Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr Shamenaz
Bio:
Dr Shamenaz is an Associate Professor of the Deptt of Humanities at AIET, Allahabad.
Bio:
Dr Shamenaz is an Associate Professor of the Deptt of Humanities at AIET, Allahabad.
Music is the soul of India from ancient times. It is believed that music can even cure diseases to some extent. In India, music is believed to be a way to reach God and we see many saints and philosopher devoting themselves to God through music. Like the Bhakti singers and Sufi singers and so music has become tradition of Indian culture. Sufi music is considered to be very soulful as it is mystical and melodious and can cast an enchanting spell on its listeners. The famous romantic poet, John Keats once said, “a thing of beauty is joy forever” it is true in the context of Sufi music because “it is joy forever.” It mesmerises the singers and listeners.
There have been many great singers and musicians in India, who have enriched the great Indian tradition of Sufi music to great extent and their names are still remembered not only in India but around the world. The name of Hazrat Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) is synonymous with Sufi poetry and music. It can be seen that even after seven hundred years since he has passed away, his songs, poetry and riddles are still sung in the household in India and Pakistan and are an integral part of our folk culture. His songs and poetry are remarkable for every situation and for each individual. His bidai geet (farewell song), “Kahe ko bihayee bides re, sun babul more” is still sung in the bride’s farewell rituals in India. As Patricia Waugh comments about Plato in her book,
“Plato believed that poetry and literature are inextricably tied up
with the values and ideologies of the culture as a whole: art is
not separate from the socio-political sphere.” (40) Patricia Waugh
And this we can see in the writings of Amir Khushrau as he has very artistically wrote poetry which are absorb in the rich tradition of his country. He has added Indian values and ideologies to his writing depicting the social and political situations.
Amir Khusrau Dehlawi is considered as legendry personality in the Indian history. Being an Indian musician, scholar and poet, he was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was one among the pioneer of Hindu-Muslim unity. His poems and songs are still sung today in all the Sufi shrines of India and Pakistan. Some of them are so popular that they are even adapted in movies and serials like “Kahe ko bihayee bides re, sun babul more” and “Agle janam mohe bitiya na kijo”in Umrao Jaan, There was a serial on Zee TV named after his song, “Agle janam mohe bitiya na kijo.” One of the most famous poems of Khushrau which has been adapted in Indian and Pakistani films and is still very famous in the Hindi music world:
Chhap tilak sab chini re mose naina milake
Bat agam keh dini re mose naina milake
Prem bhati ka madva pilaike
Matvali kar linhi mose naina milaike
Gori gori baiyan, hari hari churiyan
baiyan pakad har linhi re mose naina milaike
Bal bal jaun main tore rang rajva
If translated, it means
You’ve taken away my looks, my identity, by just a glance.
By making me drink the wine from the distillery of love
You've intoxicated me by just a glance;
My fair, delicate wrists with green bangles in them,
Have been held tightly by you with just a glance.
I give my life to you, Oh my cloth-dyer.
This mesmerising song is being sung by eminent classical and folk singers of both India and Pakistan like Sabri Brothers.
Khusrau has dedicated some lines of the same song to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, whom he worshipped so much, as he sings to show his love towards him:
Apni si kar linhi re mose naina milaike
Khusro Nizam ke bal bal jaiye
Mohe suhagan kinhi re mose naina milaike
Bat adham keh dini re mose naina milaike
We can translate it in English as:
You’ve dyed me in yourself, by just a glance.
I give my whole life to you Oh, Nizam,
You’ve made me your bide, by just a glance
By making me drink the wine from the distillery of love
To him goes the credit of inventing table and sitar, which is a great contribution to the Indian music. Being a Sufi mystic, he was very big follower and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi and has devoted many of his composed works to the saint.
