Dhrupad is a body of Spiritual and Mystical Knowledge

A Sanskrit name, derived from the words dhruva (immovable, permanent) and pad (verse), a combination that means "pillar". The roots of Dhrupad are ancient, and it is discussed in the Hindu Sanskrit text Natyashastra (~200 BCE – 200 CE).

A Dhrupad singer of Akbar’s time was addressed as Kalawant. The Kalawants identified themselves with a Bani (distinct melodic form) , which they came to regard as their tradition.

The four Bani-s of Akbar’s time were: Govarhar, Khandahar, Nauhar and Daguar; and, each was named after the place of its origin or its originator.

According to their traditions, Dhrupad is a body of spiritual and mystical knowledge to be practiced with devotion (Bhakthi) and dedication (Shraddha). It is primarily an act of submission to ones indweller; not a tool for entertainment.

See | Dhrupad Music Society (UK)

See | Dagar Gharana | https://www.instagram.com/dagarvani/ Dagarvani.org | Ustad F. Wasifuddin Dagar's official web site

Guru Shishya Parampara (Ancient Indian Tradition of Master Student)

Hindustani Classical Music is a North Indian classical music tradition that has been evolving since the twelfth century C.E., in what is now northern India and Pakistan, and also Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan. The tradition was born from a cultural synthesis of several musical streams: the vedic chant tradition dating back to approximately one millennium B.C.E., the equally ancient Persian tradition of Musiqi-e assil, and also folk traditions prevalent in the region. The terms North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet are also occasionally used.

The forms of Hindustani classical music were designed primarily for vocal performance, and many instruments were designed and evaluated according to how well they emulate the human voice. The major vocal forms associated with Hindustani classical music are dhrupad, khayal, and thumri. In the twentieth century, as the power of the maharajahs and nawabs waned, their patronage of Hindustani music declined. In modern times, the government-run All India Radio and Radio Pakistan has helped to bring the artistes in front of the public, countering the loss of the patronage system. The advance of the film industry and other public media, has allowed musicians to begin making their living through public performances.

Image | Guru Shishya Parampara (Ancient Indian Tradition of Master Student tradition) The musician Tansen, one of the navratans or nine jewels in Mughal emperor Akbar’s court and his guru, Swami Haridas.

“My guru, Swami Haridas, will not come to your court. He is not employed by you like I am. He lives in a hut in the jungle. He sings only when he feels like; so no one can command him to sing.” “If he will not come, we will go to meet him” said Akbar.

There are seven basic notes (Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni), with five interspersed half-notes, resulting in a 12-note scale.

Unlike the 12-note scale in Western music, the base frequency of the scale is not fixed, and intertonal gaps (temper) may also vary; however with the gradual replacement of the sarangi by the harmonium, an equal tempered scale is increasingly used.

The performance is set to a melodic pattern (raga or raag) characterized in part by specific ascent (Arohana) and descent (Avarohana sequences, which may not be identical. Other characteristics include King (Vadi) and Queen (Samvadi) notes and a unique note phrase (Pakad). In addition, each raga has its natural register (Ambit) and glissando (Meend) rules, as well as features specific to different styles and compositions within the raga structure. Performances are usually marked by considerable improvisation within these norms.

Hindustani musical performance is based on a composition which is set to a meter and from which extemporized variations are generated.

Musical compositions are transmitted directly from teacher to student; though notation systems exist, they are intended mostly as mnemonic devices.

Most musicians are associated with a “gharana,” a musical lineage or group descended through apprenticeship from a particular composer or musician. It is traditional for performers who have reached a distinguished level of achievement, to be awarded titles of respect; Hindus are usually referred to as Pandit and Muslims as Ustad.

Going back to Sufi times, Hindustani music has embodied a tradition of religious neutrality; it is common for Muslim Ustads to sing Hindu bhajans, and vice versa.

The first six Mughal rulers of India prized learning and culture, and, above all, the art of miniature painting.

