Fakirs and Saddhus

Shameless promotions out the way first (don't worry this is mainly intended to be history):

Some of you will know that I am busy finishing off a Mughal Era mod with Luddi. This sees many medieval Indian and Persian units. One of these is the "Fakir" - an invisible, holy man unit that requires no support. It is auto-produced by the "Fakir's Lodge" improvement, which requires the "Opium" resource in its radius to build.

Well I was just doing some writing up for the Pedia, as we reach close to release, and it struck me what fascinating characters Fakirs (Muslim, mostly Sufi) and also Saddhus (Hindu ascetics) are historically, socially, religiously, morally and in so many other ways. I'm going to lay out some of the Pedia write up, to give you an impression of what a kick ass mod this will be and also to share some info on these characters. Here's the Pedia entry, with some photos added to give more of an idea:

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Fakir’s Lodge: Requires Opium in the city radius in order to build. Once you’ve hooked up the narcotic supply, the mystics will come flocking and a Fakir will be auto-produced every 8 turns. NOTE: You can share one source of opium between a number of cities (if you’re not so anal as to insist on giving cities optimum spacing that is).

The Fakir’s Lodge introduces the colourful, mysterious, inspiring and frankly bizarre holy men of the Hindu and Muslim faiths. The Saddhu and The Fakir. It also makes for some seriously cool gameplay with auto-produced invisible units!

A Saddhu (Saah-doo) is a Hindu ascetic or monk.



The Saddhu or Sunyasin tradition has a long history. It consists of renouncing worldly ties in pursuit of higher values of life. Ideally a Saddhu lives in the society but is detached from its pleasures and pains. Saddhus typically survive on bhiksha (alms) provided by families, and on natural resources, and they spend most of their time in meditation. Saddhus are holy men, and are revered as possessing special knowledge and power, but they are often feared as well for their strange practices.



Saddhu with begging bowl


There are many sects devoted to different deities, but the most gruesome is the Aghori, whose members frequent crematory grounds, drink from skulls, and even eat human flesh - along with other taboo-breaking, they believe that these transgressions will speed up enlightenment. Whatever does it for you, as they say.

Fakirs were / are Muslim ascetics, most typically Sufi mystics.



These were actually known to engage in medieval warfare, unlike the Saddhu. Being holymen, they were not ‘really’ meant to be killing people. So they developed a number of cool weapons in disguise, such as:

The Fakir's crutch.

A rather rare form of Indian mace or pick used, as the name implies, mostly by religious mendicants forbidden by law to carry arms. Usually made from a solid piece of steel, it has a short handle on one side of which is a head shaped like a hand holding an antelope's horn and, on the other, a serpent with a tiger's head. This 'crutch' is placed under the arm when a fakir is seated, and, should the need arise, can be a very efficient weapon.

Fakir's horns.

A rare form of Indian weapon used by some fakirs, who as holy mendicants have never been allowed to carry ordinary weapons. It consists of a pair of black buck horns fastened together with their points going in opposite directions. The tips of the horns are sometimes furnished with steel spikes.
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Armed with that intro, now on with the thread:

I have spent quite a bit of time with Saddhus in India. I learnt a lot of yoga and meditation from these guys. They are wonderful, gentle, inspiring and magical people. My facination with them was the reason for me growing dreadlocks when I was younger, not some reggae fetish.



(I also smoked loads of very fine hash in chillums with them - like this guy is doing.)



For those not in the know: Saddhus are often also called Sunyasins. This is the fourth and final stage in a man's life according to Hindu beliefs. After the first three, a man must then leave behind him all his worldly belongings, family, job etc and train himself for union with the divine - the purpose of life itself in Hindu belief.

This detachment often means mutilating, piercing, burning or scarring the body. The whole idea being to overcome the material.



I believe the writing in this picture sums up what they are about quite well.