Amīr Khusrau was not only a notable poet but also a prolific and seminal musician. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. He is credited with enriching Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. He is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (the devotional music of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent). A musician and a scholar, Amir Khusrau was as prolific in tender lyrics as in highly involved prose and could easily emulate all styles of Persian poetry which had developed in medieval Persia, from Khaqani’s forceful qasidas to Nizami's khamsa. He used only 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. The verse forms he has written in include Ghazal, Masnavi, Qata, Rubai, Do-Beti and Tarkibhand. His contribution to the development of the ghazal, hitherto little used in India, is particularly significant.
His contribution to Indian music is of great importance as he was the one who invented table and sitar, which is an important part of Indian music and is played by the people around the world. He is also believed to be a descendant of son-in-law of the great celebrated classical singer in the history of India and of the court of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Amir Khusrau was born in Patiali near Etah in northern India. His father, Amīr Sayf ud-Dīn Mahmūd, was a Turkic officer and a member of the Lachin tribe of Transoxania, themselves belonging to the Kara-Khitais. Being a prolific classical poet, he was associated with the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. His popularity can be seen still now in North India and Pakistan because of many playful riddles, songs and legends attributed to him. His works includes:
· Tuhfa-tus-Sighr (Offering of a Minor) his first divan, contains poems composed between the age of 16 and 19.
· Wastul-Hayat (The Middle of Life) his second divan, contains poems composed at the peak of his poetic career.
· Ghurratul-Kamaal (The Prime of Perfection) poems composed between the age of 34 and 43.
· Baqia-Naqia (The Rest/The Miscellany) compiled at the age of 64.
· Qissa Chahar Darvesh, The Tale of the Four Dervishes.
· Nihayatul-Kamaal (The Height of Wonders) compiled probably a few weeks before his death.
· Qiran-us-Sa’dain (Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars) Mathnavi about the historic meeting of Bughra Khan and his son Kyqbad after long enmity (1289).
· Miftah-ul-Futooh (Key to the Victories) in praise of the victories of Jalaluddin Firuz Khilji (1291).
· Ishqia/Mathnavi Duval Rani-Khizr Khan (Romance of Duval Rani and Khizr Khan) a tragic love poem about Gujarat’s princess Duval and Alauddin’s son Khizr (1316).
· Noh Sepehr Mathnavi. (Mathnavi of the Nine Skies) Khusrau’s perceptions of India and its culture (1318).
· Tarikh-i-Alai ('Times of Alai'- Alauddin Khilji).
· Tughluq Nama (Book of the Tughluqs) in prose (1320).
· Khamsa-e-Nizami (Khamsa-e-Khusrau) five classical romances: Hasht- Bahist, Matlaul-Anwar, Sheerin- Khusrau, Majnun- Laila and Aaina- Sikandri.
· Ejaaz-e-Khusrovi (The Miracles of Khusrau) an assortment of prose compiled by himself.
· Khazain-ul-Futooh (The Treasures of Victories) one of his more controversial books, in prose (1311–12).
· Afzal-ul-Fawaid utterances of Nizamuddin Auliya.
· Ḳhāliq Bārī a versified glossary of Persian, Arabic, and Hindawi words and phrases attributed to Amir Khusrau, but most probably written in 1622 in Gwalior by Ẓiyā ud-Dīn Ḳhusrau.
· Jawahar-e- Khusrovi often dubbed as the Hindawi divan of Khusrau.
He is a multi-linguistic writer as he wrote in both Persian and Hindustani. He can also be called as bilingual as he had the knowledge of other languages like Arabic and Sanskrit, which he was able to speak very nicely. So through his enormous literary output and the legendary folk personality, Khusrau represents one of the first (recorded) Indian personages with a true multi-cultural or pluralistic identity.
The words of a poem are in direct contact with the thoughts that they
embody____ they are those thoughts. There is, ideally, no distinction
in this theory of authorship between the experience, feelings, or
thoughts that generate a poem and that poem. (51)
These lines are true in the context of Amir Khusrau as he penned down whatever he experience and felt in his life.
