Friday 6 April 2012

Sarangi legend Ustad Bundu Khan (1880-1955) - A radio broadcast from All India Radio, Delhi


Ustad Bundu Khan, probably the most outstanding sarangi player during the first half of the 20th century, was born in Delhi, in a family of musicians. He received his early training in sarangi from his father Ali Jan Khan and later from his uncle Mamman Khan, who was attached to the Maharaja of Patiala.
Bundu Khan was a prodigiously talented artiste and also a very sincere and hard-working student of music. His complete mastery over his delicate and difficult instrument not only placed him on the top rung of the subcontinents sarangi players but also made him one of the most proficient Hindustani instrumentalists of the 20th century. He had a flair for singing and writing poetry as well. His sons, Umrao Bundu Khan and Buland Iqbal, also inherited his talents.
He played the sarangi from the Delhi Radio Station, when its broadcast was started in 1935. He became court-musician to Maharaja Tukaji Rao Holkar of Indore and was also in the Rampur court of a brief period. He was highly influenced by Pandit Bhatkhande whom he met in Indore. He devoted himself to the study of musicology, and wrote a book Sangeet Vivek Darpan wherein the ragas Bhairabi and Malkauns were elaborately discussed.
After migrating to Pakistan after the partition in 1947, Ustad Bundu Khan continued to play the sarangi from all the radio stations of Pakistan till his death in 1955. Both his sons gained prominence and became immediately known to the music circles of Pakistan. In addition to his descendants, he trained Amir Muhammad Albi, Durkhu Singh, Majid Khan, Muhammad Sagiruddin Khan and P. N. Nigam. He was posthumously awarded the Pride of Performance by the Government of Pakistan in 1985.
from: http://www.itcsra.org/tribute.asp?id=14 There you find some beautiful tracks.
See also: 


A National Program on Bundu Khan, in English, presented by his student Rajesh Bahadur, broadcast by All India Radio, Delhi. It contains these performances:

Part 1 (45:27):
01 Chandni Kedar 12:31 (starting at 8:43)
02 fragment 0:35 (starting at 22:38)
03 Gaud Malhar 15:03 (starting at 24:37)
04 fragment 2:33 (starting at 40:40)
05 Dhrupad Sagar (Ragamalika) 1:59 (starting at 43:27 and continuing in part 2)

Part 2 (44:41):
01 continuation of Dhrupad Sagar (Ragamalika) 2:29
02 Chandrakauns 6:21 (starting at 3:14)
03 Shahana Bahar & Bageshree Bahar 26:22 (starting at 11:59)
04 Bhairavi 4:17 (starting at 38:51)
Download Part 2

Further - very enjoyable - readings: look here under "About Bundu Khan"

A reader of our blog, Surajit, was so kind to make out of the tracks of over 2 minutes length separate tracks and to send me the result. Many thanks. Here you can download them:

Download folder of separate tracks

9 comments:

Mutha Klanger said...

oh what great way to start the long weekend. should get me away from the choccy eggs for a while :-) thanks Tawfiq

Giri Mandi said...

Wah, wah, wah, subhanallah! Thank you so much for this outstanding gift, our precious Tawfiq!

Giri Mandi said...

Choccy eggs melting! :)

Mutha Klanger said...

@Giri Mandi

re Choccy eggs melting

ahhh, but not if you have Cadbury's Mini Eggs to accompany your Ustad Bundu Khan. hurrah for hard sugar shells :-)

Giri Mandi said...

@Mutha

Hahaha... hurrah, enjoy!

And here's an egg-melting film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2pTNJyPnM&list=FL7uWXjqcCon-LAjzqft8jBA&index=4&feature=plpp_video

Chylum said...

You should Use MediaFire and
password the rar.files.Encrypt
rar.names Like RS-52635
Great Site !!!
thank you

Mutha Klanger said...

@Giri Mandi

just caught up with the YouTube you posted above. Bismillah! nice one, thanks :-)

Unknown said...

Hello Tawfiq, I have extracted the longer fragments (> 2 minutes) and created separate tracks. I have also done some cleanup using Audacity though the sound quality is not that much better. I have spliced together as seamlessly as I could the two parts of the raga sagar as well. If you would like to have those to share here please let me know.

Tawfiq said...

Dear Surajit, thank you very much. It would be great if you could upload the result of your work and share a downloadlink here. Or you share it with me and I create then a download link on my dropbox.