While Humayun took the initial steps to develop this branch, it was Akbar who laid the actual foundations of a proper school of this art form. The city built by Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri was the ideal locale for a community of craftsmen and aesthetes devoted to the pursuit of the arts.

The Aini Akbari has a special chapter on the art of painting and mentions Akbar’s personal interest in the atelier at his court. The master painters were the two Persians, Abdus Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali; the rest of the artists were mainly Hindus. The painters concentrated on two branches of the art of miniature: book illustration and portraiture. In drawing a portrait, the artist’s primary concern was to seize a likeness. Thus we have a pictorial record of the Nine Jewels who added lustre to Akbar’s court. The most renowned among these was the musician Tansen. In the Aini Akbari, there is an entire chapter on imperial musicians.

There are numerous musicians at court, Hindus, Iranis, Turanis, Kashmiris, both men and women. The court musicians are arranged in seven divisions, one for each day in the week.

With the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, the political structure of North India fragmented into numbers of small states ruled by Nawabs and Maharajas. With that, the historical tradition of Music of India was rudely disrupted, as the Musicians denied of patronage had to move from Court to Court in search of a livelihood. And, the Musicians were forced to leave behind the theoretical aspects of their Music, but to practice Music as a craft to please their new–found patrons.

An interesting fallout of the political re-arrangement was that each ruler of a small state competed with his rival in studding his court with famed musicians. It is said, rulers of some states borrowed heavily to get hold of top-notch performers.

The Music across North India, thus, came to be stratified into styles of various court-music. Each was known as a Gharana (‘family’ or ‘house’), named after its patron-state (such as: Gwalior Gharana, Patiala Gharana, Jaipur Gharana and so on). Each ruler desired to have his very own personalized Gharana of music. And if no particular geographical region can be identified then a Gharana would take the name of the founder; as for instance: Imdadkhani Gharānā named after the great Imdad Khan (1848 -1920) who served in the Royal Courts of Mysore and Indore.

A Gharana, in due course, turned into a symbol of social standing, affluence and power among the rulers.

The Musicians who suffered most under the changed circumstances were the Dhrupad singers. All along their history they were sheltered by the patronage of Royal Courts. And, their Classic Music of contemplative devotional nature was not favored by the new breed of Nawabs who were looking for entertainment.

In the colonial period it was the Nautch-gana that took the central stage in the court entertainment. The Nautch was a popular court dance performed by Nautch-girls in India. The culture of the performing art of the Nautch rose to prominence during the later period of Mughal Empire, and the British East India Company Rule. It spread to the palaces of the Nawabs and of the Princely states; to the pleasure resorts of the senior officials of the British Raj; and , even to the places of smaller Zamindars.

New Forms of Musical Synthesis

The advent of Islamic rule under the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and later the Mughal Empire over northern India resulted in considerable cultural interchange. Local musicians received patronage in the courts of the new rulers, who in their turn, took an increasing interest in local music forms.

Though the first generations of the Delhi Sultanate may have been rooted in cultural traditions from outside of India, they gradually adopted many aspects of traditional Hindu culture from their kingdoms. This spurred the fusion of Hindu and Muslim and brought forth new forms of musical synthesis like qawwali and khayal.

The most influential musician from the Delhi Sultanate period was Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), sometimes called the father of Hindustani classical music. A prolific composer in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, as well as Braj Bhasha, he is credited with systematizing many aspects of Hindustani music, and also introducing the ragas Zeelaf and Sarparda. He created the genre of the qawwali, which fuses Persian melody and beat on a dhrupad like structure. A number of instruments, such as the sitar and tabla, were also introduced in his time.

Amir Khusrau is sometimes credited with the origins of the khayal form.

