Music
An Unexpected Find:
Vajjan Taal Mridang Rababa
by SARBPREET SINGH
The following piece was written in Fall, 2008
It is a damp fall morning in
Massachusetts, U.S.A.. Not really cold yet. Still lovely. The magnificent fall
foliage looking a little faded, a little subdued. It is very early and
there are no cars yet on the road. Our dog Aziza, straining at her
leash, I walk up and down the winding, hilly, ebb and flow that is
Saddle Hill road.
As is usually my habit, there is a morning raag
playing in my ears. I listen, a little absently to the magnificent
Dhrupad alaap unfolding. The raag is Bairagi, a close relative of Ahir
Bhairav and Gunkali. The Dhrupadia is very very adept. His voice has a
little rasp to it but it sounds very pleasing. To my admittedly
amateurish ears, the alaap sounds less polished than the fabulous
renditions of the contemporary princes of the Dagar Gharana, the
Gundecha Bandhu, or Wasifuddin Dagar or Uday Bhawalkar.
But
magnificent and powerful it is. This is not Dagarvani; this is Dhrupad
in the Darbhanga tradition and the singer is Pandit Vidur Mallick. The
recording is on an obscure French label called Makar Records, which
unfortunately seems to have gone out of business ! I have sampled many
unexpected delights from the small but elegant Makar Records catalogue,
but that is the subject of a different post. Back to Pandit Vidur
Mallick singing Bairagi.
The alaap is much shorter than the
elaborate 50 minute wonders that I am more used, given
my love for the Dagar tradition. The singer now launches into a very
robust composition in chartal, the regulation Dhrupad 12 beat taal,
which is also used extensively by knowledgeable practitioners of Gurmat
Sangeet. The accompanist on the pakhavaj is in his element. After
singing the entire text, the singer unleashes a dizzying array of
rhythmic variations and flourishes. Dugans (double speed), chaugans
(quadruple speed). A series of electrifying tihais leading to a
dramatic conclusion !
But wait ! Were my ears deceiving me or did
I just hear ‘Nanak' ? I stop the shabad and move the slider back.
Unmistakable. He did say 'Nanak' ! Whats' going on ? Is he singing gurbani
?
I know nothing about the Darbanga Dhrupad tradition. Perhaps
because of the towering genius of Nasir Aminuddin, Nasir Moinuddin,
Nasir Fiyazuddin, Nasir Zahiruddin, Zia Mohiuddin and the other
luminaries of the Dagar Gharana, Dhrupad today is largely synonymous
with Dagarvani. The Makar catalogue has given me a few teasing glimpses
into some of the other Dhrupad Vanis but they are largely a mystery to
me.
Many questions run through my mind. Where did this
composition come from ? Dhrupadiyas, at least according to my meager
knowledge, are traditionalists rather than innovators. It is highly
unlikely that Pandit Vidur Mallick just picked out a shabad from
gurbani, set it to chartal in Bairagi and decided to sing it during the
Maker Records recording session ! A much more likely explanation is that
this is an ancient composition from the Darbanga tradition that he
acquired from his teachers. Which begs another question. What is this
ostensible link between this obscure Dhrupad Gharana and gurbani ?
Unfortunately
I have just questions. No answers. Perhaps some day I will run into
Pandit Vidur Mallick and ask him. Perhaps he will shrug. Perhaps he
will know! For now, I will just enjoy this serendipitous find!
As
you can well imagine, the next several days see me going back to the
magnificent Dhrupad over and over again. The shabad being sung is ‘Ram
simmar ram simmar yahi tero kaaj hai' from the bani of Guru Tegh
Bahadar, the Ninth Master. The style is clearly not traditional gurmat sangeet; this is
a rendition squarely in Pandit Vidur Mallick's own tradition as shown
by the similarity with the other pieces on the CD.
[At the risk
of digressing I have to stop and share a pet peeve, actually two that I
have with hindustani classical musicians singing gurbani. :-) The words
‘simmar' and ‘simran' occur often in gurbani. I have never encountered a
hindustani classical musician who can sing these words correctly.
‘Simmar' mutates into ‘sumir' and ‘simran' into ‘sumiran'. Each time I
hear this distortion I wince as if I have been struck. :-) The second
pet peeve; Pandit Jasraj is probably the worst offender here. A lot of
Hindustani classical vocalists draw upon gurbani text, but often render
it in ‘bhajan' style, usually set to a particularly insidious ‘bhajani'
variant of Keherwa. This causes the rendition usually to migrate into
the territory of film music inspired kirtan, which, my dear readers, you
will often find me ranting about :-)]
But enough complaining ! Let us
then visit what we do know about the intersection of Dhrupad and gurmat
sangeet.
