Yagneshbhai's memories

In towns and cities large and small across Gujarat, preparations have begun for Navratri, the world's longest festival, which belongs to India and above all to Gujarat. Navratri is Gujarat's festival of garba and raas, recognised by UNESCO two or three years ago. In Canada, America, Australia, the UAE and the UK, the celebrations begin as much as a month early, so that singers and musicians from Gujarat and Mumbai can be booked. As the Navratri mood builds, here is the lovely story behind the tune of one sweet, melodious garbo that has travelled the world.

It is the garbo "Garbe Ramva Nisarya Madi, Tari Aarat Kaaje" ("We have set out to dance the garba, Mother, for your aarti"), a meeting of three streams, like the sacred confluence of three rivers, created by three Bhavnagaris: the tune by Mohammadbhai Dekhaiya of Bhavnagar, now 89; the words by the late poet Rahi Odhariya; and Parthiv Gohil, of the same city, who carried it forward with his own distinctive musical sense. Parthiv Gohil, a talented champion of "Bhavnagar First", has set this garbo dancing across the world, a gift of a composition that makes the heart swell with pride. With his own natural flair and the help of modern technology, he dressed it in an entirely new arrangement and released it on VCD, giving its composer and lyricist full and respectful credit, and so making sure their contribution will be remembered for ever. In doing so, Parthiv has also carried the fragrance of his own city's musical culture onto the world stage and kept the flame of this garbo alight. The story of how its words were woven and its tune was set is a delightful one too.

This goes back to about 1978. Smt. Poyaniben Oza was preparing "Parvani", a programme presenting our various festivals through dance, and before she started she talked it over with Mohammadbhai Dekhaiya and Rahi Odhariya. She told them she wanted new modern (arvachin) garbas for the Fagan festival, Navratri and Diwali, and that one of them would be performed with lamps (divda) and small hand cymbals (manjira). She urged them both to create completely new words and a completely new tune for it. Naturally, if the dancers were to circle carrying lamps, the tune would need a fairly slow (vilambit) tempo. In those days her Khushboo Kala Vrind was always the first troupe in Bhavnagar to start rehearsing, so Mohammadbhai and the poet Shri Rahi Odhariya, who wrote her garbas, were always ready in mind for it.

Opposite the Ghogha Gate police post stood Chandubhai's tea cart, and next to it the bench by the Prem News Agency, where Bhavnagar's artists, well known or not, and its poets would gather whether or not there was a show on. It must have been about ten at night. This is how the tune found its shape… "Mohammadbhai said to Rahi, 'A tune has come into my head.' Rahi and I went to Motibaug Town Hall. Students came to study in the front part of the building, so there was some coming and going there, but the back lobby was completely silent. Rahi was a teacher by profession and always had his bag with him. He took out a notebook, and Mohammadbhai told him, 'The girls will dance this garba with lamps and manjira, so keep that at the centre as you write, and keep the metre of dadra, a six-beat rhythm, in your head.' Rahi was a rhythm player himself, so he knew the spoken beats of taal and tempo as well. Many people called this composer-and-lyricist pair, Mohammadbhai and Rahi, the 'Ram–Rahim duo'. Give Rahi an idea and he could quickly write a poem or song on it; that was his gift. I owe a great deal to my friend Rahi. That night Rahi filled six or seven sheets trying to write the garbo's opening refrain (sthayi), but the words would not settle for either of them. At half past midnight they went out for tea again, came back and started over. They kept at it until dawn broke. Then, in the deep silence, the sound of aarti rang out, with big drums, cymbals and manjira, from Bhidbhanjan or the neighbouring Jashonath temple, and from the Takhteshwar temple on the hill. The refrain came to Rahi: 'Garbe ramva nisarya madi, tari aarat kaaje, taale taale maa na garba kera chowk nirantar gaaje' ('We have set out to dance the garba, Mother, for your aarti; beat after beat, the square where we dance for Mother rings out without end'). Only two pages of the notebook were left. Mohammadbhai hummed the words to the tune he had been carrying in his head. The whole garbo was written, and the two of them were overjoyed. At Bakhatmal's shop on the embankment of the town lake, which opened at five or half past five in the morning, they splashed water on their faces, and that, together with the soulful tune and the devout words, swept away a whole night without sleep. They drank tea, and at seven in the morning went straight from there to Poyaniben's home in Diwanpara and sang her the garbo." Picking up the story, Poyaniben said, "That night we met again, with Amrish Mehta, a well-known tabla player in Bhavnagar at the time. Mohammadbhai sang the garbo at the harmonium, and Poyaniben and her young son Tejas kept suggesting he add a short alaap, a free, unmetred melodic phrase, after the opening line (mukhda). The garbo was sung again with the alaap added, and all the while the clock kept ticking. My husband Mauleshbhai and my mother Pragnaben together suggested adding some fast choreographic movement and more rhythmic variety. So, alongside the original dadra, a second taal, khemto, a lilting folk rhythm, was added, together with an alaap for the chorus. By the time the whole composition was complete it was midnight. The next day the tune was taught to Rekha Bhatt (later Rekha Trivedi), Bhavnagar's leading woman singer at the time, and so the garbo was launched."

