Hindu contribution to the

Marsiya. by Intizar Husain

Tags: Hindu and Muslim, Hussaini

Brahman

City of Karbala on river Euphrat

(Furat)

karbala 2 krore 50 lach zairien

IN our school and college days we

all loved to assist friends set up
`sabeels` alongside Lahore`s
traditional `Ashura` procession,
providing cold drinks to the
thousands who mourned. Sects
and beliefs never mattered then.
But then neither did one`s religion.

For well over 1,332 years, the

tragedy of Karbala moves
everyone who hears about it, be
they Muslim, Christian, Hindu,
Sikh or any other religion. This is
one incident that brings out the
need to support those with a moral
position. As children we attended
the `sham-ighareeban` with our
Shia friends, and learnt the lesson
of supporting those in the right.
Everyone respected the beliefs of
others. Yes, there were always a
few silly chaps who wanted
attention, but they were at best
ignored.

The ancient city of Lahore is

 connected to the tragedy in no
uncertain terms. Historical
accounts say seven brave warriors
from Lahore died while fighting in
the Battle of Karbala. It is said
their father Rahab Dutt, an old
man who traded with Arabia in
those days, had promised the Holy
Prophet (Peace be upon him) to
stand by his grandson in his fight
to uphold the truth. That pledge
the brave Rajput Mohiyals of the
Dutt clan from Lahore upheld.
Today they are known as Hussaini
Brahmins, who lived in Lahore till
1947. Then there is the fact that
besides the Hindu Rajputs of
Lahore, in the battle also fought
John bin Huwai, a freed Christian
slave of Abu Dharr al-Ghafari,
whose `alleged` descendents, one
researcher claims, still live inside
the Walled City of Lahore. I have
been on the track of these
ancestors for quite some time and
have been able to trace one
Christian family living inside Mori
Gate. They claim to have a
connection with a `Sahabi` whose
name they cannot recollect. M. A.
Karanpikar`s `Islam in Transition`,
written over 250 years ago, made
this claim, but I do not think it is a
claim worth pursuing.

But the most powerful claim of

Lahore as the place where the
descendents of Hussain ibn All
came lies in the Bibi Pak Daman
graveyard, where the grave of
 Ruquiya, sister of Hussain ibn Ali
and wife of Muslim ibn Ageel, is
said to exist. Also graves here
attributed to the sisters of Muslim
ibn Ageel and other family
members. Many dispute this claim.
But then no less a person than Ali
Hasan of Hajweri, known popularly
as Data Sahib, came here every
Thursday to offer `fateha` at the
grave, informing his followers that
this was the grave of Ruquiya. The
place where he always stood to
offer `fateha` has been marked
out, and his book also verifies this
claim. Mind you detractors exist, of
this have no doubt, but the
supporting evidence is quite
strong. Let me begin the story of
the Dutts by going through the
 record of the Shaukat Khanum
Hospital and the recorded fact that
Indian film star Sunil Dutt, who
belonged to Lahore, made a
donation to the hospital and
recorded the following words: `For
Lahore, like my elders, I will shed
every drop of blood and give any
donation asked for, just as my
ancestors did when they laid down
their lives at Karbala for Hazrat
Imam Husain. Makes you think
-but then there is this account
which says that the seven sons of
Rahab Dutt lost their lives
defending the Imam at Karbala.
The Martyr`s List at Qum verifies
this. History records when the third
thrust by Yazid`s forces came, the
Dutt brothers refused to let them
 pass.

