Ashok Bansal Mansa
The songs composed by many Punjabi singers continue to travel from generation to generation as people’s songs. One such song that travels from generation to generation is the religious song;
Satguru Nanak, your love is beautiful
The whole world is low
In the history of Punjabi religious singing, this is the most popular and universal song of Punjabis. Everyone knows that the name of the lyricist and singer of this song is Lal Chand Yamla Jat. Lal Chand Yamala himself was a lyricist and a singer himself. He wrote songs that are inescapable truths. These songs are heard sitting in the whole family.
Lal Chand was born in 1910 to father Khera Ram and mother Harnam Kaur in village 384 Ispur of tehsil Toba Tek Singh of Lyallpur district. Lal Chand’s father also used to sing, who went out with a troupe of Rasadharis at the age of youth. Lal Chand’s grandfather Jhanda Ram also used to play Vanjli. After her husband left home, Lal Chand’s mother took her to her parents Lyallpur. It was here that Lal Chand was brought up under the care of Nana Gura Ram. Lal Chand’s family belonged to the Rajput Batwal community, also known as ‘Mahashe’.
Lal Chand’s maternal grandfather Gura Ram was also an artist. When he was about nine years old, one day he was playing around the streets around him. There used to be a prostitute ‘Khurshaidan’ somewhere nearby. His voice was very melodious. Lal Chand heard the sound of ‘Khursheeds’ going round and round. He was convinced by her melodious voice and was drawn to the barn of the ‘Khurshaids’. Again and again he used to walk near his barn to listen to this melodious voice. A Mai lived near the barn of Khursheeds. Every day she would see Bal Lal Chand going round the barn of the Khursaids. One day he called Lal Chand and asked,
“Son! What do you come here to do every day?
Lal Chand naively replied, “Baby! I come here to hear singing. I like the voice of this singer. I used to sing too, I also like to sing.” Mai took him in her lap and Lal Chand recited Mahiye’s songs to the baby. Mai was very happy to hear Mahi and she gave two rupees to Lal Chand and also urged that son, you should not come to this neighborhood after today.
Although Lal Chand’s maternal grandfather Gura Ram himself was the owner of artist Birti, but he did not want his brother to go there because Lal Chand’s father had gone with the group of rasadharis in his youth due to this hobby and later he His mother’s life had become difficult. But rivers never turn back. His interest in this direction continued to grow.
At the age of eighteen, he followed the footsteps of Pandit Sahib Dayal of ‘Sudak de Nangal Sialkot’. He met Pandit Sahib Dayal through his flesh. Following the footsteps of Pandit Sahib Dayal, he learned to play dholak, thali, algoza, dhad sarangi and also started singing traditional songs dhole mahiye and kise. Before Unj Pandit Sahib Dayal, Lal Chand also learned from Chak No. 224 Lyallpur Chaudhary Majeed, but in the matter of singing, he studied with Sahib Dayal only.
During the partition of 1947, Lal Chand came here with his family after fleeing from the other side. He reached Ludhiana with the help of time. He was 37 years old at that time. Till then he was only Lal Chand, not Yamla Jat. After coming to Ludhiana, he got in touch with the poet Ram Narain Dardi. Lal Chand told him that he had come from Pakistan. He also requested to find some menial work. The poet gave him a hut in his garden. Thus his family got a place to cover their heads. Lal Chand began to take charge of the gardener in the garden. He used to get up early in the morning and pluck flowers from the garden, wear necklaces and go to the wide market with a basket full of them. Then he would come and add a well, water the plants. This is how his family started living.
One day Lal Chand was sitting in the kuli singing at night and playing the saranga at the same time. Naturally at that time Dardi Sahib’s son heard his voice. The son told his father. Hearing his son’s words, he called Lal Chand to him and heard him sing. After this he started taking Lal Chand with him to the court of poets. There he would sing a traditional song or two. This made his life easier.
It was here that he was heard by the famous poet Lala Sunder Das Asi (who was a disciple of Lala Dhani Ram Chatrik) in a poet’s court. New boys used to come to Aasi to learn. Aasi also asked Lal Chand to come to him. He started going there, but he was illiterate. The rest of the boys used to memorize the Guru given by Guruji by writing it down, but Lal Chand was not so active. ‘Aasi’ called him,
“You are ‘Yamla’.”
Just from this day he became ‘Lal Chand Yamla Jat’. Thus learning from Asi, he started composing songs. In this way Lal Chand got the status of Yamle Jat after competing with Ustad Lala Sunder Das Asi in songwriting and became a complete artist at sixteen because he was a mature composer and had a melodious voice. He also learned songwriting from above. After his songs were recorded on Aakashvani, he started to be discussed in two years. Initially his recordings were done with Algozas.
