Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Jodhaa Akbar has created cinematic history across the world with its huge success as a magnificent historical love story as well as because of the pointless controversies it has raked up in some parts of India. But there is one aspect of the film which should unite Indians of all religious denominations. This is the fact that Emperor Akbar  was a devotee of the Sufi saint of Ajmer Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. And it was this unique devotion of Akbar that made him one of the most powerful secular rulers of India. Indeed, the exquisitely filmed scene – where Akbar is serenaded by Sufi singers from the Ajmer Dargah, and he is so overwhelmed by devotion that he joins the dancers in the trance-like Dervish dance - is truly memorable for Hrithik’s perfect depiction of Akbar’s personality.

Akbar was a devotee of Sufi saints. Even today, if we visit his grand palace in Fatehpur Sikri near Agra – which Akbar chose as his capital – guides show you the palace quarters of the many queens that Akbar had. Among them is the pavilion of Jodhabai, the Rajput queen, who married Akbar because of the alliance between Rajput rulers and the Moghul emperor. The guides, on hearsay perhaps, confirm that Jodha’s pavilion had a Krishna temple and that Akbar was proud to be the husband of a Rajput queen because he could thus fulfill his dream of a united, peaceful India.

The guides say that Akbar was childless because his other queens could not bear children. It was for this reason that he became a devotee of not only the saint of Ajmer, but built the Dargah of Khwaja Saleem Chishti, another famous Sufi saint of India, in Fatehpur Sikri. The guides say that Akbar prayed with such devotion that it was in this shrine within his palace that Jodha gave birth to a son whom he named Saleem after his favourite saint. This son later ascended the Mughal throne as Jehangir.

Akbar’s reign is indeed the beginning of the merging of the Sufi stream of Islam and the Bhakti cult of Hinduism to create a unique confluence of Indian religions. Few have realised the far reaching influence of this confluence in India’s history. Even today, millions of Hindus follow the Sufi path to self realisation by singing and dancing to Sufiya kalams and Muslims write litanies in praise of the love story of Krishna and Radha. Both the Bhakti cult and Sufism look at god as the beloved and the devotee as the seeker of the loved one. In Akbar’s reign, this mingling of Hindu and Muslim devotional philosophies began a new era of secularism in India.

The confluence of Sufism and Hindu Bhakti cults, is indeed fascinating. Sufis came to India mainly during the 12th and 13th centuries, bringing with them their philosophy of love and devotion to the divine. Their beliefs decreed that the almighty was the ‘beloved’ and the devotee sought a loving glimpse of his presence. They believed that the devotee had only to ‘raise the veil which separated the individual soul from the universal soul’ so as to bring about the union of the human and the divine. This philosophy and perception of the divine appealed greatly to those who followed the Bhakti cult. This philosophy influenced many Bhakti cult saint/poets of medieval India. An excellent example is the poetry of Meerabai, who uses the Sufi imagery distinctly in her song Ghungat ke pat khol, tohe piya milenge! Essentially simple and uncomplicated, both the Sufi and Bhakti cults attracted millions because the foundation of both was love and compassion. Sufism saw the great saints as intercessors between man and god so that the prayers of ordinary human beings were answered by god. Bhakti cult followers looked upon god as a beloved or as a mother and believed in approaching god with unstinting faith and love. Both these cults created a huge treasure of dance, music, paintings and literature!

Sufism contributed a great deal to the cultural ethos of India through language, literature, music, social amelioration and religious interaction with other mystical movements. Sufism says that love is not to be learnt from man. It is a gift of god and comes from his grace.

We should appreciate Gowarikar’s ‘Jodha Akbar’ for many beautiful reasons. But the best feature of the film is that he has shown us a glimpse of our history in which divine love is the same for all and how it can unite all Indians as one nation with one vision!