The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c12.s3.13

c12.s3.13

Back in the west, in Karnal a large number of Muslim peasants were, till 1865, worshipping their old village deities, though as Muslims they repeated the *kalima* and practised circumcision.²⁹ In Bharatpur and Alwar, Meos and Minas continued with their Hindu names or suffixed them with Khan, and celebrated not only Diwali and Dashehra but most important Janamashtami. Because of geohistoric traditions of proximity to Mathura and Vrindavan, Krishna is integrated into Muslim consciousness at folk level in the Brij and Mewat area - but not eleswhere. Few Meos and Minas could recite the *kalima*, but they went on pilgrimage to the tombs of Salar Masud Ghazi at Bahraich and Muin-ud-din Chishti at Ajmer. The Meos, like the Hindus, did not marry within the *gotra* or family group having the same surname, and their daughters were not entitled to inherit.³⁰ The Minas worshipped Bhairon, a form of Shiva, and Hanuman. A little to the south, in Jaora in Central India, Muslim cultivators followed Hindu customs in their marriages, worshipped *Shitla* or deity of small-pox and fixed *toran* (decorated band) on the door during wedding. In Central India, again, around Indore, Muslim Patels and Mirdhas had Hindu names, dressed exactly like Hindus and some of them recognised *Bhawani* and other Hindu deities. The Nayatas of Khajrana, converted by their urban neighbours, continued with their Hindu ways.³¹