Amir Khusrau
If any body prepares a list of geniuses born in India, he can’t resist himself in putting Amir Khusrau among top class geniuses of that list. He was a pure Sufi, a delicate poet, master musician, an able courtier and a mysterious mystic. Once you meet him, you can’t forget him for whole of your life. Here we are concerned with Sufi poet Khusrau only who used to say in Indian colloquial language –
Khusrau baji prem ki khelun pi ke sang
Jeet gayi to piya more hari pee ke sang.
(I’m playing a game with my beloved; if I win he will become mine, if lose I will become his)
His style of living was like that he is in continuous romance with his divine beloved. He is being haunted, he is being cajoled, by his beloved and he is writhing like fish when his beloved is far from him. He is in a state of khumar (sense of sub consciousness), he cannot distinguish anything else his beloved. He is under influence of a spiritual wine, which has captured his mind, he is in a mood of whirling dervish, he says –
Prem pati ka madwa pilayi ke
Mohe matwari keeni re mose meine milaike
(He has given me wine of love; he has made me crazy by his divine eyes)
Abdul Hasan Yamimddin Khusrau was born in 1253 A.D. in Patiali, Etah (UP) or Mominabad. His father was chieftain or noble man in king’s court. Therefore, Khusrau never had any problem of livelihood. It was nature’s grace only that he developed his inner talent, which is mysticism. Since childhood, he was fallen in love with nature and its umpteen beauties. Sense of bewilderment was arousing in him as his age was developing. But everything in life is not like silvery bed sheet; you have to sleep on rough surfaces also, as it happened in Khusrau life when his father died in 1260. His maternal grandfather, Imad ul mulk became his guardian. In 1266, he got an able & brilliant teacher in Khwaja Alauddin whose keen eyes caught the talent of Khusrau. He encouraged him in writing poetry. According to his life sketch in his own words, Khusrau had said that in 1266 he was writing good musical poems. This phase continued till 1270 when he wrote his first deewan called – tohfat us sighr – from here, what he started, continued till his death. Three years later his maternal grandfather died, now Khusrau had to find his way on his own. He joined the court of nephew of Balban (Balban was sultan of India at that time). Then he roamed here & there with sultan & kings. In 1281, he went to Multan, where he met Hasan sajzi whose friendship gave him chance to have deep insight into tasawwuf (spiritualism). There he wrote his second deewan called wasat-ul-hayat (middle of life). After many ups & downs in life, he came back to Delhi in 1288 & joined the royal court.
In Delhi, he spent his bigger part of life. Delhi & its residents fascinated him. He loved Indian culture & simple people of this beautiful nation. He was primarily a Persian poet and most of his writings are in Persian but on the other hand, he is the first one who sang and composed poems for simple, illiterate village folks. The time when he was writing historical Masnawis (long poems), a particular dialect, which was mixture of Sanskrit, Persian, Braj bhasha, Punjabi, Haryani was being developed in vicinity of Delhi. This language was called Hindwi. Khusrau loved & nurtured this language with his gifted art of poetry. Khusrau started the tradition of poetry in Hindi, which continued till 20th century. Khusrau gave Hindi its first khari boli composition.
He became master of this language, which was still neither perfect nor matured. For example, the master artisan Khusrau carves out a ghazal from big trees of verses. It has all the she’ers (couplets) with first lime in Brajbhasha & second line in pure Persian.
Zihal Miskin makun taghaful, Doraye naina banaye batiyan
Ki tab e hijran na daram aye jaan, ne lehu kahe lagaye chhatiyan.
Shab e hijran daraz choon zulf, wa roz waslat jo umra kotah
Sakhi piya ko jo main na dekhun, to kaise katun andheri ratiyan
Yaka yak az dil do chashme jadoo basad farebam baburd taskin
Kise padi hai jo ja sunaye piyare pee ko hamari batiyan
Choo shama’e sozan, choo zarrah hairah hamesha giriyan ba ishqe aan ma
Na neend naina, ne ang chaina ne aap aaye, na bhaji patiyan.
Be haq roze wisal e dilbar ki daad ma ra fareb Khusrau
Sapet man ko daraye rakhoon jo jaan paoon piye ki ghatiyan
Do not think otherwise about my misery, you are weaving tales by blandishing your eyes; my patience has over brimmed, O my beloved why not you take me to your bosom?
Night of separation is very long like hair and day of meeting is short like life, my friend! How can I pass this dark night without seeing beloved’s face?
With a sudden shiver and with tricks of his eyes, he robbed peace of my mind;
Nobody is so caring that he will report this matter to my beloved.
Tossed & bewildered like a flickering candle, I roam about in fire of love; neither sleep in my eyes, nor rest in body, neither he comes nor sends any message.
In honour of the day of access to my beloved who lured me so long, O Khusrau! I shall keep my feelings suppressed if ever I get a chance to get at this trick.
[1]The above ghazal is a masterpiece of Khusrau. One can notice that, the first line of first couplet is hybrid of Braj & Persian. This Khusrau has done to attract those men & women who were far from literature. Khusrau got immense success & popularity among local people. There are innumerable instances in his poetry where it seems he has submitted his poetry for the masses.
