Saturday, February 18, 2017
Sudipta Mitra: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony ofMetiyabu...
Sudipta Mitra: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony ofMetiyabu...: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony of Metiyaburj Popular musical ins...
Sudipta Mitra: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony ofMetiyabu...
Sudipta Mitra: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony ofMetiyabu...: Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony of Metiyaburj Popular musical ins...
Wajid Ali Shah and the Dulcet Symphony of Metiyaburj
Popular musical instruments used in the Darbar
The court of Metiyaburj
nurtured an assembly of adept musicians who had migrated from Lucknow. However
there is no authentic record to testify the arrival of a star dancer or a star
vocalist in Calcutta. The gap in the durbar of Qasr ul Baiza was bridged by the
brilliance of a handful of adroit instrumental performers from Awadh. Ustad
Basat Khan (1787-1887) of Senia lineage came and settled in Metiyaburj in 1858
after Pyar Khan had died in Lucknow in 1857 and Ja’far Khan se...ttled in Banaras.
Ustad Basat Khan learnt Sanskrit from the Pandits of Banaras. He introduced
rabab in Metiyaburj. Basat Khan and his brothers were the last prodigies of
dhrupadi rabab that had been developed by their ancestor Mian Tansen
(1506–1589) and had descended through his son’s lineage. The genealogy is famed
as ‘Vilas Khan rababiya’ line. The rabab that was introduced in Metiyaburj had
its origin in Akbar’s court, although sarod maestro Karamatullah Khan and the
Calcutta oral tradition trace its origin from Afghan rabab. This had come to
India around 1650 with the migrating Pathans and Rohillas who settled in
Rohilkhand near Delhi. A new musical gharana developed in Rampur, which was the
capital of Rohilkhand from middle of eighteenth century. Rohilkhand came under
the political jurisdiction of Awadh in 1774 when Suja-ud-Daulla was on the
throne. During that time a dhrupad rababiya named Chajju Khan, a descendent of
Tansen, came and settled in Lucknow from Rampur. Chajju Khan was the father of
the famous Khan Brothers. Thus, an offshoot of the Rohilkhand-style of rabab
entered the court of Lucknow and eventually came to Calcutta along with the
deposed King.
Basat Khan also introduced sursingar in
Metiyaburj, which was well received by some of his pupils in Calcutta. Wajid
Ali Shah took keen interest in popularising the instrument in his court. Sursingar was invented by his brother Ja’far
Khan and possibly acquired its new feature of metallic fingerboard in Calcutta.
Ustad Basat Khan came to Metiyaburj probably in
1858, when he was 71 years old. He was accompanied by his sons Ali Muhammad and
Muhammad Ali Khan, and Ja’far Khan’s grandson, Kasim Ali Khan. Basat Khan
stayed with the king only for two years and finally settled in Gaya, His second
son Muhammad Ali Khan is remembered as the last exponent of rabab in Calcutta. Despite
his brief stay in Calcutta, Ustad Basat Khan left a legacy through his immortal
creations and his accomplished disciples such as his sons Ali Muhammad and
Muhammad Ali Khan, Kasim Ali Khan and the great sarodia, Niamutallah Khan.
Ja’far Khan's grandson Kasim Ali Khan was one of
the greatest binkars and rababiyas of Senia family who played in Metiaburj. He
was trained in rabab, sursringar and dhrupad by Basat Khan in Metiyaburj under
the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah. His music had an enduring quality and
resonated through the decades and across the entire northern parts of the
country. Kasim Ali Khan left Metiyaburj sometime after Basat Khan, and went to
Nepal. Kasim Ali
once again came back to Calcutta and blessed
a band of instrumental geniuses in greater Bengal.The legendary musician Ustad Alauddin Khan’s
father Sabdar Hossain Khan was a student of Kasim Ali Khan.
The culturally rich Tagores of Pathuriaghata
became closely associated with the banished king of Metiyaburj in Calcutta.
Ustad Basat Khan performed in the sabha of Babu Harakumar Tagore (1798-1858),
father of Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore of Pathuriaghata. Sourindra Mohan Tagore and
his elder brother Jyotindra Mohan Tagore patronized a host of talented
musicians who came to Calcutta from the north. The parlour in Pathuriaghata was
often adorned by notable musicians from Wajid Ali’s durbar in Metiyaburj such
as the dhrupadiya Murad Ali, the Senia-rababiya Basat Khan, tappa and kheyal singer
Ahmed Khan, sitarist Sajjad Mohammad and the famous binkar and rababiya of
Senia lineage – Kasim Ali Khan. Sajjad Mohammad came to Metiyaburj from Lucknow
durbar, before he joined the Tagores of Pathuriaghata. Asadullah
Kaukab Khan the famous sarodiya, received his lessons of sitar and surbahar from Sajjad Mohammad.
