A man to modesty born
ANJANA RAJAN
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ARTISTES Meet one of the senior most Odissi vocalists in the Capital.
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Peace through music: Ramachandra Sahu in New Delhi. Photo: S. Subramanium.
As he breaks into a song in the midst of recalling his career of over 40 years, the soft soothing tones give a fresh meaning to the word dulcet. For Odissi vocalist Ramachandra Sahu, one of the senior most accompanying artistes for Odissi in Delhi, it was an attraction for this kind of soothing music that set him on course for his career.
"I heard great singers from the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya like Shringari Shyama Sundara Kar and other senior gurus. Their singing was so effortless and smooth. Imagine breaking up a flower and scattering the petals... how much effort does it take? Their singing was even softer than that," he says. So he set off from his village Khandara in Ganjam district of Odissa for Bhubaneswar to learn at the feet of these gurus.
But Ramachandra Sahu's musical journey had already begun. Hailing from a musical family, he was initiated into the tradition of Dasa Kathia, a musical rendering of the scriptures, in which his father and uncles were well known. "This tradition goes back in our family nearly 300 years as far as I know. My father Gopinath Sahu and his brothers performed together. They were very popular. That was the period before Independence. There were rajas and maharajas ruling, and they were patrons of the artistes. The ladies, in purdah, would listen from somewhere inside. I have heard once my father performed for eight months running for the raja, and never repeated a song. In recognition he received precious bracelets and other gifts. I was also trained in this art from the age of seven or eight. As children we would be taken along with the troupe and sometimes asked to sing a solo."
Ramachandra Sahu's sweet voice was noticed by the elders, and at 16 he was sent to learn vocal music under Guru Tarinicharan Patra, a veena player and singer known for his Oriya compositions in Carnatic ragas. "I also learnt Carnatic music compositions like tana varnam and others," he recalls.
Later when he joined the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, he was given a head start and taken in the second year of the course.
"I completed the Sangeeta Bharati course with a first class in 1969."
Diversion to dance
While yet a student, Sahu had begun accompanying dance performances, mainly with the eminent Guru Pankaj Charan Das who was associated with the Mahavidyalaya. "They offered me a job as an accompanying singer, but my tastes were elsewhere then. I used to sing bhajans, chhanda, champu and other compositions characteristic of Odissi music. I sang for 10 years with All India Radio, Cuttack. As for joining my college as a staff member, my mother was not inclined to let me go, since I was the only son. I was already married too," recounts Sahu, adding with a smile, "In those days people got married early. I was 18 or 19."
However, he continued to sing for dance performances. Besides Pankaj Charan Das, he has worked with all the major gurus of Odissi, including Kelucharan Mohapatra and Deba Prasad Das.
It was in 1980, on the invitation of his friend and Odissi guru, the late Srinath Raut, that Ramachandra Sahu came to New Delhi and embarked seriously on a career as an accompanying artiste. "I stayed in his house for two and a half years, refreshing my memory of dance songs and learning his repertoire."
Over the past 25 years, he has sung with seniors and juniors, including Guru Mayadhar Raut, Sonal Mansingh Ranjana Gauhar, Sharon Lowen, Jyoti Srivastava, Nupur Banerjee and others. He has travelled the world with them too.
"Now I don't sing Dasa Kathia. But I am very happy as a dance accompanist. It gives me a lot of peace. It is the grace of Saraswati Ma," says Sahu. Yet he never trained his children in vocal music. "Sometimes my wife does chide me for that. But I wanted them to study as I did not get a chance to study much."
That too is worship of Saraswati after all.
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