EMOTIONIN AND AMBIVALENCE: EMBODIMENT SOUTHASIAN MUHARRAMDRUMMING1
by Richard K. Wolf Wolf: How long will the drumsplay before the procession starts? Bashir Husein Mazhar(Multan,Pakistan):Thedrumsare playingfor this, to show the sorrowness... one drumwill be beatingfor happiness and also the drumsbeating arefor, to show the sorrowness... and it is in our Arab culture to show the drumsin our sorrowness. In this article, I pursue a line of inquiry that contends with music and the emotions: how and in what circumstances does music represent or generate the often subtle range of emotions characteristic of mourning rituals for participants in those rituals? My preliminary insights draw on two-and-a-half years' fieldwork with ritual drummers, during which I lived in Lahore, Pakistan and Lucknow, India and traveled extensively in the subcontinent.2 Using the practice of drumobservance of mourning, Muharram, as a case study, I wish ming during the ShT'T to illustrate how localized interpretationsof drumming contexts tend to bleed into interpretations of drumming content, and suggest that the study of musical culture may provide a unique perspective on the emotional multivalence or ambivalence that diverse participants experience in Muharram more generally. In Section I, I begin with a brief theoretical review of two themes, "embodiment" and the "complexity of emotions." In Section II, I proceed to provide further background on Shi'ism, Muharram, and the status of music. The body of the paper examines three ways in which drumming signifies in a general sense: Enduring contextual associations (Section III); assignments of meaning (Section IV); and aesthetics of drumming (Section V). Before laying the theoretical backbone of this exploration, however, it will be necessary to know a bit about Muharram as an occasion and why a person might feel ambivalent about it in the first place. Muharram commemorates the pitched battle (680 C.E.) of Karbala, in present day Iraq, which many now understandto have been a struggle over the political and spiritual leadership of Islam. As always, the present colors the interpretation of the past, and the "presents" I was exposed to were those of south Asian ShT'T Muslims. To simplify, Husain, grandson of the Prophet, was slain by the henchmen of the Ummayad ruler Yazid, whose (reputedly) lavish and imperialist style of governance was, in the opinion of Husain and his followers, contrary to the egalitarian spirit of Islam. ShT 'ahs dwell on the tragic martyrdom of a number
' Versions of this paper were delivered at the 1999 Conferenceon South Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and at the workshop,"Text, Context and the Constitutionof Difference in Middle EasternStudies"at the Ben-GurionUniversity in the Negev (June2000). I would like to thankparticipants these events for their critical suggestions. I also wish to thankAmy Bard, in James Kippen,FrankKorom,C. M. Naim, and Regula Qureshifor theirhelpful comments. 2 Importantadditional sites included Karachi, Hyderabad,and rural Sindh; Multan and rural Pakistani Panjab, villages near Lucknow, Almora town, villages in Basti district of Uttar Pradesh; Delhi; Hyderabadand surroundingrural areas in Andhra Pradesh; villages in Dharmapuridistrict,and Madras,Tamilnadu;Calcuttacity; Bombay; and Udaipur,Rajasthan.I wish to thank the following persons for field and translationassistance:QamarJalil (Panjabi,Urdu), Amy Bard (Urdu), M. Laxmaiah (Telugu), Nagaraj (Telugu), Chotu Singh (Mewari), Saqlain Naqvi (Urdu).

82/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC of characters in their redactions of the story, including Ali Asghar and Ali Akbar, Husairi s sons; Abbas, Husairi s half brother; Hur, who defected from the Ummayad army; and Qasim, son of Husairi s brother Hasan. Many believe that the Imams (spiritual leaders and successors to Muhammad) and martyrs of Karbala are present during Muharram and, like Sufi saints, intervene on behalf of the devout. Part of the ambivalence over Muharram stems from the fact that Husairi s martyrdomis considered a moral victory. Thus, for ShT'T Muslims, both mourning and celebration are deeply embedded in Muharram'semotional fabric. Muharram is not, however, exclusively a ShT'T phenomenon in south Asia. Muharram has existed for hundreds of years as a complex public and private congeries of observances, whose meanings have varied for peoples of different backgrounds and belief systems. This multiple participation accounts for additional affective entanglements. Already in the early 19thcentury, according to the historian Jim Masselos, there was in Bombay "a degree of ambivalence in the character of the event," in that "what was a time for mourning also looked like a festival or carnival" (Masselos 1982, 50); in Lahore mourning, celebration, and conflict were observed as part of the proceedings as early as about 1635 (Cole 1988, 25; Rizvi 1980, 191).3 However, now, Shi'ahs living in urban south Asia tend to view such a festival-like atmosphere, created in part by the presence of drumming, as completely external to the "real," i.e. Shl'T,Muharram.4 This examination locates drumming in the broader phenomenon of Muharram in the subcontinent, not merely in the "Muharram"constructed by religious authorities of the 1990s,5 and assesses historical changes in the musical culture of drumming. I. Theoretical Background My arguments about the intricacies of emotionality hinge on the capacity of drumming to be interpretively ambiguous. Unlike singing, reciting, and melodic rendering of songs, drumming derives little semantic import from verbal texts. No commonplace system links rhythms, like ragds, with aesthetic and emotional essences (rasas and bhdvas). Since the field of drumming is left rather open to interpretation, it serves as an ideal window into the production of meanings in

3 Rizvi quotes the Bahr UI-Asrartravelogueof the centralAsian travelerMahmudb. Amir Wali. The edition of this work I consulted provided the date 23 September 1625 for Wali's visit to Lahoreon the first of Muharram(Islam 1980, 26). The accountbegins on page six of the Persian section. 4 This may well be connected with religio-politicaldevelopments in Iran, where "the state ... mandates a sad demeanorand expressions of grief as a sign of religious and political commitment" (Good and Good 1988, 45). See Pinault (1999) for furtherexamples of the influence of the Iranianstate on Indian practice,and some of its limitations.See also Malarney,who shows how in Vietnam, state functionalism can "engender a significant transformationof meaning, value, and ritual structure"in funeraryrituals, but "can never control . . . [its full] range of meanings and values" (1996, 556). 5 See Masselos who shows that "in the the Bombay Mohurrum, very concept of what constituted the major - the great - Islamic traditionvaried over time. What might nowadays be considered the determinantsof such a tradition,that of the Prophet,the Book, and external precedent,only came to be importantfor Mohurrum and quite late in the span [of the 19th 20'hcenturies]"(1982, 62).

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ritual. It becomes useful to explore how the formal and aesthetic qualities of drumming articulate with the emotional contours of Muharram. It is surprising that more attention has not been paid to ritual aspects of drumming in the subcontinent: many ritual musical traditions, extending from the southern tip of India to the borders of Nepal and Bangladesh, and in Pakistan to the borders of Iran and China, are defined primarily by rhythmic pattern and only secondarily by melody.6 In considering Muharram drumming in south Asia as but one facet of a larger south Asian set of rhythmic ritual practices, I am in effect redirecting attention to the "homeland" lines of inquiry suggested by preliminary studies of Muharram drumming in the Indian diaspora, Trinidad, Sumatra and Bengkulu (Korom 1994a; Kartomi 1986; Feener 1995; 1999). Emerging discussions of culture and the emotions in the humanities and social sciences -ever the past fifteen years especially -provide critical tools to probe the meanings of Muharram drumming. Implicit in my approach is that the study of musical culture may contribute to the ongoing problematizations of "emotion" in the fields of anthropology, cultural studies and psychology. Here the scope is limited to two themes, which I will weave throughout my discussion: 1) embodiment; and 2) emotional complexity: ambivalence-multivalence. I shall briefly trace the background of these themes and their relevance to the following discussion. 1. Embodiment Recent critiques in cultural anthropology have attacked stereotypically "Western" dichotomizations of mind and body, implied in such (gendered) contrast sets as "rationalism" and "emotion," and "thinking" and "feeling" (Lutz 1988; Myers 1988). Some scholars have shifted focus to how emotions are embodied (Leavitt, 1996) - without reducing local understandings to mere metaphor (Strathern 1993).7 Beyond suggesting that these distinctions between noetic and somatic knowledge are themselves culturally, socially and historically dependent, analyses have questioned the extent to which categories of feeling once thought to be universal can truly be understood cross culturally: there is a growing realization that although one may translate words such as "anger" (Lutz 1988) or "sadness" (Grima 1993) from one language to another, the implications, valuations, and social use of these terms and the "emotions" to which they refer are not givens, but ratherconstitute focal points for investigation. These issues are relevant for understanding Muharram performances in south Asia because emotionality - physically manifest in weeping, shouting,
6

My findings, though limited by the geographical scope of my fieldwork, are supported by Flora'sobservations:the "naubatgenre and style," can be identifiedby "rhythmicpatternson the naqdrah... the sahnadhas a secondaryrole" (1995, 60). In Nepal, similarly, items of occasional repertoirefor the pancal baja are identifiedeither by melody or by rhythmicpattern,cal (Tingey 1994, 120). The context-definingpropertiesof percussion and rhythmicpatternsin ritual music of south Asia deserve furtherattention. 7 In keeping with the principles of these critiques, as I view them, I will not adopt the distinctions some scholars have drawn between the terms emotion, affect, sentiment, and feeling, for these distinctions generally depend on assumptionsabout differences between inner states, described states, symbolic expression and culture that are not themselves universal (Grima 1993, 7). Rather,I will use these terms loosely, depending on everyday understandingsof American English usage, and attempt to tease out the ethnographicparticularitiesof my subject matter throughdescription- limited though it may be.

84/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC sighing, and bodily mortification - is a central component of ShT'T piety as it is lived. How and where is emotionality generated and who defines it? To what extent do participants regard specific emotions as inherent in verbal performance texts? How are they constituted in more abstract - to some, more viscerally "felt" - forms such as melody and rhythm? How do these two kinds of emotional meanings interface with what (several kinds of) texts communicate about "music"? These three ways in which performance forms may be affectively construed are distinct but constantly interacting. I wish to emphasize the theme of "embodiment" in this discussion because all three types of meaning production converge in, on, and through the body. The most obvious example of such embodiment is the practice of beating the chest (matam), a "summarizing symbol" of re(Ortner 1979), among other things, the redemptive role of suffering in ShT'T ligious philosophy. The meanings of matam are generated through the three forms I mentioned: it is performed in conjunction with poetic recitation (part of its meaning is related to what the text conveys); it is aestheticized virtually to the point of becoming an art (part of its meaning derives from aesthetic qualities); and it is discussed in religious and critical texts (its meaning is debated explicitly in verbal form outside of the performance context). Drumming, like matam, according to some participants, embodies the rhythmic character of lament poetry via patterned time it translates verbal performance into a type of movement. The dynamics of embodiment are brought to the fore as we examine the possible relationships between drumming and breast beating in both rhythmic and moral terms. 2. Emotional Complexity Studies of emotion in culture have paid increasing attention to the second theme of this paper, emotional complexity: e.g. the affective and motivational differences of participants in funerary rituals (Metcalf and Huntington 1991; Venbrux, 1993; Cannon, 1989); the relationships of different emotions produced in a dialectic interpersonal context (Lutz 1988; Myers 1988); or the ambivalence of emotions "linked to a persod s sense of value" (Kupperman 1997, 375). In the literature on funerals, for instance, anthropologists have emphasized not only the elements of sadness occasioned by a death, but the cultural phenomenon of the funeral, where elements of competitiveness, ostentation, and celebration depend upon both the social structureof the living and ethnotheories about what happens to the dead. In a similar vein, we may understand the affective complexity of Muharram partially as a function of the social organization of the event (participation of Hindus and Sunnis along with Shi'ahs) and of local understandings about how one is to behave and what one is to believe, as a member of a particular social unit - family, lineage, guild, caste, religious community, political party - however defined. The two themes of this paper are closely related: the multiple, subjective embodiments of emotion in practice create "emotional texture," . . . a way of talking about the changing configurations of affective meanings that . .. [individuals] assign to rituals [and music] ... [which] emerge from a tension between individual feelings and experiences and the classification of 'emotion in language and ritual (Wolf forthcoming).

