Sacred · Love song · c. 1310 · South & Southeast Asia
Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni
छाप तिलक सब छीनी / Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni
A Sufi song of love for God from the 1300s, said to be by the poet Amir Khusrau, still sung by qawwali singers today.
- Words
- Amir Khusrau (attributed)
- Music
- Amir Khusrau (attributed)
- Culture
- Sufis and qawwali singers of the Indian subcontinent
- Language
- Braj Bhasha
- Place
- not known (northern India)
- Date
- 14th century
- Type
- Sacred · Love song
- The words
- Public domain (words attributed to Amir Khusrau (14th century))
The story
"Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni" is a 14th-century song in Braj Bhasha. It is credited to the Sufi mystic Amir Khusrau as both poet and composer, and is one of his most popular compositions, heard across the Indian subcontinent.
It is sung above all as qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis, by Pakistani and Indian qawwals and other singers. Those who have performed it include Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Naheed Akhtar, Mehnaz Begum, Abida Parveen, the Sabri Brothers, Iqbal Hussain Khan Bandanawazi, Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad Qawwal, Jafar Hussain Khan, the sitar and sarod players Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Shujaat Khan, Zila Khan, the Nizami Bandhu, Hadiqa Kiani, Smita Bellur, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Kailash Kher, Kavita Seth and Maithili Thakur.
The song also passed into film and television. Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle sang a version in the 1978 Hindi film Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, and Abida Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sang another on the Pakistani music show Coke Studio. It was sung by Keerthi Sagathia, in a setting by Bapi–Tutul, in the film Saat Uchakkey (2016), and by Shishir A Samant and Sunil Kamath in Unpaused (2020).
What it says
A Sufi song of devotion in which the singer describes being utterly won over by a single glance of the beloved, so that the outward marks of identity and religion fall away. The beloved is read in the Sufi way as the spiritual guide or God. The mood is rapturous and surrendering.
The words
छाप तिलक सब छीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेchāp tilak sab chīnī re mose nainā milāikeYou have taken away my every mark and sign, by meeting eyes with me.
बात अगम कह दीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेbāt agam kah dīnī re mose nainā milāikeYou told me a thing beyond reach, by meeting eyes with me.
प्रेम भटी का मधवा पिलाइकेprem bhaṭī kā madhvā pilāikeMaking me drink the wine from love's still,
मतवाली कर लीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेmatvālī kar līnī re mose nainā milāikeyou have made me drunk, by meeting eyes with me.
गोरी गोरी बईयाँ, हरी हरी चूड़ियाँgorī gorī baīyāṁ, harī harī cūṛiyāṁFair, fair arms, green, green bangles:
बईयाँ पकड़ हर लीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेbaīyāṁ pakaṛ har līnī re mose nainā milāikeyou seized my arms and took me, by meeting eyes with me.
बल बल जाऊं मैं तोरे रंग रजवाbal bal jāūṁ maiṁ tore raṅg rajvāI give myself over and over to you, my dyer;
अपनी सी रंग दीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेapnī sī raṅg dīnī re mose nainā milāikeyou have dyed me in your own colour, by meeting eyes with me.
ख़ुसरो निजाम के बल बल जाएkhusro nijām ke bal bal jāeKhusrau gives himself over and over to Nizam;
मोहे सुहागन कीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेmohe suhāgan kīnī re mose nainā milāikeyou have made me a bride, by meeting eyes with me.
बात अजब कह दीनी रे मोसे नैना मिलाइकेbāt ajab kah dīnī re mose nainā milāikeYou told me a wondrous thing, by meeting eyes with me.
Original: Attributed to Amir Khusrau (14th century); the words as sung, as quoted in the Hindi Wikipedia's article. Text from Wikipedia; public domain.
The romanization is the Institute’s own (ISO 15919 transliteration of the Devanagari).
The English is the Institute’s own translation, made from the original for this page.
Notes on the translation (4)
- Line 1.1: chāp and tilak are the caste and sect marks worn on the forehead: the beloved's glance has erased the singer's identity.
- Lines 1.2 and 5.3: agam, beyond reach or understanding, and ajab, wondrous; the "thing" (bāt) is the mystic's secret.
- Line 4.1: the dyer (rajvā, rangrez) runs through Khusrau's poetry: the master dyes the disciple in his own colour.
- Line 5.1: Nizam is Khusrau's Sufi master, Nizamuddin Auliya of Delhi. The song survives in the qawwali tradition, and singers vary its lines and their order.
Listen
On YouTube, from the channel Coke Studio Pakistan. Pressing play loads YouTube’s player. Watch on YouTube
What it inspired
- Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle) 1978sung in the film
- Coke Studio (Abida Parveen, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan)performed on the show
- Saat Uchakkey (Keerthi Sagathia, music by Bapi–Tutul) 2016sung in the film
- Unpaused (Shishir A Samant, Sunil Kamath) 2020sung in the film
People, places and events
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chhaap_Tilak_Sab_Chheeni
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni. In Songs in History. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/chhaap-tilak-sab-chheeni
- MLA
- “Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni.” Songs in History, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/chhaap-tilak-sab-chheeni. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni.” Songs in History. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/chhaap-tilak-sab-chheeni.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Chhaap Tilak Sab Chheeni’, Songs in History. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/chhaap-tilak-sab-chheeni (Accessed: ).