Music notes

Grade – 11th
Q.- l – Life Sketch and contribution of Tansen, V.N. Bhatkhande
and V.D. Paluskar.

Tansen
Date of Birth – 26 April, 1506
Place of Birth – Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh
Birth Name – Ramtanu
Father’s Name – Mukund Mishra (Famous Poet and a Wealthy Person)
Guru – Swami Haridas (Legendary Saint and Musician cum Poet)
Profession – Vocalist, Music Composer and Instrumentalist
Spouse – Husseini
Chidren – Hamirsen, Suratsen, Tanras Khan, Saraswati Devi and Bilas Khan
Produce Films (Movies) :- Tansen (1943), Tansen (1958), Sangeet Samrat Tansen (1962)
and ‘Baiju Bawra (1952).
Date of Death – 26 April, 1586 (Aged 86)
Place of Death – Agra

TITLES
Awards 1 – The Title “MIYAN” was given to him by ‘AKBAR’.
Award 2 – “TANSEN” was the title given to him by “Raja Vikramjit of Gwalior”.
Award 3 -Akbar considered him as a “NAVARATNAS (nine Jewels)”.
Award 4 – Akbar presented him with “One Lakh Gold Coins” upon his First Performance
in the Emperor’s Court.

FOUNDER
 “ Tansen is the founder of Hindustani Classical Music.”

CONTRIBUTIONS
1. Composed Ragas – Bhairav, Darbari Todi, Darbari Kanada, Malhar, Sarang and
Rageshwari.
2. “Dhrupad” style of music is likely to have been started by him and his guru (Swami
Haridas).

MIRACLES ASSOCIATED with TANSEN

1. Tansen bring down the Rains with “Raga Megh Malhar”.
2. He could Light Lamps by performing “Raga Deepak”.
3. He communicate with animals through his music. Once, a White Elephant was captured,
but it was Wild and could not be controlled. Finally, Tansen sang to the Elephant who
calmed down and the Emperor was able to ride him.

LEGACY
1. All of Tansen’s five children went on to become great Classical Singers.
2. A Music Festival called “Tamsen Samaroh” is held each and every year in Gwalior
during the Month of December.
3. “Tansen Samman” award is given away by the “Government of India” to ‘Outstanding
Exponents of Hindustani Classical Music’.

“Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar”

1. Early Life and Training of Vishnu Digambar Paluskar:

 Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was born on 18 August 1872 in

a Marathi family of Kurundwad, a small town falling under the Deccan
division of Bombay Presidency during British rule, presently
in Maharashtra and died on 21 August 1931.
 He was a Hindustani musician.
 He sang the original version of the bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja
Ram” and founded the “Gandharva Mahavidyalaya on 5 May 1901”.
 He is also credited with arranging “India's national song, Vande
Mātaram”, as it is heard today.
 His original surname was Gadgil,[2] but as they hailed from the village Palus
(near Sangli), they came to be known as the "Paluskar" family.
 Vishnu Digambar Paluskar was born into a musical family.
 His father, Digambar Gopal Paluskar, was a musician and a teacher.
 Vishnu showed early interest in music and received initial training in music
from his father. Later, he became a disciple of the famous vocalist and
musicologist,
 “Pandit Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar”, from whom he learned
the Hindustani classical music.
 He went to a local school in Kurundwad for primary education. But tragedy
struck Paluskar at an early age. During a Hindu festival called “Datta
Jayanti”, a fire-cracker burst near his face damaging both his eyes. Being a
small town, there was no immediate treatment available and Paluskar lost
his eyesight.
 The king of Miraj recognising the talent in the boy put him under the
guidance of “Balakrishna buwa Ichalkaranjikar”, a learned musician.
Paluskar trained under him for 12 years until in 1896 the relations between
the teacher and Paluskar became strained.

Musical Journey
 After that Paluskar began touring the country and studied the
musical traditions in each part of Northern India. He went from place to
place and visited many royal families in cities like Baroda and Gwalior.
 He studied Brij bhasha, a dialect of Hindi, spoken at Mathura.
 He later met “Pandit Chandan Chaube” from whom he
learnt “Dhrupad”.
 In 1901, he reached Lahore, where he decided to establish a Music
School.

