The classical music tradition of the Punjab, and the gharanas associated with the Punjab including Talwandi, Kapurthala and Sham Chaurasia are today forgotten, even though the music remains. Yet, amazingly, the oldest classical music festival in North India is in the Punjab. The venue is in the unlikely industrial city of Jallandhar; the festival is the Harivallabh Music Festival; this year will be its 143rd edition. The festival received the financial support and the patronage of a Kapurthala Prince, Kr Bikrama Singh in its early years, continued till the 1920s by his son Raja Sir Daljit Singh. Musicians from all over India used to come to perform, free of charge as an offering to Sant Harivallabh; the intangible blessings they received by their homage came to have a larger than life aura and it soon came to be believed that performing at Harivallabh Sangeet Samaroh resulted in your musical career spiraling. The great vocalist Kesarbai, as late as the 1940s is said to have said of the audience at Harivallabh, which essentially represented the whole of the Punjab, “they are not like the puppet audiences of Delhi. I could never have imagined how sensitive and sophisticated the musical tastes of the regular listeners are.”
The music tradition of this region is old — in the interiors of the Punjab even today, folk songs are still sung that are based on Ragas associated with the Punjab like Asa, Jaunpuri, Des, Kafi, Sindhura and Sindhu Bhairavi. Interestingly, all 10 Sikh Gurus were trained musicians, in addition to being Spiritual leaders. There are nearly 1500 verses in the Guru Granth Sahib; each verse is to be recited in a stipulated Raga. This remarkable fact shows not only the familiarity of each of the 10 Gurus with Ragas, but also their knowledge of which mood was created by which Raga, so they sang the verse in the appropriate Raga.
Fortunately, the forgotten music traditions of the Punjab are being remembered in the magnificent Patiala Heritage Festival to be held in Patiala from 21st-26th February. Earlier editions of the festival, which was last held in 2010, have been held in Amritar, Patiala and Kapurthala. Brainchild of Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, the festival has been given shape by Anita Singh. She said “The objective of the Heritage festival, as envisaged by the Punjab CM is to bring about awareness in people at large and the artist community in particular, the forgotten contribution of the Punjab in our classical arts. The oldest vocal gharana is Gwalior, and I recall Gwalior gharana exponent Pt Lakshman Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit telling me that he had been taught over 300 compositions in Punjabi! This is a living testimony of how rich the musical traditions in the Punjab are.”
Patiala has its own vocal gharana, established with the patronage of the Patiala Princes; a little remembered fact is that the Princes had also patronized musicians today associated with the Delhi vocal gharana. Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Khalifa (head) of the Delhi gharana admits that had it not been for the Patiala Princes who gave financial support to his forbear Ustad Chand Khan in the 1920s, perhaps the Delhi gharana would today not exist! Not just the ruling Prince, the house of Patiala have been huge music lovers and patrons – Raja Mrigendra Singh (William) was an accomplished sitar player and musicologist, incidentally also a Fellow of the Sangeet Natak Akademy; Raja Bhalendra Singh (and now his son Raja Randhir Singh) are known for the wonderful musical soirees held in their homes in Delhi. The Patiala Heritage Festival will feature several top ranking artists in the field of Hindustani classical music and dance.
The first day starts with Dr Madan Gopal Singh and his band of “Chaar yaar”. The genre is Sufi, the lyrics of the Punjabi saints Punjabi.
The next day features senior Patiala gharana exponent Padmashri Pt Ajoy Chakravorty, followed by Banaras’s Padma Bhushan Pt Channulal Mishra. 23rd February starts with Ustad Shujaat Khan, and concludes with the doyen of the Gwalior gharana, the masterly Padmashri Pt Ulhas Kashalkar.
Shujaat, who has performed in the Patiala Heritage Festival in the past said “I still remember the grandeur of the lit walls of the Qila Mubarak!!” The next day features the ever popular Rampur Sahaswan gharana vocalist Padmashri Ustad Rashid Khan, followed by a Sufi inspired kathak dance by Manjari Chaturvedi, who will be dancing to Punjabi compositions of 16th century Sufi mystic Baba Bulleh Shah, sung by authentic Punjabi quawwals, (all the leading Punjabi quawwals, including Ustad Mubarak Ali-Fateh Ali, uncle and father of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan were from the “doaba” Jallandhar region, but migrated to Pakistan after 1947.)
Manjari explained why she chose to focus on Baba Bulleh Shah, inspite of not being a Punjabi herself “Baba Bulleh Shah gave huge respect to dance; one must remember at that time dance was considered a low activity, of “kanjari’s” (prostitutes), yet he gave it respect by himself dancing to lofty thoughts. I decided to pay a tribute to this enlightened Saint through my art.” 25th February starts with another vocal recital by Banaras doyens Padmabhushan Pt’s Rajan and Sajan Mishra, followed by Mewati vocalist Padmavibhushan Pt Jasraj. The next day will feature quawalls from Hyderabad, the Warsi Brothers, and end with Punjab’s popular artist Harshdeep Kaur.
