Harjap Singh Aujla writes from New Jersey

SRI Guru Nanak Dev ji gave a lot of invaluable gifts to the World and one of them was very pleasant, very soothing and very educative Sikh religious music. This form of music came with Guru Nanak more than five hundred years ago. During the time of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji, the North Indian classical music (Hindustani form of classical music) was quite well developed and Dhrupad and Dhamar form of music was in vogue in all the musical Gharanas. Guru Nanak’s music of course was not untouched by this great tradition. Those were the days when a host of string instruments were prevalent as accompaniments to the vocalists in Northern India. Rabab was one such very versatile instrument, which was not played with a bow but was plucked to produce melody and a semblance of beat. Bhai Mardana, an accomplished string instrumentalist (Rabab player) became a lifelong musician companion of the Guru. Guru Nanak Dev ji undoubtedly was the lead singer, who sang his own spiritual and musical compositions to the accompaniment of Bhai Mardana’s melodious Rabab. This in a nut shell is how the Sikh Religious Music is conceived to have originated.

The subsequent four Gurus, who followed Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji, were also great poets and musicians in their own rights. While compiling the holy Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev ji divided his own religious poetry and the compositions of his predecessors as well as some compatible spiritual poetry of a few Hindu and Muslim saints into bunches of hymns to be rendered in certain specific Raagas. Roughly from 1485 to 1710, the transformation or evolution of the Sikh religious music took place during a cumulative period of 225 years. This was the first golden period of the Sikh religious music or the “Gurmat Sangeet”.

Then came a period of turmoil from 1710 to 1800 A.D..The Sikh community was embroiled in a bitter struggle for survival and eventual sovereignty. During this period “Shabad Chowkis” in specific day and night Raagas became irregular even in the holiest Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple Amritsar. During this period some serious attempts were made to destroy the “Sri Darbar Sahib” (now the Golden Temple). The Sikh religious music during these trying times remained alive, but in the privacy of the homes of the religious musicians and the surviving Sikh aristocracy. In spite of facing very difficult times, the inheritors of the Sikh religious music kept the age old traditions alive from generation to generation by imparting this valuable educational treasure to their sons and grandsons

The second golden period of Sikh religious music started during the reign of the Sikh Emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh roughly from year 1800 onwards. This renaissance of Sikh religious music kept going strong up to the beginning of 1960s. Maharaja Ranjit Singh inherited the control of “Shukarchakya Misl” from his brave soldier father Maha Singh. This “Misl” was based in Gujjranwala and Guru Nanak’s birth place “Nankana Sahib” was a part of it. In fact the traditional “Chowkis” of “Shabad Kirtan” were held regularly in Guru Nanak’s birth place “Nankana Sahib since the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s grand-father (1760). 

By the turn of the century Maharaja Ranjit Singh added Amritsar to his territory of control, which was very important from the point of view of “Gurmat Sangeet”. This ominous annexation was the golden news for the Sikh fine arts. All the known and unknown “Rababi Kirtinias” came out of their century old hibernation and started converging at the Golden Temple, “Gurdwara Janam Asthan Sri Nankana Sahib” and “Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib Tarntaran”. In the neighbouring “Ahluwalia Misl” administered State of Kapurthala also, the “Rababi Kirtanias” resumed “Shabad Kirtan” among other places at “Gurdwara Sri Ber Sahib” at Sultanpur Lodhi. It can be concluded that from 1800 A.D. the second golden period of Sikh religious music started with a bang. The Rababi Kirtanias started working hard on Raagas and on culturing of their voices. They meticulously did “Riyaz” for several hours everyday and performed from their heart and to the limits of their tonal and volumetric capabilities. Microphones were not available during those days and congregations started getting larger and larger, therefore loud and high pitched singing became a part of the Punjabi school of music. The listeners used to exclaim that such and such musician is singing from the depths of his lungs. The brilliant and emotionally charged musicians were very well compensated monetarily and through other religious recognitions and rewards. 

By year 1800 A.D., the ancient Dhrupad and Dhamar format of classical music was still very much alive in “Gurmat Sangeet”. “Partal” variation (several specific beats for different stanzas within the same Shabad) was also very much in vogue. Lahore and Amritsar used to be the harbingers of any change in North Western India’s culture. The presently popular “Khayal” format of North Indian classical music was still in its evolutionary stage in Punjab. The centres where this new format of classical music was evolving were Patiala, Malerkotla, Sham Chaurasi (in Hoshiarpur district), Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Kasur (in Lahore district). In fact “Khayal” and “Tarana” styles of classical music had taken birth during or before the life time of the Tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh ji and “Gurmat Sangeet” in these formats was performed in his “Durbars”. But during his time also most Sikh musicians based in Sultanpur Lodhi, Kapurthala, Amritsar and Tarntaran were still religiously sticking to the “Dhrupad”, “Dhamar” and “Partal” formats and the audiences were still appreciative of these formats. 

