Since November 2016, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in conjunction with SPIC MACAY has been hosting concerts featuring unusual ragas. Earlier concerts have featured Shruti Sadolikar, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pt. Pushpraj Koshti, Ustad Bahauddin Dagar, Manjari Asnari, Pt. Ritwik Sanyal amongst others – the somewhat unusual line-up, featuring the usual popularly heard artists whose performances were enhanced by different concert timings. Some were in the morning, early afternoon, some at 4 p.m.; thus allowing the discerning audience to hear ragas performed at different times, as per the North Indian classical tradition.
Mangalam Swaminathan, Programme Director, IGNCA said they planned to end the year-long series with an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. concert depending on audience support.
Recently, Pt. Raghunandan Panshikar, senior disciple of the Jaipur Atrauli gharana doyen Kishori Amonkar, performed. Raghunandan has been taught by her for more than 30 years continuously and has imbibed all aspects of her music. His extremely beautiful voice is matched with the impeccable, rigorous training his guru was known for, making his concerts most enjoyable. He sang with a confidence matched by his undoubted vocal ability, concentrating on the rare jor ragas his gharana is known for. He started his recital with a less heard raga Jaitashri, a combination of ragas Jait and Shri. The Jaipur Atrauli gharana so named, as explained by senior gharana exponent Gurinder Kaur, because founder Ustad Alladiya Khan was born in Jaipur, and his mother’s family from whom he also learnt, were from Atrauli. After he moved to Kolhapur, when asked what his unique form of gayaki was called, he said “Jaipur Atrauli”. It is rather sad that there is no festival of stature in Jaipur commemorating this unique link between a form of gayaki which is now Maharashtrian based, but originated from villages now outside Jaipur.
Different takes
Different gharanas handle Jaitashri differently, the Jaipur Atrauli Jaitashri which Raghunandan presented was pleasing, presented a comprehensive picture, and was laden with the slow taans his gharana is famous for. He sang two compositions, before shifting to another combination of Shri, a “jor raga” called Dhawalashri or Shri Kalyan, a combination of Shri and Kalyan. His singing expertise was shown in this raga, singing as he was, just after Jaitashri, and also as the raga features both “Dha’s”. As Raghunandan himself said this is a small raga; perhaps he could have shortened the presentation by five minutes. The third raga was Sawani Nat, another Jaipur Atrauli speciality, and yet another “jor raga” combining the now obscure Sawani and Nat. This was not as instantly appealing as were his other pieces; perhaps the strong flavour of Shri raga remained in one’s subconsciousness. Raghunandan concluded his recital with a raga created by Kishori Amonkar, joining Kalyan and Malhar, named Anandi Malhar.
Perhaps it was a coincidence but it poured down, leading credence to the commonly held view that Malhars bring the rains! Ably accompanying him on the harmonium was Dr. Vinay Mishra, who impressed with his ability to etch out the rare ragas with fluency. On the tabla was Vinod Lele, as always a delight to hear with his discreet sangat.
