The Origin and Evolution of Kathak in Delhi - Delhi Heritage City

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There are but few instances where depending on the personal interest of Muslim ruler, male Kathakdancers performed in the haloed precincts of the court. Court etiquette demanded that theseperformers could not perform without a head covering 6 in due deference to the Emperor nor couldthey place an idol of their Hindu Gods 7 . Since the interest of the Muslim rulers was tilted heavily infavour of music 8 and hence musical compositions besides a heavy display of rhythmic virtuosity foundits way into the performances of the traditional male Brahmin Kathak performers. Yet even with theemphasis now on rhythmic virtuosity, the ‘atma’ of Kathak centring on enactment of themes aroundHindu deities continued unabated albeit with a difference. Reference to Hindu deities were explainedand interpreted in Sufi terms. What also emerges from the reference to Kathaks in the SangeetRatnakara 9 , 13 th century treatise that some of the artistes had adapted themselves to the changedsocio-political circumstances. Thus the Kathaks who performed not only within the scared templeprecincts, also performed in courts of both Hindu and Muslim rulers.The element of pirouettes associated with dervish dances in Sufism, found its way into Kathak’srhythmic virtuous rendering. Even though a sculpture from Patliputra pertaining to the Maurya period(3 rd century BC) indicates use of pirouettes and the Natyashastra too refers to the ‘cakra bhramari’,yet the pirouettes were not treated as special spectacular aspect of a Kathak rendering. It was underthe influence of Sufism in Delhi courts that it assumed a virtuous garb. Reference is drawn to theMughal miniature painting of pirouetting dancers of the Akbarnamah (16 th century, a feature that isstill practiced till date. The dance of some male dancers replete with pirouettes and grace were also tobe seen performed in public spaces. Such was their attraction that it is said that people timed theirevening walks in order to be able to witness such performances.The Brahmin Kathaks found a unique explanation to marry the sensibilities of Vaishnavism and Sufism.As Indian philosophy expounded the cyclic nature of life, there could be no better visual translation ofthis philosophy of ‘kaal cakra’ and ‘jeevan cakra’ than with the rendering of the ‘cakra bhramari’ (thepirouettes). In Sufism, the impulse for pirouetting also stemmed from a similar philosophy wherebyabandoning the ego, the believer aims at one-ness with the almighty, encompassing in this ‘dhikr’, thethree elements of ‘tawhid’ (realization of Allah's oneness and role as sole creator), resurrection andprophethood. In the words of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet,those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"6In Lucknow, the legendary dancers of the gharana were granted exemption from this practice,which is populary known as ‘topi-maaf’.7There is an interesting anecdote recorded by Priya Das on the Bhaktamol of Nabhaji written in 1712AD on the first contact of a Hindu dancer, Narayan Das, with the Muslim authority. Apparently whenNarayan Das was requested to perform in the Muslim court, he was worried that used to dancing inthe temple before the Lord, he would certainly not be allowed to take an idol of his God into theMuslim court. In case he refused, he was aware of the dire consequences. Hence in desperation hetook permission to perform before a ‘tulsi mala’ symbolic of Krishna. This became a practice with thesubsequent Brahmin Kathaks.8Abul Fazl, the court historian of Emperor Akbar, writes about Akbar’s proficiency in playing on the‘naqqara’. He has also recorded that Baba Ram Dar was a famous musician in the court of Akbar,ranking next to Tansen. Famous musicians in the court of Emperor Jehangir were Jahangir Dad,Parvez dad, Khorram dad, Makhu, Hamjan and Chaturkhan while well-known musicians in the courtof Emperor Shahjehan were Ram Das, Sursen, Jagannath, Mahapatra, Sukhsen, Lal Khan, and MirzaZulqarnen. In sharp contradiction, Aurangzeb ordered burying of the coffin that the musicians hadtaken out in a mock funeral procession as Aurangzeb had banned all musical activities.9‘kathaka bandinashcanye vidyavantaha priyamvadah, prashansa kushalashcanye caturahsarvamatushu’(Sharangdev, Sangeeta Ratnakara, 13th century AD) (ieKathaks, charanas and such other performers use their skills in praise of the Lord.)4
