A grand-old celebration of music

Aparna Banerji 

“I was finally invited by a great classical singer of Punjab, Dilip Chandra Vedi, my friend’s father and colleague, to perform in Jalandhar. It was in 1964, when I reached Jalandhar, all the artists would stay at Hotel Raj Mahal. That was my first appearance in Punjab. I had two concerts at the festival, one at night and the other in the day time. I never saw the kind of musicians scheduled to perform that year ever again. I was the youngest artist, others to perform were Pt. Omkar Nath Thakur, Narayana Rao Vyas, VR Patwardhan, Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb, Amir Khan Saheb, Salamat Ali Nazakat Ali and Amanat Ali, Fateh Ali of Pakistan, Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Kishan Maharaj, Shanta Prasad and Allah Rakha.”

—Ustad Amjad Ali Khan  from ‘Harivallabh: A Rich Tradition of Musical Geniuses’ 

The year was 1875. A congregation of saints led by scholar Baba Harivallabh gathered at the Devi Talao or Devi Talab to render soulful tributes to their recently deceased guru, Swami Tuljagiri.  Baba Harivallabh, Tuljagiri’s chief disciple and the new mahant of the gaddi, hence laid the foundation of what is now known as the oldest, unbroken tradition of Hindustani Classical music in the world. 

Cut to 2018. At the same venue, for the sake of the same tradition, gathered present-day maestros. Each presented its genre of music, each contributed towards making the 143rd Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan what it came to be — a celebration of classical music. 143 years is a long time to sustain the charm of the festival. More challenging because classical music from being mainstream has gone niche. But names like Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Sulochana Brihaspati helped gain traction. This year, another attraction was a book ‘Harivallabh: A rich Tradition of Musical Geniuses by Rakesh Dada, the present treasurer of the sammelan, which elaborated on the lineage and history of the music festival.  

In almost a century and a half, many a landmark events took place. When the nation was weathering storms of the Partition and terrorism in Punjab, the festival through its platform continued to nurture artistes and the Indian artform. In its own way, it reflected the country’s secular fabric in the most trying times. Nothing was allowed to disrupt the annual affair. These achievements, beginning from the year of inception to 142nd congregation in 2017, are duly mentioned in the book. The Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan served as the lighthouse in the sea of art, from where all major musical movements were recorded. The book traces the history of Hindustani classical music in the region in context of the Harivallabh congregation and the socio-cultural shifts it caused in the region.

The first paper-pamphlet invitation for the sammelan was sent out in 1923 by Pandit Tolo Ram on behalf of Sangeet Mahasabha. It mentioned artistes from all religions — Hindu, Muslim and Sikh — who performed at the festival. It also specified the timings of the folk-music sessions, which were held from 1 pm to 6 pm along the periphery of the Devi Talab. 

As early as 1913, the beddings at the Harivallabh for the visiting audience were arranged by the organisers of the sammelan. The book encloses a December 7, 1913, invitation published in The Tribune. It said, “In view of the cold weather it is requested that the visitors will kindly bring their beddings with them, and arrangements will be made to look after their comforts.” There are references to the gatherings as well, which swelled to 8,000 in 1911 and 35,000 in 1965 at the festival. The book mentions, “People from nearby villages would walk twenty or twenty five miles to reach the venue days in advance at Devi Talab to enjoy the hospitality of the mahasabha and would return home after the Sangeet Sammelan concluded.”

After the Partition, the narrative unfortunately changed. Harivallabh saw a dip in Muslim artistes, which also impacted its popularity. Acclaimed exponents Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali, who had moved to Pakistan, however were, invited again in 1952, to refuel the tradition.

Later, chairman of the festival Ashiwni Kumar took the brave decision of inviting Pakistani artistes like Roshan Ara Begum to the festival. Ghazal queen Begum Akhtar also made a rare classical gayaki presentation at the festival in 1966. 

A patriarchal society that India was then, women were forbidden both to sing and attend the earliest sammelans. The first woman singer Hirabai Barodekar performed in as late as 1946. There are stories of women who would dress up as men to enter the festival premises. The book thus says, “The secret was revealed by Begum Dasondha — wife of pakhawaj player Ustad Miyan Malang, who went to pay obeisance to Pandit Bhaskar Buwa  along with her husband. With full admiration and respect, she told him ‘Buwa Sahib your gayaki is superb’. He was left stunned.” 

As the time passed, number of artistes to the repertory increased manifold. As a result, number of performances increased. The recently concluded sammelan saw 20 artistes marking their attendance. Naturally,  the performances would begin at 1 pm and continued till the wee hours of the next morning.

This year saw many veteran performers. A telecast on YouTube might help attract larger audiences. About four years ago, demand for a heritage status for the festival was also formally put up with the state and central governments, but the committee backed off after murmurs of the government adopting the festival. Dr Piyush Kumar, former director of the North Zone Cultural Committee also wrote to the Punjab Government this year to make efforts to approach UNESCO to grant cultural heritage status to the sammelan.

The book, the author, the inspiration

Rakesh Dada, author of Harivallabh: A rich Tradition of Musical Geniuses, has been working on the conservation of Harivallabh literature since 2005. However, the book started to take shape only by  2012. “The most challenging part of the book was collecting dated photographs and letters. A lot of photographs had to be arranged from Pakistan. Similarly, Gujjar Ramvasdev’s photograph was acquired from Canada after much research.”

One of the most intriguing features of the book is that it showcases the 143-year-old writings on classical music — written by Baba Harivallabh — through the pages of his rare works Raag Darpan and Sangeet Darpan. The books have been procured from the British Library and the Panjab Digital Archives. Born in 1800, Baba Harivallabh is documented to have died in 1885. Sangeet Darpan was authored in Samvat 1922 corresponding to 1865 AD.