Narsinh Mehta: Vaishnav Jan To

Narsinh Mehta was a 15th century Gujarati poet, a devotee of Lord Krishna. His bhajan 'Vaishnavajan To Tene Kahiye' was Mahatma Gandhi's favourite and has been sung by many including Lata Mangeshkar.  Translation below from Wikipedia.

વૈષ્ણવ જન તો તેને કહિયે જે
પીડ પરાઈ જાણે રે
પર દુ:ખે ઉપકાર કરે તો યે
મન અભિમાન ન આણે રે. ॥ધૃ॥

वैष्णव जन तो तेने कहिये
जे पीड परायी जाणे रे ।
पर दुःखे उपकार करे तो ये
मन अभिमान न आणे रे ॥

vaiṣṇava jana to tene kahiye
je pīḍa parāyī jāṇe re,
para duḥkhe upakāra kare to ye
mana abhimāna na āṇe re

Call those people Vaishnav who
Feel the pain of others,
Help those who are in misery,
But never let self-conceit enter their mind.

સકળ લોકમાં સહુને વંદે,
નિંદા ન કરે કેની રે
વાચ કાછ મન નિશ્ચલ રાખે
ધન ધન જનની તેની રે. ॥૧॥

सकळ लोकमां सहुने वंदे,
निंदा न करे केनी रे ।
वाच काछ मन निश्चल राखे,
धन धन जननी तेनी रे ॥

sakaḷa loka māṁ sahune vande,
nindā na kare kenī re,
vāca kācha mana nischala raakhe,
dhana dhana jananī tenī re

They respect the entire world,
Do not disparage anyone,
Keep their words, actions and thoughts pure,
The mother of such a soul is blessed.

સમદૃષ્ટિ ને તૃષ્ણા ત્યાગી
પરસ્ત્રી જેને માત રે
જિહ્વા થકી અસત્ય ન બોલે
પરધન નવ ઝાલે હાથ રે. ॥૨॥

समदृष्टि ने तृष्णा त्यागी,
परस्त्री जेने मात रे ।
जिह्वा थकी असत्य न बोले,
परधन नव झाले हाथ रे ॥

sama-dṛṣṭi ne tṛṣṇā tyāgī,
para-strī jene māta re,
jihvā thakī asatya na bole,
para-dhana nava jhāle hātha re

They see all equally, renounce craving,
Respect other women as their own mother,
Their tongue never utters false words,
Their hands never touch the wealth of others.

મોહ માયા વ્યાપે નહિ જેને,
દૃઢ વૈરાગ્ય જેના મનમાં રે
રામ નામ શુ તાળી રે લાગી
સકળ તીરથ તેના તનમાં રે. ॥૩॥

मोह माया व्यापे नहि जेने,
दृढ़ वैराग्य जेना मनमां रे ।
रामनाम शुं ताळी रे लागी,
सकळ तीरथ तेना तनमां रे ॥

moha māyā vyāpe nahi jene,
dhruda-vairāgya jenā manamāṁ re,
rāma-nāma shu tāḷī lāgī,
sakaḷa tīratha tenā tanamāṁ re

They do not succumb to worldly attachments,
They are firmly detached from the mundane,
They are enticed by the name of Raam,
All places of pilgrimage are embodied in them.

વણ લોભી ને કપટ રહિત છે,
કામ ક્રોધ નિવાર્યાં રે
ભણે નરસૈયો તેનું દર્શન કરતાં
કુળ એકોતેર તાર્યાં રે. ॥૪॥

वणलोभी ने कपटरहित छे,
काम क्रोध निवार्या रे ।
भणे नरसैयॊ तेनुं दरसन करतां,
कुळ एकोतेर तार्या रे ॥

vaṇa-lobhī ne kapaṭa-rahita che,
kāma krodha nivāryā re,
bhaṇe narasaiyo tenuṁ darasana karatāṁ,
kuḷa ekotera tāryā re

They have forsaken greed and deceit,
They stay afar from desire and anger,
Narsi says: I'd be grateful to meet such a soul,
Whose virtue liberates their entire lineage.

Gandhiji was popular all over undivided India including present day Baluchistan. The  bhajan is sung below in qawwali form by Baloch qawwals.

