Monthly Archives: March 2019

V.N. Bhatkhande: A seeker who helped in bridging Hindustani and Carnatic music


Photograph of the special 15 paise postal stamp, issued on September 01, 1961 in honour of the late V.N. Bhatkhande   | Photo Credit:  The Hindu Archives – PIBB

V.N. Bhatkhande’s extensive travels helped bridge North and South

One of the most fascinating structures in the Qaiserbagh area of Lucknow is the erstwhile Pari Khana, the building, which housed the numerous courtesans in the service of the Nawabs of Avadh. In its time it must have been home to much music and what is interesting is that it continues to do so even now, the Bhatkhande Music Institute Deemed University being headquartered here. And that institution has a story that bridges both the Hindustani and Carnatic systems.

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936) remains a landmark figure in the world of Indian musicology. A resident of Bombay, he was trained in music while young and retained sufficient interest in it even after reaching adulthood, when he qualified in law and set up practice at the High Court of Bombay. Circumstances so arranged themselves that he could soon devote his entire energies to music, his wife and daughter passing away thereby freeing him of the necessity of earning for a family. It was then that he began to ponder over the fact that Hindustani Music did not have a structured curriculum of teaching and remained largely an oral tradition.

Bhatkhande travelled far and wide across North India, collecting information about the way music was taught in the various gharanas. He then moved South, coming to Madras in 1904. He had established contact with Thirumalayya Naidu, a local connoisseur. Having met up with Naidu at the Cosmopolitan Club, he attended a concert performance by Bangalore Nagarathnamma at a Sabha on Ramaswami Street, George Town. Bhatkhande’s account of her performance remains the only review of a concert by this redoubtable artiste.


The Bhatkhande Institute Deemed University  

It was, however, his subsequent interactions with other names deep down South that had a greater impact on him. He travelled to Ramanathapuram to meet ‘Poochi’ Srinivasa Iyengar. He came to know that Subbarama Dikshitar had just then published his Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini and went to Ettayapuram to see him. In Madras, he met Thiruvottiyur Tyagier and Tachur Singaracharya among others. The interactions were not altogether as fruitful as Bhatkhande would have wished, language being a great barrier. In his daily jottings, published later by the Indira Gandhi University at Khairagarh, as Meri Dakshin Bharat Ki Sangeet Yatra (My Musical Journey in Southern India), Bhatkhande noted that while all the musicians he met came across as great and saintly personalities, they were unable to explain to him much of what they practised.

He did manage to obtain valuable manuscripts — the Chaturdandi Prakasika of Venkatamakhin and the Svaramelakalanidhi of Ramamatya. These, and the observations he had made while touring North India, along with other manuscripts, helped him classify Hindustani ragas under a system of ten, which is rather like the melakartas of the Carnatic style. He wrote extensively on Hindustani music and his four-volume Hindustani Sangeet Paddhathi is even today the standard text for the North Indian style of classical music. Bhatkhande also began organising All India Music Conferences, which focused on Hindustani Music.

In this he was greatly supported by Rai Umanath Bali, a prominent Taluqdar of Avadh. It was the latter’s dearest wish that a college for Hindustani Music be established in Lucknow while Bhatkhande preferred Delhi for its location. The two argued over it for nearly a decade before the latter was finally won over in 1922. The fourth All India Music Conference was held in Lucknow in 1924 and a resolution was passed for the setting up of a music college in that city. The music-loving Nawab of Rampur threw his weight behind the setting up of the institution. This became reality in 1926, with syllabus fashioned by Bhatkhande. The All India College of Hindustani Music was inaugurated at the Pari Khana by Sir William Sinclair Marris, the then Governor of the United Provinces. Six months later, the college was named after him.

Rather interestingly, this was to have an impact in Madras. It was in 1927 that the All India Congress Session was held here with a music conference being held in parallel. That saw the birth of the Music Academy with one of its mandates being the setting up of a Teachers’ College of Music, “on the lines of the Marris College.” The Queen Mary’s College, which had offered music as an elective course with no theory classes for over a decade, began to offer a two-year intermediate course from 1927. Two years later, the Music College in Chidambaram, now a part of the Annamalai University began functioning. That institution too borrowed from the Marris College pattern.

It was only in 1948 that the Marris College changed its name to give credit where it was due — becoming the Bhatkhande Institute. This scholar, intrepid traveller and seeker deserved his name being preserved for posterity. In 2000, the Institute became a deemed university.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> In Search of Music> Music / by Sriram V / March 29th, 2019

Catharsis through art

For Neha Singh, MA Fine Arts student from Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, art is a miraculous alternative medicine for a speedy recovery and better receptivity for patients. 

Neha Singh

Kochi :

“Won’t it be beautiful to see a landscape when you are admitted in a hospital, rather than white walls and plain curtains,” asks Neha Singh, who was in the city recently as part of her internship project to learn about Raja Ravi Varma paintings. For Neha Singh, MA Fine Arts student from Kashi Vidyapeeth, Varanasi, art is a miraculous alternative medicine for a speedy recovery and better receptivity for patients. 

Neha had spent time at the Kowdiar Palace to learn about the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma during which won appreciation from Gauri Parvathy Bhai, member of the erstwhile royal family of Travancore, for her artwork and contributions. During her stay in Thiruvananthapuram, she visited hospitals including the Santhwana Hospital at Ambalamukku to spread messages on the therapeutic effect of art.

She believes in the pursuit of innovation with the intention of developing her own potential as well as nourishing the talents of children. The idea of healing through art struck her while thinking of an idea to help people physically or psychologically with her talent. According to her, art therapy is not just about exposing patients to artwork, but also involving themselves in the process.

“In art therapy patients are encouraged to create paintings and craft works. Though art cannot be termed as an alternative to medicine, it can assist to make the patient receptive, thereby making the treatment procedure much easier,” says Neha. 

She often visits children in hospitals and gifts them her paintings. “Mostly children tend to panic more while in the hospital. As an artist, my presence with my paintings and spending time with them has shown remarkable happiness on their faces. Undoubtedly, a patient is more receptive to the treatment and cures faster while they are relaxed,” said Neha.

Neha is a multi-talented personality and a two time World Records holder. In 2017, she made a World Record by creating the map of India with more than 16 lakh glass beads. In September 2018, she was back in the headlines after making another World Record by creating a Hanuman Chalisa with more than 38,417 fingertip impressions in a 449 feet cloth which has entered in Eurasia World Records.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Steena Das / Express News Service / March 06th, 2019