The Joy Within

"Youmust pour your dil into your music", my guru Pandit Prabhudev Sardarwas fond of saying, while inculcating in his students the art of Hindustaniclassical music. Then on an impulse, he would stop playing the harmonium andinstruct the student about emotional involvement in a raga. He would perform aparody next, during which he would sing the swaras of the raga accordingto its prescriptions, but exaggerate how bad it could sound if sung blandly,sans ras, that indispensable quality which transforms mere notes tomelodious music . Soon, while the student was still laughing, he would launchinto a soulful rendition of the same raga, elaborating on its delicate nuances.The harmonium and tanpura would begin playing again, and his voice would craft amusic so profound that it would infuse the air with a palpable tenderness,lending its own colour to the morning.

It was such a morning that I lookedforward to on the 14th of March as I prepared for my lesson. Only I was notaware then that the harmonium would not play that day, that the strings of thetanpura would not be plucked, that it would be a silent morning without music,melody and ras, for Prabhudev Sardar had breathed his last the previousevening.

Prabhudev Sardar was born in 1925 in Solapur, Maharashtra--a town once known for its textile mills. During hischildhood, there was not much opportunity for the pursuit of music in Solapur.Though his musical training began in his early teens through harmonium lessonswith Shri Digambarbua Kulkarni, a bigger influence during these formative yearswas All India Radio (AIR). Besides training him in the elements of music,Digambarbua had the gumption to take his young pupil along to visit people whoowned a radio! Through these visits, Prabhudev was introduced to the exemplary gayakiof musical greats like Abdul Karim Khan, Sawai Gandharva and Roshanara Begum."I had a deep desire to sing like the artistes I heard as a child onAIR", he would go on to tell a journalist towards the end of his life.

During his training with Digambarbua, young Prabhudev once heard the legendarySawai Gandharva performing the early morning raga Lalit on AIR. The next day,Prabhudev was inspired to reach for his tanpura and sing Lalit on his own,though he had never learned this difficult raga. An amazed Digambarbua imploredPrabhudev's father to train his son as a full time musician under an Ustad. ButPrabhudev's father had other plans--he wanted his son to become a lawyer likehim. So the young boy pursued both music as well as school education.

Withoutformal training in the gayaki of the Kirana gharana, Prabhudevinculcated it in his singing merely by absorbing the recitals he heard. Theonset of youth took him to Pune to study law, where he learned music for a briefperiod from Shri Vitthalrao Sardeshmukh, a harmonium player of the very Kiranagharana which had made an early imprint on his mind. And in 1949, without everbeing taught how to develop a raga in the guru-shishya parampara,Prabhudev performed for the first time for AIR in Aurangabad. This was followedby more performances for other AIR stations.

Further in 1956, Prabhudev got themuch sought after opportunity of performing at the Sawai Gandharva musicfestival in Pune, a renowned event organized by Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in memoryof his eminent guru. The next milestone in his musical journey was AIR'sprestigious National Programme Of Music. At a time when AIR was instrumental increating a nationwide following for Hindustani music, this exposure brought himrecognition and invitations to perform all over the country.

Prabhudev'ssearch for a guru came to fruition after his appointment as a public prosecutor,and subsequent transfer to Mumbai in the early sixties. In the metropolis, hebecame a disciple of the distinguished Agra gharana vocalist JagannathbuaPurohit, who is credited with the conception of one of the most magnificentmelodies of recent times: Raga Jogkauns. Though Jagannathbua, who wrote manycelebrated bandishes under the nom de plume Gunidas, trained Prabhudev inthe gayaki of the Agra gharana, he cautioned him not to change hisoriginal style. His new guru taught Prabhudev with rigour, taking intoconsideration the quality of his voice, and enabling him to see the importanceof discipline and emotion in music in a new light. With the demise ofJagannathbua in the late sixties, Prabhudev was left without a teacher onceagain.

Adecade later, he found the guru he would respect and value the most--PanditNivruttibua Sarnaik of the Jaipur gharana. From him, Prabhudev learned tosing clean, danedar taans: strings of beautiful, distinct pearlsof swaras adorning the ragas. Nivruttibua also taught Prabhudev todevelop his taans further, and introduced him to many regions of beautyin the varied landscapes of the ragas. Prabhudev learned many rarely sung ragasfrom his guru which became the hallmark of his concerts. With Nivruttibua's moveto Calcutta to teach at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Prabhudev's musicaleducation in the guru-shishya parampara came to an end.

Throughouthis life, Prabhudev enthralled many audiences with his euphonious, vibrantmehfils, weaving a concert out of various popular as well as rarely heard ragassung with expertise, sensitivity and delight. His concerts would usually beginwith a popular raga, followed by rarely heard ragas, then a thumri, dadraor natyageet (a light classical song from a Marathi musical play) accordingto requests from the audience. While his khayal was influenced by themusic of Ustad Amir Khan, his thumris were influenced by that of PanditSureshbabu Mane. Also well known for his performances of natyasangeet,Prabhudev's rendition of the song 'Vilopale Madhumilanat Ya' from themusical "Bramhakumari" caused a splash in musical circles.

Whenasked about his thoughts on the tradition of musical gharanas, Prabhudevtold his student Sandhya Joshi who has written a thesis on him, that theimpediment of a particular gharana should not get in the way of musicaleducation. Rather than searching for gurus who followed certain gharanas,he preferred to study the gharanas of the gurus he chose. In the process,he incorporated in his music the ingredients that he liked and that suited hisvoice. He never bothered about criticism that he learned from gurus of differentgharanas, because he firmly believed in his own music: a confluence ofthe Kirana, Jaipur and Agra styles.

Alongwith performing music, my guru was a devoted and patient teacher. He stronglybelieved that both guru and shishya should enjoy their sessions togetherthoroughly. Since he wished that his students learn as much as possible, hewould teach a raga in its entire swaroop even to beginners like me. Hewas very professional about his lessons, but at the same time, he was afather-figure to his students. It is no exaggeration that he treated hisstudents like family and took a genuine interest in their lives, both within andbeyond the scope of music.

On the evening of 13^th March, Prabhudev Sardar was teaching one of hisstudents at his residence in Panaji, when he felt uneasy and retired to rest.It turned out to be a heart attack; within fifteen minutes, it proved fatal. While firmly rooted in the tradition of the idiom of classical music,he was no follower of sterile conventions. Contrary to the mores ofsociety, according to his wishes, his body was donated to the Goa MedicalCollege for the purpose of medical studies. In my grief, I failed to acknowledgethat such an end only minutes away from being engaged in teaching music, wasbeautiful and befitting for a man who had lived life immersed in his sangeet.Prabhudev Sardar will be remembered for the ananda that he found soeffortlessly through his music and shared with others in equal measure. Formusic, as he often said, should be sung in pursuit of the joy within.

Listen to Pandit Prabhudev Sardar's rendition of Raga Yamani Bilawal,courtesy of the excellent Vijaya Parrikar Library of Indian Classical Music maintained by Rajan Parrikar