At a time where riches and glamour matter, and destination is more important than process, the story of Mallikarjun Mansur sounds bizarre. The rigour and austerity with which the legendary maestro of Jaipur-Atrauli gharana earned his music in the gruelling, uncompromising akhadas of the great masters is surely not a tale from our times. Toiling to seek individual expression in the lessons imparted by his great gurus remained Mansur’s pursuit for most part of his life; even the concert stage did not matter to him.
P.V. Vivekananda, in his monograph on Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur in the Vyakti Chitra Maale series of Vasanta Prakashana, recalls how a critic of those times had expressed his wonder at Mansur’s devotional surrender to music. “There is such clamour to present their music before a learned audience, but this master from the South remains cocooned in his own world of music,” the critic is said to have remarked. Mansur, for whom music was a personal act of faith, was content to sing in his puja room.
This monograph, second in the series, after the first by the late writer B.S. Venkatalakshmi, clearly comes from someone who is an ardent devotee of Mansur’s music and not a pedantic chronicler. Its purpose is to tell the story of Mansur’s life, but even on its limited canvas it captures the essence of the remarkable individual. Monographs can easily become hagiographies, however, Vivekananda steers clear of superlatives, even with his unconcealed awe for the doyen. Hence, even for an initiated listener, who knows these details from Mansur’s life, the book makes interesting reading.
The story of Mansur is not his story alone; it is the story of a period, of a value system – of a yesteryear when passion and dedication came above personal comfort. Hunger and poverty, gruelling life circumstances… nothing could put down their indomitable spirit. Vivekananda, narrates many moving incidents not only from his hard life, but the manner in which he relentlessly flogged himself to meet the challenges of his imagination; similar to an ascetic in penance. What is poignant is the give and take that existed between what now seems independent isolated communities. For instance, how Mansur remained indebted to his dear friend and writer Aa.Na. Kru for coercing him to sing vachanas, and how the great poet Bendre “lost his soul” to Mansur and dedicated a poem to his remarkable artistry.
The book may take one closer to Mansur’s music, if not, it will at least tell you that music is not magic – it takes birth in deep intellectual and emotional turmoil.
Vyakti Chitra Maale –
Mallikarjuna Mansur
By Vivekananda P.V.
Chief Editor S. Diwakar
Vasanta Prakshana, Rs. 30
