The Sandal Ceremony at Pirana: Sharing a Sacred Space
Each year, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Ramzan, the sandal
ceremony or sacred bathing of the tomb of Imam Shah is celebrated with
much solemnity on the occasion of the death anniversary of the saint, also
referred to as Urs. When we arrived in the morning the open courtyard was
already bustling with activities. But in the late afternoon the crowd became
thicker, as the time for the sandalwood ceremony (chandan vidhti) was
wearring. The formal members of the Satpanth are far from being the only
visitors to the dargiih. If the opposing parties had decided to engage in a
relentless war, the ordinary devotees had firmly resolved to celebrate the Urs
as liguai. Clad in white drapery, a Hindu worshipper of Imam Shah who was
not a follower of the Panth (he was from the Rabari caste) was repeatedly
circumambulating the main shrine: he explained to one of us that he had been
cured of a certain disease by the grace of the Pir and was coming regularly to
the dargah after his vow had been fulfilled. Sunnis from the nearby villages
were devotedly offering chadars (ornate clothes laid on the graves of Sufi
saints), incense and flowers to the grave of Hazar Beg, the Persian disciple of
Imam Shah, and as I approached the huge flagstaff on the top of which an
immaculate white flag was fluttering in the breeze (was it white because of
the Suhrawardi connection or because it was the colour of Atharva Veda?). 1
caught sight of a group of women sitting on its platform and reading the
Quran. They invited us to join them and soon revealed themselves to be
Twelver Shias from the Nurshahi Momin Jamat.62 When we came back to
Imam Shah’s tomb, which was the main center of attraction, we saw a
saffron-clad sadhu standing near the gate, rosary in hand, murmuring some
mantras, while a fakir wearing black clothes and a black turban was
performing a similar exercise.
This was the striking, reassuring image of a peacefully shared space.
Early in the afternoon the Kaka had come to perform certain rituals before
returning to the first floor where he quietly sat on a chair in front of his
room. In the sacred enclosure the white Nanak Das Patel, the karbharï
(religious functionary in charge of the shrine) was standing in front of the
gate to the samadhi in the golden light shed by the last rays of the sun, while
the dark Nuruddin Sayyid, one of the leaders of the Sadat Committee, was
thoughtfully pacing the platform in the shade, behind the shrine.
Strange as it may seem, the Pirzada had not come to honour the
ceremony. However, we could feel his invisible presence everywhere, as
when he had told us, during our last interview: zamana kharab haï ...(we
are living in a dark age) but it will be soon the end of the Kali Yuga and
the time will change...
<< Previous
| Table of Contents
|