A Comparative Study of the Rituals of the Katak and Sama Mevlevieh From a Historical Point of View

Movement, excitement and ritual performances are as old as human history. Such sacred ordinances have been created in Sufism and performed in monasteries of most of the creeds. This ritual in the Mevlavieh creed often involves continuous and non-stop rotations around the axis of the body. But the same ritual, called the Katak, is also performed in the temples of Hinduism, which is originated from the prayer of the Creator and is similar to Sama in some aspects of form and content. According to the above, the main question of the article is whether the performance of Katak, which has been commonplace in India during the period of Delhi Sultanate (1526-1206) and the Gurkani emperors (1857-1526), has been influenced from Sama Mevlevieh, which has entered India along with Sufism and has been under the patronage of the court and performed in the official meetings of the government? The sub-question is that whether the reason for the apparent similarities of these two ritual performances, including successive turns and hand movements, clothing, and music of Qawali, is due to the effects that have taken place? In order to answer these questions, this article, reveals the time and space relationships between two performances and two cultures of Sufism and Hinduism throughout history and the probability of borrowing Katak from Sama. The results of this fundamental research, based on historical method, gathering documents and fieldwork, indicate that the ritual of Katak was carried out through the adjoining of Hinduism and Sufism in society and culture of India, during the period of the Delhi Sultanate and then in Mughal era, and had been influenced by by Sama Mevlevieh in most of body movements especially the continous rotations and movements of the hand, the music of Qawali and clothing.