Nund Rishi and Rishism: Exploring Rishi-Sufi Shruks

This paper aims to explore the shruks of Nund Rishi under the framework of mysticism. Sheikh Noor-ud-din, a moral guide and a reformist, popularly known as Nund Rishi is one of the greatest litterateurs who hailed from medieval Kashmir. Nund Rishi is remembered for his shruks that reflect his wisdom of Islam which he shared with the natives in the vernacular. In Kashmir, where differences are valorized, his shruks corresponds to interfaith dialogue surpassing all religions through the doctrine of Islamic mysticism. He erected the edifice of Rishism by preaching monotheism in a caste ridden society on the pedestals of the mission launched by Lal Ded. Shruks are a priceless possession and a legacy for the posterity. Also, the paper addresses how the narrative of the shruks is of importance in the contemporary Kashmir and promotes Kashmiriyat; the essence of being a Kashmiri.

Radical Grace: Hymning of ‘Womanhood’ in Therigatha

Focusing primarily on Therigatha,1 the poems by the first Buddhist women, and correlating them with the compositions of non-Buddhist women mystics like Meerabai, Lal Ded, Muktabai, Janabai and Akka Mahadevi, this article is a study of spirituality, femininity and poetic expressions in a comparative mode. The article aims to address two major issues: First, it attempts to understand how the women mystics asserted their authority as the conveyers of divine message in a society which was essentially patriarchal and suspicious about the credentials of feminine utterances. Second, the article seeks to delineate a certain womanizing of saintliness through the invoking of domesticity (role as wife and mother) and the use of metaphors related to the female body and desire by these select women mystics as the denouement of a radical stance of an ascetic ‘feminine spirituality’, aimed at discovering transcendence even by retaining the conscious deploying of the components, often viewed as mundane.