Tracking the Harmonium from Christian Missionary Hymns to Sikh Kirtan

Abstract

The harmonium is prominent in Sikh practices of devotional music known as kirtan and yet its significance has barely been addressed in Euro-American scholarship. Following on the heels of a recent ban against using the instrument at the holiest temple of the Sikhs, Harmandir Sahib (popularly known as the Golden Temple), this article explores how the ban seeks to discard this colonial instrument and return to playing traditional string instruments (tanti saz) associated with the courts (darbar) of the Sikh Gurus. This study is the first to examine primary missionary sources from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the aim of tracing the journeys of the harmonium in Punjab. We see how missionaries introduced the instrument to potential converts; how natives first began playing the instrument and brought it into local spaces of music making; and how the harmonium entered Harmandir Sahib as an accompanying instrument that reigned supreme for over a century, going so far as to displace string instruments and oral repertoires. I also analyze audio recordings to demonstrate the unique ways Sikh practitioners use the harmonium in devotional worship. In closing, this article considers the broad implications of the ban in relation to pedagogical reform and the contentious issue of why women remain unauthorized to offer kirtan at Harmandir Sahib despite their musical mastery.

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