Volume 1 Issue 2                                                                                                           

Gandharvam, A Refereed Journal of Sachin Debbarman Memorial Govt. Music College

ACHARYA CHINMOY LAHIRI : A GLIMPSE ON HIS MUSICAL  PERSONALITY

-Kalpita Devi

Abstract:-

It is an unequivocal truth that Bengal is superiorly developed in the field of music, art, literature & culture among the other states of India and Kolkata, the capital of Bengal is the heart of Hindusthāni classical music.  From the medieval period, the music stalwarts had given their utmost energy to uplift the Bengali music. That galaxy of maestros penned the name of  Bengali music in front of the music lovers beamingly. I have chosen such a sage in music, whose versatile musicality towards the development of Indian as well as Bengal’s music and it will be my subject to be discussed. He is Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri. The contributions of Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri, in the field of Hindusthāni classical & semi-classical music in Bengal, are immense. Though he is a Bengali, by birth, he took most of his music lessons outside Bengal like Lucknow & around. Then he returned to Bengal to contribute to the world of Hindusthāni classical & semi-classical music. There, he introduced his own style of rendering music to enrich the Bengal’s classical music which was so innovative that, if we compare with the then stalwarts of Indian classical musicians of that era, he was no less adorable, if not better. That’s why Ptd. Lahiri has become a phenomenon in the Hindusthāni Classical music in Bengal. His contributions towards Khayāl, Ṭhumrī, Rāga-Pradhān Bānglā gāna, Gīt-Ghazal etc are highly remarkable in the history of Bengali music. He will ever be remembered as the Father of Bengali classical & semi-classical music for his lifetime contributions.

Key Words:- Khayāl, Ṭhumrī, Rāga-Pradhān Gāna, Ghazal .

 

Introduction:-

According to Indian philosophy, music is God’s voice. Today’s music, as we know it, has been changed to its traditional forms which flow down from the time immemorial. Since the ages, music has been one of the most sought after culture taken up by many maestros. Music is the soul rejuvenating form for the mankind. Many a learned persons who are masters of music, has passed on their life-long meditation on music to our generation. Bengal has a glorious musical history as many musicians gave their life-time contributions to enrich the music of Bengal. As modern Bengali literature will be incomplete without such names like Rabindra Nath Tagore, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay etc, similarly, music history of Bengal will be incomplete without such music giants of 20th century like Bhishwadeb Chattopadhyay, Tarapada Chakraborty, Jnanendra Prashad Goswami etc. Out of all those music galaxy, Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri is one of the great and shining stars; who not only introduced a unique style of vocal recital [Khayāl, Ṭhumrī , Bhajan, Rāga-pradhān, Rāgāśrayī Bānglā gāna] but also composed a good number of excellent songs.

        Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri comes of a Zamindar family and was born in ‘Tāntibandh’; a village in Pabna district (Banladesh), on 20th March, 1920. His father Shreejeebchandra Lahiri was an engineer and his mother’s name was Sarajuwala Devi. He was brought up at Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh as his father shifted his work base from Bengal. He was an avid physical exercise lover as well as has a sweet tooth for music. He was initially admitted to Anglo Indian Boys School, later shifted to Marris College of Music, where his genius for music started blossoming.

Musical forms in which Acharya Lahiri cherished his musicality:-

Prior to the advent of Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri in Bengal, the music scenario was quite a different. In those days, what we have seen the Bengali songs, particularly, were of three or four coins…. Like  (i) Bengali songs concerning with the drama and theatres (theatrical or dramatic songs), (ii) Rāga-pradhān Bānglā gān , (iii) Brahma-Sangīt, (iv) the old traditional Bengali songs like Bengali Ṭappā, śyāmā sangīt, Yātrā gāna etc, (v) Rabindra-Dwijendra Lal-Atul Prasad-Rajanikanta-Najrul gīti etc, which were  mass song were nursed by the comings and (vi) Basic songs which were concerned with literature and romanticism. Those songs were composed since the post-First World War till the beginning of the Second World War. Besides those, some Hindusthāni other forms of song like Dhrupad, Khayāl, Ṭhumrī and Ṭappā which were also called court music (art music), were existed in Bengal and the music maestros of different Gharānās came to Bengal and maintained their livelihood in different darbārs of local zamindārs during 19th century. 

