Sufi Folk Literature and the Expansion of Indian Islam

Author(s): Richard M. Eaton

Source: History of Religions, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Nov., 1974), pp. 117-127
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1062004
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 Richard M. Eaton S U F I FOLK
LITERATURE AND
THE EXPANSION
OF INDIAN ISLAM

The secondary literature on medieval Indian society frequently

portrays the Sufis as a group that provided a vital link between
Hindus and Muslims, to some extent mitigating the harshness
of the Muslim military conquest of the subcontinent.' Many
writers have advanced the argument somewhat further by
identifying the Sufis as important agents in the conversion to
Islam of a large segment of India's Hindu population, especially
Hindus of lower castes.2 But what is lacking in this literature is a
satisfactory explanation of how such conversions might have
taken place, of how an essentially esoteric mystical tradition
might have filtered down to commoners in some sort of compre-
hensible and appealing form. It would be hard to imagine, for
example, how depressed and illiterate Hindu castes such as the
cotton cleaners or the barbers could have been attracted to an
1 See H. K. Sherwani, "Cultural
Synthesis in Medieval India," Journal of
Indian History 41, no. 1 (April 1963): 256-57; Tara Chand, Society and State in
the Mughal Period (Delhi, 1965), pp. 96-100; Yusuf Husain Khan, "Sufism in
India," Islamic Culture 30 (July 1956): 252; M. Yasin, A Social History of Islamic
India (1605-1748) (Lucknow, 1958), p. 51.
2 See T. W. Arnold, The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation
of the
Muslim Faith, 2d ed. (London, 1913), pp. 270-71; Aziz Ahmad, Studies in the
Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment (Oxford, 1964), pp. 83-84; A. B. M.
Habibullah, The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India, 2d ed. (Allahabad, 1967),
pp. 305-6; M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims (London, 1967), p. 22; K. A. Nizami,
Studies in Medieval Indian History and Culture (Allahabad, 1966), p. 92; A. Rashid,
Society and Culture in Medieval India (Calcutta, 1969), pp. 192-93; A. L. Sriva-
stava, Medieval Indian Culture (Agra, 1964), p. 78; M. T. Titus, Islam in India
and Pakistan (Calcutta, 1959), pp. 48-49.
117
Sufi Folk Literature and Indian Islam
abstract system of mystical stages and states requiring an immense
degree of intellectual and spiritual discipline. Moreover, the Sufis
of medieval India, as elsewhere, frequently stressed the elitist
nature of their circles and the necessity of keeping their most
esoteric knowledge to themselves. Indeed, one distinguished
scholar has argued that Sufis in general felt a certain distrust
of the common man and that this feeling was evidenced by their
separation of the initiated Sufi from the noninitiated layman.3
One likely reason for the failure to explain the attraction of Hindu
nonelites to Sufis has been the tendency among many scholars
of Sufism to concentrate almost exclusively on the mystical
literature, as opposed to the folk literature, as representing the
sum and substance of the Sufi movement. The mystical literature,
which can be said to represent the "high tradition" of the Sufi
movement in India and elsewhere, consisted of treatises on the
abstract stages and states originally formulated by such mystical
thinkers as Ibn al-'Arabi. This literature was written for the
edification of fellow Sufis and does not seem to have circulated
among the lower elements of Hindu India, nor was it intended
to. Moreover in India, as in most of the non-Arab Muslim world,
such literature was usually written in Persian, which was certainly
not a vernacular language among the nonelite Hindu population.
Hence if it is true, as R. A. Nicholson has noted, that "Sufism
is at once the religious philosophy and the popular religion of
Islam," 4 the link between the two has not been clearly established,
at least as far as concerns Indian Islam.
Based on research on the medieval Deccan city-state of Bijapur
(1490-1686), it is my opinion that such a link was supplied in at
least one sector of the Indian subcontinent by the folk literature
of certain local Sufis. Consisting of a number of short poems
written in one of the vernacular languages of medieval Bijapur,
Dakani, this literature employed indigenous themes and imagery
for the propagation not of complex mystical doctrines of the sort
mentioned above, but of a simpler level of Sufi and also of Islamic
precepts. Written mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries by Bijapur Sufis belonging to the Chishti order, or by
their descendants scattered elsewhere in the Deccan, this literature
has been preserved in the oral tradition of Dakani-speaking
villagers throughout the Deccan plateau. It has been suggested
3 Ann K. S. Lambton, "Free
Thinking and Individual Freedom," in Islam in
the Modern World, ed. Syed Ali Ahsan (Dacca, 1964), p. 82.
4 R. A. Nicholson, Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge, 1967),
p. 65.
118
History of Religions
that until the twentieth century, when radio and cinema took its
place, folk poetry of Sufi origin had occupied a dominant position
in the folk culture of Deccan villages.5 What, then, was the nature
of this literature, to whom did it appeal, and what was its relation
to Islam or to Sufism?
The bulk of the folk poetry written by Sufis was sung by village
women while engaged in various household chores. The most
common types included the chakki-nama, so called because it was
sung while grinding food grains at the grindstone or chakki,
and the charkha-nama, sung while spinning thread at the spinning
wheel, or charkha. Other types of such folk poetry included the
luri-nama or lullaby, the shadi-nama or wedding song, the
suhagan-nama or married woman's song, and the suhaila or
eulogistic song.6 It is evident that most of these poetic forms ap-
pealed especially, and probably exclusively, to women. For in the
villages of the Deccan it was the women who for centuries spun
the cotton into thread, ground the juwar into meal, and rocked
the children to sleep. Each of these activities involved a steady
moving of the hands which the singing of songs composed in a
regular meter could easily assist. This is especially true for the
chakki-nama and the charkha-nama, the most widespread forms of
Dakani folk poetry, both of which involved the turning of a wheel
by hand. Such village poetry appealed to women not only because
it accompanied the household chores that they in particular
performed, but also because its content was permeated with
imagery especially meaningful to them. Female love and its
manifestations were typical themes in this literature, and meta-
phors frequently drew on the two worlds of a young bride: the
parental home she had left and her new father-in-law's home.7
The few studies that have been made of Dakani folk literature
trace it to the efforts by Sufis to expand their teachings among the
unlettered folk of the Deccan plateau.8 This is no doubt true so
far as the written tradition of this poetry is concerned. But it
does not mean that Sufis originated the idea of singing songs
while grinding juwar or while spinning thread. Some sort of folk
poetry relating to work at the spinning wheel or the grindstone
undoubtedly existed in the Marathi and Kannada oral traditions
5 Zinat
Sajida, "Dakani git," Majallai osmania, Dakani Adab Number, no. 65
(1963-64), p. 217.
6 Abu'l-Hasan
Qadiri, Sukh anjan, ed. Sayyida Ja'far (Hyderabad, 1968), pp.
60-61 (passage quoted is from the editor's introduction to Qadiri's book).
7 See Rafi'a Sultana, Urdu nasr ka
aghaz aur irtiqa (Hyderabad, n.d.), p. 250.
8 Sajida, pp. 217-18; Sultana, pp. 247-48; Ja'far, pp. 60-61.
119
Sufi Folk Literature and Indian Islam

