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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(AUGUST, 1918
enthusiastic-was his nom-de-plume. His poetry was greatly appreciated by Mirza Sahib --that illustrious poet of Persia, when he saw this poet of Sind in the course of his travels in Persia.
Simple though this identification may be, there is still considerable doubt attached to it, as though the Baloches are in some measure disciples of the River God, a cult which they seem to have adopted in Sind several centuries ago, they are unable to fix their choice of the personality of their Pir.13 Khwaja Khizr in one Baloch ballad takes the place of the archangel Mikail in the heavenly hierarchy and is at times variously identified with Elijah or Ilias and the River God. In the delta of the Indus Khwaja Khizr is held to be the brother of Ilias.
The Khulasat bas no reference to this ziarat but Manucci mentions it14 though under an ill-written name. "At a short distance from the fort (of Bakkur) towards the north was a little island known as Coia Khitan, where is a tomb held in great veneration by the Moors."
According to an "ex-Political "15 the date on the mosque of Khwaja Khizr ziarat is A.H. 341 (-952 A.D.) The story of its being built is that " a shepherd named Baji, whose hut stood where the Mahal of Baji, one of the divisions of the town of Rohri, now stands, observed at night a bright flame burning at some distance from him. Thinking it had been kindled by travellers, he sent his wife to procure a light from it but, as often as she approached, it vanished. She returned and told her husband; and he disbelieving the report went himself and then discovered that it was indeed a miraculous manifestation. Awe-struck with what he had seen he erected a takiyah, or hermit's hut, on the spot and devoted himself as the fakir to the religious care of the place. Soon after this the Indus altered its course and abandoning the walls of Alor, encircled the ground on which the takiyah of Baji stood and which is now called the island of Khwaja Khizr.
*«There is another story which relates that the Rajah of Alor was desirous of possessing the beautiful daughter of a merchant who resided in his city. The unhappy father, unable to oppose the wishes of the king, entreated that a respite of eight days might be allowed to him, and having spent that time in fasting and prayer he was miraculously conveyed with his daughter and all his wealth to the island Khizr, the river at the same time deserting the city of Alor."
The violence of the river has given rise to a characteristic Sindhi proverb— Who has drowned the place? Khwaja Khizr," which means that one must not grumble at the tyranny of a great man but submit.
Khwaja Khizr appears once in history. Qutb Saheb, Qutb-uddin Bakhtyar Kaki of Ush, settled at Delhi and died in the year A. D. 1236. He obtained his name Kaki from his ability to produce hot cakes (kak) from his armpits. Khwaja Khizr, who “ still regulates the wealth and the price current of grains," appeared to him in a dream and gave him the power of prophecy.
Now it is very remarkable that the date quoted by Mr. Eastwick corresponds very closely with that given in the Uderolâl legend. At the same time the story of Qutb Saheb shows that by the beginning of the 13th century the identification of Khwaja Khizr with the River God (? Nature God) was complete. It seems indeed that the invasions of Mahomed of Ghazni must have hammered into the understandings of the Sindhis that,
13 L. Dames, Popular Poetry of the Balochos, p. 141.
34 Storia do Mogor, I, 326. 15 Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, by an ex-Political. H. B. Eastwick.
