A. Throughout this recording Jyoti Goho has addressed Pandit Bhimsen Joshi as Panditji. B. The incident happened after 15 days of ITC-SRA Music Program in memory of Ustd. Nisar Hussain Khan in 1994. – Editor
In the late 1980’s there was a crisis of good pakhawaj players in Calcutta. Rajibbabu had died. Tarak Chand Boral, he was paralyzed. Bitthal Das Gujrati was becoming quite old and he will never reach out to students of Dhrupad to accompany them in the houses. So it was a very very dicey situation. Now my wife, you know was a Dhrupad singer and she learnt under Satya Kinkar babu…Sangeetacharya Satya Kinkar Bandyopadhyay and she really wanted you know to keep alive the tradition and so practiced those Dhrupad. But unfortunately she had to practice with Tabla players. And it was my duty. And she used to regularly reprimand me that –‘you are supposed to be a music lover. But you can’t find a simple Pakhawaj player for me in Calcutta’?
I said that, ‘unfortunately Pakhawaj players are not available in Lake Market, Southern Market even New Market. So where will I get it?
– No no no, I mean no joking. If you can’t bring me a Pakhawaj player within this month I’ll stop singing Dhrupad. I’ll sing only Khyal.
I loved Dhrupad too much. I didn’t want to, you know, my wife to give up Dhrupad singing. So I was getting very desperate. Somebody told me that the best place; the only place may be go to Sonagachi because there the famous Harimoti was there.
Horimoti Devi
Horimoti was a great singer. You must have heard about her. Horimoti had several gramophone records may be hundreds of gramophone records. Although most of the records were you know light songs, but her Khyal records, her Thumri records and her Dhrupad records are absolutely…you should be preserved in any archives. She was such a great singer. She was in the center of Sonagachi and she was dead at the point of time of course. So who is to accompany Horimoti? He is alive. So that was only clue, a Pakhawaj player who used to accompany Horimoti, stayed somewhere near Sonagachi or in Sonagachi. That was the only clue. So I had to go to Sonagachi and then mostly those were Dalals you know Pimps. So I was asking one Pimp after the other –‘look I want, you know, a Pakhawaj…you know what is Pakhawaj? I drew a Pakhawaj with a pencil….this is Pakhawaj and it played like this. Do you know of a person?
– Dholak?
– No, no, no, not Dholak…Pakhawaj. It is like this, you know.
– Haan, Dholakbajaye ache. KintuPakhawaj? ….aeiekebol to? Okebol to? (Yes, someone is there plays Dholak, but Pakhawaj? Listen…you ask him or someone other…)
So luckily near Sonagachi there was one Tanpura Harmonium shop still. I don’t think it is still there but at that time it was there. So they took me to the Tanpura Harmonium shop. I thought this must be the place. They will know it definitely. So I said that you know…apnaderekhane …do you know any Pakhawaj player who plays Pakhawaj ,Tabla?
– O ekjon e ache….there is only one. His name is Bijoy Nandi. So it was like something blessing from the heaven. I said that -‘where do I find him’?
– He just stays here. Wait here.
I was waiting. After ten to fifteen minutes he got a person. He is very simple type of person. He is Bijoy Nandi.
– A re apni Bijoybabu…namaskar…namaskar. (Oh…you are Bijoybabu. My heartily greetings…). Do you play pakhawaj?
He said that- ‘oh….pakhawaj! Where are those singers? With whom will I play Pakhawaj? Those were the days you know. Great Ustads…Danibabu…this babu…that babu…Horimoti. Is there any singer fit I have to accompany now?
I said –‘My wife is a disciple of Satyakinkar.
– Oh Satyakinkar …Ok… Ok…
– will you be kind enough to come to my house and accompany her once in a week or twice in a week?
– Where is your house? Then he thought …I said that what will be your fees? He said meager sixty rupees or something. I immediately agreed.
– Was it per class or for a month?
– Per class.
Indubala Devi
So I agreed. Then first day I took him in my car and got him in my flat. He started playing Pakhawaj. He was good but he was out of practice. But he was a khandani Pakhawaj player no doubt about that. We understood that and then he started narrating stories about most the gramophone records of Indubala. He was accompanist. I thought Oh my god what a luck…I mean I was playing one after another Indubala’s records…and he said ‘this is my playing…this is my playing’. The person who accompanies Indubala must be somebody you know. He narrated me lot of stories about Indubala, about Horimoti and those singer of that point of time.
