Shaam-e-Ghazal - The Anatomy of an Indian Musical Evening

It is usually unspoken. But that night, at a concert of Indian ghazals, lyric love poems sung beautifully by the London-based classical singer, Uttara Sukanya Joshi, the origin of Indian music was explained.

- Girija Shettar

Shiv Kant Sharma, former editor of the BBC World Service Hindi section, was one of the evening’s distinguished speakers. He explained that Indian musical arts remain closely tied to the mystical tradition from which they sprang. This tradition holds that the whole of existence issued from a primordial Sound, Nāda, which came forth from the Divine Omnipresent Reality, Brahman. This sound is known as Nāda Brahman and Indian music attempts to recapture and express that inceptive impetus of Divine creation.

Classical music in India is so closely moored to its spiritual origins that a statue of Lord Shiva in his magnificent form of Nataraja, the King of the Dance, the Nāda Brahman personified, is usually placed at the side of the stage, and before they begin to play or sing or dance, Indian classical performers will pay obeisance to Him, seek His blessings in their humble quest to realise that eternal original sound and lead themselves and anyone who hears them back to that highest bliss.

This ritual was dispensed with at the Shaam-e-Ghazal, ‘Evening of ghazals’ concert on the 26 October, hosted by The Bhavan, London’s famous Indian arts centre, but the evening’s performance nevertheless, maintained the depth and dignity associated with its reverential past.

The lovely young singer, Uttara, upheld this dignity. Resplendent in a cream and ivory kameez sharara, highlighted with delicate gold threads, a glittering festoon necklace rested upon her collar bone. A brocade dupatta, embroidered with a grid of gold zari work sat around her shoulders, resembling a queenly open ruff.