INTRODUCTION

It is truly said that the level of civilisation that a society has achieved, is closely related to the culture that it has inherited from the past.  Culture sometimes defined as “Sanskar” is not developed like “instant product” that we hear about these days but is evolved over centuries and Indian culture- is a supreme example of such an evolution.

 

साहित्यसङ्गीतकलाविहीनः साक्षात्पशुः पुच्छविषाणहीनः ।

ते मृत्यु लोके भुवि भारभूता मनुष्य रूपेण मृगाश्चरन्ति ।।

 

Thus we can see that our forefathers considered arts, not only to be an important ingredient of culture but defined a human being who is devoid of fine arts, to be akin to an animal moving about on the surface of the earth in the form of a human.

 

The theme of to-day’s seminar is Guru-Shihsya Paramapara – as a system of music education and therefore a few thoughts on its history would be quite appropriate.

 

A brief survey of our ancient traditions of music education i.e. teaching or learning music, reveals that in ancient times, sage musicians considered music, as a divine art and the Shiehyas took to learning music, as a way of life rather than as a means of livelihood or a casual hobby. It is during this period that the Guru-Kul system was established, when a student or shishya used to stay with the Guru , almost like his son and learnt at the feet of the Master in the form of a “Sadhana”. In turn, the Guru treated the Shishya like his own son and imparted to him in a very scientific and disciplined manner, the art that he had the privilege, of learning from his own Guru.  In this manner, therefore, it is believed that the Guru-Kul system and the Guru Shishya Parampara were evolved and perfected.

 

Much has been said about the merits of the Guru-Shiahya Parampara system as it prevailed in ancient times. Much has also been said about the present way of life which has substantially changed not only in terms of values- but also in terms of materialistic and wordly attitudes that we seem to be absorbing from the West. Hence, it would be useful to briefly outline in the following “what was” and “what is”.  In other words, let us briefly have a bird’s eye-view of various systems of imparting musical knowledge – systems that evolved from the pre-muslim period to muslim period to British period – to the present times.

 

THE GURU-KUL SYSTEM / GURU-SHISHYA PARAMPARA

As I said earlier, in ancient times, the Guru was the ultimate source of knowledge and music (considered to be a divine art) was no exception Guru Brahma…(Shloka).  This Shloka, which identifies the Guru with Deva or God, clearly signifies the profound respect and absolute devotion with which a Shishya surrenders himself at the Guru’s feet, to learn the art of music and be blessed by him. The Shishya would forsake all other activities during the creative period of his life and learn from his Guru, with single-minded pursuit of knowledge. As described earlier, the relationship between the Guru and Shishya was like that of a father and a son. The Guru, like a father, would look after the welfare of the Shishya in addition to imparting knowledge and the Shishya in turn would, serve his Guru for all his daily requirements with full devotion (seva). Life was very disciplined, devotion was complete, reason and faith had a harmonious blend and the ultimate result was indeed divine!

 

MUSLIM PERIOD / GHARANA SYSTEM

During the Muslim period, the touch of divinity and spiritual values were so to say brought down to earth. Material values replaced spiritual values. The object of “Stuti” or worship was no longer the almi ghty but the king or the patron who doled out money or favours. Sage-musicians were replaced by court-musicians. Pure devotion got inter-mixed with worldly considerations. The pursuit of art lost a part of its divinity as worldly rivalries and monetary gains perjured its purity. In reality temple music became court music. 

 

One of the natural outcomes of the Muslim ingenuity and refined, Sensuous – sophisticated expression of art-forms, led over a period to the development of the Khyal form of vocal music and in turn to the specialisation of musical styles, popularly known as the ‘gharana systems’. A few words in support of gharana system of which I am a firm believer may not be out of place. It will be easily agreed that whilst all gharana-s have a common idiom of matter or the ‘babat’ or unfoldment of the raga-swarup, it is the manner of expression or “Tariqua” which distinguishes one gharana from the other. The technique utilised for the presentation of the raga-form differs from gharana to gharana and in fact this results into “specialisation” to which we have just referred, There are several facets of specialisation such as (1) the technique of voice Production, (2) the emotional content or rasas, (3) relative importance of “sahitya”, (4) preference for specific ragas, (5) the choice of tals for presentation of bandieh-s and finally  (6) emphasis on melodic or alap form visa-vis tal-based presentation.  These remarks are no doubt related to vocal music. The gharana system, it can be forcibly argued, has produced great musicians in the past 300 / 400 years. Music lovers who were fortunate to listen to great masters in the early part of this century would vouch for the fact, that a large number of great Ustads and Pandits, both in the field of vocal and instrumental music,were the torch bearers of their respective gharana-s.

