Qawwali compositions always have great lyrical value. The traditional poetry sung is in Farsi, Arabic, Punjabi, Awadhi and Brajbhasa, along with the local dialects. Here you see songs passed down for generations recorded in a qawwal's writing, kept close to him as he performs.
The Qawwali Project, is an initiative conceptualized by Manjari Chaturvedi where the untold story of Qawwali unfolds through the eyes of photographers. The practitioners are photo-documented with their performance art, their lives and their association with the Sufi shrines where they perform. Qawwali is the performance art and Qawwal is the practitioner. This is an attempt by the Sufi Kathak Foundation to document the traditions as they exist at the shrines itself.