Bhakti and Sufi Movements – NDA History Notes

Between the 7th and 17th centuries CE, India witnessed one of the most remarkable spiritual revolutions in human history. Across the subcontinent, from the Tamil coast in the south to the mountains of Kashmir in the north, from Assam in the east to Rajasthan in the west, saints, poets, and mystics were singing about God in the languages of ordinary people. They were challenging the authority of priests. They were declaring that a cobbler, a weaver, a woman, or a low-caste farmer could reach God as surely as any Brahmin. Their voices were not whispers. They became the loudest sounds in medieval Indian culture.

Two great movements gave rise to this revolution. The first was the Bhakti movement — a wave of Hindu devotional spirituality that began in Tamil Nadu in the 7th century CE and swept northward over the following centuries, transforming every regional language and culture it touched. The word bhakti means devotion — intense, personal, emotional love for a chosen deity. Bhakti saints rejected the idea that God could only be reached through priests, rituals, or the Sanskrit language. They said God was close, accessible, and loving, and that any sincere devotee could find God through love.

The second was the Sufi movement — a tradition of Islamic mysticism that came to India with the Muslim conquerors and traders of the medieval period. Sufis believed that the heart of religion was not law or ritual but direct personal experience of God, achieved through love, devotion, and spiritual discipline. They settled across India, opened their hospices to people of all backgrounds, and became some of the most beloved spiritual figures in Indian history.

These two movements were not the same. They came from different religious traditions and expressed themselves differently. But they were profoundly connected. They shared a commitment to personal over institutional religion. They shared a rejection of the idea that social rank determined spiritual worth. And in figures like Kabir, they actually merged, producing a devotional voice that belonged to neither Hinduism nor Islam but drew from both.

NDA has tested this chapter on specific topics. Kabir’s synthesis of Hinduism and Islam, Guru Nanak’s founding of Sikhism and its core emphases, Mirabai’s identity and language, the chronological order of Lal Ded and other saints, Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya’s order and his distinctness from the Chishtis, and the Virashaiva challenge to the Dharmashastras have all appeared in past papers.

---

1. Historical Context — Why These Movements Emerged

To understand the Bhakti and Sufi movements, students need to understand what they were responding to. By the 7th century CE, Indian religious life had become deeply unequal. The Brahminic tradition placed priests at the centre of all religious activity. Only Brahmins could perform the rituals that connected humans to the gods. These rituals were conducted in Sanskrit, a language that ordinary people did not understand. The caste system determined who had access to religious life and who did not. Women, low-caste Hindus, and untouchables were effectively excluded from the formal religious order.

At the same time, from the 8th century CE onward, Islam began to enter India — through Arab traders on the western coast, through the conquests of Mahmud of Ghazni in the north, and eventually through the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. Islam’s message of equality before God, the idea that all Muslims stood equally before Allah regardless of birth or social status, posed a powerful challenge to the caste-based Hindu religious order. Many people from lower castes found Islam’s egalitarianism attractive.

The Bhakti and Sufi movements were, in different ways, responses to this situation. Both offered what the formal religious establishments did not: direct personal access to God, a spiritual life open to all regardless of caste or gender, and expression in languages that ordinary people could understand and love.

---

2. The Bhakti Movement — Origins and Philosophy

The word Bhakti comes from the Sanskrit root bhaj — meaning to share or to love. In the religious context, it means intense personal devotion to God. The Bhakti movement was not a single organised movement. It was a vast, diverse, centuries-long wave of devotional spirituality that took different forms in different regions, expressed different conceptions of God, and produced saints from every caste and both genders.

The roots of the Bhakti movement lie in Tamil Nadu in South India. Between the 6th and 9th centuries CE, two groups of Tamil poet-saints composed some of the most beautiful devotional poetry in Indian literature.

The Alvars were twelve Vaishnava poet-saints who composed hymns of devotion to Vishnu in Tamil. Their collected hymns form the Nalayira Divya Prabandham (Four Thousand Sacred Compositions), a text so revered that it is sometimes called the Tamil Veda.

The Nayanmars were sixty-three Shaivite poet-saints who composed hymns of devotion to Shiva in Tamil. Their collected hymns form the Tirumurai.

