There are those artistes that advertise themselves, beat their own drums and pull all the strings with the men that matter to advance their musical career, whatever music may be, however, left to further, that is. And there are the others, a minuscule proportion of the whole body of musicians, who dedicate their lives to music irrespective of what worldly returns they may get from their pursuit. These are the ones that are the true bearers of our ancient musical culture, the upholders of all that is lofty and noble in this great art that is supposedly a path to God, and the carriers of the tradition which they through diligent tutelage pass on to future generations through their single-minded selfless devotion to the art. Of this latter stream of musical men belongs the prime personality to whom this page is dedicated --- Sangeetacharya Ajoy Sinha Roy who was a senior disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan. This unassuming saintly person through a lifetime of dedication to music served the cause of spreading his Guru's music in this metropolis of Kolkata from where his music has thence spread to the remotest parts of the world through some of his illustrious disciples like Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and Pandit Kushal Das and countless others who silently like the dewdrop have enriched the musical tradition of this great country.
In the latter part of his life Pandit Ajoy Sinha Roy was invited by the ITC Sangeet Research Academy to be on their panel of experts, a position which he held with great distinction, lending his enormous experience and expertise to add knowledge to the musical fund that was being built up. It was a great release for his abundant knowledge that ITC SRA as an institutional channel provided him and in no mean measure was the institution itself benefited from the maestro's encyclopaedic knowledge and insight into the subtle workings of the ragas that elude ordinary vision, the countless gats and bandishes and the complex techniques of instrumental play that he lent them from his repertoire and the expert guidance that he provided in those formative years of the institution as it trod into an unceratin future with hesitant steps in its bid to rescue the fast obliterating past of our classical muiscal culture.
I can add on material to this piece by recounting my memories of my Guru as I was fortunate to have been blessed to be his disciple but I shall resist the temptation and desist from doing so to keep this essay short and impersonal. So, here I shall end now by attaching an audio link of a recording of his on Devgiri Bilawal which is being provided below :
http://www.itcsra.org/
Written by Sugata Bose
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