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SIKH FORMATIONS
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In fact, my own experience is not too dissimilar for many a times when compositions have come, I have been, as a mere witness noting them down in a state of wonderment and awe! In understanding the aesthetics of Indian music, one needs to familiarize oneself with the concepts that defined its classicism. When something beautiful takes shape, whether revealed or composed, the composer recipient (of the revelation) has an urge to hold on to it. That is when pedagogy is formed, and it evolves further as listeners turn in to students. An expression enables experiential, appreciative, interpretative and aesthetical responses. Upon analyzing the extant shabad-reets, I have been able to identify at least 22 vital elements that clearly seem to define gurbani kı¯rtan, and which are now an integral part of its pedagogic discourse: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
gyanatmak (wise) adhyatmak (spiritual) vidyatmak (knowledge) kalatmak (artistic) ragatmak (ra¯ga adhering) suratmak (tuneful) talatmak-(ta¯la-adhering) layatmak (rhythmical) shabdatmak (text adhering, in context) varnatmak (descriptive) rasatmak (rasa-evoking) succhta (clear and sincere) birha (longing) vedan (pain, anguish, suffering) vyog (separation) sanjog (union) leen roop (immersed, dissolved, engrossed) sanyast (abandoned, renounced) uday-atmak (ascendant) hursh (joy, delight) pukar (invocation) kook (calling)
Experiencing a shabad and its reet Not all shabad-reets have survived. Will the text of the forgotten reets remain forever silent? I think, if one allows gurbani to prepare a kı¯rtaniya as Guru¯ Angad prepared Guru¯ Amar Das, shabad-reets could be received again. While I was learning many a shabad-reet, my teachers, Bhai Avtar Singh and Bhai Gurcharan Singh, would time and again point out, ‘This is the laya of sultal in which Guru¯ Arjan used to sing!’48 My obvious question was, ‘How can you remember?’ But is it possible to engage in kı¯rtan without adhering to these parameters? After all, there can be many ways of singing gurbani or doing kı¯rtan as there are people, or singing