Book reviews: Krishnarao Shankar Pandit: a doyen of khayal by Neela Bhagwat; String instruments of North India (Vol. II) by Sharmistha Sen

6 Pages·1992·0.25 MB·English

BOOK REVIEWS
Krlshnarao Shankar Pandlt:
A Doyen of Khayal
Neela Bhagwat
Focus Books (Popular Prakashan),
Bombay, 1992
XII+68 pages, Rs 50
With the death of Acharya Krishnarao
ShankarPanditinAugust 1989at aripe old
age,aluminous symbol oftheguru-shishya
heritagewentawayfrom ourmidst. Panditji
wasa direct inheritorof the musicalwealth
andstyle ofthe pioneeringKhayal gharana
of Gwalior founded by Haddu Khan and
Hassu Khan. To mark hisbirth centenary,
concerts and seminars were organized at
various places this year including his home
town Gwalior.
In this context NeeJa Bhagwat's book
could have been a welcome addition to the
literatureon thisvenerablemusician hadits
casualand confusedtreatmentnot madethe "thePiralsoknownasShaikhorKhanqah".
book somewhat frustrating for the reader. Khanqahdoes notmeanapersonbutaplace
Any modest expectations one might have - a centre for religious gatheringsofSufis
had ofgaining some information, some in andalsotheabodeofdisciplesandfollowers.
sights, some analysis of Panditji's per VtshnubuaDeshpandewasthefirstprincipal
sonality and contribution grow dim as one of the Madhav Music College, not Rajah
goesthroughthe book.Besides,thereareir haiyya Poonchhwale (p. 16). He occupied
ritants like factual errors, omissions of sig thispositionforsomeyearsandRajabhaiyya
nificant aspects of Panditji's work and succeeded him. Ali Hussain and hisuncle
emphaseson irrelevantfacts. VllayatHussaindid not belongto the Agra
Thereisafactualerroronpage 1itself. glUJrana (p. 29). The title of Krishnarao
ItwasnotVlShnupant Panditwhomovedto Muley'sbookpublishedin 1940isBharatiya
Gwalior from Chinchwad (Pune) but his Sangeet and notBharatiya SangeetShastra
fatherRamchandraRao,thegrandfatherof (p. 31). The statement that Haddu Khan
ShankarPandit. Onpage5isa referenceto gave Inayat Hussain Khan his daughter's
SIuIgeetNIIbIkNos.105-106:July-December 1992
BOOKREVIEWS 55
hand in marriage but not his musical the rich Gwalior Khayal; preservation and
knowledge is contrary to the usually ac- projection of his inheritance together with
ceptedview. establishing hissupremacy as a singer and
Basedontheguru-shiShya relationship, guruwasofutmostimportancetohim.
any oral tradition acquires an' esoteric Bhatkhande's primary concern, on the
element. For traditional professional otherhand,wasthe entirerange ofHindus
musicians,theirknowledgeisalsothemeans tani music, comprising allthe gharantU (in
.of economic survival. The contention that eluding Gwalior) and traditions of raga
this is at the root of their possessiveness manifestation through both Dhrupad and
about musical knowledge andoftheirwith- Khayal. The underlying unity of these rich
boldinginformationwhileteachingmaywell diverse streams was for him the matrix to
betrue.Butitisdifficulttosee bowthegos- constructasystem, toprovideatheoryanda
sipyanecdotesrepeatedbythe authorinher grammar for contemporary Hindustani
exploration of Krishnarao Pandit as a guru . music.Inhisviewtheorywould betheback
can
giveanyinsightintohischaracter.Saying boneofpractice,and practice the substance
that he waspossessive of his knowledge or oftheory.
thatitwasdifficulttolearnfromhim,orjust With this objective, Bhatkhande reo
wondering whether he was a generous searchedinto thetermsandidiomsprevalent
teacher,doesnotlead oneanywhere. inthedifferentoral-auraltraditionsandalso
There is mention of the graded cur- in the relevant musicologicalworks. After
riculum .followed in the school under decades of devotedwork he brought outin
Panditji'sdirection. But thereislittle infor- series a systematized body of literature
mationaboutPanditji'smethodofimparting providing a base and startingpoint for the
trainingtodisciplesselectedforintensivein- further development of Hindustani music
dividual grooming in the gurukula mode and musicology. The dissemination of this
with the aimofmaking them proficientper- knowledge and the introductionof the sys
forming musicians representing the authen- tempreparedbyhimfortheclassroomteach
tic Gwalior gayaki. The stray remark that ' ingofmusicwasamajorfacetofhiscareer.
