NASRIAH THE REFORMER
It happened again and again that men and women told me, “Before I became a Christian I belonged to the Nasriah sect.”
I naturally enquired what this sect was.
“The Gurus of the Nasriah sect came to us and said, ‘Don’t steal, don’t worship idols, don’t drink sarai.’ It was a good religion, for they taught us that there is only one God.”
“Did many Madigas belong to it?”
The answers were vague. One man said there were at least one hundred. The next man said there must have been one thousand. The third man said, “How can I know?”
I asked many questions. Who was this Nasriah? When did he live? Where in the multiplicity of Hindu cults was his teaching to be classed? I found a man who said he had been in Tiprantakamu at the annual feast of the Nasriah sect. Another said he had seen Sundramah, the last surviving disciple of Nasriah.
Finally I heard of a man, a Madiga, who was said to have seen Nasriah himself. I sent for him. He came—a stern old man, with Roman nose and shaggy brows. “Did you, yourself, see Nasriah?”
He laid five finger-tips in each eye; he bent towards me, and the attitude and tenseness of his body emphasized his words: “With these eyes I saw Nasriah.”
Thus I had Nasriah placed as to time. This man was seventy years old, at most seventy-five. His father had been carried away with the religious movement produced by Nasriah, and had taken him, as a little boy, to Tiprantakamu. There the lad had seen Nasriah, a few years before his death, which must have occurred about the year 1825.
I hoped to hear something about the personality of the remarkable man, Nasriah, whose influence was so wide-spread, even after many years. But the stern old man before me could tell me nothing about the man, though he was ready to tell me much about the sect which bears his name. For years he was an initiated Guru of that sect. I gathered from him all he could tell me, but the more I heard the more I desired to know who this Nasriah was. I sent word in several directions whether there was any man living who remembered hearing his father tell any story about the Guru Nasriah. Thus a Mohammedan was discovered whose father had been an initiated disciple of Nasriah, and had often told him the story of the way in which Nasriah became so great a Guru. He himself had seen him when a young boy. He was now an old man, and the story which he told is characteristic of the religious life of India.
There lived, a hundred years ago, a Mohammedan of the Syed sect, who was a wealthy trader. He owned several ships, and often went on long voyages. On one of his voyages, Galep Sherif—for such was his name—met with a Guru whose teaching attracted him. He asked for instruction, and then proceeded to obey his teacher implicitly. His lucrative business was given up. In the Baputla Taluk he built himself a temple, where he dwelt, and many came to hear his teaching. His main doctrine was that there is only one God.
The Rajah of Narsaravapetta heard of Galep Sherif and the supernatural power which he possessed to work miraculous deeds. He sent his messenger to invite the Guru to his palace, intimating that he had some inclination to become his disciple. Galep Sherif came. He waited a day or two, but the Rajah delayed to summon him to his presence. Not willing to wait longer, he arose and started on his homeward journey.
Now the Rajah had an attendant, Nasr Mahomed by name, of the Shaik sect, who was deeply interested in this Guru. He followed him as he left the palace, fell at his feet, and begged to be instructed as his disciple. The Guru demanded an initiation fee of four hundred rupees. So intent was Nasr Mahomed on receiving the desired instruction that he promised the fee, though he knew he had nothing wherewith to pay it. After he had been taught even the power to perform miracles, the day approached when he must pay the promised fee. Nasr Mahomed rose up and fled. He reached Tiprantakamu, where there was a Hindu temple. The attendants at the temple and the worshippers who came listened to his teaching, and the number of his followers increased daily.
Galep Sherif became aware of the hiding-place of his disciple, Nasr Mahomed, and appeared in person at the temple to demand the promised fee. There was deliberation among the followers of Nasr Mahomed. They said: “He is a great Guru. Let us pay his debt, and then let us build him a temple. He will stay among us, and we shall earn salvation.” Galep Sherif received his fee and went his way. A large temple was built, and ere long the influence of the new Guru was felt far and near. The common people gave to the Mohammedan name Nasr the Telugu ending, and thus the sect became known as the Nasriah sect.
