Wajid Ali Shah establishes “Chota Lucknow” in Calcutta

 

The tune of a dulcet song was pouring across the long corridor of the Durbar hall of Matiya Burz. The floors were covered with decorative carpets and over it spread a white sheet or chandni were the musicians assembled. Large mirrors and crystal chandeliers reflected a bevy of admirers. The ambience reminded the lost glory of Lucknow.

 

A Bengali bhadralok, with all his smugness stepped down from a buggy and sauntered down the hallway of the Durbar. He was cordially greeted by Wajid Ali Shah and made him seated next to him. Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore was a connoisseur of music in those days and belonged to one of the richest cultural genres. All the way from Pathurighata Rajasahib travelled to Matiya Burz to cherish the quintessence of Lucknowi thumri fostered by the Nawab. Soon, the sweet voices and rich melody filled the air and rose to great heights of eloquence. The Raja was an allegiant of the British Crown but an ardent devotee of Wajid Ali’s thumri. The musical genre was not unknown to him, yet the thumri sung in the Nawab’s durbar had the pride of place, specially when sung by the Nawab in his Durbar. The story of an exotic and highly mellifluous musical genre started to unfold in the bank of Hoogly.

 After being exiled to Calcutta from Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah reached the bank of Hoogly on 26^th May 1856 – following a long weary journey of three months in the scorching summer. But the destiny was not kind to him and soon he was kept under arrest in Fort William by the British government with the plea to safeguard the King from the tumult of first Indian war of liberation. After a custody-life of 13 months the ex-king was finally set free, and was conferred a monthly stipend of rupees one lakhs – a settlement which was inevitable to happen and the king could not deny.  A twirl of destiny had changed his path and taken him away from luxury to austerity.  King Wajid Ali Shah purchased a large riverside estate at Matiya Burz in the southeastern fringe of Calcutta. Step by step an extension of the Nawabi Lucknow concluded in a remote corner of Calcutta.

 

Wajid Ali Shah's most popular thumris turned out to be one of the saddest and sweetest of parting songs. In the Durbar of Matiya Burz, the Nawab sung his own songs with great devotion and patriotism. With his songs the Nawab had his soul and mind drifted back to his beloved Lucknow. He sat mute for a moment and tears ran down his face. The Durbar Hall of Matiya Burz was studded with eminent musicians and music personalities of Calcutta assembled to cherish the archetypical style of Lucknowi thumri and kathak composed by Wajid Ali Shah. The great dhrupad exponents of Bishnupuri gharana - Jadunath Bhattacharya popularly known as Jadu Bhatta, and Aghore Nath Chakravarty, were aficionados of the Nawab’s durbari thumri at Matiya Burj.  Pandit Jadu Bhatta was the music-guru of Rabindra Nath Tagore and a resident of Thakurbari at Jorasanko for sometimes.

 

Sitar maestro – Sajjad Muhammad, the adept son of sitarist Ghulam Muhammad Khan was a regular visitor of Wajid Ali’s court. He was the court player of Maharaja Jyotindra Mohan Tagore  - the elder brother of Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore of Pathuriaghata. Among several other musicians of Calcutta to visit Matiya Burz, Murad Ali Khan was one. The renowned North Indian vocalist of Tilwandi gharana was a long time resident of Calcutta and the music guru of Aghore Nath Chakravarty.

 

Initially alluded to as a raga rather than a genre, thumri is believed to have originated in the nineteenth century court of Wajid Ali Shah. Thumri developed after Kheyal. Perhaps the rigor of the musical rules, though more facile than Drupad, was found less supple to the more imaginative singers who further wanted to break the shackles. Thumri as a genre - as what we find today - was born in Lucknow and spread far and wide in the country and Wajid Ali Shah is ascribed as the father of present day genre of Thumri. Wajid Ali himself was an adept composer of light classical thumri under his penname, Äkhtar Piya”.

