Table Of ContentA Seent of Sandalwood
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A Seent of Sandalwood
Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics (Ginans)
Volume 1
SELECTED AND TRANSLATED, WITH AN
INTRODUCTION, INTERPRETATIVE ESSAY
AND NOTES
Aziz Esmail
I
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LONDONANDNEWYORK
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The Institute ofIsmaili Studies
The Institute of Ismaili Studies was established in 1977 with the
object of promoting scholarship and learning on Islam, in the
historical as weil as contemporary contexts, and a better under
standing ofits relationship with other societies and faiths.
The Institute's programmes encourage a perspective which is not
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2 Monographs exploring specific aspects of Islamic faith and
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3 Editions or translations of significant primary or seeondary
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4 Translations ofpoetic or literary texts whieh illustrate the rich
heritage of spiritual, devotional and symbolic expressions in
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Contents
PrefaceandAcknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Interpretative Essay 53
Miscellaneous Ginans 77
From the SalokoNano (Pir Sadardin) 151
'A Plea' (Pir Hasan Kabirdin) 181
Notes on Ginans 186
Appendix 1: Note on Transliteration 218
Appendix 2: SourcesandIndex 0/First Lines 220
Appendix 3: SelectBibliography 224
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Preface and
Acknowledgements
AsI sayin the Introduction, these translations from the corpus of
religious poetryknown as the Ginans have a twofold inspiration: a
long familiarity dating back to childhood, which ensured their
poetic, emotional and musical appeal; and an enduring interestin
the English language and its literature. The genesis of these
translations, however, was purely circumstantial. While at the
Committee on Social Thought at the University ofChicago, I had
occasion to observe and appreciate the work of the late A. K
Ramanujan, distinguished by his equally perceptive feel for the
pulse ofEnglish as weIlas South Indian poetry, and for the art of
literature asweIlas the scientific discipline oflinguistics. Conversa
tionswith hirn led to mytryingatranslationofafewverses from the
Ginans. Ramanujan's pleasure at these was encouraging, as was
also, similarly, the positive commentsofWendyDonigerO'Flaherty.
And so the ambition to extend the attempt took root.
Several years later, thanks to the interest of its then Director,
ProfessorJohn Carman, the Centre for the Study of Religion at
Harvard Universitysponsoredmystaythere to enable the projectto
be completed. Professor Carman's enthusiasm for the translations
was a great boost to the project. And although the work was later
laid aside for various reasons, I was fortunate to find that the
translations stayed in Professor Carman's memory. Whenever our
paths crossed duringsucceedingyears, he never failed to press me,
with hischaracteristicgentlenessandwarmth, to letthework see the
light ofday.Itiswith great pleasure that this memory has returned
to my mind as the work begun in his presence now approaches
fruition, so that I can at last thank hirn, through this book, for the
kindness and supportwhich provided the crucial, initial impetus to
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