The Morris Music Room

Nagpur: Educational institutions boast of famous alumni and intriguing history. But Vasantrao Naik Government Institute, the erstwhile Morris College has tucked within its campus a music department which in spite of its spartan looks boast of a rich heritage.
Set up on October 20, 1954 by Prabhakar Khardenavis, the department has groomed vocalists and instrumental musicians like Ulhas Kashalkar, Sumati Mutatkar, Aniruddha Deshpande, Chitra Modak, says Aparna Agnihotri, head of the department at present.“He was eager to introduce music as a subject here and was the first HoD too,” she says. The classes began with a handful of students and were conducted in two small rooms adjacent to what is called Independence Hall. Later some space was given to it in the main building.
The department became extremely popular among students because of the famous musicians who began teaching here. “Rajabhau Kogje, considered the king of Thumri gaayki and disciple of Vinayak Bua Patwardhan taught here besides Babasaheb Deshpande who invented the tar shehnai and Narayan Purohit. These names attracted a lot of students,” says Agnihotri.
What added to the aura of this department were the frequent mehfils of classical music which were organized in what is called Darbar Hall. “It was a room dedicated to performances by various musicians. Care was taken to develop the right ambience of this room. So photos of around 25 renowned musicians were collected from all over, hand painted and put up in this room,” says Agnihotri pointing out to the framed pictures of Bal Gandharva, Hirabai Barodekar, Ravi Shankar, Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Kesarbai Kerkar and Raja Bhaiyya Poonchwaale among others.
“Their presence in the room through these paintings inspires the students and even teachers to do well,” says the HoD. The musical presentations by well-known artists in Darbar Hall created an environment of rich music not just in the city but in the entire region and attracted many students to the department.
In 1962, the department become the only one to have a post graduate course in music in Vidarbha. “That’s the reason why so many well-known musicians today are associated with this college as most have done their post-graduation from here,” says Agnihotri.
Not just vocal, the department also offered courses in instrumental music which were discontinued in 1986. Though this section was closed, but because of it, the department today has a rich collection of rare musical instruments. “Mayur vadya, a peacock-shaped string instrument which is a cross between sitar and ‘dilruba’ is perhaps only one of its kind besides we also have ‘ek taari’, surbahar, rudra veena, Carnatic-style tanpura and an organ,” she says pointing to the precious collection kept in locked glass cupboards.
“These musical instruments have been in our department for 60 years but are still in good condition and can be played if
required,” she adds. Today, they are used for explaining
to students about classification of instruments.
The rich heritage also consists of spools, cassettes and recordings of various musicians. “There are rare recordings of Kesarbai Kerkar, Bhimsen Joshi, Joharbai Agrawali and Begum Akhtar. The college is now acquiring equipment to digitalize these recordings,” says Sadhana Shiledar, associate professor here.
The alumni of the college are faculty members in various music institutions and occupying prestigious positions in various cultural organizations. Musicians like harmonium player Shrikant Pise and vocalists Akanksha Nagarkar, Smita Joshi, Sonali Dixit are all doing extremely well. “This is the reason that Morris College is looked upon with lot of regard all over the country, especially in the cultural and music circles,” says city ghazal singer Prasanna Joshi who too has been a student of this college.
“At the inter university festivals organized in the state and pan India, cultural teams from Nagpur University comprising students of this college and those of Mumbai University enjoy a certain level of regard and awe. And in the last 20 years, teams from Morris College have consistently continued to win trophies,” says Joshi, underlying the quality of training that the college provides.