The Indian Thar: notes on history

The Indian Thar is a region with a fabulously rich prehistory and history. A range of cultures have coexisted and interacted with one another since Lower and Upper Paleolithic times more than 15,000 years ago. Simultaneous developmental and stylistic differences among sites, incorporating Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Harrapan cultures like Kalibangan, Rangmahal from 6000 to 1000 BC make up a mosaic typical of the Thar and extension of the vast Persio- Arabian deserts to the further west.

Beginning from the 6^thA.D onwards began a process of nomadic upsurges of Rajpoot clan aristocracies who imposed their territorial supremacy over new tracts of colonized land. This led to the proliferation of regional centres of power by different Rajput lineages. In fact much of what is western Rajasthan today was first colonized by the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D. In still early medieval times around the twelfth century onwards all the dryer areas of Eurasia began to converge as a result of nomadic expansion, the Arid Zone in South Asia emerged as a vibrant frontier region that widened the horizon of and opened new channels for highly mobile pastoralists, warriors, merchants, pilgrims, and others.

The spread of trading networks in the medieval times favored its growth as a connecting region between the sea coast in the west, the overland routes of the northwest and northern India. Right through the Mughal rule the area was an important transit zone for trade between regions east of Indus and northern Indian plains. By the 19^thcentury well developed trade routes, garrison fort towns, trading hubs, a network of periodic fairs, villages and temporary settlements around which royal lineages and trading networks spread, wide open grasslands were some of the chief features of the human geography of Thar. These historic processes of human settlement of Thar were sustained by popular traditions of ingenious practices for the judicious and community regulated use and regeneration of water and land resources.

The last quarter of the twentieth century has seen unprecedented demographic growth, colonisation and agrarian expansion through gigantic irrigation projects like the Indira Gandhi Canal in Thar, a successful cooperative dairy movement, a transport revolution that has altered the meaning of time and travel, presence of institutions of the modern Indian state with its imposing manifestations of development as more and more physical infrastructure, the onslaught for acquiring land in Thar. The increasing hold of the bewitching glares and lure of the market gives all encompassing sanction to consumerist ways of life that rest on the premise of wasteful use rather than frugal and judicious use, a feature that constituted the core of resource use in Thar for centuries.

All these could be seen as emergent signs of an important historical watershed in Thar. Especially regions in the interiors of Thar, where such claims of the modern Indian state and market were not known less than half a century back. The on going transformation spearheaded by private capital and rapacious plunder of the fragile biosphere of Thar is fast altering the delicate inter relationships of desert communities with nature over centuries.

Raga Megh in Thar desert, Pugal, Rajasthan

The grand old Ustad Ghulam Mohammad from Pugal who learned Hindustani classical music in Bahawulpur for eight years. During this period of stay in Bahawulpur he had the privilege of giving performances in Chachar Sharif in Kot Mithan at Khwaja Ghulam Farid's sacred tomb.

Inspite of his age Ustadjee is an atttentive person with a sharp  rather acrid sense of wit. He is the Mir Manga (Genealogist) of the Mirs of Pugal.  

He still savours the rich aromatic and spicy pugal style ghost (mutton) soaking wet in thick gravy of mustard oil turned red with chillies and sprinkled with copious amounts of fried garlic.

Click to hear Ustad Ghulam Mohammad

Wilayat of Chistis in Indo Pak frontier desert

An important feature of popular Islam has been the supreme faith in the saint or pir or sayyid sustained through hardships. Most of the times Muslims and Hindus shared the veneration of the same spiritual guide. It goes to the credit of the great Persio Musico Mystical tradition of sufiyana qalam that an essentially esoteric mystical tradition filtered down to commoners in comprehensible and appealing form.

Sufiyana qalams of Baba Farid, Shahbaz Qalandar, Bulleh Shah, Shah Bahoo, Shah Latif, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, Shah Hussain, and Ali Haider some of the main great sufi mystics of North west India form the kernel of these traditions. They are undoubtedly among the best traditions of Indian Islam “…of poetry and music as an essential means of devotional expression and the attainment of religious ecstasy”. These traditions were formed in a largely pre literate oral context in which regional languages like Sindhi, Pashto, Multani served as vernacular medium wherein were “…translated the secrets of Divine love, longing and trust in the Prophet into the vocabulary of farmers, pastoralists drawing and incorporating elements of Indian bhakti mysticism. It is this simple, ‘rustic’ mystical piety which colours large parts of Indian Islam” that reflects so vividly in the many compositions performed by these hereditary musicians for generations. 

Chiefly performed in dargahs and khanaqahs of Sufis associated with the Chisti silsila the traditions celebrate the seminal importance of saints in revealing the popular aspect of Islam.The Chisti saints beginning with Baba Farid in the thirteenth century have played a seminal role in the dissemination of Islamic culture through Sind and Hind. In fact it has been observed by the great scholar Professor Mohammad Habib that “the insistence of Chisti was not writing on mysticism but living according to it. And the Chistis known for their simplicity “…combined harsh asceticism with ardent love of music and poetry…”and “…allowed non-Muslim novices to ‘taste’ mystical experience…”. For most of the Chisti saints music was a spiritual staple, not merely a permissible (halal) but a required religious practice (wajib) as opening the inner and spiritual aspect of Islam.

