A Voice That Is Self-Intoxicated

Bindu Chawla

The Hindustani awaaz has many kinds of musculatures or voice types the phosphorescent
voice of the fish-eating Bengali, the full, rounded voice from wheatand-ghee-eating Punjab,
the bass voice of the Muslim musician or Musalmani gavaiyya brought up on kabab-roti
and bhuna gosht and the finer, high-pitched voices of Gujarat-Maharashtra brought up on
seasonings of hing, asafoetida. All these voice types ultimately aspired to what our gurus
spoke of as the qalab ki awaaz, the voice of the soul, or what is mentioned in our ancient
texts as gyana swara voice of the enlightened one whose utterance enunciated Truth and
divinity, and shone like burnished gold.
In the gharanas, preparing the golden voice involved years of penance, where the individual
voice would have to be depersonalised and transformed into a universal voice. During the
period of apprenticeship the guru would hone the disciple removing contortions from the
psyche and mannerisms which were personal and parochial, related to the small personality.
The gurus criticised scathingly and incessantly, and gharana history came to be filled with
stories of disciples who ran away. But for those who did not, their inner ghosts were released
and the singing went on to the next level. This was the ritual purification of the astral voice
and these, the rites of purification.
In the days of yore the classical voice was developed close to the traditional veena in its
enunciation of the swara; like the veena, which resonated by the fullness of its toomba, or the
hollowed, dried gourd at its one end; the classical voice too developed a rich resonance or
goonj as its base, a mannerism exclusive to the Hindustani awaaz. The veena had several
playing mannerisms, like slides or glissandos, known as meend and more, and all these were
incorporated into the voice; but above all, the beauty of its deep and rounded swara vested
with itself rather than projected into the environment; which is how the traditional classical
voice too came to be born.
This temperament of the veena swara was, as Indore gharana mentor, and master, Pandit
Amarnath, explained, the principle by which it came to be played only for close hearing, or
for chamber music, which is in sharp contrast to an instrument like, for example, the
contemporary violin, whose tone (shrieks) can be heard sometimes even as far as the next
lane of an auditorium.
Over time, the gharana was able to actualise this qalab ki awaaz, the unforgettable gyana
swara of the shastras, the voice that spoke straight from the soul, and as Amarnathji once put
it, was in a constant state of ecstasy and heady intoxication with itself , with the perennial
inner fountain of joy. This was like the proverbial deer locating the musk in his own body
to experience its own immortality. More than anything else, it was not a good or a bad voice,
but the voice of Truth.
In a memorable song composed for the raga Madhmat Sarang, Panditji speaks about the
headiness of this self-intoxication: O bring the brimful, intoxicant wine,/ For the eyes to see
the Final Truth,/ O bring brimfuls and fill cups for all./ Truthful is the wine, and Truthful he
who serves the wine,/ To awaken Truth in the hearts of all./ O bring brimfuls of the
intoxication divine...like a final metaphor for a voice that had performed the inner
pradakshina, or circumambulation of the divine.