The Qawwali Project – An Untold Story
Dinesh Khanna
Sufi Kathak Foundation
New Delhi, India
The songs sung at the shrine are about 750 years old, written by Amīr Khusrau. These are unbroken oral traditions that continue till date.
Sakal bun phool rahi sarson,
Umbva phutay, tesu phulay, koyal kare pukar,
Aur gori karat singaar,
Sakal bun phool rahi.....
Tarah tarah kay phool lagaaye,
Lay gadhwa haathan mein aaye.
Nijamudin kay darwazay par,
Aawan keh gaye aashaq rung,
Aur beet gaye barson.
Sakal bun phool rahi sarson.
Listen to one of the traditional 700 year old compositions of Basant on this link.
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.
- Title: The Qawwali Project – An Untold Story
- Creator: Dinesh Khanna
- Location Created: Dargah Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi, India
- Original Language: Text: Manjari Chaturvedi
- Type: photo
- Contributor: Sufi Kathak Foundation
- Rights: Dinesh Khanna
- Region: New Delhi
- Photographer's biography: Dinesh Khanna is a managing trustee of Nazar Foundation, and one of the co-founders of the Delhi Photo Festival and was also a photography curator for the first two editions of the Serendipity Arts Festival. He is the visual consultant with Sahapedia and advises on the ‘Sahapedia Frames’ Grant for cultural photography. He teaches photography in various institutions, and is a Director of the Dhrish Academy at the Museo Camera: Centre for Photographic Arts. He has published four books of photography — Bazaar (Penguin: 2001), Living Faith (Penguin & Harper Collins: 2004), Right of the Line: The President’s Bodyguard (Rashtrapati Bhawan, 2014), and Life in Rashtrapati Bhawan (Rashtrapati Bhawan, 2015).
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