Dhrupad
Encyclopedia
- This article is about Dhrupad, the genre of Indian classical singing. For the character in the Mahabharata with a similar name, see DrupadaDrupadaDrupada , also known as Yajnasena, is a character in the Mahābhārata. He is king of the land of Panchala.In his youth he studies with, and becomes a friend of Drona. Drupada makes him promise to share all his fortunes with him. Later, when Drupada becomes king of Panchaladesa, Drona reminds him...
.
Dhrupad (Hindi: ध्रुपद) is a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the Hindustani or North Indian style of Indian classical music found throughout the northern Indian subcontinent. The style is sometimes called North Indian Classical Music or Shāstriya Sangeet...
, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition. Its name is derived from the words "dhruva" (fixed) and "pada" (words). The term may denote both the verse form of the poetry and the style in which it is sung.
Abul Fazl
Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak
Shaikh Abu al-Fazl ibn Mubarak also known as Abu'l-Fazl, Abu'l Fadl and Abu'l-Fadl 'Allami was the vizier of the great Mughal emperor Akbar, and author of the Akbarnama, the official history of Akbar's reign in three volumes, and a Persian translation of the Bible...
, courtier and chronicler at the court of the Emperor Akbar, defines the dhrupad verse form in his Ain-e-Akbari as "four rhyming lines, each of indefinite prosodic length
Meter (music)
Meter or metre is a term that music has inherited from the rhythmic element of poetry where it means the number of lines in a verse, the number of syllables in each line and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented...
." Thematic matter ranges from the religious and spiritual (mostly in praise of Hindu deities
Hindu deities
Within Hinduism a large number of personal gods are worshipped as murtis. These beings are either aspects of the supreme Brahman, Avatars of the supreme being, or significantly powerful entities known as devas. The exact nature of belief in regards to each deity varies between differing Hindu...
) to royal panegyrics, musicology and romance.
History
There is no reference to Dhrupad in Bharat's Natya Shastra, commonly dated to the 1st Century AD, nor even in Sangit Ratnakar, a 13th Century text, taken as authoritative. Ravi ShankarRavi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
states that the form appeared in the fifteenth century as a development from the prabandha, which it replaced. Under Mughal ("Mogul
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
") rule it was appropriated as court music.
However the musical background of dhrupad is commonly thought to have a long history, traceable back to the Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
themselves. The Yugala Shataka of Shri Shribhatta in the Nimbarka Sampradaya
Nimbarka Sampradaya
The Nimbarka Sampradaya , also known as the Hamsa Sampradāya, Kumāra Sampradāya, ' and Sanakādi Sampradāya, is one of the four authorised Sampradāyas as according to the Padma , one of the eighteen main...
, written in 1294 CE, contains lyrics of similar fashion. Swami Haridas
Swami Haridas
Swami Haridas was a spiritual poet and classical musician. Credited with a large body of devotional compositions, especially in the Dhrupad style, he is also the founder of the Haridasi school of mysticism, still found today in North India. His work influenced both the classical music and the...
(also in the Nimbarka Sampradaya), the guru of Tansen
Tansen
Mia Tansen is considered among the greatest composer-musicians in Hindustani classical music. He was an extraordinarily gifted vocalist, known for a large number of compositions, and also an instrumentalist who popularized and improved the rabab .He was among the Navaratnas at the court of the...
, was a well known dhrupad singer.
The 18th Century saw the beginning of a great decline of dhrupad singing. A newer genre, khyal
Khyal
Khyal is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of the qawwali singing style. It appeared more recently than dhrupad, is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for...
, gained popularity at dhrupad's expense, placing fewer constraints on the singers and allowing displays of virtuosity rare in dhrupad. Also, new instruments were being developed – the sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
and the sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
– that were not suited to the slow tempo and low register favoured by dhrupad so that dhrupad instrumental also began to lose ground. Only a few families carried on the tradition.
In 1960 the French ethnomusicologist Alain Daniélou
Alain Daniélou
Alain Daniélou was a French historian, intellectual, musicologist, Indologist, and a noted Western convert to and expert on Shaivite Hinduism.-Life:...
invited Nasir Moinuddin and Nasir Aminuddin Dagar (the senior Dagar Brothers) to perform in Europe. Their concerts were successful and, upon the untimely demise of Nasir Moinuddin in 1966, his younger brothers Nasir Zahiruddin and Nasir Fayazuddin continued. The Dagars toured widely and recorded. Coinciding with growing foreign interest in Indian music, the Dagarvani-revival helped breathe new life into a few other families of dhrupad singers. Today, dhrupad enjoys a place as a well-respected but not widely popular genre, no longer on the brink of extinction.
