DHRUPAD

                                       DHRUPAD

Dhrupad
The Divine Sound. . .

Bansuri
The Indian Flute. . .

Sameer Inamdar
Dhrupad On Bansuri. . .

dhrupad at a glance | history | tanpura | maestros

“When I close my eyes and begin to sing, there is only darkness…
slowly, light comes, then the beginnings of colour.”
-Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar

dhrupad at a glance | history | tanpura | maestros

Dhrupad Music

DHRUPAD AT A GLANCE

In Indian tradition, music is equated with truth and truth with God. The word Dhrupad comes from two words – “Dhruv” which means “the evening star” or the star that is fixed and never trembles and “Pada” which means word or aspiration that acts as the manner of articulation, the transition sound. Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Indian Classical Music and is believed to be the purest form of Music. Originally, Dhrupad was a means of offering to the divine through sound. Hence it comes without any embellishment and totally austere in its delivery. All compositions or expressions (sounds) in Dhrupad are strictly set in a definite structure.
Dhrupad as we hear it today has closely maintained its core essence of purity as it was when it started thousands of years ago. As Dhrupad is a devotional prayer to the almighty its journey began from temples and was spread over by rishis and yogis. About six centuries ago, dhrupad music came to the royal courts, limited to highly sophisticate royal audiences. The sacred nature of dhrupad survived and even in the 20th century we are fortunate enough to hear this majestic form of music as performed more than 500 years ago in the royal courts of the emperors and kings.
Dhrupad has been sustained by traditions of devotional music and worship. Dhrupad's purpose has always been aradhana (worship), rather than entertaining the audience. It is derived from yogic meditation by the rishis to attain purity of sound, nad Brahma. Dhrupad has the power to take its listeners to a trance state, leaving behind a soulful and healing impact. It's free flowing and blissful. One can experience peace hearing to the divine Dhrupad.

dhrupad at a glance | history | tanpura | maestros

Swami Haridas

HISTORY

Dhrupad is an invocation to the gods, a spiritual seeking inducing deep feeling of peace and contemplation in the listeners and is sung exclusively in places of worship. The roots of Dhrupada take us back as far as the Sama Vedas. It is believed that compositions such as chhandas and prabandha originated in the rhythmic Vedic chants. Dhrupada is evolved from “Prabandha”. Veda's have guided mankind to attain spiritual enlightenment for ages, music has played a vital role to carry the spiritual essence of veda's to peoples’ lives. Dhrupada is all about passion, devotion and purity. Dhrupada's core lies in its devotional values; it is an offering to the Almighty. The aesthetics value of dhrupada has the power to express every existing emotion.
Dhrupad probably evolved from the earlier chanting of Om the sacred syllable, which is believed to be the source of all creation. Om is said to have a spiritually purifying effect on the person chanting it and the phrases like Om, Ananta Narayana Hari are a kind of invocation to God. It is also said that the chant of the epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana by the rishis, ascetics of yore, gave the intonation and color to Dhrupad.
With the passage of time, the musical aspect of Dhrupad became so sober and complete in itself that instrumentalists started solo performances of Dhrupada on instruments like Been and Rabab, Surbahar, Sitar and Bansuri with no less grandeur as the vocalists. The Dhrupad music played on the instruments has adopted portions of vocal music which can be accommodated by instruments and is called as ‘gayaki’.

dhrupad at a glance | history | tanpura | maestros

Tanpura

IMPORTANCE OF TANPURA

A pivotal part of any performance of Indian classical music, the tanpura is the most relevant accompanying instrument. The name tanpura is derived from tana, referring to a musical phrase, and pura which means "full" or "complete". Tanpura is essential for practice and performance in general but simply indispensable for Dhrupad. Tanpura is said to be the most fundamental instrument of all Indian Classical Music. The base of Indian Classical music is 'swar'. The core essence of music is creating feelings in heart of listeners. This can only be achieved effectively by maintaining purity of 'swars'. Purer the ‘swar’, greater the music.
Jivari principle is applied to get the overtone rich sound that has a sustained buzz, in which particular harmonics resonate with focused clarity. Jiva referes to “soul” that gives life, implying that tanpura embodies an “animated” tone quality. Jivari is like a prismatic refraction of white light into colours of rainbow. It has to power to express the “sapta-gupta and sapta-prakat” swaras.
According to Wasifuddin Dagar, “While tuning the tanpura you don't just tune the strings but tune your soul and musical ability too. Tanpura helps increase sensitivity towards musical notes.” When a string of the Tanpura is plucked what is produced is not a pure note fixed in pitch, but a note that oscillates by a miniscule amount owing to the curved bridge. In this way the Tanpura embodies the concept of a note that is not fixed but is fluid with infinite microtonal shades. The tuning of the Tanpura is a complex task and advanced practitioners of Dhrupad can tune a Tanpura to reflect the flavour of the raga to be performed.

dhrupad at a glance | history | tanpura | maestros

MAESTROS

• THE DAGAR GHARANA
• SENIOR DAGAR BROTHERS
• JUNIOR DAGAR BROTHERS
• USTAD ZIA MOHIUDDIN DAGAR
• ZIA FARIDUDDIN DAGAR
• GUNDECHA BROTHERS

