Sufism or tasawwuf is the name for various mystical tendencies and movements in Islam. It aims to establish direct communion between God and man through personal experience. The Sufis, while accepting the Shariat, did not confine their religious practice to formal adherence and stressed cultivation of religious experience, aimed that direct perception of God. India became a pathway for the propagation of Sufism and also became a home for the mystic saints during the early 13^th century.

The famous Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti settled in Ajmer and won the respect of both Muslims and non-Muslims. Nathpanthi yogis visited Baba Farid’s khanqah and discussed with him the nature of mysticism. Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya made Delhi the most famous center of the Chishti Order.

Many practices of early Chishti’s bore close resemblance to the attributes of some of the early existing, non-conformist religious orders in India, such as asceticism, bowing before the master, shaving the head of a new member into the order and organizing musical evenings within the khanqah. The egalitarian atmosphere of the khanqahs attracted large number of people from the lower section of Indian society. Caste distinctions of the Brahmanical social order were meaningless in the Chishti khanqahs. Therefore, it was these practices which led to the rise of Sufism and its acceptance into the Indian subcontinent.