History · Ch 6 — Bhakti–Sufi Traditions — Changes in Religious Beliefs and Devotional Texts
Languages and communication
Languages and communication
The Chishti saints did not restrict themselves to Persian or Arabic, the languages of the court and the scripture. They spoke and composed in the languages ordinary people used every day. This choice was deliberate: if devotion was to reach everyone, it had to be expressed in a language everyone understood.
In Delhi, the Chishtis conversed in Hindavi, the language of the common people. Baba Farid, a revered Sufi, composed verses in this local language, and these verses were later included in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. This shows how fluid the boundaries between different religious traditions could be.
Other Sufis wrote long narrative poems called masnavis. These used human love as an allegory for divine love. The most famous example is the prem-akhyan (love story) Padmavat, composed by Malik Muhammad Jayasi. It tells the story of Padmini and King Ratansen of Chittor, but their trials and separation symbolise the soul’s difficult journey toward union with God. Such poems were often recited in hospices during sama‘.
A different kind of Sufi poetry emerged in and around Bijapur in Karnataka. These were short poems in Dakhani (a variant of Urdu), attributed to Chishti saints of the 17th and 18th centuries. These poems were likely sung by women while doing household chores like grinding grain and spinning. Other compositions took the form of lurinama (lullabies) and shadinama (wedding songs). The Sufis of this region were probably inspired by the existing bhakti traditions of the Kannada vachanas of the Lingayats and the Marathi abhangs of the saints of Pandharpur. It was through this local, sung poetry that Islam gradually gained a foothold in the villages of the Deccan.
Amir Khusrau and the qaul
Amir Khusrau (1253–1325), the great poet, musician, and disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya, gave a unique form to the Chishti sama‘. He introduced the qaul (an Arabic word meaning “saying”), a hymn sung at the opening or closing of a qawwali performance. This was followed by Sufi poetry in Persian, Hindavi, or Urdu — sometimes mixing words from all these languages. The singers of these songs, called qawwals, at the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya always begin their recital with the qaul. Today, qawwali is performed in shrines all over the Indian subcontinent. …
Source 8 — Charkhanama. A song set to the rhythm of the spinning wheel, of the kind sung by women in and around Bijapur:
As you take the cotton, you do zikr-i jali. / As you separate the cotton you should do zikr-i qalbi. / And as you spool the thread you should do zikr-i aini. / Zikr should be uttered from the stomach through the chest, and threaded through the throat. / The threads of breath should be counted one by one, oh sister — up to twenty-four thousand. / Do this day and night, and offer this to your pir as a gift. …
Amir Khusrau and the qaul. Amir Khusrau (1253–1325) — the great poet, musician and disciple of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya — gave a unique form to the Chishti sama‘ by introducing the qaul (an Arabic word meaning “saying”), a hymn sung at the opening or closing of qawwali. This was followed by sufi poetry in Persian, Hindavi or Urdu, and sometimes using words from all of these languages. Qawwals (those who sing these songs) at the shrine of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya always start their r …
Figure 6.14 shows a photograph taken inside the dargah (shrine) of Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi. A group of qawwals — male singers — are seated on the floor in a semi-circle, facing each other. They are dressed in simple traditional clothing, with some wearing caps. In front of them, on the floor, lie a harmonium and a set of tabla drums. One qawwal has his hands raised in a gestural, expressive pose, while others appear to be singing or clapping. The background shows the interior of the shrine: a marble floor, arched doorways, and a low railing that separates the singers from the area around the tomb. The atmosphere is intimate and devotional, with no large audience visible in the frame — the focus is entirely on the performers and their act of singing.
This image is a direct, living illustration of the Chishti sama‘ tradition — the practice of listening to devotional music as a form of spiritual meditation. The textbook explains that sama‘ was not just music; it was a carefully structured ritual. At the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya, qawwals always begin their recital with the qaul (a hymn attributed to Amir Khusrau), and then move into Persian, Hindavi, or Urdu poetry. The photograph captures that moment of performance, showing that the tradition has continued uninterrupted for nearly seven centuries. …