Poyaniben said that after hearing this garbo, everyone in the family had predicted that this tune and these words would keep the composer and lyricist celebrated for years to come.

"When Rekha Trivedi first presented the tune and words, pouring her own spiritual feeling into them, with the women's garba weaving around her song, we were quite sure that the flame of this garbo, lit from the lamp at its heart, would rise to great heights of feeling. Today this garbo has reached Gujaratis living in many countries of the world, and that is the proof." Since then it has also been sung by Pinakin Mehta, a singer who is the pride of Gujarat, Pushpaben Chhaya of Rajkot, Vipul Acharya, Kalyani Kauthalkar, Swati Pathak, Snehal Padhye-Shevde, Devyani Oza, Dishani Mehta and others.

Whenever I hear this garbo performed by the many renowned singers of Bhavnagar and Gujarat, that divine feeling rises before my eyes. Salil Mehta, a Bhavnagari to the core who proudly carries his city's artistic heritage wherever he goes, had this garbo performed in "Surili Sargam", which he produced, and made it popular in every corner of Gujarat.

Over their career, Mohammadbhai Dekhaiya and Rahi Odhariya gave some three hundred and fifty compositions, including 25 to 30 garbas, devotional songs, group songs, and Gujarati songs and ghazals. Their song "Aa Bhavnagar Chhe Bhatigal" ("This Is Bhavnagar, Many-Hued"), written about twenty-five years ago to celebrate Bhavnagar's historical and modern identity, is still performed today at events in and around Bhavnagar.

Within Saurashtra, Bhavnagar stayed at the forefront of garba and raas culture, without a break, right up to 2015. The Karchaliya Para Kamdar Kalyan Kendra (workers' welfare centre) was famous across the country for its spirited prachin garba, the old traditional style. The women of Karchaliya Para danced with such force that the nails would work loose from the wooden stage.

On the way home from school, we would hear garba songs and clapping coming from the building that had once housed the old Infants School. It belonged to Kunjlataben Kanubhai, mother of Saunak Mehta, and her family and ours were close. Everyone knew her as Kunjben.

Later, whenever I went to stay with my mother's family, whose home stood beside the old city wall, I would hear the Nagar women's garba songs and the sweet sound of their clapping from the very start of the month of Bhadarvo. Alongside these two remarkable women, who laid the foundations of arvachin garba (the newer, composed style) in Bhavnagar and gave it its auspicious start, Yogeshwariben Desai and Bhuvaneshwariben Desai played a leading part. They began street garba in 1958–59. At first, during Navratri in the month of Aso, women who shared the same love of garba would gather in the courtyard of a grand house in Diwanpara and sing garba around a picture of Mataji, the Mother Goddess, one voice leading and the rest taking up each line. They sang in one even, tuneful voice, as if music had been in them from birth. Gradually the courtyard became too small. So the Nagar women moved to the vando, the walled compound of the Mahajan (the merchants' guild), in the lane beside the Ruvapari police gate. There, with a picture of Ma Jagdamba placed in a mandvi, a small decorated shrine, on a table, and a lamp lit inside the garbo, the perforated earthen pot, they circled it with deep devotion, singing garba and taking up the refrain. Here the aarti of Ma Jagdamba was sung together as a group, and Mataji's prasad, the blessed offering, was handed out by different families.

