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History of Indian Classical Music
A Short Analysis of Music Of Bengal BENGAL’S contributions to music as well as to other phases of arts are immense. Beginning from the plain folk songs like ballads of Gupta and Pala periods down to current classical type of music, there had been changes, adjustments, readjustments, addition and alterations together with various innovations in the forms of musical compositions and musical phrases, melodies and tempi through the ages. It should be remembered in this connection that two types of music, folk and classic-folk along with classical one were always in practice both in rural and urban societies not only on undivided Bengal, but also on Greater Bengal which consisted of whole of Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and Assam The Zemindars and Nawabs as well as the art-loving wealthy men of Bengal always patronised music, dance, and drama for their healthy culture and wide appreciations. The musical compositions and musical phrases (prabandhas) of songs like ‘vajra , and ‘carya’ of the Vajrayani and ‘Sahajani Buddhists of the 10th-11th. century AD used to be sung with classical melodies and rhythms(ragas and talas) accompanied by musical instruments like lute with one string or two(Ektara or dotara) and drums of various sizes and cymbals. The Buddhist Yogis sometimes used to dance with their songs with ecstatic joy like in the Arabian Sufis and Christian mystics of the medieval time. Some scholars are of the opinion that song like ‘carya’ was not only composed by Buddhists Monk alone but by the ‘Saivaite’ and ‘Vaisnava’ Tantric. Some were reputed as great Yogis( Mahayogi, Yogirajas) and others as ‘Avadhuta ‘( Literally purified, washed clean of ignorance or delusion). Similarly a sacred and ritualistic song like ‘vajra’ was also in practice among the ‘Vajrayani Buddhists’ as ‘carya’ was in practice amongst the ‘Sahajayani Buddhist’ and that both the songs ‘carya’ and vajra’ were composed in old Bengal. The ‘carya’ or ‘carys giti ‘(pada) is also known as ‘cakragiti’. The word cakra is specially used in the Tantric sadhana, to mean a circle of the ‘Sakti sadhana’, engaged in the Tantric function. The padas or ganas do not only hear the literary and social values, but also religious and spiritual ones, and it will be wise to call them as ‘socio religious’ songs. Different kind of classical, sastric ragas- like, mallari
kamoda bhairavi malasri gubuda kanha gujari, savari Gunjari ramakri aru devakri desakha dhanashri varadi etc. The ‘Gitgovinda-padaganas’ or ‘astapadis’ were composed by Thakar Jayadeva of Kenduvilva (West Bengal) in the 12 th .century AD. They seem to be constructed after the form of ‘Caryagiti’ of the mystic Buddhist yogis, though their languages differed from each other to some extent. The songs of ‘Gitagovinda’ are the prabandha type of gitis, which means they are duly bound up with music part(dhatu), rhythm(tala) and other angas.The language of ‘Gitgovinda’ padaganas is a combination of Sanskrit and Prakit. According to some musicologist that the songs of “Gitgovinda’ are written in Sanskrit but their rhythms and rhyme belong to ‘apabhramsa’ poetry. The padas or songs of the ‘Gitgovinda’ are tuned to classical melodies and rhythms. It is said that sometimes ‘astapadis’ were sung accompanied by classical dances as formulated by Bharata in ‘Natyasastra’. In different temples of ‘Kartikeyan’ and ‘Shiva’, natis, and natas and specially the devdasis (temple dancing girls) used to perform dance according to the laws and principles set forth in Bharata’s Natyasastra during the time of Gupta and Pala king. During the reign of Raja Laksmanasena’ the culture of both classical dance and music were properly maintained. Besides, ‘Mangalagitis’ were in practice and their materials were taken from the ‘Mangala Kavya’. The mangalagitis were of the socio-religious songs, and they were popular among all classes of people. Sarangadeva has described both ‘Mangalagitis’ and ‘carya’ as classical ones.