 

BRITISH PERIOD / VIDYALAYA SYSTEM

Though the royal patronage of the courts at Delhi and Lucknow was restricted under the British rule, Raja-e, Newab-s, Jamindar-s or feudal aristocracy continued to be significant patrons of fine arts spread over several centres or native states all over India.  [As stated earlier, the great masters whom we had the good fortune to hear a few decades ago, were all products of the patronage of the courts of Gwalior,

Rampur, Indore, Patiala, Benares and so on.] Gharana system continued to flourish and Ustad-Shagird relationship became synonymous with Guru-Shishya Parampara.

 

At this stage another important development occurred. British Rulers were primarily politicians and though they had no special love to nurture and develop Indian arts like the Muslim rulers in India, they instituted a system of education which had an element of academic discipline and a structured base.  Perhaps unconsciously – perhaps to meet the changing requirements of people at large –

that the Sangeet Vidyalaya system came into existence and was instituted by celebrities like Pandit Paluskar, Pandit Bhatkhande and others. Under this system, the method of teaching is similar  to a class-room in  school or University and several students are taught at the same time by a Guru or a teacher well versed in a specific art form.  Institutions like Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and

Maurice College of Music were established during this period. These institutions never claimed that their products would be great performers . As is commonly known, their aim was to produce a large number of “Kansens” (good listeners) rather than “Tansens” (good performers).  It must be said to the credit of these institutions that music reached far-away corners of the country and awakened a keen interest in our traditional musical heritage.  This was an essential need as the patronage of the elite was gradually eroding and a mass support for music and musicians was inevitably necessary. Further without an informed and critically appreciative audience, there can be no full development of artistic creativity. 

 

POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD

It is believed that classical music is meant for the “classes” and not masses. Once the patronage of music shifted from the royalty to the people at large, the quality of musical presentations was definitely affected and commercialization of all art-forms including music, gradually made its appearance. Quantity replaced quality, showmanship and superficial gimmickry became necessary to please the average listener who now was the patron.

 

In the present day musical scenario, the situation seems to have further deteriorated in terms of discipline, loyalty, devotion, The impatience and need to achieve desired objectives through the “most quick” and instant methods have become essential necessities. Whilst the media i.e., radio, T.V., etc. have helped to disseminate music to vast sections of population, tape-recorders have created pocket-book editions of Guru-s in the form of cassettes. The validity and values of gharana-system is commonly questioned and academically equipped students believe that they can become performers through listening to music presented through the media or on concert platforms (Sunni Shagirds).

 

More serious students are seen to be flocking to the Vidyalayas who no doubt render a useful service. In the midst of the conflict of the old traditions and the exigencies of modern life, we noticethat a novel system of music education – the “tuition’ system – has come into vogue, especially in the urban areas. In a sense, this is a compromise between the system of Guru-Shishya Parampara and the Vidyalaya system.  Understandably the quality of the product under the ‘tuition’ system will  depend upon the quality of the Guru and the quality of the Shishya.

 

GURU-SHISHYA PARAMPARA PROSPECTS 

So far we have dealt with the evolution of various systems of music education as developed over the past centuries. The question therefore arises – is Guru-Shishya Parampara a valid and effective system of music education in the present context? Can this system which depended upon specific requirements both in relation to the Guru and Shishya, be effective in the present troubled times? Can this system cater to the aspirations of a larger number of students – both good and ordinary?  The answers to these questions would depend on responses positive or negative to the following issues:

 

ISSUES

 

RELATING TO GURUS

1) Quality and attitudes of the present day Guru-s or Ustad-s.  regarding quality, it could be said that barring a few exceptions, now a days there are very few worthwhile Guru-s or Ustad-s who have the time or the inclination to teach. Those who have the desire to teach may not be of high quality.  With regard to the attitude of the Guru-s, we only to blame their financial insecurity from which they suffer, which leads to jealousies, bickerings and commercialization

 

2) From amongst those Guru-s or Ustad-s, who are available to Shishyas to learn from, all need not necessarily be good teachers. We all know that some musicians are “nayaks” and some are “gayaks” –  i.e., some are good academicians while some are good performers. It is not easy to find a guru who is a well versed academician as well as a quality performer.

