corruption of the Arabic dunya.

. overflowing abundance; beneficence

favor, grace; used in later Sufism to refer to

divine emanation.

most bountiful, munificent, beneficent; an

epithet of God.

poor; general name for the Sufi; in later

times often used in a pejorative sense.

formal

legal

opinion

pronounced

by a

lawyer [muftI]

trained

in sharIca

law in

answering a problem posed before

him

either by a q ~ t or a

private

person and

usually dealing with personal status law.

annihilation; used among Sufis to

denote

the stage

of the

passing away

of

personal

consciousness.

other, another; different; altered. See also

gairIyat.

being of a different sort; limited; used to

2 5



ghat (S)

gun (S)

gunah

P)

gur/guru (S)

gusaiyefl/ gusalfl

(H)

gyan (H/S)

h a d ~ an-navafil

(A)

baqlqa(t) (A)

hari (H)

hadr (A)

hif?; i maratib

A/P)

refer

to

the

worship

of God

in His lim

ited aspect.

the mind, he,art, soul; the body.

a

quality, property, attribute; a good

quality, excellence, merit, virtue.

fault,

offense, crime,

sin;

guilt;

vice,

iniquity.

a spiritual guide

or

preceptor

who

is

able

to lead disciples

on

the mystical way; used

here to refer 'to the Sufi shaikh

or pIT.

the master

or possessor of cows or of

herds;

an

epithet of God, Krishna.

knowledge, understanding, intelligence,

apprehension.

the popular

h a d ~

qudsI according to which

God

says: My servant ceases not to draw

nigh unto me by works of devotion until I

love him, and when I love him I am the eye

by which he sees and

the

ear by which he

hears. And when he approaches a span I

approach

a

cubit,

and when

he comes

walking

I

come' running.

reality; the first stage on the mystical

path

arlqa(t) , which is

founded on the

sha.nca(t), the Divine Law.

an epithet

of God;

used

in the

Hindu

tra

dition to

refer

to Vishnu and his incarna

tions.

a guide, director, leader; a spiritual guide.

attention

to spiritual degrees

or

ranks (of

persons), observing etiquette.

206



bur

(A)

Cirfan (A)

jagat pati S/H)

jalal (A)

jalva (A)

jamal (A)

jap tap

(S)

jama

C

jamJC ~ i f t

(A)

kalamafi/

kalma h)/

kalima A)

k ~ r t (A)

kafir (A)

khadim (A)

khudI (P)

la

ilaha

illa=>llah

(A)

(originally plural, in P also used as singu-

lar)

virgins or a

virgin of

Paradise

men-

tioned in

the

Qu{)an.

gnosis.

lord

of

the universe;

an

epithet of God.

Divine Majesty; the mysterium tre-

mendum.

manifestation of Divine Reality.

Divine Beauty;

the

mysterium fascinans

devotion, adoration, worship.

the comprehensive container of divine)

attributes; an epithet

for

the

Perfect Man

in Sufism.

word,

speech,

saying;

the

profession

of

faith in Islam.

plurality.

ungrateful;

term

used to refer to

an

infidel.

a servant.

selfhood; in

traditional

Sufism a negative

concept.

Later used

by

Iqbal in

a positive

sense in reference

to

the

development

of

the

individual s essence to its utmost limits.

There is

no

god

but

God; first part of the

Muslim

profession

of

faith. This negative

and

positive assertion is used especially by

the Qadirls during zikr

207



la taCaiyun (S)

lalan S)

lalI pana (P

/H)

mag, marag (H)

majnl1n lailI

A/P)

malamat

S)

man (H)

man lahu:ll

maula falahu:ll

kull (A)

manI manore

(H)

M a ~ l r

(A)

mar mar jiye

(H)

maCrifa(t) (A)

masI ) (A)

without specification; used in Sufism to

refer

to

the

Divine Essence free from all

attributes.

beloved, sweetheart.

to acquire

redness,

i.e., a good name,

reputation, honor.

path, road, way; method; doctrine, creed,

belief.

pair of celebrated lovers of Islamic folk

lore.

blame, self-reproach.

the mind; the heart; soul, spirit.

an alleged

b ~

meaning,

He

who has his

Lord, has everything.

selfish or presumptuous desires.

I:Iusain ibn M a n ~ l r al-Hallaj (executed in

922),

famous

for his claim a n a ~ l

baqq.

Later Sufis regarded this phrase as expres

sion of the existential unity

of

man and

God while others blamed al-Hallaj for hav

ing divulged the secret of divine union.

living after dying; rendering into Hindu

stani of the alleged saying attributed to the

Prophet, Die before ye die.

gnosis;

according

to

some

Sufis

the

last

stage on the mysticalpath.

messiah;

an epithet

associated

with

Prophet elsa (Jesus).

