Reviving the musical heritage of Punjab

Neha Saini

Tribune News service

Amritsar, June 20

“Confusing a ‘dhadd’ with sarangi and a ‘bugchu’ with a ‘damroo’ is quite common as not many youngsters know what the folk Punjabi instruments look like. Thanks to some Bollywood songs, a few know what a ‘chimta’ or ‘tumbi’ is,” says Baljeet Kaur, a folk artiste from the city. Kaur is among the few bearers of the legacy of Punjabi traditional folk musicians, who are on a mission to revive the instruments lost to the commercialisation of the music industry.

“Punjabi musical instruments have a history to them, a story behind their existence. Instruments like ‘rabab’ and ‘dilruba’ that were used by Sikh scholars and preachers, like Bhai Mardana, became almost extinct until the popularity of ‘gurmat sangeet’ that grew again until recently,” she says.

Highlighting the fact that the revival of the traditional Punjabi folk instruments needs a collective push, Dr PS Grover, a member of the Indian Academy of Fine Arts (IAFA), presented a docu-drama recently. It featured performances in folk and contemporary instruments, including rabab, jal tarang and other rare instruments like pakhwaj, mridang etc.

“Punjab has a history of associating specific genre of music played at every festival, special occasion and as a form of social commentary. If instruments like dhad, algoze, tumbi and rabab along with dhol, chimta and dafli played during family wedding and festivals, only then people will become aware of them. Their use and awareness is still left among rural folks but the urban generation is completely disconnected from their musical heritage,” says Dr Grover.

Popular Punjabi folk artiste Gurmeet Bawa, who popularised algoza through her performances, had once mentioned that these are instruments were living heritage and needed to be brought back to life. In an attempt to revive the ‘tanti saaz’ (string instruments), mostly used in ‘gurmat sangeet’, Bhai Veer Singh Gurmat College inside the Central Khalsa Orphanage, run by the CKD, has recently began teaching and training students in Punjabi instruments.

Among the few torch-bearers of this heritage is Gurpreet Singh, a young folk musician from the city. A student of music, Gurpreet plays algoza, dhol, been (flute) and many other folk instruments. “While growing up, I never saw any of the instruments that I play now. Like most youngsters, guitar was what meant musical instrument to me. But then I saw an artiste playing algoza at a youth festival. I felt intrigued and studied about these traditional instruments,” he says. A regular at the youth festival himself, Gurpreet says that more visibility and promotion at state-level might rescue them from a bleak future.