People would stop walking and even stand up after hearing the voices of the singers coming from afar. When farmers ploughing their fields heard Amar Singh Shawki’s ‘Sahiban’ playing on a loudspeaker or ‘Tin Sao Kani Saradi, Mere Lak Lakke Shamseer. Nai ey oodhene samheen, jad mare Jatt ne tir’ on a loudspeaker, they would start singing loudly with the last tora of each line. Dhadi Bachan Singh would sing, ‘Ek to aanhdi sadha viyati kanth niane nu’, poet Karnail Singh Paras would sing, ‘Duniya chahun ku din da mela’, when Milkhi Ram would sing, ‘Toota dhol da rove te kurlave’, then the soul of the listener would close his eyes and stand with the characters of the story.
This was the time when people’s love and respect for singers and wrestlers was unwavering and reverent. Due to the lack of means of transportation, people considered it a noble act to give accommodation to these wrestlers and singers in their homes after the arena was built. Amar Singh Shunki and later Ranjit Singh Sandhwan remained the standard bearers in loud and resonant voices. The duo of Ranjit Singh Sandhwan and Karnail Singh Paras earned a lot of fame. Milkhi Ram and Beli Ram established the Algoza style. At that time, there was no noise and alcohol. People enjoyed the poetry to their heart’s content. The poet or dhadi would sing the mood of the characters according to the time and situation through appropriate verses and move the audience along with them. Amar Singh Shunki presented the Samvadi form between Puran and Rani Sundar through Gadi verses like this;
Listen to me, my queen, we are devotees of God, our true Guru,
Even if millions of people live in love with our true Guru, we lost our form,
We lost our form by having our ears pierced, queen, beautiful,
Beautiful…you gave up the love of the world and wore earrings.
Lal Chand Yamla Jatt’s drum so captivated Guru Nanak that he became immortal forever. Mostly, the drum and drum were the core of his singing. With his fakhra-like disguise, fakhra-like singing remained dominant. Yamla Jatt’s singing kept entertaining the people by bringing the harmonious form of worldly and spiritual life to the level of the people. Yamla Jatt’s singing proved that if your art truly speaks of ‘truth’, then people rise above castes, religions, and sects and accept you. Despite being a son of a Baniya, Lal Chand adopted the nickname ‘Yamla Jatt’ of the Jat community, but the Jat community accepted this class gap with enthusiasm, considering it an auspicious omen. This acceptance and acceptance is possible only because of Yamla’s ‘shabd-ras’. People continued to feel joy from his singing. There was no ‘dhoom-dhadka’ like in the present times in his singing. Due to his pure lyrics, till date no one has said that how did a Baniya Jatt become?
The ancient singers mostly performed their written compositions. In their written compositions, they knew which posture or which bandh was full of action. Which words to speak ‘with a bang’ and where to keep the tone low. Then, after coming out of jail and going on stage, people started listening to Jagat Singh Jagge and also started looking at his external appearance. When he would come and go on horseback and as soon as he dismounted, he would sing, ‘Meinu Jat Mirza ne akhude’, then he would truly seem like a Mirza. Narinder Biba’s company with him was like a marigold on gold. Surinder Kaur had the honor of being the ‘Cuckoo of Punjab’. The songs she sang ‘Mawan Dhiyaan Milan Nagiyan Chaare Kandhaan Ne Chubare Diyan Halliyaan’, ‘Nein Ek Meri Akh Kashni’, ‘Lattha Di Chadar Ure Slatee Rang Mahiyaan’ remained quite popular. Prakash Kaur, Jagjit Jirvi and Asa Singh Mastana had their own color. After this, the Akhara system continued to be the center of intense attraction for the people.
With the activation of these Akhara pairs, the singers started to have a distinct identity. People’s interest in Akhara was increased by listening to the unabashed family gossip from the mouth of the woman because the woman was socially locked up under an unannounced emergency. Initially, only men used to watch the akhada. This was also a period of shame when even the young sons of the family used to watch the akhada secretly from their fathers. While standing or sitting in the akhada, they used to watch the akhada hidden from their fathers. Women used to watch the akhada secretly from their families by hiding or covering their faces with clothes from their rooms. With the passage of time, when this akhada culture reached the palaces through the streets, women also started becoming a part of this akhada culture.
