Kīrtan Chauṇkī: Affect, Embodiment and Memory Published in Sikh Formations, Religion, Culture, Theory, Routledge Press, NY (Jan
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Kīrtan Chauṇkī: Affect, Embodiment and Memory Published in Sikh Formations, Religion, Culture, Theory, Routledge Press, NY (Jan. 2011) Dr. Janice Gurleen Kaur Protopapas UM at College Park Introduction This paper explores the role and function of Sikh hymn singing (Śabad kīrtan) as it unfolds throughout the early morning Sikh musical service, the Āsa Dī Vār dī Chauṇkī. It considers how hymn singing acts as both a crucible where the recollection of suffering and oppression and spiritual yearning ignite a deep emotional energy (rasa) and as a powerful vehicle to forge a sense of identification between the individual and the group.1 This subject is studied through an ethnomusicological lens which blending historical musicology and anthropology, stresses the importance of human meanings and human evaluation in the musical process. Thus, Śabad kīrtan is not exclusively an abstract, musical concept to be analyzed but a process of social interaction to be experienced. Furthermore, this musical process, understood phenomenologically, is dependent on time and place, unfolding as a series of social interactions and psycho-emotional experiences that both guide and are guided by the musical process. Thus, an investigation into how Śabad kīrtan unfolds through a kīrtan chauṇkī service is vital in developing a hermeneutics of Sikh music. Such an approach would consider the hermeneutical process, as a hermeneutic circle in which understanding the part and the whole are co- dependent.2 The paper is divided into three sections: the first explores the liturgical language of the hymns themselves (gurbānī) that render an encounter with Śabad kīrtan as an aural experience, an embodied experience and a phenomenological experience. The second section of the paper examines the history and organization of a service of Śabad kīrtan (kīrtan chauṇkī) and the language embedded in the experience. The third section considers the social interaction of Śabad kīrtan through an analysis of the first service of the day, the Āsa Dī Vār dī Chauṇkī examining how gurbāṇī is mirrored in the practice of praise. 1Śabad (from Sanskrit: shabda) literally means “Word.” In Sikhism, it refers to the Divine “Word of God”, the primordial sound, and also a hymn from the Sikh scripture, Gurū Granth Sāhib. Kīrtan refers to the singing of Divine praises. 2For further reading on the hermeneutic process refer to Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (New York: Harper and Row, 1962); Hans George Gadamer, Truth and Method (London: Continuum Publishing Group, 1975) and Paul Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). 1 Part One: Exploring the Language of the Hymns Kīrtan Chauṇkī as an Aural Experience gwvIAY suxIAY min rKIAY Bwau (Gurū Granth Sāhib: 2) Gāvīai sūnīai man rakhīai bhāo3 Sing (and) listen (to the praises (of God) and keep them in your heart. The Śabad kīrtan experience can be overwhelming to the newcomer as it is so deeply interwoven within the Sikh ritual worship service. Its powerful impact on the listeners through a variety of performance situations is an essential part of the service through which one encounters as on-going succession of songs. Experiencing Śabad kīrtan requires understanding the music genre, understanding the rules and roles in a Sikh service and engaging in a process of interaction between the musician and the congregation. To understand the role of Śabad kīrtan on the psyche of the listener, this paper considers both Śabad kīrtan as a musical genre (a unique system of sound including the meaning behind sound, the grammar, and structure and sequence in Sikh music) and its musical context and role in Sikh ritual that includes considering both musical and extra-musical components. The extra-musical components may be compared with the “deep structure” of an iceberg, the underlying ways in which one is habituated to react and respond to sound thus forming a “habitus of listening.”4 While traditionally semiotics has been associated with the auditory/vocal mode of communication (the primary subject of linguistics), ethnomusicological research adopts a broader definition to include the importance of visual and physical modes of behavior communication (kinesics) and interpersonal movement (proxemics) in the study of music. Sounds themselves, imparted with many levels of signification, are often ingredients of a trained set of behaviors. Sounds such as the blowing of the Narasimha, (large tuba-like instrument) announcing the arrival the Sikh scripture, the Gurū Granth Sāhib (hereafter GGS), alerts the congregants to their beloved scripture as it is brought into the inner chamber of the Gūrdwāra,5 (Just as a doorbell announces the arrival of a dear friend). Ethnomusicologist Judith Becker in her 2004 study of trancing, music and emotion “Deep Listeners,” writes on the listening experience as a dynamic interpretive process of meaning making. She coined the term “habitus of listening” to refer to the process of 3 “Sing (and listen) to the praises (of God) and keep them in your heart.” From Japjī Sahib, 5th pauṛī. Harbans Singh Doabia, trans., Sacred Nitnem (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 2004), 24. 