Interview Ritwik Sanyal believes that the Dhrupad tradition must be revitalised. GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
Dhrupad is not object, but subject as it is the ‘Atman’ of Indian classical Music. It has its own nucleus, it contains sufficient dialect and energy to survive any post modern deconstruction. Pandit Ritwik Sanyal says, “It is the sole subject, which can transcend the subject-object duality. It relentlessly makes an inner musical journey from the existential to the mystical threshold.”
Scholarly and consciously dedicated to Dhrupad, in this fusion era, Sanyal is constantly contributing his innovative concepts and styles to this ancient singing style.
He is the first among the young Dhrupadias who introduced nirgeeta (the technical singing aspect of Dhrupad which was played on the veena in the early period) to this discipline on behalf of his guru, Ustad Zia Moiuddin Khan Dagar.
Power unto itself
He says, “There is no need to introduce modern ideas to make Dhrupad survive.
It has enough inherent capacity to exist forever. It is the substratum of Khayal. It was sung in the post-Vedic periods in the tapovana and then in the royal courts.”
He continues, “Today, we have many platforms for music, including Khayal but not for Dhrupad. There are very few Dhrupad concerts and Dhrupad melas, so these platforms must include Dhrupad and facilitate discourses to wipe out the notion that Dhrupad is now outdated music.”
After singing Puriya Kalyan and Sohini at the Dhrupad mela, Sanyal performed Dhrupad recently in a concert organised by Bang Sahitya Samaj in Varanasi.
He maintains the traditional pattern with new creative vistas, while singing.
For the Dhrupad lover
“I think the compositional content has been most affected in the teaching institutions today. Also, the present-day concert platforms do not permit such long elaborate presentations,” says Sanyal.
His latest book “Dhrupad: Tradition and Performance in Indian Music” with Richard Widdess and his latest CDs, released from the U.K., are now drawing the attentions of Dhrupad lovers.
Sanyal, after his marathon thirty years’ contribution, is not worried about the general notion that Dhrupad is going to perish, on the contrary he is more confident.
“It is important to counter the art connoisseurs’ negligence of Dhrupad." He further explains, "One should organise regular workshops to promote and expand the ambience of this discipline. But I accept, in comparison to the past, the interest in knowing about Dhrupad has grown. And, being a musicologist as well as a performer, I maintain all the aspects of this pure classical heritage,” concludes the maestro.
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