H-M Synthesis in coastal Tamil Nadu: The Islamic Shrine where Hindus pray

by Guest Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:06 pm

An overwhelming sense of harmony greets the visitor to Hazrat Syed Shahul Hameed Dargah, a 16th century Sufi shrine in coastal Tamil Nadu, India, where Hindus and Muslims worship together with flowers, poetry and music.

https://maptia.com/bijoyv/stories/the-islamic-shrine-where-hindus-pray

by Guest Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:12 pm

This 16th century mausoleum to a Sufi saint sees more Hindus than Muslims flocking to it every day. So it has been for centuries. On this searing hot afternoon, they are filing in slowly and taking their places on the floor for the evening’s worship. By dusk, when the lights come on in the dargah’s minarets and joss smoke fogs up the corridors, there will be space to neither stand nor sit....

It is not my first time in a dargah but the familiarity I feel here is redolent of something else — of being inside a Hindu temple. Flowers and sweets, along with incense and packets of sacred ash, are offered in a basket for worship. At the Rowla Sharif (the sanctum that houses the saint’s grave), the Khalifa — the chief religious authority of the shrine and a blood-descendant of the saint — conducts worship. He asks my name, and the names of my family members, and breathes a prayer for each of them. It doesn’t feel very different from the archana performed at a Hindu temple. Syncretic practices abound here. Devotees worship with flowers, light ghee lamps and tonsure their heads as they might at a Hindu shrine.

In the early 16th century the Sufi saint Shahul Hameed visited Nagore near Nagapattinam, a Dutch-held port-town on the coast of Tamil Nadu not far from the French enclave of Karaikal. Shahul Hameed is believed to be a 13th generation descendant of the revered Sufi saint Hajrath Muhiyudin Abd al-Qadir al-Jalani and a direct 23rd generation descendant of Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Hassan. Born in Pratapgarh (now in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh), he was schooled in Islamic scriptures at Gwalior under the tutelage of Hazrat Mohammad Ghouse, the distinguished Sufi saint who was held in esteem by the Mughal emperors Humayun and Akbar.

After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Shahul Hameed travelled widely, visiting the Maldives and Sri Lanka before dropping anchor in Tamil Nadu. Legend has it that the king of Thanjavur, Achutappa Nayak, was suffering from a mysterious ailment brought on by sorcery. Shahul Hameed discovered the source of the evil spell — a pigeon impaled with pins — in the attic of the king’s palace and set it free. He then instructed the king to bathe in the waters of a tank, considered auspicious, to rid himself of the evil spell. The Nayak was cured of his ailment, and in gratitude to the saint he granted him lands at Nagore. To this day, pigeons are set free to mark this occasion. A number of Tamil hagiographical works credit the saint with several miracles including one in which he stopped a Dutch ship from sinking by floating a mirror in the Bay of Bengal.

Following the saint’s death in 1579, a dargah was built over his grave at the site. Hindus, who flocked to the saint’s audience, have built most of the shrines present today at the site and dedicated them to Nagore Andavar (the God of Nagore), as they address the saint.

H-M Synthesis in coastal Tamil Nadu: The Islamic Shrine where Hindus pray

H-M Synthesis in coastal Tamil Nadu: The Islamic Shrine where Hindus pray

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