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"Ramrang" - A Life in Music Rajan P. Parrikar Rajan P. Parrikar is a recognized expert on Indian Classical music and shares his knowledge freely with those interested in the subject. He has written a series of articles on Classical Indian Music some of which have been archived on Sawf. Click here to read Rajan's earlier articles.

Rajan P. Parrikar at Arossim, Goa (2003)

Namashkar.

Today we have assembled under one roof to honour Ram Ashreya Jha "Ramrang" and to reflect on the oeuvre of this rara avis who has dedicated his life to the realization of the highest and noblest ideals decorating the musical pathways of our land. We celebrate this apostle who, through years of ardent study and contemplation, has enlarged our understanding and knowledge of Raga and clarified its foundations in the realm of both shashtra and performance. For 60 years Ram Ashreya Jha has exerted his critical and creative faculties, coursed through the demesne of his formidable intellect, and culled melodic objects of lasting value only to plant them back in the garden of our imagination. In so doing, Ramrang has made our world more beautiful and more meaningful. Now it is our turn to punctuate his musical odyssey with a collective expression of gratitude, affection and admiration.

To think of Ramrang is to think of his fanatical love of learning, of the unusual depth and width of his knowledge, of his high standards of excellence, of his remarkable ingenuity, and above all, of the passion and joie de vivre with which he disburses the fruits of his endeavours. A sharp focus in life is a benediction granted to only the most fortunate among us. Music has been the sole and defining hinge around which Ramrang's life has revolved. It has been his raison d'etre, his anodyne, and his refuge from "the crowded trivialities of everyday life" (to paraphrase Rabindranath Thakur). The extent of this monomania is suggested by his own occasional utterance: aur kuchh na aataa hai na kartaa hoon.

You may think that a man of such distinction will have honours and recognition to show for but you would be mistaken. Ramrang has neither canvassed for awards nor craved recognition. You may imagine that Hindustani rasikas and scholars alike would have tapped into the valuable material from the huge library of knowledge and experience that Ramrang personifies. Again you would be mistaken. In a culture flush with "living legends" and "prodigies" a Ramrang can scarcely be expected to register his presence. So as not to give offense to the thousands of worthy "Pandits" and "Geniuses" who populate the Hindustani universe, I shall eschew the use of these terms while referring to Ram Ashreya Jha.

Ram Ashreya Jha was born on August 11, 1928, near Darbhanga in the Mithila region of Bihar. His father, Sukhdev Jha, and his uncle, Madhusudan Jha, were his early mentors. But his final calling was nurtured and brought into purposeful focus in the 25 years he spent in Allahabad at the ashram of his guru, Bholanath Bhatt. Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khayal, Thumri, Dadra, Tappa - Ramrang mastered the fundamentals of all these forms. He also had the benefit of instruction from other vidwans such as B.N. Thakar of Allahabad and Habib Khan of Kirana. About 15 years of his youth spent with a drama company in Varanasi helped widen his musical vistas and attune him to the pulse of the rustic antecedents of our Art music. In 1968, he was appointed to the faculty of Allahabad University and later in 1980 elevated to the position of Head of the Music Department. This singular move by the University was in recognition of genuine merit for Ramrang holds no formal degrees. He retired from active professorial duty in 1989.

Ramrang's composite personality unravels into four related strands. He is a shastrakara of the highest class and the fruits of his lifelong meditations into the nature of Raga constitute the five published volumes of Abhinava Geetanjali. These classics represent a signal contribution to Indian music, dazzling us with the keenness of their author's mind, laying bare his capacity for concentration and reflection, his vast and agile imagination, and the calibre of his scholarship. They redound to his talents in formulating and conveying ideas elegantly and simply. The insights and critical analyses of Ragas together with hundreds of Ramrang's own high-quality musical compositions purveyed impel us to the inescapable verdict: Ram Ashreya Jha "Ramrang" is the Bhatkhande of our times.

