UNIT 21 CHANGING SOCIAL STRUCTURE

IN PENINSULAR INDIA
Structure
21.0 Introduction
21.1 Political Elites
21.2 Landed Elites
21.2.1 Watandars
21.2.2 Landed Elites in the Tamil Region
21.2.3 Palaiyakkarars
21.3 Valangai-Idangai Groups (Right-Hand-Left-Hand Castes)
21.4 Traders and Artisans
21.5 Religious Groups
21.6 Sufism in Deccan
21.6.1 The Historical Background and the Development of Sufism in the Deccan (Fourteenth
To Seventeenth Century A.D.)
21.6.2 The Political Role of the Sufis
21.6.3 The Social Role of the Sufis
21.7 Summary
21.8 Exercises

21.0 INTRODUCTION
There were certain factors that accelerated changes in society during the medieval
period in the region of Deccan and South India. These factors were related to
political, economic and religious developments that often led to the rise of new social
groups and changed the nature of the pre-existing one. The decline of the Yadavas
around tenth century AD, rise of the Kakatiyas in eastern Deccan, the establishment
of the Bahamani kingdom in the fourteenth century followed by the establishment of
the four Deccani sultanates of Adil Shahi, Nizam Shahi, Qutub Shahi and Barid Shahi
and Imad Shahis, the Mughal invasion and expansion of Deccan in the seventeenth
century and finally the establishment of the Marathas-all led to changing political
configurations that influenced the society at the village and urban levels. Marathi,
Kannada and Telugu speaking groups apart from having their individual spheres of
interaction also interacted and influenced each other. The development and growth
of Dakhani language and culture that began even before the establishment of the
Bahamanis in1347 AD was accelerated with its establishment and introduced new
aspects in the social life. Dakhani Urdu emerged as the local language in the Deccan
region and was influenced by Marathi, Kannada and Telugu linguistic and cultural
forms.In order to enhance their resource base, the state polities expanded agricultural
areas and activities. The expansion of agriculture in the hilly and the forested areas
and the settlement of new villages influenced the social composition significantly.
(This has been discussed in the Unit 18, Block 5) In Eastern Deccan, in the region
of the Kakatiyas of Warangal (1000-1326 AD) in Andhra Pradesh, the expansion of
the agrarian base and transformation of the rural society involved construction of new
temples. Numerous donations of land, especially the uncultivated forested ones, were
made by the local chiefs, merchants, and the members of the royal family. These
lands were cleared of forests, irrigation tanks were built on them and cultivation was
initiated. Several tribes who inhabited these forests were converted to peasants and
incorporated into the lower rung of the rural society. The temple served as the ‘social
and political integrator’. It employed the peasants, artisans and pastoralist on the
temple lands and for various temple activities and incorporated these different
29
Medieval Society-2 communities of the rural society within a single framework of religion. From the
fourteenth century onwards, the various bhakti and Sufis cults in the Deccan due
to their popular social base and a broad religious outlook represented in their interaction
with the society a process of ‘acculturation’ that involved interaction and diffusion of
cultural values and traditions between the various social groups, resulting in the
development of new cultural characteristics.

Similarly, political changes in the peninsular region led to changing social situations.
A period of transition can be seen during the gradual decline of the Cholas in the
twelfth- thirteenth centuries, the invasions of the Delhi Sultanate in the fourteenth
century and the rise of the Vijayanagar Empire in the fourteenth century. Especially,
the Hoysala occupation of the Tamil region and the establishment of the Vijayanagar
Empire by AD 1336, led to the integration of the three cultural zones of Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. As a result, a network of relations developed
between wetland agricultural settlements and dry upland zones with a narrow resource
base. This brought into focus the Telugu warriors as well as the dominant agricultural
community of the Velamas from the arid northern zones of the Deccan plateau and
a new warrior class, subsequently known as the nayakas. Consequently, unsettled
forested areas and hilly tracts situated on the peripheries of agricultural settlements
gradually evolved into major political and economic centres. The population of these
inhospitable tracts comprised of hunting tribes whose martial tradition became the
basis of their recruitment in the Vijayanagar and nayaka armies. Subsequently, military
recruitment began to attract a socially diverse group of troopers from beyond the
boundaries of South India. A large number of North Indian, Deccani and Rajput
warriors migrated southwards to join these armies. According to Susan Bayly, a
‘large number of Islamic motifs’ filtered through to South India during the Vijayanagar
period (AD1336-1576) through this avenue of migration. (Susan Bayly, Saints,
Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society 1700-
1900, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 31-68).

Simultaneous with the changing political conditions was the expansion and growth of
trade, trading networks and urbanization. The merchant and the artisan class were
much more mobile, territorial barriers being of little significance to them. For instance,
Kanmala and Komatti traders and Pattanulkar (silk weavers) from Saurashtra finally
settled in the Tamil region during the Vijayanagar period. Particularly,the Pattanulkars
migrated from Saurashtra, briefly settled in the city of Vijayanagara in northern
Karnataks, from where they again moved out, and finally settled in the pilgrimage
centers of Kancipuram, Madurai amd Ramesvaram. The emergent mercantile
communities were the followers of different religious traditions – Saiva, Vaisnava and
Islam and their complex network of economic interaction influenced the society in the
medieval period.

21.1 POLITICAL ELITES

The new warrior class, subsequently known as the nayakas, emerged as the patron
of temples and mathas that promoted various religious systems during the medieval
period. The nayakas were also involved in the management of the temples. Although
the nayakas are primarily associated with the Vijayanagar Empire, the beginning of
this social group as significant political elite is first noted in the Kakatiya kingdom of
eastern Deccan. In the Kakatiya kingdom various landed elements especially the
powerful chieftains of the Andhra rural society were incorporated into the political
network. They were of non-noble ranks and their incorporation was at the expense
of the older, established princes and chiefs of noble lineage. These chiefs already
possessed hereditary rights over their own plots of land and had a fixed share in the
agricultural produce of the village. In lieu of their services to the Kakatiya state, they
were granted additional land that was assessed at concessional rates. They had the
30
power to remit taxes within their localities and held military titles like angaraksha, Changing Social Structure
lenka and nayakas. (Cynthia Talbot, 2001. Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, in Peninsular India
Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra. New Delhi: Oxford University
Press.pp.48-84) Such tenure was called vritti. Further, in order to incorporate the
chiefs and warriors in to the political framework, the Kakatiya state created a new
type of teneurial right over territories called nayankaramu.

