Photo Essay – Basant Celebrations, Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah
Colour me yellow.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
On January 19th, 2010, the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya was all yellow. It was the eve of Basant Panchmi, the day that marks the arrival of spring. Hence yellow, the colour of the energy-giving sun. The shrine’s qawwals (singers), who were wearing yellow scarves, offered yellow mustard flowers on the grave of Delhi’s 14th-century sufi saint. Later, they sang the Hindi qawwalis of Amir Khusro, the Persian poet believed to be the originator of Hindustani classical music and who was also a great disciple of Hazrat Nizamuddin. Seven centuries ago, Khusro had worn yellow to bring a smile to Hazrat Nizamuddin’s face, who’d been grieving for his nephew’s death. The tradition of wearing yellow in the shrine on Basant has been observed since then.
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow
Colour me yellow (This picture is taken by Altamash Nizami)
Nice photos… also BABA can be seen in the last pic.
Thank you so much mayank for a beautiful post..
If there be no pilot on our ship, let there be none:
We have God in our midst: the pilot we do not need.
The people of the world say that Khusrau worships idols.
So I do, so I do; the people I do not need,
the world I do not need
hmm? As far as I know Vasant Panchami ‘is a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the fifth day (Panchami) of the Indian month Magh (January-February), the first day of spring.’ (source: wikip) Does it mean that these people from Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah” don’t celebrate the original festival but rather celebrate it for Delhi’s 14th-century sufi saint? Weird tradition! and then Muslims say they don’t believe in pagan religions while they themselves worship dead saints and their graves.