Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar’s lineage awes one totally – perhaps the Dagar family is the only one today in India that has written records of 12 successive generations of musicians, and an oral tradition of another eight generations, tracing their descent directly to disciples of Swami Haridas. He is the 20th in an unbroken line spread over more than 500 years. His family sings dhrupad, in the Dagarvani tradition (1 of the 4 banis or styles of dhrupad singing), the most difficult form of singing involving tremendous voice control, and strict adherence to the rules of expression. Yet his heritage rests easy on him; he is informal, affable and has an enviable way with words, and ability to explain the most esoteric vocal nuances even to a non singer. He is very philosophical, and in a way, not of his age, as he wryly puts it, “Hum apne daur ki khushiyan khareedte kaise, hamari jeb main pichhli sadi ke sikke hain” (how would I have bought things in my age when my pocket only has currency of an older era).
Excerpts from an interaction at his Delhi residence:
Various branches of your family have settled in all ofNorth India...
Yes, my ancestors settled in the courts of Jaipur, Udaipur, Alwar, Indore…After independence, and the dissolution of the princely states my branch of the family moved to Delhi. I was born here.
The dhrupad aalap is a unique traditon; as a listening experience it is unparalleled. How do you as a performer explain this?
My ancestor Ustad Allahbande Khan was once asked about the purity of “sur” – “Sahib sur ki sachai kya hai”. He replied, “jiska jitna imaan sachha, uska utna swar sacha – such was the attitude in those days towards integrity, to the realisation of needing purity in all aspects before being able to maintain it in the voice! This is what the Dagars thought about swar. For myself, I know you have to concentrate to get into the mood of the raga; you have to make yourself receptive to the raga. It’s like a listener sometimes does not enjoy the same raga from the same artist; it’s not the rendering of the artist, it’s the receptivity of the listener!
I call the mind “the restless beast” – music, whether performing it or listening to it, calms this beast for a while. It’s important.
Talk a little about what music really means to you...
Music has “swar” (notes) and “laya” (rhythm), and music gives peace. Music can move water, can influence even plants! Music to me has five elements – pitch, pulse, pause, purity and silence. Silence is majestic. We are all scared of silence, but silence matters too. As a performer you have to know how to handle silence too.
Do you think dhrupad as an art form is dying?
Well, I personally have 12-13 very dedicated students just in Delhi. I have a pianist, Utsav Lal, who is learning dhrupad from me! Imagine the sustenance of the note which is a requirement of dhrupad, being executed on an instrument like the piano with fixed notes. The Bhilwara Group has set up a facility to train students in dhrupad which I am involved in; in faraway Dhaka dhrupad is being taught by the Bengal Foundation. Haathi ke pair main saare pair hain (it is said an elephant’s foot encompasses all feet in it) – dhrupad it like that. It has every “ang” (aspect).
Have you ever faced hostility or disinterest in an audience?
Oh yes! Let me tell you about a recent incident – I was invited to perform in front of an audience that had heard Daler Mehdi the previous evening. I said, bhaiya ab kya hone wala hai. Anyway, I was there, I had to face it. There were 4500 people, and as I started, I was cat called, whistled at…but I was determined to continue. I explained the concept of aalap, and then started singing again. Again the whistles! I stopped and said, “ye hamare tehzeeb mein nahin hai, aapko jaana hai to jayeeye. (whistling and disrespecting is not in our culture; please leave if you want) Main to gaa ke hee rahunga. (I will leave only after singing) Jaise aap hum pe has rahe hain, hum log bhi aapas mein aap jaise logon pe haste hain.” (just like you are laughing at me, amongst my own artists, we people also laugh at people like you) There was dead silence then. I said, to get respect, learn to give respect. I started again, and yes, many people left, but the heckling stopped and my “laya kaam” appealed to the audience. Eventually, an audience of about 700 people remained. In fact, after I finished, I was asked to sing some more.
What are your other interests apart from music?
I practice the art of calligraphy (shows his drawing pad); my visual sense is quite developed too. I also am fond of shayari. I love driving. I have driven from the West to the East coast in the US! I sing when I drive so I like the engines of big cars as my pitch matches the pitch of the car engine. I love films; especially Charlie Chaplin films.
(The Ustad will perform at the Annual Bhilwara Festival on 25th March at Kamani Auditorium, 6 pm)
The Dagar dossier
NEW DELHI, 07/02/2017: Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar seen during an intervew at his residence at Asiad Villege, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma
Wasifuddin Dagar’s father was Ustad Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar, who used to only sing with his brother Ustad Nasir Zahiruddin Dagar. They were called the Dagar Bandhu; their two elder brothers were also called the Senior Dagar Bandhu, Ustad Nasir Moinuddin and Nasir Aminuddin Dagar. It was the Senior Dagar Bandhu who first started using the name “Dagar; it was also they who first took Dhrupad gayeki to Europe, Japan and West Asia in the late 1950s. They lived in Kolkata after 1947, and the dissolution of the Jaipur State where they lived. After this, they came to Delhi and taught dhrupad at the newly-formed Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra in the mid 1950s. Ustad Moinuddin Dagar passed away in 1966, his brother in 2000; but the Dagar Bandhu jugalabandi continued with the younger duo, till the passing away of Faiyazuddin in 1989. The young Wasifuddin took his father’s place and sang with his Guru till the latter’s death in 1994. He now sings solo.
Upholding an ancient tradition
Pandit Prem Kumar Mallick and Shobha Deepak Singh reflect on the contribution of Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar
10dfr prem kumar mallick
Pandit Prem Kumar Mallick belongs to the Darbhanga dhrupad tradition, and is a son of the erudite master Pandit Vidur Mallik who has done path breaking research and compilation of rare dhrupad compositions sang in the temples of Vrindavan. He is a contemporary of Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar - elder to him by about 10 years, and is today the torch bearer of his gharana in his generation. He says, “Since we both belong to an ancient tradition of dhrupad, we have had familial relations for a long time. I had the greatest respect for his uncles, the Dagar Bandhu, and also for him. I always attend his concerts whenever I can; he does the same with me. sur laya ke insaan hain; sambandh to hoga hi (he is man of music notes and rhythm, obviously we have a close link). He is my younger brother, and is maintaining an old tradition with great talent - yes, our styles of dhrupad differ but this is a very small difference. Ultimately dhrupad is one. The type of training we both have is one; there are small differences in presentation only.”
It’s not just genetic
NEW DELHI, 31/07/2012: Shobha Deepak Singh, Vice Chairperson and Director of Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, during an interview in New Delhi on July 31, 2012. Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
I have been hearing Wasifuddin over the years and find a huge difference in his voice production and indeed his whole presentation. He has done enormous riyaaz in voice production, his smoothly rendered gamaks are testimony to his mastery in voice culture. No wonder he has been honoured with the Padmashri at such a relatively young age. His ability to keep audience attention with a finely tuned sense of drama in his aalap is also admirable. His use of pauses, sense of proportion and subtle sense of lyricism are again his own and not merely inherited. I fondly remember his uncles, the Senior Dagar Bandhu Ustad Moinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar, when they taught dhrupad at our Bhartiya Kala Kendra in Delhi.
