How rare musical genres link the past and the present -OxBig News Network

Indian music has a wealth of genres that have evolved and developed over the centuries. These forms have witnessed the socio-historical influences that augmented their growth and variety. 

During a Hindustani classical music concert, forms such as tarana, tappa, trivat and chaturang are often rendered after the detailed treatment of the main raga with a vilambit (slow), madhya-laya (medium tempo) or drut (fast tempo) khayal. The presentation of genres such as  tappa and tarana is immensely popular with both connoisseurs as well as the general audiences. 

The International Foundation for Fine Arts (IFFA) recently organised a seminar in association with the NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) and the Music Forum. With this, it revived the tradition of such seminars, which had taken a break due to the pandemic. 

Earlier, The Musicological Society of India, under the presidentship of Pt. Arvind Parikh, and in collaboration with the ITC-SRA and NCPA, used to organise seminars on subjects related to music. Luminaries and stalwarts from the world of classical music from India and across the globe participated in about 25 seminars to deliberate upon diverse topics. 

This year’s seminar was on Tappa, Tarana and allied forms prevalent in the Hindustani music, and it was held at Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai. 

During the seminar, besides the academic deliberations by experts on the origin, history and aesthetics of these forms, audio-visual clips and live demonstrations  illustrated the actual practice of these genres. 

Panellists included Pt. Arvind Parikh, 98 and Shanno Khurana, 97, the senior most exponent of tappa and a well-known musician of the Rampur Sahaswan gharana. Professor Naman P Ahuja from JNU Delhi, who is also the general editor, Marg,  delivered the keynote  address about the history of tappa and the contributions of the folk music of Greater Punjab and Sindh to the wider repertoire of Indian classical music. 

Opening his deliberation with the iconography of the ‘Raga-Mala’ paintings, Naman cited the example of raag Vibhas with teevra dhaivat, depicted with a ‘dhanush-vaan’ in hands like Kamadeva, indicating that veer rasa is a part of Sringara rasa. He also talked about the miniature paintings of Gita Govinda by the Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, sung as a specific genre by musicians of the Gwalior gharana. 

Prof Naman Ahuja
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Talking about the ‘Tala-mala’ paintings, Naman remarked how the aesthetics created by the swaras of a raag could alter the bhava by the use of rhythm. He displayed this lyrical analogy depicted in architecture too, through the Baudha, Gupta (Hindu), and Persian (Muslim) traditions in just one panel of architecture at Mehrauli. He also talked about the old notation system prevalent at least two centuries before Bhatkhande or Paluskar with ‘Laghu’, ‘Guru’ and different ‘Vat’ (set of Matras), like in Trivat.

Talking about tappa, he explained how the camel drivers commuting from Persia to India used to sing it in the dialects of Punjabi such as the Multani and Sarayki, incorporating poetry like the Heer-Ranjha of Varis Shah. He also talked about the musical nuances of tappa such as Khatka, Murki, Zamzama and the Danedaar taans and the ‘Vesara’ style which is a combination of Margi and Desi. He interspersed his talk with Shori Miyan’s tappa sung by Siddheshwari Devi, and Rasoolan Bai, to reach the points made. 

Later, Shanno Khurana spoke with him about the pedagogy and variety of tarana and tappa. 

The Bangali tappa of Ramnidhi Gupta (Nidhu Babu) from Kolkata, who had met Shori Miyan in Bihar and learnt tappa from him, and  tried to present it in Bangla on a variety of topics and themes was presented by Meena Bannerjee and Nabhodeep Chakraborty as a lec dem. Nabhodeep demonstrated a Punjabi tappa in the Patiala style and Nidhu Babu’s tappa.

Unravelling the socio-cultural significance of these forms in Indian traditional music, Prof. Vidyadhar Vyas spoke about the evolution and distinctive features of styles such as Tarana, Khayal-numa Tarana, Tappa, Tap-Khayal, Trivat, Chaturang, Ashtapadi, Talageet, Sargamgeet, Raga-sagar and Talasagar. Meeta Pandit and Vidyadhar Vyas demonstrated these rare genres prevalent in the Gwalior gharana. 

Meeta presented a tap-khayal, a tappa and two ashtapadis of Jayadeva in raag Bhupali. ‘Nath hare jayanath hare’ was set to Vilambit Jhumra taal and ‘Jaya jaya deva hare’ in Teen taal to demonstrate the rendition of ashtapadi in the Gwalior tradition. 

It was heart-warming to travel back in time through rare genres of music.