The Jinn Dargah at Firoz Shah Kotla in Delhi, India
Jinn, Nature Spirits, and Ecological Thought
Ethnographic fieldwork in Delhi, India, June 2019 and March 2020 | Outcome: 3 conference papers and 1 peer-reviewed book chapter [forthcoming]
In Delhi, Firoz Shah Kotla, the ruins of a 14th-century fortified palace complex built by Sultan Firoz Shah Tughlaq (r. 1351-1388), has become famous as a dargah. Usually built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint, such a sacred place serves as a portal through which devotees can invoke the deceased saint’s intercession (shifaʾat) and blessing (barkat). Firoz Shah Kotla is exceptional in that, at this site, the saint’s role is assumed by a host of jinn, those ambiguous Islamic spirits thought to have been created from smokeless fire, whereas humans are made of clay, and angels of light. As such, they are generally imperceptible to the senses but can appear in different forms – and at Firuz Shah Kotla they also appear in animal form. The complex in which the jinn reside comprises extensive gardens, a citadel, a pillar inscribed with the edicts of Emperor Ashoka dated to the third century BCE (Minar-i-Zarrin), a stepwell, and an active mosque (Jami Masjid) situated above a network of dark subterranean corridors leading into cave-like chambers. The pitch-dark rooms are smoke-filled and have a niche at the far end coated with thick black sludge from burnt candles and incense. They also serve as bat caves. Undeterred by the heavy smoke, dense clusters of swooping and chittering bats hang from the ceilings. The chief inhabitants are however the jinn-saints. Each chamber, and various other places in the complex, such as the Minar-i-Zarrin, is occupied by some different resident jinn. It has only been since the late 1970s that this belief in the unseen worlds (al-ghayb), an integral part of Islam, has been creatively (re-)invented at Firoz Shah Kotla. Devotees flock to the place in large numbers to visit the jinn-saints every Thursday after 2 o’clock. Even though the medieval complex is officially protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), some devotees even come on other days of the week. The preponderance of women is due to the fact that – unlike at some Sufi dargahs – women have access to all sacred sites at Firoz Shah Kotla.
Drawing on Michel Foucault’s notion of a ‘heterotopia,’ a site with multiple meanings that change over time or overlap and coexist without contradiction, I argue that Firoz Shah Kotla’s success in negotiating the moral and ideological challenges that radically transfigured its landscape since the late 1970s can be largely attributed to ingenious spatial practices. These spatial practices arose and were inseparable from transformations in the spiritual and ritual practices that were needed to accommodate the diverse needs of those who continue to cultivate the contemporary jinn practices in this space, predominantly from Delhi’s working class. The jinn-saints also serve as representations of otherness, figurations of what Jean-Pierre Vernant (1985) has termed l'alterité. As beings from beyond the boundaries of human society, they help people come to grips with the unexpected and with untoward events.
Visitors to Firoz Shah Kotla dargah thus not only come for social, economic, physical and psychological needs but also for spiritual healing. In times of personal crisis, people appeal to the jinn for shifaʾat through prayer and ritual supplication. Interaction with the jinn – just as with Sufi saints – requires ritual action to be efficacious. The prayers and rituals addressed to them are propitiatory or petitionary. The majority of the people come to make an offering – as they would at a Sufi dargah – in connection with a wish or propitiatory vow (mannat) to perform certain sacrifices or undertake certain deeds in return for the intercession of the jinn-saint(s). These are expressed in prayers of supplication, which can take the form of letters addressed to the jinn-saints, or are supplemented by letters and/or official notifications – yet another common practice at Sufi shrines. Sometimes these letters are photocopied and distributed to different sacred locations within the premises. These written messages are reinforced by coins stuck to walls, personal items and mementos left at or near the niches, threads knotted and padlocks fastened to the iron gates around the jinn ‘shrines,’ as part of the ritual transaction and embodied experience performed for the jinn-saints. Should the mannat be fulfilled, the supplicants give offerings or tribute (nazrana) to the jinn in return for his/her intercession as meritorious acts of respect; they also remove the lock and take it back.
The sacred sites are of course visited barefoot and the jinn honored with incense, candles, earthen oil lamps (diya), and flowers. The sacred exchange necessary to secure the blessing or to appease the anger of the jinn usually involves offerings of food (vegetarian and meat dishes), fruit, sweets, milk, fragrant substances, beverages, and money. Nazrana can also be given to the community kitchen (langar) which serves food to all devotees every Thursday and on major holidays. The jinn-saints at Firuz Shah Kotla are treated as real (or potentially real) presences, and in propitiating them visitors look upon them as benevolent agents. Because of the jinns’ animality, Firuz Shah Kotla can also be seen as a site of communion with the animal world. As such, ritual practices like ‘mannat’ and ‘nazrana’ are extended to the animal world. Dogs, cats, snakes, pigeons, kites (predatory birds in the hawk family), and other animals are regularly offered milk, grains, meat, and other foods. The interactive socio-ecological process at this shared sacred site thereby accords moral standing to other species of animal.