4 This term, borrowed from sociology, refers to learned perceptions of musical emotion and interactions with our surroundings. Ethnomusicologist, Judith Becker explains it nicely as: “a disposition to listen with a particular focus and to interpret the meaning of the sounds and one’s emotional responses to the musical event.” Judith Becker, Deep Listeners: Music, Emotion and Trancing (Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press, 2004), 70. 5 Literally, “Gurū’s door” the name given to a Sikh temple. 2 listening as a series of socially constructed and semiotically ascribed, psycho-physical responses to sonic stimuli around us.6 Like the deep structure of an iceberg, the underlying ways in which one is habituated to react and respond to sound forms a “habitus of listening.” Participation in a habitus of listening includes accepted and often, prescribed psycho-emotional behaviors and responses to music encoded through liturgies. Liturgies are embodiments of these expressive acts, scripted performances infusing the participants in the liturgy with affective responses. Judith Becker likens scripts to liturgies: Scripts are like liturgies in that they prescribe a more or less fixed sequence of events but the definition extends beyond liturgy to include as well the affective, phenomenological responses that tend to infuse the participants of the liturgy.7 In Sikhism, the script may be analyzed through the musical service, kīrtan chauṇkī. Because Śabads are typically sung within the framework of the religious ceremony, which involves a congregational participation, observing the ways and behaviors of acting associated with the listening environment is key to understanding the musical experience and to the connection between Śabad and kīrtan. Listening, while generally considered the passive, receptive side of communication, in a Sikh service, requires complete and absolute attention to the musical message conveyed with an active desire and intention to receive spiritual nourishment, like a thirsty traveler in the desert seeks water for survival. This may be understood as “deep listening.” In the eighth through the tenth stanzas (pauṛī) of the Japjī Sāhib, Guru Nānak expounds the importance of listening on the spiritual path: “sunai sidh pīr sur(i) nāth, sunai dharat(i) dhaval ākās”8 The very act of entering the Gūrdwāra and prostrating in front of the GGS immediately positions one within a group consciousness. Like a soldier reporting for morning duty, the devotee who enters into this religious sanctuary offers his mind and body to the transformational event. The listening experience during a Sikh service may very well be compared to the Sufi sama’, the experience of listening to spiritual music. Ethnomusicologist, Regula Qureshi, in writing on the listening experience in Qawwali, quotes a famous eleventh century Persian Sufi and scholar and adds: 6 “Habitus,” a term dating back to Artistotle, denotes a set of learned social behaviors anchored in the daily practices and beliefs of a group of people. Becker, Deep Listeners, 70. 7 Becker, Deep Listeners, 82. 8 “A mortal becomes a perfect saint, a religious guide, a spiritual leader, and a great yogī, by hearing the Name of God. The reality of the earth and bull supporting it and of heaven becomes known by hearing the Name of God.” Harbans Singh Doabia, Sacred Nitnem. 24. 3 The concept of sama’ in Sufism comprises first and foremost that which is heard, the ‘divine message which stirs the heart to seek.’9 That message is normally assumed to consist of a poetic text, which is set to music, that is, a mystical song. Indeed, Sufism considers poetry to be the principal vehicle for expression of mystical thought and feeling. Ultimately, the sama’ concept is focused on the listener – in accord with its literal meaning (‘listening’ or ‘audition’).10 Similarly, Indian musicologist, G.S. Mansukhani describes the Sikh process of listening as a ‘tuning into’ where the hymn itself acts as a catalyst through which the listener can become connected with the Divine. Just as one turns the dial on their radio to connect to the frequency of their favorite radio station, the Sikh listener tunes into the resonance and musical frequency of the hymn to align with the Divine. Mansukhani uses the example of tuning two string instruments and when in exact tuning, the instruments vibrate in resonance automatically. He explains that when the mind is in tune, the effect of the hymn on the mind and emotions of the listener is heightened.11 Judith Becker defines this form of attunement as deep listening in which the listener is “necessarily influenced by the place, time, the shared context, and the intricate and irreproducible details of one’s personal biography.”12 Kīrtan Chauṇkī as an Embodied Experience rMig hsih rMig rovih cup BI kir jwih // (Gurū Granth Sāhib: 473) Rang hasēh rang rōvēh chūp bhī kar jāh When one becomes dyed in God’s love, they sometimes laugh, Sometimes weep or become silent.