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Spiritualism and Cultural Blending: Hazrat Turkmen Shah Bayabani and India’s Cultural Heritage

This paper treats culture as a way of life. Using oral history as a source - material, it explores the influence of Hazrat Turkmen Shah Bayabani, a Turkmen Sufi, who migrated from Turkmenistan to Delhi, in India in the 12th century AD. The spiritualism of Hazrat Turkmen Shah Bayabani, along with that of other Sufis and saints, left its foot - prints on India’s society, culture and history, thus shaping India’s cultural heritage in many ways. He became a centre of attraction for people in and around Delhi, and was a source of large scale cultural blending too. His contribution to India’s cultural heritage, through cultural blending, was multi- dimensional. Oral history indicates that he, first and foremost, became a medium of bringing together followers of various religions, persons of different castes, the rich and the poor as well as people of diverse races, and thus made noteworthy contribution to India’s unity in diversity. Secondly, the Indo - Turkmen people - to - people interaction, spurred by him and other known and unknown persons also led to the enrichment of language and cuisine, as words / vocabulary and food-items travelled beyond geographical boundaries. .

1. Hazrat Turkmen Shah Bayabani, a Turkmen Sufi, migrated to Delhi in India in the 12th century AD and then lived and died here. Shahjahan, the Mughal Emperor, named one of the gates of his city of Shahjahanabad (as city of Delhi was named by the Emperor), after Hazrat Turkmen Shah Bayabani. The gate is still known as Turkman Gate. His dargah (shrine) nearby is still a centre of people’s attraction.     

2. Khalid Riaz is a researcher and Secretary, Silk Route Foundation, India