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The classificationsystemsfor emotionin this case are primarily encodedin contexts.An examplethatcropsup repeatedly the wedding,which, is drumming in Yet being happytends to be construed oppositionto Muharram. thereare inof interpenetration intertextuality and betweenthe two. In examterestingpoints we ining these pointsof convergence(andtheirsubjectiveinterpretations) gain a sense of the emotionaltextureof theseevents. in forms,one may speakof emotionality Muharram performance Regarding or emotionssuch as happiness sadness,or morefocusedaffectivemodalisimple ties such as mournfulness, celebration, tribute,pity, horror,or even Islamic or sectarianaltruism.These modalitiesoperatesimultaneously. The forms themrecitationmelodies, and texts, endureover time and space, selves, drumming, while supporting vary - not only over time and space but even interpretations withina specific areaamongdifferentcommunities, factionsof communities, or individuals. individuals sometimesconstruethe affectiveovertones Furthermore, of the constituentparts of a performance (melody, drumming,breast-beating, text) differently. The geographically comparative scope of this articlelimits my space for disand cussingmethodology local contextsin the depthsome readers may desire.To make a few generalstatements, I though,the emotionalattributions describeare articulated the differentkinds of performers and (drummers reconsciously by I citers) and other participants interviewed.In awkwardmoments,with shy or I intongue-tiedconsultants, would, often with the assistanceof an interpreter, But quiredirectlyaboutwhat it feels like to drumor listen to drumming. often, of itself led individuals commenton the to discussingthe phenomenon drumming affectiveimportof drumming its relationto the occasion.The way in which and conversations seemed themselvesto gravitatearoundemotionalissues is one of I the phenomena attempt evoke in the epigraph. to To complementthis theoreticaland methodological it introduction will be useful to provideadditional on background the Islamiccommunityand contextI am investigating. II. Religious,Historical,Communal,and GeographicalContexts in ShTi Muslimsarea minority most Muslimcountriesexcept Iraqand Iran, their spiritualheartland; they constituteabout 10-15%of the total 25% Muslim in population the Indiansubcontinent. They sharewith all Muslimsbeliefs in the divine origin of the Qur'an,the prophethood Muhammad, the unity of of and Allah. Shti' Muslimsdiffer from Sunnis in their allegiance to particular god, membersof the Prophet, Muhammad's family, whomthey believe were his legal andspiritual successors.In particular, give specialemphasisto the Prophet's they his Fatima; son-in-law,Ali, the firstImam;Ali's son Hasan,the second daughter, Imam;and Hasan'sbrother Husain,the third.Muslimsgenerallyaccept the idea that the Prophetwas "ma'su or flawless, but only the Shi'ahs attribute this m," quality to all Imams. Furthermore, they attributeto these Imams a quasinuminous qualityto whichSunnisobject. South Asian Shi'ahs extendthe lengthof Muharram from the standard ten days observedin Iranto two lunarmonthsand eight days. Retellingthe story of Husain'smartyrdom, they also recall scenes from the battle using a varietyof
dramatic and poignant verbal genres (nzarsiyah, soz, salam, nauhah), and carry

FOR MUSIC 86/2000 YEARBOOK TRADITIONAL battlestandards ('alam), tombreplicas(ta'ziyah),and othericons of the Karbala In drums storyin processions. ruralareasShi'ahssometimescontinueto perform as partof theirritualobservancesas was, apparently, once widely common;in drumsand othermucities, HindusandSunnisareusuallythe ones who perform sical instruments this occasion(see, e.g. Censusof India1971,76-78). on Althoughthis discussioncentersaroundthe voices of individualsin these whose identitiesare in a sense preconstituted Shi ', Sunni,etc.), communities (as it should also be noted that many families, especially in the royal lineages of Y (AndhraPradesh)and Lucknow,consistedboth of ShT and Sunni Hyderabad and members.A single raja, for instance,would sometimesmaintainboth ShTY Sunni wives at the same time; the identityof membersof these families would In to often opportunistically. the famouswordsof crystallizeaccording situation, the Nawab,WajidAli Shah "of my two eyes, one is a Shia and the other is a Sunni"(Hasan1990, 217). Outsidethe urbanareas,whichare often communally polarized,Muslims are often unable to differentiatebetween Shyl and Sunni Islam, and indeed, some individualsmaintainan identitythat combines Islam withHinduism; is especiallytruein partsof southIndia.8 this
1. A Telugu transformation

AndhraPradesh,for example, the famous In the region of Hyderabad, tells the story of a MuslimwomannamedBibi Telugu song, "AshanaUshana," who praysto the Hindugod, Siva, for the boon of a male child.9She gives birth "Hindu" AshanaandUshana(i.e. HasanandHusain).As to presumably children, come into conflictwith "Muslims" hide in a well where and adultsthese brothers The to they are trackeddown and killed.10 motherreturns lamentover the death of herchildren. Hindusand Dalits of the greater Accordingto the journalistM. Laxmaiah, whichthey call PTrlu arearegard Muharram, Pandaga,as an occasion Hyderabad the moraltriumph all disof the which commemorates sufferingand proclaims it as a rite of solidarity, in representing, Telugu possessedIndians."They regard
of Deepening our diachronicunderstanding the oft-cited culturalmixing in south Indian"folk" Hinduism and Islam, Mines (1975) contraststhe practices of Islamized Tamil Muslims in Madras and those living in smallercities, towns, and villages in Tamilnadu. 9 BiTb means "elder sister," or "woman," but in the Shi Y traditionis a reference to Fatima, and motherof Hasanand Husain. daughterof the ProphetMuhammad '0 It is unclearfrom where the well symbolism derives. A local traditionin Mushirabad, Hyderabad revolves arounda story in which a man was called to a well by the spirits of Hasan and Husain in a dream;he found battle standardsthere and insisted on being ushered out from the well with three kinds of musical band. Fromthat year forward(early this century) a festive celeIn brationinvolving drumming,fire walkingand possession has takenplace at Mushirabad. Shi'i lamentationsover the battle of Karbala,poignantmomentsare devoted to rememberingthe thirst of the childrenon Husain'sside, who were denied a drinkof water from the Euphrates,and the dismembermentof 'Abbas as he tried to carry water in a leatherpouch from the river. Perhaps and from one narrativeto the other. the theme of seeking water has been transferred transformed See also Parks'account of Muharramwith an account drawn from local folklore of a spider spinninga web over the well to hide the Imamfrom sight (1850:I, 300). " Pfrlu Pandagameans the festival of the "pirs." Pirs are, properlyspeaking, Muslim saints or Sufi spiritualleaders, but in this case they are casteless, godlike spiritualbeings. Laxmaiahbelongs himself to a Scheduled Caste and grew up in a village that celebrates Pirlu Pandaga. He has devoted more than a decade to documentingdiverse celebrationsof this festival in the Tel8

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"icci puccukovadam," reciprocal give and take, "a little bit of Muslim culture, a little bit of Indian culture, all on one path."l2 Drumming takes on a special meaning here, because in several parts of south India dalit communities have embraced frame drumming (dappu in Telugu, slightly larger than the parai and tappattai frame drums in Tamilnadu) as emblematic of dalitness. These communities have developed their own rhythms and dances to celebrate PTrluPan.daga 2. "Music" in Muharram The instruments performed during Muharram vary by location in the subcontinent, but in many places the Muharram ensemble par-excellence is the dholtasd, or tasd-bdji, comprising the cylindrical drum dhol, the shallow kettle-drum, tasd, and cymbals, jhanjh.13 Other important instruments include deep kettledrums (naqdrah), frame drums (dappu, especially in the south), double-reed aerophones with conical bore (sahnal), and sometimes bagpipes or Western marching band instruments.'4 Some rhythmic patterns and melodies translate across different musical ensembles and exist in regional variants. The issue of whose place it is to drum and in what circumstances drumming is appropriateraises a general problem.15MusTql,music, is not allowed in scriptural Islam, because, in simple terms, it distracts one's mind and senses away

anganaregion of AndhraPradesh(See, e.g. Laxmaiah1998). 12 One should note the convergence of this sort of unification ideology regarding Muharram outside the conservative religious hold of a particularfaction, with a trendon the Sh TT side, "a tendency to downplay doctrinallycontentious issues such as intercession and instead to emphasize both the social usefulness of Muharramand the need for ethical responsibilityon the partof the individualparticipant" and the emotional (Pinault 1999, 296). See also "Husain'smartyrdom integrationof Indiansociety" in Hasnainand Husain (1988, 155-6). 13 The type of dhol that usually accompaniesthe tasa is a cylinder drum, although barreldrums are found as well. Tasd is also pronouncedtasha or even trasa. I have adoptedthe spelling tasd here for consistency, even though in particularinstances the original source for a quotation might provide an alternatespelling or pronunciation.I choose this spelling because it reflects what is presumablyan older pronunciation. The word is apparently Arabicorigin, enteringthe of Indic lexica throughPersian.It seems likely that the pronunciation "tasa" changed to "tdshd"in the process of Hindi-ization.The older version seems to be retainedin the Trinidadian"tassa." The Tamil "tacd" could be a retention or a reversion (Indo-Aryan "sh" becomes "c," pronounced like an "s," in some Tamil dialects). Pre-Islamicevidence of a similar instrumentcan be found in the famous Taq-i Bustan reliefs (590-628 C.E.) of Persia (Farmer 1939). The instruments are made of differenttypes of wood, metal, and in the case of the tasa, clay. For instance, in the Nizamuddintraditionin Delhi, the dhol is fashioned from mango wood and covered with goatskin.The tasd is made of clay and covered with the skin of a waterbuffalo calf. 14 The double-reed aerophone varies in name and size across the sub-continent.In Hyderabad Deccan and HyderabadSindh the instrumentplayed during Muharram is relatively short in length and high in pitch. In the Lucknow area a medium sized instrumentis used. Wazir Husain, a sahndaplayer originally from the Chowk area (old city) in Lucknow described four types of sahndl, each of seven holes but differing in length: bar saj ("big instrument") 15", gel manof of jhold ("mediumcylinder")of 8", manjhold("medium") 6", naflnr(<Persiannafinf)3". '5 I have had little success obtaining historical sources for the legal status of drummingin subcontinental Islam. Cole provides useful and apparentlyrare archival references (1989, 113-14; 152).

