Amir Khusrau's Love for Urdu and Classical Music

The world is full of exceptional people.Take Homer in ancient Greece, he was a poet. Plato and Aristotle were philosophers and sages, who have no obvious influence in other areas of life. On the contrary, Khusrau's personality is all-round. Yes, here we are talking about the Nightingale of Hind, Amir Khusrau. Khusrau's original name was Abul Hasan and Yaminuddin Mahmud was his nickname, but he gained fame under a fictitious name (takhallus). Ameer, was his hereditary title and his birth dates to 1253. Khusrau himself preferred to be called a Turkish Indian while his mentor Nizamuddin Auliya gave him the title of 'Nightingale of Hind'. His father, Ameer Saifuddin Lachin, was a Turkish chieftain. They came to India during the Mongol invasions and settled in the northern Indian town of Patiala (Agra). His mother was from a neo-Muslim Rajput family. He was eight years old when his father died. After some time his family shifted to Delhi. He is also an eyewitness of the early periods of Muslim rule in the subcontinent.  He not only saw the era of the eight kings of Ghulaman, Khilji and Tughluq dynasty of Delhi Sultanate but also played an active role in the political, social and cultural life of that time.

         Although Khusrau's native profession was a soldier, he was a Sufi, a great writer, a poet, a musician, and a master of several languages. He did not receive any formal education but he was very intelligent from childhood. The number of his works is 92, written in Hindi (Mixture of Persian Turkish, Khari boli, Burj Bhasha, Odhi) which is the first form of Persian and Urdu language. Among them Tuhfat al-Saghr and Satalihayat, Gharat al-Kamaal, Baqiyyah Naqiyyah, Qissa Chahar Darwish, Nahayat al-Kamaal, Hasht Behesht, Qur’an al-Saadeen, Tahir al-Anwar, Miftah al-Futuh, Masnavi Zul Rani-Khidr Khan, Nah Safar, Tughlaq Nama, Khamsa Nizami, Ijaz Khosravi, Khazain al-Futuh, Afzal Al-Fawadee, Laila Majnu, Khaliq Bari, Jawahar Khosravi, Aina Sikandari, Mulla Al-Anwar and Shireen Khosrow etc. are quite famous. Also, the ghazal includes five memorial diwan (collection of poetry).

Khusrau is also credited as the inventor of the Urdu language, which he named Hindvi, which later became Urdu after Hindi then Rekhta and Urdu Maali. Ram Babu Saxena calls Ameer Khusrau the first poet of Urdu and writes: "The early period of the development of Urdu language is so blurred that its characteristics are not clearly visible, but there is no doubt that the first poet of Urdu language who is clearly visible in this fog is Hazrat Ameer Khusrau Dehlavi. His title is "Toti e Hind(Nightingale of Hind)" (parrot of India) according to his poetry. He was the first to use Urdu words for literary purposes and was the first to write poetry in Urdu. The first Urdu ghazal is also attributed to Ameer Khusrau. According to Naurang e Mausiqi by Ustad Akhtar Ali khan and Ustad Zakir Ali Khan, many other inventions are attributed to him, including Qawwali, ragas like Aiman Kalyan, Bahar, Zyaaf, Ushaaq and Sarparda.  He is also considered as the inventor of several musical instruments. He was a master of music that's why he was called Naik, the greatest title of musician. He is considered the main pillar of Indian classical music. He invented the third string on the tabla and sitar, the main instruments of classical music, and also the components of art music such as khayal and tarana.

He incorporated Indian taste into some of the Raginis. The ragini (Aiman Kalyan) sung in the evening is his invention. It is said that the enduring fame of TanSen and Biju Bawara in art and music is due to the art of Khusrau. Similarly, numerous artists of the past like Amrao Jan Ada, Malika Jan, Gauhar Jan, Ruqiya, Tabassum and Shahnaz etc. got fame because of Khusrau’s poetry. Many of his popular poems are still popular today like Chap Tilak Sab Cheen Li, Ae Re Sukhi More Khawaja Ghar Aye, Zihal e Miskeen etc. Even nowadays, his poetry is as fresh as ever and is sung in Qawwali gatherings, delighting the audience as always.