Listening to female voices in Sikh kirtan

Abstract

This paper examines sound recordings by female kirtaniye in an effort to redress the absence of women in historical narratives about Punjab. A sustained discussion of listening and performance practices in the Sikh tradition sheds light on the kirtan of Bibi Jaswant Kaur, Khushi Bai, Ajit Kaur, Surinder Kaur, and Tilly Bai, among others. An acousmatic approach calls attention to the expressive voices and disciplined bodies of female kirtaniye as they negotiated the changing terrain of female vocality in and outside of India. Biases against the commercial dissemination of Sikh kirtan are explored in relation to a pervasive cultural anxiety over the intervention of technology and its impact on issues of liveness as it re-configures the unity of the sangat. The myriad ways in which female kirtaniye evoke rasa in their kirtan also raise the contentious issue of whether raag is one of several techniques through which the words of the Sikh Gurus might conjoin with music.

Acknowledgements

This article has benefitted from the wisdom and generosity of many. I thank (girls first): Savinder Kaur Bhogal, Neelima Shukla-Bhatt, Shubha Chaudhuri, Purnima Dhavan, Claire Fontijn, Bibi Gurdev Kaur OBE, Ramneek Kaur Nagi, Nikki-Guninder Kaur Singh, Gunjan Veda; Philip Bohlman, Kenny Freundlich, Balbir Singh Kanwal, Mridul Mehta, Amardev Singh, Bhai Baldeep Singh, Bhai Harbans Singh Suraj, Dya Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Sarbpreet Singh. I also thank the CEO and staff of All India Radio for their help with procuring recordings.

Supplementary materials

Supplemental materials for this article can be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2016.1147183

Notes

1 Since the broad term kirtan does not capture the nuances that distinguish one musical style from another, there are several names in circulation to separate ‘learned' – Gurbani Sangit, Gurshabad Kirtan, and Gurmat Sangeet – from ‘popular’ styles – Shabad Kirtan, Gurbani Kirtan, and Shabad Gayan. Inderjit N. Kaur also explores issues of designation in (2011b, 251–278).

2 See Mansukhani (Winter 1976, 10); and Sri Guru Granth Sahib (hereafter SGGS), 22, Sri Rag, Guru Nanak (last accessed 25 February 2015). All translations are adapted from those in srigranth.org. Where appropriate, translations are rendered gender neutral. I have retained the female/male axis in Figures 2–4 since a feminine literary voice is in use.

3 Dates are unavailable for Ajit Kaur.

4 The Āīn-i Akbarī of Abu'l Fazl (1593) makes mention of female dhadhi players. See Sanyal and Widdess (2004, 47).

5 On this topic see Rait (2005); Takhar (2005); and Mahmood and Brady (2000).

6 I am grateful to Purnima Dhavan for sharing information about this source with me.

7 See Gill (1995, 22–23); Gill (1998, 75). Balbir Singh Kanwal also mentions how Mata Sundri was so touched upon hearing the kirtan of the young Jassa Singh and his mother that she bestowed on him a mace belonging to the Sixth Guru, Sri Hargobind. See (2010, 59).

8 McLeod (1987). Also see McLeod (2003).

9 Kanwal (2010, 42). Kanwar also mentions a certain fierce Heera Bai (Nabha Wali), a disciple of Jarnail Ali Baksh Sahib, who took on the responsibility of selecting musicians to perform at Maharajah Bhupinder Singh's court in Patiala. Her stringent auditions frightened away many great singers including Ustad Abdul Karim Khan's disciple, Heera Bai Barodekar, and another singer, Kesar Bai Kerkar (55). Widdess makes mention of another female singer attached to the Patiala court, Gokhī Bāī. See Sanyal and Widdess, Dhrupad, 105.

10 SGGS, 1237, Guru Nanak (last accessed 25 February 2015).

11 Also see Purewal (2011, 374).

12 Cassio (2014, 18). Cassio makes a similar point elsewhere: ‘we should consider whether there are repertoires that can be sung easily by an audience who are not trained musicians. I believe that this may apply to the shabad kīrtans from the folk tradition, while we can assume that the complexity of the dhrupad structures, and the refined rāgs prescribed in Gurmat Sangīt, required a specific training in vocal practice and therefore were performed by professional rāgis and rabābīs'. See Cassio (2011, 331).

13 I thank Bhai Baldeep Singh for sharing his memories of Jaswinder Kaur's background with me (personal correspondence, 13 December 2014). No information is available regarding her dates.

14 Personal correspondence, 13 December 2014.

15 See the obituary published by Gobind Sadan, ‘In Memory of Bibi Jaswant Kaur – The Hira of Gobind Sadan’ (http://www.gobindsadan.org/news-announcements/news-updates/52-news/news-and-updates/222-in-memory-of-bibi-jaswant-kaur.html). Also see http://www.gobindsadan.org/news-announcements/news-updates/52-news/news-and-updates/196-tributes-to-bibi-jaswant-kaur.html (last accessed January 29 2015).