        In Bengal all those forms mentioned above had been practising by the musicians with the legacy of their tradition of music. Acharya Lahiri, a Bengali Lucknow based musician who started his musical career as a performer and had given his immense contributions to the music of Bengal. One of the new forms of Bengali music named   Rāga-pradhān Bānglā gān, became very popular at that time. Musicians like Chimoy Lahiri, Ptd. Bhismadev Chattopadhyay, Tarapada Chakraborty etc were the pioneers of this form. The forms in which Acharya Lahiri involved deeply are now discussed below :

Khayāl:-

This is the second most popular classic form of vocal music after Dhrupad.

Khayāl’ is an Arabian word which means imagination, justification, elite class

art music of people etc. People from different regions of our country used to

articulate this word with usual practice. In Bengal, Bengali people pronounce the word ‘Khayāl’ into ‘Kheyāl’, which means an imagination. Because of this, we used to imagine that Khayāl artistes can perform just maintaining a Rāga and can embellish their performance by their own imaginations and thoughts about the music. But this is not the proper way of performing Khayāl because Khayāl is a form of Darbārī music which is highly enriched by classic rules and thoughts of music. That’s why there must have some particular rules; otherwise it should not recognizd as Khayāl.

Different musicologists have given their own views about Khayāl. They thought Khayāl comes from ancient ‘Koibāḍ’ or ‘KāybālPrabandha (composition). Again, some other musicologists told that there was an ancient Prabadha of sankīrṇa jāti named Cuṭkal [which was in vogue Do-Ᾱb area in U.P.]; where- from Khayāl has come. We have got a complete description about three types of Prabandha or classical Rāga-based composition (1.Suḍ, 2. Ᾱlikrama or Ᾱlisanśray and 3.Viprakīrna) in Sangīt-Ratnākara by Śāraṅgadeva [Approx. 1235 A.D]. Śāraṅgadeva had discussed on 36 types of Ᾱlikrama type of Prabandha including Kaibāḍ Prabandha. He wrote in his text about this Kaibāḍ prabandha, “In this type of composition, Udgrāha (the first line) and Dhruva dhātu (3rd stanza) are composed by the bol (membranophonic syllables) of Mridanga (Pāṭa) and it concluded in Udgrāha Dhātu. Pāṭa (syllables of Mridanga) is divided into two types as meaningful (Sārthaka) and meaningless (Nirarthaka). Again Pāṭa divided into two types by order of Śuddha and Miśra. Śāraṅgadeva didn’t describe more about Kaibāḍ prabandha in this discussion. That’s why we cannot conclude Kaibāḍ prabandha as Khayāl.Khayāl became very popular among the common music-lover people during the rule of Mughal emperor Śahjahan (1st half of 17th century A.D). Since then, Khayāl had been performed by some of the court musicians. Performers used to perform the compositions of Khayāl for improvisation of the Rāga they render the samewith Ᾱlāp, Tān, Svargam, Bolvistār etc. The musical instruments used in Khayāl are Tanpura, Sarengi, Tabla, Harmonium etc. There is a wide variety of rhythmic patterns in Khayāl that could be used by the Tabla players. Tritaal, Ektaal, Jhaptaal, Jhumra, Rupaka, Dipchandi, Adachoutaal etc are the Tālas used in Khayāl performance. A complete Khayāl performance is covered by two compositions i.e. Baḍā Khayāl (vilambit laya) and Chotā Khayāl (Drut laya); usually performed in the same Rāga but in different Tāla. Bandiśes  or lyricsare composed in Hindi, Bŗija and sometimes in other regional languages and these compositions are based on diverse topics, like romantic, divine love, praise of kings or gods, the natural beauty, dawn and dusk, and the pranks of Krishna. In Bengal, Bengali Khayāl became very popular in early 19th century. The Bandiś is divided into two parts — the Sthāyī (or Aśthāyī) and the Antarā. Sthāyī considered more important than Antarā part as it shows the melodic contours of the Rāga. The Sthāyī often uses notes from the lower octave and the lower half of the middle octave, while the Antarā ascends to the tonic of the upper octave and beyond, before descending and linking back to the Sthāyī.