Changing political boundaries, ever mounting military requirements of the kingdoms,

especially of the Vijayanagar Empire and the expansion of the agricultural frontier
contributed to the increasing migration of the Telugu warrior class to the river valleys
and peripheral areas of potential development. Referred to as the nayakas, they
impinged upon the pre-existing local power groups and their respective spheres of
control and emerged as the major benefactors of the temples and mathas. These
nayakas were also called amaranayaka. According to Fernao Nuniz and Domigo
Paes, the two Potuguese travellers who visited the Vijayanagar Empire during the
sixteenth century in the reign of Krishnadeavraya refer to the nayakas as the agents
of the Vijayanagar rulers, the rayas. The nayakas collected taxes from the territories
on the raya’s behalf and rendered military service. They had a certain number of
troops under their control and possessed revenue rights over land and territory called
amaram. They also had the obligations of giving gifts to the temples, repairing and
building tanks and reclaiming land for agriculture. Later on these nayakas became
powerful and established independent states during the sixteenth and seventeenth
century.

According to Noboru Karashima, the nayakas were large military commanders who
were granted land by the king in the fifteenth century and functioned somewhat ‘like
the feudal lords of medieval Europe and Japan.’ He says that in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, the legitimacy of the nayaka’s territorial rule was initially derived
from the authority given by the king. The nayakas during this period were important
officials like governors, mahamandaleshvara, generals, dandanayakas, revenue
officers, adhikari and administrators. It is only in the sixteenth century according to
Karashima that, they displayed more feudal characteristics. They had clear cut territories
called nayakkattanam. “This feudal relationship was seen not only between the
kings and the nayakas, but also amongst the nayakas themselves, between superiors
and inferiors, which is also well reflected in the references to the merit given by the
under lord for the benefit of the lord. At the bottom level, this feudal hierarchy
embraced the big landholders in the village.”(Noboru Karashima, 1994. Towards a
New Formation: South Indian Society under Vijayanagar Rule. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.pp.35-38). Therefore there was a hierarchical network of lord-
vassal relations which reached down the landlords and the occupant cultivators of the
village.

Several historians like D.C.Sircar do not agree with the view that the nayakas and
the nayankara system represented a feudal structure, for ‘fealty’, ‘homage’ and
‘subinfeudation’ associated with feudalism seems to find little evidence here.

An analysis of the nayaka rule shows that under them, there was political and
economic stability and there was an expansion of manufacture and trade. They
encouraged artisans and merchants and gave them protection as shown by the tax
remission given to the kanmalas, and talarikkam collected from the weekly fair.

The political elites in the Deccan comprised of various sections of nobility and the
iqtadars. In the Bahamani court, one of the influential factions within the nobility was
the Afaqis. The term means universal that is those who do not have any roots .The
Afaqis were therefore foreigners. The Afaqis migrated from Iran, Transoxiana and
Iraq and became influential in the Bahamani court from the fifteenth century onwards.
This created resentment amongst the older nobility called the Dakhanis. The Sultans
31
Medieval Society-2 of the Bahamani kingdoms and the subsequent Deccan Sultanates often tried to
support one group of nobility against another, so that neither group became strong
enough to overwhelm the Sultan. These recurring factional fights imparted an unstable
character to the polity and often led to the decline of that particular state.

After establishing his sovereignty in the Deccan, Hasan Bahaman Shah appointed all
his allies who had helped him to drive out the Tughlaqs and establish the Bahamani
kingdom with administrative posts. They were given revenue assignments known as
the iqtas. The institution of iqta resembled the iqtadari system of the Delhi Sultanate.
The iqta holders had to maintain the troops and equipments and these were to be
proportionate to the size of the iqtas. The iqtas given to various power groups by
the Bahamani and the Deccani Sultanates were transferable assignments.

Though not so initially, the iqtadars in the Deccan subsequently emerged as absentee
landlords based in the cities. The iqtas in the Deccan were centred around the towns
and forts and attracted trade and commerce as they provided security for the movement
of the traders, cash and goods. There are evidences to show that the Bahamani
iqtadars often gave iqtas from their own assignments to the local zamindars that
represented the powerful indigenous class of hereditary landholders. This has been
seen as a process of sub-infeudation since it was not the central government that
granted iqtas to the local zamindars, but one of its own iqtadars. Therefore, the
iqtas became a mechanism by which the Bahamani state controlled the villages by
absorbing the rural elites as a part of the political frame work.

21.2 LANDED ELITES

In this Section we will primarily focus on landed elites who happen to possess urban
base as well.

21.2.1 Watandars
In the Deccan region, one of the powerful agrarian classes was that of the watandars.
The holder of a watan was called the watandar. Watan meant a patrimony which
was not only hereditary but also saleable and transferable. Watandars of pargana,
like the deshmukhs and deshpandes were superior to the watandars of the village,
the patils and kulkaranis. The watan was valued, for it was not only a lucrative
source of income, but a symbol of social prestige. Despite acquiring political power
and position in the state hierarchy, the Marathas were always keen to retain their
original village watan which compared to the political power was permanent in
nature. Several holders of temporary land tenures like saranjam, jagir, mokasa
were always anxious to get these tenures converted to watan or inam that could
remain with their family in perpetuity. Village officers, viz., the deshmukhs,
deshpandes, patils, kulkarani and one of the balutedars, that is the village servants
the Mahar communities held large landed holdings and were entitled to certain rights
and privileges called haklavajma. All these privileges along with their respective
administrative positions were called the watan. The position of the watandars in the
agrarian hierarchy and their rights and privileges has already been discussed in detail
in the unit on the rural society.

21.2.2 Landed Elites in the Tamil Region

In the Tamil region there were agrarian elites of diverse social background whose
status in the agrarian hierarchy as well as in the political structure of the various
states kept on changing. The river valleys from the sixth century onwards, witnessed
a proliferation of the brahmadeyas and the temples at the royal initiative that recognized
the potential of these two institutions for restructuring and integrating the economy
and society. Therefore, a class of brahmana landed elites emerged. Since they were
32 the repositories of better irrigation technology and farming methods, the land granted
to them became a mechanism for the extension of agriculture into unsettled areas and Changing Social Structure
extraction of the surplus from various peasant groups. The significance of the brahmanas in Peninsular India
in the brahmadeyas stemmed from their Vedic-Puranic-Sastraic discourse that
provided the social rationale for integrating diverse peasant and tribal groups through
the institution of caste. Therefore linking peasants, local chiefs and other groups to
the royalty, both the brahmana and the brahmadeya also utilized as the institutional
channels of transmission and dissemination of the royal ideology. The proliferation of
brahmadeyas in the river valleys was also instrumental in extending agriculture. The
brahmana landed class implemented the royal irrigation projects and this gave them
the crucial right to organize and manage the production and water resources, often
with the vellala community, i.e. the powerful non-brahamana landowners Therefore,
the brahmana landed elites often by their presence, in the non-brahmana villages
promoted the royal strategy for ensuring the loyalty of the various social groups there
and provided the much-needed manpower for the vast irrigation projects.

Political and economic changes further influenced the caste equations within the rural
society, when the brahmana landed elites in the brahmadeyas were replaced by
several non-brahmana groups as the powerful landed elites. For instance, in a village
called Ukkal situated in the lower Kaveri valley of the Tamil region, the brahmanas
were prosperous landholders controlling the agricultural production till twelfth century.
However, by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, they were selling their lands.
The immediate cause was the heavy taxation imposed by the Vijayanagar rulers. The
non-brahmanas bought the land in Ukkal, thereby emerging as new landed magnates
of the village towards the end of Chola rule.

