As the evening progressed, the “wah wah” got louder applauding the singers. The audience was taken on a musical journey through the traditional Soz, Marsia and Salaam , sung/recited during Muharram that are centred on the Tragedy of Karbala that took place almost 1,400 years ago.
The performances were not by a professional troupe but by members of a family from the qasba of Mustafabad in the heart of Awadh who presented it to an audience at the India International Centre on Tuesday for the first time. The family has honed its skills over generation under the watchful eyes and direction of their elders and performs every year in the month of Muharram. The performance was an intimate affair, almost as if the singers had welcomed the audience into their own homes.
The evening began with a Salaam, a salutation to the martyrs and continued with presentation of Soz and Marsia written by poets and shayars. The poetry was mostly in Urdu, Awadhi and Farsi and was presented in a manner in which they emerged in the Ganga-Jamuna soil of Awadh. Each performance told a story about the battle fought by a tiny band of 72 men, women and children in the harsh terrain of Karbala. It told the story through a wealth of ragas and poetry about Muharram and why the month is commemorated.