Nature and Practice
Dhrupad as we know it today is performed by a solo singer or a small number of singers in unison to the beat of the pakhavajPakhavaj
The pakhavaj, pakhawaj, pakuaj, pakhvaj or pakavaj is an Indian barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, the North Indian equivalent to the Southern mridangam....
or mridang rather than the tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
. The vocalist is usually accompanied by two tanpuras, the players sitting close behind, with the percussionist at the right of the vocalist. Traditionally the only other instrument used was the Rudra Veena
Rudra veena
See also veenaThe rudra veena is a large plucked string instrument used in Hindustani classical music. It is an ancient instrument rarely played today...
. Some artists have used other instruments. Preferably, such instruments should have a deep bass register and long sustain.
Like all Indian classical music
Indian classical music
The origins of Indian classical music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music...
, dhrupad is modal
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
and monophonic
Monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave . If the entire melody is sung by two voices or a choir with an interval between the notes or in...
, with a single melodic line and no chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
. Each raga
Raga
A raga is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music.It is a series of five or more musical notes upon which a melody is made...
has a modal frame
Modal frame
In music a melodic mode or modal frame is one of, "a number of types permeating and unifying African, European, and American song" and melody. "Mode" and "frame" are used in this context interchangeably. Melodic modes allow melodies which are not chord-based or determined by the harmony but...
- a wealth of micro-tonal ornamentations (gamaka) are typical.
The text is preceded by a wholly improvised section, the alap
Alap
The alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces and develops a raga...
. The alap in dhrupad is sung using a set of syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s, popularly thought to be derived from a mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
, in a recurrent, set pattern: a re ne na, té te re ne na, ri re re ne na, te ne toom ne (this last group is used in the end of a long phrase). Dhrupad styles have long elaborate alap
Alap
The alap is the opening section of a typical North Indian classical performance. It is a form of melodic improvisation that introduces and develops a raga...
s, their slow and deliberate melodic development gradually bringing an accelerating rhythmic pulse. In most styles of dhrupad singing it can easily last an hour, broadly subdivided into the alap proper (unmetered), the jor (with steady rhythm) and the jhala (accelerating strumming) or nomtom, when syllables are sung at a very rapid pace. Then the composition is sung to the rhythmic accompaniment: the four lines, in serial order, are termed sthayi, antara, sanchari and aabhog.
Compositions exist in the metres (tala
Tala (music)
Tāla, Taal or Tal is the term used in Indian classical music for the rhythmic pattern of any composition and for the entire subject of rhythm, roughly corresponding to metre in Western music, though closer conceptual equivalents are to be found in other Asian classical systems such as the notion...
) tivra (7 beats), sul (10 beats) and chau (12 beats) - a composition set to the 10-beat jhap tala is called a sadra while one set to the 14-beat dhamar is called a dhamar
Dhamar (music)
A dhrupad set to the 14-beat time signature dhamar tal is called a dhamar. It is seen as a light musical form, and associated with the Holi Spring Festival of colours....
. The latter is seen as a lighter musical form, associated with the Holi
Holi
Holi , is a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colours. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United...
spring festival.
Alongside concert performance the practice of singing dhrupad in temples continues, though only a small number of recordings have been made. It bears little resemblance to concert dhrupad: there is very little or no alap; percussion such as bells and finger cymbals, not used in the classical setting, are used here, and the drum used is a smaller, older variant called mrdang, quite similar to the mridangam.
