The twin strains of an Indian symphony
The twin strains of an Indian symphony
South Indians are familiar with Raga Hamsadhwani, the call of the swan, through a song written by Muthuswamy Dikshitar, who died in 1835. Dikshitar composed a bhajan in it, which is one of Carnatic music’s standard songs. The lyric is Vatapi Ganapatim bhajeham (I bow to Ganesh from Vatapi/Badami) .
The raga was brought to Hindustani music by Aman Ali Khan, a singer of Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazaar gharana, who died in 1953. His lyric is “Laagi lagan pati, sakhi sang ( I feel joy with my lord and my friends) ".
Khan’s tune is the same as Dikshitar’s but the words are different. All except for one. You see, Khan wants to salute Dikshitar and his song by adding the word “Ganpati" in exactly the same place as the bhajan. He does this by phrasing the words “lagan pati" in such a way that it sounds like “Ganpati" is being sung.
The standard kirana gharana composition in Raga Shankara, in praise of Lord Shiva, is written by a Muslim. We know this because he put his name in the song: “Ad Mahadev, been bajayi payi Niyamat Khan Sadarang ke karam kar dikhayi (Show yourself, Shiva! Niyamat Khan plays his veena for you)."
Niyamat Khan “Sadarang", who died in 1747, invented the modern form of Hindustani singing. He was a musician in the court of emperor Muhammad Shah. In school books where they write of Mughal decline, historians say Muhammad Shah (died 1748) was sneeringly called “Rangeela"—colourful—behind his back because he was fond of the good life.
This isn’t true. In fact Muhammad Shah loved the name and liked being called colourful. I know this because of a song Niyamat Khan composed in Raga Bhairav. The lyric is: “Baalamwa, mora sainyya sada rangeelay(Uff, my lover is always colourful/unfaithful)."
Alert readers will have picked out the device. In the same fashion as Aman Ali, Niyamat Khan fuses his name, Sadarang, cleverly when he salutes his master with the words “sada rangeelay".
Bhairav is also a name for Shiva, and it is his raudra (terrifying) form. All of Hindustani’s male ragas are named for Shiva. In 1965, Pandit Jasraj composed a song in Bhairav. He felt the urge to do this on being told that no song in Bhairav could have its soft dha note on the opening beat, what is called the sam. He puzzled over this. He later said: “I raised my hands skywards in an unconscious movement. I uttered ‘Allah’ unwittingly. Suddenly I felt as if all the missing pieces were falling in place. Words began to come together of their own volition, and almost miraculously, the sam began to crystallize ever so solidly on the elusive komal dhaivat."
The song he composed was “Mero Allah Meherbaan (My Allah is kind"(in case you’re wondering, the note is hit in the “baan" of meherbaan). In his composition Jasraj includes an eulogy to Ali, Hasan, Hussain and the Prophet Muhammad, again fusing Shiva with Islam.
Another thing that interests me is the nomenclature of our musicians. Muslims are called Ustad and Hindus are called Pandit. Ustad is a Turkish word also used in Farsi, but strangely our Parsi singers are called not Ustad but Pandit. Perhaps this is because they’re closer to the Hindu culturally. Perhaps they were just appropriated by Hindus.
I know of two Parsi Hindustani singers, Pandit Firoz Dastur of Kirana and Pandit Jal Balaporia of Gwalior. Dastur sang higher than any other singer in Hindustani music I can think of, and taught music at Bombay University. There was a third Parsi, a man who used neither Ustad nor Pandit and in fact did not even use his first name. This was V. Balsara, a very fine musician from Kolkata, who played Hindustani music on Western instruments, the piano and the violin, and also composed Hindustani symphonies. One of the first pieces of music I heard as a child was his lovely composition in the morning raga, Bilawal. It is interesting to me because it is one of the very few ragas with an Islamic name. It is also the name—it means without equal—of Benazir Bhutto’s son and heir.
Pakistan’s national poet Muhammad Iqbal is known mainly for his stirring poetry of Muslim revival, and his lectures on Islam’s reconstruction. He isn’t taught in Indian schools, except for one song, Tarana-e-Hindi, which we know as Saare Jahan Se Achcha. But Iqbal was also like the composers we have seen, and we should do more to own him. He wrote poetry on Swami Ram Tirth of Gujranwala, and a stirring one on Guru Nanak.
And he wrote a poem called simply Ram. Its words are:
Labrez hai sharaab-e-haqiqat se jaam-e-Hind
Sab falsafey mein khitta-e-Maghrib ke raam-e-Hind
Yeh Hindiyon ke fikr-e-falak ras ka hai asar
Rafaat mein aasmaan se bhi ooncha hai baam-e-Hind
Is des mein huey hain hazaron malak sarisht
Mashhoor jin ke dam se hai duniya mein naam-e-Hind
Hai Ram ke wajood pe Hindostan ko naaz
Ahl-e-nazar samajhte hain us ko Imaam-e-Hind
Ejaz is chiragh-e-hidayat ka hai
Roshan tar az sahar hai zamane mein shaam-e-Hind, Talwaar ka dhani tha
shujaat mein fard tha, Pakeezgi mein
josh-e-Mohabbat mein fard tha
My translation:
The cup of truth sloshes over in India and
All philosophies of the West submit to those of our land, Because of the soaring mind of the Indian seeker who
Arcs his thoughts unrestrained through the sky
This country has produced a thousand gods who
Have made India famous through the world but
The reality of Ram is the pride of our land and
Those who can think
know him as leader of India
He is a miracle, this luminescent truth
and brightens
Our evening as the most incandescent of their dawns
Ram was skilled in battle
unmatched in valour
He was purity itself
and a lover like none other
Iqbal was third in the line of outstanding Muslim intellectuals of India, with Waliullah and Syed Ahmed before him and Maududi after. He was different from the other three in engaging with India’s mainstream.
This ownership of another’s religion, wanting to reach out and touch it, and handle it and reassure the other that you mean well. This is different from the constant, distant respect we observe in the West’s attitude to faith.
It is one of the great things about us, and it is what makes us Indian.
Aakar Patel is a director with Hill Road Media.
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Also Read |Aakar’s previous Lounge columns
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