After that, the various caste associations also began organising garba in their own community halls (wadis).

To give the women more room, the Nagar families, most of whom lived in Diwanpara and Bhagatalav, started Mataji's circling garba in the Nagar community's hall, Shri Hari Nagar Niwas, popularly known as Bhojavado. When Chandraprabhaben Vora, Sudhaben Desai, Harshvinaben Desai and Raseshwariben Desai, who lived near the hall, joined in, the enthusiasm of Pragnaben, Kunjlataben Mehta, Yogeshwariben, Bhuvaneshwariben and the others grew. Out of this came a garba troupe called Nupur Zankar.

In 1960, Pragnaben Oza and Kunjlataben Mehta began taking garba from the street to the stage. Under the banner of Nupur Zankar, the pair presented, for the first time in Bhavnagar, an unbroken programme of twelve garbas, "Baar Garba", and it was warmly praised. Manishkumar, the leading actor of the film Saraswatichandra, came to the programme to encourage them and praised the experiment generously.

Bhavnagar's few newspapers of the day gave the show good coverage, and this doubled Kunjben and Pragnaben's pride and enthusiasm.

Soon Nupur Zankar was being invited to perform at seminars and functions of Bhavnagar's well-known institutions, such as the Central Salt Research Institute, the Rotary Club and the Doctors' Association. Its popularity also began to spread beyond Bhavnagar.

In those years the troupe was invited to use Bhavnagar's few available stages for its grand rehearsals. The aim was to draw the daughters of families living in those neighbourhoods into the garba tradition.

As Nupur Zankar's popularity took off around 1965, parents kept asking, again and again, for their daughters to be included. The troupe welcomed this, spread its wings and decided to prepare separate garba pieces for girls and women of different ages. Because "Pravin Palace" was a large house, each age group had its own room to practise in. Many kinds of garba were prepared there: prachin and arvachin garba; dandiya raas, danced with pairs of sticks; the divda garbo, danced with lamps; garba with the mandvi shrine; taali-chapti garba, with claps and finger-snaps; supda garba, danced with winnowing fans; tippani, in which the dancers beat the ground with long wooden tampers; and beda garba, danced with water pots balanced on the head. This is how garba's popularity took root in Bhavnagar.

The lion's share of the credit for nurturing this activity and honouring it goes to the city's few venues: the Shishuvihar institution, the Theosophical Lodge, the stage at the back of Gandhi Smriti, and the stage of the Manekwadi Akhada (gymnasium).

At my request, and despite difficult circumstances, Poyaniben and Mauleshbhai Oza shared this treasure with me to bring Bhavnagar's glorious garba history back to life. Let me open it up a little more, in their own words…

Nupur Zankar was divided into three garba groups. The senior group was made up of these women artistes: Trusha Oza, Yamini Oza, Shobhana Oza-Mehta, Sadhana Mehta, Sohini Virani, Rohiniben Vora, Vishakhaben Desai, Kinnari Oza, Rajniben Desai, Mahilaben Vora, Mandakiniben Mehta, Iraben Buch, Harshadaben Mehta, Varshaben Desai, Bhavnaben Mehta, Bhartiben Bhargav Pandya and others. The two junior groups included Poyani Oza, Urmi Desai, Kshama Acharya, Viraj Mehta, Krupa Desai, Shambhavi Desai, Meera Mehta, Bhavna Vora, Manisha Mehta, Shailja Mehta, Ketki Mehta, Madhavi Vaidya, Ashvina Shah, Meena Anjaria, Jagruti Desai, Darshana Desai, Bhavna Desai, Smruti Buch, Swarupben Virani, Shambhavi (Shilpa) Mehta, Jagruti Oza, Sandhya Mehta, Matangi Dholakia, Kusum Bhatt, Meena Bhatt and others.