long before Islam penetrated the Deccan plateau and is probably

as old as the ubiquitous grindstone or spinning wheel themselves.9
What Sufis did was to adapt the simplest elements of Sufi doctrine
to the already existing vehicles of folk poetry and to substitute
vernacular Dakani for vernacular Marathi or Kannada.10 Since
the Sufism injected into this literature carried with it the essentials
of Islam, the Sufis' use of this vehicle may be said to represent a
major development in the cultural history of the Deccan.
Sufi folk literature can be found today in both written and oral
traditions. Despite the intrusion of modern media in the villages,
folk poetry relating to household chores is still sung, though
apparently less so today than formerly. In the written tradition,
chakki-namas and charkha-namas have appeared in various cheap
lithograph editions which can still be found in the Deccan country-
side. There also exist manuscript versions of this poetry, of which
some dozen, preserved in collections in Hyderabad, have come to
my attention. These manuscripts indicate that most of the folk
poetry discussed here originated with Bijapur Sufis of the Chishti
order.
All eleven of these manuscripts, most of which are chakki-
namas, are undated copies of poetry which, judging from the style
of Dakani used, can be ascribed to the seventeenth or early eight-
eenth century. One chakki-nama is attributed to Amin al-Din A'la
(d. 1675),11 an important seventeenth-century Sufi of notably
heterodox tendencies. But this chakki-nama cannot be authentic,
since it refers to events that occurred after Amin al-Din's death.
Its style and content, however, clearly prove it to be the work of a
Sufi, and probably a Sufi of Bijapur, since the scribe was himself
a resident of that city.12 Another chakki-nama closes with the
name of Shah Hashim Khudawand Hadi (d. 1704-5),13 one of
Amin al-Din's closest initiates (khalifa) at Bijapur, and both
9 The Marathi
poems which village women of Maharashtra sing today while
grinding meal are functionally identical with the chakki-namas of the Sufis.
Significantly, they, too, serve a devotional purpose, the object of their devotion
being the deity Vithoba at Pandharpur (see G. A. Deleury, The Cult of Vithoba
[Poona, 1960], p. 6).
10 So far as I am aware, the Sufis of Bijapur used Dakani in all their popular
literature. It is possible, however, that an exhaustive search in Deccan villages
might turn up folk poetry written by Sufis in the Kannada, Marathi, or Telugu
languages. The qazi of Kolhar, a town on the Krishna River directly south of
Bijapur, informed me that he had some chakki-namas in the Dakani language but
transliterated into the Kannada script (Akbar Khan, interviewed at the Hashim
dargah, Bijapur, July 10, 1970).
11 Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum, Urdu MSS, Tasawwuf & Akhlaq no. 36.
12 Ibid., fol. 6a.
13 Hyderabad, Idara-e-adabiyat-e-urdu, no. 93B, fols. 126b-128a.
120
History of Religions
internal and external evidence would support its authenticity.
A third chakki-nama was written by a certain Faruqi,14 a disciple
(murid) of another of Amin al-Din A'la's followers and hence most
likely affiliated with the heterodox tradition of Sufism that focused
around Amin al-Din.'5 Two other chakki-namas in manuscript
form are of more recent origin. One of them, cataloged as that of
a certain Ghausi,16 has recently been ascribed to a Sufi of Bijapur
named Fi'l-Hal Qadiri (dates unknown).l7 The other is of a certain
Shah Kamal,18 or Shah Kamal al-Din (d. 1809-10), a Chishti Sufi
from Belgaum who eventually settled in what is now Chittoor
District and wrote the chakki-nama at his wife's request.19 There
is also a manuscript copy of a suhagan-nama,20 or married-
woman's song, written by Shah Raju (d. 1681 or 1685), a Chishti
of Bijapur who later migrated to Hyderabad.21 A manuscript
copy of a charkha-nama is attributed to a certain Salar,22 but his
place of origin is not known. Two other chakki-namas are attributed
to the most famous Sufi of the Deccan plateau, Sayyid Muhammad
Banda Navaz Gisudaraz (d. 1422) of Gulbarga.23 These, however
are of doubtful authenticity, first because they are signed "Banda
Navaz," an epithet that the Sufi himself never used,24 and second,
because he lived a century and a half before the first authentic
chakki-namas appeared, putting any such work of his in gross
chronological isolation.
Certain conclusions emerge from this discussion. In the first
