Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 116

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[May, 1931
Rishi Pir had a religious turn of mind from his very childhood. At 14 years of age spurred by insatiable thirst for knowing God, he used to go to the Harf Parbat daily. One day he was tired and fell asleep there. He had a dream in which he saw the goddess. She asked him what he wanted. He replied: "I want a spiritual guide." She told him that he would meet one on his way home. When he woke up he regretted that he had not asked the goddess herself to be his spiritual guide. However, he went from there and, near the shrine of Lakshmi, he met Kțishna Kar, who was a famous hermit living at Rainwari. The keen eye of the latter soon appraised Rishi Pir, and, after revealing a glimpse of divine knowledge to him, he kept him with his chief disciple, Zinda Pir, who, within a period of six months, infused new warmth into him and kindled the flame of divine vision in the house of his body.
Rishi Pir used to go round the Hari Parbat daily, as stated above, and used to walk outside its bastioned wall, and on reaching Sangin Darwaza, where there is a full view of the Chakreshwar, he used to run as if the effulgence of the goddess was unbearable to him. He was invariably accompanied by a large band of his disciples, among whom two men, named Nanak Shah Azari and Aita Shah Malang, were his favourites.
Rishi Pir used to work miracles. But this is viewed with disfavour by saints walking in higher spheres, in whose eyes every action tending to show personal and worldly aggrandizement sullies the true love of God. Rupa Bhawâni, a famous hermitess who lived in his time, therefore, remarked: "Rishis piyeyih tembra parantu tsjin nah," meaning that a spark had fallen on the ¡ishi, but he could not bear it.
However, by working miracles Rishi Pir's fame for sanctity spread far and wide, and people, out of respect towards him, began to call him Padshah (king). He used to be carried by his disciples on a throne. He got a seal made and on it engraved Padshah-i-jahan. The engraver secretly sent a report of this to the then emperor of India, Aurangzeb. His Majesty became inoensed and deputed an orderly to Kashmir to seize and conduct Rishi Pir to his presenoe at Delhi. When the orderly reached Srinagar and went to arrest Rishi Pir, there was great commotion among the people. Rishi Pir was informed of this. He said he must obey the imperial orders. He asked his disciples to give food and shelter for the night to the orderly. He further told them that he must be left alone in his room that night and that the door should be chained on the outside. They did as they were instructed. Rishi Pir, by the force of his occult powers, appeared before Aurangzeb at Delhi, riding on a lion, and terrified him, asking why he was being troubled; whereupon the emperor wrote out an order countermanding the previous one, with blood pricked from his little finger with a knife, and gave it to Rishi Pir. In the same order he commanded that Rishi Pir should thenceforth be called not only by the title of Padshah but by that of Padshah-i-har di jahan. Next morning, when Rishi Pir's disciples opened the door of his room, he gave them the emperor's order, with instructions to hand it to his orderly. The orderly, on receiving it, returned to Delhi.
The emperor, on rising from his bed next morning, felt greatly frightened and quickly wrote to the then governor of Kashmir, Saif Khân (who held the post of governor from 1665 to 1668, and again from 1669 to 1672 A.D.) directing him to go to Rishi Pir and present him with a jdgir on his behalf, and ordering, further, that the rishi should thenceforth be called not only by the title of Padshah, but by that of Padshah-i-har dd jahan. The governor went and presented him with a sanad for a jdgir for ten villages in the Devgar pargana.
The Muhammadan tradition is that, after Aurangzeb had sent his orderly to arrest Rishi Pir, some of his ministers assured the emperor that it was a false report of the seal engraver that Rishi Pir desired to assume the sovereignty of Kashmir, he being a holy man to whom worldly power was repugnant. The emperor thereupon issued a second order, oountermanding the first and commanding that Rishi Pir should be called by the title of Padahdh-s-har dd jahan ('king of both worlds,' 1.6., of this world and the next). Thenceforth Rishi Pir was oalled by this title.