Pandit Bhimsen Gururaj Joshi was an
Indian vocalist in the
Hindustani classical tradition. A member of the
Kirana Gharana (school), he is renowned for the
khayal form of singing, as well as for his popular renditions of devotional music (
bhajans and
abhangs). He was the most recent recipient of the
Bharat Ratna,
India's highest civilian honour, awarded in 2008.
[1]
(February 4, 1922 - January 24, 2011)
Early life
Joshi was born into a
Kannadiga family in the town of
Ron which was then in
Gadag District in northern
Karnataka state of
India.
[2][3] His father, Gururaj Joshi, was a school teacher. Bhimsen was the eldest in a family of 16 siblings. Some of the siblings still live in their ancestral home in Gadag.
[4] Bhimsen lost his mother when he was young, and his step mother then raised him. His parents lived initially with his grandfather as tenants of a
Kulkarni household, but then moved to Gadag District.
As a child, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi's craving for music was evident to his family as he managed to lay his hands on a '
tanpura' used by his 'Kirtankar' grandfather, which had been kept away from his gaze at home. Music had such a magnetic pull over him that a 'bhajan singing' procession or just 'azaan' from a nearby mosque was said to draw him out of house.
[5]
Musical training
Until the first half of the 20th century,
khyal was principally taught in the
Guru Shishya (master-disciple) tradition. Bhimsen's guru
Sawai Gandharva was the chief disciple of
Abdul Karim Khan, who along with his cousin
Abdul Wahid Khan was the founder of the
Kirana Gharana school of
Hindustani music.
Search for a guru
Joshi heard a recording of
Abdul Karim Khan's
Thumri "Piya Bin Nahi Aavat Chain" in Raga
Jhinjhoti when he was a child, which inspired him to become a musician. In 1933, the 11-year-old Joshi left
Dharwad for
Bijapur to find a master and learn music.
[3] With the help of money lent by his co-passengers in the train Bhimsen reached
Dharwad first and later went to
Pune. Later he moved to
Gwalior and got into Madhava Music School, a school run by Maharajas of Gwalior, with the help of famous
sarod player
Hafiz Ali Khan. He traveled for three years around North India, including in
Delhi,
Kolkata,
Gwalior,
Lucknow and
Rampur, trying to find a good guru.
[6] Eventually, his father succeeded in tracking him down in
Jalandar and brought young Bhimsen back home.
Sawai Gandharva
In 1936,
Rambhau Kundgolkar (alias
Sawai Gandharva), a native of Dharwad, agreed to be his guru. Bhimsen Joshi stayed at his house in the traditional
guru-shishya (teacher-student) tradition, gleaning knowledge of music from his master as and when he could, while performing odd-jobs in his house. Another renowned vocalist from the
Kirana Gharana,
Gangubai Hangal, was a co-student of Bhimsen during this time. Joshi continued his training with
Sawai Gandharva till 1940.
Career
Joshi first performed live in 1941 at the age 19. His debut album, containing a few devotional songs in
Kannada and
Hindi, was released by
HMV the next year in 1942. Later Joshi moved to
Mumbai in 1943 and worked as a radio artist. His performance at a concert in 1946 to celebrate his guru
Sawai Gandharva's 60th birthday won him accolades both from the audience and his guru.
[7]
Hindustani classical music
Bhimsen Joshi's music has been hailed by both the critics and the masses. His performances had been said to have been marked by spontaneity, accurate notes, dizzyingly-paced
taans which make use of his exceptional voice training, and a mastery over rhythm. The Hindu, in an article written after he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, said:
Bhimsen Joshi was ever the wanderer, engendering brilliant phrases and tans more intuitively than through deliberation.
