Accidental discovery of a rare recording in a kabaadi shop led this customs officer on a path that he wouldn't have envisaged. A.N. Sharma, serving Customs Commissioner in Mumbai, ended up writing a tome on the subject “Bajanaama, A Study of Early Indian Recording” (Kathachitra Prakashan). The narrative, according to him, moves at various levels. Documenting the history of recording in India ever since 1902, when first recording of Indian music was made here by the Gramophone Company of India, the author looks at how different gharanas came to be influenced by it and the social and political milieu of the times. Lavishly sprinkled with some rare images, the writer here highlights some important developments noted by him in the book.
Raison d'être
Sound has been important to India's culture. By writing about the artistes who were engaged with this medium and several others who used it, I wanted to remind people about these forgotten names. It's important to remember this period because the concept of recording emerged from here only. Since we could hear the people of those eras, it became the standpoint from which we could examine the other voices and musical traditions that followed.
First commercial Indian recording
F.W. Gaisberg, who was representing the Gramophone Company, came here. The first record Gaisberg made was a test record, “Ram Chunder Reminiscences”, made in the voice of a foreigner called W.S. Burke, who imitated the Indian style of speaking English. The great sound expedition began with the recording of songs by Kolkata singers Shohsimukhi and Fanibala of Bengal theatre. They had staged an adaptation of Shakespeare's “Hamlet”. There used to be a mother record which was then replicated into several daughter records, which were made in different countries. The concept of MRP can be found existing even in these times because some of the records have MRPs printed on them.
Non-commercial recordings
The scientific community were using this medium even before 1902 but for non-commercial recordings in India. While researching, I found two anthropologists Thurston and Rangachari had recorded the Toda tribe of the Nilgiris for anthropological purposes. This archive isn't here but in the National Sound Archive, London. In my first chapter I also deal with comparison between this newly arrived audio medium and the existing print medium that was done in those times
Political recordings
The first recorded political speech of our country was made by Surendranath Banerjee. It harped on the concept of Swadeshi and used the slogan of Vande Matram. The recording termed seditious was destroyed by the British. Interestingly, the record was made in Germany and the label had the word ‘National' in it which suggests that Germany was supportive of our fight for independence.
The famous recording stars
I have dedicated an entire chapter to these talented artistes and there was no single Gauhar Jaan but many Gauhar Jaans and Malka Jaans in terms of their skill and talent. There is a Doanni Jaan of Delhi, who was a very close friend of the very famous Gauhar Jaan and we even have a photograph of the two together. I have also documented Ustad Sadiq Ali, who could be called the earliest possible voice to have recorded, as he had sung before Nawab Wajid Ali Shah.
There was no planning to this documentation which led to many gaps. Chatur Pandit Bhatkhande had announced in the Indian Music Conference in 1918 that the Nawab of Rampur had given him permission to get the Hori and Dhrupad of Tansen School recorded but affluent Indians didn't come forward to contribute to the project and it couldn't be done because of the paucity of funds.
