Drumming with the gods
ANJANA RAJAN
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In the ongoing series on accompanists, meet Guru Ram Kishore Das, a man with an extraordinary story.
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THE POWER OF PENANCE Ram Kishore Das with his pakhawaj at the Kathak Kendra Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
How little a CV tells us about an artiste! According to the CV of Ram Kishore Das, eminent pakhawaj player and guru at New Delhi's Kathak Kendra, he is the disciple of Swami Bhagwan Das and Swami Pagal Das of the Kudau Singh gharana. Born in Bihar, he lived in Ayodhya for two decades. He is the recipient of the Taal Vilas honour from the Sur Singar Samiti, Mumbai. He taught at the Jaipur Kathak Kendra prior to coming to Delhi. But that accumulation of data does not tell Guru Ram Kishore Das' story.
"I was born in a village of Arrah district of Bihar. My father was a sarangi player, but I started to learn the tabla from Shankar Singh. I didn't even have a tabla, so I used to practice on clay pots. My father, Nihora Singh, did not approve of my playing the tabla. So I left home. I must have been 13-14 at the time. The year was 1957."
The young boy made an ashram his home. "I met a swami and became his disciple. He used to talk about Ayodhya, and I asked him to take me with him."
That is how the adolescent Ram Kishore landed up in the sacred city, a renowned centre for the pakhawaj, and came under the tutelage of Swami Bhagwan Das. "I gave him one and a quarter rupee dakshina," he laughs. "I served my guru by doing his kitchen chores and preparing flowers for his puja. Every so often I would catch a train to a place of pilgrimage. There was no money and I travelled ticket-less. My hair had grown and was all matted. I would pile it under me like a pillow to sleep. When the TT asked me for a ticket, I would say `Sita Ram', and the times were such, he would let me stay! When I returned, my guru would beat me for running away without telling him, but I was like that."
Yet he never wavered in his quest for musical knowledge. "I would pray and offer flowers at Thakurji's temple: Oh God, let me learn, let me have a pakhawaj."
His first pakhawaj was bought for him by his guru for Rs.13. "It took me years to pay him back," he smiles. After learning from Swami Bhagwan Das, Guru Ram Kishore learnt from Tribhuvan Das and later Swami Pagal Das. "I would accompany the sadhus singing devotional songs in the temples. Then one day Swami Pagal Das sent me to Bombay to participate in the Sur Singar Samiti's festival, where I was awarded the Taal Mani title. I received the award from Vyjayanthimala Bali." Later he was awarded the Taal Vilas title.
"The pakhawaj is a sacred instrument," he emphasises, and enumerates the heavenly musician who played it when Lord Ram took birth as well as who played it when the Krishna avatar occurred. "When Lord Ram and his army grew worried at the thunder and lightning emanating from Lanka, Vibhishan explained the garjana was the pakhawaj playing in Ravan's court as the apsaras danced, and the lighting flashes were the earrings of Queen Mandodari."
A well-wisher in the room feels Guruji is wandering from the subject at hand. The ascetic quells him with a glance. "Of course it is important," says the man who has accompanied great dancers and musicians in programmes across the world and taught in Europe with the help of an interpreter. "The pakhawaj is an adhyatimik instrument. And it came from the damroo of Lord Shiva."
A question yet remains in a worldly mind. Did he never return home?
"I did, because I had been married at eight, and my guru told me I would be a sinner if I didn't fulfil my householder's duties. I returned, fathered children and once they were married off, reverted to this life."
Truly, a music not of this world.
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