Ashish Sankrityayan

Ashish Sankrityayan is an exponent of the Dagar tradition of dhrupad. His main teachers have been Ustads Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar, Zia Fariduddin Dagar and Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar. He has also received valuable guidance from Ustads Nasir Aminuddin Dagar and Zia Mohiuddin Dagar.

Ashish Sankrityayan first learnt the sitar as a child and later took up dhrupad when studying for his masters in mathematics at the University of Mumbai. He started giving public performances in the year 2000 after a long period of apprenticeship under his gurus, and has since then given numerous concerts and workshops of dhrupad in Europe, India and the United States.

Ashish Sankrityayan has great interest in the history and the musicological foundations of Dhrupad, and has given lecture demonstrations and conducted courses in institutions like the Free University Berlin, Humboldt University Berlin, Hochschule fuer Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, UdK Berlin, The University of Copenhagen, Anton Bruckner University Linz, Hildesheim University, University of Vienna, Ateliers d'Ethnomusicology Geneva, Royal Academy of Wallonia AKDT Belgium, Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal. He has also been a consultant for the Maharana of Mewar Foundation of Udaipur for the restoration and release of their archival recordings of the Elder Dagar Brothers. He has been responsible for implementing for the first time in the country a Bachelor and Master of Arts program in classsical music of the Madhya Pradesh Raja Bhoj Open University with a primary focus on dhrupad, so that students of dhrupad while learning in the guru shishya system can also get a university degree through a flexible scheme of examinations that can be spread over several years.

Publications 1)Dhrupad of the Dagars, Conceptual Foundations and Contemporary Questions (ISBN 978-81-215-1301-2) being published in 2018 by Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi. 2)The Teaching Methods of Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar and Contemporary Questions of Dhrupad, Published in Samaas (ed. Udayan Vajpeyi) vol. 9 February 2014 3) Fundamental Concepts of Dhrupad, presented at Seminar on Raga and Tala at Hanns Eisler Conservatory/University of Arts Berlin December 2006 and published on the website of the University of Arts Berlin http://www.klangzeitort.de/index.php?page=dokumentationen.html&id=2