The worship of the original saints of Islâm has, however, undergone a grievous degradation. We are familiar in Western hagiology with the specialization of saints for certain purposes. St. Agatha is invoked to cure sore breasts, St. Anthony against inflammation, St. Blaise against bones sticking in the throat, St. Martin for the itch, St. Valentine against epilepsy, and so on. So St. Agatha presides over nurses, St. Catherine and St. Gregory over learned men, St. Cecilia over musicians, St. Valentine over lovers, St. Nicholas over thieves, while St. Thomas à Becket looks after blind men, eunuchs, and sinners.[54] So almost all the artizan classes have each their special patron saint. The dyers venerate Pîr ’Ali Rangrez, the Lohârs or blacksmiths, Hazrat Dâûd, or the Lord David, because the Qurân says—“We taught him the art of making coats of mail that they might defend you from your suffering in warring with your enemies.” The Mehtars or sweepers have Lâl Pîr or Lâl Beg, of whom something more will be said later on. In the Panjâb Sadhua Bhagat is the saint of butchers, because once when he was about to kill a goat, the animal threatened that he would revenge himself in another life, and so he joined the sect of Sâdhs, who refrain from destroying animal life. The barbers revere Sain Bhagat or Husain Bhagat. He is said to have been a resident of Pratâppura in the Jâlandhar District, and his descendants were for some time family Gurus or preceptors of the Râja of Bandhogarh. One day he was so engaged in his devotions that he forgot to shave the Râja’s head, but when he came in fear and trembling to apologize, he found the Râja shaved and in his right mind. Then it was found that the deity himself had come and officiated for him. So, Nâmdeo, the Chhîpi or cotton-printer, became a follower of Râmanand, and is regarded as the tribal saint.
Domestic Worship of the Pîr.
Muhammadan domestic worship is largely concerned with the propitiation of the household Pîr. In almost every house is a dreaded spot where, as the Russian peasant keeps his holy image, is the abode or corner of the Pîr, and the owner erects a little shelf, lights a lamp every Thursday night, and hangs up garlands of flowers. Shaikh Saddu, of whom we shall see more later on, is the women’s favourite Pîr, especially with those who wish to gain an undue ascendency over their husbands. When a woman wishes to have a private entertainment of her own, she pretends to be “shadow smitten,” that is that the shadow of some Pîr, usually Shaikh Saddu, has fallen upon her, and her husband is bound to give an entertainment, known as a Baithak or “session,” for the purpose of exorcising him, to which no male is allowed admittance. At these rites of the Bona Dea, it is believed that the Pîr enters the woman’s head and that she becomes possessed, and in that state of frenzy can answer any question put to her. All her female neighbours, accordingly, assemble to have their fortunes told by the Pîr, and when they are satisfied they exorcise him with music and singing.
The Pachpiriyas.
But it is in the eastern districts of the North-Western Provinces and Behâr that the worship has reached its most degraded form. No less than one million seven hundred thousand persons at the last census, almost entirely in the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions, recorded themselves as Pachpiriyas or worshippers of the Pânch Pîr. It is impossible to get any consistent account of these worthies, and the whole cultus has become imbedded in a mass of the wildest legend and mythology.[55] According to the census lists these five saints are, in the order of their popularity—Ghâzi Miyân, Buahna Pîr, Palihâr, Aminâ Satî and Hathîlê or Hathîla. In Benares, according to Mr. Greeven, there are no less than five enumerations of the sacred quintette. One gives—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr and Palihâr; a second—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr and Buahna; a third—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Buahna, Bhairon and Bandê; a fourth—Ghâzi Miyân, Aminâ Satî, Palihâr, Kâlikâ and Shahzâ; a fifth—Ghâzi Miyân, Suthân, ’Ajab Sâlâr, Buahna and Bahlâno. Among these we have the names of well-known Hindu gods, like Bhairon and Kâlikâ, a form of Kâlî. Among the actual companions of Ghâzi Miyân are, it is believed, Hathîlê Pîr, who is said to have been his sister’s son, Miyân Rajjab or Rajjab Sâlâr, and Sikandar Diwâna, the Buahna Pîr, who are all buried at Bahrâich, and Sâhu Sâlâr, father of the martyr prince, whose tomb is near Bârabanki.
In Behâr, again, the five saints are Ghâzi Miyân, Hathîla, Parihâr, Sahjâ Mâî and ’Ajab Sâlâr, and with them are associated Aminâ Satî, Langra Târ, who is represented by a piece of crooked wire, and Sobarna Tîr, the bank of the Sobarna river. Here we reach an atmosphere of the crudest fetishism. A little further west Sânwar or Kunwar Dhîr, of whom nothing certain is known, is joined with them, and has numerous worshippers in the Gorakhpur and Benares Divisions.