Khushrau authored Khamsa, which is an admiration of an earlier poet of Persian epics Nizami Ganjavi. In his lifetime also his work was considered to be masterpiece in Persian poetry during the Timurid period in Transoxiana. He is basically known for his Persian poetry which became the cause of his popularity. Some of the lines of his great Persian poetry include:
Kafir-e-ishqam musalmani mara darkaar neest
Har rag-e mun taar gashta hajat-e zunnaar neest;
Az sar-e baaleen-e mun bar khez ay naadaan tabeeb
Dard mand-e ishq ra daroo bajuz deedaar neest;
I am a pagan (worshiper) of love: the creed (of Muslims) I do not need;
Every vein of mine has become taut like a wire; the (Hindu) girdle I do not need.
Leave from my bedside, you ignorant physician!
The only cure for the patient of love is the sight of his beloved –
other than this no medicine does he need.
These lines depict his love and devotion towards Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. He has given the message of true love to this world. Further he says:
Nakhuda dar kashti-e maa gar nabashad goo mubaash
Ma khuda daareem mara nakhuda dar kaar neest;
Khalq migoyad, ki Khusrau butparasti mikunad
Aare-aare mikunam, ba khalq mara kaar neest.
If there be no pilot on our ship, let there be none:
We have God in our midst: the pilot we do not need.
The people of the world say that Khusrau worships idols.
So I do, so I do; the people I do not need,
the world I do not need.
This shows his faith in God, for him believing in God means to free from all kinds of fear and prejudices.
He has written many famous couplets in Hindi which are still famous in India and Pakistan. Some of his Hindavi couplets are:
Khusro dariya prem ka,ulti va ki dhar,
Jo ubhra so dub gaya,jo duba so par.
It means that, ‘Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow. He who floats up will drown (will be lost), and he who drowns will get across.’
Sej vo suni dekh ke rovun main din rain,
Piya piya main karat hun pahron, pal bhar such na chain.
It means that:
Seeing the empty bed I cry day and night.
Calling for my beloved all day, not a moment's happiness or rest.
Although every year thousands of his worshippers and pilgrims gathered throng at his tomb and that of Nizamuddin Auliya’s in Delhi during the 16 days Satrahvin Sharif Urs to commemorate the death of both the disciple and his saint. But from the year 2001, with the launch of the annual Sufi Music Festival named as Jahan-e-Khusrau, a great and real musical tribute has been given to the memory of the iconic musician, scholar and poet. The festival celebrates the life of the musical legend, Khusrau or the spirit of Sufi music immortalized by him. The festival is being organised by the Rumi Foundation and the versatile artist and film-maker of Indian cinema, Muzaffar Ali is its designer and director. Jahan-e-Khusrau Festival has been able to spread the message of love and harmony which was the soul of Khusrau’s all works. It has also been successful in recreating the Sufi mysticism in the country.
His songs, poetry and riddles have spread message of love and harmony and have always contributed national integration and brotherhoodness. For more than seven centuries, Amir Khusrau’s name has been deeply rooted in the Indian tradition in the form of qawwali, songs, poems and riddles. With Jahan-e-Khusrau, his legacy of love, harmony and brotherhood with surely live more for many more centuries to come.
References
1. Latif, Syed Abdul (1979) [1958]. An Outline of the Cultural History of India. Institute of Indo-Middle East Cultural Studies (reprinted by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers), pp. 334.
2. Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Harold S. Powers. Sufi Music of India and Pakistan, Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 4 (Oct- Dec 1989), pp. 702-705.
