Rare raga Gangey Bhushan flows in Sabarmati city

AHMEDABAD: The booming incantations of

Dhrupad

emerged from Sama Veda. “Saman” can be understood as “song” or “melody”. So Dhrupad curates the chorus of knowledge and song. And Pandits Ramakant and Umakant Gundecha — who performed on Saptak Day 8, on Tuesday — are the finest conceivers and conductors of that harmony.

Dhrupad, the oldest form of India’s Hindustani tradition, is art inlaid with “shaswat”, which in this context evokes “sanctity”. And in their recital, the Gundecha Brothers not only traced the genealogy of their genius that lies in thrall to Vedic chants, but also introduced the emblem of their musical lineage: the rudra veena stalwart Pandit Rajshekhar Vyas.

“Pandit Vyas is the senior most member of the Dagar music family,” Pandit Ramakant Gundecha told TOI. Pandit Vyas is the disciple of Ustad Ziauddin Khan, who was the court musician in the monarchical era of Udaipur. “So it was wonderful to have such a figure play with us,” Pandit Ramakant Gundecha said. Pandit Vyas is a contemporary and collaborator of the Gundecha Brothers’ gurus — Ustads Zia Fariddudin Dagar and Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, the sons of Ustad Ziauddin Khan.

The programme’s parade of legacies included a raga that has never been played before at Saptak, Gangey Bhushan. “It was composed to honour Raja Raja Chola I, the medieval Tamil Nadu king who had visited Kashi and had taken back with him some water from the Ganga,” Pandit Ramakant Gundecha said. The introspective curvature of the rudra veena’s sounds and the Gundecha Brothers’ entranced invocations placed Gangey Bhushan, a raga which is more than 1,000 years old, at a point which modern audiences can easily reach. The point is accessed by an inward flash of recognition of beauty rather than theoretical axioms about scales and beat cycles.

The Gundecha Brothers then elaborated on Chandrakauns and ended the concert with their Adana magnum opus, “Shiva, Shiva, Shiva”, which Saptak audiences know well.

The inclusion of Pandit Vyas reflects the Gundecha Brothers’ polished instinct in choosing artistic partnerships. In 2013, their tour de force with the famous Carnatic vocalists, the Malladi Brothers, had produced the rarest Saptak moment: a standing ovation.