In its endeavor to introduce the concept of Safeguarding ICH practices, Madhukali has been in contact with members of several communities. It is with a sense of fulfillment and joy that we acknowledge success. The musician communities of Rajasthan have fared a whit better than their counterparts as a result of projection and promotion of the state as tourist destination of India. Several f them have been fortunate in taking their art to distant lands. Suraj Bhopa is one such, who through collaboration with Italian singer Andrea Camerini, has toured widely and made his singing style visible to the world. Yet, it takes a community decision to plan survival and preservation of their cultural heritage.

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On his tour around the country the Mahatma espied an eight year old girl. She carried a bucket of water in her right hand and a two year old hitched on her waist protectively hooked by her left. He asked, “How can you carry this pail of water with that burden?” The girl replied, “It is not a burden, he is my brother.”

Caught up in the race to keep pace, we often forget our treasure, our heritage and consider it as a burden. Once the initial effort to break the inertia of proud belonging is made, our inheritance shall make us strong and confident to enjoy challenges life brings. With no past possession, we anxiously pursue worth that may grant us fulfillment.

Heritage is our ready-made fulfillment; it does away with the worry of attaining lasting value, for we have it right now. Look within and find it. Look around with that knowledge and find the world lovelier than before.

 

Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar — Indian Classical vocalist of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana.
 

There is joy in ringing in the new, but sorrow as it gets difficult to hold on to old. Poets have mourned this loss and patrons / scholars / enthusiasts have tried strategies to stop or delay the decay. After all, life can not be ordered about. The erosion is as much a reality as evolution. Often the old resurfaces in new forms. Yet, the loss in past two decades results not from the natural cycle but from a mighty force growing rapidly. What started merely with promise of ‘economic liberalization’ has affected the distribution of wealth and labor in a way that current life-style has become outdated overnight. Thinkers had predicted about such ‘future-shock’ but little study was made for veracity of their claim; effectively, no study readied people for this. The global concern for safe-guarding at least some of the practices – rich repositories of knowledge conveyed through oral tradition – is a creditable step in the right direction, but overall response is not sufficient. Only one university has made this a part of academic curriculum. That too as a short summer course. Yet a beginning has been made in the direction of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage practices throughout the globe. Four nations have concrete plans while three others are in process of submitting theirs regarding Consultation on ways of celebrating the year 2013 as the tenth anniversary of the Convention.

India has always been a conglomerate of distinct cultures co-existing harmoniously while maintaining uniqueness. The myriad jewels nurtured in a static life-style were preserved in balance due to absence of any fierce volatility. They are so many that it has been difficult to inventory them. There was no need to do so a few years back.

Today, there are a thousand practices in that many square miles which would soon be annihilated by the massive force of changing life-style. He, who has more stands to lose more. Only if all communities had found a Kamal Kothari, numerous art-forms, life-styles can still be conserved, safe-guarded like the singing of Langa and Manganiars.

Yet, what is the extent of preservation, even in the best case? Mr. Kothari through Herculean efforts brought these rural singers on brink of starvation to limelight. Small groups of folk artiste were formed like co-operative societies.  The tourism and culture departments of Rajasthan were motivated to promote tourism by supporting the folk artistes. The simple entertainers, under the demand of an alien interest learnt new forms of behavior. They exchanged their  simple faith for craft of a showman. As a result, with little respect for their own heritage they are quick to mimic it for the pay-master curiosity eager to subvert all in order to retain interest.

Roze Khan confesses that while others make money out of mimicking their art (Musicians in film industry who lift their tunes) they are content to teach their art to children in their self-styled ‘school’ at Barmer.  The word ‘Manganiar’ comes from an epithet, now considered derogatory – Alm-seekers, beggars. This has, thus, been a tribe, rich in humility – accepting that which was given – as blessed in the joy of making music. It is not music alone but their contentment that is precious and needs to be preserved, if not in all, at least in some members of society. With commercialization changing their very attitudes, they too shall be turned into mummified curio-s that one day having lost their sheen of interest to the buyers, will neither have humility, contentment nor hope to bank upon.