place, there is no doubt that all of the above manuscripts, even
those whose authorship is most dubious, are the work of Sufis.
Devotion to God and respect for one's pir, or spiritual guide, are
their constant themes. Second, most of these manuscripts origi-
nated in Bijapur and are the work either of resident Sufis of the
Chishti order or of lay members of the order who had studied
14
Hyderabad, Idara-e-adabiyat-e-urdu, no. 657, fols. lb-2b.
15 See Muhiuddin Zore, Tazkirah-e-makhtutat, 5 vols. (Hyderabad, 1957), 3:282.
16
Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum, Urdu MSS, Tasawwuf & Akhlaq no. 37,
fols. la-3a.
17
Ja'far, p. 62.
18 Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum, Urdu MSS, Pand &
Nasayih no. 4.
19 Sakhawat Mirza, "Sayyid Shah Kamal al-Din," Urdu (April 1939), pp. 262-
65; Zore, 3:207.
20 Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum, Urdu MSS, Pand & Nasayih no. 144,
fols. la-5a.
21 'Abd al-Jabbar Mulkapuri, comp.,
Tazkira-yi auliya-i dakan, 2 vols. (Hydera-
bad, 1912-13), 1:337-41.
22
23
Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum, Urdu MSS, Tasawwuf & Akhlaq no. 35.
Hyderabad, Idara-e-adabiyat-e-urdu, MS no. 120B; Salar Jung Musuem,
Urdu MSS, Tasawwuf & Akhlaq no. 37.
24 Nasir al-Din
Hashmi, "Khwaja banda navaz ki urdu sha'iri," Hindustan
(October 1934), p. 447.
121
Sufi Folk Literature and Indian Islam
there and then migrated elsewhere in the Deccan. Third, this
popular literature was not the work of the great mystical writers
of Bijapur-Shah Miranji Shams al-'Ushshaq (d. 1499), Shah
Burhan al-Din Janam (d. 1597), or Shaikh Mahmud Khush Dahan
(d. 1617)-but of their immediate spiritual descendants who
lived in the second half of the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries. But despite their separation in time by a generation or
more, the mystical and popular writers were linked by close
familial and doctrinal ties. In one of his works the mystic Burhan
al-Din Janam alluded to the central symbol of the chakki-nama,
the grindstone, in the same way that popular writers alluded to it:
"In the case of the chakki, some other power is required-
somebody's hand must be applied to move the wheel. There are
many people who use the chakki, yet only the power hidden
in the hand actually turns the wheel. That hand is 'arif al-wujud
['knower of existence,' i.e., God], and those who see that the power
is in the hand are witnesses of the light; thereby they witness the
essence, which is God."25
If one analyzes the content of the chakki-nama or the charkha-
nama, three interwoven themes can be found: (1) an ontological
link established between God, the prophet Muhammad, one's own
pir, and the reciter herself; (2) the use of the grindstone or the
spinning wheel, or the mechanical parts thereof, to illustrate
the above; and (3) the use of the mystics' zikr, or spiritual exercise,
to accompany and even to regulate the various phases of the
woman's work.
In the following chakki-nama of Shah Hashim Khudawand
Hadi the first theme, the ontological link between God, the
Prophet, the pir, and the woman at the grindstone, is clearly
stated. In this passage are also explicated in simplified form the
essential elements of the Chishti theory of Creation and of God's
relationship to the material world, a theory which can be traced
directly to the writings of the great Spanish-Arabic mystic, Ibn
al-'Arabi:
First was God's name,
And then His qualities.
In my mind I keep the name,
And with each breath
(refrain): Say "La-illah" [There is no god]
Dwell in "il-Allah" [But Allah]
God Himself from the hidden treasure
25 Burhan al-Din
Janam, Kalimat al-haqayiq, ed. M. Akbaruddin Siddiqi
(Hyderabad, 1969), p. 53.
122
History of Religions
Has created the whole world artistically.
He has created it with His own power-
(refrain): Say "La-illah"
Dwell in "il-Allah."
God Himself came out from the hidden treasure
And showed Himself in the guise of the Prophet.
(refrain)
In the presence of God, the Prophet is the chief
Whose teachings have given us support in both worlds.
(refrain)
The Prophet's khalifa is 'Ali, who is dear to Him,
And whose disciples are our pirs.
(refrain)
Allah, Muhammad, and 'Ali
Are our leaders whom we trust most
And obey as slaves.
(refrain)
Our pir has taken our hands in his;
He has given us connections whole-heartedly.
May he keep this connection forever.
(refrain): Say "La-illah"
Dwell in "il-Allah."26

