Bin-baja

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Bin-baja , bīṇ bājā, also Gogia bana , is a rare five-string bow harp that is played by male musicians of the Pardhan caste in the Mandla area in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to accompany epic songs. Only the musicians of the Gogia, a small social subgroup of the Pardhans, play the bin-baja for their clients, the Gonds , instead of the stringed bana that Pardhans otherwise use to accompany songs. The bin-baja , which was first described in greater detail in 1985 in the music ethnological literature, is the only harp still in existence in India whose shape goes back to the ancient Indian bow harps known as vina, which were depicted up to the end of the 1st millennium .

origin

Attempts to reconstruct the ancient Tamil bow harp yazh

In ancient Indian times, vina was a general term for string instruments, which was initially used to denote bow harps and later rod zithers or long necks . The instruments mentioned as vina or vipanci in Natyashastra , the oldest Indian collection of texts on music written in Sanskrit around the turn of the ages , were probably multi-string bow harps. In ancient Tamil literature , the term yazh stands for "harp". The bow harps had developed from single-stringed musical bows with a sound box attached to one end . The oldest images of bow harps are around 3000 BC. Known from Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt . In the rock caves of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh , Bronze Age paintings of bow harp players from the 2nd millennium BC have been preserved. Received. At the end of the 2nd millennium BC The leap in development to the angle harps that took place in Egypt and Mesopotamia did not occur in India, and the angular harps type , which was widespread in the Middle Ages in the Orient, never had an Indian equivalent.

Indian bow harps were depicted on stone reliefs at Buddhist cult sites ( stupas ) from the Sunga period (2nd – 1st century BC) in central northern India: five-string harps on the stupas of Bharhut and Bodhgaya , seven-string harps in Sanchi ; also on reliefs on the Butkara stupa in the Swat valley in the Gandhara region (2nd century AD), on the stupas of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda (both 2nd / 3rd century AD). Terracotta figures showing arched harps from the 4th to 6th centuries have been preserved from two Gupta-era locations. After a jataka, Buddha himself was an excellent vina player at the Varanasi court before retiring from worldly life. In South India there were in the 7th / 8th Century harps for vocal accompaniment with possibly up to 14 strings. A bronze figure with an arch harp from the east Indian city of Nalanda , dated to the 10th century, finally comes from the Pala dynasty . The bow harp probably came further east with the spread of Buddhism in the first centuries AD. First of all, the Indian harp came to the Pyu in what is now Myanmar , where the saung gauk is honored as a national instrument . The remaining bow harps, which spread to Southeast Asia as far as the Khmer , have practically disappeared, as have the oriental and central Asian angle harps. A small horizontal angle harp is still played with the name Tschangi in a niche culture in the Georgian mountain region of Svaneti . The waji , an archaic form of an arch harp in the eastern Afghan province of Nuristan, is of more historical importance .

In terms of construction, the bow harps were developed from instruments with a curved string support, between the two ends of which the strings are stretched, to the installation of a separate support rod within the resonance body. The oldest Egyptian bow harps had a string carrier, at the lower end of which the sound box was attached. On the other hand, in the Burmese saung gauk, an only slightly curved wooden stick runs centrally below the skin of the resonance body, which is attached to the curved neck protruding far upwards and to which the string ends are attached at regular intervals. The neck of the saung gauk lies on the edge of the bowl-shaped body, as is the case with the ennanga and other East African bow harps, which, because of this construction, are classified as “spoons in a cup”. The special shape of the waji is more closely related to the one-piece bow harps from ancient times . Your strings are stretched between a continuous curved string carrier. Its skin above the resonance body only comes into contact with the center of the string carrier for a few centimeters, so that an unusual intermediate stage between a single-string musical bow with attached resonance body, a multi-string African pluriarc and a bow harp results. Since the ancient Indian stone reliefs do not allow any detailed statements about the fastening of the strings and the support structure of the illustrated bow harps, there are different assumptions. The specific question of whether there was one continuous string carrier or two strings connected at one point in the 1st millennium cannot be clearly answered using the stone reliefs.

The existence of an Indian bow harp was first documented by the anthropologist Shamrao Hivale, who became known as Verrier Elwin's assistant. From 1932 he lived in the Pardhans area for over 30 years, where he did field research. In his work The Pardhans of the Upper Narbada Valley , published in 1946, he described in detail the life of the Pardhan musicians, their songs and musical instruments. In addition to the three-string string bana , a five-string bow harp called Gogia bana is depicted. The first edition was 500 copies and evidently received little attention from musicologists, especially since Hivale and Elwin, judging from the description, of the musical historical significance of this find was unclear. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Gonds' harp was mentioned a number of times in connection with the ancient Indian harps as Gogia bana . Inspired by Hivale's book, Roderic Knight came to music-ethnological field research in the Mandla district in 1982, where he was able to make sound recordings of bin-baja .

