As part of Inkpot India’s Songs of the Stone, a series of music and heritage expressions, Kaur will perform at Delhi’s oldest surviving fortified monument in two distinct performances, twelve hours apart: at dusk on October 10 and at dawn on October 11. This October, Songs of the Stone brings vocalist Amrita Kaur to Delhi …
As part of Inkpot India’s Songs of the Stone, a series of music and heritage expressions, Kaur will perform at Delhi’s oldest surviving fortified monument in two distinct performances, twelve hours apart: at dusk on October 10 and at dawn on October 11.
This October, Songs of the Stone brings vocalist Amrita Kaur to Delhi for Dusk to Dawn, a two-part concert that follows the changing character of one of Delhi’s oldest surviving fortified sites across an evening and the following morning, presented in partnership with HSBC Live The Legacy. Titled Dusk to Dawn, the programme traces how music, architecture and atmosphere shift with the changing light. At sunset, Kaur performs a repertoire of ghazal, Sufi and contemporary music as daylight recedes across the Qila, allowing its architecture to become part of the listening experience. At dawn, Kaur returns to the fort for a programme of contemplative and spiritual music and explores what Purana Qila sounds like at 7am. The change in light, pace and musical vocabulary creates a different relationship between artist, audience and place.
The two performances are conceived as distinct chapters of the same experience: one artist, one historic site, and two ways of listening. The experience/performance extends into storytelling and craft, with workshops in textiles, weaving and sound therapy, offering encounters with traditions that remain part of India’s living cultural vocabulary.
Two settings, one moment, and a singular encounter between music and stone.
For Kaur, the return to India is marked by a significant first: she will perform within the stone walls of one of Delhi’s most historic surviving sites. Her repertoire draws from ghazal, Sufi, Indian classical and contemporary music, bringing inherited traditions into conversation with a contemporary musical vocabulary.
Dusk: Saturday, 10 October, seven to ten in the evening.
Ghazal, Sufi and contemporary music as the light recedes across Purana Qila.
Dawn: Sunday, 11 October, seven to ten in the morning.
Contemplative and spiritual music, in the stillness of the fort at first light.
Venue: Purana Qila, New Delhi
More at: songsofthestone.com
The idea behind Songs of the Stone by Inkpot India
Inkpot India works from a straightforward premise: heritage becomes relevant when people participate in it. Songs of the Stone is Inkpot’s flagship heritage and music initiative, placing contemporary artists inside India’s historic monuments and allowing music, storytelling and architecture to meet in real time. The series began at the Qutub Minar, where its first two chapters brought together more than 850 attendees across two concerts. The inaugural edition featured sarangi virtuoso Mehtab Ali Niazi and welcomed more than 450 guests. The second featured Grammy Award-winning flautist Rakesh Chaurasia and his ensemble, with more than 400 attendees. Inkpot India was founded by Simar Malhotra, a cultural entrepreneur, curator and author. Through Inkpot, she has created platforms across music, art, literature, design, fashion and heritage, with a focus on bringing contemporary audiences closer to India’s cultural traditions. Dusk to Dawn is a first for the series, stretching a single concert across an evening and a morning, and bringing music into conversation with craft, food and storytelling.
About Amrita Kaur
Amrita Kaur is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, known for her range across Gurbani kirtan, Sufi, devotional, Punjabi folk, ghazal, film and contemporary music, and for a voice celebrated for its warmth and emotional depth. Her renditions of “Ik Onkar,” “O Palanhaare” and “Khwaja Mere Khwaja” have each crossed 40 million views online, and in July 2026 she headlined a sold-out show at London’s Royal Festival Hall. In 2023, she became the first Sikh artist to perform in Lahore’s Virsa Heritage Revived series. Her return to India for Songs of the Stone marks an important homecoming, and gives the third chapter of the series its central artistic focus. Dusk to Dawn is conceived around that range: an evening that opens outward, and a morning that turns inward.
About Simar Malhotra
Simar Malhotra is a cultural entrepreneur, curator and author, and the founder of Inkpot India. A Stanford University graduate in English and Public Policy, she also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is the author of two novels published by Rupa Publications. Through Inkpot India, she has curated experiences across art, literature, design, fashion, music and heritage, with Songs of the Stone as its flagship. She also founded the Heritage Cleanliness Project, a monthly initiative that brings people together to care for Delhi’s historic spaces. As Malhotra puts it: “Heritage survives not just through protection, but through participation.” For her, the question is how to make historic places part of contemporary life. Songs of the Stone is one answer.
Join the Club
Like this story? You’ll love our monthly newsletter.
BO Correspondent
Boldoutline magazine is one of India’s most promising luxury lifestyle magazine. With a splash of choiciest articles, fun read, snappy views garnished with stunning photo spreads, the magazine is every reader’s delight wrapped in one. A monthly sanctuary of everything luxurious, Boldoutline is a haven for lovers of travel, style, beauty, culture, auto and literature.
