Pandit Minstrel and His Song, 1911
Filed under:
1911,
hindustaan,
hyundTiMusalmaan,
lyrics,
Music,
pandits,
Vintage photos
Krishna Boya Greb, Kashmiri Minstrel, 1911 (seems to be holding a 'dutar') |
Although the singing traditions of Kashmir are usually associated with Kashmiri Muslims but around hundred years ago, a visitor to Kashmir could run into a thriving community of Pandit singers too.
Yet, the only documented record of them comes from a few pages in a work
titled 'Thirty Songs from the Panjab and Kashmir' (1913) by Ratan Devi
and Ananda Coomaraswamy.
In 1911, while collecting Kashmiri songs in valley, they found that:
"Kashmiri Pandits are rarely musicians: those who are, claim to sing in
many rags and talk boastfully of Kashmir as the original source of the
music of Hindustan reckoning Kashmir another country, and not a part of
India.
We heard three Pandit singers of some reputation, all old men. As
accompaniment to the voice they use a small and rather toneless sitar.
One also played on a zither (independently, not as an accompaniment),
striking the many strings (tuned with much difficulty), with small
wooden hammers held in both hands, making a sweet tinkling music. We
were told that this Pandit was accustomed to sing to sick people, and
even effect cures, but to our thinking, he sang no better than the
others, that is, not very well. The so-called various rags sung by the
Pandits are all very much alike, and musically distinctly uninteresting.
The only song which seemed to us all worth recording was the following
"Invocation to Ganesh" sung by Krishna Boya Greb, Pandit, son of Vasu
Dev Boya Greb, to a sitar accompaniment. This very slow, rather
hymn-like tune, if imagined to be sung in a rather nasal and drawling
voice, will give a good idea of the general type of Pandit songs, expect
as regards the words, which are exceptional. The curious actable
staccato does not appear in any other Kashmiri song here recorded.
Invocation to Ganesh
Tsara tsar chhuk parmisharo
Rachhtam pananen padan tal
Gaza-mokha balaptsandra lambo-dara
Venayeko boyinai jai
Hara-mokha darshun dittam ishara
Rachhtam pananen padan tal
Translation [one Pandit Samsara Chand helped with the text, but the translation are all mostly flawed]:
Thou art all that moves or moves not, Supreme Lord!
The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!
Gaja-mukha, Bala-chandra, Lambo-dara,
Vinayaka, I cry Thee 'Victory'!
In all wise show me They face, O Lord!
The sole of Thy foot be my shelter!
Some other Pandit songs:
Love Song
As nai visiye myon hiu kas go
yas gau masvale gonde hawao
Zune dabi bhitui dari chhas thas gom
Zonamzi osh ma angan tsav
yar ne deshan volingi tsas gom
yas gau masvale gonde hawao
Do not mock, my friend (f.); had it befallen another like me,
That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!
As I sat on the moonlit balcony, he came to the door;
I learnt that my lover had come to my courtyard,
If I meet not my darling (m.) I shall suffer heart-pangs
That fair flower had been a plume in the wind!
[There are a bunch of other songs given in the book by the only one I
could easily recognise was the 'Spring Song' for its refrain Yid
aye...(Eid has come)]
Yid ay bag fel yosman
Karayo kosmanan krav
Yid ay bag fel yosman
Nirit goham vanan
Yut kya tse chhuyo chavo
Trovit tsulhama mosman
karyo kosmanan krav
No comments:
Post a Comment