Reclusive Master of a Rare Instrument He World of Hindustani Only Child Shubhendra, When Music Venerated Her As Maa She Stayed Back with Her Parents Tannapurna Devi
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TRIBUTE ANNAPURNA DEVI (1927–2018) Reclusive master of a rare instrument he world of Hindustani only child Shubhendra, when music venerated her as Maa she stayed back with her parents TAnnapurna Devi. She was at Maihar while her husband, a sadhika who abhorred the arc- then in his early twenties, was lights of the concert stage, shunned struggling in Bombay to make a publicity and refused to face the mark as a sitar exponent. In the public eye even when invited absence of Baba, it was she who to accept prestigious awards. taught his younger disciples. Ironically, her life had enough Sarod maestro Aashish Khan, her heartbreaks and controversies, as nephew-disciple, describes this in eager scholars of music followed an article, “We, Dhyanesh, Baby her footprints and prestigious awards to get it right. “I was telling Dada the (Ameena) and Shubho used to learn like the Padma Bhushan (1977), actual process when Baba entered from Dadu. Shubho had picked up the the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi the room stealthily. He did not say sarod pretty well. When Dadu would Award (1991), Desikottama (1999) anything, but gave me the tanpura and go away on concert tours, Pishima and SNA Ratna (2004) lay strewn began teaching me vocal and sitar.” taught us and supervised our riyaz. on her path. On the fourth day of Gauging her introspective approach It was she who taught me alap…. Navaratri—on 13 October 2018— and dedication to raga-music, he soon Even otherwise Pishima was my guru. Annapurna Devi left for her eternal advised her to take to the surbahar, a She would pamper us. Maihar was a abode at the age of 91, to be with vanishing and demanding instrument. malaria infested place, and Pishima her father-guru Baba Allauddin Khan Much later she proved his intuition used to nurse us when we fell ill.” and her eldest sibling Ali Akbar, right. “Personally I did not enjoy These sentiments were echoed by both of whom left an indelible mark performing. For me music has always flautist Nityananda Haldipur, one of on her personality. Like her Baba, been my offering to God. I never felt the several celebrated disciples of she was an inextinguishable flame comfortable recording it,” she said. Annapurna Devi keeping the Maihar that safeguarded the purity of raga gharana’s flag flying. He confessed, music of the Maihar gharana; and like There are hardly any witnesses of her “She was a difficult taskmaster, no her brother—the sarod maestro Ali live recitals. “I was present in one doubt; but once she accepted you as Akbar Khan—she exemplified guru of her rare appearances on stage in a a disciple, she looked after you like bhakti. duet with Pandit Ravi Shankar at Bombay,” says sitar maestro Arvind a mother. She always fed us before The musical journey of Roshanara, Parikh. “I vividly remember, Panditji beginning a lesson session which used the youngest child of Baba Allauddin was his flamboyant self and his to continue for hours— sometimes Khan, is said to have started on the sitar was very impressive, while from dusk to dawn! There was no such auspicious day of Chaitra Poornima, Annapurna Devi and her surbahar thing as holding back any ‘secret’. She whereby she was christened as were rather withdrawn. And after tried to give her best to students below ‘Annapoorna’ by the Maharaja of some time, in the middle of the average; but not without displaying Maihar. It is amazing in many ways concert, she stopped playing and put her strong displeasure. She would pray because very little has been said, down her instrument. ‘I am tired’, was to her gurus first: ‘Please bless me so written or discussed about her life. She her simple reason!” that I can convey what you taught me’; remained an enigma. In the foreword and then she would sit on a moorha of a book on Allauddin Khan, she There are, however, stray incidents facing us like a glowing flame—pure described how her taleem commenced that reveal some facets of her and honest. Lesser mortals find it on a fateful day when Baba was personality. She enjoyed teaching difficult to face such a phenomenon, away on an errand after giving even as a little sister, a 15-year old because this demands similar honesty some musical instructions to his son- newly wedded bride of Pandit Ravi of purpose. Earlier, I was trained in disciple Ali Akbar, who was not able Shankar and a young mother of their a different style belonging to Pandit 89 l SRUTI December 2018 view is supported by Robin Paul, his close associate, who was a witness to their