Bawa

The Bawas

In their six or seven centuries as a distinct Indian 'jat' community, the Khojas reserved the traditional (not institutional) title 'Bawa' for those travelling scribes whose profession it was to copy the books of ginans & geets (devotional poetry) that were originally composed by the “Pirs” or holy men of the Khojas and which were passed down through the generations orally as well as in writing. Most of the material was bound in protective leather but the writing paper would deteriorate over time and the 'Bawas' would visit different Khoja villages in Punjab, Kutch, Sindh and Kathiawar to copy the literature onto newer paper for the next generation. Wealthy merchants would keep beautifully bound versions for thier families noting ancestral tree lines.

Whilst these ginans and geets were composed in various North Indian dialects, the script (i.e. alphabet) was often Khojki, a unique writing system originally developed by the trading community of Khojas for their book-keeping. Not only were the Bawas well trained in Khojki, they were also quite good in singing the ginans & geets in the jamatkhanas (community centres) and at the private and public sat-sangs (gatherings) in the areas they visited.

The oral tradition of the some of the Khoja 'Bawas' is that their forefathers were from the Brahman caste of hereditary priests of the Krishna temple in Junagadh in Kathiawar. This temple is well-known as the place where the famous Gujarati poet, Sant Narsi Mehta, a bhagat of Lord Krishna (an avatar of the God Vishnu) used to compose his famous bhajans. Mehdi has been singing two of those bhajans ever since he first heard them.

Regratably, hundreds of these different copies of these Ginan manuscripts were deliberatly destroyed during the 1920's under direction of Mukhi Laljibhai Devraj of Bombay. Most others are now stored at the Insitute of Ismaili Studies in London and inaccessible to the public.