Immortals: Baiju Bawra vs. Tansen
irfan moinuddin
All of you must have heard of Baiju Bawra. And I don't know anybody
who hasn't heard of Tansen. So, I am greatly excited to bring to you
the immortalized story of the clash of the immortals: Baiju Bawra vs.
Tansen. The following is a narration of the story by Sushila Misra in
her book entitled "Some Immortals of Hindustani Music".
First some background concerning the motion picture entitled
Baiju Bawra, which portrays Tansen and Baiju Bawra (also an excerpt):
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Baiju Bawra's name is generally taken in the same breath as Tansen's and
both have become legendary figures in Hindustani music. Stories of their
mutual rivalry and musical contests have held the public imagination for
such a long time that a motion picture entitled 'Baiju Bawra' and its songs
became an all-time hit chiefly because of the two famous khayal maestros
Ustad Amir Khan and Pt D.V. Paluskar who did playback singing for the roles
of Tansen and Baiju Bawra respectively. The embellishments they provided
to the melodies made for immense popularity. Although these two great
masters flourished during the golden age of dhruvpads, the film's music
director took the liberty of placing them in the khayal era, obviously
because modern audiences can appreciate khayal singing which is in vogue
now, while very few can relish the dying dhruvpad form today.
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Now, the story, with some narration about Baiju's life:
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Baiju was born in a poor brahmin family in village Chapaner in
Gujarat; his realname was Baijnath Misra. He lost his father early in life,
and his young widowed mother had to struggle hard to bring him up all alone.
An ardent devotee of "Murali Manohar Krishna" (the Lord of the flute), she
used to tell the boy numerous stories about Krishna. Naturally, Baiju
became an equally devout Krishna-bhakta, and he spent the major part of
his life as a religious mendicant and sangita-sadhaka (Music devotee).
Baiju's mother decided to leave her unhappy native village to go and live
in Brindavan where she could spend all her time worshipping Krishna
("Bhagawan Banke Behari". After a long and exhausting trek, the young
mother and son reached the banks of river Yamuna in Brindavan. As they
rested, Swami Haridas happened to pass that way on his way to his humble
astram in Nidhuban Nikunj after his bath in the river. Through his
supernatural insight, he was able to foresee the great musical gifts and
potentials in the boy as in the case of Tanna Misra (Tansen's boyhood name)
later. When Swami Haridas sought the permission of Baiju's mother, she was
only overjoyed that her little son would now be groomed by the great
saint-musician, and that she could now devote all her time to worship
"Banke Bihari" in the temple. Swami Haridas took Baiju under his care and
trained him according to the ancient Gurukula traditions. With his
extraordinary musical gifts, his rigorous sadhana, and the saintly guru's
blessings, Baiju became an outstanding dhruvpad singer and an excellent
composer, with a highly devotional temperament that made him turn away from
worldly wealth and material possessions.
Accoridng to the story, one day when Baiju was practising Raga
kedara in a deeply meditative mood in a secluded place, he was disturbed by
the wailing of a newly born infant from a bush nearby. He was amazed and
delighted to find a lovely baby boy who had obviously been abandoned in
that lonely spot by a heartless mother. Baijnath had so far been totally
free from any worldly attachments; but his compassionate nature induced him to
pick up the helpless infant and take him home. Ironically, he became as
deeply attached to the boy as if he were his own son. Baiju named him Gopal,
trained him into a fine musician, and he also placed him under his own guru
Swami Haridas for advanced training.
Baiju's fame spread and he was invited by the Raja of Chanderi to
become his court musician. In Chanderi, Baiju was held in high esteem.
Gopal also gained wide popularity, and two pretty and talented girls--
Kala and Prabha, became his disciples. After some time, Gopal married
Prabha. When a little girl was born to them, they named her Meera. Baiju's
cup of happiness was full. He was deeply attached to his family, and little
Meera became the apple of his eye. According to some scholars, it was
about this time that Baiju was invited to Gwalior where reached the height
of his fame. He became the music-guru of the talented Rani Mirganayani.
Baiju and family lived mostly in Chanderi. Once when he had gone
out of Chanderi, Gopal was sitting in a lonely place and elaborating a
dhruvpad in Raga Kalyan (Yaman) so beautifully that his music attracted
some Kashmiri merchants on their way to Gwalior. Knowing that their
cultured ruler would be pleased to have such an accomplished musician as
his court artiste, they tempted Gopal with many baits such as wealth, honour,
gifts and fame. Gopal succumbed and became a selfish and ungrateful son
and an avaricious person,forgetting all the love and care that Baiju had
lavished on him and his family and all the precious musical wealth that
Baiju had lovingly passed to him. Without waiting for Baiju's return, and
without even taking the permission of Raja Rajsingh, their kind royal
patron, Gopal at once left for Kashmir, forcing his unwilling little family
also to accompany him. When Baiju returned, loging to be with his little
Meera, and found them gone, the shock was so deep that he lost his mental
balance. Soon he came to be known as "Baiju Bawra", the eccentric or
"crazy Baiju".
