Reminiscences of Darjeeling's special music

You asked me what made the Nepali music of Darjeeling so special or different from, say, Nepal. I trust my reply will enlighten your generation on what it was like in our good old days.

Music was everywhere in Darjeeling in one way or the other. Being a fourth-generation Christian of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, my childhood began with English hymns, Hindi and Nepali translations of the Psalms as well as original devotionals in Nepali. One hymn began thus:

Prabhu, arji sunileu:

Gorkhalile mukti paune

Dhoka kholideu!

Thapathali, Bhadgaun, Patan

Tinai chhan shahar .......

This was obviously a song of missionary zeal and evangelism to convert Nepal to Christianity. Secondly, how come Thapathali is more important than Kantipur or Kathmandu in the bhajan? And why Gorkhali instead of Nepali? Historians must take serious note of this pre-WWII Protestant song of Darjeeling!

Another Nepali Morning Prayer Ishai bhajan went like this:

Ujyalo bhaigayo, Prabhu

Dinbhari kam garnu

Alsi chhodi ramai utthun ....

This hymn exhorted us with the Protestant Work Ethics of Hard Work, Frugality, Hope, Faith, Charity and that entire Christian Jazz of WWI vintage, or even before! This was well after the Garwali-like Prachin Nepali Bhasha that said Ek admika do gadela thhya for A man had two sons from the Parable of The Prodigal Son as told by Jesus Christ in the Naya Niyam (New Testament) of the Holy Bible (Pawitra Baibal). The Christian world of Darjeeling also developed the Nepali language, its grammar, primers and textbooks, translated the Bible and hymns into Nepali, and launched printing, press and publication movement.

This awareness was the fruit of colonisation: the British Raj in India. And the British imprints of discipline, methodology, set principles and mission statements marked not only the Nepali world, but also the Hindu, Bengali and other Indian institutions. Consequently, my church, the St Columbus, had the same visions, aims and objectives of social works, proselytising, education, literacy, and health as those of the Bengali Brahma Samaj, the Hindu Ram Krishna Paramhansa Mission, Marwari Samiti, Gorkha Dukha Niwarak Sammelan, Nripendra Narayan Memorial.

Music was but one facet of the whole picture. If the itinerant Baul singers of Bengal inspired Rabindra Nath Thakur for Robindro Songeet, Amber Gurung of Darjeeling adopted Laxmi Prasad Devkota's Jhhyaurey metre and style and created �Devkota Sangeet�. The Bauls, the Charya of Newar Kathmandu and the Jhhyaurey of Muna Madan are highly malleable for chords, harmony, pitches and scales: The Occidental vestiges of music fuses well with the East.

Amber Gurung is the father of modern folk music in Darjeeling while Nati Kazi derived from the epic melodies of the Newar Charya in Kathmandu. The surrounding hills and mountains in the music of both maestros are evident while the Bauls face the deltas into the oceanic horizons.

The year 1956 ushered the special Nepali music in Darjeeling. The year was the dividing line between the old masters such as Heera Singh, Navin Bardewa and Urmila Shrestha and the new rising stars led by Amber Gurung whose cronies were Agam Singh Giri, Gagan Gurung (your Bada Babu), Kishor Sotang, Rudra Gurung, Indra Thapalia, Shanti Thatal, Kapil Raj Gurung, Nayan Subba, Manbir Singh, Pasang Wangbal who led the way for the likes of Karma and Gopal Yonzon, Sharan Pradhan, Aruna Lama, Ranjit Gazmer, Jitendra Bardewa, Kumar Subba and their own successors.

We had one commonality not found in Kathmandu's musicians. Most of the Darjeeling composers I worked with were excellent individual instrumentalists. Amber Gurung would have become a professional violinist and mandolin player. Gopal Yonzon would have been our Hari Prasad Chaurasia or James Galway on flute. Sharan was a mandolin virtuoso. Ranjit was a wizard in both the classical and commercial schools of tabla. Karma received tuition from Mr Stemberg on violin. Others received guitar lessons from Louis Banks. Ganesh Sharma and father were inveterate fiddlers. I myself graduated from rhythm guitar to the lead and later to bass guitar before ending up as an acoustic bassist at Radio Nepal. This was before I became a songwriter, singer and bandleader. Menial mastery preceded excellence in one's chosen speciality in Darjeeling's creative artistes. Unlike Kathmanduites, we dirtied our hands.

In other words, Darjeeling's creative artistes were proven musicians first, each with his favourite musical instrument. But their creative urge and urgency took precedence and their musicianship lagged behind. But the wisdom of and knowledge in their respective pet instruments, their merits, ranges, reaches, mellifuidity, strengths and limitations influenced their outputs. This is beside the harmonium, the functional baja common to all composers and singers of both Kathmandu and Darjeeling.

Secondly and equally importantly, the musicians and composers of Darjeeling were well versed in the Indian classical music, the Bhatkhande notation, as well as the western music and staff notations in bass and treble clefs for sight-reading and playing. Kathmandu did not have such musical technocrats.

Besides the lack of such metaphysics, Nepal's composers and singers were also less educated than their Darjeeling counterparts who were also comfortable in English.

To repeat, the lack of knowledge of Eastern Ragas, Raginis, Talas, Layas, Gharanas, folk traditions and Western streams of classical, folk and modern music among Nepal's musicians, composers and singers stand starkly against their Darjeeling counterparts who were well-versed in these disciplines. Thanks go to Amber Gurung for the awareness and regimen. But this chasm still remains between Kathmandu and Darjeeling.

The main reason is Kathmandu's casteist and feudal backgrounds wherein music making or playing is still considered the Damai people's lot. Politely called Dalits, it was the Damais who played garrulous brass and wind instruments in the army and police bands. The pathos began when these very ramrod open-air musicians reported to Radio Nepal and bowed the delicate strings of violins and other sensitive instruments in the soundproof recording studios.

And when Phurba Tshering Bhutia, Puru Subba, Peter J Karthak, Mark Karthak, C B Gurung, Damber Gurung, Prakash Gurung, Subarna Limbu, Pemba Lepcha, Kishor Gurung and other 'outsiders' played music at Radio Nepal's recording studios, the Radio Nepal 'hakims' were shocked not to find a single Damai among them! They were also terribly surprised when they saw 'music directors' Amber Gurung playing piano in his song recorded by Aruna Lama and Gopal Yonzon throwing in a flute riff for Narayan Gopal at the microphone. Such masters as musicians too? And they were not Damais!

In other words, Dear Trishna, we in Darjeeling began with our own how-to and do-it-yourself regimentation that made our music 'special'. But there's nothing special about it: The same were being done by Bob Dylan in the US and The Beatles in the UK. There's nothing 'dicey' about it either, is there?

Thank you for asking me.

(The writer can be reached at