THE DAGAR GHARANA

Dagar Brothers

Dagar family's contribution to the perpetuation and enrichment of Dhrupad, while preserving its original purity, has been so precious, and the fact that history of this family can be traced back for 20 generations without break, this family represents a microcosm of the history of Indian classical music.
In the 16th century, Dhrupad had four Schools, representing it in all its diversity. Brij Chand Rajput was of Dagar lineage, so the school of Dhrupad that he headed was called Dagar Vani. The other three Vanis were Khandar, Nauvahar and Gobarhar. Only Dagar Vani has been maintained to our day, rest disappeared in the course of time.
Dagars were Brahmin, but due to circumstances Baba Gopal Das Pandey embraced Islam, and later was known as Baba Imam Khan Dagar. His son, Ustad Behram Khan Dagar, acquired thorough knowledge of Sacred Sanskrit texts. Rigorous analysis helped him translate formal rules into pragmatic teaching methods. Elaborating the alap, he distilled the style of singing, to purity and clarity never known before.

SENIOR DAGAR BROTHERS

Senior dagar Brothers

The Senior Dagar Brothers are the 19th generation of the unbroken Dagar dhrupad tradition. The two elder sons of Ustad Nasiruddin Khan, Ustad Nasir Moinuddin Dagar and Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar are popularly known as the senior Dagar Brothers. Nasir Moinuddin Dagar (May 12, 1921 - 1966) was born in Alwar, Rajasthan and his brother Nasir Aminuddin Dagar (October 20, 1923 - 2000) was born in Indore two years later. Ustad Nasiruddin Khan was then the court singer of Tukoji Rao Holkar, the Maharaja of Indore. Both Ustad Nasir Moinuddin Dagar and Ustad Nasir Aminuddin Dagar received over 10 years of rigorous dhrupad training under the guidance of their father Ustad Nasiruddin Khan. They also had a strong influence of their uncle Ustad Riazuddin Khan Dagar of Jaipur and then Ustad Ziauddin Khan Dagar of Udaipur.
They significantly contributed in popularizing dhrupad in the 1960s. Dhrupad vocals jugalbandhi (duet) performed by Senior Dagar Brothers gained wide acclaim. 1961 onwards they toured Europe, and provided dhrupad with the much needed spotlight.

JUNIOR DAGAR BROTHERS

Junior dagar Brothers

Nasir Zahiruddin Dagar (1933-1994) and Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar (1934-1989) were known as the younger or junior Dagar Brothers. They were born in Indore (Madhya Pradesh). They were sons of great vocalist Ustad Nasiruddin Khan Dagar. They continued the dagarvani jugalbandhi tradition after the early demise of Ustad Nasir Moinuddin Dagar. Dagar Brothers played a very important role in the revival of Dhrupad tradition, carrying forward the great work done by their elder brothers. They also trained many students including Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar, the son of Nasir Faiyazuddin Dagar who is keeping the family tradition alive along with other dagarvani exponents.

USTAD ZIA MOHIUDDIN DAGAR

Ustad Zia Mohinuddin Dagar

Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, born on 14th March 1929 in Udaipur, Rajasthan was one of the most renowned exponents of the Rudra veena, the instrumental ancestor of Sitar. He began his training at the age of seven, under guidance of his father, Ustad Ziauddin Khan Dagar, court musician of Maharaja of Udaipur. Bade Ustad was the first Dagar to become a rudra veena player. He felt it imperative to save Rudra Veena from passing into oblivion. Standing against all odds he chose to pursue his chosen course.
Research and teaching were his main pursuits, his music as a performer offered the very quintessence of the best virtues of the dhrupad parampara pioneered and popularized by his distinguished forefathers. Ustad Saheb had a sharp artistic sense; he chose austere and refined aspects of Hindustani music. He made profound musical statement that in Alap alone the essence of Raga could be revealed, and proved it in his performances. He made modification in the Rudra Veena to enhance its tonal quality, resonance and sound sustenance, adapting it to the expressive nature of Gayaki.

USTAD ZIA FARIDUDDIN DAGAR

Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar

Zia Fariduddin Dagar was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan in India on 15 June 1932, where his father, the great Ustad Ziauddin Khansahib was the court musician of Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur. He was taught dhrupad vocal and veena by his father. He continued learning dhrupad under his elder brother, Late Ustad Z M Dagar after his father’s demise.
He has a remarkable command over microtones (swara-bheda) and various gamakas, and is noted for his gradual development of alap through vilambit, madhya and drut laya (slow, medium and fast tempo). He is probably the only person alive to be able to demonstrate all the five geetis mentioned in the Sangita Ratnakara namely, Shuddha, Bhinna, Gaudi, Sadharani(which is dagarwani of today) and Vegasura(which is popular in south India). He is the most influential dhrupad vocalist in India after the senior Dagar Brothers (Ustads N. Moinuddin and N. Aminuddin Dagar). He has performed widely in India and abroad and has done a lot for popularizing Dhrupad music all over the world.

GUNDECHA BROTHERS

Gundecha Brothers

Umakant and Ramakant have good voices with strong lower registers. After rigorous training for four years, under dhrupad maestros Zia Fariddudin Dagar and his brother Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, The Gundecha Brothers started performing in public. They have worked to expand the dhrupad repertoire by incorporating texts by Hindi poets such as Tulsidas, Padmakar and Nirala. They are probably the most recorded dhrupad singers. The Gundecha Brothers have come to be regarded as a third force on par with the senior and junior Dagars.

Copyright 2011 Sameer Inamdar. Crafted by Master Equation

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