During the Chola period, there was an influential non-brahmana landed group called
the nattavars or nattars meaning the people of the territory of the nadus. But
inscriptions refer to only the influential representatives of the nadus implying that the
nattavars were the landed elites and the representatives of the big landholders. They
collected dues, imposed forced labour and have been portrayed as an exploitative
class. (Noboru Karashima, Towards a New Formation: South Indian Society under
Vijayanagar Rule. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp.42-61). They were
actual controllers of local production, having under them small landholders, cultivators
and perhaps artisans and merchants. Nattavars controlled funds for worship in the
temples and conducting repair works. Their power was rooted deeply in the locality.
The Chola period nattavars were mainly the Vellalas tied to each other by kinship
network. Some of the locally entrenched Vellala landed communities emerged as big
landowners with titles like nadudaiyan or nadalvan. Some of them also had titles
like arayan, used by the big landholders in the later Chola period. The nattavars
included the Pillais, Mudalis, Reddis, and Vanniyas.

In the Vijayanagar period their status underwent transformation due to changes in the
land holding system and influx of the migrants. One of the nattavar groups, the
Vanniyas from fourteenth century onwards joined the Vijayanagar army. They had
appropriated the kaniyatchi rights or proprietary rights of several villages and became
the local leaders. While the nattavars in the Chola period were mostly Vellalas, those
in the Vijayanagar Empire, belonged to several different communities, like, artisans,
merchants and so on. The exploitative attitude of the nattavars is ascertained by the
inscriptional evidence when the Valangai-Idangai groups, that is the left-hand and
right-hand castes (to be discussed in the following section) comprising of producers
and merchants revolted in 1429 against the landholders and the Vanniyas. (Noboru
Karashima, 1994, p.57) Thereafter, the power of the nattavars were substantially
reduced and with the consolidation of the nayaka regime by sixteenth century the
nattavars were marginalized, though some of them continued to function as the local
link between the state and the villagers.

33
Medieval Society-2 Nattavars often collaborated with the nayakas in making grants to the temples
However, their status had declined for the taxes which they collected like nattu-
viniyogam, nattu-kanikkai, nattayam were no longer seen in the epigraphs of the
sixteenth century illustrating a decline in their status. Besides, during the Vijayanagar
period, the importance of nadu as a territorial unit for local production had decreased.
Probably, this was because of a new trade centre pettai or the reorganization of the
local production system after the establishments of the nayakkattams. The term
nattavars was used but the actual unit of local administration shifted from the nadus
to the area called parru. Consequently in many localities the nattavars’ original
character as the corporate unit of landholders in a locality must have been lost.

Thus, a multi community composition of the agricultural elite emerged who related the
local society to the political authorities. These diverse agricultural communities
contributed to the building of sub regional agrarian domains around important towns
in developing agricultural zones. The medieval configurations of the nadus vanished,
replaced by a set of sub regions defined as hinterlands of towns along routes of
transport and communication.

21.2.3 Palaiyakkarars
Amongst the rural landed elites were also the warrior peasant communities during the
sixteenth century. In the dry upland zones, the agriculturists came into conflict with
the hunters and pastoralists that often led to the incorporation of the latter into the
agricultural community. These changes provided the context for the emergence of a
warrior peasant class, both economically and politically powerful and primarily non-
brahamana and Telugu in composition. These warrior peasant groups later developed
into palaiyakarars or poligars. They are called so because in the sixteenth century
they were made incharge of military camps called the palaiyams. Later these camps
evolved into ‘small kingdoms’ ranging from three villages to almost 2,000 square
miles. They were probably the descendants of the local chieftains, araiyars. Nicholas
Dirks refers to them as the ‘little kings’. The palaiyakarars comprised mainly of the
Telugus, Kannadigas, Kaladi, Kallars, Vokkaligas, Maravas, Vadugas and so on. The
warrior chiefs reclaimed vast stretches of land and developed them into towns. They
used to impose heavy taxes on the peasants, artisans and merchants that often led
to rural tensions. The rise of these poligars displaced the older Tamil peasants and
landholders; especially the brahmanas already settled there and created a new class
of landed magnates.

With the decline of the Vijayanagar Empire in the seventeenth century and the
nayakas in the early eighteenth centuries, these palaiyakarars with their small
political systems gained importance. Caste and territorial loyalties were important for
them as on the basis of kinship networks they consolidated their respective status.
The nayakas especially of Madurai attempted to bring the poligars into the fold of
the ruling elite.

21.3 VALANGAI-IDANGAI (RIGHT HAND AND LEFT

HAND CASTES)
The expansion of agriculture led to an increase in landed transactions, private and
temple holdings, particularly in the non-brahmana villages. This created a hierarchical
structure of the landed rights with the increasing prominence of the Vellalas as the
dominant agricultural community vis-à-vis the lower agricultural groups. The agrarian
hierarchy escalated the tensions within the agrarian community. Simultaneously, the
growth of urban centers and intensification of mercantile activities led to the rising
importance of the nagarams, merchants, craftsmen and weavers, especially the
kaikkolas. Hence, the rising social importance of the various non-brahmana groups
led to a movement towards a higher caste status, especially the claims of the artisans
34
to a twice-born caste status with a respectable ritual space in the temples. This bid Changing Social Structure
for social mobility in the twelfth century culminated into a “societal crisis”. The in Peninsular India
conflicts that escalated this social crisis were usually between the artisans and
agriculturists, sub-castes of the artisans like the kaikkolas and saliyas, hill and forest
people and the different merchant groups. The existing social structure weakened and
led to the crystallization of the non-brahmana communities into a dual vertical division
of the Valangai (Right hand castes) and Idangai (Left hand castes), within the
traditional structure of the caste society. However, the Vellalas and the brahmanas
remained outside this dual division. Further social tension manifested in 1429, when
the Valangai and Idangai groups revolted against the brahmanas and the Vellalas.

21.4 TRADERS AND ARTISANS

One of the direct consequences of the agrarian expansion was the escalation of
commercial activities in the ninth century that led to the growth of market centers,
nagarams and a network between them that linked towns and villages, to the
managaram, usually a royal centre and a port. Due to commercial activities of
overland and inland trade, new trade routes and urban centres came up linking the
remote and newly conquered regions with the nuclear areas and the coast. The
spread of guild activities and trading associations, namely the Ayyayole 5000, Tamil
Tisai Ayirattu Ainnurruvar, foreign merchant organization, Anjuvannam brought forth
the mercantile community with its diverse groups of traders, merchants, artisans,
craftsmen, and itinerant traders. One such prominent trading community that became
prominent in the ninth century was the nagarattar, whose members applied the
chetti suffix. Often the mercantile communities invested in agriculture, gifted to the
temples, further strengthening the ties of integration, and inter dependence. One such
weaver community, the kaikkolas had significant links with the temples and became
an important social group that the religious traditions attempted to incorporate in order
to project a liberal outlook. In several places, the kaikkolas formed their own-armed
bands and emerged as the ‘merchant- warriors’.

