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A brief look at Mahdavia, Roshanaiya and other religious movements of the 15th and 16th century India
In the first part of this essay, we looked at the various strands of Protestantism in Europe and in the second part we drew some parallels with the Bhakti movements in India. In this third and final part of the essay, we will discuss the religious movements in the 15th and 16th century India that mainly sprouted from and affected the Muslims.
A contemporary of Kabeer in India and Erasmus in Europe was Syed Muhammad Jaunpuri (1443 - 1505). While Kabeer protested the Brahmin and Mullah hierarchies, and Erasmus called for reforms in the Catholic Church, S M Jaunpuri was a combination of both.
In the mid-15th century, Jaunpur was part of the Sharqi dynasty that had separated itself from the Tughlaq rule in the 1390s. This dynasty lasted for almost 90 years till 1480 when the Lodhi dynasty once again incorporated this region into the Delhi Sultanate. That was the period in the Indian history when Taimur’s invasion of 1398 had rendered the Delhi Sultanate almost paralysed, and an overall feeling of despondency among both the Hindus and Muslims of India had prevailed. In this situation, the religion was one of the battlegrounds.
From among Hindus, the Bhakti movement had tried to revive religion in two different ways. One was the path taken by guides such as Kabeer and Nanak who opposed exploitation by religious hierarchies. The second was a more passive approach of poets such as Chaitanya, Vallabhacharya, Surdas, Meerabai, and Tulsi Das who devoted their lives to bringing people closer to their gods, especially to Krishna. Religious songs and dances were the hallmark of this movement that served as a lullaby for the common folks. Among Muslims, the religion was taking a different turn.
Perhaps the first Muslim to shake the religious tranquility of that period was S M Jaunpuri whose Mahdavi movement survives to date mostly as Zikri Mahdavis in Irani Khorasan, Pakistani Balochistan and Sindh; and Farah in Afghanistan. Though the early religious education of S M Jaunpuri was within the Chishti order of mysticism, he soon deviated from it to declare himself the promised saviour, Mahdi. He claimed to have received divine calls informing him that he was the promised Mahdi. Like other mystics of his time, Jaunpuri’s life events also seem to be exaggerated and shrouded in many myths.
In Jaunpur, he had a large following and a good patron in Sultan Husain Sharqi who was impressed by Jaunpuri’s scholarship and spiritual attainment. After the end of the Sharqi dynasty and the annexation of Jaunpur into the Lodhi Sultanate, S M Jaunpuri moved out of Jaunpur at the age of 40. He reached Gujarat in 1480s and attracted thousands of followers. Gujarat at that time was ruled by Sultan Mahmud Begada of the Muzaffarid dynasty that ruled over Gujarat for almost two centuries from 1390s to 1580s.
Begada remained the Sultan of Gujarat for over 50 years from 1460 to 1510. S M Jaunpuri was severely opposed by the religious leaders of Gujarat who forced him to leave. Like Kabeer and Nanak, he is also believed to have travelled a lot to faraway places such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Arabia. S M Jaunpuri is reported to have gone for Haj where he declared himself the Mahdi but almost nobody believed him. After a few years, he came back to Gujarat and announced his Mahdavi movement. His claims of divine revelations were again mocked by the local religious leaders and he had to flee.
Just like the Protestant leaders of Europe and the Bhakti followers in India, S M Jaunpuri did not follow the already established religious schools, and stressed on directly consulting and following the scriptures as the basic source of religion. But unlike the Protestants, Jaunpuri followed the principle of Tarki Dunya i.e. renunciation of the world and seclusion from the people, which Mahdavis or Zikris mostly practice in old age after getting married and raising children. In the teachings of Jaunpuri, the quest for the vision of God and the zikr i.e. constant meditation and repetition of the names of God -- both loudly and quietly -- had some similarity with the Bhakti movement.
Bhaktis also cherished the visions of their own gods such as Krishna, and recitation of Bahjans whose pattern was like the zikr. Just like Protestants, S M Jaunpuri said that his main purpose was to restore his religion to its pristine form. He talked about the revival of Sharia and lawfulness. Though Mahdavis or Zikris claim to respect other religious schools of thought, they have more similarities with the Hanafis than with any other. They perform zikr mostly after dawn and before dusk. For the propagation of his teachings, the Mahdavis established settlements that became hub of their activities and propagation.
Perhaps the most devastating to his own movement was his claim that whoever did not trust him as Mahdi was an infidel (Kaafir). After Jaunpuri’s death in 1505, his movement became militant. Finally, the Gujarat Sultanate under Muzaffar Shah-II (1511 - 1526) persecuted it. The second Mahdavi caliph Bandagi Miyan Khundmir and his disciples who had renounced the world for remembering God with zikr, faced organised persecution. In 1523, Khundmir, along with hundreds of his followers, was killed in Champaner, Gujarat.
His tomb still attracts his devotees. Now, some Mahdavis also live in South India and Jamiat-e-Mahdavia in Bangalore has a booklet Aqida Sharifa (the Sacred Belief) on its website. It is a biography of Syed Khundmir translated into English by Syed Ziaullah. In Balochistan, near Turbat, Zikris go to Ziarat (pilgrimage) to the Mountain of Desire (Koh-e-Murad) where S M Jaunpuri is believed to have stayed in 1504. In Pakistan, their current population is in parts of Makran, Lasbela, Quetta, and in Karachi, especially in Lyari. In India, they are scattered in Hyderabad, Telangana; and in Mysore, Karnataka.
