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City Faith – Basant Festival 2025, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya’s Dargah

City Faith - Basant Festival 2025, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah

Colour us yellow.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

There shall be yellow flowers, and happy people in yellow turbans, yellow scarves and yellow kurtas.

Such scenes shall unfold Sunday evening tomorrow to mark the debut of 2025 spring Basant at the dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. (The photo above is of the last year’s festivity).

The historic shrine in central Delhi is dotted with centuries-old graves of Mughal-era royalties (including an emperor), along with graves of poets, fakirs, scholars, nobles. Of course, the principal grave here is of Hazrat Nizamuddin himself. Everyday, pilgrims arrive in the dargah to offer prayers. Many in the crowd also happen to be tourists wanting to experience the world-famous qawwalis performed daily at the dargah’s courtyard. That said, the day of the Basant celebrations is among the most special occasions in the shrine’s annual calendar. Everything becomes music, and turns into festive yellow.

The dargah’s cheerful Basant tradition originated centuries ago from a tragedy. Following his young nephew’s death, Hazrat Nizamuddin fell silent, prompting his concerned followers to search ways to lighten his melancholy. Among his ardent devotees was Amir Khusro, the great poet whose famous verses are a blend of the courtly Persian and colloquial Brij Bhasha. One day as the winter season was ending, and Hazrat Nizamuddin was still mournful, Khusro chanced upon a bunch of women walking and dancing along a field, each in a yellow dress with yellow flowers. The women told Khusro that they were heading to the Kalkaji Mandir to celebrate the Basant. Being playful, Khusro too put on yellow clothes, and in that colourful garb he went to Hazrat Nizamuddin, whose face, at long last, lit up into a sudden smile.

It is owing to this legend that Basant is ritually celebrated in Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah. And it is always Khusro’s poetry that is summoned by the dargah qawwals to herald the season.

So, tomorrow evening, the qawwal singers, holding yellow mustard flowers, shall walk through the cramped lanes of Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti—the village that surrounds the dargah—chanting a hindi poem by Khusro: “Aaj Basant mana ley suhagan.” The procession shall start from the Basti’s little-known shrine of Taqiuddin Nuh—the nephew whose passing had sent Hazrat Nizamuddin into gloom—and end in the dargah. There the qawwals shall settle down in the courtyard, strewn with yellow marigolds, and sing Khusro’s poems, welcoming the Basant. Reach by 4.30pm.

PS: The story about the dargah’s Basant origins was told to this reporter by Peerzada Altamash Nizami, one of the shrine’s caretakers

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