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SADHU
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SADHU , a See also:Hindu ascetic, corresponding to the See also:Mahommedan See also:fakir (q.v.). The Sadhus, who are known also as Sanyasis, Gosains and Bairagis, are of various sects, hold See also:peculiar opinions, indulge in See also:strange practices, and subject themselves in many cases to cruel hardships and fantastic disciplines. They range in moral See also:standing front the peripatetic philosopher to the idle vagabond. Some See also:lead the See also:life of contemplation, which 'See also:Hindus consider especially See also:holy; others pose as alchemists, physicians, See also:fortune-tellers, palmists or acrobats; while others yet again practise voluntary tortures, such as holding one See also:arm upright until it withers, or lying continually upon a See also:bed of spikes. Some go about almost naked, or snieared,all over with ashes; but the usual garment of an ascetic is stained an See also:orange red with ochre. Hence was derived the See also:colour of the Mahratta See also:flag. Alone among Hindus their dead are buried instead of being burned, usually in a sitting posture, and often in See also:salt. During the disturbed See also:period of See also:Indian See also:history, before See also:British See also:rule was firmly established, armed bodies of Sanyasis or Gosains attached themselves to the Mahratta armies, and also ravaged See also:Northern See also:Bengal in the See also:time. of See also:Warren See also:Hastings. SA' DI (c. 1184-1292). MU$LIIi-UDDIN, or more correctly MUSHARRIF-UDDIN B. MU$LIH-UDDIN, the greatest didactic poet and the most popular writer of See also:Persia, was See also:born' aboutr184 (A.R. 58'o) in See also:Shiraz. After the premature See also:death of his See also:father he was taken under the See also:protection of Sa'd b. Zengi, the atabeg of See also:Fars, who sent him to pursue his studies in the famous medresseh of Baghdad, the Nizamiyya, where he remained about See also:thirty years (1196-1224). About 1210 (A.H. 6o6) his See also:literary fame had spread as far as See also:Kashgar in Turkistan, which the See also:young poet (who in See also:honour of his See also:patron had assumed the name of Sa'di) visited in his twenty-See also:sixth or twenty-seventh See also:year. After mastering all the dogmatic disciplines of the Islamitic faith he turned his See also:attention first to See also:practical See also:philosophy, and later on to the more ideal tenets of Sufic See also:pantheism, under the spiritual guidance of the famous See also:sheikh Shihab-uddin See also:Umar Suhrawardi (died 1234; A.H. 632). Between 1220 and 1225 he paid a visit to a friend in See also:Isfahan, went from there to See also:Damascus, and returned to Isfahan just at the time of the inroads of the See also:Mongols, when the atabeg Sa'd had been deposed by the victorious Khwarizm ruler of Ghiyass-uddin (1226). Sadly grieved by the misfortune of his patron and disgusted with the miserable See also:condition of Persia, Sa'di quitted Shiraz and entered upon the second period of his life—that of his wanderings (1226-1256). He proceeded via See also:Balkh, See also:Ghazni and the See also:Punjab to See also:Gujarat, on the western See also:coast of which he visited the famous See also:shrine of See also:Siva in See also:Somnath. After a prolonged stay in See also:Delhi, where he learnt Hindustani, he sailed for See also:Yemen. Overcome with grief at the loss of a beloved See also:child (when he had married is not known), he undertook an expedition into See also:Abyssinia and a See also:pilgrimage to See also:Mecca and See also:Medina. Thence he directed his steps towards See also:Syria and lived as a renowned sheikh for a consider-able time in Damascus, which he had once already visited. There and in See also:Baalbek he added to his literary renown that of a first-See also:rate See also:pulpit orator. Specimens of his spiritual addresses are preserved in the five homilies (on the fugitiveness of human life, on faith and fear of See also:God, on love towards God, on See also:rest in God and on the See also:search for God). At last, weary of Damascus, he withdrew into the See also:desert near See also:Jerusalem and led a solitary wandering life, till one See also:day he was taken See also:captive by a See also:troop of Frankish soldiers, brought to See also:Tripoli, and condemned to forced labour in the trenches of the fortress. After enduring countless hardships, he was eventually rescued by a See also:rich friend in See also:Aleppo, who paid his See also:ransom, and gave him his daughter in See also:marriage. But Sa'di, unable to live with his quarrelsome wife, set out on fresh travels, first to See also:North See also:Africa and then through the length and breadth of See also:Asia See also:Minor and the adjoining countries. Not until he had passed his seventieth year did' he return to Shiraz (about 1256; A.H. 653). Finding the See also:place of his See also:birth tranquil and