88/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC from thoughts of God.16In part the issue is semantic: in south Asia, "music" usually means the sound of musical instruments. Shi'ahs do not usually disqualify unaccompanied tuneful renditions of poetry on musical grounds if the textual To genres are closely associated with Muharranm.7 perform such genres as marsiyah, soz, saldm, or nauhah is not to "sing" (gant), as it were, but to "read" 8 (parhna) or recite. But even these genres can be rendered too musically. Judging from the quality of soz in Multan, Pakistan, and its ritual use there, we may infer that Shf'ahs deem it an acceptable component of the majlis. In Hyderabad, south India, however, soz is not at all developed as a form of recitation and is not soz encouraged in the majlis. KarrarQazmi - a ShT'T reciter of Avadhi (i.e. the Lucknow area) background whose family had migrated to Hyderabad - explained that this is because Hyderabadis consider soz too musical. Drumming, like reciting, lies at the juncture of music and non-music, and may be interpretedas one or the other according to circumstance.'9 Musical or quasi-musical events take place in two distinct types of contexts during Muharram: the mourning assembly (majlis) and processions (jul s). Drumming rarely takes place during a mourning assembly, although it has been used to announce or convene the assemblies. Mourning assemblies can consist of a small number of men or women (always gender segregated), or can be very large, held in public areas, often underneath a tent. All the forms of recitation associated with Muharram may i'e performed during the assembly. Nauhah performance is common during processions, since this metric and tuneful recitation is performed in conjunction with mdtam. Although participants may recite marsiyahs as well I have never witnessed processional performances of the oftenlanguid soz genre. Most drumming takes place either during moving processions or outdoors in public gatherings. Mourning assemblies tend to be relatively limited with regard to the affiliation of attendees. Although there are separate Sunni majlises in some places (Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan, for instance), most such assemblies are strictly ShT'T. Still, many people from many different backgrounds participate in Muharram. The differences in background and approach of these participants sometimes lead to remarkable, but temporary, manifestations of intercommunal harmony, and they sometimes lead to violent clashes (Hasan 1997; Masselos 1982). Communal conflict has been one of the causes of impoverishment of some Muharram rituals, including drumming, and drumming has been a catalyst for continued conflagrations.20
16 The statusof music is the subjectof an ongoing debate in Islamic legal circles; the contoursof the debate vary by region, historical period, sect, and school. See Nasr's overview (1997), Lois al-Faruqi'staxonomy (1985), and Roy Choudhury's(1957) scripturalevidence in Arabic. This Y latteris of specific interestin addressingthe Shl- situationand the study of music in south Asian Islam. distinctionbetween "music"and tuneful recitationof a sacred text is rooted in 17 This important but of Islamic understandings Qur'anicrecitation,which shares musical parameters is nevertheless, by definition, not music (see, e.g., Nelson 1985, 153-7). 18 For a fuller discussion of these forms see Qureshi(1981). 19See also Sakata,who found that in Afghani musical terminologythe sound of the drum is less musical than thatof a stringedinstrument (1983, 47). 20 Abdul Halim Shararascribed the impoverishmentMuharramrituals (some involving drumconflicts early in the twentieth century (1994, 151). Nayyar Masud, ming) to ShT'ah-Sunni

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Since cultural interpretations of ritual drumming depend on interpretations of drumming contexts, in this case Muharram, it will be useful to summarize how south Asian views on Muharram translate into a variety of emotional or affective modes, and serve in some capacity for religious and cultural identity. In one Shi i view, by remembering the events of Karbala, and dissolving personal sorrows and triumphs into the greater sorrows and triumphs of the Prophet's family members, one may in effect petition the martyrs of Karbala to intervene on one's behalf, thus bringing one closer to god. This remembrance is embodied in forms of self-denial, effusive crying, and sometimes self mortification.21 As mentioned earlier, the fact that many Muslims consider the battle of Karbala to have been a victory for Islam infuses the atmosphere with pride, vigor, and Islamic altruism.22Non-Muslims not only participate in Muharram, but also organize their own celebrations, in some places transforming the Karbala narrative significantly, as in the Telugu example cited above. Just as the greater Muharram phenomenon extends well beyond what any ' particular ShT cleric might consider theologically appropriate, so too do the semiotics of ritual drumming transcend Muharramn a particular context. Conas sequently, as mentioned, I will consider in broad terms three ways in which drums might signify: 1) the association of the drums, as objects, with special contexts, 2) the ways meaning is attached to specific patterns articulated on the drums, and 3) the aesthetics of what might be called the expressive potential of particular drums and drumming styles, through such features as timbre and tempo. III. Enduring Contextual Associations Certain drums have the potential overwhelmingly to suggest certain contexts to particular populations in particularplaces. A well-known example from south India is the parai frame drum, performed by the eponymous pariah community, the paraiyar. The drum's association with funerals and its cow hide membrane links it broadly with death (Moffatt 1979, 112-13). A double-waisted drum called the pampai is strongly associated with spirit possession, both disgruntled spirits of the dead (pey) and ferocious goddesses; this association is enhanced by the
Lucknavi Persian scholar and himself a Sht'ah, also attributedthe decline in drummingamong Lucknow Shi'ahs to the rise in tensions between the communities (pers. com. June 98). These role differentiationsserved to furtherexacerbateintercommunal tensions. A muhdjirsoz reciter now living in Karachi recalled 1920s' clashes between Shi'ahs and Sunni in Lucknow: when their respective processionscrossed, Sunni drummingbecame one of the forceful signs of difference that helped transformintercommunaltension into violence. Variationsof these reciprocal processes of role differentiation,increasedtension, and decline in ritualtraditionshave occurred in other parts of the sub-continentlater this century. Conflicts have involved Shi'ahs, Sunnis, Hindus, and Scheduled caste communities. The historian, Mushirul Hasan, observed clashes over musical performancein Calcutta Muharran processions, 1954-55 (pers. cor. 1998). In ShT'ah-dominated Jaggadevi (Dharmapuridistrict, Tamilnadu), Scheduled Caste drummersno longer performfor Muharran because of rifts between themselves and higher caste Hindus. For social reasons,the ShT'ahs have assimilatedupwardsin the caste system. 21See Pinault (1999) for a discussion of nimtanm the and problem of intercession in ShT Islam. See Nizami (1989, 7) for a statement of a Sufi belief that Muhammad'sfamily is spiritually and presentduringMuharraim accept offerings of the devoted. 22 See, informantsremarked,however, that "the e.g. Schubel (1993, 135-36); one of his ShYT'ah time for celebratingthat victory is not while one is remembering [Husain's]death." his

90/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC unusual growling sound produced by rubbing a curved stick on one of the drum heads. Other drums call to mind auspicious occasions; the large barrel shaped version of the dhol in many parts of India calls to mind the superb playing skills of performers from the state of Panjab, and more specifically the ubiquitous bhangra rhythmic patternplayed at weddings and other festive occasions. 1. Dhol-tasa Although there are exceptions to the above associations, the fact that strong associations are formed at all is important. Similar processes of association link the pair of drums tasd and dhol with south Asian Muslims, and especially, with Muharram.23Poems, paintings, and accounts such as that of Sharar (1994) suggest that the shallow bowl-shaped drum, the tasd and the cylindrical drum, the dhol, have been associated with Muharram in India for at least a hundred and fifty years and probably much longer.24 Now .dhol-tasd ensembles are spread widely in India and are especially popular in Trinidad (Korom 1994a), one of the several regions in the Caribbean where Indian laborers began to migrate beginning in the late 1830s. The most valuable historical description of tisd performance is that by Abdul Halim Sharar (1860-1926), a journalist and historian who hailed from a family of literary and religious scholars associated with the court of the last Nawab of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah.25He described six kinds of wedding and processional bands in the late 19thand early 20th centuries, all of which survive to a lesser extent today: "dhol tasha . . . raushan chauki [two sahndaplayers and one percussionist with two drums strapped to his waist] . . . naubat . . . narsi and qurna, horns and trumpets; danka and bugal, large kettle drums and bugles, and

the For instance,in Udaipur,Rajasthan, tdsd is popularlyknown as arabi tasd; this practiceof naming, reflected also in exhibit captions in the BhartiyaLok Kala Mandal,links the instrument to an Islamic homeland on the Arabianpeninsula. See also Capwell's study of the Indonesian gambus as an Islamic culturalicon that providesan indexical link to an Arabhomeland(Capwell 1995). 24 Mica paintingsof dhol and tdsd players,c. 1850, are reproducedin Korom(1994a, 74-5). tasd player whose family was associated with the Sayyid SarirAhmed Nizami, a Karachi-based Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi, offered the exaggerated claim that his family tradition of tdsa playing was 450 years old. Pushing the date furtherback, he expatiated that the thirteenthcentury Sufi poet and disciple of NizamuddinAuliya, Amir Khusrau,created(ijad) today's tdsa "rags" (i.e. patterns).Across the subcontinent,oral histories vaguely associate .dhol-tdsdperformanceswith the congeries of Muharram observancesthatTimur was said to have introduced to the subcontinentat the end of the 14th century (97/115, Karachi,Jacob Lines), though this seems doubtful (see Schubel 1993, 110). According to Ali Abbas Nizami, Timur introducedthe practiceof carryingand displaying holy relics, but the ruler of Delhi and "lover of the saints," Bahadur Shah Zafar (1775-1862), introducedthe practice of accompanying this display with "playing and singing" (bdje gdje ke sath) as a means of protectingthe relics from the "filthy" mobs of people who would throngMuharram processions(Nizami 1989, 9-11). 25 The following references and quotations from Sharar'swork are taken primarily from the translationby Harcourtand Hussain (Sharar 1994); in instances of terminological ambiguity, from a musicological standpoint,I have returnedto the original Urdu (Sharar1965). particularly I thank the Urdu scholar Amy Bard for helping me locate these passages and clarifying the translations.

23

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Scottish bagpipes, a British instrument of increasing popularity" (Sharar 1994, 150-5 1).26 Lucknow bands of the period featured three or four .dhols, one to three tisds, and a single pair of cymbals, jhanjh. Sharar strikingly suggests that .dhol and jhinjh military bands from Delhi were combined with tasas in Lucknow, perhaps for the first time (1994, 151). The ubiquity .dholcombined with tasd on the subcontinent leads one to wonder the extent to which, if this was the first time such a combination came about, modern day dhol-tdsd ensembles can trace their genealogies to an earlier Lucknow tradition. Sharardescribes the musical style of these Lucknow ensembles, in which tasds are "compulsory" (ladzn) and "dhols are absolutely never played without them" (1965, 218): They [tdsd players] establish the rhythm/tempo(lay qd'im karta hai) and the .dholplayers go on following them. In the tasd playing method (sifat), the beats should fall (zarb paren) with such rapidity that one stroke (qur'ah) cannot be distinguished from another.Rhythmic patterns(lay) and compositions (gat) are producedfrom these continuousand incessantstrokes, which are descending and ascending/low and high (nasheb-o-fardz),and from the contrastingregisters of the drums (zer-o-bam). In Lucknow these bandsmen (bajanewdle) were so skilled that the .dhol players from some other cities cannot [i.e. would be ashamed to] play in front of them (Sharar 1965, 218; translationadapted from 1994, 151). Sharar also describes musical contests during Muharram, in which expert musicians, among whom "the tasa players were the most skilled," performed for hours at a time "issuing challenges to all." Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Lucknow, regarded until recently as the apotheosis of Avadhi royal decadence, was a well-known composer and musician. His ability to perform tasd is affirmed by Sharar, who witnessed him leading a procession on the 7th of Muharram in Matiya Burj, the Calcutta neighborhood to which he was exiled by the British. Despite the royal associations of drums, especially the naqarah, and the occasional Wajid Ali Shah, south Asian drummers tend to rank low in both musical and social hierarchies (although there are, as always, exceptions). They tend to be paid less than singers and performers of melodic instruments, and their salaries are often filtered through the soloist whom they accompany. If emotional attributes adhere to drumming, so too do negative social attributions of class. These are not necessarily related, except in elitist stereotyping of "low class fellows"
26Iwas unable to confirm reportsthat a type of band bearingthe name raushan chauki continues

to performduring Muharramin the town of Amrohain Uttar Pradesh.The type of band Sharar terms raushanchauki appearssimply to have been a portablenaubatensemble. In my fieldwork, I observed in Mahmudabad (UttarPradesh)that the naubat musicians who play several times a day in the Raja'spalace also accompany importantMuharramprocessions. During the chehlum (fortieth day of mourning)procession in 1998, the youthful naqarah player used his hands to performthe naqarah'sconstituentdrums,jll and dukar,which were tied aroundhis waist; sitting in the naubat khanah he performedthese drums using sticks (see notation, p. 26). The sahndT accomplayer performedmelodies based on sung elegiac poetry. Two alternatingdrone sahnaTs paniedhim; one held the tonic; the other,oddly, held a pitch a perfect fourthbelow.