Acharya Chinmoy Lahiri, who created a good numbers of Rāga; had also composed on those Rāgas a lot of songs (Bandiś). A few of his compositions are furnished below:

i)      Rāga: Darbari Kanaḍa, Tāla: Tritāla (Madhyalaya).

               Sthāyī:   Kyā tum ho vahi śyām sāwariyā

                                  Dhuṇd phiru bana bābariyā.

                 Antarā:  Bāsuri ki dhvani

                                 Bajāya kahi guni

                                Pukāre mohe Magana nāgariyā.

ii)     Rāga: Deśi, Tāla: Tritala (Madhylaya).            

                  Sthāyī:    Manaharwa curāye liyo jāy

                                 Hiya ki pīra kise sunāy.

                 Antarā:   Kā karu aba kuch nā suhāya,

                                Magana milana bina kaise bitāye,

                               Sakhī eri deho batāya.

Bandiś wrote by Acharya Lahiri, mostly depicts the sacred love of Radha- Krishna  by mingling Sur and Tāla.

Ṭhumrī:-

This is a very popular semi-classical form of vocal recital in Northern India. It became popular in the time of Mughal rule. Great musicologist late Dr. Bimal Roy had given an account of Thumrī in his text ‘Sangīti Śabdakoś’ (1st part). He said that the love song or poetic romantic song of Muslim era in Doāb area is evolved in Luchnow and later became popular as Thumrī. It’s known as Baruyāor Bārwā gīt. In 17th century a particular form of composition became very popular and it was based on Thumrī or Bārwā type Rāga. It had many stanzas like poetic song. Though it is not the new form of ancient Rupaka prabandha, but in later time there seems similarity between Thumrī and Rupaka Prabandha. In ‘Sangit Śastra Samikṣā (2nd part)’, great musicologist Dr. Pradip Kumar Ghosh has also explained its history. He said that Thumrī is a light classical Rāga based romantic music form of U.P. It doesn’t have the purity of raga because of the importance of its aesthetic sentiment. We cannot deny the name of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (13.7.1822-21.9.1887) in the history and development of Thumrī. But the existence of Thumrī can be traced even before the time of Wajid Ali Shah and Nyamat Khan Sadarang. Another book ‘Tuhfat-ul-hind’ (1670 A.D) Mirza Khan said that Thumrī is a Rāgīni among five Rāgīnis of Rāga Śrī. He also had said that, this Rāgīni was quite popular in Doyāb (middle place of Ganga and Yamuna which is known as Ayodhya). In ‘Rāga Darpan’ (1666 A.D), Fakir Ullah said another name of Thumrī is Baruwa or Bāroā. Thumrī or Bāroā was very popular song among all classico-folk music forms in Doyāb. Other songs are Kajjalī or Kajrī, Chaitī, Birhā, Sauni etc. It is clear that Thumrī existed from 17th century, before the birth of Wajid Ali Shah. Secondly, Thumri or Bāruyā Rāgīni comes from folk tune. Thirdly, all types of folk song in Doyāb used to be performed with dance. In ‘Ᾱin-i-Ᾱkbarī’ (1580-1593), Abul Fazal described about all types of popular folk songs but didn’t mention about Thumrī.  It is proved that Thumrī born in the first half of 17th century. Also he told that those people who were related to dance or music, they were called Naṭ, Naṭuwā, Kāncanī etc in North India. In Doyāb, they used to dance with the folk songs based on Baruyā rāgini. In later time, those folk songs became popular as Thumrī.

