History of Indian Music, British Period

The history of Indian Music may be broadly classified into three categories:-

1.Hindu Period: from Indus Valley civilization to the 10th century.

2. Mohammadan Period : From 11th century to the 18th century.

3.British Period : From 19th century till Independence.

I will be posting about the British period here: For Hindu Period click https://allaboutmusicin.blogspot.in/2017/04/history-of-indian-music-hindustani-music.html

For Mohammadan period click https://allaboutmusicin.blogspot.in/2017/05/history-of-indian-music-mohammadan.html

                      3.History of Indian Music(British Period)

With the dismemberment of the Mughal Empire music lost its state patronage. The Britishers did not take any interest in the preservation and progress of this sublime art. The native princess, under the spell of the new system of education they received became indifferent to this indigenous art because of their pride in everything western. The educated class looked music with disdain and believed that it was meant exclusively for the low strata of society. The art, therefore, fell into the hands of illiterate professionals and lost much of its originality and purity. Practicing musicians of those days regarded music as their hoarded treasure and were too adverse to part with it. They were jealously anxious to preserve their only among the members of their own family and were extremely reluctant to outsiders. Thus, music had centered to few and the number of good and authoritative musicians were sadly depleted. There were hardly any musicians left who had the knowledge of the theory of the music of the ancient texts. The music as it was then practiced had very much changed, in its form, from what was described in the ancient Granthas. But inspite of this dismail condition of music the important places like Jaipur, Udaipur, Gwalior, Indore, Baroda, Rampur, Dewas and Raigarh etc. remained intact as the centers of music. The Rajas of the said states paid good attention towards music and patronised prominent musicians in their courts.

Maharaja Pratap Singh Deva (1779-1804)

The Maharaja of Jaipur organised a big music conference with the aim of writing an important and authoritative book on music and invited famous musicologists and performers of music therein. After the conference a book titled 'Sangeet Saar' or Epitome of music was written and Bilawal Thata was accepted as the Shuddha thata or Foundation scale of Hindustani system of music.

Naghmat-i-Asaf of Mohammad Raza (nineteenth century)

Mohammad Raza a nobleman of Patna, wrote a book on Hindustani system of music entitled "Nagmat-i-Aasafi" in 1813. He explored the then system of music viz, Raga-Ragini, Putra-Raga and Putra-Badhu system, and introduced his own system entitled six Ragas and thirty six Raginis. He also accepted Bilawal Thata as the "Shuddha Thata" or the foundation scale. The definitions of the Ragas given in the book are useful even today.

Captain N.A. Willard (Nineteenth Century)

Captain N.A.Willard wrote a book on Hindustani system of music entitled "A treatise on the music of India" in 1834. Captain Willard was a high military officer at the native court of the Nawab of Banda State of U.P. He was a skilful performer on several of our musical instruments. He studied the theory of our music system and heard the performances of the artists of that time and then wrote the said book, which is worth reading.

Krishna Nand Vyas (nineteenth century) 

Krishnanand wrote a book entitled "Sangeet Kalpdrum" which was published in Calcutta in 1842. He accepted Bilawal scale as his "Shuddha Scale" or Primary Scale. There are a good number of songs given in this book but without their notations. This is indeed, a great shortcoming.

Hakim Mohammad Karan Imam (nineteenth century)

During the reign of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh one Hakim Mohammad Karam Imam wrote a book in Urdu entitled "Madan-ul-Moosiqui" in 1857. He has given a good and authentic description of the music of his time. It is a valuable book indeed.

About this time the classification of Ragas in South was being done in a different manner. And Tanjore had become a centre of Southern Music under Tualji Rao Bhonsle the ruler of Tanjore, who had encouraged music by gifts and grants. At this time flourished the famous singer of the south named, Tyagaraja, poet and singer, Shyam Shastri and Subram Dixit.

Raja S.M.Tagore (nineteenth century) 

Raja S.M.Tagore wrote a number of books on music during 1867-1896 among which "The Universal History of Music" in his most important contribution. His relative Dr.Ravindra Nath Tagore exercised a great influence on the music of Bengal. He composed a number of songs which have a rare musical and poetical qualities and are a current all over Bengal even to this day.

Krishnadhan Banerjee (nineteenth century)

One Krishnadhan Banerjee of Cooch Bihar, wrote a book entitled 'Geeta-Sutra-Sar'. In this books many Dhrupads and Khayals are given in English Staff Notation.

