4. Daily life and ascetic life: the choices of Indian Sufism. The whole evolution of Indian Sufism is marked by what R. Maxwell Eaton calls the "reconciliation of formal Islam with the various non-Muslim beliefs and practices that are found throughout the Muslim world".³⁶ This tendency has been paralleled by diverse, often contradictory experiments, which aimed at bringing orthodox Islam in close touch with the world and making it accessible to the followers of Sufism.³⁷ The efforts to establish an effective relationship with the world had, in turn, a deep impact on the doctrine, the spiritual practice and the teaching forms of Indian Sufis. A clear example of this is given by the abundant composition of "love stories" (premAkhyAn) in avadhI, such as PadmAvat itself. Significantly, Malik Muhammad, whose other name "Jayasi" (or Ja'isi) indicated the city of his birth or residence, is also traditionally known as "Searcher for India's Truth" (Muhaqqiq-i Hind).³⁸ R. C. Zukla wrote of him: "Even though a Muslim, he told with full participation the stories of the Hindus in their own language, thereby showing the absolute liberality of his heart".³⁹ The recourse to Indian narrative themes, especially popular stories of love and war, is the most striking feature of almost all Sufi poetry in avadhI, right from Maulana Daud's CandAyan.⁴⁰ Furthermore, Hindi medieval literature was largely influenced by popular tradition, as is well illustrated by the high-culture re-elaboration of old love stories, -- e.g. Dhola and MaruNi's, or Lorik and Canda's, -- as well as of the stories of Alha, Pabu and Guga.

The Indian Sufis' decision to use local languages to communicate with the people and to tell stories they already knew and cherished, does not only reveal a wish to win their heart. As A. Schimmel rightly points out, "Since for many centuries poetry was practically the only vehicle for influencing the illiterate masses -- who have had and still have an incredibly good memory for verse, -- the importance of these poems can not be overrated. Poetry was the daily bread for millions of people who formed their Weltbild according to the picture presented to them by the poets".⁴¹ The contact with the people was, in fact, a source of purity to the poet and the Sufi mystic, for it gave the latter an opportunity to see himself as a man among men, and to realise in himself the interaction of daily life and spiritual life, of asceticism and participation in the world, and in terms of Hindu tradition, as will be shown later, of yoga and bhoga. Many commentators have traced in Jayasi's work the evident effects of the author's understanding the people's heart. Coupled with Jayasi's endless erudition, his being rooted in day-to-day life makes PadmAvat a real "metrical encyclopaedia of Hindu-Islamic lore of mediaeval India",⁴² a broad picture of Indian medieval society with extreme attention to details and nuances pertaining to daily life at home, at the court, on the street or in the temple. In spite of Jayasi's elaborate style, his work expresses "an aspect of everyday straightforwardness and simplicity, drawn from contact of the man of letters and theologian with ordinary people, which is the source of fundamental strength".⁴³

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