ANNAPURNA DEVI ... 4

ANNAPURNA DEVI ... 4

It is often said that the world has lost a musical genius in Annapurna Devi as she went into seclusion and never came out to perform before the public. But a counter-argument Annapurnaji's disciples often cite that after all not too many would have been interested for any length of time in her pure play of the surbahar with all its slow alaap and gradual development of the raag. There is merit in such an argument as we plainly see public fickleness and its lack of discernment of the great from the commonplace, its fascination for cheap rhythms, tempo and beat, and its utter callousness when it comes to appreciating great music that does not immediately provide surface appeal of some kind. Thus, in the fitness of things Annapurna Devi remained reclusive and did not perform before the people for they would hardly appreciate her music for long at any rate, so the disciples of the maestro argue. Instead she gave the best of her musical knowledge to her select disciples and created wonderful musicians who the public got to listen to. They carry the stamp of their teacher and present her music with their individual assimilation and stylistic representation.

That circumstances forced Annapurna Devi to renounce public performance of her great art form is one side of the story. The other side is her reticence born out of a reclusive renunciation of fame and fortune, position and power, for the single-minded pursuit of sadhana of the music she had inherited from her father and Guru, Baba Allauddin Khan. In her last interview given to Sangeet Natak Academy she said that Baba had never asked her to play in public. Obviously, she meant that had Baba wanted her to play before the public, he would have given her like instructions which he did not. Thus, she, in total compliance with everything Baba had asked her to do in regard to her life and music, stayed away from the public eye and spent a lifetime in pursuit of pure music whose fruits she distributed among a few worthy disciples who made their mark in the world and are even today furthering the cause of the Maihar music.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Annapurna, when a child.