It is mainly a vocal tradition based on the practice of nāda yoga, but is also performed on instruments like the Rudra Veena and the Sursringār. For the past five centuries Dhrupad has mainly thrived under the patronage of Mughal and Rajput kings. The picture on the left shows Dhrupad singers Zākiruddin Khān, Allābande Khān, Ziāuddin Khān and Nasiruddin Khān  (clockwise from top left) the foremost Dhrupad singers in the beginning of the twentieth century. The descendants of Zakiruddin Khan and Allabande Khan adopted the name of the genre (The Ḍāgar Bānī of Dhrupad) as their family name and acquired renown as the Dagar brothers.

mp3 downloads
ASHISH SANKRITYAYAN: Dhrupad Ragas Yaman, Malkauns, Lalit - DVD
ASHISH SANKRITYAYAN: Dhrupad Raga Miya Ki Malhar

 

ASHISH SANKRITYAYAN: Dhrupad - Ragas Abhogi, Lalit
ASHISH SANKRITYAYAN, SKYE LOFVANDER: Subtle Voices : Subtle Summit
Instruments of Dhrupad
Dhrupad Recording Archives
Ashish Sankrityayan's Travel Blog
Dhrupad Kendra Bhopal Ustad Allauddin Khan Academy

 

myspace profile
Documentary Film on Dhrupad

 

Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar

MAESTROS of DHRUPAD ( c1918)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fundamental concepts of Dhrupad

excerpts from an article by Ashish Sankrityayan

Dhrupad and khyāl are the two forms of classical singing that exist today in North India. Dhrupad, the older form, enjoyed wide popularity till the seventeenth or early eighteenth century, after which it gradually declined with the emergence of khyāl, a more entertaining style. The decline of dhrupad accelerated during the last two centuries, with many of its practitioners switching over to the new form, which progressively increased in popularity and attracted greater patronage. Dhrupad however remained the favoured style in a few imperial courts, mainly in Rajasthan and Bihar, where some dhrupad traditions continued till the late 1940’s, when these states were assimilated into the Indian republic. The period after Indian independence till the present times was a difficult one for this art, for it called into question its very survival in a society in which it was not popular, but needed the patronage of a new ruling class of bureaucrats and politicians who unlike its previous aristocratic patrons, did not understand it at all.

There are at present very few practitioners of dhrupad left in India, and as can be expected in such a situation, there is an enormous fragmentation and erosion of knowledge about the art, even among its few remaining practitioners. The whole body of composed work of the tradition has been practically decimated. It is a striking indictment of India's system of state patronage of the arts post- 1947 that the system failed to take up the task of recording the entire body of surviving compositions of Dhrupad on a war footing. Many relatively obscure Dhrupad singers who had a vast repertoire of old Dhrupad compositions eventually took them all to their graves. Lack of knowledge about Dhrupad has reached a point today where it is difficult, even in the literature of music and in musical circles, to find a proper definition of what it is, and what sets it apart from its modern derivative - the khyāl.  It is common in India now to find dhrupad described in terms of the language and the grammar of khyāl. Most descriptions list the obvious structural differences between khyāl and dhrupad and emphasize that in dhrupad, ornaments and melodic devices like murki, khatkā, phirat, and particularly fast passages called tāns, which are characteristic of khyāl singing, are strictly avoided.

The decline of dhrupad during the last two centuries coincides in my opinion with a paradigm shift in Indian classical music, in which it came to be accepted that music must primarily entertain. This is a concept that reigns supreme in India today, and therefore precludes any attempts to revive or even initiate a serious study of dhrupad. But the sophistication of the musical concepts underlying dhrupad, and its objective of creating a music that uplifts, but does not necessarily entertain, and that embodies the essence of Indian spiritual thought, has found for it a growing acceptance and admiration in the West. Since the visit of the elder Dagar brothers to the West in the 1960’s and the efforts of Alain Danielou kindled interest in dhrupad, many singers have given performances there, and the number of concerts, workshops and seminars of dhrupad in the West now significantly exceed those in India. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the interest of people in the West has made dhrupad singing, financially a more viable profession for its few remaining practitioners.

