Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1990)

"Sitar Music in Calcutta": Review

John A. Campana

James Sadler Hamilton. Sitar Music in Calcutta: An Ethnomusicological Study. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1989.

Upon opening James Hamilton's book, one is struck by a feeling of reassurance that obtaining new information about sitar music and "gharanas" in Calcutta will not, perhaps, prove as difficult as trying to locate a person in this city by just an address. The table of contents flashes its street signs for the reader who has often strayed in his search for the "abode" of such terms as "gharana," "rag," "baj," etc. This book is replete with figures, maps, charts, tables, and transliterations to aid the wayfarer on what promises to be a sure path to the sitar music in Calcutta.

The introductory chapter presents an ethnographical study of the Indian mode of perception regarding the human body, social structure, material objects, and time and space. It aims to show that "nothing in India exists in a vacuum". The relevance of this mode to the organization of musical material is merely suggested, not expanded upon.

Then there are six chapters which treat such topics as gharana and patronage, evolution of sitar and baj, rag, and the gharanas of Ghalam Ali Khan and Imdad Khan. The final chapter presents more tables and attempts to draw some conclusions. These are followed by nine appendices which amplify material previously alluded to and treat a variety of subjects which include Hindu and Muslim castes in Calcutta, chordophones, names of long-necked lutes, intonation, and five sitar styles represented in Western staff notation with accompanying subscripts of "bol"patterns. Closer editorial attention was warranted especially with regard to some appendices and tables which remain peripheral to the main thesis. A further example of editorial mismanagement is the sad omission of an index. Finally, a Bengali alphabet is provided along with a polyglot "tourist" glossary of terms in five languages: English transliterations and definitions, handwritten Bengali, Hindi, and, whenever possible, Sanskrit and Urdu.

In many respects James Hamilton's book (originally his Ph. D. thesis) is a well-documented and well-rounded work making use of past and recent academic research in Indian musicology, interspersed with anecdotal information and personal experience in actual instruction received from prominent figures of two major gharanas. The study over-reaches its Calcutta boundaries in its attempt to provide an all-encompassing macrocosmic overview of the ethnography and history of instrumental music in Northern India. A more appropriate title would have asserted Calcutta's contribution to sitar music within an overall study of sitar gharanas.

Out of the six gharanas mentioned, only two (Ghalam Ali Khan and Imdad Khan) receive a comprehensive treatment, while the other four (Jaipur, Indore, Vishnupar, and Maihar - the last two also, Calcutta based) are simply sketched in a couple of paragraphs apiece and contain generally just the names, of prominent exponents and a brief biographical profile.

Perhaps it could be ascribed to this reviewer's personal bias, but, any book on the sitar music in Calcutta is not complete without an in-depth discussion of the Maihar-Seni gharana which has been and still is a main artery for the musical life of Calcutta and North America, through the pioneering efforts of Ray Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and the silent legacy of Nikhil Banerjee.

The genealogical charts of the various gharanas stop short with their omission of the present day younger members. It is this reviewer's opinion that future discussions on gharana or baj should pay particular attention to gharana progeny as well as emulators, since they are the future of a tradition which is and will be undergoing major changes in the life of music in Calcutta, elsewhere in India, and abroad.

The chapter on the Ghalam Ali Khan sarod gharana is a most interesting and original coverage of a rarely written-about topic, perhaps due to the author's own personal bias and gharana affiliations. Besides the history and various genealogical charts, we are made privy to the inner secrets of this gharana, baj, chal, and teaching method as well. This in itself is characteristic of the changing ways of the otherwise secretive gharana system. Copious examples of musical compositions are provided. Unfortunately for 99 per cent of Indian readers, the "gats" are transcribed in Western staff notation and not in "sargam" mnemonics or in both systems. By its very nature, Hindustani music defies any system of notation, however descriptive or prescriptive it may seem. "Sargam" notation would have made the examples more accessible to an Indian readership and to most of the Western students of this music who, in one way or another, employ the sargam syllables introduced by Bhatkande in India and Ray Shankar, Jairazbhoy, Bonnie Wade, Joep Bor, and others in the West. The inclusion of an audio cassette would have facilitated the perennial problems with notations as well as the comparison of the "baj" of the two "gharanas".

The Imdad Khan gharana does not receive as full attention as the Ghulam Al Khan sarod gharana. It is very skeletal and rather sparse in its' use of specific examples, too dependent on the work of two or three Bengali scholars and on information gleaned from the 1973 Hafiz Al Khan Memorial Music Festival souvenir brochure, especially in the case of Vilayat Khan. The latter is the foremost representative of this gharana; his influence on sitar has become so diffused as to herald the birth ofa Vilayatkhani baj. It is not unusual nowadays to read frequent reference to the Vilayat Khan gharana. Imrat Khan and his four Sons, who are not mentioned in the genealogy, could have entered into the discussion on the Imdad Khan gharana. In no time in this gharana's history, to my knowledge, has there ever been a " sarodya" (Vajahat) or a "tabliya" (Shafaatullah).

Regarding the notated examples of the "gats" given for the two gharanas, it would have been advisable to provide transcribed samples of actual perform-ances by "gharanedars" instead of seemingly straightforward compositions and rather elementary "student" tans, material received during "talim" from Benjamin Gomes and Radhika Mohan Maitra.

The chapter on rag presents some interesting concepts regarding rag classification, especially through the use of "ragang" or "aesthetic coloring", a topic normally neglected by Indian musicology. It would have been more interesting, however, to know the basis for the author's selection of seventeen "ragangs", as opposed to Ratanjankar's choice of twenty altogether excluding Marwa and related rags. When considering the list of greater and lesser "angs" and the concept of "jati varna," this chapter is at best embryonic.

The section on sitar and sitar baj is a thorough and multi-faceted study of this popular Indian instrument. It discusses organography, organology, morphological history and the complex genealogy of the sitar up to the identification of a "missing link." The study is enhanced by a judicious blend of historical and musicological data, maps, charts, diagrams, and ragmala miniature reproductions depicting long-necked lutes.

By the end of the book, however, we are left still wandering aimlessly on the lookout for a clear landmark which will direct us to the"abode" ofrag gharana and baj. Calcutta seems to be a ghost town haunted by the memory of past masters with no living tradition of sitar music. Even a much needed discography is lacking from the numerous lists, charts, and appendices. Particularly conspicuous is the absence of definitive statements and a model which, according to the pre-publication leaflet, the author has evolved for use "in the study.ofany culture and music system."

One thing James Sadler Hamilton's book does, however, is put Canada on the Indian musicological map.

University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario