A
Peer-Reviewed Bi-monthly Research Journal
ISSN: xxxx-xxxx
Volume-I,
Issue-I, May 2024, Page No.52-59
Published by
Uttarsuri, Karimganj, Assam, India, 788711
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DOI:
………………………….
Nagendranath Bhattacharya: Forgotten Genius, Unforgettable Contributions
Dr. Snigdhatanu
Banerjee
Assistant Professor & HOD
Department of Music, B.B.M.College, Agartala,
India
E mail: drstbanerjee@gmail.com
Received: 09.04.2024; Accepted: 14.05.2024; Available
online: 31.05.2024
©2024 The Author(s). Published by Uttarsuri Publication. This is an open access article under
the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Abstract:
Hindustani
classical music, an offshoot of Indian classical music, evolved during medieval
period as a consequence of the culture of Court-music in northern India. Raga
being an integral part of Indian classical music and a prevailing cultural
tradition of India naturally enriched Hindustani classical music through various
forms and styles. The popular Classical and Semi-classical Genres of such music
were aptly performed by the Court-musicians and the Gharana exponents as well. The
learning of the same are supposed to be transmitted from one generation to the
other in Gharana system, being exclusive in Hindustani classical music. The
trend of Hindustani classical music initially flourished in central and western
regions of northern India which gradually pervaded over the eastern regions.
Nagendranath
Bhattacharya of Bengal put his great and versatile contribution in the field of
Hindustani classical music during from the mid of nineteenth century A.D. to
the first phases of twentieth century A.D. This paper seeks Nagendranath’s
salient contributions in Hindustani classical music in many quarters despite a
great deal of contributions of other contemporary music practitioners of Bengal
to their respective fields.
Keywords: Classical
and Semi-classical Genres; Contemporary music practitioners of Bengal; Cultural
tradition; Gharana exponents; Raga.
Introduction: Hindustani classical music evolved from Indian classical music through various forms and
styles in northern India which began to be developed as well as flourished
during the period from 14th century A.D. to 18th century
A.D. with the abolition or alteration of the Prabandhas (Ghosh 26, 41). Starting from the 16th century A.D. some
popular derivative forms of the Prabandhas such as Dhrupad,
Dhamar, Khyal, Tappa, Thumri, Tarana etc. among
other forms developed during these periods. The other forms comprised Dharu, Sadra, Vishnupada,
Ragmala, Tribat, Chaturang, Pancharang, Haptarang, Quaul, Gulnaksh and so
many which have become faded or obsolete in course of time. The popular forms
of Hindustani classical music,
already been mentioned are still prevalent at this present age and the Gharana representatives are mostly recognised through the forms like Dhrupad, Khyal, Tappa
and Thumri as per Vocal Music is
concerned. Raga is the core of Indian
classical music which plays a vital
role to express proper feeling with the help of Swaras (musical notes), Rhythm
and exact Articulation of the voice. Dhrupad
and Khyal
are considered to be the Classical Forms through which Raga may properly be expressed. Tappa
and Thumri being the Semi-Classical
Genres which were later on adopted by the Court-musicians as well as the Gharana representatives. These Forms or
the Styles of Singing got Royal patronage to a large extent and thus are
rightly recognized as Darbari Sangeet (Court
Music).
Taleem, the term
commonly used in Hindustani classical
music since from the medieval period
is deeply associated with proper learning of Ragas or Bandishes
(Compositions) under the tutelage of a Guru
(Trainer) belonging to a particular Gharana
for a long consecutive years. A Shishya (Disciple) having learnt profound knowledge in this process
may be considered as an able representative or exponent of a particular Gharana under such consideration. After
receiving a good deal of knowledge a representative
explores himself as a Performer (Vocalist or Instrumentalist) or as an Exponent
whose ideas or way of music are supposed to be followed and exercised by the
learners or trainees of that particular Gharana
generation after generation. Many innovative ideas irrespective of the Musical
Forms, Styles of Singing or Instrument playing might be taken care into in this
case. The repository of Hindustani classical
music thus gets enriched by the noble
contributions of so many.
