Having a sense of pride in one’s gharana or family/musical lineage is not an uncommon phenomenon among hereditary musician families and their close disciples, some of whom may have spawned new branches of the original gharana. This is evident in an interview featuring Krishnarao Shankar Pandit (1893-1989), a revered representative of the Gwalior gharana and son and disciple of his father Shankar Pandit. This 20-minute interview conducted by well-known vocalist Dinkar Kaikini when Krishnarao Shankar Pandit was 77, is the second in our series on interviews of great maestros of yesteryear, and forms part of a larger video recording from the Doordarshan archives that also features a vocal recital by Krishnarao Shankar Pandit’s son and the present doyen of the Gwalior gharana, Laxman Krishnarao Pandit.

Vocalist Dinkar Kaikini in conversation with Krishnarao Shankar Pandit

Krishnarao Shankar Pandit belonged to the Gwalior gharana, considered the fountainhead of all khayal gharanas. Famous as the nineteenth-century gharana of the brothers Haddu-Hassu Khan, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit in this interview dates the origin of the gharana to the times of Raja Man Singh Tomar, who ruled over Gwalior from 1486 to 1516. Krishnarao Shankar Pandit’s response to the question about the history of the Gwalior gharana, is similar to Faiyaz Khan’s response to a similar question about his ancestry and musical lineage included in the interview that this column featured last week. Faiyaz Khan mentions in the interview that the origin of his gharana predated the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar.

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Both maestros date their gharana origins to a time when dhrupad was the predominant Hindustani vocal form, although both were essentially khayal singers. Yet, one can discern a continuity of musical tradition from the dhrupad to the khayal form in the stylistic features that they exhibit in their recitals, more overtly in the case of Faiyaz Khan who included major elements and compositions from the dhrupad-dhamar forms. This was perhaps their way of acknowledging the influence of dhrupad on the khayal form and tracing a guru-shishya lineage that gradually adopted khayal as the dominant form. To that extent, the Hindustani music tradition as it exists today is an unbroken but changing tradition.

It must be mentioned though in this context that musicians from virtually every gharana have held that the origin of their lineage dates back to Tansen or even earlier. Geneologies are brought forth to prove their stand, and in some cases, compositions and raags attributed to musicians several generations drawn apart, are presented to claim antiquity. Not all of these stand the test of history and need to be seen as efforts at antiquating individual styles and lineages to gain prestige in a competitive music world that lays great importance on everything that is even remotely linked to an ancient past.

Back to the interview, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit also demonstrates various forms that are representative of the Gwalior repertoire.