He left his empty home like a religious mendicant and began to
wander from place to place, looking for his little Meera. Careless about
his food and clothes and wandering through woods, dales, and across lonely
mountains, he became an object of pity, although his musical excellence
remained undiminished. Hearing of the tragic turn in his favourite disciple's
life, Swami Haridas is said to have shed tears of sorrow. Tansen had heard
such high words of praise from their guru about Baiju that he yearned to
meet his guru-bhai. Tansen ahd already become a favourite court-musician of
Raja Ramachandra Badhela of Rewa State to whom the former confided his
wish. With the royal patron's consent, Tansen decided to try a ruse to find
the wandering and homeless Baiju. Like the kings of ancient times, he
announced a musical Digvijaya in which he challenged all contemporary
musicians to come for a musical contest with him. When the challenge reached
Baiju's ears, he felt that as a senior disciple of Swami Haridas, he had to
vindicate his own reputation. He accepted the challenge and reached the
venue which had been grandly decorated for the most widely publicised
contest.
Tansen was there in his rich courtly garments, while Baiju arrived in
his tattered clothes. The details of the contest between these two masters
bring to mind many of the clourful Ragmala paintings. As Tansen commenced
his masterly unfolding of Ragini Todi (perhaps his own creation Miyan-ki-Todi),
the deer from the neighbouring forests came leaping and stood listening
entranced. Tansen put a costly necklace around the neck of one of them. As
soon as he stopped singing, the entire herd rushed back into the woods.
Now it was for Baiju to meet the challenge of attracting the deer back into
the palace and retrieving Tansen's costly necklace.
Baiju is believed to have accomplished this amazing feat through
his rendering of Raja Mrgaranjini which could mean "a raga that could
hypnotize mrga or deer," or a gaga named after Rani Mriganayani.
Now it was Baiju's turn to challenge Tansen. According to lengends
he sung Raga Malkauns so powerfully that a stone slab in front melted and
then he inserted his precious Tanpura into the wax-like liquid which
solidified as soon as he stopped singing. Tansen had to melt the stone
through some appropriate and potent raga and retrieve Baiju's precious
Tanpura intact. Tansen needed no more proofs to identify the great Baiju
about whom he had heard such high praise from their saintly guru Swami
Haridas. Tansen touched the feet of his senior "guru-bhai" and the two
great musicians embraced each other with tears of love in their eyes.
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Though clearly fictitious, the story conveys the power of music and
the admirable ability of the musicians.
--
Ashrat-e-parah-dil zakhm-e-tamannah khana
Lazzat-e-resh-e-jigar gharkh-e-namakdaan hona
Ashrat-e-qatlgah-e-ahl-e-tamannah mat pooch
Eid-e-nazarah hai shamshir ka aryaan hona Ghalib
Ikram Ahmed Khan
: RMIM music-lovers,
: All of you must have heard of Baiju Bawra. And I don't know anybody
: who hasn't heard of Tansen. So, I am greatly excited to bring to you
: the immortalized story of the clash of the immortals: Baiju Bawra vs.
: Tansen. The following is a narration of the story by Sushila Misra in
: her book entitled "Some Immortals of Hindustani Music".
[interesting story deleted]
Irfan, did Ms. Misra (sorry , but I couldn't resist calling her that) say
whether she has researched this story? You seemed to imply at teh end that
this might also be alegend.
Even if this is a legend , personally I like it better than some of the
other ones. I remember having to read a legend by some author (well known
one in Hindi.. Shashi , please help... It might be the one who wrote "Ek aur
Dronacharya" ) and in that the story went that there was some kind of edict
that nobody except Tansen should sing around some restricted area (Agra??),
otherwise he'll have to battle Tansen in a duel of singing and on losing be
put to death. Some mendicants or jogis don't realise the edict, continue the
sing ing, Tansen promptly bumps them off, lets Baiju who is a boy go, and
Baiju swears revenge , learns music from S. Haridas but he asks him never to
use the music against a human being, so after winning the contest, he lets
Tansen go....
Now I remember feeling that this is a very unnatural glorification of Baiju
at the cost of poor Tansen. I liked the one you have posted much better.
Gives us hope that maybe both were great and we leave it at that.Enjoyed it.