From 1800 A.D. to 1947 A.D. a lot of “Rababi Kirtanias” performed “Shabad Kirtan” regularly and with distinction in the famous historic Sikh shrines. Many of them got a lot of name and fame. Though several names were floating since 1800, but the most popular names were of those who performed “Shabad Kirtan” during the later part of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. They included Bhai Lal (Senior), Bhai Sain Ditta (the tutor of Bhai Santa Singh ji), Bhai Naseera, Bhai Hazoora, Bhai Tana, Bhai Mehar, Bhai Chanan, Bhai Taaba and Bhai Chand (Senior). Those Rababis, who became practicing Sikhs included Bhai Pal Singh Bhai Jaswant Singh, Bhai Gurmukh Singh Fakkar Bhai Sarmukh Singh Fakkar, Bhai Partap Singh (Senior), Bhai Partap Singh (Junior), Bhai Dharam Singh Zakhmi, Bhai Dilbagh Singh Gulbagh Singh, Bhai Prithipal Singh Mohan Pal Singh, Bhai Shamsher Singh Zakhmi, Bhai Jagtar Singh Fakkar and Bhai Paramjit Singh. Please forgive me if I have left some names out. 

During the later part of the nineteenth century and whole of twentieth century, musicians from the non- Rababi and fully practicing Sikh famililies also earned a lot of respect from the listeners. Prominent among them included Bhai Hira Singh, Bhai Sham Singh, Bhai Santokh Singh, Bhai Jawala Singh, Bhai Sudh Singh Pardhan Singh, Bhai Samund Singh, Bhai Santa Singh, Master Madan, Sant Sujan Singh, Bhai Budh Singh Taan, Bhai Surjan Singh, Bhai Avtar Singh Gurcharan Singh, Bhai Didar Singh, Bhai Balbir Singh, Bhai Beant Singh Bijli, Bhai Bahadar Singh, Professor Chanan Singh Majboor, Bhai Bakhshish Singh, Bhai Harjit Singh Gurdip Singh, Bhai Piara Singh, Bhai Sarabjit Singh Rangeela, Professor Sohan Singh, Bhai Tej Pal Singh Surinder Singh, Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa,  Bhai Gurmeet Singh Shant, and Bhai Narinder Singh Benareswale. Please excuse me if I have omitted any name of a really accomplished Kirtania. 

The second golden period of “Gurmat Sangeet” started fading since 1947. One of the two foremost Sikh shrines, which used to set the trend of “Gurmat Sangeet” Gurdwara Janam Asthan Sri Nankana Sahib became a part of Pakistan. A lot of Sikh musicians based in there were violently uprooted. Some of them were killed in cold blood and several others had to fight with swords and guns to reach the Indian Punjab. Thus the Golden Temple remained the only fountainhead of Sikh religious music. Somehow the successive democratically elected managements of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee after 1947 could not maintain the lofty traditions of “Gurmat Sangeet” alive even in the Golden Temple. 

After 1947, Bhai Chand was disgraced into leaving the Golden Temple. Later on he ended up committing suicide in Lahore. All of a sudden both Bhai Samund Singh and Bhai Santa Singh left the service of the Golden Temple Amritsar in 1949. The other good musicians stayed on. But the worst time came during and after the sixties, when merit failed to be the criterion for selection of the Raagis. 

The historic gurdwaras in Delhi started recruiting better Kirtanias. Bhai Santa Singh, Bhai Avtar Singh Gurcharan Singh, Bhai Surjan Singh and Bhai Takhat Singh joined the service of the gurdwaras in Delhi. 

Between 1966 and 1972 four legendry Kirtanias died. They included Bhai Santa Singh, Bhai Surjan Singh, Sant Sujan Singh and Bhai Samund Singh. This dealt a severe blow to the lovers of Gurmat Sangeet. Others who replaced them were not as competent. According to a story doing the rounds, during the late sixties, a wealthy Iranian Sikh recommended to the SGPC to recruit a Sikh musician from Delhi to perform, among other duties, Asa Di Vaar Chowki at the Golden Temple. The story says that he deposited several years’ salary with the SGPC for this musician. The musician had a very sweet voice, but he lacked basic knowledge of the Raagas. This one gesture set a chain reaction and the Raagis with strong political links and possessing inadequate knowledge of “Gurmat Sangeet” were recruited by the SGPC again and again. This practice still continues. Even on special annual days the quality of music relayed from the Golden Temple is getting worse and worse. The downward slide still continues unabated.

Roughly from 1960 to this day the standard of “Shabad Kirtan” at the Golden Temple and the other shrines administered by the SGPC is in constant decline. The good meritorious Kirtanias command hardly any respect and the mediocres, by dint of political patronage, are calling the shots. The SGPC needs to recruit an expert in “Gurmat Sangeet” or a group of experts to select the Raagis and there should be no political recommendation or financial kick-backs in the process of recruitment of the “Raagi Jathas” and in awarding them duties. Then and then only this rot can be stemmed. Somehow our leadership is completely ill at ease in such sensitive matters. In such circumstances, only the Guru can help.

harjapaujla@gmail.com

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