A Song for the Lord of the Hills

hamidm2:
While enjoying your humour, I am a bit reluctant, like Nooralain, to ridicule faith. Something has to be said about the power of faith, or what is better captured by the arabic word `aqeeda`. As the poet said:
Khak ko but aur but ko devta karta hai ishq
Inteha yeh hai ke bande ko khuda karta hai ishq.

...and dont worry, the future of ummah is safe in the hands of hunood. You see, a muslim can go offer prayer to a hindu shrine without having to convert; indeed, until some ramoos-come-lately decided otherwise, it was impossible to become a hindu, except the old-fashioned way, i.e. earn it by being a good guy in previous births. Ever since Muhammad bin Qassim, conversion in India has always been a one-way street and will remain so.
nhk:
``It seems to be true for only Abrahimic faiths - Bhuddism and Hinduism, much older, have survived in the same condition - greater tolerance and much less strictness & much less power & influence of clergy.``

As I said to hamidm, it ain`t so. These older religions did not survive those with stronger faith and sharper swords. Look at Afghanistan or Panjab or Indonesia for that matter.

...I dont think many hindus in the North are familiar with the concept of archanai.

islam is in danger.........

.........they, the true believers, have been telling us all along that, ``islam khatray mein hai`` ....... first there was ali and his mum, the yazid, then there were the ahmedis, now it seems that the muslims of india are reverting back to hindooism in droves ............ where does this stop .......... anyway, i am glad to hear that most of these converts are musicians, writers, journalists and other people of loose character .......... the ummah doesn`t have any use for these artsy fartsy types anyway - most of them are homosexuals, reprobates and deviants to start with ....................

ramgoweri # 9

(Sometimes the devotee requests for the prayer to be offered in the lord`s name, sometimes a near relative`s, often his or her children. In this )

Why should the Lord himself be needing special prayer from a priest. The Lord is himself is the giver of all things? I am a little confused.

Dost-Mitter

As you know, the Muslims have raised the status of the Prophet to much higher heights than due for a messenger. Not only Prophet but his friends and family members are treated like dieties. `Blasphemy` covers a wide area - and is punishable.

So ``Shirk`` is left far behind.

As they say, all religions begin with simple ideas - and then their clergy, with state power, keeps on making them more difficult & strict. Until, the followers simply get fed up and delink the clergy from State. It has already happened to Judaism & Christianity - now perhaps Islam is going through that painful stage. To get the Mulla & his edicts not capture the state power as it happened in Afghanistan to disastrous effects.

It seems to be true for only Abrahimic faiths - Bhuddism and Hinduism, much older, have survived in the same condition - greater tolerance and much less strictness & much less power & influence of clergy.

Many of the muslims in India - remember their Hindu past. A whole village
in Rajasthan returned to Hinduism recently.

Most of the singers, so called sufis even in Pakistan - remember their past.

In India, musicians like Ustad Allauddin Khan and Ali Akbar Khan all remember
their Hindu past - they would do a Shiva-pooja at home.
They are all ``muslims`` in name - nothing else.
Even Ustad Bismillah Khan is Hindu - except for the nominal muslimness outside.
A.R.Rehman is now back to using his Hindu name of Dileep.

hamidm:

honestly, with ellipsis if you please. . .why do you find it absolutely necessary to ridicule all those who believe? is there absolutely no room for what you believe, and what i, for example believe? just curious, thank you.

and no, i have nothing to share about the Virgen Maria de Guadalupe shrine visit, given that i`ve never been. but i`d be interested in hearing about someone who did. : )

and i shall light a candle for you next time i`m in church!!!
n~

ram trumps allah !

``Well, to make the long story short, my parents and his parents went to that temple on that particular day and offered prayers. My firend recovered fully and as such their wish was granted.``...........subhanallah!

........... so what do my muslim friends like tahmed and naqshbandi have to say to this ?............isn`t this definitive proof that allah mian is an imposter who can`t even cure a simple thing like encephalitis ?.......... one visit to an obscure temple was able to accomplish what five times a day of bowing to a rock in mecca could not do............. subhanallah, or should i say, subhanram ................. next thing you know nooralain will be talking about a friend who was cured of cancer by a single visit to some virgin`s shrine in guadalupe .............subhanmary!

He is well. But is a shell of the person he was. When he got this he was in his second year mechanical engineering. He was a brilliant student till his illness. He lost a lot of that after he recovered since he was heavily medicated with Sodium Gardinal. He managed to complete his degree. But was not able to get a job. He now owns a grocery store and is doing quite well.

He is married and has a daughter. Now she is absolutely brilliant.

[there is definitely something to be said about the power of faith. . . ]

Himayat Ali Shayer...started a new genre in urdu poetry which unfortunately never took off, it was called `salaasi` which the arabs would pronounce as ` thalaathi` and contained three misras to complete a theme. here is one on power of faith...

