Remembering Padma Vibhushan Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj

World renowned Hindustani vocalist, Pandit Jasraj (1930-2020), passed away from cardiac arrest in New Jersey at the age of 90 years on August 17, 2020.  In a span of eight or nine decades, Pandit Jasraj, one of the foremost exponents of Mewati gharana, contributed extensively to Hindustani classical as well as devotional music. He also popularized Haveli Sangeet (devotional music sung in temples), groomed several top notch musicians, established music schools in several locations across the world and with this attractive voice and unique personal touch, he won the hearts of scores of music lovers around the world. He received several prestigious music awards in his lifetime including Government of India’s PadmaVibhushan award, fellowship from the Sangeet Natak Academy and the Sumitra Charat Ram Award for Lifetime Achievement. In Panditji’s honor, Asteroid 300128 that was discovered by astronomers with the Mount Lemmon Survey was given the name of “PanditJasraj”.

Hyderabad, India was the city which Panditji visited every year to organize a music festival in the memory of his father Pandit Motiram, who in his own lifetime had been a famous classical vocalist. Born and raised in Hyderabad, I waited eagerly for this music festival each year because the annual concerts were a fantastic multi-day musical treat, starting with performances by Panditji’s students and leading to a grand finale by Pandit Jasraj himself. When his students sang, Panditji sat in front of them, in the first row of the audience and listened keenly to them.  While he appreciated good performance, he also never hesitated to show his anger when a student failed to perform as per his expectation. Under his expert guidance and tutelage, I saw several students grow and emerge into noted vocalists of our times: Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar, Pandit Rattan Mohan Sharma, Shweta Jhaveri and violinist Kala Ramnath among several others. 

Interestingly, Pandit Jasraj’s musical career started not as a vocalist but as a tabla player. He switched to learning vocal music from his elder brother Pandit Maniram and mastered intricacies of Mewati gharana very quickly. Mewati musicians possess command over musical genres ranging from the statuesque Dhrupad and Khyaal to intricate taan woven tappas. He moved to Calcutta during his teen years and sang classical music for All India Radio. He married Madhuraji, the daughter of the noted movie maker V.Shantaram and together, they became parents of two children, Shaarang Dev and Durga. Shaarang Dev is a well-known music director and Durga Jasraj is a much respected music concert organizer who has lately promoted several talented artists via facebook and Instagram series, Utsaah. It is an honor for Boston that Bostonian Aditya Rohit Shah, disciple of Pandit Radha Raman Keertane and Pandit Rattan Mohan Sharma (two senior disciples of Pandit Jasraj) and also a grand disciple of Pandit Jasraj himself, was featured in the Utsaah series a couple weeks back and his livestreamed concert was appreciated by viewers all over the world.

What made Pandit Jasraj’s music unique? Steady concentration from the very moment Panditji opened his concerts with the utterance of the shloka “Mangalam Bhagwan Vishnu”, the rich tonality of his emotion laden voice, extensive vocal range, extraordinary command on sur (musical notes) and laya (rhythm), attractive manner of developing a raga in varying tempos ranging from slow to fast, his thunderous taans (fast melodic movements), silken glides that traversed a great range of shrutis (microtones), the sheer brilliance of his creative thought process and his fine-tuned delivery had the power to captivate not just the connoisseur but also the lay listener. 

Panditji's last concert in Boston took place on May 20, 2018 celebrating MITHAS's (MIT Heritage Arts of SouthAsia) 25th silver jubilee, where he sang along with his devoted disciple, Padmashree Tripti Mukherjee who additionally provided support on the harmonium. New England artist Shri Nitin Mitta along with Shri Aditya Narayan Banerjee accompanied him on the tabla. Hundreds of concert attendees at MIT’s Kresge auditorium were mesmerized with the renditions of ragas Puriya, Piloo, Jog, Marubihag and Charukeshi.  He also demonstrated to the audience his novel musical creation “Jasrangi Jugalbandi”.  In this Jugalbandi, Panditji and Triptiji performed together singing two different ragas at the same time in two different scales based on the Moorcchana principle of Indian music. At the end of the three hour long concert, the fragile 88 year old stalwart insisted on standing up all by himself from a seated position on the stage. When listeners had pleaded for more music he had replied “Thank you – you listened with great love. Jai Ho!”  A concert attendee Pratibha Bhatnagar had said  to me “I am just a kaansen, but the experience of people like me was no less than extraordinary.” Panditji managed to fuse devotional music with classical rigor so seamlessly that the listener was naturally transported to the spiritual realm, a place where the listener’s age, religion, caste, creed, nationality or language they spoke no longer mattered. It was from my days in Hyderabad during the early 80s to Boston in the decade of 2010 that I marveled the ease with which Panditji managed to connect with large audiences through his interactive performances, leaving beautiful music in the hearts and minds of each and every listener who attended his concerts. 

Over several decades of passionate devotion to Hindustani music, Panditji’s magic with poetry, melody, rhythm and humor captured the hearts of listeners all around the world. His art was expansive like the ocean. The fact that he could meet any listener at their individual level of appreciating music is proof of how rich and accessible his music was to one and all. Panditji has left his mortal body at the age of 90 but his music is immortal. It will live through his numerous archived recordings and through the rich legacy of music he leaves behind, in the hands of dozens of disciples groomed with love and care. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Jai Ho!