Rumi: Beya Beya Ke Tui Jaan-e-Sama'

Bar Sama' rast har qas' chiir nest
Tu uma har murg ke injir nest

Naught can all partake of the Gathering,
Birds have no taste for the fruits of the olive tree.

Beya beya ke tui jaan-e-jaan-e-jaan-e-Sama'
Beya ke sarw-o-rawaani ba-bostaan ke Sama'

Come, Come, thou art the heart and soul and heart of the Gathering
Come, for the cypress withers without thee, in the garden of Gathering

Beya ke choon to naboodast o hum nakhwahad bood
Beya ke choon to nadeedast deedgaan-e-Sama'

Come, for there never has been another like thou (and never ought be),
Come, for the likes of thou has never been seen by the seers of Gathering

Sama' ha shukr to goyad ba shad zabaan-e-faseeh
Yaki to nuqta bigoyam man az zaban-e-Sama'

The Gathering will thank thee for coming, in a hundred different tongues
This is one small thing I say, 'bout the language of the Gathering

Khuda azaan e shuma o shuma azaan e Khuda
Sama' az aan shuma o shuma az aan Sama

God call us towards thee, and thou calls towards God
The Gathering's an invitation to thee, and thou calls us into the Gathering

Biya Ke Soorat e Ishqast Shams e Tabrezi
Hama Ba Raqs Darayi mu-darmiyan-e-Sama'

Come O Shams of Tabrez, Thou face of Love
The assembled multitude burst into dance in the Gathering

(Kinar-i zarreh chon pur shud ze partau khursheed
Hameh beh raqs bar ayand bi fugan-e-Sama'.

When the sun rays saturate every corner of each grain of being
All of them rise in the uninhibited dance of the Gathering.)

Moazzam Jah 'Shahji': Shab-e-hijr Woh Dam-ba-Dam Yaad Aaye

Moazzam Jah, Walashan Shahzada Nawab Mir Sir Shuja’at ‘Ali Khan Siddiqi Bahadur, KCIE (1907 – 1987), was the son of the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, and his first wife Dulhan Pasha Begum. He married Princess Niloufer, one of the last princesses of the Ottoman empire, and represents the extinction of a line that held sway in the Deccan of India for 200 years.

This son of the last Nizam was a poet who wrote under the pen name Shahji, or sometimes Shahji Hyderabadi.  Here, Farid Ayaz and Company render one of his compositions.

रब अन-दर बुतकदा शीनम, बे पैश ए बुत कुनम सजदा
अगर याबम ख़रीदारे, फ़रोशाम दीन-ओ-ईमान मा

I shall travel to the house of idolatry, circle it and prostrate myself
O find me a buyer so I can sell my belief and my faith.
(attributed to the Chistiyya saint Hazrat Bu Ali Qalandar, 1209-1324.)

दिल की दुनिया को जो बर्बाद किया करता है
उसी के दर्द को दिल याद किया करता है
जब कभी ज़ुल्म को इजाद (evolve) किया करता है
सबसे पहले वो मुझे याद किया करता है
कुछ अज़ब लुत्फ़ से बेदाद किया करता है
बाल-ओ-पर (feathers) नोच के आज़ाद किया करता है

शब-ए-हिज्र वो दम-बा-दम याद आये
बहुत याद आकर भी कम याद आये
अदू (Rivals) उनको बेहर-ए-करम याद आये
सितम आज़माने को हम याद आये
ये कैसा भी गुज़रा है आलम के पहरों
न तुम याद आये न हम याद आये
हमहीं  वो मुजस्सम-ए-वफ़ा (personification of faithfulness)  हैं के जिनको
तेरे सितम भी ब-तर्ज़-ए (transcribed as) करम याद आये
'शहजि' आज तनहा चमन में गए थे
बहुत उनके नख्श-ए-कदम याद आये |

Jigar : Allah Agar Taufiq Na De

Ali Sikandar 'Jigar Muradabadi' (1890-1960) has a special place in the history of Urdu poetry. He wrought a Sufiyana qalam with both the flamboyance of a Ghalib and the emotional depth of a Mir.




Allāh agar taufīq na de insān ke bas kā kaam nahīñ
faizān-e-mohabbat aam sahī irfān-e-mohabbat aam nahīñ

If Divine help be withheld from one, mere mortal's work it's never so
Conquests of love are common it's true; Knowledge of Love, never so.

Yā Rabb ye maqām-e-ishq hai kyā go dīda-o-dil nākām nahīñ
taskīn hai aur taskīn nahīñ ārām hai aur ārām nahīñ

Lord, what station this of Love? where the perceptive of heart never fail
Peace there is, yet there is none, comfort ever there, and yet never so.

Kyuuñ mast-e-sharāb-e-aish-o-tarab taklīf-e-tavajjoh farmā.eñ
āvāz-e-shikast-e-dil hī to hai āvāz-e-shikast-e-jām nahīñ

Why spoil the heady enchantment of drink, forcing hard attention on -
Voices of hearts strangled are, may the Voice of Wine be never so.

Aanā hai jo bazm-e-jānāñ meñ pindār-e-ḳhudī ko toḌ ke aa
ai hosh-o-ḳhirad ke dīvāne yahañ hosh-o-ḳhirad kā kaam nahīñ

When come'st thou to Beloved's hall, bring not with thee the Pride of Self
O Thou madden'd by Reason and Sense, here Reason or Sense? never so.

Zāhid ne kuchh is andāz se pī saaqī kī nigāheñ paḌne lagīñ
maikash yahī ab tak samjhe thhe shāista daur-e-jām nahīñ

The Pious one tried to drink in style, Cup-bearer's looks in askance were drawn
The drunkards had hitherto thought, gentle'd goblet's pass, could be never so.

Ishq aur gavārā ḳhud kar le be-shart shikast-e-fāsh apnī
kuchh dil ki bhi un ke sāzish hai tanhā ye nazar kā kaam nahīñ

Love made disappear rapidly, condition-less, all my obvious lacks
Heart must've conspired with Her, for work of lonely gaze 'twas never so.

Jami: Mun Khaak-e-Kaaf-e-Paaye

Kharabaat (Persian: خرابات ‎‎) is a term in Persian poetry, created as a combination of the two opposite fragments  kharaab (ruinous) and aabad (prosperous.)

The word originally meant tavern, or house of ill repute, but was eventually appropriated by mystics to refer to a place that they frequented, by way of suspending all hypocritical pretense to piety. This was a place that you could frequent that would dismantle your superficial, show-off beliefs, and, in doing so, restore you to the true, deep faith. The proverbial tavern of the seers and mystics, with wise men masquerading as drunks, is in Persian poetry called Kharabaat.

The Malāmatiyya (ملامتية) or Malaamatis were a Muslim mystic group active in the 9th century in  Greater Khorasan. The root of their name is the Arabic word malāmah (ملامة), or 'blame'. The Malaamatiyya believed in the value of self-blame; that piety should be a private matter; and that being held in good esteem due to public demonstrations of piety, would lead to worldly attachment and defeat the purpose. A Malaamati concealed his knowledge, but made sure his faults were be known, reminding everyone of his imperfections. The Malaamati despises personal piety, not because he is focused on the perceptions or reactions of people, but because he must constantly, involuntarily witness his own pious hypocrisy. Malaamati thus refers to a method of teaching within Sufism, based on surrendering self-glorification, and taking blame.

Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī (Persian: نورالدین عبدالرحمن جامی‎‎), known simply as Jami (1414 – 1492), was a medieval Persian poet, prolific scholar, and writer of mystical Sufi literature. A prominent poet-theologian of the school of Ibn Arabi and a Khwājagānī Sũfī, Jami is remembered today for his eloquent brevity, and for his analysis of the metaphysics of mercy.

Here is Subhan Ahmed Nizami Qawwal performing the qalaam of Jami.