 This Indo Pak frontier desert region has been blessed with a number of Sufi saints, mostly of the Chisti silsila. Their humble and rustic dargahs (shrines) in far away interiors amidst grasslands is a testimony to their wilayat (spiritual kingdom), of those who revered music as the vital colour (rang) of Allah’s devotion.

Sufiyana Qalam from the Desert Frontiers

Ustad Basaye Khan Live recording at Pugal, Rohi Rang 2002

Mukhtiyar Ali Sufiyana Qalam Pugal

As the evening unfolded the sonorous and robust music of the Mirs of Pugal filled the room...
 

Hear Nit Khair Manga

Sufiyana Qalam, Ibtadayi Baat

Ghulam Mohammad Mir is from Pugal in Bikaner, who has learnt classical music as well for eight years in Bahawalpur, proudly says

“…this is the area of Sufiyayna qalam...this region has been blessed by one of the mort important Sufis, Khwaja Ghulam Farid who has spent considerable time of his life here and composed in the praise of the desert…our singing is different from the Sindh region…it has similarities with the Patiala and Sham Chaurasi Gharana of Punjab, exponents of which have sung immortal sufi qalam. In our tradition the most common ragas are Bhimpalasi, Malkauns and Multani Kafi…”

Expounding further on the tradition the regal old man tells that Ishq (love) was the first thing to be made by Allah when he created Muhammad. He then sang in his sonorous voice the ibtadayi baat (tale of the beginning) as is expressed in a qalam by Ali Haider. It talks of the primordial relationship between Ishq and gana (song) at a time when there was nothing else:

“Jadon Ishq wali bang mele saiya puchan laga kaun imam ha

Na nau kalam na kurshi arash

na zamin te na asmana

na macca mojij te na ganga tirath

na kufr te na Islam ha

Ali Haider mian

Jadon Ishq de hath wich gana jad Ishq he Ishq da Imam ha"

"when I heard the call of love

the beloved asked: what sort of Imam are you!

I said: neither of the earth nor the sky

nor from miraculous places like macca or sacred pilgrimages like ganga

Neither the Kafir, nor the Islam

Ali haider, Oh dear when love sings

I am the Imam of love and love alone"

Hear Ustad Ghulam Mohammad 

Kesariya Balam Aavo ne Padharo Mhare Des

Over the last few decades the quaint and rustic representation of ‘Rajasthani folk music’ has transmuted into a veritable trope of brand ‘Rajasthan’ being represented in different forms and patterns by public and private actors. A handful of musicians from these communities are now regulars on national and international festivals, tours and cultural exchange circuits of different genres of ‘world music’. This has contributed to the much hyped visibility of folk musicians from the Thar desert. The production of culture industry incessantly expands in its all encompassing influence becoming widespread with many Indian and foreign labels fervently producing ‘haunting’, ‘seductive’, ‘melodic’, ‘lilting’, ‘soul stirring’ folk music from the deserts of Thar, Rajasthan.  Latest to join the on going glitter of culture industry are mega live music events amidst sand dunes, recreating the royal heritage, organised in collusion by media syndicates, local tourism lobby and regional elites. The folk musicians are paraded endlessly to adorn the gatherings of culture elite, fairs and festivals in Rajasthan. Folk music interludes are a quintessential feature in tour and travel packages for foreign and domestic tourists. The enticing overtures and soul stirring renditions of these musicians are ceaselessly marketed globally and locally by music industry- tourism complex.

 

Underneath this scintillating and loud sonic extravaganza of folk music lies a sordid story of languishing traditions, pathos and destitution that characterizes lives of majority of these marginal practitioners of culture. Issues of everyday existence, dignified survival and well being of these musician communities continue to escape public discourse with unceasing monotony. The ‘intoxicating headiness’ whipped up by a series of fleeting yet bewitching representations of Rajasthani folk music surreptitiously casts a thick veil over everyday hardships of living contexts of these musician communities and their music traditions. 

And the lilt of the archetypal Padharo Mhare Des goes on...

Sufiyana Qalam on Been

Ustad Nazre Khan is from Pugal, Bikaner in the state of Rajasthan. He is a deft player of been (a kind of bagpipe). He sings as well often accompanying others in a sufiyana qalam.

In one of the mornings in his house in Pugal he played been

Ustad Nusrat Ali Fateh Ali Khan: The Legend Lives on

Sanson ki mala pe simron mein pi ka naam

hear this

Ingenious Puns

 

Safir-i Simurgh, "The Whistling of the Simurgh"

This epic is the most perfect poetic introduction to the mystical path, with its seven valleys, in which are described all the difficulties the soul will encounter on the road.

The thirty birds who have undertaken the painful journey in search of the Simurgh, the king of birds, realize finally that they themselves—being si murgh, "thirty birds"—are the Simurgh.

This is the most ingenious pun in Persian literature, expressing so marvelously the experience of the identity of the soul with the divine essence.

Excerpted from: Anne Marie Schimmel Mystical Dimension of Islam, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1975

For More on Safar-i-Simurgh see