The meeting of Vaishnavism and Sufism at Delhi had other fall-outs too as it saw new genres of musiccompositions such as the ‘khayal’ and the ‘tarana’ which were off-shoots of the traditional dhrupadgayaki of ancient India. It is widely believed that impetus for development of the new musical systemscame from Amir Khusro. The new genre of music compositions became part of the Kathak repertoire.As the name ‘khayal’ (imagination) suggests, it gave the traditional Kathaks the levee to explore theentire range of emotions and interpretations as was practiced in the ‘baithiki’ style of rendering.The ‘tarana’ derived from the Persian term ‘tarannum’ (melody) emerged as an adaptation of the‘non-tom alap’ rendering of ‘dhrupad gayaki’. In the emergence of the new philosophy in the wake ofMuslim rule in India, the ‘tarana’ saw the meeting point of Vaishnavism and Sufism, where at theheight of ecstasy in devotion resulting in a trance-like state, the commonly used syllables ‘deem-tana-na’,‘na-dir-dir-dani’, ‘de-ra-na’ etc. became meaningless, symbolising the union of spirit of the selfwith the higher Almighty. Unlike its parent ‘dhrupad ang’ where the ‘nom-tom alaap’ was sung at slowspeed (‘vilambit laya’), the newly evolved ‘tarana’ was set at medium speed (‘madhya laya’)sometimes even reaching a faster pace (‘drut laya’). The success of this new melodic composition,‘tarana’, is evident from its adaptation in various parts of India, whether as ‘thillana’ or ‘pallavi andsuch others, facilitated by an exchange of artistes as gifts by the Mughal Governors sent by the Delhicourt to the provinces.The Delhi court especially during the late 18th and 19th centuries, provided impetus for furtherance ofrhythmic patterns, the practice of question and answer (‘sawal-jawab’) between the dancer and thepercussionist as well as the ‘jugalbandi’ viz. friendly competition, between two artistes and rhythmicmelodic compositions. Simultaneously, there was a slow emergence of greater use of the ‘tabla’ thathad been modified by Amir Khusro few centuries earlier, but which was till hitherto, the secondinstrument. This development laid the foundations of the Delhi baaz of tabla. Corroborating this, arethe paintings of musicians and dancers during the period 15th century to 19th century that depictwide use of the horizontal drum, the ‘mridanga’. It therefore follows that the replacement of‘mridanga’ by the ‘tabla’ was extremely slow and could come about only after late 19th century.It is commonly believed that the two piece drum such as the ‘tabla’ was unknown to India prior to theperiod of Amir Khusro. However, dance panel sculptures from central India from the Gupta period ie4th-5th centuries AD reveal the presence of a pair of vertical drum, thus negating the widely heldhypothesis and legends 10 associated with it. Modifications carried out by Amir Khusro cannot be ruledout wherein the ‘bayan’ of the drum was modified to a more rounded form modelling itself on the‘naqqara’ (or ‘nagada’) drum. It was this era that adopted the Arabic name of ‘tabla’ (based on thedrum ‘tabl’). Thus, the hitherto ‘oordhvaka’ 11 drum stood re-christened.With the ‘tabla’ slowly gaining ascendancy in late 19 th century, many special patterns emerged thatgave rise to the ‘Dilli baaz’ of tabla, many of which were translated into dance. The hallmark of the‘Dilli baaz’ was its pleasing sound, and the fact that there was a greater use of two fingers whichautomatically precluded the sound of ‘ka’ as much as possible. Hence the typical ‘kayada’ of ‘Dilli baaz’consists of ten consonants as against 15 of the Benaras and Jaipur ang. The ‘Dilli baaz ka Kayada’ isas follows: dhatita dhatita dhadha tita dhagedhinagina and its variation ghina tita ghin dhage dhina10According to popular legend, in a friendly competition between two mridanga players in the courtof Delhi, the one that was lagging behind, in a fit of rage dashed his mridanga to the ground, whichcaused it to break into 2 halves. Realizing his folly, he quickly turned it to a vertical position and wasrelieved to find that it was still playable, which caused him to exclaim ‘Arre! Tab bhi bola!!’ which ledto the coining of the term ‘tabla’ and the emergence of the ‘tabla’.11The ‘oordhvaka’ drums classified in the Natyashastra, were positioned vertically and thussuggested a friendly, logical yet technical approach. The Natyashastra authored sometime during 2 ndcentury BC to 2 nd century AD mentions various kinds of percussion instruments including thehorizontal drum ‘ankya’, and the pair of vertical drums ‘oordhvaka’.5
Page 1: The Origin and Evolution of Kathak
Page 6 and 7: gina tita ghina. Its adaptation in
Page 8 and 9: this particular verse is being clai
Page 10: traditional performers were largely

The Origin and Evolution of Kathak in Delhi - Delhi Heritage City

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