Situating Sufism and Yoga
Author(s): Carl W. Ernst
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Apr., 2005), pp. 1543
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and
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Situating Sufism and Yoga*
W.
CARL
((The natives
ERNST
countries are commonly
of all unknown
called Indians"
Maximilian
Since
the Protestant
unconditioned
this perspective,
by
metaphors
another,
which
and
is
was
what
This
of
history
approach
rather
people
into
influenced'
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by
influence
an
'influenced'
and
subjective
to argue
more
For
basic
on
In the
are
than
comparative
Even
those
or
of
it
a
reject
or
explained
of
This
to
of
has
or
it tends
to make
of
by
practice.
in
the
religions
or
school
case
from
as defined
doctrines
particular
said
rather,
analysis
see how
thinker
influence
alleged
or
this
approach
are
clarify
('search
for
for
is in
while
'original'
those
problematic
I would
anything.
often
misses
of
reinterpretation
like
the
sources.
"The problem of diffusion is
agendas
of
this
the particular
also
away
origins')
immense
There
so many
contains
it helps
political
to account
of
something
explained
an author's
of
significance
complexities
religion,
amechanical
variations
questioned
particular
respect to the study of myth,
still fails
practices
is rarely
'Sources'
language.
kind
call Quellenforschung
the
a
that
one
is felt,
?
it is hard
minimising
study
though
read
used
from
analysis.
been
observes with
diffusion
who
in this kind
that
the mechanical
hand,
of
we
have
established,
the Germans
Doniger
the one
often
from
have
By
religion
foreign
and metaphorical,
even
or
essence,
a
of
of essences
Scholars
unchanging
importing
(1523)
understood,
'influenced'.
definition
of
studies,
religious
How
'derivative'.
and
be
doctrines
it is thus
the
result
abstract
has
assumptions
excluding
As Wendy
been
evaluation
them
that what
by
point
has
implicit
by
(or from
as the
it as a category
the phenomenon
significance;
addition
agents.
so-and-so?
accept
unconsciously
religion
to
'borrows'
by which
best
components.
original
as a pure
norm
is highly
their
religion
'source'
explained
easily
intellectual
'was
a
the
which
terminology,
than
the
to be
be
into
one
has been
can
traditions
molucco
of Religion
of religions
concept
religious
one
how
consequently
perceived
of
religions
describe
conception
could
scholars)
nature
The
analysing
to
ahistorical
the dominant
Reformation,
by history1
various
in the Study
and Essentialism
Orientalism
De
of Transylvania,
sort of
genius
an
perpetuates
of
tale-tracking.
each
implicitly
telling".2
Protestant
*
This article is based on the Annemarie
Schimmel Memorial
Lecture, delivered at the Royal Asiatic Society,
London on 11 December
2003.
See my Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in theContemporary World (Chapel Hill, NC,
2003), Chapter 2,
for a discussion of modern
concepts of religion.
~
TTie Implied Spider: Politics and TJieology inMyth (New York, 1998), p. 141.
Wendy Doniger,
JRAS, Series 3, 15, 1 (2005), pp. 15-43
DOI: 10.1017/S1356186304004675
?
The Royal Asiatic Society 2005
Printed in theUnited Kingdom
16Carl W. Ernst
of
concept
on
dependence
if one
as
religions
foreign
is engaging
One
was
the
of
the
influences
is a sure
of
for world
in this game.
of weakness
sign
but
activity,
an
for
from
the
or
elite,
deliberate
of
examples
early
this
search
and
Christianity
India.
Such
alternatively
sources
for
its
and
the
by
As
is originally
terrestrial
the
or
of
thing)
can
One
this
viral
manner
signifies
as a
reducing
of Arthur
influences
to
pass
then
astrology,
of
influences
reduces
the
attain
may
seen
be
or
excitement
ideas may
and
the
difference
exist
of
only
of
antiquity.
out
by
was
explanation
their
anti-Catholic
power
polemics
power
or
or
on
principle".
the notion
the
of
of
the will
of
therefore
another".5
Since
has
that
the
term
'influence'
of
the
historian
of
task
In the quest
"is
This
to their
a
ideas
theorist.
are
the
result
in
the
was
latter-day
essential
elements,
This
kind
the connections
As Jonathan
of mental
Z.
thematic
to
operations".8
the
alchemist,
work
by
observes,
The
can
likenesses
inaugurate
discerned
Smith
enterprise
in the process
of detective
seems
like a
charting
and
certain
texts
this
better,
perhaps
"Spotting
as within
trace
astrologer,
chemist,
seen
by which
processes
to
the
come
in the phrase
factors,
or
immortality.
in scholarship.
the
basic
If it is correct
resemble
as well
these
interested
especially
academic
between
for
in a
another,
systems into their basic components, much
act".7 Unfortunately,
They
over
history
The
cosmos.
the hunt
of
or
ideas
that
influence
recently,
over
thing
The
control
{into a person
power
based
or
that
infusion
stars. Most
person
stars
the
secret
influenza,
one
by
of history
in the mind
'given'.
term
its history.
consider
of
or
of maleficent
ideas would
intellectual
patterns
3
studies
carried
aggrandise
we
when
immaterial,
to another".6
province
stone
thrill
the critical
are not
ideas
compounds
the philosophers
fueling
of
one
verb
to
inflowing...
in the
to elements.
stars of our
related
moral,
analysis.
philosophical
the historian
intellectual
been
favourite
emanations
"the
intellectual
of
history
from
as the
principal
disclosing
of
the
over
over
in
all
compounds
Lovejoy,
of
prestige
as simplifying complicated
chemist
late
by its effects.4 In the history of ideas, influence
category
major
to mean
influence
exertion
it is above
function
the
Protestant
suspect
etherial
at work
the
by
the
"authority
Enlightenment,
to
caused
of
the
spiritual,
that is only perceptible
the
of
religions
keen
out,
in religious
to have
said
were
pointed
especially
notion
archaic
abstractly,
has
denoting
of divine,
this
was
disease
more
means,
kind
see
Smith
it came
subsequently
any
also
nature
the
influences on Christianity,
though
who
priests,
becomes
astrological,
events;
is fine
model
of
of
this jaundiced view of early Christianity.3
of'influence'
language
term
by
Z.
Jonathan
was
masses;
superstitious
paganism
are the key to understanding
The
This
influences
to
relationship
sometimes
borrowing
from
borrowing
this deception.
by
evidence
any
appreciation
analytical
*
Early scholars in this field liked to talk about Oriental-Gnostic'
deriving
and
domination,
flawed.
chief
study
competing
in missionary
it is seriously
religion,
ideologies
the
the history
"Similarity
mechanical
Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and theReligions of Late Antiquity
(Chicago, 1990), pp. 21-22, 34.
4
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "influence".
5
also stresses
Andre Lalande, Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie, 5th ed. (Paris, 1947), p. 498, which
the astrological origin.
6
Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of theHistory of an Idea (Cambridge, MA,
1936, reprint
ed., 1976), p. 16.
7
in Frank Lentricchia
and Thomas McLaughlin
Louis A. Renza,
"Influence",
(eds), Critical Terms for Literary
Study (Chicago, 1990), p. 187.
8
Smith, Drudgery Divine, p. 51.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 17
character
takes
of
place
of
position
thinker
the
influence
metaphor
thinker
s evaluation
in any
the analyst
who
upon
it will
take place,
changes
of metaphorical
kind
of
range
which
or
together
the
during
reunite
were
Protestant
Catholics
two
alien
The
those
separate;
irrevocably
as a
Protestants.
or powers.
substances
assumption
to
attempted
'syncretism',
two
to
attempts
two
religions
to combine
attempting
to
different
introduced
these
to refer
used
this
by
resistance.
originally
that
were
them
rejoin
term was
the
Subsequently
and
term
pouring
was
ex
a wider
need
of misguided
description
underlying
who
analysis.
was
term
of one
carried
We
disapproving
The
derogatory
of meaning
either
superior
intercultural
appropriation,
suggests
forces.
the
influence
complex
for
is the vaguely
independent
Reformation
and
substitutes
metaphorically
two
how
that
intentionality
it privileges
of decisive
interpretation,
metaphor
etymology
allying
of
and
and
the freight
often
acts
of
of a problematic
example
liquids
account
take
its neo-Greek
by
all too
which
selection
the detection
to re-examine
necessary
language,
that
categories
Another
be
of
to understand
in contrast,
wish,
role
formulations,
announces
triumphally
If we
another.
the
obscures
of previous
and
philosophical
religious positions that identified various deities of the ancient world as being simply different
of
aspects
term
that
the
the underlying
as
either
that
can
shall we
untouched
by
without
be
or
complexity,
religions
a
either
or
other
a deviation
logical
Has
existing
follows;
problem
any
a
becomes
syncretism
religion
into
sprung
If pure
religion?
makes
and
treated
the
historical
by
proposing
state.
unadulterated
Is there any religious
religion?
religion
because
are
oversimplifies
Syncretism,
in a pure
exist
Iwould
religion
If religions
a
such
the norm.
religions
untouched
cultures?
to any
previously
that
of
from
of
study
this vastly
individuals,
a familiar
contexts.9
conveys.
'essence'
the
was
syncretism
in the
its etymologies
of
assumes
also
religious
is problematic
of
autonomous
into
diversity
century,
to non-Christian
disparagingly
characterisation
be mixed,
nineteenth
syncretism
find this historically
reference
found,
of
that
substances
one-sided
Any
change,
applied
concept
assumptions
the
By
goddess.
usually
homogeneous
question.
Where
or
god
studies,
to suggest
like
of
same
the
in religious
existence
formed,
fully
irreducible
religions
term
meaningless
tradition
cannot
if everything
is
syncretistic.10
term
The
corporate
If the
the
entity,
course
the
of
a
and
can
be
complex
is not
concepts
applies
author
or
Does
the
of
texts
a fixed
abstract
history
of
have
necessarily
notion
ideas with
one
associated
customarily
author
to
assigned
of
a bias
easily
another
a consciousness
religion
toward
to
this
doctrine
as a
over
accumulated
religious
with
equally
community
then misconceptions
clarified,
normally
it has
term
the
religious
as
tradition
use
We
the
believer,
single
historical
an
as well.
equivocation
a
ambiguity
exercise?
a mechanical
to
of
If this
concerns
If one
boundary?
itself
vast
the
with
lends
consciousness
centuries.
deals
inter-religious
result
interior
discussion
nonetheless
an
itself
'religion'
to describe
occur.
tradition,
who
religion,
is this
of overstepping
kind
of
as
the
analysis,
essence
the
of
religion.
an article that is sensitive
Encyclopaedia ofReligion and Ethics (Edinburgh, New York, 1908?26), "Syncretism",
to the polemical historical origins of the term. Oddly,
the 1987 Encyclopedia of Religion more or less accepted
syncretism as a legitimate category and offered no critical analysis of the concept.
10
See Robert D. Baird, Category Formation and theHistory ofReligions, Religion
1 (2nd ed., Berlin,
and Reason,
in Peter J. Claus and Margaret A. Mills
1991), pp. 142?152; Tony K. Stewart and Carl W. Ernst, "Syncretism",
(eds), South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, (New York, 2003).
18 Carl W Ernst
To
speculate
on
briefly
in
relationship
diverse
Europe
by
Christian
version
of
sacred
of China
and
tradition
of
to define
need
impulse
give
from
ranged
single
in theology
Abel-Remusats
and Chinese
of
history
of meaning,
but
in various
a
essay
the
over
anxiety
the
very
to
theories
the
of
and
which
major
factor
existence
of
sheer
relation
between
to
lines must
independent
Greek
excesses
all forms
of history Eric
be
left dangling
that conceivably
could
into
lead
else's
somebody
and future.12
present
two
between
Similarity
Thus
dependency.
be
These
the earth
of the spirit
No
the
be
in
formulations
can
explain
of all Oriental
identity
(i.e.,
exercise
of
The
theoretical
as
be
explained
but
self assured
by
result
reducing
of
through
of
historical
pronouncements
in their
religions
core.
Indian
to a doctrinal
formulations
real meaning
imagination
the
Romantic
non-European)
out
smoothed
as accidental.
disregarded
the
could
the farfetched
of particularity,
edges
safely
found
we
essential
rough
could
the
still
a shudder at the richness of the
vacui but pleni, seems at work,
spirit as it reveals itself
a monomaniacal
in a multitude
of hierophanies,
desire to force the operations
on the one line that will
in history
lead into the speculator's
present.
unequivocally
horror, not
all over
The
Yet
observed,
Voegelin
about
Judaism
the
to derive
of religion from Babylonia via a process of cultural diffusion. As philosopher
A
in the
arbitrariness,
diffusion.
sought
to
ascribed
unaccounted
and Heraclitus),
century,
the
independent
cultural
historical
of
of
factor in European modernity
of Lao-Tzu
the
genetic
dislocation
World,
Another
Europe.11
or
unity
disorientation
authority
the New
of
scientific
of
the
ancient
the
Likewise,
explaining
turn
find
to
The
as an alternative
comparison
at the
school
the
line
1824
the Pan-Babylonian
the discovery
to be a defining
on
(based
thought
once
inevitable,
throughout
to
civilisations.
after
was
point
other
in view.
revered
genealogies
a
with
may
clearly
questioning
urge
powerful
one
perhaps
were
India
has continued
not
itself,
expressed
was
history
ancients
religious
and Islam, which
to
the
the
encounter
colonial
severe
underwent
in the works
for
the
for
phenomena,
religious
Christian
civilisations
reasons
the
religious
phenomena
comparison
and
core,
was
to
detection
of
sources.
Another
factor
was
in the quest
cultures
Christian
particularly
Theories
of
prominent
as
the
of
a
their
contrary
from
climate
freely
applied
comparison
disingenuous
and
difference
intellectual
race were
and
understood
originally
in
is reflexive
influences
in terms
primarily
evolution
for
of
in
to the first,
European
colonialism.
study
comparative
to
intended
reveal
was
superior.13 The study of religion in Christian theological faculties
Christianity from this kind of historical investigation, since Christianity
the
theorist
the
Protestant
was
to be
assumed
More
Reformation.
than
still
other
the authority of tradition in a way
accorded
witness
professed)
of
history
and
the
sanction
of
divine
pure
literary
and
texts,
that defined
truth.
integral,
authenticity
If, however,
other
of
religion,
which
religion
initially exempted
(inwhatever form
despite
the Christian
This
Christianity.
nineteenth-century
the
non
viewing
such
scriptures
both
religions
as
events
were
through the
could
11
and McLaughlin,
Critical Termsfor Literary Study, pp. 105-120.
Donald. E. Pease, "Author", in Lentricchia
12 Eric
LA, 1974), p. 3.
