In addition to temples and churches, Pune boasts some major shrines of Sufi saints and keeps the culture of liberal spirituality alive

It's an uncontested fact that Pune is a city of divinity and home to many temples, churches and mosques. However, it's also the abode of some major Sufi saints and home to a thriving Sufi culture. Among the notable shrines in the city are those of Hazrat Babajan in Camp, the Kamar Ali Darvesh Dargah at Khed Shivpur and the Peer Baba at Vishrantwadi.

While Hazrat Babajan is well-known and very much a landmark in the city, the other two are lesser-known, except among devotees or close followers. Not many are aware that Hazrat Babajan was a woman, born as Gulrukh, a Pathan princess in Balochistan (Pakistan), sometime in the early 1800s. However, she fled home at the age of 18 and ventured around the world (making pilgrimages to Mecca and Medina twice) before landing in Mumbai in 1904. From Mumbai, she went to Ajmer (to pay homage to the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti) before arriving in Pune. She made her home in the city first under a neem tree near Bukhari Shah's mosque in Rasta Peth and later beneath another neem tree in the then-dilapidated section of Pune called Char Bawdi. This is where she remained for the rest of her life and where the Babajan Dargah now stands.

Frequented by people of all religions, the dargah is an oasis of peace and sees a unique coming-together of spiritual influences. The most heartening thing here is that the neem tree under which Babajan breathed her last still stands tall and sturdy, serving as a constant reminder to her murid (disciples) of their qutub (Sufi term for the highest form of master). One such murid is Shaziya Haq, a mother of four and a regular at the shrine. "I come here for solace and have been visiting Hazrat Babajan dargah for the last 32 years. It gives me a lot of peace, just coming over and sitting here," she says.

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