By ninth century, clusters of brahmadeyas and temples had developed into centers
of urban growth, thus connecting villages, urban centers and royal capital, diverse
population and religion within the same complex. The multi -temple complex of
Kancipuram and Tanjavur emerged as important politico-urban centers. The economic
outreach of the temple at Tanjavur covered the whole of Cola kingdom and even
northern part of Sri Lanka. The emergence of different mercantile classes and
weavers due to migration has been discussed at the beginning of this unit.

From the eighth and ninth century onwards, due to trading interaction with the Arab
merchants, numerous towns along the Coromandel coast developed. Pulicat, Karaikal,
Nagore, Nagapattinam were some of the well known trading settlements along the
coast. Since most of these port towns had trading relations with the Arabian Peninsula
and the Indian Ocean, they cam ‘to be identified as centres of formal Islam in South
India. By thirteenth century a significant number of Tamil speaking Muslims could be
recognized. Muslim traders were involved in the trade of gem stones, pearls, cotton
goods and most important horses that were supplied to the Pandyas, Cholas and the
Vijayanagar states. These traders had well developed international links in south-east
and West Asia. The maritime trading towns came to be dominated by the Sunni
trading families known as the maraikkayars. They were primarily ship owners.Another
group of Sunni Muslims who were based in these towns were the Labbais. They
were pearl divers, fishermen, weavers and artisans by profession. Migartion in the
seventeenth century to the Tamil trading towns brought a group of Dakhani speaking
Muslims, the Navaiyats. The Navaiyats were elite Shafai Muslims who were in
Mughal service in the Deccan during seventeenth century. The Mughal occupation
of Deccan resulted in the migration of the Pathan warriors, Pathan merchants and
35
Medieval Society-2 artisans to South India, many of whom settled in the maritime towns of the Coromandel
coast. (Susan Bayly, 1992. Saints Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians
in South Indian Society, 1700-1900, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
71-103).

21.5 RELIGIOUS GROUPS

There were several religious groups during the medieval period who were attached
to the temples, mathas, khanqahs and dargahs. A large number of them had a
popular social base and some of them were exclusive in their following. Amongst the
religious groups two were significant, the Sufis and the matha and sectarian leaders
attached to the temples. A discussion on the rise of Sufis as a social class and their
increasing power is provided in the next section.

In the Deccan, the complex network between the court and the different Sufi silsilahs,
Sufis and the ulemas and Sufis and the larger society, broadened the sphere for the
Sufis from mere pious saints engaged in religious contemplation. Some Sufis emerged
as orthodox groups whose aim was to purify Islam of its folk elements. There were
some Sufis, who were important writers. They wrote numerous mystic and popular
literatures, which became an important vehicle of integrating the non-elites, especially
the non-Muslims. Another kind of Sufis were those who accepted land grants from
the state and emerged as the landed elites or inamdars .These landed Sufis were
called the pirzadas, literally meaning born to a saint. For these Sufis, the court
politics, royal attitudes and patronage were important. Such conservatism and
preference for court patronage produced a reaction from some of the Sufis. These
Sufis were known as dervishes and ranged from spiritual heretics to non-conformists.
They were hostile to the pirzada inamdars as they found them to be too compromising.
The dervishes rejected Islamic orthodoxy and its urban materialistic orientation and
withdrew partially or totally from the ‘structural relations’ of the world. At no point
of time were the Sufis involved in conversion. Sufis were not Muslim ‘missionaries’
as they made no conscious attempt to gain non-Muslim followers. Most of the
devotees who regularly visited the dargahs and their shrines came usually from a
marginalized social background and gradually came under the influence of Islam.

Along with the temples, the institution of the mathas assumed further importance in
this period. As a powerful institution within the larger structure of the temple, the
mathas were either a competitive unit vis-à-vis the temple authorities or participated
along with them in various transactions. The religious leaders or the acharyas and
the mathadhipatis were the vital link between the local population and the new class
of rulers, thereby enabling the establishment of political authority over the newly
conquered areas. The gifts were made to the deities and the sectarian leaders or the
acharyas and the head of the mathas were the instruments through which the gift
was made. In return, they were the recipients of privileges from the ruling class and
also gained greater control over temple organization and administration. Thus, these
sectarian leaders established religious, political and economic control over the society
and legitimized themselves as central figures of the community. A guru commanded
a large group of followers, thereby linking the different groups in the society into the
mainstream of the community. The guru initiated the disciple into the community and
was instrumental in the dissemination of the theology. The acharyapurushas as well
as the mathas had their respective retinue of servants, system of recruitment and
organization comparable to any political system. The influence of the jiyars and
acharyas was so pervasive that they were even deified and worshipped.

36
 Changing Social Structure
21.6 SUFISM IN DECCAN in Peninsular India

Sufism refers to various mystical tendencies within Islam. The main idea of Sufism
is to develop religious experience in direct communion with god, based on the spirit
of Quranic piety. The Sufis while accepting the Shariat did not confine their religious
practise to formal adherence. In order to have religious experience with god; the
Sufis advocated the importance of traversing the Sufi path, tariqa, under the guidance
of a spiritual person known as shaikh, pir or murshid. The shaikh himself should
have successfully traversed the Sufi path and established direct relationship with god.
The disciple was called murid who had to pass through series of stages, maqamat
and changing psychological conditions, hal to attain concentration, zikr and consequently
attain communion with god.

There developed a number of orders within Sufism called silsilahs, in and outside
India with their distinct characteristics. The centre of the Sufi activities was the
khanqahs or hospices, where the pir imparted spiritual training to his murids. The
popularity of the khanqahs depended upon the reputation of its pir. Some of the well
known silsilahs in the medieval period were the Suhrawardi, Chishti, Qadri, and
Shattaris. Out of these, except Suhrawardi silsilahs, the rest flourished in north
Indian as well as the Deccan region. The Sufis organized impassioned musical recital,
sama to induce a mystical state of ecstasy. However, there were differences of
opinion amongst the Sufi orders over the forms of sama.

With the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, various Sufi orders migrated from Central Asia, where they were originally
based. The attack of the Mongols in Baghdad that subsequently ruined the city and
the execution of the Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols in 1258 AD, created a situation
of insecurity and persecution. Under these circumstances, the Sufis along with other
refugees migrated to India. They established several khanqahs in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries in various parts of India, including Deccan. Although an offshoot
of Iranian and Central Asian philosophy and practice Sufism, as it developed in India,
was influenced by environment of the sub-continent. The various silsilahs were
located in different socio-economic and political context and responded to that context
in their own way. Hence, each silsilah had its individual phases of growth, stagnation
and revival.

