Historically, beginning around the 11th century, Ismaili missionaries arrived in India faced with a deeply entrenched Vedic and Vedantic tradition. Rather than imposing an alien theological language, they adopted a strategy of taqiyya (precautionary dissimulation) and cultural synthesis. They composed hymns that utilized local languages, poetic meters, and musical ragas to explain complex esoteric concepts ( batin ) regarding the Oneness of God, the necessity of a living Imam, and the metaphysics of the soul.