Radhika Mohan Maitra
Encyclopedia
Radhika Mohan Maitra was an India
n sarod
player. Maitra was considered an influential figure in 20th century sarod playing and received the title Sangeetacharya.
, and grew up in Rajshahi
, where his family had vast estates.
His grandfather Raybahadur Lalita Mohan Maitra was a pakhawaj
player and had in his employ, the renowned sarod player Mohammad Amir Khan (1873–1934), with whom Radhika Mohan (widely referred to as Radhubabu) studied for five to six years. According to Maitra's private accounts given to his student Kalyan Mukherjea, this training initially adhered to a basic corpus of about 20 ragas for the first four years, but as the Ustad began to realize that his time was running out, he taught Radhika Mohan as many as three to four ragas in a day, in sessions lasting all day. Radhubabu later studied dhrupad
with the famous beenkar Dabir Khan and sitar
with Enayat Khan
.
He rose to great heights as a performer and from about 1940 until the mid-60s, no major musical event in India was complete without his participation. Maitra was a prolific composer
and perhaps the only keen student of sarod technique in his era. He not only archived hundreds of traditional compositions in voluminous ledgers that he maintained, but also devised a very efficient method of imparting sarod technique, repertoire and what he considered good musical taste, to his students. Radhubabu was considered a formidable authority on the theoretical aspects of raga music, which he took great pains to translate accurately into his own music and that of his students.
As a teacher, Radhika Mohan Maitra had very few equals. Some of his students include sitarist Nikhil Banerjee
(who later became a disciple of Allauddin Khan), sarod players Buddhadev Dasgupta
, Nemai Chand Dhar, Anil Roychowdhury, Samarendranath Sikdar, Kalyan Mukherjea
, Narendranath Dhar, Joydeep Ghosh, sitarists Himadri Bhushan Bagchi, Sanjoy Bandopadhyay
and Sugato Nag. Of his students, Kalyan Mukherjea
and Samarendra Sikdar are the closest to his personal sound and style.
Radhubabu was temperamentally and culturally unlike the professional musicians of his time. He belonged to the erstwhile patron class and had organized and financed many large-scale music conferences, and even when, after the partition of India
in 1947, he had to leave his ancestral lands in Rajshahi and come to Calcutta, was not able abandon his aristocratic temperament in favour of the professional mindset. As a result, he was never a commercially successful musician. Radhika Mohan Maitra was also exceptionally well-educated for an Indian musician of his era. He had a masters degree in Philosophy, and trained as a lawyer. In fact, Maitra took to law as his profession, and was a failure in this endeavour, before allowing music to become his livelihood.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n sarod
Sarod
The sarod is a stringed musical instrument, used mainly in Indian classical music. Along with the sitar, it is the most popular and prominent instrument in the classical music of Hindustan...
player. Maitra was considered an influential figure in 20th century sarod playing and received the title Sangeetacharya.
Early life and background
Radhika Mohan Maitra was born 1917 in Calcutta to a prominent family of the erstwhile feudal aristocracy of East BengalEast Bengal
East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal....
, and grew up in Rajshahi
Rajshahi
The city of Rajshahi is the divisional headquarters of Rajshahi division as well as the administrative district that bears its name and is one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often referred to as Silk City and Education City, Rajshahi is located in the north-west of the country and...
, where his family had vast estates.
His grandfather Raybahadur Lalita Mohan Maitra was a pakhawaj
Pakhavaj
The pakhavaj, pakhawaj, pakuaj, pakhvaj or pakavaj is an Indian barrel-shaped, two-headed drum, the North Indian equivalent to the Southern mridangam....
player and had in his employ, the renowned sarod player Mohammad Amir Khan (1873–1934), with whom Radhika Mohan (widely referred to as Radhubabu) studied for five to six years. According to Maitra's private accounts given to his student Kalyan Mukherjea, this training initially adhered to a basic corpus of about 20 ragas for the first four years, but as the Ustad began to realize that his time was running out, he taught Radhika Mohan as many as three to four ragas in a day, in sessions lasting all day. Radhubabu later studied dhrupad
Dhrupad
Dhrupad is a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition. Its name is derived from the words "dhruva" and "pada"...
with the famous beenkar Dabir Khan and sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...
with Enayat Khan
Enayat Khan
Enayat Khan was one of India's most influential sitar and surbahar players in the first decades of the 20th Century. He was the father of Vilayat Khan, one of the topmost sitariyas of the postwar period....