prosperous under the See also:wise rule of Abubakr b. Sa'd, the son of his old patron (1226-1260; A.H. 623-658), the aged poet took up his permanent See also:abode, interrupted only by repeated pilgrimages to Mecca, and devoted the See also:remainder of his life to Sufic contemplation and poetical See also:composition. He died at Shiraz in 1292 (A.H. 691) according to IJamdallah Mustaufi (who wrote only See also:forty years later), or in See also:December 1291 (A.H. 690), at the See also:age of rro lunar years. The experience of the See also:world gained during his travels, his intimate acquaintance with the various countries he had visited; his insight into human See also:character, together with an inborn loftiness of thought and the purest moral See also:standard, made it easy for Sa'di to compose in the See also:short space of three years his two See also:master-pieces, which have immortalized his name, the Bustan or " See also:Fruit-See also:garden " (1257) and the Gulistan or " See also:Rose-garden" (1258), both dedicated to the reigning atabeg See also:Abu Bekr. The former, also called Sa'dinama, is a See also:kind of didactic epopee in ten chapters and See also:double-rhymed verses, which passes in See also:review the highest philosophical and religious questions, not seldom in the very spirit of See also:Christianity, and abounds with See also:sound ethical See also:maxims and matchless gems of transcendental See also:speculation. The latter is a See also:prose See also:work of a similar tendency in eight chapters, interspersedwith numerous verses and illustrated, like the Bust¢n, by a rich See also:store of See also:clever tales and charming anecdotes; it discusses more or less the same topics as the larger work, but has acquired a much greater popularity in both the See also:East and the See also:West, owing to its easier and more varied See also:style, its 'attractive lessons of practical See also:wisdom, and its numerous bons mots. But Sa'di's Diwan, or collection of lyrical See also:poetry, far surpasses the Bustin and Gulistan, at any rate in quantity, whether in quality also is a See also:matter of See also:taste. Other minor See also:works are the Arabic gaszdas, the hrst of which laments the destruction of the Arabian cahphate by the Mongols in 1258 (A.11. 656); the See also:Persian gacidas, partly panegyrical, partly didactical; the See also:marathi, or elegies, beginning with one on the death of Abu Bekr and ending with one on the defeat and See also:demise of the last See also:caliph, Mosta'sim; the mulamma'dt, or poems with alternate Persian and Arabic verses, of a rather artificial character; the tarjti at, or refrain-poems; the ghazals, or odes; the Shibiyyah and mutatta'at, or moral aphorisms and epigrams; the ruba'iyydt, or quatrains; and the mu/midi, or distichs. Sa'di's lyrical poems possess neither the easy See also:grace and melodious See also:charm of IJafiz's songs nor the overpowering grandeur of Jelalud-din See also:Rumi's divine See also:hymns, but they are nevertheless full of deep pathos and show such a fearless love of truth as is seldom met with in Eastern poetry. Even his panegyrics, although addressed in turn to almost all the rulers who in those days of continually changing dynasties presided over the See also:fate of Persia, are See also:free from that cringing servility so See also:common in the effusions of See also:Oriental encomiasts. The first who collected and arranged his works was 'See also:Ali b. Ahmad b. Bisutun (1326–1334; A.H 726–734). The most exact See also:information about Sa'di's life and works is found in the introduction to Dr W. Bacher's Sa'di's Aphorismen and Sinngedichte (Sahibiyyah) (See also:Strassburg, 1879; a See also:complete metrical See also:translation of the epigrammatic poems), and in the same author's " Sa'di Studien," in Zeitschrift der morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, See also:xxx. pp. 81-1o6; see also H. Ethe in W 'Geiger s Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, ii. pp. 292-296, with See also:Lull bibliography; and E, G. See also: The Bustan has been printed in Calcutta (1810 and 1828), as well as in See also:Lahore, See also:Cawnpore, See also:Tabriz, &c., a See also:critical edition with Persian commentary was published by K. H. Graf at See also:Vienna in 185o (German metrical See also:translations by the same, See also:Jena 185o, and by Schlechta-Wssehrd,Vienna, 1852) ; English prose translations by H. W. See also: N. See also:Wollaston (1908), with Persian See also:text. Select qasidas, ghazals, elegies, quatrains and distichs have been edited, with a German .netrical translation, by Graf, in the Z.D.M.G. ix. p. 92 sq., xii. p. 82 sq., xiii. p. 445 sq., xv. p. 541 sq. and xvini. p. 570 sq. On the Sufic character of Sa'di in contrast to Mani and Rumi, comp. Effie, " Der Sufismus and See also:seine drei ;'1auptvertreter," in Morgenldndis..he Studien (Leipzig, 1870), pp. 95-124. (H. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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