1990-08-26 Talk during Evening Program, Lanersbach, Austria,

Concert of the sitar player Nishat Khan

Shri Mataji:
Hello, [testing the mike].

This is the raga as called as ‘Miyan ki Malhar’.’ Now ”Miyan” is a person, very well known in the history of India. His name was Tansen. Actually, I don’t know what his real name was, but this was a kind of an honour name given to him by ‘Akbar the Great’, who ruled in our country. And he was a very cosmopolitan man. He had married a Hindu lady also Jodha Bai. And this Akbar also wrote ‘Ain-i-Akbar’ which is something like, just like Sahaja Yoga. He tried to integrate all the religions and gave the best principle of all the religions. This was the great work Akbar had done. Now he was also, so fond of Indian music. He had Tansen in his court, where he looked after that man. Formerly, in our country, all the kings used to look after the artists, musicians, artists and all that.

So, this, he made this special raga. He is known for this raga ‘Miyan ki Malhar ‘. And another one he has made, which is the very famous one, ‘Deepak’ raga. But that, nowadays nobody plays, which is the raga by which lights used to get enlightened. Like, he would play that raga and if you had all these little, little lamps, as we use in Diwali, they used to get light up. That was said about him.

And when it did not rain, he used to play this raga ‘Miyan ki Malhar’, by which it used to rain. And so, this has become a seasonal raga called ‘Miyan ki Malhar’ which is a very, very beautiful raga, you’ll enjoy it very much. And I think you know some music, some – I am forgetting the – one of the bhajans is based on this. So, I am sure you all are going to enjoy this one. Thank you.

[After performance at 1:21:30]

Hello, [testing the mike].

I feel Tansen is reborn here again. [Laughter, applause].

Every time again, he [Nishat Khan] surpasses his performances and this time, he’s reaching the perfection. And as we say this now, in our language, you mean to say that somebody is a very great player, you say, “He is a Tansen”, means it’s absolutely the last word for all this.

Today, his creativity was so great and knew no bounds. And how you say, it’s all the cloud’s play and all the clouds and then the people asking, and then again the cloud and again. You see, it’s a beautiful thing, it ‘s a song he has not told you, [Hindi]. Everybody, all the birds are singing, everybody is singing to see the clouds, you see. So, all that is in there.

[Hindi word] is peacock.

[Cut in the video]