Contributions to Hindustani Classical Music:

1. Gandharva Mahavidyalaya :
 On 5 May 1901, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar founded the Gandharva
Mahavidyalaya.
 The institution was established to provide formal education in Hindustani
classical music, dance, and other performing arts. Gandharva
Mahavidyalaya played a significant role in preserving and promoting
Indian classical music traditions
 This was a school open to all and one of the first in India to run on public
support and donations.
 It was a challenge to the traditional method where students lived under the
same roof with their teachers. Many students from the School's early
batches became respected musicians and teachers in North India. This
brought respect to musicians.
 In September 1908, Paluskar went to Bombay (now Mumbai) to establish
another branch of the school.
 As the work-load increased, he shifted the school from Lahore to Bombay.
To accommodate all the students, he took loans, built a new building for the
school and hostel as well. To settle debts, he gave several public concerts.
But while on a concert tour in 1924, Paluskar's creditors attached his
properties and auctioned the school.
2. Reform in Music Education: Paluskar emphasized the importance
of systematic music education. He introduced a structured curriculum and
examination system in music education. His efforts helped standardize
music education in India.
3. Nationalist Movement: Paluskar was actively involved in the Indian
freedom struggle. He used music as a medium to inspire patriotism and
raise awareness about the country's cultural heritage.
4. Promotion of Indian Ragas: Paluskar worked on popularizing rare
and lesser-known ragas in Hindustani classical music. He composed
bandishes (vocal compositions) in these ragas.

Death and Legacy :

“Paluskar on a 1973 stamp of India”

  “On 21 July 1973, the Post and Telegraph Department, Government of
India paid homage to Paluskar by releasing a commemorative stamp.”
 In its 2000 millennial issue, India Today magazine included Paluskar in its
list of "100 people who shaped India".

1. Paluskar died on 21 August 1931, three days after his 59th birthday.
2. Today, Paluskar is seen as the musician who brought respect to the
profession of classical musicians and took Hindustani classical music out
from the traditional “Gharana system” to the masses.
3. He wrote a book on music called “Sangeet Bal Prakash in three
volumes, and 18 volumes on ragas as well”.
4. His disciples Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Omkarnath
Thakur, Narayan rao Vyas, and B. R. Deodhar became renowned
classical singers and teachers.
5. His son “Dattatreya Vishnu Paluskar” (D.V.Paluskar) was also
trained in classical music.

Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande

 Bhatkhande ji was born on 10 August 1860 in Mumbai on the day of Krishna

Janmashtami.
 He was interested in music since childhood. The bhajans that his mother used
to recite to him, he used to make everyone happy by reciting them in the
same way. He inherited his musical education from his mother.
 Pandit Bhatkhande ji obtained higher education of B.A.,L.L.B. along with this,
due to his love for music, he also continued to receive music education. In his
student days, he became proficient in playing the sitar and flute. In the year
1884, he became a member of the Excited troupe where one by one music
teachers were engaged in music practice. This music institution was run by
 the rich people of Mumbai and famous Dhrupad singer Shri Ram Bua
Belgaonkar, Khayal singer Ali Hussain Khan Ganpati Bua etc. were the glory of
the institution. During these days, well-known musician Mohammad Ali and
his son Mustaq Ali also lived in Mumbai. Bhatkhande ji got the opportunity to
come in contact with these great artists and he got the knowledge of Drupad
Khayal Thumri Tarana etc. in large numbers from them.
 In 1887, he started practicing in Mumbai. But he felt that music was his real
field and he gave up advocacy. He traveled to the music pilgrimages of the
country and met many great musicians.
 During this period he studied ancient Indian music in depth. The feet of the
masters were placed on the forehead and paved the way for research and
research in the field of music. He discovered, studied ancient music texts and
tried to script all the streams and sub-streams of Hindustani music system. In
the time of Bhatkhande ji, modern instruments were not developed to
preserve the art of any musician. In those days there was no well thought out
way of writing and publishing music. Bhatkhande ji took initiative in this
direction and spent his whole life in it. He collected ragas prevalent over the
centuries and learned their nuances and wrote down a large number of
bandishes.He compiled, analyzed and established beliefs about the special
features of various singers. In other words, it can be said that he gave
scientific form to music in his talent and fixed its parameters. He composed
research texts in Sanskrit, Hindi and English.
 His main texts are as follows :-
1.)Sanskrit- ‘Lakshya Sangeet’, ‘Abhinav Raga Manjari’, ‘Taal Laxnam’.
2.)Hindi – ‘Hindustani Kramik Pustak Malika’ (Part 6), ‘Lakshan Geet
Sangraha’(Part 3), ‘Bhatkhande Sangeet Shastra’ (Part 4), ‘Swarmalika
Sangraha’ and ‘Geetmalika’.
3.)English – ‘A Short Historical Survey of North Indian Music and Comparative
Study of Music Systems of 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Century.
 The history of each Raga, Aalaap, Sathai, Antara etc. has been described in
detail in ‘Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati’ (Kramik Pustakmalika).

