January is the month of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee’s untimely death. One of the greatest sitariyas of his time, Nikhil Banerjee died way before his time when he was just 54. Apart from being a very fine musician, one of his greatest achievements was to forge his own very distinct style of playing, at a time when two giants on the sitar were alive and performing – Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar. Perhaps part of this was due to the divergent training by his Guru – Ustad Allaudin Khan. Nikhil Banerjee once famously commented in an interview, that Baba had said, ‘I have decided to teach you sitar after the style of Nawab Kutubudaulla Bahadur of Lucknow’(incidentally, a player who is not heard of today).
Purbayan Chatterji, whose father Pandit Partha Prathim Chatterji learnt from Nikhil Banerjee, said, “My father told me often of how Pandit Nikhil Banerjee used to say, ‘it’s like I was in a box – with the first wall being Ustad Vilayat Khan and his overpowering style, thesecond wall Ravi Shankar, the third wall Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and the fourth wall Ustad Amir Khan – how am I to get out of these powerful influences, and escape from the box.” He strove hard and made a huge effort to create his own style as merely copying another was never his idea of making music.
After learning from a variety of people, including Maharaj Kumar Birendra Kishore Roy Chaudhary (Senia gharana), Pandit Radhika Mohan Moitra (Senia Shahjahanpur gharana), Nikhil Bannerji was finally accepted as the student of the legendary Allaudin Khan, with whom he stayed in Maihar for a few years and learnt in the rigorous punishing style of the master. In his words, it was nothing but music all day with breaks just to eat and wash ones clothes. Later, he continued his training under Ali Akbar Khan in Calcutta. His knowledge of true Senia raga was undoubted; he carefully maintained its purity.
Nikhil Banerjee remembered the debt to his Guru till his last days – he once said, “Baba had taught me ‘Whenever you are giving a performance, meditate your Guru first and then you will see that he takes you over and carries you through. He will come inside you and he will push you, and create good music’.”
Nikhil Banerjee was extremely humble till the end. “Whenever you play a raga, begin with worshipping and welcoming it. Imagine it to be a deity. Bow down and pray that it should have mercy on you and it should become alive through your medium. Never approach a raga with a feeling of pride or vanity in your heart. Music grows out of the purest feelings of your soul and hence the mind of the musician, if only purified, can produce the vibration,” he said.
Nikhil Banerjee’s dedication towards sitar was total – as late as a few years before he died, when he was at the peak of his musical career, he had said that he still practised for about four hours a day.
One could not compromise on this, he had said. There could not be any other way; no short-cuts. He also used to say you must first practice technique and then you must forget it. Then only can you break the fence around you.
It was sad he was unable to achieve his dream of nurturing a new generation of students.
In an interview in 1985, a year before he died, he had said that he intended to slow down in a few years, travel less and then teach a few promising students in the old traditional way in which he had learnt – the old Guru Shishya parampara.
Learning music exclusively, as he had done with Allaudin Khan, to the exclusion of everything else would produce a new generation of fine, focused, well taught musicians. Sadly that was not to be.
Kushal Das
Today, he remains an inspiration to a new generation of sitar players. Kushal Das and Purbayan Chatterjee are two leading sitariyas today who most closely emulate his style though neither received direct taalim (training) from him. Kushal Das says, “I try to emulate his style of playing; I am nowhere near him as a musician nor did I ever have had the good fortune to ever learn from him personally. But I do try to play like him and he remains an inspiration musically. I tried to hear each concert of his in Calcutta from 1978 onwards till his death. His concerts were always very devotional and there was a spiritual quality in his music.
Purbayan Chatterjee
He was a complete musician and one felt musically replete after hearing him; there was never a sense of having missed any aspect whether in terms of peacefulness, technical brilliance and layakari.”
Purbayan Chatterjee said, “What can I say about him! For me, he was Goddess Saraswati’s child. He came with a blessing from Her to bless us, and then he left us with his divine music.
He carved a niche for himself in the most trying of times and set new benchmarks.
To understand his true greatness, one has to understand his humble beginnings – to rise from there like a phoenix, and to get credited with an individual style says it all”.
Truly, Nikhil Banerjee was an icon, a true innovator whose music will remain for future generations to emulate. Luckily there are available several recordings of his in excellent quality.