Mun khaak-e-kaaf-e-paaye Rindan-e-Kharabaatam
Qurbaan-e-lab-e-laal-e-janaan-e-Kharabaatam

I am as dust 'neath the feet of the Drunkards of Kharabaat
Sacrificed, for the red lips of the Beloveds of Kharabaat

Dil reshi-o-be-kheshi shud ain-e-namaaz-e-mun
Dar qibla-e-abroo-e-khubaan-e-Kharabaatam

My prayer now consists of tormenting my heart, and erasing my Self
My prostrations toward the arched brows, of the Beauties of Kharabaat

Mun aaina-e-yaarum, ganjeena-e-asraarum
Hairat zada-e-ishqam, mun shaan-e-Kharabaatam

I am as a mirror for my Beloved, I am a treasure-chest full of Secrets
Smitten by the wonder of Love, I am now the pride of Kharabaat

Een khirqa-e-hasti ra dar mae-kada-e-Vahdat
Sad baar girau kardam uryaan-e-Kharabaatam

This robe of Self, in the Drunkards' tavern of Unity
A hundred times I cast away, I am now naked in Kharabaat

Een tauba-o-taqwa shud az Jami-e-be-deene
Dar koo-e-Malamaati, hairaan-e-Kharabaatam

All this piety and this supplication, from the heretic Jami
Living in a den of Malaamatis, I am wonderstruck in Kharabaat.

Kesarbai Kerkar: Jaa't Kahan Ho?

Kesarbai Kerkar (केसरबाई केरकर, 1892 -1977) was a classical vocalist,  the most prominent disciple of Alladiya Khan (1855–1946), the founder of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. She was one of the most noted Indian classical 'khayal' singers of the 20th century.  This thumri of her's in Raga Bhairavi, Taal Deepchandi, is part of the golden disk aboard the Voyager I & II spacecraft that carries a record of humanity's achievements and aspirations into interstellar space.

जा'त कहाँ हो अकेली गोरी, जाने न पैय्यों
केसर रंग के माठ भये होय, होरी खेलत कान्हा रे

Jaat kahan ho, akeli gori, jaane na paiyyon
Where do you go alone, girl, do your feet not know?

Kesar rang ke maath bhaye hoy, Hori khelat Kanha re
The fields are colored saffron, Krishna plays Holi (there I go.)

The sense is that of a companion or elder asking the young lady where she ventures by herself. She answers: Krishna (Kanha) is calling, playing Holi (Hori) in the fields, they are (i.e. my world is) become the color of renunciation.

Quo Vadis? We could ask that of any Voyager.

Rasoolan Bai: Jaawe Man Najar Nahin Aaye

Rasoolan Bai (1902 – 1974) was a classical tawaif of the Benaras gharana. She specialized in the romantic Purabi Ang  - Eastern Arm - of the Thumri and Tappa musical genres.

The Tappa is a form of Indian semi-classical vocal music. Its specialties are its rolling pace and its knotty construction. The tunes are melodious; intended to mimic the emotions of a forlorn - perhaps God-obsessed - lover.

Tappas originated in folk songs of camel riders of Punjab. The style was refined and introduced to the imperial court of the Mughal Emperor Mohammad Shah 'Rangeela' in the 1720s; and thence to the court of Asaf-ud-Daulah, Nawab of Awadh. It then spread to Benaras and Bengal. In Bengal, Ramnidhi Gupta's compositions form a genre called Nidhu Babu's Tappas. Tappa gayaki took new shape in Bengal, and, over the decades, became puratani, a popular semi-classical form of Bengali vocal music.

Rasoolan Bai was born in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, in a poor family, of a musical mother - Adalat. At the age of five, her prodigy was recognized and she was sent to learn music from Ustad Shammu Khan, and later from the sarangiyas Ashiq Khan and Ustad Najju Khan. She became an expert in tappa singing and went on to dominate the Hindustani classical music genre for next five decades, basing herself in Varanasi and becoming the doyenne of Benaras gharana. In 1948, she stopped performing mujra, moved out of her kotha, married a sari dealer, and moved into a bylane.

Below, Rasoolan Bai sings a tappa in Raga Gaud Sarang. The lyrics are very simple:

Jaawe man, najar nahin aaye -
(Dhhondhata phirat nisi-din, sun Miyo.)

My mind goes (to Him), my eyes do not see (Him)
I look (for Him) night-and-day; listen, Master.

This material was morphed by Sachin-karta into his Ghum Bhulechhi Nijhhum,  and from there into Hum Bekhudi Mein Tumko Pukare Chale Gaye, where it is sung in a cousin-raga, the Chhayanat. The ragas Kedar, Gaud Sarang, and Chhayanat have very similar melodic movements.




