Robab master Daud Khan Sadozai, during his performance at the World Sacred Spirit Festival, tells Shrabasti Mallik about the history of the instrument, how the tradition has changed over the years and how the current scenario is affecting artistes all over the world
Daus Khan Sadozai does not look or come across as a celebrated musician but he is considered a master of the robab, an instrument which has its roots in Afghanistan. In his 60s, Sadozai is very soft spoken and is keen to share knowledge about the instrument that he loves the most.
According to written records, the tradition of robab goes back to 2,000 years. Sadozai, however, told us that Hazrat Maulana Balkhi, who is called Romi in Europe, was born in North Afghanistan and that he has written a lot about the robab way before. “It is a very old and ancient tradition,” he said in broken Urdu, when we spoke to him at the recently concluded World Sacred Spirit Festival.
Sadozai took his first lessons in robab when he was young. “I used to play it just like that but ustad Omar, my guru, told me that robab is not learnt like that. Then I started to learn it seriously and eventually travelled to Europe on scholarship. During those days the robab became my friend and love because it is difficult to make friends there,” he said.
He also mentioned that it was on the insistence of his father, who wanted him to excel at it, that he is where he is today. “I have tried my best to do something good and wherever I am today is because of the blessings of my elders. And I will always keep trying till the last,” he said and added that his father was also a student of Ustad Umar. “But he never played it professionally because he was a businessman. He only played at home and at times we would play together,” he pointed out.
Sadozai traced the similar patterns in India and Afghanistan where it was difficult to find an ustad because not every guru accepted disciples. “But now things have changed. Even the character of music has changed. The spiritual music that we had slowly turned into show business, I feel that,” he shared.
It has been 45 years since Daud Khan Sadozai has been practicing the robab and he feels that the music and the tradition has gone through a sea change in the past few years. He mentioned that the change is coming is quickly and that it has been more than 30 years that a lot has been destroyed and destructed in Afghanistan. “So many artistes have become refugees. Every thread of culture in Pakistan and Iran is lost. Jo ilm thi ustad ki who khatam ho gayi (the knowledge that the ustads had has come to an end). It was my good fortune that during the years that I was learning, there was peace. That time all the ustads used to live in the same neighbourhood so we learnt there,” he shared.
When we asked him about the artistes in the world who still choose to practice traditional music, Sadozai replied that only a handful of such musicians are left in the world today. Then he elaborated, “Patience is very less in today’s generation. In our profession patience is of prime importance. learning music and the art takes a long time but the youngsters today lack patience. He recounted his experience of learning the raga shankara when he had to wake up early morning and sit for practice. “It was the same thing everyday so one day when guru ji asked if I understood, I said yes, to which he corrected me by saying, ‘It takes time it understand this. You should say that you are trying to understand’.”
The master continued, “These days, youngsters want everything immediately. Instruments, especially, need time to master because it has to be tuned. In the robab there are 25 strings and it takes time to learn how to tune all of them properly and for that you need patience.”