In 1952 Yamale’s song H. M. Also Recorded in the company was ‘Sohni Mahinwal’;
Take me across the river
Hands folded in front of the pot
He has used only folk instruments in his recordings. Algoze, dhad sarangi, saranda and chakara were played by Yamala himself. He gave a new form to the instrument of the Sadhus and made it a small one. It can be said that Tubi, which rules the hearts of Punjabis, is the invention of Yamle. Yamale also wrote several duets which were recorded with his co-singer Mahendrajit Sekhon. See a variation of this;
The girl – came to life, surrounded by sorrows
Let’s go somewhere
Sadho boy, come on, let’s go somewhere…
Boy – The theft is disgraceful
Let’s go home again
Girl Jaina, don’t you come home again…
Girl – my little garden of hope
The way will dry up
Sadho boy, the way will dry up…
Boy – If the true God made a match
All separation will be over
Girl Jaina, all separation will end…
An evergreen duet touching his level of spirituality is worth mentioning because duets of this level are rare in the history of Punjabi duets;
Boy – leave the world and do devotion
Jin is your help
Neen jindie jin your be a help…
Girl – lived in the world and saw it for a long time
What is the light of devotion?
What is the light of Ve Jogia Bhakte…
The matter became symbolic and touched people’s minds in a direct way. The glory of God is sung with grace and style by Yamle like no one has said it before in ‘mainstream’ songs. He composed songs of a high standard and put them in the cradle of the Punjabi language, some of which are the main songs;
Blood has turned white, brothers, blood has turned white…
No kinship without thunder, no coat clan
Ankh is not a girl who has been in Jihde
Made again colorful
Who can bear false slander without thunder
Blood has turned white, brothers, blood has turned white…
—0—
What is the happiness of the elders who have loved them?
Those who do not earn, what to eat to their satisfaction
—0—
Keep the floral smell, will dry quickly
The more views I will take, the more I will stop
These songs of Yamale can be discussed in great detail because each song contains some philosophy. Check out this song:
R Dhanga Par Dhanga in Tallam talli
The children went to bathe in the river
This song is a picture of the tragedy of a small farmer who is doing Gurbat. In this song, he has presented the scene of the time through his pen, when the villages did not see the green revolution and were devoid of progress. The condition of the small farmer was very bad. This song is a picture of small farmers before tube wells in the field. In this song, he has shown the importance of water in peasant life.
He writes in the first interlude after the said song:
The king of the fields is always tormented
We will sow Kiku Loab from the millets
Drought took its toll, suffering untold hardships
That is, the farmer was always suffering for water, there was no rain, the situation became deadly. How can I plant crops without water?
The second part of the song demands even more attention. Yamale wrote:
Chineas, Swanki dried up, Madhal and that Vata Kangana
It seems that without food, now the year is difficult to pass
The corn has been killed, where did the husks come from?
There are two types of plants growing in fields. One is those which are grown by sowing, the other are those which grow by themselves. Plants that grow in estuaries are called ‘Nadin’. Chines, Swanki, Madhal are the only types of weeds. ‘Swanki’ is a type of wild rice, also known as Sonkhia rice. The meaning is clear that the rains dried up even without the weeds, the fodder of the slaughtered animals also dried up. How will the whole year pass without food? In the third interval Yamala states;
By eating my eyebrows
Excluded days Jat
Eight caps masar chole
Barley is less
Five daughters became wheat
Cats were rare
‘Maina’ is also a weed. ‘Tope’, ‘Padopi’ were the vessels with which wheat, barley, chickpeas were measured. According to the size, the bigger one was called Tope (Topia) and the smaller one was called Padopi. ‘Sisters’ when the wheat sprouts, twenty to twenty-five branches break out on a single plant. These branches are called ‘sisters’. Due to the drought, the number of those ‘sisters’ was reduced to only five and there were rare bats. The farmer had to make a living by beating weeds. A very small amount of wheat, chickpeas and barley.
The fourth stanza of the song is:
By drinking marijuana
Water was drawn from the wells
By putting small kiara
I cut the crop a little
Head debt of the whole village
Which streets will pass?
‘Charas boke’ was also a device for drawing water from a well. Due to scarcity of water, small beds were made and a small crop was sown. A small farmer who has become indebted due to drought is telling his plight. In the fifth interval;
Ate penju and peels
Plums eaten from the trees
By removing days from careers
The brother-in-law gave it to the sister-in-law
Roast and chew the seeds
When the afternoons fell
‘Penju’ is a fully ripe fruit of the curry. ‘Peelan’ is the fruit of a forest tree native to Malwa. Small berry type plant. All these three are more fruitful in drought. ‘Dele’ is the green fruit of curry which is used for pickling. Now in the last interlude the psalmist refers to the time when the wells stopped:
The king sitting on the throne
Thinks to Tadbir
Sent like the kunjas
To empty tinds bin neer
Khizr Khawaze Pir
Sent wishes by giving
‘Gadhi’ was the long stick with which the bullocks turned the halter. In some areas it is also called Gadhar. ‘Khizer Khawaza’ is considered to be the Pir of water. According to legends, it is considered as one of the five Pirs. Its place is considered to be a well, river, canal or any source of water. Before digging a well for water, it was worshiped before installing a pipe so that the water would be sweet. The farmer sitting on the throne is also thanking Khwaje Pir and expressing happiness.
This is just a sample of Yamala’s songs. At that time, the farmers used to live with so much difficulty by eating ‘Maine’ bhurji, drawing water with chars boke. Stopping at the well used to be a matter of great joy. Although Lal Chand Yamala passed away on December 20, 1991, his songs are a precious asset of the Punjabi language. He has many songs, in which great messages have been given. Today it is necessary to consider them.
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