Coke Studio Season 7: Chaap Tilak in the voice of Abida Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is a version of the 14th century ghazal composed by Amir Khusro in admiration of his spiritual mentor Nizamuddin Auliya.

Disclaimer- I know that many interpretations of this song say that it is a conversion song as chaap tilak is a symbol of hinduism and the narrator is a vaishnav woman confessing that her love for Nizamuddin Auliya makes her erase all traces of this tilak. The original song has many stanzas that suggest the same but the one I am referring to, the one I am deeply moved by, has removed these and has interpreted the lyrics differently. I too feel that let music, art, emotions remain secular, let me love this song with its varied interpretation. This piece has no intention to hurt anybody’s beliefs or feelings.

When I first heard it, I thought it to be a song confessing one’s love for another. Written in Braj Bhasha, I didn’t understand many words but when I heard it on loop and found out its translation, I realised, this is no love song. Here’s why!

Khusro baaji prem ki
Jo main kheli pi ke sang,
Jeet gayi toh piya morey,
Jo main haari pi ke sang.

The game of love,
I shall play with my lover
If I win, my dearest is mine
If I lose, I am still in the presence of my dearest!

While playing the game of love,

you can either win, that is, receive love in return or lose, that is, get your heart broken. 

Imagine someone willing to risk their fragile heart irrespective of them winning or losing just to be with you even if that togetherness is short-lived.

That is not just love.

Matwaari kar deeni re
Mosey naina milaike

You’ve completely intoxicated me,
With merely one glance

Mohe suhaagan keeni re
Mosey naina milaike

You’ve turned me into a bride,
With merely one glance

How breath-taking, and soul-shaking must the lover’s eyes be for her to get intoxicated with a mere glance? How deeply must she love him that she is ready to become a bride after just one glance?

In what world is love this enchanting?

Chaap tilak sab chheen li re,
Mosey naina milaike

You’ve taken away all the traces of my being from me,
With merely one glance;
I forget who I am,
When your enchanting eyes meet mine.

Losing the sense of reality, the essence of your being, your identity by just looking at someone cannot be just love, can it?
It is then, when I realised that
yeh pyaar nahi, aaradhana hai
sirf ishq nahi, puja

The love in the narrator’s heart runs very deep but there is a sense of awe, much respect and admiration along with the adoration, so much so, that the emotions almost fade into devotion, but one cannot call it a devotional song because it isn’t pure enough to played in some place of worship; it is tainted with shades of affection and obsession and thus making the composition an enchanting mix best suitable for a starry night with some hard alcohol to numb the gush of emotions you shall feel after!

For someone who hasn’t seen this shade love, hasn’t been stained with it, I can call it “not suitable to be played in a place of worship”, but I do imagine loving someone so deeply that your shared space becomes your place of worship and they, your everything.

Can love be your everything?

Would you put all your cards out in the game of love?

Can you become one with someone so truly that you forget where you end and they start?

Would you risk losing all traces of you for a mere glance of your lover?

chaap tilak sab chheen li re,
mosey naina milaike