emergence of bishnupur gharana and its arrival in calcutta

67 Pages·2017·0.46 MB·English

EMERGENCE OF BISHNUPUR GHARANA AND ITS ARRIVAL
IN CALCUTTA

In moving from the quiet courtyards of Bengal to the concert halls of Calcutta, the
social context of classical music and performance underwent striking
transformations.1 Departing from the conventional scholarship on this subject, my aim
is to construct a distinctive account of the making of a modern classical tradition,
which was a combination of tradition and modernity .The changes in classical music of
Bengal were significant as it adapted to the necessities of colonial and post
colonial social realities. The performance and patronage influenced the self
development of the consuming elite and in the long tradition of musical practices in
Bishnupur from centuries, musicians and their patrons had constructed a canon for
classical music and the enthusiasm with which amateurs and professionals straddled the
worlds of myth and practice.I also discuss about the link between the modern
disciplines of history and musicology to provide a stable basis for their cultural claims
and self-description.2
This chapter explores a phase of cultural efflorescens through the cultivation of music,
in the kingdom of Bishnupur in south-western Bengal from the late sixteenth to the
eighteenth centuries. The inspiration for this musical accomplishments is traced to a
combination of Mughal–Rajput and Vaishnava influences as suggested by Kumkum
Chatterjee.3 A vast literature is available on this subject.The chapter argues that the

1 See Subramanian,Lakshmi,New Mansions for Music,Orient Blackswan,New
Delhi,2008
2 Subramanian,Lakshmi,From Tanjore court to Madras Music Academy,Oxford
University Press,New Delhi,2006,pp-4
3 Article of Chatterjee,Kumkum,”Cultural flows and cosmopolitanism in Mughal
India:The Bishnupur Kingdom” in the journal of “The Indian economic and social
history review”,2oo9,vol-46(2) .pp-1
Page 25
rulers of Bishnupur initiated this cultural programme with the aim of assimilating
cosmopolitan, elite practices associated with North Indian courtly culture.4

To begin with ,we have to go back to the only celebrated Bishnupur gharana5 of
Bengal, emerging in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries. It is said that, the journey of

4 Mukherjee, Dilipkumar, Darbar nati kalabanta in Bengali,Biswabani, Calcutta,
1976, pp-97
5 I am little sceptical about the coining of the term “gharana”.More focused
research on this issue is necessary to ascertain the time and the historical context
behind the projection of term gharana in terms of Hindustani classical music .
Page 26
Bishnupur gharana dates back in 1780/81 onwards.Some years back, the battle of
Plassey(1757) marked the beginning of the political supremacy of the English East
India company in India. This event not only left scope for expansion and initiative but
also amalgamated different streams of culture and their consolidation and
preservation had been done. Although other courts like Bardhaman , Krishnanagar
and Dhaka were also major seats of classical music but Bishnupur bore the features
that made it a gharana by itself. The Bishnupur gharana of Bengal had a prestigious
past, which has not been revealed properly. The land is also called Mallabhum after the
Malla rulers of this place. The rulers were Vaishnavite and built the famous terracotta
temples during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries at this place. The terracotta
temples are the best specimen of the classical style of Bengal architecture. Bishnupur,
(the distance from Kolkata is 132Km.) now the headquarter of the subdivision of the
same name in Bankura district, is a seat of crafts and culture for almost a thousand
years. It was the capital of the Malla kings of Mallabhum of which Bankura was
a part till their power waned during the time when Mughal rule was weakened under
the last monarchs of the dynasty. The patronage of Malla King Vir Hambir(1596) and
his successors Raja Raghunath Singh(1626) and Vir Singh(1656) made Bishnupur one
of the principal centers of culture in Bengal. The exquisite terracotta temples for
which the town is justly famous and its own Baluchari sarees made of tussar silk
have made Bishnupur an unique place. Moreover royal patronage also gave rise to the
Bishnupur gharana (school) of Hindustani classical music which has a heritage of its
own. Bishnupur’s cultural achievements occupy a prominent place in existing
scholarship on the subject and its wellspring is almost universally acknowledged to be
Vaishnavism. The nature of this Vaishnava-inspired cultural ‘high’ is described in
existing scholarship as a manifestation of regional culture. Therefore, the direct
Page 27
involvement of the Malla kings in supporting it and in fact making it possible is seen as
a desire by these local chieftains to elevate regional culture and to invest in it. The
motivation behind this desire to invest in regional culture is traced to the political
circumstances and relationships of the Malla kings. Vaishnavism undoubtedly acted as
one of the most important sources of stimulation and inspiration behind the impressive
cultural as well as musical achievements hosted by Bishnupur. The brilliant and
creative cultural developments that were hosted in the Malla kingdom represented an
effort, first, to appropriate what appeared to the royalty and ruling circles of Bishnupur
as a refined and sophisticated form of Mughal or North Indian courtly cosmopolitanism
and, second, to strike a balance between cosmopolitanism, on the one hand, and certain
regional cultural traditions, on the other.According to Kumkum Chatterjee,associated
with the use of the Sanskrit language and with Sanskritic cultural conventions (which
were also often articulated via regional vernaculars), this cosmopolitanism too was
associated generally with the courts of rulers, and with those segments of society,that
were regarded as refined and cultured.6The tradition of composing Bengali khayal by
the Bishnupur maestros perhaps lied in this particular courtly inspiration of the Malla
rulers. The Sanskritic cosmopolitanism and Mughal cosmopolitanism did not operate
in complete oblivion vis-à-vis each other. In fact, much of the recent research on
precolonial India has revealed the complex, creative and multi-faceted interactions in
literature, architecture, music, historiography among various cultural traditions,
cosmopolitan and otherwise.7 The cosmopolitanisms actively sought out by the Malla
kings resulted from the use of Vaishnava elements certainly, but only those elements
which were conjoined to Mughal and Rajput elements as well.