Pt.Vishnudigambar Paluskar(1872-1931)

Pandit Vishnudigambar was an expert musician and an eminent singer. He travelled and visited many important places of India and spread the learning of music among many important places of India and spread the learning of music among the lovers of music. He organised a number of music conferences skilfully. He introduced his own notation system and wrote a good number of books on music. e.g. 'Raga-Pravesh', 'Sangeet-Bal-Prakash', and institution at Poona and Bombay popularity known as 'Gandharva Mahavidyalaya'. Besides this he made praiseworthy efforts for the uplift of music and its training among  the masses.

Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande (1860-1936)

About this time the music as it was then practised had very much changed in its own form then it was practiced in the ancient texts. At that time a peerless musical genius appeared in the stage of Indian music as its saviour. It was Pt. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande one of the greatest masters, composers and scholars that the world has seen. Pt. Bhatkhande was born on August 10, 1860 on Sri Krishna Janmasthami day, in a Chittapawan Brahmin family at Balkeshwar in Bombay. His father Narayan Rao was a 'Munim' in the employ of a rich business man of Bombay. He received his early education in Etphinston School in Bombay. After doing his high school he started learning Sitar. He graduated in 1885 and obtained the degree of L.L.B. in 1887. He joined the bar and practised law. He was married to Madhu Bai who gave birth to a daughter. But the cruel hands of death snatched both the mother and child from him. He was left alone to fine solace in music. Then, he joined Gyan Uttejak Mandli in Bombay and learnt about 300 Dhrupads from Raoji Bua Belbagkar. He also learned about 150 khayals from Ali Husain and Vilayat Khan.

Next, Panditji made up his mind to gain a through knowledge of both the theory and practice of music. With this end in view he visited Gujrat, Kathiawar, Surat, Baroda, Ahmadabad, Rajkot, Bikaner, Jamnagar, Janagarh and Bhavanagar. In 1904 he went to the South and visited Madras, Tanjore, Madura, Tivendram, Etayapuram, Bangalore etc.

Next he came in contact with Ashiq Ali and his father Mohammad Ali Kothawal of Jaipur and learnt from them about 300 compositions of "Manarang Gharana". He met Zakiruddin Khan and Allah Bande Khan at Udaipur the renowned traditional Dhrupad singers. He spent sometime in Gwalior, Rampur, Delhi, Lukhnow etc. and collected some very important compositions of Dhrupads and Khayals.

Having equipped himself with a thorough knowledge of music he embarked upon systematising the whole on a scientific and sound basis supported by a rational, well reasoned and easily understandable theory having due regard to the nucleus found in the ancient texts. He published in 1910 an authoritative treatise on the theory of music entitled "Sri-Mal-Lakshya Sangeetam" and described all the Ragas Of Hindustani system of music. Next, he published Lakshangeeta Sangraha" in three parts containing compositions descriptive of the Ragas giving their characteristics in songs, specially composed by him for the first time. Then he published 'Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati' in four parts in Marathi. It is a detailed study of the theory of music explaining 150 Ragas of Hindustani Music. Next, he published the famous 'Kramik Pustak Malika' in six parts. It is a detailed text-book of Hindustani music containing about 1200 well known traditional compositions of all musicians of different gharanas. Then he published two important books in English known as "A comparative study of the musics of 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and "A Historical survey of the music of Upper India",.

Having done all this he organised the first All India Music Conference at Baroda and helped in the establishment of a Music college in Baroda. Then with the support of the Maharaja of Gwalior he helped in the establishment of Madhav Music College, in Gwalior. In 1926 he organised an "All India Music Conference" at Luckhnow which resulted in the establishment of the renowned "Marris Music College" in Lucknow. After this Panditji remained in Lucknow upto March, 1927, to supervise the working and teaching of the college. When the college began to flourish he went back to Bombay. He visited Lucknow for the last time in 1933. In that very year he had an attack of paralysis and remained confined to bed for three years. At last, having devoted all his time for music he passed away on September 14, 1936.

Pandit Bhatkande occupies an eminent position among the Galaxy of musicians of India. He was a great architect of the renaissance of music. He systematized it, standardized it and put it on a scientific basis and sound footing. He was mainly instrumental in spreading mass education in music. His achievements in the field of music are epoch making. His life itself was one of complete dedication to music. He was born for music, he lived for music and he died for music. His name shall ever shine bright like a pole-star in the firmament of music.