Pandit Vishnu Narayan
Bhatkhande (August 10,
1860 – September 19, 1936)
was an Indian musicologist
who wrote the first modern
treatise on Hindustani
Classical Music (The north
Indian variety of Indian
classical music ), an art
which had been propagated
earlier for a few centuries
mostly through oral
traditions. During those
earlier times, the art had
undergone several changes,
rendering the raga
grammar documented in
scant old texts outdated. [1]
Ragas used to be classified
into Raga (male), Ragini
(female), and Putra
(children). Bhatkhande
reclassified them into the
currently used Thaat
system. He noted that
several ragas did not
conform to their
description in ancient
Sanskrit texts. He explained
the ragas in an easy-to-
understand language and
composed several
bandishes which explained
the grammar of the ragas.
He borrowed the idea of
lakshan geet from the
Carnatic music scholar
Venkatamakhin.
Early life
Vishnu Narayan
Bhatkhande was born in
1860, into a Chittapawan
Brahmin family in
Walkeshwar, Mumbai. He
was educated at
Elphinstone College in
Mumbai and Deccan
College in Pune. He
graduated with a degree in
Law in 1885 and joined the
legal profession in 1887.
Later he served a short
stint as a lawyer in the
High Court in Karachi.
During his college days,
Bhatkhande began learning
sitar playing from
Vallabhdas. He later
learned vocal music from
Raojiba, a Dhrupad singer.
He also trained in other
aspects of classical music
under Belbagkar, Ali Husain
Khan, and Vilayat Hussain
Khan. He became a
member of Gayan Uttejak
Mandali, a musical circle in
Mumbai.
↑Jump back a section
Career
Research in music
Bhatkhande traveled
throughout India, meeting
with ustads and pandits,
and researching music. He
began the study of ancient
texts such as the Natya
Shastra and Sangeet
Ratnakara .[2]
Music notations
developed by
Bhatkhande
After the death of his wife
and his daughter,
Bhatkhande abandoned his
legal practice and devoted
the rest of his life to
systematizing the prevailing
forms of Hindustani music
and building on that
system a coordinated
theory and practice of
music. During his travels in
India , he spent time in
Baroda , Gwalior , and
Rampur; an unverified
claim says he collected
some works of Tansen .
Ustads like Mohammad Ali
Khan, Asgar Ali Khan, and
Ahmed Ali Khan of Jaipur
gave him more than 300
precious compositions of
the Manarang Gharana.
Bhatkhande's first
published work, Swar
Malika , was a booklet
containing detailed
descriptions of all
prevalent ragas. In 1909, he
published Shri Mallakshaya
Sangeetam, in Sanskrit,
under the pseudonym
'Chatur-pandit'. To make
this cultural heritage
accessible to the common
man, he published
commentary on his own
Sanskrit grantha in Marathi
over a span of several
years; it was published
over four volumes bearing
the title: Hindustani
Sangeet Paddhati . These
volumes form today the
standard text on
Hindustani music, an
indispensable starting
point for any student of
Hindustani Classical Music.
His disciple S N
Ratanjankar, famous
musician Shri. Dilip Kumar
Roy, Ratanjankar's disciple
K. G. Ginde , S.C.R.Bhatt,
Ram Ashrey Jha 'Ramrang',
Sumati Mutatkar and
Krishna Kumar Kapoor are
among the notable
scholars who followed in
the footsteps of
Bhatkhande. His notation
system became standard
and though later scholars
like Pt. V. D. Paluskar,
Vinayak Narayan
Patwardhan and Pt.
Omkarnath Thakur
introduced their improved
versions, it remained a
publisher's favorite. It
suffered a setback with
onset of desktop
publishing, which found
inserting marks above and
below Devanagari text
cumbersome; as a result,
books carrying
compositions yielded to
theoretical texts. A recently
developed notation system
Ome Swarlipi follows the
logical structure
introduced by Pt.