 

3) Though modern outlook have prompted present-day celebrated Guru-s and Ustads to teach without reservations, it is equally true that several of our great musicians have taken away their precious knowledge – “vidya”- with them when they left this world. Their great art in some cases is not available to the present-day music-lovers, even in the form of records.

 

RELATING TO SHISHYA-S 

1) Even at the cost of repetition it can be said that a devoted, sincere and loyal student is a rare commodity.  Everyone wants to become an intent performer. People just do not have the patience to go through the long and arduous musical journey that the Guru Shishya Parampara implies

 

2) Academic education has created intellectual cynics. Everything is measured through the mind or the intellect Soul or faith apparently have lost their importance and values. No wonder therefore that the Shishyas of today, by and large, cannot be called a Shishya in the real sense of the term – with its ancient connotation.

 

3) On the other hand, can we blame them? There are too many distractions in today’s strife-torn world. Single-minded pursuit of knowledge is really difficult due to several reasons including lack of time, money and even adequate facilities to learn music. The modern student is therefore forced to treat his pursuit of art more as an incidental activity or a social equipment rather than a “tapasya” (of-course there are always exceptions to the rule). 

 

However, having painted a negative picture of the present-day musical scene, I cannot resist the temptation of enumerating some positive elements as well.

 

1) Intellectual application or may I say ‘intelligent’ application of the educated and trained mind certainly helps to improve the grasping power of the modern student. He is well equipped to absorb and digest more diligently – more easily- as compared to the relatively uneducated average student of yester years.

 

2) An element of keen and subtle imagination has entered the Field of musical perception. If we believe that improvisation is the most essential requisite for our musical expressions, it will be easily agreed that an imaginative application to the process of improvisation would be of tremendous creative value. If our earlier musical performances were indicative of fairly pre-composed renderings, the present-day recitals definitely project a very imaginative and subtle technique of improvisation. Creative abilities of musicians have been considerably supported and enriched by intellectual insights into the musical realm.

 

Then where do we go from here? To establish a very comprehensive, pure and effective music educational system, we have so many essentials. There has to be devotion, there has to be capability, there has to be money, there has to be an infrastructure, there has, to be academic awareness and so on. But then, truly speaking it is not impossible to seek talent and at the same time meet such pre-requisites. It is a question of proper planning and co-ordinated efforts. I take the liberty of making a few suggestions:

 

1) State patronage should be more effectively channeled and adequately administered.  Let the govt. award to a Guru or an Ustad a substantial amount as a reward for his producing a fine performer over a given period of time. In other words, the Guru should be given the responsibility to train a shishya and groom him to become a fine performing musician – leavings to the Guru how, where and when he teaches. An agreed time-frame could be established and the reward should be both in terms of money and recognition, to satisfy the expectation of the

 

2) The present system of scholarship is both ill-conceived and ill-monitored, and therefore ineffective. The amount of money covered by the scholarships should be large enough to sustain a student to live reasonably in the city where his Guru stays. The period for the scholarship should be long enough to cover atleast 5 years or if possible 10 years of training. Undoubtedly, the process of the selection of scholars has to be both carefully planned and meticulously executed. We all know that the present system is inadequate in terms of money and the selection process to say the least is tardy and indifferent.

 

3) Housing is a big problem, both for the Guru and the Shishya

 

4) Large commercial organisations should be given tax concessions for employing musicians on the lines of cricketers, tennis-stars, etc. Similarly, subsidies or matching grants should be given to such organizations for establishment of residential musical academies on the lines of Guru-Kul system and thereby support Guru Shishya Parampara.  Such residential campuses could be called modern Guru-Kuls and experience has shown that some very talented musicians have evolved out of such institutions.

 

5) commercial community is involved in several institutions like Rotary Clubs / World Trade Centre.  These could encourage sponsorship of programmes of “promising artists”.

 

6) It is of equal importance to support music schools or Vidyalayas as the Guru-Kul system cannot apparently cater to the large number of aspiring students- and as far the gifted few who could develop into real versatile performers – should be selected to learn under the Guru-Kul system.

7) The media of AIR and TV can be very gainfully used to introduce regular sessions to teach music and arrange suitable programmes  to cultivate music appreciation. Such programmes would be of immense value to expose our young generation to the elements of our arts.  It is obvious that ouch programmes have to be so designed as to become interesting and at the same time be educative. In addition to being exposed to our fine-arts, such programmes would be useful to develop amongst our young people, a healthy respect for our art and artistes.

8) Lastly, we should be very clear about our ultimate objectives.