Kundgol is
a small, sleepy country town, 19 kms. south of Hubli. If it has a claim to fame
in the musical map of India, it is because Ramchandra who grew up to be Rambhau
Kundgolkar and rose to eminence as Sawai Gandharva, was born there on January
19, 1886. His father Ganesh Saunshi was a clerk in the employ of Ranganagowda
Nadiger, a landlord of Kundgol. Ganesh had dreams that his son would be
educated and become a big officer. He put Ramchandra to school. School didn’t
hold his attention. He would rather listen to bhajans and keertans
on his way to school. Ramchandra used to sing poems sweetly. His teachers would
make him sing and please the inspectors whenever they visited the school.
Ramchandra was promoted to next standards, thanks to his singing skill. Somehow
he finished primary school. What next? Ramchandra was admitted to Lamington
High School, Hubli. But to no avail. He would travel by rail everyday. More
often than not, he spent his time in watching plays and listening to music. Once,
he had an opportunity of listening to young Abdul Karim Khan at the Railway
Club, Hubli. Ramchandra listened with rapt attention to the soulful music. It
filled his heart. " How I wish Abdul Karim Khan were my guru!"A
desire of the moth for the star! Ganesh found it increasingly difficult to
afford his son’s education. Schooling stopped.
Destiny had
something else in store for Ramchandra. Looking to the son’s interest in music,
Ganesh put him under Balvantrao Kolhatkar who came to live in Kundgol. In about
a year and a half, Balvantrao taught Ramchandra 75 dhrupads, 25 taraanaas,
100 cheezes and a few taalas. With the death of Balvantrao in
1898, music training came to a halt. No school, no music training. Ramchandra
idled in the Nadiger’s palatial house. The Nadigers were a music-loving landed
gentry.
It was a time when Abdul Karim Khan, the founder of
Kiraanaa Gharaanaa,was touring Karnataka. He would often stay with the Nadigers
for days on end. On such a trip, Ramchandra hovered around Abdul Karim Khan,
humming jamunaa ke teer, the Ustad’s Bhairavi cheez. It caught
Abdul Karim Khan’s ear who asked, "Kaun hai yeh ladkaa? Galaa achchaa
hai". Rangangowda Nadiger pounced upon this opportunity: "
Ustadji, he is our clerk’s son. He wants to learn music from you". "Yeh
baath hai tho chalo hamaare saath". Fortune smiled on Ramchandra. This
was in 1901. Abdul Karim Khan did not want his name to be spoilt by disciples
learning haphazardly. He made a contract with them that they would learn from him
for at least 8 years.
Thus began one of the most celebrated guru-shishya
duos. Ramchandra was Abdul Karim Khan’s first disciple.
Abdul Karim Khan’s was a gurukula system. The shishya had
to stay with the guru, do household chores and learn. He was a martinet and
impartant very rigorous training in swaras. He would explain vaadi,
samvaadi and varjya (avoidable) swaras. He would sing and
demonstrate how the same swara would be employed differently in
different raagas. Abdul Karim Khan never taught by the book. "There
are any number of books on music. How many musicians have they produced?"
He discouraged students from taking down notes. He would advise them to carry
things in the head. He didn’t teach theory and practice separately. Theory was
inherent in practice.
Lessons
would start in the early hours of the morning and go on upto 8 A.M. Again in
the afternoon and evening. He was not ambitious of teaching many raagas.
He made Ramchandra practise raaga Puriyaa alone for a whole year. Ramchandra
would practise wholeheartedly all the assignments. The guru taught him only
three raagas in 8 years: Todi, the morning raaga; Multaani, the
midday raaga and Puriyaa, the evening raaga. A proper
understanding of the three would open the doors to many more, the guru firmly
believed.
Ramchandra Kundgolkar, as he came to be
known now, yearned for more. He later learnt from Ramchandra Kundgolkar, as he
came to be known now, yearned for more. He later learnt from Nissar Hussain
Khan raagas Jeevanpuri, Bihaag, Lankaadahan Saarang, Bhairav Bahaar.
