RMIM Archive Article "234".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: K. L. Saigal: the pilgrim of the swara 1
#
# Posted by: ADhareshwar@WorldBank.Org (Ashok)
# Source: K. L. Saigal: the pilgrim of the swara
# Clarion Books, New Delhi, 1978
# Author: Ragava R. Menon
#
(Posted Jan 17th 97)
Fifty years ago from today, just seven months before the country
was to win freedom, a musical phenomenon came to its end.
Sometime ago, I was reminded of the significance of the occasion
by Ajay Nerurkar. Since then, I have been looking around for an
interesting article to post for the occasion and soon ran into
this crazy book. Looks like it is written by an international
professional hailing from Kerala, who came totally under the
spell of Saigal's magic. It is not a biography; there are very
few facts here, although the author has spoken to a number of
people who had interacted with Saigal and they include some
interesting characters. It is an account of Saigal's singing, or
more accurately, an account of author's subjective reactions to
Saigal's music. It is quite badly written, author's Hindi seems
to be suspect, the author often goes on and on about his own
reflections regarding music, society, and life. Nevertheless,
the ardour and fervour with which he has approached his love is
admirable and the book has lots of quaint and curiously
interesting aspects.
I have decided to post selected chapters from the book. It was
published in 1978 by a publishing house that I haven't encounterd
often. I suspect the book is out of print. In any case, I hope
the selective material I post leads many music lovers to seek out
the book. It has some terrific pictures.
Ashok
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:K. L. Saigal: the pilgrim of the swara
Ragava R. Menon
Clarion Books, New Delhi, 1978
:Contents
. Introduction
. shadja
. rishabha
. gandhara
. madhyama
. pancham
. dhaivat
. nishad
. baabula mora
. Appendix: The records of K. L. Saigal
. Glossary
. Index
:Introduction
This book has taken a whole lifetime in the making. Information
has been slow and difficult to obtain as most of the key men in
Saigal's youth and early years were dead and beyond recall. It
has been mostly picked, in bits and pieces, a scrap here and a
scrap there, over several decades.
Two longish meetings with Saigal himself in the last years
of his life have added to my own sense of him. He sang _heer_ to
us the first time I met him. He sang softly intoning his
syllables returning to an agonizing _madhyama_ that made you
wonder whether it was a flute or a voice that you were hearing.
He was reticent about himself, laughing off his extraordinary
achievements as though it were so much rumour. He did not seem
like a man who looked much ahead. He lived largely in the
moment.
So he gave you a sense of being all there, a man of the
present. All of him. This you could see without having to ask.
His drinking habits fascinate many people. You are very well
informed on this subject--whether he drank, how much, and whether
he sang better or worse when in his cups. This is an eternal
topic of discussion whenever Saigal is mentioned.
His family has been of great help to me in my search of him.
His wife Asharani Saigal bore with my persistent and sometimes
stubborn demand for nuances about him and while she broke into
tears very often, forgave me with singular kindness.
His daughters, charming and patient, helped me beyond my
ability to repay them in this life, or if there is another, in
that. His sons-in-law, Ali and Mahendra Chopra, were helpful in
the extreme, communicating with a gentle insight the quality of
the man into whose family they had cast their lot.
I have been privileged to have several long sessions with
the kind and gentle relatives of K. L. Saigal. I can still
recall Asharani Saigal's reference to her husband given me in
broken words and often choked with sobs, which I have taken the
liberty to quote here with somewhat less discontinuity:
"He is as complex as anything God has created. His
characteristics were uncommon in every sense. He had a
prodigious memory and felt for things that were difficult to
understand. You can be his brother, his mother, or his
wife, but you could never know him completely. I felt at
times as though I were trembling, and at times it was so
easy. He wrote the song "mai.n baiThi thi" with his head on
my lap, asking for the pen and ink to write its strange
words down.
"Later he brought its tune into life on the harmonium. Long
after he passed away, I had a pervading sense of his
presence in the house. Everywhere he would appear to me and
I was disconsolate for years."
I have taxed the kindness of music maestro R. C. Boral with
whom I spent a whole day and whose help was principally
responsible for this book. The late Pahari Sanyal gave me two
full days of his time, singing various Saigal songs and showing
me the peculiarities of his style and the techniques Saigal
employed. His insights about Saigal locked with several other
views I had picked up from diverse sources about Saigal's art and
inner nature.
I was given several hours with film producer B. N. Sircar,
who told me many anecdotes about Saigal's life at the New
Theatres. Principally, however, the truths of Saigal's childhood
were given to me by the three astrologers I have mentioned in the
book--Badri Prasad Bannerji, Biswanath Rajgarhia, and Yogeshwar
Shastri. The relationship between a man and his astrologer must
be deemed as classified as with his physician or his lawyer. Yet
these men were aware of the importance of my quest for the man
they themselves loved and revered. It was only after they were
sure that I would not use the information they had given me for
anything but honourable purpose that they agreed to tell all they
knew. Imtiaz Ahmed was an important link. Although desperately
poor, he refused to accept any kind of consideration for the time
he spent and the kindness with which he described his earliest
memories of the man. It is not possible to repay the debt of
gratitude I owe to him.
I have had access to Kanan Devi's compelling account of her
life and times told with such wisdom and penetrating
understanding in 'Shobarey Ami Nomey', several published
interviews of Pankaj Mullick, the moving TV documentary entitled
'Bhulaaye Na Bane' and the passionate interest of the late Ali
Bokhari in the life of his dear friend. I have also had old
copies of 'Jayathi' loaned to me by friends in Varanasi, Lucknow,
and Allahabad who do not wish to be named.
I would like to say that this book is not a biography of K.
L. Saigal. I wait for someone more gifted in the kind of
sleuthing needed to write such a book, to do this at a future
date. This book is on music. Saigal was all music. He lived it
in his life as completely as anyone who has dissolved his
existence in any art or craft or science has lived. The pieces
of information that I have looked for and obtained have been only
those which throw light upon Saigal as a man of music. All other
material that I have obtained which does not directly illustrate
the timeless discipline which in Indian music has been a source
of wonder and fascination to those who have glimpsed it even at a
distance, that I have omitted to use. These aspects of the man
are not relevant to my enquiry.
It is characteristic of those who have struggled with
themselves in acquiring something permanent and indestructible in
their natures that they have a certain compassion and
understanding of the predicament of human life and effort upon
this planet. It is my meeting with many such men and women in
the course of my enquiry scattered over several years that made
it possible to make music the issue of the book rather than the
fortuitous chronology of events and their passage. It was during
a discussion with the late Ustad Faiyaz Khan on his several years
of contact with Saigal who pointed out to me that Saigal had not
entered music on account of the accident of a good voice. He
believed that every bit of his musical insight had been acquired.
He said, "Don't be carried away by all this talk of _khuda_ in
matters of this nature. _khuda_ cannot help without the man he
wants to help doing all the work that needs to be done. Of
course he takes the credit." He kept on at the theme that he is
not what he seems. Look behind him. He hides a big truth.
The book tries to point out the unsurpassed internal
certitude Saigal had in his art and the curious path he followed
to acquire it.
If the readers are likewise moved as I have been with this
questing man and his passion for music he eventually came to
exemplify, this book would have achieved its modest purpose.
Rome R.R.M.
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian