The North Indian Tradition

Introduction-Early String Instruments

     The Hawaiian style of guitar became a part of Indian music "through recordings and direct contact with Hawaiian musicians." (Humphrey pg. 13) Ed Mayer states in 1919 Ernest Ka'ai and his royal Hawaiian Troubadours toured the Far East, including India in 1919, and again from 1927-37. (pg. 44) Mayer believes this led to the influence of the slide guitar in Indian film music. In 1941 the Tau Moe family made some recordings for the India HMV company that, according to Bob Brozman, were very popular. Throughout the period of World War II the Tau Moe family toured Calcutta and other Indian cities and most definitely had a large influence of the introduction of the Hawaiian guitar in India.

     
     As early as 1938 there was an Indian group called Calcutta's Aloha Boys performing Hawaiian music. This band was often heard on All-India Radio. (Humphrey GP, pg. 110) Within a few years the guitar would be introduced into the film music being made at the time in India and the music began to become "Indianized". Humphrey notes that "The chordal vamps and dreamy harmonies of Hawaii were discarded: in their place emerged single-string glides and subtle ornamentation of notes." (Humphrey HS pg. 14) This music wasn't met with high acclaim by Indian classical music fans. Due to its "light" musical features, it was meant for an audience much broader then that for the classical music audience of the time. Indian musicians, however, had a long history of adapting stringed instruments coming into India from foreign places and adapting them to suit their own musical tastes.

 

Early Stringed Instuments

     As was the case with African-American and Hawaiian music it is commonly believed that the musical bow was the first stringed instrument in India. S. Krishnaswami states in his book "Musical Instruments of India", that "When the hunter shot his arrow, he must have noted that the bowstring produced a pleasant humming sound. If he twanged the bowstring near the cavity of the mouth, the sound was amplified." (pg.13) The musical bow, as the above description hints at, was originally a normal bow used to shoot arrows to capture game for food. In order to use the bow strictly as a musical instrument some modifications were made to it.

    Early musical bows in India had attached resonators made of a hollow gourd that a bamboo stick passed through, with the string being attached to the stick. The gourd replaced the mouth to project the sound of the string. According to Krishnaswami, instruments of these types are still used by aboriginal tribes in India. The ek tar is one of the earliest single stringed instruments of this type. This instrument has one string made of metal, and a gourd made of pumpkin or other round objects such as coconut. In modern usage the instrument is usually used to accompany singing and is plucked in order to be sounded. The instrument functions to provide a drone and rhythmic accompaniment for a vocalist, which is a commoncharacteristic of Indian music. Due to its construction, B.C. Deva suggests that this instrument "is the beginning of lute forms like the sitar, the sarod, and the Saraswati vina."

     Vinas with two and three strings are mentioned, according to the "Grove Dictionary of Instruments" in court records from the late fifteenth century. Some other instruments had up to six strings made of metal. These vinas had two gourds, which the long wooden or tube body was attached to. The instruments were held across the body and plucked with the right hand. In addition to the extra second gourd (that wasn't present on the one stringed instruments earlier mentioned), these instruments also had fixed frets. These frets made it easier to sound notes on the instrument and were played with a variety of right and left hand techniques that would influence the vichitra vina playing style that would later develop.

     Accounts of another one-stringed instrument, the eka tantri are found beginning in the eleventh century a.d. in North India. This was of the zither type, that is a flat board with one string set on it. This instrument had a gourd below the "danda". The instrument, according ancient texts referred to by B.C. Deva, was held across the body. Ancient texts go into descriptions of different playing techniques. The left hand held a kamkrika, which was a bamboo piece that functioned as slide, and was slid across the string to produce sound. Deva cited that the right hand served "for plucking, the left hand for sliding, as well as the combination of the two." (Deva pg. 90) This instrument is important for it is probably the first instrument in India that used a slider of some sort which would be used on other instruments such as the vichitra vina which would
precede the slide guitar.

     The vichitra vina is generally believed to be an instrument of late nineteenth century or early twentieth century construction. S. Krishnaswamy mentions it as being one of "fairly contemporary origin." (pg. 50) Daniel Neuman states the instrument "was developed at the beginning of this century". (pg. 115) In Grove it states a connection to the eka tantri and possibly another instrument, the surbin. The surbin reportedly was played with a slider and possibly serves as a bridge between the eka tantri and vichitra vina. (Grove pg 390)
The vichitra vina has a wide neck, about three feet long, which rests on two wooden gourds. The neck is fretless and holds six brass and steel strings with twelve or so sympathetic strings. The instrument sits in front of the player while he plucks it with his right hand and uses a piece of rounded glass to slide over the strings. Krishnaswami states due to it's rather large size the instrument "is rather difficult to play fast passages on the vichitra vina but slow passages emerge on this instrument with a beauty and richness of tone which few other instruments possess." (pg. 50) He also states the instrument may have been fashioned from the southern gottuvadyam by Ustad Abdul Aziz Khan. Despite its recent origins the vichitra has become fairly popular in this century. (pgs 50-51)

     The gottuvadyam is similar in construction to the vichitra vina and is played in the same manner. It is "primarily an instrument for solo playing". (Krishswami pg 52) Rather then a glass slide like the vichitra vina players use the players of this instrument use a heavy piece of polished wood ,horn, ebony, or teflon. Krishnaswami states the instrument was popularized by Narayana Iyengar who used to call the insturument the mahanataka vina. ( pg. 52) Chitraveena Ravikiran, a modern player, calls it a chitravina. (pg 24) Ravikiran says the instrument is "reputed to produce a smooth, singing tone. The timbre is especially impressive. The lower ranges are grand and warm, the higher ones are bright and sharp". (pg 24)

     In addition to the vichitra vina and gottuvadyam the sarod and sitar had the greatest impact on the classical guitar tradition. The sarod probably evolved out of a Persian instrument called the rabab (Miner pg. 61) The rabab appeared in artwork as early as the tenth century. This was an instrument of the lute type and was frequently bowed. The early history of the instrument is hard to piece together. The sarod, as a separate instrument from the rabab doesn't seem to appear until the mid 1800's. The playing style, however, "is often traced to the great Tansen of Akbar's court". (Miner pg. 62) The Older instrument had a round body with a wooden neck with four to six gut strings. The instrument went through physical changes such as the use of steel strings instead of gut, steel fingerboard without frets (instead of a fretted wooden neck), and changes in tarab (sympathetic) strings. There are many players who have influenced the instrument but for the purpose of this study we will look at one who had an impact on the classical slide guitar tradition.

     In 1862 Allauddin Khan was born in a village in North India. Allauddin would have a great influence on the modern development of the sarod. "By his late teens he was accomplished in many musical idioms". (Khan pg. 229) He had studied many Indian instruments as well as the Western violin by the time he encountered the sarod. He went on to study the instrument, along with vocal music, and other stringed instruments, including the vina and sursinger for the next forty years. Allauddin also performed on the instrument and taught a number of musicians. Ravi Shankar, one of his most well known students, says that Allauddin was probably the first instrumentalist "to deviate from the tradition of specialization" and "set up a new tradition consisting inter alia of finer blends and worthy assimilation of various materials of different famous gharanas which, in effect, created a scope for development in string instrumental music immensely wider and prolific." (Khan pg. 227) Allaudin would influence Shankar as well as his son Ali Akbar Khan to continue in this tradition, blending different musical ideas together and advancing the instrumental tradition. This idea would become a great influence on the slide guitar players who are looked at later.

     The sitar is another stringed instrument that was influential in the development of the slide guitar. The origin of the sitar is surrounded by a great deal of controversy. Some scholars such as Bimal Mukherjee cite the tritantric vina from the eleventh century as an early version of the sitar. (pg. 16) Their are no records as to the tuning of this instrument, however it is known to have been used as a vocal accompaniment as well as a solo concert instrument. This instrument was referred to as a vina in some texts.

     During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there was a great deal of Muslim invasion in North India. The Muslims were bringing a great deal of Persian influence to India with them. This influence included music. Amir Khusrau was a Dehli artist who was greatly influenced by Persian music. Along with leaving a great deal of music literature and songs, some scholars "credit him for the introduction into Indian music of a number of melodic forms and instruments synthesized from Persian sources." (Miner pg. 19) S.M. Tagore was a great proponent of the theory that it was Amir Khusrau who developed the sitar during his lifetime. Modernscholars such as Sharmistha Sen, however, find this theory lacking in evidence. Sen cites that while Khusraus's "writings contain pages full of descriptions of various musical instruments, one, unfortunately, is unable to trace anywhere the name sitar." (Sen pg. 29)

     The third theory has the sitar evolving out of the Persian setar. Prof. Premlata Sharma says "The predecessor of the sitar was the setar of Iran, or the tanbur, a fretted lute that entered India in the twelfth or thirteenth century and became a well-known instrument in courts throughout India." (pg. 1) She also believes the sitar didn't first appear unto 1740. The instrument then began to change and was adapted by many musicians. The process of "Indianization" and change to suit the needs of the time, music, context, etc continued until the sitar reached its current form.

     Vilayat Khan is a sitar player who has had a great impact on Hindustani music in the twentieth century. Vilayat was born in 1927 to a distinguished fraternal line that had produced a number of influential sitar players including his father Inayat Khan. According to James Spadler Hamilton, in his work on sitar players in Calcutta Inayat Khan "rose to the top ranking sitariya (sitarist) in India and did much of the initial work in the popularization of sitar music throughout North India." (Hamilton pg. 167) Vilayat was groomed as a professional musician from an early age and was performing with his father at the age of 8 or 9. (Parikh pg. 39) Vilayat's dad died within a few years of this performance and Vilayat continued the tradition started out by his father and grandfather, Imdad Khan adding innovations to sitar playing. Vilayat Khan's greatest innovation has been the introduction of gayaki ang on sitar. (Parikh pg. 50) Gayaki ang is a style of instrumental playing based on copying the lyrical style of vocal music. N.A. Jairazbhooy mentions that Vilayat also recieved vocal training in addition to sitar training and is an accomplished singer. This background aided in Vilayat's desire and ability to achieve this innovation. Parikh states that "some critics claim that all music basically follows the tradition of vocal music" (pg. 50)

     Vilayat, however, innovated this method on the sitar by developing a left hand technique that enabled him to establish a continuous note held longer then other sitar players. This innovation was necessary due to the sitar's characteristic as a plucked instrument of having "a note which has a limited sound duration." (Parikh pg 50) In order to elevate longer duration of a note Vilayat introduced a number of innovations to the sitar. He changed the bridge of his instruments, adding different gauged strings to the instrument, changing the thickness of frets, etc. By popularizing these ideas of innovation to the sitar tradition Vilayat precluded many of the innovations that would take place in slide guitar tradition. This continues a trend of all great musicians, whereas "in the best Indian musical tradition where pride of place has always been given to those great musicians who have left their mark on Indian music through their innovations." (Jairazbhoy pg. 187)  It is in this tradition that Brij Bhushan Kabra, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, and Debashish Bhattacharya would assimilate the guitar into the ancient string tradition of Indian classical music.