Voegelin, Order and History, Vol. IV, The Ecumenic Age (Baton Rouge,
13 Eric
Encyclopedia of Religion, 3, pp. 578?580) links the term 'influence'
Sharp ("Comparative Religion",
considers the term to be now "seldom used".
evolutionistic
schemes that rank religions, and he optimistically
be
to
Situating Sufism and Yoga 19
to be
shown
their
the
hybrids
dependent
colonial
to
important
a screen
for
Oriental
The
problem
lack of
Some
secure
and
turn
to us
available
of
and
any
by
they
scientific
thought,
striking
problematic
the
it is also
were
East'
'mystic
projected
in this way
issues
a
onto
and
practical
"it was
enterprise,
the
This
on
in
see
the
'comparative
the
between
it abandons
that
place
of
and
a number
it is
need
as well
as the
the dethronement
of comparative
known
under
the
sets
rubric
of
of
was
analytic
of a priori
and
prejudices
even
single
religious
are no
longer
rather
categories
in
recent
the
earlier
upon
an outmoded
Avoiding
difference,
grouped
and
position
based
clearly
perpetuates
religions.
a
zoology
member
were
characteristics
authorititave
in
various
of
a
model
one
of
creatures
of
that multiple
and
provisional
familiar
already
classes
religion'
similarity
We
essentialist
means
flexibility
definition
like
as
insofar
the
the
was
that what
of one
it evidently
I would
stressed
of
a model
unvarying
endorsement
to
so
zoology',
included
time.
the project
has
members...
be
based
the phrase
but
true
longer
other
can
noteworthy
species
analogous
no
entail
in
to
thought
their
religion.16
religion
proposing
resemblances".17
implicitly
balance
concept
still
Islam,
about
participants
abandoning
about
of
'classical'
to indicate
by
solipsism.
self-interpretation.
by
a gesture
about
assumptions
is
its
on
tradition
evolving
and
unsuspected
over
evolved
the
As
explicit
This
positions
of
of
described.
being
border
have
as formulated
traditions
categories,
of
have
by history,
can
nature
essential
are
previously
that
later Muslims
observers.15
the
that
phenomena
the
is its irrelevance
just mentioned
tradition
dynamic
to be
religions
since
'comparative
genus
a
the
into
born,
Problematic
'influences'
what
provided
on
family
of
It is especially
unvarying
it was
context.14
be
religion
interpretations
essentialist
known
in fact
as to
internal
Iwish
religion.
thereby
another.
of
historical
religious
in which
since
detecting
from
academic
religious
of
definitions
acceptable,
the
of
authoritative
category;
of
to
testimony
research
In addition,
lingers.
concepts
religious
scholar
to discover
scholarship
of
were
to the
examples
origins
analysis
a class was
notion
to
as it entails
anthropology,
conflicting
still
could
a
historical
into which
Christian
to
approach
religious
observer,
nature
by what
world
religions'
pantheism
conviction
attempt
their
noted
critical
polythetic
of
the
insofar
heuristic
of
progress
religious
Romantic
and
that was
influences,
later
in the European
the
their
in individual
beginnings
Recent
in
how
the magisterial
religion,
to which
reference
by
attention
to understand
factual
and
'Oriental
a disconnection
for
contempt
to
Despite
comparative
with
comparison
predecessors
instead
extent
religion
the
exhibits
scholars,
have
the
substratum.
significance
else
'Oriental'
cultural
of mysticism
with
magisterial
anyone
about
names
the
the
toward
the
recognise
foreign
and
to
ambivalence
debates
under
coded
The
of
legacy
various
nature.
inferior
of Christianity
relation
of
composed
and
notion
essentialism
it makes
about
than
comparison
religion
of
means
that
a
are
14
Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and 'TheMystic East' (London, 1999), pp. 33,
97, 118-145.
15
For Marc Bloch's distinction between origins and beginnings
as applied to the study of
religion, see Carl W.
Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and
Beyond (New York, 2002),
pp. 48-49
I argue against an essentialist interpretation of Islam,
is
Ironically, the book in which
Following Muhammad,
Essence and Character".
catalogued by U.S. Library of Congress categories under "Islam
and Consequences",
Rodney Needham,
Man, 10 (1975), pp. 349?369,
"Polythetic Classification: Convergence
The Implied Spider, pp. 143-145.
quoting pp. 350, 352. See also Doniger,
20Carl W.
no
longer
justifiable.
While
there
of
religion
among
interpretations
and mass
media-driven,
"This
is the practice
Ernst
a strong
is in fact
essentialism
academics,
of
concepts
marketing
this is not an activity
of the Yogis;
still
as we
religion,
for non-essentialist
argument
emerging
of the community
in
dominates
ideological,
see below.
shall
ofMuhammad.
it
Nevertheless,
is correct".
-
Sufi Interpreters
The
of religion
study
of Orientalist
the
since
was
conceit
has
somehow
two
derived
endured
religion
on
century
this
"Indomaniac
of
an
important
Oriental
and
this
contention
Let me
by
It is as if the only
extremely
are
either
to
avoid
helpful.
course
until
recent
times.
In Zaehner's
and
romantics
alike
of
Indian
I have
no
interest
choices
That
Z.
itwould
appear,
these
essentialist
longer
Palmer's
that
Palmer
on
of
entitled
the one
Arguments
and
practice
example
translation
of beauty...
race".20
has
and
elegance
1867
India
religion
yogic
scholar
typical
which
of
the Aryan
in upholding
simply
has
hand
Sufiism
is
used
to
the philosophical
be
unity'
the purity
of
Islamic
a reversal
of
the
mysticism
comparativist
commented,
are to make
is assumed
the
to
attack
identity
assertions
to be
of humankind,
dichotomies,
is it necessary
words,
mysticism.
dissimilarity
'psychic
One
Nasafi,
has are to assert either
comparisons
as the result of the
No
Smith
E. H.
is the
on
would
the comparativist
for utilizing
of
focusing
essence
source.
single
al-Din
cult
This
agreed
in the
attraction
the pantheism
Religion
between
Jonathan
'Aziz
by
the Sufis'
the Primaeval
was
Sufism
all.18
one
of what
explanation
a
at
Islamic
really
lack of historical evidence for
some
from
between
the other,
sources.
As
the only possibilities
such an enterprise,
If we
text
that
foreign
of Orientalism.
explained
Persian
on
as the
it clear
make
pollution
project
of
wavered
of Vedanta
doctrines
diffusion
that
assumption
not
an
for
the
dogged
the beginning
it was
there was
interpretation
"Steering
of
elsewhere
doubt,
cultural
a mid
the Coran
of
the development
support
of
Orientalist
Mysticism.
really
no
thirteenth-century
the deism
from
in theories
romantic
the
seek
In part,
zeal".
found
simplicity
that one
demands
assumption
has
since
unquestioned
mysticism must always and inevitably derive from India. The
called
that
problem
elsewhere,
an
Orientalists
derivative".19
a
argued
it was
so
Hinduism,
the nineteenth
is entirely
I have
ago,
ca. 1748
al-Din,
Muhyi
Practices
expand
As
centuries
from
through
mysticism
of
study
of Yogic
its inception.
over
scholarship
Sufism
"Muslim
on
remarks
foregoing
modern
Muhammad
or
regarding
the norm;
and that
uniqueness,
In
dependence.
are to be
similarities
or the result
of'borrowing'.21
polythetic
approach
or
arguments
defend
to
of
religion
is
influence
For a general review of early scholarship on Sufism, see Carl W. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston,
i. I have presented amore detailed series of remarks on the theory of the Indian origins of Sufism
!997)> Chapter
in "The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda
Translations", Journal of theRoyal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 13, 2
(2003), pp. 199-226.
19R. C.
Zaehner, Mysticism Sacred and Profane: An Inquiry into some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience (New
York, 1961), p. 160.
20
E. H. Palmer, Oriental Mysticism: A Treatise on Sufiistic and Unitarian Theosophy of the Persians (London, 1867;
III, whom he described as a great
1969), pp. x?xi. Palmer dedicated this treatise to Napoleon
reprint ed., London,
patron of "European Orientalism".
21
Smith, Drudgery Divine, p. 47.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 21
or
it is now
since
authenticity,
and multiplex
hybrid
milieu.
religious
symbols,
of
'strong misreadings',
on
based
What,
priori
detected
newly
assumptions
Muslim
Pool
The
text,
single
certain
readers
hatha
North
between
In a recent
associated
practices
(in standard
yoga
Indian
any
and
of what
a
proposes
relationship
in multiple
which,
essentialist
form
of
examples
in
particular
Orientalist
critics
literary
revolutionary
call
explanation
origins.
mysticism?
ofNectar,
at work
be
dissect
the
take
they
and
the
regarding
Oriental
about
to
triumphantly
sources
alleged
is the data
then,
when
a theorist
in which
can
doctrines
numerous
that
freely
is still worthwhile
particularly
religion,
acknowledge
and
practices,
it
Nevertheless,
interpretations
to
possible
Sufism
study,
versions
and
the Nath
with
pronunciation,
and yoga,
I have
traced
and
yogis
the
are called
yogis
made
translations,
of
the
available
to
known
as
teachings
These
yogis).22
a
from
apart
the history
practices
include divination by control of breath through the left and right nostrils, summoning female
can
that
spirits
in a series
time,
remarkable
clear
in certain
of
of
it may
Sufi
however,
the
be
Sufi
most
exact
writings
materials
Sufi
interest
The
number
pause
of
some
for
Sufism
and yoga?
of
catalogue
with
the
Muslim
societies,
centuries.
thought
22
we
is by
and
and practice,
Muslim
the
and
of
call
Sufism
spiritual
may
crystallising
strong
Sufism
reformist
emphasis
has been
polemics
be
As
and
a
considered
disassociated
for
such,
typical
and
and
two
Islam
do we
it inevitably
ideals
from
the past
if we
of
a
not
mean
by
Sufi
in the ninth
in most
and
so that
tenth
in Sufi
Muhammad
Orientalist
years,
tradition.25
trend
prominent
in both
in tension
stands
the
the Prophet
hundred
do
to the
Enlightenment
belonging
movement
the Qur'an
thought.24
What
ethical
as a self-conscious
upon
The
exceptions)
problematic
definition.
term,
as 'isms'.
yoga
synthesis.
notable
in
translations has just introduced
descriptive
vocations
or
of
The
occur
juxtapose
typically
schools
time.
in Hindi,
certain
(with
Sanskritic
Moreover,
over
at integration
not
did
India.23
terms
of
beginnings
detailed
texts
these
attempt
an outsider's
identified
more
from
expectations,
historical
in
methodologically
and
its nature
creeds
gradually
Despite
and modern
at historical
vocabulary
what
Historically,
using
or other
remain
the
technical
although
practical,
of Vedanta
that will
attempts
'Sufism'
ideologies
insider
that
practices
particular
unsurprisingly,
became
real
any
at
found
summary of the Pool of Nectar
terms
basic
texts,
century,
very
texts
brief
technical
This
it abundantly
to Orientalist
Contrary
to be
gradually
without
was
philosophical
foregoing
and Urdu.
make
mention,
of
Islamised
increasingly
Turkish,
use
and
developed,
Sufis
in Sufi
yoga
practices
yoga
not
highly
Indian
as the nineteenth
in hatha
with
engage
most
hatha
Sufi
alongside
I will
awareness
clarified).
was
yoga
among
of
as late
from
an
to be
still needs
it was
of yoga
accounts
Ottoman
that
examples
was
there
with
and
tradition,
other
was
this material
Persian,
centres
cakra
the
(although the question of defining yoga, and the perspective
identified,
engagement
the knowledge
of
circles
can be considered yogic
which
All
into Arabic,
on
meditations
performing
mantras.
Sanskrit
translations
Sufi
and
yoginis,
a number
and
text,
that
as
identified
recitation
by
accompanied
over
be
scholarship
now
it is a
Ernst, "Islamization of Yoga".
23 To
gauge the relative importance of these yoga practices for Sufism considered broadly, Iwould point to a
recent encyclopedia
in which
article on Sufism (5,000 words),
I devoted two sentences to yoga; see "Tasawwuf"
inRichard Martin
(ed.), Encyclopedia of Islam and theMuslim World (New York, 2003), 2, pp. 684-690.
24
see Carl W. Ernst, "Muslim Studies of Hinduism?
For the larger context of this translation movement,
A
Reconsideration
of Persian and Arabic Translations from Sanskrit", Iranian Studies, 36 (2003), pp. 173?195.
1.
See Ernst, Shambhala Guide to Sufism, Chapter
22Carl
contested
highly
interpretation,
aesthetic
and
however,
Sufism
is firmly
ritual
rooted
deceased
There
and
in particular
local
is no
texts.
literary
a
As
generic
All
anchored
to
the
term,
as Sufism
describe
very
and personalities
lineages
scriptural
institutions,
descriptive
that we
in general.
often
to
in relation
including
corporate
relationships,
Sufism
contexts,
it is deployed
of phenomena,
range
master-disciple
doctrines,
gestures,
Ernst
to awide
refer
practices,
is deceptive.
and
saints,
can
Sufism
subject.
meditative
W.
tombs
tangible
a
with
distinctively
local sacrality Individual Sufi groups or traditions in one place may be completely
of what
Sufis
is a term
'Yoga'
an
is like
signifies
inHindu
the
amuch
has
of Patanjali,
practices
include
retention
of
in the
Yet,
are
faced
analyses
the
global
spirituality.
issues
of
an
provide
of
even
challenging
scholarly
authenticity
and
dependence
to
India,
the
both
traditions
distrust
of
brief
can
be
that
both
seen
sexual
yogis.
the
classical
explanation.
centres
occult
Special
called
cakras,
the
and
efficacy,
the Kanphata
of both
these
to
about
anxieties
and
yogis
about
legacy
are
the
and
any
of
rests
religious
the
and
we
scholarly
in
appropriated
rubric
Islam
today
yoga,
between
gap
Sufism
yoga
transcending
the
the
and
Sufism
traditions
under
especially
Sufism
still marks
during
Tantrism,
or female
techniques
from
arising
argument
as
('split-ear')
ears
than
restraint,
descriptions
in which
related
the hatha
their
yoginis
with
hatha
to twelth
caste.28
thought,
of
attraction
authority
emphasis
Orientalist
the
on
recognisable
the way
contemporary
Although
as
psychic
or mantras
Shiva
called
tenth
of Kaula
practices
known
including
chants
problem
and
religions
of
deities
of metaphysical
such
the
in
put
they
the erotic
with
physiology
a
rings
others,
the god
that preserves
lineage
a minimum
syllabic
For
tradition
of
figures
The
psycho-physical
ascetic
their
especially
marketplace
to which
accelerating
to
the history
of mysticism
extent
of
the past millennium
attempt
with
of
subtle
with
as
itmainly
Yoga Sutras.
specialised
set of
with
of
Despite
highly
large
feminine
complicated
pronunciation
over
become
the
regard
siddhas (adepts) or Kanphata
and
associated
are
it is presented
of deities.
summoning
yogis
manipulation
semen,
inserts
were
pantheon
more
and
as the Nath
Some
"Yoga
backwaters,
and Jain contexts. The yogic
charismatic
and Gorakhnath.
wooden
early Nath
with
tributaries,
associated
in Buddhist
a
that
and
Patanjali's
frequently
was
maintains
habitats".26
particularly
practices
associated
collectively
distinctive
in their
prominent
yoga
of force"),
Matsyendranath
the
The
initiation.27
have
ascetic
loops,
different
texts,
encountered
mostly
is known
to
due
yoga
important
yoga
especially
yoga teachings
Hatha
of many
Sanskrit
Feuerstein
Georg
eddies,
rapids,
terrain
meditative
Sufis
"the
(literally,
centuries,
and
to define.
harder
countless
colorful
to
primarily
that
yogis,
with
oblivious
regions.
even
be
teachings, though yoga is also widespread
material
yoga
river
linked
philosophy
yoga
that may
a vast,
over
in other
say
ancient
extending
a
or
do
of
of New
Age
yoga
addressed
the
relegation
primarily
definition.
Enlightenment
on
the
The
values
26
1989).
Georg Feuerstein, Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy (Los Angeles,
27
The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions inMedieval India (Chicago, 1996); George Weston
David Gordon White,
1980), pp. 179-250; Shashibhusan Das
Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis (Calcutta, 1938; reprinted Delhi,
1976), pp. 191-210, 392?398; Feuerstein, Yoga, pp. 277-302.