Ye aik patthar jo raastay meiN paRa huwa hai
issay mohabbat saNwaar lay tou yehi sanam hai
issay aqeedat taraash lay tou yehi Khuda hai

I found out the name of the Rajasthani muslim tribe which specialises in singing hindu krishna bhajans, it is Manghaniyar. The tribe lives in the border areas of Rajasthan and Pakistan`s Sindh province. The internationally famous group, Musafir, derives its inspiration from them.

CoolAL

that is a lovely story. and is your friend well now? was he affected in any way later by the encephalitis?

there is definitely something to be said about the power of faith. . .
n~

Just wanted to share something similar. I have several muslim neighbors in Bangalore. They are quite close to our family. We have lived next to each other for years and we used to play together as kids.

Anyway, they are quite devot muslims. One day, their 18 year old boy -- my close friend -- got chicken pox. That somehow morphed into encephalitis -- called post varicella encehalitis -- and he became very critical. He used to have hundreds of seizures every night for weeks on end. I know this because I used to do night duty at his bedside in the Nursing home for weeks on end and I kept a record for two weeks as to how many seizures he had. The doctors did not have much hope to give to us. In fact they were trying to get the family prepare for his not being able to make it through.

While all this was going on, my mom -- this is her reponse to all difficult situations -- began getting pujas done in many many tamples in his name. This continued for quite sometime. She kept this to herself until she heard about this obsucre temple in a small village 70 kms away from Bangalore where there was a legend that if you offer prayers on a particular day, your wish will be granted. So my mom hesitantly broached the subject with our neighbor -- who were at this time in despair -- and was able to convince them that they have nothing to lose so they should try this.

Well, to make the long story short, my parents and his parents went to that temple on that particular day and offered prayers. My firend recovered fully and as such their wish was granted. My mom and now his mom are fully convinced that they prayers did the trick. The rest of us are not quite ``convinced``. However, we don`t see any reason to argue.

My parents and his parents have continued this tradition now for past 20 years. They vist that temple on that particular day every year to pray at that obscure temple.

ramgowri:
Welcome to chowk!
The tradition of muslim musicians is fairly common in North India. I believe that muslim musicians respect Goddess Sarswati, too. There is a group of musicians in Rajasthan (I forgot the name) who specialise in Krishna devotion.

...But folks, let`s make no mistake about it. In praying to a Hindu deity, all these people are indeed indulging in shirk which goes against a basic tenet of Islam.


...and Milad-ul-Nabi mubarak to all our muslim friends.

The usual question the priest asks is, ``In whose name should the archanai or special prayer be performed?`` Sometimes the devotee requests for the prayer to be offered in the lord`s name, sometimes a near relative`s, often his or her children. In this case, in earlier years, Abdul had sidestepped providing his name by asking the priest to do the prayer in God`s name.

Harimau,
This is amazing. The interview at the Cleveland Tyagaraja Aradhana was done by Shankar Ramachandran, my brother-in-law!

After reading Jay`s comments, I wonder if my eminent doctor friend, a Hindu and an expert in his field--hence his numerous visits to Pakistan as a visiting physician--is right when he says the attitude of the average Pakistani to Indians is perhaps more positive than that of the common Indian to Pakistanis. I am not denying the existence of the lunatic fringe among Muslims, but that applies equally to Hindus. In south India, at least, the Abduls or Salmas do not have to show respect to Hindu gods clandestinely. Their real names have been withheld not out of any fear for their safety but to respect their privacy.

From the same Chennai Online (www.chennaionline.com), here is another story that appeared recently. I have added a few words in paranthesis to explain words that aren`t in English. The nadaswaram is a woodwind instrument similar to the shehnai but much longer; it produces music which is usually a couple of octaves lower than that of the shehnai. The tavil is the drum that traditionally accompanies a nadaswaram.

The source article with a couple of photographs can be found at:

http://www.chennaionline.com/specials/cleveland04/interview01.asp

Artiste Interview
Praying for the gift of playing the nadaswaram

This is the first time the Cleveland Aradhana has included a full-length nadaswaram concert. The artists, Sheikh Subhani Mahboob and his wife Khaleeshabibi Mahaboob say they need at least three hours or more for a concert as it takes time for the wood wind instruments to settle down in these dry and cold climate conditions. And they cannot warm up in the hotel room for fear of disturbing the other guest with the loud instruments.

These are not the usual loud and blaring sounds we hear in the background on festive occasions. The mood created by the talented duo was contemplative throughout. Natakuranji varnam precedes Hamsadwani and `Akhilandeshwari` in Dwijavanti. `Sogasuga Mridanga Thalamu` in Sriranjini was accompanied with a soft touch on the tavil.

