BABA ALLAUDDIN GHARANA

The gharana founded by Ustad Allauddin Khan is, in the words of his son and disciple Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, called Baba Allauddin Gharana. People variously call it also the Maihar Gharana and the Maihar-Seniya Gharana. But Ustad Ali Akbar Khan has set the seal on it by saying that it is called Baba Allauddin Gharana.

Baba Allauddin Khan had several music Gurus but the most famous was Ustad Wazir Khan of Rampur who was the last descendent of Mian Taan Sen who carried the musical flame of the Seniya Gharana and kept it alive. Allauddin Khan in effect inherited from his great Guru Wazir Khan the best musical tradition of the Seniya Gharana and perpetuated it through his continuing line of disciples like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Ajay Sinha Roy, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Pandit Pannalal Ghosh, Ustad Bahadur Khan, Ustad Ashish Khan, Ustad Dhyanesh Khan, Pandit V.G.Jog, Vidushi Sharan Rani and a host of others who have carried the music of the gharana to the remotest corners of the globe.

But the one disciple that stood out singularly among this galaxy of musical maestros and who most closely resembled Baba Allauddin in terms of temperament, austerity and whole-soul dedication to music was the one about whom Baba himself was effusive in praise as follows: "She plays the surbahar like Devi Saraswati." She was Annapurna Devi, the truest inheritor of Baba Allauddin's life and legacy, one who has spent the major part of her life within the cloister of her apartment, in self-exile from the world in solitary immersion in the ocean of music as she has inherited from her father.

Annapurna Devi is veritably a goddess who has shunned name, fame and the paraphernalia and devoted herself to the pursuit of music, pristine, pure. She has also, like her father, left behind a galaxy of musical talent among which is the famous flautist Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia. Another noteworthy name is that of flautist Nityanand Haldipur.

The Seniya Gharana perhaps would have died a natural death after the demise of its last exponent Ustad Wazir Khan but for the musical genius of the young Allauddin. The tradition continues as Baba Allauddin Gharana keeps flourishing with every passing year. But would Baba have been happy with the decline in sadhana and the growing cult of self-proclaimed Pandits wielding the instruments Baba venerated to further their selfish ends of life and livelihood, men masquerading as musicians whom Baba would not have given any credence to as artistes worth the call? I wonder.

My prostrations at Baba's feet and at the feet of Ramakrishna Paramahamsadev who had blessed Baba at Star Theatre when Baba was employed there as tabla-player by Girish Chandra Ghosh. Who knows, may be Thakur's blessings opened up the springs of musical genius within Baba for good? I wonder.