Reading Punjabi Sufi-Poetry as Performance: Reviewing the Musical Renditions of the Kāfi

The work presents an analysis of the regional poetic and musical genre called the kāfi pioneered by Sufi poets in early modern Indian Punjab, including Shah Hussain in the sixteenth century and Bulleh Shah in the eighteenth century. The study starts from tracing the origins of the genre kāfi to highlight its quintessential folk characteristics. Taking cue from the designation of ragas in kāfi collections, this work specifically attempts to understand the significance and role played by these ragas in the performances of Sufi Punjabi poetry. Moreover, the work examines the repetitive patterns in the musical renditions of the Sufi poetry that fetch the mundane and sacred meanings embedded within the Sufi-devotional paradigm. It includes views of contemporary performers on their conception of the kāfi as well as references to mediatized contemporary recorded performances. In conclusion, the study brings to focus how over a vast timespan these works have accrued popular prominence in South Asian music which attests to the resilience and dynamism of the Punjabi poetic genre of the kāfi.