The House of Strange Stories

He Who Rides A Tiger by Ruskin Bond

        To the boatmen of the Hooghly and the woodcutters and the honey-gatherers of the Sunderbans, "Gazi Saheb" is a name that is still invoked in times of storm or stress. Stories of the magical powers of this wonderful fakir have come down to us in song and legend.

In the south of Calcutta where the town of Baruipur now stands, there once was a dense, impenetrable jungle laced with crocodile-infested creeks. Into this wasteland came a fakir, Mobrah Cazi by name, to take up residence at a place called Basra. He so overawed the wild animals that they became his servants, and the "Gazi Saheb" (as he came to be known) was often seen riding about on a royal Bengal tiger.

It is said that the zamindar of the pargana on which Basra was situated was placed under arrest because he was unable to pay the annual revenue to the emperor at Delhi. The zamindar's mother, fearing for her son's life, sought the assisstance of the great Gazi. The fakir promised his aid.

After sending the woman home, he dismounted from his royal Bengal tiger and sat down in deep meditation. So great were his powers that his thoughts were telegraphed over the many hundred miles separating his jungle from Delhi and he gave the emperor a dream in which he, Gazi Saheb, appeared surrounded by wild beasts, saying that he was the proprietor of the Basra jungles and that the zamindar's dues would be paid from his own treasures buried in the forest. He told the emperor to have the zamindar released, threatening him with every misfortune if he disobeyed. 

The emperor awoke late next morning and, overtaken by the business of his court, forgot the dream. The following morning when he ascended his throne, instead of seeing the usual courtiers and attendants, he found himself surrounded by wild animals. He immediately remembered the dream and in great haste ordered the release of the zamindar. The animals vanished. A few weeks later, the revenue arrived, paid out of the Gazi's treasure.

In gratitude for the Gazi's aid, the zamindar erected a mosque in the jungles of Basra as a residence for the saint but the Gazi Saheb, who had no use for material possessions and used his mysterious treasure only to assist others, said that he preferred the shelter of the forests in the sunshine and rain, and desired neither a mosque nor a house. The zamindar then ordered that every village in his zamindari should erect an altar dedicated to Gazi Saheb, "King of  the Sunderbans and of the Wild Beasts", and warned his tenants that of they failed to make an offering before going into the jungle they would almost certainly be devoured by tigers or crocodiles.

And so, even today, between Calcutta and the sea, the Gazi Saheb is recognized as a saint in many of the villages of the Sunderbans and his name is held in reverence by both Hindus and Muslims.

There is no record of the Gazi Saheb ever having taken a wife, yet there are a number of fakirs who call themselves his descendants, gaining a livelihood from the offerings of boatmen and woodcutters. That they do not have powers of the original Gazi have been proved more than once, for it is usually the fakirs and not the village folk who are carried by tigers or crocodiles.

Many people have tried to ascertain the whereabouts of the tomb of Gazi Saheb. Some declare it lies near Baruipur where the saint first took up his abode. Others say that it is to be found in the jungles of Sagar Island by the crek that runs into the sea. And there are some who feel that there is no tomb and that the Gazi Saheb left this earth in no ordinary way but was taken to paradise, riding on the back of a royal Bengal tiger.