photo: John Wilton photo: John Wilton
West Hurley, New York · November 1994
By Ira Landgarten. Copyright
1994 Ira Landgarten
Ira Landgarten: First of all, about your background, where
and when were you born?
Manilal Nag: I was born in Bankura town, of the Bankura
district of West Bengal in the year 1939, on 16th August. Then
I came to Uttarpara with my father. Uttarpara is near to Calcutta,
in the Hooghly district. Uttarpara was a very cultural town-once
upon a time many, many big men visited Uttarpara like Madhosudan
Dutta, Ram Mohan Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. B.C. Roy. At that
time, my father, the late Sri Gokul Nag, lived in the jamindar
bari, that means the house of the jamindar [landlord], as a music
teacher. The children of the jamindar learned some music-sitar,
vocal-from my father.
My father could play all kinds of instruments, many, many instruments
like beena, surbahar, esraj, sitar, sarod, tabla, tabla taranga,
harmonium, jaltaranga, nastaranga, kasturtaranga (made from wood).
Due to that reason Uday Shankar, the great, famous dancer of that
time, visited Uttarpara and listened to my father perform on so
many instruments. He was surprised how it was possible for a man
to play so many instruments! Then Uday Shankar requested my father,
"Please join my party as the music composer."
photo by Ira Landgarten
Gokul Nag
My father agreed, and he visited all the country, all over India
many times with this party. Then within a year or two Uday Shankar
requested him to visit abroad. My father told him, "I need
to take permission from my father." But my grandfather didn't
agree; in those days those old-fashioned Indian old men didn't
allow their children to go abroad. So my father didn't go and
Uday Shankar invited Ustad Allauddin Khan (photo) to join his party as music composer
instead. Then my father lived in Uttarpara, and he admitted me
to the school but my father didn't like that I will study and
do any job, as an engineer, as a doctor, or a lawyer. Why? At
that time the musicians were much welcomed by the maharajas, rajas
and jamindars, and they loved musicians. They invited him as the
court musician and honored him very much. My father always used
to take me along for practicing sitar.
When did you actually first start your real practice?
I remember when I started at the age of 5 or 6. First my father
taught me vocal-dhrupad-and I sang about 14 years, but after that
due to the problem of tonsillitis I didn't sing well, and after
that I practiced much on sitar. When I lived in Uttarpara I loved
very much to play football and cricket like other boys, but my
father at all times watched me and told me, "Please come
here, take your sitar!" and he himself would take me and
play sitar. I practiced minimum 8 to 10 hours every day! And believe
me, I practiced only paltas, mir, gamaks and exercises of different
types more than 3 or 4 years. After that he taught me only two
ragas: one morning raga, Bhairo [or Bhairav], and a night raga,
Sohini. Only two ragas, and those two ragas I practiced, you believe
me, for two years! Nothing, nothing, nothing else. Sometimes I
felt bored, and sometimes I listened to the radio, many music
concerts, but when I listened to the radio, immediately my father
came to me and turned off the radio and snapped at me, "Why
do you listen?" Because if I listen my mind will be 'fickle'
and I can't do good practice. At that time, the musicians knew,
but at present the students don't practice paltas, gamaks; they
want to become artists within 4 or 5 years. How is it possible?
It's not possible! Anyway, after those 2 years every day my father
gave me different ragas, many ragas within 3 or 4 years, mostly
all the common ragas I could play. After that he asked me to listen
to the concerts. When I started music, for at least 7 or 8 years
he didn't allow me to listen to any program, not even to the radio.
He started to take me to different concerts to listen, and from
my very childhood at the age of 12-13 I have listened to many
musicians with my father. I listened to Ustad Faiyaz Khan (photo), Ustad Bade Ghulam
Ali Khan, and I have often listened to Pandit Omkarnath Thakur,
Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Narayanrao Vyas, Kumar Gandharva, Gangubai
Hangal, and in Benares, Rasoolanbai, Siddheswari Devi, Hirabai
Barodekar, so many artists I don't even remember all the names
now!
Due to the blessings of God I had the opportunity to accompany
with the great maestros of tabla, tabla wizards, stalwarts of
tabla like Ustad Ahmedjan Thirakwa, Pandit Kante Maharaj, Ustad
Majid Khan. Naturally, the general public will not believe this
because these artists are like my grandfather! How is it possible
they accompanied me? I'm telling you frankly-when I was 12 or
13 years old I went to Benares with my uncle, and at that time
I was accompanied by Ashutosh Bhattacharya, the great tabla player,
and he was the student of Pandit Kante Maharaj. After listening
to my recital he was very happy and told his guru, Pandit Kante
Maharaj, that a boy, the son of Gokul Nag is here and played very
nicely. Then Kante Maharaj told him, "Please, come with him
here." And I went with Ashutosh Bhattacharya and my uncle,
and Kante Maharaj said, "Ba, betam, bejao." It was just
a homey atmosphere, and he took his tabla and I played near about
half an hour, and he blessed me very much, "Acchaa! Very
nice! Ba, beta!" When I was in Bombay I got the opportunity
to play with Ahmedjan Thirakwa in the residence of Nikhil Ghosh;
just half an hour I played with his accompaniment there.
What about Majid Khan? Majid Khan was the father of Ustad Keramatullah
Khan, and Jnan Prakash [Ghosh] is his [Majid Khan's] disciple.
What happened? When Sabir was born, after 6 months, his father
Keramatullah said, "Manilal, come to my house with your sitar
and you will play here for this auspicious occasion." I went
with my sitar to Keramatullah's house, and Ustadji, Majid Khan
told me, "Please come" and he took his tabla and started
to play with me. I got these opportunities due to the blessings
of God I think; very few musicians had these opportunities. And
I'm so lucky: when I sat for the audition for All-India Radio,
Keramatullah Khan accompanied me. This is a really very historical
matter! Ustad Keramatullah Khan didn't accompany just any new
musicians for auditions! This is due to the blessings of Baba,
my father, and God! After that, my father always told me, "When
you will play in any music concert, don't play with ordinary tabla
accompanists. At all times try to play with the top-most artists."
From my boyhood I got the opportunity to play with Pandit Shanta
Prasad at the All-India Music Conference in 1953 at the Roxy Cinema
Hall, Calcutta. He accompanied me nicely and he was very surprised,
and D.V. Paluskar listened and praised me very much. After one
month in Calcutta there was a very big conference-nine nights-called
Rag-o-Roop. The vocalist A.T. Kanan was very young and he was
volunteering to perform for very cheap. The first day I accompanied
with a new tabla player of similar age, Maharaj Banerjee, the
son of Mantu Banerjee who was a very great harmonium player in
Calcutta. When I played, so many musicians-Ustad Allauddin Khan,
Pandit Kante Maharaj, Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan (photo),
Omkarnath, Vinayakrao Patwardhan-were seated in front, and after
that program every musician was very glad. Suddenly Vinayakrao
Patwardhan came to the dais and took the microphone and personally
announced, "Tomorrow Manilal will play again with Pandit
Anokelal." Then there was a lot of applause! But I'm very
sorry there was no opportunity to take a picture or tape record.
Nothing! But I remember! I was very lucky-next I played with Pandit
Anokelal, the great maestro of Benares tabla. In 1954 I auditioned
for All-India Radio and was selected as 'A Grade' artist. next page....