Start of music festivals

 As soon as the books of Bhatkhande ji were published, his fame spread all
over the country. When the news of his successful efforts reached the music
loving kings, they invited Bhatkhande ji to their place. In 1960, a music
conference was organized with the help of Baroda King. In that conference
the proposal to establish All India Music Academy was passed. Later, music
conferences were held in Delhi in 1928, Banaras in 1919 and Lucknow in 1925
AD. On these occasions, the country's leading musicians used to gather on a
single platform and discuss music related problems and display their art.
 Bhatkhande ji discussed with Maharaja Gwalior about the establishment of
music school, he established the form of music school and determined the
examination system that by selecting the musicians of the state,
arrangements were made for their training so that they could teach properly.
For this, Bhatkhande ji prepared music text books.
 ‘Marris College of Hindustani Music’ was established as a result of Sangeet
Sammelan held in Lucknow, which is now famous as ‘Bhatkhande Sangeet
Vidyalaya’. Sarangi players like Sarju and Rajagopal, tabla players like Girija
and Santu, artists of all-India fame like Sadhna Bose and Pahadi Sanyal are
the gift of this school.
 Bhatkhande ji had a good command over both singing and playing. By
classifying all ragas under ten thaats, he invented the new thaat raga
method.
 Bhatkhande ji was not a person but an institution in himself. He spent his
whole life in taking music to a higher peak. Pandit Vishnu Narayan
Bhatkhande ji died on 19 November 1936.
 In the last we must say,”Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande’s contribution
to Indian Music is very great”.

Brief study of Musical Elements in “Natya Shastra”.

Introduction :-
 “Natya Shastra” is the first Sanskrit text related to performing arts.
 It is written by “Bharat Muni” and its origin in 5th – 6th centuary approximately.
 His son’s name “Kohal” is found in this Granth.
 The text consists of 36 chapters with 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts.
Musical Elements in Natya Shastra :-
 From chapter 28 to 33 provides information about music.
 Chapter – 28 :- It covers basic musical terms such as Swar, Shruti, Gram, Taan,
Varna, Murchhana, Alankar, Jati and its 18 features etc.
 Bharat Muni considered 7 Jatis of Shadaj Gram and 11 Jatis of madhyam Gram.
Bharat has given 7 main Swaras – Shadaj, Rishabh, Gandhar, Madhyam, pancham,
Dhaivat and Nishad and 2 Vikrit Swaras ; Antra Gandhar and Kakli Nishad.
He mentionaed 4 types of Swaras – Vadi, Samvadi, Anuvadi and Vivadi.
Vadi Swara was known as Ansh Swara during that time.
He considered 22 Shrutis and placed 7 notes on Shrutis by following the Shaloka :-

“चतुष् चतुष् चतुष् चैव षड्ज मध्यम पंचमा ।

द्वै द्वै निषाद गांधारौ तिष्त्री ऋषभ धैवतो ।।“
 According to the shaloka given above “Sa, Ma, Pa have 4 Shrutis
 Ni, Ga have 2 and Re, Dha have 3 shrutis.
 Bharat Muni explained 14 Murchhanas from Shadaj and Madhyam Gram.
 Chapter 29 – It explains different types of Veena and playing techniques.
 Chapter 30 – It describes wind instrumenmts like flute and ways of playing it.
 Chapter 31 – It deals with rhythm and explains Kala, Laya and different Taals.
 Chapter 32 – It defines Dhruva songs and its 5 forms, types and examples.
 Chapter 33– It defines various types and playing techniques of Percusion
Instruments, qualities and defects of singer and instrumentalists. It states team
performance, named as “Kutapa (Orchestra)” which includes a group of one
male and one female singer with 9 to 11 musical instruments accompanied by
players.