Amongst all the Arts and Crafts in Gujarat, music has been one of the most important form of performing arts of Gujarat. Folk music occupying a major place in this arena Marsias Music is one such form of performing arts of Gujarat. Marsias is used in Gujarat as folk music although it is originally a form of Ghazal. However, Ghazals are also popular and very much interlinked with the everyday life of the Gujaratis.
Marsias Music of Gujarat is an elegiac form of music owing its roots to the Lucknow music school. This kind of musical expression bears intense emotional connection, is heavy with mourning as it is basically performed at the death of a family member or kin or friend.
Most touching in terms of emotions expressing grief and pain, the Marsias Music is originally an Urdu Ghazal form. Mostly women wearing black clothes chant the music by weeping and clapping their hands on their chest and forehead exuding the deep emotion of loss and expiration.
In older days, Marsias Music would be divided into two parts – Sinazan, the Marsia performed by the men by standing up and hitting their chests while singing and Novha, performed by women by sitting on the ground and clapping while singing.
The story of the Marsis Music basically revolves around the pathetic death of Hasan and Husein at Karbala and the massacre that took place there.
One of the most touching forms of Performing Arts of Gujarat, the Marsias Music was raised to new heights by Mir Babar Ali ‘Anis’ and Mirza Salamat Ali ‘Dabeer’ in their description of the bloodshed at Karbala. They incorporated an aura of elegance and empathy to give a complete mold of the loftiness as well as the poetic ism.