bhanga-kirtana(mutilated form of kirtana’, pancali, and yatra evolved. Some other say that ‘dhap-kirtana’ evolved from the ‘padavali kirtana’and ‘yatra- gana’ as well as pancali evolved from the dhap-kirtana. But most of the musicologists are of the opinion ‘dhap-kirtana’ is the product of a mixture of ‘ganas’, ‘padavali-kirtana’,’pancali and yatra. The theme of the ‘dhap-kirtana’ was composed mainly of the sportive plays of Sri Krishna (brja lila). The word ’dhap’ is a product of rural local language (desaja bhasa). It conveys two meaning or ideas, one of which is pattern of construction or form, the other is the sound caused by the fall of an empty or hollow matter on the ground. Normally the second meaning is taken which conveys the idea of a real classical type of ‘mahajana-padavali-kirtan’ but an imitation or a changed form, thereof the dhap-kirtan does not follow the rules of singing as set forth in the padavali-kirtan, but is sung in its own way. Performers of the dhap-kirtan do not follow the practice of singing of ‘gaur- chandrika’ before they begin the real theme of kirtananagana. Sometimes they sing their own compositions (composed padas) along with the traditional ones with the help of classical ragas with talas. They also use ‘tukka’ (bhanga kirtana’ in the form of a lecture or conversation instead of using tana of classical type of songs as used in ‘padavali kirtana’. Sometimes they use words for creating laughter ( hasyarasa) in the minds of the audience. So in the later days ‘dhap-kirtana’ has been divided into two Dhap-kirtana Dhap-yatra (performed exclusively by women). Madhusudan Kinnar (or Madhu Kan) introduced the ‘dhap’-light type of kirtana. Govinda Adhikari earned great reputation in Krishna-Kirtana in West Bengal. Madhu kan in the like manner earned it in East Bengal for his new type of ‘dhap-kirtana’ or ‘pancali’. Th e word ‘kinnar’ gives the idea of celestial dancing class of people, the evidence of whom is found in Ramayana, Mahabharata, Hribansa, Bhagavata, and different Puranas along with the name of Yaksa, Raksasa, Gandharva etc. In fact the word kinnar connotes the idea of a dancing class of people, like the word nata. The father of Madhusudan was Ananda Kinnar by name, he used to earn his living with music. ‘Kinnar’ was his title which defined that he was the musician by class. Madhusudan inherited the tradition of culture of music from his father as well as from his family. Some are of opinion that he introduced dhap-kirtana in the form of pancali and earned great reputation for his own unique style. Ordinarily he was known
Madhu Kan. The main themes of his kirtana were four in number and they were- Kalanka-vanjana Akursamvada Mathur Pravasa All of them were composed with the legend, stories of Lord Krishna. The ‘baulgiti’ or ‘baulgana’ evolved in the Radadesa in West Bengal. Some type of baulgiti also evolved in East Bengal. It is also known as ‘dehatattva-gana’ because the Bauls sing songs with the “Buddhist-cum-Yogi interpretations of the material body. They recognise the Sahaja, instead of God or atman and Sahaja resides in the gross material body, being free from all kinds of impurities and imperfections. So a baul tries to be Sahajamanusa by means of the ‘kaya-sadhana’(by practice of the body)’. Music helps him in his religious practice. The word baul, connotes the idea of a man who is batul or mad and therefore a baul is mad after the realization of the Sahaja. The Arabic term of baul or aullia or dewana. The Kaya-sadhakas are divided into four – Aul Baul Daravesa Sai The Sai or Swami is topmost Sadhakas of Bauls. Regarding the significance of the terms baul and baul gana. The bauls belonging to the Hindu community are generally Vaisnavite in their faith and those belonging to the Muslim community are generally sufi-istic and in both the schools the emphasis is on the mystic conception of divine love. The word baul with its Hindi variant baur may be variously derived; it may be derived from the Sanskrit word vatul (affected by mind-disease i.e. mad, crazy) or from vyakula (impatiently eager); both these derivations are consistent with their modern sense of the word, which denotes inspired people with an ecstatic eagerness for a spiritual life where one can realise one’s union with the eternal Beloved – ‘The man of the heart’. The name baul as also its cognate form Aul can very well be associated also with the Arabic word awliya , the word
