In March 2015, Amsterdam-based Patrick Jered published a book “Finding the Demon’s Fiddle: On the Trail of the Ravanhattha” that was based on his experiences as a traveller in Sri Lanka and India. The book is a strange mix of fact and fiction and makes us familiar with the way a European traveller views and absorbs South Asian culture.
This reminded me of a definitive book “Ravanhattha: Epic Journey of an Instrument in Rajasthan” written by Suneera Kasliwal and published by Shubhi Publications some years ago. A sitar player of repute, Suneera Kasliwal is currently Professor and Dean of the Delhi University’s Music Faculty and has written this book after many years of painstaking research. Born and brought up in Jaipur, she has been listening to performances of Ravanhattha since her childhood and her infatuation with the instrument made her write this beautifully produced book.
Ravanhattha is considered to be the most ancient of the bowing instruments of Rajasthan. As she explains in the preface, Ravanhattha and its variants are found all over Rajasthan and also in the adjoining States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
How this instrument got associated with Ravan, the demon king of Lanka who appears as the villain in the Ramayana, continues to remain a mystery. In popular imagination, he is regarded as the king of Sri Lanka but historians and archaeologists hold a different view. However, it is widely acknowledged that he was a great Vedic scholar, a great musician and a great devotee of Shiva.
While Sangeet Makrand (circa 8th century C.E.) does mention Ravani Veena, the first unambiguous reference to Ravanhattha occurs in “Bharat Bhashya of Nanyadeva (1094-1133)” wherein a mythological tale explains the origin of the instrument. We are told that while doing tapasya, Ravan crafted an instrument by stretching a nerve taken from his hand and played music to please Shiva. This came to be known as Ravanhastha Veena which later acquired the currently prevalent name Ravanhattha.
Suneera Kasliwal opines that since the instrument is mentioned in one form or the other in ancient musical texts, it means that it was patronised by the elite classes in those days. However, as it started going out of vogue with the passage of time, its rich legacy was preserved by the nomads of Rajasthan. Kasliwal informs us that the character of music varies among folk musician communities. While Langa, Manganiyar, Damani, Dhari, Mirasi and Kalbelia play and sing to entertain, the Kamad community sings mostly Ramdevji’s devotional songs whereas the music of the Bhopas is “more ritualistic and religious”.
It is the Bhopas who play Ravanhattha. They are nomads and do not stay at one place. As they are always moving, their footprint covers large tracts of land. In this respect, they are somewhat different from other communities of folk musicians. They themselves make their Ravanhattha from locally available material. Although illiterate and unfamiliar with theoretical aspects of music, they make very good instruments and tune them perfectly.
Ravanhattha consists of a bamboo stick that measures nearly two-and-a-half feet, and a coconut shell resonator. When the instrument is played, one wonders how such a small palm-size resonator can produce such resonating and wholesome sound. The rough and unsophisticated-looking bow does wonders when the player uses it with astonishing skill displaying superb control over the notes. It has come to be inextricably associated with the recitation of the Pabuji epic but how this association came about remains a mystery. The transition seems to have occurred nearly six centuries ago and today the Bhopas are the only community that carries forward this tradition.
As the legend has it, Pabuji was an early 14th century Rathod prince of a small State. He conquered many other kingdoms and emerged as a saviour of women, cows and lower castes. Most of his courtiers belonged to the lower castes as he did not discriminate between the upper and lower castes. In his last battle, which he fought to save the cows of his people, Rebaris, Bheels and Rajputs accompanied him. Even today, all these three communities worship Pabuji. The priests of Pabuji are called Bhopas.
Bhopas worship and sing the epic of Pabuji to the accompaniment of Ravanhattha while showing a Phad (an eighteen-feet-long scroll painting that depicts various scenes from Pabuji’s life) in the background. These performances have become part of the ritualistic ceremonies in the worship of Pabuji and thus there is a great deal of support from the society for them. This has contributed in no small measure towards preventing Ravanhattha from becoming extinct.
(The writer is a senior literary critic)
