AR Bhat
While there is no doubt that the Heaven on Earth, Kashmir, settled within the lap of snow-clad mountains is world famous for its apple orchards, the shade of fallen Chinar, lush green grass meadows, Valley’s, impressive Dal Lake, Mughal Gardens’, it’s equally renowned for the Sufi culture. Ancient Jammu and Kashmir has been a protected place of stay and meditation for the Saints, Sufis, Rishis and different devoted worshippers of God. History suggests that these saints belonged to completely different religions that include Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. Sufism evolved and developed a philosophy among Muslims that emphasized bonds of affection with and surrender to the Almighty.
Kashmiris refer to their land as Pir Vaer or Rishi Vaer, the Valley of Rishis and Sufi Pirs. Islam came to Jammu and Kashmir via Central Asia and soon was accommodated among the Kashmiri ethos, that formed the diverse factors of Sufism. One of the the most important Sufi saint of Jammu and Kashmir in the 14th century was, Iranian saint, Mir Sayyed Ali Hamdani R.A. He is credited with having secured various conversions to Islam, owing mainly to his own teachings and his personal appeal. He was instrumental in spreading principles of the Kubrawi Sufi order within the region. A product of this primary encounter between Islam and native traditions in medieval Jammu and Kashmir was the Muslim Rishi movement, the sole indigenous Sufi order in Jammu and Kashmir. Rishism, as it developed over time, depicted a fierce challenge each to the courts of the Sultans also as the Brahmanic institutions. While rooted inside the broader Muslim tradition, it stressed universal values like peace, harmony, love and fraternity between all creatures of God, regardless of faith. Thus, it had a remarkably universal charm. The Muslim Rishis came to be held in great esteem by even those that remained wedded to their ancestral religion. The shrines of the Rishis grew into popular places of pilgrimage for both Muslims as well as Hindus, bringing them together in common participation.
The origins of the Rishi movement go back to pre-Islamic times. in the Vedic period, Rishis retired to caves in forests and mountains to meditate and subject themselves to stern austerities. In the later Buddhist era, Rishis took the form of bhikkhsus, who lived a simple life and dedicated themselves to serving the poor and the impoverished.
The founding father of the Muslim Rishi movement in Jammu and Kashmir, Nuruddin Nurani (1377-1440), wanted to mould the pre-existing Rishi tradition, remodeling it into a vehicle for the spread of Islam, using local institutions and ways to create Islam more acceptable to the Kashmiris. He was well-known, not only as a Saint, Rishi, and religious head of Jammu and Kashmir but also as an excellent author and poet who, through his verses, educated Kashmiris the importance of Islamic virtues of justice, sincerity, equality, truth, morality and spirituality. He has been the saviour of the Kashmiri language and did open new chapters within the literature of Kashmir. He nurtured the ‘Koshur’ language that played a major role in establishing the identity of Kashmiris.
NUND RISHI, or, as his Hindu followers remember him, Sahazanand, propagated Islamic teachings, a universal message that stressed love, tolerance and service and at the same time crusaded against social injustice. Nund Rishi’s understanding of Islam was broad and open to inspiration from people of different faiths also. Many of Nund Rishi’s verses contain a biting critique of empty ritualism, a call for social justice and an appeal to acknowledge the common humanity of Hindus and Muslims. After Nund Rishi’s death, the Rishi movement spread further in Kashmir underneath his numerous deputies. Like their master, they, too, played a central role in the peaceful spread of Islam within the region, whereas also bitterly critiquing social injustices, inequalities and superstitions, and also the oppression of the Brahmin priests. They also propagated the message of love and harmony between Hindus and Muslims. Till this day, the Kashmiris, both Muslim as well as Hindu, consider Nund Rishi as the religious and cultural symbol of their land.