The seven Punjabi swords men

stood their ground till they were
felled by hundreds of horsemen. In
lieu of the loyalty of the Dutt family
to that of the Holy Prophet (Peace
be upon him) was coined the
famous saying: `Wah Dutt Sultan,
Hindu ka dharm, Musalman ka
iman, Adha Hindu adha
Musalman.` Since then, so the
belief goes, Muslims were
instructed never to try to convert
the Dutts to Islam. A grieving
Rahab returned to the land of his
ancestors, and after staying in
Afghanistan, returned to Lahore. I
have tried my very best to locate
their `mohallah` inside the Walled
 City, and my educated guess is
that it is Mohallah Maulian inside
Lohari Gate. Later they moved to
Mochi Gate, and it was there that
the famous Dutts lived before
1947 saw them flee from the hate
of the people they gave everything
for. The most interesting thing
about the Hussaini Brahmins is
that they are highly respected
among Hindus, and even more
amazingly it is said that all direct
ancestors of Rahab Dutt are born
with a light slash mark on their
throat, a sort of symbol of their
sacrifice. I was reading a piece by
Prof Doonica Dutt of Delhi
University who verified this claim
and said that all true Dutts belong
to Lahore.
 I must point out to an amazing
version of these events that an
Indian historian, Chawala, has
come up with. It says that one of
the wives of Hazrat Imam Husain,
the Persian princess Shahr Banu,
was the sister of Chandra Lekha
or Mehr Banu, the wife of an
Indian king Chandragupta. We
know that he ruled over Lahore.
When it became clear that Yazid
ibn Muawiya was determined to
eliminate Hussain ibn Ali, the son
of Hussain (named Ali) rushed off
a letter to Chandragupta asking for
assis-tance. The Mauriyan king,
allegedly, dispatched a large army
to Iraq to assist. By the time they
arrived, the Tragedy of Karbala
had taken place. In Kufa in Iraq a
disciple of Hazrat Imam Husain is
said to have arranged for them to
stay in a special part of the town,
which even today is known by the
name of Dair-i-Hindiya or `the
Indian quarter` The Hussaini
Brahmins believe that in the
Kalanki Purana, the last of 18
Puranas, as well as the Atharva
Veda, the 4th Veda, refers to
Hazrat Imam Husain as the avatar
of the Kali Yug, the present age.

They believe that the family of the

Holy Prophet (Peace be upon
him)is Om Murti, the most
respected family before the
Almighty. All these facts bring me
back to our days as school
 children working hard to provide
relief to the mourners on Ashura.
Reminds me of our neighbour
Nawab Raza Ali Qizilbash, who
invited us to his `haveli` every year
to see the preparations before the
event. Raza Bhai is no more, and
neither is the tolerance that we all
enjoyed so much. Source: Dawn
Prediction about Karbala in Hindu
books

Acharya Pramod Krishnan about

Imam Hussain on Hussain(a.s)
Day 2012
==========================
==========================
===================== See
also some comments on this
articles: Abdul Nishapuri says:
 November 27, 2012 at 4:52 am
Hindu followers of Muslim imam
By Yoginder Sikand One of the
most important events in early
Muslim history was the battle of
Karbala fought in 680 CE in which
Imam Hussain, grandson of the
Prophet through his daughter
Fatima and her husband Imam Ali,
was slaughtered along with a
small band of disciples in a bloody
battle against the tyrant Yazid.
This event occurred in the Islamic
month of Muharram, and it is for
this reason that this month is
observed with great solemnity in
many parts of the Muslim world.
What is particularly striking about
the observances of the month of
Muharram in large parts of India is
 the prominent participation of
Hindus in the ritual mourning.

In several towns and villages,

Hindus join Muslims in lamenting
the death of Hussain, by
sponsoring or taking part in
lamentation rituals and tazia
processions. In Lucknow, seat of
the Shia nawabs of Awadh,
prominent Hindu noblemen like
Raja Tikait Rai and Raja Bilas Rai
built Imambaras to house alams,
standards representing the
Karbala event. The Hindu
Lambadi community in Andhra
Pradesh have their own genre of
Muharram lamentation songs in
Telugu.
 Among certain Hindu castes in
Rajasthan, the Karbala battle is
recounted by staging plays in
which the death of Imam Hussain
is enacted, after which the women
of the village come out in a
procession, crying and cursing
Yazid for his cruelty. In large parts
of rural India, Hindus believe that if
barren women slip under a
Moharrum alam they would be
blessed with a child. Perhaps the
most intriguing case of Hindu
veneration of Imam Hussain is to
be found among the small
Hussaini Brahmin sect, also called
Dutts or Mohiyals, who are found
mainly in Punjab. The Hussaini
Brahmins have had a long martial
tradition, which they trace back to
the event of Karbala. They believe
that an ancestor named Rahab
traveled all the way from Punjab to
Arabia, where he became a
disciple of Imam Hussain.

