In ancient times, the Silk Route served not only as a channel for commerce but also as a vital medium for cultural transmission from Central Asia to various parts of the world, particularly South Asia. This extensive network of interconnected land and sea routes bridged the Oriental and Occidental worlds, enabling the exchange of ideas, traditions, and artistic expressions. Among these, music occupies a prominent place in the cultural history of Uzbekistan, where it has evolved over centuries through continuous interaction with neighbouring regions.
The Eastern Maqamat holds a special position in the traditional music of Türkiye, the Middle East, and North Africa. In the Central Asian context, Eastern Maqamat, known as Shashmaqam, represents the zenith of Uzbek and Tajik musical heritage. Its intricate melodic structures and spiritual depth have significantly influenced musical and poetic traditions beyond Central Asia. In the Uzbek music tradition, “Shashmaqom”, “Khorazm Maqomlari”, and “Fergana and Tashkent maqom” are the great cultural heritages of the Uzbek people. This music tradition has been developed from one generation to another through teacher-disciple traditions.
India, with its rich legacy of poetry and music, provides fertile ground for the growth of Sufi literature. The name of Hazrat Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) is synonymous with the synthesis of Sufi poetry and music in India. Although born in India, his familial roots trace back to Samarkand, reflecting a confluence of Central Asian and Indian cultural influences in his works. Other notable figures such as Sarmad Kashani, Dara Shukoh, and Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bedil also exhibit traces of Eastern Maqamat in their literary expressions.
The profound influence of Rumi further shaped Sufi thought in South Asia. This paper explores cultural transmission through music and poetry along the Silk Route, emphasising historical continuity and artistic synthesis. It highlights how shared aesthetic frameworks fostered dialogue between regions, encouraging hybrid forms of expression. The study also underscores the enduring relevance of these traditions in contemporary cultural discourse, revealing their role in promoting intercultural understanding and creative exchange across boundaries, and ultimately situates the Silk Route within this cultural exchange.
Uzbekistan is a liberal country that has preserved its ancient dance forms because it considers them part of its culture and tradition. After the split of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became an independent country and, since then, it has undergone various radical reforms in the cultural and spiritual domain, representing it as a secular country. Uzbekistan as a country and its native people have tried their best to engage with the world community while retaining their national identity. They feel proud of their rich cultural heritage and they like to exhibit their national values and the historical experience of international relations.
Uzbek people, at both government and personal levels, are trying hard to represent their culture on the international level and, in developing cultural ties internationally, several ministries, agencies, institutions, and government and non-government agencies are helping them. To establish and develop interstate cultural ties, Uzbekistan has established many local and international institutions that are firmly adamant about working in this field. They are trying to preserve their old traditions through various means. Even the public is interested in reviving their own traditional music, so nowadays Uzbek television and radio stations regularly play traditional music.
In terms of music, Uzbekistan is very diverse, as it reflects the diverse influences that have shaped the country and is quite similar to the music of the Middle East. Uzbek music has a long history and a large variety of music styles. The famous musical style of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, is “Shashmaqam”, which arose in the 16th century in two ancient cities of Uzbekistan, Bukhara and Samarkand. The musical term “shashmaqam” is further translated into six maqams, which means that the structure of music has six sections in different musical modes, which is very similar to classical Persian traditional music.
The term “maqam” originates from the Arabic language, meaning “place” or “space”, but this was related to the place on the handle of an instrument with strings which is pressed by the musician with his/her finger to produce a musical sound with a certain pitch. But with the passage of time, its meaning expanded with the expansion of music. With the passage of time, it has evolved in many genres and from oral to written form. In the Uzbek music tradition, “Shashmaqom”, “Khorazm Maqomlari”, and “Fergana and Tashkent maqam” are the great cultural heritages of the Uzbek people. This music tradition has been developed from one generation to another based on teacher-disciple traditions. Further, it has also reached other parts of the world through the Silk Routes.
Eastern maqamat, the popular music of the Middle East and Central Asia, reached South Asia, especially India, also through artists, musicians, poets and scholars via the Silk Route. India, which has always had a rich tradition of music since ancient times, welcomed the music of Central Asia with open arms. We clearly see the influence of Eastern maqamat on Indian music. It has greatly influenced Indian Sufi poetry and music. It commenced in the 13th century during the Delhi Sultanate period. The fact is that many poets like Amir Khusrau and Mirza Ghalib and the kings of the Delhi Sultanate period, and then Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, have their ancestry in Central Asia. It is through their talents, support and patronage that we see a fusion of Persian, Central Asian and the local Indian tradition of music and poetry.
Amir Khusrau is the best example of this integrated music culture, who blended Persian and Hindawi and created masterpiece verses like:
Zehaal-e-miskeen makun taghaful,
Duraye naina banaye batiyan.
Do not overlook my misery,
By blandishing your eyes and weaving tales,
Ke taab-e-hijran nadaram ay jaan,
Na leho kahe lagaye chatiyan.
My patience has over-brimmed, O sweetheart!
Why do you not take me to your bosom?
The above verse is a fine example of the fusion of Persian and Hindawi languages. In medieval times, Persian was the court language of many kingdoms of South and Central Asia. Amīr Khusrau was not only a notable poet but also a prolific and seminal musician. He integrated melodic modes of South and Central Asia and is the inventor of instruments like the sitar and tabla. Being a Sufi mystic poet, he added a devotional, hypnotic and profound poetic structure to the literature of South Asia.