He wrote doha, paheli, mukrani, widai geet which are so popular in north India that they are sung every now & then. Even after eight hundred years, these poems are as fresh as they were before. You must have heard this song –
Kahe ko biyahe bides re – lakhi babul morey
Bhaiya ko dijo mahal do mahale, ham ko dijo pardes re
lakhi babul morey
Hum tore babul – pijare ki chiriya, kuhuk kuhuk rah jaye re –
lakhi babul morey
(Why you are marrying me to such far place – my prosperous father.
You are giving bungalows to brothers & banishment to me – o prosperous father.
I’m a miser bird of your cage sobbing & sobbing only – o prosperous father)
Another example of his love for Indian culture and its simple living style is his art of writing paheli (riddles). Look at this riddle
Farsi boli aaina, turki sochi payi na
Hindi bole aarsi aaye, Khusrau, munh dekhe jo bataye
(Answer – Mirror)
Khusrau was a musician too. He used to compose tunes for his poem. Some of his poems have been set on tunes i.e. first he made tunes then wrote poems. Khusrau had travelled extensively all over India, from Awadh to Bihar, Bengal, from Chittor to Gujarat Sindh and from Punjab to Multan, Afganistan. He had seen varieties of culture & traditions. He was fond of colloquial style of singing hymns & poem. He used to sit among those common people so he would become a singer in the same style as the common people used to follow. On the other hand, he visited Khanquahs and other places where Sufis from Shiraz, Khurasan, and Nishapur were coming to India. In these places, a particular kind of concerts were performed which were called Qaul (in Arabic, qaul means saying, to talk) this qaul developed into qawwali. Khusrau adopted versions of qawwali and grinded it with Indian sur taal. What he produced was called ‘Sama’. In this Sama Khusrau himself sang his ghazals using Hindustani classical music He invented various forms and pattern of songs like talbana, naqshgul, tarana and khayal. His purpose was to touch the masses. Interestingly, most of his ghazal were not be read but to be sing. He himself says–
“If it fails to become a part of people’s memory, it is still unborn although given birth to.”
What Khusrau had initiated in a small corner of Delhi is now famous all over the globe. People in huge numbers come to enjoy those traditional performing arts, which Khusrau had developed. It can be said that Khusrau was the greatest ghazal singer ever lived.
While exploring to various beauties & vistas, one day he met Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. He became his disciple immediately. He was spellbound to see the spiritual beauty of his master. He could not resist himself falling in love with Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin possessed umpteen numbers of beautiful colours in his character & Khusrau was bewildered spectator of those colours. He himself was coloured in the same colours possessed by the sage, his beloved his master –
Bali bali jaoon tore rang rejwa
Aapni si rang dini re mose naina milaike
(I go fascinated with you, you are such a dyer, or master of colours that you have coloured me in your own colours only by peeping into my eyes)
This love of two stalwarts was very famous in Delhi. In fact, Khusrau spent big part of rest of his life with Nizamuddin at latter’s abode in south Delhi. He wrote several poems in praise of Nazammuddin, they are still sung by qawwals daily in the evening at dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin –
Main nizam se naina laga aayi re
Gar gawari kahe so kahe
Nar naari kahe so kahe
Main nizam se naina laga aayi re
(I have fallen in love with Nizamuddin, let folks men & women say anything, I have fallen in love with Nizamuddin).
He was an Indian by his heart & soul. And Indian Sufism provided its soft and quintessential values to him. He was justly and aptly inclined towards the Hindu – Muslim unity. He never accepted the conflict of religions .He never allowed religious sentiments to overshadow his inner will to love the beauties of nature & life. He says about himself –
Kafire ishqam musalman darkar nist;
Har rage jan tar gashteh hajate zunnar nist.
(I’m a worshipper of love, I need not to remain Muslim; every single vein has become thread, now I don’t need Brahminical thread).
These beautiful ideologies he learnt from the company of various Sufis he met in his wandering life. When he writes about the simple lovelorn lines for simple peoples, he do not forgets the taste of those Sufis who were his majestic mentors. In the highest ecstasy of Qalandar (a stage in Sufism where the person forgets his whereabouts) his heart sings like this –
Nami danam che manzil bood shab jaye ki man boodam
Chahar simt raqse bismil bood shab jaye ki man boodam
(I don’t know where I had reached, where I was last night
A dance of wounded was being performed, where I was last night.)
And no doubt among all the Sufis he respected Nizamuddin most. Perhaps he loved him more than anything in his life. After the death of his mentor Khusrau got so dejected and withdrawn from worldly affairs that soon his own death arrived to his doorstep. Nizamuddin died in April 1325 A.D. and Khusrau died in September 1325 A.D. Khusrau was buried behind the same courtyard where he used to sing qawwalis. There you will find the famous she’r Khusrau said, in disappointment on death of Nizamuddin –
Gori soye sej pe mukh par dare kes
Chal khusru ghar aapne rain bhaiyi chanhun des
(The beauty is sleeping while hiding her face from me; come on Khusrau, go to home, it is dark now)
Khusrau is sleeping at the foot side of grave of his master Nizamuddin for seven hundred years.
