The Jamia Masjid in the fort area in old Bagalkot would have a curious visitor every morning, once the call for prayers went out.
A three-year-old child would run to the mosque, listening to the Azaan, soaking in every note. The child was Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, who would grow up to be a Hindustani classical legend who enthralled the world. “The musical rhythm of the prayer would draw him to the mosque every day,’’ says Shirish Joshi, Bhimsen Joshi’s biographer.
This is one of the many anecdotes featured in Bharata Ratna Bheemanna , written by Mr. Shirish Joshi, released this week to mark the birth centenary of Bhimsen Joshi, who was born in Ron near Gadag on February 4, 1922.
Another interesting incident from the book is about the day young Bhimsen Joshi went missing. The five-year-old boy was not to be seen anywhere and his father went to the police station seeking help. Just then, a man came to the station carrying the boy in his arms. “This boy was found sleeping in our front yard. He had come to our house, following a band of Shennai players who we had engaged to play at a family function. But he fell asleep after the concert,” he said. Since then, Gururaj Acharya would paste a sticker on the boy’s shirt that said:
Lost boy
“If this boy is lost, please send him to the home of Gururaj Acharya, primary school teacher, Killa, Bagalkot.” The book records several little-known facts about the singer’s life, like Bhimsen Joshi undergoing Carnatic music training in Mysuru by Indirabai Madhav and other Gurus for few years. The passion to learn Khyal singing was so strong that he ran away from his home not once, but twice. The first time, he was caught singing besides a temple in Vijayapura and was brought home by well-wishers. The book is full of nuggets about how he came to learn from Sawai Gandharva at Kundagol, after searching for a guru all over India.
Another, lesser known fact is that Bhimsen Joshi’s Guru Ramu Bhau Kundgolkar, aka Sawai Gandharva, was no stranger to him. He had inspired to learn Khyal singing in Kirana Gharana only after listening to Sawai Gandarva. However, he went around the country searing for a Guru, before he decided to come to Kundgol and learn from him. Cut for print.
Bhimsen Joshi had attended Sawai Gandharva’s concert of in Gadag in 1932. Bhimsen Joshi was a boy of 10 years then. That day, Sawai Gandharva sang a piece in Shuddha Kalyan and two songs in Telugu and Marathi, while his disciple Gangubai Hangal accompanied him on the Tanpura. The young Bhimsen Joshi decided that he would learn music from a Guru whose performance would be so profound.
However, Sawai Gandharva was known for singing for drama troupe and would always be travelling. This discouraged him and he decided to find Gurus in northern Indian towns like Gwalior, Kolkotta and Jalandhar. One day, at a concert in far away Jalandhar, he met Vinayak Rao Patwardhan, a Khyal singer and a railway employee. It was Patawardhan Bua who told him to go to Kundgol. ``You are from Gadag and the best Khyal Guru Sawai Gandharva lives in Kundgol (which is a distance of around 40 miles). You have travelled to Gwalior, looking for a Khyal Guru. It is as if you are holding butter in your hand and you are searching for ghee,’’ he said. Bhimsen Joshi objected, saying it was difficult to catch Sawai Gandharva as he was always on tour. But Patawardhan Bua informed him that Sawai Gandharva was stationed in Kundgol after he had suffered a stroke.
Mr. Shirish Joshi also recalls the maestro’s great sense of humour. Though he came to Kundgol in 1936, his teaching did not start immediately. All the disciples had to work at the Guru’s household before their sessions started. I used to run daily errands like filling a tank in the master’s house with water from a well. That task would take several hours and classes would start only in the evening,” says Mr. Shirish Joshi. Bhimsen Joshi used to joke that if the pots were any bigger, he would have filled the tank faster and he would have got more time to learn more ragas,” the writer said.
The book also dismisses as myths, some stories about the early life of the singer. One of them was that his father Gururaj Acharya was opposed to his son learning music and did not encourage him. But the fact is different, says the book. Gururaj Acharya not only bought a harmonium for Bhimsen Joshi, but also appointed two tutors, Agasara Channappa and Shamachar, to teach him the basics of classical music.
Mr. Shirish Joshi, a Belagavi-based novelist, theatre personality and music critic, has also written biographies of Kumar Gandharva and Basavaraj Rajguru. He has compiled the short biographies of all the greats of Hindustani music in India. Pandit Ganapati Bhat Hasanagi has written the foreword for the book. The book is published by Yaji Publications, Hospet.
