Rang de basanti

Worshippers, music lovers, authors, scholars, photographers and tourists graced the Basant celebrations at one of Delhi’s most famous sufi shrines.

On Tuesday, 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, a colour that signifies the energy-giving sun.

HT Image

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.