208



r n a ~ h a r (A)

rna ra:)aitu (A)

mal put (H)

maya (S)

muftI (A)

mujahada(h)

(A)

mull 1id (A)

mulla AlP)

murshid (A)

mushahada(h)

(A)

mutakhalliq (A)

locus of Divine Manifestation.

I did·

not

see; a

phrase

from

an

old

Sufi

saying describing the state of the advanced

mystic:

I

did not see anything except that

God was before it; I did not see anything

except that God was after it; I did

not

see

anything except that God was in it; I did

not see anything except that God was with

it.

a son of a mother; used here in the sense

of

a human being.

illusion; delusion; an illusory image; the

external world considered as a mere illu-

sion without reality.

an

expert in the

shanca

who gives public

decisions in cases of law and conscience.

refers

to

the state of

striving,

fighting

against the desires of the lower self

or

nafs.

one

who deviates

or

departs from the true

faith; a heretic. .

master, lord; title of theological scholars,

often used in a pejorative sense

to denote

fossilized

jurisconsults

who cling

to

the

letter of the law without knowing its spirit.

guide, spiritual leader.

the state of (direct) vision of the Divine

Reality.

state of being changed and molded by

divine qualities; an allusion to the alleged

1 a d I ~ ,

Qualify yourself with the qualities

209



mUllaq (A)

muval)l)idryat

A/P)

nabr (A)

nafr

i ~ b t

A)

nafs (A)

nafsanIyat A/P)

namaz (P)

narak (S)

nav khan< lh

(H/S)

niranjan (S)

of God.

absolute, entire, universal; unconditional;

unrestricted; an epithet

of

God.

state of being a muvabl)id, or a true

monotheist.

prophet; used here to refer to the Prophet

Mul)ammad.

negation

and

affirmation; used in relation

to the

part

of the profession of

faith,

la

ilaha illaJllah, which denies the existence of

anything other than

God

and then affirms

the existence of the one God.

the lower soul. The QurJan discerns three

types: nafs al-ammara

Sura

12/59),

the

soul

that

incites to evil; nafs al-Iawwama

Sura

75/2) ,

the

blaming soul or

conscience; and the nafs a l - m u ~ a m a : i n n a

Sura

89/27), the soul at peace, which is

called to return to its Lord.

things

associated

with the nafs or

lower

soul, i.e.,

sensual pleasures, pride,

selfishness, etc.

Persian term for the Muslim ritual prayer,

salat.

hell, the place of torment; narak includes a

number of places of torture of various

descriptions, generally said to be twenty

one in number.

the nine divisions

of

the

earth

which

according to Indian thought

constitute

Jambll-dVlp, the central

portion of

the

world,

or

the known world.

1)

nir

aft

jan,

wi

thou

t collyrium,

i.e.,

210



nuzal

A)

nur tajallI (A)

pahar (H)

panOit (S)

paraghat/

praghat (H)

pap. (S)

piya/piya/piyu/

piyu

(H)

pun/pun

(H)

qab? (A)

qurb-i farai?

AlP)

qurb-i navafil

AlP)

unstained,

untinged, unblemished; (2) ni

raft an, void of passion or emotion. Both

epithets of God.

descent; used in

Sufism

to refetto. the

descent of the

Divine Essence,

through

various

limitations,

into the

world of

creation.

manifestation, illumination, mystical

revelation of the Divine Light.

a division of time consisting of eight ghaf S

or three hours, an eighth part of a day, a

watch.

scholar, ·learned or wise man, learned

brahmin; teacher, master, professor.

evident, clear, manifest, apparent.

evil, sin, vice, crime, transgression.

beloved, dear; husband; lover.

good, right, virtue, moral

or

religious merit.

compression; refers to

the

spiritual state of

intense despair

commonly known as the

dark night of the soul.

a judge administering shafICa law.

proximity

to God

reached

by

the

punctual

fulfillment of religious duties,

connected

with prophethood.

proximity to God brought about by super

erogative works,

connected

with saint-

hood. See b a d I ~ an-navafil.

211



riiouJI qudus

A)

riiz-i qiyamat

A/P)

sarag H)

sajan

H)

sat dIp H)

shah/shah P)

shahada h)

A)

shahadat A/P)

shahrag P)

share

sharYCa

t)

A)

siddh S/H)

~ i f t

pI.

