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(1739–1763)—paid for the dargah’s fifth minaret (the tallest of the five), after he was
blessed with a son through the grace of Shahul Hamid. Yet another Hindu king, Tu-
lasi, is said to have bestowed fifteen villages on the dargah.
When one visits the Nagore shrine today, one is struck by the number of Hindus
offering worship to the saint (see figure 12). According to the managing trustee of
the dargah, about 60 percent of the premises has been built by Hindus, and about 50
to 75 percent of pilgrims on any given day are Hindu.
Some patterns of worship at the shrine parallel Hindu worship in temples. Hin-
dus as well as Muslims come here, for example, to shave the head of a child for a first
tonsure. While this is also a Muslim custom, most of the Hindu participants in the
ritual are not aware of the Islamic precedent. Hindus and Muslims also buy tin- or
silver-plated facsimiles of body parts, houses, sailboats, motorcycles, and the like
to offer to the saint, just as they would make an offering to a deity in a Hindu tem-
ple. The image of a particular body part is offered when one requests a cure in that
part of the body. Similarly, tiny models or etchings of houses or motorcycles are of-
fered when devotees petition to procure the real thing. When a cure is effected or
when one obtains what one wants, a return pilgrimage is made to offer a thanks-
giving donation.
There are other symbols of worship that suggest the Hindu cultural context (see
figure 13). Shahul Hamid ’s footprint is preserved in the dargah. Veneration of foot-
prints or the feet of a guru is typical of many Hindu traditions, but not as common
in an Islamic context. Generally in Tamil Islamic literature, the motif of spitting
into a disciple ’s mouth is seen as a spiritual and “biological” conductor of right lin-
eage, functioning like the feet and their imprint in Hindu circles. What we find in
the case of Shahul Hamid is the image of saliva in literature and the foot in ritual,
bringing together two cultural markers of veneration.
While the trappings of worship sometimes reflect the Hindu cultural context, the
architecture does not. It may not be possible to speak of “Hindu” or “Muslim” ar-
chitecture in northern India, but in the south the architecture of a mosque is clearly
different from that of a temple. The dargah of Shahul Hamid is more Muslim
minaret and dome than Hindu tower and pillar.
The central part of the dargah is the tomb of Shahul Hamid. It is set like a Hindu
inner shrine (garbha grha), which one approaches through seven thresholds. Four
of these doorways are made of silver, and three of gold. To the left (as one faces the
tomb) are two other shrines—those of Shahul Hamid ’s son Yusuf and daughter-in-
law Ceytu Cultan (Sayid Sultan) Bibi. The doors to the tombs (called samadhi,
using a Sanskrit word) are usually closed; they are open only very early in the morn-