Ustad Amjad Ali Khan mastered the sarod when he was merely a teenager. Today, he is by far the greatest and most sought-after sarod player in the world, with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Padma Vibhushan to his name. He speaks to Bhumika Popli about his years of apprenticeship, his compositional style and his musical lineage.
Q. How do you prepare yourself, mentally and physically, before a concert?
A. The day I have to perform I become like a patient. I don’t go out. I don’t want to meet people. I rest the whole day and prepare mentally as to what raga to present, how long or how short should the piece be. And then finally, when I get on the stage and feel the vibrations from the audience, I pray to God that my music gives them all peace, tranquillity and happiness. While performing I feel that a cosmic power is monitoring me, because in Indian classical we don’t read and write music, we don’t plan it phrase-by-phrase like what happens in Western music.
Q. Could you recall your early days when you were learning the sarod? How were you trained?
A. It was a very natural growth for me. In our family, especially in classical music, we don’t launch a musician the way actors are launched. It takes time for a musician to establish oneself. My journey began when I was 12 years old. Because of the good reputation of my guru and father Ustaad Hafiz Ali Khan Sahab of Gwalior, the people of India encouraged me and made me what I am today. As I was born to a family of musicians and I was the youngest child of my father, I realised my responsibilities right from the age of 12. I couldn’t enjoy my childhood, the freedom of childhood. My father, my guru was very old and I was the youngest child, so I became very determined to do this. I was not a child prodigy. When you are born into a family of musicians, you have a great advantage but also a great responsibility.
Q. What sort of music education did you receive from your father, who was himself a renowned sarod player?
A. My father was a very old and very busy artiste. He was the only musician from Gwalior who was invited for events outside the city. He was busy travelling to different places for performances. Mine was a family of musicians, so when I was a child, anybody—my uncles, brothers—would teach me. Everyone was like my guru. And when my father used to travel, he appointed a very renowned tabla player of Gwalior, Pandit Raghuvar Prasad, to teach me the tabla. I became very fond of the tabla. When my father saw that I was playing more tabla than the sarod, he got very concerned. You see, old-timers like my father believed that you can do only one thing in your lifetime. So for months, the tabla was kept hidden from me. But the tabla, its rhythm, gave me a lot of encouragement and provided a new energy to my music.
My father was not in favour of sending me to school. But eventually, I was enrolled at Delhi’s Modern School on the Barakhamba Road. I couldn’t finish my schooling, because from the age of 12, I was being invited to perform at various centres across India. By the age of 15 or 16, I received the award of “Sarod Samrat” from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad. To receive an award from such an institution is the greatest honour for any musician. My few years in school gave me the courage to face the world today. I have done residencies in various universities across the world since. But I can express myself today because of my school.
Q. You belong to the sixth generation of the Bangash school of music. What are the primary characteristics of the Bangash gharana?
A. We are the followers of Swami Haridas and Mian Tansen. In our Bangash gharana, our seniors gave much importance to compositions. If you look at the history of Indian instrumental music, there is nothing unusual. They all follow the same conventions. But in our family, we have various kinds of compositions. My approach today is very different from that of the rest of the musicians in India. Because I realised that improvisation, alaap, jod and jhala—all these go away when the musician departs the world. But what we do leave behind is the composition, called rachna or bandish. I am sharing with the people of the world the many different kinds of compositions that originated in our family. The concept of compositions for instrumental music took a different turn with my vision. Now ragas like Saraswati, Bhoopali, Hamsadhwani and Abhogi are heard on the sarod, which had never been attempted by any sarod player. I tried to make the sarod sing.
There are 500 sarod players all over the world, and all of them, whether directly or indirectly, are connected to the Bangash gharana.
Q. Could you take us through the history and evolution of the sarod?
A. My forefathers, who belonged to Afghanistan, settled down in India. About 300 years ago they settled in cities of Madhya Pradesh, such as Reva and Gwalior. They also played the rabab, an Afghani instrument which looks like the sarod. Ghulam Bandegi Khan Bangash and his son, Ghulam Ali Khan, modified the rabab and thus invented the sarod. They gave this beautiful gift to the world.
The sarod is an extension of the rabab. “Sarod” is a Persian word, which is actually pronounced as “Sarood” and which means music or melody. The instrument is made of teak wood, it is hollow on the inside, its belly is covered with skin and the fingerboard is made of steel. The bridge carries nineteen strings. Eleven are underneath the bridge and ten strings are over the bridge.
Q. There was a time when classical musicians were patronised by the royalty. How important a role have such patrons played in the advancement of Indian classical music?
A. The patronisation of musicians by the royalty had its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that every artist received a livelihood, as well as admiration and adulation from his patron. This was good for an artist’s ego. The disadvantage was that a common subject of the king would never get the opportunity to hear or watch a leading musician or a dancer perform; this was a privilege reserved for the elite. It was at variance with the spirit of unity and universality that music embodies. In today’s language, royal patronage was like corporate sponsorship. The rulers were in control of the artistes attached to them. The artistes had to report their activities to their patrons and seek their permission to perform in other states.
Q. As a guru yourself, what approach do you take to music education, especially in regard to Hindustani classical music?
A. The most important thing is that whatever I have taught Amaan and Ayaan [his musician sons], I have taught all my disciples. There is no difference in the training. I don’t keep something for my children and teach something else to my disciples. Those who are talented will succeed and people will accept them.
Q. What are your views on the contemporary music scene in India?
A. The world of entertainment is ruling over us. But in my generation, we don’t consider ourselves as entertainers. We are humble, we represent our country through classical music. We are not available at every concert in any situation. If I don’t like the arrangements I refuse to perform. If the audience is not attentive, I don’t want to perform. And there are musicians who, simply to please the audience, don’t mind jumping around and dancing with the sarod. They just want to become popular.
The Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra awarded the Sumitra Charat Ram Award for Lifetime Achievement to Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on 17 November 2018; the award was founded by Shobha Deepak Singh in 2011