Nagendranath
Bhattacharya (1856-1933) of Bengal became famous by his prudent attitude and
manifold activities. He was a noted performer of Khyal and Tappa (Sengupta & Basu
235 and Mukhopadhyay 51).
Although he had full command over Dhrupad
and Thumri and he used to perform as
well as teach them with same excellence. All these information have been
collected as secondary data, mostly from printed sources. A very less amount of
information regarding the excellences of Nagendranath
Bhattacharya is available in most of the printed sources except some evidential
work done by Dilip Kumar Mukhopadhyay, a renowned musicologist. An ardent
attempt has been made to prove Nagendranath’s
greatness towards Hindustani classical
music in support of the remarkable
contributions he put forward.
Highlights on Nagendranath’s Musical Expertise: Nagendranath Bhattacharya was
born at Malipota near Ranaghat
of Nadiya district. He was initiated training of Dhrupad, Dhamar and Tappa from childhood by his father named
Umanath Bhattacharya (Mukhopadhyay 52). Umanath himself made
his son acquainted with some aristocrat families which enabled Nagendranath in later years to perform in the residences of
the Paul-Chowdhurys’
at Ranaghat, the Acharya-Chowdhurys’ at Muktagachha of
Maimansingha, the Mukherjees’ at Ula (Veernagar) and at Gobordanga, the Royal Court of Tripura
and in many other places. He used to perform in the Concerts at several places
of Kolkata, Bengal, Varanasi, at the Royal Court of Nepal etc. and earned
profound fame (Sengupta & Basu 235).
He usually performed Khyal
and Tappa, sometimes initiated with Dhrupad. He used to perform major Ragas,
preferably Khumbaj,
Bhairavi etc. and occasionally with Devgiri, Natnarayan, Devsakh etc. (Mukhopadhyay 45).
He was one
of the rare Bengalees who fortunately
received immense Taleem
both in Dhrupad, Khyal, Tappa and Thumri. He learnt mainly from Banne
Khan, Ahmad Khan, Jadu Bhatta, Imam Bandi, Bade Dunni
Khan and Srijan Bai (Mukhopadhyay 52-53).
He is claimed to have learnt from other maestros also. According to those
references he also learnt from Badal Khan, Mahesh Chandra Mukherjee,
Lakshminarayan Babaji and Ramjan Khan, son of Imam Bandi (Das Sharma 143, 335).
The name of Mahesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay, a maestro of Tappa and popularly known
as Mahesh Ustad is found as a Guru of Nagendranath
Bhattacharya from another source (Mukhopadhyay
7).
His heartiest desire made Ranaghat an ideal place of learning Hindustani classical music to
a large extent. He dedicated himself for the promotion of the same sacrificing
his own bright musical career. He didn’t stay outside Ranaghat
permanently and produced a large chain of disciples therein. Nagendra Sangeet Parishad was
established during his life time by Nagendranath
Dutta and other disciples as well as admirers for the purpose of conducting
Classical Music Conferences. Many a Music Maestros like Ustad Badal Khan, Ustad
Ramjaan Khan, Gopal Chandra Bandyopadhyay --- the Dhrupadiya (performer of Dhrupad), Harekrishna Shil, the performer of Surbahar, Sangeet Ratna Bhishmadev Chottopadhyay etc. put their performances there in
different times. Nagendranath was capable enough to
hold up both training and performances till the end of his life (Mukhopadhyay 58).
Nirmal Chandra Chottopadhyay,
publicly known as Padmababu and Nagendranath
Dutta became very much popular among his disciples (Mukhopadhyay 41, 43).
