Muslim Saints of South Asia: The eleventh to ... - blog blog blog

THE OLD MAN OF AJMER
classical Urdu poetry of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Mir
Taqi Mir (1722–1810) wrote:
Sajda us āstān kā na jiskō hu’ā nașī b
Wŏh apnē ĕ‘tiqād mēñ insān hī nahīñ
One who failed to bow his head at this threshold,
I am sure, is not a human being at all.
(Kulliyat-i Mir 1968: 212)
Although the reference here is, as always, to the threshold of the
beloved’s house, the word sajda, used by Mir, stands exactly for
prostration in the course of prayers, when the faithful brings his
forehead in contact with the ground.
Majāl kyā ki terē ghar mēñ pāñ’oñ nahīñ rakhūñ
Yĕh ārzū hai mirā sar hō tērī ćaukhaţ hō
What power have I to set foot in your house?
All I desire is that my head and your threshold (should
come together).
(Matthews and Shackle 1972: 101)
In this bait from Imambakhsh Nasikh (who died in 1838), the image
is also based on ritual gesture: the head of the lover/the faithful
and threshold of the beloved’s house/shrine blend with each other.
Stepping inside the house is, of course, impossible, as it is forbidden.
As Mirza Ghalib (1797–1869) stated:
Us fitna khū kē dar sē ab uţhte nahīñ Asad,
Is mēñ hamārē sar pĕh qiyāmat hī kyoñ na hō
Asad, we will not raise ourselves from the threshold of
that disturber of the peace,
Even if Doomsday were to pass right over our heads.
(Diwan-i Ghalib 1957: 72)
A pilgrim, performing ziyārat to the tomb of a saint, often crawls
towards it, as if measuring with his own body the space separating
him from the shrine, and then prostrating himself near its threshold,
lies there for a long time. Ghalib’s verse contains a distant allusion
to this ritual behaviour.
However, let us come back to the history of the dargāh in Ajmer.
Akbar also had to adjudicate in the protracted dispute between
descendants of Khwaja Mu‘inuddin regarding the right to be the pīr
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