Usually tributes rely heavily on superlatives; but words fail to describe a colossus like Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta, the erudite sarod maestro belonging to Senia Shahjahanpur gharana, who bid adieu to this world of mediocrity where very few understand the depths of his thought-process; be it in the arena of music-making or impromptu oratory or writing and teaching.
According to the maestro, all this was hammered into his system by his parents who would have nothing less than the best; albeit music had to be kept in the category of ‘passion’ and not as a ‘profession’. He would often recount, ‘I had almost given up on my studies before the finals of engineering exam. My father had warned me: ‘you will not be able to market yourself; so for a decent survival go ahead with the studies that will ensure a job’. My Guru Radhika Mohan Maitra also believed in this; especially because he himself was a ‘respected’ musician and could never become a ‘listeners’- craze’. I remain shackled with these values!’
This Padma Bhushan and Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee was known for his pristine raagdaari and technical brilliance and at times was criticised for his direct, rather forceful approach. “Rich contents rain incessantly in his superbly engineered music and do not allow any breather for listeners,” Pandit Kumar Prasad Mukherji, a formidable musicologist and a senior musician to this ‘six-footer handsome boy’, would often point out.
But I cannot get over the experience of an exhaustive interview with Dasgupta when he landed on the question of teaching emotions to skilful players. “Excessive taiyari blurs the picture of a raga,” he had said, ‘For clarity, sing with emotion and ask the student to repeat it on his instrument and this way inject emotions. Emotions can be conveyed by combination of notes, meend, gamak; and also with varied intonations of the pitch of voice or sound. Other than the dry techniques, Hindustani classical music is a reflection of emotions. Some raga’s phrases are steeped in spiritual emotion.’ And to prove his point he played raga Puria Dhanasri etching an argument between a couple!
This wry humour was his very own. Albeit extremely emotional, he could laugh at himself to mask pain. “When with a raga, its structure and features were more important to him than emotions which were very subtle in his playing,” says Mumbai-based tabla and sitar maestro Nayan Ghosh, who learnt raagdaari under Dasgupta’s guidance. “A massive storehouse of musical information and rare traditional compositions has left us all with his crystal clear concept of the most complex ragas. He had an uncanny ability to interpret ragas.”
Unmatched analysis
Prattyush Banerjee, an extremely creative musician and a constant companion of his Guru, finds him “truly multifaceted; the last renaissance Bengali with authoritative persona and unique understanding of life. His superb Bangla and English, steeped in unmatched melodic analysis and humour, flowed freely in his critiques, writings and speeches. One of the most inspiring and enthusiastic gurus, he had this peculiarity of inspecting the nails of a newly-born baby’s left hand, as if to ascertain his or her future as a sarodiya! He never differentiated his two sons from us disciples and gave more than we could take. Once while practising Yaman, I repeatedly played NP combination. He suddenly composed a gat especially for me with a beautiful phrase based on this combination! He really loved to see us do well and do the gharana proud; not only that, he always encouraged newcomers across genres and gharanas and made us notice their uniqueness.”
Banerjee has done a great service to music by archiving his Guru’s musical evolution. It establishes that initially, influenced by the gayaki of the Golden Era legends, it was Dasgupta who pioneered khayal gayaki-ang on sarod and recorded a unique Maluha Kedar with gamak-laden ekhara taan-based bandish in 1956. He was 23 then. Later, he changed into rabab-ang playing; experimented with Tagorean way of interpreting ragas, composed sarod-bol based gats; but taught ekhara technique to children with vengeance! More importantly, despite his demanding job, he established his independent style in the presence of his guru Radhubabu, Baba Alauddin Khan and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.
“During our last meeting in December I found him bedridden,” Nayan Ghosh said in a reflective mood. “Too eager to teach despite gasping for breath, he sang a composition of Kakubh Bilawal. He was happy when I repeated what he taught. A prolific composer, his gat-structures are unusually brilliant. His content-rich music had never been for masses; it is for Gunijan, for serious musicians. And yet he chiselled numerous well-stocked, skilled musicians with great patience.”
Dasgupta’s US-based younger son Anirban is a brilliant sarod player and elder, Bhavani Shankar, is trying to keep the tradition of their dada-guru Radhubabu’s Mohan veena alive. But both, like their father, straddle parallel careers and pursue music as ‘passion’ only. The maestro gifted more performing musicians than many present-day gurus. In that respect his contribution is no less than Baba Alauddin Khan.
In brief:
Born to Civil Servant father and music loving mother: 1 Feb 1933; Bhagalpur, Bihar
All through first class in academics, graduated as Mechanical Engineer from Bengal Engineering College
Music training started at eleven with Snageetacharya Radhika Mohan Maitra belonging to Senia Shahjahanpur gharana
Straddled parallel careers as an engineer and musician with superb sincerity; was in the league of top ranking musicians for several decades, was the Chairperson of Rajya Sangeet Academy (West Bengal Government) and headed the Empirical Research Department of ITC Sangeet Research Academy for a few years and then remained as a Guru with the Academy till his last.
Groomed generations of disciples like sarodiyas Debashish Bhattacharya, Prattyush Banerjee, Anirban Dasgupta (son), Abir Hussain, Debasmita Bhattacharya; sitarists Nayan Ghosh, Sanjoy Banerjee, Sugato Nag, Supratik Sengupta and numerous others, most of whom are highly respected for their in-depth knowledge of raga-music and brilliant musicianship that transcends the term ‘difficult’ with a stroke of the java.
Despite ill health, discussing and teaching music remained his lifeline till the end came suddenly on 15 January 2018 at his South Kolkata residence.
