Friday, October 1, 2010

The Aadi Guru Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta . Guru of Mridangacharya Durlava Chandra Bhattacharya and Swami Vivekananda
Late Mridangacharya Durlava Chandra Bhattacharya an icon of Lala Keval Kishan ji Gharana (Bengal).


                                 1878 of March Kolkata was gifted with an icon of Lala Kewal Kishan ji Gharana, Mridangacharya Durlava Chandra Bhattacharya(Dulli Babu). He belonged to the family of great Shaastrakaar’s , a very learned Brahmin family. His father ‘Vidyaratna’ Pt. Nandalal Bhattacharya was a famous Shaastrakaar. Dulli Babu’s ancestral home was at Santragachi, dist. Howrah. Dulli babu were 6 brothers and 2 sisters, he was the youngest among all. He went under the tutelage of Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta when he was young about 20yrs. Old. Dulli babu was his guru’s favourite student so he used to travel with his guru for accompaniment and solo programs. Duli babu was also a brilliant Tabla player. He was enthusiastic, honest and promising artiste, who never thought music as job or business. He used to teach students without taking any fees and polished lots of pakhawaj performers. He also organized yearly Dhrupad programs in dedication of his guru Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta, in front of his house at Shiv Narayan Das lane, Kolkata. He organized this yearly program and continued organizing till 30yrs.
                                On 12th of October 1938, we lost an excellent personality from Bengal, he died while performing in a program “Nikhil Banga Sangeet Sammelan” organized by Shri Bhupendra Nath Ghosh.





Swami Vivekananda was Guru Bhai of Mridangacharya Dulli Babu diciple of Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta

(Painted under the direction of renowned Tabla exponent Pt. Nikhil Ghosh)

The multi- dimensional personality of Swami Vivekananda has always been an inspiration for us all over the world. He lived only 39 years and revolutionized the world with his powerful personality and prophecy for the future of India as well as the future of human civilization at large. Vivekananda was undoubtedly an appreciator and a performer of classical music. In 1887, when Vivekananda was only 24 years old, he co-edited and published a Bengali song anthology named Sangeet Kalpataru. Swami Vivekananda himself was a trained singer (though not professional). He received his classical music training from Kashi Ghoshal, Beni Ostad (his original name was Beni Gupta) and Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta. In late 1881 in the first meeting between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda (then known as Narendranath Datta), Narendra Nath sang few devotional songs. His trained voice and his devotion towards music highly impressed Ramakrishna, which was followed by a cordial invitation to visit Dakshineswar. Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, a renowned singer recorded that he had heard and learned a dhrupad from Swami Vivekanand who was well-versed in forms like the khyal, devotional bhajans as well as tappa. In Ramakrishna Kathamitra, we find Ramakrishna repeatedly requesting Narendra Nath to sing. The same book also shows us while listening to Narendra's song Ramakrishna is going into trance. 

 In Swami Vivekananda’s article “ Sangeet-O-Badya” is indeed a scientific exposition of music in those early days when science itself was not developed as it is now. Narendranath explained the origin of sound its vibration, its dynamic composition, its properties and other aspects with an extraordinary reflection in light of science and in an easy language so as to be understandable by any ordinary person. The said article is the mirror of Narendranath’s opulent and in depth knowledge in music. He has explained about the raga and ragini, he explained about the tuning up of the instruments those are commonly used with vocal music. He explained different rhythms and its innumerable formations which is usually unleashed through the talent of musician. The book was published one year after the demise of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna. The original book contained 646 songs printed on 495 pages published in the year 1887. Shri Baishnab Charan Basak was the publisher, according to Swami Sarvagananda Maharaj