        Musical instruments used to accompany with Thumrī are almost same as used in Khayāl song.  The Tālas suitable with Thumrī are Jat, Tiluwārā, Dipcandī, Kāhārwā, Dādrā, Madhyamān, Tritāla etc. and the Rāgas used are Khāmbaz, Pīlu, Gārā, Bhairavī, Pāhārī etc. Acharya Lahiri also composed a lot of Ṭhumrīs.

Example:           Rāga: Khāmbaz, Tāla: Jat

     Ṭhumrī:      Sthāyī:  Akhiyā kāhe ko milāi

                                        Mohe kiu prem ki rāha dikhāi

                                        Barabasa pāsa bulākar apne

                                       Ab kiu nainā curāi.     

    Antarā:  Terā mana nā jānu tu acaraja ki nāi

                                     Ᾱnkho ojhala honā thā to phir kiu muskāi.   

Chaitī and Kajrī:-

They both are originally folk type of songs ( of Doāb area) called Classico-folk. In these forms, Rāgas are used very light in natur. Chaitī is performed in the month Chaitra (mid of March - mid of April).

 Kajrī:-                (Composed by Ᾱcharya Chinmoy Lahiri.)

                        Sthāyī:  Gheri  kārī  badariyā

         Piyā rahile kaun nagariyā

    Dekhi mana barsāy

    Ghar āngana kacunā suhāy.

Antarā: Bijalī  camake jaba jor

   Dharakata hai hiyā mor

                               Lipata rahu suni sejariyā. 

Rāga-Pradhān Gān:-

Originated and popularized in Bengal during in the first half of 20th century. The name Rāga-Pradhān had given by the late musicologist Suresh Chandra Chakraborty. The songs in where Rāga is chiefly based; in fact they are all poetic songs. This type of song may accept any Rāga based musical form or not. When it follows any musical form; then it follows all the steps of the particular form. The forms it may follow are:  Dhrupad, Dhāmār, Khayāl, Ṭappā and Ṭhumrī.  But in Bengal, sometimes they are not followed in toto. This is mainly due to soft language of Bengal.  In every case, in Rāga-Pradhān Gāna; the characteristics of a Rāga whether pure or mixed are followed, when the principles of Rāgas are not strictly followed, then they are identified as ‘Rāgāśrayī Bānglā Gāna’.

Ghazal:-

Ghazal is a form of verse which is originated in Persia, which is usually recited with tunes. Of course, it is not a musical form. Therefore, any kind of tune may be applied when the composer of the verse recites. Normally, rhythm is avoided in recitals. So, originally in Ghazal, Tālas are not set. In later time, when Ghazal is used in other poetic form of songs (Kāvyagīti) then Tālas and Rāgas began to be used frequently.

However, there are some parts in Ghazal- Matlā, Maqtā, Beher, Kāfiyā and Radif.

Musicality of Ᾱcharya Chinmoy Lahiri:-

        Chinmoy Lahiri came attracted to music at his very tender age. In his family everyone used to appreciate music but nobody were involved professionally. He was the fourth son to his parents. His brothers were fond of the Raga music very much and one of his brothers Sachinmoy Lahiri was a disciple of famous dancer Sambhu Maharaj. His father Shreejeebchandra Lahiri was an amateur Esraaj player. His younger brother also involved in music. His proper tālim of vocal music started under the guidance of his Guru Ptd. Shrikrishna Ratanjhankar; when he was a student of Marris College of Music, Lucknow. He had taken the musical lessons from Ptd. Ratanjhankar for a long time as his Gāndā-bāndh śāgīrd (disciple). He came in contact with many music experts of different Gharānās.  He furnished his performance in a unique shape by the influence of eminent musicians like Dilip Chandra Bedi, Dhruvatara Joshi, Khalifa Khursheed Ali Khan etc. Dilip Ch. Bedi was the disciple of Ustad Faiyaaz Khan. Ptd Ratanjhankar also went through the tālim of Ustad Faiyaaz Khan to nourish his music after learning from ptd. Bhatkhande. He devoted himself to Ustad Faiyaaz Khan. Acharya Lahiri got a great opportunity to furnish his music in the fine touch of Dilip Ch. Bedi. He was very expert in various types of tān and sargam. Acharya Lahiri used to accompany him for learning his excellence and gradually it was blooming very beautifully in the young heart of Acharya Lahiri.  He became the king of Tānkāri and was highly applauded by the listeners. Though he had a soft corner for Seniā-Dhrupad Gharānā; but he never followed the style. He went to Khalifa Khurshid Ali Khan of Golaganje, Lucknow of Seniā Gharānā for made his knowledge wider.

