By Deepa Ganesh - The Hindu - Chennai, India
Monday, January 21, 2007
Bangalore: It would only be arrogance to evaluate devotion, whatever form it be in. What then can one comment about Ruhaniyat, the annual Sufi and Mystic Music Festival back in the city for the second time.
At best, one could make some musical observations, that too an incomplete one, for, bhakti, as the Sufi tradition understood it, is beyond simplistic definitions and of mere music too.
That’s probably why when the singer of amazing conviction, Parvathy Baul sang Akkamahadevi’s vachana “Akka Kelavva”, her Kannada pronunciation hardly mattered. It would be to trivialise Akka to bottle her up in a land and a language.
What the Sufi music evening, brought by Banyan Tree, achieved at best was to bring together the multiple modes of devotion: from the very austere to the sensual and earthy to the lively, bhakti came alive in so many different shades.
The Siddhi Gomas — a tribe from Africa that has come to settle in India — was the most defiant of them all. The Mystic Drummers not just turned one’s schooled notions topsy turvy but also opened you to the multi-layered, rich folk traditions of the country and the various forms of worship with their lively song, dance and spectacle-packed performance.
If the Sufi tradition challenged worship as approved by religion, the Rajasthani folk-Sufi singers are daunting even to trained classical musicians.
Darra Khan and group stunned the audience with an outstanding performance. Darra Khan, unlike the Langas and Manganiars, is attached to the Math of Badal Nath, a mystic, and rendered poems written by him.
Kachra Khan Manganiar, with his voice that truly touched the skies, sang Baba Bulle Shah. With a system of music that’s their own, the manner in which the Rajasthani musicians wove in amazing intricacies into their singing, it’s hard to bring it into any logical framework. The Kamaicha, sarangi, khadtaal, dholak… each one of them excelled.
The 76-year-old Vithal Rao from Hyderabad, a disciple of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, left the audience humbled by his sparkling rendition. His complex idioms, the turn of phrases and the most unanticipated flights reminded one of the maestro Ghulam Ali.
The Jagars, the story-tellers from Assam, and the Qawalli singers, each one of them took devotion to a new height. No wonder Baba Bulle Shah attacked and criticised all mediators between the lord and the devotee.
Can there be any single expression of devotion?
[Click this link for a Ghazal by Pandit Vithal Rao on Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMHe0UOQDa0].
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Multiple Modes of Devotion
Monday, January 21, 2007
Bangalore: It would only be arrogance to evaluate devotion, whatever form it be in. What then can one comment about Ruhaniyat, the annual Sufi and Mystic Music Festival back in the city for the second time.
At best, one could make some musical observations, that too an incomplete one, for, bhakti, as the Sufi tradition understood it, is beyond simplistic definitions and of mere music too.
That’s probably why when the singer of amazing conviction, Parvathy Baul sang Akkamahadevi’s vachana “Akka Kelavva”, her Kannada pronunciation hardly mattered. It would be to trivialise Akka to bottle her up in a land and a language.
What the Sufi music evening, brought by Banyan Tree, achieved at best was to bring together the multiple modes of devotion: from the very austere to the sensual and earthy to the lively, bhakti came alive in so many different shades.
The Siddhi Gomas — a tribe from Africa that has come to settle in India — was the most defiant of them all. The Mystic Drummers not just turned one’s schooled notions topsy turvy but also opened you to the multi-layered, rich folk traditions of the country and the various forms of worship with their lively song, dance and spectacle-packed performance.
If the Sufi tradition challenged worship as approved by religion, the Rajasthani folk-Sufi singers are daunting even to trained classical musicians.
Darra Khan and group stunned the audience with an outstanding performance. Darra Khan, unlike the Langas and Manganiars, is attached to the Math of Badal Nath, a mystic, and rendered poems written by him.
Kachra Khan Manganiar, with his voice that truly touched the skies, sang Baba Bulle Shah. With a system of music that’s their own, the manner in which the Rajasthani musicians wove in amazing intricacies into their singing, it’s hard to bring it into any logical framework. The Kamaicha, sarangi, khadtaal, dholak… each one of them excelled.
The 76-year-old Vithal Rao from Hyderabad, a disciple of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, left the audience humbled by his sparkling rendition. His complex idioms, the turn of phrases and the most unanticipated flights reminded one of the maestro Ghulam Ali.
The Jagars, the story-tellers from Assam, and the Qawalli singers, each one of them took devotion to a new height. No wonder Baba Bulle Shah attacked and criticised all mediators between the lord and the devotee.
Can there be any single expression of devotion?
[Click this link for a Ghazal by Pandit Vithal Rao on Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMHe0UOQDa0].
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By Deepa Ganesh - The Hindu - Chennai, IndiaMonday, January 21, 2007
Bangalore: It would only be arrogance to evaluate devotion, whatever form it be in. What then can one comment about Ruhaniyat, the annual Sufi and Mystic Music Festival back in the city for the second time.
At best, one could make some musical observations, that too an incomplete one, for, bhakti, as the Sufi tradition understood it, is beyond simplistic definitions and of mere music too.
That’s probably why when the singer of amazing conviction, Parvathy Baul sang Akkamahadevi’s vachana “Akka Kelavva”, her Kannada pronunciation hardly mattered. It would be to trivialise Akka to bottle her up in a land and a language.
What the Sufi music evening, brought by Banyan Tree, achieved at best was to bring together the multiple modes of devotion: from the very austere to the sensual and earthy to the lively, bhakti came alive in so many different shades.
The Siddhi Gomas — a tribe from Africa that has come to settle in India — was the most defiant of them all. The Mystic Drummers not just turned one’s schooled notions topsy turvy but also opened you to the multi-layered, rich folk traditions of the country and the various forms of worship with their lively song, dance and spectacle-packed performance.
If the Sufi tradition challenged worship as approved by religion, the Rajasthani folk-Sufi singers are daunting even to trained classical musicians.
Darra Khan and group stunned the audience with an outstanding performance. Darra Khan, unlike the Langas and Manganiars, is attached to the Math of Badal Nath, a mystic, and rendered poems written by him.
Kachra Khan Manganiar, with his voice that truly touched the skies, sang Baba Bulle Shah. With a system of music that’s their own, the manner in which the Rajasthani musicians wove in amazing intricacies into their singing, it’s hard to bring it into any logical framework. The Kamaicha, sarangi, khadtaal, dholak… each one of them excelled.
The 76-year-old Vithal Rao from Hyderabad, a disciple of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, left the audience humbled by his sparkling rendition. His complex idioms, the turn of phrases and the most unanticipated flights reminded one of the maestro Ghulam Ali.
The Jagars, the story-tellers from Assam, and the Qawalli singers, each one of them took devotion to a new height. No wonder Baba Bulle Shah attacked and criticised all mediators between the lord and the devotee.
Can there be any single expression of devotion?
[Click this link for a Ghazal by Pandit Vithal Rao on Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMHe0UOQDa0].
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