As a last word, this wandering tribe with open access to royal courts and street-corners alike, had an ability to recognize good music and ingrain the classical rules into their rustic lays; they have been instrumental in keeping alive many musical phrases which were lost with gradual death of many schools of classical music. With Langa and Manganiar-s it is not only spirit of stoic contentment and gaiety born of innocence that is preserved, but also a part of Indian Classical Music. They are content to beg… for your patience and enjoyment. Do send them your commendations at their email address:  tharlok_kalasansthan@yahoo.com

We are truly social creatures now. Man’s dependence on others has reached exponential levels; also his connectedness. The time between one man’s thought and another’s benefit is drastically reduced. Also, time is no longer an absorbent or  muffler that might diminish or soften harsh ideas or actions. This “real-time” action disables the possibility of  meaningful action on individual level, drastically minimizing his area of influence. While it turns life into a queue or a traffic lane with little leeway for self-directed  action (theirs not to question why, theirs but to do and die), greatest sufferers are those who dwell in the realm of creativity, imagination and ideas.

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~ Dr. Umesh Yadav

It was on Mr. Santosh Soni’s insistence that I traveled down to Rewa to have a look at a unique craft. Mr. Soni has been constantly bringing to people’s attention to this rare enterprise. An erstwhile estate, Rewa finds mention in ancient Sanskrit treatises and Grearson hails the dialect of the region, Baghelkhandi as being nearest to Sanskrit. First contribution to Hindi drama came from this region when ruling prince wrote Anand Raghunandan. One of the oldest family of painters-sculptors, the Baoni-s belong to Rewa.

The region is also known to be the seat of betel-nut users. If someone asks for extra betel nut in Calcutta, Delhi, the vendor may smile in sympathy or contempt, but would not miss an opportunity to show his wisdom – “So, you hail from Rewa.” Supari – the betel nut – does not grow here, but enjoys great religious and social acceptance. It is an essential ingredient in the prepared betel serving – paan – which people take from four to twenty times a day. Enthusiasts in Vindhya region always take three to five times more of Supari.

A replica of Supari stick presented to Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru

In an interview with Abhinandan, I learnt that his late uncle Ramsiya Kunder presented a cane made with these nuts to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956 on prime minister’s first visit to Vindhya region. A maker of wooden toys, Ramsiya was fascinated by the solidity and texture of this nut. He found that modifying his tools a bit, he could work with these wooden spheres almost like regular wood. He started off with simple models like solid shapes, two-part boxes. Then he discovered that betel-nut was able to accommodate grooves. No shape is complex enough for these artistes today. There is even a replica of the Taj made wholly out of betel-nuts.

The nuts come in several varieties which traders have named as Chabi, Baba, Mangrauli etc. Two varieties have been preferred over others, both because of native smoothness and density. Maura has larger grains and is used for face, crown, palms etc., while the smaller variety used in ritual worship (and so called, Puja) is used for limbs, torso and foundation parts of the figure.

Rampal learned the art of making Supari figurines beside his elder brother. He heads the family after his brother’s death. His elder brother’s sons, Awadhesh and Durgesh work at the original family place while he lives in his own house about a kilometer away. His eldest nephew Omkar opted out of the family craft and works in bank. His own son Satyapal too has sought employment elsewhere. Recently his son Chandan died leaving only the younger brothers Kundan and Abhinandan to keep the tradition alive. Children in the third generation, though several of them under 12 yet, are more interested in studies and do not wish to work at toy-making. Sporadically, on behest of some enthusiast they have attempted training youngsters but find that lacking the sensibility, they prove grossly misfit. Indeed, to finish a product as they do, it requires aesthetics of a painter, a sculptor besides the acumen of an architect and finesse of a wood-carver.

Abhinandan Kunder: Carrying on Heritage

Abhinandan has been trained by his father to create a niche – and for fifteen years now he makes figures of lord Ganesh only. He says that he is over-worked as there are more orders for Supari-Ganesh than he can handle single-handedly. He admits that even after 15 years , he considers himself a novice in this art. Mr. Soni is trying to use these artistes as master trainers to train members of rural self help groups; so long as persons like him are interested in such traditional art-forms, they might challenge the eco-cultural pressures of globalization. Who knows, someday it might seem strange that this celebration of life was ever in need of safeguarding.

