The idea of this composition, came to me when I was surrounded by the sublime sounds of Sarod, at a live recital aptly titled, Parampara which means tradition. The unique aspect of this heavenly concert was that it was actualised by not one, not two but three generations. truly gifted musicians; Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan Saheb, his amazing sons, Ayaan Ali Bangash and Amaan Ali Bangash and the cherubs Zohaan and Abeer. The trio of grandfather, sons and grandsons brought to life the nuances of Hindustani Classical music. The result is totally imprinted in the minds of those like us, who were fortunate to attend this unparalleled recital.
I took it on myself to delve deep into the history of the divine Sarod, the equally godly people who mastered the intricacies and the chequered path of their fascinating journeys. Let us begin with the gorgeous boon of Goddess Saraswati, the Sarod.
A stringed musical instrument popularly used in Hindustani music in India is the Sarod. It is widely known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound with sympathetic strings due to which it a resonant, reverberant quality. Known as Meend (glissandi) it can produce the continuous slides between notes, which are important in Indian music. It is a fretless instrument,
The origin of the Sarod is Persian and can be traced back to sorūd meaning "song", "melody", "hymn" and further to the Persian verb sorūdan, which respectively means "to sing", "to play a musical instrument", but also means "to compose". It is undeniable that the shahrud may have given its name to the sarod. The Persian word šāh-rūd is composed of šāh (shah or king) and rūd (string).
According to the scholars of Hindustani Classical Music, the Sarod is a combination of the ancient Chitraveena, the medieval Indian Rabab (aka the seniya rabab) and modern Sursingar. A few scholars believe that a similar instrument could have existed about two thousand years ago in ancient India during the era of the Gupta Empire. However, a coin of the Gupta period depicts the great king Samudragupta playing the Veena, which many researchers believe to be the precursor of the sarod. Known as the Swarbat, the present Indian Traces of similar Rabab style musical instruments is also found in southern India, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. A musical instrument popular in north India, the folk rabab had a wooden fingerboard, its strings were made of silk, cotton or gut, and it was played with a wooden pick. In history, a reference is made to a Sharadiya Veena from which the name Sarod could have been derived. The sarod is believed to have descended from the Afghan rubab, a similar instrument originating in Central Asia and Afghanistan. Even though the sarod has been referred to as a "bass rubab”, its tonal bandwidth is actually considerably greater than that of the rubab, especially in the middle and high registers.
There are many conflicting and contested histories of the sarod. There is a well research perspective that attributes its invention to the ancestors of the present-day sarod maestro, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a musician and horse trader (Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s ancestor), came to India with the Afghan rubab in the mid-18th century, and became a court musician to the Maharajah of Rewa now in Madhya Pradesh. It was his grandson Ghulam Ali Khan Bangash, a court musician in Gwalior, who changed the rubab into the sarod we know today. A parallel theory credits descendants of Madar Khan, Niyamatullah Khan in particular, with the similar innovation around the 1820’s. The sarod in its present form dates back to approximately 1820, when it started gaining recognition as an important instrument in Rewa, Shahjahanpur, Gwalior and Lucknow.
Let us now pay an ode to the people who today are synonymosmous with Sarod.Naturally we need to draw a pen portrait of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan sahib. The Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, born 9 October 1945 is an iconic sarod player, best known for his clear and fast ekhara taans. Khan Saheb was born to a family of classical musicians and has performed internationally since the 1960’s. He has been awarded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, India's third highest civilian honor Padma Bhushan in 1991 and Padma Shree in 1975.
Ustadji’s first performance was in the United States in 1963 and continued into the 2000s, with his sons, Ayaan Ali Bangash and Amaan Ali Bangash. He has experimented with modifications to his instrument throughout his career. Notably, Ustadji played with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and worked as a visiting professor at the University of New Mexico. In 2011, he performed on Carrie Newcomer's album “Everything is Everywhere”. In 2014, along with his two sons, Ayaan Ali Khan and Amaan Ali Khan, he performed 'Raga For Peace' in 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
Amjad Ali Khan Saheb was awarded the 21st Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 1989 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for 2011. He was recipient of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 2004. The U.S. state Massachusetts proclaimed 20 April as Amjad Ali Khan Day in 1984. Khan was made an honorary citizen of Houston, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, in 1997, and of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2007. He received the Banga-Vibhushan in 2011. Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (1990), a Gulzar directed Indian documentary film on Amjad Ali Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Documentary in 1990.
Born as Masoom Ali Khan, Ustadji is the youngest of seven children. His parents are Gwalior court musician Hafiz Ali Khan and Rahat Jahan. His family is part of the Bangash lineage, and he is in the sixth generation of musicians; his family claims to have invented the sarod. Interestingly, his personal name was changed by a sadhu to Amjad. His early tutelage was homeschooling and studied music under his father. In 1957, a cultural organization in Delhi appointed Hafiz Ali Khan as its guest and the family moved to Delhi. Hafiz Ali Khan received training from the descendants of Tansen, the magical musician, who was one of the 'Nav-ratna' (nine gems) at the court of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Thus, Amjad Aliji belongs to the lineage of Tansen. Friends of Hafiz Ali Khan convinced him of the importance of formal schooling for his son; as a result, Amjad was taken to meet the Principal of Modern School in New Delhi and admitted there as a day scholar. He attended Modern School from 1958 to 1963.
On 25 September 1976, Khan got married a second time. His bride was Bharatanatyam dancer Subhalakshmi Barooah, hailing from Assam in north-eastern India. They have two sons, Amaan and Ayaan, both of whom are performing artists trained in music by their father.
Their family home in Gwalior was made into a musical center and they live in New Delhi. It is so impressive to note that Ustadji was all of 6 years old when Amjad Ali Khan gave his first recital of Sarod. It was the beginning of yet another glorious chapter in the history of Indian classical music. Ustad Haafiz Ali Khan Saheb of Gwalior, father, and Guru of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, was one of the foremost classical instrumentalists of his time. Born in 1877, He belonged to the fifth generation in the Bangash family that is credited with the Sarod's origin and development.
I do wish to conclude that there are contributions to this magnificent musical instrument by women musicians too.Vidushi Sharan Rani is a glittering example.She is the first woman Sarod player of Bharatvarsha. She was born in 1929 in Delhi. Sharan Rani is popularly known as Sarod Rani, and she has played Sarod for almost 70 years. She learnt Sarod from great music maestros like Ustad Allaudin Khan and Ustad Ali Akbar.
Hence, the Parampara of Sarod goes on generation to generation weaving the magic and soothing the soul and satiating the spirit.
