Shirdi Sai Baba is linked to figures in the Hindu tradition primarily through the ways devotees interpret his life and teachings, rather than through a clearly documented institutional lineage. Many see him as an avatāra or manifestation of Dattatreya, the composite deity embodying Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, and as a realized guru whose miracles and compassionate guidance echo the lives of earlier Hindu saints. His stress on devotion, remembrance of the divine name, faith, and patience resonates with the bhakti movement and with saints such as Kabīr and other nirguṇa bhaktas, who emphasized God beyond caste and rigid ritual. At the same time, he did not reject image worship, thus standing at the intersection of nirguṇa and saguṇa devotion. Hagiographical accounts speak of a guru who gave him mantra-dīkṣā, and later traditions symbolically connect him with Dattatreya and sometimes with yogic or saintly lineages, though without firm historical proof.

Within the Islamic milieu, Sai Baba appears in a form strikingly similar to a Sufi faqīr or pīr. His simple dress, residence in a mosque, use of Islamic names for God such as “Allāh Mālik,” and the communal sharing of food all mirror the ethos of South Asian Sufi saints whose shrines became shared spaces for multiple communities. He is described as revering the Prophet and acknowledging the Qur’ān alongside Hindu scriptures, presenting the path to God as open through either tradition. Yet he did not function as a formal jurist or preacher of Islamic law; rather, his stance was that of a mystic emphasizing inner surrender and trust in the divine.

Because of this dual resonance, Sai Baba stands in continuity with those Indian saints who bridged Hindu and Muslim devotional worlds. Like Kabīr and other sant figures, he taught that sectarian labels are secondary to inner purity, love, and direct experience of God, and his life allowed Hindus to approach him as an avatāra or bhakti guru while Muslims could honor him as a pīr. After his passing, Hindu theological frameworks—especially bhakti and Dattatreya devotion—came to shape his public image more strongly, yet his shrine and memory still carry the imprint of an inclusive, shared sacred space. In this way, his connection to other spiritual figures in both Hinduism and Islam lies less in formal succession and more in a shared spiritual grammar of devotion, surrender, and the transcendence of religious boundaries.