They used to perform Khyal
and Tappa. Satyendranath
Bhattacharya, his nephew was another disciple who also earned fame. Pramathanath Bhattacharya, another nephew of Nagendranath Bhattacharya could not flourish his musical
career due to sudden death. The names of other disciples were namely Sauresh Bandyopadhyay (maternal grandson), Suprakash
Bandyopadhyay, Haridas Bandyopadhyay, Durgaprasanna
Mukhopadhyay, Pramathanath Chandra, Atindra
Bandyopadhyay, Charan Kundu, Tarunendu Ghoshal, Sudhir Das, Satish Mukhopadhyay
and many. Shibkumar Chottopadhyay,
the son of Nagendranath’s granddaughter learnt at his
childhood from Nagendranath (Mukhopadhyay 43, 55).
Nagendranath
Dutta, disciple of Nagendranath Bhattacharya became
famous as a Trainer apart from his performance. He successfully instilled the
trend of his Guru’s learning into his disciples. He produced many disciples
both in Kolkata and Ranaghat. Bhishmadev
Chottopadhyay, the Sangeet Ratna and Sachindranath Das (Motilal), the performer of Khyal and Thumri initially learnt from him. Nagendranath Dutta had other disciples also. They were
Gopal Dasgupta, Bibhuti Bhushan Dutta, Shailesh Dasgupta, Bijan Kumar Basu, Shibkumar Chottopadhyay etc. (Mukhopadhyay 42).
Apart from performances in the Concerts,
acquiring huge amount of learning Dhrupad,
Khyal, Tappa
and Thumri from several maestros of
renowned Gharanas and traditionally
generating a large number of disciples which continued through generations Nagendranath Bhattacharya had the quality to compose songs
especially Tappa. Those compositions
were popularized by his disciples (Mukhopadhyay
48).
Critical Analysis:
Nineteenth
Century A.D. might be considered as the phase of overall practice and the
growth of Hindustani classical music in Kolkata and other parts of Bengal.
During the mid of nineteenth century A.D. a systematic practice of Hindustani Dhrupad, Khyal and Tappa began to be exercised among
the Bengalees as the same of Kolkata
came into contact with the maestros belonging to Prasaddu-Manohar Gharana, Gwalior Gharana,
Rampur Gharana, Agra Gharana, Kashi Gharana, Kirana Gharana
etc. and extensive learning and practice of such Music continued in a full
swing. The practice and development of Thumri in Kolkata among the Bengalees happened due to the courtesy
of Nawab Wazid Ali Shah of Metiyaburz Royal Court (1856-1887 A.D.) and the disciples of
Ganpat Rao of Gwalior Gharana. The
Bengalees initially embraced Dhrupad
and Tappa; and began to learn and practise them as well. Khyal and Thumri were exercised by them a bit later (Goswami 68).
The
contribution of both the Jorasanko and the Pathuriyaghata Tagore families for the exercise and spread
of Hindustani Classical Music is
innumerable. Residence of Satu Babu (Ashutosh Deb 1805-1856 A.D.), the same of the Lahas’ at Thanthaniya, the Sinhas’ at Jorasanko,
the Shobhabazar Rajbadi, the Kashipur (Baranagar) Rajbadi, and the Royal Court of Nawab Wazid
Ali Shah at Metiyaburz were significant places of
Kolkata where the maestros of Hindustani
classical music performed and got
patronized. The Bengalees of mid
nineteenth century A.D. availed adequate scope of learning Hindustani classical music from
different Gharana maestros which culturally
enriched Bengal with varied virtuosity.
Possession
of Taleem
(training) under Gharana system
implies the degree or excellence of a Performer which is obviously applicable
for Nagendranath Bhattacharya. He received adequate Taleem of Dhrupad, Khyal, Tappa and Thumri under
the tutelage of renowned Gharana
maestros which enabled him to excel with the same height of the contemporary
Performers of Bengal in the field of Hindustani
classical music. He learnt Dhrupad from Jadu Bhatta (1840-1883 A.D.) for five years while
the latter spent last phases of his life at the Royal Court of Tripura (Mukhopadhyay 367).