Both groups sang of God in the language of the common people. Both rejected the idea that caste determined spiritual worth. Both emphasised the direct emotional relationship between the devotee and the divine.

Ramanuja’s Philosophical Foundation

The Tamil Bhakti tradition received its philosophical foundation from the great philosopher Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE). Ramanuja’s philosophy is called Vishishtadvaita — qualified non-dualism. He taught that God, the individual soul, and the material world are all real, but the individual soul and the world exist within God as his body. God and the soul are neither identical nor completely separate. This philosophy provided the theological justification for devotional worship, because if God and the soul are related, then devotion (bhakti) is the natural and appropriate way for the soul to reach God.

Saguna vs Nirguna Bhakti

As the Bhakti movement spread, two distinct streams developed, each with a different conception of God.

Feature	Saguna Bhakti	Nirguna Bhakti
Conception of God	God with form and attributes	God without form or attributes
Worship style	Devotion to a personal deity — Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva	Devotion to a formless, nameless ultimate reality
Attitude to idols	Idol worship accepted	Idol worship rejected
Key saints	Mirabai, Surdas, Tulsidas, Chaitanya, Alvars	Kabir, Guru Nanak, Ravidas, Dadu Dayal
Approach to caste	Challenged but within Hindu framework	More radically anti-caste

Both streams shared the core Bhakti values: rejection of empty ritual, emphasis on personal devotion, and spiritual equality. But they differed fundamentally in how they conceived of God.

---

3. South Indian Bhakti — Basavanna and the Virashaivas

The most socially radical movement to emerge from the South Indian Bhakti tradition was founded by Basavanna in the 12th century CE in present-day Karnataka. Basavanna was a minister at the court of the Kalachuri king Bijjala. He founded the Virashaiva movement — also called the Lingayat movement — which represented one of the most thorough challenges to the existing social order in Indian history.

Basavanna and his followers were devotees of Shiva. They wore a small linga (symbol of Shiva) around their necks — hence the name Lingayat. But their movement was about far more than a new form of worship. It was a radical social reformation.

The Virashaivas challenged the authority of the Dharmashastras, the ancient texts that governed Hindu social law. [NDA 2019-II] They did this in two specific ways.

First, they supported post-puberty marriage — the idea that women should be allowed to choose their own husbands after reaching adulthood. Traditional Dharmashastra rules prescribed child marriage. The Virashaivas rejected this.

Second, they supported widow remarriage — the idea that a woman whose husband had died should be allowed to remarry. Traditional Dharmashastra rules prohibited widow remarriage. The Virashaivas rejected this too. [NDA 2019-II]

The Virashaivas also rejected caste distinctions, the authority of Brahmin priests, and the idea that birth determined spiritual worth. The community of saints around Basavanna composed short free-verse poems called vachanas in Kannada — democratic, direct, and emotionally powerful.

Akka Mahadevi

One of the most remarkable figures associated with the Virashaiva movement was Akka Mahadevi — a female saint of the 12th century CE. She composed vachanas in Kannada that express a fierce spiritual independence. She rejected the social conventions of marriage and domesticity in favour of complete devotion to Shiva. She is one of the earliest and most powerful examples of female spiritual authority in the Indian tradition.

[Image Suggestion: A painting or sculpture representing the Virashaiva Lingayat tradition — showing the linga worn around the neck, alongside an image of the Lingayat literary tradition]

---

4. Maharashtra Bhakti — The Varkari Tradition

The most important Bhakti movement in Maharashtra was the Varkari tradition — centred on devotion to Vitthal (also called Vithoba), a form of Vishnu/Krishna, at the temple of Pandharpur on the Bhima river. Varkari pilgrims walk to Pandharpur twice a year, a tradition that continues today and attracts millions of devotees.

Three saints define the Varkari tradition.

Namdev (approximately 1270–1350 CE) was one of the earliest and most important Varkari saints. He was a tailor by caste, and his life itself was a challenge to caste hierarchy. He composed devotional poetry in Marathi and Hindi. His hymns became so widely revered that they were included in the Adi Granth — the Sikh scripture — showing the reach of his influence across regional and religious boundaries.