6 Op.cit,Chatterjee,kumkum
7 ibid
Page 28
Although not vast in area, the region holds a significant position in matters of political
vigor, civilization and culture. Historians suggest that Mallabhum had once been the
cultural centre of Eastern India. Among its cultural achievements music had the highest
honour. In the later part of the eighteenth century and towards the early and mid-
nineteenth centuries, when music of different ‘gharanas’ were gradually having their
assimilation in the city of Calcutta, the ‘dhrupad’8 style flourished among the
musicians of Bishnupur.By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Bishnupur had
come to be regarded as the site where a distinct style of Hindustani classical music ,
known as the Bishnupur gharana ,had developed. The rajas of Bishnupur extended
their patronage to dhrupad music from the late sixteenth, early early seventeenth
century onwards as part of their deliberate program of creating a public culture for their
kingdom which was grounded in large measure in the assimilation of aspects of North
Indian courtly and elite culture. I said earlier that the court-sponsored public culture of
the Malla kingdom was represented by the amalgamation of Mughal and Rajput
courtly tastes and sensibilities and these were linked to the practices that had developed
around Braj-based devotional traditions of Vaishnavism. The special status of the
Rajput aristocracy as collaborators and partners of the Mughals , particularly in the eyes
of local, regional chieftains in different parts of the Mughal empire including Bengal,
is proved historically. The close association between the Rajput aristocracy and
Vaishnavism together with the musical culture that had emerged around Vaishnava
devotionalism served to further enhance the appeal of dhrupad music in the eyes of
local rajas such as those of Bishnupur.It is historically acclaimed that , music was an

