Tappa

                                               Tappa

 

History of Tappa outlines the biographical sketches included in the epic work of Indian Music, by Dr. Thakur Jaydev Singh. According to him, Shorie Miya had four significant disciples: Prasiddhu Maharaj, Miya Gammu or Gammu Khan, Tarachand, and Mir Ali Saheb, Gammu Khan`s son, Sadi Khan and Babti Ramsahay. He is considered as a member of the kathaka community who together with his brother Manohar Maharaj founded the Prasiddhu-Manohar lineage. Like the other lineages of Tappa singers, this lineage asserted significant musicianship in the mainstream genres of vocal music. Prasiddhu`s great-grandson, Ramkrishna Mishra taught and performed in Kolkata till 1955.

Gammu Khan`s son, Sadi Khan had left Lucknow to settle in Varanasi. The city thus became an early partner in the evolution of the genre. Sadi Khan`s presence encouraged the leading courtesans of the era to master the art. The Prasiddhu-Manohar lineage was also initiated in the city that made a significant impact in the propagation of Tappa. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the courtesans of Varanasi remained important repositories of the Tappa art. Of great importance to the surviving Tappa tradition of Varanasi are the names of Bade Ramdasji who was born on 1896. He was a prominent Khayal singer who trained several famous twentieth-century vocalists in the Tappa.

The tappa entered the Gwalior Khayal lineage early in its history during the nineteenth century. Natthan Peer Baksh was the founder of the Gwalior lineage. He had studied the Tappa with Shakkar Khan and Makkhan Khan, two famous disciples of Shorie Miya`s father, Ghulam Rasool. Natthan Peer Baksh` grandsons, Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan apparently adopted the tappa into the gharana`s collection. Haddu Khan`s son, Rehmat Khan was a formidable tappa singer. Haddu Khan`s son-in-law, Inayet Hussain Khan, founder of the Sahaswan-Rampur gharana of the khayala, and his heirs, Mushtaq Hussain and Nissar Hussain, were also eminent tappa performers.

Hassu Khan`s disciples, Devji Buwa, and Raoji Buwa carried on the tappa tradition in the Gwalior lineage. In the succeeding generation, Balkrishna Buwa Ichalkaranjikar brought the tappa into the khayala mainstream in Maharashtra. Narayan Buwa Phaltankar on the other hand introduced the tappa style to the performance of abhangas. With their contribution, the tappa genre struck deep roots in the cultural soil of Maharashtra. The Gwalior khayala lineage values its tappa repertoire as a means of cultivating exceptional vocal agility.

Through the nineteenth century, Lucknow remained active in the tappa genre, with Nawab Hussain Khan [died early nineteenth century], and Chhajju Khan [died 1870] on record as great practitioners of the art. In the late nineteenth century, eastern India exhibited great enthusiasm for the genre, with the performing and scholarly contributions of Gopeshwar Bannerji of Vishnupur Raja Sourendra Mohan Tagore of Jorasanko, and Bholanath Bhatt of Darbhanga Gwalior also remained an important centre of the tappa well into the twentieth century, with Balasaheb Guruji and his disciple Nanu Bhaiyya Telang distinguishing themselves.