"Most Hindoos of any education in Sindh have a Pothi, or prayer-book for private devotion. The character used is Shikashtah of the worst description, written either by the devotee for his own benefit, or handed down from father to son. Such volumes are treated with the greatest respect, and covered with one or more clothes, lest profane hands should touch the binding: they are seldom shown to strangers. The following is a list of the usual contents of such books: A short poem in Persian called the Sri Kishan Namo, because after every fourth line come the words “Sri Kishan Gao, Sri Kishan Gao.” The Sri Ganes Namo, an address (poetical as usual) to Ganesha, praying for prosperity and the acquisition of wealth. Sri Gopal Hari, a prayer to that well known Avatar. Short extracts, in verse and prose, from the Bhagawat: these are generally in the Persian and sometimes in the Panjabi language. A number of Madah, Panjara and Munajat to the different Pirs, in Persian, Panjabi and Sindhi. Most Hindoos know several of these by heart and are in the habit of reciting them daily. They are believed to be peculiarly efficacious in a temporal, as well as a spiritual sense, if repeated at a time of need. A few prayers and hymns addressed to the Creator in the Shastri (Sanscrit), Persian, Panjabi and Sindhi tongues. Those composed in the dead language are rare, and seldom, if ever, understood by the reciters. Compositions in the three latter dialects very much resemble those of the Moslems in style and ideas. As a general rule the Creator is not nearly so often addressed as his creatures. Detached verses in praise of Krishna and the other Hindoo demigods, generally in Panjabi or Jatki, so composed that they may be sung to the different Rag and Ragini – musical modes. A few of these are in the form of a dialogue, as between Krishna and a worshipper; a mother and her son: suggesting the idea of rude beginnings of a drama. The Pothi concludes with a variety of astrological tables, simple computations for determining lucky and unlucky days, a Fal-Namo or two, prescriptions in medicine, and other such semi-religious compositions."
Hinduism in Sindh

January 1, 1970