Also worth mentioning the the Buddha Gautama was of course following the way of the Saddhu / Sunyasin when he gave his preachings that gave birth to Buddhism.

What more do you know of the Sufi and Hindu traditions of these holymen? I really don't know as much about the Sufi mystics.

Actually here is some more about how Sufi Holymen were received in India by the Hindu sections of the popoulation (also from the Pedia):

"Sufism’s reception in India is a fine example of this tolerance in action. Sufism has always been limited to a few very spiritual people in the Middle East, where orthodox Moslems regard it as almost a heresy. However, it got a different reception in India. Often Sufis would form bands of fakirs, preaching the message of the Prophet and going into trances to achieve spiritual union with God. This looked a lot like what the gurus had been practicing for the previous two thousand years, so Hindus readily accepted it. The Hindus came to respect all kinds of Sufis, even (or should I say especially) the fearsome warriors who slaughtered Hindus in battle. When Sufis died and were buried, Hindus and Moslems came to pay their respects, though for different reasons; Moslems regarded the departed Sufis as saints, while Hindus venerated them as gods. Women especially worshiped them because they believed Sufis had the power to cure barrenness. Since most Sufi holy men were buried at religious schools, where Hindus were not allowed to come in, it became a common practice for Hindus to leave flowers and other offerings to the dead hero outside the walls of the schools."

Rambuchan said:

Click to expand...

Woa! Cool party trick! Actually, that pic should go in this thread.

Hey, them furriners are mighty strange sometimes.

Nice write-up Ram.

BTW - Does anyone actually find their existential and mystical ramblings interesting?

It always amazes me that folk take pictures and go "Oh ain't he funny" but they hardly ever bother talking to them. Anyone ever hung out with these kind of people, read up what they are all about and actually chewed it over?

EDIT >

EXAMPLE AFTERNOON WITH A SADDHU

I made friends with many Saddhus whilst travelling around India (when I don't have to go visit any family over there). I'll share a little account of one Saddhu I met whilst travelling around Rajasthan.

He was an old boy, 50-60 yrs old, I could not tell exactly. I have photos of us somewhere. This man was a Shiva devotee - you can tell these men apart because they typically have 3 horizontal lines painted on their forehead, symbolic of Shiva's trident. (Shiva is the God who created the world, not the universe, by dancing a dance of destruction - he represents many things but primarily the process of destruction leading to creation) He also carried a little brass Shiva trident with him. This man wore nothing but a black cloth, thick rimmed glasses, a bead necklace and that's it.

He also would go each morning and gather ashes from the local crematorium. These white ashes, human ashes, were used to paint his body and forehead. I still don't know the entire significane of the ash. He carried around with him the top of a human skull, which had been smoothed and cleaned. In this he would mix his ash with water to create the paste he would paint himself with. He would also mix his hash and tobacco in this skull / bowl before smoking it in his chillum. I would smoke from these mixes too.

He was the Managing Director of a Logistics company before he became 'a man of the path'. He explained how he had succcessfully raised the company up to operate in many more markets and to be more profitable than before he took it. But he simply got to the age where he should turn away from it all. He had left his family behind and handed the job over to someone else.

This man also cured me of a dreaded case of food poisoning. I had eaten something which was not clean and for a two days I was running to the loo and only consuming 'lime water' as everything else would pass out. Well this man noticed this and decided to cure me. How did he do it? By empowering my mind to believe I could get rid of it. And with breathing exercises as tools to do so. He took me to his room, asked me to sit in a lotus position and then taught me some violent breathing exercises. This invovled breathing in sharply to the belly, counting to three and then forcefully exhaling with a certain chant. I was watched while I perfected the technique, then he urged me to repeat it every time I felt bad. Guess what? It eased all discomfort and I was fine within 2 days, no joking. And with no medicine, no GP, no nothing but breathing. He also went on to get me interested in yoga, an interest I still hold to today.

I recommend chatting to these guys sometime, or at least reading about them - they will blow your mind