Bin-baja means "bin instrument". Bin ( Sanskrit ) is related to the ancient Egyptian word for harp bjn.t and to Coptic vini . It is an alternative name for the rudra vina played in classical music and, in northeast India, describes simple single-stringed strings similar to pena . The old zither phin phia and the younger long-necked lute phin in Thailand also derive their names from the Sanskrit word. Hivale erroneously described the harp as Gogia bana , that is, as "Gogia's fiddle". A derogatory onomatopoeic term is kidim-baja . The lute players of the Pardhans thus look down at an instrument whose strings are only torn rhythmically and on the other hand refuse to call the harp a bana . Bin baja is also a regional name in northern India for the rare bagpipe mashak .

Design

The total length of a measured specimen is 104 centimeters, half of which is accounted for by the shell-shaped slim body (according to Hivale (H) kothi , according to Knight (K) koli ), from one narrow side of which the slightly upwardly curved string support or neck ( Hindi danda ) protrudes. The one-piece string carrier corresponds to the ancient Egyptian type and the Afghan waji and represents the main difference to the Burmese saung gauk . The body, which is carved from a piece of mango wood ( Mangifera indica ), is rounded tub-shaped in the side view and slightly waisted in the top view in the middle area. The string carrier protruding into the body is held in its position by the cowhide stretched out as a cover (H: chhawni , K: gau ). It disappears at the edge of the shell under the skin cover, then appears in the middle as a jagged bar to which the strings are attached, and ends again under the skin at the other end of the body. At the entry point, the rod is also tied with a strip of skin wrapped around it several times. At the lower end it is prevented from sliding sideways by a knot on the shell wall. In the upper area of ​​the resonance body there is a pencil-sized hole in the skin.

Instead of pegs, the strings are attached to the neck with cords made of twisted cow's tail hair (H: noi , K: rasi ) that are wrapped around the rod and knotted three times , which can be moved for tuning. This type of attachment can also be seen on harp images on the stupa of Bharhut (2nd century BC) and on a terracotta figure from the Gupta period with a seated harpist. In the Burmese saung gauk the vocal loops hang freely, while in the bin-baja they are all tied in a knot. The strings run parallel to their attachment points on five points of the sawtooth-shaped bar ( danda ). Such a rack is not known from any historical or contemporary bow harp. Instead , among the numerous ancient Indian names for string instruments, there is a makaramukhavina , a vina , in whose name the “face” ( mukha ) of a Makara occurs. This mythical animal with a crocodile-like shape is known for its saw teeth in its mouth. The eight teeth of the groin may be an indication that the harp originally had more than five strings. Where the strings run over the wooden tooth backs, a small piece of bamboo is pushed underneath, which could be a stunted remnant of a bridge widening ( jivari ), which makes the tanpura and other Indian string instruments particularly rich in overtones. However, such an effect is not audible with the bin-baja . Knight gives the local names paheredar ("guardian") and ghori ("horse") for the bamboo strips . The five strings from the veins of beef or roe deer bear the names (H :) roda , (K :) gat from top to bottom ; (H :) dhodha , (K :) mad ; (H :) manjha , (K :) tini ; (H :) timme , (K :) jhara pahala ; (H :) chhote , (K :) jhara dusara . The strings are plucked with a wooden plectrum (H: khuti , K: kaman ). A sacred cord ( janewa ) hangs loosely on Hivale's image between the lower end of the body and the center of the neck .

Style of play

The player sitting on the floor clamps the bin-baja resting on his left thigh in the crook of his left arm and grips the strings with both hands. In the same way, the aforementioned harpist from the Gupta period and on coins that were minted around 330-370 AD, King Samudragupta with a harp are depicted. The harpist's left hand looks as if she is plucking the strings with her fingers while she extends her right hand upwards. A pick in the right hand cannot be seen, but the fingers are shown in a corresponding gripping position. The harpists at the Bharhut stupa are clearly holding a pick in their right hand. The bin-baja provides a further clue for the presumed way of playing the ancient Indian harps . With a pick in the right hand, all the strings are plucked in an upward and downward motion (English strumming ), while the strings that are not supposed to sound are dampened by touching them with the fingers of the left hand. This method, known from ancient Egypt, is also used with some north- east African lyres such as the simsimiyya and the krar as well as with the Afghan waji .

The musician holds a 2–3 centimeter long opening pick between his thumb and forefinger in his right hand. He positions the thumb of his left hand over the first string, the index finger over the middle and the ring finger over the fifth string. While he strokes all the strings with the pick, he places the fingers of his left hand on the strings at the appropriate time so that five open strings and then two open and three muted strings sound in rhythmic alternation. An additional plucked sub-tone results when the player quickly lifts his thumb off the string. This monotonous style of play is not varied, the position of the left hand remains unchanged. The strings two and four, which are always plucked freely, are tuned to the same pitch. This creates the auditory impression of a fundamental tone , even if this tone does not harmonize with the melody line of the singing voice.