Rasoolan Bai was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in Hindustani music Vocal in 1957 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance and Theatre. Despite an illustrious musical career, she died in penury, running a small tea shop out of a hovel next to the radio station from where she had often broadcast in her heyday.

Moujuddin Khan: Bajawa Re Baar Baar Baje

The defeat of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 led to the collapse of centers of cultural patronage in Awadh, Agra and Delhi. The famous courtesans of the age moved around in search of benefactors to Benares or Kolkata. Victoria Hemmings - the famous Maika Jaan - and her daughter (by one dry-ice engineer named William Yeoward) Angelina better known as Gauhar Jaan - are two famous singers who followed this trajectory.

Between the 1870s and 1930s, Benares came into its own as a center for classical or semi-classical music. This was the age of Rasoolan Bai, Siddeshwari, Moti Bai; the thumri in Eastern-style or Purbi-ang reached its zenith. Veshya-Stotra written by Babu Bacchu Singh in the 1890s lists over 100 tawaifs or courtesans, each of whom would conduct a mehfil every few days.

Compared to the teentaal based regular beats of the courts of Oudh, Benares preferred the irregular 1-2-3/1-2-3-4 deepchandi. The lyrics and melodic span were simple, the goal was a contemplative depth of emotion. Boating parties carrying the singers and their patrons would ply the Ganges all night. A music lover was to lament in 1979:

Ah - at 2 in the night - Siddeshwari in one boat, Kashi Bai in another, Rasoolan in a third. Each singing different ragas - one a chaiti in Jogiya. Sometimes all three boats would come together, sometimes they would all float separately. People would forget where they were going. Where are those days now?

Below, Reba Muhury (who sang Mohey Lagi Lagan in Satyajit Ray's Benares-based Jai Baba Felunath) revives a thumri from that era. The composition is attributed by Smt. Muhury to Moujuddin Khan Saheb, the guru of the Elder Moti Bai. The simple - even rustic - lyrics describe the wedding procession of Rama and Sita in Awadh. It is sung with an artlessness that is the art, and contrasts with the sensual histrionics of the other styles of singing.




Bajawa re baar baar baje
Awadh mein
Ram Lakshman Bharat Shatrughn
Pragat char bhaiyya
Ram Lakshman Bharat Shatrughn
Behak saaj saaje.
Raja Dasarath ati sukhat bhayo
Kanchan roupya det lutaiyyan.
Puranari sab harash bhar
Abir gulal det udaiyyan.

The strings and pipes they play and play
O - in Awadh
Ram Lakshman Bharat Shatrughn
Proceed the brothers four
Ram Lakshman Bharat Shatrughn
Beguilingly decked all o'er.
King Dasarath, so happy is
Of gold and silver he the strewer.
Women-folk of town in joy
Let colors fly in the air.

Bhawaiya : Diney Diney

The territory of the Bhawaiya folk song is North Bengal, Coochbehar, and Assam -  also covering much of the Rangpuri-dialect-speaking areas of northern Bangladesh.  Some say Bhawaiya is derived from "bhava" - emotion.   Others think the term originated from the word "bhabaiya" -  that which inspires contemplation. Certainly the themes of this genre are contemplation, love, and loss. The lyrics below are traditional - dated sometime between the 17th and 19th centuries, now resurrected in a MTV sherwani. (Disregard the mishmash of overlaid new-age Punjabi lyrics, which bear no relation to the original.)




দিনে দিনে খসিয়া পড়িবে
রঙ্গিলা দালানের মাটি গোসাঁইজি ... কোন রঙে?

Diney diney khoshiya poribe
Rongila dalaner mati Gosain-ji ...  Kon rongey?

Day by day will crumble
Mud-walls of this pretty-colored house, O priest ... In what color?

বাঁধিছেন ঘর মিছা
মিছা দ্বন্দ্ব মাঝে গোসাঁইজি ... কোন রঙে?

Bandhichhen ghar michha
Michha dwandwa majhe Gosain-ji ...Kon rongey?