Later,
Ikram.
irfan moinuddin
In article <3r9uot$2...@news.tamu.edu>,
Ikram Ahmed Khan <iak...@tamu.edu> wrote:
>irfan moinuddin (mo...@ellis.uchicago.edu) wrote:
>: RMIM music-lovers,
>
>: All of you must have heard of Baiju Bawra. And I don't know anybody
>: who hasn't heard of Tansen. So, I am greatly excited to bring to you
>: the immortalized story of the clash of the immortals: Baiju Bawra vs.
>: Tansen. The following is a narration of the story by Sushila Misra in
>: her book entitled "Some Immortals of Hindustani Music".
>
>
>Irfan, did Ms. Misra (sorry , but I couldn't resist calling her that) say
>whether she has researched this story? You seemed to imply at teh end that
>this might also be alegend.
>
In general, Misra does a decent job of research work. In the story I
posted, you must have noted that Sushila Misra takes pains to precede
the fictional stuff with such words as "according to the story" etc.
So, yes, the story is a legend of sorts. But, of course, the legend
echoes the realities of the the musicianship of the Tansen and Bawra
and of the rivalry between them.
Concerning research, it must be noted that records regarding Baiju
Bawra are hard to find and any reconstruction of history is bound to
be a difficult task.
This is what Misra says:
" Among scholars, there seem to be many different opinions with
regard to the very century in which Baiju lived, his contemporaries'
contributions, and to his own private life. A concerted attempt to
identify sources of information about Baiju proved perplexing because
of too many contradictory versions ..." (Some Immortals of Hindustani
Music p. 23-24).
Also, regarding the "fictitiousness" of the story, Misra says:
" The cynics of modern times might dismiss such stories as absurd
or fictitious but the power of music has been described through
innumerable miracles and legends. Some maestros of even this scientific
and skeptical century have had such mystical and mysterious experiences.
I have heard such stories first-hand from those who had the good
fortune to have had similar personal experiences. Therefore, for
bahusrutas like me, it is not possible to dismiss such mysterious powers
of Nada as figments of artistic imagination. In the relaxed and
peaceful times of Tansen and Baiju, when life was not so hectic or
materialistic, and people lived closer to Nature, such miracles must
have been possible through the power of music. Even today there are
Nada-Yogi Sadhus who live in the solitary caves and among the snowy
heights of the Himalayas, who are said to be able to create rain
clouds and cause rains, and also stop them through special raga-raginis."
(Some Immortals.. p. 29)
One can make of that what one wants. I(rfan) personally think
that the music of the artist is more important than the legend, though
I am fascinated by the stories as well.
>Even if this is a legend , personally I like it better than some of the
>other ones. I remember having to read a legend by some author (well known
>one in Hindi.. Shashi , please help... It might be the one who wrote "Ek aur
>Dronacharya" ) and in that the story went that there was some kind of edict
>that nobody except Tansen should sing around some restricted area (Agra??),
>otherwise he'll have to battle Tansen in a duel of singing and on losing be
>put to death. Some mendicants or jogis don't realise the edict, continue the
>sing ing, Tansen promptly bumps them off, lets Baiju who is a boy go, and
>Baiju swears revenge , learns music from S. Haridas but he asks him never to
>use the music against a human being, so after winning the contest, he lets
>Tansen go....
>
>Now I remember feeling that this is a very unnatural glorification of Baiju
>at the cost of poor Tansen.
Hmm. I haven't read that one. But I see what you mean.
>I liked the one you have posted much better.
>Gives us hope that maybe both were great and we leave it at that.Enjoyed it.
I'm glad you like it.
Irfan.
>
>Later,
>Ikram.
Vijay Kumar
: Even if this is a legend , personally I like it better than some of the
: other ones. I remember having to read a legend by some author (well known
: one in Hindi.. Shashi , please help... It might be the one who wrote "Ek aur
: Dronacharya" ) and in that the story went that there was some kind of edict
: that nobody except Tansen should sing around some restricted area (Agra??),
: otherwise he'll have to battle Tansen in a duel of singing and on losing be
: put to death. Some mendicants or jogis don't realise the edict, continue the
: sing ing, Tansen promptly bumps them off, lets Baiju who is a boy go, and
: Baiju swears revenge , learns music from S. Haridas but he asks him never to
: use the music against a human being, so after winning the contest, he lets
: Tansen go....
This is the story of the film Baiju Bawara. May be derived from one
of the legends, or maybe a 'filmi' invention.
Vijay
Ikram Ahmed Khan
Actually I do remember that there were certain discrepancies.In fact quite
a few. Notably the love interest part of it and all things related to it.
Later,
Ikram.
: Vijay