.
Performing career
Maitra's debut concert was in Calcutta, in the home of another aristocratic family, the Gangulys, who were also patrons of music. Two of the Ganguly brothers, Shyam and Hirendra Kumar became renowned sarod and tabla players, respectively. This was followed by an appearance at the Allahabad Music Conference in 1937, where he won the first prize in the instrumental music contest and was invited to perform alongside stalwarts such as Hafiz Ali Khan and Allauddin Khan. It was at this same conference that he gave a duet concert with Allauddin Khan at the latter's invitation.He rose to great heights as a performer and from about 1940 until the mid-60s, no major musical event in India was complete without his participation. Maitra was a prolific composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and perhaps the only keen student of sarod technique in his era. He not only archived hundreds of traditional compositions in voluminous ledgers that he maintained, but also devised a very efficient method of imparting sarod technique, repertoire and what he considered good musical taste, to his students. Radhubabu was considered a formidable authority on the theoretical aspects of raga music, which he took great pains to translate accurately into his own music and that of his students.
Later life and death
After 1970, Maitra's technical form, which he was so renowned for, began to decline steeply, as he was struck by one personal tragedy after another. In 1976, he announced his retirement from the concert stage and returned to perform only twice after, once in 1980 and then in 1981. In October 1981, Maitra died of brain hemorrhage as a result of an accident in his south Calcutta home.As a teacher, Radhika Mohan Maitra had very few equals. Some of his students include sitarist Nikhil Banerjee
Nikhil Banerjee
Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar Gharana who played the stringed instrument sitar.-Early life and background:...
(who later became a disciple of Allauddin Khan), sarod players Buddhadev Dasgupta
Buddhadev Das Gupta
Buddhadev Das Gupta is an Indian classical musician who plays the sarod. Das Gupta resides in Kolkata, India. He is one of the artists featured in Nimbus Records's The Raga Guide...
, Nemai Chand Dhar, Anil Roychowdhury, Samarendranath Sikdar, Kalyan Mukherjea
Kalyan Mukherjea
Kalyan Kumar Mukherjea was an authority on Indian classical music, particularly the Senia Shahjahanpur Gharana of Sarod. He was also a mathematician.-Early life:...
, Narendranath Dhar, Joydeep Ghosh, sitarists Himadri Bhushan Bagchi, Sanjoy Bandopadhyay
Sanjoy Bandopadhyay
Sanjoy Bandopadhyay is a Bengali Hindustani classical sitar player. He is primarily a disciple of Radhika Mohan Maitra and Bimalendu Mukherjee...
and Sugato Nag. Of his students, Kalyan Mukherjea
Kalyan Mukherjea
Kalyan Kumar Mukherjea was an authority on Indian classical music, particularly the Senia Shahjahanpur Gharana of Sarod. He was also a mathematician.-Early life:...
and Samarendra Sikdar are the closest to his personal sound and style.
Radhubabu was temperamentally and culturally unlike the professional musicians of his time. He belonged to the erstwhile patron class and had organized and financed many large-scale music conferences, and even when, after the partition of India
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947, he had to leave his ancestral lands in Rajshahi and come to Calcutta, was not able abandon his aristocratic temperament in favour of the professional mindset. As a result, he was never a commercially successful musician. Radhika Mohan Maitra was also exceptionally well-educated for an Indian musician of his era. He had a masters degree in Philosophy, and trained as a lawyer. In fact, Maitra took to law as his profession, and was a failure in this endeavour, before allowing music to become his livelihood.