The garbas for the senior group were choreographed by Shobhana Oza and Sohini Virani.

The garbas for the junior groups were choreographed by Poyani Oza. Bhavnagar still remembers Parvani, the programme she created, which lit up one festival after another through garba, like lamps set in a shrine niche.

Nupur Zankar's singers were mainly Trusha Oza, Varna Mehta, Yamini Oza, Matangi Dholakia and Madhavi Vaidya. The musicians included the kalaguru (master of the arts) Mohammadbhai Dekhaiya, Bhargav Pandya, Pradeep Bhatt, Balvant Gohel, Ambarish Mehta, Suresh Vaghela, Balvant Parmar, Narendra Parmar, Tarun Mehta, Kamal Virani, Harihar Kapadi, Harshad Shah and this writer, among others.

Once, when a girl was forced by circumstances beyond her control to drop out at the last minute, Poyani Oza took her place on stage at a moment's notice, like a cricket team's twelfth man, and danced in three garbas without a hitch.

In the prachin and arvachin garba competitions held every year by the Gujarat State Dance and Drama Academy, Nupur Zankar won many prizes at district and state level.

In the years 1960–65, garba costumes could not be hired as they can today. So Pragnaben Oza, her mother Champaben Oza, and Ratiben Desai would have their own white saris dyed, add trimmings and borders, and have a tailor stitch them into costumes. Jewellery could not be hired either, so they made their own ornaments from thin brass leaf and wore those instead.

What was remarkable was that Nupur Zankar never took a donation from anyone. Pragnaben and Kunjlataben staged the programmes at their own expense, and on top of that they gave the girls small gifts as encouragement.

After Nupur Zankar, Mahendrabhai Bhadiyadra kept arvachin garba alive and sparkling in Bhavnagar for many years through his group, Active Kala Sanstha. Today the shrine-niche of Bhavnagar's garba culture stands empty, and all one hears in it is the sigh of the wind carrying memories and tributes. If only that glorious age would come round again: how wonderful that would be!

We are in the middle of Navratri, and some delightful stories from the world of garba (the circle dance of Navratri) and raas (a vigorous folk dance, usually danced with sticks) are longing to be told. Bhavnagar, a city rich in gems, has given us many creative talents. One of them was Jagdipbhai Virani, accomplished in many arts, among them painting, poetry, music and dance, who founded Saptakala in 1953. He was invited to bring a garba team to the inauguration of the Rajkot station of All India Radio (Akashvani) on 4 January 1955. He entrusted the choreography to Pragnaben Oza and Kunjlataben, who were running garba activities in those years, and the garbo written for the occasion was "O re pashchim na vayra vaya re, ane mayure malhar raag gaya re" ("Oh, the west winds have blown, and the peacocks have sung Raag Malhar"). It was sung by Saptakala's Tarlikaben Bhatt and the ensemble, and the acclaim it won gave garba culture a springboard from which to spread. Timeless moments like these, a joy to revisit behind the scenes of Navratri, have brought honour to this city's raas-garba culture.

Every region of India has its own traditional folk culture. Jitu Bhatt, who founded the Ghogha Circle Mitra Mandal, famous the world over for its dandiya raas (raas danced with pairs of short wooden sticks), and later, in 1973, Kala Sangam, showed his creative flair by combining Gujarat's dandiya raas with the "bamboo raas" of Assam. Every year he was eager to try something new with Kathiawadi raas, but he went ahead only once the respected folk-literature scholar Khodidasbhai Parmar had said yes and given his approval. My dear friend Jitu Bhatt combined three dances into a single piece, which he called the "Trio": the tippani dance of labouring women (who beat down new floors with long wooden poles), raas, and the garbi that men and women danced in those years around the image of the Goddess at Bhavnagar's various Mother Goddess temples. Besides the traditional six-beat hinch rhythm, he also used the eight-beat keherva. Jayrajsinh Sarvaiya, Kirit Vyas and Upen Mehta of Ghogha Circle, for their part, staged the hudo raas that is danced at the Tarnetar fair. This is not a raas made for the stage. As people stroll about the fair in high spirits, the moment they hear the dhol (a large double-headed drum), the young men gather in a crowd and start to dance. People from Saurashtra's Bharwad, Rabari, Ahir and Koli communities join in. It is danced not with sticks but with mighty claps, stamping feet, the body bending and twisting, and cries of "Ho, ho, huda...", and that is why it is called hudo. Hudo means zeal and strength. At the fair, fifty to a hundred men dance together in a ring, shoulder to shoulder, while in the middle the dhol and the jodiya pava (twin flutes played together) keep up the music.

