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THE LOST LEGACY OF BHENDI BAZAAR GHARANA

This is the lesser-known story of three brothers and their adopted city – of how they made music in the narrow lanes of a big city, and made history by giving Hindustani classical music a home in Bombay.

It is inconceivable then, at that point, that Bombay, an undisputedly cosmopolitan city with determinedly metropolitan roots, got home to a gharana of Hindustani traditional music. While there was no deficiency of popular entertainment, Bombay likewise willingly volunteered to belittle traditional music. As the British extended their compass for an area and benefit, a few self-governing imperial courts disintegrated, and their entertainers lost their support. Performers started to visit the city of Bombay, and some remained to make it home.

Along these lines, around the year 1870, three siblings of impeccable family – Nazim, Chajju and Khadim Hussain Ali Khan, the children of Ustad Dilawar Hussain Khan – chose to move to Bombay from Bijnaur close to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.

To meet the lodging needs of the work and common laborers in the Bombay Harbor, a region behind Crawford Market, a first class marketplace at that point, was created in residence style. Thus, Bhendi Bazaar, a twisting of 'Behind the Bazaar' was conceived. The Khan siblings decided to live here, close to the auditorium area of Grant Road and the places with a history of shameful behavior of Kamathipura.

The three brothers had spent decades training, first under the tutelage of their father, Ustad Dilawar Hussain Khan in Moradabad, and later under Inayat Hussain Khan of the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana and Ustad Inayat Khan of the Dagar Gharana. Bombay’s musical networks welcomed the brothers with open arms and they soon found recognition for their scholarship and became sought-after performers. 
The Ali Khan brothers developed their own technique, distinguishable for its slow, open-throated singing. Their improvisations of the raga were based on the Khandmer or Meerkhand principle of Hindustani classical music, which involved combinations of a limited number of notes being used to bring out the harmony of the raga. 

Their bandishes (compositions) were delightful blends of lyrics, notes and tempo, and they practiced individually designated rhythm play, with incorporations of some ragas from Carnatic music. The Khan brothers earned a reputation as the ‘Bhendi Bazaar-waleys’ and the gayaki (singing) evolved into the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana, when their music began to be passed down over generations to their disciples.   
The second generation of the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana was perhaps its most prolific. Chajju Khan’s son, Aman Ali Khan, followed in his family’s footsteps and became an iconic composer of Hindustani classical music in the style of the gharana. He is said to have composed 400-odd bandishes, reflecting the Bhendi Bazaar gayaki, with all its nuances and in all its glory.

Although several tentative attempts have been made to revive and popularise its gayaki, continuity of the Bhendi Bazaar Gharana continues to be a problem for its musicians. The gharana’s proponents have often refrained from public performances and left the gharana and its music largely unpublicised. Some had the misfortune of untimely deaths, leaving behind fewer disciples. Their compositions are long forgotten, with the city of their gharana moving on to echo the music of the times. 

Swaramandakini, an archival website project undertaken by Sudhir Gadre, the son of Mandakini Gadre (a practitioner of the gharana), contains some excellent live recordings of bandishes of the gharana and is documenting the legacy of the music and its practitioners. And so, one way or another, the music lives on.

#music #gharana #hindustaniclassicalmusic #bhendibazaar #bhendibazaarmusic #bhendibazaargharana #gharanasofindia #shastriyasangeet #bombay #legacyofmusic #forgottenlegacy #unheardtales #unheardstories #theunheardsecrets
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