Acharya Lahiri had started his musical career as an approved artiste in All India Radio, Lucknow in the time of its very beginning, 1936. After working there in Lucknow radio he shifted to Dhaka and joined as a music producer in Dhaka Radio by the help of Sangīt Śāstrī Suresh Chandra Chakraborty. His song were broadcasted by Dhaka Radio regularly and his music widespreaded in all the areas of Bangladesh. He became very famous as a classical artiste and teacher among the people. At that time Acharya Lahiri met Gul Muhammad, great musician lived in Dhaka. Again, he started to nourish his talent under the guidance of Gul Muhammad. In 1944, H.M.V. record company was moving in many places. They were searching for the budding stars to record their songs. They had recorded two Rāga-Pradhān Bengali songs in Khayāl style of his own composition i.e. ‘Nā māne mānā’ and ‘Duwāre elo ke’ written by Gopal Dasgupta at Nārī Śikṣa Mandir, Dhākā.  Gradually, a lot of students started to come for learning the music under the guidance of Chinmoy Lahiri. His creative mind always made him busy to create new Rāga or other compositions. Before the separation of the country, he resigned his job and came to Calcutta permanently for establish his talent among other musicians in 1947. He started to perform in different soirees and mesmerized all his listeners with his various patterns of tānkāri, rhythmic improvisation, alluring bol vistār and very charming voice throwing. In the same year, he was invited by the All Bengal Music Conference and had performed there Rāga Yaman. People highly appreciated his mastery. Again he got the opportunity to show his talent in the same stage for the second time. He performed his own created Raga ‘Nandakonś’, vilambit ‘Byākul nainā nīr bahi āye’ and drut ‘Paḍu tore mein paiyā’. That was a very successful recital for him.

Acharya Lahiri was not only a great performer but also a very talented composer. It is wrong to identify him as a sole Khayāl artiste as he was equally good in rendering Ṭhumrī, Gīt-Ghazal, Bhajan and Rāga based modern Bengali songs. He composed a good numbers of songs which were recorded by the renowned artistes of his time. Another gems created by Achaya Lahiri is the beautiful Rāgas i.e i) Nandkounś, ii) Śyāmkounś, iii) Lalitā, iv) Kusumkalyān, v) Rajanīkalyān, vi) Dagdheswarī, vii) Rāgeśrī-Basant, viii) Sant-Bhairav, ix) Pancameswarī etc.

         Acharya Lahiri was an outstanding trainer and teacher. Though he was simple and childlike by nature, he could be equally stern and strict in practice (Riyāz). His students and followers could be found many places outside Bengal and even beyond India. Some of them who made their names afterwards are- Begum Parveen Sultana, Ptd. Shyamal Lahiri, Bidushi Mandira Lahiri, Birendranath Phukan, Hiren Sharma, Kalipada Chakraborty, Bijoy  Chakraborty, Meera Chattopadhyay, Uma De, Pdt. Dinanath Mishra, Shipra Bose, Haimanti Sukla, Akhilbandhu Ghosh, Sanat Sinha, Alpana Bandopadhyay, Arati Mukhopadhyay, Satinath Mukherjee, Utpala Sen and Neelratan Banerjee etc. Starting as a part time employee at A.I.R Lucknow, he went on to become voice trainer in H.M.V. Some who got benefited from him as voice trainer at H.M.V are- Satinath Mukhopadhyay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Prasun Bandopadhyay, Shyamal Mitra, Aangurwala Devi, Bani Ghoshal etc. Many social institutions were proud to have him as a member. He was music teacher at Technique School of Music, Sargam, and Metropolitan School of Behala. He became lecturer in music at Rabindra Bharati University on 1967. Later he resigned only to rejoin after two years, 1974-75.