Bhatkhande but uses
symbols instead of
Devanagari alphabets.
After travelling widely and
having discussions with
practitioners of various
schools, Bhatkhande
arranged all the ragas of
Hindustani classical music
across 10 musical scales ,
called thaats. Though the
thaats do not encompass
all possible ragas, they do
cover the vast majority,
and are a key contribution
to Indian musical theory.
The thaat structure
corresponds to the
melakarta system of raga
arrangement in Carnatic
music , the south Indian
variety of Indian classical
music .
Bhatkhande wrote all of his
works under one of the two
pseudonyms, Vishnu
Sharma and Chaturpandit.
Institutions
Bhatkhande started schools
and colleges in India for
systematic teaching of
Hindustani music. In 1916,
he reorganized the Baroda
state music school, and
later, with the help of the
Maharaja of Gwalior ,
established the Madhav
Music College in Gwalior.
In 1926, Rai Umanath Bali
and his nephew Dr. Rai
Rajeshwar Bali, then
education minister of
United Provinces,
established Marris College
of Music in Lucknow, [3]
Bhatkhande preparing the
course material. The
college was later renamed
Bhatkhande College of
Hindustani Music, and is
now known as Bhatkhande
Music Institute ( Deemed
University ). Preparation of
that course material was a
landmark achievement of
Bhatkhande since musical
knowledge used to be
passed on orally in earlier
times from Gurus and
Ustads to their disciples.
Bhatkhande prepared the
Hindustani Sangeet Karmik
Pustak Malika as a series of
textbooks. He also started
the tradition of the All
India Music Conferences to
provide a common
platform for discussion
between Hindustani and
Carnatic classical
musicians.
↑Jump back a section
Death
Bhatkhande suffered
paralysis and a thigh
fracture in 1933. He died in
1936 on Ganesh Chaturthi
day [ clarification needed] .
The Post and Telegraph
Department of India paid
homage to Bhatkhande by
releasing on September 1,
1961 a commemorative
stamp containing his
portrait.
Bhatkhande (August 10,
1860 – September 19, 1936)
was an Indian musicologist
who wrote the first modern
treatise on Hindustani
Classical Music (The north
Indian variety of Indian
classical music ), an art
which had been propagated
earlier for a few centuries
mostly through oral
traditions. During those
earlier times, the art had
undergone several changes,
rendering the raga
grammar documented in
scant old texts outdated. [1]
Ragas used to be classified
into Raga (male), Ragini
(female), and Putra
(children). Bhatkhande
reclassified them into the
currently used Thaat
system. He noted that
several ragas did not
conform to their
description in ancient
Sanskrit texts. He explained
the ragas in an easy-to-
understand language and
composed several
bandishes which explained
the grammar of the ragas.
He borrowed the idea of
lakshan geet from the
Carnatic music scholar
Venkatamakhin.
Early life
Vishnu Narayan
Bhatkhande was born in
1860, into a Chittapawan
Brahmin family in
Walkeshwar, Mumbai. He
was educated at
Elphinstone College in
Mumbai and Deccan
College in Pune. He
graduated with a degree in
Law in 1885 and joined the
legal profession in 1887.
Later he served a short
stint as a lawyer in the
High Court in Karachi.
During his college days,
Bhatkhande began learning
sitar playing from
Vallabhdas. He later
learned vocal music from
Raojiba, a Dhrupad singer.
He also trained in other
aspects of classical music
under Belbagkar, Ali Husain
Khan, and Vilayat Hussain
Khan. He became a
member of Gayan Uttejak
Mandali, a musical circle in
Mumbai.
↑Jump back a section
Career
Research in music
Bhatkhande traveled
throughout India, meeting
with ustads and pandits,
and researching music. He
began the study of ancient
texts such as the Natya
Shastra and Sangeet
Ratnakara .[2]
Music notations
developed by
Bhatkhande
After the death of his wife
and his daughter,
Bhatkhande abandoned his
legal practice and devoted
the rest of his life to
systematizing the prevailing
forms of Hindustani music
and building on that
system a coordinated
theory and practice of
music. During his travels in
India , he spent time in
Baroda , Gwalior , and
Rampur; an unverified
claim says he collected
some works of Tansen .
