New Delhi: Connoisseurs of Indian classical music were treated with some rare ragas on instruments long forgotten, at the India Habitat Centre, last night.
A young Kolkata-based millennial Sarod player Joydeep Mukherjee has to his credit, the revival of forgotten instruments such as Surshringer and Radhika Mohanveena, at a performance, aptly titled, “Rare Ragas On Rare Instruments With Rare Percussions”.
These two instruments, which are totally extinct nowadays, were a part of India’s cultural heritage during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
Joydeep was accompanied by the first ambidextrous percussionist of India, Subhasish Sabyasachi, who also finds his name in the Limca book of record for his accomplishment. He won the President’s Gold Medal for standing first at the All India Radio Competition and has been an international performer. He in fact invented three musical instruments that are patented. He performed ambidextrous Pakhawaj (two-tier Pakhawaj) and Jori.
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Joydeep mesmerised the select audience not just by playing these rare instruments, but also with his selection of rare and often forgotten ragas, which he played with absolute magic.
He played to perfection the largely forgotten raga Shudh Basant with Alaap-Jhor-Jhala in Surshringer, accompanied by Pakhawaj. Next, he played in Radhika Mohanveena, Gats in Chowtaal and Teentaal for the same Raga Shudh Basant.
He also played a short piece in Vilambit Teentaal on Radhika Mohanveena on raga Dakshinatya Basant. Last was a drut Teental composition on Raga Basant Gauri, on Radhika Mohanveena.
“These ragas are the different varieties of the popular raga Basant that are not played very frequently in the classical music scenario as not many artists know about these ragas since we don’t have enough recordings of these ragas in the classical field,” Mukherjee explains. He acknowledged that these particular ragas are difficult to execute and not everyone could perform them.
“I learnt raga music under a Guru for the last 35 years in Guru-Shishya Parampara,” he said. His guru was one of the notable disciples of Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra, the doyen of Senia Shahjahanpur Gharana.
– global bihari bureau
