City of fond memories
GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
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Remembering Ustad Vilayat Khan on his third death anniversary.
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Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
SHADOWS AND BEYOND Ustad Vilayat Khan's music will continue like the Ganga.
Ustad Vilayat Khan passed away on March 13, 2004 in Mumbai. Just months before that, he was in Varanasi, to honour Ustad Bismillah Khan. He said that Varanasi was where he wished to be in life as also in death.
"I don't believe in creation, but in manifestation. I don't have faith in the next life but in immortal continuity like that of the Ganga," said Vilayat Khan, thus honouring life and Kashi.
The second half of the 20th Century saw the flowering of the genius of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Nikhil Banerji. Vilayat Khan pinpointed his own prowess, "I have a sitar with a vocal allure. Pandit Banerji is melodious and plays with his heart. Panditji (Ravi Shankar) has mastered the laya aspect on his sitar with excellent taiyari but if you want to listen to the Dhrupad pattern on the sitar, it exists only in my Imdad Khan gharana."
Vilayat Khan further explained, "Imdad Khan played the Rudra veena in the Dhrupad style prevalent in his time. After him Abba (his father Ustad Inayat Khan) established the gayaki ang of our gharana in instruments. My brother Imrat and I tried to go deeper into this experiment."
Vilayat Khan had two rare experiences in Varanasi. The first was in 1957, when he presented raga Darbari Kanhada in the Town Hall in a concert organised by Sangeet Parishad. PanditAnokhelal Mishra accompanied him on the tabla. Vilayat Khan wanted Anokhelal to accompany him but at the same time, he knew he was suffering from gangrene. Vilayat Khan recollected that he was worried about Anokhelal Mishra's health during the performance. It, however, ended up being a wonderful concert. Vilayat Khan was upset over Mishra's death the following year.
The second rare experience occurred in a school. When he had just completed playing the raga Yaman, he got the news of the birth of his daughter. While still on stage, he named her Eeman (the original Persian name of raga Yaman). The concert had been organised by RIMPA, the precursor to the centre started by PanditRavi Shankar in Delhi.
"These are the reasons I love Varanasi," said Vilayat Khan, "Birth and death coexist here in my broken heart."
In December 2003, when he came here for the last time, he said to me, "I go through a rare kind of loneliness, maybe it is divine, which I want to share with the Ganga." He then asked, "Would you like to accompany me to the riverbank to sit still, and to dip into its tranquillity? And at the same time, I want to listen to my sitar."
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