The Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal (

Devanāgarī Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

: ''ध्रुपद केन्द्र भोपाल'') is an institution for training Dhrupad singers, established by the

Government of Madhya Pradesh Government of Madhya Pradesh also known as the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 52 districts. It consists of an executive, ...

in the state capital

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

in 1981 to impart training in the Indian teacher-apprentice or Guru-shishya tradition of education in

Dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South Ind ...

one of the oldest surviving genres of

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as '' Hindustani'' and the South Indian expression known as '' Carnatic''. These traditions were not ...

History

The Dhrupad Kenra was established by the Department of Culture of the

in the State Capital Bhopal in 1981 as a result of the efforts of noted Hindi poet and bureaucrat

Ashok Vajpeyi Ashok Vajpeyi ( hi, अशोक वाजपेयी; born 1941) is an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic, apart from being a noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant. He was chairman, Lali ...

who was then the Secretary of Culture of State and noted film maker

Mani Kaul Mani Kaul (25 December 1944 – 6 July 2011) was an Indian director of Hindi films and a reputed figure in Indian parallel cinema. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and ...

. At a meeting at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

the two persuaded renowned Dhrupad exponent of the Dagar style

Zia Fariduddin Dagar Zia Fariduddin Dagar (15 June 1932 – 8 May 2013) was an Indian classical vocalist belonging to the Dhrupad tradition, the oldest existing form of north Indian classical music (Hindustani classical music). He was part of the Dagar family of ...

, who had then virtually settled in Europe, to return to India and assume the directorship of the Dhrupad Kendra since it was felt at that time that the ancient Dhrupad tradition was on the verge of extinction and capable bearers of the tradition needed to be trained outside the University system of education using the traditional guru shisya system within an institutionalized set up. A committee of eminent persons was appointed and it was decided that students would be trained in the traditional system in batches each lasting a period of four years supported by a small scholarship from the State.

Functioning and teaching methodology

To train performers in the prescribed short period of four years Zia Fariduddin Dagar developed innovative new methods of teaching that departed from the orthodox traditional system. He considerably shortened the long period of initial technical training and quickly went on to teaching alap, compositions and improvisation in a very rigorous and demanding process of teaching, intensive practice and constant correction and supervision.

Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar (2 February 1927 – 27 July 2011) was an exponent of Dagar vani Dhrupad of Indian classical music. He represented the 19th generation of Dagar Tradition. His cousins Nasir Moinuddin Dagar and Nasir Aminuddin Dagar were kn ...

the elder cousin of Zia Fariduddin Dagar remained skeptical about the experiment preferring the slow and long orthodox traditional system of teaching of his family which lay emphasis on many years of technical grounding using technical exercises before starting training of Dhrupad alap, compositions, improvisation and the

shastra ''Shastra'' (, IAST: , ) is a Sanskrit word that means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'zAstra'' The wo ...

or the conceptual foundations of the art.

Students

The Dhrupad Kendra has trained a large number of students in the traditional system since its inception. Students of the Dhrupad Kendra who perform regularly in concerts today are

Uday Bhawalkar Pandit Uday Bhawalkar is an Indian classical vocalist. He is an exponent of the dhrupad genre. Early years Uday Bhawalkar was born in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, the youngest of three siblings. He began training in classical music from his elder si ...

, Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha (The

Gundecha Brothers The Gundecha Brothers are Indian classical singers of the dhrupad genre of the Dagar vani. From 1985 to 2019 the duo consisted of brothers Umakant Gundecha and Ramakant Gundecha and were awarded the Padma Shri for art for 2012. Following the de ...

) from the first batch of students, Afzal Hussain, Ashish Sankrityayan, Manoj and Sulbha Saraf (The Dhrupad Duo), Sombala Kumar from the second batch, Lakhan Lal Sahu, Sulekha Kamble from the third batch, Pallab Das, Rajesh Sendh, Vishal Jain from the fourth batch and Amit Sharma Bandhavi from the fifth batch. Dhrupad vocalists Nirmalya Dey and Abhijeet Sukhdane also studied independently at the Kendra from Zia Fariduddin Dagar. The Kendra also admits exceptional students who do not meet the admissions criteria from time to time on a non-scholarship basis.

Directors of the Dhrupad Kendra after Zia Fariduddin Dagar

In the early 2010s Zia Fariduddin Dagar started dividing his time between

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and

, teaching also at the newly established Dhrupad Sansar, Cell for Human Values at the

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranke ...

. He remained the director of the Dhrupad Kendra till his resignation in 2007 after which for a period of two years the Kendra was headed by Abhay Narayan Mallik renowned Dhrupad singer of the Darbhanga style. Since 2011 the Kendra is headed by Dagar tradition dhrupad singer Ashish Sankrityayan who had studied at the Dhrupad Kendra under Zia Faridduddin Dagar and later from his elder cousin Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar. Ashish Sankrityayan has in his teaching method at the Dhrupad Kendra combined the new teaching methods developed by Zia Fariduddin Dagar with the orthodox traditional system taught by Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar. The students of the Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal batch that started training in December 2011 performed at the renowned

Tansen Samaroh Tansen Samaroh or Tansen Sangeet Samaroh () is celebrated every year in the month of December in Behat village of Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh. It is a 4-day musical extravaganza. Artists and music lovers from all over the world gather here to ...

music festival in Gwalior in 2012 and 2013. The Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal is administered by the Ustad Alauddin Khan Sangeet Evam Kala Academy of the Madhya Pradesh Government.

Centers at Tikamgarh and Gwalior

In 1999 the Government of Madhya Pradesh started another center for traditional teaching of Dhrupad at

Tikamgarh Tikamgarh is a Census town#India, town and a tehsil in Tikamgarh district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The city serves as a district headquarters. The earlier name of Tikamgarh was Tehri (i.e., a triangle) consisting of three hamlet ...

called the Maharaja Vir Singhjudeo Dhrupad Kendra in honour of

Vir Singh Deo Vir Singh Deo, also known as Bir Singh Dev, was a Bundela Rajput chief and the ruler of the kingdom of Orchha. He was a vassal of the Mughal Empire. and ruled between 1605 and either 1626 or 1627. Vir Singh Deo assassinated Abul Fazl who was ret ...

the former King of the

Orchha State Orchha State (also known as Urchha, Ondchha and Tikamgarh) was a kingdom situated in the Bundelkhand region and later a princely state in British India. The state was ruled by Bundela clan of Rajputs. It was located within what is now the state of ...

, where the famed female Dhrupad singer Asgari Bai taught till her death in 2006. The Center was subsequently reopened two years after her death and eventually shifted to

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

and is presently headed by Dhrupad singer Abhijeet Sukhdane.Maharaja Vir Singhjudeo Dhrupad Kendra at Tikamgarh

Dainik Bhaskar ''Dainik Bhaskar ''is India's largest Hindi-language daily newspaper owned by the Dainik Bhaskar Group. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, it is ranked 3rd in the world by circulation and is the largest newspaper in India by circula ...

References