This is about Bindhyabasini Devi, now Bindhyabasini Devi was the daughter of Sangeet Ratnakar Surendranath Bandopadhyay, Surendranath Bandopadhyay was the younger brother of Shri Gopeswar Bandopadhyay,
Sangeetacharya Gopeshwar Bandopadhyay
He himself was a versatile musician, and one of the earliest ‘Swarlipikar’of Tagore songs. He was a ustad of Surbahar, Banjo, himself was a dhrupad singer et etc. Now Bindhyabasini also stayed with her father almost through out her life because she was widowed when she was a child and she learnt everything from her father, Surbahar, Esraj, Banjo, Dhrupad, Khayal everything, Tappa and she was very very, you know, a ‘teji’ lady, teji means what, full of that fiery power, and I have met her several times in Bishnupur, but once a documentary film was made on her life, by some film maker, and she was staying in Chetla in Calcutta. That’s in early 90’S, and I used to visit her, listen to her songs. But unfortunately at that time, I mean there were very few pakhawaj player at Calcutta, at lest I didn’t know many of them and those Pakhawaj players were not up to the mark, Rajib babu was not there at that point of time, Haradhan Pal was dead, and I mean the great Pakhawaj players were not there. There were bunch of young Pakhawaj players, but knowing Bindhyabasini Devi’s temper, I thought that it’s better not to expose the younger Pakhawaj players with Bindhyabasini Devi. So I was talking to her that before you leave Calcutta there must be a recital, then she said that ‘yes I can sing, but who will play with me?”. I said that I will definitely catch hold of somebody, so let us fix Tuesday evening? I had to have two three days to search for a Pakhawaj player. So that Tuesday evening was fixed for her to sing, in the same house in Chetla, So I was searching, here I don’t want to give the name of some senior Pakhawaj player, I approached him, He said, Oh, he heard the name he was suppose to accompany, then he said o ho I have a class on tht particular day, Then I said please give me some name of your pupils, He gave two or three names and I approached them, but when they heard that there is Ustad from Bishnupur, then they didn’t want to expose them. So I was feeling so frustrated, and that Tuesday duly came and I came back early from the office and I felt so bad, I mean the entire city of Calcutta cant show face to Bindhyabasini Devi, It’s such a big city which doesn’t have a Pakhawaj player. Then one thought stuck me.
Rasaraj Nidan Bandhu Bandopadhyay
I thought that I know such a great Ustad, Nidan Bondhu Bandopadhyaya, but he is a vocalist, he is a Dhrupad singer, Khayal Singer, nephew of Bama Charan Bandopadhyay and he is Gharanadar, great artist, but Nidan Babu was a very good Tabla player, he is to accompany Lakkhan Bhattacharya, Ravi Shankar, a very good table player and I have seen a Pakhawaj in his room, sometimes he also practices Pakhawaj. But he was a Ustad, he knew everything. Sojust with a trepidation in my heart I went to Nidan Babu and said that there is a serious problem, he said what, what exactly has happened?is anybody ill?
I said no no, I narrated to him about Bindhyabasini Devi, I told him that the entire Calcutta has to hang there and it’s a shame if I can’t find a accompanist.
He said yes but what I am suppose to do? I agree but what I am suppose to do?
I said Guruji if you do not mind, can I request you one thing?
What?
I said will you play Pakhawaj with her, o myGod, such great Ustad he was and I am asking him to play Pakhawaj! But he used to really love me like his son, because my wife and my daugther both used to learn under him.
Then he said that – ‘Chup’(Hush), then he closed his door, I said that look yor request is such outrage that if any from my house even listen to your request, it will create lot of problems for you and for me as well.
I said but it’s a desperate situation.
He said I understand, what you do, you just tell my wife, your Mashima, that you are inviting me to your house and I’ll have dinner with you, and what you do is you don’t take my pakhawaj, You have a pakhawaj in your house, bara has a Pakhawaj, I said yes, you go back to your house, put the Pakhawaj in your trunk, and then come and pick me up as if I am going to have dinner with you, but you first tell your Mashima.
I told mashima I want Guruji to have dinner with us and she said yes, why not, why not?
Then I went back home, picked up the Pakhawaj and put the Pakhawaj in trunk, and I just went to his place to pick him up, Nidan Babu came and he went to Chetla, and there were lot of people, they can commemorate what had happened there. In chetla we went, I carried the Pakhawaj, I can’t expect Nidan Babu to carry the Pakhawaj, He was at least seventy four or seventy five years old at that point of time.
Bindhyabasini was eighty five or eighty six at that time. So the first question she asked me –‘Rontu, who is this boy?’ , He was seventy four or seventy five years old, I said no no he is the person who will play Pakhawaj with you.
