Selected Performance

"Dekho Sri Nanda Kumar." M. H. Khambolja sings and plays the pakhawaj, accompanied by jhañjh, tambura, and harmonium. Haveli sangit: a dhrupad in celebration of the birthday of Krsna performed in rag Dev Gandhar and Adacautal in a private home in Godhara, Gujarat, September 1981.

Haveli sangit is the liturgical music of the Vallabhacarya Vaisnavas of western India and is so named for where worship takes place. The haveli [Gujarati "mansion" or "palace"] is the dwelling of Krsna (often represented as a boy or adolescent) and — for the Vallabhacarya Vaisnavas of western India — the place where His devotees may come to worship Him.

The haveli sangitkar [Gujarati "one who performs haveli sangit"] is both a priest and a musician to the Vallabhacarya Vaisnavas of western India.

The Vallabhacharya Vaisnavas are a sect of Hindus who prodominantly worship Krishna. Appropriately, they are concentrated in those parts of India most associated with Krishna: the central plains region around Mathura (SSW of Delhi on the Yamuna branch of the Ganges), the Saurashtra region of the State of Gujarat (on India's northwest coast), and the corridor between these two regions.

The founder of the sect, Vallabh (ca 1479-1531), was a Telegu Sanskrit scholar greatly influenced by the bhakti movement. His approach to worship, the pustimarga, dictates that a devotee devote his/her entire being and possessions to the worship of God. Thus one is not only to meditate on God but also to clothe and feed him in his palace (haveli). For this purpose devotees and priests perform seven services during the day: mangala (the god rises from bed), srngar (the god is dressed), rajabhoja (the god is fed), utthapana (the god rises from his nap), bhojasana (the god has its afternoon meal), sandhya or arati (sundown audience), and sayan (the god retires for the evening). Music accompanies each of these services (haveli sangit).

Dhrupad, when we previously encountered it in this class, was a classical vocal and instrumental form in Hindustani sangit which we acknowledged as having ancient predecessors going back to at least the second century, B.C.E. We also discussed how the texts tend to praise the gods of hinduism, but could also praise human monarches. The performers of those dhrupads are — by historical coincidence — Muslims.

The hereditary brahman priest/musicians of the Vallabhacarya Vaisnavas perform dhrupads in haveli sangit with Krishna as their object of their praise. Devotees of Krishna congregate to praise Him with dhrupads in the haveli. The structure of the haveli sangit dhrupad reflects this congregational context in that singers repeat each section of the dhrupad (sthayi, antara, sañcari, and abhog). In this performance M. H. Khambolja sings each musical line the first time and then one of the other haveli sangitkars repeats the musical line.

The rags and tals of haveli sangit are somewhat unusual, but clearly are part of the Hindustani sangit tradition. However, they often have their own particular manifestations in this tradition.

Rag Dev Gandhar

Dev Gandhar is a rare raga in the Hindustani tradition, but continues in haveli sangit where it is specified for performance in the context of Krsna's birthday. Bhatkhande (KPM 6:340-345) indicates that the raga exists in two different versions (prakar), indicating that both arise from Asavari that. In the first, the melody avoids rishabh and dharivat in ascent even though he gives dharivat as the vadi and gandhar as the samvadi. He gives the time for performance as early morning. The second form he describes as employing both versions of gandhar (with suddh gandhar appearing in ascent) and dhaivat as the vadi.

Ada Cautal

Adacautal is more commonly heard in performances of khayal and is a 14-beat time cycle most often organized as follows.

The drummer often plays the theka, marking the time; however, as in classical performances of dhrupad, the drummer seldom plays the straight-forward version of the theka, instead soloing and improvising within the constraints of the tal. In part this is dictated by the other activities of the drummer. Unlike other musical traditions in India, in haveli sangit the drummer is also often the principal singer. Thus, when he sings he often plays the theka and when the congregation (or in the case of this recordingIn addition, the performer who plays the jhañjh (a pair of flat cymbals about 7" in diameter) marks time with a separate time-keeping pattern.

Sources of Indian Music | Kirtan