Picture Of The Day: Muslim Man Selling Posters Of Hindu Gods

Posted on April 30, 2007 by Mohib Ahmad

Found this interesting picture at Flickr. The photographer tell us it was clicked in Varanasi.

Muslim Man In Varanasi

About Mohib Ahmad

Mohib is a management graduate, an Urdu aficionado and a photography amateur. He lives in Silicon Valley, California with his Dell XPS and lots of Maggi noodles. Follow Mohib on Twitter at http://twitter.com/apnawatan. Connect with Mohib at Facebook.
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12 Responses to Picture Of The Day: Muslim Man Selling Posters Of Hindu Gods

  1. Abbas says:
    April 30, 2007 at 11:31 pm

    Now that’s what I call ‘Ecumenical thinking’!

  2. Raza Rumi says:
    May 1, 2007 at 9:34 am

    Great photo!
    thanks for sharing.

  3. Mohib says:
    May 1, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    I would love to explore more about this person. Is this his ancestral business? Does he makes the posters by himself? Are there many such sellers in Varanasi? Elsewhere?

    Any ideas?

  4. Girish says:
    May 1, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Is this really Varanasi for sure? The images look like this would be in South India somewhere. The image right above the person’s head is that of Ayyappan (with a shrine in Sabarimala in eastern =Kerala). This form of God is held in venerance in Kerala and increasingly in Tamil Nadu, but almost nowhere else in the country. Similarly, the other images, including the ones of Rama et al. and of Ganesha are the ones popular in the south. Some of the images are reproductions of those painted by Raja Ravi Verma – some of these are staples in any South Indian Hindu household.

    If indeed this image is from Varanasi, it must be from a store that sees significant numbers of south Indian customers. The other explanation is that there is a blurring of regional diversity within Hinduism, at least to the extent of which forms God is worshipped in.

  5. Girish says:
    May 1, 2007 at 2:24 pm

    As to Muslims serving Hindu pilgrims/worshippers, there are innumerable such examples around the country. Some of these come to mind

    1. At the Vaishno Devi shrine near Jammu (arguably the most visited shrine in north India), many of the service providers are Muslims – from the pony owners, to those carrying the old/infirm in a ‘doli’ to shopkeepers.

    2. Almsot all those offering ponies for the Amarnath yatra are Muslims.

    3. In my hometown of Chennai, there are Muslim shopkeepers selling flowers and trinkets (including posters of Gods, rings and other jewellery with images of Gods etc.) to worshippers outside the temple. An example is the Parthasarathy temple – a Pallava era temple that is located in an area that is now majority Muslim (since the times of the Nawabs of Arcot). This is one of the two biggest temples in the city.

    4. President Kalam comes from a family of boat owners, who live on the temple street in Rameswaram and have rowed worshippers between the island and mainland for generations. This was the only way for pilgrims to reach Rameswaram before the Pamban railway bridge was built a century ago and a road bridge built after independence. Even after that, many pilgrims continued to use the boat services provided mostly by Muslims. These Muslims were early converts to Islam, converting at the behest of Arab traders whom they guided in navigation along the Bay of Bengal coastline. This was long before the arrival of Mohd. bin Qasim in Sind.

  6. Mohib says:
    May 1, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    Thank you, Girish, for providing valuable information. I have posted a comment at the original flick post requesting the photographer to confirm the location. Let us hope that she responds.

  7. Indscribe says:
    May 1, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    Girish, it could be North India as well. I have commonly seen these images here also. An elderly man sells the photos and also sacred Hindu texts near my office, also for the last 20 odd years.

  8. mahi says:
    May 2, 2007 at 4:44 pm

    Girish, very good observation. I took a second look at the picture after reading your post. You are on the mark with the local characterization of the Gods. Ayaappa’s photo is definitely hard to picture in Varanasi. Also, the man’s face itself seems South Indian to me?

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  10. Yousuf says:
    October 2, 2007 at 8:38 pm

    Folks, there is a whole industry that produces Hindu and Muslim religious posters where the artists and publishers follow different faiths. While a famous artist called Hasan Raza Raja makes the best images of Krishna and Shiva, another artist called Balakrishna makes very good images of Mecca and Medina. I have been doing an extensive study and collection of such images. For more details, please visit http://www.tasveerghar.net/mstereo (or another site called http://www.alif-india.com/popart)

  11. valli says:
    June 23, 2008 at 11:41 pm

    this is very good to see.All of us ,one and all must agree to the fact that THE WAY TO PRAY MAY BE DIFFERENT BUT ALL THE PRAYERS REACH TO ONE GOD so it all depends on the way we look at it.Mr.Ahmad sir i salute u for ur secularism.

  12. Nene says:
    July 29, 2008 at 10:47 am

    Overjoyed to see a pious, yet moderate Muslim.
    He believes in his religion and also respects the other faiths.
    That’s all we ask. May God Bless Him