exposure to the ashtangagayaldwasmainly Impressed by the value and utility of
through concerts and that imitation of Bhatkhande's work, the Maharaja of
Panditji'ssingingwas perhapsthe onlyway Gwalior activelysupportedhisscheme, and
ofabsorbingthestyleistheonlyclue. underhispatronagetheMadhavMusicCol-
Theauthor'saccountofthemuchadver- legewasstartedin1918.Itsohappenedthat
tised 'conflict' between Panditji and thiscoincidedwiththeformalestablishment
Bhatkhandeismixed up. Thoughthe sharp of Pandkitji's institution, the Shankar
differencesbetweenthebasicorientationsof Gandharva Vidyalaya.
the twomusicians have been wen stated, The insinuation that Bhatkhande pur
strandsoflogicalanalysisareloadedwiththe poselyoffended orhurtPanditji isnot ~e.
author'sconfusedideas,leadingtofallacious In fact, authentic exponents of the vanous
conclusions. Panditjimight appearto bean gharanas provided the substance for
aggrieved party and he might have gone Bhatkhande'sedi!iceof~us!~kn~wledge,
throughsome anxious and disturbingsitua- andhevaluedtheir~ntnb~fjonto~cause.
tions because ofBhatkhande's advent, but Among Bhatkbande5 advisory DOtiDgs on
this can hardly be termed a conflict. Both the working of the Madhav Music College
Panditji and Bhatkhande were wedded to was hisspecific~ggestion ~t senior stu
the causeofmusic. Thebasicapproach,the dentswiththeabilityandambition~excelas
vision the life mission ofBhatkhandewas, performers should be sent to eminent per
howe~er, ~~~ ~o~
entirelydifferent from Panditji's. forming of (?ne.ofwhom
Pandi~Jl)
Panditjiwasthe proud,youthfulinheritorof was formtens1VetralDJDgmperfor-
56 SUMATIMlITATKAR
manceandconcert techniques. Forthesame tive against his guru. He is centre-stage in
reason he put his illustrious pupil Ratan variouscontextsinthisbook,whetheritisan
jankar under the tutelage of Faiyaaz Khan accountofPanditji'sdisciplesoradiscussion
for fiveyears. At the Lucknow Music'Con of classicism and romanticism. AroIkar's
ference organized by Bhatkhande, along reputation, hisawards and honours, are all
with luminaries like Allah Bande and well deserved. But the elaborate treatment
Nasiruddin of the Dagar family, Mushtaq accorded to him should rightly have been
HussainKhan,FaiyaazKhan, RadhikaGos reserved for a book on hiswork. Such fre
wami and Chandan Chaube, Krishnarao quent reference to AroIkar in a book on
Shankar Pandit was featured as the repre Krishnarao Shankar Pandit seems rather
sentative ofthe Gwalior gharana. Suchwas irrelevant. .
the esteem in which he was held by .A discerning reader cannothelp notic
Bhatkhande. ing the vague and erroneous notionsof the
In this connection the author's refer author regarding raga, baiJdish and
ence to Bhatkhande's theory of vadi-sam creativity. Oneshouldrealizethatthegraha
vadineeds tobeclarified.Infact, termslike amsha-nyasa -trio is only an aspect of the
vadi-samvadi were not an invention of structureand anatomyof a raga, asis vadi
Bhatkhande's. They had already been in samvadi. Thetrioisnotinitselfaformulafor
vogueindifferentoraltraditions,althoughin creative improvisationasBhagwat simplisti
thecontextoftotallypractice-orientedtrain callyexplainsand recommends.
ing,theory didnot covermuchground.The Perhaps in her enthusiasm to establish
theoryassuchwasnotBhatkhande's:heonly the greatness ofPanditji (although that was
put these termstosystematicuseinhisraga neverindoubt),theauthorhasresortedtoan
descriptions,Panditji realized theneed fora extraordinary device. She has chosen one
basic theory of Hindustani music (not of recorded bandlsb each by Panditji and two
Khayal)forhisschoolcurriculum,forwhich other contemporary masters, Faiyaaz Khan
heneededaterminologyurgently.Inspiteof and Kesarbai Kerkar, and has made
his resistance to anything connected with diagrams of the initial avartanas.These are
Bhatkhande, willy-nilly he had to accept then used for a comparative assessment of
vadi-samvadialongwithsomeotherterms. the relative merits of the three musicians.
