Reviving the forgotten instruments of Indian music – 4

Unfinished instrument Radhika Mohanveena – work in progress at around September-October 2019

In these columns, Sarod player Joydeep Mukherjee, shares his research on the extinct Indian music instruments and explores ways to revive them. In this concluding part of the series, he shares the challenges he faces in his attempt to revive a few such extinct music instruments. Mukherjee’s training in music started in 1987 as a 4-year-old. He is a disciple of Sangeetacharya Pranab Kumar Naha (a direct disciple of Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra) and started to perform from very young age. Gradations from All India Radio & Door Darshan and empanelment from Indian Council for Cultural Relation (ICCR) happened eventually and in 2019 he left his job ( he is also an engineer and did his B.Tech. and MBA (First Class 2nd) from Symbiosis, Pune), he ventured full time into classical music. 

THE CHALLENGES IN THE REVIVAL PROCESS

There are a lot of challenges in reviving the rare instruments. For this I have to look at certain things as follows:

a) Understanding the relevance of the instrument in today’s age: We have modern modified instruments now with much improved sound and tonal quality. The Sarod, Sitar of current times are musically and tonally superior than those of the previous ages due to increasing improvisations by the stalwarts.

Why should one play the Rabab today when its successor Sarod is sounding great? Earlier Sarod artists used to learn mandatorily three instruments for their single recital – alaap in Surshringer, jhor in Rabab and gats in Sarod. But with sonic improvements in Sarod the need for Surshringer and Rabab is not there. Plus Surshringer is an extremely difficult instrument to play.

Also read: Reviving the forgotten instruments of Indian music – 3

So if I have to bring Surshringer back to the professional performing stage, I have to make the sound quality of the instrument attractive and also present it much better at least on par with the current instruments. Surshringer is an instrument where one can play “meends” expanding upto two octaves. With improvements in sound technology and experimentatively changing the string orientations, hardwares, and with proper selection of woods, one needs to think on its improvement. It requires time and needs patience for giving more than one attempt. Can’t be possible overnight.

b) Understanding the style of playing, that is understanding the “Baaj”: You need the support of a great Guru who knows the playing style and “baaj” of these instruments. The Guru might not be a renowned one or a celebrity artist who can play technically very well but a person of great wisdom who had studied the art closely over long time and also who had seen artists performing these instruments very closely.

Luckily my Guru Pranab Kumar Naha was the disciple of the legendary musician Late Pt. Radhika Mohan Maitra who had personal collection of 100+ instruments and used to play Sarod, Mohanveena, Surshringer publicly in All India Radio, Door Darshan and other national or international stages. He also played Sitar and Surbahar to teach his students. My Guru let me hear and study these recordings of Pt. Maitra and his other contemporaries during my formative years. I had to go through a lot of these old heritage recordings before starting the project.

c) Getting a good and experienced maker: We have a lot of instrument makers now-a-days. Getting an instrument maker having an in-depth knowledge about your Gharana, the variations in its instruments and which hardware components to use is a challenge. Money mindedness can’t make better instruments. He has to keep his mind open, the focus should be on instrument and its finishing first.

My instruments are made by Dulal Chandra Kanji, aged 80, proprietor of Oriental Musicrafts, who is making instruments for the performers of our Gharana for more than 60 years now. A perfectionist by nature, he can make a piece of wood “sing” if the artist gives him time and devotion in making the instrument. We worked very closely during the remaking of these heritage instruments. Even though a veteran, he works on my instructions and sometimes himself comes up with suggestions which I too often accept. Many times I cleared his payments years after getting the instrument! Very recently I also got an enthusiastic young maker for this purpose (as Dulal Babu is getting older and needs to find a substitute now).

d) Understanding the right measurements and ratios of the original instruments and implement it: Instruments are customised as per artist’s convenience. Keeping the right ratio is important – the ratio of the length of fingerboard versus the sound drum versus the length is very important in getting the right or good tonal quality. Experience of the maker and instrumentalist plays a big role here.

e) Letting people aware of it: Not only remaking or reviving is important but one needs to play those instruments in public frequently to let people get aware of it. The Radhika Mohanveena was first played by me in February 2020 at International Dhrupad Festival in Varanasi followed by International Veena Mahotsavam in Chennal (online in October last year). Concert organisers should also feature these instruments in their programs to keep our heritage alive. They also have a very significant role in the return journey of these instruments from museums to the stages again.

THE PROCESS OF REVIVAL – MY MODUS OPERANDI

First of all I need to think about the type of wood required for recreation. These heritage instruments were generally made of mahogany or teak with bridges of deer horn. Their shapes were also very distinguishing like length of fingerboard, size of “Tabli” (sound drum), distance of sound pegs from the bridge, etc etc. I need to work closely with the maker. We used various trial & error methods. Good quality of Mahogany or Burma teak nowadays is a challenge, you need to look for substitute wood if not available. Being a sarod player I have different Sarods of different wood types at my home and hence the nuances of different woods are known to me. Then comes resizing of the sound drum or “tabli” – had to rethink on the length and depth of the drum for optimum sound production. To enhance better sound I too experimented with ivory bridge substituting deer- horn. Once the instrument is made, I need to work with different gauges of string combinations and mikes and different scales of music for better resonance, sound sustenance and tonal quality.

Once the instrument is ready, I inform various organisers. Ultimately it is in the hands of them as they have the responsibility in the spread of music. Unluckily the lockdown started in a month’s time but I got the opportunity to perform in two prestigious international platforms: International Dhrupad Mela, Varanasi and International Veena Mahotsavam last year. Through this feature I am also appealing to all the organisers to please give the scope to the artists who are working on rare instrument domains to feature it in their programs. The organisers are the custodians and disseminators of our culture – along with popular instruments if they feature rare & extinct instruments in their programs it will spread our tradition and our legacy will be alive.

– Concluded