What was the role of Sufi Folk literature in the diffusion of Islam in India in general and in Deccan in particular.

Answer:

Sufi folk literature, composed in regional languages and popular verse forms, carried the message of Islam to the Indian countryside far more effectively than formal theology. In the Deccan this literature played an especially important part, giving rise to Dakhani as a literary language.

The nature of the literature

• It was composed in vernaculars, Punjabi, Sindhi, Awadhi, Bengali and Dakhani, not Arabic or Persian.
• It adopted indigenous verse forms and the imagery of everyday village life.
• Songs sung at the spinning wheel (charkhanama) and grinding stone (chakkinama) taught doctrine through daily work.
• The premakhyan, or Sufi romance, conveyed mystical love through a story.
• Malik Muhammad Jayasi's Padmavat is the outstanding example in Awadhi.

How it aided diffusion

• It made Islamic mystical ideas intelligible to those with no Persian or Arabic.
• Emphasis on love, unity of being and the guide (pir) resonated with Bhakti sentiment.
• The khanqah offered food and shelter to all, attracting the poor and low-caste.
• Music and sama drew large popular audiences.
• Conversion often followed personal attachment to a saint rather than doctrinal instruction.

The Deccan in particular

• Sufis accompanied the Khalji and Tughlaq expansion into the Deccan.
• Gesu Daraz (Banda Nawaz) of Gulbarga wrote in Dakhani, giving the language literary standing.
• Bahmani and later Sultanate courts patronised Dakhani Sufi writing.
• Burhanuddin Janam and Shah Miranji composed mystical verse in the language.
• Dakhani thus became a vehicle of both religion and regional identity.

Limits and assessment

• Conversion also owed much to social mobility, patronage and political circumstance.
• Orthodox ulema often disapproved of vernacular composition and of sama.
• Sufi literature nonetheless created a shared devotional idiom across communities.
• Richard Eaton's study of Bijapur shows how deeply this literature penetrated rural society.

Sufi folk literature therefore did more than any formal preaching to spread Islam in India, and in the Deccan it created a literary language in the process. As historians of medieval religion observe, by speaking in the people's own idiom the Sufis produced a devotional culture that Hindus and Muslims could share.