~ i f a t

A)

the holy spirit; an

epithet of

the angel

Gabriel.

the day of resurrection.

heaven, the firmament, the

sky.

beloved.

according to some schools

of

Hindu

phi

losophy the world is divided into seven

island-continents: J ambu, Plaksha, Shal

mali, Kusha, Kraunca,

Shaka,

and Push

kara.

king, prince, monarch, lord.

the profession of faith, declaring that there

is

no god but God, and

Muoammad is

His

prophet; identifies

the declarer

as

a

Muslim.

see caIam-i shahadat.

the

chief

artery

or

vein, i.e.,

the jugular

vein; used

here to

allude to Qur:>an SOra

50/16

according to which

God

is closer to

man

than the jugular

e i n .

the whole body of rules, given by Allah, to

guide the life

of

a Muslim, in law, ethics

and

etiquette;

sometimes

called

Divine

Law

or

Canon Law);

first

stage

on

the

mystical path.

an inspired sage,

a

seer; an

ascetic;

an

adept in magical or mystical arts.

quality, property, attribute; attribute of the

Divine Essence iAt). The Divine Essence

is known only from

the

attributes sifat)

212



subl).anrma

a ~ m shanr

(A)

sudh budh (H)

sundar

(i) (S)

sunna(h/t)

(A)

syam

H)

tajallI (A)

takabbur (A)

tarlqa(h/t) (A)

tavajjuh

(A)

t.alib (A)

ull1hlyat (A/P)

umma(h/t)

(A)

without

which

it is unknown and

unknowable.

Praise

be

to

me

how

great

is

my

majesty "; the ecstatic utterance of the Sufi

Bayazld BistamI (d. 874) when he felt com-

pletely annihilated in God.

consciousness and right understanding.

beautiful,

handsome;

good, pure, virtuous;

used here

as

an

epithet

for

the

individual

soul.

received

custom, particularly

that

associ-

ated

with

the

Prophet Mul).ammad.

black, dark blue;

an

epithet

of

Krishna.

manifestation;

see

nfir tajallI.

pride, haughtiness, arrogance.

road, path, or way; mystical

order or

fra-

ternity; second stage

on

the mystical path.

directing,

turning;

countenancing; atten-

tion; strong

concentration

of murshid

[master]

and murld

[disciple]

on each

other.

obedience, submission; devotion.

one

who' seeks, pursues,

or

inquires; a Sufi.

divinity.

any

people

as followers

of a particular

prophet,

especially

the

Muslims as form-

ing

a

community following

the

Prophet

Mul).ammad.

213



Curoj

(A) ascent, ascension; used in Sufism to refer

to

the

ascent of the soul through various

spiritual stages and states until it finally

reaches its home in God.

val)dat (A)

unity;

used in Sufism to refer to the

intermediate stage between A1 .adlyat and

VaQidIyat; the first limitation of the Divine

Essence.

val)idlyat

AlP)

unity; used in Sufism to refer to the third

stage

of

the descent of the Divine Essence

in which it appears as

an

aspect unifying

the difference of the attributes; the Many

identical in essence with each other and

with the One; the second limitation.

vajib f a r ~ (A) the obligatory religious duties, prayer,

fasting, giving alms, etc.

v a ~ a l A/H) from Arabic v ~ l meeting, union ; used

here to refer to the woman-soul who has

been

united with her Divine

Beloved;

complement to birahr.

vu+u

A/P) ablution

performed

before the

Muslim

ritual prayer.

zakat (A) alms tax that a M u s l i ~

is

required to pay;

one of the pillars of the faith.

zahid (A)

one

who shuns

the

world

and

exercises

himself in the acts

of

devotion; a monk,

recluse, hermit.

~ a h i r

(A) the outer, external or exoteric.

~ a h i r cilm (A) external or manifest knowledge; a term

used to refer to the first three stages or two

limitations, i.e.,

Abadlyat,

Vabdat,

VaQidIyat.

214



zat A)

zikr A)

~ l m t A)

the Divine) Essence.

recollection, repetition of the divine names

or religious formulae.

darkpess, regions of darkness; a dark place

where the

w ter of

immortality

is

said to

be.

2 5



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221



Based

on

the author's Ph D . thesis submitted to Harvard

University, this book is

a pioneering study of

an

important

poem from the ginan literature, the devotional literature of

the Ismaili community.

This work will help

fam

iliarize readers Ismailis and

non-Ismailis alike

- with

the deep

re

ligious feelings

expressed

in

the ginans, and with the fascinating inter

action of the

Sufi

and the Ismaili tradition. II will

in

tro

duce them to a spiritual world that deserves to be

studied in detail. The reader will gain new insights into

Documents

The Bujh Niranjan - Indo-Ismaili mystical poem