Heritage
The beliefs, patron saints, prayers and festivals that have carried Sindhi culture across the world — and kept it alive, generation after generation, here in Singapore. For the fuller story of where the Sindhi people came from, see Origin & History.
Faith
Sindh has never been a land of one faith. In the homeland itself — Sindh province, Pakistan — the population today is overwhelmingly Muslim, shaped by one of the richest Sufi traditions on the subcontinent; the two great poet-saints celebrated elsewhere on this page, Shah Abdul Latif and Sachal Sarmast, were themselves Muslim Sindhis, revered as deeply by Hindus as by Muslims. Sindhi Hindus remain a smaller, deeply rooted minority there, alongside small Sikh, Jain and Christian communities.
Beyond the subcontinent, the picture flips. The worldwide Sindhi diaspora — Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Spain, the Philippines and beyond — exists largely because of the pre-Partition Sindhworki Hindu trading network and the mass Hindu exodus of 1947, and is overwhelmingly Sindhi Hindu as a result. That is the community this Association was founded by and continues to serve, so what follows describes Sindhi Hindu beliefs and devotional life specifically — the tradition actually carried into Singapore and still practised at Sindhu House today.
Sindhi Hindus believe in the one God and Sanatana Dharma, from which Brahma the generator, Vishnu the operator, and Shiva the destroyer — together with the avatars of Ram, Krishna, and Guru Nanak — are seen as different representations of that same supreme being.
Deep devotion is shown to saints and sages of all faiths, on the belief that those who show faith and love as mankind’s true way may bring people closer to God.
Two Sufi orders, Qadria and Naqshbandia, took root in Sindh in the 16th century and remain central to daily life for the province’s Muslim majority — a mystical, poetry-steeped tradition that shaped Sindhi culture as a whole, Hindu and Muslim alike.
Guru Nanak himself travelled through Sindh, and many Sindhi Hindu households came to keep the Guru Granth Sahib in a home tikana, worshipped alongside murtis of Ram, Krishna and Jhulelal — a genuinely syncretic tradition distinct to the Sindhi Hindu community.
Patron Saint
Revered as an incarnation of Varun Devta, the water god, Sai Uderolal is said to have descended to help the Hindus of Sindh preserve their culture against the oppressive rule of a 10th-century Muslim king, Marakhshah of Thatto.
After the Hindu community prayed for seven days on the banks of the Sindhu, Varun Devta promised a protector would be born into the Ratanrai family. A son, Udaychandra, was born on a Friday evening in the month of Chaitra, 1007 AD — known also as Uderolal, Amarlal (“the immortal one”) and Jhoole Lal, “jewel of the cradle.”
He preached unity and love between Hindu and Muslim communities throughout Sindh, and in 1020 AD, after 13 years on earth, is said to have disappeared back into the waters of the Sindhu. A rocky pilgrimage site on the river between Rohri and Sukkur honours him still — called Jind Pir by Hindus and Khwaja Khizr by Muslims. His birthday is celebrated across the world as Cheti Chand, the Sindhi New Year.
After Partition scattered the community across the globe, displaced Sindhis gathered in Bombay in 1950 — led by the writer and scholar Ram Panjwani — and formally embraced Jhulelal as the unifying icon for all Sindhis. It was a deliberate choice: precisely because he had always belonged to both Hindus and Muslims back in Sindh, he became the one figure a scattered community could still gather around.
Literature & Mysticism
Sindh was the birthplace of a number of fine Sufi saints and master poets, almost all of them Muslim Sindhis whose writing came to be revered across both major communities. Among the most celebrated are Shah Abdul Latif and Sachal — together known as the “Jewels of Sindhi Literature.”
Widely considered the greatest of Sindhi poets, his verses — the Shah Jo Risalo — remain a treasured cornerstone of the Sindhi language. He taught that God is not distant from us, and that longing for the divine is itself a form of prayer.
Born Chainraj Bachomal, Sa’mi was a poet and mystic who expounded Vedic wisdom through simple shlokas known as the Slok. He passed away in 1852 at the remarkable age of 107.
Born a Muslim, Sachal was also revered by the Hindu faith after a vision of the Universal Humanity of God. His poetry declared that “God is love, love is God” — his name, Sacho/Sachedino, itself means “the one who speaks the truth.”
Oral Tradition
Shah Abdul Latif built his life’s work, the Shah Jo Risalo, around seven tragic heroines of Sindhi folklore — women chosen for their courage, loyalty and defiance. Centuries later, they remain as central to Sindhi identity as any historical figure.
A washerman’s daughter who falls in love with a prince, and crosses the Thar desert alone and barefoot in pursuit of him after he is taken from her — dying of exhaustion within sight of her goal. Sindh’s great parable of devotion outlasting despair.
Sohni swims the river every night on an unfired clay pot to meet her beloved Mahiwal — until a rival swaps it for one that dissolves in the water. A story of longing that generations of Sindhi and Punjabi singers still perform.
Abducted and offered every luxury by a king who wishes to marry her, Marui refuses every comfort and pines only for the mud walls and simple well-water of her home village — Sindh’s enduring symbol of loyalty to one’s roots.
Devotion
Passed down through generations, these devotional songs are sung at temple, at home, and at every SSA religious gathering.
The Roman-Sindhi transliterations below are reproduced exactly as preserved in the Association’s own records.
Celebrations
From the joyous Sindhi New Year to the festival of lights, Sindhi Hindus mark the calendar with colour, devotion and community — alongside Eid and other observances kept by Sindh’s Muslim majority.
Celebrates the birth of Sai Uderolal (Jhulelal) and marks the Sindhi New Year. Sindhis light a bronze lamp — Jyot Jagan — and hold a procession, congregating at places fixed well in advance.
Commemorates the burning of Holika, who tried to harm the devoted Prahlad through fire but was herself destroyed, as he emerged unharmed. Celebrated with colour, song and the traditional sweet Geher.
The day most sacred to Lord Ganesh, on the fourth day of the waxing moon in Bhado (Aug–Sept). Many Sindhi women observe a fast on this day.
Celebrated by Sindhi women in the month of Shravan, praying for the long and healthy lives of their husbands — friends and family gather to exchange blessings.
Marks Lord Rama’s victory over Ravana. A three-day festival including Dhanteras, Roopchodas and Diwali day, when Sindhis worship and invoke Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth.
SSA celebrates the full calendar of Sindhi festivals throughout the year at Sindhu House.
Continue Exploring
Discover where the Sindhi people came from, how the community reached Singapore, and the SSA’s own story — plus recipes, poetry and more.