The theology here is as simple as the language. The devotee is not

asked to master either the doctrinal knowledge of the theologian
or the fine points of the Sufi's esoteric knowledge, but only to feel
comfort in God's unity and majesty.
These simple Islamic precepts were reinforced by parallels and
metaphors drawn between them and the various parts of the grind-
stone or spinning wheel at which the woman was working. "As
the chakki turns, so we find God," concludes the above poem; "it
shows its life in turning as we do in breathing." 27 Similar analogies
are found in the charkha-nama:

Imagine that your body is a spinning wheel, oh sister.

We should get rid of our negligence
And give up worldly differences, oh sister.

The tongue is the unspun thread for the message of God;

The tongue is the rim of the spinning wheel.
Bring out the thread of breath and show it, oh sister.
Both of these memories should be in our throat:
God has given us the ability to turn our hand,
And it is that which moves the wheel, oh sister.
Faith must be for you what the drive-rope is for the wheel.
Perhaps you know of the two wheels connected by the rope;
Then you will know how the wheel turns, oh sister.28

26 Hashim Khudawand Hadi, Chakki-nama 'Irfan, Dakani manuscript (Hydera-

bad, Idara-e-adabiyat-e-urdu,no. 93B), fols. 126b-128a.
27
Ibid., fol. 128a.
28
Salar, Charkha-nama,Dakani manuscript (Hyderabad, Salar Jung Museum,
Tasawwuf & Akhlaq no. 35).
123
Sufi Folk Literature and Indian Islam
A third feature of this literature is its incorporation of the mysti-
cal zikrs, which are the spiritual exercises intended to bring a
Sufi closer to God. For practicing mystics the zikrs had a specialized
use, certain ones being associated with certain stages on the
traveler's path toward God. In the popular literature, however,
the zikrs were largely divested of their mystical content and became
more devotional. Although the various zikrs were still differenti-
ated, they did not correspond to the stages of the path, as they did
for the mystics, but to different functions being performed at the
grindstone or the spinning wheel. Furthermore, all of the zikrs
in this literature seem to be of a similar type-repetition of the
names of God out loud-which in the mystic tradition would
correspond only to the first and most elementary zikr, the
zikr-i jali. The following extract from a charkha-nama illustrates
these points:
As you take the cotton, you should do zikr-i jali.
As you separate the cotton, you should do zikr-i qalbi,
And as you spool the thread you should do zikr-i 'aini.
Zikr should be uttered from the stomach through the chest,
And threaded through the throat.
The threads of breath should be counted one by one, oh sister.
Up to twenty-four thousand.
Do this day and night,
And offer this to your pir as a gift.29
This passage best epitomizes the union of the high and low Sufi
traditions, of Islam's religious philosophy and its popular religion.
In it are found the main components of the Sufis' esoteric practice,
merged with and adapted to a popular literary form which would
be repeated in many households each time cotton thread was
spun. The result was quite comparable with the non-Muslim
bhakti poetry of the contemporary Deccan-the Kannada
vachanas of the Lingayats or the Marathi abhangs of the poet-
saints of Pandharpur-in its use of a vernacular medium, its
special appeal to women, and its devotional character.
The role that this Sufi folk literature has played in the spread
of Islam in the Deccan, though impossible to measure with
precision, seems to have been related to the phenomenon of pir
worship and the devotionalism at pirs' tombs which historically
succeeded the worship of pirs themselves. One important reason
that Sufis wrote the literature, apart from their general desire
to expand their teachings among a constituency of commoners,
was the object of securing for themselves the role of mediator
29 Ibid.
124
History of Religions

between God and the people who used the literature. Typical is
the closing line of the above-quoted charkha-nama: "You are a
maid-servant in your dervish's house. Say Allah and the Prophet's
name on every breath."30 All available evidence indicates that
in the seventeenth century a sizable nonelite constituency clustered
around famous pirs, believing in their miraculous powers (karamat)
and their ability to intercede with God, taking blessings from
them, lighting candles at the dargahs, or tombs, of departed pirs,
and participating in festivals at the dargahs. This was the outer
circle of a pir's following, as distinguished from his inner circle
of murids, or initiates, and it was to this outer circle that the folk
literature seems especially to have appealed, serving as the litany
