Mandir dha de, Masjid dha de, par kisse ka dil na dhayee

By Sarover Zaidi - The Hindu - Chennai, India
Sunday, December 23, 2007

The Ruhaniyat festival in Mumbai brought together performers and singers from places as diverse as Rajasthan, Bengal and Konya, Turkey

“Mandir dha de, Masjid dha de, par kisse ka dil na dhayee” (you may break the mosque or the temple, but do not break anyone’s heart), explains Kachra Khan, evoking Bulleh Shah and his relevance in the current world.

He represents the Langaas community of Rajasthan which is being showcased amongst many others in the Ruhaniyat festival in Mumbai.

It has been a musical experience that enthralled the audience in an overwhelming and sublime manner.

This festival was made possible by Mahesh Babu and his wife Nandini, who, for the last seven years, have been searching and showcasing many Sufi mystics and musicians from India on the platform of the Ruhaniyat festival.

Over the last 5 years, the event has been supported by TCS and SBI. The experience this year ranged from Kamala Devi Bheel from the interiors of Madhya Pradesh, to the Whirling Dervishes which has come from Konya, the home of Jallaluddin Rumi.

The message of Rumi is “the essence of Insaniyat” explains Mithaf Biyukalim, the deputy Mayor of Konya, who had accompanied the troupe of Whirling Dervishes here.

Celebrating harmony
Mevlana Rumi was born in Balkh, explains Kadir Ozcakil, the head of the Whirling Dervishes troupe. Konya is the city where Rumi lived and was buried and the city is the symbolic Mecca of the Masnavis.

Kadir says he started young; in fact, he was initiated into the orders at the age of five by his uncle who was a Sheikh and for the last 34 years he has been practising the meditations of a whirling dervish.

He explains the ritual through the word Mevlana which means the intersection between the brain and the heart. Here the brain symbolises tolerance and the heart symbolises love. This, he says, should create the Sama of life.

On a full moon night, this group of Islamic mystics initiated the “Sema” (the mood) for love, peace, and harmony in the city of Mumbai. This was heard in complete silence as Sema is more of a ceremony than a performance.

Joy and rebellion
The word “Baul”, besides meaning “the mad mystic”, “the wind” also means “the one carrying the dead body”.

This was elaborated by Parvathy Baul who explained that to be a Baul is to seek freedom from everything, including the bond with the body.

Baul is both an individual ecstasy and an individual revolt. This is the path of rebellion which defies all caste and religion.

The path of the Baul for Parvathy is the path of absolute joy. She started young as a painter in Shantiniketan and used to visit the wandering mystics of Bengal to sketch them. It was then that she was pulled by their words and songs and eventually by the essence of their lifestyle.

She also believes that the path of the Baul and the mystics is not the alternative in India but the norm. It is only in the mainstream Indian classical forums that this is called the alternative.

She enthralled the audience with her song which literally means “the practice of dying” while she made the audience come alive with her voice.

The Manganiyars from the deserts of Rajasthan sang the story of Rani Bhatiyani who committed Sati for her true love, the brother of her husband. An early ancestor of the Manganiyars from the hamlet of the Rani, unaware of the death of the Rani, was directed towards her palace by the enraged in-laws, only to meet the spirit of the Rani who showered him with her jewellery.

The gift of music
Defying her orders not to mention this to the in-laws, the Manganiyar meets them only to lose the precious collection.

Heart broken, the Manganiyar walks back to his village, but meets the spirit of the Rani again, who, although angry with him for violating her command, blesses him with the gift of ever sustaining music.

Manganiyars have been carrying on this hereditary tradition of music ever since although some aspects of this tradition, like the Kavitv, are in danger of being disrupted.

Ruhaniyat also witnessed a glimpse of this rare form from the masters themselves. The Maganiyars, besides singing the story of Rani Bhatiyani, also sang songs of the popular Sufis of the region, such as Sucha Sayain, Bulleh Shah and Kabir.

Overall, the Ruhaniyat festival was very well organised and presented, but the demand for its passes was high and it had shades of becoming an elite event. The team does plan to take this to a much larger public platform, and is also taking this to seven cities over the next three months.

[About the Ruhaniyat Festival, see also these articles (click and scroll down): http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Horniman].