Family and style
There are said to be four broad stylistic variants (vanis or banis) of classical dhrupad – the Gauri (Gohar), Khandar, Nauhar, and Dagar, tentatively linked to five singing styles (geetis) known from the 7th Century: Shuddha, Bhinna, Gauri, Vegswara, and Sadharani. But more importantly, there are a number of dhrupad gharanaGharana
In Hindustani music, a gharānā is a system of social organization linking musicians or dancers by lineage or apprenticeship, and by adherence to a particular musical style. A gharana also indicates a comprehensive musicological ideology. This ideology sometimes changes substantially from one...
s: "houses", or family styles. The best-known gharana is the Dagar family, who sing in the Dagar vani. The Dagar style puts great emphasis on alap and for several generations their singers have performed in pairs (often pairs of brothers). The Dagars are Muslims but sing Hindu texts of Gods and Goddesses. Some of the best dhrupad singers outside the Dagar family, such as Pandit Ritwik Sanyal
Ritwik Sanyal
Ritwik Sanyal is one of the virtuosos of the north Indian vocal classical style, Dhrupad and a professor of vocal music and Dean,faculty of performing arts at Banaras Hindu University.-Early life:Sanyal was born in Katihar...
and the Gundecha Brothers
Gundecha Brothers
Umakant Gundecha and Ramakant Gundecha, known as the Gundecha Brothers, are leading Dagarvani dhrupad singers. They always sing together.-Early life and background:Gundecha Brothers were born in Ujjain into a Jain family....
, also belong to the Dagar vani.
From Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
state come two other gharanas, the Malliks (Darbhanga
Darbhanga
Darbhangā is a twin city and a municipal corporation and the capital city of the Darbhanga district and Darbhanga Division in the state of Bihar, India. It is one of the most important districts of North Bihar situated in the very heart of Mithilanchal. According to the latest 2011 census, the...
gharana) and the Mishras (Bettiah
Bettiah
Bettiah is the headquarters of West Champaran district in the state of Bihar, near the Indo-Nepal border, 225 Kilometres north-west of Patna. Bettiah, pronounced as 'Betiya', derived its name from 'baint'...
gharana). The Malliks are linked to the Khandar vani and emphasize the composed song over improvised alap with variety of layakaris. Pt. Ram Chatur Mallik, Pt.Vidur Mallick, Pt.Siyaram Tiwari were the famous exponent of Darbhanga gharana in the last century. Today the senior performer of the Darbhanga gharana is Pt. Prem Kumar Mallick. Shri Prashant Kumar Mallick and Nishant Kumar Mallick (Mallick brothers) are Dhrupad vocalist among young generation of Darbhanga tradition. The Mishras practise both Nauhar and Khandar styles with some unique techniques for nomtom alap. This gharana flourished under the patronage of the kings of Bettiah Raj
Bettiah Raj
Bettiah Rajs eighteen hundred square miles yielding a rental of almost 2 million rupees made it the second largest zamindari in Bihar belonging to a Bhumihar Brahmin family...
. The most famous exponents of the Bettiah gharana today are Pandit Indrakishore Mishra and Pandit Falguni Mitra. The form of dhrupad prevalent in Darbhanga and Bettiah is known as the Haveli style. In Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
dhrupad is represented by the Talwandi gharana, who sing in the Khandar style.
External links
- www.dhrupadsangeetashram.com Aminuddin DagarAminuddin DagarUstad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar was an Indian dhrupad singer in the dagar-vani style.He is also remembered as the younger brother in the legendary jugalbandi or duo of Senior Dagar Brothers...
- www.ritwiksanyal.in – Dhrupad Ritwik SanyalRitwik SanyalRitwik Sanyal is one of the virtuosos of the north Indian vocal classical style, Dhrupad and a professor of vocal music and Dean,faculty of performing arts at Banaras Hindu University.-Early life:Sanyal was born in Katihar...
- http://dhrupaduday.com/ – Dhrupad Uday Bhawalkar
- www.dhrupad.org – The dhrupad school of the Gundecha BrothersGundecha BrothersUmakant Gundecha and Ramakant Gundecha, known as the Gundecha Brothers, are leading Dagarvani dhrupad singers. They always sing together.-Early life and background:Gundecha Brothers were born in Ujjain into a Jain family....
- www.dhrupad.info – Dagarvani singer Ashish Sankrityayan's web site
- www.dagarvani.org – The official web site of Ustad F. Wasifuddin DagarWasifuddin DagarFaiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar is an Indian classical singer of the dhrupad genre and the son of dhrupad singer Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar. Since the death of his father and later, his uncle, Wasifuddin has been singing solo. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2010....
- www.premkumarmallik.com - The official website of Pt.Prem Kumar Mallick
- www.antidotovenezuela.info - [Classical music Instruments ]