Many of the musical forms innovated by these pioneers merged with the Hindu tradition, in the work of composers like Kabir or Nanak, which was composed in the popular language of the people (as opposed to Sanskrit). This was part of a larger Bhakti tradition, (strongly related to the Vaishnavite movement) which remained influential across several centuries; notable figures include Jayadeva (11th century), Vidyapati (1375), Chandidas (14th-15th century), and Meerabai (1555-1603 ).

As the Mughal Empire came into closer contact with Hindus, especially under Jalal ud-Din Akbar, music and dance also flourished.

Image | Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya RA

Courtesy Chughtai Museum

A khyal consists of around 4-8 lines of lyrics set to a tune

A form of vocal music, khayal is almost entirely improvised and very emotional in nature. A khyal consists of around 4-8 lines of lyrics set to a tune. The singer then uses these few lines as the basis for improvisation. Though its origins are unknown, it appeared during the fifteenth-century rule of Hussain Shah Sharqi and was popular by the eighteenth-century rule of Mohammed Shah. The best-known composers of the period were Sadarang (a pen name for Niamat Khan), Adarang, Manrang and Nisar Hussain Khan Gwalior.

The basic ensemble of a khyal performance consists of the featured soloist(s), an accompanist (or two) on a melody-producing instrument, a tabla player, and one or two accompanists on the tanpura, the drone-producing instrument. A possible addition to the basic ensemble is a supporting singer (or two). This is a traditional part of training for young aspiring artists whose task is to begin improvising when the soloist wishes to rest.

Khyal bases itself on a repertoire of short songs (two to eight lines); a khyal song is called a bandish. Every singer generally renders the same bandish differently, with only the text and the raga remaining the same. Khyal bandishes are typically composed in a variant of Hindi-Urdu or occasionally the Dari variant of the Persian language, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Rajasthani, or Marathi.

A bandish is divided into two parts, the sthayi and the antarā (if there are three sections, the third will be considered as an additional antara verse). These sections can be characterised in terms of three pitch registers, low middle and high. The sthayi section is composed in the low register and bottom of the middle half register, while the antara section is composed in the upper middle register and high registers. The sthayi section is considered more important because it shows the pitch selection and melodic contours of the raga, while antara section is more textually dense.

Another vocal form, Tarana are songs that are used to convey a mood of elation and are usually performed towards the end of a concert. They consist of a few lines of rhythmic sounds or bols set to a tune. The singer uses these few lines as a basis for very fast improvisation. It can be compared to the Tillana of Carnatic music.

Thumri is a semi-classical vocal form said to have begun with the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, 1847-1856. There are three types of thumri: Punjabi, Lucknavi and poorab ang thumri. The lyrics are typically in a proto-Hindi language called Braj bhasha and are usually romantic.

Ghazal was originally a Persian form of poetry. In the Indian sub-continent, Ghazal became the most common form of poetry in the Urdu language and was popularized by classical poets like Mir Taqi Mir, Ghalib, Zauq and Sauda among the North Indian literary elite. Vocal music incorporating this mode of poetry is popular with multiple variations across Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Turkey, India and Pakistan. Ghazal exists in multiple variations, including folk and pop forms but its greatest exponents sing it in a semi-classical style.

Instrumental Forms since Ancient Times

Although Hindustani music clearly is focused on vocal performance, instrumental forms have existed since ancient times. A number of musical instruments are associated with Hindustani classical music. The veena, a string instrument, was traditionally regarded as the most important, but few play it today and it has largely been superseded by its cousins the sitar and the sarod, both of which owe their origin to Persian influences.

The tambura is also regarded as one of the most important instruments, due to it functioning as a fundamental layer that the rest of instruments adhere to throughout a performance. Among bowed instruments, the sarangi and violin are popular.

The bansuri, shehnai and harmonium are important wind instruments. In the percussion ensemble, the tabla and the pakhavaj are the most popular. Rarely used plucked or struck string instruments include the surbahar, sursringar, santoor, and various versions of the slide guitar. Various other instruments have also been used in varying degrees.