The complete article can be downloaded here http://klangzeitort.de/index.php?page=dokumentationen.html&id=2

Odissi Dance Teaching

For Odissi Dance Concerts, Workshops, Individual Lessons www.odissi-bithika.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

English  Deutsch Français

Dhrupad is the oldest surviving form of Indian Classical music and traces its origin to the chanting of vedic hymns and mantras. Though a highly developed classical art with a complex and elaborate grammar and aesthetics, it is also primarily a form of worship, in which offerings are made to the divine through sound or nāda. Dhrupad can be seen at different levels as a meditation, a mantric recitation, a worship , a yoga or tantra based on the knowledge of the nādis and chakras and also purely as a performing art portraying a universe of human emotions.

Concerts Teaching Articles   Press Clips  Books  Dhrupad&Hildegard Contact 
Dhrupad classical North Indian temple and court music

 

 


 

Forthcoming concerts of Ashish Sankrityayan

for details pls. see Concerts

2013

19th January Aurangabad (India)

13th Marrch Indore (India)

13th April Palezieux (Switzerland)

14th April La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland)

15th to 17th April Rasa Centovalli (Switzerland)

20th April Rome

21st April Rome

23rd April Seelisberg (Switzerland)

25th April Istanbul (Turkey)

26-28 April Izmir (Turkey)

8th to 15th October Salzburg/Groedig (Austria)

15th October Duesseldorf (Germany)

 

2012

17th, 18th February Palezieux (Switzerland)

19th,20th February Seelisberg(Switzerland)

25th February Berlin

26th February Århus (Denmark)

2nd March Stockerau (Austria)

6th March Horn (Austria)

20th May Lyngby (Denmark)

20th May Copenhagen

22nd May Them (Denmark)

2nd June Palezieux (Switzerland)

3rd June Zurich

28th, 29th September Palezieux (Switzerland)

30th September Hillerød (Denmark)

5th October Copenhagen

6th October Toronto

7th October San Francisco

10th, 11th, 13th October Seattle

10th, 11th November Them (Denmark)

15th November Riga (Latvia)

16th, 17th November Vilnius(Lithuania)

30the November, 1st December Palezieux (Switzerland)

1st December Neuchatel (Switzerland)

2nd December Paris

8th December Bordeaux (France)

15th December Gwalior (India)

2011

19th March Lausanne (Switzerland)

20th March Bern (Switzerland)

23 March Lyngby (Denmark)

23/24 March Copenhagen

2nd April Sønderborg (Denmark)

8th-10th April Salzburg/Grodig (Austria)

8th September Copenhagen

9th, 10th September Møn (Denmark)

10th September Stege (Denmark)

11th September Dresden (Germany)

15th September Nakskov (Denmark)

16th,17th September Palezieux (Switzerland)

17th September Neuchatel (Switzerland)

18th September St. Remy la Varenne (France)

21st September Paris

22nd September Bern (Switzerland)

23rd September Bern (Switzerland)

17th November Endersbach(Germany)

18th, 19th November Palezieux (Switzerland)

22nd November Copenhagen

25th November Copenhagen

10th December Gwalior (India)

2010

29th January New Delhi

4th March Helsingør (Denmark)

5th March Hillerød (Denmark)

5th March Copenhagen

6th March Lyngby (Denmark)

6th March Copenhagen

7th March Copenhagen

12th March Berlin

27th March Lyngby (Denmark)

28th March Paris

22nd April Copenhagen

24th April Århus (Denmark)

25th April Århus (Denmark)

26th April Virklund (Denmark)

27th April Copenhagen (Denmark)

13th May Wolfenbüttel (Germany)

15th-30th May Musica Sacra Festival (Germany, Belgium)

15th May Munich

20th May Marktoberdorf (Germany)

22nd May Isny (Germany)

23rd May Lechbruck (Germany)

24th May Ausgsburg (Germany)

25th May Kaufbeuren (Germany)

27th May Stadt Worms (Germany)

30th May Macon (Belgium)

30th May Chimay (Belgium)

1,4 June Vienna

5,6 June Palezieux (Switzerland)

7-13June Rasa (Switzerland)

25th June Mumbai (India)

24th/25th July Vlodrop (Holland)

27th/28/29th July Salzburg (Austria)

1st/2nd August Odden (Denmark)

8th August Palezieux (Switzerland)

12th August Flachau (Austria)

13th August Århus (Denmark)

14th August Silkeborg (Denmark)

