The nineteenth century saint Sharieff Saheb of Shishunal, though born in a devout Muslim family was well versed in Lingayatism and had a Brahmin, Govinda Bhatt as his guru. He left a legacy of hundreds of mystic poems in Kannada and more importantly a tradition of samanvaya—harmony.
The nineteenth century saint Sharieff Saheb of Shishunal, though born in a devout Muslim family was well versed in Lingayatism and had a Brahmin, Govinda Bhatt as his guru. He left a legacy of hundreds of mystic poems in Kannada and more importantly a tradition of samanvaya—harmony.
SHARIEFF in Persian means "the one with lofty ideals and high culture". Perhaps with prescience Imamsaheb, a humble and devout peasant, and his wife named their belated off spring thus. Sharieff Saheb, born in Shishunal, a small village in Dharwad district of Karnataka, in 1819, imbided all that is lofty in the culture of Karnataka. Its tradition of harmony, of the culture of the Lingayat Sharanas (saints) of the twelfth century, of the 16th century Vaishnavaite Dasas and a great poetic heritage comprising the ‘high’ poetry of Pampa and centuries of oral folk poetry of Sarvajnya and others. The first available work on poetics and criticism in Kannada Sharieff spent his childhood surrounded by the love and affection of his parents and discussions with his father on the importance and meaning of Namaz, the nature of Allah and whether listens to our prayers only in a mosque, etc. After the fall of the Peshwas in 1818, the East India Company amalgamated this region into the Bombay presidency. One commonality among all these rulers belongs to the tenth century.
Sharieff left behind him hundreds of poems expressing his spiritual anguish, critical and ecstatic comments on different faiths and spiritual contemporaries and most importantly his message of different spiritual paths leading to the same end. He did not write them down. Those who heard them have jotted down a few for posterity but most of them are still sung in the villages of Karnataka purely based on the memory of a people.
Sharieff spent his childhood surrounded by the love and affection of his parents and discussions with his father on the importance and meaning of Namaz, the nature of Allah and whether listens to our prayers only in a mosque, etc.
After the fall of the Peshwas in 1818, the East India Company amalgamated this region into the Bombay presidency. One commonality among all these rulers was the utter neglect of education in the region. The burden of mass education was largely borne by schools run by Lingayat maths (religious institutions).
Imamsaheb enrolled his son in one of them. Seeing his eagerness the teacher introduced him to the vast Veerashaiva literature. At this stage, Sharieff showed interest in Vedic studies and his father enrolled him in a Vedic school run by Govinda Bhatt at a temple in a nearby village where he was taught the Vedas, Upanishads, Smriti, Ramayan-Mahabharat, Puranas etc. Later, he independently studied the Koran and the Hadith. Although equipped with such a rich background in religious studies at a tender age, Sharieff was a normal young man actively interested in the activities in his village and surroundings.
Taking advantage of a new scheme of partial support for local schools, announced by the newly formed Board of Education in the Bombay presidency, Sharieff successfully mobilised the village elders to start a school in the backward village of Shishunal. He taught the children of his village all that he had learnt from various teachers in his childhood. Soon he took initiative in starting similar schools in the surrounding villages and became popular as ‘Sharieff Master’.
In his reformatory enthusiasm, one of the cultural events that came to his notice was the celebration of Mohurram in the area. It had two characteristics. Firstly, it was celebrated by the two major local communities, Muslims and Veerashaivas, who would come together in a genuine display of brotherhood. Secondly, the participants often used to forget the religious significance of Mohurram as homage to the martyrdom of Hazrat Hussain and his followers in Karbala nearly fourteen centuries ago at the hands of the tyrant Yezid. Instead, it used to degenerate into raucous revelry.
Sharieff got down to changing the situation. He wrote the story of Karbala in a popular folk form of riwayat and choreographed a group dance to go with it using the folk form of hejjemela. His riwayats became immensely popular though at times he cried in anguish in his poems that people still did not understand the significance of Mohurram.
When he came of age, his parents arranged his marriage with a girl, Fatima, from a nearby village. The couple lived happily and soon there arrived a baby girl. Sharieff lost himself in domestic bliss and the responsibility of farming to provide for his family.
But great distress soon befell him in wave after wave. First his parents died of old age. Then his dear daughter fell victim to cholera. This was followed by the death of his heart broken wife.
Now Sharieff was left with no one dear in his life. Shaken by his misfortune, he reflected on the fragility of human life. His early interest in spiritual questions led him to seek a way out of the misery through a spiritual pilgrim’s journey that took him back to his childhood teacher, Govinda Bhatt. Govinda Bhatt was delighted to accept him as his shishya, despite acute peer pressure and threats of excommunication. Guided by his guru, Sharieff soon started having mystical experiences.
He sought wisdom and mysticism wherever it came to his notice among his contemporaries in North Karnataka. Along with spiritual wisdom came the unstoppable flow of religious poetry, which to this day is sung in the villages of Karnataka.
In simple rustic Kannada, Sharieff commented on the hypocrisy among followers of various religions who do not understand the tenets of their religion but engage in empty rituals while leading lives of deceit and hedonism. He wrote a number of poems on the need for self-restraint and detachment. At the ripe age of seventy, when he had spent his life in progressing poverty and hunger, Sharieff decided to end it in a yogic fashion and surrounded by people he went into a trance and never regained consciousness.
On his death, there arose a dispute regarding his funeral, with both Hindus and Muslims claiming him as their own. Finally realising the message of his life, both communities jointly organised it. Both the Ooran and Hindu scriptures were read. There was "Allah ho Akbar" as well as "Har Har Mahadev". Since then, his grave is visited by both communities. While on the left, Muslims perform Namaz, on the right, Hindus perform pooja and arati.
People come in their thousands to pay respects to this Kabir of Karnataka. On new moon days and Mondays, during the month of Shravan and during the religious fairs held in his honour, his songs are sung by numerous folk singers. In the cool shade of neem trees and fragrant jasmine, the spirit of Sharieff and the spirit of communal harmony and mutual respect flourish.
It is heartening to see that when his poems were composed into music and audio cassettes were sold in the 1980s, they beat all music sales including film music and are popular with the young and old alike till today.
Shivanand Kanavi is a senior journalist and author of “Sand to Silicon: The amazing story of digital technology”