India GOAmir Khusrau: the poet who sang for his master
امیر خسرو
The “parrot of India”: court poet to seven sultans, disciple of Nizamuddin and, by tradition, the father of qawwali and of Hindavi verse.
Amir Khusrau was a poet, musician and scholar of the Delhi Sultanate who served sultans of three dynasties and was a devoted disciple of the Sufi master Nizamuddin Auliya. He wrote mostly in Persian, but the Hindavi songs and riddles credited to him are still sung, and tradition calls him the father of qawwali. He lies a few steps from his master's tomb in Delhi.
Story
Born to a Turkic father and an Indian mother, he wrote in Persian for the court by day and sang in the people's Hindavi for his master by night, and it is the songs attributed to that second voice that everyone knows: riddles, wedding songs, much of the qawwali repertoire. When Nizamuddin died he gave everything away and sat by the grave until his own death six months later; the saint had said, tradition holds, that he would have wished to share one tomb with him. Coming in, you pass Khusrau first, and so does everyone.
आज रंग है ए माँ रंग है री, मोरे महबूब के घर रंग है री
“Today there is colour, mother, such colour — colour at my beloved's house.”
Attributed to Amir Khusrau, “Aaj rang hai”
Places linked to them
Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah · DelhiA life at court
Abu'l Hasan Yamin ud-Din Khusrau was born in 1253 at Patiyali, in today's Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh. His father, Saif ud-Din Mahmud, was a Turkic officer from Central Asia; his mother, Bibi Daulat Naz, was the daughter of a minister of Sultan Balban.
He spent half a century as a court poet. His patrons included Balban's family, Jalal ud-Din Khalji, Alauddin Khalji and the early Tughlaqs, and he survived the violent changes of throne between them by writing for whoever held it: panegyrics, histories in verse, and the Khamsa, five long narrative poems completed in 1298 on the model of the Persian poet Nizami's Khamsa. Nizamuddin Auliya called him “God's Turk”.
Qawwali, tarana and the Hindavi songs
Khusrau is credited with shaping qawwali, the devotional music of the Chishti Sufis, and with the tarana, a form sung on syllables rather than words; he is also said to have brought the Persian ghazal style into Indian music. How much of the music goes back to him in person is hard to prove, and many of the Hindavi verses sung under his name were written down long after his death. What is certain is that the repertoire is alive: the song quoted above, “Aaj rang hai”, is still sung at qawwali gatherings in India and Pakistan, and his riddles, the paheli, still pass from mouth to mouth.
His tomb at Nizamuddin, and when to go
Khusrau died in Delhi in October 1325 and was buried in the precinct of his master's shrine, the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, in the old basti (village quarter) of Nizamuddin in south-central Delhi. The lanes leading in are hung with rose garlands and thick with incense. Entry is free; heads are covered, shoes left outside, and women see the inner chambers from the veranda through marble screens.
Two moments bring his poetry back into the courtyard. On Thursday evenings after sunset qawwali singers sit down in the marble court and the crowd fills in around them; come early if you want to be close. And on Vasant Panchami, the spring festival (projected for 11 February 2027), the dargah dresses in yellow mustard flowers for Basant, and Khusrau's spring verses are sung through the afternoon.
❓ FAQ
What was Amir Khusrau famous for?
For his Persian poetry at the Delhi court, for the Hindavi songs and riddles credited to him, and, by tradition, for shaping qawwali as the music of the Chishti Sufis.
Who was Amir Khusrau to Alauddin Khalji?
His court poet. Khusrau served Alauddin among several Delhi sultans and wrote verse in praise of his reign.
Why is he called the Parrot of India?
Tuti-e-Hind, the Parrot of India, is the title tradition gives him for the sweetness and fluency of his verse.
What was his relationship with Nizamuddin Auliya?
Disciple and master. Khusrau was one of his most devoted followers; when the saint died, Khusrau outlived him by only six months and was buried near him.
Where is Amir Khusrau buried?
In the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah complex in Delhi, beside the tomb of his master. Thursday-evening qawwali is held there all year.