The first part of the book was having an introductory note “ Sangeet O Badya”, while the second part of the book was a compilation of various kind of songs like National Songs, Religious Songs, Mythological Songs, Social Songs, love Songs and miscellaneous Songs. The third part of the book consisted of the short lives of the poets and spiritual ascetics like Chandi Das, Govind Das, Kavi Ranjan Ramprasad Sen, ramnidhi Gupta, Kamalakanta Bhattacharya, Rammohan Roy, Pyari Mohan ‘Kavi Ratna’, Wajid Ali Shah, Kabir, Girish Chandra Ghosh, Jyotindranath Thakur, Tansen, Tulsidas, Trailokyanath Sanyal, Dwijendranath Thakur, Neelkantha Mukkhopadhyay, Harish Chandra Mitra, Hem Chandra bandhopadyay and many more. At the end of first part Narendranath inserted elaborate Bol Bani of different Taala i.e. meters played on Pakhawaj or Tabla. Due to his personal taleem in Pakhawaj under the guidance of Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta Swami ji had compiled many bol bani’s from the Lala Keval Kishan Gharana and written in this book. Swamiji has started the first part of the Bol Baani section with Choutaal Theka along with Fifty one Bol Parans. There are other Taalas like Surfaktaal which contains 13 Bol Parans, Dhamaar contains 8 Bol Parans, Aadachoutaal contains 15 Bol Parans, Aadaa Taal contains 16 Bol Parans, TriTaali contains 9 Bol Parans, EkTaal contains 30 Bol Parans, Tiwat Taal contains 8 Bol Parans, Jhanptaal contains 9 Bol Parans. 

The Bol Parans have been compiled from different Taals and recorded in an Audio Album format produced by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, Kolkata in the year 2014. The book Sangeet Kalpataru was re-edited by Dr. Sarbananda Chaudhuri in the year 2000 and while re- editing the book he gradually caught interest in extracting the Bol Parans and reveal the secrets in an audio format, so in mass, people would get the wonderful opportunity to hear the unrevealed extinct Bol Parans of the Lala Keval Kishan Gharana which Swami ji had learned from his Guru Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta.

Here are two examples of Bol Paran extracted from Sangeet Kalpataru written by Swami ji. The original version of the Paran is written in Vishnu Digambar Paluskar style which was the only way to write notations during that period. I have tried to write the same notation in the new form of Bhatkhande Notation system which is the simplest way to read and understand in this present day. 



Kredhe Stkre I DheSt Ghege I Thete  Kata I Gadi Ghene I Taage Dheth I DhaS Thereketetaka I
X                     0                    2                   0                    3                    4

Dhaga  SDi I Ghene Naga I Kataa kathS I Therekete Tagataga I Taaga Taaga I Dig Daaga I
X                  0                  2                    0                                3                   4
     
Dhaage DinS I Daana Naana I Kata Kathere I Kete Taagtag I DhaaS Kredhaa I SNe Dhaa I
X                    0                     2                     0                     3                        4

Dhage DinS I Daana Naana I Takkaa Thungga I Katthere ketetaka I Dherekete ketetaga I 
X                  0                     2                          0                             3                               

Dherekete Dherekete I Dha
4                                 x



     


Dhere kete I Dhere Kete I Dhere Kete I Dhere Kete I Dhet Dhet I Dhere Kete I
X                  0                  2                  0                  3                 4               

Dhet Dhet I Dhere Kete I Dhere Kete I Kete Taga I Taga There I Kete Taka I
X                 0                  2                  0                 3                  4               

Tere Kete I Taka Dhuma I Kete Taka I ThuSn  SS I Kede Dha I Kede Dha I
X                0                    2                 0                3                4               

Kede Dhet I Dhet Dhet I DhaaS DiS I  Ghede Naga I Dhet TaS I Kath SS I
X                 0                 2                  0                   3              4               

KathS Thete I Ghege Thete I Taga Diga I Taga Thete I Diga Naga I Naga Naga I
X                    0                    2                0                  3                4               

Diga Daga I Daga Daga I There Kete I Taka Dhuma I Kita Taka I Gadi Ghene I Dhaa
X                0                 2                  0                    3                4                   x





Baba Allaudin Khan Sahab belonged to this Gharana . He was diciple of Pt. Nandi Bhatt; diciple of Mridangacharya Murari Mohan Gupta





Pt.Ghanashyam Bhattacharya Guru and uncle(Kaka) of Pt. Chanchal Kr. Bhattacharya



1 comment:

  1. Amazing to see and read about the masters... the first step towards greatness is to acknowledge the gurus...

    ReplyDelete