Eknath (1533–1599 CE) was a Varkari saint and scholar of the 16th century. He wrote commentaries on the Bhagavata Purana in Marathi, making its teachings accessible to ordinary people. He actively worked to include lower-caste people in religious life, inviting them into his home to eat and worship together, which was a radical social act in his time.

Tukaram (1598–1650 CE) is the most beloved of all the Varkari saints. He was a farmer and small trader who experienced great personal suffering before finding spiritual peace in devotion to Vitthal. His devotional poems, called abhangas, are among the greatest works in Marathi literature. They express joy, sorrow, devotion, and spiritual insight with extraordinary directness and beauty.

Saint	Period	Key Contribution
Namdev	13th–14th century CE	Early Varkari saint. Marathi and Hindi poetry. Hymns in the Adi Granth.
Eknath	16th century CE	Commentary on Bhagavata Purana. Inclusion of lower castes in religious life.
Tukaram	17th century CE	Abhangas in Marathi. Most beloved Varkari saint.

---

5. Lal Ded and the Chronological Order of Saints

Lal Ded (also called Lalla, Lalleshwari, or Lal Arifa) was a 14th century mystic poet from Kashmir. Her poetry was composed in the Kashmiri language and draws on both Hindu Shaivite mysticism and Sufi traditions. She is one of the clearest examples of the creative blending of Hindu and Muslim devotional traditions that characterised this period of Indian religious history.

Lal Ded occupies an important place in the chronological order of major Bhakti figures, a sequence that NDA has directly tested. [NDA 2014-II]

Saint	Century	Region	Tradition
Appar	7th century CE	Tamil Nadu	Shaivite Nayanmar
Basavanna	12th century CE	Karnataka	Virashaiva / Lingayat
Lal Ded	14th century CE	Kashmir	Hindu Shaivite / Sufi blend
Mirabai	15th–16th century CE	Rajasthan	Krishna Bhakti

[NDA 2014-II]

Timeline of Major Bhakti and Sufi Figures

7th century CE    →  Appar (Tamil Nadu, Shaivite Nayanmar)
                     Alvars and Nayanmars flourish in Tamil Nadu

12th century CE   →  Basavanna (Karnataka, Virashaiva movement)
                     Akka Mahadevi (Karnataka, Virashaiva)

13th–14th century →  Namdev (Maharashtra, Varkari)
                     Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (Ajmer, Chishti Sufi order)
                     Nizamuddin Auliya and Amir Khusrau (Delhi, Chishti)

14th century CE   →  Lal Ded (Kashmir, Shaivite / Sufi blend)
                     Ramananda (North India, bridge from South to North)

15th–16th century →  Kabir (Varanasi, Nirguna synthesis)
                     Guru Nanak (Punjab, founded Sikhism 1469–1539)
                     Mirabai (Rajasthan, Krishna Bhakti, Braj Bhasha)
                     Srimanta Shankardeva (Assam, Ekasarana movement)
                     Surdas (Mathura region, Braj Bhasha, Sursagar)

16th–17th century →  Tulsidas (Awadhi, Ramcharitmanas)
                     Eknath (Maharashtra, Varkari)
                     Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Bengal, Gaudiya Vaishnava)
                     Tukaram (Maharashtra, Varkari, Abhangas)
                     Dadu Dayal (Rajasthan, Dadu Panth, Nirguna)

---

6. North Indian Bhakti — Ramananda, Kabir, and the Nirguna Saints

The Bhakti movement reached northern India through the work of Ramananda — a Vaishnava saint of the 14th to 15th century CE. Ramananda had studied in the south and absorbed the Tamil Bhakti tradition. When he returned north, he began teaching Bhakti in Hindi rather than Sanskrit — a decisive move that made his teaching accessible to ordinary people. He accepted disciples from all castes and both genders. Among his twelve disciples were people from low castes, a leather worker, a barber, and a woman. Ramananda is the bridge that carried the Tamil Bhakti tradition into the heart of North India.

Kabir — The Bridge Between Hinduism and Islam

Kabir (approximately 1440–1518 CE) is one of the most remarkable figures in Indian religious history. He was born in Varanasi and is believed to have been raised in a Muslim weaver’s family, though his exact origins are debated. He became a disciple of Ramananda and developed a teaching that drew from both Hindu and Muslim traditions while belonging entirely to neither.