92/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC who are unable to comport themselves with dignity - i.e. to be solemn at an occasion of mourning. 2. Change in use of drumming: Association with mirth Changing ideas about what is emotionally appropriate, increasing divisions along community lines, and class aspirations are among the factors that have led to a decline not only in drumming but other celebratory aspects of Muharram as well. Such changes are a function, in part, of local circumstances. Masselos has argued, for instance, that changes in the Bombay Muharram were "never due only to the impact of ideas or the view of custom," and were never total, but depended very much on circumstance, social organization behind Muharram, and "the enforcing power of police administration" (1982, 62). Other aspects of change would appear to follow systematic trends, such as those suggested by Aubrey Cannon. He has argued that mourning rituals, cross-culturally, oscillate between periods of ostentation and restraint:initially, competitive ritual elaboration serves purposes of social and economic display; later, "elaboration becomes increasingly associated with lower status categories," and rituals begin to take on a restrained, austere character (Cannon 1989, 437). Similarly, Nita Kumar noted that in Banaras of the late 19th and early 20th centuries a "new rationalism and Victorianism" affected the "position of the courtesans, public celebration, lewdness at Holi, love of mud" etc. and repositioned "each of the major entertainments of Banaras" as the "province and symbol of the lower classes" (Kumar 1988, 234). Still, at some level a cultural logic can be seen to inform these changes; in this case it hinges on the possibility of interpreting a potentially ambiguous phenomenon one way rather than another. In one view, drumming constitutes a morally empty gesture in ritual, an "instrumental"means for gathering crowds; in another, it is an expressive form worthy of criticism as "music." These views are not entirely independent of the ways in which the drums are actually played, i.e. strictly repetitive patterns are associated with the former and skillful improvisation with the latter. Nevertheless, this ambiguity creates an opening for actors to interpretdrumming content using information gleaned from performance context. Although it is difficult to generalize, I have found that in urban areas more so than rural, ShT'ahs in India and Pakistan feel that any object or behavior indicative of happiness or celebration is inappropriatefor the mournful occasion of Muharram. Wherever musicians perform tasd for occasions of mirth, such as weddings, these Shi'ahs customarily object to its performance during Muharram. They believe drumming is for fun, celebration, it is khushl, and Muharram is an occasion of seriousness and sorrow, or gham. The drum itself becomes imbued with the qualities of a favored context; put in another way, it is not uncommon for persons of many south Asian communities to believe that instruments such as the tdsa should have a particular, limited context. Although people of many cultures engage in drawing such associations, the process takes on a special meaning in the context of Islam, in which "analogical reasoning" (qiyas) is a codified mode of legislation.27
27

Qiyas means, "concluding from a given principle embodied in a precedent that a new case falls under this principle or is similar to this precedenton the strengthof a common essential featurescalled the 'reasori"(Rahman 1979, 71). For example, accordingto 'Abdul haq Dihlwi,

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A similar sort of analogical thinking can be discerned in the process by which anti-drumming ShT'ahs (again, usually urban) have interpreted the phenomenon of Sunni participation in Muharram through drumming: in their view, Sunnis drum during Muharram because they consider Muharram to be joyous. This underscores the idea not only that drumming should be limited to particular contexts, but also that the drum belongs to particularcommunities. It also articulates the theme that Muharram is shared by more than one community, each with its own interpretation. From the standpoint of understanding the interplay between emotions and cultural and musical processes it is interesting to observe the manner in which ShT'ahsuse the field of emotion and the practice of drumming to distinguish their understandingsof Muharram from those of Sunnis.28 3. Complementarityand conflict: Intercommunaldrum roles In urban multi-community observances of Muharram, Shi'ahs sometimes incorporate Sunni or other community participants into their own rituals, often while finding symbolic or physical means for expressing moral distance from those communities. These relationships are always in flux, as the following examples illustrate. In Delhi, a well-known Muharram procession starts from the Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya. Although the jhol and tisa drummers who perform in that procession now are Hindus, historically Sunnis and Shl'ahs also drummed. Some of the ShT'T and Sunni Muslims whose families were connected with this shrine before the partition of India and Pakistan now live in the Jacob Lines area in Karachi, where I interviewed them and recorded their repertoire.29The subject of Muharram drumming is a sensitive one in that neighborhood; so much so that the party of religiously conservative students, the ISO, at one point threatened violent consequences should the drummers demonstrate the Muharram rhythms for me outdoors.30 Even more sensitive was the idea that ShT'ahs might be drummers
in early Islam, jars were condemnedbecause people drankwine in jars, and music was prohibited because it was associated with dancing girls and wine (Roy Choudhury1957, 63). However, early Imamite evidence suggests that analogical reasoning, along with other forms of logical reasoning practicedin other branchesof Islam, was not supportedin early ShT'ism.See discussion and quote attributed sixth Imamin Moezzi (1994, 14). to 28 According to Sunni drummersI interviewed in the Karawn mohalla in Udaipur, Rajasthan, Sunnis are also not supposed to be happy during Muharram,but by virtue of "tradition" they continue to drum. Yet they denied any commemorativefunction of drumming in relation to Karbala.Schubel provides furtherillustrationsof the apparent differences in emotional approach to Muharramamong the two communities, "Sunnijuluses [processions] carry about them this celebratoryatmosphere... drumsare beaten. Brightlycolored and ornateta'ziyahs are marched cheerfully throughthe streets of the city ... [whereas] Sh T processions ... are in a very real sense funeral processions" (Schubel 1993, 135-6; see also Census of India 1961, 15-16 and passim) Pinault cites a sixteenth century Qur'an commentatorwho "defines a Muslim community not in terms of doctrine but ratherin terms of ritual activity and emotional disposition" (Pinault 1999, 291). Compare Lutz (1988, 223) who discusses the role of emotions in other forms of "alienation... in the estrangementof the personfrom other persons." 29 According to Ali Abbas Nizami, author of the pamphlet outlining the family's history and religious practices,one Sayyid Kazim Ali returnedto Delhi after partitionto collect the designs for ta'ziyahs, 'alams, etc. used duringMuharramat the Nizamuddinshrine. Beginning in 1954, the Karachiemigrants began to replicate the rituals from Delhi. Participantscontinue to make monthlydonationsto the shrinein Delhi (Nizami 1989, 13). 30These interviews and recordingswere conductedduringthe month of Muharram,but after the

94/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC themselves. The information I received was often contradictory, reflecting a combination of the community's ambivalence about this subject and some degree of historical confusion. I have gathered the following: Shi'ahs and Sunnis formerly incorporated multiple ta'ziyahs in their processions from the Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi. Generally, tasi drumming accompanied Sunni ta'ziyah(s), but in one instance it also accompanied a ShT'T ta'ziyah, that brought out by Vajid Khurshid Ali, who migrated to Pakistan before partition and died sometime in the 1950s.31 Apparently only one ShT'ah, Ansar Husein, who they were quick to point out is now dead, used to play the tasa. Now ShT'T Sunni muhajirs (Indian Muslims who fled during partition to and what became Pakistan) live side by side in this Karachi neighborhood; ShT'ahs invite Sunnis to perform during Muharram. Their repertoire is identical to that performed by the Hindu musicians in Delhi into whose hands the post-partition Nizamuddin Muharram drumming tradition has now passed. According to a pamphlet prepared by a member of the Nizami family, looked upon by participants as preserving canonical information about their tradition, Devotees' hearts are full of grief during these days of the great martyrdom. Keeping in view the purpose of the martyrdom,this procession, of which the ta'ziyah is a sign, is taken out with a mixtureof happy and sad feelings. Respect and reverenceprevails upon the processionthroughout(Nizami 1989, 3). The inclusion of tasa ensemble in the procession, according to this pamphlet, can be a sign of happinessover the fact that by giving his sacrifice and keeping Islam safe from Yazidiyat [practices conforming to those of the evil Yazid, whose armies slew Husain] and un-Islamicdeeds, Husain saved the boat of the umma [the Muslim community] and [arrangedits] salvation. What can be a greaterhappinessfor us? (1989, 13).32 The writer betrays defensiveness regarding orthodox Islamic criticisms of his family's Sufi practices and seeks to diffuse accusations that his people are imitating ShT'T practices; but it affirms the Nizami community's belief in the intercessory power of Imam Husain and Nizamuddin Auliya. Criticism of ShY'ism and some forms of Sufism are particularly salient in Pakistan: it is an Islamic state, but the prevailing question, "whose Islam is it?" remains. The syncretic aspects (intra-Islamic or Islamic-Hindu) of Indian Islam are less accepted under
first ten days, during which such drummingis conditionally tolerated.In the course of discussions with these musicians I learned that on other occasions such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba,who would use whatever means necessary, including the issue of functionaland cooperative Muharand ram drumming,furtherto drive a wedge between ShT'ahs Sunnis. a 31Vajid KhurshidAli was apparently tabla player who performedon Pakistanradio, althoughI have not been able to confirm this. 32 A similar tension between of as interpretations Muharram mournfuland festive is maintained in Trinidad, where Shair Ali, reportedly a descendent of one of the founders of the Hosay traditionon the island, wrote in the TrinidadGuardian,"the atmosphereof elation (Muharram) which is generatedby those Muslims who participatein the Hosein festival is definitely justifiable. . . Hosein gave his life for Islam. To live was the deathof Islam, to die was its preservation, so he died to protectIslam and his death should be markedboth by sorrow and happiness"(cited in Korom 1994b, 146).

