When the Western Region of ITC Sangeet Research Academy closed shop, Arvind Parikh, the life-line of SRA’s research-oriented activities, took the entire burden upon himself. Fortunately, the nonagenarian living legend is actively supported by his daughter Purvi Parikh. At the initiative of this Kirana gaharana vocalist cum business-woman, an interesting seminar on tappa, tarana, trivat, chaturang and allied forms in the Hindustani classical music, was organised by the International Foundation for Fine Arts, supported by Music Forum, in collaboration with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) Mumbai, wherein its Experimental Theater was the venue of this one-day seminar on 1 February 2025.

The day-long seminar was divided in four sessions. For academic deliberations there were such erudite experts like Shanno Khurana, Vidyadhar Vyas and Naman Ahuja. Naman was initiated to music by his grandmother, Shanno Khurana. His deep interest in art history was apparent when he opened the first session with a perceptive power-point presentation that was focused on the origin, history and aesthetic expressions of tappa, tarana and trivat with a vision to bring out their socio-cultural significance in traditional Hindustani classical music, in the process he discussed the mystic scriptures and Raagmala paintings wherein personification of ragas reveal their inner core which change moods with different tempos. 

Rare Taalmala paintings, popular in Deccan region, unravel the mystery of the lyrics of Taranas, set to fast laya. The word Trivat consists of Tri (three) and Vat (set), i.e. a composition with three sets of different patterns.

Ahuja reiterated the fact that Tappa, sung by camel-riding traders who belonged to Multan traditions. It traveled down with traders to Punjab-Sindh region with its heavy-grained short, crisp taans laced with fine-grained khatka-murki-gitkiri. This staccato, ornate and restive singing style found its breeding ground in Punjab. Its original Multani or Sarayaki lyrics got mixed with the local dialects. Dipped in Sufi philosophy, most of the tappas seek union with God or brood over the concept of life and death. Later, the lyrics were influenced by Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, just as the social structure and other arts, including sculpting, assimilated all. This confluence was known as Vesara style and was practiced widely even before 15th century.      

Lucknow’s Nawab Asafuddaula, a great connoisseur of music, patronised Quawwal Bacche. One of them was Ghulam Rasool. His son Ghulam Nabi went to Punjab for better opportunities. He loved the songs of camel riders and composed a few under the pseudonym Shori Miyan. Later he reached Benares, the city of renowned tawayefs (professional singers), who ruled the cultural world of India. They welcomed the tappas of Shori Miyan with open arms and included them in their repertoire. The same was the case of the eminent musicians of Gwalior, the labor room of the first gharana of khayal vocalism.

The second session was essentially a long interview of Shanno Khurana by Naman Ahuja. Shanno Khurana learnt music from several ustads including Mushtaq Hussain Khan of Rampur gharana, who introduced her to tappa, tarana and trivat. Maitreyi Majumdar, a senior disciple of Shanno-ji, accompanied her to demonstrate a few of those gems. Ahuja, apparently, relied on some rare recordings of Shanno Khurana and her Ustad.

In the final session of the seminar, Vidyadhar Vyas, with his amazing depth in musicology, gharanedar vocalism of Paluskar parampara, teaching, writing, story-telling and handling administrative jobs - narrated the history of Hindustani classical music inclusive of dhrupad, khayal, tarana and the evolution of all the allied forms that were nurtured and propagated by the exponents of Gwalior gharana. According to him, Gwalior gharana exponents were the first to reach out to spread these art forms all over India. Vyas easily cast his spell by singing a beautiful tappa in Natya Sangeet of Maharashtra. Competently aided by Meeta Pandit, another gharanedar vocalist, he punctuated the story with several such interesting live demonstrations of Ashtapadi, Tap-khayal (both neatly sung by Meeta), Tarana, Trivat, Chaturang etc. with detailed analysis of the components like sparkling grains of staccato swaras, taans or rhythmic divisions that shape their unique identity.

The penultimate session was reserved for a few samples of Bengali Tappa along with its history of evolution. As a researcher and narrator, I discovered that very few people (even Bengalis) know that Ramnidhi Gupta (1741-1839), who introduced this genre in Bengal, was a highly enterprising, educated, music-loving administrator. While posted at Chhapra 1776-1794), he met Shori Miyan, became his disciple and learnt his gayaki. After homecoming he composed tappa, tap-khayals etc. keeping the style of expression as taught by his Ustad, but with Bengali lyrics. He was hooted out. He, then, softened the rough edges of the grains of taans; introduced long meends and wrote lyrics that covered an array of subjects that caught the attention of his listeners.  

This happened almost a hundred years before the widely-known historical entry of Wajid Ali Shah, the exiled Nawab of Lucknow, in Bengal (1856) with entire cultural world of Avadh which changed the panorama of Calcutta’s traditional dhrupad oriented musical scene. Eminent musicians of the country chose to settle here, including renowned tawayef Malka Jaan, mother of ‘Jaan-e-Kalkatta’ Gauhar Jaan, Nidhubabu’s tappa, tap-khayals and other compositions became so popular that they got an entry in Tagorean oeuvres.                                                                                                                       

Multitalented vocalist Nabhodeep Chakraborty, comprehensively groomed by all the three Khalifas of Kasur Patiala gharana, also trained with Ramkumar Chattopadhyay and amassed the wealth of Puratani Bangla Gaan. Sensitively supported by Anutosh Degharia (tabla) and Gyanendra (harmonium), he was at ease with both Punjabi and Nidhubabu’s (Bengali) versions of tappas. To illustrate the difference between the two original styles developed in two different parts of India, he began with a tappa of Shori Miyan, then followed it up with Nidhubabu’s tappa and tap-khayal with lyrics in high-flown Bengali that demanded deeply emotive treatment. Well aware of this, Nabhodeep handled the lyrics very caringly. Despite the language barrier, the listeners could feel the vibes and, therefore, encores led him to sing more.