The practicing musicians’ apathy towards musicology results in many myths. Led by their blind faith in the hearsay woven around the name of sacred traditions – the concept gets clouded in the absence of logically analyzed what-s, why-s and how-s. One such myth is widely accepted now that the Dagar Gharana thrives on the Dagur Bani only and three of four dhrupad Banis are almost extinct now.
But, are they? Kolkata’s Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad under its ‘Raga Rasa Sahitya’ series and Satyananda Devayatan organised two unique events, one after the other, based on this pertinent question only.
The answer was provided by erudite dhrupad maestro Pandit Falguni Mitra in an interview on stage before he initiated listeners and students in packed auditoriums. Mitra – who in his early life had straddled a demanding job with a Chennai-based MNC before coming back to Kolkata as the Prefect-cum-Guru with ITC SRA (till 2008) – is now totally dedicated to performing and also teaching as a guru under CITI-NCPA’s ‘support to gurus’ scheme. During this delightfully educative event he presented not only the traditional compositions highlighting each Bani but also an elaborate alap with its different segments focused on different Banis!
The history
The Court of Bettiah was the haven of music with intense compositional activity with at least five different lineages of dhrupad musicians actively composing and performing dhrupad in the 19th Century alone. The Mullicks migrated from Shah Jahan’s court to the Bettiah durbar as court musicians in the late 17th Century; a few of whose descendants continue to sing dhrupad until today. Seniya Ustads Pyar Khan and Haider Khan are also considered to be major influences on Bettiah gharana. In the late 18th Century Pandit Shivdayal Mishra, a disciple of famous Rahimsen and Karimsen (Senia gharana) of the Nepal court, migrated to Bettiah. Mishra is said to have trained the Maharajas of Bettiah – Anand and Naval Kishore Singh in dhrupad, both of whom became composers of a very high order.
After the end of royal patronage, many musicians migrated out of Bettiah; but the tradition continued in Banaras. Stalwarts like Shivdayal Mishra’s grandson Jaykaran Mishra, who had collected over 2,000 dhrupads in different Banis, passed on this cherished legacy to his deserving disciples like Bholanath Pathak and Shib Mitra.
Bettiah’s rich legacy is carried forward by Falguni Mitra, son-disciple of Shib Mitra. His repertoire including his talim in the alap from the legendary Ustad Nasiruddin Dagar Saheb is unique in having compositions in all four Banis of dhrupad.
The Banis
These Banis could be explained as stylistic idioms with definite musical characteristics. For example, Mitra sang “Adham uddharini” (Tansen, Chhayanat, chautal), “Rajan ko Raja…Ram” (Tansen, Malkauns, chautal) and “Saghan drum-beli” (Anand Kishore, Bahar, chautal) to showcase the majestic long-meend based regal gait of Gaurhar Bani; “Jai-jai Shri Vinayak” (Bageshri, chautal) and the famous “Sai toh na aaye aaj” (Tansen, Bihag, chautal) to display the simple beauty of Dagur Bani; “Aavan kahi gaye” (Nayak Dhondu, Malkauns) and “Pashupati Shankar” (Shankara) set to shooltal as examples of the power-packed Khandar Bani and “Barkha patur naachi” (Tansen, Miyan Malhar, fast chautal) to elaborate the unexpected leaps of notes and phrases of the Nauhar Bani.
He incorporated all these features in the alap of a given raga. He also sang another composition by Tansen which describes four distinct characteristics of each Bani. Evidently, creating as well as performing compositions in the four Banis requires great skill and sensitivity to the interplay of lyrics, melody, rhythm, tempos and its relationship to dhrupad’s aesthetics. For example Gauhar Bani does not allow layakari while Dagur Bani leaves a lot of scope for this. As a result, the ornamentations and rhythmic variations are applied during a rendition while strictly preserving the integrity of the Banis.
Reviving
Despite the fact that in the late 19th Century, Bettiah gharana’s influence spread beyond its original source to Banaras and Kolkata, this unique and historic tradition is today an endangered practice that has suffered loss of circulation and loss of intelligibility with modern audiences, and is in urgent need of both archival and sustainability efforts.
Mitra, supported by his disciples like Sumitra Ranganathan, a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the Berkley University, who did extensive research on Bettiah Gharana’s history, is striving to revive the hallmark of his gharana – its repertoire in all four Banis of dhrupad.
