Musical Lineage

Bengal and the Gouripur Tradition

At the turn of the twentieth century, one of the important centers of classical music in eastern India developed around the Gouripur Raj in Mymensingh.

Its ruler, Brajendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, belonged to a generation of aristocratic patrons whose courts provided musicians with the time, resources, and environment necessary for serious musical study. Gouripur became associated with musicians drawn from several traditions rather than with a single gharana.

Brajendra Kishore's son, Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, inherited this musical environment and became an accomplished instrumentalist and scholar in his own right. His musical education crossed the boundaries that would later be used to describe individual gharanas, placing him within a broad culture of instrumental music that connected Bengal with some of the most important musicians of his generation.

Birendra Kishore's influence extended well beyond the musical world of Gouripur. Among the musicians who received training from him was Jitendra Mohan Sen, who would become an important teacher in his own right.

Jitendra Mohan Sen trained a number of disciples, carrying this musical tradition into another generation. Among them was Saugata Chatterjee's grandmother.

It was from her that Saugata began learning the sitar at the age of five. Those early lessons formed the foundation of his musical education and established the first of the three traditions that would later shape his approach to the instrument.

The Etawah or Imdadkhani Tradition

While these musical circles were developing in Bengal, another influential instrumental tradition was taking shape through the family of Ustad Imdad Khan.

The tradition became known both as the Etawah gharana and, after Imdad Khan, as the Imdadkhani gharana.

Imdad Khan was a major figure in the development of nineteenth-century sitar and surbahar playing. His approach increasingly incorporated ideas drawn from khayal and other forms of vocal music into instrumental performance. The sitar was no longer treated simply as a plucked instrument articulating discrete notes. Meend, ornamentation, melodic continuity, and vocal-like phrasing became increasingly central to its expressive language.

The tradition passed through his sons, Ustad Enayat Khan and Ustad Wahid Khan, both important sitar and surbahar musicians.

From Wahid Khan, one branch continued through his son Ustad Aziz Khan to Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan.

Across these generations, the gharana developed an especially sophisticated form of gayaki ang — the adaptation of vocal expression to the sitar. Melodic phrases could stretch across frets through long meends; ornamentation could suggest the movement of the voice; and the unfolding of a raga could retain the architecture of instrumental music while drawing heavily upon vocal aesthetics.

This became one of the most influential conceptions of modern sitar playing, represented in later generations by musicians including Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan.

The Maihar Tradition

A different transformation of North Indian instrumental music developed around Ustad Allauddin Khan.

Allauddin Khan's own musical education was unusually broad. Among the important influences on his development was the Senia tradition associated with the beenkar Ustad Wazir Khan. Allauddin Khan absorbed material from several sources and eventually established his musical center at Maihar, where he served as court musician and teacher.

What emerged around him was less a hereditary sitar gharana than a broad school of instrumental training.

His influence spread through an extraordinary generation of musicians. Among them were his son, the sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and two of the most influential sitarists of the twentieth century, Pandit Ravi Shankar and Pandit Nikhil Banerjee.

Nikhil Banerjee brought together several strands of this history. His early training had already included the musical environment of Bengal and the guidance of Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury before his advanced study with Allauddin Khan.

Banerjee's mature style became known for the seriousness and patience of its raga development. Extended alap, carefully constructed melodic progression, control of tone, and a contemplative approach to improvisation became central features of his music.

Among the musicians who subsequently studied closely with Nikhil Banerjee was Pandit Partha Chatterjee.

After Banerjee's death in 1986, Partha Chatterjee continued his training under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. His musical education therefore carried two closely related streams descending from Allauddin Khan: through Nikhil Banerjee and through Ali Akbar Khan.