Bhatkhande
Chaturpandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande is considered by many to be the father of modern Hindustani music. He was the most important Hindustani musicologist and composer of the 20th century, a true crusader and a renaissance man.
“Born into a cultured Maharastrian family in Balukeshwar, Bombay on December 31st, 1860, Bhatkhande acquired his sweet voice and initial training from his mother. He learnt the flute, Sitar and vocal music from some very eminent gurus like Jairajgir, Raojibua Belbagkar, Ali Husain Khan, Vilayat Hussain Khan and others. Along with his academic studies, he devoted nearly 15 years to the study of all the available ancient music-treatises in Sanskrit, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu, German, Greek and English with the help of scholars and interpreters. He also became proficient in Sanskrit.
“For a brief period after his LLB he served as a successful lawyer at the Karachi High Court. Death of his wife and daughter turned him away from the worldly life to a life devoted to music. His sole objective, as he wrote, “has been to place before my educated, music-loving brothers and sisters, the present condition of the Art”. He started his musical quest by first touring every important music center of India talking to all the great musicians and scholars of the day, going through all the books and manuscripts he could find in various libraries. He had to confront social, intellectual, and finally, professional prejudices. These took shape as positive obstacles, definite active resistance. By his infinite patience, persuasive ways, and utter sincerity of purpose, Bhatkhande was gradually able to break down the opposition and suspicion of some of the great ustads of the day.
“Once he had collected enormous amount of information, Bhatkhande set about sifting though it all and publishing all the knowledge he had gained. Then followed a period of prolific publications - in Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi and English such as: Abhinavaragamanjari, Abhinavatalamanjari, Lakshya Sangeetam, the Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati, the Kramik series in 6 volumes, the Swara-malika and Geet Malika series, Grantha sangeetam, Bhavi Sangeetam, A Short Historical Survey of Music, Philosophy of Music, and so on using his pen names, Vushnu Sharma or ChaturPandit. In Kramik series, he published more than 2000 of traditional Dhrupads, Dhamars, Khayals, Sadras, Taraanas, Chaturangs and Thumris he had collected from all the gharana-s. The volumes also had about 250 of his own compositions, mostly khayals and Lakshna Geeth-s using the pen-name Chatura. He also published several ancient music-granthas whose manuscripts he had salvaged during his country-wide tours.
“Most important of his works is his treatise on Hindustani music, presented in 4 volumes of his Marathi book Hindustani Sangeetha Padhathi between 1909 - 1932. He described hundred and eighty ragas and classified them into ten basic thaats, or musical scales or frameworks -Bilawal, Kalyan, Khamaj, Bhairav, Poorvi, Marwa, Kafi, Asavari, Bhairavi and Todi. He also devised musical notation that could be used to write music. That was perhaps the first attempt at writing music in India … where for thousands of years music had been orally transmitted.
“He helped to start the first college of music, Sangeeta Maha Vidyalaya in Baroda using his system of music teaching. He trained music teachers. He wrote graded text- books on music. They are known as Kramic Putstaka Malika. With the help of the Maharaja of Baroda, Bhatkhande convened in 1916 the first All-India Music Conference in Baroda, a first of its kind. In the 5th All-India Music Conference in 1925 it was decided to open a College of Music at Lucknow and the following year the Marris College of Hindustani Music was established in the name of Governor of the province. This has been renamed as Bhtakhande University on the centenery year of his birth. Bhatkhande used to supervise the work of this college in its early years.
“His efforts continued till he became bedridden and finally passed away in 1933. His dedicated disciples, particularly Pt S N Ratanjankar, continued the great work of Bhatkhande. Govt of India honoured Bhatkhande with a release of a stamp in his name.”
The following is a composition of Bhatkhande in Raga Shree sung by D. V. Paluskar:
Hari ke charana kamala nisadina sumira re
bhAva dhara sudha bheetara bhava jaladhi tara re
jo’i jo’i dharata dhyAna pAvata samAdhAna
‘hararanga’ kahe gyAna, abahu chita dhara re (Parrikar)
