Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/224

DUDEKULA Rāja then resolved to kill the Muhammadans by poisoning them. He prepared some cakes mixed with poison, and sent them to Faqrud-dīn for distribution among his disciples. The saint, though he knew that the cakes were poisoned, partook thereof of himself, as also did his disciples, without any evil effect. A few days afterwards, the Rāja was attacked with colic, and his case was given up by the court physicians as hopeless. As a last resort, he was taken before Faqrud-dīn, who offered him one of the poisoned cakes, which cured him. Falling at his feet, the Rāja begged for pardon, and offered the village of Penukonda to Faqrud-dīn as a jaghīr (annuity). This offer was declined, and the saint asked that the temple should be converted into a mosque. The Rāja granted this request, and it is said that large numbers of Hindus embraced the Muhammadan religion, and were the ancestors of the Dūdēkulas. The Dūdēkulas, like the Hindus, like to possess some visible symbol for worship, and they enrol great personages who have died among the number of those at whose graves they worship. So essential is this grave worship that, if a place is without one, a grave is erected in the name of some saint. Such a thing has happened in recent times in Banganapalle. A Fakir, named Allā Bakhsh, died at Kurnool. A Dūdēkula of the Banganapalle State visited his grave, took away a lump of earth from the ground near it, and buried it in a village ten miles from Banganapalle. A shrine was erected over it in the name of the saint, and has become very famous for the miracles which are performed at it. An annual festival is held, which is attended by large numbers of Muhammadans and Dūdēkulas. Some Dūdēkulas have names which, though at first sight they seem to be Hindu, are really Muhammadan.