BLOG  IX TABLA MUSINGS  SUGGESTED DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATION OF GATS

In my last short blog VIII ( unfortunately,I forgot to title it as VIII ) I had lamented that the definitions of many Tabla PHRASES  are not clear.I can understand the old masters who were majorly illiterate using the phrases loosely. But I cannot understand the present day senior players and musicologists using them,as told by their GURUs, without questioning.

Thirakwa used to play PESHKAR in two parts.Hecalled the first part Farashbandi and the second part Peshkar Rang.But in a recording ,he has reversed the terminology.I will be discussing Peshkar in my next blog ).

In this blog I will discuss the definition and classification of a GAT.

I will give below definitions of Gat as described by some of the leading practitioners and musicologists:

Pt Arvind Mulgaonkar writing in his paper presented at a workshop on ‘Bandish’ organized by ITC-SRA on 25/26 October 1997 gives following definition which I like:

A gat is like a ‘POEM’ composed by some talented old timer players.They have come down to us through oral transmission over generations and usually with the name of the composer and its qualification such as Farad,Darjedar etc.

A gat is precomposed and cannot be /should not be tampered with.

A gat is usually non expandable except for gat-kayda or gat-rela.

A gat does not have any restrictions like a Kayda where one has to restrict to a few words contained in the Kayda. It can have a combination of Khula and Band baaz. It can have a mix of Jatis such as teeshra,chatushra mishra etc.It can have stops to give a surprise.In short the composer is at liberty to use what ever the arsenal he has in his repertoire. The ultimate aim is to surprise and please the listener.(This is my analysis but I am sure Arvind has touched on these points somewhere in his text).

Gat is derived from the Sanskrit word Gati which means speed or movement.Gat  therefore  can be repeated continuously.(Usually,performers repeat the gat twice )In order to repeat the gat,it ends before the sum.

The gat is based on metre of a poem.All Yatis ,Jatis and Grahas as described in taal-shastra are  employed freely in Gat compositions,(I do not agree. My comment is that nearly all Gats are composed by mostly Muslim stalwarts such as Haji Vilayat,Chudiavale ImamBax,Munirkhan and many others from Ajarada,Benaras,Panjab gharanas.These composers,I am sure were not educated enough to know taal Shastra but they were capable of composing attractive Gats.Recently I heard the recordings of bandishes in a CDE attached to an erudite book titled Aesthetics of Tabla by Pt Sudhir Mainkar. Gats are presented in poetic vrittas which are certainly attractive and form the basis of new contemporary compositions. If what I heard on the recording are Pt Mainkar’s compositions ,he deserves to be complimented  for contributing a new dimension for creating new attractive class of bandishes.)

My comments:

Above I have given two comments.Otherwise I am  in agreement with Arvind’s definitions.

I will also say that the main classification of Gats should be:    A…Gat Kayda,  B …Gatang Rela,  C… Gat-paran,  D…Gat-toda..   E…Gat which does not fall into A,B.C ,D classification.But if you do not want to classify a Gat,then you can call all classes as simply ‘Gats.

Since most Gats have come down from old masters through oral transmission over generation of students,they are  awarded certain status by the Gharanas.For example,we have Farad gat,Darjedar Gat.Farad means Unique,a gat which cannot have a Joda or a comparable similar composition. I feel that when the Ustaad composed a Gat, the students and may be  his peers,will have praised it as Unique and this prefix has been carried down by the students.I cannot imagine that a ‘Joda’ cannot be made. But we honour the composer and retain its prefix Farad. Similarly, a Darjedar Gat is also in praise of a composer and has come down to us over generations. I f you ask the composers what they think of their composition,I am sure they will all describe it as Darjedaar.It also means that Farad and Darjedar Gats can belong to any of the above A to E gats.

Then we have,Manzadar,Gend Uchal,Tripalli,Dudhari,Teedhari,Choudhari,Panjdhari,Domukhi,etc Gats. Arvind has given 16 varieties,but Mainkar  mentions that Nayan Ghosh has 50 varieties.Pt Mainkar suggests that a special classification can be considered if there are substantial compositions of a particular variety.

Pt Mainkar writes:”If one aesthetic principle ( say gend Uchal,Waterfall,Dance of a peacock etc.This bracket is my explanation ).is accepted as a criterion to denote individuality of a Gat,as a kind of playing,then at least two to four Gats belonging to that category should be available for quotation,as  the compositions built on that principle”My comment will be that even then it does not qualify to be the main classification, It can only qualify to be a sub classification.For example,just for argument’s sake,can one not compose a gend uchaal or a Tripalli Gat as a part of a Gat-Toda?.

The description of each class and subclass along with examples of Gats will be given in the next blog no X’

Suresh Mulgaonkar

Mumbai

sureshmulgaonka