From Muraad Khan Beenkaar, Maluhaa, Bhankaar, Nat Malhaar, Jaijaiwanti. And
from Rahim Bux of Hyderabad, Jayant Kalyaan, Hindol Bahaar, Khat and
Jaitaashri.Rambhau received guidance from Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze at Belgaum and
Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale at Dharwad. And interwove the niceties from the styles of
Bhoogandharva Rehmat Khan and Manji Khan into his own Kiraanaa pattern. The
foundation was Kiraanaa; the structure, his own. Only a master mind like his
could amalgamate these diverse influences. As a result, Rambhau’s singing was a
fine blend of aalaap, meend, badhat, ghaseet, boltaan, moorchchanaa,
khatkaa, murki, taanpalat, phirat and captivating taans. Rambhau had
a melodious voice. But often he had to struggle to press it into service. Once
it got under way, there was no stopping him.
Poverty,
glamour of stage-life, Gopalrao Marathe’s insistence and offer of an attractive
salary of Rs.100 a month lured Rambhau to the Marathi stage in 1907, much
against the will of his guru. It was Rambhau who suggested to Gopalrao Marathe
to switch over to musicals. This heralded the reign of plays like Saubhadra,
Tara, Sant Sakhoo. Rambhau preformed male roles in the beginning but when
Gopalrao retired, took over female roles and did them with finesse. He excelled
in stage-songs.
Braving
stiff competition from the famous Kirloskar Troupe and Shahu Nagarvaasi Troupe
camping in the same town of Pune, Rambhau earned success and money for Gopalrao
Marathe’s Naatya Kalaa Pravartak Mandali. When the troupe shifted to Mumbai,
stage-lovers from Pune used to throng there every Saturday to see and listen to
him on the stage.
Rambhau crisscrossed in and out of several troupes. Though he wanted to give up
the stage, the stage wouldn’t give him up. Whenever he sang, there would be
"encores" galore. For the song, paandu nrupati janaka jaya, in
Soubhadra, he got a record seven "encores". Custom was that the
" encore" had to be honoured and the song repeated as many times as
there were ‘encore’ calls. Once, while singing, his wig slid down. Neither he
nor the audience was aware of it. Such used to be the mesmeric quality of his
singing.
An amusing incident occurred once while singing on the stage. Rambhau had
difficulty with his voice to start with. It was in Bellary. The play
Maanaapamaan was on. He, as Dhairyadhar, began to sing chandrikaa janoo
theviyaa, the popular naatyageet. The next line opens with
the word shobhaa. His voice stuck. He stood singing shobhaa, shobhaa.
Someone in the audience teased, "ataa zaali evada shobhaa, pudhe chalaa"("enough
of shobhaa, go forward"). Touched to the quick, Rambhau jerked his
voice with all the force at his command. He got the shadja right and the
song sailed smoothly. Needless to say he got ‘encores’. In 1919, Bal
Gandharva’s troupe and Rambhau Kundgolkar’s troupe had both camped at
Amaravati. Both were playing two different dramas based on the same theme of Draupadi
vastraapaharana (disrobement of Draupadi). Bal Gandharva in Draupadi’s
role in his troupe and Rambhau in the role of Aatmateja in his troupe. The rasikas
watched both plays and enjoyed the stage songs of both. The audiences wondered
who was the greater of the two. Dadasaheb Khaparde, the uncrowned king of
Varhaad and a connoisseur par excellence, was absorbed in watching the role of
Aatmateja by Rambhau. Song after song flowed forth from the throat of Rambhau.
And from the throat of Dadasaheb Khaparde issued forth the exclamation " Hey
tur sawai gandharva aahet!" (" This, indeed, is Sawai
Gandharva"). Sawai in Marathi means ‘a notch above the rest’. The
literal meaning is ‘one and a quarter’. Tantamount to saying, " if that is
Bal Gandharva, this is Sawai Gandharva". Rambhau now joined the ranks of gandharvas.
The title stuck. It was not a title patronizingly bestowed by maharajas, but
one conferred by admiring rasikas.