Better late than never. This is how I reacted when I heard the news that Gwalior gharana doyen Laxman Krishnarao Pandit, popularly known as L. K. Pandit, has been honoured with the prestigious Tansen Samman by the Madhya Pradesh government. Hardly anybody would disagree with my view that this award should have been conferred on the maestro much earlier as he will be 83 on March 5, 2017. However, it is a matter of satisfaction that many other honours including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Mallikarjun Mansur Award and the Madhya Pradesh government’s Shikhar Samman have come to him in previous years.
L. K. Pandit is the torchbearer of the pristine gayaki of the Gwalior gharana, which is regarded as the fountainhead of the khayal style of singing in the Hindustani classical music. The Gwalior gharana gayaki spread far and wide and was especially popular in Maharashtra where its exponents also used it in Natyasangeet or theatre music. As Pune and Mumbai emerged as major centres of film and theatre, their ethos naturally impacted the vocalists’ manner of presenting their art. However, the Pandit family never left Gwalior and thus remained rooted to the singing style that the gharana founders Haddu Khan, Hassu Khan and Natthu Khan (brothers) and Nisar Husain Khan (adopted son and disciple of Natthu Khan) had evolved. Haddu Khan, Hassu Khan and Natthu Khan taught L. K. Pandit’s grandfather Shankarrao Pandit who was further groomed by Nisar Husain Khan. Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, L. K. Pandit’s father, learnt music both from his father Shankarrao Pandit and Nisar Husain Khan.
L. K. Pandit served at the All India Radio for many years but later joined the Delhi University’s music faculty and retired as professor from there. Besides being an acclaimed vocalist, he possesses a fine scholarly mind and has written a highly informative book on his father and guru Krishnarao Shankar Pandit who was one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th Century and remained a dominating presence on the music scene for more than 75 years.
Titled “Bharatiya Sangeet Ke Amar Sadhak: Pandit Krishnarao Shankar Pandit” (Immortal Seeker of Indian Music: Pandit Krishnarao Shankar Pandit), it was published by Madhya Pradesh Granth Akademi in 2002. Though written in a hagiographical style, the book is a veritable treasure house of information about the Gwalior gharana, its traditions and distinctive style of singing, and the role of the Pandit family in enriching and carrying it forward. Adherence to the Gwalior’s ashtang gayaki (systematic eightfold elaboration of a raga) is a matter of faith with the Pandits.
Haddu Khan died in 1883 and Natthu Khan a year later. In 1885, Jiwajirao Scindia, the ruler of the Gwalior State, too passed away. As his son Madhavrao was a minor, the Regency Council took charge of the affairs of the state. In its view, spending large sums of money on musicians’ salaries was a waste. Therefore, their salaries were heavily reduced. Unable to come to terms with this sudden turn of fortunes, Nisar Husain Khan quit as court musician. At that juncture, the Pandit family took an extraordinary and historic decision. Shankarrao Pandit invited the great maestro to come to live with the family in its ancestral house. In view of the fact that the Pandits were a family of orthodox, vegetarian Maharashtrian Brahmins, it was a step that was nothing less than revolutionary. It once again proved that religious orthodoxy and communal attitude are two totally different things. In 1886, the Pandits displayed such a completely secular outlook that many would find it hard to emulate even now. So great was their devotion to music and the guru that the family took care of the Ustad’s every need for over three decades despite facing tremendous financial problems.
Krishnarao Shankar Pandit was born on July 26, 1893. From the age of five, he began training under his father as well as his father’s guru Nisar Husain Khan. Soon, he emerged as a very powerful singer with great musical imagination and amazing technical virtuosity. L. K. Pandit tells us how young Krishnarao sang along with senior and highly acclaimed vocalists Bhaskarrao Bakhle and Ramkrishna Buwa Vaze before Mahatma Gandhi in Jalandhar in 1919. A simple man with simple habits, he was respected by one and all. Once sarangi maestro Ram Narayan told me that he had accompanied many vocalists before turning a solo artiste but he never found anybody as encouraging as Krishnarao Shankar Pandit. “He would stop singing for a few minutes and would ask the audience to listen to my sarangi,” he had said. Similarly, when I met the renowned Pakistani vocalist Salamat Ali Khan in the early 1980s, he was all praise for the great Pandit and recalled his stylised way of beginning a bada khayal and awe-inspiring arrival on the sam.
A man of principles, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit had serious differences with V. N. Bhatkhande on pedagogic and musical issues. He was particularly unhappy with Bhatkhande’s attempts to alter the traditional khayal compositions and standardise ragas and their structures. By decorating his son and disciple L. K. Pandit with the Tansen Samman, the Madhya Pradesh government has in a way honoured the great tradition of the Pandit family.