8 Santanu Bandyopadhya ,the present day representative of the Bishnupur gharana
strongly refutes the traditional view that, Bishnupur ony bears the legacy of
dhrupad.He argues that, this gharana is credited with the tradition of practising
both the dhrupad and khayal music as well.With the advent of new socio-
political advancements ,the focus had been shifted from dhrupad to khayal.
Page 29
inherent part of Vaishnava culture. The currency of music in the devotional tradition
which emerged in the Malla kingdom, has merited very slight ( actually, mostly passing
references) attention from existing historical scholarship and that too from scholarship
that is centered primarily on the Bishnupur kingdom and its Vaishnavism. It is almost
completely ignored by general studies of dhrupad and its diffusion across regions
leading to the emergence of regional schools and styles of dhrupad. The rooting of
dhrupad in the Malla kingdom of Bishnupur represents one of the older examples of
the diffusion of this music to a small regional kingdom on account of its elite, North
Indian, religious-sectarian as well as courtly associations. Remeniscences and
biographies of musicians belonging to the Bishnupur gharana , mostly from the
twentieth century provide a very general and impressionistic picture of this school of
music and most of them traced back only to the eighteenth century and to the arrival of
Bahadur Khan(although a debatable issue ,discussed later), allegedly a direct
descendant of the iconic Miyan Tansen to the darbar of the Malla rajas . Yet, an
exploration of the long term historical factors that lay behind the launching of a
remarkable cultural programme by the kings of Bishnupur since the late sixteenth
century makes it clear that the arrival and development of dhrupad music in this
kingdom can be understood only by locating the latter against this broader historical-
cultural context. The royal patronage of dhrupad music in Mallabhum and its currency
over many centuries in this region, needs to be contextualized vis-a vis the
construction of the beautiful, terracotta, navaratna temples in this region, the large
programme of producing and translating Bengali vernacular literature and Sanskrit
shastric literature , the copying and embellishment of manuscripts and the conscious
promotion of a variety of artisanal crafts ranging from the manufacture of fine silk
Page 30
textiles to the manufacture of conch shell products 9as I have said in the earlier segment
in this chapter.
The most common and popular form of Vaishnava devotional music was samkirtan i.e.
congregational singing of kirtans which were essentially praises of Krishna,
sometimes, just a repetition of Krishna’s various names.. The socially and culturally
radical aspects of the kirtan singing sessions associated with Sri Chaitanya,
particularly in the pre-Orissa phase of his career are significant. The equal access of
women and low-caste people to these collective singing sessions was looked at askance
by the Brahmanical orthodoxy of Navadwipa.10
This social significance of the low-caste association with Vaishnavism became
instrumental in the emergence of the Malla courtly culture as an elite culture.In the later
segment, I will briefly review the theory regarding the origin of the Malla king which
indicates to an aboriginal link with them.
Nama Samkirtan may well have been one of the more popular and commonly used
modes of kirtan-singing among the followers of Chaitanya. However, the currency of
padavali kirtan (i.e.poems or padavalis – often describing the exploits of Krishna and
his consort Radha which were set to music and sung ) in these and other circles in
Bengal during Chaitanya’s time and well before that is attested to by a variety of
sources. Developments in Vaishnavism in the Braj region through the late fifteenth and
the sixteenth centuries, the forging of links between the Chaitanya-centric Vaishnava
movement of Bengal and other parts of Eastern India on the one hand and the Braj
region on the other and the emergence of strong courtly associations for certain types
of musical traditions which were also current among Vaishnava sects .These factors

9 Op.cit,Chatterjee,Kumkum
10 Ibid
Page 31
collectively laid behind the transmission of the dhrupad musical form to different parts
of India and to the Malla kingdom of Bishnupur.
The Vallabhacharya(a major sect of Vaishnavism) sect was particularly well-known for
the emphasis it placed on music in their devotional practices and poet-singers like
Surdas, Kumbhandas and others were affiliated with this sect. Swami Haridas of the -
Haridasi sect earned a great deal of celebrity and reputation for his dhrupad singing in
the temple of Banke Bihari in Brindavan. The connection between dhrupad music and
Vaishnava devotionalism led to the diffusion of this style of singing to Vaishnava
centres in Rajasthan which, as we have seen above, received strong patronage from
Rajput princes. In time, Nathdwara11, in the kingdom of Mewar became the pre-
eminent centre of the Vallabhacharya sect and also a renowned centre of dhrupad
music. This is probably true of the eighteenth century, when the court may have
become the major venue for dhrupad performances. The many temples dedicated to
Krishna and Radha in the Malla capital were the principal venues for dhrupad singing
in the earlier period. The existence of a local tradition of dhrupad singing further
reinforced the practice of padavali composition on Vaishnava themes in the Malla
kingdom. Beginning in the latter part of the sixteenth century and continuing into the
next two centuries, a large body of Vaishnava songs were composed in Bishnupur by
the Malla kings themselves, by various Vaishnava padakartas(writer) and others.12 A
survey of the lyrics of the songs composed here show the simultaneous use of
Brajbhasha and Bengali. It confirms the linguistic assimilation, that was taking place
around this time at Bishnupur.The songs were most often in praise of Krishna. As