3. Massey, Reginald. India’s Dances. Abhinav Publications. Pp. 13.
4. A. Schimmel, “Amir Kosrow Dehlawi” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2007.
5. Dr. Iraj Bashiri. “Amir Khusrau Dihlavi”. 2001.
6. Mohammad Habib. Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi, 1979, p. 4.
7. Islamic Cultural Board. Islamic Culture, 1927, p. 219.
8. Amir Khusrau: Memorial Volume, by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi, 1975, p. 98.
9. Amir Khusrau: Memorial Volume by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi, 1975, p. 1.
10. G. N. Devy. Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation, Orient Longman, Published 2002.
There have been many great singers and musicians in India, who have enriched the great Indian tradition of Sufi music to great extent and their names are still remembered not only in India but around the world. The name of Hazrat Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) is synonymous with Sufi poetry and music. It can be seen that even after seven hundred years since he has passed away, his songs, poetry and riddles are still sung in the household in India and Pakistan and are an integral part of our folk culture. His songs and poetry are remarkable for every situation and for each individual. His bidai geet (farewell song), “Kahe ko bihayee bides re, sun babul more” is still sung in the bride’s farewell rituals in India. As Patricia Waugh comments about Plato in her book,
“Plato believed that poetry and literature are inextricably tied up
with the values and ideologies of the culture as a whole: art is
not separate from the socio-political sphere.” (40) Patricia Waugh
And this we can see in the writings of Amir Khushrau as he has very artistically wrote poetry which are absorb in the rich tradition of his country. He has added Indian values and ideologies to his writing depicting the social and political situations.
Amir Khusrau Dehlawi is considered as legendry personality in the Indian history. Being an Indian musician, scholar and poet, he was an iconic figure in the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent. He was one among the pioneer of Hindu-Muslim unity. His poems and songs are still sung today in all the Sufi shrines of India and Pakistan. Some of them are so popular that they are even adapted in movies and serials like “Kahe ko bihayee bides re, sun babul more” and “Agle janam mohe bitiya na kijo”in Umrao Jaan, There was a serial on Zee TV named after his song, “Agle janam mohe bitiya na kijo.” One of the most famous poems of Khushrau which has been adapted in Indian and Pakistani films and is still very famous in the Hindi music world:
Chhap tilak sab chini re mose naina milake
Bat agam keh dini re mose naina milake
Prem bhati ka madva pilaike
Matvali kar linhi mose naina milaike
Gori gori baiyan, hari hari churiyan
baiyan pakad har linhi re mose naina milaike
Bal bal jaun main tore rang rajva
If translated, it means
You’ve taken away my looks, my identity, by just a glance.
By making me drink the wine from the distillery of love
You've intoxicated me by just a glance;
My fair, delicate wrists with green bangles in them,
Have been held tightly by you with just a glance.
I give my life to you, Oh my cloth-dyer.
This mesmerising song is being sung by eminent classical and folk singers of both India and Pakistan like Sabri Brothers.
Khusrau has dedicated some lines of the same song to Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, whom he worshipped so much, as he sings to show his love towards him:
Apni si kar linhi re mose naina milaike
Khusro Nizam ke bal bal jaiye
Mohe suhagan kinhi re mose naina milaike
Bat adham keh dini re mose naina milaike
We can translate it in English as:
You’ve dyed me in yourself, by just a glance.
I give my whole life to you Oh, Nizam,
You’ve made me your bide, by just a glance
By making me drink the wine from the distillery of love
To him goes the credit of inventing table and sitar, which is a great contribution to the Indian music. Being a Sufi mystic, he was very big follower and a spiritual disciple of Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi and has devoted many of his composed works to the saint.
Amīr Khusrau was not only a notable poet but also a prolific and seminal musician. He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. He is credited with enriching Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. He is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (the devotional music of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent). A musician and a scholar, Amir Khusrau was as prolific in tender lyrics as in highly involved prose and could easily emulate all styles of Persian poetry which had developed in medieval Persia, from Khaqani’s forceful qasidas to Nizami's khamsa. He used only 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. The verse forms he has written in include Ghazal, Masnavi, Qata, Rubai, Do-Beti and Tarkibhand. His contribution to the development of the ghazal, hitherto little used in India, is particularly significant.
