Ramachandra Kundgolkar Saunshi, popularly known as Pandit Sawai Gandharva and Ram-bhau (19 January 1886 – 12 September 1952) was born on 19th January, 1886 in a town named Kundgol (19 Km from Dharwad) in Karnataka. Although he did not belong to a musical family, he showed deep interest in music from his early days. His father, Ganesh Saunshi, was a local clerk employed by Ranganagowda Nadiger, a landlord. Sawai Gandharva did not show interest in academics yet was well known in the school for singing poems sweetly and won the admiration his teachers. Later, he was admitted to Lamington High School in Hubli which he used to travel everyday by train. Ramachandra’s father found it increasingly difficult to fund his son’s education and eventually his schooling stopped.
Music training
After discontinuing his education, Pt. Ramachandra’s father put him under the tutelage of Balwantrao Kolhatkar in Kundgol. From Kolhatkar, Ramachandra learned 75 Dhrupad compositions, 25 Tarana compositions, a hundred other compositions and also mastered a few Taals. Kolhatkar died in 1898, leaving Ramachandra’s tutelage incomplete and without further guidance.
While traveling to high school every day to Hubli, Ramachandra would actively participate in the daily cultural events in Hubli, where he spent his time watching Nataks and listening to music. Once, he found himself listening to a young Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and was immediately captivated. From then onwards, Ramachandra wished for the Ustad’s tutelage. Ud. Abdul Karim Khan began touring Karnataka, and he often stayed with the Nadiger family, Ramachandra’s father’s employer, with whom Ramachandra was staying with.
On such a trip in 1901, when Ustad Abdul Karim Khan was staying with Ranganagowda family he noticed Ramchandra humming the thumri jamunaa ke teer, in Raag Bhairav, which is Ustad’s popular number in the concerts. It caught Abdul Karim Khan’s ear and when he came to know from his host Ranganagowda Nadiger that the young boy wanted to learn music from him, Ustad readily agreed to take Ramachandra under his tutelage. Abdul Karim Khan was very particular to ensure that his disciples had a fairly long tutelage with him so that they could become proficient in classical music in all aspects.
Career
in 1907 Against the wishes of his teacher, Ramachandra joined a drama company and very soon became popular as a singer in Marathi theatre. He received acclaim for playing female roles, and also the title “Sawai Gandharva”. Thereafter, Ramachandra Kundgolkar Saunshi came to be known by the name Sawai Gandharwa. He worked for Govindrao Tembe’s Shivraj Natak Mandali for some time, becoming famous for playing female roles. He bid good bye to acting career in 1931. In 1942, at the age of 56, his concert career ended abruptly after he suffered a paralytic stroke, but he continued teaching until he died in 1952.
Association of Sawai Gandharva with Bal Gandharva
Bal Gandharva and Sawai Gandharva together carved the golden age of Marathi drama and theatre. Both were highly talented. Bal Gandharva made his debut in 1905 and Sawai Gandharva, in 1907. Bal Gandharva acted only female roles whereas Sawai Gandharva acted in both male and female roles. Bal Gandharva was one up in acting; Sawai Gandharva, in singing, which had a firm classical grounding. Bal Gandharva himself often came to Sawai Gandharva’s plays to enjoy his singing. If Bal Gandharva was only a stage-artist, Sawai Gandharva was also a concert artist and enriched the musical tradition handed down by his guru Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. At times when Bal Gandharva and Sawai Gandharva’s troupes camp in the same city the connoisseurs would buy tickets for both, see the first half of Bal Gandharva’s play and go to Sawai Gandharva’s second half concert.
When Sawai Gandharva bade good bye to the stage in 1931, Baburao Deshmukh of Nagpur arranged Sawai Gandharva’s concerts in Nagpur. Sawai Gandharva bounced back in his singer avatar and later he became very popular at Mumbai with his classical Kirana Gharana style. His 25-year stage experience made him adept in sensing the pulse of the audience and he had learnt how to capture the attention of the audience from beginning to end. His singing post 1931 acquired greater depth and maturity. Thus, Sawai Gandharva carried forward the Kirana Gharana tradition of his Guru Abdul Karim Khan.
