In June, Amar Nath Sharma, an Indian Revenue Service officer, decided to take some time off from work in Hyderabad and ventured towards the Charminar. He, however, was not visiting the landmark structure; he wandered off into the city’s by-lanes in search of something less appealing. Scrap.
Rummaging through a scrap collection, Mr. Sharma stumbled upon a rare recording of Husnajan, a prominent pre-Independence era tawaif (courtesan) in Varanasi. This was more than just a lucky find: it was in fact the latest addition to his great collection of sound records and 200-odd rare cylinders that document the early aural history of India. Cylinders are hollow wax rolls that are played on a phonograph.
“You don’t find a gem every day. It takes consistency and persistence, but more than that, honesty,” said Mr. Sharma, a 1980 batch IFS and 1982 batch IRS officer from Bihar. Unfailing has been his commitment to finding rare records and cylinders from across the country. Though he was educated in botany, and professionally deals with customs and excise, Mr. Sharma’s singular obsession is archiving the history of Indian sound and to “establish the aural history of India.”
Last week, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar launched Mr. Sharma’s second book, The Wonder That Was The Cylinder , an account of cylindrical records of legendary Indian artistes from the 19th Century — the era of the phonograph and the wax cylinder — that he has co-authored along with his daughter Anukriti.
Though Mr. Sharma was always an ardent music fan, his journey towards archiving sounds happened by chance. Two decades ago, he stumbled upon some rare and old records while browsing scrap on the footpaths of Kolkata. With time, he also began sourcing the records and cylinders from private collectors. “When I saw these records, dated from the first decade of 1900, I assumed they must have been popular records, of some value during the colonial period. Yet they were in a pitiable condition, unknown to public. So I decided to explore.”
With persistence, and some luck, Mr. Sharma turned into a devoted researcher and chronicler of Indian sound. Over time, his postings across India, including in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, helped him broaden his collection.
In 2012, he released his first book, Bajanama , which documents early part of Indian recording. Among Mr. Sharma’s collection are the oldest voice recording in India dated 1899, rare records of Ustab Bismillah Khan’s uncle, Surendranath Banerjee’s rendition of Vande Mataram, and the speech Dadasaheb Phalke made after making Raja Harishchandra , the country’s film ever silent film.
The cylinders also capture the voices of the doyens of Indian cinema/Hindustani classical music, including Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Ustad Alladiya Khan, Gauhar Jaan, Bhaurao Kolhatkar, Pandit Balkrishnabuwa and Allahbandi of Jaipur.
