Sufi Festival - Jodhpur

The Sufi Festival in Jodhpur was the nucleus around which our trip started to take shape.

A few months ago, at a chance meeting in Hyd, what came together was Harshitha saying, 'we're now in Jodhpur, why don't you make a visit', and my long standing desire to see Jodhpur and the desert. But then the thoughts had happened before, even when she was stationed at Jaipur, but no trip had materialized.

This time round what got added is her saying, "there's a sufi festival somewhere in Feb see if you can make it then, it's in the Mehrangarh fort and it will be lovely"

And so by chance, I had dates, and that's all it took. That little bit of concreteness to build on. 

And slowly we added in other elements, Jaisalmer, Udaipur (dropped later), Ajmer, and by end Jan, we had a nicely packed in itinerary, and from the original two days of the Sufi festival out of a five day trip, we had settled for one evening of Sufi. 

Once there, we realized the festival tickets cost a bomb, (something like 11 k a couple), and we were like 'oh oh, not happening '. Then we so fully lucked out. Harshitha actually got us passes. Well, guess it's not for nothing that it's said "where there's a desire, there's......", but more significantly....."Huge thanks Harshitha!"

Now to the festival itself.

Sufism goes beyond religion. It’s said to be a direct connect with the creator in the quest for personal enlightenment and self realization, transcending churches, temples, mosques and their rituals. It finds expression in mystical poetry, music and dance inspired by the works of Sufi poets, like Rumi, Hafiz,  Amir Khusrow and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.

In that one evening, I experienced Sufism like never before. And while we attended three performances, the one that touched me the deepest was a performance by a Baul artist  (derived from vatul in Sanskrit, literally “mad”, drunk on divine aspiration) 

Baul music is folk song, carrying influences of hindu bhakti movements as well as the shuphi, a form of Sufi music. Bauls are mystic minstrels from Bengal, with a large influence on  Bengali culture, and particularly the compositions of Rabindranath Tagore.  They do not identify with any organized religion, caste system, deities, temples or sacred places and are admired for this freedom from convention, as well as their music and poetry which is devoted to achieving spiritual liberation.

The Baul singer at the festival was Parvathy Baul, and we thought  she was phenomenal. It was a solo performance, with narration of poetry and singing, accompanied by two small instruments, the single string ektara and a small drum called the dubki, in either hand And while the singing is in Bengali, she first translates each poem into English. The performance is in an almost trance state.... and I thought she was enchanting.

                    

A few pictures from the evening.

Dhruva and Diksha at the entrance, background is the stage. And the food place was kingfisher sponsored I think, so there was beer to go with the music.

This was Prem Joshua and Band. Prem Joshua, upon his very first visit to India in 1977, felt an immediate and profound connection, and deeply inspired, the young German musician began infusing familiar forms of western music with the exotic flavors of India. Already an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he mastered the sitar and he now divides times between India and Europe.  

He did a lot of traditional mantras and slokas in zippy tunes, accompanied by the electric guitar and sitar.... as said by someone, it's as entertaining as it is enlightening.

This was epi from Mongolia, alongwith a Manganiyar community troupe. His versatility and range of voice and how they blended it to fit in with Marwar folk was lovely.

This was close to midnight as we left the fort, heady with the music, the crowd, the ambiance (and maybe a little bit the beer too :)

I'm realizing that these festivals are really enriching experiences, and so much fun too.....and definitely worthwhile planning trips around. Hoping to make it a regular part of life :)