In the battle of Karbala, Rahab

fought in the army of the Imam
against Yazid. His sons, too,
joined him, and most of them were
killed. The Imam, seeing Rahabs
love for him, bestowed upon him
the title of Sultan or king, and told
him to go back to India. It is
because from this close bond
between Rahab and Imam
Hussain that the Hussaini
Brahmins derive their name. After
Rahab and those of his sons who
survived the battle of Karbala
 reached India, they settled down
in the western Punjab and
gradually a community grew
around them.

The Hussaini Brahmins practised

an intriguing blend of Islamic and
Hindu traditions. A popular saying
refers to the Hussaini Brahmins or
Dutts thus: Wah Dutt Sultan,
Hindu ka Dharm Musalman ka
Iman, Adha Hindu Adha Musalman
Oh! Dutt, the king [Who follows]
the religion of the Hindu And the
faith of the Muslim Half Hindu, half
Muslim. Another story, which
seems less reliable, is related as
to how the Dutts of Punjab came
to be known as Hussaini
Brahmins. According to this
version, one of the wives of Imam
Hussain, the Persian princess
Shahr Banu, was the sister of
Chandra Lekha or Mehr Banu, the
wife of an Indian king called
Chandragupta.

When it became clear that Yazid

was adamant on killing the Imam,
the Imams son Ali ibn Hussain
rushed off a letter to
Chandragupta asking him for help
against Yazid. When
Chandragupta received the letter,
he dispatched a large army to Iraq
to assist the Imam. By the time
they arrived, however, the Imam
had been slain. In the town of
Kufa, in present-day Iraq, they met
with one Mukhtar Saqaffi, a
 disciple of the Imam, who
arranged for them to stay in a
special part of the town, which
even today is known by the name
of Dair-i-Hindiya or the Indian
quarter.

Some Dutt Brahmins, under the

leadership of one Bhurya Dutt, got
together with Mukhtar Saqafi to
avenge the death of the Imam.
They stayed behind in Kufa, while
the rest returned to India. Here
they built up a community of their
own, calling themselves Hussaini
Brahmins, keeping alive the
memory of their links with the
Imam. The Hussaini Brahmins
believe that in the Bhagwadgita
Krishna had foretold the event of
 the Imams death at Karbala.
According to them, the Kalanki
Purana, the last of eighteen
Puranas, as well as the Atharva
Veda, the fourth Veda, refer to
Imam Hussain as the divine
incarnation or avatar of the Kali
Yug, the present age.

They hold Imam Ali, Imam

Hussains father, and son-in-law
and cousin of the Prophet
Muhammad, in particular
reverence, referring to him with
the honorific title of Om Murti.
The Hussaini Brahmins, along with
other Hindu devotees of the
Muslim Imam, are today a rapidly
vanishing community. Younger
generation Hussaini Brahmins are
 said to be abandoning their
ancestral heritage, some seeing it
as embarrassingly deviant.

No longer, it seems, can an

ambiguous, yet comfortable,
liminality be sustained, fuzzy
communal identities giving way
under the relentless pressure to
conform to the logic of neatly
demarcated Hindu and Muslim
communities. And so, these and
scores of other religious
communities that once straddled
the frontier between Hinduism and
Islam seem destined for perdition,
or else to folkloric curiosities that
tell of a bygone age, when it was
truly possible to be both Hindu as
well as Muslim at the same time.
http://www.milligazette.com/Archiv
es/2004/16-31May04-Print-
Edition/1605200441.htm
==========================
==========================
==================== Asma
bint Marwan says: November 27,
2012 at 9:11 am Verily this warms
the cockles of my `Dehriya
Hindostanee heart!Will read and
re-read this post.An
aside:denizens of LUBP may wish
to look up Allama Zameer Akhtar
Naqvis speeches on the
web,while we are on the subject of
our own tradition of Husainiyat and
all related syncretic spirituality.
Many thanks for the above
material; ham tah-e-dil se
 mashkoor hein.
==========================
==========================
====================
Mustafa says: November 27, 2012
at 11:13 am I really appreciate that
a sect of Hindus love Imam
Hussein (A.S) . The history of
Hussaini Brahmins is very
interesting! Also there are many
other Non Muslims, Jews and
Christians and others who love
Imam Hussein (A.S). This is
because he dusnt belong to a sect
or just Muslims but to humanity
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