Here the author promptly comes up When the final judgement is delivered,
with a SOlution, suggesting that Panditji declaring the supremacy of Panditji over
couldhaveprofitablydiscussedthisproblem Faiyaaz Khan and Kesarbai Kerkar, ~e
with the great scholar Krishnarao Muley, readerisleft bothdazed and outraged.It15
adaptedhistheoryofKhayalandutilizeditin preposteroustobelievethattheartofclassi
his school.Based on thegraha-amsha-nyasa calmasters can be assessed with the helpof
trio, this theory, according to the author, inaccuratediagramsofafewsecondsoftheir
facilitates improvisation. But after coming music.
up with this suggestion she immediately Undercaptions like 'Khayal- A Clas-.
withdraws it, realizing that Panditji was no sica-Romantic Art Form', 'Panditji as an
theoretician and was not interestedenough Individual', and 'Individualism in the
inthe theoreticalaspects ofmusic- unlike Present Context', the author has presented
hispupilSharachchandraAroIkarwhowent some information and has offered some
to Muley to learn the aesthetics of Khayal. viewpoints. 'Panditji's Style of Singing'
Onewonderswhetherthisfutileexerciseen presentsan analysisofsomeofhis~mmer­
hancestheprestigeofthe"doyenofKhayal" cial discs and otherrecordings, spellingout
orplacesAroIkaronahigherrung. thesalientfeatures ofhisgayaki and descrlt:
Here and elsewhere, Sharachchandra inghisamazing masteryover varied t~hni­
AroIkarisplaced in acomparativeperspec- ques.Thiscould,inaway,serveasaguideto
BOOK REVIEWS 57
thosewhowishtolisten tohismusic.
Atthe end of the bookthereisa listof
Panditji's recordings, comprising commer
cial discs and a large number of private
~~rdi~gs.The inclusionofthe holdings of
msntunonssuchasAkashvani,wherehewas
a regular broadcaster from very early on,
Sangeet Natak Akademi, which honoured
himwithanAwardin1959,and theNational
Centrefor the PerformingArts would have
made the list a more meaningfuldocument.
But even as it is, the list is useful and a
rewarding featureofthe book.
SUMATI MUTATKAR
String Instruments of North
India (Vol. II)
,~~E}f',i}"
Sharmistha Sen
and techniques in instrumental music are
Eastern Book linkers, Delhi, 1992
dealtwith,andsomesupportingdocumenta
148.pages, Rs 300 tion provided in the way of notations, il
lustrations, andgenealogies.Theresearchis
primarily based on interviewsand consult
Indian musicology lacks a well-documented ations with leading instrumentalists includ
historyofourinstrumentsor even a reliable ing the late Hafiz Ali Khan, Dabir Khan,
compendium of instrumental techniques BirendraKishoreRoyChoudhury, Radhika
andstyles.SofarasHindustanimusiciscon MohanMaitra,andtheauthor'sguruMush
cerned, the situationis betterin the fieldof taqAliKhan.SharmisthaSenisapractising
~ocaI music, where Bhatkhande's pioneer Sitar-player, and her experience as a
mg efforts, assimilating the experience of musician no doubt lends authority to her
variousgharanas, resultedinthepublication book.
ofsomebasictextsforbothpractitionersand In the previousvolumeofthispublica
students. In the field ofinstrumental music tion (1988), the author had dealt at length
Pandit Lalmani Misra, author of Bharatiya withthefourbanisofDhrupad- Gaudadi,
Sangeet Vadya, is among the fewmusicians Daguri, Khandhari and Nauhari - which
to have addressed themselves to serious re were"graduallyassimilatedintoKhayaland
search and writing. Taken as a whole, the instrumentalmusic". In thepresent volume
publishedliteratureon the subjectismeagre the major plucked instruments are i~­
andofunevenquality. dividuallydiscussedwithan accenton their
The book under review- the second baniaffiliations.
VOlumeof a two-part.work based on a doc The firstchapterdealswiththe Veena,
!oraIthesis (1972)- attemptstofillthisgap providinga briefaccountof V~na-pl~ying.
mrespectofstring instrumentsofthepluck important genealogies, and a ~on of
ed variety: Veena, Sitar, Surbahar, Rabab, leading Veena-players representing the
Sursingar,andSarod.Theevolutionofthese Khandharbani and Dagar bani including
instruments and the development of forms. Asad Ali Khan, Shamsuddin Desai Faridi
58 SUNEERAKASLIWAL
and Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. Abid Hussain This tradition was further enriched by
Khan of Indore, who in contrastwith other Imdad Khan's successors, Inayat Khan and
traditional Beenkars utilizes some elements VilayatKhan,inourowntime.
of Khayalin his recitals, isalso discussedin In this account of the development of
thissection.Thetuningsystemsandplaying Sitarmusic, one wishes that the authorhad
techniques of these musiciansare described dealt more fully with the contributions of
ineach case.AshortaccountoftheVichitra other major instrumentalists such as
Veenaand agenealogyofitspractitionersis Rameshwar Pathak, Alauddin Khan and,
also provided. most notably, Pandit Ravi Shankar, who is
Chapter II deals with the Sitar and its only given a small paragraph here. The
variants.Thischaptertreatsoftheoriginand latter'sservicestotheSitararefartooimpor
constructionoftheSitarandgoes on to dis tanttobe passed over- beitinthe structure
cuss the recognized styles and important of the instrument, the tala component, or
genealogies. According to the author, the other aspects ofmodem ragdari. As in the
Sitar "lends itself to such graces as wavy previous chapter, the tuning systems of the
meends,zamzamas, lightgamakasandkhat Sitarfrom MaseetKhan'stimetothepresent
kas which are the characteristic features of areprovidedhere,aswellassomeexamples
DagurVani". of Maseetkhani and Razakhani gats com
To recapitulatesomeof the basic infor posed by several masters. The genealogical
mation on the development of Sitar music chartsaregivenin theappendix.
providedhere,MaseetKhanand RazaKhan A small accountoftheSurbaharand its
were theoriginatorsofthetwomainstylesof technique follows the section on the Sitar.
