Swami Vivekananda formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897; today there are 201 branches all over the world. The saint was also very fond of music. A fine singer himself, he had learnt classical Indian music and enjoyed dhrupad and kirtan. For the last 30 years or so, the Ramakrishna Mission has celebrated his birth anniversary, January 12th, with music concerts at their Delhi and Kolkata centres. This year the Delhi branch, with financial and logistic support from the Sangeet Natak Akademi, had a full day-long celebration of music.
Starting with bhajans by two young prodigies, Rahul Vellal and Aryya Banik, the afternoon session commenced with a sterling sarod recital by Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, accompanied by his son Indrayudh. The raga was Gaud Sarang, a combination of Gaur, which may have been conceived by the Gaur Brahmins of East India, and Sarang. Sarangs are traditionally sung at noon and post noon; appropriately Tejendra’s recital started at 1.30 p.m.
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Gaur Sarang is a “vakra” raga (the notes are not played consecutively in a vakra Raga), it can lapse very easily into Bilawal if it is not handled with care; it is regarded as being a raga of great musicianship. Tejendra handled it for a full hour and 20 minutes, with finesse; keeping to the complex challan (rules of progression) of the raga. He did not need to keep repeating the “Pa Re” catch phrase to establish the correct “shakal” of the raga, which he had already established with just a few masterly strokes. Laudably this recital of his had a longer ‘jhala’ section than usual; “jhala” finds full expression only in sarod sitar veena or guitar because of their ‘chikaari’ strings. On flute, santoor and violin, the movement is merely a simulation.
As such one wonders why so many sarod and sitar practitioners today simply touch on the jhala, playing just a few moments of four “bol” “seedha” (three strokes on the chikaari wire) or “ulta jhala” (three strokes on the baaj wire). The three Teen tala compositions included an adaptation of the khayal, “Tore dekhe bina jiya ghabaraaye”.
On the tabla was Punjab gharana stalwart Pt Yogesh Samsi, an artist who has over the years repeatedly demonstrated his erudition and dexterity. In his solo expositions during his accompaniment, he did not need to display tabla craft but limited himself to embellishing what the sarod was doing, thus enhancing the recital immeasurably. Ably aiding his father was Indrayudh whose deep sonorous “meends” spoke of his musicality. His father shared that this was Indrayudh’s first concert in Delhi, and it was an honour to perform in memory of the iconic Swami Vivekanand. The recital ended with raga Zila Kafi, a raga peculiar to the Senia gharana; here the vintage of the “gats” was over 100 years.
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Pt Ulhas Kashalkar, who performed next chose the obscure raga Dhanasri in its “shuddha” form. This has become a very rare raga as it is today rendered only in conjunction with other ragas. The extant Dhanasri in the Sikh tradition is totally different from what classical artists perform, which confuses things further. The master said with a smile from the stage, that he was singing Dhanasri for another vidwan in the audience, Pt Madhup Mudgal who delights in collecting rare ragas and rare vocal compositions. The next raga was Multani, followed by a very detailed rendering of raga Sindhura, again another raga which tends to be depicted merely through its “pakar” (key phrase), and needs the treatment of an expert like Pt Ulhas Kashalkar to bring forth all facets.
Pt Ulhas Kashalkar was accompanied vocally by Dr Ojesh Pratap Singh, Pt Yogesh Samsi on tabla and Dr Vinay Mishra on harmonium.