Historical Period18c CE
📷 Sanskar RM Khatri · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · source
Deities
Sāī Bābā of Shirdi
Sāī Bābā — the syncretic 19th–20th c. Maharashtra fakir-saint
Sāī Bābā — the syncretic 19th–20th c. Maharashtra fakir-saint
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Sāī Bābā of Shirdi (ca. 1835–1918) — the fakir-saint whose origins (Muslim? Hindu? mixed?) remain deliberately unclear. He lived as a Sufi dervish but taught Hindu scripture; he ate from all plates; he said "Sabkā mālik ek" ("One Lord of all"). His tomb at Shirdi is one of the most-visited shrines in India (~60,000 pilgrims daily). The Śrī Sāī Bābā Sansthān manages the shrine; over 400 Sai temples exist globally in imitation of the Shirdi original. The 11-verse Shirdi Sai Āratī composed by his devotee Dāsgaṇu is chanted at all Sai shrines.
Oṁ Sāī Rām
Every tradition in India — textual, oral, tribal, regional, syncretic — deserves first-person recognition. This entry honours Hindu on its own terms.
