This Saturday marks the 548th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith. Guru Nanak is, of course, remembered universally for his wisdom and great teachings, encapsulated in the Granth Sahib, but the musical tradition he left behind is of equal significance. Each of his teachings is in verse, in raga, and many times, even the taal it is to be sung in is specified. Guru Sahib was very direct in his message – sing His praises, and you will reach God. You don’t need to become an ascetic and renounce the world to find God. Music was his means of connecting with the divine.
Bhai Baljit Singh, an erudite kirtan singer in the Guru’s tradition says, “In my opinion, Guru Nanak taught us that if you invoke the Divine in raga, you will automatically find Him, such is the power of the notes.”
In Sultanpur Lodi, Guru Nanak first experienced unity with the Divine, while being immersed in the river for three full days. On emerging and exulting that he had seen God, he was asked to describe his experience; his description of that Divinity was in verse, in the shape of the Japji Sahib, which includes a description of heaven, (the “Sodar”). This was written in raga Asa, which today is such an obscure raga that it is mainly rendered only in conjunction with another raga, like Asa Bhairav, though in Punjab, it is still fairly well known.
So strong was his connection with music that successively nearly all the Gurus that followed after him kept up the tradition of giving their teaching in raga.
Guru Nanak had two constant companions, Bala and Mardana; Mardana was a musician, who played the rabab. The musical tradition has been carried forward for 11 generations. One of the bearers of the tradition is Bhai Baldeep Singh who today represents the 12th generation. His ancestors have included such luminaries as Bhai Saadhaaran Singh (the head of the dharamsaal (dharamsala) established in Kartarpur by Guru Nanak) and Bhai Jwala Singh. Bhai Baldeep Singh has also succeeded in reproducing obsolete instruments that are part of the Sikh heritage – the taus, the rabab amongst others. He is vehement in his passionate defence of the music tradition of the Sikhs which he said pre-dated the much talked of dhrupad tradition of Raja Man Singh of Gwalior by a few years. He laments that the music of Punjab and the gharanas associated with Punjab including Talwandi, Kapurthala and Sham Chaurasia were today forgotten, even though the music remains. Folk melodies of Punjab even today are alive in ragas such as Jaunpuri, Des, Kafi and Sindhu Bhairavi.
Namdhari tradition
Another stream keeping alive the musical tradition of the Guru is the Namdhari tradition. For the last 120 years or so, the Namdhari Gurus (Baba Pratap Singh was himself a very fine musician, his sons Baba Jagjit Singh and Baba Bir Singh too learnt) at the centre in Bhaini Sahib near Ludhiana have kept tradition going, and insist that their followers learn. Today there are several extremely fine concert performing musicians amongst the Namdharis – Bhai Baljit Singh, kirtaniya as well as taarshehnai exponent, Bhai Sukhvinder Singh (Lovely) on tabla, Bhai Balwant Singh vocalist amongst others.
According to Bhai Baljit Singh of the Namdhari tradition, the taarshehnai is a 450-year-old accompanying instrument that currently is being revived, and taught extensively at his Guru Academy in Delhi. This instrument’s sound resembles the shehnai, but is held like a sarangi, and its body is that of a sitar with frets. Bhai Baljit Singh said in his tradition , they had compositions of six Gurus - Guru Nanak Sahib, Guru Angad, Guru Amardas, Guru Ramdas, Guru Arjun Dev and Guru Teg Bahadur, which were carefully preserved, and taught to the over 450 students at the Academy. He speaks of rare (vikat) taals that the Gurus used - including “paanj taal di sawari”, rudra taal, brahma taal amongst others.
Recently at the Capitals’ Kamani Auditorium, the music tradition of the Sikhs was celebrated at a one day concert, by the Guru’s Academy with a vocal recital by Luxmi Namdhari, then taarshehnai concert by Bhai Baljit Singh and Luxmi.The evening concluded with a sarod recital by Ayaan Ali Khan accompanied by Fateh Singh Namdhari and Fateh Singh Gangwani. (Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has himself taught quite a few Namdhari students, including Bhai Gurdev Singh).
One hopes that the new generation of kirtaniyas sing Gurbani in the traditional laid out manner, instead of changing the tunes to suit current tastes.