[8] Joshi occasionally employed the use of
sargam and
tihaais, and often sang traditional compositions of the Kirana gharana. His music often injected surprising and sudden turns of phrase, for example through the unexpected use of boltaans. Over the years, his repertoire tended to favor a relatively small number of complex and serious ragas; however, he remaindd one of the most prolific exponents of Hindustani classical music. Some of Joshi's more popular
ragas include
Shuddha Kalyan,
Miyan Ki Todi,
Puriya Dhanashri,
Multani,
Bhimpalas,
Darbari, and
Ramkali. He was considered a purist and has not dabbled in experimental forms of music, except for a well-known series of Jugalbandi recordings with the Carnatic signer M. Balamuralikrishna.
Apart from stalwarts of the Kirana Gharana, Bhimsen Joshi's singing was thought to have been influenced by many musicians, including
Smt. Kesarbai Kerkar,
Begum Akhtar and
Ustad Amir Khan. Joshi assimilated into his own singing various elements that he liked in different musical styles and
Gharanas.
Devotional music
In devotional music, Joshi was most acclaimed for his
Kannada,
Hindi and
Marathi Bhajan singing. His commercially successful CDs
Daaswani and
Enna Paliso included Kannada Bhajans, and
Santawani included Marathi
Abhangs.
Patriotic music
Bhimsen Joshi was widely recognized in India due to his performance in the
Mile Sur Mera Tumhara music video (1985), which begins with him. The video was created for the purpose of national integration in India, and highlights the diversity of Indian culture. Bhimsen Joshi was also invited to sing for the
Bharat Bala production of the
Indian National Anthem music video (2000).
Playback singing
Joshi sang for several films, including
Basant Bahar (1956) with
Manna Dey,
Birbal My Brother (1973) with
Pandit Jasraj, and Kannada films like
Sandhya Raaga and
Nodi Swami Naavu Irodhu Heege. He also sang for the films
Tansen (1958) and
Ankahee (1985).
[9]
Sawai Gandharva Music Festival
Joshi organized the
Sawai Gandharva Music Festival as an homage to his guru, Sawai Gandharva, along with the
Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal in 1953, marking Gandharva's first death anniversary. The festival has been held ever since, typically on the second weekend of December in
Pune,
Maharashtra and has become not only a cultural event for the city, but an annual pilgrimage for
Hindustani Classical Music lovers all over the world. Joshi conducted the festival annually since 1953, until his retirement in 2002.
Students
Joshi taught many students, several of whom have gone onto commercial success.
Legacy
Bhimsen Joshi was known for his powerful voice, amazing breath control, fine musical sensibility and unwavering grasp of the fundamentals, representing a subtle fusion of intelligence and passion that imparted life and excitement to his music.
[5] A classicist by training, and temperament, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was renowned for having evolved an approach that sought to achieve a balance between what may be termed as "traditional values and mass-culture tastes" and as such he went on to have supposedly the largest commercially recorded repertoire in Hindustani vocal music.
[5]
Personal life
Bhimsen Joshi was well known to have a passion for cars. He was known to be an expert swimmer, a keen enthusiast of yoga and a football player in his younger days. He had acknowledged his weakness for alcohol but left it in 1979 after it started affecting his career.
[5]
Illness and death
Joshi was admitted to Sahyadri Super Speciality Hospital on December 31, 2010 with
gastrointestinal bleeding and
bilateral pneumonia. Due to difficulty in breathing, he was put on ventilator support. He suffered convulsions and was put on dialysis too during his stay in hospital. Though he recovered briefly for three days when he was taken off the ventilator, his condition deteriorated thereafter. He passed away on 24 January 2011 at 08:00 am (IST), 11 days before his 89th birthday.
[10] He was cremated at Vaikunth Crematorium in Pune with full state honors.
[11]
Awards and recognitions
Further reading
- Nadkarni, Mohan (1983). Bhimsen Joshi: the man and his music. Prism Communications.
- Nadkarni, Mohan (1994). Bhimsen Joshi: a biography. Indus, New Delhi. ISBN 8172231261.
- Majumdar, Abhik (2004). Bhimsen Joshi: A Passion for Music. Rupa & Co. ISBN 8129103540.
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