Three Stages of Sufis Order

Scholars (J.S. Trimingham, The Sufis Orders in Islam, Oxford, 1971) have identified
three stages in the Sufi institutional orders:
1) The khanqah Stage: This stage was a period of Sufi mysticism, from ninth to
the twelfth century, when contemplation and introspection on matters of religion
produced prolific mystical literature. The Sufis led a simple and often an austere
life. The Sufi orders were undifferentiated, where the relation between the
master and disciple was not formal and neither did the master in any way claim
to be the mediator between god and the student.
2) The Tariqa Stage: From the thirteenth century onwards, the Sufi orders
underwent significant transformations. The mystical techniques that were the
means to achieve communion with god were systematized through specific
spiritual exercises. There were spiritual lineages or silsilahs which were a
distinct school of thought and had respective founders. A person had to take a
vow of spiritual allegiance, baiat from the pir, who usually represented a particular
spiritual lineage and was the head of the khanqah. The spiritual lineages went
right up to Prophet himself. This vow of allegiance (baiat) carried with it several
rituals, like bestowing the khilafat-nama (a written certificate), khirqa (a patched
frock) and other objects of spiritual succession. Thus, initiation involved the
consecration of the initiate in a formal ceremony. 37
Medieval Society-2 A hierarchy emerged with the formalization of the teacher-disciple relationship.
Veneration and worship of pir became important. Pir was now the mediator
between god and man and became a saint, or wali, literally meaning a friend of
god. Thus, the Sufi orders gradually transformed from spiritual school to saint-
centered cults in which the spiritual power or barkat of the individual pir was
significant. As the system got consolidated the succession was based on family
ties, where the descendants of the pir’s family became the successor.In India,
they were called pirzadas, i.e. born of a pir.
3) The Taifa Stage: This stage can be discerned from fifteenth century onwards.
Barakat or spiritual power that qualified a saint was transmitted to his grave,
which now structurally became a tomb. This tomb, known as the dargah,
emerged as the centre of pilgrimage attraction. Therefore, Sufism now emerged
as a devotional movement, the object of devotion being the saint. It no longer
remained a mystical movement. The cult of saint had greater attraction for a
common man who would find it difficult to grasp the abstract ideas of mysticism
and spirituality.
However, this classification has certain limitations. It does not help to understand the
relations of the Sufis with the ulemas, court and the non-Muslim population. Some
Sufis belonged to more than one order; others belonged to the same order but
interacted in a contradictory way with the society. (Richard Eaton, 1978, Sufis of
Bijapur.1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton)

21.6.1 The Historical Background and the Development of Sufism

in the Deccan (Fourteenth to Seventeenth Century AD)
In 1327 AD, the Tughulq ruler of Delhi Sultanate, Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq,
ordered the transfer of capital from Delhi to Daultabad which was situated in the
Deccan. This transfer also involved the shifting of bases of the residents of Delhi.
One such group who were ordered to migrate was the Sufis. Shaikh Burhanuddin
Gharib (d.1340), of the Chishti silsilah was one such well known Sufi who migrated
to Daultabad and subsequently made it his centre of activities and introduced the
Chishti order there. Another well known saint who migrated was Gesudaraz. Gesudaraz
at that time was a child. However, after sometime he returned to Delhi only to leave
it after several years for Deccan, when Delhi was invaded by Timur in 1398. Both
the saints belonged to the Chishti silsilah.

Of all the silsilahs the Chishti silsilah was most popular in the north as well as in
the Deccan, especially during the period of the Bahamini Sultanate (1347-1489AD).
The Chishti silsilah originated in Herat and was introduced in India by Khwaja
Muinuddin Chishti who migrated to India and finally settled in Ajmer in 1206. He had
a large number of Muslim and non-Muslim followers. His successor was Bakhtiyar
Kaki in Delhi, Shaikh Hamiduddin Nagauri in Nagaur in Rajasthan. Bakhtiyar Kaki
had several well known descendants. His immediate descendant was Khwaja
Fariduddin Masud, also known as Ganjshakar or Baba Farid. He ultimately settled in
Ajodhan in Punjab. Baba Farid’s disciple was Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (1236-1325)
who made Delhi the most famous centre of the Chishti order. Later his successors
spread the Chishti order to various parts of the country including Deccan. Shaikh
Burhanuddin Gharib was Nizanuddin Auliya’s successor. Some Chishti saints like
Nasiruddin Chiragh-i-Delhi, were also popular in Delhi during Mohammad bin Tughlaq’s
period. However, since he never appointed a successor, the Chishti silsilah after his
death did not have any commanding figure. Gesudaraz was one of his disciples.

With the decline of Delhi Sultanate, the Sufis dispersed to stable provincial kingdoms
and established their khanqahs there. One such area which attracted the Sufis was
the region of the Deccan plateau. The migration of the Sufis to the region of Deccan,
particularly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries should be seen against the
38
background of the establishment of the Bahamani kingdom and the subsequent five Changing Social Structure
Sultanates in the Deccan, viz., the Adil Shahis (AD 1490-1686) of Bijapur, Nizam in Peninsular India
Shahis of Ahmadnagar (1496), Barid Shahis of Bidar (1504), Imad Shahis of Berar
(1510) and the Qutub Shahis of Golkanda (1543). Hasan Bahman Shah who was the
founder of the Bahamani kingdom was one of the governors of the Tughlaq provinces
in the Deccan. He asserted his independence against the Tughluqs, drove them out
and established a new political state. The various Telugu chieftains of eastern and
southern Deccan who had fought against the Tughlaqs, some of them successfully,
assisted Hasan Bahman Shah in founding the Bahmani state in Western Deccan.
Since Bahman Shah was in service of the Tughlaqs, this gave him political authority
and legitimacy to generate support amongst the Telugu chieftains, and therefore, the
Bahamini could be considered as the Tughlaq successor state in Deccan.

During the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the plateau had emerged as a
stable political, social and cultural centre. The development of the Dakhani culture
imparted a distinct identity to the region. The cities like Gulbarga, Bidar and Bijapur
were the centre of political and cultural activities. This attracted a large number of
Sufis, who primarily had an urban orientation. For instance, as already stated, Gesudaraz,
the Chishti saint migrated from Delhi to Gulbarga. A number of Qadri Sufis migrated
from Arabia to Bidar. Several Sufis came from Safawi Iran. However, the Adil Shahi
dynasty, despite being well established by sixteenth century failed to attract any Sufis,
for it was dominated by Shias, who were antagonistic to Sufis. (Richard Eaton, 1978,
p.286).The Qadri Sufis were affiliated to the Sunni sect and the Shattari Sufis were
antagonistic to the Shias. It is only in the reign of Sultan Ibrahim II (1580-1627) that
Sufis entered Bijapur. The reasons were mainly two. First, the disturbances in Gujarat
and Bidar in late sixteenth century drove some Sufis towards Bijapur. Second, there
was a significant transformation in the state religion from isna-ashari Shi’ism to
Sunnism. This meant that the political power shifted from foreign Iranis to native
Deccanis. Besides, the Sultan himself adopted a broad outlook, encouraging both
Muslim and non-Muslim traditions. Hence numerous Sufis, especially of the Qadri
and the Shattari silsilahs were attracted to Bijapur. Most of these Sufis were first
generation immigrants from places outside Deccan, mainly from the Arab world.