We are all aware of the genius of Guru Nanaki; his
starting of the gurmat sangeet tradition; his unique contributions. His
unprecedented embrace of hindustani, carnatic and folk music to create a
new form or shayli. There are a few important clues that shed light on
the importance of Dhrupad in the gurmat sangeet tradition.
The
first clue emerges from Bhai Gurdas' writings :
Gang banaras
hindua
Mussalman mecca ka'aba
Ghar ghar baba gaviye
Vajjan taal
mridang rababa
Aha! We all know about Bhai Mardana and his
Rabab! But what is this mridang that Bhai Gurdas refers to? The mridang
(or mridangam) is the other name for the pakhavaj or the unevenly sided
drum that is used for percussive accompaniment in Dhrupad!
More
clues.
Despite the backsliding that we suffered for several
decades in gurmat sangeet that we have just started to reverse now,
even in the darkest years there were always a few kirtaniye who
valiantly and obstinately defied the mainstream and stuck to their guns
in their embrace of traditional gurmat sangeet. Included in this august
list would be some very famous and not so famous names such as Bhai Avtar Singh Gurcharan Singh, Gyani Dyal Singh and some of
his students, Bhai Dharam Singh and Bhai Shamsher Singh Zakhmi, Bibi
Jaswant Kaur.
Kirtaniye such as these kept the ancient
tradition alive by continuing to sing compositions in chartal, dhamar,
ada chautala, slow jhaptal, which are all Dhrupad staples. The
traditional Sikh percussion instrument is not the tabla but the jorrhi,
which is a descendant of the pakhawaj.
The structure of many old
compositions that can be found in gurbani sangeet by Gian Singh Abbotabad or Prachin Reet Ratnavali are in the form ‘Sthai, Antra ,
Sanchari and Abhog' which are typical Dhrupad arrangemets.
Another
small but relevant digression :
All of us who listen to gurmat
sangeet have experienced what I am about to describe. Even those
kirtaniye who do not sing Dhrupad compositions will often launch into
percussive pyrotechnics, usually towards the end of a shabad, where the
tabla player will energetically play the table in a very ‘different'
style, usually with flat palms, usually at speeds that are multiples of
the basic rhythmic underpinnings of the composition.
This is
called ‘saath'. I first heard the term when I visited Bibi Jaswant Kaur in Delhi a few years ago.
I had heard ‘saath' being played on the tabla, pretty much forever, but
I certainly did not know what it was called. Bibi ji recalled fondly
the times that she had heard the legendary rababi percussionist Bhai
Nasira, playing saath with Bhai Chand and Bhai Taba, in the days
of her youth when they were established rababis at the Harmandar
Sahib.
Saath is one of the three forms that is played on the jorrhi
in the gurmat sangeet tradition. The other two are ‘gat' and ‘jat'. Gat
is the most familiar. I am on exceedingly thin ice here but I will
venture that gat is the ‘typical' style of tabla playing that we
encounter whenever shabads are sung set to raag. I have a very poor feel
for ‘jat' so it shall remain the subject of another post.
It is
worthwhile here to recognize and acknowledge the efforts of Bhai Baldeep
Singh, a noted Sikh musician, percussionist and instrument maker. In
addition to studying the Dagarvani tradition, Bhai Baldeep Singh has
mastered the jorrhi, learning from the redoubtable Arjan Singh Tarangar,
the last great percussionist representing the Amritsari Baj (style of
drumming). Bhai Baldeep Singh has also been training Parminder Singh, an
immensely talented and hard working young percussionist, who I had the
occasion to meet during his recent visit to Boston. We spent a few hours
together as he initiated my son Amandeep into the mysteries of the
jorrhi. This young man is bound for greatness and he will spearhead the
revival of the Amritsari Baj, which has been dormant for so long.
Another
fount of wisdom in this context is Bhai Gurcharan Singh, the
older brother of the late Bhai Avtar Singh. Bhai Sahib has a
treasure trove of ancient jorrhi and pakhawaj compositions that are the
essence of traditional gurmat sangeet percussion. The young jorrhi player
from Toronto, Jaswinder Singh, who is an important part of the vibrant
Toronto gurmat sangeet scene has been learning at Bhai Sahib's feet,
preserving and continuing the tradition.
