A raag called Rahat

This is the original version of a piece I wrote for Cricinfo.

If you had asked me, back when I was a child, to impersonate a ‘classical’ singer you would have found me making exaggerated facial features and loud, guttural noises that sound like someone wailing. Hindustani classical music — the millennia old tradition of the subcontinent’s premier art form — is almost impossible to appreciate without the context of understanding its meanings and symbols. For a child, or anyone ignorant of that context, the form can be both aesthetically confusing as well as fundamentally boring.

52.4 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, too wide once again, not entirely sure what the tactic is …but Misbah gives his man a big clap for his determined width

It has been often posited that Hindustani classical music was developed with the ideology and rituals of the ancient Hindu religious tradition. In particular, it is meant to embody the concept of time as expounded on by Hinduism. Time is understood to be cyclical, not just at the levels of days and seasons, but also at the level of the universe in long cycles of change. Cycles are understood to repeat, yet also not be exactly similar.

52.1 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, very full, almost hits the popping crease as it swings well wide of off stump. No stroke from the fully-formed Root, who was in position to lash a drive if he had so chosen

This sense of cosmic time seems to be reflected in the structure of classical music as well. As Martin Clayton writes “[Hindustani classical] music unfolds in a process of continuous development, and does not repeat exactly, but this development takes place largely within the context of a cyclically repeating temporal structure — the taal…” The taal itself helps regulate the steps taken in the process of raag development, which is “thought of as unchanging… [and] is constantly renewed in performance as cycle follows cycle.” The raag then comes to represent a process while the taal determines the repetition of similar cycles that embody small variations.

52.5 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, drags this one much tighter and draws a compact block

About seven centuries ago, the influence of Sufi Muslim thought on Hindustani classical music began to show. Many of the practitioners belong to the Muslim dynasties, and they borrowed both ideologically and musically to find ways of expressing their thoughts within this form. The Sufi musician Hazrat Inayat Khan wrote that “the whole universe is a single mechanism working by the law of rhythm: the rise and fall of the waves, the ebb and flow of the tide… Cycles of rhythm, with major and minor circles interpenetrating, uphold the whole creation in their swing.” In other words, the essence of the music helps one understand the divine system set up by the creator.

54.1 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, good delivery, swinging sharply, and threatening the edge as it goes fizzing by

Clayton goes onto suggest that musical time has two complementary aspects. “One is periodicity, regularity and recurrence [and] corresponds to the domain of metre…The other is gestural, figural and…relates to the domain of rhythm. Rather than, as in metre, the same pattern being due for return, in rhythm one gesture can be followed by a repetition of the same, a variation thereon, or a distinct but complementary pattern.”

54.2 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, tight line again, lifting into a back-foot defence

To put it simply, the metre allows for a process of cyclical repetition while the rhythm allows for exploring ideas within that cyclical process, using small variations and improvisations to adorn the music.

54.3 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, that’s sharp again, a bit of extra nip from a good length, and the angle brings the edge of Root’s bat into peril. Gets away with it

54.4 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, fully forward to push to point

In essence then, listening to an Indian classical music performance requires an understanding of why it assumes a very distinct, repetitive form which is full of subtle yet meaningful changes.

54.5 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, good probing line, swinging late, outside off, and Root is lured by this one. The pressure is starting to tell …

The appreciation of those variations is not possible if one expects a basic, linear narrative that conforms to contemporary ideas of music. Instead, it is a process which keeps coming back to a similar idea approached in subtly different ways.

54.6 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, that is a very fine over, the fourth maiden in a row, as Root is once again forced to make a decision outside off, and just about keeps his bat out of harm’s way

The sacred roots of Hindustani classical music mean that its performances are often, especially initially, very sombre and sober. There is an understanding of the importance of art as a means of realising a higher purpose. In such a situation, any vulgarity or immaturity, or a basic lack of ability and skill, can upend the whole performance and process. When a performer is seeking to elucidate divine truths, any distraction or lack of skill can make the whole performance fall apart.

56.5 Rahat Ali to Root, no run, edged, and did that carry? Yes, it did! A drop by Hafeez at first slip from a very sharp low edge, from a full late-swinging delivery. All that hard work … how massive will that moment be? It went in, but just squeezed out again

It would be unfair to say Pakistan lost the third test due to Hafeez’s dropped catch. The poor bowling later that day, and the collapse the day after were more immediate causes. But unlike then, this was the moment that a team that has forged its identity in cricket’s backwaters was composing its own virtuoso performance. It is an eternal shame that it fell apart right when it was hitting its peak.