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Music as philosophy
The Jagat Guru who keyed his songbook to the ragas
Music in the Deccan was never a side ornament of court life — it was a serious philosophical pursuit. Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r. 1580–1627) called himself Jagat Guru, world-teacher, and devoted his major prose work, the Kitab-i-Nauras, to the study of the nine ragas. He played the veena himself; many of the songs in that book are addressed not to Allah alone but to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning.
Classical and courtly
Hindustani classical and the qawwali of the shrines, side by side
That openness shaped a long Hyderabadi tradition. The Asaf Jahi court patronised both Hindustani classical music and the qawwali sung at Sufi shrines. Singers travelled freely between durbar and dargah. The tarana, the khayal, the thumri all found southern patrons — and the southern courts in turn gave back artists like Tanras Khan, Mehboob Khan and the seven generations of the Hyderabadi gharana.
The loudest inheritance
The Thursday qawwali still sung at the dargahs
The Sufi side of the inheritance is still loudest. On any Thursday at the dargah of Khwaja Bandanawaz in Gulbarga, or at Yousufain Sharif in Hyderabad, qawwals open the evening with verses by Amir Khusrau and close with verses by Wali Deccani — the line of poetry running unbroken from the fourteenth century.
Music in the Deccan in dates
- c. 14th c.Amir Khusrau's qawwali compositions enter the Chishti devotional repertoire and travel south with the silsila to Gulbarga and Bidar, laying the foundation of Sufi music in the Deccan.
- 1580–1627Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur — the Jagat Guru — composes the Kitab-i-Nauras, a book of songs in Dakhni devoted to the nine ragas; he plays veena himself and addresses songs to both Allah and Saraswati.
- c. 1591 onwardsThe Qutb Shahi court at Hyderabad becomes a centre of Dakhni literary song; Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah's poetry is set to the raga structures of the Hindustani tradition.
- c. 1724 onwardsThe Asaf Jahi court at Hyderabad patronises Hindustani classical forms — khayal, tarana, thumri — alongside qawwali at the shrines; singers move freely between the royal durbar and the Sufi dargah.
- c. 18th–19th c.Artists such as Tanras Khan, Mehboob Khan, and seven generations of the Hyderabadi gharana develop a distinctive southern school of Hindustani classical music under Asaf Jahi patronage.
- Ongoing (Gulbarga)Every Thursday at the dargah of Khwaja Bandanawaz in Gulbarga, qawwals open the evening with verses by Amir Khusrau and close with verses by Wali Deccani.
- Ongoing (Hyderabad)The Thursday qawwali at Yousufain Sharif in Hyderabad continues the same unbroken line of devotional music running from the fourteenth century to the present day.