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the national religious ideologies of Pakistan; despite the right-wing turn in Indian politics, India's commitment towards "unity in diversity" persists in some measure. Still, the Chistiya Sufi order, to which Nizamuddin Auliya belonged, remains relatively catholic in outlook - even in Pakistan. The Nizamis regard as Muharranm a kind of 'urs, the celebration of the death anniversary of a saint. The word means "wedding," but it is really the apotheosis of a wedding, commemorating the union of a saint's spirit to the divine. This creates a special, and felicitous, kind of intercontextuality between a "wedding" and Muharram. Since such an occasion calls for celebration, mournfulness, rather than happiness, becomes the problematic emotional modality.33At one point, in a mode of continued defensiveness, Nizami writes let it be clear that in the family no such marsiyahs, saldms, or nauhahs, are recited with mournfullanguage. Nor is there any subject which belittles the majesty of the Prophet'sfamily (1989, 9). This denial of mourning might be left open to question, as we examine some of the texts represented through drumming in part IV. Despite attempts by Sufis of the Nizami family to disidentify with ShT'ahs, ShT'ahs nevertheless participate in the tradition of Nizami Muharram observances (and its transplanted version in Karachi) and weep. And yet there is a certain discomfiture on their part surrounding the performance of drums. Although ShT'ahs perform matam (literally "mourning" but in this instance, breast and they understandthe drum sounds thembeating) to the sound of the drums,34 selves as communicating the occasionally appropriate verbal messages we will consider in part IV, they do not choose to embody the rhythms in the same way these (Sufi) Sunnis do: they beat upon their own bodies, not upon the drums, and they render nauhahs and sometimes marsiyahs when the processions pause and the drumming ceases. Sunnis (in this instance) beat upon the drums, not upon their bodies, and remain silent while the ShT 'ahs recite. 4. Matam: The rhythmicpattern and the bodily practice In Muharram drumming traditions, including that of Nizamuddin, the drum rhythms are unique to the occasion and bear special names. Matam is usually one such name, although the rhythm to which this refers varies locally. When a Sunni chehlum procession in tdsi player was performing a mdtam rhythm during a ShT'T another location, Mahmudabad,Uttar Pradesh, I asked him if he, as a Sunni, ever participated in mdtan (breast beating). He responded that to perform the mdtam rhythm itself constituted a performance of mdtam (in the larger sense of mourning).35The complementarity in processions is often viewed this way: drumming
33 Although an element of mournfulnessalso pervades north Indian and Pakistani weddings, especially on the bride'sside (e.g. Grima 1993, 52-7; Rahejaand Gold 1994, 78-9), this element of emotional textureis, in a sense, kinshipgeneratedand, therefore,irrelevantto the commemorativetype of spiritual"wedding"or 'urs. 34 An example of how the breast beating and chanting of "Husain Husain" fits with the drumcan ming of nzdtam be found on my recordingof 8 June 1997 (97/D11; 97/V10 [video]). 35 This is an example of an extremely low status (and apparentlyimpoverished)performerparticipating in Muharram.Unlike the naubat musicians, who announce the hours from the raja's palace and play nauhah melodies, the dhol-tasd players are not professionalsand have a limited

96/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC for Sunnis accomplishes the same thing as activities such as matam, breast beating, or reciting of nauhah or marsiyah among Shl'ahs. It is a mark of distinction, exemplifying the identity politics characteristic of the subcontinental Muharram phenomenon (Masselos 1982; Kumar 1988, 213; Pinault 1992). David Pinault has argued that matam, in the form of gentle or vigorous breast-beating, or the more impassioned flailing with sharp implements, is characteristically Shi't - i.e. Sunnis do not engage in this practice (Pinault 1992, 99120). Among other things, this difference underscores each community's position vis-a-vis the authority of the Prophet's lineage: since Sunnis do not invest authority exclusively in members of the Prophet's family (i.e. they esteem the Caliphs, not the Shi'i Imams) they are perhaps less physically/emotionally invested in painfully recreating the moment in history that for Shi'ahs reinforces the character and strength of the Imamate. Yet, it is apparently not the case that Sunnis completely avoid, in all parts of the subcontinent, some corporeal forms of maY tam.6 In Multan, for instance, there are dozens of ta'ziyahs, both ShY and Sunni, and one can neither discern from the presence of matam nor from the presence of drumming (here dhol with sahnoT) whether or not Shi'ahs are present. It would appear that at least some of the Shl'ahs in Multan accept the ritual appropriateness of these instruments in the procession. Like mutual performance of drumming (or at least its tacit acceptance), intercommunal matam is perhaps more common in areas in which ShT'ahsand Sunnis are relatively cooperative during Muharram. But when cooperation is less pronounced, drumming, its volume not easily ignored, sometimes serves as a powerful sign of difference. Sh 'ahs have on occasion reacted negatively and with passion to the sound of Sunnis or Hindus drumming. Beyond feeling it morally objectionable, Shi'ahs sometimes find drumming objectionable on purely rhythmic grounds - unless conscious effort is made at coordination, the rhythms on the drums may conflict with those of poetic recitations and/or breast beating. Thus the manner in which drumming is incorporated into an occasion can constitute a partial performance of the unity or separateness of communities.7 The sahnai nawdz, Muhammad Anwar, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, explained how, in the late 1980s, Shi'ahs suddenly of their own accord,

repertoireof only a few rhythms.Althoughtdsd players are in no sense central to this particular Muharramcustom, they are apparently for "traditional," having participated many generations.I was not given access to the historical rabakarsin the Mahmudabad estate; these are one page documentsspecifying the customs to be followed each year. 36 Sunni participation mdtamseems to be implied in Nita Kumar's in account, "all the Sunnis of Banaras,except the Wahabis, celebrate Moharram" among other things, carrying"a shoulby, der-bornetaziya, surroundedby crowds of mournerswho chant, cheer, lament, and physically torturethemselves to express theirgrief' (1988, 212). 37 See also Schutz's idea of "tuning in," a social relationship"founded upon the partakingin common of different dimensions of time simultaneously lived through by the participants" (Schutz 1964, 177). Turino states the case strongly, "when music makers and dancers are in sync, such signs move beyond felt resemblancesto experienced fact or social connections and unity" (Turino 1999, 241). One wonders the extent to which, in the situation I have described, being "in sync" instantiatesa genuine feeling of unity or merely registers a degree of mutual accommodation.

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forbade [us to play] because they said it was "disturb"ing[he used the English word here] their matam. At ashurkhanandl-e-mubarakthere is mdtam;individual groups would come there.38 They stoppedit because it was a disturbance.But then they understoodthat we were playing nauhahs and marsiyahs, playing on the "base" of the ashurkhdna[i.e. maintainingthe spirit of the occasion]. Now they are happy [that we are playing, not cheerful about the occasion] and they bring money to give us ... (98/Hy/Inl) 5. A test case Instances such as those above suggest an array of logical possibilities that I present here by way of hypotheses: 1) When a single common element such as a drum is associated with two occasions whose moral themes are seen as conflictive, a wedding and Muharram for example, that element could at some juncture, probably one of social or cultural distress, be scrutinized, reevaluated, and possibly removed from one or both of the two occasions; 2) Similarly, when an element such as a drum is considered integral to an identity-defining ritual of community A, but is used or performed by the members of community B, it may, in cases where communities A and B are in conflict, be morally reevaluated. Although I stated these possibilities in a generic fashion, we might also wish to know what might be special about a drum as opposed to other ritual objects. The special expressive properties of drums are considered in part V. I realized while conducting fieldwork that these hypotheses could be subjected to modest ethnographic tests. What would happen if Shi'ahs lived without significant religious or political rivalry from Sunni Muslims, and if the tasd were not primarily associated with festive occasions? ShT'ahsconstitute a local majority in the small town of Hallaur (Basti district, Uttar Pradesh). Considering the .dhol and tasa to be unremittingly dolorous, no Sh?'ah in this town would countenance using these drums for any purpose other than memorializing the battle of Karbala. Since the tasa is associated only with Muharram here, and not with weddings, and since Sh 'ahs are not in conflict with Sunnis, there do not seem to have been the same impediments to ShY involvement in Muharram drumming 'ah (Sunnis, Scheduled Caste and Backward Caste Hindus also participate, but under ' a ShT aegis).39 In fact Hallauris are proud of this tradition, offering cassettes of Muharram drumming for sale alongside other locally produced recordings of occasionally appropriatesung or recited poetic genres. The practice of drumming
38

This would appearon the surface to be a somewhat unusualexample of musical instruments being used at a mourningassembly. An ashurkhanais a kind of shrine to a ShTTImam. Since the musical ensemble consists of naubat instruments,not dhol-tdas, such a performanceis in keeping with the more general association between naubat ensembles and royally sponsored institutions (palace, dargah [Sufi shrine] etc.). This particularashurkhdna is famous for the yearly musical event and is in that sense unique.To my knowledge, no such shrine in south Asia is similarly famous for annualperformance ldhol-tiasa. of 39 Partsof Sindh where ShT'ah-Sunni conflicts are minimal provide similar illustrations.In Hyderabad,Sindh, for instance, Muharrammusic is performedby hereditarymusical specialists called manganhars,composed both of ShT'ahs and of Sunnis. In processions, mdtam(there performed aboutthe head) is well coordinatedwith the rhythmicpatternsperformedon one or more .dholand nauhah melodies performedby a group of su nm players.The su ma used in this case is a very shortone, producinga shrill sound. See section V.1 on timbreand tessitura,below.

98/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC is embraced within the communicative framework of verbal and ritual arts. As Sayyid Shakkil Haidar Rizvi (age 38), tdsa player since the age of ten, remarked, From the sound of the drums, the pain of Karbalacomes to their hearts; when they contort their faces, about to weep, then it becomes clear [to others] what is being commemorated... [we play to] disseminatethe message of Husain (pers. com. Oct. 1998). Rizvi's variation on the common interpretation of drums as announcement suggested that the very presence of processional drumming would attract attention and cause children and onlookers to ask, "why are you playing the drums?" This would provide the opportunity for those more knowledgeable to relate the story of Karbala and invite the interlocutor to experience the tragedy of the narrative viscerally. We have seen that in other regions the fervor-inducing potential of drumming has been interpreted in other contexts to represent Sunni jubilation sorrow. Haidar Rizvi perceived no ambivalence, expressing his rather than ShT'T sentiment that Muharram drumming is "101% gham (sorrowful)." There are two kinds of josh (fervor), he explained. That of masti (intoxication in the manner of some Sufi sects), when emotion builds up so far as to cause one to become behosh (crazy/unconscious/intoxicated), is haraim (forbidden); the other type of josh occurs when drummers become so engrossed in playing that they feel Allah is helping them to propagate the message of Husain, and tears form in their eyes. In concluding this discussion of drums as signs of emotion, community, and context, it may be useful to recall a legend from the nearby town of Uttaraula, which hosts a similar tradition of ShT'T drummers. It is said that a few generations ago, Kanvar, the Rdja of Uttaraula, owned a magical daf (frame drum) which used to spontaneously issue forth appropriaterhythms according to whether the occasion was happy or sad. One day a person of Scheduled Caste background recall the ubiquitous connection between Scheduled Castes and drums, especially frame drums, throughout the subcontinent - ventured to seize the instrument and perform upon it. The instrumentdisappeared and was never again seen. This story is not to my knowledge consciously used either for ritual elaboration or for generating other forms of symbolic action, but it hinges on the relevant parametersof the present discussion: a drum with an Islamic history, the daf, was formerly associated with both joyous and dolorous occasions. Through the intervention of a social-cultural other, a Scheduled Caste person who could also claim a cultural connection with this drum, the drum disappears. It no longer mediates, magically, between the sad and the happy; it no longer plays itself; it no longer exists at all. Although this story does not suggest "a clear-cut strategy for arriving at culturally defined success" it does present something of a "key-scenario" (Ortner 1979, 96). IV. How Meaning Accrues to Drum Patterns I shall proceed now from a discussion of the drum's associations to the ways in which meaning is attached to its rhythmic patterns. I would like to draw attention to two: One is the potential of a rhythm to communicate through reference to previous contexts and the other is its potential to denote speech.