Gupta, Obscure Religious Cults (3rd ed., Calcutta,
28
Daniel Gold and Ann Grodzins Gold, "The Fate of the Householder
Nath", History of Religions, 24 (1984),
pp. 113-132.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 23
over
experience
forms
of
Islamic
and
doctrine
in Europe
Sufism
Rumi
identity.
over
authenticity
is the
are
America
and
institutional
in America
poet
best-selling
most
The
approval.29
or
that minimise
those
he
because
precisely
popular
form
of
is seen
as
any
ignore
going beyond all religions.
With
stress
as
definitional
the
reduction
some
to
the
yoga
seen
often
very
can be
that
over
estimates,
all
anyone
by
million
the
with
of
topic
yoga
a series
yields
are
yoga
accessories
at
available
-
burdens
"today's
yoginis".30
the
sublime
philosophy
intricate
and
category
of yoga
immune
from
these
grandiose
When
one
turns
to
curious
esoteric
coincidence
arrival
of
orders
ascetic
restrictions
turn were
as a whole,
culture
had
practiced
The
or
Sufi
samadhis
similarity
establishments
master.
in
in a country
burial;
While
This
and
any
also
psycho-physical
set up
over
to
the
yogis,
between
yogis
and
became
known
by
it is sometimes
in India
fashion
yoga
with
it carries
the
Patanjali,
the mass
also
took
not
place
marketing
is not
scholarship
were
the Persian
that
have
the point
this
name
at Sufi
with
Sufis
that
shared
was
of
sanctity.32
both
in the
lotus
adopted
to
competed
of
that
'Hindu'
whom
method,
common
hospices,
of
the model
buried
the
the purity
and which
fit
to have
appear
observe
group
funeral
preferred
pir,
not
and possessors
healers,
term
or
the Nath
two movements
of meditation,
to
it is a
yoga,
representative
religious
between
customarily
extended
after
in for meals
hardly
Indian
eye, must
long
the Naths
drop
While
the
and
did
yogis
to
Sufism
of the thirteenth century. While
Nath
encounter
was
suggested
magazines
now,
yoga
Modern
of
free
the only
untutored
Sufis
and
yogis,
Yoga for
Glossy
the
associated
centuries,
The
all visitors.
who
accessibility:
term
the
on
acquisitions
describe
use
encounter
for many
and were
cremation
where
the
techniques
as wonder-workers,
recognition
tombs,
we
in all religions.
time.
an
library
to Yoga.
newspapers
the Nath
for
India
perhaps
was
do
they
yoga.31
Sufis
society,
were
the yogis
for popular
Moreover,
to
open
interests
overlapping
some extent
in
existed
for
According
cases
in most
recent
of
that is by the beginning
at this particular
ritual
in common.
much
shrines
success
of Brahminical
in
which
had
certainly
a remarkable
is
Yoga
technique
affiliation.
its universal
transcendence
of
context
Kanphata yogis became organised,
had
of
of
concepts
the
and
of mysticism
historical
the
that
basis
severe.
physical
and
Idiot's Guide
So when
system
psycho-physical
as the
generic
more
religious
yoga,
emphasise
Complete
counters,
supermarket
of
survey
quick
that
The
inevitably,
alternatively
practice
A
titles
for
available
multiple
and,
of
as a
classes) that downplay or ignore any connection
traditions.
religious
Yoga for All;
Americans;
on
Hindu
is even
religion
regardless
Americans
so in settings (physical education, YMCA
whatever
or
spirituality,
embraced
five
to
in relation
problem
of
basis
the heads
groups
the
lingam
position.33
of Nath
yogi
for
a Sufi
designation
defensively
to deter
29
"The modern
age conflates authoritarianism with authority, hence tends to suspect the latter (and its poetic
the former. Only when
the notion of authority becomes a pejorative social
representatives) as in fact embodying
term can anxiety concerning
it spread to other areas like literature and criticism" (Renza, "Influence", p. 197).
30
Sara Steffens, "Yoga Baring: Find your Inner Fashionista with Exercise Gear", Raleigh News & Observer, 15
March 2004.
31
Frits Staal, Exploring Mysticism: A Methodological Essay (Berkeley, 1975).
32
For a stimulating
see Marc
of Hindu
and Islamic asceticism,
Gaborieau,
sociological
comparison
ou vrais jumeaux? Les renoncants dans l'hindousime
et dans l'islam", Annales: Histoire, Sciences
"Incomparables
Sociales, 57 (2002), pp. 71-92.
Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis, pp.
Willard Trask (Princeton, NJ, 1989), pp. 422-423.
39?40; Mircea
Eliade,
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom,
trans.
24Carl W. Ernst
Muslim
rulers
that many
from
the
wiping
Muslim
familiar
quite
and it is striking that the Mughals
Acculturation
of
presumption
The
Sufis
problem
a
recognise
clearly
with
historical
characteristic
norms
Islamicate
for
persecution
religious
theoretical
the
the
it
seems
specialities
of
evidence
clear
yogis,
in particular became patrons of yogi establishments.35
to selected
the yogis
by
from
with
out,34
yogis
were
rulers
the yogis'
the Orientalist
particular
seems
of
adoption
influence
reason
likely
than
the
a title.36
such
even
is that,
model
as breath
(such
technique
a more
as
control)
in cases where
associated
being
Indian yogis, this does not explain the significance of the practice as adapted by Sufis.
Recently, Jiirgen Paul returned to the influence model to inquire into the case of Naqshbandi
Sufis in Central Asia. Using what he calls a phenomenological
comparison, he proposed
with
a concept
of
a clear
least
since
as
awareness
the
Paul
Indian
influence
such
practices
religious
been
yogis.
Indian
time
mystical
to be
used
to accompany
affected
of Baha'
al-Din
concludes
that
the fact
by
dhikr
celibacy,
(d.
these
Asian
Central
Yet
the
that,
among
recitation
breath
control.
that breath
Naqshband
"inspired
this
control
breath
in order
breath
to make
to have
at
technique
common
also
these Naqshbandis,
formulas
a central
Sufis were
of
adoption
seems
There
control,
was
1390),
of
significance
and
consideration,
study,
and
these Naqshbandis
techniques".37
seem
deliberate
vegetarianism,
among
therefore
on
based
Indian
among
by non-Muslim
would
technique
control
was
invariably
this meditation
continuous,
a focus on such typically Islamic chants such as la ilaha ilia allah (there is no god but
with
In other
God).
formulas,
if breath
words,
to what
was
control
can
extent
it be
to enhance
used
considered
the
Islamic
non-Muslim
by
"inspired
of
effect
meditation
Indian
mystical
techniques"?
Another
major
raises
example
of
systematisation
about
questions
Sufi
was
output
literary
matched
already highly developed
and others,
(d. 1317)
of
considerable
lata'if')
within
system
of
seven
the Naqshbandi
his
in the Kubrawi
extensive
body,
earlier
incorporated
on
based
each
subtle
centres
order,
from
interior
developed
the fifteenth
with
by
case
this
practice.
a
concerning
cAla5 al-Dawla
Simnani
Sufi order in Central Asia, whose
in training
activities
and
practices
visualisation
associated
in
model,
disciples.
Heir
to an
established by his teacher Nur al-Din Isfarayini
system of meditation
Simnani
subtlety,
the
by
influence
meditative
psycho-physical
(d. 1336) was one of the chief figures
vast
the
Simnani
through
a
of
particular
underwent
to the
a
articulated
seven
prophet
further
late nineteenth
spiritual
centres
subtle
and
method
(latifa,
a colour.38
evolution
century,
pi.
The
in India
resulting
in
in
G. S. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus (Bombay, 1964), p. 139, argues protective dissimulation from the proximity of Yogi
centres and the alleged conversion of two shrines at Gorakhpur
shrines and pilgrimage
sites toMuslim
population
into mosques by 'Ala5 al-Din Khalji (d. 1316) and Awrangzeb
(d. 1707).
35 B. N.
and Other Documents
Goswamy and J. S. Grewal, TheMughals and theYogis ofjakhbar, Some Madad-i-Macash
(Simla, 1967).
36
On Sufi terms in yogi centres, see Veronique Bouillier, Ascetes etRois: Un Monastere deKanphata Yogis auNepal
(Paris, 1997), pp. 91-93.
Jiirgen Paul, "Influences indiennes sur la naqshbandiyya d'Asie centrale?", Cahiers dAsie Centrale, 1?2 (1996),
In a similar vein, William
order
S. Haas observed that the dhikr technique of the Algerian Rahmaniyya
pp. 203-217.
"has as its centre a thoroughly elaborated technique of breathing, obviously of Indian origin", and so he speculated
that the nineteenth-century
founder of the order must have gone to India; see "The Zikr of the Rahmanija-Order
in Algeria:
A Psycho-physiological
Analysis", Moslem World, 33 (1943), pp. 16-28, citing
Corbin, En Islam iranien:Aspects spirituels et philosophiques, vol. 3, Les Fideles d
des Idees (Paris, 1972), pp. 275?355; Nuruddin
Abdurrahman-i
Isfarayini,
Bibliotheque
Landolt (Paris, 1986), "Etude Preliminaire",
pp.
Kashif al-Asrar, ed. and trans. Hermann
Henry
p. 18.
'amour,Shicisme et soufisme,
Le Revelateur des mysteres:
38?49.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 25
a new
centres
six subtle
of
assignment
to
of
parts
particular
A
the body.
subtle centres puts the heart (qalb) two fingers below
Naqshbandi
(ruh)
two
(sirr)
in the middle
the
below
fingers
the
of
the
breast,
right
soul
the mystery
breast,
beneath
(nafs)
(khafii)
the
the
above
version
typical
the
of
the left breast, the spirit
the
navel,
conscience
and
eyebrows,
arcanum
the
(akhfa) at the top of the brain.39
could
One
spine,
some
although
Both
Indian
was
inclination,
assume
his
that
colours
that
the Sufi
along
with
with
were
would
have
that
Buddhist
the
region.
spinal
in particular
based
on
been
interested
earlier
much
Simnani,
against
court
at the
monks
of
region
the
images
practices
Simani
it appears
however,
in disputations
the
the
with
similarity
sometimes
and
like
figures
biography,
located
unconnected
clearly
either
or
to engage
forced
centres
of appropriate
techniques,
From
yogis.
are
centres
Sufi
visualisation
yoga
in contemporary
his
the
a certain
has
system
nerve
subtle
so that one
might
locations,
unspecified
or
cakras
of
include
systems
bodily
seven
of
concept
yogic
the Naqshbandi-Kubrawi
that
argue
of
the
Mongol ruler Arghun; in these debates, Simnani showed considerable theological hostility to
the Buddhists. Although they were probably from Mahayana schools with highly developed
yogic
of
techniques
with
Simnani
own,
no
showed
in
interest
meditation
discussing
practices
them.40
Recent
research
in the number
system
has
of
of
subtle
with
subtle
field
hatha
yoga
seem
to have
centres
as "a heuristic
which
to travel
any
the
characteristic
Islamic
some Naqshbandi
of yogis
or
the
al-falah or The Key
of Alexandria
(d.
Judgments
accorded
about
them
the Naqshbandi
question,
calling
exegesis
1309),
sources
in Sufi
subtle
the
Sufi
no
influences
of
Sufi
the
of
such
Enamul
forced
"quite
to
imperfect
any
Haq,
explain
and
who
away
the
rarely make
the
breaths,
so
centres,
indicated
below,
remoter
from
for
differences
the
areas,
Ibn cAta'Allah
yoga
ignore
... due
not
do
toward the practices
Indian
argued
immature
subtle
be
Sufi master
necessarily
a
a multilevelled
contain
practice
identifiable
practices
the
seven
As will
system.
contemplative
to
reference
interpretations.
system
in the
of
to Salvation, by the Egyptian
and
centres,
texts
Sufi
they
(nadis),
or
within
techniques
and
Sirhindi showed explicit hostility
make
was
nerves
each
their
body
occur
variations
Sufi
of yoga,
subtle
to
tied
are embedded
such asMiftah
the
however,
of
even
a subtle
develop
Similar
realms".41
Sufis
among
and
centre,
the adjustable Naqshbandi
to
disciple
In addition,
kundalini.
manuals
Major
the
the psycho-physiology
Qur'anic
symbolisms
and Brahmins.
for
descriptions
Sufis like Ahmad
subtle
has described
comparability,
with
yogic
symbolism,
that distinctive
device
variation
practical
to each
assigned
in non-material
relation
and mystical
prophetology
considerable
colours
their
Despite
intrinsic
and moon
was
there
the
centres,
in the body. Arthur Buehler
practices.42
to
reference
that
shown
subtle
locations
physical
sun
their
technique.43
the
significance
yogic
origin
by
to the
begging
ignorance
of
the
of
39
Muhammad
pp. 298-299.
1405/1985),
Dhawqi Shah, Sirr-i dilbaran (4th printing, Karachi,
40
Jamal J. Elias, The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of ^AW ad-dawla as-Simnani (Albany, 1995),
pp. 18, 26; for Simnani s concept of subtle substances or centres, see pp. 79-99.
41
Arthur Frank Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya
and the Rise of theMediating Sufi
(Charleston, SC, 1998), p. 112; cf. pp. 103?116 for a full account of the
Shaykh, Studies in Comparative Religion
latifa system.
42
1970).
Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (Garden City, N.Y.,
Ibn cAta' Allah al-Sikandari, Miftah al-falah wa misbah al-arwah (Egypt, 1381/1961);
Ibn cAta' Allah, The Key
to Salvation and the Lamp of Souls, trans. Mary Ann Koury Danner
1996).
(Cambridge,
26Carl W. Ernst
anatomical
the
scientific
This
of human
the Naqshbandi
description
(d.
Qadiri
Sannyasi
the
teaching,
then
enumerated
a different
in
of
lotuses
these
six
petals
and
Indian
with
Yogis
cakras.
method,
Ghawth
or
kanwal)
lotuses
"These
that
to
respect
lotus,
Shah
lengthy
Qalandar
are
to
also
in
the Yoga
scheme
yogic
ordered
a
giving
c
Ali
according
complex
are
which
comparison
explicit
After
centres
subtle
six
six cakras,
to a
according
each
that makes
the yogic
the Naqshbandi
(k'hat
for
text
late Urdu
centres
conversation
six
of
number
a very
subtle
version
remarked
1880)
of
system
a six-centre
of
to the
inferior
far
body".44
to see
it is striking
said,
were
the Sufis who
knowledge
being
between
He
of
knowledge
that
includes
the
Sanskrit
to
according
the
sastrd\
alphabet; these are depicted in a diagram included in the published version of his discourses,
in the form of a long-stemmed plant with groups of petals bunched together at the level of
each
In the upper
lotus.
a
with
platform,
guru
or pir
ocean
of
sitting
has
light
on
note
marginal
on
corner
right
the
throne,
the diagram,
there
'From
the
the
must
of hidden
treasury
a throne-like
of
drawing
student
comment
In the brief
heart'".
a
is also
"Here
reading,
that]
[thinking
over my
poured
of
the diagram
visualise
an
emanation,
follows
that
his
this diagram,
cAli Shah remarked, "The method of this practice is that through visualization
one should transfer each [Sanskrit] letter from the petal to the inside of the stem. Having
Ghawth
of
the
due
the
account
with
one
skull],
order
as a
stem
the
imagined
transfers
a
shows
the
(when
detailed
of
transcriber
cAli Shah
this
late
the
two meditative
comparison
willingness
and
practices
spread
explain
include
times,
their
teachings
(centred
of
yoga,
silent
44
Muhammad
body
titled
This
contact
through
book
in this
mentioned
of
the description
in
then
above,
luminous".45
probably
gained
inserted
subtle
the
evidence
the
lotuses
and
as
recitation
of
a
as external
from
constitute
Particularly
Allah
India
including
terms
Kanpur)
name
is more
as similar,
cakras
the yogic
and
conceptual
in northern
Ananda-yoga.
the
sages
and
technical
between
gap
to
testimony
confirmation
author's
the
of
doctrines
sources.46
disciples,
with
on
particularly
Indian
leaders
Sufi
Hindu
centres
comparison
Islamic
cosmology
known
of
the
bridge
of
kind
traditional
among
to
attempt
This
Naqshbandi
the Naqshbandi
branches
school
in
on
based
In recent
not
systems.
to bring
are collected
crown
at the
cakra
[the
becomes
the vaguely
from
discourses
these
letters
entire
of yoga,
the Naqshbandi
juxtaposes
does
than
brahmanda
it only as coming from "a certain sage" [kisi gyani]). Although
their petals, he introduced
Ghawth
all the
the
knowledge
rather
yogis,
and
active,
the
reaching
above. When
letter]
become
remarkably
nineteenth-century
passage
[the
centres
subtle
after
river,
great
single
to
awaken
have
a number
classical
what
hatha
is in
important
the
cakras.
taken
yoga.
masters
These
effect
a new
practices
of
The
steps
significant
of Hindu
overall
to
who
Naqshbandi
Sufi-based
these
groups
doctrine
of
no. 30
Publication
Enamul Haq, A History of Sufi-ism in Bengal, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
relies to a considerable extent on older Orientalist
(Dacca, 1975), p. 139. This study, based on a 1937 dissertation,
literature.
