The sonic pilgrimage. Exploring kīrtan and sacred journeying in Sikh culture

Abstract

ABSTRACTThrough a comparative analysis of sound and pilgrimage in Bhakti, Sufi and Sikh cultures, this paper examines their musical repertoires and divergent views from the standpoint of sacred journeying. While the Gurū Granth Sāhib is critically inclusive of Bhakti and Sufi voices, the musical setting and the performance of the hymns incorporated into the Sikh scripture suggest a distinct function of the gurbānī kīrtan practice, associated with the process of inner transmutation from a self-willed being (manmukh) into a Gurū-oriented realized self (gurmukh). The gurbānī repertoire also includes various types of ancient songs-forms (like chhants, prabandhs, dhur-pads and partāls) of historical and musicological importance. This article focuses on two of them which, developed during the Sikh Gurūs era, reveal a unique construction that seems to translate into music the Sikh literary and philosophical stances on sacred journeying. Applying Turner’s concepts of communitas and liminality, Sikh kīrtan is here interpreted as a shared experience for a potential transformation, a sonic form of ‘introverted pilgrimage’ leading to a state of blissful equanimity (sahaj).