Geet and the Guru

Guru Govind dou khade, kaake lagoon paay
Balihari Guru aapno, Govind diyo bataay

In this couplet, Kabir, one of the greatest mystic saint-poets of the Indian sub-continent (early 15th Century) highlights how the teacher/master is placed on a higher rung than God himself since it is s/he who can put you on the right path to God. Like most crafts and arts handed down in a guru-shishya tradition, Indian music too, has often doffed its hat to the teacher/master. Many of the well-structured melodic and rhythmic compositions, the bandishes — often the very embodiment of the raga being rendered, a representation of the central idea upon which a performance is sculpted and realised – are dedicated to the guru.

Parijat Solanki, a Baroda-based music historian and singer, gives the arrival of the bandish, particularly those dedicated to gurus, a historical context. "Emperor Aurangazeb ran the Mughal empire by the Shariat. While his ban on narcotics, nautch girls, alcohol, gambling, castration to create an army of eunuchs to serve the royal harem helped change the character of the empire, it was his banning of music that did the most damage. Legions of musicians who had found Mughal court patronage from his great grandfather Akbar's era (1556-1605), suddenly found themselves put out to pasture," she laments.

According to her, the quick succession of emperors after Aurangazen's death in 1707 did nothing to help revive music. "That was till the reign of legendary Muhammadshah Rangile (1716-1748 AD), a loving and generous patron to many musicians. Qawwali was first reintroduced into the Mughal court, from where it quickly spread across South Asia faster than ever before, incorporating many newly patronised instruments like the sarod, surbahar, sitar and sursingar which further bolstered the traditional accompanying instruments like the tanpura, veena and tabla which had survived Aurangazeb."

According to her the two musicians Niyamat Khan (Sadarang) and his nephew Firoz Khan (Adarang), who then arrived on the scene brought back the older genre of Khayal which had begun to wither. "Both composed bandishes which gave the Khayal a less abstract and easy-to-access reach, almost replacing Dhrupad. Several such bandishes — which remain popular to date — are dedicated to the gurus." She underlines how music also played a major role as a salve given the polarisation and mutual hatred between Hindus and Muslims created by Aurangazeb's wanton persecution of Hindus, destruction of Hindu shrines and the forceful conversions during his 89-year-old reign. "Musicians of that time used works of the Bhakti/Sufi poets like Kabir, Namdeo and others from the early 15th onwards to try and drive home the point of all religious paths leading to the same Divine One. Since these compositions too, invoked the guru, they went on to cement the role of the teacher in a big way," she points out demonstrating with her favourite composition: Kaise mein gun gaaun guru ke?/ Guru bin mosey gun naahi aave/ Gun bin kaise guni kahave?/ Kaise.../ Guru kirpa mein gaaun rijhaun / taal surya mein manva rijhaun/ Kaise

Kirana gharana doyenne nand poetess-composer Dr Prabha Atre, however, feels there is more than history involved in the veneration of the guru. "Humility and the capacity to put aside one's ego to submit to your master has been at the root of this land's philosophy. No matter how exceptional in callibre every artiste speaks of her/his guru's contribution in their achievement. It is this devotion to the guru which finds reflection in the bandishes." Trained under Sureshbabu Mane and Hirabai Badodekar for brief periods through the 40s and 50s, she has largely polished her art on her own inspired by the musicality of many legends like Ustad Amir Khan and Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, to be acknowledged as 'Gaan Prabha' by music lovers. "I've tried to invoke these masters/gurus who have directly/indirectly moulded me into the musician I am, in my compositions," she says speaking of the bandishes she has composed in honour of gurus.

Musicologist Piyal Bhattacharya echoes Dr Atre. This Kolkatan who is also trained in the dhrupad genre says: "In Dhrupad one sings padas, presided by aalap. Several padas, invoke the illuminating presence of the guru. I remember a composition taught by Suvir Mishra — Ram bina nahi hota ko uddhaar/ Brahma gyan bina nahi paar in Raga Yaman. Here Ram is not a deity but has been invoked in the sense of a guru, who clears our unconsciousness by helping us become aware of the purest of wisdom within."

After what Bhattacharya says, one can only surrender to Dr Atre's mellifluous voice in her own Raga Yaman-Kalyan composition: Guru charan nit labho prabho/ maangat ek hee daan/ tumhi so prabho/ Naad samandar ata hee kathhin/ paar utroon kaise/ guru bin prabho.