Wandering ascetics called darvesh or faqir were linked only loosely, if at all, to the formal Sufi orders (a Mughal miniature, c.1605)

Source: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/LOTDETAIL.ASP?sid=&intObjectID=4572676&SE=CMWCAT03+104235+%2D1631111028+&QR=M+1+0+Aqc0000900+91044++Aqc0000900+&entry=india&SU=1&SN=7074&RQ=True&AN=1
(downloaded Sept. 2005)

"A GATHERING OF DERVISHES, Mughal India, Circa 1605. Gouache heightened with gold on paper, very finely painted, the group of dervishes sit in a circle around a pool, their faces and attitudes highly individualized, some in conversation, some performing ablutions, some smoking from huqqas, some asleep, against a green ground with finely painted gold foliage, beneath a central tree with very carefully drawn leaves. mounted on a later album page, very slight flaking in some areas, but otherwise in good condition, reverse with later pencil markings, mounted, framed and glazed. Folio 15¼ x 11¼in. (39 x 28.5cm.); miniature 11 x 8¼in. (27.8 x 21.2cm.)."

A group of darveshes with smoking and drinking equipment, and a dog (early 1600's)

Source: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfsearch/LotDescription.aspx?intObjectId=4894215
(downloaded Apr. 2007)

"A GROUP OF DERVISHES, MUGHAL INDIA, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY. Gouache heightened with gold on paper, the group seated with smoking and drinking vessels accompanied by their dog, in a landscape, mounted on card- miniature 8.4 x 9.4 cm."

A group of dervishes share their wine in Chinese vessels; c.1640, probably Deccani

Source: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/LotDetail.asp?sid=&intObjectID=4160853&SE=CMWCAT04+111606+303548593+&QR=M+1+122+Aqc0000900+102049++Aqc0000900+&entry=india&SU=1&RQ=True&AN=123
(downloaded Sept. 2003)

"A GATHERING OF DERVISHES. Probably Deccan, circa 1640. Pen and wash on paper, a group of dervishes in a forest clearing smoking and preparing wine in Chinese vessels, conversing and sleeping in a woodland setting, mounted on card, verso with a page of calligraphy, 8ll. of black nasta'liq with a Persian devotional verse, gold floral margins. Folio 10 3/8 x 7 5/8in. (26.3 x 19.3cm.).

Provenance: Warren Hastings, Governor General of India (1732-1818), Daylesford House, Oxfordshire, part of an album, sold Farebrother Clark and Lye, 22 August 1853, lot 861.

Lot Notes: This image of a group of dervishes seeking religious ectasy through the use of drink is probably after a Persian original. A very fine version of this painting attributed to the artist Muhammadi of around 1590 is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (no.14.649) (Gray, B.: Persian Painting, 1977, pp.157-9)."

*Madaria Faqir, Eastern Bengal; a photo from the early 1860's* (BL);
also: *Darwesh (Chishtia), Eastern Bengal* [*Chishtiya 1860's*]

"Emam Buksh, Jogi or Mahomedan Devotee, Allyghur," an albumen photo, 1860's-1870's

Source: ebay, Mar. 2006