Kabir’s teachings had three defining characteristics. [NDA 2021-I]

First, he synthesised elements of Hinduism and Islam, drawing on the Hindu concept of the inner self and the Sufi idea of God’s presence in the heart to create a devotional vision that transcended religious boundaries.

Second, he rejected idolatry. He was firmly opposed to the worship of idols and images, which he saw as a distraction from the true experience of God.

Third, he rejected caste distinctions and empty ritualism. He mocked both Hindu priests and Muslim mullahs, both the caste system and the circumcision requirement, both temple rituals and mosque prayers. For Kabir, none of these external forms had anything to do with genuine religious experience. [NDA 2021-I]

His teachings were expressed in short memorable verses called dohas — couplets that could be memorised and repeated by anyone. His dohas are still widely quoted in India today.

Ravidas

Ravidas (also called Raidas, approximately 15th century CE) was another disciple of Ramananda. He was from the cobbler caste, one of the lowest in the Hindu social hierarchy. His poetry directly addressed the injustice of the caste system and asserted the spiritual equality of all human beings. His hymns are included in the Adi Granth — a recognition that crosses both caste and regional boundaries.

Dadu Dayal

Dadu Dayal (1544–1603 CE) was a saint from Rajasthan who carried the Nirguna tradition of Kabir forward. Like Kabir, he rejected caste distinctions, idol worship, and external religious ritual. He founded the Dadu Panth — a community of followers who carried his teachings across Rajasthan and beyond. He is an important link in the chain of Nirguna Bhakti saints from Kabir through to the 17th century.

---

7. Guru Nanak and the Founding of Sikhism

Guru Nanak (1469–1539 CE) was born near Lahore in present-day Pakistan. He grew up in a Hindu family but from an early age showed a deep interest in spiritual questions that transcended the boundaries of any one religion. After a profound spiritual experience in his early thirties, he began to teach and travel, walking thousands of miles across India, Ceylon, Arabia, and Central Asia, teaching and composing hymns wherever he went.

Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion in the early 16th century. [NDA 2023-I] His teachings rested on three core emphases.

First, devotion to one God — Guru Nanak taught that there is only one God, who is formless, timeless, and beyond all human categories. This God is not exclusively the God of the Hindus or the Muslims. God is the universal creator of all.

Second, equality of all human beings — Guru Nanak rejected the caste system completely. In his vision, all human beings are equal before God regardless of birth, gender, or social status.

Third, rejection of caste — flowing from his belief in equality, Guru Nanak taught that caste distinctions have no spiritual validity. [NDA 2023-I]

Guru Nanak also emphasised the importance of sangat — the spiritual community of devotees — and sewa — selfless service to others. He composed hymns in Punjabi that are deeply musical and emotionally powerful.

Guru Arjan and the Adi Granth

The fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan (1563–1606 CE), made one of the most important contributions to the Bhakti movement as a whole. He compiled the Adi Granth (also called the Granth Sahib) — the Sikh scripture. The Adi Granth is not exclusively a Sikh text in the narrow sense. It contains hymns by Guru Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus, but also by Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and other Bhakti saints from different castes, regions, and backgrounds. Its compilation was a landmark act of spiritual inclusivity, a single sacred text that gathered the voices of saints from across the Bhakti tradition.

★ IMPORTANT The Adi Granth contains hymns by Guru Nanak and the Sikh Gurus, but also by Kabir, Namdev, and Ravidas and other saints from across the Bhakti tradition. It is not exclusively a Sikh text. Compiled by Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru.

---

8. More North Indian Bhakti Saints

Mirabai — The Devoted Princess

Mirabai (approximately 1498–1546 CE) was a Rajput princess — born into the royal family of Merta in Rajasthan. She was devoted from childhood to Krishna — she considered herself Krishna’s bride, not the wife of the Rajput prince she was married to in life. She composed devotional songs called bhajans in Braj Bhasha — the dialect of Hindi spoken in the Krishna country around Mathura. [NDA 2024-I] She is considered one of the greatest Bhakti poets in the Hindi tradition.

