3-011-751 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fakir, or Mussulman saint, of Hoshungabad, Central India, 1864. 'The extraordinary figure delineated in our Engraving is the reverend Wuzzeer Alee Shah Mulung, a well-known Fakir, or Mussulman saint, residing at Hoshungabad, in the Central Provinces of India. He is also the caretaker of the Mudâr Bagh, a public garden in the suburbs of that city, pleasantly situated on the banks of the Nerbudda River, and remarkable for its fine large trees. An amateur photographer, Captain Ducat, of the Bombay Staff Corps, has sent us two portraits of this strange-looking person. The one which we have engraved shows his wonderfully long hair, which trails about two feet on the ground as he stands upright, hanging down in curls as thick as a man's thumb...The devout and pious Fakir of Hoshungabad is greatly venerated by the disciples of his own faith'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.