Kaliprasanna Bandopadhyay (1842-1900), a follower of Raja
Sourindra Mohan Tagore, was a leading performer of sitar and surbahar and once
played surbahar in the durbar of Metiyaburj. None of his contemporaries, other
than Raja Sourindra Mohan Tagore, had received as many international accolades
as he. Even so, Bandopadhyay was elated to receive an invitation from Wajid Ali
Shah to perform at his durbar in Metiyaburj.
On that memorable occasion, Kaliprasanna Bandopadhyay’s ragas resonated
from his surbahar and enthralled the music connoisseurs present in the durbar.
Sarod developed almost contemporaneously and under
the influence of sursringar in early nineteenth century. Contemporary virtuoso, Amjad Ali Khan often accredits
the present form of sarod to his ancestor Ghulam Ali Khan
Bangash, who was Wajid Ali’s court musician in Lucknow for a while.
Ustad Niamatullah Khan (1827–1903), the sarod
maestro of Wajid Ali’s durbar in Lucknow, perhaps came and settled in
Metiyaburj two years after the king was deposed. Niamatullah Khan came to
Lucknow from Shahjahanpur in the middle of nineteenth century. His descendants firmly believe that it was
during his service in the durbar of Wajid Ali Shah, Niamatullah developed the
modern form of sarod and that happened in Metiyaburj. Niamatullah Khan learnt sarod
from senia Basat Khan and became the founder of Lucknow gharana.
Ustad Niamatullah Khan lived in Metiyaburj for
eleven years and played the sarod in Wajid Ali’s durbar. Sarod was performed
solo and its use to complement other forms of performing art was unlikely. Niamatullah’s son Karamatullah Khan, a
distinguished sarodiya who followed his father’s trail, claims that during his
stay in Metiyaburj from 1858 to 1869, his father instituted three major changes
in sarod. He covered the fingerboard with a brass plate, replaced the catgut
strings with metallic substitutes and removed two gut frets that had been on
the rabab. While the true contributors of such modifications remain debatable,
the introduction of brass plate by which the sarod is identified today is
accredited to Niamatullah in Metiyaburj. Sourindra Mohan Tagore also testifies
the fact. In Calcutta, Niamatullah Khan
continued his training under Basat
Khan, who had been with Wajid Ali Shah in Lucknow
too. It is said that while in Metiyaburj, Basat Khan suggested his
student Niamatullah to change the wooden plate of the sarod to the metal one
and to replace the gut strings with metal substitutes.
Gulfam Ahmad Khan, a contemporary
descendant of Niamatullah Khan narrates an interesting account of how
the sarod was modified by his predecessor. The incident took place in
Metiyaburj.
‘He
(Niamatullah Khan) joined the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and became a
disciple of Basat Khan who was a descendant of Tansen. Niyamatullah Khan
offered one lakh silver coins
to his Guru and started learning Hindustani rāgas. He was an ardent and devoted disciple. During his
training he took his guru’s permission to alter the design of Sarod. His guru
Basat Khan gave him permission to change the existing form of sarod. Niyamatullah Khan took his sarod to an ironsmith and asked him to
change the center wooden main body and put iron plate in its place. He got
iron, brass and bronze strings attached to his sarod. This fully changed the sound and lent depth to the music.
He intensively practiced on the new sarod.
His guru was greatly pleased
and asked Niyamatullah Khan to play sarod
in a function organized in the court of Wajid Ali Shah. Nawab was
extremely impressed by his sarod playing
and conferred upon him the title of ‘Sarkar.’
Niamatullah did not live on the benevolence of
Basat Khan in the durbar of Metiyaburj for too long. Historian D.K.Mukhopadhyay
informs that as the Senia left Calcutta after about two years and Niamatullah
Khan came in close contact with Ustad Kasim Ali Khan in Metiyaburj, the duo
spent hours in practising ragas.
Eventually, Niamatullah Khan left Metiyaburj and went to Nepal in 1873.
Niamatullah successfully established himself as one of the finest sarodiyas in
Metiyaburj. During his stay he introduced some beautiful bandsihes, taans and
todas into the sarod playing style.