45
Gul Hasan Qadiri, Tadhkira-i ghawthiyya (Delhi, 1298/1881),
pp. 148?150. This section is omitted from the
English translation of this text, Gul Hasan, Solomon's Ring: The Life and Teachings of a Sufi Master, trans. Hasan Askari
(London, 1998), but see pp. 185?193 for "Encounters with Hindu Sages".
46
See the brief section entitled "Conversation with Mahapurusa
ibid., pp. 139?144 (trans.
Sannyasi Mata",
on the
Askari, pp. 155-160), which acts as aHindu
supplement to four lengthy chapters on the divine unity based
Qur'an, hadith, and Sufi authorities (pp. 22?139). Other passing references to yogic practices discussed by Ghawth
cAli Shah are found on pp. 52 (amantra with
translation), 332 (Hindi verses ascribed to Amir Khusraw on the
anahita or unstruck sound).
Situating Sufism and Yoga 27
the
of
identity
traditions,
with
between
can
religion
defy
some
fourteenth
of
examples
century,
depict
from
notions
Sufi
inverts
indication
the
how
of
comparative
Sufis
of
Indie
centres
subtle
of
the
the history
of
the Orientalist
view
in which
the way
text,
Sufis with
a range
practices,
from
sources,
and practices
teaching
the
survey
briefly
yogic
earliest
On
admiration.
can
interpreted
The
to the
of reactions
to frank
criticism
or
of Nectar.
Pool
we
approach,
appropriated
The
important
sceptical
which
and
Islamicate
essentialism.
about
cautions
to the most
ranging
of
to both
between
analogies
is a striking
expectations
these
important
attention
yogis,
the
of
development,
and yoga,
Sufism
common
the macrocosm,
series
recent
This
in mind
Keeping
and
wide-ranging
cakras.47
yogic
with
a
permits
relation
here
the microcosm
critical
the
of
the
Sharaf
side,
al
(d. 1381), for instance, felt that contemporary yogis did not understand the full
of the sayings that they had inherited.48 The Chishti saint Burhan al-Din Gharib
Din Maneri
meaning
that a certain yogi
(d. 1337) believed
and
techniques
criticised
was
duties
supplemented
yogic
practices
beneficial.
other
and
the
ascetic
was
Such
of
exercises,
on
ascetics
non-Muslim
as Plato
(such
and
the
Sufis
that
grounds
in
Islamic religious
of
surprisingly,
the doctrinally
regarded yogis, Brahmins,
ancient
other
alchemical
Some
spirits.49
the prescribed
not
the position,
used fraudulent
assistance
Sufi, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624), who
emphatic Naqshbandi
and
and
drugs
devoid of spiritual grace; following
more
much
of his acquaintance
with
as meditation
such
they were
themselves
these
Greek
as
philosophers)
a Sufi teacher in India named Muhammad
irremediably misguided.50 Likewise,
Din displayed considerable ambivalence when
divination
for
techniques
the
estimating
end
Muhyi al
him in 1748 about the
a disciple questioned
of one's
life,
as
in an early
explained
version
of
The Pool ofNectar known as the Kamrubijaksa. "This is the practice of the Yogis," he replied;
an
is not
"this
All
the
yogic
of
activity
the
evidence
considerable
same,
and
techniques
of Muhammad.
community
shows
and many
concepts,
that Sufis
commented
of
seem
them
it is correct".51
Nevertheless,
also
with
interest
to have
been
versions of The Pool ofNectar. The Chishti master Nizam
al-Din Awliya'
one
also
of
the
of bodily
concept
yogi's
effect
of different
control
days
of
indicated to him that he would
(d.
1356)
in passing
commented
impressive,
on
the month
and he was
the
intrigued
of
conception
on
particular
familiar
with
(d. 1325) found
by yogic
children
accounts
his master
(until
live a celibate life). His disciple Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i Dihli
on
the yogic
of breath
practice
to
in comparison
control
that practiced by Sufis:
The
essence
meditation.
breath,
of this matter
As
long
the interior
is restraint
as he holds
is distracted,
of breath,
his breath,
and
his
it destroys
that is, the Sufi ought
interior
is concentrated,
his momentary
to hold
his breath
and when
state_Therefore
he
during
releases
the Sufi
his
is he
47
Thomas Dahnhardt,
"La scienza sufica dei centri sottili presso una scuola contemporanea
di yoga", Asiatica
in Indian Sufism: A Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Branch in the
Venetiana, 2 (1997), pp. 19-29; id., Change and Continuity
Hindu Environment (New Delhi, 2002).
48
Simon Digby,
"Encounters with Yogis in Indian Sufi Hagiography",
paper presented at the
unpublished
in South Asia, University
Seminar on Aspects of Religion
of London, January 1970, p. 6.
Carl W. Ernst, Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center, SUNY Series in
Muslim
Spirituality in South Asia (Albany, 1992), p. 328, n. 361.
50
Ahmad Sirhindi, Maktubat-i
imam-i rabbani (2 vols., Karachi, 1392/1972; reprint ed., Istanbul, 1977), I, p. 130
(letter 52); I, p. 366 (letter 221); I, p. 394 (letter 237); I, p. 666 (letter 313); II, p. 157 (letter 55).
fol. 2b (marginal comment).
Karachi, MS 1957?1060/18?1,
Kamrubijaksa, Pakistan National Museum,
28Carl
whose
al-Din s disciple Muhammad
Nasir
was
essential
for
but not
disciple,
habit must
abode,
and
the traveller
was
of required
retains mobility.
can be banished;
Gisu
Nonetheless,
association
from
the performance
thoughts
of discipline
The
single meaning.
counted
breaths.52
(d. 1422) felt that breath control
in
composed
1404,
he
remarked,
as is done
the breath,
is necessary
the yogis,
for
among
stopping
can do it to the extent
can. Those who
that those people
follow
abstain
completely
permits
many
of
everyone
al-Husayni Gisu Daraz
In a manual
disciples.
the habit
Following
drink
Sufi
a
The
who
yogis,
accomplished
Ernst
of breath;
this has but
adept is the master
are called siddha in the Indian
breathe
language,
is counted.
breath
W.
was
Daraz
women.
with
Diminution
and supererogatory
One
should
to
careful
extremely
avoid
idle talk.
to the carnal
is natural
thought
limit
of
intake
of food
in the case of one
prayers
If control
the
this
becomes
and
of fixed
habitual,
soul.53
extent
the
to which
yogic
practice
acceptable.
for breath
Except
respecting
Another
over
a
and
later Chishti master
the yoga
of
he
Rushd
of the Chishti
nama
than
find
is said
in exchange
also
Sufis.54
familiar
mantras
with
he
or
'Servant
for
or The
the
earliest
external
to have
taught
instruction
Book
to a
order such as Nizam
of
as
wrote
He
the Naths
used
for purposes
charms
magical
(afsun).55
to
recitation.56
al-Din Awrangabadi
Hindi
a
He
yogic
also
the
with
of The
in the
Mandawi,
(d. 1729) and Hajji
subject
cAbd
Pool
of
late fifteenth
a treatise
composed
content.57
of
The
familiar with
on
version
the Arabic
Sulayman
considerable
verses
It is in connection
the Absolute'.
disciple,
with
of
regarded
reference
in Qur'anic
of Guidance
for
I have written
(d. 1537) was probably more
in that order.
else
anyone
which
(d. 1425), is credited by his biographer with
which
purposes,
'Alakhdas'
that we
which
century,
called
[advanced]
it is necessary
the yogis,
two points
These
on
of
support
of practices.
cAbd al-Quddus Gangohi
the Naths
the pen-name
al-Quddus
similar
and
specialty
kinds
incumbent
he was
and
yogi,
snakebite
curing
Nectar,
other
Chishti, Ashraf Jahangir Simnani
victory
under
all their
are also
the yogis
is the
which
control,
to avoid
the disciple
Later
masters
Imdad Allah
52
Nasir
Publication
al-Din Mahmud Chiragh-i Dihli, Khayr al-majalis, comp. Hamid Qalandar, ed. Khaliq Ahmad Nizami,
no. 5, Studies in Indo-Muslim Mysticism,
1 (Aligarh,
of the Department
of History, Muslim University,
1959), pp. 59?60 (session 12).
53
Gisu Daraz, Khatima-i adab al-muridin al-macruf bi-khatima, Urdu trans. Mucin
al-Din Darda'i (Karachi, 1976),
no. 168, p. 158.
54
Ibid., no. 205, p. 171.
55
Ashraf Jahangir Simnani, Lata'if-i ashrafi, comp. Nizam Gharib Yamani (2 vols., Delhi,
II, p. 396.
1295/1878),
"
56
Simon Digby,
cAbd Al-Quddus Gangohi
Indian
(1456-537 A.D): The Personality and Attitudes of aMedieval
III (1975), pp. 1-66, citing p. 36, equivalent to Rukn
al-Din Quddusi,
Sufi", Medieval India, A Miscellany,
Lata'if-i
a
Quddusi (Delhi, 1311/1894),
p. 41, anecdote 5. From this source it is known that cAbd al-Quddus
composed
of this text is preserved
Risala-i qudsi, possibly in answer toMandawi's
questions on the yogic text, and amanuscript
in Lahore; cf. Muhammad
Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Sherani (Lahore, 1969), II, p. 224, no. 1236. On
the manuscript
Sufi treatise with no reference to
however,
examination,
(22 fols.) turns out to be a conventional
recitation
(d. 945/1538-9,
yogic practices. On Sulayman Mandawi
reportedly aged over 150), whose Qur'anic
was inspired by the Prophet and cAli during his fifty years of austerities inMecca,
see Mandawi,
pp. 243?244.
57 For
references see S. A. A. Rizvi,
"Sufis and Natha Yogis inMediaeval Northern
India (XII
bibliographic
to XVI Centuries)", Journal of the Oriental Society ofAustralia, 7 (1970), pp. 119-133, citing p. 132, quoting Rukn
al-Din's Lata'if-i Quddusi, p. 41; id., A History of Sufism in India, vol. I, Early Sufism and itsHistory in India to 1600
A.D.
in R. S. McGregor
"The Text of Alakh Bam\
(Delhi, 1978), p. 335; S. C. R. Weightman,
(ed.), Devotional
literature in South Asia: Current research, 1985?8 (Cambridge,
of yoga is
1992), pp. 171?178. Gangohi's
knowledge
in "cAbd Al-Quddus".
discussed at length by Digby
Situating Sufism and Yoga 29
to include descriptions of yogic mantras
(d. 1899) continued
formulas,
together
to be much
in his
accounts
explicit
of yogic
In this way
abbreviated).
mantras
yogic
with
alongside Arabic dhikr
the
(although
Nizam
practices,
account
latter
a brief
gave
Awrangabadi
of Sufi meditative
survey
lengthy
postures
al-Din
Nizam
inHindi
tends
account
or The
al-quluh
of
Order
ofHearts:
Towards
the sky [say] "tun", and towards oneself
(dhikr) in the Hindi
language.
some also [say] "hufi" towards the heart. Or one says to the right, "uhi hi",
"hurl",
[say]
though
and to the left, "wuhi hi". Or one says to the right, "inhan tun", to the left, "inhan tun", towards
Recollection
the direction
"inhan
(qibla), "inhan
some say towards
of prayer
tun", though
in the direction
Another
of the heart,
turns
One
or recites
times,
of
and special
benefit
feet,
placing
it. Then
one
looks
it toward
practices
and without
with
occupied
the mouth
then
he
returns
and holds
that
(wahm),
If he
this practice,
things. He
hidden
sleep.
remains
attains
baithak)
is, one
strikes
tun", and
like the position
one
says this very word:
as having
selected
sits cross-legged
together
an unconsciousness
or becomes
on
firmly
the
and brings
and holding
the right
it at the navel,
the tongue
of
thousand
up and collects
internally
three days
to consciousness
One
the genitals,
the breath
and brings
One
has been
and it is as follows.
the sole of the left foot beneath
imagination
magical
(Hindi
just
this recollection
one's wishes.
favors
postures
of all the postures,
closes
one
"uhan
heaven,
sits cross-legged
and recites
heaven
a world
In the end
at the stomach
the back. One
hungry
toward
the eighty-four
quality
up both
One
language.
and eye
it even more.
one
"uhi uhi". But
tun", towards
tun".
"inhan
the head
"inhan
In the heart
tun".
"uhan
heaven,
the ground,
(dhikr) in the Hindi
recollection
the yogis.
towards
tun",
foot
near
and takes
one
the palate. Then
and one remains
"uhi hi",
thinks,
without
or sleep,
food
in him
that produces
enraptured
and remains
the unveiling
of
and intoxicated
(majdhub
of
techniques
u mad'hush).5S
account
This
Muhammad
Ghawth
generally
prefers
from
the
fifteenth
chapter
of
this
survey
dhikr
chant of Far id al-Din Ganj-i Shakkar, the only Hindi chant that
(discussed below) included in his Arabic meditation manual, The Five
to cite
that Nizam
yogic
practice
al-Din
via
Awrangabadi
Sufi
authorities
had
contact
and
texts
with
living
deriving
from
yogis,
he
different
orders.60
Along with
their
mantras
it is said
Although
fewels.59
Sufi
of yogic
the Hindi
resembles
practice
the Chishtis,
without
any
it is probably the Shattari Sufis who most
hesitation,
giving
particular
emphasis
to
integrated yoga into
the mantra.61
Though
Nizam
al-Din Awrangabadi, Nizam
al-qulub (Delhi, 1309/1891? 2), p. 32. This text is discussed in detail in
Ernst and Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love, Chapter 2.
59 I
on these Hindi mantras,
have heard oral commentaries
"uhan
suggesting a simple mystical
interpretation:
tun" resembles modern Hindi for "you are there", while "inhan tun" sounds like "you are here", so the chant would
underscore
the presence of God everywhere. Thanks to the late Prof. M. R. Tarafdar for this suggestion.