I have to pause here and
describe another delightful encounter with the ghost of the legendary
Bhai Nasira. This happened during the recently concluded Gurmat
Sangeet Darbar at Stockton, California, organized by the Gurmat Sangeet Project in
collaboration with the World Sikh Council, American Region, to
commemorate the 300th Gurta Gaddi Diwas of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Singing in the darbar were Bhai Devinder Singh, Bhai Gulbagh Singh with
Bhai Iqbal Singh providing Tabla accompaniment. After taking their
position on stage, Bhai Iqbal Singh asks me to come closer and
whispers, asking if he can play two handed bols, obtained from the
legendary Bhai Nasira. What follows is probably one of the most
flamboyant performances I have ever experienced on the tabla. Words
cannot even begin to describe the energy and artistry of Bhai Iqbal
Singh in that performance!
But I digress. Lets get back to the topic at hand!
Elements
of the Dhrupad Ang such as saath continued to persist widely!
All
these things together shine a light on the profound connection between
gurmat sangeet and the Dhrupad tradition.
Pandit Vidur Mallick's
rendition of a shabad in traditional Dhrupad style then is no surprise
after all.
Here's what I really want to discover. Is it not
possible that just as Pandit Vidur Mallick had this jewel in his
repertoire, there are many many others waiting to be discovered! I have
resolved to ask every Dhrupadiya I meet about any gurbani compositions
that may have been passed to them. And what they know about their
history.
In the meantime let me enjoy the virtuosity of Pandit
Vidur Mallick. (Since this is a commercially released, copyrighted
recording, I cannot upload it to www.gurmatsangeetproject.com. I will try
to seek permission to do so from the owners of the Makar Catalogue. In
the meantime if you can get your hands on ‘Pandit Vidur Mallick - The
Lyrical Tradition of Dhrupad on the Makar label ... enjoy!)
[Courtesy: Gurmat Sangeet]
May 16, 2010
Conversation about this article
1: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), May 16, 2010, 8:17 PM.
Sarabpreet Singh ji, this piece, although dated, remains fresh as dew, and that too in exquisite lyrical prose to remind us of our inheritance. I had earlier read your piece on Veer Prem Singh ji's blog (Gurmat Sangeet) and had made a mental note of your deep love and knowledge of gurmat sangeet. It somehow remained buried until re-awakened with 'Vajjan Taal Mridang Rababa' this morning. When Guru Nanak broke into the song 'Gagan mein thaal ...' at Jagannath Puri, there were two brothers, both eminent classical singers of their times, who also joined Guru Nanak to sing along with him the 'Kaisi arti howay bhau khandna'. Tagore called 'Gagan mein Thaal' as a 'Brahmand Ghan' or the 'Anthem of the Cosmos'. Can you imagine the electric atmosphere of that scene with the whole "brahmand" singing that celestial song?
2: Raj (Canada), May 16, 2010, 10:45 PM.
Thanks for a very good article on gurmat and classical sangeet. Re your comments about gat and jat of rhythm: of course gat is a fixed cycle, jat is when you layer a different taal over another cycle. For example, if you play 10 beats over a sixteen cycle or vice versa. I have seen a Sikh tabla prodigy, Rohan, do this quite skillfully. Actually, when you read gurbani, meter and taal is very obvious in any shabad. Fact of the matter is, there are some meters that are only found in gurbani and are native to Punjab. Guru Ramdas' bani is known to use very obscure taals and then we have partaals which use different cycles for every line in a shabad, a very unique composition style. Namdhari Sikhs are known to have a treasure of compositions that use 1/4, 1/3 beats, and so on.
3: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), May 17, 2010, 11:19 AM.
Sarabpreet, this is indeed a veritable find - full of information, educational and instructive while remaining enjoyable. I, alongwith many others, I am sure, look forward to many more gems from you. You will then help fill a void in the coverage of sikhchic.com - in the area of gurbani sangeet.
4: Surinder (Massachusetts, U.S.A.), May 17, 2010, 8:24 PM.
Gurbani kirtan is closer to Dhrupad gayaki than Khayal. My memory does not serve correctly,0 but I have encountered shabads in many classical hindustani cheejs. When the subcontinent's classical music was revived by the two Vishnus (Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, and Vishnu Bhatkhande), one of them set up his center in Lahore. It is undoubtedly possible that much absorption happened in Lahore under the tutelage of Panditji.