Sound is a sign of life. The best sound is that which carries the heard and unheard reverberations of life. Life is not limited to human life. Human life even when taken separately is a product of connections and interaction with multiple lives found in nature which surrounds us.

Life is in reality a shared experience. As long as we breathe it’s sound that connects us most with other creatures some of which come into contact usually through the sound they make which we take more as noise because of our cognitive inability to decode it.

The most sophisticated form of sound, structured and sequenced, turns out to be music. Music affects not only humans but also other creatures such as animals and beasts. Let’s see what the great saint and Sufi Ali Hijveri, fondly called Data Ghanj Bakhsh [one who bestows treasure], writes in his celebrated book ‘Kashf-ul-Mahjub’: “We often see, for example, how camels and asses are affected with delight when their drivers trill an air. In Khurasan and Iraq it is the custom for hunters, when hunting dear at night, to beat on a basin of brass in order that dear may stand still, listening to the sound, and thus be caught. And in India, as is well-known, some people go out to the open country and sing and make a tinkling sound, on hearing which deer approach; then hunters encircle them and sing, until the dear are lulled to sleep by the delightful melody and are easily captured”.

What the saint [11th century] describes is not something freakish or some esoteric once in a while happening but is a universal phenomenon observed by people throughout the history in diverse cultures. And this is exactly what Amir Khusro’s famous verse says; “all the gazelles of the desert hold their heads in their hands in the hope that one day you would come hunting [ham-e aahuwan-e sehrasar-e kuhdnihada bar kaf / baumeedaankiro zibashikaarkhauhi aamad]”. The poet takes the image of deer transfixed by the sound of music of the criers hired by hunters in this part of the world and invests it with his own poetic meanings.

Music is intrinsically anti-war and stands for human refinement underpinned by art and science. All the militarists hate music and take love of it as a sign of decadence.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal, being a revivalist and greatly inspired by Nietzsche’s the will to power, opposing the saints and wise men holds a different notion of music when he says: “the destiny of the nations I chart for you: at first the sword and spear; the harp and the lute at last [mein tujh ko batata hoon, taqdeer-e- umamkyahai/ shamsheer-o- Sanaa awwal taoos-o- rabab akhar]”. Historical evidence refutes Iqbal’s claims. The great flourishing of music, for example, was seen at the grand court of Akbar, the Great, whose reign is indisputably the pinnacle of Mughal rule in India.

Damodar Gulati [16th century] testifies to the verity of what Ali Hijveri says. Damodar was the first great poet who composed the legend of immortal heroine Heer in Punjabi language who subsequently became an undying metaphor of love, defiance and freedom.

In his composition the dispossessed Dhido Ranjha after having been denied the fair share of his ancestral lands by his brothers, leaves his hometown Takht Hazara, meets Heer and is employed on her recommendation by the head of the family as herder of buffalo. On the very first day when it’s time in the evening to drive the herd back to its shed, Ranjha leaves his hammock, climbs a tree and plays a melody on his flute. And this is what happens: “Tigers, wild beasts, leopards, deer, all for pilgrimage made way/ pythons, cobras which gobble bodies, hare, dear, and porcupine array/ the buffalo heard, twitched their ears, stopped taking mouthfuls of hay / speak Damodar how to be self-possessed? Krishan calls, Gopis obey [trans/ Muzaffar Ghaffaar]”.

This scene is repeatedly painted by Damodar, with slight variations, in different contexts. Before reaching Heer’s town Ranjha rides a boat free of charge as he is penniless and disembarks at the riverbank along with five saints [Panj Pirs] who represent the Muslin spiritual tradition of the Punjab. They are none other than venerated Khawja Khizar, Baba Farid, Bahuddin Zakria Multani, Jalal Uddin Bukhari and Lal Shahbaz. Young man is blessed by the saints and he plays to them Raga Lalit on his flute as a token of his gratitude.

In the same century far away in England we find in one of Shakespeare’s plays his protagonist Julius Caesar making an uncannily revealing remark. Caesar looking at Cassius, one of his would-be assassins whose lean and hungry look disquiets him says “he likes no music”. His utterance proves prophetic. A distaste for music is taken as one of the signs of presence of killer instinct in a person.

Music is as much abstract as it is concrete. Mystery of music as an abstract entity has hauntingly unfathomable nature; it can be beyond comprehension but yet within the realm of human experience. The story of great Zen master Kakua [12th century] exposes the nature of the riddle. He was a recluse leading a secluded life in the mountains.

“The emperor of Japan heard about this reclusive monk who had undergone numerous hardships in order to study Zen in China… the Emperor ordered Kakua to the capital to explain what wisdom he had acquired from the study of Zen. Standing before the emperor and his retinue, Kakua brought out a flute from the sleeve of his robe, blew a single note on it, then bowed and left the court”.

Music affects all living creatures; it can lull them into a state of ethereal tranquility as much as it can unsettle them with its undecipherable audio mystery. You need to worry if you remain unaffected by it. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2020