Socio-cultural environment

The way the Pardhans played has nothing to do with the musical practice of the ancient Indian harps, which were played by men and women in ensembles at court and occasionally to accompany the dance. The bin-baja is only played by a male, solo musician to accompany his vocal performance. The epic song tradition of the Pardhans is a dramatic form that goes back a long way, the content of which comes from the regional Gondawani tradition or from the Indian national epic Mahabharata . Usually, the string bana provides a musical background for the half-sung, half-spoken narration. The Pardhan musicians (nickname dasondi ) play at the invitation of the Gond families. The larger subgroup of the Pardhans, the Rajnengi, accompany each other on the bana and only the members of the numerically smaller and socially lower subgroup of the Gogia occasionally play the bin-baja . In the travel season from February to May after the wheat harvest, when the field work stops , the musicians go on tour ( mangteri ) and in turn visit the Gond families with whom they have entered into a commitment. Although the Pardhans today, like the Gonds, mostly operate agriculture and are no longer financially dependent on their clients, they hold on to the mangteri tradition for religious and mythical reasons.

The bana and the bin-baja used to be the place of residence of Bara Deo, the main god of the Pardhan. The instruments therefore had a magical function and had to be specially protected. The visit of the Pardhan musician is not only entertainment for the Gond family, but also has a blessing effect, which is why a chicken is sacrificed. Bana players can perform in front of a larger audience in the village on certain occasions and by invitation outside of a private home. This is out of the question for a bin-baja player, as it would reveal himself publicly as Gogia. In the open air he always carries his instrument invisibly wrapped in a cloth. Hivale noticed that some Gogias, ashamed to use such a simple and ancient instrument, wrapped themselves in a long cloth when they performed. They felt laughed at by the audience because the bin-baja could only produce a single note. For Rajnengis and Gogias it has been agreed that the bin-baja is the larger instrument, but the bana has a higher reputation. This is also not opposed to the fact that, according to a legend about the comparison of the two instruments, the bin-baja did better. Gogias and Rajnengis argued about the rank of their instruments and decided to throw both of them into a pool of water to test their sound quality when wet. The bana turned out to be unplayable afterwards, but the bin-baja still made the same sound.

The number of bin baja players was already falling in the first half of the 20th century. In 1982, Roderic Knight found it difficult to find someone who wanted to present himself as a bin-baja player , even in remote villages where Gogias were known to live. A secret is kept about the few remaining instruments. One musician stated that he was in the 14th generation of the family tradition. That would mean playing the harp about 500 years ago. The remaining period of time to the ancient Indian harps cannot be bridged with historical sources. At least geographically, the connection seems plausible. The remains of the Bharhut stupa with the relief of a harpist from the 2nd century BC Were discovered in 1873 about 300 kilometers northwest of the Mandla district.

literature

  • Shamrao Hivale: The Pardhans of the Upper Narbada Valley . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1946
  • Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today. In: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 29, No. 1, University of Illinois Press, Winter, 1985, pp. 9-28
  • Roderic Knight: Bīṇ bājā. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 1. Macmillan Press, London 1984, p. 230
  • Roderic Knight: The bana of Bachargaon and beyond . In: Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Vol. 79, No. 3, Summer 1983, pp. 30-39
  • Roderic Knight: The “Bana”. Epic Fiddle of Central India . In: Asian Music , Vol. 32, No. 1 (Tribal Music of India) Fall 2000 - Winter 2001, pp 101-140

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Veronika Meshkeris: Musical Phenomena of Convergency in Eurasian Rock Art. In: Ellen Hickmann, Ricardo Eichmann (Ed.): Studies on musical archeology I. String instruments in an archaeological context. (Orient-Archäologie, Volume 6) Verlag Marie Leidorf, Rahden / Westfalen 2000, p. 83: Plate VII, Fig. 7
  2. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva: Musical Instruments . National Book Trust, New Delhi 1977, p. 85
  3. ↑ Walter Kaufmann : Old India. Music history in pictures. Volume II. Ancient Music. Delivery 8. Ed. Werner Bachmann. VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1981, pp. 50, 92, 96, 106
  4. ↑ Jataka No. 243; Bo Lawergren: Buddha as a Musician: An Illustration of a Jātaka Story. (PDF; 1.9 MB) In: Artibus Asiae, Vol. LIV, 3/4, Museum Rietberg, Zurich 1994, p. 228
  5. ↑ Richard Widdess: The Oral in Writing: Early Indian musical notation. In: Early Music , Vol. 24, No. 3, (Early Music from Around the World) Oxford Journals, August 1996, pp. 391-402 + 405, here p. 402
  6. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today, pp. 13f
  7. ↑ Thomas R. Carter: Shamrao Hivale . Sunil Janah
  8. ^ Roderic Knight: The bana of Bachargaon and beyond , p. 35
  9. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today , p. 16
  10. ↑ Shamrao Hivale, p. 72
  11. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today , p. 21
  12. ↑ Monika Zin : The ancient Indian vīṇās. In: Ellen Hickmann, Ricardo Eichmann (Hrsg.): Studies on music archeology IV. Music archaeological source groups: soil documents, oral tradition, record. Lectures of the 3rd symposium of the International Study Group Music Archeology in the Michaelstein Monastery, 9. – 16. June 2002, p. 324
  13. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today, pp. 17-23
  14. ↑ Walter Kaufmann, p. 164f
  15. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today , pp. 25f
  16. ↑ Shamrao Hivale, p. 73
  17. ^ Roderic Knight: The Harp in India Today, pp. 26f