Therefore, the court politics, royal attitudes and patronage were important for the
Sufis. Several tombs were built during the Adil Shahi period indicating a transition
from tariqa to taifa Sufism in Bijapur.

In connection with this, the attitude of the Chishtis is important as there was a shift
from earlier indifference towards politics to interest in it and finally distancing from
the state and its mundane affairs. During the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries
in the period of the Bahamanis, the Chishtis developed close relations with the Sultan,
accepted court patronage and were important in politics. This was a departure from
their earlier attitude in Delhi where they often declined court patronage. The Bahmani
kings realizing the spiritual potential of these Sufis and their close network with the
society and popular social base gave them land grants and built magnificent Sufi
shrines. The most prominent of these Chishtis was Muhammad Banda Nawaz
Gesudaraz (1321-1422). Sultan Feroz Shah Bahamani (1397-1422) granted him four
villages. After his death, his descendants continued to receive land grants from the
Bahamani Sultans and they eventually became the landed elites in Deccan. His tomb
later developed in to a popular pilgrimage site. The urs at the dargahs especially of
Gesudaraz had become a major festival by the seventeenth century attended by the
ruling and non-ruling classes. Gesudaraz brought about changes in the Chishti philosophy
especially those aspects that were not in favour with the ulemas. He was an orthodox
Sufi and declared the supremacy of the shariat over all Sufi stages.

The changing trends in politics and shifting royal patronage finally led to the decline
of the Chishti order in the Bahanani kingdom. The change of Bahamani capital from
39
Medieval Society-2 Gulbarga to Bidar in 1422 and the pro-foreigner and anti-Deccan attitudes of the
Bahamanis at Bidar encouraged the immigration of the foreign Sufis, who were now
being patronized at the expense of the Chishtis as the latter were considered to be
too ‘Indian.’ Thereafter, from the end of the fifteenth century, the Chishtis again
thrived in Deccan till seventeenth century. They distanced themselves from the court
politics of the Adil Shahi kingdom as can be seen in the location of their new centre,
the Shahpur Hillock, which was outside Bijapur, the capital of the Adil Shahis. The
Chishtis reverted to their original attitude. They maintained distance from the court
and the ulemas and drew inspiration from the local influences, hence resembling the
earliest Chishti saints of Delhi. It is for this reason that the Chishti silsilah unlike the
other Sufis silsilahs were not affected by the sectarian conflict between the Shias
and Sunnis in the Adil Shahi politics because they no longer depended upon the court
patronage and were not interested in political affairs. The Shahpur Hillock had a
single khanqah where several Sufis congregated, unlike the Shattari and Qadri
Sufis, who had several hospices in the city patronized by the state.

By eighteenth century, with the decline of the Adil Shahis, natural calamities and
epidemics and the Maratha invasions in Bijapur reduced the city to ruins and the
urban culture almost disappeared. This was a setback for the Sufis and Sufism,
which primarily had an urban orientation, as has been mentioned earlier. Hardly any
khanqah remained in Bijapur as functioning unit. The landed elites amongst the Sufis
known as the pirzadas were forced to migrate to Hyderabad and Arcot for state
patronage, without which they could not survive. However, the Chishtis continued to
be in the Shahpur Hillock outside Bijapur and emerged as a significant and popular
Sufi order.

21.6.2 The Political Role of the Sufis

It was widely recognized in the medieval politics that because of their special spiritual
powers, barakat, their direct communication with god, and their popular social base,
the Sufis had the authority to grant moral legitimacy to a state and make them a
legitimate part of the Indo-Islamic world. This political role of the Sufis in granting
legitimacy to the state was based upon the following developments:
1) For the Sunni Muslims, the spiritual leadership formally rested with the Caliph
and informally with the Sufis. However, with the downfall of the Abbasid Caliphate
in Baghdad in 1298 AD due to the Mongol invasions, the Sufis were now
considered virtually the spiritual leaders, who had the capability to authenticate
the political leadership of the Sultan and his sovereignty, i.e. hukumat over his
domains.
2) The wilayat or the spiritual territory of a Sufi shaikh theoretically had no
territorial limitations. Hence, it followed that the Sufis could bestow moral
legitimacy to any state anywhere in the world.
3) If a Sufi shaikh authenticated a state, then the character of that state transformed
from Dar-al-Harb, i.e. the Abode of War to Dar-al-Islam, i.e. the Abode of
Peace, implying that the state could no longer be attacked by any Islamic polity
and the rebellion, which often became the basis of the foundation of the state
could now be justified.
The importance of the above mentioned aspects were particularly crucial for a newly
established state like the Bahamani, whose founder, Hasan Bahman Shah rebelled
against the Tughluqs and accquired power in 1347 AD. Further this legitimacy provided
an ideological support to Bahman Shah for expanding and consolidating his political
and social network. In association with this, the prophecy of the Sufi shaikh in
predicting the political future of an individual especially the Sultan was taken virtually
to be an appointment. It was understood that the shaikh was conveying the divine
will, since he was already in direct communion with god to ‘lease out the political
40
sovereignty.’ This is illustrated in the recorded sayings, i.e. tazkira of Nizam-al- Din Changing Social Structure
Auliya, the Chishti saint in fourteenth century Delhi. Having just met with Sultan in Peninsular India
Mohammad bin Tughluq at his khanqah, and while Hasan Shah Bahamani, then in
the service of the Tughlaqs was waiting outside, Nizam al-Din Auliya is supposed to
have remarked, ‘One Sultan has just left my door; another is waiting there.’(Richard
Eaton, 2000, Essays on Islam in Indian History, Oxford, p.168. The evidence is
from Saiyid Ali Tabataba’s Burhan-i-Maathir and Muhammad Qasim Firishta,
Tarikh-i- Firishta.).

When Hasan Bahman Shah revolted in 1347 and became the ruler, Nizam al-Din’s
prophecy was used as an ideological mechanism for declaring the rebellion and the
foundation of the state a legitimate one that could be accepted by the larger society.
Hasan Bahman Shah recognised this and patronized various Chishtis in the Bahamani
kingdom and made lavish endowments to the shrine of Burhan al-Din Gharib, the
disciple of Nizam al- Din who had migrated to Deccan. The shrine was located in
Khuldabad in north Deccan. Such gifts to the shrine implied that Sultan was also
acknowledging Burhan al-Din Gharib’s as his own pir or master, Nizamuddin Auliya
of Delhi, especially when Delhi was still under the control of the Tughlaqs. Such an
acknowledgement was to highlight Nizamuddin Auliya’s prediction about Hasan Shah
becoming a Sultan that became the basis of the ruler’s authority.