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1. Reference to previous contexts or Rhythmic patterns, often called matanmT muharramn,have been performed year after year in conjunction with Muharram rituals and come to serve as indexes for them. Although the matamn rhythmic patterns spur some listeners to reflect upon Husain's martyrdom, for others they may, like the nauhah texts recited during the performance of matam, "evoke ... the liturgical commemoration of that event in the present." Both, perhaps, "evince admiration for matam in its most spectacular and excessive forms" (Pinault 1999, 305). As the tasa player in Mahmudabad remarked, drumming matam is performing matam. The interreferentiality of beating upon the drums and the body is established phenomenally through the copresence of drumming and breast beating, and reinforced linguistically in the process of naming the rhythm matarmn. The matanufpattern that members of the naubat ensemble perform in Mahmudabad is a brief pattern known also as "/2 rhythmic pattern" (ddha tal).40 To this rhythmic framework, sahndf players perform nauhah melodies said to derive from those being recited at that moment during a procession; I have observed the sahnla player choosing melodies without actually checking what the nauhah reciters were rendering, however. In the naqar khanah, the s ahna- players choose melodies according to the appropriateness of the corresponding raga to the time of the day -a practice also followed by their counterparts in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, and typical of such ensembles all year around.41Thus, although the individual melodies are suited to the occasion of Muharram by virtue of their direct correspondence to tunefully chanted poetry, their musical classification according to raga has virtually no connection with Muharram. Rather it relates to the diurnal cycle of musical performance which is generally associated with this type of musical ensemble. It is the least variable and arguably least "musical" aspect of the performance that indexes Muharram unequivocally, the matanu tdl, performed on the left and right drums (dukar andjl) of the naqdrah as follows: Vocalization git Pulses 1.. / .. dukar ta la git 2. . 3.. ... /.. jha la 4.. /..

Jl Jl

. ...

.
....

... ...
..

or a faster version dukar /

.

... /./..

The repeated association between this pattern and the Muharram context, rather than any intrinsic character of the rhythmic content, creates meaning for most listeners. But this particular kind of indexical association is not the only possible way that drum patterns may signify, for some of these have the potential to communicate lexically. This phenomenon, widely studied in Africa, has seldom been noted in south Asia. Frank Korom's hypothesis that, in Trinidad, tasd
The dhol-tdsd ensemble is socially, ritually, and musically distinct from the naubat; in most places the statusof the former'smembersis lower than those of the latter. 41 A naqdr khanahor naubat khanahis a building or a tower from which double-reedand kettle drum players project their music, usually according to the watch. See photographin the South Asia volume of the GarlandEncyclopediaof WorldMusic (Wolf 2000, 279).
40

100/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC rhythms began to take over the function of communicating liturgical texts as diasporic Indo-Muslims gradually began to forget the language of these texts (Korom 1994a) is not strongly supported by evidence from the subcontinent, which suggests that Muharram drumming can communicate textually even while a living tradition of liturgical recitation continues to flourish. 2. Drum patterns and verbal texts How and to what extent do these rhythms "communicate lexically"? Listeners vary in their ability to recognize the resemblances between speech or poetry and drummed patterns. The link between rhythm and text may be rather arcane in cases, for example, in which drum rhythms named marsiyah are supposed to conform to the general rhythmic features (or possibly, at one time, the poetic meters) of marsiyah recitation. However, most Muslim participants recognize the linguistic basis of simple slogans rendered on the drums: "Ya 'All" (Karachi, Jacob Lines), "Ya 'Ali Ya Husain" (Hallaur; Udaipur), "Hasan Husain" (Uttaraula) "Sain Imam Husain Haidar" (Lucknow, see Wolf 2000, 280). These slogans can be easily apprehended, not only because they are prosodically elementary but also because the drumming may actually accompany participants'shouting. The inclusion one or more of the Imams' names renders these slogans appropriate for the occasion, but sometimes the text also articulates a social aspect of Muharram: its partisan and agonistic quality. As Sharar's account in Lucknow suggested, an element of competitive display was once common in public Muharram observances and some of this spirit seems to endure today, especially in the building of ta'ziyahs and reciting of nauhahs. In the KarwanrMohalla of Udaipur, Rajasthan, in addition to the familiar "Ya 'All Ya Husain" pattern, the textual basis of one of the rhythms is "Ban Paltan," apparently a corruption of "Ban Platoon" or "Big Platoon." In colonial times the Maharaja's army would take a large and famous ta'ziyah out on procession; by metonymic substitution the name has become indigenized and applied to a masjid (mosque). Now, on the seventh of Muharram, participants carry a large, community-owned ta'ziyah to this masjid. The ta'ziyah, once a form of glorification for the titular ruler - emphasizing the difference, as it were, between the sharTf (elite) and the ordinary Muslim - has now become a symbol of a whole Muslim neighborhood, and the process of transformationis in a sense coded in the dhol-tasa rhythm. Slightly more complicated than these two-word slogans are meaningful phrases such as "he [the Imam] climbed onto Dul-Dul [Husain's horse] and the infidels were slain" (carhe duldul kate kafir) (98/Inl/p.74 7 Feb. 1998). According to Pappu Sain, the renowned malang (a type of Sufi mendicant) dhol player of the Shah Jamal shrine in Lahore, it was common to hear this rhythm performed for Muharram in the Panjab (Pakistan) about 30 years ago. Now drumming is utterly absent in Lahore during Muharram, but apparently this rhythm is performed today at the shrine of Lal Shabaz Qalandar in Sindh. As Pappu Sain explained it, drummers use mnemonic bols similar to those encountered in Hindustani music; faqlrs attached this layer of meaning secondarily. Thus, although some Muharram rhythms are understood linguistically, this does not mean that they have all originated as verbal language. In the Nizamuddin tradition maintained in Delhi and Karachi each of the four major Muharram rhythms is attached to a text. Some of the older musicians

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in Jacob Lines rendered for me in soz style the text for the rhythm called dhTma (lit. "slow"), "Today, in Medina, Sughra is crying with tear-filled eyes" (aj sughra yun madTnemen hain roff bhar ke nain) (97/117, 17). This "marsiyah," as they called it, was composed by a member of the Nizami family. In practice it is "recited" only on the drums, not verbally during majlises (mourning assemblies) as is ordinarily the case. They considered dhtma to be a relatively difficult tal (rhythmic pattern), performed first or last in a sequence, for a crowd of stationary listeners, and only for a brief time if at all. Considering the tearful subject of this marsiyah and the defensive statement in the Nizami "Guidelines of Practice" (1989) that no mournful texts are recited in the procession one might conjecture: In this case could the transfer of medium from voice to drums have served to mask the mournful character of the texts from critical onlookers? Those Sufis and Shf'ahs who understood the mixture of grief and elation implicated in commemoration of Husain's martyrdom could perhaps have ascertained from the sound of the drums the inner meaning of the marsiyah, which they might already have known from a tradition of tuneful recitation; those neither familiar with the texts nor sympathetic to the emotional means of propitiating the martyrs would have responded only to the drumming. According to Sayyid Sarir Ahmed Nizami, the marsiyah refers to the historical event in which the "Great Imam" (Husain) went to fight the battle of Karbala, leaving his daughter Sughra in Medina. On hearing of her father's martyrdom, she lamented; the words of the marsiyah reproduce the "effect" (ta'sur) of lamentation (97/117, 18). As Muhammad Baksh put it, what the dhol and tasa are playwhen we recite [i.e. play it] you can understand ing, such and such a tarz [tune, but here, rhythmicpatternconformingto the tune of a melodic recitation].If you recite it in your heart [you will feel] that the dhol is saying the same thing42... if you rememberthe marsiyahplayed on the .dholtasa your mind will recall that now this marsiyah is being played/said on dholtasa" (97/117, 36-37).43 For the rhythm called matam these Karachi drummers also produced a single line of text, "when Fatima [Husain's mother, the daughter of the Prophet] came from paradise, saying 'oppressed Husain' " [jab fabnah firdaus se yeh kehfi a'T mazli m husaina] (97/I17/p.76); thus the performance of matam evokes for these drummers the impassioned grief of the Prophet's daughter for her son, Husain, who sacrificed himself in the name of Islam. According to the "Guidelines of Practice" of the Nizami family, it was traditional for a large crowd to gather on the 9th of Muharram at the Nizamuddin shrine in Delhi. First the Qur'an would be recited. Zakirs would then deliver learned speeches about the martyrdom of Husain and the family of the Prophet and conclude this by offering afatiha (the first su m of the Qur'an, often used as a
"hamarehan jis ko keh voh baqa'idahap samajhsakte hain kih han yeh dhol jo hai, tashajo baj rahahai, dhol tasha yeh us kitarzmen baj rahahai. ap us ko dil me kahen to yeh dhol kehega voh" 43 "ap dil men agar voh yad hai nah, voh aipko to dhol tashajo baj rahahoga, nah, ap ke zahan men aja'ega kih han yeh martabah yahanparyeh keh rahenhain baj rahahai dhol tashe par"
42

102/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC benediction on the souls of the dead) by way of prayer. The shrine would then provide food for the masses. Following this the tasd players would drum a salanm (salute), and during this time those who rendered special services were bestowed the honor of having turbans tied about their heads; following this the ta'ziyah was taken out (Nizami 1989, 8). Although I have not confirmed the details of the ritual as it is performed today, I do know that the tdsa master drummer, Mamraj, and his group (all Hindus) perform on this occasion in Delhi. He is given the honor of wearing the "first pagari" (i.e. turban) in this ritual, and if I understood him correctly, the first rhythm performed at this time, preceding and leading up to the lifting of the ta'ziyah, is called saviia, literally "ride"or "vehicle."44 Mamraj (b. 1933) studied drumming with the former "first pagari" of the Nizamuddin shrine, one Ustad Muhammad Sheikh. The drummers from the Nizamuddin tradition living in Karachi also spoke of Muhammad Sheikh and his role in leading a Shit' ta'ziyah.45Before him, Mamraj's father, Kishan Lal performed at the Nizamuddin shrine for thirty-four years. In keeping with the ecumenical ethos of certain Sufi orders, the Muharram tradition at Nizamuddin has allowed for the participation of a variety of communities with a variety of sentimental attachments to the affair: Mamraj suggested that the drumming does not produce any emotional effect at all, people cry because the occasion is mournful. Most would not recognize the rhythms as inherently sad (98/De/In 1). The "Guidelines of Practice" identified the drumming as a sign of happiness, yet one of the Sunni drummers in Karachi said that the rhythm mdtam, for instance, produced a languid, downcast (sust) state in listeners, causing their hearts to be moved and inspiring tears (Hasham 97/115, 43).46 This multivalence may become transformed into a type of ambivalence when in the case of an individual, a choice must be made about emotional and political allegiances, and this is just what has happened under the influence of forms religious authorities or parties who have condemned both music and ShT'T of piety.47 ShT'T religious leaders responded promptly and thoroughly to these
They play two rhythms called savanr,one for Muharramand one for Ram LTla.There are connotationsboth of royal processions and of spiritualjourney implied by this word depending on context. The term savan is commonly used for rhythmic patternsthat accompany moving processions and/orthe onset of spiritpossession in the subcontinent.Note, contraWadley (1976, 247 and passim), that "ride" as possession by the Karbalamartyrs,often termed prrs in this context, does not imply possession by malevolentspirits. is 45 My understanding the Sheikh was a Sunni (or a Sufi who did not consider himself ShT'ah); the ta'ziyah might have been that of Khurshiddiscussed earlier, but it was not clear from the interview (Hasham97/I15/p.48). Detailed treatmentof the genealogy of Nizamuddintasd khandans (lineages) and their special repertoirelies beyond the scope of this article and will be treatedseparatelyin a laterarticle. 46 To afterdiscussing what the various rhythms give a sense of how I gatheredsuch information: were, and when they were played, we moved to a discussion of meaning. This comment was a response to a direct query from my assistant, "what is the state/condition(kaifiyat) of people [when mdtamis played on the drums]?" 47 For example, note three representativecriticisms levelled against Shi'ahs by the prominent theologian, Shah 'Abd Al-'AzTz.Aziz led a circle of influentialreformistthinking in Delhi from 1763 to 1824 and publishedan extensive, if somewhat vicious and ill-informeddiatribeagainst thatwas completed in about 1790. Similarcriticismspersisttoday. ShT'ism * As childrenare excited with their toys and dolls and performvariousdramas,so
44

