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...


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