HYDERABAD: A giant of the classical music world passed away on Monday leaving music lovers around the world in mourning. Pandit Jasraj breathed his last in the USA, where he was on a visit and the lockdown meant he could not return to India. He has, however, left for the heavens, where he will likely be regaling the gods with his magnificent music. He was 90.

Pandit Jasraj had an enduring association with the city of Hyderabad. It was here that he spent several years of his life as a child and youth. Also his father’s samadhi is located here. The ace musician had many fond memories of his time in the city and of the music culture prevailing at that time. From around 1972, he began organising an annual musical festival in the city, in his musician-father’s memory called the Pandit Motiram Pandit Maniram Sangeet Samaroh. He would also visit the city every year for giving away an award instituted in his name by  the Rotary Club.

When I met him during one of his recent visits to Hyderabad, I asked him what his advice was to the new generation or aspiring artistes. He told me that when youngsters asked him for guidance and advice, besides the technical aspects, he would say that unrelenting sadhana and faith in one’s art were very important to the making of a good musician. He himself had both in abundance and was an example of how single-minded devotion to the art can make for a legendary artiste.  

Pandit Jasraj made immense contributions to the world of Indian classical music as performer, teacher, mentor and pioneer. This celebrated exponent of Hindustani classical music also performed semi-classical music and rendered songs for films with much success. A gem of the Mewati Gharana, he was trained by his father and brother in the tabla and vocal music. He, however, gave up the tabla early in life as he felt the tabla-players or accompanists were being looked down upon–  treated as minor artistes of lower professional status or as being secondary to the concert. He became a full time vocalist. After his family members, he also came under the tutelage of other music gurus. He had many favourites and icons of music he looked up to but generally singled out Begum Akhtar as a great inspiration.

Pandit Jasraj’s music was pure manna. An extraordinarily melodious, pitch-perfect voice, the ability to traverse different octaves with supreme ease, technical mastery and a vast repertoire all contributed to his great reputation and big crowds at his concerts. His music was also noted for its rich spiritual quality.
The maestro picked up elements of the thumri and blended it to the khayal making the form more listener-friendly. This despite the eyebrows it raised among the puritans of that time. He also came up with a new form of the jugalbandi which he named Jasrangi.

It is of much satisfaction to many art lovers that he was one great artist who received his due even while he was around to enjoy the adulation and honours he so richly deserved. Over a career spanning around eight decades, he received scores of titles and awards. The list is too long to enumerate here. Among the more recent and biggest honours was the Padma Vibhushan, which is India’s second-highest civilian honour, in the year 2000. Recently, a minor planet which travels between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was named after him by the International Astronomical Union. It was the 2006 VP32 (number -300128).

When this writer asked him how he felt when he looked back on his decision to quit tabla playing and become a vocalist because the tabla players were being treated unfairly, the doyen replied with a smile. “Yes, those were different days. Today, Indian instrumentalists are receiving so much acclaim and so many centre-stage performances. I am very happy for them and this culture. However, I am too old to be able to go back now, am I not?!”

(The writer is a Hyderabad-based music and dance critic)