Lalla emerges as a meeting point between Hindu Shaivism and Islamic Sufism and it seems that she benefitted from both of them.
‘Lel Ded’ is the famous mystic poetess of Kashmir. She is called Lal Ded or Lal Aarifa by Muslims and Lalleshwari by Hindus. Lal Ded was a mystic poetess of Kashmiri Shaivite sect. She is the composer of mystic poetry called ‘Vakhs’ which literally means ‘speech’. Her poetry is known as ‘Lal Vakhs’, her verses are the earliest compositions in the Kashmir language and are an important part in the history of Kashmiri literature. She was a creative genius, who expressed her thoughts and feelings in beautiful quatrains.
Lal Ded was born in Pandrethan, which is not far away from Srinagar. She married at the age of twelve, but her marriage was unhappy and she left home at the age of twenty-four to take renunciation. Many legends and stories about Lal Ded tell of how she ignored the normal conventions of dress and chose to wander in ecstasy. She had a habit of wandering about in ecstatic frenzy and it only ended with her meeting with the contemporary Muslim Sufi saint Shah Hamadan Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (RA). It is said that she used to wander naked for not finding a single man in true sense and when Shah Hamadan (RA) arrived in Kashmir, and one day she saw him at a distance and cried out, “I have seen a man”, and in shame turned and fled. Seeing a baker’s shop close by, she leaped into the blazing oven, and disappeared, being apparently consumed to ashes, the saint followed her and enquired if any woman, had come that way, but the baker’s wife out of fear, denied that she had seen anyone, the saint continued his search and suddenly Lalla appeared from the oven clad in the green garments of paradise. It is said that she accepted Islam at the hands of Shah Hamadan (RA) and was deeply influenced by his thought and they exchanged many spiritual discourses.
Lalla Ded is considered to be the mouthpiece of the ideas of many Muslim and Hindu thinkers of her age. To Lalla, religion is more an affair of the heart than of the head.
"When my mind was cleansed of impurities, like a mirror of its dust and dirt,
I recognized the Self in me:
When I saw Him dwelling in me,
I realized that He was the Everything and I was nothing."
Lalla had a tolerant and inclusive attitude. She emerges as a meeting point between Hindu Shaivism and Islamic Sufism and it seems that she benefitted from both of them. For her, there is no contradiction or clash between the two faiths but there is a middle path where they can play a positive role in reforming the lives of the common people. In the early period she takes Siddha Sri Kanth (Siddha Moul) as her spiritual guide and later on seeks spiritual guidance from Shah Hamadan Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (RA).
It is said that Lalla highly influenced the great saint of Kashmir, Sheikh Nuruddin Noorani (RA) who was a notable poet, reformer and mystic of his time. Numerous proverbial sayings of Lal Ded and Sheikh Nuruddin are found in Kashmiri language even today. It is said that on his birth when Sheikh Nuruddin Noorani (RA) refused to take milk from his mother, Lalla Ded came to him saying, “If you are not ashamed of being born then why to avoid taking milk.” Hearing these words, he took milk and throughout his life had a great regard for her. He says,
“That Lalla of Padmanpur…she drank her fill of divine nectar
She was indeed an Avatara
O God, grant me the self-same boon.”
Since Sufi saints were staunch protectors of the defenseless and the poor. They rose against oppression and argued that beside the secular king should stand a divinely guided advisor. Lalla also raised her support for the deprived classes of the society and understood her social obligations.
There, are no authentic manuscripts of Lalla’s compositions and collections made by private individuals have occasionally been put together, but none is complete and no two agree in contents or text. However, her melodious and sagacious ‘vakhs’ are on the lips of numerous Kashmiri’s, and she still lives through her compositions. The noted writers like Sir Richard Temple, Grierson, Frithjof Schuon, Jaya Lal Koul, Paul Smith, Nil Kanth Kotru, Shonaleeka Kaul, Ranjit Hoskote, Jawahar Lal Bhat, Neeraja Matto,BN Parimoo, SS Toshkhani etc. have tried to compile and interpret her compositions as per modern standards and have paid homage to her creative genius.

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