Bhimsen Joshi: A Hundred Years of the Extraordinary

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi is touted as one of the greatest vocalists of all time having profoundly contributed to the Indian classical music field for more than four decades.

• Born on February 4, 1922, this day marks the birth anniversary of the late legendary artist, who received the Bharat Ratna in 2008. 

Who was Bhimsen Joshi?

• Bhimsen Joshi was born on February 4, 1922, in a family that lived in Dharwad district’s Gadag taluka.
  
• This was a day associated with the worship of the sun god and celebrated as Ratha Saptami.
• Family background: His family had an environment of music and scholarship as his grandfather Bhimacharya was a well-known kirtankar(a singer of kirtans) and father Gururaj was a teacher armed with a Bachelor’s degree in education and a Master’s degree in languages.
• He was influenced by the music of Kirana gharana‘s Ustad Abdul Karim Khan from a very early age.

Musical training

• In 1933, the 11 year old left home to learn singing through the Guru-Shishya tradition.
• He spent three years in Gwalior, Lucknow and Rampur, trying to find a guru but without luck.
• Eventually, his father tracked him down and brought young Joshi back home.

• He began receiving training in Hindustani Classical music under Pt Sawai Gandharva for four years from 1936 to 1940.
• Gandharva trained him in Hindustani Classical music, teaching him the nuances of the ragas that formed the base of the Kirana gharana.
• He stayed at the latter’s house and followed the guru-shishya tradition of gaining knowledge and in return, performing odd jobs.

Hindustani Classical Music

• Hindustani music is one of the two principal types of South Asian classical music.
  • (The other principal type, Karnatak music, is found in the Dravidian-speaking region of southern India.)
• It is found mainly in the northern three-fourths of the subcontinent, where Indo-Aryan languagesare spoken.
• The roots of Hindustani Music is traced to the emergence of Dhrupad & Dhamar. It further developed into Vocal & Instrumental Streams.
• Further emergence of Khayal from Dhrupad as a result of influence of the Mughal Kingdom, Classical Music underwent a change in character, moving from Temples to the Courts.
  • Names like Miyan Tansen have been one of the greatest influence on the Hindustani Style.
• Instruments: The most prominent instruments of Hindustani music are the 
  • sitar(a long-necked fretted lute with about 30 melodic, drone, and sympathetic strings)
  • sarod(a short-necked unfretted lute with sympathetic and drone strings)
  • sarangi(a bowed fiddle)
  • shehnai(an oboe like wind instrument)
  • tabla(a set of two drums played by one musician, the right-hand drum carefully tuned)
  • tambura(a large long-necked lute with four strings, used only to play the supporting drone, a single repeated chord)