60
K. A. Nizami,
Tarikh-i mashayikh-i Chisht (Delhi, 1985), V, pp. 174-175; cf. Digby, "cAbd al-Quddus", p. 51.
In the Kashkul-i Kalimi (Delhi, n.d.), Shah Kalim Allah (p. 30) describes the single most efficacious of the 84
postures of yoga according to Shaykh Baha' al-Din Qadiri
(Shattari?), and he explains the yogi "unstruck sound"
(Chishti).
(pp. 40-41) with reference to the comments of Miyan Mir of Lahore (Qadiri) and Shaykh Yahya Madani
61
See Khaliq Ahmed Nizami,
"The Shattari Saints and Their Attitude towards the State", Medieval India Quarterly,
III (1950), pp. 56-70; Syed Hasan Askari, "A Fifteenth Century Shuttari Sufi Saint of North Bihar", Proceedings of
the 13th Indian History Congress (1950), pp. 148-157; M. M. Haq, "The Shuttari Order of Sufism in India and Its
in Bengal and Bihar", Journal of theAsiatic Society of Pakistan, 16 (1971), pp. 167?175; S. A. A. Rizvi, A
Exponents
History of Sufism in India (Delhi, 1983), II, pp. 151-173.
Carl W. Ernst
30
the historical
of
origins
this Sufi
are obscure,
order
it seems
itwas
that
cAbdAllah Shattari (d. 1485), the first Sufi to use that name. The
or
Tshqiyya
in Iran
Bistamiyya
of
ecstatic
the
form
that link the Shattaris with
Sufism,
Shattaris
The
name
latter
to
points
There
on
are,
the
other
trace its origin
order, which
association
the
characteristic
meditative
of his written
fragments
work
traditions
hand,
to the master of sober
of
practice
(dhikr, plural adhkar) formed a prominent
only
though
Sufism.
The
(d. 910).
names of God
teaching,
of
the Qadiri
of Baghdad
Junayd
the Qur'anic
Asia.
by
the Iranian Sufi Abu Yazid al-Bistami, one of the most powerful early
of the Shattaris with
representatives
and Central
to India
introduced
same order is known as the
have
of
repetition
part of cAbdAllah
survived.62
in
Certainly
the work of Shaykh Baha' al-Din Shattari (d. 1515) there is evidence of an interest in Indian
spiritual practices; his work Risala-i Shattariyya or The Shattari Treatise contains repetitions of
divine names inHindi,
is entitled
chapter
methods
sentences
the
to them".63
was
But
Thus
that
in meditation,
of
the
into
incorporated
the
Shattari
with
the first Mughal
of meditation
period
came
into
contact
fort.65 Muhammad
in Gujarat
and
translation,
Arabic
alphabet
by
knows,
charms
with
who
yogis
Ghawth
Gwaliyari
a
of
the
visualisation
Sufi
related
Shattari
practices,
tradition.64
(d. 1563), one of the most
in the
element
significant
of
spells
were
repertoire
must
This
be
Uttar
the yogi
visiting
a
with
began
in eastern
of Chunar
probably
partly
out
of dissatisfaction
the obscurities
clarify
of
study
transliteration
readers.
career
spiritual
of
Sufi
shrine
Indian
of Hindi
is an
pronounced
of
the Arabic
mantras
or Sanskrit
especially
exactly
acute
right
with
was
the
terms,
thirteen-year
Pradesh,
located
a Persian translation and expansion
1550,
to
in the
problems
for precise
His
the fort
completed
around
in order
partly
and
conceptual
and
of
imagination
(da'awat)
amember
century,
structure
emperors.
around
probably
a number
incantations
mantras
of yogic
became
in the hills
Ghawth
insoluble
apparently
other
Ghawth was notable both for his spiritual teachings and for his political
practice. Muhammad
influence
that yoga
masters,
to certain
attention
they recite with magical
and
account
systematic
with
adhkar,
tenth/sixteenth
it is particularly with Muhammad
Nectar
and Hindi
Persian,
recite
they
a
produce
even
and
influential
about
Arabic,
the beginning
by
to
able
assimilated
he
various
(suluk) of the yogis and their adhkar, which
(wahm),
order
alongside the divine names inArabic and Persian. The fourth and last
"On
an
in the
of The Pool of
existing
version.66
One
inappropriateness
a
where
Persian
of
the
of
the
problem
complained
problem,
because
as everyone
in order
to retain
their
efficacy.
62
cAbd al-Haqq Muhaddith
Dihlawi
cAbd al-Ahad
al-Bukhari, Akhbar al-akhyarfi asrar al-abrar, ed. Muhammad
p. 176. Two manuscripts
(Delhi, 1332/1913-4),
reportedly containing works by cAbd Allah Shattari are Risala-i
cAbdAllah Shattari, MS Khudabakhsh
treatise containing sayings
Library, Patna; and Tawba wa dhikr, an anonymous
of Hallaj and cAbd Allah Shattari, MS Karachi, National Museum
cit. Ahmad Munzawi,
Fihrist-i
1965-210-21,
Mushtarak-i Nuskha-ha-yi Khatti-i Farsi-i Pakistan (Islamabad, 1363/1405/1984),
III, p. 1365, no. 2447.
63
Baha' al-Din ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari Shattari, Risala-i Shattariyya, MS 297/61 no. 318, Osmania University,
available asmicrofilm
of Chicago,
fols. 2a~3a. Unfortunately
1018, Middle East collection, University
Hyderabad,
lacks the fourth chapter. The use of the term imagination
(wahm) is characteristic of The Pool ofNectar
(ch. VII).
64
See Ethe, no. 1913, col. 1060; numerous other copies are found in libraries in India and Pakistan. See also
the undated work by Ishaq (a disciple of one cAbd al-Rahman
Shattari), titled Ma'rifat-i anfas, MS 873(i) Persian
tract
(suppl. cat. I), Asiatic Society, Calcutta, which Dara N. Marshall described as "a Persian version of a Hindu
on metaphysics"; Mughals in India, A Bibliography (Bombay, 1967), no. 728, p. 207. From the title, The Knowledge of
Breaths, it appears to deal with breath control.
65
Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, p. 82.
66
Carl W. Ernst, "Sufism and Yoga according toMuhammad
Ghawth",
Sufi, 29 (Spring, 1996), pp. 9?13.
this copy
Situating Sufism and Yoga 31
Although Muhammad Ghawth did not have access to any Sanskrit text of The Pool ofNectar,
he incorporated his knowledge of contemporary yoga. His version is greatly expanded from
the
Arabic
existing
earlier
recension
with
text,
of
considerable
version
the Arabic
that
in part
differences
based
no
survives.
longer
access
his
upon
It seems
that
likely
to an
he
had
been using The Pool ofNectar as a teaching text with his disciples in the Shattari Sufi order,
that his Persian
and
translation
as an oral
emerged
of The Pool ofNectar, as adapted by Muhammad
in the
position
literature
the
of
Ghawth,
Most
order.
Shattari
on
commentary
of
the Arabic.
on
the material
this
it
connection
to mention
is necessary
Muhammad
teachings
a significant
apparently occupied
in chapter
cakras
may be found in a manual of Shattari teachings written by Muhammad
Lahore (d. 1706), Adah-i muridi or The Manners ofDiscipleship.67
In
The
Rida
Ghawth's
VII
Shattari of
popular
mystical
treatise, fawahir-i khamsa or The Five fewels, first composed in the shaykh s youth and later
revised in 1549.68 The Mecca-based
Shattari teacher Sibghat Allah (d. 1606) later translated
text
this
into
as far
from
authors
Jukiyya,
with
contains
own
their
because,
Africa
be
is largely
book
Muhammadanism",
almost
to
gain
section
the
Islamic
the
third
results,
particular
(or
jewel')
ritual
prayer.
describes
the
explains
second
The
use
of
the
that
may
as
names
divine
of
techniques
a
Sufi master
of
the
the
single
Farid
practices
Shattari
dhikr
al-Din
of yoga,
and
order,
formula
Ganj-i
the fifth
in Hindi,
the Persian
(d.
translation
how
Hughes'
it as follows:
can
they
the divine
to
1265).71
of The
the way
to any
yogi,
For
Pool
the
Shattari
of Nectar
to
but
Sufis'
The
through
while
specific
the specific
see God.
to the
as
used
names,
to obtain
(da'awat)'
consists
style.
life
fourth section deals with
not
be
Sufi
devotional
of
part
text
the
in familiar
using
'invocations
is devoted
attributed,
Shakkar
it in fact
become
In reality,
one's
prayer
have
India,
on
deepen
goals (this is the longest section of the book). The
contains
comment
Nevertheless,
recitations
concerns
section
in
mean.70
al
called
Orientalists,
in content.
instructions
as dhikr
one
North
order
deserves
fewels
disciples
channels
a Sufi
of
Five
which,
could
with
recited
how
Shattari
guise
The
Indian
customs
together
or else
the
to
taught
in 1885, and still in print) described
what
explaining
these
nineteenth-century
considered
of Hindu
up
in Arabic,
of prayers
entirely
charms
first
made
without
in
formulas.69
popular Dictionary of Islam (first published
"This
were
practices
through
yogis
certain
of
that might
anything
of
dhikr
assertions
these
Indonesia;
learned
distinctive
the
despite
hardly
and
as al-Sanusi
such
successors
his
under
as North
away
African
here,
and
Arabic,
early
The
text
Chishti
understanding
is the primary
source,
67
Muhammad Riza Shattari Qadiri Lahuri, Adab-i muridi, MS 5319 'irfan, Ganj Bakhsh, Islamabad (Munzawi III:
1218, no. 2149 ), pp. 31-2, 62-78.
68
Muhammad
Ghawthi Mandawi,
Gulzar-i abrar (MS 259 Persian, Asiatic Society), fol. 326a.
69
See Muhammad
ibn Khatir al-Din ibn Khwaja al-Attar
[Muhammad Ghawth],
al-Jawahir al-Khams, Arabic
trans, from Persian by Sibghat Allah, ed. Ahmad ibn al-cAbbas (2nd ed., Egypt, 1393/1973),
pp. 3-9; Muhammad
ibn cAli al-Sanusi, al-Salsabil al-muHn fil-tara'iq al-arbacin, in al-Masa'il al-cashar (Cairo, n.d.), pp. 124 fF.
70
Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam (n.p., 1885; reprint ed., Delhi,
1973), s.v. "Dacwah", pp. 72-78.
Cf. also Jcar Sharif, Islam in India or the Qanun-i-Islam,
the Customs of theMusalmans of India, trans. G. A. Herklots,
ed. William
Crooke
for examples of practices taken
(Oxford, 1921; reprint ed., New Delhi,
1972), pp. 219-231,
from The Five Jewels. Marc Gaborieau
has discussed these practices in detail in "L'Esoterisme musulman
dans le
sous-continent
Bulletin d'Etudes Orientates, 14 (1993), pp. 191?210.
indo-pakistanais: un point de vue ethnologique",
71
Muhammad
Ghawth, al-Jawahir al-khams, II, p. 70. The same dhikr was also quoted by the later Shattari author
of Bihar, Imam Rajgiri
Shuttari Sufi Saint", p. 157; Haq, "The
(d. ca. 1718); cf. Askari, "A Fifteenth Century
Shuttari Order", p. 175 (with wide textual variations).
32Carl W. Ernst
rather
than
Five Jewels.
The
a
and
manuscripts
from
Sufis
there
return
shall
as part
its practices
cited
to
this pseudonymous
was
translations
of
Sufis
both
Qadiri
during
the
found
a
by
Sufi
number
large
in southern
of
continuum
the
order.
One
in
Ottoman
Sufi
century.
The
to
on
catechism
this
lands,
Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240);
of
popularity
text
the
to
led
century, and one of
particularly
text was
popular
among
by
a certain
provided
in question-and-answer
Sufism
of
many
experience,
Sufi master
text was
the
1910;
testimony
in a Turkish
who,
al-Misri,
below.
of
of
India.
nineteenth
Turkish during the eighteenth
in Istanbul
printed
the Mevlevi
Muhammad
a
by
be
attribution
its being translated twice into Ottoman
these
can
of Nectar
Pool
being attributed to the great Andalusian
the manuscripts
we
translation
circulation of the Arabic version of The Pool ofNectar inOttoman
Because of the wide
Turkish
The
is attested
popularity
Urdu
nineteenth-century
citations
Further
Its continued
form,
cited the importance of breath control by quoting from The Pool ofNectar; the passage in
question (I. 2) describes how control of the "sun" and "moon" breaths in the right and left
can make
nostrils
one
to heat
impervious
and
Sir Richard
cold.72
Burton
encountered
also
reference to the teachings of The Pool ofNectar in Sindh in the early nineteenth century, in
an unnamed writing by a Sufi named Mahmud of Karya (evidently Mahmud Nizamani of
d.
Kara,
Burton
1818).
an
cited
from
came
Kamru
Rukn
al-Din
to Lakhnauti
and
Samarqandi,
or Pool ofNectar], composed
Burton
took
this
and
converted
"from
a Hindoo
by Mahmud
Sufism
of The Pool ofNectar
to Islam
a
losing
the Amirat
work,
sign
of
the
"popular
referred
aHindu
with
disputation
sage
Qadi
[i.e., Amritakunda
Kandha
as to the
belief"
which
inwhich
(Int. 2-4),
after
a treatise inArabic and named itHauz
as a
story
on
treatise
unspecified
to the frame story at the beginning
el Hayat
Indian
[Pool of Life]".73
of
origin
a
Sufism,
subject on which he (unlike SirWilliam Jones and many others) declined to take a position.
these fragmentary references testify to the wide diffusion of The Pool ofNectar,
Although
also
they
indicate
it was
that
used
Yemeni
the fifteenth-century
very
Jewish
A
selectively.
scholar
similar
who
Alu'el,
cited
instance
the
arises
yogic
in
case
the
on
teachings
positive and negative qualities of right- and left-hand breaths from The Pool ofNectar
of
exegesis
only
of
significance
the
While
should
took
a Biblical
scope
nevertheless
place
among
text
insofar
of
this
be
Indian
13:9).
(Genesis
In such
as it contributes
essay
pointed
Sufis
is limited
out
through
that
a case,
to the main
regional
point
to Arabic,
primarily
a more
the ultimately
extensive
Indie
that
the
Persian,
engagement
languages,
especially
Indian
was
is making.74
and Urdu
yogic
on
in his
material
author
with
of
the
it
sources,
tradition
the frontiers
of
Bengal and the Punjab. Itmay be that the process of translation into literary Persian and Arabic
72
John P. Brown, "On the Tesavuf, or Spiritual Life of the Soffees, Translated from the Turkish of Mohemmed
Missiree", Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society, 8 (1856), pp. 95-104, quoting the Hawd al-hayat on pp. 99?100;
reprinted in id., The Dervishes; or,Oriental Spiritualism (London, 1868), pp. 359-370, quoting the Hawd al-hayat on
where
the quotation from Hawd
p. 365; also reprinted in Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, s.v. "Sufi", pp. 6i5a-6i7b,
of a
author or text was translated here by Brown; a manuscript
al-hayat occurs on p. 616a. It is not clear which
Misri
Turkish catechism by Niyazi Muhammad
(d. 1697), similarly entitled As'ila wa ajwiba-i mutasavvifana (Resit
353, fols. 25?32, Suleimaniye Library, Istanbul), does not contain this passage.
73
in the
Richard
F. Burton,
Sindh (London,
1851; reprint ed., Lahore, 1971), pp. 199, 405. Unfortunately,
it is difficult to know which version of the text he had in mind. Several Persian
absence of the text of Nizamani
of the discourses
works by Mahmud
Nizamani
of Kara, including two collections
(malfuzat) of his master Pir
Muhammad
Rashid
III, p. 1383, no. 2481; III, p. 1548, no. 2846; III, p. 1840,
(d. 1827) are listed by Munzawi,
no. 3416.
Y Tzvi Langermann,
Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, Sacred Literature Series (San
Francisco,
1996), pp. 276-277.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 33
certain
imposed
of the highly
Hellenistic
or
romance
Hindi
specific
have
of
by Muhammad
Padmavat
Ja'isi,
a Chishti
orders.
The
Literary
composition
eastern
sixteenth-century
a far more
contains
Sufi,
because
tied to Islamic and
vocabulary
of Sufi
to this
difficulty.
less prone
whether
concepts,
religious
requirements
teaching
been
Indian
and psychological
cosmological
the
may
languages
transmission
the
developed
sources,
in local
on
limits
extensive
picture of yogic physiology and practice than The Pool ofNectar.75 The same is true of a host of
Bengali Muslim authors who explored the themes of yogic physiology and cosmology with
considerable
certain
themes,
yogic
Islamic
cakras
with
is even
There
a
find
A work
the cakras,
the nerves,
the
called
called
Goraksa-vijaya
the
identifies
in
deities
written
with
combined
Yoga-Qalandar
for Hindu
angels
nectar,
drinking
concepts,
metaphysical
substitutes
of Gorakhnath
biography
of
extensive
suggestively
and
stations,
mystical
full details
more
with
together
identifications.
Sufi
we
skill. Here
technical
and other
the
cakras.
aMuslim
by
author
named Fayd Allah.76 In the Indus region, while this level of immersion in yogic concepts
did not occur, the yogi became a popular figure in poetry written in Punjabi and Sindhi.
The writings of the great Sindhi poet and Sufi cAbd al-Latif B'hita'i (d. 1752) furnish a very
evaluation
positive
sannyasin,
with
a space
for
of
motifs
folklore
that
yogi
three
suggested
that
he was
of
the
a work
that discusses
of yogic
significance
"Baba Ratan
having
the ochre
One
of
his
the Hajji,
the
the
poetry,
region
the
yogic
themes
as the
mystical
of
translation
Much
teachings.79
in these
that is, Gorakhnath,
Much
is
The
It has
beloved.78
Pool
of Nectar
been
through
remains
to be
done
in the
literatures.
having
been
taught the Prophet
Rhetorical
of
evaluation
the nurse of the Prophet
the path
Strategies
and
[Muhammad],
of yoga".
Dabistan
of Sufis and Yogis
of the historical evidence for the interaction of yogis and Sufis appears to lie in Sufi
hagiographical
attempt
travelling
"Sur Ramkali",
-
Competing
a Hindu
like
while
Shah (d. 1758), a Punjabi Sufi poet,
yogi
Persian
of
cycles
and wandered
Indus
(d. 1735), author of the Dastur al-'amal or The Handbook
the reveredMessenger,
nourished
archetypal
with
robe
in the
of pilgrimage
places
years.
portray
familiar
his master Shah Tnayat Qadiri
Practice,
had worn
himself
to the praise of the ideal yogis.77 Bullhe
dedicated
used
the major
visiting
yogis
He
of yogis.
to
texts,
analyse
and
and
this material
classify
accounts
75
White, Alchemical Body, pp. 260-262.
76
For suggestive reviews of this literature,
is definitely
of yogis
written
in Sufi
from
literature
a Sufi
point
of view.
was
made
by
Simon
The
first
Digby
seeMomtazur Rahman Tarafdar, Husain Shahi Bengal 1494-538 A. D.,
no. 16 (Dacca, 1965), pp. 198-225;
A Socio-Political Study, Asiatic Socity of Pakistan Publication
id., "Influence
in Frederick De Jong (ed.), Shica Islam, Sects and Sufism:
of the Natha cult on the growth of Sufism in Bengal",
Historical Dimensions, Religious Practice andMethodological Considerations (Utrecht, 1992), pp. 97-104; Enamul Haq,
Sufi-ism in Bengal, pp. 368-422; David Cashin, The Ocean of Love: Middle Bengali Sufi Literature and the Fakirs of
1995).
Bengal (Stockholm,
77
Motilal Jotwani, Shah Abdul Latif: His Life and Work (Delhi, 1975), pp. 29, 33-34, 126, 140-141.
78
Denis Matringe,
"Krsnaite and Nath elements in the poetry of the eighteenth-century
Panjabi Sufi Bullhe
literature in South Asia: Current research, 1985-8 (Cambridge,
Sah", in R. S. McGregor
(ed.), Devotional
1992),
pp. 190-206; J.R. Puri and T. R. Shangari, Bulleh Shah, theLove-intoxicated Iconoclast (New Delhi,
1986), pp. 117-118,
169?170; Lajwanti Rama Krishna, Panjabi Sufi Poets A.D.
1460-igoo (New Delhi,
1973), pp. 71?74.
in Badakhshani,
"Adabi manzar",
p. 129; cf. Rama Krishna, pp. 65?66, where Shah
Maqbul Beg Badakhshani,
on the Jawahir-i khamsa of Muhammad
is also cited.
Ghawth
'Inayat's commentary
34Carl W. Ernst
in an oft-cited
of which
unpublished
involve
the
of
vanquished
a contested
which
and
5) casual
to
converts
to the
lore
of
and practices
of
In these
the yogis.
maintain
generally
even
that
the yogis
the yogi is
in
the yogi,
when
yogis
what
perform
that one
it is clear
stories
of the key issues is the rivalry between Sufis and yogis in terms of miraculous
sources
of
to conversion
leading
most
categories,
conversion
to the Sufi; 4) a Sufi's refusal of gifts from a yogi;
sacred site is yielded
reference
several
yogis and Sufis, in which
contests
3) magical
into
i) spontaneous
contests between
Islam;
stories
these
to Islam:
the yogis
in the presence of Sufis; 2) magical
and
classifies
Digby
paper.80
conversion
powers. The Sufi
to be miracles,
appear
these
in a different light than actual miracles performed by Sufi saints, who
are inspired by God. Following an old distinction, Sufi writers often classify the powers
must be considered
of
these
non-Muslim
with
contrasted
of
the perspective
concerns
charismatic
the
the
genuine
this
in yogic
Sufis
that
and
of
the five
as
inspiration,
to
From
perform.
of
categories
the first
practices;
four
stories
all
categories
superiority of the Sufis over
the religious and thaumaturgical
establishing
Satanic
saints
permits
one
only
techniques
of
(istidraf)
that God
(karamat)
it is remarkable
study,
of
interest
have to do with
as false miracles
figures
miracles
the yogis.
As
the
out,
points
Digby
numerous
accounts
hagiographic
encounters
of
Sufis
between
and yogis (or other Hindu figures) almost always depict the yogi acknowledging the superior
spiritual power of the Sufi.81 There is necessarily a theological element of triumph in this
kind of narrative. This is evident in a story told by Nizam al-Din Awliya' (d. 1325), describing
a yogi who challenged a Sufi to a levitation contest. While
the yogi could rise vertically
was
to
in
in the air, with God's help the Sufi
able
the direction of Mecca,
then to
fly first
the north and south, before returning to accept the submission of the yogi; the flight in
the
of Mecca
direction
basic
pattern
from
the
emerged
later Mughal
of the World-Axes,
Mucin
by
his
arrival
issued
to him
by God
orders
to unleash
holy
temples
there.
the
idol
local
yogi
Ajaypal
He
but
populace,
they
in Mecca.
the Kacba
on
the
infidel
arrived
all rendered
with
1,500
ineffective
by
He
and
king,
to harm
unable
but
followers,
saint's
the
as
the
ate
him.
Such
was
in Ajmer,
arousing
his
power
of
command
to
threatened
a cow,
or Lives
account
a divine
arrived
immediately
and
derive
al-aqtab
biographical
of
this
versions
Siyar
result
consequently
he
While
victory82
grandiose
In the
1647.
slaughtered
conspicuously
were
in
the
called
hagiography
is described
India
in the local temple converted
(dev)worshipped
were
from
war
in
the most
century,
Chishti
Ilah-diya
of
character
religious
the fourteenth
as in an extravagant
completed
Chishti,
the
of
period,
al-Din
the
indicates
surely
in texts
with
destroy
the wrath
that
the
deity
to Islam and became his disciple. Then
numerous
his
power.
In what
assaults
magical
becomes
a
typical
on
episode
of
the
the
Sufi
in this
kind of story, the yogi then took to the air and flew away on his deerskin, but the Sufi sent
his
and
shoes
up
converted
in the
to
air
Islam,
to beat
becoming
the yogi
a
into
disciple
humble
of Mucin
and
submission,
al-Din
and
so
at the
the
same
yogi
time
returned
gaining
80
Digby, "Encounters with Yogis". See also Simon Digby, Wonder-Tales of South Asia (Jersey, 2000), pp. 140?220,
"Medieval Sufi Tales of Yogis".
"The Tale of Gorakh Nath", pp. 221-233,
81
are related by Richard M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700; Social Roles of
Similar stories from the Deccan
132-133.
Sufis inMedieval India (Princeton, NJ, 1977), pp. 53-54, iio-ni,
82
Latif Malik
Nizam al-Din Awliya' Bada'oni, Fawa'id al-fu'ad, comp. Hasan cAla Sijzi, ed. Muhammad
(Lahore,
p. 12.
1386/1966), p. 84; trans. Lawrence, Morals for theHeart; cf. Digby, "Encounters",
Situating Sufism and Yoga 3 5
story then continues with
the boon of immortality. The
to
convert
Shihab
to
elements
to Islam
royal
well
as a
and
ideal
To
his
of
The
this
of
triumphal
on
thus
over
as confounding
the
the
"true
hymn,
his superiority to the Nath yogi Kanipha.86
The triumphal rhetoric of the tales of Sufis humbling
unusual
texts
pseudonymous
that
Sufi
under
This
several
treats
the
to be
the
most
same
but
the
Another
them.87
and
time,
of
founder
called
commonly
breath
control,
Indian
popular
the
remain
is the Risala-i
haft
seven
(d.
Nagawri
chapters
is
1295)
separately
and
sometimes
others,
entitled
with
a
classified
phrase
al-Din
on
Existence).
terms
Hindi
is found
that
yoga
by meditations
on
without
any
separate,
nam
called Haft ahhah (The Seven Friends), 2. composite work
al-Din
standard
of the great
Treatise
{The
Wujudiyya
using
on
of
yogic
the Arabic
to
attempt
on the Seven
Names),
(Treatise
in
manuscripts
Mucin
Chishtiyya,
an
by
occur
teachings
the Arabic
work
establishes
is matched
to the authorship
is followed
material
materials
yogic
such work
the
of an extremely
author
the yogic
and
Sufi
The
of
the
to the
appeal
imam
of yogic
Most
Sufis.
to
of
siddhas of his
similar
Ismacili
as
limited
biography
yogis
expositions
to well-known
'Arabi.
titles,
nerves
subtle
at the
of God,
integrate
said
different
physiology;
names
Ibn
master,
is likewise
Chishti,
extensive
are ascribed
in Istanbul libraries are attributed
of The Pool of Nectar
Andalusian
in which
phenomenon,
literary
A
the
on
emphasis
not
the Nath
yogi".85
in which
several
hagiography
were
important
Sultan
dimension
political
yogis
belongs
of
the
line between
is depicted
Ismacili
story
a strong
has
of
contains
particularly
encounters
the nature
in an
occurs
The
the
of one-upmanship
stories
teachings
yogi"
it crosses
triumphalism
Guru Nanak, who
profound
"true
the
These
class
al-Din,
so that
of Ajmer
victory
forthcoming
Sultanate.83
of Mucin
imperialism,
story's
the
proclaim
the Delhi
of
biographies
strident
one.84
theological
Sikh founder-figure,
day with
Sufi
historiography.
however.
Sufis,
establishment
in earlier
to
al-Din
Mucin
leading
the
and
missing
conversion
and
Islam,
al-Din,
the refusal of the Raja
also
attributed to the early Sufi Hamid
as a work
on
seven.
the number
containing
Each
alchemy.
The
of
the
second
chapter, by Gyan Nath the Yogi alias "Felicitous" (Persian sa'adatmanct), is entitled inHindi
as Sat sagar (The Seven Oceans), and iswritten inHindi with a Persian translation. The third
chapter,
The
scholar who
Seven
Stars,
is credited
to
Sulayman
Mandawi
(d.
a
1538?39),
prominent
had studied the Arabic version of the The Pool ofNectar with
83
trans. Simon Digby,
in
Ilah-diya Chishti, Siyar al-aqtab, pp. 124-133,
Mucin al-Din Chishti ofAjmer, Oxford University
South Asian Studies Series
84
Ernst, Eternal Garden, pp. 90?91.
85
1 (Oxford, 1909),
Max Arthur MacAuliffe,
The Sikh Religion, Volume
available online at <http://wwAv.sacred-texts.com/skh/tsri/tsri
i6.htm>; W.
P. M.
Currie,
(Delhi,
Muslim
cAbd al-Quddus
The Shrine and Cult
of
1992), pp. 72-81.
"Life of Guru Nanak: Chapter XIII",
H. McLeod,
Guru Nanak and the Sikh
Religion (Oxford, 1968), p. 141.
86
and Yogi Kahipha: Tantra Revisited
between Guru Hasan Kabiruddin
Khan, "Conversation
Dominique-Sila
in David Gordon White
in Religions
(ed.), Tantra in Practice, Princeton Readings
by the Ismacili Preachers",
(Princeton, NJ, 2000), pp. 285-295.
87
I have consulted copies of this and another Persian text on yoga ascribed to Mucin
al-Din Chishti, kindly
both entitled Risala-i wujudiyya. Munzavi
provided by Pir Zia Inayat Khan from his personal collection,
(III,
see also Muhammad
p. 2101-3, no. 3820) lists ten MSS of this title in Pakistan, the earliest dated 1084/1673-4;
Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Shafi' (ba-farsi 0 urdu 0 panjabi) dar kitabkhana-i Professor Doctor Mawlawi Muhammad
(Lahore, 1392 q./i35i
Shafi', ed. Ahmad Rabbani
SI1./1972), pp. 261-2, no. 305. A text with the same title in
Calcutta
(Ivanow, ASB Curzon 460/5) is attributed to Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakkar.
36Carl W. Ernst
but
Gangohi,
the
are obscure.88
authors
remaining
These
texts
yogic
appropriated
by
Sufi
tradition form a literary equivalent to the submission of yogis to Sufis (like that of Ajaypal
toMucin al-Din Chishti) in the later hagiographic legends.89
The
and
with
of
process
other
an
from
Muslims
the
was
appropriation
inter-religious
on
ascetics
of
fringes
date.
early
appear
society
The
not
Persian
entirely
one-sided,
been
to
to have
merchant
and
open
traveller
however.
friendly
Yogis
exchanges
ibn Shahriyar,
Buzurg
that the Kapalika ascetics of Ceylon
"take kindly to
The
Tibetan
Buddhist
historian
Taranath,
sympathy".90
in the thirteenth century, was critical of the Nath yogis for following Shiva rather
around 953, commented
writing
Musulmans
and show them much
writing
than
the Buddha,
the Turuskas
The
(Turks)".91
with
the
Indo-Muslim
Nath
yogi temple inNepal
to become
up
a
their
special
own
rumours
in person
from
of
interest
in a relatively
the
of
the
and
Islamic
he
became
was
Sufis
about
lands
been
of
his
accepted
evidence
about
over
the
figure
no
as one
who
over
born
the Prophet
years,
orders
the
yogis
and
their
as Abu
known
follower.
Thus
intermediary.
by
others,
claimed
such
as the
a
their
rulers
destruction
d. 1707), are common.93
of
rhetorical
also
inversion
to
from
judge
years
able
at this
challenged
famous
undoubtedly
Islamic
al-Rida
origins.
Ratan,
longevity;
and had
late date
by
Ibn Hajar
gone
to relate
some
Islamic
al-cAsqalani,
had
Baba
simply
is well
known
to
according
in India,
previously
picked
They
or
in 1243. He
in Arabia,
Muhammad
Although
after
Methuselah-like
six hundred
he was
on
of Muslim
destruction,
temple
and
Sufism
A mural
Awrangzeb.94
the
Sufi
of
with
efforts
a tradition
of
in the Punjabi village of Bhatinda
had
with
late
as part
to
opposed
sultans in the twelfth
temples
emperor Awrangzeb,
seen
be
stories
such
the
of yogi
even
not
emperors.
Muslims,
reconstruction
as historical
information
appearance
the Prophet
authenticity
the
with
conversations
account,
and Mughal
of hostile
probably
than
of
amount
throughout
his
and
rather
who was buried
Ratan,
were
encounter
their
mythologise
by Turkish
humiliation
should
proliferation
they
displays the submissive visit of the Ghurid
the
stories
authority
legendary
a fair
to
represented
of yogis,
triumphal
From
on
went
yogis
to say that
used
"They
(especially by the lateMughal
of Mughal
the
about
disciples
by Muslims
These
more,
culture
Legends
century.92
was
and what
had
heard
to meet
hadith
him
reports
scholars,
and
his
he was
88
Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Sherani (Lahore, 1969), III, p. 566; Munzavi,
Muhammad
III, p. 842, citing
also Rieu,
II, p. 486. Other MSS are cited by C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey (London,
1972), II, p. 438, no. 3.
89
On the general problem of pseudonymous
authorship in Sufi texts, see my "On Losing One's Head: Radical
inWorks attributed to Attar",
in Leonard Lewisohn
(ed.), Farid al-Din cAttar and the Persian Sufi
Hallajian Motifs
Tradition (London, forthcoming).
90
[1883-86], English trans.
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, The Book of theMarvels of India, French trans. L. Marcel Devic
Peter QuenneD
(New York, 1929), p. 132.
91
Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India, trans. Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya
(Simla, 1970), p. 320.
9~
in colour in the unnumbered
is reproduced
Bouillier, Ascetes et wis, pp. 68?65 (tms mural
plate on the
second-to-last
page before p. 129).
93
Ibid., pp. 116-118; Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis (Delhi, 1982), pp. 70 (Awrangzeb as rejected
92, 94?95, 105, 144 (Akbar as initiate). See also the account of a Nath yogi's relationship
disciple of Gorakhnath),
in David S.
"The Wonders
of Sri Mastnath",
with Shah cAlam II (d. 1809), translated by David Gordon White,
Lopez, Religions of India in Practice (Princeton, NJ, 1995), pp. 399-411.
94
Carl W Ernst, "Admiring theWorks of the Ancients: The Ellora Temples as viewed by Indo-Muslim Authors",
in David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence
(eds), Beyond Turk andHindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate
South Asia (Gainesville, FL, 2000), pp. 198-220.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 37
as patron
adopted
saint
of
the gardeners'
reasons
for
are a famous
The
Yogis
and
these
to them,
and Vishnu
Brahma
consists
the prophets
from
him.
The
are
of
are students
but
eat pork
according
from
fear of
Nath
today.
A
and
of
the
yogis'
of Hindus
be
of
to Gorakh,
the twelve
orders
tradition
recent
of
visitor
the
Panth
iswhat
and
communities,
they have
they
call a
coming
teachings
is attained
attained
of yoga. When
among Muslims,
with
Hindus,
they
is prohibited
or beef
and Christians,
in their
but when
things
even
if every
they
to the religion
according
they have
the
practice
sect, whether
of
from Gorakhnath,
path proceeds
still in their view
travelled
the path
that
of yoga.96
Islamic
incorporating
to
ones.
they
these].
the path
prayer,
of this group,
connected
Likewise,
was
trained by a
(peace be upon him)
cannot
say it. Rather
they
they say this,
been the nurse of the Prophet,
and having
having
ritual
alakh,
(Hindi
is Gorakhnath.
According
are students
[the yogis]
to be connected
to each of these.
but
whatever
the Prophet
the forbidden
In the belief
to one
Yogi
claim
the Muslims
taught
to the custom
sect may
is connected
of them
is that Muhammad
fasting
None
this group.
and others....
and every
angels,
alak
that is, perfect
saints,
[merely]
of Gorakhnath;
that is, Gorakhnath,
about
scrupulous
of
some
today
this group
the Hajji,
religion
Muslims
central
Nath
at
temple
its own
into
prophets
the
gives
Gorakhpur
is still
narrative
following
account:
surprising
I visited
Mandir
the Gorakhnath
a hall
adorned
Muhammad
Puranas
particular
with...
as well
of Muhammad,
This
of
(Persian payvastan),
call God
They
the Siddha
are
"to unite"
enumerates
the revered Messenger,
nourished
some
as
means
God.
[the author
panths...
that the masters
of all religions,
claim
belief
that Baba Ratan
things,
are among
just
and saints
of Gorakhnath,
student
alive
confidently
account
full
rather his Essence,
of twelve
(Jirqa). It is their
from
attained
of God,
and Mahesh
of Gorakhnath,
group
one
the chosen
and Cauranginath
and disciples
The
is the
Here
in Sanskrit
"Yoga"
to have
themselves
in their belief
Machhindernath
they
Islam.
of
spread
in India.
group
take
people
and
"pure"),
sect
successful
date
that Baba Ratan
of religious history, according to the Dabistan:
philosophy
This
the
a later
of
Yogis
had in fact been Gorakhnath,
into the practices of hatha yoga; this was one of
and that he had initiated the Prophet
the main
in Istanbul.95
guild
author of the Dabistan
told the Zoroastrian
was
with
statues
as of Abraham
in fact
a Nath
yogi,
my
of
wife
(and Jesus,
and
in February
the masters
claimed
etc.). Below
that the Mecca
was
we
1998. There
by
was
saw, among
the Nath
Statues
lineage.
a small board explaining
in fact
a Shaiva
centre,
other
were
known
that
in
asMakeshvar.97
incorporation
of Muhammad
into Hindu
tradition
has
not
been
publicised,
however.
95
"Baba Ratan,
the Saint of Bhatinda", Journal of the Punjab Historical Society, 2 (1913-14),
J. Horovitz,
cAbd al-Hayy ibn Fakhr al-Din al-Hasani, Nuzhat
al-khawatir wa bahjat al-masamicwa al-nawazir (2nd
pp. 97-117;
I:i 12-18. Manuscripts
of a collection of Persian translations of his hadith transmission
ed., Hyderabad,
1386/1966-),
are noticed by Munzawi,
III: 1544, no. 2838.
96
Shah [Muhsin Fani, attr.], Dabistan al-madhahib (Bombay, 1262/1846), pp. 149-150. Instead of "Baba
Mobad
amistake caused by misplacing
two dots. This error is
the lithograph text erroneously
reads "Baba Rin",
Ratan",
both in the recent Tehran edition and in the highly inaccurate
repeated, moreover,
Troyer; cf. The Dabistan or School ofManners, trans. David Shea and Anthony Troyer,
Williams
1901), pp. 239-240.
Jackson (Washington,
97
Letter of David DuBois,
4 June 2003.
1843 translation of Shea and
reprint ed. abridged by A. V.
38Carl W. Ernst
had
Yogis
a further
made
refrained
normally
from
to
observation
to
making
their
Zoroastrian
their
Muslim
which
interlocutor,
the
acquaintances:
they
of
power
spiritual
mosques could be easily explained by the striking resemblance of the mihrab (prayer-niche)
and the minaret towers to the yoni (vulva) and lingam (phallus) of Shaivite worship, for which
reason
the prayer-niche
these
accounts
of yogis
this
and
to
them
he
figures
as a Nath
figures
and
tradition,
in the
third
the
spread
Islam.
The
without
that
various
becoming
founder of the Sikhs, evidently belong
relativised
categories."
stories
sources
sacred
the
Ratan
in Indian
reasoned
yogis
of
at Mecca
experiences
which
and
The
together.98
for
responsible
had miraculous
mythologies,
Indian
in yogic
ensconced
scholar,
Indian
of
category
subordinated
firmly
saints who
found
always
were
features
including the famous story of Guru Nanak,
Muslims,
in
architectural
prominent
were
and minaret
of
to
unrelated
the
Islam
and
a name
case
is in any
Nath
hadith
long-lived
after Gorakhnath.100
generation
relationship between Islam and yoga is further complicated by the participation
in the Nath Yogi tradition. Out of the thirteen principal Nath sub-orders
of Muslims
The
described
despite
Handi
being
and
Pharang
originally
the Jafir
eat with
The
them.101
and
"miscellaneous
It is difficult
cent.102
but
are
they
an
still
Indian
1891
as
both
shrines,
or Qa'im
more
these
interpret
figures
index
of
a samadhi
drawn
of
has
both
the yogi
and Hindu
one
can
find
suggest;
yogis do
of
category
cent
17 per
of
had fallen to less than 5 per
of
of
the
of Muslim
social
context,
in recent
yogis
Islamised, or
became
orders.
Muslims
as administrators.
Muslim
and
of
themselves,
the
over
knowledge
existence
continuing
under
they were originally yogis who
ranks
the
yogis
and
a tomb,
and
into
the
without
of
the
sub-orders,
names
the Hindu
that
indicating
of Muslims
pilgrims
al-Din,
figures
all yogis
though by 1921 the proportion
ranks
the
listed
consists
Punjab,
as their
initiations,
to
interesting
were
who
Beyond
which
gave
vagrants",
times; it is impossible to tell whether
Muslims
the customary
census,
the
six minor
the
of
in composition,
also Muslim
and undergo
disreputable
yogis were Muslims,
are
Pirs,
Two
Shiva.
in
located
order,
Nagnath
from
derived
they are Kanphatas
although
not
or
the Rawal
one,
by Briggs,
Muslims
also
Ratan
Naths
of
as
known
for
built
have
examples
with
relationships
disciple,
who
followers
numerous
formed
this
kind
Kaya
him
of
yogi
Nath
separately
dual
religious
shrine for yogis in the Punjab and in the Deccan.103 The important yogi shrines of Hinglaj
(now in the province of Baluchistan in Pakistan) and Amarnath (in the Indian Himalayas)
for
have
those
their
annual
more
several
Hindu
case
the
ago
been
take
threatened
by
The
acquaintances.
and
of Muslims,
custody
a
good
by
who
the famous
of Amarnath,
centuries
pilgrimage
recently
in
been
In the
places.
discovered
to
centuries
ice
local Muslim
shepherds'
percentage
the
attempts
lingam
shepherds,
in the
the
to
revenue,
of Kashmiri
cave
who
descendants
of
the
regulate
day
though
militant
preside
their
groups
in
apparently
this
announced
this
rites
pilgrimage
there was
prodigy
over
the
position
has
to harass
the
98
Dabistan, p. 157; trans. Shea and Troyer, p. 251.
99
Ibid., p. 147 (Akamnath); trans. Shea and Troyer, p. 235.
100
gj-iggs^ Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, p. 92.
101
Ibid., pp. 66,71.
102
Ibid., pp. 4-6, with
1891 figures of 214,546 yogis in all India and 38,137 Muslim
yogis in the Punjab,
1921 figures of 629,978 Hindu yogis and 31,158 Muslim
yogis.
103
Ibid., p. 66; J. J. Roy Burman, Hindu-Muslim
Syncretic Shrines and Communities (New Delhi, 2002).
and
Situating Sufism and Yoga 39
At Hinglaj,
pilgrims.104
shrine
on
required
their
of
mark
with
the
to become
pilgrims
return
to
India
Shiva,
to
indicate
at one
that
that
were
they
remade
the
perform
the
Hindus;
elite
illustrate the difficulty of drawing firm lines separating Muslim
yogic
tradition.
allows
different
The
In
institutional
groups
of
identification
striking
When
have
you
examine
this
reached
is in the placenta,
though
and the water does
water,
is llyas,
and
precise
recalls
a
exhalation,
on
belly
The
in the Marathi
Gorakh
In
the
that
in the
summarised
esoteric
the
initiators
second
The
case,
as a
(peace
it
in the
and causes
be upon
the tree is Shaykh
and
as
the
him),
who
Caurangi,
fish
with
clearly
Caurangi
inhalation
with
dispensing
rests
Khidr
the
explains
and
loosely
association
spent three days in the
Nath)
(Caurangi
figures
and his name
Nath,
case
first
The
problematic.
comparison
the
of Matsyendra
disciple
closely
while
it breathes
in its veins
the Prophet Jonah, who
obscure.
of you,
it breathes
of life (V. 4).
breath
embryo's
how
is Khidr
is elusive
exercise.106
the
is more
tradition
orders,
ambiguity
2) the fish, how
and
the water
identification
breathing
case
third
is Jonah,
reached
("lord of the fish") with
a fish.
dealt
they
Sufi
identities in the
characteristic
it attracts water
who
Gorakh,
who
have
of
water.
with
of Matsyendra
of
is Shaykh
embryo
of yogic
goal
association
his
the
be
and
embryo,
respire;
it; 3) and the tree, how
this
of
profound
tradition
1) The
not
does
womb
enter
of
Indian
ancient
its mother's
associations
a brand
contradiction.
finally
becomes
this condition
[Matsyendranath],
significance
the Nath
and discrimination:
are the ones who
they
and
station,
not
may
yoga
how
for the first time in The Pool ofNectar.
thought
The
is Shaykh Minanath
fish
The
its heights.
of
a
the
Consequently,
told
circles
of
of
receive
and Hindu
exhibit
sense
any
and
Sufism
the founder-figures
things with
three
it to reach
ownership
is announced
of Islamic lore, which
without
between
relationship
ambiguous
shrines
dual-use
terms,
to claim
rituals.
are not
the
in charge
would
pilgrims
we
fall outside
which
examples,
to
Karachi,
woman
aMuslim
time
in order
Muslims
at a site near
proper,
These
circumcision.105
is told
story
alongside
comes
in
up
various lists of Siddhas.107 llyas (Elijah) is one of the figures in Islamic lore who was granted
immunity from death, and he is often pictured as flying in heaven like a bird and sitting in a
tree. Tibetan
devoted
of
improper
was
left
Matsyendra
tree
tradition
to
the
a tree
with
as the witness
of Elijah's
breath
practice
deathless
control,
siddhas.
eighty-four
advances
under
the
traditions
preserves
There
by his
stepmother;
in
forest,
the
assistance
but
abode.
expressed
is the underlying
In any
as a
was
the
case,
these
of
the
in the biographical
as a
is described
punishment,
he
subsequently
saved
The
restoration
through
theme
Caurangi
of Gorakh.108
to the miraculous
to Caurangi
relating
three
parallel
of Caurangi
identifications
allegories.
comparison
Thus
between
suffered
here
prince
breath
the
rests
and
loosely
accused
and
and
yoga
by
on
the
as the
paradisal
the practice
around
control
Sufi
into
initiated
probably
revolve
falsely
dismemberment
and
s limbs,
literature
and
yogic
site
of
meditative
traditions.