Ramrang is a peerless vaggeyakara, the likes of whom infrequently grace our musical firmament. The ancient Sanskrit term vaggeyakara is dwelt upon by Sarangdeva in his treatise Sangeet Ratnakara (see the English translation by R.K. Shringy and Prem Lata Sharma, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1991) and is a union of vaka+geya+kara, where "vaka is lit. speech and therefore by context implies the verbal text or the verbal structure of a musical composition; geyam is lit. that which is the object of singing, i.e. dhatu, the tonal rhythmic structure of melody." Hence "vaggeyakara, one who composes the verbal as well as the tonal-rhythmic structure of the song."

Ramrang's astonishing retentiveness and quickness of mind, the prehensility of his intellect which enables him to apprehend the slightest hint of melody and press it into service, are among the key strengths attending his creative urge. Ramrang carries all the essential music in his head and it is always at hand for instant recall. A key requirement of a quality bandish is that it ought to represent the précis of a Raga's melodic content. A typical Ramrang composition goes farther: each word, swara and matra are tied together in a symbiotic melodic ecosystem of an aesthetic unity not usually found in your run-of-the-mill 'old' or 'traditional' bandish. Verily, his compositions install him alongside the handful of supremely gifted musical minds in any generation to whom is vouchsafed the mantra of music. Among the earliest leading performers to appreciate Jha-sahab's deep scholarship and come under the spell of his compositions was Jitendra Abhisheki, who sang, popularized and taught many of Ramrang's bandishes. Over the years, these compositions have found their way into the repertoire of several well-known performing vocalists.

As a performer, Ramrang's gayaki is best appreciated by those who know and understand the nuances of swara and Raga. One listens to Ramrang not for his vocal gymnastics and high velocity tans - to be sure, he is capable of neither - but to drink from the wellspring of Raganubhava. His is a lakshana-oriented approach. Even the familiar, well-worn ragas when refracted through Ramrang's mental prism acquire a distinct conceptual body and flavour. Unlike most Hindustani renditions of the day, Ramrang does not believe in making short shrift of the text of the bandish. Instead, with his acute sense of the dramatic and the poetic, he reminds us of the values embedded in the older genre of Dhrupad, marrying verse and swara with such felicity as to make the two seem inseparable. Ramrang's creative acumen lies not only in his superbly-conceived compositions but also in his manner of uccharana accompanying the build-up of the Raga edifice (known as asthaai bharnaa) from the elemental bandish.

The final cut of Ramrang's jib appertains to his role as a guru. He has trained and counseled several students over the years, many of whom have embarked on productive careers. His senior disciple, Dr. Geeta Banerjee, is an eminent author, scholar and musician who later succeeded him as Head of the Music Department at Allahabad University. Another pupil, Shubha Mudgal, has attained international recognition. Ramrang is an exceptional lecturer who brings to his subject the font of knowledge, clarity of exposition, and an inspirited delivery. His discourses have come to be highly valued as both didactic masterpieces and as vignettes of aesthetic delight.

Today, as he has done for the past 6 decades, Ramrang spends his waking moments immersed in the contemplation and creation of music. True to his calling as one of the greatest vaggeyekaras of all time, Ramrang's intellectual wanderlust shows no sign of abating; every day turns in a new insight or a new asthaai. In this context he lends meaning to Einstein's memorable words: Only in Science and Art are we permitted to remain children all our lives.

Although Ramrang is known to music sadhakas as the author of the Abhinava Geetanjali classics and as a composer extraordinaire, he has spent most of his musical life in relative isolation, away from the glare of public adulation, and on the fringes of the community of active performing musicians. This is entirely in keeping with his character and inner conviction that music is a lifelong sadhana of intellectual and emotional discipline.

In summing up the life of Ram Ashreya Jha "Ramrang," let me close with the understated flourish of Professor G.H. Hardy in his essay A Mathematician's Apology:

Whatever we do may be small, but it has a certain character of permanence; and to have produced anything of the slightest permanent interest...is to have done something utterly beyond the powers of the vast majority of men.

The above tribute was written on the occasion of Ramrang's 75th birthday felicitation function held in New Delhi, India, on August 16, 2003.

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