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Bedi should have played the surbahar in the right manner with the veena’s nuances instead of handling it like a sitar.

Melodic appeal Jagdeep Singh Bedi.

Compared to the stringed instrument sitar, the surbahar too has the same features except that it is much broader and larger than the sitar. While Hazrat Amir Khusrau is credited for inventing the sitar (seh-taar, which in Persian means three strings), the surbahar was conceived and created by the 18th Century musicians to match the nuances of the ancient rudra veena.

Sajjad Hussain was an eminent surbahar player during the 18th and the 19th centuries. Annapoorna Devi, daughter and disciple of the late Ustad Baba Alauddin Khan and the former spouse of Pandit Ravi Shanker, is the most competent surbahar exponent in the present times.

It was nice to listen to young Jagdeep Singh Bedi’s recent surbahar and sitar recital at the India International Centre recently. Bedi is an alumnus of Delhi’s Gandharva Maha Vidyalaya where he is now a member of the teaching staff.

One only wished that Bedi had played the surbahar in the right manner with the veena’s nuances instead of handling it like a sitar. His renderings ought to have the basics of the ‘alap-jod-jhala’ with Dhrupad-based format. The meanderings over the second, third and the fourth strings so vital in playing on the veena and the surbahar were totally absent.

His rendering of the raga Yaman on the surbahar would have appealed better if he had followed the basics of Dhrupad-ang by methodically rendering the four stages of sthayee, antara, abhog and the sanchari and then switched over to ‘jod-jhala’ with accompaniment on the pakhawaj and ended-up by executing what is known as the ‘taar-puran’ (rhythmic sequences on the strings).

He however, deserves compliments for his tunefulness and the melodic appeal in his renderings.

Bedi gave a brilliant finale to his recital of the evening by presenting two liltingly rendered ‘gat-todas’ in the charming melody of raga Khamaj.

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