Mela Chiragan
Tribute to a Sufi mystic
By Subhash Parihar

EVERY year, on the last Sunday of March, Mela Chiragan or the festival of lamps is held in Lahore to mark the urs or the death anniversary of Sufi mystic and poet Shah Hussain.

Earlier, the festival was organised on the fourteenth of the lunar month Chaitra but keeping in view the convenience of visitors, now the last Sunday of the month of March has been fixed for the mela.

Shah Hussain, one of the most venerated saints of Lahore, is said to have been born in 945 Hijri (1538-39 AD). His father was a Dhadda Rajput whose ancestors had come into the fold of Islam during the reign of Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1351-88).

The saint was fortunate to have lived during stable political and liberal religious times. The throne of Hindustan was adorned by Akbar, an enlightened emperor. The air of Punjab was echoing with the poetry of the first five Sikh Gurus and other saints. The sacred book of the Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, was in the process of being edited.

The poetry of Shah Hussain, characterised with simplicity combined with a rare lyrical quality, and scattered with similes taken from day-to-day life, must have had great appeal for the masses. Here is a specimen of his composition:

Mai ni kehnu akkhan dard vichore da hail
Sulan mar diwani kiti, birhon pia sade khial
Dhuan dhukhe mere murshid wala, jan pholan tan lal
Jangal bele phiran dhundhendi, aje na payo lal
Kahe Hussain faqir nimana, Shah mile tan thivan nihal (Translation:

O my mother! To whom shall I narrate the story of the pain of separation;

These pangs have made me mad, the separation is in my thought

I roam searching forest and pastures, yet I have not found my beloved

Says Hussain, the humble faqir, I shall be overjoyed to meet my beloved.)

Not only common people but a number of rulers also had great devotion for him. Prince Dara Shikoh, the eldest son of emperor Shah Jahan, records in his work Hasnat al-Arifin that "Prince Salim (later Jahangir) and the ladies of Emperor Akbar’s harem... entertained respect for him (the saint)". The author of Tahqiqat-i-Chishti also writes that Jahangir had great liking for the saint and that he had appointed a noble named Bahar Khan to record the day-to-day events of the saint’s life. These records of Bahar Khan were later on compiled in the form of a book entitled Baharia.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh was also one of the saint’s ardent devotees. He used to celebrate the festival of Basant at the tomb of the saint. Once Maharaja presented basanti siropas (robes of honour) to all his sardars, employees, munshis, clerks and vakils. Then they were ordered to reach the tomb in basanti dresses. The infantry was ordered to dress in the same colour and stand on both sides of the road from the fort to the tomb. Ranjit Singh’s concubine Mauran is said to have built a mosque near the tomb of Shah Hussain.

The present marble-domed memorial of the saint, situated in Baghbanpura, near Shalimar Gardens, does not appear to be very old. It is said that after his death in 1008 Hijri (1599 AD), the saint was originally buried at Shahdara, situated on the other side of the Ravi. But a few years later, the tomb was swept away by the overflowing river. Then it was shifted to the present site.

Beside the grave of Shah Hussain, but under the same dome, there is the grave of Madho Lal, the son of a Hindu Brahmin, to whom the saint was deeply attached.

As a saint, a number of miracles are attributed to Shah Hussain. One may or may not believe them. But no one can deny the literary genius of the saint. Even today, his verses find a great audience. A large number of his compositions have been rendered by top singers from Pakistan, like Pathana Khan, Hamid Ali Bela, Hussain Bux, Ghulam Ali, A. Shakoor, Fida Hussain, Amjad Amanat Ali, Mujawar Abbas, Amjad, Parvez, Afshan, Shazia, Suraiya Khanum. Some Indian singers like Surinder Kaur, Jagjit Kaur and Ghanshyam Das have also lent their voice to his verses.