Holding the fort
GAUTAM CHATTERJEE
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Pandit Chhannulal Mishra feels youngsters must flourish if Khayal’s Banarasi tradition is not to dwindle.
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No music can survive without improvisation and rasa.
Devoted performerPandit Chhannulal Mishra, a rare Khayal vocalist from Varanasi
Recently Swarna Viz, a young vocalist from New Delhi, sang raga Bhimpalasi in Varanasi in the traditional flavour of the Banaras gharana. It was good, yet somehow not good enough. A disciple of Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Swarna, with her impeccable performance, proved herself but brought to mind at the same time a lot of problems besetting the musical tradition of the rich Banaras gharana.
A crisis
One of these is that now Varanasi is suffering from a crisis of Khayal gayaki. At present one would be hard put to name a Khayal vocalist residing in Varanasi, save Pandit Chhannulal Mishra.
“That is true, because Girija Devi ji is staying in Kolkata, Rajan-Sajan in Delhi and after them, no one from the younger generation is coming to maintain the tradition in Banaras,” admits Pandit Chhanulal sadly.
Though he is now widely popular in light classical music such as Thumri, Dadra, etc., he — like other Banarasi vocalists such as Pandit Pashupatinath Mishra — maintains the tradition. That is, he starts with Khayal and then shifts towards Thumri, etc. In that sense, the light classical forms are like the offspring of Khayal.
“I have grown in the musical nuances of the Kirana gharana. This is the oldest gharana of Khayal after the Gwalior gharana. But I learnt Thumri in the Banarasi tradition from Jagdip Maharaj. I belong to this lineage. Here, in 30 years, I grew in all aspects of light classical music of the Banaras gharana, like Chaiti, Kajri, Ghato, Hori, Badhaiya, etc., but whenever and wherever I perform, I start with Khayal,” says the maestro.
And this is fact. Two months ago, he sang in the Sankatmochan music festival starting with five beautiful ragas. He took one long hour to enunciate these ragas at a languorous pace. The ragas were Hem Kalyan, Shyam Kalyan, Maru Bihag, Bahar and Shahana.
During the bandish “Sringaria Karat”, he improvised Shahana in various moods with such lively rapture that Pandit Jasraj came over to him and said that even though he (Chhannulal ji) was younger than him, he had more command of Khayal than Jasraj.
The late Pandit Kishan Maharaj said, “After me only you will sustain the tradition of Banaras.”
However, Pandit Chhannulal clarifies, “No music can survive without improvisation and rasa. Otherwise Khyaal will also die like the dying Dhrupad of Banaras, for vocalists are only maintaining the grammar, and people are never interested in listening to dry recitals of alaps and taans and gamaks.”
Of late he has been performing frequently, and, what with the copious rain this season, Kajri and Thumri are the order of the day, but he never forgets to begin with Khayal. “Dhrupad is dying for lack of singers. And Khayal too will survive only if youngsters like Swarna and others enter the scene,” he concludes.
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