His contribution to Indian music is of great importance as he was the one who invented table and sitar, which is an important part of Indian music and is played by the people around the world. He is also believed to be a descendant of son-in-law of the great celebrated classical singer in the history of India and of the court of the great Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Amir Khusrau was born in Patiali near Etah in northern India. His father, Amīr Sayf ud-Dīn Mahmūd, was a Turkic officer and a member of the Lachin tribe of Transoxania, themselves belonging to the Kara-Khitais. Being a prolific classical poet, he was associated with the royal courts of more than seven rulers of the Delhi Sultanate. His popularity can be seen still now in North India and Pakistan because of many playful riddles, songs and legends attributed to him. His works includes:
· Tuhfa-tus-Sighr (Offering of a Minor) his first divan, contains poems composed between the age of 16 and 19.
· Wastul-Hayat (The Middle of Life) his second divan, contains poems composed at the peak of his poetic career.
· Ghurratul-Kamaal (The Prime of Perfection) poems composed between the age of 34 and 43.
· Baqia-Naqia (The Rest/The Miscellany) compiled at the age of 64.
· Qissa Chahar Darvesh, The Tale of the Four Dervishes.
· Nihayatul-Kamaal (The Height of Wonders) compiled probably a few weeks before his death.
· Qiran-us-Sa’dain (Meeting of the Two Auspicious Stars) Mathnavi about the historic meeting of Bughra Khan and his son Kyqbad after long enmity (1289).
· Miftah-ul-Futooh (Key to the Victories) in praise of the victories of Jalaluddin Firuz Khilji (1291).
· Ishqia/Mathnavi Duval Rani-Khizr Khan (Romance of Duval Rani and Khizr Khan) a tragic love poem about Gujarat’s princess Duval and Alauddin’s son Khizr (1316).
· Noh Sepehr Mathnavi. (Mathnavi of the Nine Skies) Khusrau’s perceptions of India and its culture (1318).
· Tarikh-i-Alai ('Times of Alai'- Alauddin Khilji).
· Tughluq Nama (Book of the Tughluqs) in prose (1320).
· Khamsa-e-Nizami (Khamsa-e-Khusrau) five classical romances: Hasht- Bahist, Matlaul-Anwar, Sheerin- Khusrau, Majnun- Laila and Aaina- Sikandri.
· Ejaaz-e-Khusrovi (The Miracles of Khusrau) an assortment of prose compiled by himself.
· Khazain-ul-Futooh (The Treasures of Victories) one of his more controversial books, in prose (1311–12).
· Afzal-ul-Fawaid utterances of Nizamuddin Auliya.
· Ḳhāliq Bārī a versified glossary of Persian, Arabic, and Hindawi words and phrases attributed to Amir Khusrau, but most probably written in 1622 in Gwalior by Ẓiyā ud-Dīn Ḳhusrau.
· Jawahar-e- Khusrovi often dubbed as the Hindawi divan of Khusrau.
He is a multi-linguistic writer as he wrote in both Persian and Hindustani. He can also be called as bilingual as he had the knowledge of other languages like Arabic and Sanskrit, which he was able to speak very nicely. So through his enormous literary output and the legendary folk personality, Khusrau represents one of the first (recorded) Indian personages with a true multi-cultural or pluralistic identity.
The words of a poem are in direct contact with the thoughts that they
embody____ they are those thoughts. There is, ideally, no distinction
in this theory of authorship between the experience, feelings, or
thoughts that generate a poem and that poem. (51)
These lines are true in the context of Amir Khusrau as he penned down whatever he experience and felt in his life.
Khushrau authored Khamsa, which is an admiration of an earlier poet of Persian epics Nizami Ganjavi. In his lifetime also his work was considered to be masterpiece in Persian poetry during the Timurid period in Transoxiana. He is basically known for his Persian poetry which became the cause of his popularity. Some of the lines of his great Persian poetry include:
Kafir-e-ishqam musalmani mara darkaar neest
Har rag-e mun taar gashta hajat-e zunnaar neest;
Az sar-e baaleen-e mun bar khez ay naadaan tabeeb
Dard mand-e ishq ra daroo bajuz deedaar neest;
I am a pagan (worshiper) of love: the creed (of Muslims) I do not need;
Every vein of mine has become taut like a wire; the (Hindu) girdle I do not need.