 

Unlike classical dance, Bengal perceived the taste of classical music long before the sojourn of Wajid Ali Shah.  A dhrupad style of Bengali classical music famed as Bishnupur Gharana had its debut in the court of Malla King Raghunath Singh Deo II of Bishnupur between 1702 and 1712. Still, the sojourn of Wajid Ali Shah in Calcutta and the pouring down of musicians from his erstwhile kingdom is a landmark in the musical history of Bengal. From that date Bengal got the taste of pure north Indian classical gharana. Thumri was implanted in Calcutta by the Nawab and genre soon percolated from the Zamindars to the womenfolk of the city’s red-light area.   A new generation of musician and great talented singers was born in Calcutta who contributed to the further refinement of Thumri. Lucknow never emboldened pure classical music; rather it bolstered a variety of light classical styles and made them popular all throughout the country. The lighter style of Thumri was much applauded in the music world of Bengal than the abstruse Kheyal and dhrupad.  And in Calcutta too, Thumri went hand in hand with Kathak. 

 

Nineteenth century colonial Bengal witnessed a grand era of British Orientalism and Bengal Renaissance that begun in the ferment of European ideas and Oriental education movement. The city boasted a Europeanized intelligentsia, well conversant with the western updates and responded favorably to the European culture in brining forth an enlightening renaissance in Bengal. Yet it was precisely a Hindu dominant awakening. Muslim traditional ethos and sensitivities did not touch the arch of Bengal intelligentsia of nineteenth century; rather they preferred to stand outside as an external proletariat. The Bengali Bhadraloke (elite folklore) deeply engrossed in western mores, circumscribed a prominent realm of their own, and kept the traditional Muslim aspiration away from its fold.  King Wajid Ali Shah, the proponent of traditional Orientalism and ethos, suddenly found himself outside the orbit of the Bengali intelligentsia.

 

The memories of Lucknow were fading fast. The ripple of Hoogly had entwined his heart with deep and enduring bonds. The water of Gomti and Hoogly bore testimony to the flow of King’s life. Calcutta was new to him and too the culture of Bengal. When the giant shadow of Anglicism was looming large in the horizon of Calcutta, King Wajid Ali Shah, with his unwavering and yet unquenched fervor of traditionalism, went adrift boisterously exemplifying his Mughal durbar in a remote corner of Calcutta. Matiya Burz had replaced Lucknow in his heart.

 

There was the same bustle of activities, same language spoken, same style of poetry, same conversation, same wit, same cock-fighting and opium. The opulence of Lucknow could never be matched with the novelty of Matiya Burz. Still then peace prevailed in the enforced solitude. The British assimilated his kingdom but could not stifle his songs or snatch his pen. Prudence urged him to accept his destiny. And a new life unfolded.

 

Wajid Ali lost his kingdom but regained his intellectual ecstasy in Calcutta and nurtured within himself layers and layers of dreams. The hurdle of religious orthodoxy stumbled before Wajid Ali Shah’s fervour in oriental music. The King had realized that in order to cherish the essence of Hindustani art, one must gain to understanding the fundamentals of Hindu culture and mythology treasured down the age. Lord Krishna became his role model. Wajid Ali Shah discovered within himself, the archetypal romantic image of Krishna with his tenderness and mesmerizing beauty to enflame the desire of the individual soul for union. Krishna’s romance with his Gopis (female devotees) in a full-moon night on the bank of Jamuna was a perennial theme of inspiration to Wajid Ali Shah. The divine sport of Raas leela once enacted by Krishna, metamorphosed into Rahas in Lucknow and later in Calcutta. Wajid Ali’s Rahas was a kind of opera with a perfect blend of dance from Braj region depicting mystic life of Krishna, and kathak of his own composition.

 

Wajid Ali Shah’s fervent appetite for good music, dance and women continued with equal diligence during his sojourn in Calcutta.  Matiya Burz emerged as an edifying hub for the music connoisseurs. Wajid Ali made full use of his womenfolk to compose nearly twenty dancing troupes in Matiya Burz and named them Radhamanjilwali, Jhumurwali, Latkanwali, Sharda Manzilwali, Nathwali, Ghunghatwali, Raswali, Nakalwali and so on. From the details available in Bani ( 1875), it is evident that Radha Kanhaiya ka Kissa was staged regularly at Matiya Burz since 1861

Although Bengali stage-art made its debut in the mansion of Calcutta Theatre as early as 1795, during its infancy the genre of Bengali theatre was more Europeanized than Indian, unlike that of Hindustani Theatre played in the durbar of Wajid Ali Shah.