Hence the Chishti shaikhs played crucial role in the state formations in Deccan.
There were several reasons for the importance of the Chishtis in polity and society
in medieval India, especially the medieval Deccan. Unlike the other Sufi saints whose
tombs were located outside India, in Central and West Asia, those of the Chishti
saints were located within the sub-continent. This was important for the khanqahs,
tombs and shrines were the focus of pilgrimage and Sufi activities. This gave the
Chishtis the double advantage of having an Indian as well as Islamic character. Such
a broad based outlook of the Chishti silsilah was useful for the Deccani states to
establish their legitimacy vis-a-vis the political partners and the local population of the
Deccani society, amongst whom the Chishtis were already popular.

Another factor that affirmed the spiritual power of the Sufis in the political sphere
was their tendency to be highly mobile. Wherever the Delhi Sultanate extended itself,
and appointed imperial governors in the far flung areas, the Sufi shaikhs, especially
the Chishtis accompanied them and established their khanqahs in these areas. These
imperial governors were the future rulers as it happened in the case of Hasan
Bahman Shah. Under these circumstances, Chishti shaikhs who had already developed
a wide social base, “indigenized and legitimized new, satellite Indo-Muslim polities.”

Apart from the state, the society also recognized the Sufis’s political potential. The
popular perception was reflected in Abd al-Malik Isami’s Futuh-i-Salatin. According
to Isami the well being of the sultan and the prosperity of his domain was dependant
on the blessings and auspicious presence of the Sufi shaikhs. He illustrated this by
giving the example of Nizam al-Din Auliya, on whose death in 1325, Delhi was
reduced to a city of chaos. Further, Daultabad in the Deccan plateau prospered when
Burhan al Din Gharib migrated there. His successor was Shaikh Zain al-Din Shirazi,
who was the contemporary of Hasan Shah Bahmani.

However, despite the relations of mutual dependence between the Sultan and the
Sufis saints, there conflicts and contradictions too, often made this relationship tense.
The very spiritual authority on the basis of which the predictions were made and
legitimacy was bestowed became a source of conflict between shaikhs and the
Sultans. For instance, Feroz Shah Bahamani (1397-1422) and Gesudaraz had numerous
differences. The most important issue that soured the relation between the two was
that of succession. The Sultan wanted his son Hasan Khan to be anointed as the
successor by the shaikh and the shaikh clearly favoured the Sultan’s younger
41
Medieval Society-2 brother, Ahmad. Thereupon the Sultan shifted his patronage to the tomb and shrine
of a Muslim holy man locally known as Khalifat al Rahman. The Sultan also favoured
Baba Kamal Mujarrad, whose tomb faced the sultan’s tomb in Gulbarga. Consequently,
Gesudaraz was marginalized.

21.6.3 Social Role of the Sufis

a) Sufis as Disseminators: The Sufis disseminated their teachings to the poor
illiterate non-Muslim and Muslim population, like the cotton carders, barbers,
smith, potter and so on through a range of literature. This literature comprised
of folk songs which contained analogies from everyday life of the people. Written
mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth century by Bijapuri Sufis belonging to
the Chishti order, these songs have been preserved in the oral tradition of
Dakhani speaking villagers throughout the Deccan plateau and represent the
characteristics of folk Islam. These songs were not composed in Persian, but in
Dakhani, the local language or the vernacular of medieval Deccan. Through
these songs, attempt was to disseminate not the complex mysticism, but simple
tenets of Islam and Sufism, devotion to god, Prophet Muhammad, respect for
one’s pir or spiritual guide. The songs were particularly aimed at the womenfolk,
who would sing these songs while occupied in various household chores.
There were different categories of folk songs related to different types of household
work and different aspects of woman’s life. For example, chakki-nama, associated
with grinding food grains at the grindstone, charkha nama, associated with the
spinning of thread at the wheel or charkha, lun-nama, associated with lullaby, shadi
nama or wedding songs, suhagan nama or married woman’s songs and suhaila or
eulogistic songs.(Richard Eaton, 2000, pp.189-202). These songs were meant to appeal
to the women and had relevance to their lives, for example marriage, pining for the
lover, mother and child relationship and so on. It was expected that while women
would perform their household chores, they would sing these songs and practise zikr
or the Sufi spiritual exercise of concentration and contemplation.

The Sufis who composed these songs were the immediate spiritual descendants of
the great mystical Sufis of Bijapur who mostly wrote in Persian and articulated the
mystic teachings of their master in a simple manner in these songs. Several themes
from the pre-existing folk songs preserved in the oral traditions in Marathi and
Kannada were also adapted. The Marathi village songs of this type had also a
devotional purpose, focus being the deity of Vithoba in Pandharpur. Therefore, this
literature bridged the gap between the mystical aspects of Islam with popular religion.

The trend of pir worship and devotionalism at pir’s tomb that developed during this
period linked the ‘inner circle’ of pir’s disciples with the non-elite devotees who
visited the shrines and were a part of the ‘outer circle.’ In this connection, the Sufi
folk songs that expounded the tenets of Islam, the miraculous power, i.e. karamat of
the Sufis and their role as the mediator between god and people played a significant
role. Due to their popular circulation, different social groups, particularly rural women
were drawn to these shrines. In this context women played a significant role in
dissemination of the ideas in these songs and literature and subsequently became an
important medium of spreading Islam. The women it appears were the most frequent
visitors to the shrines or dargahs primarily because one of the barakat of the saint
was associated with fertility. They also participated in various functions and festivals
there. The malfuzat literatures in the seventeenth century points out that the women
entered even the inner circles of Sufi followers and along with the men were instructed
in the religious mysticism and exercises to achieve the goal of direct communion with
god. Although a large number of women came from non-Muslim background, “they
perceived no great theological or social wall existing between Islam and Hinduism.
For them the village dargah formed only one more facet of an already diffuse and
eclectic religious life.”(Richard Eaton, 2000, p.198). Consequently, these women would
42
convey the teachings to their children .In this way, Sufi ideas through the folk Changing Social Structure
literature and the cult of saints represented in the dargahs entered the household in Peninsular India
space through the woman, binding the members of the family to the dargah and that
particular Sufis silsilah and subsequently Islam. In this manner Islam spread to the
non elite, rural folks.

