Tarana Singing - Ustad Amir Khan

The Tarana stands as a popular and distinctive genre within Hindustani classical music, characterized by the use of syllables (such as na, ta, dar, tanom, yala, yali) rather than verses of poetry. The expert singer can perform taranas in a wide variety of raags and taals (beats), with the delivery usually set to medium or fast tempo. The genre is the invention of Hazrat Amir Khusro.

There is a notable disagreement within the Indian classical music community among the practitioners and researchers about the meanings of tarana phrases. The prevailing belief is that these phrases are either unintelligible sounds or imitations of musical instruments. Ustad Amir Khan (1912 - 1973), the prominent singer and scholar of Hindustani classical music, proposed an intriguing alternative. Having dedicated a substanital portion of his career to the study of taranas, he showed that the tarana words and phrases were Perso-Arabic expressions, whose meanings could be explained as follows [1] :

Tanan Dar Aa - Enter my body.
O Dani - He knows
Tu Dani - You know.
Na Dir Dani - You are the Complete Wisdom.
Tom - I am yours, I belong to you.
Yala, Yalale - Short forms of Ya Allah

In the following live recording of the Tarana in Raag Darbari, at the 1 min 30 seconds mark, Ustad Amir Khan delves into the subject [2]:

QAUL BLOG · Ustad Amir Khan Explains Tarana

Other music experts have also tackled the issue in their own way, but most have done so along the same lines as Ustad Amir Khan. For instance, we have the following lexicon [3]:

Dar – Bheetar, Aandar (inside)
Dara – Andar Aa (get in or come inside)
Dartan – Tanke Aandar (inside the body)
Tanandara – Tanke Aandar Aa (Come inside the body)
Tom – Main Tum Hun (I am you)
Nadirdani – Tu Sabse Adhik Janata Hai (You know more than anyone else)
Tandardani – Tanke Aandarka Jannewala (One who knows what is inside the body) 

One may wonder how these Perso-Arabic words came to be used in the tarana. A compelling explanation has been presented by Ustad Farid Ayaz Qawwal, the leading performer from the contemporary generation of the Qawwal Bachche. He suggests that the origin of tarana can be traced back to the following Persian quatrain (رباعی) by Khurso [5]. 

آن روز که روح آدم آمد به بدن
از بیم گناه نمی شد اندر تن
خواند مــــلایکان به لحن داؤد
در تن در تن درآ درآ آمد در تن

When Adam's soul met his body that day

Fear of sin held it back, couldn't find its way

Angels sang with David's melody sweet

Dartan dartan dara dara dartan (a union complete)

He adds that some of the tarana syllables were derived from the Turkish language as well. The following is a live recording of him discussing this subject [4].

 

QAUL BLOG · Farid Ayaz Explains Tarana

The quatrain speaks of the creation of Adam and the day his pure soul encountered the body for the first time. Fearing the sinful nature of the flesh, the spirit hesitated from entering the body. The angels intervened and employing the enchanting melodies of the prophet David began singing the following words: Dar tan, dar tan, dara dara (inside the body, inside the body, come inside, come inside). The entrancing melodies lured the spirit towards the body, culminating in a union.

From the above interpretations, we learn that tarana bol are actually meaningful words and phrases that convey ideas of mystical union and more. The alternative viewpoint, proposing that they are meaningless sounds, harks back to ancient times when musicians traditionally used specific sound-syllables, particularly tabla sounds, to structure and shape their songs [6]. This genre, however, did not serve as an antecedent for the tarana.

Instead, what Ustad Amir Khan showed was that taranas were distinct and, on contrary, did convey meaning. According to him, the incorporation of meaningless sound-syllables in modern taranas resulted from innovations introduced by later generations of tarana singers. 

Through years of research and recitals, Ustad Amir Khan tried to set the record straight and take the tarana back to its pure form as originally conceived by Hazrat Ameer Khusro [3]. 

* * *

We leave you with this lovely Tarana in Raag Hamsadwani [7], a perfect example of the use of pure tarana bol by Ustad Amir Khan. The aptly inserted Persian couplet about union with the beloved plays on the same theme that underlies many original tarana phrases:-

Etihaade-st miyaan e man o tu

Man o tu neist miyaan e man o tu

There's a unity between you and I

(Such that) there's no "You" and "I" between you and I.

Credits:
[1]  The Tarana Style of Singing by Amir Khan.
[2]  youtube.com/user/thuryina ; link to mp3.
[3]  "Indian Music of the 78rpm era - Amir Khan". (link)
[4]  YouTube link ; link to mp3.
[5]  Speech by sufi scholar and poet Syed Nasiruddin Nasir (link 1 , link 2)
[6]  A Concise Dictionary of Hindustani Music by A. D. Ranade.
[7]  youtube.com/user/Yajnaseni