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vicious attacks;but notably,they did not defend local "superstitious" practices, ascribingthem, rather,to ignorantvillage people who were not fully conversant in with trueIslam.But despitea historyof communalclashes duringMuharram tolerance ecumenism and southAsia thatcan be tracedat leastto the 17th century, remaineven in such an unlikelyurbanareaas the city of Delhi. The publicprocession from Nizamuddinis an interestingexample because, from what the of told Hindudrummers me, it does not serve so muchas a culturalperformance of a sectarian identity,as Muharram processionsso often do, but rather an inter"I faith Sufi identityin which Hindusalso participate. don'tbelieve in any deof Basedon our discussions,it would marcation religion,"to paraphrase Mamraj. appearthat he and his troupeexperienceno spiritualdissonancein performing Muharram called kalma,namedafter one of the rituallyless important rhythms, of is the Islamicdeclaration faith:"thereis one god, Allah, and Muhammad his prophet." The questionof exactly how drumrhythmsreflect their texts will be the the observation, rhythmsappearto be subjectof a futurearticle;as a preliminary of of thansystemstylizedinterpretations subjectiveexperiences the texts, rather atic applicationsof poetic metricalrules to the drums;neitherdo the rhythms long and shortsyllables.For the purposesof this articleit will simply articulate in suffice to examinethe tal called kalma.Presented the appendix(Ex. 1) is the ostinatowhich defines the rhythm; againstthis, tasa playerswill take turnsimprovisingin the mannerof a jazz musicianagainsta set of chordchanges.This ostinatois the "tune,"and in fact the Delhi musicianswhom I interviewedused the Persianterm,naghma,to referto the dhol beat, which essentiallydefines the layer of ostinatoperformedon the tasd which piece. There is an intermediary also appearsin the notation.Not all.dhol-tasaensemblesmaintain three-part this but it is noteworthy thatthis structure be found in contemporary can structure, 48 Trinidadian groups.4
the ShT'ahscreate dramas around the replicas of the graves of Ali, Hassan, Husain and Fatima. They believe they are real graves and that those eminent personalities are really there. They exhibit great respect and even prostrate themselves before them. These stupid acts reduce adult imaginationto childish fantasy(Rizvi 1982, 337-38). * The ShTT popularbeliefs are very well known, but their religious leadersdo not commit them to writing.One such belief is thatby weeping, making images and playing instrumentsas acts of worship on the tenth of Muharram,their sins would be remitted(Rizvi 1982, 340-41). * While the Hindus worship idols, the ShT'ahs worship the effigies of their imam's graves (ta'ziyahs). The Hindus bathe their images, place them in carriages, play musical instrumentsto them, and place food before them, distributing it also to others. The ShT'ahscelebrate Imam Qasim's wedding exactly like that of a living being. They are more superstitiousthan the Hindus (Rizvi 1982, 351) ShlTfreligious leaders respondedpromptlyand thoroughlyto these vicious attacks;but notably, they did not defend local "superstitious"practices, ascribing them, rather, to ignorant village people who were not fully conversantwith true Islam. 48 In Trinidad musicians called the dhol the "bass," the tasa ostinato part the "fuller," and the tdsd improvisationalpartthe "cutter."According to FrankKorom, Trinidadianswhom he interviewed felt thatthe jhdnjh made the rhythmssound sadder(May 2000, pers. com.). A numberof ethnographicdetails provided informallyby Korom in this article will appear in his book, cur-

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V. Aesthetics of the Expressive Potential of Drumming and "Music" Relationships between drum rhythms and speech in south Asia are abstract, indeed more abstract than those between the tonal rhythms and languages of subSaharan Africa. But in both cases, drummed language is ambiguous, interpretable only through context. When we approach aesthetics we are not dealing simply with criteria of "beauty" but more broadly with how a creative form is appreciated, how people make sense of it. We may say that one of the ways that people recognize the value of drumming, across south Asian regions and communities, is by attributing relevant textual messages to drum rhythms. However, lexical aspects of drumming do not generally communicate the fine-grained feelings associated with an occasion, nor is the message altered by the way in which something is performed. To broach matters of feeling we must move beyond the gross "message," so to speak, and address the style in which it is proclaimed. 1. Timbre and tessitura Timbre and tessitura of indefinite pitch tend to vary together on the drums. Higher tessitura tends to be articulated with a sharp, crisp stroke; deeper drum sounds tend to be more muffled. This corresponds with the tendency to play drums of higher pitch such as the tiis with thinner sticks than drums such as the dhol or naqarah, which can be played either with heavier sticks, or with the hands, depending on factors of local style or context. My attention was drawn to the importance of timbre and pitch during an interview with Muhammad Baksh, a naqarah kettledrum player and radio artist in Multan, Panjab, Pakistan.49Baksh, a Sunni, expressed a moral disdain for the use of the dhol-tasd during Muharram even though he himself used to play a different kind of dhol until his prr (spiritual preceptor) forbade it -apparently because he felt that any form of music was inappropriatefor Muharram. Multani musicontinue play the dhol and cians, who are sometimes but not always MTrasTs, sahnal during Muharram - but never the tasa.S That is not to say that Baksh had no connection with the tasa whatsoever. In pre-partition days he used to perform the tasa for Hindu weddings and he was even able to dredge up an allegedly eighty-year-old instrument on which to demonstrate. But it was clear that, in Baksh's mind, the tasa was indexical of both a community and a context cognitively opposed to Muharram. Tasa was at one time played during Muharram in Multan, but not by native Multanis, rather by
rently in preparation, provisionallyentitled, Hosay Trinidad:Muharram performancesin a Caribbean context. Jhinjh was not a part of all dhol-tdsd ensembles I encountered;its absence in some cases was not the result of an aesthetic choice, but ratherof the fact that the instrumentis relativelyexpensive and potentiallythe object of theft. The "s" soundof phrasessuch as "HasanHusain"seems most clearly to be articulatedon these cymbals when they are freely resonating or slightly touching one another. I have gathered no specific informationabout their emotive capability. 49 Photographsof Baksh appear in the South Asia volume of the Garland Encyclopedia of WorldMusic (Wolf 2000, 283 [bottom];Nayyar2000, 764 [farright]). are 50 MTYrsTs hereditarymusicians who operate in both folk and classical worlds. Neuman provides brief backgroundinformationon this class of musiciansand their social position in the musicalcultureof Delhi (Neuman 1980, 124-35).

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muhajirs,who untilthe 1960s used these drumsto accompanya martialdisplay tradition died out for complexreasons,perhapsdue to with swords.The muhdjir or local prejudice traditions, objectionsto the mannerin which againstimported the swords were brandished. Baksh did Although,despite his ptr's admonition, not condemnthe practiceof performing dhol, he felt thatthe performance the of tsii duringMuharramwas somehow immoral.Why, I asked him, was dhol but playing marginallyacceptableduringMuharram not tdsd? Baksh did not that the tasa was inappropriate because of the associationwith merely argue Hinduweddings,he spoke of musicalfeatures: He felt that the deep pitch and timbreof the dhol both bettersuitedthe sadnessof the occasionand carriedfuror ther,thus servingbetterto announcethe beginningof Muharram the procession. The high pitchand strident timbreof tdsa drumstrokesdid not seem sufficiently lachrymoseto him. Nor, in his opinion,could the instrument projectits soundas far as could the dhol.The association Bakshdrewbetweentimbre,pitch and emotiondid not surpriseme becauseintuitivelythe same loose association holds in my own culture. Nattiez(1990, 122), for example,pointedout thatfor a WestJean-Jacques ern musician,certain tonal symbols seem natural.He providedthe following chart: high low shrill deep clear dark joyous (andso forth) sad (andso forth)

I wouldperhaps "brisktempo"to the musicalcorrelates "joyous" add of and "slow tempo"to thatof "sad." Westernlistenersmight offer these kinds of abin stractions the absenceof a particular musicalapplication; abstractions, as they conform reasonablywell to the kinds of statementsthat (a necessarily small number Indiansand Pakistanis with whomI spokethinkabouthappinessand of) sadness musically. Baksh'sexplanationbore out either implicitly or explicitly when I interviewed severalothermusiciansandlistenersin areaswheretraditions of tasa coexistedwithdrumming traditions of consistingprimarily deeperpitched instruments such as dhol or naqdrah; number interviewees a of could not explain why tasd soundedjoyous or exciting and not sad to them; a minorityfelt that had pitchandtimbreof drumming nothingto do with the emotionalcontent. to colorfulcoAlthoughone must resistthe temptation allow interpretively lonialperioddescriptions standalongsideprimary to field materials withoutcritical comment,it is worthwhile this contextto excerptfrom Mrs. Meer Hassan in Ali's descriptionof a Muharram from Lucknowsomeprocession,presumably time between1816 and 1828 (Ali 1974,xi): The whole line of marchis guardedin each processionby burkhandhars on bandsof mu(matchlock men),whofiresingly,at intervals, the way.Several sic aredispersed thecavalcade, in solemndirge-like peculiar to airs, performing the styleof composition Hindoostaun, well suitedto the occasion, - mufin and and the of fled drums shrilltrumpets, Hosein,' vIen imitating reiteration 'Hasan, Mortem mdtam] performed.remember fine femaleelephant, is I a [i.e. belonging to KingGhauzee deenHyder, ood whichhadbeenso well instructed, to keep as

106/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC time with the soundings from her proboscis with the occasional Mortems . . . (Ali 1832, 87-8, italics mine) The details of this rich account bear attention. The comic image of the elephant's trunk suggests that all elements in the procession were in moral and rhythmic sync with one another, possibly indexing the temporary solidarity among communities participating in Muharram together. Mrs. Ali's twelve years' experience of Muharram as a mournful context probably influenced her interpretation of the band music as "dirge-like" (it did not strike me as dirge-like in 1998). She notes contrasting timbres, "muffled drums and shrill trumpets." The muffled effect of the drums - probably not tdsas, but naqdrahs5' - may have been a result of the instruments being performed with the hands, as they sometimes are and apparently were. More generally, when fhols or naqarahs are played in a procession, their upper partials (which are not anyway emphasized, for the sticks tend to be hefty) dissipate over the distance, losing their reverberation in the mass of bodies. But what about shrillness? Is shrillness an appropriate timbre for Mulharramor appropriate merely for the trumpet? Is shrillness iconic of human cries of woe, as Mrs. Ali's description might imply? If so, that might explain why shrill, bright timbres, unlike their percussive analogues, are not criticized when they are issued upon aerophones. But there are other contextual considerations as well. It is noteworthy, for instance, that hereditary musicians both in Hyderabad, Sindh (manganhars) and in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, use a type of double reed aerophone, sahnnT, when they perform during Muharram that is shorter than the one they use for a concert or a wedding. In Andhra Pradesh, the musicians with whom I spoke belong to one of the khandans (musical families) that has been, since the days of the Nizams, traditionally charged with the responsibility of keeping the hours in the "drum house" (naqir khanah) - in this instance, at the Sufi shrine of Yusufain. As they understand it, the function of such a sahndt is to project the sound over long distances, much as Baksh understood the function of the .dhol during Muharram. In this mode of explanation, it makes sense that the shriller instrument is used in the naqir khanah both for Muharram and for announcement of the hours. At a wedding or in concert, where the setting is more intimate and the repertoire less limited by ritual restrictions, the larger instrument becomes more
5' The size and shape of the instrument describedin her account could apply equally well to the naqarah and the tasd, however the referenceto a pair of drums would suggest the former. The of to thin hoop is not characteristic eitherinstrument, my knowledge, when the body is fashioned of clay. "Amongst the many varieties of Native musical instrumentsI have seen in India, the kettle-drumis the most simple and singular,which I will take the libertyof describing: -4t is of well-baked earth, moulded in the usual way, and very similar in shape to those of the Royal Horse Guards. A globe of the common size, divided into exact halves, would be about the dimension and shape of a pair of Indian manufacture;the parchmentis strained over the open mouth, with a thin hoop to fix it firm;the slightest pressurewith the fingers on this hoop draws it into tune. The simplicity of this accompanimentto the human voice, when touched by the finis gers, very much in the way Europeansuse the tambourine only to be appreciatedby those who have been long acquaintedwith the sound.The only time it is beaten with sticks is, when used as dunkahs [kettle drums often tied to camel- or horse-back], before King and Queen, on their appearingin public - a sort of alarmto warnobstructinghackeries,or carriages,to move out of the way." (Ali 1832, 88-90).

