How Pt. Arvind Parikh keeps Ustad Vilayat Khan’s memory alive

Guru-sishya parampara has played a significant role in preserving and perpetuating Indian classical arts. Our music, in particular, is ‘gurumukhi vidya’, taught directly by the guru to sishya. This traditional way of knowledge transmission comes full circle when a dedicated disciple inherits the position of a guru and passes on the art to the next generation. 

There are five criteria to define a Guru — gyan (knowledge), vigyan (scientific or logical approach), vachan (the ability to articulate), prayog-siddhi (ability to demonstrate what he wants to teach) and sishya-nishpadan-kshamata (commitment to mentor the disciple into an artiste).

The guru-sishya bond

The best way to redeem this irrevocable ‘guru-rna’ (being indebted to the guru), according to scriptures, is to groom disciples and dedicate their musical offerings at the feet of your guru. Pt. Arvind Parikh, the senior-most disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan, has done this with utmost sincerity and commitment. The two-day Guru-Purnima festival dedicated to Ustad Vilayat Khan is organised every year in various cities, featuring performances by disciples of Pt. Arvind Parikh, as a homage to his guru Ustad Vilayat Khan.
Being Khan saheb’s shagird for eight decades, Arvind bhai is one of the principal inheritors of the Vilayatkhani Baaj (style). He has carried forward the legacy of his gharana with meticulous teaching. Besides taalim (practical training), he has created a huge repository of reference material. This is available as digital recordings and are uploaded on the mobiles of his disciples for ready reference. He has also created a website with detailed information about hundreds of raags. His Raga-Vidya series of video recordings, for instance, is a valuable guide about the grammar and aesthetics of raags where raag-vistar logic is meticulously explained by him. There is also a series about the variety of a single raag, like Malhar, Todi, or Sarang ke Prakar, to mention just a few. Interestingly, he has also enumerated them in the form of poems that can be easily remembered.

Sitar maestro and Arvind Parikhs’s guru Ustad Vilayat Khan
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

The two-day Guru-Purnima festival was held this year at the Prempuri Ashram at Malabar Hills in Mumbai. It featured sitar, surbahar, and vocal recitals by nearly 25 students of Pt. Arvind Parikh from India and abroad. They displayed considerable command over technique, content, and expression. Many of them are graded artistes of Akashvani and Doordarshan. The ‘silsila’-based elaboration of the raag, which is getting extinct nowadays; seemed to be the yardstick for almost each and every performer. Whichever raag they chose, their delineation followed a proper progression through the melodic contours of the raag in ascending and descending orders.

Ustad Vilayat Khan tying the ganda (thread) on shagird (student) Arvind Parikh. The thread signifies the guru-sishya parampara
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Among the noteworthy performances were the renditions of raag Goojri Todi on the sitar by Gopal Krishna Shah, Puriya-Kalyan on the surbahar by Ashwin Dalvi, the challenging raags like Puria on the sitar by Amruta Kulkarni, and Marwa’s vocal recital by Purvi Parikh, Bageshri by Sundar Nath, Rageshri by Amrita More and Bhairavi by Varad Bhosale.

The beauty of Goojri Todi

Gopal’s very first meend from mandra dhaivat to komal gandhar created the aura of Goojri Todi, underlining his flair for the raag. His urge to explore the crevices of the raag, those inner reaches of emotions that a raag represents; made the performance memorable. The amicable alap-jod-jhala was followed by three compositions set to Vilambit Teentaal, Drut Ektaal, and Drut Teentaal respectively. Accompanied on the tabla by Bhushan Parchure, he concluded with a melodious Pahadi Dhun in Rupak taal.

Ashwin’s stoic and vigorous strokes had elegance. His leisurely alap explored the lower octave till the mandra shadja, which made a profound impact on the listeners from the initial stages. If the expansive meends enhanced the beauty of alap, the forceful oscillating gamakas enriched the jod-kaam, after which Ashwin presented a composition set to Dhamar taal, accompanied on the pakhawaj by Dhawal Mistry.

An established vocalist of Kirana Gharana, Purvi Prtikh is also a disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Her remarkable Marwa was treated with reverence and restraint. Amruta’s Puriya was laudable for keeping up the tradition. Sundarnath gave a befitting treatment to raag Bageshri. Varad was to play raag Darbari but due to time constraints he decided to play just Bhairavi and made it memorable. 

Shower of raags

The festival opened with a vocal recital by Jaspal Singh Kalsi, who sang a chhota khayal in raag Bhupali. The sitar recitals thereafter opened with Bilaskhani Todi by Nishad Mistry from Vadodara followed by Ahir Bhairav by Rafat Khan, who is also a gandabandh shagird of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Prashansa Shastri presented raag Jog, where the mukda (opening phrase) of the composition started with a flourishing taan, Bageshri was the choice of Nitin Parmar from Baroda and Altaf Khan from Jaipur, who also played the famous Bandish, ‘Dagar chalat pakad lini’ set to Drut Ektaal. Maruti Patil presented raga Madhuvanti.

On the second day, Sushma Jhaveri played Rageshri and Paresh Parekh, raag Jaijaivanti. Bhupali by Jyoti Shyam vouched for her aesthetic sense but the taans needed clarity. Premal Bhana from South Africa, despite having a full-time career in investment banking, displayed a good level of performance skill while treating raag Yaman. Madhura Karambelkar played raag Bhimpalasi. The vocal rendition of raag Kedar by Harpreet Singh trained under Purvi Parikh had admirable elements of Kirana gharana. 

In addition to the musical performances, musician and musicologist Meena Bannerjee was invited to deliver a talk on ‘Dhrupad’, while I spoke on the ‘Future of Indian Music’. Pt. Arvind Parikh was present on both days to encourage and bless his disciples. A staunch believer in guru-sishya parampara, he said, “Music is inborn but good taalim (grooming) adds fragrance to gold (sone mein sugandh).”