Her life was one of defiance against social conventions. She refused to conform to the expectations of a Rajput princess and queen. She sang publicly, mixed with low-caste devotees, and visited the temple of Krishna at Vrindavan. She is said to have eventually left Rajasthan and spent her last years at Vrindavan and Dwarka.

Surdas

Surdas (approximately 1478–1583 CE) was a blind poet-saint from the region around Mathura and Vrindavan, also devoted to Krishna. His major work, the Sursagar, is a vast collection of poems describing Krishna’s childhood, his love for Radha, and the devotion of his followers. Surdas composed in the same dialect as Mirabai, Braj Bhasha, and is one of the most important voices in the Saguna Bhakti tradition.

Tulsidas

Tulsidas (approximately 1532–1623 CE) was devoted to Rama rather than Krishna. His masterwork, the Ramcharitmanas, is a retelling of the Ramayana in Awadhi Hindi, the dialect spoken in the region around Ayodhya. The Ramcharitmanas brought the story of Rama to the common people of northern India in a language they could understand and love. It remains central to North Indian Hindu religious life today.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534 CE) was a Bengali saint devoted to Krishna. He is known above all for his ecstatic kirtans, devotional singing and dancing in praise of Krishna. He founded the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which spread through Bengal and Odisha and later, through the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (HARE KRISHNA movement), across the world.

Saint	Language	Deity	Key Work
Mirabai	Braj Bhasha [NDA 2024-I]	Krishna	Bhajans
Surdas	Braj Bhasha	Krishna	Sursagar
Tulsidas	Awadhi	Rama	Ramcharitmanas
Chaitanya	Bengali	Krishna	Kirtans

[Image Suggestion: A painting in the Rajput miniature tradition showing Mirabai in devotion to Krishna — illustrating the Braj Bhasha devotional tradition]

---

9. Srimanta Shankardeva — The Saint of Assam

Most students know the Bhakti movement through its North Indian and South Indian expressions. But one of its most distinctive regional forms developed in Assam. Its creator was Srimanta Shankardeva.

Srimanta Shankardeva (1449–1568 CE) was a saint-scholar from Assam who transformed the religious and cultural life of the region. He founded the Ekasarana movement — also called Eka Sarana Nama Dharma (the religion of taking refuge in the one name). This was a monotheistic devotional movement centred on devotion to Vishnu/Krishna as the one supreme God. Like Kabir and Guru Nanak, Shankardeva rejected caste distinctions and idol worship. His movement was open to people of all social backgrounds. [NDA 2025-I]

Shankardeva introduced two distinctive institutions that remain central to Assamese cultural life today.

The Satra — a monastic institution that served as a centre of religious life, art, music, dance, and education. The Satra brought together communities of devotees and preserved and developed Assamese cultural traditions. Satras continue to function in Assam today and are among the most important cultural institutions in the state.

The Namghar — a prayer hall where the community gathered for collective worship through the singing and recitation of the names of God. [NDA 2025-I] The Namghar is a specifically Assamese religious institution, found in every Assamese village, and it reflects Shankardeva’s belief that community worship through the nama (name of God) was the highest form of religious practice.

---

10. The Sufi Movement — Origins and Philosophy

The word Sufi comes from the Arabic word suf — meaning wool. The earliest Muslim mystics wore coarse woollen garments as a sign of their rejection of worldly comfort and luxury. The Sufi movement emerged within Islam in the 8th and 9th centuries CE as a reaction against what its practitioners saw as the increasing worldliness, formalism, and legalism of mainstream Islamic practice.

The core Sufi belief is that the heart of religion is not law, ritual, or theology but direct personal experience of God. Sufis believe that God can be experienced, known, felt, loved, in this life itself, not merely after death. This experience is achieved through love, devotion, spiritual discipline, and the guidance of a master.

