This week’s Bandish festival celebrates seven distinguished composers of classical Indian music, their work rendered by six celebrated contemporary vocalists

Translated simply, the word ‘bandish’ would mean song or composition. But more than a century ago, some schools of Hindustani classical music held bandishes in such high regard that they would give them to their daughters as dowry.
Today, though not always the central focus of a classical music concert, the bandish — made up of melody, rhythm and lyrics — is still respected as the peg upon which a raga is hung.
This week, in its carefully curated three-day Bandish festival, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will shine a spotlight on seven of the most distinguished bandish composers in the history of classical Indian music, i ncluding Bade Ghulam Ali Khan from the Patiala gharana, Shrikrishna Ratanjankar from the Agra gharana and Bade Ramdas from the Benaras gharana.
To render the works of each composer on stage, the festival will feature performances by six celebrated contemporary vocalists, i ncluding Girija Devi and Ajoy Chakrabarty.
“The mainstay of Indian classical music is to bring out the personality of a raga,” says Suvarnalata Rao, curator of the festival and programming head for Indian music at the NCPA.

“The composers of a bandish provide the framework through which a raga can be remembered in a nutshell and then explored,” she adds.
Girija Devi, 84, a veteran Kolkata- based vocalist, says, “Some bandishes focus on the complexity of the rhythm and melody, while others focus on the lyrics.”
Girija Devi will present rare semiclassical compositions by Benaras gharana composers Shambhunath Mishra and Shyamcharan Mishra.
Since it was founded in 2010, the Bandish festival has commemorated several Hindustani classical composers such as Faiyaz Khan and Kumar Gandharva as well as saint-poets such as Tulsidas and Kabir. Last year’s Bandish had singers Anup Jalota and Shubha Mudgal explore devotional bandishes besides the classical repertoire.
This year, the festival will explore works from semi- classical genres such as thumri and dadra, and through the works of Thyagaraja and Purandaradasa, it will also bring on stage Carnatic classical music, where compositions are known as kritis.
“The word bandish is used mainly in Hindustani music,” says Rao. “But I wanted to highlight the fact that the idea of the composition is core to every genre.”

This year’s Bandish festival will feature performances by six celebrated contemporary vocalists, each one rendering the works of a distinguished bandish composer

Purandaradasa (1484 – 1564) and Thyagaraja (1767 – 1847) 

COMPOSERS

BORN IN: Kshemapura, Karnataka, and Tiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, respectively PURANDARADASA is called the father is Carnatic music; Thyagaraja, its godfather. Purandaradasa is known for structuring and regularising the way music is taught to students even today, and wrote more than a thousand kritis (compositions) in Kannada and Sanskrit under the pen name Purandara Vitthala.

THYAGARAJA wrote devotional songs in Telugu and Sanskrit. Studying his compositions is still considered the best way to grasp the nuances and structure of a raga.

Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (1902 – 1968) of the Patiala gharana

COMPOSER

BORN IN: Kasur, Punjab

Khan composed hundreds of bandishes under the pseudonym Sabrang, the name he is best known by. He set beautiful and poignant imagery to popular ragas. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1962.

Sudha Raghunathan 

ARTISTE PERFORMING

Chennai-based vocalist

Raghunathan will focus on the thematic links between Purandaradasa and Thyagaraja. “Both wrote songs about [Hindu deity] Krishna, spirituality and how a man can lead a good life,” she says. Selecting a set of compositions with these themes, Raghunathan will present various genres of Carnatic music, such as the kriti, pad and kirtanam, on July 7.

Kolkata-based Hindustani classical 

ARTISTE PERFORMING

vocalist Chakrabarty has trained under Jnan Prakash Ghosh and later under Munawar Ali Khan, the son of Bade Ghulam Ali. As a tribute to his guru’s guru, Chakrabarty will sing a set of Sadrang’s most popular bandishes in the khayal and tarana genres, on July 6.

Rajan and Sajan Mishra

ARTISTE PERFORMING

“We remember just 50 of Bade Ramdas’s bandishes. The rest have gone with him,” says Rajan Mishra, the older of the two Delhi-based vocalist brothers, also grandsons and disciples of Bade Ramdas. “We will select a few of Bade Ramdas’s compositions just before the concert, based on the mood of the day,” says Mishra. The duo will perform on July 8.

Girija Devi

ARTISTE PERFORMING

Kolkata-based Girija Devi has been a classical and semiclassical vocalist for more than six decades, but says she has rarely heard the compositions of Shambhunath and Shyamcharan Mishra performed on stage. Now 84, Devi will perform in Mumbai after a gap of three years, presenting a host of their bandishes to mark the finale of the Bandish festival, on July 8.

 

Ulhas Kashalkar 

ARTISTE PERFORMING

Trained as a vocalist in

the Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharanas, Kolkatabased Kashalkar will perform a selection of Ratanjankar’s bandishes in Ragas Ramdasi, Chhayanat and Miya Malhar, for his Mumbai concert on July 6.

Shambhunath Mishra (circa 18551918) and Shyamcharan Mishra (circa 1810-1900) 

COMPOSER

BORN IN: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Besides Hindustani classical, Benaras is known for nurturing a wide range of semi-classical genres of music, such as tappa, dadra and thumri. Shambhunath and Shyamcharan Mishra — friends and distant relatives — were stalwarts of these genres. They composed thousands of bandishes on subjects of devotion and love between deities such as Radha and Krishna and Ram and Sita.

EXPERT QUOTE 

When instrumental music grew popular in the latter half of the 20th century, the importance of the bandish began to diminish. But even today, the bandish is the melodic mark of the raga, a pre-composed skeleton that becomes the vehicle through which the raga can be taught. 

Ramdas Mishra (1877-1960) of the Benaras gharana

COMPOSER

BORN IN: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Popularly known as Bade Ramdas, Mishra was one of the most distinguished vocalists and composers of the Benaras gharana, known to be the oldest in Hindustani music and one that placed tremendous importance on the bandish. Bade Ramdas composed nearly 7,000 bandishes in all, employing diverse and unusual rhythmic patterns.

Shrikrishna Ratanjankar (1900 – 1974) of the Agra gharana 

COMPOSER

BORN IN: Mumbai, Maharashtra

A noted composer, vocalist and scholar of Hindustani music, Ratanjankar wrote several hundred bandishes under the pseudonym Sujaan. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957.