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'''Kunangudi Masthan Sahib''' (1800-1847) was a [[Tamils|Tamil]] [[Qadiriyya]] [[Sufism|Sufi]] poet and composer.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70781802|title=Saints, goddesses, and kings : Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700-1900|date=1989|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-37201-1|location=Cambridge [England]|oclc=70781802}}</ref> His songs remain popular today, especially in the [[Gaana]] music of [[Chennai]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Valan|first=Antony Arul|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1134074309|title=Keywords for India : A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century.|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc|year=2020|isbn=978-1-350-03927-8|location=London|pages=83–84|chapter=Gana (Gānā)|oclc=1134074309}}</ref>

Masthan Sahib was born Sultan Ahmad Kadiri Lebbai to wealthy parents in Kunangudi, near [[Tiruchirappalli]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3053475|title=Tamil literature|date=1974|publisher=Harrassowitz|isbn=3-447-01582-9|location=Wiesbaden|pages=114–115|oclc=3053475}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=V|first=Sriram|date=2013-09-03|title=To sing like Mastan Sahib|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/to-sing-like-mastan-sahib/article5086673.ece|access-date=2021-03-29|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> In his early life, he was a vendor of [[Ittar|attar]], or perfume.<ref name=":2" /> Eventually he gave up a worldly life and became an ascetic and mystic, wandering from place to place, living in forests, and eventually settling in Chennai.<ref name=":2" /> He spent his last years in a home in the garden of a wealthy person named Baba Lebbai.<ref name=":4" />

He studied under the Marakkar Sufi legal scholar and poet Takya Sahib, who composed texts on Arabic grammar, theology, and jurisprudence.<ref name=":1" /> Takya Sahib had founded one of Tamil Nadu's major regional Muslim foundations, the Kilakarai takya.<ref name=":1" /> His Tamil verse, just like his disciple's, is still popular.<ref name=":1" />

At the Tirupparankunram shrine, Masthan Sahib is said to have experienced as profound mystical awakening while undergoing ''[[Chilla (retreat)|chilla]]'', a forty-day period of secluded meditation.<ref name=":1" /> His major verse collection, the ''Masthan Saheb Padalgal'', deals with the power of this shrine.<ref name=":1" />

Masthan Sahib taught his many disciples by composing around one hundred devotional and philosophical poems, totaling some 5000 lines.<ref name=":2" /> Many of them were modeled on the work of [[kirtan]] composers and hymn writers like [[Thayumanavar]].<ref name=":2" /> Masthan Sahib's work has been described as having "pathos and feeling" equal to [[Thayumanavar]], but with simple and colloquial language that was sometimes crude or obscene.<ref name=":2" /> Masthan Sahib was also influenced by the works of Tamil ''[[Siddhar|siddhars]]'' (tantric adepts).<ref name=":1" />

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Aiyacami Mutaliyar composed a praise-poem on Masthan Sahib entitled ''Kunankutiyar Patirruppattantati''.<ref name=":2" /> Twentieth-century [[veena]] player V.S. Gomathisankara Iyer set his songs to Carnatic tunes, making them suitable for concert play.<ref name=":3" /> An album of his works sung by notable [[Gaana]] singer Mylai Venu, was released by India's National Folklore Support Center in 2008.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|date=January 2008|title=NFSC Releases|journal=Indian Folklife: A Quarterly Newsletter from National Folklore Support Centre|volume=28|pages=22}}</ref>

His [[dargah]] in Chennai still attracts pilgrims and visitors.<ref name=":3" /> It is constructed with an architectural style influenced by Hindu temples.<ref name=":1" /> Most notably, it has a [[Mandapa|mandapam]] (ceremonial hall or platform) resembling those in Tamil temples.<ref name=":1" /> That he fused influences from Hindu singers with Sufi Muslim asceticism and teachings suggests his religiosity was syncretic, combining many strands of Tamil spirituality.<ref name=":1" /> Also buried at his dargah are four of his disciples - Pulavar Nayagangal (Hazrath Sheikh Abdul Qadir), Hazrath Qadir Mastan Sahib, Madhar Bibi and Hazrath Ibrahim Sahib.<ref name=":3" />

The locals of North Chennai, where he spent his last years, referred to him as Tondiar ("someone from [[Thondi]]").<ref name=":3" /> So the neighborhood of Chennai where he lived became known as [[Tondiarpet]].<ref name=":3" />

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Masthan Sahib, Kunangudi}}
[[Category:Tamil poets]]
[[Category:1800 births]]
[[Category:1847 deaths]]

[[Category:Qadiri order]]
[[Category:Tamil Sufis]]

Kunangudi Masthan Sahib - Revision history

>Citation bot at 11:05, 5 May 2021