 

The Bengali bhadralok lived a dual existence under the colonial sky of Calcutta. The fervent espousal of the European ethos was no hindrance to intensify passion for classical dance. The Zamindars of Calcutta - embellished in their best feathers, learnt to cherish the kernel of North Indian classical gharans in the early nineteenth century. However, what was seriously missing in the majlis, came into being after the banished king settled in Calcutta. A stream of classical dance gharana, hitherto unfamiliar to Calcuttans, began to pour forth in the court of Bengali riches. Kathak provided the quintessential vigor of Lucknowi gharana and that had whetted the appetite of Bengali intelligentsias.  

 

Although unfamiliar but the taste of Lucknowi gharana was not unknown to the elites of Calcuttans before Wajid Ali Shah set his foot in. Dancers from Muslim family, having north Indian linage specially acquainted with Lucknow gharana, held an exalted position in the court of the Bengali baboos.   They were called baijees while the British branded them as nautch girls. Nevertheless, the babu-baijee culture, which was once fostered by the Calcuttan elites, alluded to an extravagant and envious pursuit rather than a truthful attempt to cultivate the quintessence of a performing art.  Its professional contributors - the nautch girls - were exploited by their Bengali sponsors to captivate the Europeans by their seductive charm.

 

Truly speaking, the tradition of Lucknow gharana was largely preserved and nurtured in the dark alleyways of Lucknow since its heyday. If the exponents of dance and music in the court of Wajid Ali Shah went on to win laurels after laurels, it was the tawaifs living in the Kothas of obscurity embellished their creation and fostered the art from being lost in oblivion. Tawaifs were courtesans but were not bazaari nautchwaalis or khemtawalis who capitalized on their vulgar dance and seductive body language.   The classical line of performing art remained in the firm clutches of the upper echelons of Calcutta where tawaifs were not rebuffed. In the labyrinthine lanes and alleyways of Bowbazar and Chitpore in old Calcutta, the sounds of ghungur reverberated and the air was full of melody. Kathak found its way from Lucknow to Calcutta. The rich patrons of Calcutta arranged big musical assemblages or soirees in the mansions of the Tagores of Jorashanko and Pathurighata, Debs of Shobhabazar, Mallicks of Sindurpatti, Nandis of Cossimbazar Rajbari, where the tawaifs of Lucknow evoked much ardency and excitement.  Patronage of Lucknow gharana in Calcutta was given a new thrust when Wajid Ali Shah settled in the city with a bevy of baijees brought from Lucknow. . Perhaps, Wajid Ali Shah was unaware of the socio-cultural locus of his contemporary Calcutta. In reality, before the Nawab set foot, dancing in Calcutta was confined within the abodes of women dancers of lower orders called Khemta-walis whose voluptuous movements of hip and flashing of limbs were in perceivable contrast with the classical dance of Lucknow The Durbar Hall of Matiya Burz beheld great musical assemblage of maestros and exponents of classical dance and music.  Music-lovers of Calcutta gathered to hear Wajid Ali Shah sing his favourite Lucknowi thumris, and to get a marvelous glimpse of his Kathak dance. The Durbar was lavishly adorned to incite the old memories of Lucknow Baradari.

 
Once in 1867 during Holi, the Nawab danced himself in the attire of a nautch girl. The rare moment was witnessed by connoisseurs of Calcutta’s music circle like Aghore Nath Chakrborty, Sajjad Mohammad and other honoured guests gathered in his Durbar Hall. It was an unforgettable evening. The Nawab also sang and the ecstasy was springing out of his vocal chords.

 

The decline of Delhi and Lucknow empires abated the patronage of the old aristocrats, which led to emigration of the nautch girls to Benaras and largely to Calcutta. A new breed of courtesans adept in kathak and thumri marked their exquisite presence mainly on Chitpore Road and adjacent streets and by-lanes, receiving guests of every caste and creed. The skills cultivated by them from the shaded areas in the course of traditional trade were incredible.

 

In the Durbar of Matiya Burz, the dancers were born for the sake of art. Prostitution was forbidden. The Nawab had no fascination to keep mistresses, but had an uncanny fervor to nurture the art of Kathak and Thumri amidst his dancers and singers - many of them being adored as his mutá wives.

 

 

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