USA Ginan Group
Mission Statement of USA Ginan Group (UGG)
The mission of the USA Ginan Group (UGG) is to inspire students and teachers to achieve the spiritual knowledge through our unique and traditional tunes of ginans for the upliftment of their souls and through this spiritual light they will able to serve mowla and others within the jamat and around the world at large.
Goals
The goal of USA Ginan Group (UGG) is to compile the raag’s of all Ginan’s at one place and separate each subject according to the present need.
Objectives
- Encourage and motivate students, teachers and jamat to continue this wonderful tradition and guide their kids to follow this unique and wonderful tradition
- Develop their own individual skills and expression
- Understand group dynamics and performance skills gained through ensemble participation
Founding Members
May 2018
Akber Andani | Salim Thobani | Nuruddin Nassar | Sanya Sohani
The mausoleum of Pir Shams at Multan, Pakistan
Taliqah on Ginan for Hunza
The mausoleum of Pir Hasan Kabiruddin, Pakistan
Ginans are a vast collection consisting of several hundred Ginans which have been a central part of the religious life of the Nizari Ismaili community of the Indian Subcontinent that today resides in many countries around the world.
The Nizari Ismailis of the Indian Subcontinent used the term to designate a special type of poetic composition: a composition whose authorship is attributed to Ismaili Pirs and Sayyids, or preachers, who came to the region as early as the eleventh century to teach the Ismaili interpretation of Islam. The earliest Pir to have preached in the subcontinent is Satgur Nur (or Nur Satgur). He is believed to have lived between the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth century.
Ginans are devotional songs rooted in the musical and poetic matrix of Indian culture. The term “ginan” carries a double significance: on the one hand, it means “religious knowledge” or “wisdom,” analogous to the Sanskrit word jnana (knowledge).
On the other hand, it means “song” or “recitation,” suggesting a link to the Arabic ghanna and the Urdu/Hindi ghana, both verbs meaning “to sing.” For the past seven hundred years, Ismailis from the Indian subcontinent (Satpanth Khoja Ismailis) have been reciting ginans as a part of their daily religious devotions at the congregational hall (Jamat Khana).
Pir Shams, who seems to have lived in the middle of the fourteenth century, composed many Ginans in Punjabi. A community of followers in Punjab called Shamsis, who had been practicing their faith in secret, came out as Ismailis in the twentieth century. Elsewhere a cycle of Ginans called garbis, lyrics set to dance, commemorates Pir Shams’s conversion of Hindu villagers in Gujarat, where he is said to have joined in their dance during the festival of navratri, and substituted his own words for theirs, thus teaching them the Ismaili interpretation of Islam.
References: Pir Shams, The Institute of Ismaili Studies Dr Farhad Daftary, Dr Zulfikar Hirji, The Ismailis An Illustrated History, Azimuth Editions
Upcoming Publication Information
Information about the upcoming publications of the CD’s.