However, this should not be misunderstood as the attempt on the part of the Sufis
to convert people to Islam. Sufis were not Muslim ‘missionaries’ as they made no
conscious attempt to gain non-Muslim followers who for the reasons cited above
were attracted to their shrines. Most of the devotees who regularly visited the
dargahs came from a marginalized social background and gradually came under the
influence of Islam. Hence, a following was created focused on the pir, and “the
diffusion of the Islamic precepts was a by-product of this effort.” Besides, these
Sufis were also trying to create a place for themselves as the mediator between god
and people and win over the spiritual allegiance of the people. Therefore, there was
never a sudden conversion to Islam at any point of time. The Sufis who entered
Deccan in the thirteenth and fourteenth century have been portrayed in the later
legends as militant champions of Islam. There is little historical evidence to show this.
Those claiming that their ancestors were converted by some Sufi saint or the other
are till day undergoing ‘a gradual process of Islamic acculturation’ which is also
uneven in terms of food, dress and speech. Besides, such a claim was motivated by
their desire to establish a long association with the dargah of the Sufi and their long
standing in Islam. In fact the dargahs represented a process of Islamic acculturation,
which represented a process of interaction and diffusion of cultural values and traditions
between the two societies, resulting in acquisition of new cultural characteristics.

Sufis were not merely pious mystics preaching Islam. They were a heterogeneous
group reacting to the social environment they were situated in. Richard Eaton in his
study on the Sufis of Bijapur identifies Sufis as a class with their distinct affiliations.
(Richard Eaton, 1978, Sufis of Bijapur.1300-1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval
India. Princeton). As a social class there were four types of Sufis. They were:
1) Reformist Sufis: These Sufis mainly belonging to the Qadri and Shattari orders
flourished during the reign of the Adil Shahi sultan, Ibrahim II (1580-1627).
Though the Sultan patronized them, but his broad religious outlook was not
received favourably by these Sufis. They shunned the use of Dakhni language
and were exclusive in their social interaction. This orthodox reaction intensified
particularly during the times of Ibrahim’s successors.
The Sufis of the Qadri and Shattari order took upon themselves to reform Islam
in Bijapur and influence the sultan. They were city based and had close ties with
Arabic traditions. They often collaborated with the ulemas. They developed
their khanqahs, had respective murids and received khiilafat from some pirs.
Their hospices were centres of Sufi activities and discourses. Their khanqahs
were popular and after death, their tombs became important pilgrimage centres,
reflecting popular devotional attitude while in their lifetime they were antagonistic
towards it.
2) Literary Sufis: Some Sufis were important writers who wrote numerous mystic
and popular literatures. They were mostly Chishtis who lived in isolated place
on the Shahpur Hillock outside Bijapur and were not significantly affected by the
changing fortunes of the Bijapur court. Their mystical writings gave a respectable
status to Dakhani Urdu, which was finally marginalized with the Mughal conquest
of Deccan in the seventeenth century. Their role in developing the Sufi folk
literature which became an important vehicle of integrating the non-elites, especially
the non-Muslims has already been discussed. Their popularity also coincided
with the Sufi faith which now heavily centered on the dargahs.

43
Medieval Society-2 3) Another kind of Sufis were those who accepted land grants from the state and
emerged as the landed elites or inamdars in Bijapur. In the latter half of the
seventeenth century, Bijapur state was undergoing social and political turmoil. At
this juncture, the Sultan’s political strategy was to placate the ulemas and win
over the Sufis of non-Chishti origin whose ancestors had a popular social base.
Therefore numerous land grants were made to them and the state patronage
was extended so that these Sufis could communicate the royal ideology and
legitimize it within the larger society. These landed Sufis were called the pirzadas,
literally meaning born to a saint. Consequently, certain changes took place within
the Sufi institutions. The khanqahs were ignored in favour of dargahs, which
now started attracting numerous devotees and their management became a
lucrative source of income. Besides, the state patronized those orders that had
popular dargahs for it gave them an access to the larger society which they
wished to control. Since the continuation of land grants was dependant on the
state’s will, therefore the state intervened and controlled the internal affairs of
the dargah, especially in appointing, confirming or rejecting a successor. The
Sufis now themselves gave less importance to the khanqahs and focused on
the dargahs. The ‘cult of personality’ replaced the ‘cult of order’. The concept
of pir worship became popular and the intellectual mystical aspect of the Sufi
philosophy receded into the background. The leadership of the khanqahs and
dargahs was now based on family heredity that capitalized on the personality
cult and became prosperous. With these land grants, the declining Adil Shahi
state ensured the political loyalty of the Sufis, whereby the ruler expected this
class to generate allegiance for the regime, pacify recalcitrant tendencies and
legitimize the state policies. Such a strategy became crucial for the stability of
the Adil Shahis in the seventeenth century as Bijapur became a disturbed province
due to perennial revolts of the local forces against the state. There are cases
of well known shaikhs being summoned to the court and made to pray for the
well being of the Sultan in the face of Maratha invasions in the Deccan.
However, the Sufis protected their landed interests and ignored the popular
following. In fact, with the decline of the Adil Shahi state in 1686, the fortunes
of these landed Sufis did not suffer. Aurangzeb renewed the inam grants and
granted the new ones. In fact, the landed pirzaidas were the first ones to
accept the Mughal regime for in the existence of a state they saw their survival
and prosperity.
4) Dervishes: Such conservatism and preference for court patronage over taking
care of the religious needs of the devotees produced a reaction from some of
the Sufis. These Sufis were known as dervishes and ranged from spiritual
heretics to non-conformists. They were hostile to the pirzadas and inamdars
as they found them to be too compromising. The dervishes rejected Islamic
orthodoxy and its urban materialistic orientation. They adopted spiritual exercises
to attain direct experience of god. They withdrew partially or totally from the
‘structural relations’ of the world. In fact stressing on religion’s original purity
and simplicity, the Bijapur majzubs resembled the early Sufis in Iraq and
Khorasan. The majzubs completely repudiated the contemporary society going
back to the original principles of Sufism. The contemporary Sufi literature calls
them majzubs. In fact, the polarization between the pirzadas and the dervishes
sharpened further with the decline of the Bijapuri state. One of the popular
dervishes was a Chishti named Amin al Din Alah whose popularity and influence
was feared by the pirzadas, especially of the Qadri silsilah.

21.7 SUMMARY
This Unit is a survey of various social groups that emerged in medieval period in
South India. The historical context of social change and consequently changes in the
44 social structure are located in the shifting political boundaries, development of trade
and commerce, expansion of agricultural activities, socio-religious movements based Changing Social Structure
on bhakti and Sufi and finally, the growth of international trade and profits from it. in Peninsular India
The social groups discussed here are the political elites, landed elites, religious leaders,
traders and merchants, artisans and Valangai-Idangai caste. A discussion on these
groups has already taken place in the previous Units. Here an outline has been
provided in order to understand the factors of social change, social mobility and social
transformation.

21.8 EXERCISES
1) Examine the power and position of the landed elites in peninsular India.
2) Discuss different groups of political elites in peninsular India.
3) Analyse the changing social structure of peninsular India in the medieval period.
4) Discuss the different classes of Sufis in the Deccan region during the seventeenth
century.
5) What was the socio-political role of the Sufis in the Deccan?

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