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suitable for expressive purposes. It is phenomenologically true that in both locations, Andhra Pradesh and Sindh, the distinction between Muharram and weddings is maintained assiduously through the use of different versions of the same musical instrument.52That is, difference is embodied both timbrally and materially. But one cannot understand the choice of instrument in terms of the broad aesthetic categories that appear almost natural - even to some south Asians those that associate bright timbres with celebration and dark timbres with mourning. 2. Tempo and cadence In discussing the sound of the drums with a variety of consultants, sometimes literally "men on the street" during a festival, sometimes musicians, it was often difficult to isolate technically particular aspects of the sound. The tdsa' s pitch, sharpness, and brightness of timbre, for example, could not be considered in the abstract without also remembering its rapid tempo. On the tasa, all rhythms are improvised upon with rapid strokes, the rapidity, in part, communicating the sense of excitement, or josh, associated with processions and thoughts of the battle of Karbala. I attempted, therefore, to inquire about aspects of tempo and rhythmic cadence as perceived in other forms of Muharram sonic art. I approached Karrar Qazmi (the consultant who had told me that Hyderabadis considered soz to be excessively musical), after Amy Bard finished a recording and interview session with him concerning her doctoral topic, the Urdu marsiyah. I explained that I had come across drum rhythms composed to articulate the contours of Shi'T poetry and wondered whether he knew of other examples of this phenomenon, or had any personal ideas as to its significance. After a moment's consideration he recalled not merely a drum rhythm, but a melody performed by wedding band instruments and drums.53Qazmi sang the accompanying text to a lively, almost playful, melody which seemed to belie the seriousness of the subject (See Ex. 2 in the appendix). qatl hu'e hazrat-eimam His Eminencethe Imamhas been slain ha'i ha 'a viranmadinah(x2) Alas, Medina is desolate! dar pah sakinah At the door, Sakina Stands and cries rot khan hai (x2) nah mila pani ka jam A cup of water not to be had ha'i ha 'a viranmadinahAlas, Medina is desolate I asked Mr. Qazmi what he considered to be the emotional import of this piece. Not surprisingly, given the textual and contextual association with Muharram, he felt that the piece was a sad one. But many who hear this piece in a public gathering will gain an impression of the music which is divorced from its textual referent, merely drawing inferences from the sound of the band instru52

One of Frank Korom'sconsultants went so far as to assert that the tasa could only truly be called a tasa, and its rhythms (called "hands")tais hands, when the instrumentis played for Hosay, even though it is also used for occasions such as weddings and competitions (Korom May 2000, pers. com.). 53 and social Gregory Booth (e.g. 1990) has discussed extensively the history, instrumentation context of these bands in India.

FOR MUSIC 108/2000 YEARBOOK TRADITIONAL mentsalone,the melody,andits rhythmic character. the Furthermore, contextfor is such a performance the so-called mehndi(henna)ritual.In a common south of Asianredaction the Karbala story,Husaindid not wanthis son Qasimto die in So, battle,never to have married. a weddingwas stagedbefore the battlecommenced. In elaborateMuharram observances,the wedding of Qasim is "celeon with weddingsongs and band brated" the seventhof the monthof Muharram music.This is an exampleof ironicor poignanthappiness, as encompassed it is in a mournful in frame.Participating such a celebration generallythose who are but of accept an emotionallytexturedunderstanding Muharranm; some continue to emphasizesorrowandfind the weddingbanddistasteful. Whatif to Returning a musicaldiscussion,I askedMr.Qazmito speculate.54 he hadheardthe weddingbandplayingthe piece anddid not knowthe text?Consideredin this light, he felt indeedthatthe music would not have struckhim as and mournful. This pointsout a characteristic, yet ironic,sortof hetparticularly Part of erogeneousrelationshipamong elements of Muharramperformances. of Qazmi'sevaluationwas basedon tempo,and indeeda number my consultants seemed to feel that for music to soundsad it must be languid.I do not wish to digress for an elaboratediscussionof methodologyat this juncture,but simply wish to reemphasize aestheticabstractions that almostvanishonce music is contextualized. Conclusion:ContemplatingMusic I shallconcludeby movingoutsidethe worldof musiciansin the directionof drumthe wider population, suggestinga few of the ways in which Muharram chainsof signification, while relatingback to a few ming registersin continuing in use as core ideas.Some individuals drumming Muharram a pointof departure I for contemplating eventsat Karbala. approached Prof.Atahar RazaBilgrami the of the Economicsdepartment, JamiaMillia Universityin Delhi, a Shi'ah cura in observances Urdu.He understands the rentlypreparing book on Muharramn in of threestyles of dhol-tasi performance his hometown Bilgramas commemoThe ratingthreephasesof the battleof Karbala. first, regulartemposuggests to him the marching troupes, of a subsequent style of acceler"left-right-left-right"; evokes the attack.Finally, a regular,slow, ated, loud, and feverish drumming calm and quiet style of drumming reflects, "the last momentwhen the whole bodies."55 thingis decided,the flattened I found the specificityof Bilgrami'sinterpretations curious,for drummers themselvesneverofferedsuch precisemeanings.In fact they would not be able to offer such interpretations, accordingto Prof. Bilgrami,because not only did attributhat they lack the educational background wouldfostersuch imaginative tions but also theirSunnireligiousbackground would not be conduciveto such
and the presumptionof multiple See Gell for the methodologicalproblemsof counterfactuals worlds (Gell 1996). These problems aside, I believe it belittles our consultants'intelligence to assume a priori that they cannot abstract,or distance themselves from concrete events, in the ways we expect intelligentindividualsto be capableof doing in our own cultures. 55FrankKorom (May 2000, pers. com.) pointed out the remarkablesimilaritybetween this formulation and the sequence of Hosay drum rhythms in Trinidad: 1) "marchinghand," 2) "war hand,"3) "deadhand"or "drumof sorrow."
54

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AND AMBIVALENCE/109 EMBODIMENT

In that contemplation. saying this, he implied,interestingly, drummers, through theirartisticability,are able to performculturaland religiousroles that they do In not themselvesfully understand. contrastto the widely-held,if simpler,view a drumas a kind of an object with a particular context, Bilgrami's associating of outlookdid not find the popularity tdsddrumming weddingsto be problemat he is atic. "Therhythmsare different," told me; Muharram drumming characterized by comparatively longergaps betweendhol or bass drumstrokes.His deanother commonidea, namelythat a deeply pitchedinscriptionthus supported to strument playedin slow tempocontributes an aestheticof mourning. This articlehas detaileda varietyof ways in which individuals' interpretacontextfor drumming have bled into the ways in which they tions of a particular interpretits content. This bleeding is apparentin linkages between drums as it communities; is physicalobjectsand the occasionsand identitiesof particular also manifestin the ways rhythmsare attributed lexical meanings;and it is exof such as emplified in the ways in which expressiveparameters performance timbre and tempo are understood.Although most south Asian Sh?'ahstoday the would summarize emotionalimpactof Muharram one of sadness,gham, as thereis in fact a paletteof sentimentand feeling involvedin the performance of and narratives rituals.Musicalcultureexemplifiesthe emotionalmultivalence, if not ambivalence,diverse Muharram articulatethroughtheir ritual participants practices. Muharram an example,but not the only example,of a so-called"mournis ful" event which is characterized a host of complexemotions,includingthose by The thatare celebratory. pageantry Muharram articulated participants of has for somethingof an optimism,pride,andartisticaesthetic,one thatshows respectfor the Imams,who are spirituallypresent,and actuallyprovidesa form of entertainmentfor them. Some find the militaryassociationof tdas drumming approthe priatefor commemorating sense of josh, or excitementin the battleof Karbala; but some Shi'ahs bristle at this association,citing famous marsiyahsby Anis, Dabirandothers,in whichthe enemiesof Husainbeatthe drumseach time a they slaughtered memberof the Prophet's family.Complexemotionalattitudes to Muharram arise from complex types of participation interpretation, and and this resultsin an enduring ambivalence aboutthe art (or non-musical ritualduty, on of depending the tradition) drumming. It is perhaps to to appropriate concludewith a return the themeof ambiguity, its examiningnot drumming, textualglosses or contemporary meanings,but a tradition oral recitation of to references drumming on which indiand containing vidualsmay further base theirunderstandings aboutthis phenomenon. One of the MirzaDabir,composedthe following stanpoets of the classicalUrdunzarsiyah, at in zas, excerptedfrom a performance a women'snmajlis Lahore,recordedand translated Amy Bard. by his Haltinghis mount,he questioned companions, It was at the onsetof Muharram monththatourMasterarrived "Well,my exiled ones, we'vecome uponthis wild desert; Shallwe pitchthe tentsall here?" They said"Wellandgood." "Buthow manydays, Kingof Faith,is it yourintention stay?" to Repliedthe King,"Thisspot will be ourplaceuntildoomsday!"

FOR MUSIC 110/2000 YEARBOOK TRADITIONAL All of a sudden,enemiesapproach tents! the All over, the soundsof tambourine, kettledrums hornsrangout! and Zainabcriedout, "OhexaltedSayyid, Is thatperhaps bandcome to welcomeyou over there? the Thesefolk musthavecome to fetchus strangers! It mustbe a messageof hospitality they're sendingyou." "It'sdeaththatwill come to fetchus,"saidthe King .. kettle drums and Zainab,Husain'ssister, hears the sound of tambourine, are horns,andthinksthe local peopleof Karbala comingto greet themaftertheir arduous but journeyfromMedina; alas, it is the enemy,sendinga messagenot of but hospitality, of death.

APPENDIX
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WOLF

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Qazmi,HyderExample 2. Qatlhu'e hazrat-eimam.As demonstrated Karrar by abad,30 May 1998.This piece is sometimesplayedby brassbandfor the "mehndi" Qasimon 7 Muharram. of

RECORDINGS Field recordings cited hereare availablefor consultation the Archivesand at in ResearchCenterfor Ethnomusicology Gurgaon,outside of New Delhi. The systemis as follows: numbering The firstnumber usuallyrefersto the year,98 = 1998 The second set of letters(if there are three sets of characters separated by for recordslashes)is an abbreviation the regionor town in which the particular in ing was initially made. Sometimesthere are multipleregions represented a single recording The thirdset of lettersand numbers second if thereare only two sets of (or characters and separated a slash)refersto the type or mediumof recording the by number withinthe series.In = interview(usuallyon analoguecassette sequential
tape); V = video (usually 8mm); D = DAT tape; A = Analogue cassette tape,

usuallymusicalperformance. referto verbatim of Pagenumbers transcripts some of these tapes.

112/2000 YEARBOOK FOR TRADITIONAL MUSIC

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