Key Sufi Concepts

Term	Meaning
Fana	Annihilation of the self in God — the dissolution of the individual ego in the experience of the divine
Baqa	Remaining with God — the state of permanent union with the divine after fana
Silsila	The chain of spiritual authority — an unbroken succession linking a Sufi master to his teacher, going back to the Prophet Muhammad
Pir / Shaikh	The Sufi master or spiritual guide
Murid	The disciple — a person who has committed to follow a pir and receive spiritual guidance
Khanqah	The Sufi hospice or lodge — where the pir lived, taught, and received murids
Dargah	The shrine of a Sufi saint — a major centre of pilgrimage and devotion
Sama	Spiritual music and devotional singing as a path to experiencing God

The relationship between the pir and the murid is the central relationship in Sufi spiritual life. The murid submits completely to the guidance of the pir, who has already travelled the spiritual path and can guide the disciple. This relationship is passed down through generations, creating the silsila (chain) that connects each murid to the Prophet Muhammad through an unbroken line of teachers.

★ IMPORTANT Fana and Baqa are often confused with each other. Fana = annihilation of the self — the ego is finished in God. Baqa = remaining with God — the state that follows fana. Fana comes first; Baqa follows. Fana finishes the self; Baqa is being with God permanently.

Sufism in India

Sufi masters came to India alongside Muslim traders, soldiers, and rulers from the 8th century CE onward. They settled among ordinary people, opened their khanqahs to all regardless of faith, and developed deep connections with local communities. Their accessibility, their spirituality, and their genuine care for the poor made them beloved figures across Indian society, among both Muslims and Hindus.

---

11. The Chishti Order

The most important and most popular Sufi order in India is the Chishti order. It takes its name from the town of Chisht in present-day Afghanistan, where the order was founded.

The Chishti order was brought to India by Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (approximately 1141–1236 CE). He settled at Ajmer in present-day Rajasthan — at the time a major Rajput political centre. His presence there was itself a statement of peaceful engagement with the existing Hindu population. He attracted followers from all backgrounds and became one of the most revered spiritual figures in Indian history. His dargah (shrine) at Ajmer is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in India, drawing devotees from all faiths and all parts of the country.

Key Features of the Chishti Order

The Chishti order emphasised three things above all. First, love, the love of God and of all human beings as God’s creation. Second, service — the khanqah was open to all visitors regardless of faith, caste, or social status, and food was provided freely to all who came. Third, sama — the use of devotional music as a path to spiritual experience.

The musical form most associated with the Chishti tradition is qawwali — a genre of ecstatic devotional singing performed at Sufi shrines. Amir Khusrau — the great poet and disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya — is credited with developing the qawwali form in India, fusing Persian musical traditions with Indian rhythms, melodies, and instruments. Qawwali remains a living and beloved musical tradition across South Asia today.

Key Chishti Saints in India

Saint	Location	Period
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti	Ajmer, Rajasthan	12th–13th century CE
Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki	Delhi	13th century CE
Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakar (Baba Farid)	Pakpattan (present-day Pakistan)	13th century CE
Nizamuddin Auliya	Delhi	13th–14th century CE
Amir Khusrau	Delhi (disciple of Nizamuddin)	13th–14th century CE

[Image Suggestion: The dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer — showing the shrine complex and pilgrims of all faiths gathering for worship]

---

12. The Suhrawardi Order and Other Sufi Orders

The Suhrawardi Order

The second major Sufi order in India is the Suhrawardi order. It was founded in India by Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya who was based at Multan in present-day Pakistan. [NDA 2017-II]

Here is a fact that NDA has directly tested. Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya was NOT a Chishti saint. He was the founder of the Suhrawardi order in India — a completely different Sufi order from the Chishti. [NDA 2017-II]

The Suhrawardi order differed from the Chishti order in one important respect. While the Chishti saints generally avoided accepting gifts from rulers and maintained their distance from political power, the Suhrawardi saints were more willing to accept royal patronage and maintain connections with the political establishment.

Other Sufi Orders

The Naqshbandi order became important in India from the 16th century onward. The most important Naqshbandi figure in Indian history was Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624 CE) — also known as the Mujaddid Alf-i-Sani (Reformer of the Second Millennium). He challenged Akbar’s syncretic Din-i-Ilahi, asserted orthodox Sunni Islam, and had considerable influence on the religious outlook of later Mughal rulers, particularly Aurangzeb.

The Qadiri order was also present in India, particularly in the northwest. Dara Shukoh, the scholarly son of Shah Jahan, was associated with the Qadiri order and was deeply interested in Sufi philosophy and its connections with Hindu Vedanta.

---