Leave from my bedside, you ignorant physician!
The only cure for the patient of love is the sight of his beloved –
other than this no medicine does he need.
These lines depict his love and devotion towards Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. He has given the message of true love to this world. Further he says:
Nakhuda dar kashti-e maa gar nabashad goo mubaash
Ma khuda daareem mara nakhuda dar kaar neest;
Khalq migoyad, ki Khusrau butparasti mikunad
Aare-aare mikunam, ba khalq mara kaar neest.
If there be no pilot on our ship, let there be none:
We have God in our midst: the pilot we do not need.
The people of the world say that Khusrau worships idols.
So I do, so I do; the people I do not need,
the world I do not need.
This shows his faith in God, for him believing in God means to free from all kinds of fear and prejudices.
He has written many famous couplets in Hindi which are still famous in India and Pakistan. Some of his Hindavi couplets are:
Khusro dariya prem ka,ulti va ki dhar,
Jo ubhra so dub gaya,jo duba so par.
It means that, ‘Khusro! the river of love has a reverse flow. He who floats up will drown (will be lost), and he who drowns will get across.’
Sej vo suni dekh ke rovun main din rain,
Piya piya main karat hun pahron, pal bhar such na chain.
It means that:
Seeing the empty bed I cry day and night.
Calling for my beloved all day, not a moment's happiness or rest.
Although every year thousands of his worshippers and pilgrims gathered throng at his tomb and that of Nizamuddin Auliya’s in Delhi during the 16 days Satrahvin Sharif Urs to commemorate the death of both the disciple and his saint. But from the year 2001, with the launch of the annual Sufi Music Festival named as Jahan-e-Khusrau, a great and real musical tribute has been given to the memory of the iconic musician, scholar and poet. The festival celebrates the life of the musical legend, Khusrau or the spirit of Sufi music immortalized by him. The festival is being organised by the Rumi Foundation and the versatile artist and film-maker of Indian cinema, Muzaffar Ali is its designer and director. Jahan-e-Khusrau Festival has been able to spread the message of love and harmony which was the soul of Khusrau’s all works. It has also been successful in recreating the Sufi mysticism in the country.
His songs, poetry and riddles have spread message of love and harmony and have always contributed national integration and brotherhoodness. For more than seven centuries, Amir Khusrau’s name has been deeply rooted in the Indian tradition in the form of qawwali, songs, poems and riddles. With Jahan-e-Khusrau, his legacy of love, harmony and brotherhood with surely live more for many more centuries to come.
References
1. Latif, Syed Abdul (1979) [1958]. An Outline of the Cultural History of India. Institute of Indo-Middle East Cultural Studies (reprinted by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers), pp. 334.
2. Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, Harold S. Powers. Sufi Music of India and Pakistan, Sound, Context and Meaning in Qawwali. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 4 (Oct- Dec 1989), pp. 702-705.
3. Massey, Reginald. India’s Dances. Abhinav Publications. Pp. 13.
4. A. Schimmel, “Amir Kosrow Dehlawi” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, 2007.
5. Dr. Iraj Bashiri. “Amir Khusrau Dihlavi”. 2001.
6. Mohammad Habib. Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi, 1979, p. 4.
7. Islamic Cultural Board. Islamic Culture, 1927, p. 219.
8. Amir Khusrau: Memorial Volume, by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi, 1975, p. 98.
9. Amir Khusrau: Memorial Volume by Amir Khusrau Dihlavi, 1975, p. 1.
10. G. N. Devy. Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation, Orient Longman, Published 2002.
- Nightingale Andrea, ‘Mimesis: Ancient Greek Literary Theory’, Literary Theory and Criticism Ed by Patricia Waugh: An Oxford Guide. ( Oxford University Press; New Delhi, 2006). P, 40.