Jadu
Bhatta, though initially trained by Ramshankar
Bhattacharya (1761-1853 A.D.) of Vishnupur at a very tender age, learnt Dhrupad mainly from Ganganarayan
Chattopadhyay (1808-1874 A.D.) and
followed the latter’s tradition of learning. The followers of this tradition
used Khandar Vaani (particular style)
in Dhrupad. This Dhrupad was devoid of long Alaap
(expansion of musical notes that enables to unfold a Raga) which comprised Gamak (quiver) along with the applications of Rhythm, Tempo
and other embellishments. Ganganarayan is considered
first to have introduced Khandar Vaani
Dhrupad in Bengal. He made other
disciples such as Haraprasaad Bandyopadhyay, Sriram Siromoni, Srichandra Gupta, Rajnarayan Mukhopadhyay etc. Haraprasad
made a huge range of disciples for which enormous practice and development of Dhrupad sustained in Bengal till the
first few decades of the twentieth Century A.D. (Mukhopadhyay 230).
Ganganarayan learnt Dhrupad
from Mir Nasiram, a Dhrupadiya (Dhrupad singer) as well as a Veenkar (Veena player). Probably Nasiram was a Hindu and Mir was meant for a title for
him. (Mukhopadhyay 230-231). From
another source the name of Ganganarayan’s Guru
is denoted as Noor Rang instead of Mir Nasiram. A list of the Performers
maintaining the tradition of Dhrupad is also obtained (Roy 161).
Noor Rang Jadu Bhatta Haraprasad Bandyopadhyay Nagendranath Bhattacharya Radhika Prasad Goswami Haricharan Karmakar Jatindranath Mukhopadhyay
Ganganarayan Chattopadhyay
During
the second half of the nineteenth
Century A.D. the Bengalees who made
astonishing success in the performance of Dhrupad
were Jadunath Roy, Ramdas Goswami, Gopal Chandra Chakraborty (known as Nulo Gopal) and Lakshminarayan Babaji (Goswami 69).
Nagendranath
learnt Khyal
from Banne Khan, Ahmmad khan and Bade Dunni Khan.
Latter Ustads trained him with Telena
(Tarana?)
and Tappa respectively. He learnt
both Khyal
and Thumri from Srijan Bai. Nagendranath received maximum lessons of Tappa from Imam Bandi (Mukhopadhyay 53-54). Ahmmad khan was a Khyaliya of
Lucknow Gharana. He had connection
with the Royal Court of Wazid Ali Shah of Metiyaburz (Kolkata) and the Pathuriyaghata
Thakurbadi. He taught Nagendranath
and Bamacharan Bandyopadhyay, another Bengalee in the tradition of Khyal. There was a
contemporary Performer of Khyal named Satkadi Malakar, These
three Bengalee made the Khyal singing
popular in Bengal (Mukhopadhyay 45).
The Pal-Chowdhurys’
of Ranaghat played a vital role to arrange a
congenial place of learning traditional music. Nagendranath
availed this opportunity. He learnt mostly Khyal and Thumri from Srijan Bai due to the courtesy of that family. She had
mastery upon Dhrupad, Khyal, Tappa and Thumri (Mukhopadhyay 45).
Imam Bandi had also connection with the
Royal Court of Wazid Ali Shah of Metiyaburz (Kolkata) who was a Court singer of the King of Kashi (Goswami 35). Nagendranath learnt Tappa from her. Ramjan Khan, her son and
Nagendranath were both her disciples and popularized Tappa in Bengal. In this context, the
name of Mahesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay (Mahesh Ustad) is relevant. Both Mahesh and
Ramjan sang various traditional Tappas. Umanath Bhattacharya (1829-1894 A.D.), Nagendrannath’s father,
learnt Tappa from Ambika Charan, a
disciple of Kali Mirza or Kalidas Chattopadhyay (1750-1820 A.D. approximately). Kali Mirza and Imam Bandi both
belonged to the same tradition of learning. The source of this tradition is
Ustad Shade Khan of Kashi (Banaras) Gharana.
In the same way, Mahesh Ustad learnt Tappa
from Ramkumar Mishra of Manohar-Prasaddu Gharana. This Gharana followed the tradition of Hamdun, a disciple of Shori
Miyan. So, the following diagram may be illustrated for better understanding of
this tradition of Tappa, once performed
in Bengal (Mukhopadhyay 45) & (Mukhopadhyay 4).