(Ref ; PEARL BY THE RIVER : NAWAB WAJID ALI SHAH'S
KINGDOM IN EXILE (Rupa)
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Sudipta Mitra: Pearl by the River :Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdo...
Sudipta Mitra: Pearl by the River :
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdo...: Pearl by the River : Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile (Rupa Publication India ) Vintage...
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdo...: Pearl by the River : Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile (Rupa Publication India ) Vintage...
Pearl by the River :
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile
(Rupa Publication India )
Vintage photograph of Sultan Khana
Wajid
Ali Shah rented a palatial house in Garden Reach paying five hundred rupees per
month for it. The house was a riverside resort of the Maharaja of Burdwan.
However, the English records state that the government was conducive to finding
a decent abode for the ex-king and his retinue. Therefore, a palatial riverside
resort that belonged to Sir Lawrence Peel, the former chief justice of the
Supreme Court in Calcutta, at Garden Reach was rented out to him. Wajid Ali’s
own book Sheo-e-Faiz indicates
that after his arrival in Calcutta Wajid Ali stayed in the house of Burdwan’s
Maharaja, which was rented at five hundred rupees per month. Wajid Ali Shah’s
writing testifies―
Raja Bardhawan ki kothi panch saye ki kiraet per raisa.
Meaning-Burdwan’s Maharaja’s kothi was rented at five
hundred rupees per month. Therefore, the information that Sir Laurence Peel’s
house was arranged by the British, is not true. Moreover, the mansion of
Laurence Peel is more than five kilometres away from the Shahi Masjid along the
river. Contemporary narrator Abdul Halim Sharar, described Shahi Masjid as
King’s personal worship place located adjacent to his palace - Sultan Khana.
The Mansion of Sir Laurence Peel
Grab your copy Pearl by
the River : Wajid Ali Shah’s
Kingdom in Exile to read more…..
http://www.amazon.in/Pearl-River-Sudipta-Mitra/dp/8129144883?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_4&smid=A1TSQTFRN94P4R
http://www.amazon.in/Pearl-River-Sudipta-Mitra/dp/8129144883?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_4&smid=A1TSQTFRN94P4R
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Pearl
by the River :
Nawab Wajid Ali Shah’s Kingdom in exile
(Rupa Publication India )
History had never been kind to Wajid Ali
Shah. It is difficult to decipher the real man from all that has been written
about him. The prying of a superior power forced him to relinquish his crown
and prudence urged him to accept his destiny. Yet, his heart refused to settle
down in a dull life of blankness. In the misery of banishment, the King tried
to paint subtle impressions of life in the style he had nurtured all through
his life. It was with his keenness that the archetypical mannerism of Lucknowi
sensibilities was implanted in the hearts of the Bengali intelligentsia.
A new style of dance,
drama, poetry, cuisine, etiquette, music and melody was impregnated into
Calcutta and continues to exist even today, deeply entrenched into the city’s culture. The long chronicles of pathos and
romance that could be heard from his mausoleum can fill endless volumes. Notwithstanding
the British conspiracy to obliterate all traces of Awadh royalty from Calcutta
and to annihilate the last chance of insurrection against the colonial power,
Wajid Ali Shah successfully left his indelible footprint on the sands of time.
Today, Wajid Ali Shah’s Metiyaburj is lost in the dingy alleyways,
stinking sewerage, dump yards, hyacinth-choked ponds and feculent riverbanks.
It is sad to note that very few Calcuttans today, are aware that Wajid Ali Shah
lived almost half of his life in the city. His concluding days in this colonial
capital remain unknown even to the people of his native town. Only the
inconspicuous Sibtainabad Imambara with seventeen odd graves of the Royal
family and few dilapidated holy places in Metiyaburj can dredge up the memories
of the deposed king in Calcutta. Yet unknowingly, the mesmerizing spell and enthrall
of the Badshah’s momentous labour of
love remains entwined even today in every skein of the Bengalis’ cultural life.
Only the propounder remains an unknown entity.
Please collect your copy from any outlet of Rupa Publications and from all online bookstores viz. Amazon.in, Infibeam.com, Flipkart.com etc or Click on the following links to buy online.
ENJOY READING...........
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Sudipta Mitra: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...
Sudipta Mitra:
The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement The Trojan Horse In 1914, when the World ...
The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of I...: The Nitpicker’s Chronicle : Flip side story of Indian national movement The Trojan Horse In 1914, when the World ...
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