One of the biggest services that Guru Gobind Singh did to the Sikh people was pronouncing that the sayings of the Gurus before him, earlier collected as the Adi Granth, to which were added the sayings of the ninth Guru, his father, were now to be revered as the Guru Granth Sahib.
All the ten Sikh Gurus were trained musicians, in addition to being spiritual leaders. There are nearly 1,500 verses in the Guru Granth Sahib and it is stipulated which raga each verse is to be recited in. This remarkable fact shows not only the familiarity of each of the ten Gurus with classical music and the ragas, but also their deep connection with the ragas, and their knowledge of which mood was created by which raga, so that they sang the verse in the appropriate raga. Their followers wrote which raga the Guru had recited the hymn in, which is now noted in the Granth.
All the daily prayers, that are to be recited at dawn, and dusk except the Japji Sahib, are in raga. Sadly, the “Anand Sahib”, a prayer of great power, which is stipulated is to be sung in raga Ramkali, is today usually sung in the tune of a film song!
According to Bhai Baljit Singh, Namdhari disciple of the great Ustad Pyaare Singh, who relocated to Delhi after Partition, the Guru Granth lists out 31 ragas, and 31 mishran ragas. He laments that many like raga Suhi Lalit are today no longer known and sung. The Dasam Granth, which is a compilation of the verses of Guru Gobind Singh, has reference to over 350, then extant ragas, he claims.
Bhai Baljit Singh
At the end of the Guru Granth Sahib, some of the ragas and the raginis connected to them are listed. This is of course neither a comprehensive list of all ragas or even a list of all ragas mentioned in the book. According to the Ragamala, there are six main ragas, each has five wives or raginis and each main raga has eight sons.
The concept of ragas and their female consorts or raginis is not exclusive to the Guru Granth – it prevailed all over medieval India, as is evident from the Ragamala paintings. The visual depiction of ragas in the series of Ragamala paintings was started in around the 15th Century, (earliest known Ragamala paintings are from Gujarat around 1475) in various courts – Mughal, Deccan, Pahari, Rajasthani and Central Indian. It is said that there are 130 known sets of Ragamala paintings miniatures and murals, painted by the various schools.
Again, here too there are six main ragas, pictorially always shown as males – Bhairav, Malkauns, Megh, Shree, Hindol and Deepak. Each of these ragas has eight feminine consorts, always visually shown as females. They further have eight sons, or ragaputras.
Raga Deepak today is extinct as it was said to be a very powerful raga which creates great turbulence unless handled by a master with total expertise of the nuances. There are fables of things catching fire when raga Deepak was sung well. Its use slowly petered out in the 19th Century as it ceased to be taught by the masters who felt it should not be performed in our modern times. Ustad Rashid Khan agrees with this thought, saying the Ustads must have had a reason to make some ragas “lupt” (extinct).
According to the Guru Granth the first raga created by the Maker was Bhairav, and raga Bhairav had five raginis of which only the first, raga Bhairavi is known today and performed. Two others, Bilawali, and Bangali are known of, to musicologists though they are not really in common use.
Raga Bhairav has eight sons, again of whom only four are today known – Pancham, Deosakh, Lalit and Bilawal. The second main raga was Malkaus, and of his five wives, again only two are known today – Gandhari and Dhanashri. Of the eight sons, only ragas Maru, “Chandkaushak” (Chandrakauns), and Khat are extant. The third raga, Hindol’s raginis that are known today are Tilangi, (Tilang) Sindhura, and Ahiri. Amongst the extant ragas listed as sons are Basant and Kamod.
The fourth raga is Deepak, today extinct. Known wives are ragas Patmanjari, Todi, and Gurjari. Extant sons are Kanhra and Kalyan. The fifth main raga is Shri – extant wives are ragas Bairari, Gauri, Asavari and Saindhavi. Extant sons are Gaud and Hameer. Megh is the last of the six main ragas. Among ragas his known wives Asa and Suho. Sons are ragas Nat, Jaldhara and Kedara.
Historically, this listing also shows how many ragas are no longer extant since the 15th Century when the Guru Granth Sahib started to be compiled. Today’s musicians grown up in the arbitrary raga division of Pandit Bhatkhande on the basis of “thaat’s” will question this clubbing, but one cannot know the logic behind this ancient wisdom.
Sadly, today most of the kirtan sung in Gurudwaras is no longer in raga. The great knowledgeable kirtaniyas like Bhai Samund Singh, Bhai Avtar Singh and Bhai Bakshish Singh to name a few, tried to sing the “shabd” (hymn) in the specified raga. Today this is very rare, with just a handful of “Bhais” even learning classical music, forget knowing enough to sing in raga. One such master is Delhi-based Namdhari Bhai Baljit Singh who recently performed to a packed audience in the city. Through his Guru Sangeet Academy, the Ustad is trying his best to perpetuate the classical tradition he has learnt, and he says: “My ‘maqsad’ (aim) is to bring the music out of the Gurudwaras to a larger audience, not necessarily of the Sikh tradition.”
