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Sufi-Shaivite woman in Kashmir-Lalla Arifa: Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi in Deccan Chronicle

Sufi poet Lalla Arifa, popularly known as Lal Diddi and Laleshwari, was among the preceptors of mysticism in Kashmir.

Sufi-Shaivite woman in Kashmir-Lalla Arifa: Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi in Deccan ChronicleT

he celebrated female Sufi poet Lalla Arifa, popularly known as Lal Diddi and Laleshwari, was among the preceptors of mysticism in Kashmir. Lalla has been venerated by both Muslims and Kashmir’s Hindus for around seven generations, and is unquestionably considered a promoter of a plural ethic in the valley.

Born into a brahmin family near Srinagar in 1335 AD, at the age of 24 she renounced her household material life after suffering from her mother-in-law ‘s cruelty. She then preferred to be a Shaivite saint Siddha Srikantha devotee also known as Sed Bayu. She learned high moral truths from him, and thus practiced philosophy of yoga. It is recounted that Lalla converted into a celibate mystic in her defiant renunciation of the domestic life. Nevertheless, when she met Mir Syed Ali Hamadani, the Sufi mystic of the highest stature in Kashmir, she gave up celibacy and started wearing purdah. Asked why, she said she’d first seen a guy.

Another prominent 14th-century Kashmiri Sufi mystic, Sheik-ul-Alam, made the first direct reference to Lalla in his verse:

That Padmaanpora Lalla, (Pampore),
Did tumbler nectar after tumbler drink.
She was a saint and brought up a saint;
O ‘Father, send me the wisdom and the dream.

Remarkably, this Sufi-Shaivite lady gave her poetry deep mystical experiences revealing her boundless devotion, spiritual enlightenment, and ecstasy of divine union. In Kashmiri poetry she says:

yi yi karu’m suy artsun
yi rasini vichoarum thi mantar
yihay lagamo dhahas partsun
suy Parasivun tanthar

(Whatever work I did became the Lord’s worship; whatever word I spoke became a prayer; whatever my body felt became Saiva Tantra’s sadhana lighting my path to Parmasiva).

Simultaneously, Lalla ‘s poetry crashed upon the oppressive modes of ritualism and false religiosity. She firmly believed in the Divine but dismissed the priestly class equally. One of her sayings reads:
It is covering up your shame and keeping you from shivering.
All the food it asks for is grass and water.
O priest, who taught you,
To feed your stone thing with this breathing?

Indeed, Shaivite mystics like Lalla and Sufi saints like Shaikh-ul-Alam have for centuries strengthened unity in diversity within the diverse society of Kashmir. While Shaikh was an ardent believer in Tawheed (monotheism), Lalla was a follower of Turka Shastra, the monotheistic shaivism. Although they both believed in one Creator, the disparity in their theological traditions valued all His creations, ignored violent religious violence, practiced self-introspection, and opposed all philosophies of dogma and retrogression. This was the result of a heightened spiritual enlightenment experience.

In his book, Waaqea’at-e-Kashmir (events in Kashmir) writes prominent historian Azam Dedmari: Lalla Arifa was buried in a tomb in the premises of the Sufi shrine of Baba Naseeb-ud-din Gazi — a disciple of the Sultan-ul-Arifeen Sheik Hamza Makhdumi.

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