Zia Fariduddin Dagar (15 June 1932 – 8 May 2013) was an Indian classical vocalist belonging to the

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 ...

tradition, the oldest existing form of

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

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 ...

(

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...

). He was part of the Dagar family of musicians. He taught at the Dhrupad Kendra in Bhopal with his elder brother

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (14 March 1929 – 28 September 1990), popularly known as Z. M. Dagar, was a North Indian ( Hindustani) classical musician, one of the 19th generation of Dagar family dhrupad musicians. He was largely responsible for the r ...

. He also taught as a visiting professor up to the time of the Babri mosque riots. After the riots, he decided to live at the gurukul of his brother

at Palaspe near

Panvel Panvel () is a city and taluka in Raigad district of Maharashtra, India. It is highly populated due to its closeness to Mumbai. Panvel is also governed for development purpose by the body of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Panvel Municipal Corpora ...

, near

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- ...

. He was awarded the 1994

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in Englis ...

in Hindustani music-Vocal by

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and be ...

Early life and training

He was born in

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

, Rajasthan, where his father, the great Ustad Ziauddin Khansahib, was the court musician for Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur. He was taught

vocal and veena by his father. After his father's death, he continued learning under his elder brother, Ustad

Career

He has performed widely in India and abroad, and received the Tansen Samman from the

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

government and the

. In 2005, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the North American Dhrupad Association. By 1980, he had virtually settled down in Austria where he taught at the conservatory of Innsbruck teaching Dhrupad in Austria and France (mainly Paris). Once, during a visit to India, one of his disciples, the filmmaker,

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 ...

came to him and pleaded with him to provide the background score for a film, ''

The Cloud Door ''The Cloud Door'' ( hi, बादल द्वार, german: Die Himmelspforte) is a 1994 short Indo-German drama film, directed by acclaimed Indian director Mani Kaul and featuring Hindu erotic literary themes. The film was produced by the ...

'' (1994) he was making on

. During the making of the film, they spent over two months in Madhya Pradesh, a lot of time in Bhopal. In those days, Shri Arjun Singh was the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

. Cultural development was one of his passions. It is because of him that the magnificent

Bharat Bhavan Bharat Bhavan is an autonomous multi-arts complex and museum in Bhopal, India, established and funded by the Government of Madhya Pradesh.The architect of the Bharat Bhavan is Charles Correa. Opened in 1982, facing the Upper Lake, Bhopal, it hous ...

cultural center came up in

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 ...

. At that time, the Secretary to the Department of Culture in Madhya Pradesh was Ashok Vajpayee. Vajpayee offered to start a government supported school for Dhrupad in Bhopal. Zia Fariduddin agreed to move back to India and to take charge as the teacher at this school. He taught dhrupad for 25 years at this Dhrupad Kendra, under the Ustad Allauddin Khan Music Academy, Bhopal, to students like 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 ...

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 ...

, Nirmalya Dey and Marianne Svasek. He was a distinguished guest faculty at 'Dhrupad Sansar',

IIT 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 ranked ...

for a span of 5 years. Dhrupad Sansar was started under the Cell for Human Values to create an appreciation about Indian Classical Arts and Culture among staff and students of the institution.

Death

He was staying and teaching at the Dhrupad Gurukul near

, which was built by his elder brother Ustad

and continued to perform in India and abroad until his brief illness and death on 8 May 2013.

Awards

* Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1988) *

Tansen Samman 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 ...

Award (1993) 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, ...

(1994) *

Tagore Ratna (2011)

Discography

* ''Chalnat'' (New Delhi 1998) (Makar Records, Makcd039 The Lyrical Tradition of Dhrupad – 9, 1999) * ''Chandrakauns'' (Moses Church, Amsterdam 1985) (Ragini Sutra, RS 200202, 2002) * ''Malkauns'' (Bombay 1968, rudra veen/vocal jugalbandi) (Country & Eastern, CE 02, 2005)A Dhrupad Discography: The Dagar Family

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

; accessed 7 January 2022

References

External links

Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
at ''

last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dagar, Zia Fariddudin Hindustani singers 1932 births 2013 deaths Mumbai Dagarvani Voice teachers People from Udaipur Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 20th-century Indian musicians