Nund Rishi

Poetry and Politics in Medieval Kashmir

Author: Abir Bazaz

Hardcover

An extensive critical study of the poetry of Nund Rishi, a revered and renowned Sufi of medieval Kashmir.

This book is a critical study of the mystical poetry of one of Kashmi's greatest Sufis - Nund Rishi. It analyses his poetry as a form of 'negative theology'. This volume will be of value to those interested in poetry, South Asian literature, Kashmir, Sufism and bhakti.

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Summary

An extensive critical study of the poetry of Nund Rishi, a revered and renowned Sufi of medieval Kashmir.

Description

Nund Rishi (1378–1440) is considered one of the most important Sufi poets from Kashmir. He is revered as the 'flag-bearer of Kashmir' ('Alamdār-e Kashmir), and his poems draw upon the hyperlocal imagery of the Kashmiri literary universe. Despite his popular status as a spiritual successor of Lal Ded, Nund Rishi's poetry has received next to no attention in modern scholarship. This book embodies Abir Bazaz's enduring engagement with the poetic corpus of Nund Rishi. By unpacking the cryptic philosophical and philological riddles in the poems, Bazaz unearths a negative theology in Nund Rishi's mystical poetry. He argues convincingly that the themes of Islam, Death, the Nothing and the Apocalyptic in these poems reveal an existential politics. Bazaz further suggests that the apophatic style of Nund Rishi's poems is in turn mirrored in mystical poetry across South Asia and the larger Indo-Persian world.

About the Author

Abir Bazaz is Assistant Professor of English at Ashoka University. His teaching and research interests include Kashmiri literature, Urdu literature, South Asian literatures in English, Asian Cinemas, Religion and Cinema, Intellectual History of Islam in South Asia, Sufism, Faith and Literature, Existentialism, Negative Theology, Comparative Mysticism, and Violence Studies. He is also a documentary filmmaker.