By Bindu Chawla - The Times of India - New Delhi, IndiaThursday, April 26, 2007
In Hindustani music, the ‘jawari’ is the ‘finest point of resonance’ in a string or in the human voice, which awakens and vibrates with a kind of latent reverb.
The jawari is also a point of access to, and union with, the mystic. It refers to the reaching of that final moment of compassion when it is stirred, and opens its ‘door’ of revelation.
Exploration involves looking for the jawari of the human voice that is perennially rooted in the ‘nada’ or cosmic sound, beyond its natural physical reverb. This means crossing of the mythical seven veils of darkness, to find the point in the stratosphere from where will flow the Infinite Light.
The secret of Ustad Amir Khan Saheb’s music was in the jawari, a near-impossible state of spirituality. Khan Saheb’s approach to preparing the voice for classical singing — which he turned into a gharana speciality as pioneer of the Indore gharana — was to cultivate a voice throw or projection that began by turning its very back on the world.
It was from here that, nourishing its own roots, having turned within, it energised its leaves, rather than the other way round.
It was from here that Khan Saheb explored the nakshatras or configurations of the Brahmanda or universe of the ragas, to illuminate the entire vocal galaxy. Pandit Amarnath, his disciple, would ask his students to ‘bore the voice’ at the umbilicus, in the manner of digging a well. “You never know where and when you will find water” he would comment, as he began teaching.
It was a simple way to explain the jawari. And then he would move on to speak of the ‘chintan ka dwar’, the ‘door of revelation’, that would open, and that figures in many of the Sufi lyrics that Pandit Amarnath penned for the Hindustani khayal.
Once there — and it could take you some lifetimes — the process of meditation became effortless. And ceaseless. Even revelatory. For all raga discoveries in Hindustani music have been revealed to sages and musicians from this point on — from the jawari of their own souls, connected to the Cosmic Soul.
And also the khayal bandishes or lyrics sung in the khayal tradition. In fact, the khayal itself, a product of Sufi history, refers to ‘revealed thought’ (in terms of its lyric) and a ‘revealed raga-form’ (in terms of its gayaki or musical style).
Which was what the Sufis meant when they sang the ‘khayal’ as one form of the qawwali, that was sung at the dargah of the Sufi saints.
In the Indore gharana, working on the jawari at the root of the voice is first expected to bring small moments of revelation sent to you by your guru. The little moments are then expected to expand into larger and longer moments until you completely internalise the external presence of your guru, and start the process of self-answering in the sadhana, a task earlier performed by your guru in the physical body.
The guru is now reborn within the soul of the disciple. And so is the disciple.
The state of entering the jawari is an intense one. Amir Khan Saheb would sometimes use the word ‘khumar’ to describe this fevered state of intoxication with the mystic. As the ragas were sung, the khumar would rise, pitch and ebb, which has also become the real inner format of the highly developed Hindustani khayal form.
In Hindustani music, the ‘jawari’ is the ‘finest point of resonance’ in a string or in the human voice, which awakens and vibrates with a kind of latent reverb.
The jawari is also a point of access to, and union with, the mystic. It refers to the reaching of that final moment of compassion when it is stirred, and opens its ‘door’ of revelation.
Exploration involves looking for the jawari of the human voice that is perennially rooted in the ‘nada’ or cosmic sound, beyond its natural physical reverb. This means crossing of the mythical seven veils of darkness, to find the point in the stratosphere from where will flow the Infinite Light.
The secret of Ustad Amir Khan Saheb’s music was in the jawari, a near-impossible state of spirituality. Khan Saheb’s approach to preparing the voice for classical singing — which he turned into a gharana speciality as pioneer of the Indore gharana — was to cultivate a voice throw or projection that began by turning its very back on the world.
It was from here that, nourishing its own roots, having turned within, it energised its leaves, rather than the other way round.
It was from here that Khan Saheb explored the nakshatras or configurations of the Brahmanda or universe of the ragas, to illuminate the entire vocal galaxy. Pandit Amarnath, his disciple, would ask his students to ‘bore the voice’ at the umbilicus, in the manner of digging a well. “You never know where and when you will find water” he would comment, as he began teaching.
It was a simple way to explain the jawari. And then he would move on to speak of the ‘chintan ka dwar’, the ‘door of revelation’, that would open, and that figures in many of the Sufi lyrics that Pandit Amarnath penned for the Hindustani khayal.
Once there — and it could take you some lifetimes — the process of meditation became effortless. And ceaseless. Even revelatory. For all raga discoveries in Hindustani music have been revealed to sages and musicians from this point on — from the jawari of their own souls, connected to the Cosmic Soul.
And also the khayal bandishes or lyrics sung in the khayal tradition. In fact, the khayal itself, a product of Sufi history, refers to ‘revealed thought’ (in terms of its lyric) and a ‘revealed raga-form’ (in terms of its gayaki or musical style).
Which was what the Sufis meant when they sang the ‘khayal’ as one form of the qawwali, that was sung at the dargah of the Sufi saints.
In the Indore gharana, working on the jawari at the root of the voice is first expected to bring small moments of revelation sent to you by your guru. The little moments are then expected to expand into larger and longer moments until you completely internalise the external presence of your guru, and start the process of self-answering in the sadhana, a task earlier performed by your guru in the physical body.
The guru is now reborn within the soul of the disciple. And so is the disciple.
The state of entering the jawari is an intense one. Amir Khan Saheb would sometimes use the word ‘khumar’ to describe this fevered state of intoxication with the mystic. As the ragas were sung, the khumar would rise, pitch and ebb, which has also become the real inner format of the highly developed Hindustani khayal form.
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