16,17th August Salzburg (Austria)

15th/16th October Berlin

17th October Salzburg/Grodig (Austria)

18-21st October Nürnberg (Germany)

23/24th October San Francisco

27th October Paris

30th OctoberPalezieux(Switzerland)

31st October Bern (Switzerland)

1-7 November St Pierre de Vassols (France)

14th November Panjim Goa (India)

25th November New Delhi (India)

5th December Palezieux (Switzerland)

6th December Salzburg/Grodig (Austria)

 

 

 



They kept this art alive in the difficult period after 1947 when it lost the patronage of the royal courts. Zakiruddin and Allabande Khan were brothers and disciples of their granduncle Baba Behram Khan , and served respectively in the royal courts of Udaipur and Alwar. They were the foremost Dhrupad singers of their times (late nineteenth and early twentieth century) and were greatly respected for their singing and erudition. Their performances are still remembered with awe and reverence. (please see more details about Zakiruddin and Allabande and their descendents the Dagar Brothers on maestros.htm).
Although Dhrupad originated in the chanting of vedic hymns and mantras, it gradually evolved into an independent art form with its own complex grammar. Dhrupad was originally sung in temples and later thrived under the patronage of Mughal and Rajput kings. Fundamental to Dhrupad singing is the practice of Nāda Yoga, in which, through various yogic practices, the singer develops the inner resonance of the body, and can make the sound resonate and flow freely through the entire region from navel to head. This enables the singer to produce a vast palette of subtle tone colours and microtonal shades. The processes of Udātta, Anudātta and Svarita play the same fundamental role in Dhrupad singing as in Vedic recitation. (For more detailed articles about Dhrupad please see Articles) . A Dhrupad performance starts with the alāp which is a slow and elaborate development of a Rāga (mode) using free flowing melodic patterns. The elaboration of Dhrupad alāp is done using the syllables of a mantric phrase 'om antaran twam, taran taaran twam, ananta hari narayan om' . The phrases of Dhrupad alāpa are very slow and contemplative in the beginning, but the tempo increases in stages, and in the faster passages playful and vigorous ornaments predominate. The audio and video samples on this site and Myspace give examples of different facets of Dhrupad. Dhrupad Alap is followed by the singing of a composition with rhythmic improvisation, to the accompaniment of a barrel drum called the pakhawaj (ancestor of the tabla). The Tālas or cycles of beats commonly used are Choutāla (12 beats), Dhamāra (14 beats), Jhaptāla (10beats), Sūltāla (10beats), Tīvrā (7 beats). In the videos on this page can be heard examples of Chowtal and Dhamar. Dhrupad portrays a vast range of human emotions: serenity, compassion, sensuality, pathos, strangeness, anger and heroism and subtle shades of them all. In Dhrupad of the Dagar tradition the notes are not treated as fixed points, but as fluid entities with infinite microtonal shades.The music is deeply spiritual and meditative. The Dagar style of Dhrupad is defined by 52 musical concepts or Arkaans (12 basic alankaras and 40 more). These include concepts like Udātta, Anudātta, Svarita, Sapta Gupta, Sapta Prakata, Sakārī etc. which have all but disappeared from Indian classical music and even from Dhrupad . In the various audio/video files on this site can be heard all these concepts as they are used in practice in Dhrupad performance.

Ashish Sankrityayan is an exponent of the Dagar Tradition of Dhrupad. He has trained for twenty years under three maestros of the Dagar family and is well known for his frequent concert appearances and teaching.Ashish Started his musical training at an early age, first learning the sitar and subsequently vocal music. While studying mathematics at the University of Bombay he was inspired to take up Dhrupad when he heard a recording of the senior Dagar brothers Nasir Moinuddin and Nasir Aminuddin Dagar, and met Rudra Veena maestro Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. He later trained under several maestros of the Dagar family Ustad Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar, Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar and Ustad Hussain Sayeedudddin Dagar for twenty years and was awarded the National Junior Culture Fellowship by the Indian National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama ( the Sangeet Natak Akademi). Ashish has given numerous public performances of Dhrupad and has given lectures and workshops in institutions like the Anton Bruckner University in Linz, The Free University of Berlin, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Hildesheim University, University of Copenhagen. He often perfoms with European medieval, renaissance and contemporary musicians.