of what may legitimately be called Indian folk Islam.
The dominant role played by women in this Indian folk Islam
cannot be underestimated. One seventeenth-century account of a
Sufi's conversations (malfuzat) noted that women were allowed to
enter even the inner circle of a Sufi's followers.31 This would mean
that at one time women, along with men, were instructed in the
religious exercises of living Sufis. Later, as the Sufis became re-
placed by their tombs as objects of popular veneration, women
came to comprise the great majority of devotees at any given
dargah in the Deccan. Their motivation for participating in the
dargah's various functions seems to have been primarily votive
in nature. That is, flowers, coins, or prayers would be offered up
to the spirit of the pir buried at a particular dargah in the belief
that the latter would redress some specific grievance or provide
some specific fortune that had become associated with that
dargah.32 But whatever the special vows that became associated
with individual dargahs, they were all generally associated with
fertility. Indeed, the belief that visits to dargahs would in some
measure enhance a woman's fertility is an obvious reason for their
continuing popularity among rural women of the Deccan today.
30 Ibid.
31
Maqsud al-murad, comp. Shah Murad, manuscript (Hyderabad, Asafiyah
Library, Tasawwuf no. 335), p. 129.
32 This votive
aspect of the dargahs is, of course, very much in keeping with
indigenous traditions with respect to shrines and pilgrimages. With reference to
Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain pilgrimages, Agehananda Bharati has written that
"vrata, 'vows' are often highly specific and they usually require a visit to one place
only. It is the place where a deity specializes, as it were, in repairing damage, or
balancing some need of the pilgrim who seeks remedy. The formulation of the vrata
(vow), most generally put, is something like this: 'If I gain x or overcome y or
accomplish z, I shall make a pilgrimage to A'; or, 'Because I have not gained x,
etc., I shall make a pilgrimage to A in order to gain it, for A is known to specialize
in granting x'" ("Pilgrimage Sites and Indian Civilization," in Chapters in Indian
Civilization, ed. Joseph W. Elder, 2 vols. [Dubuque, Ia, 1970], 1:94).
125
Sufi Folk Literature and Indian Islam
Women originally attracted to the Sufis of the seventeenth
century were probably of the same social origins as those presently
participating in the social life of the dargahs. One could speculate
that nonelite women living on the fringes of Hindu society would
have gravitated toward Sufis and their tombs as places of religious
refuge from any number of worldly concerns. These women would
certainly have included widows of most castes, for organized
Hindu society has little room for such individuals. Then, too, one
could expect that barren women of various castes would have
been attracted to the dargahs because of the latter's association
with fertility. What all such women probably shared in common
was an eclectic religious attitude on account of which they would
have perceived no great theological or social wall existing between
Islam and Hinduism. For them the village dargah formed only one
more facet of an already diffuse and syncretic religious life.33
The pervasive influence of women in the life of the dargahs
provides an important clue in tracing the role of Sufi folk literature
in the expansion of Islam in the Deccan. Judging from the content
of the folk literature described above, it seems likely that the
women who had come into contact with the folk traditions of the
dargahs transmitted this tradition to the children living in their
households by constantly repeating the poetry. Children would
be rocked to sleep at night or day by lullabies (luri-nama) that had
originated in the dargahs; they would hear chakki-namas or charkha-
namas recited daily in their own households each time grain was
ground or thread was spun. Hence, just as one's first language is
frequently termed one's "mother tongue," so also the mother-
or indeed any household woman in the proximity of children-has
doubtless been instrumental in the transmission of religious
practices and attitudes at rural levels. Through this rather
insidious medium, though perhaps not intended as such by its
authors, Sufi folk literature invaded rural households and gradu-
ally gained an established place amidst the eclectic religious life
of the rural Deccan.
The above argument is that both the vehicle of folk literature
originally penned by Sufis of the Deccan and the institution of the
dargah have assimilated into the world of folk Islam various
nonelite and predominantly female elements of the Deccan rural