Famous Gharanas
Gharanas in Hindustani classical music mean a particular style of school of music that connects musicians by its music style, lineage or apprenticeship. Some of the best known vocal gharanas include Gwalior gharana, Agra gharana, Kirana gharana, Jaipur-Atrauli gharana and Rampur-Sahaswan gharana. Pt. Sawai Gandharva is most well-known for popularizing the style of the Kirana Gharana through his accomplished disciples. Ustad Abdul Karim Khan is considered to be the main founder of Kirana Gharana.
In the 19th-century the Kirana gharana centred around Miyan Bande Ali Khan, a player of the rudra veena, who was also considered to be the main founder of Indore, Mewati, and Dagarbani Gharanas. The Kirana gharana’s style was further developed, and established as one of the prominent styles in modern Indian classical music in the late 19th / early 20th centuries by the musicians Abdul Karim Khan and Abdul Wahid Khan. The name of this school of music i.e., Kirana Gharana derives from Kirana or Kairana, a town and tehsil of Shamli District in Uttar Pradesh. It is the birthplace of Abdul Karim Khan (1872–1937), who was one of the most influential musicians of this gharana. Unique feature of this gharana is the intricate and ornate use of the sargam taan (weaving patterns with the notations themselves) introduced by Abdul Karim Khan under influence from the Carnatic classical style. Owing to the popularity of Abdul Karim Khan in the Mysore region, most contemporary Hindustani musicians from Karnataka have become exponents of Kirana gharana. The border region between Karnataka and Maharashtra is particularly associated with the Kirana gharana. Apart from Sawai Gandharva, Panchakshari Gawai and Sitar Ratna Rahimat Khan are some of the first generation of Hindustani musicians of Karnataka.
Sawai Gandharva’s vilambit was soothing like a cool breeze in a full moon night. When the taans began, the atmosphere changed and his aggressiveness came to the fore, which had the mixture of simple, complex and intricate nuances, resembling a highly charged atmosphere in a heavy monsoon season. Apart from Hindustani classical music, Sawai Gandharva was an adept in light classical varieties like thumri, naatyageet and abhang.
On January 19, 1946 Pune Music Circle had organized Sawai Gandharva’s sixtieth birthday celebrations in spacious Hirabaug. Eminent musicians participated in honour of the Badshah of Kiraana Gharana, transgressing Gharana barriers. Sawai Gandharva breathed his last on September 12, 1952 at Pune.
Legacy continues
Sawai Gandharwa’s most enduring legacy is that he trained vocalists such as Gangubai Hangal, Bhimsen Joshi, Basavaraj Rajguru, Firoz Dastur and Krishnarao Phulambrikar (a classical musician, vocalist, film and drama artist).
A private concert was organized on the sixteenth day after his death where his noted disciples Smt Gangubai Hangal, Pandit Feroz Dastur and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi performed. To commemorate his first death anniversary, his disciples organized a music festival under the patronage of Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal. This became a grand success and thereafter this festival became an annual ritual in Pune and its popularity grew exponentially. Today Sawai Gandharva Music festival is one of the important and prominent music festivals of India. The annual Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav in Pune started by Bhimsen Joshi, in memory of his guru Sawai Gandharva has been renamed as the ‘Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav’ since the demise of Bharat Ratna Pt. Bhimsen Joshi.
Each year the festival is organized for 3 days in the month of December. Artists including vocalists, dancers and musicians from all over India of all the gharanas arrive at Pune to show their talent. Every year the festival concludes with the song Jamuna Ke Teer” in Rag Bhairavi , the tune made famous by Sawai Gandharva, which is a signature song of his guru Ustad Abdul Karim Khan.
No wonder, they say, music has the power to unite the people.
