« Devotion and Musical Practice in North India Know it by humble submission, by asking questions, and by service; wise men who see reality will give you knowledge ...» Document abstract
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Language : english
humanities/philosophy
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04/11/2007
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SummaryThe guru-shisya parampara is the system of master/disciple lineage that characterizes the traditional education system of North Indian music. The term parampara, ‘disciplic succession,’ is introduced in the Bhagavad-gita (4.2), when Krsna tells Arjuna: “This Knowledge of yoga was passed down in disciplic succession and in this way the seer-kings knew it.” In the music tradition, the disciplic succession of the family lineage (gharana) is officially continued in the ganda bandham ceremony in which the student is “elevated to the status of a close disciple” with the tie of a thread around the student’s wrist. This gesture and a nazrana payment “freely given with the greatest respect…symbolize the bond” between a student and his guru. The tabla disciple’s devotion to the guru is a form of bhakti devotion in the same way that a yogic disciple submits to the will of a guru in order to master the esoteric practices held within the realm of his teacher’s knowledge. Following the ganda bandham rite, “the new disciple can expect to receive a more intensive training, including techniques and compositions” reserved for close disciples. It has been argued that the “dilution of classical music” in modern day India is due to the decline of the gharana system that seeks the systematic dissemination of musical knowledge to such worthy students, in favor of the music college system which offers a survey education better-suited to hobbyists.
Table of Contents- The bond between guru and disciple in the gharana system is argued to be of a spiritual nature by Jim Kippen, whose research in the Lucknow tabla gharana is the most complete existing anthropological account of the traditional system of tabla education.
- The quintessentially Hindu school of tabla music is undoubtedly the Banares gharana.
- Ustad Afaq Hussain of the Lucknow gharana believes that the process of musical improvisation (upaj) cultivates the concentration developed through technical education (ta'lim)
- The tabla player sits in the midpoint of an endless stream of time marked by cycles of tala.
- The Muslim use of cilla as a religious practice, similar to the halvet retreat of Sufi devotional practice, 'refers to a spiritual discipline in which a person recites the same prayers each day at the same time and in the same place.
- Sahai's testimony reveals how the musical bhakti culture of Banares weaves the religious and musical into a spiritual practice that blurs the line between musician and religious devotee.
- Ethics and aesthetics intertwine during study of tabla bol-grammar in the oral text Tabla Ki Alphabet by Ustad Gameh Khan, a nineteenth century master of the Delhi gharana.
- The mnemonic meanings given for the syllables na and dhit connote humility and modesty, respectively, that lead the musician to an appropriately humble adab.
« But in the devotion of bhakti-yoga, the ascetic is no reason to believe that such practice accords the the Mystic Fire, i. While the term "musical truth" might ...» Document abstract
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Language : english
arts and art history
research papers
date published
30/11/2007
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SummaryThe knowledge gained by practicing the North Indian tabla drums situates the musician within two spiritual modes of the Hindu tradition: the tantric, via rasa, and the yogic, via bhakti. Is there a limit to the spiritual efficacy of such musical practice? Citing the lack of “common measure between the ends to which riyaz and yoga are used as a means,” one scholar contends that riyaz is primarily a “means to acquiring an artistic skill.” However, he concludes that musical “riyaz essentially reflects the spiritual modality of bhakti.”
Table of Contents- The student is the prime auditor of the ustad to whom his bhakti is devoted. Within the music tradition this union is known as ilm-basina, the musical knowledge (ilm) stored within the body of the disciple.
- Abhinavagupta's tantric philosophy draws a connection between aesthetic experience and Brahmasvada, the tactile experience of divinity.
- It is a paradox that tranquility should be a means toward liberation via mastery of tabla drumming, a practice of apparently frenetic activity.
- Jivanmukti is the yogic ideal in which 'the physical life of the free person is carried on without any connection to the atman, which has found its meaning in itself.?
- The practice of music is effective as a sadhana through such devotional surrender.
- The practice of tabla is in itself nothing special. It need not be anything liberative or yogic.
- It is possible that the tabla could be a tantric method towards moksa.
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