Sitar-playing-the Maseetkhani and TheSurbahar,meantonlyfor alap, hasfew
Razakhani baj.MaseetKhan, a descendant practitionersat present.Afterthepassingof
of Tansen, was a strict adherent of the MushtaqAli Khanin1989,AnnapumaDevi
Dhrupadtraditionand composedhisgals in and ImratHussainKhanare amongthe few
movements ofsthayi, antara, sanchari, and notablenamesinthefield.
abhog.ThecompositionsofRazaKhan(per The Rabab and Sursingar are the sub
hapsadiscipleofMaseetKhan),ontheother jectsofChapterm.Thefirst sectionofthis
hand, consisted of just two movements chapterdealswith the Rabab- itsconstruc
sthayi and antara. Moreover, Razakhani tion, tuning system, appropriate banisand
gatswereallsettoTeentaland playedinfast baj,aswellasfamousexponentsofpast and
tempo. present times. The Sursingar, which com
The descendants of Maseet Khan, bines some ofthe structuralfeatures of the
RahimSen andArnritSen,introducedsome SitarandSarod, is dealtwith in the second
structuralmodificationsin the Sitarin order halfofthe chapter.Theauthornotesthatall
to incorporate layakari and jod alap, and Sarodplayersinthepastwerealsotrainedin
thusmadeitamoreversatileinstrumentthan Sursingar:
the Veena.SahabdadKhan.the authorsays,
UstadA1auddinKhanandUstadHafizAliKhan
isgenerallyregardedas theinnovatorofthe
bothhadthistraining...underUstadWazirKhan
newMaseetkhanistyle,"butitwaslefttothe
ofRampur,andwerehighlyproficientin...play
genius of Imdad Khan, son of Sahabdad
ingtheinstrument.
Khan,tofullydevelopthisnewtechnique...":
TheSursingarwasanalogoustotheSur
...thustheoldMaseetkhanibajwhichwasmainly bahar in performance context, being
basedon Dhrupadgayak!tookthe newfonn of primarily meant for alap, In the past
Khayalang fromthetimeofImdadKhan.Itwill musicians would playalap on the Sursingar
thereforenotbeincorrecttocallthepresentSitar or Surbahar, followed by gat-todas on the
styleImdadkhanibaj. Sarod and Sitar. Birendra Kishore Roy
BOOKREVIEWS 59
Choudhury and Radhika Mohan Maitra talmusic,whichtheauthorseemstofavour,
were expertSursingarplayers. cannot really be insisted on in a situation
Chapter N deals with the Sarod in whereeventheestablishedgharanasofvocal
detail. An adaptation and improvement on musicare fastlosingtheir marksofdistinc
theRabab,the Sarod isespeciallysuited for tion. Distinguishing stylesofinstrumental
madhya-laya(medium tempo) alapandgat music by Dhrupad- bonis would be
toda. The contributions of Hafiz Ali Khan anachronistic today when all manner of
and Alauddin Khan and theirsuccessorsare vocalmusicis replicated oninstruments
adequately discussed in this chapter, which theSitarandSarodinparticular.
also provides information on Sarod styles This book will benefit music scholars
and techniques and the tuning systems of especially for its information on the Sur
various Sarod-players. Thereisa briefcom bahar,Sursingar,andRababbecausethisin
parative study of Sarod and Sitar baj fol formation comes from conversations with
lowed by genealogical charts and Sarod some great players_of these instruments
bandishes. whicharerendered almostarchaictoday.
Indealingwiththeseinstrumentsinsuc The biggestirritant ofthebook are its
cessivechapters of the book, the author all proof-readingerrors.Somuchsothatoneis
alongrelatesthe prevalentstylestothebanis oftenunabletomakeouttheactualmeaning
ofDhrupad. Whilethisisnecessaryinorder of a sentence. The genealogical charts and
tocomprehendthehistoricalevolutionofthe the notations of compositions are similarly
various styles in instrumental music, one replete witherrors.
must caution that the approachcan be con
fusing if applied to our livingmusictoday.
Adherence to Dhrupadbanis ininstrumen- SUNEERAKASLIWAL