When words take wing

Shanta Das, an exponent of Padavali Kirtan and disciple of late Chhabi Bandopadhyay, feels a rising interest in the form will bring in more practitioners

August 16, 2012 08:41 pm | Updated 08:41 pm IST - New Delhi

The guru: Chhabi Bandyopadhyay. Photos: Prashant Arora

The guru: Chhabi Bandyopadhyay. Photos: Prashant Arora

The legendary exponent of kirtan, Chhabi Bandopadhyay, who also taught this subject as a member of the faculty of Rabindra Bharati University (RBU), left for her heavenly abode in May this year — to be with her beloved Krishna, the divine spirit of her soulful singing. Apparently a few of her disciples are actively working to revive this dying art. But almost no one now follows the original style of presentation: interweaving singing, narration and some graceful dance movements along with abhinaya, standing on stage, surrounded by the accompanists, who join in the singing and dancing either in the peaking interludes between the lines and verses or at the end with a passionate sankirtan as the climax. Dr Shanta Das is an exception. Her traditional kirtan recital evoked nostalgia during the Krishna-Janmashtami festival and the weeklong annual birthday celebration of Archanapuri Maa, the beacon of Satyananda Devayatan.

Devoid of urban inhibitions and minus the notebook, Shanta, a PhD in Kirtan after winning a senior fellowship from the Ministry of Culture and a lecturer of the subject in RBU, stood in the conventional attire of a kirtaniya with an artistic ‘rasakali’ on her forehead and a divine smile on her lips. The team of accompanists — on shrikhol (mridanga), cymbal (karataal) and other effects — along with her teenaged daughter Shatarupa giving her excellent vocal and harmonium support, sat on the stage in a semicircle. Shanta’s soul-stirring rendition portrayed different scenes of Gokul centred on Krishna, his Subal-sakha and Radha. The captivating flow of narrations, the songs dipped in her tuneful, honeyed voice with amazing range and the graceful dance-like movements, as if in a trance, enhanced the beauty of the presentation hundredfold. Frankly, Chhabi Bandopadhyay, her guru, was known for such devotion-charged singing.

Shanta asserts that she is nowhere near her mentor whose renditions would invoke heavenly ambience replete with inexplicable floral scents. It is confirmed by elders that Bandopadhyay, a follower of Anandamayi Maa, was a realised soul, led a saintly life and that her kirtans were mesmerising. In Shanta’s case, the seeds of devotional music were sown pretty early. Born in the rural area of Andal in a music-loving family steeped in spirituality, her gifted voice was inspired by Archanapuri Maa’s compositions and other devotional songs of ashrams she frequented as a tiny tot. After training with several renowned exponents of classical, folk, Nazrul-geeti and dance, she found her ultimate goal.

Fortunately, she was the only student who attended Bandopadhyay’s class at RBU. It resulted in a close relationship, and her academic pursuits did not stifle her honeyed voice. Apart from giving regular live performances, she also sang kirtan in successful Bengali feature films like “Choker Bali” (featuring Aishwarya Rai), “Aro Ekti Premer Golpo”, “Antar Mahal”, “Subhodrishti”, etc. Her record, titled “Rabindranather Kirtan”, presents some of the Tagorean oeuvres based on Vaishnav Padavali.

According to Shanta, Bangla kirtan is entirely different from the commonly heard Naam-kirtan; e.g. Harey Krishna Harey Krishna, Krishna-Krishna Harey-Harey . With this chorus or sankirtan, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought a new wave of devotional fervour among the masses, and the entire country came under its hypnotic spell. But, in Bengal, there were other traditional styles of singing kirtan as well. One such idiom is Padavali (Pala) kirtan. Originated from the olden Dhrupad, the Padavali kirtan too is rooted in pada- sor rich literary verses. But while Dhrupad is centred on one fixed pada , the Padavali, as is evident from its name, is actually a string of several verses. A garland of such Padavalis is known as Leela-kirtan that describes the divine play of Lord Krishna from sunrise to sunset.

Penned by great poets like Jayadeva, Vidyapati, Chandidas and several others, these were composed in ragas and talas and were handed down from generation to generation for centuries. All available scriptures mention the ragas and talas associated with each pada. To handle these ragas and 108 varieties of talas with complex gait, one needs thorough classical grooming along with proper enunciation and narration-skills. This is a tall order. That is why while RBU attracts thousands of students in the department of Modern Bengali songs, kirtan gets only ten! Since listeners are appreciating good rendition now, and there are very few who can fulfil the demand, the trend may change, opines Shanta with contagious optimism.

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