Rajasthani folk artists Gafruddin Mewati Jogi and Taga Ram Bheel were on Sunday announced as recipients of the Padma Shri awards in the ‘unsung heroes’ category.
Gafruddin, 68, is known for folk and traditional music, particularly the bhapang. Also known as the ‘talking drum’, bhapang is a rhythmic percussion instrument made of a hollow dry pumpkin shell mounted with goatskin.
Hailing from the Mewati Jogi community, Gafruddin received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award last year from President Droupadi Murmu. In its citation, the Akademi said that Gafruddin “also happens to be the last surviving folk artist who knows and performs all the 2,500-plus dohas of Pandun ka kada (Mahabharata)”.
“I learnt bhapang from my father, Budh Singh Jogi. We used to perform together; he used to play jogiya sarangi, and I would play bhapang alongside him. One of my uncles used to be on harmonium, another on dholak,” Gafruddin told The Indian Express.
Gafruddin traces his lineage to Ismail Nath Jogi, said to be a disciple of Gorakhnath, one of the nine Navnaths; Ismail recited the kalma and became a Muslim. “We are Muslims, but we sing Shivji ka Byavla, Pandun ka Mahabharat… Lok Ramayan is known as Lanka Chadhai here locally; we sing all this and go to temples and also pray at mosques,” he said.
Over a career spanning six decades, Gafaruddin has many commendations to his name for playing and promoting bhapang. He has also travelled extensively to perform in India, as well as in Australia, Canada, France, England, Germany and Japan.
He said he performed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, just before the Covid lockdown.
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Like Gafruddin, Taga Ram Bheel, in his early 60s, plays a unique instrument, the algoza. A double flute made of bamboo, the algoza works on the same principle as a bagpipe; one of the two flutes usually plays a continuous drone while the other plays different notes.
As per Anahad Foundation, a non-profit organisation “dedicated to empowering folk artists and preserving the vibrant folk music of India”, Bheel lives in Mool Sagar town, just outside of Jaisalmer, and learnt the instrument when he was a child by stealing his father’s algoza in his absence. He has been playing the instrument since he was 10 years old and has spent 30 years of his life in the jungles of Ranthambore.
Taga Ram bought his first algoza when he was 11 and learnt it by himself by coordinating the tunes. In 1981, at the age of 18, he gave his first stage performance in Jaisalmer.
A renowned folk musician who has been performing at Rajasthan’s Desert Festival since 1981, Bheel has featured in several programmes for All India Radio, Jaisalmer. Honoured with invitations from Nehru Yuva Kendra Sansthan and Rajasthan Tourism, he has toured across India and abroad, performing in over 15 countries, including France, the US, Japan, and Russia. He also conducts workshops and crafts high-quality algozas, sought by musicians worldwide. He also plays the matka and flute, while continuing mining as a parallel livelihood.
