by his prime minister, Subhabhata, a brahman who later became a Muslim.
Moreover Sultan Sikander offered patronage to Turks and Persians who
came into Kashmı ̄r in large numbers bringing with them technological
skill and work for the lower echelons of society. The increased trade with
Central Asia provided peasants the opportunity to learn new crafts. Sultan
Zayn-al-Abidin(1420–70) made available opportunities to develop such
crafts as bottle, shawl, and carpet making. People, in short, became more
economically independent and had access to religious opportunities as well.
The readiness of the Kashmı ̄rı ̄ people for change was facilitated by a
womanbhaktanamedLaleshwarı ̄. Her songs expressed indignation at the
brahmanic “establishment,” and oppression by the aristocrats, and expressed
the need for a form of religion that went beyond the worship of icons and
pu ̄ja ̄sin temples. Similarly, one Shaikh Nur al-Dinwas concerned to establish
a community where equality was possible. Other Sayyids and sheikhs
followed into Kashmı ̄r teaching the rudiments of their faith. Rather than
countenance the destruction of temples, they sought to remove icons and
convert temples into mosques and places of Islamic learning. In addition to
teaching religious precepts these “missionaries” passed on various skills and
knowledge of a variety of things to the local people. Converts came mostly
from various artisan classes, craftsmen, village peasants, and menial laborers.
In sum, conversion to Islam in a region like Kashmı ̄r was a complex pro-
cess in which several elements were present. Among them were a sense of
poverty and marginality on the part of society’s lower echelons; corruption
at the top; fragmentation and disunity on the part of power brokers, a
religious “vacuum” amongst the poor, and the concomitant presence of
religious functionaries who lived amongst the poor, taught them, and helped
pass along a variety of skills.
Syncretism
Yet a different kind of response is what is here termed “syncretism.”
Syncretism, used here, means the creation of a new form or movement with
explicit borrowing from one or more sources. Some of the panths(move-
ments) emanating from Kabı ̄r’s life and thought may be termed syncretistic.
Some would call the theology of Da ̄ra ̄ Shikoh a form of syncretism.
The finest example of syncretism in this period was the emergence of
Sikhism, a movement forged by gurus which has become a full-blown
“religion.”
154 Developments in the Late Medieval Period