prime aim of the sahajayana school was to attain the transcendental state of ‘Mahasukha’ like nirvana. Doctrine of Sahajayana school reigned supreme over Greater Bengal comprising of entire Bengal, Bihar, Orrisa and Assam in 10 th .- th .centuryAD. The padas like carya, vajra, baul etc. practically evolved during that time. The Vaishnava religion also got mixed with the Buddhist sahajayana to some extent and it was sometimes believed that the Vaishnava-rasa-kirtana also evolved out of materials of carya and other sahajia padas. The bauls use musical instruments like gopiyantra and cymbal (mandira to accompany their songs) wear yellow robes and use tinkling anklets (nupura) round their ankles. They also dance in a circle along with the rhythm of their songs like the Arabian or the Persian Sufis. Some of the tunes or musical modes of the baulgiti are more or less influenced by those of the padavali kirtana. Besides the baulgiti, there are uma-samgita, (agomoni-samgita), syama- samgita, kali-kirtana etc. which are purely devotional and spiritual in nature.The devotional and classic-Bengali songs, composed by Sadhaka Ramprasad, Kamalakanta, etc. and other mystic saints as well as the songs composed by Bharatchandra, Nidhu Babu, Raghunath Dewan, Raja Rammohan Roy, Dasarathi roy, Govinda Adhikari, Madhusudan Kinnar, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Krishnaprasanna sen, Jyotirindranath tagore, Satyendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore and others are valuable assets to the music of Bengal. Different kinds of classical and devotional songs of Brahma samaj are worth mentioning in this connection. The akhdai haf-akhdai kavigana panchali yatragana rama-yana-gan,jhumur kali-kirtan are also special features of classic-folk songs of Bengal. Regarding the kavigana, Isvarchandra Gupta had said that before the 1210 sala, Maharaj navakrishna Bahadur of Shobhabazar and Bagbazar, Calcutta, and it
should be mentioned that classical ragas and talas were used in the akhdai- gana. Gradually the practice of half-akhdai was introduced in Calcutta and also Chinsura. In the beginning of the 18 th .century, the kavigana evolved and was introduced in both the common and educated socities of Calcutta. The kavigana was socio-religious in nature. Kavi songs were originally constituted as a part of old yatras or popular play. The simple episode of Yatra specially those of the nature of light opera, where in course of time wrought into a separate class of songs, which were sung by those distinct bodies of professional birds called Kaviwalas whose domain was thus completely served from the yatra parties. Existence of the kavisong may be traced to the beginning of the 18 th .century or beyond to the 17 th .century, but the most flourishing period of the kaviwalas were between1760 to 1830. Rasu-Nrsimha, Hari or Haru Thakur, Ram Babu, Nitai Vairagai and other noted kaviwalas died in 1830. Their followers maintained the tradition of kavi-poetry up to fiftees, therefore kavi-poetry covers roughly the long stretch of a century, after 1830 all greater kaviwalas died one by one and kavi-poetry had rapidly declined in the hands of their less gifted followers. The themes of kavi-gana were taken from the legends and the stories of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Haribans, and other Puranas. Some are of opinion that the ‘Khedu’ or ‘Khedu-gana’ are the forerunners of kavigana. The type of kavigana which were prevalent in Santipur and Fulia in the 18 th .century were known as ‘khedua, this fact had been mentioned by Bharat Chandra in his ‘Annadamangal’kavya. Again we have to remember that the old form of ‘pancali’ is the real source of all kind of classico-folk songs including kavigana of Bengal. Kavigana begins with the music part-‘citen’, and then the ‘mahada’ is sung and at last antara is sung. The words of the kavigana mainly depend on the tunes and it can be said that the sahitya of the songs is used in accordance with the nature of production of the tunes. The kavigana is composed of four classes of musical themes known as – Malasi Sakhi-sambada Gostha
a sastric or classical interpretation of the pancali which is valuable for the student s of history of Indian music. According to him pancali evolved from Ksudra giti Samkirna-giti Rupaka-giti The pancali is different from the jhumri type of song and it is also different from ’mangalagana’ and ‘padavali’, because the pancali is of the visma-dhruva type and it is divided into Sama Ardha-sama Visma Pancali used to be sung along with ‘chada’ so it will not be wise to mix up pancali with ‘mangalagiti’. Dasarathi roy composed his new and novel type of pancali with the admixture of the kavigana and mangalagana. In fact Bengali literature for this mass (jana-sahitya) was of two kinds- Dhamali Laukika-pancali. Dhamali was an original and ancient for the mass or general public. But it was regarded illegal, whereas the pancali was legal. The dhamalis are composed with the plot of characters of Sri Krishna and siva but they are not meant for the educated society, therefore are played outside the village among the uncultured people. Laukika – panchali is also divided inti two – Old & New Pancalis introduced by Dasarathi Roy was known as new pancali but the old panalis like Manasa mangala, Chandi mangala, Suriya, nath mangala, Dharma mangala etc. were the old pancali.