Indian art has been labeled as impersonal; it has been considered as a medium for sublimation of self or soul (Atma) thus attaining union with oversoul (Paramatma). As fundamentals of all – music, dance, drama, sculpture – can be traced to originate from the same root, despite different pace and mode of evolution, Indian art followed the same general principle – to express the universal through individual. Ideas, similar and contrary, have taken contemplation of art beyond such simplicity. Past few decades have swept in a multi-pronged fluid evaluation (non-) system that changes stances unpredictably. The only certainty accorded to art is its inability to exist without purpose; such is the demand for Art as commodity that its relationship to anything intangible is no longer considered worthy of thought.
In its essence Art is intangible and is the best medium for contemplation, expression and carriage of intangible. When a young pupil learns a musical composition, ostensibly he learns arrangements of sounds; the laws governing the Raga are automatically passed. As he sculpts a lotus or chakra in the hands of a particular deity, the artiste passes a complete body of philosophy often without realizing it. The positive use of a not-so-politically-correct phrase is a reflection on the age and not on the poet. In the post-modern age the form of Indian artistic practice is definitely undergoing a sea-change. Today when Art is gradually losing its identity independent of its response to economic forces – in subservience or resistance – how safe and strong are the practices to preserve the traditional dedication to celebration of the intangible? Shall Indian Art be able to retain its fundamental rules and appeal? Is it possible to modify musical instruments without loss of innate musicality? How far does contemporary art succeed in harmonizing temporal with eternal?

I often wondered about the process involved in aesthetic experience. There are things that appeal to us naturally. If people we value appreciate the same thing we feel that our taste is commendable. Often such a taste goes against the preference of the masses. It was as student of literature that I developed an insight into the aesthetic process. Still, when it came to fine arts and that too music it became all too complex. A poem does not get fragmented when we talk about a particular image, but as we speak of a musical phrase we seem to undermine rest of the composition. More often than not, people find it difficult to pinpoint what musical part endears the whole composition to them. Further, to explain the combination of notes that would make a composition likeable is again a difficult thing. So, if we wish to tap aesthetic sensibility of children and nurture it along a desired direction what should we do?

To read more ……………………………….Swati on Tranquility

Names are like human beings, often helpful but at times deceptive. Ancient most Indian treatise records two kinds of non-percussive instruments – Veena and Venu. Wheras Venu or flute during its evolution changed little, Veena had a hundred avatars. In the twentieth century, when most of the Veena-s had vanished and remaining ones had carved an exclusive niche with unique names, there are still some instruments that despite some changes, have retained both the ancient essence as well as name. Rudra Veena and Vichitra Veena of the North, with slight modifications in design and embellishment are in vogue as Tanjauri Veena and Gottu Vadyam in South. However, the music system remains unchanged despite distinction in form. In India music like painting, theater and poetry has never been separate from ordinary routine of people. All knowledge is dedication of one’s talent, all talent a medium of sublimating one’s ego. Learning Veena is a constant flattening of one’s ego till gain of wisdom.
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In a world grappling with material, the concept of imperceptibility, invisibility and intangibility has slowly crept in. More and more activities, products and services are getting virtual. The materialization and later commercialization of music wiped out several traditions of musical practice. The nature of nation, society and family has been drastically overhauled with so-called empowerment of the “individual”. The price of such material empowerment has been paid by the individual in currency of emotional, intellectual and psychological balance. Fortunately, human life is governed by several factors. So while, technology and economic order pushes him in one direction, the local socio-cultural factors tend to retard the pull. There are some who ride the crest, while those in trough serve as anchors. It was decided by the supreme body that culture has an intangible side which needs concrete aid and support in order to maintain the essence of human nature – compassion, camaraderie and creativity. Indian music is best represented by the tradition of Veena-playing which involves performance, scholarship, innovation and crafting. For millenniums, it has retained continuity but the challenge of technology driven economy, which leaves little time to individual, is the toughest. It needs determination and concrete policy to keep Indian music in health.
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Strange as it may sound, in a narrow, limited sense Indian music is classical and not ‘art music’.

But why should one bother whether it is called ‘classical’ or ‘art’ when it sounds equally pleasing to ears.

In strictest sense the word ‘classical’ indicates existence of authority that does not allow free, random expression. Whereas in literature, painting and western music, the authority comes from independent expressions of stalwarts in the field – individuals and hence open to bias, in Indian music it comes from laws  that remain inviolable within domain of classical physics.

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