And what was the creed of Nasriah? By birth he was a Mohammedan, yet I never heard that he or his followers mentioned Mohammed, the prophet. The Guru with whom Galep Sherif came in contact on his voyage must have been a Yogi. The teaching of Nasriah is largely Yogi doctrine. In fact, his followers called themselves Rajayogi people. The Mohammedan and the Yogi alike assert that there is one God.
The following instructions for devotion, given by Nasriah, coincide with Yogi doctrine: “Concentrate your mind. Put away all secret thoughts. Turn the eye upward. Forget the existence of the body. Let the sight turn towards the coil of hair on top of the head (as worn by sanyasis). Gaze with firm mind. The following will appear: Light, angelic spirits, sacred rivers and places, also Rishis, the sun and moon, lightning, thunder, fire, water, sound will fill the heavens, the earth will appear as if it were an egg, Brahma will be seen, all as if one.”
Nasriah made disciples and sent them out to preach. He made no distinction of either caste or sex. Women as well as men passed through the initiatory rites, and then went forth to make converts. I enquired about these rites, but came upon a solid wall of silence every time. The most that any one told me was that something was whispered into their ear which must never be passed on to any one who was not in turn found worthy to receive initiation.
During the life-time of Nasriah his disciples feared to do what he had forbidden. He rebuked them when he found that sarai and bhang were used by them. He frowned on caste distinction. He was a man whose righteous indignation could overpower him. Even those who could not tell me who Nasriah was could tell of his act of vengeance when he shed blood to mark his hatred of lust. He heard one day the cry of one of his female disciples who was being insulted and injured. He caught the evil-doer, and stabbed him in the heart. Nothing was done to him, for, though he was imprisoned, none could hold him. The common people saw him pass through the prison walls and walk about in the bazaar while the keepers stood at the prison door. Such were the tales told of Nasriah, and they explain much of the powerful hold which he had upon the people.
After his death the sect became corrupt. His disciples said it could do no harm to worship idols. In their ethical precepts they grew lax. Why should not a man steal if he could do so without exposure? It was irksome to abstain from sarai and bhang. It seems that even the most revolting forms of Sakti-worship entered the sect.
I doubt whether the separate temple for the Madigas at Tiprantakamu was built during the life-time of Nasriah. He would not have permitted such emphasis on caste-distinction. One of his earliest converts seems to have been a Madiga, who was made a Guru, and was sent out to convert his people. To belong to the Nasriah sect meant advancement to the Madigas. They realized that the theism of Nasriah was better than the polytheism of their village cults. One man said to me: “A Yogi first told me that I am of sinful nature, and must seek to earn salvation. I never before had thought of myself in that way.” Another man said: “Beside our own village gods, I worshipped the idols of Vishnu. But when the Rajayogi people came and told me that there is one God, and that idols are useless, I believed them. It was much better than anything I had before heard.” It raised the Madigas in the social scale, too, to belong to the Nasriah sect, for when they went to Tiprantakamu in the autumn of the year to the annual feast, they stood in a line with people of all castes and classes.
Image: IDOL WORSHIP.
Whole families went to the feast together. They took with them a goat, fowls, rice, tamarind, and the various spices used for curry. All these they delivered to Sundramah, as they bowed low before her with special reverence, for she was the last of the band of disciples who gathered around Nasriah. They laid flowers on the grave of Nasriah, and worshipped there. Sundramah took all that was brought, and passed it on for the general cooking. The food for all who came, regardless of caste, was boiled in one pot, and when it was time to eat, all sat down and ate together. But the Madigas sat a little to one side. Not even in the Nasriah sect would the Sudra sit side by side with the Madiga and eat with him.
When the movement toward Christianity began among the Madigas, the men and women who had sought salvation in the Nasriah sect were among the first to open their hearts to the divine life that is in Christ. The followers of Nasriah became the disciples of Christ. At Tiprantakamu it was said, “The Madigas are leaving us.” Some shrugged their shoulders. “What can we do to hold them? They are following a new religion.” Others said, “Let them go.” And thus the Nasriah sect became to many a man as the memory of a stepping-stone to something higher.