Over the years many Bhavnagar organisations, such as Neptune, Amateur, Active Kala Vrind and Kalapath, have worked themselves to the bone to uphold the honour, dignity and pride of folk culture. During Navratri, raas-garba competitions used to be held by various organisations and clubs, the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation among them. At one such competition we lived through a comic episode, which the late Suresh Vaghela, one of Bhavnagar's finest dhol players, christened "Jaga na Bhaga" ("Jaga's Goof-ups"). Wanting to do something new for this competition, we, a team made up of one another's brothers and sisters, presented a gof gunthan raas (the "plait-weaving" raas). In this piece a round wooden disc that can turn is set up above the stage, ropes are threaded through eight to ten holes around its edge, and the end of each rope is tied to a dancer's dandiya; then the raas is danced. Over time, though, green and yellow saris have taken the place of the ropes. In gof gunthan, the dancers have to perform the daav (the set figures of the dance) that wind the twists and loops into the ropes, while also keeping an eye on whether each loop is forming neatly. In this competition, held on the stage of the Krishnanagar Sanskar Mandal, the gof gunthan went perfectly for three rounds. Then one or two dancers lost their way, and a loop that should have been wound in came undone instead. After that nothing would fall back into place, and the curtain had to be brought down. The choreographer of that gof gunthan was my family friend, the late Jagdish Pandya, author of five books on raas and garba, whom the artists' circle knew simply as "Jaga".

In 1973 Chandrakant Master of Ahmedabad invited Kala Sangam to present two pieces, a raas and a garbi. Raas is a physically demanding folk dance. Artists from several Ahmedabad organisations were impressed to see the Bhavnagar dancers performing raas with beaming smiles. Chitraben Shah, founder of the Kankan group and originally from Bhavnagar herself, said to Jitubhai: "Our girls dance slow-tempo arvachin (modern) garbas, and yet their faces stay so serious. Do give them some advice." Hearing this, at the second show that night, Mahendra Patel, known as Bhanabhai, who had come with Kala Sangam, tore open a cardboard ice-cream box from the Havmor parlour that in those days stood right against the Town Hall wall. On the cardboard, going over the letters again and again with a ballpoint pen, he wrote "Jara haso" ("Smile a little!"). He tied this sign to a dandiya and stood holding it up in the wings at the side of the stage.

Another light-hearted incident took place in Mumbai. At a programme by Kala Sangam and Poyaniben Oza's group Khushboo, held at Bhaidas Hall in Vile Parle, one of the garbas Poyaniben had choreographed used a whole variety of taal (rhythmic cycles). So the dhol and tabla players in particular had to remember the taal for every single daav. The choreographer herself always insisted on doing something new, and into this one garba she had packed three or four taals. The lead percussionist, Suresh Vaghela, rather than memorising the taals, would write them down on a slip of paper. In Kala Sangam's items I was the lead percussionist, and in Khushboo's I was assistant to Amrish Mehta and Suresh. At this show, too, Suresh had tucked the slip with the taals under the lacing of his dhol. During the fast entry into the garba's chalti (its quick, driving section), the slaps of his palm on the drumhead sent the slip sliding off. Since he had to keep playing without a break, he somehow got the slip back onto the dhol, but the coloured stage lights made it hard to read. And because the daav of the garba changed with the taal and the drum strokes, there were a few moments of confusion. But Poyani Oza took the situation in hand, and she did not let the audience notice a thing. Incidents like these, which happen behind the scenes, live on for ever, and those days take the people of Bhavnagar down memory lane, savouring their city's glorious history.