33 "Indian Islam," observed J.

Spencer Trimingham, "seems to have been a
holy-man Islam. These (Sufi) migrants in the Hindu environment acquired an aura
of holiness, and it was this which attracted Indians to them, rather than formal
Islam" (The Sufi Orders in Islam [Oxford, 1971], p. 22).
126
History of Religions
population from the seventeenth century to the present. However,
this process should not be construed as "conversion" to Islam,
nor should the Sufis themselves be considered as Muslim "mission-
aries," though both terms have frequently been used in the general
context of Sufis and the expansion of Islam. The main problem
is that both terms carry connotations of a nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Christian movement in India, a context in
which "missionary" denoted a self-conscious propagator of the
Christian faith and "conversion" a self-conscious turning around in
religious conviction. But the evidence concerning Bijapur's Sufis
would not permit calling any of them missionaries in this sense.
They made no conscious effort to gain non-Muslim followers,
though it is true that many lower-caste non-Muslims were attracted
to the Sufis' supposed supernatural power and entered, by gradual
degrees, their outer and inner circles. The folk literature examined
in this essay aimed primarily at committing its readers to a pir; the
diffusion of Islamic precepts seems in the final analysis to have been
a by-product of this effort.
Similarly, "conversion" in the sense of a self-conscious, sudden,
and total change of belief is an inadequate term to describe the
process by which non-Muslims of the Deccan became attracted
to certain Sufis, or later, to the dargahs. There are today several
Muslim groups in Bijapur District whose ancestors are claimed to
have been converted to Islam by one or another medieval Sufi.
But ethnographic evidence indicates that these same groups, far
from having suddenly "converted" to Islam at any single point in
time, have been and still are undergoing a gradual process of
Islamic acculturation-reflected in dress, food, speech, etc.-
which is not only gradual but uneven from one group to another.34
While it is true that some Sufis seem to have initiated such a
process by attracting non-Muslims to their fold, what they left
behind them, namely, their folk literature and their tombs,
have deepened and continued an on-going process of Islamic
acculturation among nonelite groups in Deccan society.

University of Arizona
34 An ethnographic survey of Bijapur District conducted for the 1884
Bombay
Gazetteer illustrates this point. The survey showed twenty-one Muslim "castes"
of Hindu origin, all in various stages of Islamic acculturation as measured by
variables such as purity of Urdu speech, practice of circumcision, diet, attachment
to Hindu deities and festivals, etc. (see Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency: Bijapur
District 23 [Bombay, 1884]: 282-305).

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