PART II - The gharans of Sarod players

Now we will go into history with a lot of names to remember.. Distinctively, there are three different gharanas in Sarod today. They are, the Ghulam Ali Bangash Senia gharana, the Maihar Senia Gharana and the Shahjenpur-Lucknow gharana. The present times doyen of the Bangash gharana is Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. That of Maihar is Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and that of Shahjenpur gharana is Pandit Buddhdev Dasgupta. Let us see how these Gharanas have evolved.

Let us start from some figure who we know, and who the present musical world knows: Amjad Ali Khan. His father was Hafiz Ali Khan, and his father was Nanhe Khan. Nanhe Khan had two brothers: Murad Ali Khan, and Asgar Ali Khan. Their father, was Ghulam Ali Khan Banghash, (Amjad Ali Khan's great grand father).

Ghulam Bandegi Khan Banghash, and Ghulam Ali Bangash who settled with the Maharaja of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, started Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan's ancestry. Later they settled in Gwalior. This is the Bangash Senia Gharana, of which we have Ustad Amjad Ali Khan in the present generation.

Murad Ali Khan, the second brother, went over to a place called Shahjehanpur, which was another seat of sarod players. Murad Ali Khan who was childless, picked up an orphan from Shahjehanpur and trained him into one of the most dreaded sarod players of India! His name was Abdullah Khan. He settled down in Bihar, Dharbanga, as a state musician. One of his two sons, Mohammed Ameer Khan, came to Bengal and settled there; he had taught quite a few persons. His first remarkable disciple was Timir Baran, (who later went to Allauddin Khan). Eventually, his youngest remarkable disciple was Radhika Mohan Maitra. And his disciple today is Buddha Dev Dasgupta. This is the second gharana, the Shahjehanpur Gharana. Their playing is a combination of the maihar and Bangash gharana.

Thirdly, we have the Maihar Gharana. Of the three sons of Ghulam Bandagi Khan Bangash, Asghar Ali Khan, had a disciple Ahmed Ali Khan. His disciple was Baba Allaudin Khan who is the doyen of the Maihar gharana. Maihar is the name of a small town in Madhya Pradesh where Allaudin Khan had settled. This is the third gharana of sarodias. He was also a disciple of Wazir khan of Rampur. In the present generation we have Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and his numerous disciples of this gharana.

Let us see how the actual playing styles evolved in this century:
As we noted earlier, the Sarod baaz of playing is derived from its ancestor, the Rabab.

Let us once again listen to the rabab rabab.mp3

It is interesting to note that earlier, in a music concert, the alaaps were rendered on one instrument, chiefly the Sursringar and then the gat was played on the Sarod. This is because then the sarod then was not able to reproduce meends, ghasits and other murkis. It did not have the sustenance of sound, which is necessary for our classical music. But both Hafiz Ali Khan and Allaudin Khan, along with his brother, Ayet Ali Khan, had noted this and were trying hard to improve the instrument in a way so as to be able to play the alaap form too. They succeeded in doing this by modifying the sarod. They made the tabli larger and rounder. Introduced steel fretless plate as the fingerboard. Replaced the gut strings with metal strings. Introduced taraf as resonator strings. All this gave a tremendous boost to the tonal quality of the instrument.

Now we listen to this modified rabab, renamed as sarod. The player is Hafiz Ali Khan. Here we note that he is playing the alap in raag pilu with all the meends etc. This sarod however is different in that it is of teak and has less number of strings compared to Allaudin Khan's developed Sarod. Hafiz1.mp3

As time went on, improvements followed. In fact its only as recent as 1925 that the entire concert from alaap to gat was played entirely on the Sarod. Various other changes also took place, such as tighter parchment, rounder and larger drum, better strings etc.. Some preferred to have teak wood and others preferred toon wood. Teak gave a mellow and bolder sound.quite loud too. Toon sound was more sharp and softer.

In this clipping, we hear the same raag Pilu's alap, but in Ali Akbar style sarod, of toon wood, having six more strings, an additional brass tumba, and a larger tabli. It is tuned to note C. aakbarpilu.mp3

It was a matter of choice. Hafiz Ali khan preferred the teak wood sound and this is what follows on with Ustad Amjad Ali khan too. This sarod has less tarafs - 11 in comparison to Allaudin khans 15 tarafs. Also the chikara has only 2 sa tuned strings, in contrast to nrgs combination of Allaudin khan sarod. The tuning he has set for SA is B or B flat or, kali panch. This gives the sarod a much better base, deeper sound, more resonance and sustenance and over all the string tensions on the instrument is much less compared to the Ustad Ali Akbar Khan sarod which is tuned to C or C sharp, and having 6 more strings.

Let us now listen to yet another version of raag pilu, this time played by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on his teak wood sarod, having fewer strings and lesser tension - tuned to B flat ie kali paanch. amjadpilu.mp3

As we can witness from this, in the modern sarod more veena has penetrated into sarod. It has become more vocal. Earlier, the sarod had the left hand dominated baaz, like the rabab. Very short glides, more staccato notes, and more bols. Even during slow alap, it could not really sustain a very slow alap because glides were not there. So alaaps were played on sursringar and fast gats on the sarod. With the advent of the modern sarod longer glides, and very slow alap have become feasible. Not only this, you can also create numerous bol patterns. So this combination of bols, glides and haunting sound, makes this instrument truly amazing to listen to and most appropriate to our classical music. It has truly become quite vocal, and one can literally sing through the sarod.

Here is an example of the how close the sarod has become to singing. Note how rich it is with both vocal glides and the bols.This is how the Senia Bangash Gharana developed their style. vocalsarod.mp3

Part 3 : The structure of Sarod today and its makers

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