It is perhaps the biggest shock to Indian classical music lovers that Padma Vibhushan Pundit Jasraj passed away on August 17, 2020 in NJ, USA after a sudden heart attack. It was he who successfully set up several music centers across the globe to lime light the unique features of the Mewati Gharana.
Born in Hissar ( Punjab) in 1930 in a musical family, he was trained into both percussion and vocal music by his two elder brothers, Pundit Maniram and Pundit Pratap. Initially he used to accompany them on the Tabla at different music festivals. Every now and then, Jasraj was encouraged by his brothers to join them as the third vocalist in the trio of vocalists. Needless to say, Jasraj’s melody choked voice had a clear edge over his brothers. Once Jasraj chose to settle down permanently in Mumbai, he was able to quickly spread among classical music lovers and several music students, the unique aspects of the Mewati gharana. If Chennai is the center for the connoisseurs of Carnatic vocal music, Mumbai is the center for the connoisseurs of Hindustani vocal music. Traditionally, the Maharashtrians of Poona and the Kannadigas of Dharwar have always dominated vocal Hindustani music.
My first true exposure to Hindustani classical music was during the period 1962-66. I was then a graduate student at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta. During the December music season, there were many music festivals in South Calcutta. Vocal musicians like Bade Gulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan, Pakistani brothers Salamad Ali and Nazakat Ali, and Drupad singers Dagar brothers were the lead performers at almost all Calcutta music festivals. Those festivals did include some lead Bengali vocalists like Chinmoy Lahiri and Tarapada Chakraborti. Pundit Bhimsen Joshi and Hirabai Barodekar used to perform in a few Calcutta music festivals, here and there, but I never heard of Pundit Jasraj in those days. The festivals had a substantial chunk devoted to instrumental music by many Bengali instrumentalists. It was Allaudin Khan and his disciples like Pundit Ravi Shankar, who gave instrumental music greater prominence all over Bengal. Even in England during the period 1966-69, I never heard of Pundit Jasraj. My first exposure to his music was through a reel to reel tape in Chicago in the early seventies.
My friend Mr Subramanyam ( Mrs. Savitri) (1969-71 period ) gave me a reel to reel tape of concerts of Hindustani vocalists. The first piece was the lilting bandish “Pavana Dhoota Hanuman” in the raga Hamsadhwani. Not knowing the singer but captivated by the singer’s melody choked voice, I rewound the tape many times and could not resist rewinding it again to listen to the melodious voice of the singer even after four rounds. A few days later, I came to know that it was a marginal recording of a private concert by one Pundit Jasraj. I was eager to collect anything of Jasraj’s music and through my brother-in-law Mr. Padmanabhan, I got a cassette of his Bhajan singing. I could not stop humming his bhajan “Gokul me Bharat Kaham Bhadavo” (?) in raga Kedar ( Carnatic Hameer Kalyani).
In the early seventies, professional musicians from India and especially vocalists from either system had to depend on private concerts for a select audience. Thanks to my advisee, Ravindra Bapat ( 1975-76 period), I was able to attend a private (home basement) concert of Pundit Jasraj at Oak Park, IL with Ustad Zakir Hussain on the tabla. To me it was a unique musical experience of a very spiritual kind.
His concert format was quite distinct from what I was exposed to in my Calcutta days. Second half of those vocal concerts used to be dominated by Tumris, Tappas and other such formats with romance as their main theme. One can compare this with Carnatic concerts of bygone days where veteran musicians chose to concentrate on the music of Javalis and Padams with romance as their main theme in their second half. Pundit Jasraj’s concert deviated in a significant and novel way by introducing the Bhakti sangeet and the Haveli sangeet. Such a change has happened also in Carnatic music with Viruththams, Devarnamas and folk songs in all languages across the southern states of India.
During mid eighties there was a meteoric rise of a new music society in Chicago area called the Ameer Khusro Society of America (AKSA), founded by one Mr. Habeeb. It was a kind of a business venture aiming to target both Hindustani and Carnatic music lovers. Outstanding musicians from either system performed in Chicago during that short period. Great musicians like Pundit Jasraj, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Amjad Ali Khan, Mandolin Srinivas, Pundit V.G. Jog, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, Flautist Ramani, Pundits Rajan and Sajan Misra, Neyyattankarai Vasudevan, and many stalwarts from either system performed under the AKSA banner. To me, the most memorable among them all was the concert of Pundit Jasraj. I still treasure this AKSA concert for its unique mixture of Khyals, Bhakti sangeet and Haveli sangeet.
By a strange coincidence, the first ever Hindustani concert organized by CTU was a concert of Pundit Jasraj! (1991). The organizers of his tour approached Dr. Venkatraman and Mrs. Sharada Venkatraman ( Balaji temple Cultural committee ) for a possible concert in the temple. Though Venkatramans were very keen, support for a Hindustani concert was not fully forthcoming. I came to know of this and suggested that we could do it as a co-sponsored program under CTU jointly with the temple. After the concert, Venkatramans invited me to join the artist for a lunch at their house. I was truly stunned by the Pundit’s unassuming modesty and simplicity. When I mentioned about the Carnatic raga Revati that he was using in his concert, he mentioned that it is the well known Hindustani raga called Bairagi Bhairav.
Over the years he had several distinguished disciples from both the North and the South. Most notable among them are Sanjeev Abhyankar, Kala Ramnath ( niece of the renowned violinist TN. Krishnan), Shweta Javeri, Shashank Subramanyam and his own daughter Durga Jasraj. Indeed, we were fortunate to organize a duet concert of his two disciples Sanjeev Abhyankar (vocal) and Shashank Subramanyam on bamboo flute culminating in the Bhakti sangeeth, ” Ohm Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya “.
In his concerts, Jasraj created a novel form of jugalbandi called Jasrangi that is styled on the ancient system of moorchhana, between a male and a female vocalist. He was keen on encouraging his promising students to join him in exploring unexplored territories of various taans. Many talented female singers like Shweta Javeri or Kavita Krishnamurthy got unique opportunities to perform jointly with him.
There are quite some similarities between Carnatic musician Smt M.S. Subbulakshmi (MS) and Pundit Jasraj. His concerts would always start with the formal prayer “Mangalam Bhagavan Vishnu”. It used to remind me of MS’s concerts starting with the formal prayer “Ohm Namah Pranavaartaaya”.
Like MS, Pundit Jasraj tried to convey through his concerts that music is the most powerful vehicle to inspire listeners to Bhakti margam.
In grief,
Dr T.E.S. Raghavan