A study finds Kashmir’s classical Sufiana Mausiqi is near extinction, with four gharanas, three master musicians and barely forty maqams surviving.
SRINAGAR: Sufiana Mausiqi, the classical choral music of Kashmir, is on the brink of extinction, according to a new academic study. Shabir Ahmad Mir, Assistant Professor of Hindustani Vocal Music at Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, reached this conclusion after two years of fieldwork. He describes the future of the art form as “very gloomy”.
The paper, Sufiana Mausiqi-Kashmir’s Forgotten Classical Music, appeared in the Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, in 2015.
Mir carried out the fieldwork between 2011 and 2013 in Srinagar, Budgam and Anantnag. These are the only districts where Sufiana is still practised. The work was part of a junior fellowship funded by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
He used participant observation, interviews and analysis of recordings by master musicians. He also reviewed historical texts, among them the Rajatarangini, Zaina Rajatarangini, Tabaqat i Akbari, Ain i Akbari, Baharistan i Shahi and Tarikh i Kashmir Makammal. Two works on the theory of the music, Rumuz e Mausiqi and Koshur Sargam, were also studied.
Mir says researchers in India and the West have neglected the subject. He notes that the only English source on Sufiana is a 1996 book by Jozef Pacholczyk, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland.
Shrinking Heritage
Sufiana was an integral part of Kashmiri society until 1947. After that, Mir says, it declined for socio-economic and political reasons. Today only four gharanas, or schools, survive. Earlier, many were spread across the Valley.
The paper names three surviving ustads: Mohammad Abdullah Setari, Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh and Mohammad Ismail Bhat. They are “finding it difficult to carry forward the tradition”, Mir writes.
The losses are measurable. Fifty four maqams were once in use. Master musicians now know only about thirty five to forty. Ramkali, Bibhas, Devgiri and Paraj are among those rarely heard. Only a few talas, such as Chapandaz, Duroya, Yaktala, Doyeka, Ravani and Sehtal, remain in current practice.
Saaz e Kashmir, the only bowed instrument in the ensemble, is also on the path to extinction. The mehfil, the gathering where the music was traditionally performed, has become rare. Most people now hear Sufiana on radio or at stage shows.
Historical Roots
Mir traces the music to the arrival of Islam in Kashmir. Rinchina adopted Islam in 1320 and took the title Sultan Sadruddin. In 1384 Syed Ali Hamdani arrived with about seven hundred followers. Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language.
Older musical traditions then merged with the music of Persia, Central Asia and India. Mir says a new genre was born under Sultan Zain ul Abidin, who ruled from 1420 to 1470. It became known as Sufiana Mausiqi.
Musical Form
A performance features five to twelve singers led by one leader. They are accompanied by the santoor, Saaz e Kashmir, Kashmiri sehtar and tabla. The texts are mystical Sufi poems in Persian and Kashmiri.
The music uses Persian maqams instead of ragas. The paper lists twelve principal maqams, grouped into six families. Each maqam yields further derived modes, bringing the total to 180.
Every performance opens with the Shakal, an instrumental prelude. It lasts from half a minute to about two minutes and is usually played by the leader on the santoor. The Nasr follows. This is a short poem sung without rhythm, usually from the couplets of Lalleshwari, known as Lalle Vaakh.
The first poem, the Bathe, then begins. Little improvisation is involved. Each verse is set to a particular maqam and locked to a tala cycle. The longest talas are played first. Tala Hejaz, of fourteen beats, comes before Yektala or Sehtala, of twelve, and then Duyeka, of eight.
A piece has two sections, Zamin and Nimwoj. A single maqam may run from ten minutes to an hour and a half.
Dance Lost
A dance form called Hafiz Nagma once accompanied Sufiana. A female dancer, the Hafiza, conveyed the meaning of the song through gestures. Mir says it was part of the ensemble as late as 1920. It then declined rapidly and became extinct.
Mir cites M Ishaq Khan’s History of Srinagar. “With the growth of vulgar tastes owing to the advent of the Cinema and Theatre in Srinagar women ceased to get into this profession,” Khan wrote.
Decline Causes
Pacholczyk found it hard to single out one cause. He pointed to political and economic instability in Kashmir over two centuries, and to changes in social values and outside cultural influences.
Santoor maestro Pandit Bhajan Sopori blames lost patronage. “People did not want to take risk to let their children learn an art form that doesn’t provide economic security,” he is quoted as saying.
Mehrajuddin, a former Additional Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir State Cultural Academy, says the royal courts once sustained the music. After 1947 it survived in the mehfils of music lovers and at shrines. Artists were booked for marriages. Kashmiri Pandits were also great patrons, he says.
Modernisation then changed public taste. Listeners turned to Chakri, ghazal and pop. “The musicians themselves are also responsible for its decline,” Mehrajuddin says. Some ustads hid the art, he adds, and avoided teaching even their daughters’ sons.
Mir lists further factors. These include weaker contact with Central Asia and the Near East, and a fading knowledge of Persian. He also cites globalisation and economic insecurity. He says Indian musicologists often treat Sufiana as folk music, and that the government has been insensitive to traditional arts.
Rescue Plan
Mir says the state government must first frame a proper cultural policy for the performing and visual arts. He wants Sufiana taught in schools and colleges and made part of the curriculum.
He also proposes financial assistance and maintenance grants for artists, so they can earn a livelihood and give full attention to the art. A contributory pension scheme for master performers is another proposal.
He urges the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and the University of Kashmir to hold frequent performances, mehfils, seminars and workshops. The aim, he says, is to help younger people value “the rich heritage of their composite culture”.
