Rababi (Gurmukhi: ਰਬਾਬੀ) is a term used to refer to a player of the rabab instrument. In the Sikh liturgical tradition, there are three types of musicians—rababis, ragis, and dhadhis, all of which flourished during the period of the gurus. The descendants remained rababis to all the 10 gurus, keeping alive rabab music.

History

Indian temple art of the first century A.D. depicted the Gandharan lute, though the ancestor of the rabab in India is likely the Persian instrument of the same name. The rabab, in its various forms, proliferated throughout West, Central, South and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. Those rababs used in

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sit ...

of northern India are plucked.

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also referred to as ('father Nānak'), was the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated ...

started the Sikh rababi tradition by engaging

Bhai Mardana Bhai Mardana ( pa, ਭਾਈ ਮਰਦਾਨਾ; 6 February 1459 — 1534) was one of the first Sikhs and longtime companion of Guru Nanak Dev, first in the line of gurus noted in Sikhism. Bhai Mardana, a Muslim, accompanied Guru Nanak Dev on h ...

as his accompanist. The Muslim singers formerly called ''

mirasi The Mirasi ( ur, ; hi, मीरासी, translit=Mīrāsī; pa, , ਮਰਾਸੀ , translit=Marāsī) are a community found in North India and Pakistan. They are the genealogists and traditional singers and dancers of a number of commun ...

'', were rechristened ''rababi'' by Nanak, because they played on the rabab. The last of the line of rababis was Bhai Chand. During the 20th century CE the instrument's use in Sikh kirtan was eclipsed by the harmonium but it has been revived. Sikh rababis used to perform

kirtan Kirtana ( sa, कीर्तन; ), also rendered as Kirtan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts ...

regularly at Amritsar before the

partition of India The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...

in 1947, after which many of the rababis migrated to what became Pakistan. The Sikh rabab was traditionally a local Punjabi variant known as the 'Firandia' rabab (

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

: ਫਿਰੰਦੀਆ ਰਬਾਬ ''Phiradī'ā rabāba''), however Baldeep Singh, an expert in the Sikh musical tradition, challenges this narrative.

References

{{reflist Hindustani musicians Sikh music

History

See also

References