Saba Naqvi Bhaumik,
1994.
"Journeys End", Indian Express, 7 August
105
109-110.
Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, pp. 106-107,
106
Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, pp. 110, 395, 419; cf. also the Chinese concept of embryonic breathing,
ibid., pp. 59-62.
Das Gupta, Obscure Religious Cults, pp. 203, 208; cf. p. 200 for an etymology.
108
Keith Dowman,
trans., Masters ofMahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas, SUNY
Series in Buddhist Studies (Albany, 1985), pp. 81-90.
Carl W. Ernst
40
The
rhetorical
effect of
but
appropriation,
and
dependent
such
Islamic prophets with
identifying
a radical
claim
could
seems
Discomfort
inauthentic.
to
amount
to have
Hindu
the
making
arisen
in several
is one
yogis
claimed
of
tradition
A Muslim
quarters.
objection appeared in a polemical text of uncertain date entitled Huff at al-Hind or The Proof
in story form. One of the
of India, which takes the form of aMuslim critique of Hinduism
as
text
criticisms of the
is directed against the Nath yogis,
follows: "Yet they have no proof
they can show or establish, except idle tales and verses (caupad)which the Yogis have
ascribed to them [the Naths]. They also say, 'We talk of Gorakh and you of the Prophet
Khidr; we talk of Cauranga and you of Ilyas;we ofMacchendar and you of the Prophet Yunus
which
[Jonah]'. This also is false: nay, it is unbelief
occurs
which
but
in The
are
the figures
Nath,
On
Pool
ofNectar,
but
the
ofNectar,
same.
the
the other
that
as away
the
reverse
triumphalism
of
have
may
manner.
the
their
was
comparison
of Ratan
the mythology
to Islam
relationship
the
with
originated
is no way
There
and meditation,
control
like
identification,
of constructing
is briefer than that
comparison
to breath
references
this
comparison
the
in precisely
inevitable
It is possible
hand,
(few/r)".109The
the
omitting
the yogis
among
originated
narrative.
Pool
to decide
this
seen
evidently
through
of The
translator
as
at present,
issue
not
problematic,
only by Muslims but also by Hindus.
A similar reference to The Pool ofNectar occurs in the Dabistan-i madhahib or The Academy
to which
of Religions,
in
in Persian
reference
brief
has
India
seventeenth-century
in which
Zoroastrian
the work
tradition;
Jones
it, seeing
on
work
authoritative
for
critical
to
approach
author
of
strands
Indian
nineteenth-
religious
early
and
as
history
regarded as an
of Orientalism,
period
of
of Zoroastrian
descriptions
Sir
by
scholars
a fraud.
but
thought
religious
twentieth-century
nothing
belonging
reinterpretation
The Dabistan was highly
the
written
and mystical
philosophical
extensive
instance,
during
religion
but
instance,
its creative
for
was
Dabistan
the basis for an original mystical
contains,
comparative
The
a Zoroastrian
complex
and
to yogic meditations.
corresponding
techniques
made.
Shah,
Illuminationism,
Ishraqi
(including yoga) form
and practice
William
Sufism,
by Mobad
text is a highly
to the school of Adhar Kayvan. This
treatise,
been
already
rejected
Iranian
Modern
scholars in especially have been particularly harsh in their criticism of this work. Much
the
fanciful
into
the
vocabulary
standard
early
an embarrassment.110
that
this
dictionaries
In any
case,
it was
also
text
to
attributed
an
of Persian,
the
author
of
ancient
event
Iranian
that
the Dabistan
sages was
current
philologians
remarks
as follows
of
incorporated
as
regard
concerning
The Pool ofNectar:
I saw the Amritakunda;
Life). There
it is said, "Gorakhnath
translated
into Persian,
is an expression
and entitled
for Khidr,
Hawd
and Machhinder
al-hayat
(The Pool
[Matsyendra]
of
for
109
Mihrabi, Hujjat al-Hind, trans. Digby, "Encounters",
p. 4. Digby dates this text to around 1400 and locates it
in the Deccan, but Munzavi
(II, pp. 952-954, no. 1613; II, p. 1086, no. 1852) dates this to the period of Shahjahan,
although the oldest of the nine MSS he describes (no. 4642, in a Peshawar library) is dated to the ninth/fifteenth
(no. 1809).
(no. 221) and 1055/1645
century. Marshall gives two dates: "not later than 1084/1673"
110
See H. Corbin, "Adar Kayvan", Encyclopedia Iranica, III, pp. 183-187, along with the editor s critical addendum
the
"Dabestan-e Madaheb",
ibid., VI, pp. 532-534, where
directly refuting Corbin; cf. also Fath-Allah Mojtaba'i,
is discussed as well. A brilliant new interpretation of the Dabistan
and the Zoroastrian
evidence for authorship
"Contested Memories:
is provided by Mohamed
of the Adhar Kayvan movement
Tavakoli-Targhi,
historiography
Iranian Studies, 29 (1996), pp. 149?175.
of Iran's Pre-Islamic History",
Narrative Structures and Allegorical Meanings
Situating Sufism and Yoga 41
as often
is baseless;
in the Amritakunda
[Jonah]". This opinion
or Brahma
so frequendy
the name of Alakh
appears, which
Yunus
from The Pool ofNectar
The quotation
the Persian
translation
to Caurangi
with
or
alakh
alleged
prophet
two
these
between
contest
for
"When
of
better
of divinity,
rather
supremacy
the Dabistan,
was
control
was
not
his
than
an
an
of
explanation
equal
rejected
the
is divine and
of
point
likely
was
narratives
common
about fasting
this
power;
that Gorakh
acknowledged
are scrupulous
yogis]
informants,
in spiritual
rhetorical
competing
as
to either
implausible, because
the most
admittedly
of
construction
they [the Nath
among Muslims,
with Hindus,
the
groups,
of
contemporary
referred
or his
yogi
traditions as ultimately
of Gorakh
equivalent
breath
So while
prophet.
reference
the
since
mistaken,
dismissal raises the rhetorical stakes by declaring
contemptuous
no mere
author
the
was
history
as a manifestation
Either
as the
text) follows
to omit
it is abbreviated
but
sacred
of the Sufi and yogic
the identification
Islamic
Islamic
Gorakhnath
Brahma.
the god
from
figures
viewed
tradition
to V. 4 of the Arabic
(corresponding
Ghawth,
speak of Gorakhnath,
the author of the Dabistan felt that the identification
and llyas. Evidently
yogis
archetypal
yogic
of Muhammad
as they
is correct.111
contact
a
of
part
origin.
but when
and ritual prayer,
the religion of this group".
they practice
-
Dabistan
Conclusion
can we
How
us sum up
Let
groups, with
as
roles
situate
meaningfully
Indian
the evidence.
overlapping
and Nath
Sufis
in the
yoga,
yogis
some
yogic
of
light
as
other
and with
discipline
were
practices
a certain
to
discussion?
the preceding
each
regarded
interests in psycho-physical
While
leaders.
spiritual
and
Sufism
distinguishable
often competing
extent
compatible
Sufi disciplines, it is historically impossible to derive one entire system from the other.
Different Indian Sufi groups, particularly the Chishti and Shattari orders, incorporated certain
yogic practices into their repertory of techniques, but this addition did not fundamentally
with
alter
the
Sufi
texts
was
and
take
account
narratives,
of
the esoteric
Sufi
All
without
of
these
a stubborn
observations
extent
I would
suggest
did
The
sense
that we
show
can
source
for
alike
yogis
both
felt
texts,
took
the
the
of Nectar
of knowledge
about
need
the
of
competing
the hadith
of primordial
identification
to
periodically
form
Ratan
identification
on
insistence
repeated
like Baba
figures
and
the
in
infrequent
Pool
The
origin.
the diffusion
acknowledgement
liminal
were
instance,
of Qur'anic
scholar,
yogis
of Sufi
with
and yogic
of difference.
that we
suggest
Sufis
this
of yogic
If it is true
essentialism.
to what
Islam.
and
stories,
authorship
prophets
reveals
and
group,
conversion
including
pseudonymous
themes
other
the
Sufis
languages.
for
mantras,
formulas
literary
single
important
Islamicate
Hindi
practices;
to Arabic
subordinate
clearly
through
Sufi
existing
the most
probably
yoga
of
character
that
resistance
answer
must
this
find
a way
assimilated
Sufis
to
to describe
and
question
best
adapted
yoga
incorporating
by
dividing
into
this
certain
their
sense
of difference
yogic
own
the material
practices,
worldview?
into
three
111
Shah [Kaykhusraw Isfandiyar, attr.], Dabistan-i madhahib, ed. Rahim Riza-zada
Dabistan, p. 153; Mobad
as lak). The English
1 (2 vols., Tehran, 1362/1983),
I, p. 162 (where Alakh ismisspelled
Malik, Adabiyyat-i Dasatiri,
incorrect at this point.
translation of Shea and Troyer is hopelessly
42Carl
separate
and
categories:
the abstract
as individuals,
yogis
of
priation
even
to wary
of
range
in
data
Indie
Islamicate
three
with
yogis
A
Vishnu.
to
is equivalent
112
prayer
of
strategies
most
that
The
text,
to aMuslim
a
for
Pool
this
of
process
to present
adopted
of Nectar,
the
a number
presents
is Abraham,
yogi
term
fapa
(murtad).
or counted
or
to duca
is equivalent
sacrifice
is
and Moses
is an ascetic
the Hindi
or
homa
a
and
practices;
and
invocation,
to reduce
in addition to the identification of
(calim),
of minor
Sufis
and
yogis,
possible
assessing
that Brahma
scholar
couple
or
cazima
told
for
issue
translation
are also
it is not
and
appro
complete
techniques,
rejection;
critical
notable
we
prophets,
is equivalent
are also
provided
Equivalents
A
ranging
group,
practices
yogic
from
meditation
Islamic and Indie personalities;
Islamic
brahmin
the
Sufis,
identifiable
to
both
regard
chants,
complete
formula.
Our
garb.
even
and
single
of
character
of identifications between
the
a
control,
to an
belonging
With
among
spectrum
(breath
approval
to
reactions
is the
assimilation
material
yogic
doctrine.
religious
is a variable
Ernst
as individuals
yogis
as a
of yoga
there
certain
goddesses)
this
practices,
yogic
notion
W.
prayer.
some
Yet
Sufi
extremely
literature
not
spelled
at
have
been
mantra
or mentioned,
in detail
and
length
subordinated
these
critical
and
categories
they
refer
terms
for
with
Only
of The
readers
While
originals.
of
seems
there
of
the benefit
Pool
Nectar
kindred
a clear
to be
can we
texts,
of Sufi
was
teaching
irrelevant
without
powerful
It would
old
of
of origins
and
about
the very
see
in the
recent
as a text,
not
tradition
is based
the
important
the
influences
and
of
of
attempt
a
say
of
terms;
faulty
significance
only
by modern
Islam,
continue
of
of
on
the
front
no
the
existence
Indie
of
the
called
something
a Sufi
perspective
separate
completely
hatha
essentialism
yoga
of
concept
contributes
nothing
difference.
of
scholars.
to fuel
was
Sufism
a tradition
of
by
proposing
lectionary
are
in
reality
page
of
the New
about
Luxenburg's
white
York
textual
raisins
Times,
"strong
authority,
as one
to unveil
that
a
announcement
projects,
grandiose
(a pseudonym)
on
based
triumphant
Anxieties
such
in this way
a Christian
the Qur'an
of
source
the
as a
yoga
likewise
language
Luxenburg"
in Syriac,
reading
featured
as
of
was
there
of
into
assimilated
concept
of historical
yoga
but
virgins
to be
that
be
the
to
unavailable
the discursive tradition
existence
independent
could
Sufi
abstract
"Christoph
in Arabic,
"white-eyed"
enough
about
detected
written
to
apparent
existence
on
practices
is no
highly
debate
denying
yogic
safe
The
the
there
this phenomenon
Orientalist
misreading",
be
entity.
understanding
The
short,
probably
as a separate
Sufism
In
effort.
to make
enough
because
precisely
much
system.
that
practice
restore
plausibly
Sufis
among
recognition
were
which
resources,
Indological
and
Nath Yogis as a sociological group, and of their practices as distinctive,
to our
yogic
by Arabic
represented
are
cakra
are described
is replaced by dhikr, yantra by shakl (shape), cakra by mawdac (place), and yoga itself by
premodern
yoga
and
(diagram),
to which
All
to Islamicate
yantra
In all this
ever mentioned.113
is scarcely
yoga
mantra,
phenomena
examples.
this account.
from
missing
term
terms
the
although
entirely
the
the yogis,
technical
numerous
with
completely
(asceticism).
riyada
of
important
extremely
out
are
terms
yogic
practices
discussing
the
Likewise,
important
entire
the
can
the Qur'an
Islamic
announcement
was
which
considered
does
not
112
See Ernst, "Islamization of Yoga", Chart 4, for these translations.
113
"the endless sound
Shah Kalim Allah in passing refers to the postures of yoga (baithak-i jog) and also mentions
. . which
.
in yoga (jog) they call anahid [anahita]" (Kashkul-i Kalimi, pp. 30, 39). But these mentions
(sawt-i sarmadt),
of yoga (jog) are extremely rare.
Situating Sufism and Yoga 43
often
views
the mysticism
is most
that
to the
history
of
a more
appropriate
is not
one
In this
sense,
the
future
can
be
will
relevant
be
for
the
their
Despite
historical.
Age
of
position
appeals
such
Against
or the web
to
to
approaches
and
explain
to the broader
subsequent
the original.
is not
influence.
For
public
114
New
The
but
rather
roots
from
pattern
of an invisible
of
interpretation.
Wendy
beyond
common
with
a banyan
tree, which
its branches
must
(other
roots
origin
an
have
that
variants)
is rather
like a Venn
spider.115
traditions
to the
hostage
religious
no
narratives
of banyan
religious
held
non-essentialist
spheres
forms
of diffused
categorising
that
these
alternate
categorisation:
to favor,
used
so many
difference
source
of
of
offer
for the network
was
resemblances,
polythetic
constructions
down
can
form
I think,
tell which
longer
to historical
attention
authoritative.
is particularly
approaches
we
provisional
sends
of family
diagram
these
universalism,
tree that folklorists
root but
can no
of
contest
that
spirituality
the New
Meanwhile,
philology.114
it is least
because
authentic,
metaphor,
the family
original
of
and their quest to find the essential origins of religion either in debunked
in a bland
favours
Doniger
An
or
texts
Semitic
as forms
yoga
neither
religions,
strong misreadings,
sacred
and
Sufism
on
tomes
large German
with
happen
essentialism
studies
a
an
of
and
flexibility
all-or-nothing
scholars,
interpretations
the
offer
an
comparativist
important
religion
task
in a way
for
that
academy.
York Times (2March 2002). Luxenburg's book was also the subject of an article in Newsweek
(25 July
2003), which was banned in Pakistan. For a critical review of Luxenburg's book, see Francois de Blois inJournal
of Qur'anic Studies, 5 (2003), pp. 92-97. For the importance of the debunking of the Qur'an as a theme in recent
Euro-American
culture, see Ernst, Following Muhammad, Chapter 3.
The Implied Spider, p. 139. For a Venn diagram-style
of Chishti Sufism, see Ernst and
Doniger,
description
Lawrence,
Sufi Martyrs
of Love, pp. 2?4.