India, July 21 -- Accidents often lead to discovery and understanding. So it was with Yogesh Snehi, a young teacher of history on his first assignment in Abohar. His post-graduate students asked him to take them to a local shrine of Panj Pirs situated on one of the two sand dunes on the outskirts of the city. This was his first visit to a popular Sufi shrine in 2005. Yogesh recounts, "Although I grew up in Abohar and had visited the dunes I had never ventured into Panj Pir because of the local Hindu prejudices as it was patronised by the Sukhera community of the Rajput Muslims not liked by the Rajput Hindus." However, this trip with his students led Snehi to begin a decade-long exploration of the Sufi shrines of Punjab. Embarking on this journey, he wondered how these places of worship had thrived. The question was pertinent because the three mainstream religious streams of undivided Punjab- the Muslim, the Hindu and later the Sikh-remained opposed to these 'popular' shrines, which were a combination of different systems of philosophical or religious beliefs and practices....