11 Op.cit,Dilipkumar Mukherjee,
Also see,chatterjee,Kumkum
12 Saha, Prabhat kumar,Some aspects of Malla Rule in Bishnupur, Ratnabali,
1995,Kolkata,pp-Introduction
Page 32
referred to earlier, from about the early part of the eighteenth century, the dhrupad
tradition in Bishnupur developed a stronger orientation to the darbar than to the temple.
So,the practice of traditional dhrupad singing was started in Bishnupur. It was the
time when Kali Mirza(1750-1826) returned from western India by getting rigorous
talim(training) from his guru(teacher) and introduced musical practice at the royal
court of Bardhaman. Simultaniously,dhrupad singing was also started at
Bishnupur.The year was 1780/81. Historically, it was a conjuncture of multifarious
events.
The Malla kings and the court had immense contribution for the upliftment of
Bishnupur music. As Bisnupur was situated in the western part of Bengal, it was
geographically more closer to ,Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan and Delhi apart from
other centres of Bengal. For this reason the musical style of Western India was very
well connected with the Bishnupur style. The cultural exchange was taking place not
only the field of music(vocal+instrument) but also in architecture,sculpture
,linguistics,literature so on and so forth.The Bishnupur kings did patronise the court
singers and even recruited them in their court. In the age of the Bengal renaissance i.e
in the nineteenth century, many singers were coming out from Bishnupur and moving
to Calcutta, the cultural hub of the Bengali speaking intellectuals.At that time any other
centre in Bengal could not produce so many artists like Bishnupur.
If we go to search the origin of the Bishnupur gharana we must know the history of
this state in short. Because Bishnupur state as well as Bishnupur court had very
significant contribution on Bishnupur gharana from the past. Only Tripura can be
compared with this kind of the antiquity.
Tradition says that,Bishnupur was established in the later half of the seventh century,
that is 694 A.D.Till that time this state is mentioned as the Mallarajya (state). In
Page 33
the Bhabisya Purana(One of the Puranas) of fifteenth–sixteenth centuries we notice the
reference of Rardikhand(Bankura and adjoining states) jungle at the
Brahmanda(Universe) portion. At that point of time the term “Bishnupur” was not
known. The founder was Adimalla. The year of his coronation was recorded in the
record book of the family.The second king was – Jaymalla (C > 799A.D.) third was
Benumalla (C > 720) fourth king was Kinumalla etc.So, till Chaitanya Singh (1748-
1802) the total figure of the kings remain fiftysix. They ruled from 694 A.D. to
1108 A.D.William Wilson Hunter also approved the sources from the bangshabali
(Family book). Such a long period of suzerainty is not very common in the context of
history.But it’s very difficult to reach any fixed conclusion about the Malla kings,
because very confusing and contradictory opinions are in vougue which resists one to
create any harmony between the collected facts.Various sources proves that the Malla
kings were connoted into the ‘Singh’under the rule of Vir Singh.The Malla kings
were independent till the middle of the sixteenth century. After that, Dharimalla
,(1539-87) father of Vir Hambir, first accepted the suzerainty of the Bengal governor,
but in a very nominal level. In the last half of the eighteenth century Bishnupur turned
into a small jamindari of the Bengal nawabs. After that, in 1806 Tejchandra ,the King
of Bardhaman bought it. At that time Madhab Singh was on the throne. Till that time,
we get a long history of the Bishnupur reign of 1100 years.

Bengal at the turn of eighteenth century:
The eighteenth century(1700 – 1800) occupies an interesting position in the history of
India as well as in Bengal.13 The reasons for this are many. As a century it witnessed
the passing away of an empire and its replacement by another. It was viewed and

13 Subramanian,Lakshmi, The History of India, Orient Black Swan, New Delhi,
2010, pp-10
Page 34