        His first recording was in 1944 at Dhaka. H.M.V Company gave him an opportunity to make his first recording as an effort to support and search rising singers. His two songs recorded at that time were-‘Nā māne …’ and ‘Duwāre elo ke….’ lyric by Gopal Dasgupta and composed by the singer himself, both the songs composed in the style of bandiś. Later megaphone made a cassette on him, co-artiste were Bhishwadeb Chattopadhyay and Tarapada Chakraborty. His contributions towards film music were also phenomenal. His first playback was in the film ‘Mandanda’. Other films are ‘Dvairath’, ‘Antaraal’, ‘Shapmochan’, ‘Jeebanniye’ ‘Bapu ne kaha tha’ etc. His song ‘Tribenī tīrtha pathe……..’ became a milestone in the history of Bengali film music, in the film ‘Shap-mochan’. It was a duet song with Pratima Bandopadhyay.

Conclusion:-

He is the rarest of rare musician, not only Bengal but also whole of India. Art is never static; changing with time is its characteristics. Bengali classical songs were influenced a lot by music from other states at the beginning of twentieth century. Artistes like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, Ustad Amir Khan etc. were most famous amongst Bengali Rāga-based music arena. During those days, a Bengali newcomer appeared in the field of Bengali music. As he was grown up in Lucknow (U.P.), Pandit Chinmoy Lahiri was blessed with many renowned musicians outside Bengal at that time. After coming back to Calcutta, he could make his own path after having influenced so much from the maestros he came in contact with. His signature style is so unique; it can be called ‘Chinmoy Lahiri style’ all by itself. This style is famous and recognized in all India level. Also he enriched the Bengali music by his immense contributions, and reformed a strong future generation of North Indian Classical; semi-classical and light music through his dedication towards teaching. His legacy as rendering his own style and compositions has been handed over to future generations. The final curtain came down of this wizard of music on 17th August, 1984 at Neel Ratan Sarkar medical college, where he was being treated for his cardiac ailment. It was a great loss for music but he will alive for years to come for his noble creations.

 

References:-

i) Chattopadhyay, Jayanta. Kothāy gelo tārā.  Gayatri Prakashani 68/1 Cannel Street Kol: 700048. January 1996. Edited by Jayanta Chattopadhyay.

ii) Bhattacharya, Sanjay. Bānglā Rāga Sangīte Chār Dikpāl. Sumitra Kundu, Ekush Shatak, 15 Shyamacharan Dey Street,  Kol: 700073. March 2016.

iii) Lahiri, Chinmoy. Magan Gīt O Tān Manjarī - First part. Smt.Mandira Lahiri, 4/13, Chanditala Lane, Kol: 700040. July 2007.

iv) Lahiri, Chinmoy. Magan Gīt O Tān Manjarī - Second part. Smt.Mandira Lahiri, 4/13, Chanditala Lane, Kol: 700040. January 1999.

v) Lahiri, Chinmoy. Magan Gīt O Tān Manjarī - Third part. Smt.Mandira Lahiri, 4/13, Chanditala Lane, Kol: 700040. March 2005.

vi) Lahiri, Chinmoy. Magan Gīt O Tān Manjarī- Fourth part. Smt.Mandira Lahiri, 4/13, Chanditala Lane, Kol: 700040. June 2009

vii) Surchandā, Journal. West Bengal State Music Academy, Edited by Neelratan Bandyopadhyay.

viii) Ghosh, Dr. Pradip, Śangīt Śāstra Samīkșā, West Bengal State Music Academy, 36, Prince Anwarshah Road, April 2005.

ix) Internet.

 

 

 

 

Kalpita Devi, Ph.D scholar, Vocal Music Department, Rabindra Bharati University.