The Thodi alapana was expansive and in the grand tradition of their Guru; Sheikh Chinna Moulana. They took up the difficult piece `Chesinadella Marachitivo O Rama Rama` that was executed with a precision not found in many vocal concerts. The nadaswaram seemed to virtually speak the lyrics out aloud.

Many senior artistes were in the audience and enjoying this soul fest. Prof. T.R. Subramaniam, violin maestro T.N. Krishnan, T.M. Krishna, Ramnad Raghavan, Guruvaiur Dorai and several other musicians were all present. During the `tani` (drum solo) Sri Vembu Muthukumar and Sri Manickam Sankar showed their dexterity and demonstrated that Tavil can also be played softly and produce sounds of exceptional nuance and resonance.

They ended the concert with the ten Bhaja Govindam verses in the ragamalika popularized by M.S. Subbulakshmi. Again one could sense the nadaswarams` enunciation of the Sanskrit verses of Adi Sankara.

I was struck by the incongruity. Here was a Muslim couple playing Hindu religious music. I also noticed that the box that held the nadaswaram had pictures of Hindu Gods. The couple was also the Asthana Vidwans (court musicians) of the Sringeri Peetam ( a monastery of Shaivite monks at Sringeri). I was curious to know more about how this husband and wife team was introduced to this music? Did they know the words of the songs they play so soulfully? Do Hindu rituals also enter their lives at home?

We caught up with the artists back stage. The soft spoken, unassuming couple and the equally modest and quiet Tavil duo sat down and spoke with us in a Tamil which was not adulterated with English vocabulary:

Q. Do you remember how you started to learn nadaswaram?
A. I was five or six years old when my father started including me in the lessons he gave other students. By age ten I was playing at concerts with my father. She (he indicates his wife sitting by his side with an affectionate nod) is my own Athai`s (aunt - father`s sister) daughter. She was taught by her chittappa (uncle - father`s younger brother) and by age nine she was also giving concerts.

Q. How were you able to wield such a big instrument when you were so young?
A. We learned on a smaller nadaswaram because our fingers were small at the time. We could not have reached and held the instrument. Within a couple of years we were able to play the full-sized instrument.

Q. You are both Muslims. How did you come to be introduced into this life of playing religious Hindu music?
A. Our families have a story about this (he says with a smile) that is written in our family record book. It may or may not be so, but it is our family history. Eight generations ago one of our grand parents was a young boy in Saathulur, which is in Guntur district. The boy did not do well in his lessons and his father punished him with a beating. This form of punishment was common in those days when they did not know better.

The young boy ran away from home in pain and hid in the nearby Munivandamma temple. That night, the Amman (Goddess) deity of the temple appeared before the boy and comforted him. It is said that the deity wrote a mantra on his tongue and blessed him with the gift of nadaswaram music; not only for his lifetime but also for the next seven generations to come. ``The seventh generation ended with my father`` Sheikh Mahaboob adds with a coy smile. We are the eighth generation. So we now pray to receive the blessing for the next seven generations. His plain white shirt reflects brightly and there is a warmth in his eyes as he says this.

Q. Do you learn the music as swaras (musical notation) or do you also learn the sahitya (lyrics)?
A. We have to learn the words. Music (he uses the Tamil word `paattu`) cannot be learned and played by just learning the swaras. We are trained in vocal music and have learned all the pieces we play.

Q. What religious traditions do you observe at home?
A. For us, all religions are one. But at home we observe the Muslim holidays and traditions. Our marriage was a traditional Muslim ceremony. However, my father asked me to tie the `thali` (mangal sutra) myself. Normally this is not done as the groom rarely meets the bride before the wedding, the elderly of the house tie the knot. We were the first to set this trend and since then, all the youngsters in our family do this. At that time it was a big thing.

Q. Were you satisfied by your concert today?
A. No (they reply quickly and with feeling). We had a lot of trouble with the dry and cold weather. The Sivali (mouthpiece for the nadaswaram) gets dry and it takes time to settle down.

Q. What is a Sivali (pronounced `sivaaali`)?
A. It is the removable mouthpiece of the nadaswaram. It is made from the leaves of the `Naanal Thattai` bush that grows along the banks of the Cauvery River. The leaves are picked, steamed and dried and then the sivalis are made. If you buy a dozen, only three or four will be usable.

Q. You say the art of playing the nadaswaram is going through a revival now with many colleges teaching the instrument in Tamil Nadu. What about the art of making the nadaswarams themselves?
A. Nadaswarams are made from the wood of the `Accha Maram` tree. This is very hard to find today. Beams from old houses that are being demolished are scavenged to make new instruments. It is a dark wood. The dark color of the nadaswaram is the natural color of the wood itself. All nadaswarams are made in Narsingapettai near Mayavaram where a family of two brothers is continuing their tradition of generations.

Later on we spot the couple enjoying flautist Sikkil Mala Chandrasekhar`s concert.

Published on 12th April, 2004