16 SGGS: 1285, Pauri (last accessed 28 February 2015).

17 The full article by Sundari can be seen here: http://thelangarhall.com/sikhi/gurmat-sangeet-the-revival-of-traditional-sikh-music/#more-412.

18 Singh This article was posted on 13 February 2011: http://www.sikhchic.com/music/bibi_jasbir_kaur_khalsa_tribute_to_doyenne_of_gurmat_sangeet.

19 Singh interviewed Bibiji in 2005 and 2009. He has written a brief biography here: http://gurmatsangeet.blogspot.com/2005/09/gem-discovered.html (last accessed 20 February 2015).

20 Personal correspondence, 8 January 2015.

21 My transcription of Bibiji's conversation with Sarbpreet Singh in 2009. I am grateful to Sarbpreet Singh for sharing this and other audio material with me.

22 Recordings of Bibiji's kirtan are available on several websites including that of the Gurmat Sangeet Project, Gobind Sadan, and Sikh Net.

23 A recent recording of Bibiji performing this shabad on YouTube supports my point. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFAd7ZwnAEY (last accessed 28 February 2015).

24 Stock provides an excellent discussion of this issue. See (2010, 187–205).

25 On Uttam Singh's recordings see Kanwal (2010, 144).

26 No dates are available for these kirtaniya.

27 Subramanian hears these kinds of ‘sensual accretions’ as being among those ‘that baijis and illiterate ustads had introduced into the pristine classical traditions of Hindustan’. See Subramanian (April 2005, 1562).

28 An anecdote shared with me by Amardev Singh gives an interesting backstory to the circulation of this shabad. He recounts

Back in the 20s-30s she [Jiweni Bai] used to sell toys at the railway station and she was also supposed to be a very good singer. One day she found an unattended trunk at the station and she took it home. Before she could open it, the police came to her house and questioned her if the trunk was hers to which she replied ‘yes.’ When they opened the trunk they found a dead body in it. Then she [Jiweni Bai] changed her story but the police did not want to believe her so they took her to jail. While she was in jail her friend came to visit and told her to read the very same shabad [Taar, taar] ‘Kuchal Kathor Kapat Kaami’ for 40 days. She did that with full faith and on the 41st day she was found not guilty and was released from prison. She went straight to the Gurdwara and sang that shabad in this very same composition. It is unsure if the composition was originally hers and Khushi Bai heard it and recorded it, or whether it was the other way around.

(Personal communication, 2 December 2014)

29 On the topic of the feminine literary mode in the SGGS see Singh (1993).

30 Here, emphasis on the body of the fallen woman intersects with Balbinder S. Bhogal's exploration of the animal body in (2012, 856–908).

31 No date is available for this recording.

32 Anna Morcom explains that a ‘lighter, thinner vocal timbre … was first introduced in the 1940s by the actor-singer Nurjehan, and was widely popularized from 1947 by India's most famous playback singer, Lata Mangeshkar’. See (2007, 66).

33 Singh (2006, 160). Max Arthur Macauliffe makes a similar point: ‘the Gurus’ Rāgs are in a low pitch adapted for the voice’. See (1909, v, 333).

34 In keeping with Weidman's observations on M.S. Subbulakshmi, Surinder Kaur's performances reveal how ‘singing on the classical stage involves engaging not just the conventions of musical art but also the conventions of female respectability’. See (Weidman 2006, 149).

35 Susan Elizabeth Prill also explores the significance of a virtual sangat for Sikh identity. See (Prill 2014, 471–481).

36 Interview and personal correspondence, 24 January 2015 and 9 February 2015.

37 Virinder S. Kalra makes a similar point: ‘in diasporic spaces, such as East Africa, the lack of professionally trained musicians would mean that women would learn and perform in the gurdwara, in a much more prominent way than in Punjab’. (Kalra 2015, 87–88).

38 Lata Mangeshkar's album, ‘Mil mere pritama jeo', was brought out by HMV in 1979 (serial no: ECSD 2821).

39 There is a rare record of Tilly Bai performing kirtan with Kamala Devi at the British Library. See Satgur Teri Ote, Deutsche Grammophon 2392808. Holdings: 1LP0155739.

40 Jhour (2007, 20). There is a Gurudwara named after Tilly Bai in New Marine Lines, Mumbai. See Chauhan and Rajan (2012, 16).

41 Personal correspondence, 2 February 2015. Also see Singh’s article, http://www.dyasingh.com/SacredMusic/Sikh/Home/Entries/2012/11/26_I_miss_the_Good_Ol_Days.html.

42 Singh (September 2012, 18). Also see Kalra (2015, 91).

43 Bhai Taran Singh as quoted by Bhai Baldeep Singh in (2011, 281); Kaur (2011a, 301–2). Nirinjan K. Khalsa also explains how the Gurbani Kirtan parampara teaches kirtaniye to ‘decondition the intent of the ego-voice to embody and experience the spiritually insightful bani through the affective musical elements of raga and tala’. See (Khalsa 2012, 201–202).

44 Interview and personal correspondence, 24 January 2015 and 9 February 2015.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gurminder Kaur Bhogal

Gurminder Kaur Bhogal. Address: Music, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA. [Email: [email protected]]