Nagendranath
Bhattacharya Ramjan Khan Mahesh Ustad
Now, the
contemporary Performers with Nagendranath
Bhattacharya may be discussed. Aghore Chandra
Chakraborty was born approximately in 1951/1952 A.D. He received immense Taleem of Dhrupad from Ustad Ali Baksh, a
descendant of Miyan Tansen. He also learnt Dhrupad
from Ustad Murad Ali and Ustad Daulat Khan. Besides, Aghore
Chandra learnt Tappa and Bhajan from Srijan Bai and Bholanath Das
respectively. He earned fame by his performances and produced a good number of
disciples. Amarnath Bhattacharya, Gopal Chandra Bandyopadhyay, Nikunja Bihari
Dutta, Pran Krishna Chottopadhyay, Sachindranath Mitra etc. became famous among them (Das Sharma 148-149). In this context Gopal Chandra Chakraborty, another
name, may also be drawn. He had expertise over both Dhrupad and Khyal.
He learnt Dhrupad from Gopal Prasad
Mishra, the famous Dhrupadiya
of Varanasi (Banaras). Gopal Chandra was the only Bengalee who gathered the lessons of Khyal from Ustad Haddu Khan and Ustad Hassu Khan
of Gwalior Gharana. Gopal Chandra taught many a great Performers such as
Alauddin Khan, Satkadi Malakar, Lalchand Badal,
Radhika Prasad Goswami, Ramprasanna Bandyopadhyay, Ramtaran SSanyal, Harinarayan
Mukhopadhyay etc. (Das Sharma 131-132).
Last but not the least is the name of Laksminarayan Babaji.
He was mainly a Dhrupadiya.
Apart from the learning of Dhrupad he
was a Khyaliya
(performer of Khyal)
and had expertise over Thumri, Tappa as well as several musical
instruments such as Veena, Sitar, Esraj, Tabla and Pakhawaj. He basically learnt Dhrupad and Pakhawaj from Thadidas.
Besides, he learnt from Ramkumar Mishra, Guruprasad Mishra, Haider Khan, Ramjan
Khan, Srijan Bai etc. His disciples, so to speak, were Nagendranath
Bhattacharya, Rajendranath Ghosh, Satkadi
Malakar, Saratchandra Mitra, Jogendranath
Roy, Lalmohan Basu, Braja
Jiban Mukhopadhyay etc. (Das Sharma
128-129).
Conclusion: Ramshankar Bhattacharya (1761-1853 A.D. approximately), Vishnu Chandra
Chakraborty (1804-1900 A.D.),
Kalipada Chattopadhyay or Kali Mirza (1750-1820
A.D. approximately) and Ramnidhi Gupta or Nidhu Babu (1741-1839 A.D.) ---- all left their
valuable marks in the minds of the Bengalees
during their times. Although they learnt Hindustani
classical music but they worked on the music, mostly composed in Bengali either
in the form of Dhrupad or Tappa or some other forms. Of course,
the Bengalees during the times of
those Performers tried to assess the essence of the forms under Hindustani classical music, already
mentioned. It took a few decades to realize the musical forms as well as to
materialize the same into performance. Patronage to Hindustani classical musical forms as well as training under
Maestros of the same enabled the Bengalees
during the second phase of nineteenth century A.D. to excel in their respective
fields. Nagendranath Bhattacharya and a very few
personalities were blessed with the erudition in several segments in Hindustani classical music and for this
the trend of the standard of music continued far reaching through their
disciples.
Work cited:
1)
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Sharma, Amal. Sangeet Manisha (volume
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& Co., W.B., 1979. (128-129, 131-132, 143, 148-149, 335). Print.
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Ghosh,
Dr. Pradip Kumar. Sangeet Shashtra Samiksha (2nd volume). Kolkata: Paschimbanga Rajya
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Sangeet
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