Reading Nund Rishi

Abstract:

Nund Rishi (1378-1440) is not only one of the most significant figures in the history of religion in Kashmir but also the founder of the only regional Kashmiri Sufi Order called the Rishi Order. This paper is about the thinking of death, the nothing, and faith, in Nund Rishi's mystical poetry as a form of negative theology. I will situate the moments of negative theology in Nund Rishi's mystical poetry in the context of the social and political turbulence in fifteenth century Kashmir. What is responsible for the sudden flowering of negative theology in the Kashmiri vernacular at the frontiers of the dar al-Islam (the world of Islam)? Is there only one (Islamic) negative theology at play in Nund Rishi or are there many (Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Neoplatonic)? With these questions in mind, I will explore the relationship between negative theology, history and politics in medieval Kashmir.

Report:

This paper is a response to the talk delivered by Professor Abir Bazaz on Reading Nund Rishi: Negative Theology and the Political in Medieval Kashmir. This talk discussed the medieval Kashmiri saint Nund Rishi. He was a significant Kashmiri poet and the founder of the only Kashmiri Sufi order, the Rishi order. The talk also focused on his poetry and the use of negative theology within it. Professor Bazaz raised some important questions on what the rise of such a Sufi order, in politically turbulent times, meant and its relationship with other religions namely Hinduism and Buddhism.

Nund Rishi was born in 1377 AD in Kulgan district of Kashmir to a family of recent converts. This was a particularly turbulent time for the Valley of Kashmir, as there was a change from Hinduism to the Islam and the rise of fall of several dynasties. Nund Rishi started the mystic of an order of the Sufi saints, called the Rishi order.He is also the creator of Shruks, a Kashmiri variation of the Sanskrit shloka, which engages with the idea of negative theology. Through this discussion, I am going to engage with the idea of how a mystic order grew in politically turbulent times, and how much it borrows from other cultures and religions rather than just his own.

As Professor Bazaz pointed out, the Rishi order grew in particularly turbulent times. It was also a Sufi order that had a lot of horizontal borrowing from both Hinduism and Buddhism. The name ‘Rishi’ itself, is a particularly Sanskritic term used to refer to Hindu saints. The Hindus of the family considered Nund Rishi to be an incarnation of the Buddha and were termed as the ‘blissful one’. A manuscript of Asadhosal Buddhacharitra was found upon the destruction of Nund Rishi’s shrine in 1992. This suggests the conversation that might have occurred between Sufism and Buddhism during that period.

Therefore I would like to conclude by posing the question: How do other religions and culture influence the rise of a mystic order within a particular religion in periods of both political and social change?

By Pratiti, Undergraduate Class of 2020