Indian Antiquary Vol 60

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

Page 149

JULY, 1931)
LIFE OF RISHI PIR PANDIT PADSHAH
127
One day Nának Shah oame running to Rishi Pir and told him in distress that his mother had suddenly died and requested that she might be revived to life. He replied that a person whose span of life had come to an end must die, but his mother could be brought to life again, provided he was willing to give some years to her from his own life. Nanak Shah replied that he would give fourteen years to her from his own life. Rishi Pir tben told him to go back and crack fourteen water-chestnuts near her head and eat their kernels, and she would revive and live for fourteen years more. Nânak Shah did as he was told. His mother revived, and she did not die until fourteen years bad passed.
There are current many other stories of miracles worked by Rishi Pir from time to time, but I have not given them here for fear of lengthening this article too much.
In his old age Rishi Pir lost the power of walking : he crawled about on wooden sandals, or else he was carried in a palankeen by his disciples. He died at the age of sixty years at Srinagar on the 6th of the dark fortnight of Baisakh (tbe lunar day and month of his birth) V.8. 1754 (1697 A.D.). He was cremated at the Bhattayår ghat below the 5th bridge. One of his wooden sandals was preserved as & relic. The follow of this had been lost in his lifetime (1672 A.D.) in a conflagration by which 2,100 houses were destroyed, and about which a poet oomposed the following couplet
-
آنچنان آتش زنهر ایزدی ان شب فروخت م ده رم دو ہزار دم نرد خانه بسوخت
Such a fire raged by the wrath of God that night
That ten and two thousand and ninety houses were destroyed. The other sandal is still preserved on a throne at his shrine. This shrine was rebuilt by Pandit Nand Ram Tika. It was destroyed by fire, but was reconstructed by Munshi Tilsk Chand and is still standing.
In spite of four centuries having elapsed since Rishi Pir lived, his memory still endures and will defy the flight of time, as mankind likes to remember the great and saintly men and women who bave departed. They supply & spiritual bridge between Being and Becoming. The Hindus still have faith in his spirit as a resolver of difficulties. Whenever a man has a desire for something or is in some trouble, he vows to deliver at his shrine a cash present of 147 puntshu (8 puntshu being equal to two bahaganis and one bahagani equal to eight laurs), and, conformably to his vow, pays the cash as soon as his desire is fulfilled or his trouble is surmounted. This is called mushkil sigan. The priests of the shrine give in return some roasted rice, & loaf of bread and some sspand (wild rue), after consecrating them by the touch of the relio of the Pir. The amount of the present and the things given in return were fixed by Rishi Pir himself in his lifetime.
Rishi Plr had one son named RahAnand, who, dat of affection, was called Rahnawab. After bis father's demise he gave up the world and became a recluse. Rahånand had twin sons, named Lala Pandit and Kashi Pandit. Lala Pandit carried on the duties of a pious householder, but Kashi Pandit, fired by the love of God, became an ascetic and went away to Jodhpur, where he died,