Kafi

Music of Pakistan
Genres
Classical Ghazal Sufi Folk Qawwali Pop (Filmi) Rock (Sufi rock) Hip Hop
Specific forms
Religious music	Hamd Nasheeds Naat
Traditional music	Balochi Kashmiri Pashto Punjabi Sindhi
Media and performance
Music awards	Lux Style Awards Hum Awards Pakistan Media Awards
Music festivals	All Pakistan Music Conference Lahore Music Meet
Music media	ARY Musik Bandbaja Indus Music Oxygene Play TV
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Qaumi Taranah
Regional music
Local forms	Brahui Hindko Khowar Shina Saraiki
Related areas	Afghani

Music of India
A Lady Playing the Tanpura, ca. 1735 (Rajasthan)
Genres
Traditional Classical Carnatic Hindustani Folk Baul Bhajan Odissi Rabindra Sangeet Thumri Dadra Ghazal Qawwali Chaiti Kajari Sufi Modern Bhangra Filmi Pop Rock Bengali Raga Blues Jazz Trance
Media and performance
Music awards	Filmfare Awards Punjabi Music Awards Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Music festivals	Saptak Festival of Music Chennai Music Season Dover Lane music festival Tyagaraja Aradhana
Music media	Sruti The Record Music Magazine
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	Jana Gana Mana
Regional music
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Ancient Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal

Kafi (Punjabi: ਕਾਫ਼ੀ (Gurmukhi), کافی (Shahmukhi), Hindi: काफ़ी), Sindhi:ڪافي) is a classical form of Sufi poetry, mostly in Punjabi and Sindhi languages and originating from the Punjab and Sindh regions of South Asia. Some well-known Kafi poets are Baba Farid, Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sachal Sarmast and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. This poetry style has also lent itself to the Kafi genre of singing, popular throughout South Asia, especially Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. Over the years, both Kafi poetry and its rendition have experienced rapid growth phases as various poets and vocalists added their own influences to the form, creating a rich and varied poetic form, yet through it all it remained centered on the dialogue between the Soul and the Creator, symbolized by the murid (disciple) and his Murshid (Master), and often by lover and his Beloved.

The word Kafi is derived from the Arabic kafa meaning group. The genre is said to be derived from the Arabic poetry genre, qasidah, a monorhyme ode that is always meant to be sung, using one or two lines as a refrain that is repeated to create a mood. Kafi poetry is usually themed around heroic and great romantic tales from the folkfore, often used as a metaphor for mystical truths, and spiritual longing.