She said –he,ll play Pakhawaj, he doesn’t look like a Pakhawaj player, ok “ki he’(hey) in Bengali, boso, seat down, do you know what is Brambhataal? Because you see I don’t sing Dhrupad in Choutaal or Dhamar, these are for my students, so I just you know, want to sing Brambhataal, Pancham Ki Sawari all these things, and I know these people from Calcutta,They never got a chance to play brambhataal on Pakhawaj, so I don’t want him to take so much trouble. Do you know Brambhataal, “
So Nidanbabu was so modest, he was trying to, I don’t know what has happened to him, he was pretending to be modest, what a great person he was, and he was pretending to be modest and said’ yes maa, I know Brambhataa’l and then she said that “Bol Batao brambhataal ka, theka batao”
Then Nidanbabu got slightly angry, and whenever he used to get angry he used to speak Hindi. Sure sign that he is getting angry. Then he said “ Mataji, char kisam ka brambhataal ka theka hota hay, Banaras mein ek hota tha, Jaipur mein aur ek hota tha, aur ek, usey sb bhul gaye, bahut punjab mein ek Dhrupad ka gharana hota tha, wahan pe bhi Bramhataal ka ek theka tha, aur aapki bishnupur mein brambhataal ki koi jaankari nehi hay”. So Bindhyabasini was then impressed and said “oh e anek jaane”( He knows quite a lot). He knows lot of things right, ok ok grab a seat, and then she sang and he played the Pakhawaj. Brambhataal, Pancham Ki Sawari and all these things. Later she asked his name and he answered Nidan, Ok “Nidan Nidan, tumi bhalo bajao chokra tomar habe, kolkatay akhono du ekjon ache jara jane tane ”( well played my boy, you will sine one day, there two or three people in Kolkata still now who can play, good).
During the early part of 20th century, the Calcutta music scene was, at least the vocal music was dominated by Tawaifs and the Baijis, not that their male counter parts in the sense that the most popular classical singers of that point of time were all tawaifs, I mean you can name anybody,
Angurbala Devi
you can name Malkajan, you can name Gaharjan, you can name Manoda Sundari , Krisna Bhamini right up to Indubala, Angurbala, and everyone, and they were much more popular than their counter parts. Now where did they learn their music from? It’s a two way process, in some cases it was found that the tawaifs they themselves took fancy on some good looking male musicians and taught them music, they mostly learnt from Sarengi players, because Sarengi players use to you know accompany so many artists all over India, and they use to pay the sarengiwalas as per the Bandishes, may be one sarengiwalas has played with Alladiya Khan, and she liked the Bandish and maybe she will pay hundred rupees or fifty rupees or whatever it is, and sometimes they used to employ ustads themselves, and the terms of employment was, that ustad would you know never teach any other ‘Baais’. So it is you know captive ustad.
Raja Jyotindra Mohan Tahgore
Like for example ’Gauri Shankar Mishra’ was captive to ‘Gauhar jaan’ and ‘Gauhar jaan’ only allowed ’Gauri Shankar Mishra’ when she became old and she moved away from Calcutta, at that point of time ’Gauri Shankar Mishra’ teach ‘Indubala’ and even ‘Vishmadev Chattopadhyay’ and lot of people. But till such time ‘Gauhar jaan’ did not release ’Gauri Shankar Mishra’, ’Gauri Shankar Mishra’ could only you know only teach ‘Gauhar jaan’ the Bandishes. Now in the case of the ‘ Dhrupadiyas’ of Bengal the situation was different because they never learnt from any ‘Tawaifs’ because mostly the ‘Tawaifs’ sang ‘Khayal ’and ‘Thumri’, but not ‘Dhrupads’,
Gauhar Jan
and the ‘Dhrupadiya’ of Bengal like ‘Aghor Chakraborty’ ‘ Gopeshwar Bandopadhyay’ or ‘Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay’, they avoided those class of musicians, not that they didn’t like them, they liked their music, but they never you know, they never imitated their style of music, and these ‘Tawaifs’ also, they were very eager to learn ‘Dhrupad’, but unfortunately their doors were shut to the middle class Bengali Brahmin ‘Dhrupad’ singers. So when, Maharaja Jyotindra Mohan Tagore, because Satyakinkar Babu was a employed by lots of the Maharajas at that time, like Maharaja of Natore was there, Maharaja of Lalogola, Maharaja of Pachakot and eventually he became court musician of Maharaja Jyotindra Mohan Thakur after Piyara Saheb left the court of Jyotindra Mohan Tagore. But one of the terms of his contract with the Maharaja was that he will never urge him or force him or to teach any ‘Tawaif’ because all the zamindars and rajas, they had their favourite ‘Taawaifs’, whom they used to groom.
Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore
Like take the case of Jadumoni who was groomed by Shourindra Mohan Tagore, I mean even Kesarbai had one such, you know mentor, who paid for Kesarbai’s tuitions for Alladiya Khan. In the case of many ‘Tawaifs ‘ they were supported by many wealthy patrons to learn music. But Satyakinkar Babu never you know, taught any ‘Tawaifs’ and that was one of terms of, I mean I gave you social picture of that time also. So in this context it is important.
Can we please have the name of that person, who patronised Kesarbai Kerkar?
Yah, it was Seth Dhulichand, I mean there were lot of patrons but one was Seth Dhulichand, was originally from Kolkata, then The Khetri, Shyamlala Khetri , their shop is still existing, khetri jewellers, Calcutta, bhawanipore, Punya Cinema, khetri jewellers, and there were other patrons from Bombay, I mean I forget their names, but these two were definitely patron of Kesarbai from Bombay(Calcutta).
70 7&8 Nirala Apartment, Boral. Kolkata -700154 at the residence of Arup Chattopadhyay
About the speaker
Arup Chattopadhyay is a renowned Tabla Player of India and abroad. He is the son of famous Tabla player Pandit Pankaj Chattopadhyay. He is the disciple of Tabla maestro Pandit Sankar Ghosh of Farukkhabad Gharana.
Tags
Nayan Ghosh, Sitar Player, Tabla Player, Debojyoti Bose, Sarod, Alok Lahiri, Chandannagar, Sangeet Research Academy, Bombay, Pune, Nasik, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Madhusudan Manch, Arun, Tarak Saha, Samar Saha.
Language
Bengali
Arup Chattopadhyay speaks:
Metadata generated by Suranjita Paul
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
Anjan Bose is a renowned Esraj player. He is a top graded classical musician of All India Radio. He is also a regular Esraj player of commercial music and Films.
Tags
Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Lalita Ghosh, 1980, Mallar Ghosh, Sagiruddin Khan, Harmonium, accompany, Anjan Bose, esraj, Doordarshan, sarengi, Television, TV, recording
Language
Bengali
Anjan Bose speaks:
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.
I have accompanied with kheyal many times though I have realised that the audience loved my accompaniment more with Thumri rather than Kheyal. I want to share my experience with two artists of BenarasGharana. In my early years of performances I have accompanied VidushiGirija Debi several times. She generally preferred to perform kheyal at the beginning of her performances. It was almost 15-20 years ago. She used to sing khayal first and then go for thumri, dadra, chaiti, kajri and other semi classical forms in the Concerts which was a specialization of BenerasGharana. She had a very unique voice, though sheused to avoid variations and embellishments those were commonly applied in Thumrirecitals, but on a sudden she often rendered some beautiful variations with hercontrolled gayekiwhich turned the whole recital into a new level. She always allowed her accompanists a fair chance to perform. She gave equal importance to harmonium and sarangi. She always granted one full abartan(one time circle) for harmonium, another for sarangiand then she would take one full avartan for herself. During her later performances sheusually allowed her disciplesto sing one whole avartan as she could not sing continuously because of her age. But giving a chance to her accompanists to express themselves independently in the concerts between her singings was a regular event since her initial days of performances.It was her style. So, I got enough space during accompanying her. During her performances when she rendered I used to follow her, and then sheused to give me clues to play on my own. I used to play freely but I had always kept her style in mind.
Vidushi Purnima Choudhury
After Girija Devi when Purnima Choudhury came to Kolkata, I became her regular accompanist till her last breath. It was almost10 to 12 years. She was also from Beneras gharana. If it is back calculated then the time must be 2001 or 2002. Sometimes I played with both of them during that time period. Though both of them were from Benaras gharana still Purnimadi’s style was different from Girija Devi. Her style of singing was little bit swift moving but she had established her signature style so fascinatingly that not only the connoisseurs but also the masses couldenjoy the renditions. She encouraged me lot. We used to travel together and formed a strong bond. She sometimes took Sarangi as an accompanying instrument. Once we were performing in Madhusudan Mancha where she had not taken Sarengi. There she gave me the opportunity to play at the beginning and then she started to sing. Sometimes she would openly comment in between the rendition that if I played so nicely then audiences might not listen to her any more.She used to joke a lot.
Once in a programme in Ballygunge where my wife was present she was singing a thumri on Khambaj raga named Mrignayani. Suddenly, she stopped and said that Debubhai is in a jovial mood as his Mrignayani is present right here and then pointed at my wife. Such was her sense of humour.