Almost at the same time in 1520s when Luther and Zwingli were launching their protestant movement in Germany and Switzerland, Guru Nanak was propagating his message of a new theology, and Syed Khundmir was fighting to preserve the Mahdavi movement of S M Jaunpuri, another religious leader was born in Jalandher in 1525. His name was Bayazid Ansari of Ormur tribe from Waziristan. He later became known as Pir Roshan and founded his Roshanaiya Movement of religious reforms. He is also reported to have travelled a lot and spent time with diverse religious groups including Ismailis and Hindu Yogis.
Bayazid Ansari’s teachings appear to be a combination of Bhakti, Ismaili, Mahdavi, and Sufi traditions. Just like Guru Nanak, Pir Roshan’s approach was also eclectic drawing from various religious ideologies. He was a strong believer in wahatul wujood of Ibn Arabi, who was criticised by the orthodox Muslims. Just like S M Jaunpuri, Pir Roshan also had a feeling of a great mission to fulfil and engaged himself in Zikr Khafi (silent remembrance). While Jaunpuri talked about the vision of God, Pir Roshan claimed Qurbat (nearness to God). Again, at the age of 40, he also claimed to hear mysterious voices to give up rituals.
Here we see a similarity against rituals by the Protestants, the Bhaktis, the Nanakis, and the Mahdavis. Perhaps the most useful introduction to the Roshnians is given in Dabistan-ul-Mazahib written in the 17th century in Persian by a Kashmiri scholar of Iranian extraction, Mohsan Fani, who was patronised by Prince Dara Shikoh. The book was translated as Oriental Literature by David Shea and Anthony Troyer. It was first published in America in 1901 and in Pakistan in 1973.
Pir Roshan’s teaching called for giving up the ritual purity demanded by the Sharia such as the usual prayer of the Muslims. Just like the Protestants, Bhaktis, and Mahdavis of his times, Pir Roshan considered the established religious patriarchs as polytheists and hypocrites. He mostly remained busy in meditation, mystic contemplation, and zikr i.e. recitation of the names of God, on the pattern of Mahdavis and some Bhaktis. When other religious leaders started opposing him, Pir Roshan journeyed through Afghanistan and Central Asia and ultimately settled down near Peshawar.
In his book Halnameh, he mentions the stages of spiritual development: shariat (external law), haqiqat (reality), marifat (true knowleddge), Qurbat (proximity), wisalat (union), and sekunat (dewelling). In addition to Halnameh, his other books still extant are Khairul Bayan, Maqsud-al-Mominin and Sirat al-Tawhid. When Pir Roshan started preaching more aggressively, especially with a message of equality between men and women, another notable Akhund Darweza strongly opposed him and invited the Mughal army. Pir Roshan died fighting the Mughal forces sometime between 1572 and 1585, under the rule of Emperor Akbar. Akhund Darweza called Pir Roshan, Pir-e-Tarik (the Dark Pir) and wrote pamphlets against him.
The local Yusufzai militia allied with the Mughal forces is reported to have killed four of Pir Roshan’s five sons leaving only his youngest son, Pir Jalala, who fled to Afghanistan and set up his base, which some people believe later developed as Jalalabad. After Pir Jalala’s death in 1601, Roshanaiya followers survived in Tirah, Paktia, Logar, and Nangarhar and continued their struggle against the Mughals before being totally suppressed by Emperor Shah Jehan in 1648. Some people of the modern Burki tribe claim affiliation and ancestry with the Roshanaiya followers and their native tongue Urmarhi.
When Pir Roshan’s followers were being crushed by the Mughal forces in 1580s, Emperor Akbar was propounding a new theology himself. Again, at the age of 40, Akbar -- whose father Humayun was a Sunni Muslim but reported to have converted to Shia Islam during his exile in Iran -- launched his new theology. Akbar had a tolerant vision for his empire stretching from Afghanistan to Bengal. He tried to usher in a new era of tolerance based on Sulh-e-Kul (peace for all). Akbar was a curious thinker and in his yearning for knowledge he invited representatives of almost all religions to his palace to carry out dialogues about religions.
He looked for commonalities among religions and attempted to unite them in a new theology called Aaeen-e-Rahnamuni, later dubbed as Din-e-Ilahi. Just like King Henry VIII of England, Akbar was against the domination of clerics, and opposed orthodoxy. By abolishing the Jizya (poll tax) on non-Muslims and allowing conversions to and from Islam, Akbar tried to set an example, which was severely opposed by clerics led by Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi aka Mujaddad-e-Alf Sani. Akbar’s participation in festivals of other religions also infuriated the orthodox clergy. He also ordered translations of other religions’ holy books and listened to them.
Akbar’s soft corner for the Bhakti poets and Sikh religion made him dear to the people but his new theology failed as he never forced people to convert to his ideas. For a detailed accounts of Akbar’s theology, interested readers may consult an excellent book, The Din-i-Ilahi, by Makhanlal Roy Choudhury. To conclude the essay, we may say that the 15th and 16th centuries saw hectic religious activity in Europe and in the Indian sub-continent. Their trajectories were different, and the Protestant Movement in Europe had much more lasting impact thanks to the peculiar socio-economic conditions there.
In India, S A Sirhindi and his followers applied a brake to religious reforms, but that deserves a separate article which will deal with the negative aspects of Sirhindi’s obsession with religious purity.
