Nund Rishi : Poetry and Politics in 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.

Nund Rishi (1378–1440) is considered one of the most important Sufi poets from Kashmir. He is revered as the ''flag-bearer of Kashmir'' (''Alamdar-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.