Ustads like Mohammad Ali
Khan, Asgar Ali Khan, and
Ahmed Ali Khan of Jaipur
gave him more than 300
precious compositions of
the Manarang Gharana.
Bhatkhande's first
published work, Swar
Malika , was a booklet
containing detailed
descriptions of all
prevalent ragas. In 1909, he
published Shri Mallakshaya
Sangeetam, in Sanskrit,
under the pseudonym
'Chatur-pandit'. To make
this cultural heritage
accessible to the common
man, he published
commentary on his own
Sanskrit grantha in Marathi
over a span of several
years; it was published
over four volumes bearing
the title: Hindustani
Sangeet Paddhati . These
volumes form today the
standard text on
Hindustani music, an
indispensable starting
point for any student of
Hindustani Classical Music.
His disciple S N
Ratanjankar, famous
musician Shri. Dilip Kumar
Roy, Ratanjankar's disciple
K. G. Ginde , S.C.R.Bhatt,
Ram Ashrey Jha 'Ramrang',
Sumati Mutatkar and
Krishna Kumar Kapoor are
among the notable
scholars who followed in
the footsteps of
Bhatkhande. His notation
system became standard
and though later scholars
like Pt. V. D. Paluskar,
Vinayak Narayan
Patwardhan and Pt.
Omkarnath Thakur
introduced their improved
versions, it remained a
publisher's favorite. It
suffered a setback with
onset of desktop
publishing, which found
inserting marks above and
below Devanagari text
cumbersome; as a result,
books carrying
compositions yielded to
theoretical texts. A recently
developed notation system
Ome Swarlipi follows the
logical structure
introduced by Pt.
Bhatkhande but uses
symbols instead of
Devanagari alphabets.
After travelling widely and
having discussions with
practitioners of various
schools, Bhatkhande
arranged all the ragas of
Hindustani classical music
across 10 musical scales ,
called thaats. Though the
thaats do not encompass
all possible ragas, they do
cover the vast majority,
and are a key contribution
to Indian musical theory.
The thaat structure
corresponds to the
melakarta system of raga
arrangement in Carnatic
music , the south Indian
variety of Indian classical
music .
Bhatkhande wrote all of his
works under one of the two
pseudonyms, Vishnu
Sharma and Chaturpandit.
Institutions
Bhatkhande started schools
and colleges in India for
systematic teaching of
Hindustani music. In 1916,
he reorganized the Baroda
state music school, and
later, with the help of the
Maharaja of Gwalior ,
established the Madhav
Music College in Gwalior.
In 1926, Rai Umanath Bali
and his nephew Dr. Rai
Rajeshwar Bali, then
education minister of
United Provinces,
established Marris College
of Music in Lucknow, [3]
Bhatkhande preparing the
course material. The
college was later renamed
Bhatkhande College of
Hindustani Music, and is
now known as Bhatkhande
Music Institute ( Deemed
University ). Preparation of
that course material was a
landmark achievement of
Bhatkhande since musical
knowledge used to be
passed on orally in earlier
times from Gurus and
Ustads to their disciples.
Bhatkhande prepared the
Hindustani Sangeet Karmik
Pustak Malika as a series of
textbooks. He also started
the tradition of the All
India Music Conferences to
provide a common
platform for discussion
between Hindustani and
Carnatic classical
musicians.
↑Jump back a section
Death
Bhatkhande suffered
paralysis and a thigh
fracture in 1933. He died in
1936 on Ganesh Chaturthi
day [ clarification needed] .
The Post and Telegraph
Department of India paid
homage to Bhatkhande by
releasing on September 1,
1961 a commemorative
stamp containing his
portrait.
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