<b>Jahan-e-Khusrau:</b> Music of the mystics

Jahan-e-Khusrau returns to Delhi after two years with new sounds and compositions

On March 24, Arab ki Sarai, the 16th century monument located within the premises of the Humayun’s Tomb complex in Delhi, will come alive with the sounds of Sufi music.

The monument, said to have been built by Humayun’s wife, Haji Begum, to accommodate the 300 Arabs whom she had brought from her pilgrimage to Mecca, will host Jahan-e-Khusrau, the annual Sufi music festival started by filmmaker-designer Muzaffar Ali in 2011. The festival returns to Delhi after an interval of two years. Its last edition was also held at Arab ki Sarai.

This year, the festival is dedicated to 12th century Sufi saint Baba Farid who is largely recognised as the first major poet of the Punjabi language and who laid the foundation for the vibrant Punjabi literature that would develop later. Before him, Punjabi was looked upon as the language of the masses, while Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Sanskrit were considered the literary languages — used by the elite and the learned.

This explains the presence of a number of Sufi musicians from Punjab — such as Satinder Sartaaj, Hans Raj Hans and Daler Mehndi — in this edition of the festival. Sartaaj, 34, who was born Satinder Pal Singh, also holds a doctorate in Sufi gayan. 

Also performing at the festival, which hopes to draw a younger audience, is Sonam Kalra, the founder of the curiously-named Sufi Gospel Project. Through sound, music and words, the project hopes to bring together different voices of faith. So you have an interfusion of, say, Amir Khusrau and Amazing Grace, or Bulleh Shah’s words playing alongside Gaelic text. It is a space where the unfettered spirit transcends the boundaries of labels and religions.

In keeping with this spirit, the three-day Jahan-e-Khusrau, which is presented by Rumi Foundation and designed and directed by Ali, has in the past featured artistes from Canada, Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Germany, Greece, Bangladesh and Pakistan. 

Sonam Kalra, the founder of Sufi Gospel Project

This time round, a haunting voice comes from neighbouring Nepal. Ani Choying Drolma, a Nepalese Buddhist nun and musician from the Nagi Gompa nunnery, who has brought Tibetan Buddhist chants and feast songs to mainstream audiences, will perform at the festival. Those who follow Coke Studio@MTV would have heard her in Season 3, her voice as though echoing from mountainsides in an A R Rahman composition that also featured Jordanian singer Farah Siraj. 

Nepal’s singing nun, as she is sometimes called, is expected to open the festival with Murad Ali and Nirupam Gyan, who has for years been organising workshops like Sufi whirling and Gurdjieff sacred dances.

The Sufi tradition — and with it Sufi music — is like a constantly flowing river that gathers and absorbs the many experiences that come its way. There is no one definition of Sufi. And, there is no one geographical space to which it is confined.

Within India, too, Sufi music thrives in different regions. Jahan-e-Khusrau and festivals like it are a reflection of this. So, you’ll also have Malini Awasthi, who is equally accomplished in ghazal and Sufi gaayki, performing at the festival that draws its name from and is a celebration of the music and poetry of Amir Khusrau. Khusrau’s poetry effortlessly slipped from Persian to Hindavi and Brij bhasha, sometimes within the same ghazal. Zihaal-e-Miskeen is one such example where the verses alternate between Persian and Brij bhasha.

Many of the artistes performing at the festival also transcend language and genre. Smita Bellur from Bengaluru, for example, specialises in Hindustani classical khyal and Sufi qawwali. Apart from this, Bellur, who belongs to the Jaipur-Kirana gharana, also dabbles in ghazal, Thumri, Chaiti, collaborates with rock and pop bands to create fusion music and has lent her voice as a playback singer in movies.

Similarly, Awasthi, who was born in Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh, sings Thumri and Kajri and in dialects such as Awadhi, Bundelkhandi and Bhojpuri. She has performed at Jahan-e-Khusrau in the past as well.

From Iran will come the Viuna Music Ensemble, which is named after the Viuna village, one of Iran’s oldest villages. The ensemble plays Persian classical and Sufi music, besides contemporary and fusion music based on Kurdish, Turkish and Arabic strains. 

Like always, the festival hopes to bring new compositions that will be sung, or performed, against the backdrop of the tomb of the second emperor of the Mughal empire.

Jahan-e-Khusrau will be held from March 24 to March 26, 6.30 pm onwards at Arab ki Sarai, Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi. It is not a ticketed event. Entry is by invitation given only to sponsors and Rumi Foundation affiliates. For affiliation with Rumi Foundation, visit goo.gl/forms/UnMKsM9nvqaxcCPl1