divorce. Life was not easy for Annapurna Devi after separation from her husband. To tide over the financial crunch she started teaching at NCPA. She married her disciple Rooshi Pandya, thirteen years younger than her. He too died in 2013, months after Pandit Ravi Shankar’s demise in 2012. Added to it all was the unfortunate death of her only son Shubho who succumbed to pneumonia in 1992. Annapurna Devi lived till her last in a flat at Akash Ganga in Mumbai. The With her father and guru reclusive master of the surbahar was Pannalal Ghosh’s baaj. She never Ravi Shankar cited several incidents a puritan and a perfectionist. asked me to change, but very patiently related to her foul temper. This MEENA BANERJEE instilled the values of her father-guru’s musical style. After about three years, I felt the difference.” An unforgettable concert Sitar maestro Nikhil Banerjee and eading about the passing away Ravi Shankar (who was the better guitarist Basant Kabra are also her of Annapurna Devi, I was known of the two, as a professional disciples. According to musician- Rinstantly transported to the artist) played a phrase and paused scholar Vijay Kichlu, a close friend night of 31 December 1955, when I for Annapurna to do her bit, and each of maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia who was present at her duet concert with time, she outdid him, to the delight of also went to Annapurna Devi at a stage her (then) husband sitar maestro the audience. Especially during the when he was already established as a Pandit Ravi Shankar, at the annual jhala and fast improvisations, he threw popular flautist, “Hariji had to give up conference of the Madras Music her several challenges but each time playing by his right hand and relearn Academy. I later realised that it was she went one better and out-performed the art with his left hand. And he did a historic occasion, for it was the last him in terms of speed and breathtaking it.” On several occasions Chaurasia time Annapurna and Ravi Shankar flights of fancy. He tried playing also reiterated, “She is a living Mother shared a platform. The two, it is said, faster, and unfazed she responded in Goddess.” never played together again. equal measure. It was an unforgettable I was then a teenager and since I treat. I remember the moment when The national award winning singer was learning music, my mother took he, almost in desperation, played a Chhaya Ganguly, who considers me along to attend all the concerts super-fast phrase, and she coolly took herself ‘blessed’ for getting several during that December season. On new up the challenge and outdid him. He opportunities to visit ‘Maa’ as an year’s eve, when Ravi Shankar and then threw up his hands dramatically, Akashvani official and later as Annapurna took the dais at 9 pm, the almost as if saying “I give up”, and the an associate of Shekhar Sen, the pandal was full (there was no hall at audience burst into ecstatic applause. Chairman of the Sangeet Natak that time). The recital went on well Ravi Shankar clearly meant to Akademi, who recorded Annapurna beyond the billed duration. As soon Devi for their archival collection, lead although it was a duet concert, as midnight approached, I remember but again and again she outshone said, “Her motherly demeanour drew Ravi Shankar stopped playing, me to her again and again; and she him, without fanfare, flamboyance lowered his sitar, leaned towards or theatrics. I can clearly recall always embraced me like my own the mike and wished the audience a mother.” Annapurna seated on the stage, on his “Happy New Year”. None of us knew left, dignity personified, taking the But there is a discordant note like at that time that the two were playing musical presentation to great heights. a ‘vivadi swara’ in the raga of together for the last time. She was not dressed in a flashy ‘pattu’ Annapurna Devi’s life. In his What I remember very clearly, six sari like all the other women who autobiography Raag Anuraag, Pandit decades later, is that during the recital, performed at the conference. Whether 90 l SRUTI December 2018 it was alap, gat or a tihai to arrive at the sam, it was she who carried the day. Annapurna’s father Ustad Allauddin Khan, and her brother Ali Akbar Khan, have both gone on record that between Ravi Shankar and Annapurna, she was undoubtedly the better artist, and that probably rankled with Ravi Shankar. The Music Academy concert was reportedly the last time they played together. A few months later, in 1956, Ravi Shankar left her. That was the Playing with Ravi Shankar (file photo) end of her public appearances and concerts. The couple went on to secure of music, to the Maihar gharana that Her death was not the real tragedy. a divorce much later.