Your house-framing is futile
Futile in midst of doubt, O priest ... In what color?

বাল্য না কাল গেলো হাসিতে খেলিতে
যৈবন কাল গেলো রঙ্গে
আর বৃদ্ধ না কাল গেলো ভাবিতে চিন্তিতে
গুরু ভজিবো কোন কালে, গোঁসাইজী ... কোন রঙে?

Balyo na kaal gelo hashite khelite
Jaiban kaal gelo rangey
Aar briddho na kaal gelo bhabite chintite
Guru bhojibo kon kaale Gosain-ji ... Kon rongey?

Childhood went in laughter and play
Youth in dance and song
Old age in thinking and worry
When to chant of Guru, O priest ... In what color?

হাড়েরও ঘরখানি, চামেরও ছাউনি
বন্ধে বন্ধে তার জোড়া
আর তাহারই তলে ময়ুর আর ময়ুরী
শূন্যে উড়ায় তারা গোসাঁইজি ... কোন রঙে?

A room of bones, thatched by skin
Joint by joint tied
And beneath, peacock and peahen
They fly in space, O priest ... In what color?

(মতান্তরে )
হাড়েরও ঘরখানি, চামেরও ছাউনি
বন্ধে বন্ধে তার জোড়া
সেই ঝড়েরও প্রহরী ময়ুর আর ময়ুরী
কবে দেয় যে গো উড়া গোসাঁইজি ... কোন রঙে?

Harero gharkhani, chamero chhawni
Bandhe bandhe tar jora
Shei jharero prohori mayur ar mayuri
Kobe deay je go ura Gosain-ji ... Kon rongey?

(Alternatively)
A room of bones, thatched by skin
Joint by joint tied
That tempest's guards, peacock and peahen
Who knows when they fly away, O Priest ... In what color?

Amjad Sabri: Yehi Mera Zauq-e-Sujood Hai

A few weeks ago, two motorcyclists opened fire on Amjad Sabri's car in Karachi. Sabri was shot twice in the head and once on the ear and died shortly after.  The killing was claimed by a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban who accused Sabri of blasphemy.

Here is a piece of traditional qawwali from Amjad Sabri. The circumspect poster of the video (apparently the music label who produced it) has bleeped some of the problematic lines, wherein Hindu deities and Western philosophy are said to be found within a saint's shrine along with Muhammad or Allah. At one point, a camouflaging grunt of "Allaaaaah" is added to the soundtrack.




Yehi mera zauq-e-sujood hai, yehi mere ishq ka raaz hai
Teri yaad mein mera jhoomna, mera Hajj hai meri Namaaz hai

This is my perception of the essence of prayer: acknowedgement of my love for Thee
My whirling dance ,with Thee in mind, this is my pilgrimage (Hajj) and my prayer (Namaaz.)

Tere dar pe sajda ada kiya, tujhe apna kaaba bana liya
Yeh gunah hai to hua kare, mujhe is gunah pe naaz hai

I lay my prayers at Thine door, I made Thee my most sacred enclosure (Kaaba)
If these be sins, so be it, I cherish such sins of mine.

Yehan pehle raaj hain Aulia, yehan paaon rakha rawaan naheen
Yahan sar ke bal chalo aashiqon, ye dayar ye banda nawaz hai

The First Lord here is the shrine's saint (Aulia), none stepping here are sent back
Prostrate here your heads, O Lovers, this be the realm of Friends of Worship.

Yahan Falsafi bhi hai Ram hai, yeh ajeeb kaisa maqam hai
Jahan khud se jhuk na sake zabeen wahan sajda karna haraam hai

Here be philosophy (natural philosphy, i.e. science), here be Ram (avatar of Vishnu) too, what a strange station this is
Where Beauty (Pride?) cannot bow down before itself, that place is forbidden for prayers.

Mujhe Anwar-ul ka hai aasra, ke wahi to mere rafeeq hain
Main ghareeb hoon to kya hua mera silsila to daraaz hai

I take shelter in the Luminous One (Ali, the first Shia Imam), for he is my ally himself
So what if I am poor, my link to him is still unbroken.

Another rendering of this qalaam, by Shafqat Hussain and Shujaat Hussain qawwals, is here.