In this akhada method, when the name of the lyricist was revealed in the last stanza of the song, people also started identifying the lyricists. Lyricists like Nand Lal Nurpuri, Chiman Lal Shugal, Gurdev Singh Mann, Babu Singh Mann Mararhan Wala, Hardev Dilgir Tharike Wala, Sohan Singh Sital, Gami Sangatpuria etc. kept talking about their own different brands by composing songs in different genres. People started identifying lyricists from the styles of the songs. In akharas, small incidents of life or family issues started being depicted in a dramatic manner. Akhara culture remained the center of attraction of the people for a long time. Till this time, music remained in the hands of the artists, meaning music never weighed heavily on the words. Of course, the number of instruments on the stage had reached six or seven. People enjoyed the lyrical flavor of the songs through the auditory method.
The artists who played leading roles in the akharas were Pammi-Pohli, Mohammad Sadiq-Ranjit Kaur, Harcharan Grewal-Rajan, Chandi Ram, Didar Sandhu, Kuldeep Manak, Jagmohan-K Deep, Narinder Biba, Prakash Kaur, Asa Singh Mastana, Jaswant Sandila-Parminder Sandhu, Kartar Ramla, Hakam Bakhtari Wala, Amar Singh Chamkila, Madan Rahi etc. The list of artists is quite long. Another characteristic of this period was that people did not perform in akharas without women artists.
They did not accept. Kuldeep Manak had a different color in this era. Narinder Biba had a different one and Jagmohan-K. Deep had a different one. Didar Sandhu used to write songs and sing them himself. People liked his singing style adorned with idioms a lot.
Mohammad Sadiq-Ranjit Kaur was a pair that played a long innings in the Akhara Vidhi. Very few people know that Mohammad Sadiq is not only a singer, but is even more expert as a musician. Mohammad Sadiq gave a rich display of his art by presenting Babu Singh Mann’s Kora Chhand songs in different styles. When the artist and the melody are in tune, art is born. When art speaks with its head up, the artist also gets drowned in the waves. Once Mohammad Sadiq was composing the music for Babu Singh Mann’s song ‘Nahiyon Bhullana Vichhoda Tera’. When Mohammad Sadiq started singing the song after setting it to music, Mohammad Sadiq himself started crying. This is called a song with a living soul. So in this way, the style of the lyricists also improved. Babu Singh Mann became known as an expert in writing emotional songs in the folk language and a writer of folk tales with a touch of melody. The artists of western Punjab did not let music become marketable. They did not let music dominate the vocabulary even till now.
It is difficult to find a good artist in the current singing and lyricism. Earlier, the singer used to adapt the music to his liking, now the music makes the artist adapt to his liking. The noise of music has reduced both the singer and the lyricist in terms of quality. Now the melody in the song has become an object to be seen through the eyes. Now we do not listen to the song on the screen, we watch it. Nowadays, artists do not learn, only the music played on the computer makes them adapt to their liking. Now it is not even known when an unknown so-called artist will become a superstar. Such artists sing less on stage and dance more. Now it is not even understood whether to call the person sitting in front of the screen an audience or a listener.
According to Babu Singh Mann, the artistry of songwriting has ended now. Songwriting and singing have been taken over by computer music, but still there are some artists who have not let their voice get lost even in the noise of the instruments. Artists like Gurdas Mann, Satinder Sartaj, Harbhajan Mann, Hans Raj Hans, Sukhwinder etc. are worth mentioning. Those who have not let the instruments dominate their singing. The more noise the instruments make, the weaker the singer will be. Only an artist with a weakness in musical aspect will resort to the ‘dhoo-dhoo’ of the instruments. Many new lyricists have created such songs that we don’t even know what they mean.
Now the lyrics are not being composed to touch our emotions, they are being composed only keeping the screen in mind. I don’t mean to say that the current singing or lyrics have completely collapsed. Some new artists are still making very good lines, but commercial singing is reaching its peak. If this trend continues, our next generation will also become addicted to this ‘dhoo-dhoo’. So new and emerging artists and lyricists should not fall prey to commercial level structures, learn the skill of singing and not let their lyrical taste be lost.
