Tappa

Tapa is the oldest and most popular form of Pashto folk literature. It is Tapa which has remained the most useful source of expression of sentiments of Pashtuns, especially female folk. Tapa has given place to many subjects i. e social, religious, romantic, political, cultural etc. There will hardly be a Pashtun who does not remember one or two tappa. One of the important aspects of Pashto Tapa is that no one can claim it as its creature nor its date of creation is known. The singer may be male or female but largely Tapa is sung by women. Pointing out the life of Tapa, the author of Khurshed-i- Jehan says ”in the army of Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi a Pashtun Commander called Malik Khalo who resided in the nearby area of Gomal Pass, when the army reached nearby Gomal Pass, the beloved of Malik Khalo sung this Tapa, چې د خالو لښـکرې راشي زۀ به ګومل ته د خپل يار ديدن له ځمه Translation: "When the army of khalo will reach Gomal, I will go to Gomal to meet my beloved” This Tapa has been given place in the book ”Patta Khazana” by Abdul Haye Habibi. It is believed that this Tapa is round about 1000 years old. One of the important aspects of Pashto Tapa is that it is colored by different features of human life. It covers religion, romance. history, politics, and different social subjects. It is one of the bad lucks of Pashtun society that it has been passed through different revolutionary and conflicted stages. Arsala Khan remained a closed enemy of the British. He used to be always involved in clashes with them and consequently was martyred. His belongings were destroyed by the enemy and his family were put in hot water. His daughters were brought before General Robert and at that moment someone sung this tapa, د ارسلا خان کجيرې لوڼې اوس د ډپټي په مخکښې ځي سرتور سرونه Translation: "The beautiful daughters of Arsala Khan are brought without a veil on their heads before General Robert".[3]

Tappa originated from the folk songs of the camel riders in Punjab. The tappa style of music was refined and introduced to the imperial court of the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah,[4] and later by Mian Ghulam Nabi Shori or Shori Mian, a court singer of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, Nawab of Awadh.

In Bengal, Ramnidhi Gupta&kalidas chattopadhay composed Bengali tappa and they are called Nidhu Babu's Tappa. Tappa gayaki took new shape and over decades became puratani, a semi-classical form of Bengali songs.

Tappa, as a significant genre in Bengali musical styles, reached levels of excellence in lyrics and rendition (gayaki), arguably unmatched in other parts of India. Hugely popular in the latter half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, tappa was the genre of choice of the wealthy elite as well as the classes with more modest means. An evolved format of the tappa was the baithaki style, which evolved under the direct patronage of the landed elites of the zamindari classes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in their baithak-khanas (literally, baithak - assembly, khana - halls or salons) and jalsaghar (literally, halls for entertainment, mujra or nautch halls)

Composers of repute included Bidyasundar, Roopchaand Pakkhi, Dadathakur, and Hiralal Sarkhel. Unfortunately, tappa being mainly a vocal tradition, a lot of priceless material from the body of art has been lost in the passage of time. Many celebrated artists died before recordings of music became common. What is left today is mainly handed down from the generations by oral traditions as well as some written matter, occasionally turned up in the course of research.

Ramkumar Chattopadhyay was perhaps the most significant vocal proponent in recent times, of the tappa style in Bengal, renowned for his semi-humorous and majorly artistic renditions and his comical incorporation of English into the Bengali lyrics, either his own translations or his anecdotal translations based on prior sources, ostensibly for the 'comprehension' of the British 'sahibs' in the British Raj era, but containing many subversive and sarcastic tones in the English transliterations, clearly against the Imperial regime, but subtly put, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the strict and (usually) sensitive colonial government and invite charges of sedition. (e.g. Let me go, ohe dwari, tumi kader kuler bou (humorously translated by him as "Madam, whose family you belong to...").

Among the prominent living performers of this style are Pt. Laxmanrao Pandit and his daughter Vidushi Meeta Pandit[5], Pandita Malini Rajurkar and Shashwati Mandal of the Gwalior Gharana,[6] Shanno Khurana of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana,[7] Smt. Shubhada Paradkar, a disciple of Gajananrao Joshi and Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty of the Patiala gharana .

Among instrumentalists, sarod player Shekhar Borkar from Pune was the first ever to perform a tappa on an instrument, implementing the Tarankaar Baaz, a style of playing he invented.[8][9]

• The Dictionary of Hindustani Classical Music at Google Books