With mehfils missing, sarod too fell silent like Nawabi era in Lucknow

TNN / Updated: Feb 8, 2023, 07:49 IST

Text Size

Small
Medium
Large

The musical lineage of sarod in Awadh dates to 17th century when the art form flourished in the courts of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. But with the exile of nawab to Kolkata after the first battle of independence in 1857, his court musician Niamatullah Khan too migrated and the art started to fade due to less number of 'mehfils', said Irfan Muhammad Khan, the last sarod player belonging to Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana.

With mehfils missing, sarod too fell silent like Nawabi era in Lucknow

Kathak performance by Arshiya Sethi, Shama Bhate and Shilpa Bhide

LUCKNOW: The musical lineage of sarod in Awadh dates to 17th century when the art form flourished in the courts of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. But with the exile of nawab to Kolkata after the first battle of independence in 1857, his court musician Niamatullah Khan too migrated and the art started to fade due to less number of 'mehfils', said Irfan Muhammad Khan, the last sarod player belonging to Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana.
Speaking on the decline of erstwhile mehfils in Awadh and beyond during the Sanatkada Festival on Tuesday, Khan said musical concerts slowly declined after the era of Nawabs ended. However, since a few patrons of art still resided in Awadh, the city witnessed some mehfils.
A certain shift came when musicologist Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (who founded the Bhatkhande Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya) brought together over 400 musicians together and organised All India Music Conference in 1916 in Gujarat with an aim to discuss principles of Indian classical music.
"Later, the conference was held in Lucknow in 1925 where the conception of Marris College (Now Bhatkhande Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya) was conceptualised," said Khan.

The Partition of India in 1947 again affected the different musical gharanas as several artistes migrated to newly formed Pakistan. A few handful of people tried to revive the essence of mehfils like earlier, but failed to do so, Khan added.
Sharing an anecdote from his days spent in Lucknow, Khan reminisced: "Daily I used to wake up at 5am for riyaz with my uncle Ilayas Khan, a renowned sitar player. Once I fell sick and couldn't attend the morning riyaz. However, later when I decided to practice my uncle told me to go to a hakim, who used to sit near Liberty Cinema here. When I went to the hakim, he gave me medicine for fever and asked me 'Jaunpuri seekhi hai?' (Have you learnt Jaunpuri raga?). When I replied in affirmative, he said, 'Jao Jaunpuri ka riyaz karo bukhar theek ho jaega (Go and practice Jaunpuri, you will get well)."

End of Article