A Material Religion Approach to the Dargah of Sadal Baba in Pune

Abstract

This article takes a material religion approach to the dargah of the Sufi Shah Daval or Sadal Baba, located on the Mula-Mutha river at Yerawada in Pune. In this article I explore how Sadal Baba and his dargah are produced through material elements encountered at the shrine that reconstitute the experience of the dargah, its miracles, hagiography, rituals, and legends. I argue that religious power at Sadal Baba dargah are exerted through its material restructuring, with the historical development of the dargah’s sacredness comprising an embroiled process of negotiation that produces it as a pristine and independent cosmos. This negotiated process of becoming, I argue, distinguishes Yerawada as a separate important place that is simultaneously linked to Pune, and Pune’s history of Sufism.