Today is the 52nd anniversary of the death of Padmabibhushan award-winning musician and ‘Sarod’ expert Ustad Alauddin Khan.
Born at Shibpur in Brahmanbaria in 1862, Ustad Alauddin Khan ran away from home to join a jatra troupe when he was 10.
His stay with the troupe uncovered him to a variety of folk genres, including the ‘Jari’, ‘Sari’, ‘Baul’, ‘Bhatiyali’, ‘Kirtan’ and ‘Panchali’.
He went to Kolkata and met a physician named Dr Kedarnath, who helped him to become a disciple of a reputed musician of Kolkata, Gopal Krishna Bhattacharya alias Nulo Gopal.
An expert in many instruments, he learned to play many indigenous and foreign musical instruments, including the ‘Sitar’, ‘Flute’, ‘Sarod’, ‘Piccolo’, ‘Mandolin’, ‘Banjo’, ‘Violin’, ‘Sanai’, ‘Naquara’, ‘Tiquara’, ‘Jagajhampa’, ‘Pakhwaj’, ‘Mridanga’ and ‘Tabla’.
He also learnt staff notation from the wife of a Goanese bandmaster, Mr Lobo.
The first Indian subcontinent musician to acquaint western audiences with the classical music, Ustad Alauddin Khan directed the music of Uday Shankar`s classical film ‘Kalpana’ based on dance.
Instead of ‘dara dara’, he introduced the tune ‘diri diri’ in the Sarod along with bringing a radical change in the mode of playing the Sitar by applying the mode of Sarod playing.
Besides creating a good number of ragas such as ‘Hemanta’, ‘Durgeshvari’, ‘Meghbahar’, ‘Prabhatkeli’, ‘Hem-behag’, ‘Madan-mavjari’, ‘Mohammad’, ‘Manjh’, ‘Khambaj’, ‘Dhabalashri’, ‘Saraswati’, ‘Dhankosh’, ‘Shobhabati’, ‘Chandika', 'Dipika', Malaya, 'Kedar Manjh', he also introduced a new gharana in the realm of Hindustani classical music, known as the Alauddin Sangeet Gharana or Maihar Sangeet Gharana.
He had a good number of world famous disciples, including Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pundit Ravi Shankar, Khadem Hossain Khan, Ustad Mir Kashem Khan, Rawshan Ara Begum, Annapurna, Ustad Phuljhuri Khan, Ustad Khurshid Khan, Ustad Ashish Khan, Ustad Dhyanesh Khan, Pundit Jotin Bhattacharya, Indranil Bhattacharya and Sharan Rani.
Honoured with the title of ‘Khan Saheb’ by the British Government, he received the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1952, the Padmabhushan in 1958 and the Padmabibhushan in 1971 by government of India.
Ustad Alauddin Khan passed away on September 6 in 1972.
