Summoning Rains and Lighting Lamps by Singing: Legends of Tansen
They say he could make it rain by singing a Raga called Meg Malhar (rain song) and he could light up the lamps by singing Deepak (Fire) Raga. Tansen sits on the highest throne when it comes to the music history of South Asia.
Tansen (pronounced as Taan Sehn) was born in Gawaliar city of India around 1500 AD. He was well advanced in age when the great Mughal Emporer Akbar brought him to his court. Mughal kings were famous for their patronage of arts. Tansen lived in Mughal court until his death in 1586.
The royal court’s historian Abul Fazl writes about Tansen:
“A singer like him has not been in India for the last thousand years.”
Akbar’s son. The great king Jahangir writes about Tansen in his biography in these words:
“There has been no singer like him in any time or age. In one of his compositions, he has likened the face of a young man to the sun and the opening of his eyes to the expanding of the lotus and the exit of the bee. In another place, he has compared the side-glance of the beloved one to the motion of the lotus when the bee alighted on it.”
There are many legends about Tansen’s soulful singing. It is said that when he sang Meg Malhar Raga, clouds would gather in seconds and it would start…