He wrote poetry primarily in Persian, but also in Hindavi. He is credited with enriching Hindustani classical music by introducing Persian and Arabic elements in it, and was the originator of the khayal and tarana styles of music. He is regarded as the “father of qawwali” (the devotional music of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent). A musician and a scholar, Amir Khusrau was as prolific in tender lyrics as in highly involved prose and could easily emulate all styles of Persian poetry which had developed in medieval Persia, from Khaqani’s forceful qasidas to Nizami’s khamsa. He used only 11 metrical schemes with 35 distinct divisions. The verse forms he has written in include Ghazal, Masnavi, Qata, Rubai, Do-Beti and Tarkibhand. His contribution to the development of the ghazal, hitherto little used in India, is particularly significant.
Some other notable Sufi poets were influenced by the Central Asian musical tradition, i.e., Eastern maqamat. The names include Sarmad Kashani, Dara Shukoh and Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bedil.
Sarmad Kashani is believed to be a valorous Sufi mystic poet who, though belonging to a Jewish ancestry, had embraced Islam because of Sufism. An individual who rejected orthodox rituals and went beyond religious boundaries for the sake of spiritual love, he was an Armenian scholar who was from Kashan in erstwhile Iran and met Dara Shukoh in Shahjahanabad. It was his inspiration and patronage that led to Prince Dara’s Persian translation of Sanskrit texts, including the Upanishads, which was titled Sirr-i-Akbar (The Great Secret). Sarmad became Dara’s tutor and his influence grew to such an extent that it shook the Mughal Empire. Those were the days when Aurangzeb was plotting his move against his father. Of Dara, Azad writes that “the humility with which he met the Muslim divines was matched only by the devotion with which he bowed his head before Hindu saints and sadhus”.
Kashani converted to Islam from Judaism while he was studying under Islamic scholars Mulla Sadra and Mir Findriski. They both taught him mysticism, philosophy and poetry, and he was greatly influenced by them. He lived a life of renunciation and ecstatic union with the divine, challenging societal norms. In his teachings, we see the dominance of the unity of all the faiths and the quest for God’s presence within all beings. Belonging to the land of Persia, he was much aware of the Persian tradition of music and poetry and was greatly influenced by it.
Kashani, being an Oriental mystic poet, was highly influenced by the intellectual and spiritual tradition of music and poetry of his hometown, Kashan, and of Khorasan, the land of Eastern maqamat. In his verses, he has even reflected his inspiration from Persian poets:
With the thoughts and ideas of others I have no concern;
Though in the style of ghazals I am a follower of Hafiz.
As for quatrains, I am a disciple of Khayyam,
But I have tasted little of the wine he offered.
(Asiri 1950, p. 39/33, No. 230)
He came to India and loved it so much that he stayed here and transformed himself in many aspects. He was an individual who was formed by the mysticism and philosophy of the Oriental world, especially Islam. Not only Sarmad Kashani but his disciple, Dara Shukoh, was also highly influenced by the music and poetry tradition of Persia and Central Asia.
Dara Shukoh, a great scholar, an exceptional translator and patron of poetry, was profoundly known for his endeavour in uncovering a commonality between mystical elements of Islam and Hinduism. He was the son of Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and the most beloved Prince of his father; his life ended in a very miserable state. It is quite obvious that Muhammad Dara Shukoh continued the mystical tradition of his great-grandfather Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur and his grandfather Jalauddin Muhammad Akbar and developed their tradition of respecting the Indian language, culture and values.
Like his mentor Sarmad Kashani, Dara Shukoh was also highly inspired by the Persian and Central Asian tradition of music and literary traditions. Persian Sufism was the basis of his mystical and philosophical viewpoint. In his later years, he was also influenced by Indic philosophy. He was a highly acclaimed intellectual with a secular ideology shaped by Islamic mysticism, Persian literature and Eastern maqamat, which believed in seeing truth. His famous verse, dealing with the annihilation of self (Fana), elimination of the ego and achieving unison with the almighty:
I lost all my luggage, all that I had:
Become my goods and luggage, become my Quartermaster
Your friendship, your discourse, are for Qadiri alone—
Enter his abode, and be the Master.
As a Sufi mystic poet, his verses are believed to deal with the ultimate reality of life (haqiqa), structuring direct spiritual union with God.
Another prominent Indian poet influenced by Eastern maqamat is Mirza Abdul-Qadir Bedil, who was also highly inspired by Oriental mysticism, philosophy, and musical and literary tradition, particularly that of the Islamic world. It became the base of his knowledge, intellect, as well as ideology and shaped his distinctive style, which is popularly known as Sabk-e-Hindi (Indian style). He lived in India but adhered to Eastern Sufism and the classical Persian literary tradition, which became the base of his knowledge.
Bedil was a disciple of Shah Qamal Qadri, who inspired him to be associated with the Sufi order. He was greatly influenced by Ibn al-Arabi, and his writings reflect his concept of Nafas-e-Rahmani, which means the breath of compassion, treating this world as a dynamic entity that changes constantly. His writings are marked with complexity, layered metaphors, maximal hyperbole and impressionistic imagery. In his verses, we find mystical themes adhering to the oneness of God and man, which need to be studied more profoundly. In his works, we find a perfect blend of conventional Islamic mysticism with liberal attitudes towards life and a deep mystical approach.
His popularity is not confined to India but extends to countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Iran, where Persian language and literature are read. During his lifetime, he also met contemporary Sufi masters residing in different places in India while wandering, which shaped his intellectual and mystical understanding. His writing is respected because of its intricacy, intellectuality, and deep mystical content, making him one of the most prominent writers of Persian-Tajik literature.
Reading these poets, one can easily trace the fusion of Persian-Central Asian and Indian traditions of music and literature. Their melodic verses are not only studied by scholars of literature but are also popular in the world of music, which is not confined to any one nation but extends beyond geographical boundaries and even age. They are still sung by artists and singers around the globe. We also see them being used in Bollywood music; a recent example is Amir Khusrau’s song “Sakal Ban”, which has been used in the web series “Heeramandi”.
