Person · faqir & saint
Sāī Bābā of Shirdi
Also known as Sai Baba, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sai Baba of Shirdi
A faqir who arrived at Shirdi around 1858 and stayed until his death, living in a ruined mosque he called Dwārkāmāi and giving out ash from a fire he never let go out. He declined to say whether he was Hindu or Muslim, and was claimed by both in his lifetime and after it.
- Date
- c. 1838 – 1918
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Shrī Sāī Satcharita; devotee accounts
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
His sayings were recorded by devotees rather than written: Sabka mālik ek, one master for all, is the best known. The dhuni fire he lit in the 1850s has been kept burning continuously since, and its ash is still the shrine's principal prasād.
Connections (2)
- Samadhi atShirdi
Sāī Bābā died in 1918 and was buried in an unfinished temple a devotee had built for a Krishna image, which is how a faqir came to lie under a Hindu shrine. The dhuni he lit in the mosque across the lane has been kept burning since the 1850s, and its ash is still the prasād.
- PilgrimageTryambaka / Trimbakeshwar
Trimbakeshwar and Shirdi are routinely combined in Maharashtrian pilgrimage despite having nothing in common — one a Jyotirlinga of great antiquity, the other a nineteenth-century faqir's grave. Bus circuits, not theology, made them a pair, which is how most working pilgrimage geography is actually assembled. The pairing now moves several million people a year along a single bus route, which has reshaped both towns more than any theological argument could.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sai Baba of Shirdi”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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