The pancali type of songs evolved from the songs which accompanied the plays of the dolls (pancalika or putul-nach) in anciet India.This type of plays with songs was connected with the Sanskrit drama. These early Bengali devotional narrative poems which meant doll or puppet. The name indicates that at beginning the devotional songs were sung and poems chanted supporting a puppet-show of the story. An abridged version of these is showing of the painted scroll (Pata) depicting the stories of the devotional narratives. Man showing the scroll chants the story in crude (often extempore) verse as he unrolls it. This popular show, which obtained in West Bengal only is fast disappearing. Some musicologists are of the opinion that as the ‘panchaladesa’ was a land for designing or making dolls, so the dolls were known by the name of that country. The old form of ‘yatragana’ was practically known as the ‘natagana’ or ‘natagiti’. In chaitanya-bhagabata, it is mentioned that Sri Chaitanya himself took part in the play of the Natagiti, Rukminiharana. But we don’t find any ancient book on yatragna. Definite form of yatragana was introduced in the 19 th.century and that form was influenced by ‘Gitagovinda’. The yatragana was divided into three according to three kinds of subject matter and they were Krsna-yatra Vidyasundaryatra Ramayatra Among them Krishna yatra was most ancient. The real name of Krishna yatra was “kaliadamana’. In this all kinds of sportive plays of lord Krshna were included. The dance was a special feature in ancient type of yatragana. The ‘jhumura’ was also known as one of the type of yatra, as duet songs, lagni and dance were the definite features of jhumra-gana. The lower type of Jhumra was known as ‘leto’. Different types of song are connected with daily life of the peoples of Bengal. The folk songs like- Bhadu Patua Jaga Yugiyatra
Bhasan Gurusatya Trinather- gana Kanai-balai gita etc. Musical instruments like Ektara Dotara Gopiyantra Sarinda Murali Ddavansi,tipra-vansi Singa Madala Khola Kansi khanjni etc. are used in those folk songs The ‘bhadu’ songs are current among men and women of Manbhum. In Bankura, West Burdwan, Birbhum, bhadu is specially sung by the married girls to the rhythm of dhak( drum ). These are narrative songs,. Karam means and are similar to ‘karam’ songs of the nomadic tribes of Chotanagpur. Karam means the Kadam tree and men and women sing karam around the planted branches of Kadam tree. Dances are followed by the song. Men and women dance with different poses with the beat of different drums. Flutes of bamboo sometimes accompany the song. The’patua’ songs are also narrative ones, and they narrate the lives and greatness of the tribal gods and goddesses. Different images of gods and goddess are painted on cloth, and when they are shown to the audiences, ‘patua’ songs are sung with different melodies. They are not followed by any musical instrument. The rhythm of the ‘patua’ songs are sometimes observed by the clapping of hands. These songs are current at the south of Manipur and
at Assam, north of Birbhum and different parts of West Bengal. Besides ‘bhaoaiya’, ‘jaga’,’yugiyatra’ other kinds of songs are also current in different parts of West Bengal and East Bengal. The tusu song is similar to bhadu song. Baul songs of West Bengal are religious. They are sung in connection with Tantric and sahajiya spiritual practices. They are followed by ektara or dotara. The jari songs are expressive of the sentiments of valour are always followed by dances. The sari songs are sung, when boats ply over the rivers. The ghetu songs are loving ones, and they are sung with dances. The jhumura, and gambhira, bhatiyali etc. are narrative and socio-religious songs. They are many types of songs which are connected with religious function like- Kukkuti-vrata Suriya vrata Sejuti-vrata Sandhyamani-vrata Yamapukura-vrata. Some of the vratas are observed by aged women and some by unmarried girls. Different kinds of folk songs are attached to the religious vratas and many of them are accompanied by dances. The literature of these songs are oral and at the same time traditional. The singers do not rehearse, but simply sing in a traditional manner. They are sometimes accompanied by dances and musical instruments. The gajan songs are sung in the memory of Dharma-Thakur and Nila-shiva. Dances are observed in the gajan songs. Besides these, there are numeral rural songs and folk dances that inspire men and women of Bengal. The folk songs are the source of higher classical songs. In ancient time we find that local (desi) tunes of different countries and races are absorbed into the stock of the classical music, when they were reshaped and refreshed with the sastric ten essentials (dasalaksana) like sonat, consonant, assonant etc. All the folk – songs attached to a social functions as well as to religious ceremonies whence people used to imbibe sacred atmosphere all the time. These songs appeal to the heart and transform the domestic atmosphere of the village into spiritual one. The folk-songs are really a fountain head of people’s new energy
and his musical compositions brought renaissance in the field of music. His songs are divided into main six classes and they – Puja Prakriti Prema Anusthanika Svaseda Vichitra His ‘gitinatyas’ and ‘nrtyanayas’ are the unique contributions. His seasonal songs ‘ritu-ranga’ are full of graceful rhythms and aesthetic lustre. Rabindranath was a great poet, composer, and dramatist, who brought a renaissance not only in India, but also in the Western world. The songs of Natyacharya Girish Ghosh, Dvijidralall Roy, Rajanikanta Sen, Atul Prasad Sen, Nazrul Islam are the products of 19 th .- th .century. In 19 th .century, besides Kirtana and Yatras, Dhap-Kirtana was also in practice in Bengal.
